*** UPDATED 11th DECEMBER 2007: This post will be continuously updated with photos and contents for the next few days… because A LOT had happened in the past week alone! ***

(Edmund’s Note: This is probably by far the longest post I have made on my Personal Blog to date, because it’s also the most interesting and most life-impacting so far. It’s packed with loads of photos so please be patient as they load on your browser. Thanks and happy reading and browsing!)

This simply has to be the best day in my life! 🙂

Admittedly, I’ve never (yes, never) threw a fancy bash for my birthday.

For the past 20 years.

Truth to tell, I had always wondered, “what’s so spectacular about it?” every time I see photos of other people celebrating their birthday and end the unsaid remark with, “I mean after all, it’s just another day, right?”

Riiight???

Now I know and have experienced first hand the true significance of this particularly special day that comes only once a year. It certainly wasn’t just “another day”. And I came to learn of this only after 2 decades later.

Coincidentally, my friends Khai and Yuenn had their formal marriage ceremony on the same day, and I was their bestman.

And our Internet Marketing friendlies who took the trouble to travel all the way here from both Indonesia and Iran added a lot of spice to The Great November!

It is also funny to note that how I ended up meeting most of the characters that recurringly appear on my homepage’s MyBlogLog… in person – eventually or by any other means!

Without further ado, here is the rich collection of photos taken throughout 24th November 2007:

Hours Before The Wedding – The Little Angels…

… or little rascals who were stopping us guys from reaching the bride’s room. 😉

And after what seems to be an endless battle of going through hoops after hoops of obstacles as the girls were stopping the Alpha Males from reaching the Bride’s room – being posed with challenges and questions – we finally busted into the room with Khai greeting his merry bride, Yuenn! (Although, at the expense of me being ‘lipsticked’ because Khai answered one of their questions wrongly.)

Bride is rescued! 🙂

Khai & Yuenn’s Wedding at Damansara Palace Restaurant

Khai & Yuenn officially wed in the witness of the Pastor. That’s me standing on the far right as Khai’s bestman.

Newly wed.

Sen Ze and his staff attended the wedding too, and commented that he has never seen me in a suit before. Haha, so had everyone else! Truth to tell, it feels alien to see myself wear a suit but then, I admit I look good in it. 🙂

Dee Ferdinand, fearless leader of Internet Marketing Indonesia and skilled photographer. We met in person for the first time at World Internet Mega Summit, Singapore, and way earlier online. He is a very friendly and nice person – definitely possess the qualities of a great friend!

There’s something big that Dee and his crew are hosting in June 2008, and I look forward to it.

Khai & Yuenn, the highlight of the day. I am sure you’ve made your parents proud!

The Internet Marketing crew.
L-R: Alfred Ko (Jie Ming), Dennis Sim, Francis J, Matt Ng, Peng Joon, Ben Chin, Cornelius, Semmy.

My table – another batch of IMers. 🙂
L-R: Vince Tan, June Ang, Me, Ladan Lashkari, Jessica, Sunny Tan. Ladan was teaching me how to write my own name in Parsi.

Giving a speech on stage in front of less than 300 guests at the wedding function.

Yuenn in new blue outfit… that was a fast jump!

Our three wise uncles Gobala, Melvin and Steven. That’s me at the far right side of the photo. 😛

In Indonesia, people who wear Batik are seen as highly respected, even more than those who wear tux and suits. It is normal for men, usually Malays, to wear Batik to formal functions. Other than VIPs and high authority individuals, bodyguards also don the Batik. This is also practiced in Malaysia.

Having said that, I got a pair of Batik for my birthday present from the Indonesian IMers. 🙂 Thanks a big bunch!

Taking Pics with Friends & New People At My Birthday Celebration

After the wedding function ended at 3:00 PM, I went home to rest and launch my birthday sale on the Internet.

At night, I found myself walking into The Red Box at The Curve. If it were me anytime earlier, I would find it hard to imagine entering a place for Karaoke since singing isn’t my thing.

But then, I believe I should try it at least once in a lifetime – and I don’t regret the decision. 🙂 In fact, I think I should do it every once in a while.

Most of my friends were there earlier in the Karaoke Room, though a couple of guys like Gobala Krishnan, Melvin Ng, and Steven Wong came in slightly late – but they still made it and added to the fun.

Me with Kenny Tan. I’ve heard of Kenny only recently and I understand that he’s highly successful in both online and offline business. Way to go!

With Cornelius. That’s his Catholic name, though. His buddies address him Sugam Sugeng. (Thanks for the clarification Semmy!)

Francis is a fast learner at Company of Heroes! In the last rounds, his team trounced mine – 4 times in a row! Regret teaching him the strategies – should have just taught him the basics and let him figure out the rest. 😉 One thing for sure: we all definitely enjoyed ourselves at the cyber cafe – haven’t had so much fun playing at the cyber cafe in a long time!

Semmy may be a person of few words but the little remarks and comments he make are hillarious every now and then! Semmy and Cornelius are no ‘small fries’ in the Internet Marketing arena, though – they’re the masters of their own domains, like Adwords Marketing and a slew more to name!

With Ladan Lashkari – thanks for the unique birthday card! 😉 Don’t forget to video tape yourself now and then too with your favorite video camera. You will certainly want to see yourself in it years down the line from now.

