Paris : Simple Guide

Just some simple guide and photos of Paris landmarks and architecture, minus the photographer and partner who are non-Parisian.

TOUR EIFFEL
> Metro: Trocadero, Iena, Passy, Bir Hakeim, Champs De Mars-Tour Eiffel, Pont De l'Alma, Ecole Militaire
> Entrance: Euro 8.20 (to the top level by stairs & lift)

Tour Eiffel at day (view from Parc Du Champs De Mars)

Tour Eiffel at night (view from Trocadero)

ARC DE TRIOMPLE & CHAMPS ELYSEES
> Metro: Charles De Gaulle-Etoile, Kleber, George V, Argentine
> Entrance: Euro 12 (to the top level)

Arc De Triomphe at day

Arc De Triomphe at night

Avenue Des Champs Elysees (view from Arc De Triomphe)

NOTRE DAME
> Metro: Cite, Saint Michel, Gare Saint-Michel-Notre Dame
> Entrance: Euro 7.50 (to the top level)

Notre Dame

MUSEE DU LOUVRE
> Metro: Louvre-Rivoli, Palais Royal-Musee Du Louvre, Pont Neuf
> Entrance: Euro 6 (after 6pm on Wednesday & Friday)

Mona Lisa in Musee Du Louvre

BASILIQUE DU SACRE COEUR
> Metro: Abbesses, Anvers, Pigalle, Chateau Rouge
> Entrance: Euro 5 (to the top level)

Sacre Coeur

Paris Abbesses Metro Station

Aston Villa : League Cup Final 16 Result

Villa beat Sunderland, 3-1 on penalties after drawing 0-0 during normal time. The match was played at Sunderland's Stadium of Light.

The hero was Brad Guzan, the goalkeeper who saved 4 penalties in this match! He saved one during normal time from Kenwyne Jones, and the other 3 during penalty shoot-outs by Andy Reid, Lorik Cana and Jordan Henderson.


> Our hero, Guzan


> Our hero in action

Villa boys, John Carew, James Collins and Ashley Young shot them to the quarter-finals. Their next opponent is yet to be determined.

Yesterday's 1Joke : 29 October 2009

Saw this piece of news yesterday about our bad traffic conditions in the city. The focus was on the traffic management system. It reported that "DBKL (KL City Hall) had invested RM365mil in 2006 on the ITIS project to help ease the city’s traffic woes. ITIS is a transport information system designed to improve the planning and flow of the city’s traffic system to ensure better management." But I don't think they are doing anything!!



I am a daily user of LDP (Lebuhraya Damansara Puchong) and you can say that the notice that they put up on the electronic signboard is really not informative and useless. Sometimes, you are stuck in the jam and you can only see the black screen, as though they are advertising "Night without lights".

DBKL admitted that there's 56 out of 115 of those variable message signboards (what a canggih name), and that represents 50% of failure!! They dare to claim that ITIS has been useful and have served other purpose such as;



> Capture real-time traffic information for incident management and long-term transport planning, alleviate traffic congestion and delays during rush hour periods and emergency situations.
> Reduces accidents, their severity and impact on the highway, improves emergency assistance for motorists and commuters, reduces travel time and promotes a more uniform traffic flow and also reduces pollution as a result of less time spent stuck in traffic. >> Never happens on LDP, NKVE, Federal Highway and Sprint Highway
> Collects data and information and disseminates it via VMS, call centres, the Internet and SMS. >> Never heard they have done such a thing, and I am a user but I don't receive anything??

Just to share some stuck in the jam moments.





Then for the case that was reported previously about the Hari Raya rush, shouldn't ITIS be doing anything? This is yet another "First World Infrastructure Handled With Third World Mentality".

Beautiful English

Saw this wisdom words from a forwarded mail. (amended)

The words are nicely placed and show that the English language is beautiful and funny at the same time. The way it turns out, you can read from A to Z with a meaning, and then Z to A with another meaning, all in a sentence.

Today's 1Joke : 28 Oct 2009

Malaysia Boleh again, dan lagi dan lagi!! Never have we heard of 2 "governments" holding state assembly sitting on the same day and at same place, but both talking different things to different crowd.



Saw it on TV, and it really looked like the lawak of the year. At first, you can see those BN people having the sitting. When their sitting was adjourned, it was PR people's turn to hold the sitting.

