2 cents worth

My adventure with shirts??

2007-11-22T08:15:00.000+08:00

Recently a couple of "incidents" happenned regarding shirts.....

1. A while back while in China for work, I was staying at this local govt guests house. So some services that you got used to in typical hotel is not so typical like iron. Most hotels will have 1 in the room or you can loan 1 on short notice i.e. anytime of the day. Since on most of these trips I am out the whole day and will only be back at night so naturally I will do my ironing at night or early morning. So staying in this particular guests house they don't have iron in room and the laundry dept closes at 7pm......so I am stuck with a clean uniron shirt......so I was asking around etc etc and the staff said he will bring it to the laundry room and iron himself......next morning I got a shirt with a hole in hit!!! Shucks and that morning was another mad rush cos I need to get another shirt to be ironed by the laundry dept that opens at 8am........

2. Was visiting a small town about 2 hours from Beijing, again same issue no iron in room and no laundry service after 7pm. Again the staff promised to iron and bring back to me. Since it is a lady this time round thot it would be safe.....next day ...I got an equally crumpled shirt folded and sent to my room??!!! She didn't hang or anything and she prob took the bus to work :( :(

3. This morning.....my iron short circuited when I was ironing my shirt and was on fire.....yes on fire.....thank God nothing major happenned......as you can imagine....blur just woken....stumble to toilet ...then stumble to iron my shirt.......*whhosshh......on fire* didn't even have time to think......must have been reflex action due to repetitive motions over the years.....put down iron+pick up water spray.....repeat until whole shirt is done.....so I just kinda put down my iron shockingly and picked up the water spray......eeerrrr.

See mom there is an advantage of using an old iron with a separate water spray......if I had 1 of those new steam iron......the damage would have been more severe as I need to rush out to get water??!! Thank God.

Dreamsss......

2007-11-16T13:41:00.000+08:00

I always day dream of being a painter, photographer and singer........serious you know things you acted out while you were younger when.....especially I grew up by myself until like 8 years old before my bro came along but somehow since the gap is kinda big I always grew up dreaming.......and talking to myself......

Painter - I can't paint even if my life depended on it. A stick man is prob the best I could do.

Photographer - Well with affordable digital camera this has more hope now but still I suck....

Singer - Eerrr I don't think I want to try that, other than back-up and karaoke sessions...hahaha

Ah hobbies that is what it is.....lately I have taken a keen interest on my 3 pots of plant at home.....they kinda provide me with some blib of excitement in my otherwise fairly routine life. 2 months back I separated 1 pot to 2 pots cos it was growing too big for the small pot but I prob didn't do it properly cos both the transplanted pots seems to be dying.....and only seem to be growing into a pink of health....more like green.....these last 2 weeks or so...I hope it continues.

SMART - tunnel, spending, con strategies

2007-11-16T08:26:00.000+08:00

Was stuck in the jam for the last 2 days because the tunnel was closed since it was used for its intended purpose on Tuesday.....apparently it prevented a flood after a heavy downpour.

Went to pasar malam last night and bought a cheap 9v battery made from China. The last battery I bought was quite good, lasted me 1 year for my Smart Tag which needed only low volt low power. But as with things with China....the cheap stuff at least, you take your chances....either the battery kaputted before use or my Smart Tag went kaput on me......hhhmmmm 5 years old....oredi I bought it for like RM220 then. Maybe that was the life span or something. Anyway it was a fair risk and return thingy...RM2 for 1 year of smooth toll passing......not bad right?! Well with CPI growing at 3% (my foot??!!!) my toll increased 60%. My cup of drink also increased 20%, I think my bowl of noodle kinda shrank :) or am I getting fatter adn having a bigger appetite??hhmm. Sigh everything is getting more expensive these days.

Somehow thanks to Mr Ford and the industrial revolution nothing is built to last....if not then no new business will happen and no new sales will occur......PCs, handphones, notebooks, cars etc etc you name it will not be churning out new models every 3 to 6 months all in the name of new models/functions but somehow consumers also get a bit jaded and sick of always changing....so the "pull" factor doesn't do anymore thus the "push" factor comes in......if it breaks down then the poor guy has no choice but to get a new one.....hhhmmmm how smart??!!

Evan Almighty

2007-10-01T13:33:00.000+08:00

The movie suggests......."when we pray for patience, God doesn't make us patient, but give us opportunity to be patient. And when we ask for courage, God doesn't give us courage, but gives us the opportunity to be courageous".......

Somehow this dialogue kinda lite up a bulb in my head.....most often than not we treat prayer as a band-aid and instant miracle.....it reminds me of us having free will and can choose (even if it is between the rock and a hard place). It also suggests Christian growth is a process rather than a sudden cosmic change of circumstances/situations.

So the next time we pray for something....be sure to notice the opportunities that God is presenting before us.........we may overlook them if we only want "our prayer" to be answered.....

grey matter kinda working half capacity on a wet Monday......hhhmmm wonder what is the opportunity here????.......time to sleep?? maybe not.

I am a millionaire!!!!

2007-07-26T11:32:00.000+08:00

Well in rupiah at least......just had a break in Bali for a week....thanks to AirAsia's offer. Never in my life had I had millions in my pocket.....literally......millions.....wwoohhooo.

Was there for 8 days 7 nights.....quite long huh....yeah cos we put in a lot of "free and easy" time....not your usual "tourist cover as much as possible mad rush holiday". Having said that we still managed to cover quite a fair bit actually.

Our trip is highlighted by the red line. Did the south of Kuta/Legian round trip for the 1st 3 days.

Stayed at Legian for 3 nights, so started with short day trips around Legian, Kuta, Nusa Dua, Uluwatu and Jimbaran.

Well did all the touristy thingy.

Legian & Kuta - Beaches, shops and Hard Rock etc.

Nusa Dua - Gorgeous hotels.....check out the pix.

Uluwatu - Kecak dance and sunset.....not it was raining and we were sitting in the rain for the show......well heavy drizzle......kind Japanese grandmothers offered us some cover since it is kinda like a stadium seating so we were sitting on lower level and "hide" under their umbrella. Luckily it stopped after a while and it was kinda cool and windy after that.

Jimbaran - seafood dinner by the beach....unencumbered seaview dinner right on the beach.

Then we did a 2-day trip thingy from Legian to Kintamani to Lovina (stayed 1 night) then move on to Bedugul and stayed at Ubud (3 nights). So technically covered north to south of Bali. But we still miss Tanah Lot and some other spots......maybe next time......

1 - Bali bombing memorial

2 - Kuta beach sunset

3 - Gunung Batur (I think)

4 - Bakso - meehoon soup with horrible fishballs (my take anyway)

5 - Our room in Legian....quite nice, spacious room, aircon, swimming pool view, breakfast delivered to your room all for USD26 nett/night.

6 - Wife's idea of keeping flies out of the drink. I think that is strawberry juice....was quite cheap almost half the price of Cameron and a bit sweeter too.

7 - The "must-eat" babi guling....suckling pig.....yuummmm. Tried a few...3 actually and prices ranges from Rph30,000 - 20,000 - 9,000 depending on location but thye all taste yummyy.

8 & 9 - Kecak dance at Uluwatu.

10 - Sunset in Lovina (north). Stayed there for 1 night.

11 - Superduper fast and luxurious boat......to look for dolphin......all we got was 2.5 hours of sitting in a single-person width boat powered by a kapchai engine....worse still, can't find the dolphin....... :( :( somemore have to pay Rph200,000 for the ride......

12 - That's the scene outside our room at Ubud.....4 ducks walking along the "sawah padi"...a very lovely and charming town.....got a room almost smack in the center of the main street and at the back is "sawah padi" oredi. Stayed in Ubud for 3 nights, was very satisfied with our room.....which we found via walk-in. A steal actually as the bungalow couldn't get customers somehow, so a Rph225,000 was sold to us for Rph175,000 quite a good deal.

13 - Typical scene of Ubud art market........paintings and art pieces everywhere.......literally everywhere....

14 - A Bali version of Lion Dance....well close enuff.....some Barong Dance that we went to.

15 - Rice terrace on the way from Bedugul to Ubud. What a lovely scene.......

Massage......hhhmmm.....did like 4 massages in 8 days......that is quite something.......feel so relaxed and nice.......and the body scrubbing.....man never tried a body scrub before so it was quite painful and geli......and the last massage was pretty interesting.....they used yogurt after the scrub.......hhhmmm felt like just licking it off my arms.....

Now back to the daily grind......

Painfully slow slow......notebook

2007-06-13T18:16:00.000+08:00

In this day and age of super duper computer and fast internet......I have been afflicted with the equivalent of a curse and disease that equals the most horrible of the horrible.

1st my computer has been very very very slow.......every click on a powerpoint/word/excel takes 1 second to process and email systems has been ....."Not Responding" every single time I click on it..........red flag...kena virus........die die......

Did all the standard procedure........virus scan, adware scan bla bla bla......too no avail.

Then I noticed the light of my hard disk keeps blinking and never stops.......ah some program keeps running at the background.......eating my resources......ah ha....task manager should be useful.....

Alas the malware has attacked the task manager and rendered it unaccessible.....so I know I have malicious program running but can't get to them......how painful....almost like having an itch on my nose but can't scratch it......arghhhhhh.

Called the MIS.....came to trouble shoot for half a day.....final verdict......REFORMAT your hard disk.......:( :(.......aiyoh.....that will keep me off at least another day...have to back up my hard disk then reformat and then copy back to hard disk......I have lost 2 days oredi since the attack...looks like I will limp thru this week......hopefully to recover before the week is out.

painful...painful............the only thing not affected is internet access.....so what to do?? blog loh? aiyah.....so here I am writing a medical note on my painful painful episode of computer virus wrecking havoc on my work life........sad huh?.......and office has been limping along as the secretary has a real life medical condition and has been for a week and will only be back next week so most of us also have to double up as office admin/PA/secretary........can it get any worse???

Let's take a step back........breathe in breathe out..........think nice sandy beach.....clear water.......hhhmmmm hope my Redang break turns out as nice as my imagination.

My HP battery died

2007-05-29T17:47:00.000+08:00

More like it went "bloated" as a sign of overcharge my wife said......also confirmed by the sales person. But then I wasn't ready to change a new one......why....mainly because I hate to transfer the numbers to a new phone......and also I am a cheap skate.....yeah that's true the last 2 phones have come free......the earlier Nokia which I gave to wife was a lucky draw price from the Annual Company Dinner. Then this current Samsung was a lucky draw from HSBC.....guess my luck has kinda run out lately.

Am quasi looking for a phone, criteria below:-

Small and light - nothing more than 3 and half inches and prob less than 20 gm??
Colour.
Camera optional.
Long battery talk time - any phone longer than 10 hours?
Long standby time - 10 days?
Price - less than RM800.

Why am I looking....cos the new battery I got is not an original because this model is no more in production and there is no spare parts being produced either......sigh......it is only about 2 years old.....but it must be decades in IT years. So if you can't get me blame the phone......

So cute

2007-05-25T18:11:00.000+08:00

Was on my way to gym yesterday when 3 ladies came in to the lift.....with 3 kids in the shopping trollies.....1 kid in each and 2 of them blissfully in dreammmmy land.....really brought a smile after a long crappy week.....have a great weekend everyone.

I've been tagged??!!

2007-05-03T07:41:00.000+08:00

So it seems......anyway am not going to tag anyone but will instead end the tag here.....6 weird things?? Let's see....

1. I absolutely have to recheck my car doors after switching on the alarm. OCD you would say. I will go round the car making sure I have locked all the doors and also the boot is tightly shut.....so if you see me going round my car everytime I get out of it....don't laugh.....I have since broken 2 car handles.

2. That goes with any locks actually......apartment's door, room, even the padlock at the gym......but it is kinda worse then Leymond Cha cos there were days that I counted to 10??!! Actually also...switches....lights, fans etc....???!!help!!!

