Steve Tyrell in town...

Tonight was a night of classic jazz tunes... After all the planning last year and how terrible it was for Chele and I to miss Steve Tyrell's performance at the Carlyle Hotel, we managed to catch his concert here in Buffalo, NY. Lucky us he decided to return to Buffalo for a show!! Lucky us again that tickets in Buffalo were a lot more affordable that the 3-digits seats at the Carlyle. Amazing as his voice is on record, his live vocals was just as impressive as I thought it would be and more. Many of you many be familiar with his songs since I have been plugging his songs on this blogpage. In any case, you should all check his songs out for Tyrell has a standard of his own!

Ticket home...

I did it!!! I finally booked my flight tickets for home this summer. And it's about time too... prices are crazy!! Okay people, mark down those calendars for when Sherene's gonna be back in town!! I am leaving NY on Monday, June 19th and arriving Penang via Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific airlines on Wednesday, June 21st afternoon. Will spend almost 6 weeks back home... until I leave back to NY on August 3rd. So it is set then... will see many old faces again this summer :D

Amy's Birthday...

Happy Birthday to Amy!!

Doesn't she look so relaxed after a week in San Diego for a conference? Welcome back to the office and have a wonderful birthday!!!

King of late night talkshow.. Conan O'Brien

After cooking up two huge pots of curry chicken with Mardiana for a nasi lemak dinner over at Joe's place for almost 30 people... it was time to just chill. So,I hurried back to campus and met up with Trevor, Marcus and Bryan to see Conan O'Brien talk at Alumni Arena. He was the last speaker for this year UB's Distinguished Speaker Series. Not that huge of a fan of Conan, but he's alright. I'd much prefer Jay Leno and see him doing his Jaywalking segment. Funny Conan took questions from UB students and poked fun at Dennis Black, VP of Student Affairs who served as the moderator for questions. Gotta remmember this bit of him when I do take a class with him next year :P

A tennis we will go...

It was so warm and beautiful outside today... Chele and I could not resist a game of tennis. Apparently, everyone in the neighborhood had the same idea... the school children are still out on their Easter break, retirees are just hanging out with their friends over games of tennis. Lucky us we both kindda knew where the tennis courts are scattered around our area. Okay my tennis peeps... get those rackets out from the basement and let's go hit some balls!!

Easter happy...

Pictures from Easter Sunday at the Milizia's...

Of chocolate trifles and chocolate Easter eggs & bunnies...

Easter wishes for everyone...

Hoppy Easter weekend everyone!! Chele has Friday off.. lucky her, I had to work for half a day before I head back home to pack. Chele and I are off to Rochester for the weekend... Sharon, Chee Ming and other friends will be joining us for Easter dinner over at the Milizia's.

K.I.S.S. Alert!!

What amusing news from home... the dilemma of public displays of affection a.k.a. PDA. To think that as we human race have progressed so much in every aspects of our llives - such trivial actions are picked on. It may be a cultural matter, but come on... there are other much more important matters such as cracking down illegal selling of drugs and substance, crime, more access to education, jobs for all, etc. than trying to monitor any affection a special someone is trying to demonstrate to their significant other.

To think that some government might even allude to fitting their policemen with stopwatches to time the duration of the act of PDA. How do they think to attempt to measure this PDA business? In the Indonesian article, "It was not clear if the guideline referred to an uninterrupted five-minute kiss."So if it is NOT an uninterrupted five-minutes kiss, does that mean it is an accumulated kiss that totals off to five minutes or which ever comes first?!? Boy, do we know how to spend our taxpayers' $money$!!

So much for young lovers hanging out by Gurney Drive after a night of hawker's delights nearby.... and what about those couples who rendezvou-ed in the evening on a bench under a tree overlooking the Penang bridge with their parked motorcycles or Kancil right by the coastal high way?! (*some of your know what I am really talking about here!)

I guess this means that when Peter (the tourist) and I do get home... no PDA of any sort for fear of being imprisoned by the Malaysian government!! So much for holding hands and looking left/right before crossing the road as well! :P

Kiss warning to Malaysia tourists

Kiss warning to Malaysia tourists

Wednesday, 5 April 2006, 13:12

GMT 14:12 UK

BBC News, Kuala Lumpur

The couple is said to have been kissing near the Petronas Towers. Kuala Lumpur's mayor has reassured tourists they will not face harassment if found kissing in public. The comment comes after Malaysia's highest court said city officials were right to prosecute a local couple for allegedly holding hands and kissing.

The couple's lawyer warned foreigners may face up to a year in prison if they too behaved affectionately in public. Ooi Kean Thong and Siow Ai Wei were charged with disorderly behaviour almost three years ago. Officials claimed the couple were locked in an amorous embrace in apark beside the landmark Petronas Twin Towers. Ms Siow said she was playing the violin while Mr Ooi read her a letter.