It seemed like 2 different families staying in a 1 room house, where they share common utilities. When one goes to the toilet, the other will go somewhere else to wait.

Project Alpha : Blog Contest : Week 6

Project Alpha is moving on to another week (Week 6, I supposed), and this week we will see another top blogger, Budiey.com being featured and "exposed". He is sharing the stage together with Beautifulnara.com.


This week's videos are rather hilarious, when Jojo pitched both Beautifulnara and Budiey in a match against fear at Sunway Lagoon. Since they both blog about artists' gossips and news, logically the rivalry is more intense as to who is the better between them.

Budiey wins the battle of the soksek king when he came out victorious in both reverse bungee jump when Beautifulnara backed off and got replaced, and in the flying fox challenge when he reached the finishing point by 1 second earlier.


> Budiey in Reverse Bungee Jump (L) and Flying Fox (R) Challenges

There is an element of 1Malaysia-ism during meal when Jojo tried to douse their fiery rivalry by giving them a Chinese Dim Sum treat, which they had to use chopsticks to eat.

> 1Malaysia-ism spirit

It was sweet to see their partners joining the meal and strongly supporting them, especially Beautifulnara's girlfriend. Having a supportive other half is one of the important elements in order to be successful in the blogging world. We can see this happening so far in the case of Fourfeetnine, Redmummy, Beautifulnara and Budiey.

Aston Villa : Match 9 result

It was an away derby game at Wolverhampton Molineux Stadium. Knowing that the opponent is at the bottom half of the league, the Villa fans would have expected a win.

They got the first goal through their derby day king, Gabby Agbonlahor. The goal came late at the 80th minute, but somehow the Wolves got to equalise from the penalty spot and the match ended 1-1. This draw put them temporarily at P6.


> Our hero again: Gabby Agbonlahor

Hopefully, the boss Martin O'Neill will put in extra effort not to disappoint the fans again in the next match against Sunderland. Expectation of the Villa fans are always high after their 2 earlier exciting matches against Man City and Chelsea.

Project Alpha : Blog Contest : Week 4

I have been getting this "distraction" whenever I check into my Nuffnang page. It has been appearing in front of me each time, but I chose to ignore it initially. Then, I decided to give it a try and click on it (the place where I put a punching glove).

"Project Alpha" is the name given, with the tag "Uncovering Malaysia's Top Bloggers".

Initially, I thought it was just another advertisement, but when I peered into it further, then only I know that it works somehow like a reality show of bloggers life. The beautiful host, Jojo Struys interviews 7 of our country's prominent bloggers for this Season 1. The best thing is, not only the bloggers get to be in the limelight, their family members and friends will also get say a word or two on iTV (internet TV)! A good practice before moving onto the big screen. :)

This week's featured blogger is Beautiful Nara (www.beautifulnara.com), whom I think many must have misunderstood him for a girl. He blogs about artists' gossips and news, and how else is better to gossip about our local celebrities than in Bahasa Malaysia. But he is a talented guy who can read, write and speak in Korean language (so he claims). His blog has a daily traffic of 2.5 million, and you can judge by yourself when you check out the traffic flow to his blog at an amazing rate of 1~3 visitors per second. It's like the volume of cars passing by LDP (Lebuhraya Damansara Puchong) toll every morning.

Personally, I would like to thank the generous sponsor, Adidas who gives me, the novice blogger or gliteratti a chance to learn the tips and tricks from our own Malaysian bloggers. It is much easier to learn from those who speaks in the same lingo.

After viewing the Project Alpha videos, blogging has become easier and sweat has become lesser from thinking of what and how to write. Sweaty times are over with an Adidas Action 3 deodorant in hand.

Yesterday's 1Joke : 22 Oct 2009

Heard about this wonderful piece of 1Joke 2 days ago over Radio 988 in the morning. It was about some comments on the excessive expenses and unsangkarable quotation from those suppliers in government's approved vendors list (G-AVL). All these scams were revealed in the Auditor-General's report for year 2008.

The reason not many people get to be in G-AVL is because they did not do the right thing during bid submission. It is no secret that "Maximize the opportunity, Minimize the cost" formula doesn't apply in winning the bid. You can judge from the list below that I extracted from our local news sources, Malaysian Insider and Malaysiakini.