With Alfred Ko a.k.a. Jie Ming. He can sing Chinese songs really, really well!

Me with Vince and June. Thanks for helping me with the unselfish setup for my birthday sale! 🙂

The “Adwords in a Box” duo – Peng Joon & Matt Ng and me.
In my opinion, Matt is the best singer that night and it is a small wonder how he won the Cornetto “Sing Your Heart Out” contest!

With Jessica.

Attempting to remove Sunny Tan from the picture. Haven’t seen him for months prior to this day – good to know he’s doing really well! Must pick his brains on site flipping one of these fine days. 🙂

With Dennis Sim and his girlfriend, Jessny. Peng Joon makes a sneak appearance on the left.

With Ben Chin. Just remembered: he didn’t even pick up the microphone just once!

Thanks for sending me back home that night, Sherman Yap!

With the great Gobala Krishnan. All the best in your offline book publishing!

Peng Joon, how many times do you want to appear on my blog?!

With John Ng.
“Talk to the hand!” — Terminator 3

Just when Yuenn was about to give me a peck in the cheek…

… her jealous husband just won’t accept it.

Wait… that was a deliberate trap to ambush me!

The Karaoke Battle OR Internet Marketers Gone Wild!

We did what we came here to do – chill, have fun, sing, take photos, and socialize. 3 solid hours of doing all things fun!

While it may come as a surprise to many, Khai actually sings really well. I’m personally not surprised by this fact, though: Khai has enrolled himself into singing classes for the past few months in pursuit of his passion. And I think that everyone should pursue their own dreams and explore the limits, too!

Khai obviously loves to sing songs by Linkin Park. 🙂 Way to go!

Steven Wong sings his heart out! All that stress from conducting his workshops and seminars must have got to him.

Uncles United: Kenny and Steven singing a Chinese song. 🙂

Sunny waiting for his song to be selected as Jessica looks on.

Now this is a genuine surprise: I could actually sing! And I didn’t know I could, really. Of course, I am by no means up to par with anyone else in the room when it comes to talented singing plus my “data base” of songs that I can sing is limited.

However, I gave my utmost best in singing the songs I know and join along my friends even in singing songs I’ve not listened to before.

Oh rest assured, I was NOT screaming or shouting. And no, I wasn’t singing about selling my coaching program.

Now THAT is screaming.

And this is what we call 100% SOUND.

Sentimental Giants: Cornelius sings his heart out too!

Watching on as the screen displays a variety of scenes and lyrics.

That’s Matt singing at the back of the room!

Helping ourselves with the food.

What’s Khai doing at the back? (Did you notice that he couldn’t keep still in most of the photos?)

Ahh finally… the birthday cake arrived!

Jamming with Our Indonesian Buddies

The boys spent their first 2 nights bunking over at Melvin’s place, the next 3 nights over Matt’s place and saved the last night over at my humble home! 🙂

The guys had a great time – you should check out their photo album here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/icyguy/MalaysiaTripNov2007

Dee making recommendations to Semmy on buying “the perfect bag” for his girlfriend. 🙂

Crazy Indonesian guys taking control of my workstation!

Now believe it or not, we spent a few nights in a row at the cyber cafe into the wee hours of morning (like 3 -4 AM)… playing Company of Heroes!

In a nutshell, the game is based on World War II divided between two main forces: The Allies (Americans) and The Axis (Germans). The American forces are versatile and have the benefit of calling in companies like that of Airborne, Armor (tanks) and Infantry.

Whereas the Germans can flex their terrifying doctrines – 2 of which allows you to deploy their deadliest tanks into the battlefield (read: The Tiger Tanks!)

You bet we had plenty of fun working together to blast each other out of the map. I remembered vividly how we played our first round of Company of Heroes when I drove a Stug IV tank right into our enemies’ infantries, and that no amount of Jeeps could take it down *hint: it’s a scissors, paper, stone type of game*

Too bad in the last 4 rounds of the game, it was my team that got the trouncing (but to be fair, I trashed them more than half the time 🙂 ). We shall have a rematch on Jakarta grounds next time!

Khai’s New House Warming

“Let’s finish Semmy off.” — Edmund Loh

Yup, that’s the punch line of the day. 🙂 (Guys, you know what I mean)

Dee, Francis, Cornelius and Semmy spent their last night over at my place in Damansara Kim, whereas for the past several days in Malaysia they bunked over at Melvin’s house and later Matt’s.

I took the Elite Indonesian crew for a shopping spree at 1Utama and later Cold Storage at IKANO because we were to head over to Khai’s new house in Mutiara Damansara, hence the shopping for food too.

Khai teaching our Indonesian friends the vicious game of Lifeboats.

The progress of the game where every sailor gets kicked out – one by one. Let’s finish Semmy off. 🙂

At the same time, Khai’s guests came to visit the new house. And coincidentally, Yuenn’s birthday is also around the corner i.e. 29th November! So we pretty much celebrated her birthday in advance. Oh, and I get to help myself with the cake and make another wish for the third time in the last 3 days!

Huuuuuff!

Thank you all for making this night an unforgettable, wonderful experience! 🙂

More photos and content coming soon…

Thanks and Credits to Dee Ferdinand for all the cool, professional photos!