3. Certain obsession with certain food.......there are 2 kind of food that I sometimes have uncontrollable urge to eat
......1. The raw fish porridge in Petaling Street....absolutely love it....obsessed?? Before settling down I used to drive down like 5am Sat/Sun to Petaling St and park right in front of the stall and have my weekly "fix" of raw fish porridge. Over the years the "amount" of raw fish kinda increased so much....from 2 small plates to 2 large plates that I get comments like ...."you really like raw fish, ah?"
.......2. HK Chu Cheong Fun, the freshly steamed with prawn/char siu kind not the yong tau fu kind. There is this stall which I have been eating since college days.....when Sunway College was at PJ State...where the nursing college is now. That will be since....1992 when I was doing my Pre-U....kinda lost the stall after it shifted to SS2 "Wei Sek Kai", can't remember when I rediscovered it. Come to think of it both food obsession started about the sametime.

4. What else.....the part about me discovering that I am diabetic.......well the doctor said I should have been in coma but then I asked for permission to go home and pack my things and admitted myself later on......weird huh??!! Well the blood test readings were so bad that the small mobile blood testing machine went thru the roof and doc had to order a lab blood test......

5. I have banned a shop from my list because the owner would not accept my 10 1sen coins for payment. Decided to do what a consumer can do....that is to take my business somewhere else. But was afraid to pay with 1sen coins everywhere just in case I won't have anymore shops to eat in.

6. I have not paid a single credit card yearly subscription.....because everytime the banks want to charge me I just cancelled the card and so far most will entertain me and waive the yearly fees except Citibank which proceeded to cancel my card after waiving for 3 years I think.....

so you have it.....weird? Believe it or not??

Feeling particularly down today

2007-04-20T13:22:00.000+08:00

I feel particularly zodiacally aligned today.......crabby that is. Either the cough mixture is nullling the brain or something. Had this fishball triggered sore throat and cough since last week. Someone must have caught me singing off-key last Sunday.

How it started was......I had a few freshly fried fishball from the pasar malam Thursday the week before. The moment I finished there was this itch feeling in my throat that developed to an irritating throat now. Have not been sleeping well, so I guess that compounded the effect of the cough mixture.

Had this urge to blabber a bit but has no real point to make.

Was equally sad about the front page news........and disgusted with election promises from the Govt for projects and investments approved so fast and acted upon so fast when a by-election is on.....sigh.....sad sad state of Malaysia. Have to wait for a by-election to get some much needed public work done......

Good Friday........

2007-04-06T07:40:00.000+08:00

Coming from a Catholic background....Good Friday ranks right at the top of the "days" as far as days to observe and remember about my faith. Maybe it helps to have a day off in Sabah too. Mom will always remind me to fast on Good Friday.....

Sometimes I do things without really understanding them but in hindsight I came to appreciate the "religious activities" we practice, not for the activities themselves but for the meaning behind the activities. And as a leader once said.......we forget easily.....what more for a Saviour that died 2000 years ago..........It is a sign to remind me of my Saviour's death and the purpose of His death on earth (opcors these is my understanding) no priests or father has explained this to me, at least not in this context....I was just told in cathecism that is what I should do.....go for Good Friday service and perform the "rituals" , which is a far cry compared to what "rituals" are practiced in Phillipines or other "more" Catholic places. We don't nail our hands and legs. We don't do any of those "physical" suffering thing except for the station of the cross "re-enacted" by the priests......which I pity cos most priests in Sabah are kinda old....and having to conduct the 12 station of the cross ( I think it is 12....gosh....can't remember already)....in hot weather (most Catholic Churches are not aircon), overcrowded (usually the crowd size grow like 5 times of normal Sunday service) and also long service (usual Sunday service is about 1 to 1.5 hours, while Good Friday service is like 3 hours - official program but usually you spend like 5 hours in all because you go earlier to get a better seat or to stay in the building instead of out of the building b'cos it is full inside).

So you see the whole Good Friday service really "reminds" me at least.......a small bit of the kind of effort and somberness accorded to the event......which always flies out of the window compared to my current cosiness......aircon church......the only time I spent anything longer than 2 hours in my current Church are for events other than actual church service....not to mention the only other "ritual" we practice are baptism and breaking of bread and drinking of wine once a month.......that also I have sometimes come to use as a passing remark for a long service on Sunday??!! (I know....I am ashamed of myself).

I guess in this day and age of everything instant and convenient and all things are done to satisfy our senses.....aircon.....worship.....I can't imagine my church waiting for 2 hours to kiss the feet of a wooden Jesus on Good Friday......but I can see happy faces of worshippers just having the chance to queue up to do the same in my previous Church. I am quite "disgusted" that the MC has to utter some words or something similar like "I have a tough time to keep you all entertain until the.....XXXXXX/next event comes up"....as if silence and not "doing activities" during a Church service is a mortal sin..................

Well to those who still conducts/practices some kinda "rituals".....think about the significance of the event and the reasons behind the actions......for those who don't practice any of these "rituals"...maybe a story from John Stott ( I have no confirmation if this is true....but anyway) will cause you to think and ponder......"I kneel down to pray because my Saviour deserves it.......or at least the pain in my knee will keep me from falling asleep in the early mornings".

How can the most tragic day of history be called Good Friday???? Why Good?......does it mean Holy???.....

Good Friday everyone.

Little Suggestions to Blogger

2007-03-15T13:21:00.000+08:00

If the Blogger team or Google, since they are now 1 happy family reads this blog (fat chance yeah??). It would be great if they allow user to choose the default language of the blogger pages and instructions cos blogging from foreign land in foreign language is always a risky thing....1 wrong button and there goes your blog entry.

Wonder if you get Arabic templates when you are in Middle East and similar if you blog in India and the Scandinavian?? Anyhow was really blur from work and thot I would do a small piece on the place I am at now.

Wuxi.....come to like this town now....a colleague was saying..."home sweet home" when we came back from Shanghai.....hey noticed I used came back.....theoretically it should only apply to KL or KK......or Sandakan (where I was born) or would it be China....where my ancestors came.....where is the start anyway??!!! am i chasing my own tail.....poor old chipmunk even the grey matter is drying up.

This small town (relative that is) is about 2-2.5 hours east ward of Shanghai has about 4 million people. Most people we come into contact.....the people at the hotel that would be are pretty friendly.....they are quite tolerant to us turning up last minute for breakfast and even cook up some french toast which was on the menu last year but was booted out this year. My 2 colleagues has started bringing their cup noodle down to get the waiters to add boiling water and throw in some bits and pieces of food into it. Talk about insult to the hotel cook man???!! But we just can't help it cos they neer change their menu for the whole year. So their is only that much you can take......But the cook did ask my fren what can they add to the menu......and it made my day when I saw wanton noddle the next couple of days.......well done folks......

Ordered 1 yesterday......it came as "chai min" as in only the noodle but no wanton??!!! Apparently you need to ask them to add wanton to the noodle??!!! You learn new things everyday in a foreign land.

Huh??!!

2007-03-05T22:26:00.000+08:00

You won't believe it....I am now looking at a chinese version of blogger and all the instructions and command is in Chinese......cos I am in Wuxi......again if you remembered my earlier blog....well last August to be precise......back here to follow-up on the project.

It is supposed to be spring but opcors.......supoosed is the word and it never goes according to plan, so here I am freezing my .......rear-end off cos a cold front just developed the very day I arrived. Got in on Sat morning and it decided to drop 10 degrees celsius......so it is now single digit out there.....I think it is like 3 celsius. Will be moving to Shanghai for a conference on Wed & Thur and work and meeting in Shanghai until next Tuesday at least.

okiiee bye.

CNY Break

2007-02-27T18:47:00.000+08:00

Had a great 1 week back at home in KK. Nothing much mainly resting, eating and playing cards with family.....hhmmmm. After being "away" since 1992 I kinda feel like a tourist back in my hometown.

There are a couple of new things at home.....there is Warisan Square which is kinda nice with all the branded shops, 2 hotels (Radisson and Mercure no less) and some other smaller shops...having said that it is still like 50% empty, so in time to come should be quite a nice shopping place and it is just across the road from Center Point.

Jesselton Point.....this is the new attraction (to me at least) by the port/jetty where you hop-on to a speed boat to get to the Tunku Abdul Rahman Park...i.e. the islands about 10 to 20 minutes away. There are restaurants and stalls along the jetty/port and also a futsal stadium there. Quite a nice place I must say.....nice benches facing the sea, a nice jetty to stroll along and enuff lights to keep the anti-khalwat squad out of action.

Atmosphere.....this is the name of the revolving restaurant on the 18th Floor of the Menara Tun Mustapha (previously known as Yayasan Sabah building) the glass column which you won't miss when you go to Sabah. High class contemporarily-decorated restaurant....the price also 5 star restaurant price but quite nice (but didn't have a chance to eat there yet). They also offer yacht and helicopter option to whisk you from downtown jetty to the restaurant. oooohhhh so James Bondyyyyy.

KK Adventure park.....according to the brochure is a 1st of its kind in Sabah. You get some high ropes, flying fox, low ropes, dirt bike and dirt buggie track, reverse bungy etc etc activities along a nice beach.

For those who prefers DIY accommodation aka short term rental while in KK can contact my mom. She is retired and is currently running some short term rental thingy with 3 locations to choose:-

Grace Ville, Sutera Harbour - right opposite Sutera Harbour Resort. It is a duplex condominium, fully furnished, 3 bedrooms with ASTRO minus room service etc etc. Charges around RM300-plus per night depending on number of pax. (Actually don't know the exact price but think is about that) Call if yo need to rent (Cecilia - 012-833 5505).

Marina Court - right next to Center Point and Api-Api Center and next to the sea....right smack downtown....you won't get any closer to town than this.... :) also fully furnished, 2 or 3 bedrooms with ASTRO.

Melinsung Summer Bay - about 45 mins drive from city center. A quiet "holiday resort" ("Holiday Resort" b'cos it is basically a lot of apartments along a nice stretch of beach......fine sand and clean beach.....almost empty except for occupants of the apartments and they aren't that many.....really) with a nice beach, quiet surrounding, public transport available but kinda quiet at night and not much happening activity at night. You will need a car to go to the nearest "nice restaurants". 7-Eleven and some shops are available just outside the entrance to the resort. Fully furnished but no ASTRO.

So there you have it......a chipmunk revisiting his hometown......and for the 1st time the trip to and fro on AirAsia is on time, smooth and pleasant. Except they couldn't careless if we got wet or not......there were no umbrellas when we arrived back in KL and it started to drizzle......but hey KK has a new airport......LCCT Airport to be exact.......well a small little wow slipped my mouth when I arrived....pretty impressive and I hope it is of better quality then Langkawi Airport (I think the same guy built them)???

Eye On Malaysia

2007-02-12T13:17:00.000+08:00

Did the touristy thingy last Sat. Went to Taman Tasik Titiwangsa for the 1st time after being in PJ/KL for almost 15 years since college days. Was quite lucky to get there without much hassle and was extremely lucky to get a parking space near the entrance to park.

Was quite impressive. the queue was not too bad probably waited for about 20 minutes. But the queue control could be improved cos the guard just simply cut off the queue with a divider when 1 line is much slower/longer than the other and you could almost feel the wrath of the person being just excluded by the divider. We were kinda lucky cos the the fill up the gondolas kinda randomly.....cos there was a 1 gondola with 2 adults and 3 kids and they were looking for a couple to fill up the seats....so we kinda "cut" through about 30 people in front to get on the Eye first.

Was not as scary cat as when I was taking the Langkawi cable car or the Ferris Wheel in Disney Land. Actually heart kinda stopped over-pumping by the end of Round 1 (you get 5 rounds for RM15 per adult). Quite a nice view...the usual suspects....KLCC, hotels and the likes and on the other side....parts of Batu Caves area I think...??!! Weather was superb....breezy and not too hot...was there around 6pm. Went round the lake.....very clean I must say. Maybe all done up for the VMY 2007. Walked and surveyed where to park ourselves for the Laser Show, Water Screen Show and Fireworks....(this is chinaman describing the beautifully sounding activities but essentially that is what it is :) )

Water Show....yawn yawn....have seen better and prob because the Lake is kinda huge and there is only like 1 stunt going on at at time so it is kinda like F1....wait for a long time for the jetskis andstunt to arrive at your corner and gone in seconds......then wait some more.......get few seconds of excitement and .....wait some more....you get the drift.......pun intended. That goes for like 30 mins or so......But if anything thye start on time....9pm so at least you don't wait like dungu.....and they do announce a few times regarding the starting time.

