Macao Holiday (Day 1, 14th Nov 08).

3:25a.m, 19-Nov 08, Home.

It was such a great holiday in Macao, China. We were there for 4 days and 3 nights on our company incentive trips spanning from the 14th till 17th of November 2008. Personally, I do not have much knowledge about this tiny island but a gaming haven :). Research is done on Wikipedia that surprisingly gaming industries are the core business for the Macao government with 70% revenue generates from casinos and that reflects 40% of the Macao's GDP!

We are all blessed with the opportunity to stay in one of the most luxuriest, humongous, single structure hotel building in Asia, The Venetian Macao Hotel, largest among the 28 hotels cum casino in Macao. A brief history, The Venetian Macao is owned by the infamous Sheldon Adelson via his Las Vegas Sands corporation. Over 10.5 million square foot mega-resort features 3,400 slots, 800 tables, 3,000 suites and a convention center! He spent almost $2.1 billion on this mega project and further construction on other hotels are still on going while I'm writing this blog :)! This hotel is built on the concept of the Venice culture, also a sister hotel of The Venetian in Las Vegas. Many more facts about this amazing construction of this hotel can be acquired at their official website. Quoted from the website "The volume of sand used in the reclamation of land for The Venetian Macao, is enough to build one of Egypt's largest pyramids"! Amazing isn't it. Check them out :)!

Pictures taken ensue, click on it to enlarge.

All of us boarding the Venetian Hotel's periodical bus from Macao airport to its hotel. Frequency of 20 minutes each and it only takes 5 minutes to reach there.

The main entrance to the hotel!

Stunning bridge, a flyover for guests to enter into the hotel. Guests are not allowed to walk into the main lobby via the road but the bridge for safety reason. Behind the bridge is the building that holds 3,000 suites! We stayed there :).

Side view of guests' bridge.

Another view.

The billboard of the hotel with a big LCD screen in the middle. Its summit is similar to a design of a mosque, meanwhile the bottom ditto to a western's. Venice is a culturally mixed influence place of the western and eastern, hence the design.

A small lake surrounding the billboard. This lake is meant for a Gondola ride, obviously an outdoor Gondola ride. Indoor ride is also available, see later part of the pictures below.

The suites building with the word "Venetian".

Hmmm, the suites, similar to a shape of a butterfly :)?

Strings of branded stuffs along the entrance road to the main lobby. Gucci, Burberry, Louis Vuitton, Pradia...you name it, they have it!

Drop off point to the main lobby.

Oh! my God! Spacious taxi waiting compartment.

Drop off point - other view.

Uhhhh! Magnificent ceilings crazily built at the drop off point of the main lobby!

Magnificent ceilings - other view.

Night view of the West lobby.

Night view of the West lobby - other view.

Woh! Ravishing grand lobby of The Venetian Hotel!

Ahhh! Marvelous reception counter!

Eikkk! 3 exquisitely capacious pictures hung on the wall!

Gosh! Vast check-in counter!

Admirable inner dome architecture!

Statuesque foyer!

A gigantic sculpture!

Me together with the fountain :)

Wooo! An elegant colonnade!

Portrait view of the colonnade. Observe carefully at the marble floor, it has a 3 dimensional effect! Another Uhhh! for this :p!

Splendid perspective view of the colonnade!

High rise elevator to the 2nd floor, a shopping area name "The Grand Canal Shoppes"!

Spacious hall walkway!

The Bella room (my room), more than 700sf in sized! And that's the mini TV room! Cosy :)!

Cushiony sofa!

Refined cupboard!

A tray of goblets, wine glasses arranged tidily and an instant noodles costing a boom to you haha :p!

A cute refrigerator just below the tray of glasses!

A 27 inches TV secretly hidden on the other side of the cupboard!

A neat study table with a scanner cum printer!

A cute LAN cable and a WiFi modem meant for internet accessibility. The LAN cable is retractable!

Lovely entrance of the Bella room!

Pleasingly enormous toilet!

Alluring bath tub!

The toilet bowl entrance!

Not a friendly toilet bowl, as you have to wait till the water tank fulled, then able to flush! Not the case when I was in Istana Hotel locally! You can flush anytime you want :)!

An innovative transparent weightier :). Oh! crap I have had just gain an extra 2 kg after sweeping all the irresistible buffet foods :p!

The food court in the hotel (3rd level) with an artificial sky view. The sky view looks genuinely real! A closer look, you can see lots of circular bumps of water sprinkler.

