The Week That Was

The element of surprise - is a masterpiece of an addition to anything. A string of pleasant surprises, stacked one after the other allowing little, if any time for the reality to sink in is nothing short of, well.. heavenly. For some time I was trapped in an invisible bubble, packed with a disturbing uncertainty and devoid of inspiration. Not after what promulgated in the last few days.. filled with events that shall be etched deep into my memory, hopefully till death do me part..

It all began on an innocent Monday night. At the stroke of midnight, I was surprised (you'd be seeing this word repeatedly, for the lack of a worthy synonym) by a few friends with a cake and well wishes. After the formalities, Harry took out his new, award-winning board game - Dominion. To all those who snide at the mention of board games, just wait till you get addicted to this one. With the ability to change the elements of the game through a seemingly infinite number of combinations, there is no one strategy that will work every time. Those of us who played that night were so excited, that we can't wait to get our hands on the game again.

The following day was peppered with wishes from all over, and a long trip to Indian town for some good food and groceries. It, was, to put succinctly, the typical birthday. By this point, I had agreed to write a history essay for my friend, on the two lives of Charlemagne. Up to then I knew very little of the Middle Ages, but I was certainly enlightened by my research on its greatest emperor. It really wasn't too much work you see, for a Jackson. The next couple of days, I spent quite a bit of time building a couple of tables for another friend.. building from almost scratch that is. The last time I did any significant carpentry was back in high school for our Living Skills project (Kemahiran Hidup.. lol). The work took a small toll on my arms and legs, and not to mention the sawdust; but it was all good fun.

Then came the weekend. It started with the St. Patrick's Day celebrations. Kwong Hann and I went downtown to catch the dyeing of the Chicago River as well as the parade, or at least what we could see of it amongst that crowd. The photos we took, on that misty day should be sufficient though, to tell the story and that is precisely what I'll aim to do in my next posting. After slugging it out at the parade, as well meeting a few familiar faces along the way, we finally returned home. Upon our return, i found a package at my door addressed to me. I didn't recall making any online purchases in recent times, and hence it had to be a gift. Upon opening the package, I was treated to not one.. but two gifts!

They came along with a message that only one person could conjure - Julian Tan. I guess this calls for my venture into world of bartending.. That evening, Julian himself paid me a visit at my place. Now his visit was supposed to have been a surprise, but somehow that didn't quite work out. Lol. Anyway, having him here at Chicago for the weekend was exciting in itself. We were to go for fine dining at a restaurant downtown that night - Vivere. Now I did get the feeling it was a classy restaurant, and thus agreed to dress formally for the occasion complete with my blazer. We finally got into the cab, and Julian gives the cabbie an address that didn't sound 'downtown' to me. Somehow, I didn't bother to think any more of it, and just went along. Just as the cab drew to a halt, a small signboard caught my eye. Now it was not so much of the signboard as it was the collection of letters that was spread over it. It read - Alinea.

A guy gets the door for me, and asks me "Alinea?" At that very point, millions of thoughts were rushing through my tiny head, as I couldn't have been bothered to answer the man, and just stepped out - very much in shock. Julian and Kwong Hann followed suit, and while patting me on the back, said - "Happy Birthday!" I still cannot recall much of my thoughts during those moments - it was like I was elevated to a level above, without the use of substances, of course. What I remember of the exterior, though was something very simple, with a mysteriously inviting door. As soon as we walked in, before us was a neon-lit pathway that was seemingly infinite. A few steps down the way though, and a sliding door opens up to our left. Inside, a lady invites us in, and proceeds to ask for our reservation details, which obviously I had no idea about. We were early, in fact half an hour early for our reservation. Lol! After about five minutes, however the same lady returned and told us they had a table available for us. We then ascended into heaven, literally, up a glass staircase with stylish steel frames. Awaiting us was our table, surprisingly bare-topped yet simply elegant. As I was seated, I couldn't help notice it was made of the finest quality of wood. A waiter then comes up to us and asks if anyone has any restrictions on meat, to which I mentioned my total lack of appetite for beef and pork. He then proceeds to ask us what type of water we would like, to which we ended up choosing Perrier's sparkling water. The next question that was put forth was if we would like to pair our dishes for the night with some fine wine. After a slight deliberation, I figured.. why not? With that out of the way, we were set for what I am absolutely positive should lie as my most amazing dining experience for years to come. After all, this was a top 10 restaurant.. IN THE WORLD!

