I will have to say that today is the best day spent to end my holidays. The blogmeet that Peter proposed turned out to be another really huge success. I got to see Peter and Wuan again when I first got there, and I took a seat next to Mr. eff Ooi himself after going around the table shamelessly introducing myself to everyone. It was nice to finally meet Michael [Eyeris] and Jayelle after having rounds of interactions with them.
A few minutes later, Leo arrived and we quickly got to work on exchanging anime. The whole group got livelier when our chief Redzuan arrived. Words and notepads were being passed back and forth as the noise gets louder and louder. And then Dave arrived, completely oblivious of my presence to a point where I just had to whap his back. He was really excited to meet Jeff seeing how nervously happy he looked when he approached his idol. I didn’t really notice it, but Sashi, Nilesh and Rajan reached the place about almost the same time.
Now, Peter as usual, was busy entertaining some people while Redzuan and I were making some small talk with Jeff and Sashi. Jeff, like his blog, chooses his words carefully and waits for the right time to say it. Just like the image I had of him when I first read Screenshots. And then, Jess got there, quiet, just like last time, lol.
About 15-20 minutes later Mack ‘The Man’ Zulkifli arrives and he easily built himself a little crowd around him. Now, he’s one of the major reasons why I really looked forward to the blogmeet. I have been following his blog since the day he wrote about being Malaysian on his ‘Looks Easy’ TypePad blog and I always had an impression that he would a serious intellect who would talk in a calm composed tone, just like Jeff. However, in Mack’s words;
“Fuck that lah!”
I’m telling you right here, right now, that MackZul is the bomb. His wild attitude and raw sense of humour totally blew me away. I joined in his little ‘chatroom’ at one end of the table as I overheard something about remote control cars. The way he tells his stories, the way he animates himself, it’s just totally awesome. Nevermind that the person and the blog are like heaven and earth, this is one guy who really knows his shit, and he knows how to talk his shit. I was impressed beyond words.
So much so that Penny, Loges, Kelvin and TigerJoe’s arrival was completely ignored by me. At least until these people showed up in front of my face, lah. Meanwhile, everyone’s busy taking photos of everyone else, and some people are taking pictures of people taking pictures of people.
Basically the crowd broke into two segments. A table full of guys, and a table with mostly women.
“And Jeff is fucking sitting in the middle. I tell you, lah…” - Mack
The guys’ table [Mack, Tiger, Leo, Me, Redzuan, Jess, Rajan, Sashi, Nilesh] totally rocked. Mack had everyone in stitches with his unbelieveable talent for entertaining crowds. Soon, his wife and kids arrived;
“So those are the brand new Malaysians, huh?” - Redzuan
They didn’t hang around for long, though, probably they went shopping. We then continued to talk more and more crap but by the time it was 12, people started to leave. First it was Dave, and then Jess, and Redzuan, and then Sashi and the gang. But that didn’t stop us from continuously laughing our heads off.
By 1pm, Leo and I got too hungry we just had to look for some food. So off Leo went off to look for some and he gave me a call.
Leo: Dude, I found ramen.
Me: Holy shit, you rock.
I secured myself a nice big bowl a Ramen with deep fried chicken cutlets for myself and Leo a bowl of beef ramen. The miso smelt sooo good it really makes up for a certain craving that I have been unable to satisfy for a few weeks already.[lament] So,..
Leo and Me: Itadakimaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaassuuu!!~~
We dug in as Mack and Tiger continued to chat right next to us. I was completely oblivious as to what they were talking about since all my 5 senses are fixed onto my bowl of ramen. After satisfying myself, we went back to laughing all over again.
Albert came much much later and sat with us. Penny joined us as well and continued to chat while Mack was busying himself with his lunch. We still had much and we got Mack choking over his rice, lol. Peter lowered the curtains when he decided to leave and Mack as well after he finished his food.
Leo and I also decided to leave to continue with our ritual of hole-hunting [which was done gracefully] and we continued with a little chit-chat before calling it a day at around 1630. Wah, tiring, I tell you. I’m too lazy to post up the attendance list. I’ll just copy them from anyone who has a complete list and I’ll link you guys to my photo gallery when I upload it later.
It was good to meet you guys, there, it was a real blast! Look forward to see you again at the PPS birthday bash!