Beer hunting in Perth

Have not gone Down Under for a very long time...and this time it's to Perth. I always remembered the crispy clear blue sky and the friendly people from my last trip to Sydney years ago. Unfortunately this time around I 'll remember how expensive things are! We stayed at the Pan Pacific and it's walking distance to the pier and Northbridge. First stop was the Lucky Shag Pub by the waterfront. Very nice view of the Swan River and a great way to spent the afternoon session here.

Other notable watering holes are The Mustang Pub which caters for an older crowd who likes to dance to country and western including rock and roll. Then there's Rosie O'Grady, Universal and The Brass Monkey. Universal has a live band too. Average price of beers is AUD 9, equivalent to almost USD10. You'll have to que and pay at the bar and that is about as much service you can get! Welcome to OZ mate...cheers! Mineral water at the convenient store is AUD2.50!! So bring lots of cash when visiting Australia!

The Lucky Shag!

Local beers,,,cheers mate!

ANZAC DAY.....Look!

Langkawi revisited

Suppose to have a couple of days in VTSM but unfortunately things don't always goes as plan and ended up in WMKL instead. Made the best of it, cheers!

Ahhh...cheers!

Beer hunting in Shanghai.

Landed on a cold evening in Hongqiao, Shanghai and after a long days' work what better way to unwind with cold beers in a cozy pub. After a couple of nice places in downtown decided to go back Hong Mei Pedestrian Street. Here the street is dotted with nice pubs and bistros notably, Papas Bierstube which serves  wheat beer and dark pilsener brewed in house. Opposite is the Bamboo bar, full of expats with live band and good food and further down is The Shanghai brewery which serves their own house brand!

Papas in house brewery.

Wheat Beers.

My fav!

Nice too!

Delicious Shanghai noodles.

Nice lunch near Naning East 

Playing tourist!

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR! Gong Xi Fa Chai!

Almost every year we get invited to Uncle Jit's place during CNY to see the lion dance. So far this year, it's the best  yet. The Lion is really animated and playful,it was such a thrill and a joy to witness it. Wishing all my friends a happy and prosperous year of the Rabbit. May good health and wealth be showered upon the year of the Bunny. Gong Xi Fa Chai!

Eulogy to my dearly departed Father on 21 Dec 2010 . We love you Papak..

Good afternoon
Father Simon Poh,Dato ,my mum relative and friends

I Wenceslas Tan am here today representing my mum, 4 brothers and sister in laws (Christopher and Doreen, )  my wife Rosalind ,Ivan,Victor and Phylis, my one n only sister, Jannie,  ,John and  Sui yeen,  and my 3 nephews and 6 nieces.
My father , A truly kind and loving and  a very compassionate man
He gave us love courage and strength.
He showed us love by loving his mother dearly, our  gradma and my mum and all of us very much. My mom is always and will be forever  the love of his life.He loves us too, there'd was incident,he use to come back to Kuching when he was working in Bau in the 60's during a big flood he swim across streches of water through rubber  garden and spend a night in a malay  house  and walked until he was in  Kuching just to be with us.Their  commitment to one another is a true example of a loving family   Through hardship and joy hn bringing up all the children to be good people.
His love for us is gentle  and sweet.
At  times he is stern and strict,all these is because he knows what is best .
He brought adventures to our life by bringing us to various town where he had worked in public works department (JKR), Serian in the early sixties ,building the serian Sri Aman ,and also Bau.then in the 70's , to Gedong . whenever  I think of my childhood ,which I think my brother and I Sister would agree , was  fun,adventurous and instilled in us the love for nature and had the opportunity to meet other people  while  building these roads and bridges
Our strong family bond , respecting each other, a family , that stays  together is not an easy  task as building road n bridges.  He showed love,  kindness and compassion.
He showed us how to live a good Christian life,he would wake up early in the morning 3am ,light up the candle and read the bible and prayed daily. ,there was an instance when he suffered a second stroke and completely confined to wheel chair,during a divine mercy Sunday three years ago ,the lord spoke to him  you can wak now, he woke up and from that day onward he can walk.
He is a very hardworking man and my mum will always tell us
"dad is working overtime today"
He instilled in us that altitude and culture to work hard and live honestly.Born  11 may 1929, dad had a difficult childhood. Our grandad passed away when my papak was five years old. But the good Lord blessed him . He worked hard and we all grew up , having the best what dad and mom can provide for us.
he passed away peacefully on the 19 December  2010 at the age of 81.
His last few days was very difficult but he showed courage.
His last words to my mum
" that he is truly blessed
He  was happy and is very grateful for caring for him all these years, That he knows she love him very much."
Let me end my this short speech
It is by saying,  we love our papak very much , growing up is about his heart,
and getting very close to him , that kept the family together and our thought of him will always make us think about all the meaningful things in life and also in knowing and loving God more. What you see now, all of his children respecting, loving and supporting one another, is the result of our dad.
I read this , from lance, a favorite boy whom my dad and mum love very much.
Lance is 12 years old today. My mom looked after him when he was one month old. We grew very fond to him,lance we love you too.
Thank you all for your presence, support and prayers during this time of loss.

Beautiful Shanghai

It's getting colder by the day in China and after the freezing cold in Beijing it was welcoming to be in sunny Shanghai with a more beareable temperature of about 12 deg Celcius. Went straight to The Bund and it was indeed a lovely sight, more pictures coming but these by the iPhone.

It's cool to be green!

I have been accused of being materialistic and I can see why. All the cars that I love are high powered German or Italian supermodels. All the watches that I love are also likewise. However I beg to differ from such accusations because I love these things from an engineering point of view. Because these cars are beautifully designed and engineered, there are superb cars and naturally,very sought after and expensive. There's a saying in the aviation world, "if it looks good, it flies good too". My last beloved car was a VW GTi Mk V, it won numerous Car of the Year Award internationally, the TFSi Engine also won awards and the DSG gearbox in still unbeatable and copied from all other makes. The other reason I love this car is how VW is able to give big power to a small package. CO2 emission is incredible for a car with sports inclination. It's less of a guilt trip like saying I have the dessert but will run extra 5 km after that.

 However, you will soon realized when crawling in any of the inescapable daily jam in KL that all these power goes to waste! Imagine if all the standstill vehicles shut off their engine for 5 minutes daily! How much fuel we saved and how much carbon foot print we reduced! A few months ago my beloved GTI was hijacked at knife point and as much as I love to replace it with a MK VI, I get a phobia of being hijack again. The quest for a feel good factor while driving not necessary comes from 0-100 dash times or how little body roll exists when I dive into a chicane but from knowing that you are in a seat of future motoring technology and you are saving a ton of Co2 emission a year. Yes ladies and gentlemen you are looking at the proud owner of the latest and last Honda Civic Hybrid in Malaysia! FYI, the Honda CRZ Hybrid just won Japan Car of the Year! I can assure you it's a matter of time before you drive one. So why wait when you can do it now, go on join the green brigade.......don't you know it's cool to be green!
Good article on here.