The Rascals:
> Human Resources Ministry
> Education Ministry
> Finance Ministry
> Health Ministry
> Defence Ministry

The Boleh Buys & Works:
> Miri training institute (ILP) paid nearly 3,000 per cent more for a RM990 pole platform

> Kepala Batas ILP paying 800 per cent above market price for a RM 1,500 cabinet

> Approved payment of more than RM290,000 for two development projects that do not exist

> Claimed RM172,258, to cover the cost of installing floor tiles at the hostel and an office in KL, but the floor tiles were not installed

> Paid RM44,698 after certifying the completion of renovations to a community centre in Bandar Tun Razak. Again, it was found that the work had not been carried out.

> Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Mara) paid RM84,640 for two Acer Aspire 5052 laptops when the price for each was RM4,500 (equivalent to paying for 18 units but collecting only 2 units)

> The Balik Pulau Mara Higher Skills Institute also paid RM40,830 more for 15 Hewlet Packard P3005X laser printers and RM3.45 million for 450 Dell Precision desktops (equivalent to RM2,700/unit for laser printer and RM7,600/unit for desktop)

> They also bought teaching manuals worth RM358,476, which were never used (equivalent to buying a double storey house, but leaving it for the drug user)

Malaysia Boleh lagi, dan lagi! Since Mr N keeps on shouting "1Malaysia" whereever and whenever for no reason, I think it is more appropriate to rename it as "完Malaysia", judging by the attitude of majority of his own people.

Feel proud that my MP appears in the media to voice out and fight against all this "Third World Mentality" activities so openly carried out for the past few years. Look at his leng chai face below.

Aston Villa : Match 7 & 8 result

This is definitely a late posting, but nevertheless as a Villa fan, it's better late than much later. Villa is currently at P6 behind Man Utd, Chelsea, Tottenham, Arsenal and Man City.

It was great games for Villa in the last 2 matches, both at Villa Park home ground. They drew 1-1 against Man City, and beat Chelsea 2-1 in the last game. Richard Dunne scored against Man City, and twin defenders Dunne and James Collins netted against the Blues.


> Villa heroes of the week: Dunne (L) and Collins (R)

Guess what the boss will say? "We've done nothing yet." He asked for calm and I think they need to do so.


> The boss: Martin O'Neill

Deepavali Vartekel

Want to take this opportunity to wish my local Indian and Hindu frens, dan mereka yang berada di kawasan yang sewaktu dengannya, Deepavali Vartekel!

To my Hindi frens, Happy Diwali!

To yang lain-lain, Happy Weekend!

Mid-Autumn & Tanglung

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival to all! Just to show some usual food Malaysian Chinese have on this day.


> Moonlight Cake (月光饼）. Used to have this when I was child, and thought this is a mooncake


> Mooncake, agar-agar type


> Pomelo


> Mini Yam


> Ling Kok (Bull's Horn). Hard on the outside, white on the inside. Looks unusual, but taste like a chestnut. (Edited the term)

Kick Out Monday Blues with Genius Go Go Go

This is an interesting Taiwanese variety program shown on Astro C317, known as 天才衝衝衝 in Chinese. It is shown weekly on Sunday, starting at 10pm. It is highly recommended for those who need a laughter boost before ending the weekend, or a morning booster to drive off their Monday blues by watching the repeat at 8am.

The show consists of few sections, and the best is usually the 2nd section (瞎拼ABC) whereby the guests are involved in a sentence guessing game. One member says the clue using English, usually with Taiwanese accent, and the other member guesses the words in Chinese.



The guests are usually artistes; actors or singers. Do take note when these few person appearing on the show: 王彩华，鍾欣凌， 小锺， 白云，and NONO, as they are famous for their creativity and out-of-the-box ideas to present or answer the clues. The hostess, 小嫻 is also an excellent guesser.

> 王彩华 > 鍾欣凌 > 小嫻
> 小锺 > 白云 > NONO

Two of the best episode involves guessing the word "Carbon Dioxide " and "Mount Fuji". You should check out from Youtube on how these 2 person brilliantly hit the home run.

> 二氧化碳 (Er Yang Hua Tan)

+ +
=>

> 富士山 (Fu Shi San)