Then the Laser Show, Water Screen Show and Fireworks kinda goes in some pretty nice sequence......the Laser Show is kinda good cos the Laser is powerful and the water screen is pretty fine too so you get a pretty clear projection. I can't remember when was the last time I actually went to see fireworks, so it was quite good......all in all quite nice at least for the 2nd half.......10pm sharp.......it ends. Was lucky cos the "lorong" we parked leads us to the main road, so we managed to get out of the area very fast.

Happy New Year

2007-01-03T13:03:00.000+08:00

Happy New Year folks......pray that everyone will have a great year ahead.

cheers

Nice break from office

2006-11-20T07:31:00.000+08:00

Have not blog for awhile.....long while actually....one of those things....once you get off you find it hard to come back...but hopefully it won't be so long till the next one.

1st of all wanted to thank our tall, handsome pilot friend who had gone down south for greener pastures.....not Australia...not so south.....just the "dot" down south. It was great catching up with Eugen who has graciously let us put-up a nite at his place and he even gave up his own room for us...thanks mate. We were enroute to a short cruise Singapore-Penang-Phuket. Nice to know that this brother is as enthusiastic as ever serving the Lord and actually serving more as he is now more in control of his schedule cos he kinda moved up to management level in his company and he basically "work" quite regular hours and has his weekends free.

The cruise was great.....a nice break since a long long time. Great weather...not too sunny just bright enough to go swimming and lazing in the jacuzzi without turning into lobster. Food??? food??? on a cruise well they were great!!! well I have no other comparison but the Super Star Virgo is pretty impressive to me. Exceeded all my expectations.....except for the long queues up and down the ship (taking into acount that there were about 2000 pax on board it is still quite good actually) and the slip up of our bag which got thrown together with another deck's. See the baggage reclaim is not like airport with conveyor belt etc etc. the bags are basically grouped by deck and you just find yours amongst many of your deck according to your room. Our room was deck 9 but 1 bag got lumped together with the deck 11's bags......so it was a frantic panicky......10 minutes search for our bag and we had a 10pm bus to catch too......phew...luckily we found it. Bus trip back was also pretty pleasant as the VIP26 bus we bought got upgraded to a Premier Double Decker Bus complete with individual TV screen and massage chair....hhhhmmmm not the OSIM super duper kind but the car seat "shaking" kind.......quite nice but was sleepy anyway.........got back in KL about 3am.......I missed my bed......

Next day (16 Nov - Thus) ......was on leave and was thinking of getting to office to clear some emails since I have been gone for 3 days.....but somehow didn't get to do it and was really glad.....cos Star had a full picture of the traffic jam caused by a departmental store's member day sales......1 of the hazards of working in Mid Valley.......and school holidays just started.......susahlah cari parking......haaaaiiiiii.

Friday to Sunday - Went for a Leadership course in PD........guess where......yeaa PDGCC again.....some old place, some old food........

Well, while driving back something happened.......it was all over in 3 or 4 seconds.

1. Saw a car in my rear view mirror on the right approaching fast and overtaking me.
2. That car started to skid and the driver over compensated by turning to left and hit the guard rail.
3. That car "flew" across 2 lanes about 100 to 150 meters in front of my car (which has another van in front of my car about 50 meters).
4. The car then landed in the ditch on my left.

It happened so fast that by the time it sank in I had passed the spot and was nearing the toll booth. I did brake my car when the car "flew" across the road but I was kinda blank and didn't stop to help....but I did saw the driver (guy) moving an dno blood and no smoke from the car.....so I jsut informed the toll collector about it when I passed the toll booth.

A split second and any earlier it would have hit the van in front of me and I will have 2 cars right in front of me to avoid.......thanks God for his journey mercy.........

Monday.......shoulder ache....sign of not enuff exercise......becos of the usual stuff you do in a camp.....jungle trekking, raft building and rowing etc etc.....sign of old age too.......so sad :(

till next time.......have a great week ahead....for those with kids.......it must be much more busier than normal......ciao

Sigh.......

2006-10-12T18:07:00.000+08:00

Fasting month used to be very fun while I was in my ex company. We could actually leave by 4.30pm. A bunch of colleague used to go for dinner or movie and even the odd game of cards because of the early time off.

This time round it is a different story. I have been swamped with work at my new place.....it starts to get me thinking did I bite off more than I can chew. I don't seem to enjoy it like I used to. Maybe it is time to consider my options.....hhmmmm.

Maybe I am just tired......have not had decent rest for awhile. Can't remember when was the last weekend I had some quiet time at home.

Last week??.....was away for an overnight retreat for Alpha course.

The week before??....was in Shanghai.

The week before before??.....can't remember???? Ah my grey matter is dying......shucks there wasn't much to start with....arrrrrggghhhhh.

The retreat was great. And thanks to the organisers (if you read my blog).

Merdeka

2006-08-31T00:03:00.000+08:00

It is exactly 12 midnight......31 August 2006. Happy Merdeka to all. I am now in Shanghai...feels kinda weird to spend Merdeka in Shanghai.....not that I am particularly patriotic but just somehow feels more reflective tonite.

Been in China for a while this trip since 24 August and will probably be here until 11 Sep. Will be heading back to Wuxi on 1 Sep for work. It rained for half a day today....gloomy gloomy......ah it is the second chinese Valentine for the year b'cos there are 2 July/7th Month this year (heard it over radio whil ein the cab).

Had dinner with bro-in-law and GF and also met up with his fren, George (I think that's his name...poor me...I am bad with names....). Went for coffee......Coffee Bean....still thinks it is the best coffee...at least to me. Yeah Coffee Bean in Shanghai opcors it is no where near as many CB as Starbucks as it is the case most part of the world except Malaysia I think.

Felt like rambling a bit since I couldn't really sleep. Felt like I need to do something on this historic moment of Merdeka. What does Merdeka mean to me??

1. Flags.....so 1 in Tesco and was tempted to buy......but didn't.
2. Holiday.....if I was at home it would have been a sleep in day.
3. Hmmmmmm.....gosh shouldn't I be ashamed of myself??

Life must have been so good that the meaning of Merdeka is lost??? Even the heart tugging ads were not so prominent (or is it that I haven't been watching TV??) I especially remembered last years Petronas ad (I think it is Petronas) where my aunt - wife side appeared in it. The whole family had quite a good laugh.....

Guess enough for now from a post-Merdeka baby who couldn't find much significance of Merdeka to him except to lament about life is bad, things aren't good enough, bla bla bla.....time to give thanks to all that I have.....cheers and have a great rest for the KL folks.....more shopping tomorrow??? Am quite sure a lot of folks are ot of town since 1 day leave on Friday would give you a 4-day weekend. Happy holidays everyone.

cheers......... :):):):):)

Mid Yerrrrrrrr???!!!!

2006-06-28T08:05:00.000+08:00

Aiyoh.......end of June oredi??? Time flies when you are having fun???? not really, it has been all a blur with work work and work lately. Time to take stock of what happened for the last 6 months???

Well... moved office to Mid Valley in March.....well apart from walking over to buy lunch didn't even get to shop during the last sale period?? Somehow I realised I am getting more and more forgetful and less and less organised....must be loosing grey matter.

Increasing interest to know my roots?? Somehow I get asked quite a lot when in China, where am I from? which kampung I am from? Will have to talk to mom to get the exact kampung grandfather is from hhhmmmm. Am really a banana chinese....tried to impress my counterparts with my minimum grasp of mandarin but won't get beyond the 3 reply when I have to use English words etc and hand gestures.....

Started having mandarin class......but have not made much progess due to frequent interruptions.

So let's hope the 2nd half will be much better.
cheeerrrrsss and have a great 2nd half of 2006........... :) :)

UH in the dark??

2006-05-19T17:55:00.000+08:00

Can you believe it that UH was pitch dark for 15 minutes? That was what happened while I was there for check-up. Not too sure if the whole hospital was out of power but it was pitch dark at the specialists clinic. Needless to say it was total chaos at the payment counter.

The only bottle neck is payment counter....yeah there is only 1 but there are like 15 specialists and the consultation is relatively fast.

Almost 3 months now

2006-05-16T17:56:00.000+08:00

I have been in the new office for almost 3 months now. And I have picked up a lunch routine that seems more and more unbreakable. Kinda got into a routine of buying salad and bread from Carrefour and have sandwich for lunch. Actually I only like 2 of the salad - chicken vegetable and egg salad. I think I have been having them on average of 50% of the time when I am in office around lunj time. I am pretty much a creature of habit..... :)

Have been rather busy lately, can't seem to find time to blog huh?!

Last few weeks has been rather busy with sister and brother. Bro just came back in March and was in and out of KL etc interviewing and finally started work this week in Singapore. Sister just had her graduation ceremony so parents were here a few weeks back. Only last weekend I had time to sit around my apartment on a Saturday morning to ponder for a while.....when was the last time I sat quietly alone at home.

Well as a typical Malaysian...holidays are meant to be filled with activities to maximise the holiday.....so Wesak Day was jam packed with a trip down to Melaka.....the usual tourist round...chicken rice ball, satay celup and walking and eating along Jonker Street. Hmmmm yummy yummy.....next stop Seremban......aiyoh don't know when is the next holiday. Talking of which I have not taken any leave this year?? The hospital episode makes it looks like I have not been productive at work but I have not rested for quite a while......time to go for a short break.

Till next time ciao.....

Fusarium Keratitis

2006-04-17T13:17:00.000+08:00

Yup that is the nasty little fungal infection that landed me in Tun Hussein Eye hospital for 16 days......16 long boring days.......hmmmm but could certainly used the good rest....wait...what good rest??!!....every hour the nurse will nudge me and "open" my eyes for me to put eye drops.....2 weeks of interrupted sleep.......that is torture in some part of the world.

But am really glad that it didn't wreck too much damage prob 5% according to doc. Well it all started prob due to a cut to my cornea from a strong gust of wind....not sure if I am the 1st Malaysian victim of the Beijing sandstorm (it came out in the news a lot over the last few days). There was a sharp pain and my mistake was probably using tap water to rinse etc. The fungi must have taken hold then. So the rest is a long sob story.......but thanks to bro and sis who came and prayed, it made my days and nights more bearable....opcors have to thank wife who cook and boil nice nice soup too and also for the occasional "home leave" to catch a bite or two of non-halal meat......yummyyyy they never tasted so good until you go a few days without them.....yummm.

But thnak God all is over now....almost as still need to wait 1 to 2 weeks for the wound to settle and heal completely before I can make a new pair of specs to correct the astigmatism. Hopefully no damage to the eyesight other than this.

Okie dokie will have to go and catch up on my work..............

Blogging from Diao Yu Tai

2006-03-26T22:37:00.000+08:00

I am now in the state guest house......of China. Putin was here last week to launch the Visit Russia Year. Nice place, great lakes and landscaping.....but crazy security. Each of us have an entry pass.....which hotel needs an entry pass for its customers??!!

Apparently only connected people gets to stay here, so I was told. But am now falling sick....I think a flu is coming my way....miss my bed so much...have been here for about a week now...should be going home Wednesday.

It has been around 5 degree celcius here. Midnight that is.....went out for McD......geeeze nearly froze to death.....that is because me only brought a thin wind-breaker.....okie going off line now......bye bye...

Major stress

2006-03-20T19:30:00.000+08:00

Am panicking big time......pimples popping all over my nose area, cos I am arranging a company delegation to China. Thousand and 1 thing to sort out....and as always Murphy Law regins supreme......the travel agent left out 1 airline ticket...so I am helplessly waiting here.....hence this blog to basically take my mind of the agony of counting minutes......