My my.. that has to be one of the longest paragraphs I've written, and I haven't even got to the juicy parts yet. Now I don't mean to play the spoilsport, but I believe my attempt to recapture the rest of that once-in-a-lifetime experience deserves a blog post of its own. So I should leave this story, dangling if you may, for the time being.

The next morning began with a trip to Chinatown for some dim sum, which really for some reason was depressingly unappetizing (Hmm.. I wonder why). Upon this, we finally bid goodbye to the troop from Iowa. The following day, I received yet another gift in the mail.. this time the official coin collection from the recent Vancouver Winter Olympics. This one had Kwong Hann written all over it.

Oh and that reminds me of the sporting end, where it was pretty grand as well (at least for me.. heh), with convincing wins for United and Barcelona during the weekend as well as a massive victory for Manchester United in the Champions League; and Barca are running away with the match as I am writing this. Then there was the opening of the 2010 Formula 1 season, which started off with a Ferrari one-two.. bliss!

Seriously, I have to wonder if one could ask for a more fulfilling week. It was - and by no means am I looking to exaggerate here - almost the best portion of my life to date.. The best, of course would be the many incredible people I have been blessed with in acquaintance..

Las Vegas In Pictures

Lo and behold..

Aboard the Ford Mustang

.....

Harley Davidson Cafe - where we had our final lunch in Vegas

View from the Hard Rock Hotel carpark

Stratosphere

The Strip - past midnight

Bellagio

The Bellagio lakefront

Caesar's Palace

Inside my favorite hotel of the lot, and by far the best joint on the Strip - The Wynn

Group Photos

......... Cest' la vie .........

Amazing Week

They're gone now, and all that remain are tinges of sweet memories. As I had mentioned in my last post, there were quite a few things I was looking forward to during the week. The Formula One season is officially over, and what a finale it was. It's one of those high-drama moments in sport that will be etched deep into the memories of fans and haters alike. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, perhaps you should check this out.

Then came Election Day 2008, as a historic moment beckoned. Obama was to be at Grant Park, Chicago when the election results are announced. Kwong Hann and myself couldn't didn't want to miss out on the whole thing (we knew we didn't have tickets, and with classes the following day we weren't gonna stay on with the celebrations either). Rather than take the conventional CTA ride downtown, we decided to walk there along the lake! Of course, both of us had photography in mind, and it sure was a clear night (and perfect climate) for some panoramic shots across the Chicago skyline.

The lane normally has quite a lot of people jogging or cycling on it, but this time there were very few. We kept walking towards the inviting lights of downtown Chicago, and soon began to see a few roads and walkways closed to the public by the Chicago police. Things got interesting when we were looking to take the closest exit downtown, and our our path along that exit was blocked. The lady guarding the block first sent us on an 'alternative route,' which we soon realized would lead us nowhere! We returned to the lady (together with another Japanese tourist who was looking to get back to his hotel), and as we were embroiled in confusion (actually, I was laughing sensing how the whole walk was turning into an adventure of its own), a sleek black cop car drove by. From the car, a man in his 40's emerged and gave orders to the lady I mentioned earlier and a few other cops. He then looked at us and asked us where we were looking to go, to which we simply answered "to the nearest CTA station." He then informed us that all the exits were blocked up to Monroe street (which was about 4 blocks north from there), and then offered to give us a lift there. Yep.. I finally got my first experience in a cop car in the US (I've done it once before in Malaysia when I followed Ashan to make a report on his lost Identification Card). In the car, the Japanese man asked the cop if he was the chief or something like that. To this, the guy coolly replied "Nahh, I'm just in charge of the park security for tonight." A truly humble answer when you think of the magnitude of the event, and indirectly his job for the night.

Anyhow, we reached the north side of Grant Park, and began snapping photographs of both the buildings and the huge numbers of people at the park (you should be seeing all the photos soon on the slideshow). Mind you, it was only about 7pm, and Senator Obama was only expected there past 10. Against the path of massive groups of people, we then calmly made our way home to follow the rest of it on TV. On that note, I am happy for Barrack Obama and his revolutionary campaign on his election as the 44th President of the United States. 'Tis true that he faces huge challenges as president, the recent economic slump being the most prominent. However, as opposed to the views of some people I know, I feel this is the right time for him to become president, for it provides him with a great opportunity to prove his mettle, and perhaps even be compared to the likes of Abraham Lincoln ad Franklin Delano Roosevelt. His campaign has created a positive image for the United States in the eyes of the world, that indeed 'all men are created equal,' and 'endowed with unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.' I can only dream that one day, I could envision a similar drive for change in my home country.