One of the stalls - the Fatburgers!

The Fatburgers menus - the manager abruptly ceased me from taking more pictures of their menus, afraiding of spying, perhaps :p?

Yummy! The Fatburgers (HK$50), all in all recommended by Edwin Chua. The beefburger very juicy indeed, the patties' juice splat all around your mouth for every single crunch on it by your teeth :p!

Palatable beef curry with white rice (HK$53)! Weirdly the rice is more delicious than the beef. Ditto to a Japanese rice?

Appetizing sesame seeds stick on glutinous rice (HK$10). Chewy indeed!

Time out! Enough picture taking, now it's the time to taste it :p!

2nd floor - full of branded things for you to shop named as "The Grand Canal Shoppes"!

The infamous almond cakes store!

The Mc Donalds in The Canal Shoppes!

Eye catchy column with a vase on top!

Replicate of gorgeous St. Mark's square.

St. Mark's square - other view.

The statue is a real man. By the way what do you call them?

The indoor Gondola!

The waterway for the Gondola!

Night view of classy swimming pool!

Classy swimming pool - other view!

That's all for Day 1 trip at The Venetian Macao Hotel, largest of all hotels cum casinos in Macao! Continue at Day 2, 3 and 4 trip. The following day blog will be up by tomorrow. Stay tune!

Non-related but a meaningful sentence.

Our true acquisitions lie only in our charities, we get only as we give - William Simms.

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36th Japan Charity Fiesta and Bazaar 2008, Nikko Hotel Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

10:36pm, 9-Nov '08, Home.

On the 9th November 2008, 3 of us (myself, ultrabeast and divinefang) went to the 36th Japan Charity Fiesta and Bazaar held at Nikko Hotel, Kuala Lumpur. This event not just to bring the already strong culture presence of Japan to Malaysia but also the nostalgic atmosphere to the Japanese people residing or working here.

This event is self-explanatory, mainly a blend of fiesta with myriads of Japanese foods, the well known common foods such as sushi, yakitori, soft drink "Pocari Sweat" and various homemade candies and cookies by the lovely expatriates' wives and the member of the Japanese clubs. Filled with fun of kids games to keep their kids well entertain.

You also can expect some purchase of your favourite Japanese various mangas, characters, animes, figurines and masks at a bargain! hence the word "Bazaar". Meanwhile, in cultural wise, you have the opportunity to don on their traditional cloth such as Kimonos and Yukatas. Trays of astounding beautiful Yukatas and Kimonos awaiting to be selected. Young and old busied themselves to select the best and the finest cloths that suits them well. If you want to experience the genuine and authentic Japanese traditional tea preparation at an economy price, here you will get it :). Those who didn't go, perhaps you can try on next year :)!.

Some of the proceeds from this event will be channeled to the local charity organisation where they used to do it last year. Imagine to your fullest, you can spend, enjoy, experience and yet still can indirectly contribute to the charity, that's the perfect cycle of being a human beings with delightfulness :).

More details of this event can be acquired here.

The photos taken ensue (click to enlarge) :):

The poster.

The Fiesta and Bazaar 2008.

Entrance to the Grand Ballroom.

Woh! The grand entrance to the Ballroom.

Thousands of people shopping in the ballroom!

Ah! Getting more people as the time passes!

Myriads of kids' games - small balls scooping.

Floating balls with fancy colours awaiting to be scooped!

The balls' scooper, a ring-alike with a fragile paper forms the hole use to scoop the balls. I tried with just a ball scooped, then the paper was easily torn apart. Oh crap! the kids averagely can scooped at least 3 balls but not me :(! However, at the end, 2 additional balls were given as a consolation prize :).

Everyone busy scooping :)!

Another game - fancy patterned balloons hooking.

Each balloon is clipped with a string with a knob at the end. Use the given hook to hook for just 3 attempts.

3rd game - Throw a ring, soft drink got ringed, the price adjacent to the soft drink is all yours.

Children anticipatedly awaiting for their turns to try their luck!

Oh! please I want that big, juicy n fat chocolate bar :)!

Myself and the assistant of the Ring Game.

Take your chance to don in your favourite Yukatas and Kimonos.

Sweet lady, helping others to don a Kimono :). 着物を着てあげます。

Ah! A killing smile :)! 親切のスマイル：）！

Donned in their favourite Kimonos.

Small plantation for sale - various cactus.