Leaving by 0030 tomorrow morning, supposed to be at airport at 9.30pm for group check-in looks like will be rushing mad home and mad to the airport with 6 boxes of materials to go with 4 of us......cheeze ok now....back to panicking........ :( :(((((((((

My poor old travelling bag

2006-03-08T08:20:00.000+08:00

My poor old travelling bag had chipped 1 zip handle (dunno what's the proper term for it) when wife used it the last time. It could still be used i.e. locked with the zip handle from the "extension" zip and the main compartment zip.

But something really funny happened while in India.....when I reached Chennai, the zip handle were cut...both of them and placed next to my bag on the baggage carousel??? I was thinking what is this?? Then a fellow Mlaaysian delegate mentioned that in flights to US they would open bags to check.....and if your locks are somehow not able to be open discreetly by airline/security personnel they will just cut it or damaged your lock??!! Was tired and late and didn't want to hold up the whoel delegation so I didn't complain or anything.....wonder if anyone has the same experience. Nothing was missing and it doesn't looked like the bag was ransacked. and the fact that the zip handle is placed next to my bag lends some truth to it??!! But thot the airline/security should inform passengers so a least I can unlock the thing......now my poor old bag has no zip handle, so it was quite a chore unpacking my luggage.

Luckily wife found this shop that does bag repair in KL....quite reasonable too RM 18 for all the zips i.e. 2 for a 20/24 inch bag, can't remember the size. Hopefully it will be like new after the repair.

Vegetarian or vegetarian??

2006-03-06T13:40:00.000+08:00

Huh??!! That was exactly what the air stewardess asked me when I was on Indian Airline enroute to India. She meant vegetarian - Indian or Continental style. From then on I knew I am in for a week of vegetarian food.....I was mentally prepared for 1 week of curry but VEGETARIAN??!!

Well, looks like whole of India are vegetarian, on the street, in the restaurant....everywhere there are stalls with loads of vegetable cooking.....

Some shocks from India...it looks like a huge construction site, much like KL was 10/15 years back. Everywhere there is a highway or building coming up. Any walls are potential sites for answering natures' call.....the small one opcors but yeah by the roadside, next to highway...everywhere??!! Drivers drive with 1 hand on steering wheel and 1 hand on car horn......endless honking......slow down honk, change lane honk, pedestrian crossing honk....everything also honk??!! Honking capital of the world???

What a Sunday?!...Mon and Tues too??!!

2006-02-08T13:28:00.000+08:00

Sunday was such a jam-pack day.

Started at 7.45 am at church, barely able to keep my eyes open. Yeah u guessed it, projector duty again and then rush off to visit a friend in PJ then to another fren in Cheras for CNY. Left about 4.30pm to pick up sis from KLIA.......aaarrggghhhh they missed her bag again....this is the 2nd time, the last was AirAsia I think 2 years back. So was at airport until like 6pm. So tired by the time I reached home.

Monday - aarrgghhh still tired from Sunday, oh yah and the luggage came back by 12 midnite the MAS agent actually kept their promise to deliver by end of the day....my sis waited for it, I tried to get an early nite but alas......the fireworks and mercun kept me awake until like 1 am I think......panda eyes...panda eyes.......zombie for the day.

Tuesday - was up early again, going down to JB for a day.....well by now you should have heard the news that MAS check-in system was down.......so the crowd was huge and needless to say a lot of tempers flared and red-faced passengers and workers around the whole airport. Flight delayed 1 hour.....arrrgghhh. Then delayed again on the way back......reached KLIA at 8.30pm instead of 7.30pm......wow parking was RM 31 bucks.....still beats taxi which will cost me RM 120 return.

Wednesday......so far so good......

All in 1 post

2006-02-03T07:53:00.000+08:00

Let's see where shall I start???

Somehow I lost track of time most days....**hint hint**

Been busy before CNY, trying to rush off documents and papers before the long break. Went to Butterworth for CNY...got stuck in a crawl heading north, actually started crawl just after Sg Buloh and didn't move past 20km/h until after Rawang I think. All in all took us 6 hours to reach Butterworth, luckily not island...it will prob take another 2 hours to get to the island. Food....food and more food.....it has been one feast to another for days since reunion dinner. Been very cautious with food since a terrible bout of food poisoning just days before CNY.

Did the usual holiday routine...watched Fearless after queing twice since I was 3 minutes early before they would release the phone booking tickets.

Trip back to KL was much better, even managed to squeeze a detour to Ipoh and have coffee with an ex-MBA mate. Made good time, reached home before dark. Decided to rest the stomach after days of stuffing my face.....alas got hungry late at nite and wife promptly prohibited my attempt to have supper....got a glass of psyllium husk instead...burp... went to bed unsatisfied... :( :(

Back at work oredi.....well at least it will be the shortest week of all......1-day week...yeeeehhhaaaa.

Trip back home

2006-01-20T07:54:00.000+08:00

Went home for a few days last week. For those who don't know I am from the Land Below The Wind. Was a nice break and since I have not been back for the whole of 2005 due to my exams etc, it was a long overdue trip.

So what did I do? hhmmm let's see, eat eat and eat as usual.....stew sotong Ipoh style, actually was supposed to head for the stew sotong Sabah style (in dark soya sauce but saw this Ipoh style - i.e. in satay sauce - quite nice), beef noodle and fish cake porridge and of course plenty of fish at every meal.

Of all things, bumped into Andrew...well more like saw him leaving a carpark with his friends in Gaya Street, a Sunday morning equivalent of Pasar Malam along the main street of KK.

Nothing much, laze around the house and sorted out my FDC collection.....never realised I have them for 20 plus years now..... I think the 1st FDC was in 1984.....that would be Primary 4....gosh so old oredi. POS Malaysia sure issues a lot of stamps a year. I have always bought FDC when I can overseas too.

1st anniversary of blogging

2006-01-05T17:59:00.000+08:00

4 January 2005 I started blogging.....it started out as a place to talk crap and to think aloud (but very much intended to be secretive and anonymous), somehow around the same time some of my frens were also beginning to talk about blogging etc etc, which sid eis user frenly, which site is better.

So that is how it started, then some how my cover was blown so I need to be careful....or more like be responsible for what I write just in case.....So I secretly harbour the feeling to start another site where I can be totally reckless and irresponsible.....hhmmm??!!

So I realised some of my stuff will be stuck in the internet space for some funny reasons.....I have people searching for Yau Kee bread chicken and reached my site, I have people searching for road blocks and reached my site and many other funny searches.

It has now been part of my routine to churn out some ramblings and saliva for no apparent reason other than well.....for fun actually.

So to all my fellow bloggers.....many more fun updates for the coming year....cheersssssss

I should have known better

2006-01-03T08:18:00.000+08:00

Well now I have a new look, but I have to retype all my links and titles etc since they don't automatically copy to the new template....aaarrggghhh.

Have a great start to the year!!!.....engine kinda rusty after a long weekend break.....

cheers.....2006

Bye bye 2005

2005-12-30T13:34:00.000+08:00

In a few hours we shall end the working year of 2005. It has been a good year. As I recall the year, these are the events that pop up in random order.....

1. Exams.....it was a decision that took like 2 days to decide b'cos a dear brother is embarking on his MBA, so I followed suit (for the fellowship/companion of friends in "suffering"). I am glad that it is all over now. It the midst of it all, I used up all my annual leaves, which explains why I am stuck in office over the Christmas - New Year period.

2. Trip to Xian, was really enjoyable and nice.

3. what else?? CCF Camp, a song which still stuck in my head - Find Us Faithful

FIND US FAITHFUL

We’re pilgrims on the journey of the narrow road
And those who’ve gone before us line the way
Cheering on the faithful, encouraging the weary
Their lives a stirring testament to God’s sustaining grace

Surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses
Let us run the race not only for the prize
But as those who’ve gone before us, let us leave to those behind us
The heritage of faithfulness passed on through godly lives

Chorus:
Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful
May the fire of our devotion light their way
May the footprints that we leave, lead them to believe
And the lives we live inspire them to obey
Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful

After all our hopes and dreams have come and gone
And our children sift through all we’ve left behind
May the clues that they discover, and the memories they uncover
Become the light that leads them to the road we each must find

So.........Happy New Year to all......!!!!

Pimplometer....

2005-12-23T08:21:00.000+08:00

Over the years my body has developed a pretty reliable way of measuring and showing me the stress level I am in. By the number of pimples on my face and on my scalp.....

Pimples on face :)
1 to 2 - More irritated then stressful (a bit more then annoyed).
2 to 4 - Ok now we are talking some stress.
4 to 6 - Now some destress is needed....movies, walk, just drive around aimlessly.
More than 6 - Ok system begins to shut down.....whatever you say is just noise to me :) :)

Well just in case you picture me as a young pimply face teenager (which I left not THAT long ago), I have been blessed with pretty manageable pimples (thanks to some VERY....I mean VERY bitter.....chinese medicine, which lingers on your tongue for like 2 days and we have to have a separate pot to cook it, cos it will spoil other food because of the bitter tasteeven after washing and soaking the pot overnight). So most of my pimples are only on the surface which I can squeeze and leave almost no mark.

Pimples on scalp :(
These are the painful ones.....worst of all they will soon be "exposed" to all to see, at the rate I am going give it maybe a couple more years.....hey I am not loosing hair I am gaining face!!!!

1 pimple - Ok stress is on.
2 or more - Major stresssssssssssss.

Guess what was my level for cantata nite?

4 on the face and 1 on the scalp.....arrrrrggghhhhhhh

Sure no prob.....ooops

2005-12-22T08:10:00.000+08:00

Those few words summarise what I have gotten myself into this Christmas. It all began with a nice soothing voice over the handphone...."Can you help out on projector for the Cantata next Friday?" That's like 1 week ago. So it was like reflex action that I mumbled something like ..."sure no prob..."

Then Tues nite it dawn on me...what??!! so many diff programs?? Skit, children choir, 2 videos, combinations of camera & PC presentations, main choir....and guess who needs to control all the switching....me??!! Aiyoh......such a "complex" production and thanks to CH there are more and more gadgets on the table.....let's see what a LCD operator has to deal with on a Sunday?

1. 3 projectors to control.
2. The usual worship and sermon stuff - powerpoint for songs and sermons and videos.
3. Wireless Instant Messaging (that explains the wireless access point sitting prettily on the edge of the table). (Luckily CH is not insisting that we use this). Already there are too many "Windows" to manage on the PC.
4. Switching from PC to camera to PC etc.
5. So depending on the complexity of the session - one will be frantically clicking and pounding keyboards etc.

So you see, to date this is probably the most complex session that I have to deal with.....some how friends keep telling me I always get the best training......get thrown at the deep end from the start.

My sessions are always full of interesting training - exceptionally more cars need to repark, last minute videos to play, last minute presentations, last minute coordination with story telling and have to click precisely at certain parts, video won't work (no matter what I do - short of acting out the clip myself), change in software and presentation mode etc etc. And now this??!!

Well I thought I will get a relatively stress free Christmas....looks like not really.

But hey then again it is Christmas.....the best time of the year.....maybe I should be thankful that I could celebrate it, all because someone came 2,000 years ago.

So consider this an open invitation to all and join us at FBC Pantai, 8pm, 23 Friday 2005 for a night of music presented by a 70-strong choir, skit and adorable children choir too.

See you there..... :) :) :)

1 week anniversary

2005-12-19T13:14:00.000+08:00

How lame?? Well that says it all, nothing much has happened except that I am now in a new company but still within the same group.
Been busy settling in and remembering new faces and names....gosh I am really hopeless at this.

So what's my schedule like for Christmas?? Let's see....

23 Dec - Christmas Cantata at my church, consider this an open invitation for anyone reading this. Will be doing the projector.
24 Dec.....hhmmm I think there is a party somewhere (have to reconfirm with wife).
25 Dec - yeah Christmas day......I think there is a BBQ at nite.
26 Dec - catch up on sleep......
27 till new year..... :( :( work?! what to do, I have finished up all my leave on exams this year so have to start accumulating my leaves for next year.