A constellation of words, and I've not even began blogging about the biggest event of them all - The 33rd Annual International Festival (a.k.a I-Fest). As one of the organizers, I was quite pre-occupied all week with a host of tasks. The event turned out to be quite a success with a massive turnout - the auditorium was pretty full with some even seating themselves on the stariways. We were however quite displeased with the audio-visual handling by the so-called professionals, Alien Sound and Lighting. They messed-up big time not once, not twice but MORE THAN A DOZEN TIMES! We did not hire professionals for last year's event, and the show was so much smoother. I never thought I'd be ever saying this, but I am certain my high school's Audio Visual Crew would have done a much better job than these guys. Plus ASL are expensive!!

All in all, the show still did turn out pretty well. A lot of the performances were dramatically improved in comparison to their showings on the final rehearsal which gave us a few jitters. I didn't manage to take too many photos, and even the few I managed aren't good shots due to the lighting. Anyhow, I shall compile these and a few photos from friends before I post em' here.

That's it for now. Ciaozy!

"I will listen to you especially when we disagree." - Barrack Obama, 44th President of the United States of America.

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Hey hey hey! Just a lil' recap on what's comin' up, and what's done and dusted..

Things I'm looking forward to:-
1. The International Fest (7 Nov)
2. US Presidential Election Day (4 Nov) - Go Barrack!
3. Formula 1 Grand Finale (2 Nov) - Massa FTW!
4. Christmas! (25 Dec) - Wait a minute.. that's a tad too far. I guess that's it then.

Things Im done with (for now at least):-
1. Haircut - Lavish's mockery was the last straw.. lol
2. Process Control Midterm - don't even ask me how I did on it.. arghhh!
3. Full Metal Panic (all 3 series) - I was addicted to this series for some time

Yup. Tis' always nice to reminisce the past and dream of the future. The I-Fest seems to be what I'm most excited about now. Being an ISO board member sure has been fun, and there's gonna be an even bigger dose of that fun this coming week! Come to think of it, I sure find it odd that I've never mentioned my affiliation with the ISO in this blog. Guess I will have a post on this amazing group of people I work with in the board sometime soon. That's about it.

Ja ne!

The HOME stretch

Guys and gals.................. I'M COMING HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yesh yesh.. I finally booked my flight tickets, and should be touching down in Malaysia on the 19th of May. So, it's slightly over a month, and counting down. Can't wait!

Regarding the doorguard interview, I think it went ok. Just waiting for the results now which should be out this coming Friday. Regardless if I get the job or not, the interview was a good experience nonetheless. The Organic Chemistry II exam I was studying for last week is over.. and amazingly the results were out 2 days after the exam! (There are like more than 60 students in class, and it wasn't that simple a paper.. so I think it really was a pretty cool feat for a professor.) I did pretty well, and am glad to have sorta bounced back after my relatively miserable 1st exam for the subject.

Bleach anime is back after a 2-week hiatus and that's even more reason to celebrate.. not to mention the latest episode being the best so far in many ways. On the sports end - Manchester United are through to the semis and will be facing my La Liga pick Barcelona in the UEFA Champions League. On the other half of the draw, it's goodbye Fenerbache (sadly..) and that has translated into 3 English teams out of the 4 remaining in the contest. Should be good. Oh and by the way, Man U just defeated Arsenal 2-1 this morning! Woohoo! I've began following Formula 1 again and it was nice to see a Ferrari 1-2 last weekend. The season, at least for now seems to promise a 3-horse race between McLaren, BMW-Sauber and Ferrari. Should be interesting.. and I wonder what Schumi's up to now.. hmmm. To round off the sports updates, the NBA regular season will come to an end very soon and it'll be time for the playoffs. My all-time favorites - the Los Angeles Lakers are sitting pretty at the top of the Western Conference as i speak (uhh.. i mean blog) with 2 games to go. It's still extremely close though as 4 teams are still in with a real chance of topping the West. Good stuff.

Oh well.. that's about it for now. I gotta get back to my assignments. Busy days indeed. Adios!