Handicrafts made by the Japanese expatriates and the Japanese Club members for sale :).

Magnet for sale with Japanese miniature ornaments.

World's Best Cream Puff by Beard Papa. Is it nice? Maybe I should try at Mid Valley or One Utama when the time comes ;).

Beard Papa's manager: "Psst! You will be in the newspaper, quickly give your best smile", whispered the manager to his colleague :p.

Stacks of sushi for you to select! Yummy :).

Many more varieties of foods.

Yokomon - Japanese favourite ice cream. Ditto to Pokemon?

Here's the process. Step 1: a small cup of ice cream with clients' selected flavour taken out from the fridge.

Step 2: The ice cream was then place into a stamper.

Step 3: The stamper was tightly locked, then compressed by winding the level. The ice cream was then squeezed out round and round into a cup.

Done! You can have your Yokomon ice cream :). The selling point of this Yokomon is the method of preparation of the ice cream. "It's the grinding movement (woods) that makes it (the chicken) so special (tasty)". Try to replace the green words with the bracketed, a similar slogan of Kenny Rogers Roaster :).

My Yokomon's ice cream with a strawberry flavour. A bit taste of rum. Yummy!

I, the Malaysian ambassador of Yokomon ice cream haha :p!

Eatery tables.

The items used for genuine Japanese traditional tea preparation. From left to right: transparent pot contains fresh water, a green bowl meant for tea, a ladle for scooping water, an iron pot contains hot boiling water.

The transparent pot contains fresh water. Very nice indeed!

Small desert served before tea-preparation performance commenced.

The lady with red Kimono does the preparation and the other lady is to serve the finished tea to the customers :).

Step 1: Fresh water was politely scooped and poured into the iron pot and then awaits to boil.
Step 2: Tea leaves was then poured into the green bowl followed by the hot water. The mixture was blended with a blender.
Step 3: The bowl was then gently placed on the hand palm and was rotated slowly. The artistry of the bowl was observed on the same time.
Step 4: The tea was now ready to serve.

Oh! I had no luck, the much effort, once in a million, time and passion tea-made was served to other! The customer should do the same by observing the artistry of the bowl before drinking, explained by divinefang.

In sync, a group of servers walk gracefully from behind of the partition, served every single customers with the readily made green tea. "Wow! So fast! must be hastily done, perhaps by using an instant teabags :p?", exclaimed jokingly by ultrabeast.

The green tea upclose! Hmmm...the surface was filled with bubbles. How did they did the blending, I wonder? Both tea leaves and water were blended via gargling in mouth :p? and here's the "Green Tea birds' nest", I would call. Try to speak in Cantonese but by replacing the word "birds" into "human", 人窝 haha :)!

The ushers of the tea preparation perfomance.

That's all folks. Each of us brought back lots of memories besides our favourite mangas, animes and figurines. By the way, I didn't purchase anything but the foods and the enjoyment of taking pictures with divinefang's DSLR camera. The quality of the pictures are amazing, planning to get one for myself :).

Non-related but useful wordings.

It is the surmounting of difficulties that makes heroes - Louis Kossuth.

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Full synopsis: L Change the WorLd, a Death Note movie spin off. Contains spoilers :)!

1:01a.m, 6-Aug 08, Home.

This synopsis is best read while playing this edited music, The Last Name. The initial play of original music was excellent but the last few minutes wasn't really that pleasant due to sudden shift of tempo from sentimental and suspension to hard rock, uhhhhh :(! That's why I had omitted the last few minutes and replaced it with the first few minutes, in other words, it loops twice of the desired tempo, heheh therefore the edition! I love the violin part the most :). It may takes few seconds to load the play list or you can play it from again on the right panel of my blog. Enjoy!

DVD's cover for Asian version.

Again, L has to save the world from its damnation by another bunch of psychopathic, overwhelming eco-terrorist and brain short-circuited organisation named "Blueship" to clear overly populated humans that causes irreparable damages to the earth faster than the earth can rejuvenate in the name of betterment equilibrium of ecosystem by wiping them off via the use of deadly virus or biological weapon.

L, from manga look.