2006......gosh how time flies.......this will mark the 10th Anniversary of my departure from the Land of Hobbit.......wonder when will I make a trip back there :) :) if not for expensive airfare and high exchange rate.....it used to be RM 1.30 to NZD 1 when I first step on the Land of Hobbit...now Skull Island too I heard/read somewhere.

ASEAN Summit - Road Closure

2005-12-08T13:09:00.000+08:00

Got this from a colleague (shld be quite accurate, but don't hold me responsible :))

11th Asean Summit ( 11th ~ 14th Dec 05 )
In conjunction with the 11th Asian Summit that will be held in Kuala Lumpur from the 8th till the 14th, Polis DiRaja Malaysia confirms that dress rehearsals will be held on the 5th and 6th of Dec 05 before the actual event from 11th ~14th Dec 05.

Please refer to the following table to view the timing for the affected road closures in stages:-

5th Dec 05 7:30pm - 9:00pm
6th Dec 05 3:00pm - 5:00pm
11th Dec 05 7:30pm - 9:00pm
12th Dec 05 8:00pm - 10:00pm
13rd Dec 05 8:00am - 12:00 noon
14th Dec 05 8:00am - 12:00noon

1. The intersection of Jln Bukit Bintang and Jln Imbi Traffic from Jln Tun Razak to Bukit Bintang will be diverted to Jln Imbi.

2.The intersection of Jln Bukit Bintang and Jln Raja Chulan. Traffic from Jln Raja Chulan will be diverted towards the Bukit Bintang and Tun Razak Intersection.

3. The intersection of Bukit Bintang and Sultan Ismail.

4. The intersection of Raja Chulan and Sultan Ismail. Traffic from the KL Tower to Jln Tun Perak will be diverted towards the Jln Puncak and Jln P.Ramlee Intersecton.

5. The intersection of Jln Raja Chulan and P. Ramlee. Traffic along the bus lane and teksi lane will be diverted towards Jln Sultan Ismail.

6. The intersection of Jln Puncak and Jln P. Ramlee. Traffic from KL Tower to Jln P.Ramlee and Jln Sultan Ismail will be diverted to Jln Raja Chulan.

7. The Intersection of Lorong P. Ramlee and Jln P. Ramlee, traffic will be diverted to Jln Raja Chulan.

8. The intersection of Jln Sultan Ismail and Jln Ampang. Traffic from Jln Raja Abdullah to Jln P. Ramlee will be diverted to Jln Ampang. While traffic from Jln Ampang and Dang Wangi will be diverted to Jln Raja Abdullah.

9. The intersection of Lorong Kuda and Jln Stonor. Traffic is diverted to the KLCC Parking and Jln Medan Kuda.

10. The intersection of Medan Kuda and Jln Binjai. Traffic will be diverted to Jln Medan Kuda and Jln Tun Razak.

11. The Ampang and Jln Tun Razak intersection. Traffic from KLCC will be diverted to Jln Tun Razak while traffic from Jln Tun Razak will be diverted to Jln Ampang and then to Jln Tun Razak.

12. The Ampang and Yap Kwan Seng Intersection. Traffic from Jln Yap Kwan Seng will be diverted to Jln Ampang while traffic from Rennaaisance via Jln Ampang will be diverted to Jln Yap Kwan Seng and Jln Ampang.

13. The Kia Peng and Raja Chulan Intersection. Traffic will be diverted to Jln Perak.

14. The exit from the KL - Ampang Elevated Highway to Jln Ampang. Traffic will be diverted straight to Wisma Denmark.

15. The intersection of Sultan Ismail and Jln Raja Abdullah. Traffic from Jln Dang Wangi to Jln Sultan Ismail will be diverted to Jln Yap Ah Shak, while traffic from Jln Raja Alang to Jln Sultan Ismail will be diverted to Jln Ampang.

16. And finally traffic from Jln Sultan Ismail to Jln Tuanku Abdul Rahman will be diverted to Jln Raja Abdullah and Jln Dang Wangi.

The following roads will be completely closed to traffic during this event:

1. The intersection of Jln P.Ramlee and Lorong Perak.

2. The intersection of Jln P.Ramlee and Jln Perak

3. The intersection of Jln P.Ramlee and Jln Pinang.

4. The intersection of KLCC and Jln Pinang at the traffic lights.

5. from Jln Perak to Jln Pinang near Wisma UOA.

6. Jln Changkat Kia Peng and Jln Kia Peng

7. The intersection of Jln Stonor and Jln Kia Peng

8. The intersection of Persiaran Stonor and Jln Stonor.

9. The Intersection of Jln Stonor and Exxon Mobil.
10.KLCC exit and Jln Ampang from Nikko Hotel.

Scams, scams and more scams

2005-12-06T12:45:00.000+08:00

Some how I dunno why I always get targeted for scams....maybe I look stupid and easy target???

Let's see how many times:-

1. Mines Shopping center - 1 of the unknown electrical shop.
2. Puchong - 1 Japan-sounding company.
3. LRT - Taman Jaya.
4. HSBC - Puchong, outside the bank but they have been very active there for past 1 or 2 months.

Modus Operandi
Step 1 - Approach you and mention either of these:-

1. Congrats you are our lucky draw participant.
2. You have been selected for a survey.
3. We are doing a market research for a company.

Step 2 - Lucky draw ticket, 1 of these:-

1. Scrap and win ticket.
2. Perforatted letter like those you get for your PIN number from the bank.
3. Lucky draw ticket from a box or something.

Step 3 - The setup, 1 of these:-

1. 2 or more accomplice will do the "Anugerah Pelakon Terbaik" attempt to look surprise when you "get" a lucky draw price. Let's see what have I got before - fridge, home theatre systems, microwave, house, TV, Perdana and air-con.....
2. The 1st guy will look puzzled at your ticket and pretend to ask a "senior" or " manager" and they will tell you, this is the 1st time such grand prize has been picked by people.

Step 4 - The big bait, 1 of these:-

1. You have to buy up to a few thousand RM to be in the running for the grand price.
2. You have to purchase a few thousand RM to "claim" the lucky draw.
3. You have to follow them back to their office in order to do some paper work. (LRT & HSBC)

That's when I scoot off.....the moment they mention RM or need to pay.....my chinaman instinct kicks in and my kiasuism goes into overdrive. There was once where they threathen me that I have to pay for something because I have scratched the card or something and I say I will check with the police and Kementerian Hal Ehwal Pengguna and they just let me off.

So now I always ask wifey, wanna see some actor wannabe at work whenever we come across such scams.

cheers - chips

Hermit in the making??

2005-12-01T08:10:00.000+08:00

Pretty soon I shall be turning into self-imposed hermit.....mit....mit....mit.

Some of u probably remember my 1 sen incident, well this time round to my horror even my 50 sen coins are rejected.......both my 2 gloriously shining 2005 edition of Bank Negara issued legal tender, so I thought until I was told by a sales person by the name of Jerry (think I got that right?? who works around the 8pm shift in BTS - GSC), according to him and also his colleagues who were working at the same time, it is management's direction that no coins are to be collected.

If my 1 sen resolution stays.....I will have to blacklist GSC from my visit.....thus you see....voting with my legs and taking my business somewhere else is really all a small time consumer like me has against such great practices of large corporations??!! What more from the last 1 sen episode I did call Bank Negara's customer service / hotline and was told there is nothing they could do in that sense (wonder if this is the "official" stand or response from Bank Negara - our custodian of financial industry and 1 of the most powerful institutions??)...imagine the response....."we can't do anything lah with the pau shop....may be you can call the Hal Ehwal Pengguna or Consumer Association to complain or just take your business to another shop."

Well I always wonder am I just making a mountain out of a molehill or am I just nuts to get angry over these stuff??

Sigh then again......what can a small kuchi rat do??.....fatchipmunk....is still a chipmunk huh??!! better go burrow more holes in the ground........cheers Friday round the corner........

Beware of the last turn

2005-11-28T08:05:00.000+08:00

You know the advice, beware of the last turn you may just trip.....Well that's almost what happened during my last "Torture Week". Got so lazy to study and prepare for exams that most nites, I was snoring away by 11pm. Previous Torture Weeks, I was diligently typing away and doing powerpoint presentations, almost being accused of being a perfectionist.

This time round.....almost couldn't careless.....did enough to pass I hope (fingers cross).

Well at least I had something to look forward at the end of week i.e. after the exams....Snow Wolf Lake Musical...........imagine a caveman looking forward to musical play??

Was impressed with the stage setting and the whole show was really enjoyable......minus the mandarin part.......but unless one is mentally challenged and visually challenged....it should not be THAT hard to figure out the plot etc......and it helps too to get such nice seats. Opcors wife was there to interpret the critical parts and also the scrolling words on both sides of the stage. Thanks to a colleague we got the 1st row just after the VVIP area......too poor to pay for it, so it was some kind of "sedekah", was barely 20 feet away from the stage.... :) :)

Sunday had to rush to Kampar for wife's ex-collegemate's wedding...more like "picking up the bride"....the usual games etc before successfully picking her up. After lunch, bought the famous Yau Kee Bread Chicken.......chicken in bread.....errr..whatever you know what I mean?

Back in KL by 6pm.......straight to my pillow......oh how I miss you....zzzzzzzzzzzz

Oh yah the.....the chicken in bread was nice......yummmyyyy......woke up just for that...and back to more zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

What to blog??

2005-11-14T14:00:00.000+08:00

It is a clear sign of inactivity when you need to ask this question. Well let's see....

Weekend was ok, nothing much, mom was in town for meeting and off this morning.

Work is kinda ok.....

Studies....ok progressing snail pace.....and on to my last leg.....exams on 26 Nov.....haha it would be nice not to worry about exams and books again for a while......that is until....if......not.....if I ever want to consider getting Permanent head Damage.....hhmmmm??

Just called SG and "Little Karen" is safely in the arms of the proud parents oredi.......Little Karen cos they haven't decided on the name yet....congrats SG & Karen.

Ok my company's song just came up (that means it is 2pm time to start work)

bye bye..... :)

Web designer I am NOT.... :)

2005-11-08T13:25:00.000+08:00

Quite a few friends have asked me where did I get the pictures for the Sunday worship. There were confusion over what I do for a living too, some thot I was a website designer. Thot I would share some regular sites where I usually hunt for them:-

Otherwise Google is pretty handy, search on the image tab and you usually get pretty nice pix.

And drawing from last week's sermon....I have no credentials to claim to be a web designer.....I am only marginally competent with PowerPoint and "copy+paste".....oh yah....and the right click "save picture as".

So now that the cat is out of the bag, maybe more volunteers will come forward and not be intimidated by the work or preparation needed for the slides.

cheerios..... :)

Rubik's Cube & Rumah Hope

2005-10-31T13:50:00.000+08:00

Had a trip down memory lane last Fri/Sat...SG bought some Rubik's Cube to bring to Rumah Hope. This will be the 2nd time our group is visiting Rumah Hope. To most of us old folks....it is a trip down memory lane playing with the cube (I still can't do the 6 sides, despite SG patiently explaining to me, I shall buy another and practice at home). I suspect to the children in Rumah Hope, it probably is a new toy to them since I haven't seen it being on sale for a long long time.

A while back I discovered some being sold in a small bookshop in Giant Kelana Jaya, so I bought 1 for RM 3.50 I think....opcors China mari....and there are lessons to learn here, cos SG was doing more repair work then actually teaching the kids on how to solve the cube on Sat. As the saying goes, cheap things aren't good, good things aren't cheap....so SG had his hands full "repairing" broken up cubes....

The kids looked genuinely thrilled trying to solve it. We had a great time there and cheah cheah Lee San and cheah cheah Hui Mei were really good with the songs. Arnold's group was there too and the kids had a great time getting him to draw Spiderman and Batman for their bookmarks. Mee Mee did a great job teaching and doing arts and craft with the kids....bookmarks, wallet cards and name cards.....they had great fun. SG & Dominic were guitar teachers for a day.