"In England, those acts are acceptable to the people of that country,but is kissing and hugging acceptable to Malaysian citizens?" Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz.

The case has yet to be decided, but on Tuesday the federal court rejected a challenge to the city's decision to prosecute. Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz commented that hugging and kissing might be"acceptable in England", but he said it was open to question whether Malaysians took the same view. But a warning from the couple's lawyer that tourists could find themselves hauled up before the courts prompted Kuala Lumpur's mayor to play down the ruling.

Mayor Roslin Hassan told the BBC that officials would simply advisepeople rather than arrest them if their behaviour was inappropriate. He says holding hands is OK, but couples should not kiss too passionately in public.

TV censure

Malaysia has a Muslim majority, but people of all religions are broadly conservative in their outlook. Local television channels reflect this by censoring kissing so viewers are left to fill in the gaps when characters about to embrace suddenly appear in different parts of the room looking shocked or emotional for no apparent reason. The Malaysian government has had to step in to stop a number oforganisations from forming private snoop squads to spy on the public and report immoral behaviour.

Keep your kisses short in Tangerang

Keep your kisses short in Tangerang
Fri Apr 7, 2006 08:40 AM ET

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Unrelated people who kiss each other on the lipsfor more than five minutes at public places in the Indonesian city of Tangerang will face arrest, local media said Friday.

The government in Tangerang, a suburb west of Jakarta, defended the regulation as a practical guideline for its officers to follow up on tough and heavily criticized anti-prostitution laws passed by the city council last year.

"Please do not dramatize this. We will not arrest people at will as we are not oppressors," Ahmad Lutfi, head of the city's public order department, told the Koran Tempo newspaper. Lutfi declined to comment on whether officers would be armed with stopwatches, Tempo reported.

It was not clear if the guideline referred to an uninterrupted five-minute kiss. Kissing in public is generally frowned upon in Indonesia, especially in rural, predominantly Muslim areas, but giving a time limit for such behavior is unheard of.

Around 85 percent of Indonesia's 220 million people follow Islam, giving the sprawling archipelago the largest number of Muslims of any country. Although most are moderates, there is a growing tendency toward showing Islamic identity and conservative attitudes. That backdrop, along with the recent devolution of power to regional governments, has given several regions space to create tighter ruleson morality.

The new anti-prostitution laws in Tangerang, a city of more than one million, sparked complaints from liberals in February after a female restaurant worker waiting for her husband on a street at night was picked up because police officers thought she was a prostitute.

At the national level, draft legislation addressing pornography issueshas been circulating for years in parliament and debate on it isreaching a peak. The original draft proposed a ban on public kissingon the lips but it is unclear whether the particular article willsurvive in the final version.

Best Buds... for life!

As of late... hectic school life has really gotten to my head!! Thank goodness for technology and the amazing power of SMS, Laurence & Nicholas has been on the other end of my SMS activities whenever I require a booster for the day. Consider them to be my distant support system to get me going for the day !(Not forgetting Pete & Chele who are here with me of course!)

Laurence... what can I say about him? Well, next to being the most gracious host while us girls were in Hawaii - he makes me laugh and listens to all my whinning of school, work and everyday happenings. If he were to describe himself... he would say that he is the Perfect Man!! ;P We have a running joke of running a pirate ship together!! He's the Captain of the ship who likes to loot and plunder; and have a good time in the process - what ever he means by that!!

As for Nicholas... he is one of my oldest friends.. we've known each other since we were fourteen.. so that's a decade plus there! It would be hard for me to imagine my high school years without Nicky. He has been the go-to friend, the shoulder for me to lean on, the support sytem I needed. He was and still is always there for me! He knows what works in teasing/picking on me - I let him do it for old time's sake!! Can't wait 'till we meet up again this summer!

Sher & Nicky (glasses) together with another dear friend of ours from high school, Jerrican.

Leggo-me-eggo...

We dyed Easter eggs over April Fool's weekend... a tad early this year due to our scheduling with the rest of the Gauger family.

Mary (Pete's Grandma) and I getting ready to color our couple dozen of eggs. Here are some of my colorful works!



This picture reminded me of a "March of the Hard-Boiled Eggs Army" picture prepping for an attack on us human kind for their beloved cousins who were turned into hippie-dyed eggs for Easter. Yikes!!

Pixs are uploaded...

Downtown Honolulu, Waikiki, Ala Moana Beach Park, Pearl Harbor, Aloha Stadium, Hanauma Bay, North Shore, Polynesian Cultural Center, Diamond Head even a picture with Ray J. I got all the pictures I want to share uploaded to Flickr... so,

go check it out!