The storyline starts in a village of Thailand named, Bangnum where every single villagers was infected with this bio-chemical weapon with a contagiousness of 100 times faster than an Ebola virus has (as shown on the left picture). The village was annihilated well just after their blood sample had been taken to create a vaccine and to prevent an epidermic prone. This plot is set by Kimiko Kujo (久條 希実子) - a leader of Blueship and also an assistant to professor Kimihiko Nikaido (二階 堂公彦) in order to exploit Nikaido into making the vaccine where she was incapable of. Blueship will need this antidote to ensure their survivals should there be any of them accidentally infected during the operation of cleaning up the incumbent humans. It would be meaningless for them, if all of them died because of this virus, failing the continuance of their "sacred" tasks.

Professor Nikaido by Shingo Tsurumi. Maki's father.

Kimiko Kujo casts by Youki Kudoh. Professor Nikaido's assistant and also Blueship's leader.

F, a secret agent sent to investigate this outbreak who was also infected during his responsibilities. He found the partial truth and sent the available evidence to Watari via Near, a mathematical genius and the only person not infected, wishfully and hoping that Watari able to continue his investigation and put a stop to these culprits. Well after some struggles, Near was able to reach Watari's mansion safely, however Watari is already dead, assassinated by Shinigami Rem mentioned in Death Note 2. Therefore, Near has to be in custody of L.

Watari casts by Shunji Fujimura.

Professor Nikaido was shocked with the outbreak, immediately conduct a research of finding the vaccine via blood sample taken from the scene. Nikaido, afraid of his daughter Maki's safety, once in 10 days will inject a sucrose compressor into her body. Sucrose, a vital ingredients for the virus to stay active, without it, it stays dormant, a preventive measure should Maki get infected while awaiting for his procurement.

Maki Nikaido (二階 堂真希) by Mayuko Fukuda (福田 麻由子).

As the research went deeper, Nikaido have had an instinct that a bad omen will happen to him due to his suspicion of the origins of the virus that might be leaked by internal people from his lab as the characteristics of the virus is ditto to his design. Nikaido left a sample of the virus to her daughter hoping to pass it to Watari for protection together with a key solution of getting the vaccine on Maki's final homework. Bad incident really occurs, Kujo showed her true color and called her allies to steal the vaccine from professor by force. Professor refuses to hand in the succeeded completion of the vaccine and destroyed it.

Sample of virus and address of Watari's mansion given to Maki by her father as bad omen will imminent.

The vaccine was destroyed in a dispose chamber eventually, but commander of Blueship, Asao Konishi (小西 朝夫), threatens to kill her daughter, in exchange of fabricating another vaccine.

Asao Konishi (小西 朝夫) casts by Bokuzō Masana. Also Blueship's commander.

Asao Konishi's left eye, contaminated by bacteria?

Nikaido refuses to bow to his demand, committed suicide by coursing the virus into his veins, died painfully and every single seconds of his death was witnessed quietly by her daughter pitifully :(. Maki sadly rushed out from the lab and headed to address by address stored in the chip given by her father seeking for asylum by the person with a name of Watari. Eventually, she arrived at Watari's mansion safely, thanks to a Samaritan taxi driver.

Professor Nikaido commits suicide by coursing the virus into his body to cease extortion from Asao :(.

Blueship members had to crack their mind to get the formula of the vaccine, ravaged up and down the laboratory but to no avail. Kujo's intelligence finally leaded them to a clue something to do with Watari from Maki's homework and this clue was linked to L.

Maki's first homework given by her father, a clue that will lead her to her safety should anything bad incident happens to him. Unfortunately, it also gives hints to Kujo as well. A matrix of numbers where the name "Watari" is hidden.

Kujo's intelligence leads her and the team into a new clue. Cancel the 4 letters "HOPE", Watari's name prevails.

After much persuasion by Kujo, L's mansion address was acquired and Blueship stormed into his mansion persuading Maki to hand over the sample virus. Maki engulfed with hatred of his father's murderer, injected the virus into her body via her necks with an intention of kamikaze (die together) with Kujo, failed due to the virus didn't morbid as a result of her sucrose level compressed. However, Maki's dare devil action caused Blueship members stunt and astonished, L grabbed this opportunity to flee to the back door together with her and Near. Blueship's chase follows after they regained from their pang of astonishment :)!

Maki coursing the virus into her neck.

To ensure effectiveness of capturing them, Kujo smartly announced the escaped of Maki who carries the deadly virus to be avoided by all means to the publics and at the same time able to piggy back onto the police forces to speed up the capture of Maki. 3 of them were now fugitive, and finally L decides to take shelter at professor Nikaido's good friend, Koichi Matsudo (松戸 浩一) simultaneously able to get his expertise of fabricating the vaccine but hopeless initially.