Back to the cube.....I always envied my brother who could do the 6-face cube and also the triangular 4-face what do u call it.......tricube....triube.....whatever.....in no time. Seriously I shall buy 1.....oh that's because the 1 I bought fell apart and not being an engineer by training and also the bulb was kinda dim in the brain....I just threw it away....not knowing it could be pieced back (again thanks to SG.....hahaha).

Holiday....yeah....yeah....

2005-10-28T13:12:00.000+08:00

Well my company is requesting us to go on leave on 2 Nov, so I will have a 1-day week next week. Normally tht would mean planning for a trip somewhere, but not this time since I have to finish my last semester in Nov & Dec, so I have to stay home to finish off my research paper and read up on my last 2 subjects... :( :( :(

Come to think of it.....end of year is upon us again.....time of the year where much reflection and grey matter is put into use...........from the planning of what to do over Christmas and New Year to what to do next year?? 2006 hhmmmm.

Time to put on my thinking cap again.......

Can I try??

2005-10-25T08:19:00.000+08:00

Did a "Can I try?" at the tax office recently.

What did I do? Well I wanted a statement that shows I have no outstanding tax but the lady at the counter says she can't print b'cos the program doesn't have such function. Not wanting to take no for an answer I asked and pestered her for awhile and she graciously let me look at the screen etc and I thot well if I can't get a printout at least get a screen capture print. In case my term seems like some high tech blabber to you, it isn't.......just press Ctrl+Prnt Scrn and paste it on MS Word/Notepad and you will get the screen shot. Thanks to windows based stuff.....at least I can do a screen capture and get the info I need on print.....even if it is not "official" but at least I have some backup just in case I need to show that I have done my part to get an update.

This reminds me of another incident a few years back when the doom of Y2K was upon us. Went to a bank to do some transaction and they just had an upgrade to a windows based system. When the girl clicked.....she was a bit confused.....she can't find the button to click next.....hhhmmm thinking to myself what's wrong after a couple of seconds. Then she called her supervisor who was equally blur.....so I kinda strained my neck to see on the screen and noticed the window has opened kinda half way across the screen, so the button that was supposed to show was out of the screen range i.e. "hilang" as the bank teller puts it...so I said "Just pull the window up and you will see the button". Both looked at me as if I was from Mars or something....then I kinda reached over the counter while asking "Can I try?". So I proceeded to click and pull the window up.....and both of them looked at me as if I was David Copperfield. Then the supervisor asked me if I work in a bank??!!

Well well.....don't ask me which bank.......

Isaiah 49:11

2005-10-24T08:20:00.000+08:00

I will turn all my mountains into roads.

Whenever I face difficult times, God has a way of speaking to me. This verse appears today on my daily calendar. I always have difficulty reconciling that God will make my obstacles serve His purposes. Guess maybe I am too engross in my own problems that it just grew larger and larger.

We all have our own struggles, let us all look upwards for support.

cheers and have a great week ahead.

....so tired....

2005-10-17T08:25:00.000+08:00

Went through 1 of those busy weekend thingy.....non-stop from Friday.....Fri nite went up KLIA twice to pick up mom and wife....yeah 2 different flights and 2 hours in between.

Sat went to Cameron Highlands, took the new road from Simpang Pulai, slightly further I think, but definitely easier to drive - wider and less winding, no need the walkie-talkie to overtake safely. Was drizzling Sat afternoon but stopped at nite, so we could go to the pasar malam which had moved a bit further up from the "square" in Brinchang towards the army camp/bomba quarters. Guess what?? there is a Secret Recipe right on the main road opposite the square. opcors steamboat dinner.....using charcoal and had tonnes of organic vege too and opcors the meat, fishballs etc etc, very nice, just opposite Hotel Casa Passadena, where we stayed.

Sun morning was raining again......didn't stop until like 11am. Well, did the usual thingy....Kea Farm for strawberries, flowers and fruits, Rose Garden and Strawberry Farm and went off about 2pm and headed to Bidor for duck noodles.....and mom bought like 20 packets of "little chicks biscuits".

Woke up at 5.30am to send mom to KLIA.....so I am very sleepy now.... :(

Ah....ha

2005-10-14T13:24:00.000+08:00

After reading CYP's master piece a bulb kinda popped up.....I have been using the caveman to describe a lot of actions/things that a woman will roll her eyes and scratch her head wondering why a guy did it/said it/etc.

Examples:-

Asking a girl if she blows and set her hair b'cos it looks frizzy and unkept today.
Referring everything made of flour as bread thingy, never mind they all have nice alien sounding names.
Asking point blank to a girl how old are you ah? When you getting married?

The ultimate of unpolitically correct and also socially-challenged.......let's see what other caveman thingy I do......oh yah.....most of the actions of Shrek 1 would find its way into Caveman 101 Handbook.

old jokes

2005-10-12T13:22:00.000+08:00

Overheard this a while back.....

Girl 1 : Eh look at this, a book on investing

Girl 2: See here is another one

Girl 1: You think Idiot's better or Dummy's better

*Thinking to myself - Both also won't do both of you any good.

Next story, probably had told to some of you. About the episode where wife had to go report an accident in PJ.

Was waiting for our turn to explain to the officer on what happened. There was a chinese guy there reporting. He started very animatedly with hands all over the place, explaining the traffic and the directions of cars etc and how it knock onto his car. Then the police was confused and asked him to draw on a paper instead. After 2 seconds drawing he reverted to using his hands and "drawing in the air", which the police said "lukis atas kertas, jangan lukis atas angin".

After a couple of minutes drawing, the police was still as blur as before, so in a very cool move, stopped the guy with a show of his palm and said "tunggu" and proceeded to open his drawer and took out 2 toy cars and asked him to "show" him how did the accident happen. Me and wife was almost rolling on the floor. Then we had to go and take pix of the damage, so we went to the parking lot. On the way back to the police station, we saw a police car on the way out and in there is the chinese guy (presumably bringing the policeman to the scene of the accident - which we later confirmed with the chinese guy when they came back). Guess the toy cars didn't help much too.

The curse of Ctrl+S

2005-10-07T13:55:00.000+08:00

One of the most important advise from any computer user is to SAVE, SAVE, SAVE your work periodically......so being almost programmed like a rat.....Ctrl+S is almost come without thinking, somethng along the lines of reflects action - avoiding hot stove, duck when something is thrown at you and picking my nose when it itch....oops not the last one....

Well just did a Ctrl+S in "blogspot" and kept my finger a tad too long on it (which is totally harmless in MS Office) but major in "blogspot" - it publishes as many times as the computer pickes up. So Ijust spent the last 10 mins clearing the 20/30 posts of the last piece. Quick......don't blink I am trying another Ctrl+S.......

blocked, blocked....totally stuffed

2005-10-07T13:41:00.005+08:00

Can't think of anything worthwhile to blog??!! aiyoh my life so miserable..... :( need a break soon.....but can't have 1 until my research paper is done.......how lah?! like that??

Suddenly had a feeling this year my life has been rather eventful (to my standard at least).....forgot when was the last time I had time to sit down read a book (other than for exams - I have written more for exams this year than I have written in 5 years of working - writing....you know pen and paper......rings a bell??)

Can't wait for everything to finish.....I am not getting my hopes high.....I just need a pass for my research paper so that I can graduate and return back to my own life......yeah the piece of paper is just an itch that I had to scratch and have just in case I come up short on "real" competencies.....at least I have a piece more than the next guy (hopefully) and the scale will kinda tip to my side.....albeit however slightly.

My dream today.....

2005-09-30T08:29:00.000+08:00

Dictating to myself......

"Today I dreamt about my exams again. I was rushing to the lecture hall and to my horror found out that I studied for the wrong subject......"

*sigh* no wonder I am just a normal guy.....how I wish my dreams were of epic proportions, then maybe I was someone more important in my previous life. Haha

My budget wish list :)

2005-09-30T08:20:00.000+08:00

Might as well throw in my 2 cents worth :-

1. Reduce tax.
2. Tax free for foreign cars - so that I can change my car :)
3. Lower tolls.
4. Lower electricity tariff.
5. Lower this, lower that.......
6. HHmmmm heck not much of a wish list huh?!

haha...yeah...the horror stories

2005-09-28T08:28:00.000+08:00

How can I not blog on this? Though I briefly mentioned it in earlier post. Well, you are safe if you need to answer natures' call around the city area, shopping centers, most tourist attractions etc.

Don't ever try the petrol stations.....advise to ladies, use the umbrella as your "door" that's about the only advice I have or keep fingers cross no one is gonna use it too. But a practice of holding your breathe would qualify as Rule of Thumb #1 and Run-out ASAP will qualify as Rule of Thumb #2.

But most other areas are really comparable to those at home. The Tang Palace's ones warranted a pix from me - to blend in to the overall architecture of the whole place, they are so nice and pretty and super clean (even cleaner than the MVM ones) almost felt unworthy to use them :)

So I would say, being a stomach-challenged-extra-sensitive-to-anything-I-eat person, facilities for answering natures' call was 1 of my least worried items around Xian (most of them at least).

:)

Some small tips.....

2005-09-28T08:20:00.000+08:00

1. 1 catty = 500 grams, this is Xian or maybe China's way to metricise the weight conversion.
2. Don't be alarmed when the cab driver rounds up or down to the nearest dollar. Eg. 6.30=6 or 6.60 = 7. Apparently cab drivers in Xian are too lazy to use coins or even notes for fractions of a dollar. These apply to most small shops etc except for supermarkets I think.
3. If you think driving in KL is a challenge, then you will probably get heart attack in Xian - some how their judgement of distance between cars can go until 0.00000001 mm so try not to shout out loud when taking a cab ride.
4. Drivers have incredible tolerance for overtaking and "cutting" into each others' lanes - somehow I had this feeling maybe they traded in their car horns for a cheaper price for the car.....they don't horn like we do in KL.
5. Most entrance fees to attractions are governed, even the charges for tour guide and transport charges, so you can be quite safe that you won't be fleeced. But do note that some of the online information don't reflect the latest charges tho'.
6. As usual, food around tourist attractions are more expensive especially those 1 day trip to various tombs etc etc. Then again b'cos standard of leaving in Xian / Shaanxi province is quite low so more expensive is really relative. We had a lunch - 1 vege and 1 taufu + rice and drinks = approx CNY$ 20 + or 30 I think (which is about double the usual price in Xian), which is about RM 15.
7. You must try the various "small eats" - stuff bread with e.g. peanut, "tausa", vegetarian, meats etc.
8. Mutton noodles and bread pieces - like the soup and mutton (tender and yummy) but don't fancy the bread pieces tho'. Yang Rou Pao Mo.
9. Satay China style - they use stainless steel instead of wood/bamboo/"lidi".
10. Some other local attractions we visited - the Muslim Street, Cultural Street and others.
11. Cool noodles. http://www.chinavista.com/travel/info/shaanxi/enxi'an.html (have trouble linking because of the apostrophe)

Day 8 - Going Home

2005-09-21T08:06:00.000+08:00

Well had to do some last minute shopping.....so was going to take trishaw to the bank first. "WAS" because......trishaws are only allowed to ferry customers in the smaller streets and can't get on to the main streets, so here we are riding along and didn't know until the police siren was blaring and an oncoming police car was stopping just behind us.....then the trishaw fellow kept on cycling away.....while urging us to get off ASAP.....we sort off jumped off the trishaw.......and he sped off without colleting the fare...poor fellow.

We booked a cab to the airport.....cost us CNY$ 80. Decided to go early.....3 hours before our flight time, was dozing off in the cab - hot, windy and dusty ride cos the cab didn't put on the aircon.

Reached airport in good time....actually too early to check in so had to wait......then got a pleasant surprise while checking in - 4 free tickets to the 5th Global Chinese Music Awards which we found out was worth RM 150 each when we turned up, courtesy of MAS as the official airline.

But traffic was horrendous around Bukit Jalil - TV3 Sure Heboh and the music award were on that night......cars were parked along the TPM-Puchong road all the way until Astro's entrance and on the opposite side almost until the Petronas station.

We had a packed schedule too - a colleague's wedding, so we went to the wedding 1st and then joined mom & sis later at the awards around 10pm and the awards went on until about midnight.

Day 6 & 7 - 31 August & 1 Sept

2005-09-19T13:42:00.000+08:00

Huasan.

You know the famous hill in those Cantonese Kung Fu series??! Yup that's the one....

Well we spent a night in 1 of the lowest peak.....thanks to cable car, if not it would have been a 2 hour hike up the mountain.

Then we woke up at 3am wanting to climb to the top......but by then my foot was hurting very badly.....(which explains why I am still limbing around till today). So wife continued without me...... :( so now wife has 2 bragging rights - Mt KK and Huasan...... :(

Day 5

2005-09-16T13:33:00.000+08:00

Hhmm started off late.....b'cos everyone told us that you should only visit Tang Paradise about 4 to 5 pm. Luckily we didn't listen but still we went there about 12 or 1 pm. This is 1 place where you should budget 1 full day if you don't fancy running and rushing from 1 point to the other. Found a site that had quite good photos.

A pretty funny episode happened here - when we bought the tickets to go in, we asked the sales girl if the timetable (which was printed on a huge notice board near the ticket booths) of the various activities inside will be provided on the map/leaflets which are provided inside. After confirming 3 times, we decided ok we have to copy down the schedules and venues etc. As Murphy will have it........tala.....there it is, nicely printed leaflets of timetable on the notice board for us to take.......then the chinese version map ran out and only Japanese ones were left.....for a moment I contemplated if we should take the Jap version since the anti-Jap sentiment was quite high (after an encounter in a cab, where a cab driver was really anti-Jap, but was quite amused/surprised that Malaysians speak Mandarin and Cantonese). But then, we had no choice so we took the Jap version.

After the visit, we decided the best plan should go something like this:-

9 am to 12 noon - Leisurely walk around to cover the various Gardens and sculptures etc around the place. I must say the park is beautiful and in the same class with Disney (not in the same sense as the rides etc but the "wow" factor in terms of activities and interest to sustain a 1 day trip there).

2 to 6 pm - Catch the various "free" shows - my take - they were really impressive......cos my other yard stick was the show that was held in Genting a few years back (something like the Tang/Chinese costumes of the various dynasty etc).

6 to 7 pm - Catch a FANTASTIC performance at the theatre. Had to pick up my jaw from the ground, maybe I am just a "katak di bawah tempurung". But was well worth the RMB 100 per person. The entrance to the park is only RMB 50 per pax.

7 to 7.30 pm - Get your dinner at the nice Tang Restaurant which is in the park itself.....we didn't fancy the buffet so went for a nice simple dinner. Not really expensive by KL standard (almost the same as what you will pay in any mid-range air-conditioned restaurant), but about double what you will pay for in a similar posh restaurant around Xian. But the security measure is just high-tech - you need to present your park entrance ticket and capture your photo and a barcode sticker will be put on your entrance ticket. This is because the restaurant is open to customers for meals i.e. without entering the park, so to prevent people from sneaking in to the park via the restaurant, this canggih system was installed. When you leave the restaurant (i.e. to get back into the park) the system will scan the barcode and your pix will pop up on the screen.....phew luckily it was me on the screen....hahaha.

7.30 to 8.30 pm - Make your way to the water screen show.....similar to the Disney Fantasmic Show. Superb laser show, explosives, fireworks but kinda lame and draggy story line.

8.30 to 10.00 pm - Check out the night lights of the whole place - beautiful to say the least.

Ringgit Coins

2005-09-12T13:21:00.000+08:00

Been spending my ringgit coins lately. Found the following places to be especially useful:-

for toll - the poor girl will not risk a long queue.
shopping complexes' parking machines - they have yet to change the machines, so you can still use the coins till dunno-when.
food stalls - still accepting them as of last Thursday.
drive-by newspaper stall - still accepting them, wouldn't want to cause a traffic jam or accident I suppose.
hypermarkets - again the poor cashier will not risk a long queue.

Day 4 - 29 August

2005-09-12T07:43:00.000+08:00

hmmm started of at 7.30am.....so early. Was in a bus with 2 other couples - 1 couple from Canton and another from Beijing I think. We were on the East Line - 1 day tour which include amongst others Huaqing Hot Springs, Lintong Museum , Museum of Qin Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses and Mausoleum of Emperor Qin Shi Huang.

We did what everyone who had been to China told us to beware off - toilets. We had to take a leak at one of the petrol stations.....my my.....Malaysia's public toilets would be 5-star standard anytime.

This trip would certainly qualify as the most value-for-money trip amongst all the other tours being promoted. The rest are mostly tombs of emperors and .....tombs of emperors.....which to this banana chinese and also chinese history challenged caveman would mean pieces of rocks and old stones.

Well, the trip to the terracotta warriors reminds me of BMW (Bas Mini Wilayah), because everyone wants to take a good look at the 2 bronze chariots. Here are some more photos.

Yup.....if you only have a couple of days in Xian, this will be the 1 trip you can't miss (opcors that is my 2 sen).

My Ringgit coin episode :)

2005-09-08T18:15:00.000+08:00

Decided to try my luck today by paying RM 1 coin for food. Luckily the stall owner (different shop from my 1 sen episode) did not make a fuss.

Thus I could enjoy my chicken rice and at the same time use my soon-to-be-not-legal-tender. Save my trips to the bank to exchange them. On the same note recently I got a RM 1 note from the previous series, wonder if they are still legal tender?

I found out that restaurants are also very courteous in accepting 1 sen coins. But I got short-changed 3 sens the other day while buying mooncakes.....thot of pulling a HL-stubborn-principled stand of not letting big corporations make even more moolah.....then again the shop's workers and bosses have been very kind to let us taste quite a few mooncakes and also gave us 20% off our purchases so was kinda "pai seh" to insist on my 3 sens. I am sure if the big guys offer me an extra helping of fries or a leaf or two extra of lettuce I may also let them short change me..... :)

Day 3 - 28 August

2005-09-08T08:25:00.000+08:00

Visited the great wall.....not the famous Great Wall of China but the Xian City Wall..... kena conned by my bro-in-law. He told us that it was a nice ride by bike. We ended up cycling for 2 hours and worse still, got a minor leg cramp. That took us all the way till 2 or 3 pm.

The Xian City Wall

The magnificent and grandiose Xian City Wall was constructed in the early Ming Dynasty on the basis of the Imperial City of Chang An (Everlasting Peace) of the Tang Dynasty. It is also a symbol of great significance of the famous historic cultural city of Xian. One of the features of the Xian Wall lies in the fact that it has been preserved intact, which is rarely seen in the world. The construction of the Xian City was formally started in the seventh year of Emperor Hongwu's reign (1374) and completed in the eleventh year of Hongwu's reign (1378). After its completion, the circumference of the city wall was 13.75 kilometers long in an oblong shape. Its height is 12 meters; its top is 12-14 meters wide and its base, 15-18 meters wide. At the four corners are watchtowers at each. Outside the wall are moats. There are four city gates, and to each of them are three tower entrances: sluice tower, embrasures watchtower and the main tower and in between are enceinte. There are 98 watching enemy platforms between the watchtowers and the city gates, protruding over the city wall, and on the platform the towers for watching the enemy are built, which is not only convenient for watching the enemy, but also to shoot them with bows and arrows from three sides and firing wooden cannon stones by taking the advantages between the position like two sides of a horse face and the city wall, inflicting casualties on the attacking enemy. There are 5984 crenels served as lookout posts, firing at the enemy and shield of protection. They formed a close engineering system of defense.
After repair and protection, the Xian City Wall now presents a three-dimensional distribution with the city wall, city moats, forest belt and city ring-routes combined into four-in-one grandeur in perfect harmony, each shining more brilliantly in the other.

After lunch we visited Shaanxi Historical Museum.

The Shaanxi Historical Museum

The Shaanxi Historical Museum, a large-scale modern State-class museum, is situated at the western side of the "Wild Goose Pagoda" in Xian City. It covers an area of about 70,000 square meters, the architectural area of which is 55,000 odd square meters. It was completed on June 20, 1991 and open to the public.
The Museum is divided into three main parts all for overall display, hall for temporary display and hall for display on special topics. There are over 3000 pieces of cultural relics on display; they are the cream of cultural relics selected from among the hundreds of thousands of cultural relics, the majority of which are worldly treasures.

Then we visited the Bell Tower and the Wild Goose Pagoda. Saw some performances there.....much like packed sardines and almost fainted and more exercise up the tower and the pagoda......at least the stairway is much roomier than the bell tower of a church in Christchurch where I nearly vomitted and almost had a "claustrophobic-attack".

Bell Tower

The Bell Tower is situated in Xian city, capital of Shaanxi Province. In the beginning it was constructed in the 17th year of Emperor Hong Wu reign of the Ming Dynasty (1384) at now Guangji street cross and in the 10th year of Wanli removed to the present site.
The construction of the three storeyed Bell Tower has multi-eaves, sunken cornices and pinnacles with turning corners. The building basement area is 1377.4 square meters with four gateways connecting four streets. Each of the four sides of the building pedestal is 35.5 m broad and 8.6 m high. The height of the building is 27.4 m while it is 36 m high from ground to top. The architecture is grand and the art is superb. Ascending the tower to look around, one can get the bird's-eye view of the whole panorama of the ancient Xian city.

Wild Goose Pagoda

The Wild Goose Pagoda is situated at the Benevolence Temple to the south of Xian City, Shaanxi Province. The temple was originally known as Wulou Temple (literally no leaking ) in the Sui dynasty. In the 21st year (647) of Emperor Zhenguan rein of Tang dynasty, Prince Li Zhi (who later succeeded to the thrown as Emperor Gaozhong) reconstructed the Temple into Grand Benevolence Temple in commemoration of his of his mother Empress Wan De.
When Xuanzhuang, the Tang Monk, after acquiring the scriptures of Buddhism from India, returned to his motherland, he was lodged in the grand Benevolence Temple for the translation of the scriptures. In the 3rd year of Emperor Yongwei's rein of the Tang Dynasty, the Pagoda was built after the style of the Western Regions for the storage of the translation version of Buddhist scriptures. It was a five storeyed building at the beginning and the built into 7 storeys when the Empress Wuzetian was in power. The Pagoda is square in shape, 64 meters high with spiral staircase leading up to the top. There are structural design and Bodhisattva image delicately carved on the lintels on four sides. At the lower part of the Pagoda are two stone tablets on which are engraved Preface of the Holy Teaching and the Narration Record of the Holy Teaching by Chu Suiliang, the calligrapher of the Tang dynasty and on the brim of the stone tablets are relief sculptures of musicians and dancers.
Xuanzhuang (602-664) generally known as the Master of the Law (Tripitaka of Buddhism), customarily called Tang Monk was the famous scholar of Buddhism and great traveler and the Founder of Benevolence and Philanthropy of Buddhism.

Ah.......dinner time.......never seen a much bigger bowl being used to serve food.....no you call that a basin not bowl. By then we were so tired from all the exercise the whole day.....we were ready to hit the bed b'cos tomorrow we were setting off 7 am to join the Eastline Tour or the Presidential Tour (b'cos most foreign dignitaries usually request to visit the same sites)

Day 2 - 27 August

2005-09-08T07:33:00.000+08:00

Got myself a prepaid. Supposed to register and provide identification....opcors that could be arranged. So I am "on" in China. First numbers to key in are my bro-in-laws and the GF's. Then SMS back to Malaysia. Since I got away with providing ID, I could not call international.....thanks to SMS, I am on limited communications with family in M'sia.

Nothing much, basically more shopping. Well what do you shop for in Xian?.....miniatures of terracotta warriors, jade.....apparently there is a special kind of jade that is only found in Shangxi province.

So what did I do? - Day 1

2005-09-07T18:53:00.000+08:00

Day 1 - 26 August

Started early reached airport about 7am, queue was quite bad at the check-in but made it in good time. Flight was 9.35am. Departure hall will open at 8.55am.

Went to the departure gate at 8.40am and waited, saw people walking out from the departure hall.....ah flight to S'pore was delayed by 1 hour so passengers were walking out and fuming cos some have appointments at 10am etc. Waited.....waited.....then it occurs to me better ask......to my horror the departure gate to Xian has been changed to another gate.....far far away from this gate, actually almost directly opposite end of the current gate. There we were rushing across the terminal building.....

Finally there was such a long queue to the departure gate too because the staffs are also informed last minute so they too are rushing from another gate to the latest gate.....by then the flight was delayed to 10 am....and when we boarded the plane....the pilot also mentioned that the plane had to be taxied to the new gate last minute.....there we go what a great rush...... and then a further delay until 11 am reason??!!.....there is a curfew of the airspace because of Merdeka fly pass practice. So we finally took to the sky around 10.50 am. Xian has the same time as Malaysia......for that matter whole of China does too cos they figured that it is too cumbersome to have multiple time zone for a single country.

So I managed to catch Herbie fullyloaded on the onboard entertainment. Eat, drink, sleep, eat drink, sleep and opcors went to the toilet to do my business across somewhere across northern Thailand.

Haha....arrived 5 hours later. The airport is pretty new and big. Even saw Tan Sri Lee Kim Yew while queuing at the immigration desk. So it was a breeze collecting our luggage and going through customs etc.....on we go to look for the airport bus that will take us down to the city.

The journey down to the city is pretty nice - aircon bus, nice commentary given by the tour guide but I suspect I only catch 10% of the stuff being said. So wife is the one asking and talking...me.....typical banana chinese......ask wife to translate into Cantonese. Was asking wife while on the bus if the wall as inidicated on the map that my mom-in-law gave us was really a wall. Wife said no lah, just an indication of where the ancient wall was. Then to our surprise it really is an ancient wall!!!! How big? Well that will come in Day 3.

Well bro-in-law and GF met us at a hotel where the bus stops. There were old ladies selling maps of Xian, very customer service oriented......I don't remember Sentral/KLIA selling KL maps??

Went for coffee at King Coffee......layout, design and even the logo will pass-off as Starbucks at first glance. Ah next to it is KFC, another sign of modern civilisation :) Well we had dinner at this nice restaurant.....had too much food.......so much that we had to tapau. Then we went to a street very much like Petaling Street near the city walls. Then I noticed a lot of halal shops along that street. Did our shopping, checking out the prices etc etc. Then we went home.

Where did I go?

2005-09-05T13:30:00.000+08:00

It would have been such a historic event - one worthy of me kissing the ground and smelling the dirt of the land of my ancestors.....if it was in much much earlier times, yup you guessed it went to China.

Xian to be exact, never knew it was such a historic city until was told by the couple of tour guides that took us on a couple of tours. To confess I had held my expectations very low for fear of disappointing myself, but to my surprise it was much much better than expected. The city center will pass off like any suburban area in PJ and Subang in terms of trendy shops, buildings etc oh in terms of cars too....so many of them.....jams jams jams....the hall mark of progress. But at least the jams are pretty fast moving. Somehow it seems like whereever you go in China -people, cars and buildings multiply by 10 times at least. And the city is one whole construction yard much like KL 5 to 10 years back - high rise apartments/condos, convention center, hotels etc etc all over the place as if in a rush to outdo each other.

More updates when I have time......

Sen sen oh my 1 sen

2005-08-22T13:52:00.000+08:00

I am not too sure what caused me to do it maybe stupidity, maybe a sudden rush of upholding the rules or maybe just plain stubborness.

On Sunday, after dropping my sister off for work, I proceeded to purchase "paus" for my breakfast. It was RM 2.20. Having quite a few 1 sen in my wallet, I proceeded to give the owner 2 X RM 1 note , a 10 sen coin a 5 sen coin and 5 X 1 sen coins. To my horror he wouldn't accept them, saying that even if he has them, they would be thrown away. So there were a few exchanges of words and finally he said, "I am the one who decided the rule of not accepting 1 sen coins" and proceeded to return the money to me and I returned the "paus" to him.

I guess I will just have to give the "paus" a miss then. And all I could do was to bring my business somewhere else. Then I think again, where can I use 1 sen coins without hassle? I shall be trying it out and let you know later. So far the hypermarkets are quite ok.

So sleepy......

2005-08-18T13:41:00.000+08:00

It has been a long time since Mr Wet Lazy Workday was here. I could almost smell the sheets of my bed and see my pillow waving to me. The pace in the office is equally slow, I am sure things are faster just that my own pace is slower than the rest. You could almost picture a Mr Chow slapstick scene where everyone else moves faster than the main character.

Luckily weekend is almost here, come to think of it I can't seem to be able to pin point how I spend my weekends, they just manage to whizz past so fast that soon I was ironing my shirt on Sunday nite and trying to prolong the weekend by watching tv till way past bed time.....and opcors blame Mr Monday Blues for everything that goes wrong...

1. The alarm doesn't sound nice.
2. The bathroom light doesn't switch on fast enough.
3. The toothpaste doesn't come out smoothly.
4. The water is too cold/hot/strong/weak......everything.
5. Can't put on my tie properly.
6. Can't find my keys/handphone etc.
7. Arrgh.......when will it stop.
8.....
9.......................

Must be the influence of one Ms HL for this list thingy..... :)

Another Urban Legend?!

2005-08-16T07:50:00.000+08:00

When there is an MCA poll there will be traffic jam??!! Don't ask me what is the correlation but traffic has been horrendous these 2 mornings. The jam starts just after the Sg Besi toll. Hhmmm?!

How come when UMNO had their poll it was smooth traffic??!!

Arrgghhhh........

I am in trouble.....

2005-08-15T08:05:00.000+08:00

I am truly in trouble today.......b'cos I forgot to bring my handphone. It is a state of emergency that would have gone unnoticed just 10 years back but now ranks amongst the top crisis on a personal and probably professional level.

"What?!, you forgot to bring your phone??!!", irritated colleagues would comment.

"There is no excuse, your phone must be with you all times", others would remind me of my duty to be always contactable.

"What happened, were you in a rush?", more sympathetic souls out there.

At least I am not in sales.....if not I could almost here my boss clicking away at the abacus, I mean calculator on the amount of business I lost b'cos customers could not get hold of me!!!

I thought for once Monday Blues (MB) would leave me alone, since the air is definately much fresher after the down pour on Sunday but alas it was an illusion that MB would be kind enough to grant me a reprieve.

But hey my morning has been very quiet till now, no SMS, no calls......hhhhmmmm

What to do if Emergency strikes??!!

2005-08-11T18:09:00.000+08:00

If a state of emergency is declared tomorrow because of the haze, what am I gonna do?

1. Search for all the VCDs I bought but never got to watch yet.
2. Make sure there is enough food in apartment to last for the period of emergency.

Come to think of it I am quite sure not many of my friends experience curfew before. I think the last and only time I experienced curfew was 1986 or sometime eons ago. It was the change of state government after many years of Berjaya I think.

It was not smooth transition to say the least. A state of emergency was declared in my home state. I think it was from 6/8pm to 6am everyday. Can't remember for how long. It was quite interesting, because we got to start school a bit late (well the school was relax on the timing b'cos of the curfew). Then everyone would rush home and lock their doors and draw their curtains early.

Life was quite scary then, long before terrorism registered in my vocabulary.....I had to look out for my dad's car and make sure no one suspicious walked close to it or drop a "package" near by. Well a few home made bombs were set of here and there, nothing major more like petrol bomb and smaller ones.

Remembered a family friend who sold off their kindergarten business to go back to Taiwan. They had to apply for a special pass from the police etc to go to airport at night. Road blocks were enacted along major roads and army with M-16 were roaming the streets etc.

Then again state of emergency may not equate curfew.........

Back at work.... :( ... :)

2005-08-10T07:52:00.000+08:00

Anyone noticed I have almost vanished from the face of the earth? Well close enough, for 2 weeks I had been going from home to class and back to home and my daily routine has been class, class, class and more class.....it has been a sleep depriving 2 weeks of classes.

Glad it is over and now the nail biting season of waiting for my results, well I am not complaining except that I have 250 emails to read and maybe many more that were not delivered since my mailbox was full.

Urban Tribal Teaching

2005-07-19T07:41:00.000+08:00

Here's a list of trivial stuff that I hope will be passed on for generations..... :) :)

1. When the morning traffic is good (like the past 2 days) there must be some major events happening - school holidays etc and in this particular week it is the UMNO General Assembly.

2. When there is a holiday in Selangor, forget about getting to KLCC. Usually the morning traffic to KL will also be bad (wonder why?!).

3. If there is a holiday in KL, forget about getting to Mid Valley.

4. If there is a traffic jam on the highway etc, rest assured that most of the time it is not serious but only some "kepoh chee" taking a look and writing down the car numbers for 4D.

5. On a similar note to (1) don't bother to get to PWTC/The Mall/Pan Pacific when the UMNO General Assembly is on. If you are planning to get a hotel booking around the same area, be prepared to book 1 year ahead. I was told hotels around this area has a totally different cycle to their occupancy rates too.

What a blessed weekend :)

2005-07-18T08:16:00.000+08:00

I remember worrying about what to do? How to behave? What to say? But somehow this time round I just went ahead without much analysing or preparation other than praying about it (I have to confess prayer was treated like some last resort/"one for the road" kind of preparation instead of having faith that prayers move mountains - how little faith I have :(

Our CCF Group went to Rumah Hope last Saturday. It was really eye-opening and really warmed my heart to see little friends who are so full of energy and happy despite coming from rather challenging background.

It reminded me of the essence of a simple life. All a person ever really need in life are very basic things - food, shelter and companionship. And of course God. I don't think our contribution was much but the fun and laughter that the kids gave me was really great. We sang and played some games and kids being kids some are naughtier and some are very timid. Somehow I have this nice feeling in me that I can't pin-point, probably it is a bit of a refreshing experience in my rather uneventful working life. Haha.............

It's not me, it's not me
Somehow Murphy's Law has a way of making its presence felt.

"Dub....dub....dub.....dub, sounds of heartbeat gettinig louder, beads of sweat forming on forehead, ears start to turn red and hot, palms start to sweat and eyes start to turn blurry......"

Not quite so dramatic but yeah, while manning the projector, the DVD I was trying to play for the speaker stalled twice on the same spot. Having a separate disc didn't help much too as it also stalled at the same spot. I was looking rather helplessly at the "Multimedia Expert" and hoping maybe somehow he could work some miracle to help me out. After a few tries we just had to accept that it couldn't be help.

21 Feb 2004, KK

2005-07-15T07:53:00.000+08:00

It would qualify as the most relaxing wedding dinner for us.....cos the spot light is now on my PARENTS.

Rightly so I supposed, since most of the guests are their friends.....apart from relatives, I only have 1 table for my school mates from S M All Saints.

Dad was gonna sing a song for my entry to the ballroom.....mom almost freaked out and tried her best to talk dad out of it. But it turned out really good and dad got quite a few good pat on his shoulder. The dinner was great, dad gave a speech instead of me - kinda weird but thot it was ok since we had like 3 dinners anyway and I gave mine in KL so we thot it was kinda ok too for dad to do it since the guests are mostly their friends and moreover I have been away from KK since 1992.

We had the dinner at STAR (Shangri-La's Tanjung Aru Resort), was fabulous and great. The decoration and arrangement were so nice (thanks mom). The dinner was splendid (thanks dad). Got a complimentary Executive Suite too for 2 nites. Wow I have to say it was the best room you could get other than the Presidential Suite.

Huge suite, sea view, long bath, vanity top that was like 10 feet across, make-up station for the ladies, separate common area & dining area, all the branded toiletries from Aigner......best of all we could trash the room and it will be all nice and clean when we come back. Had room service for breakfast....mmmmm so nice......the taste of such luxurious life does get addictive......

And that, is the end of our marathon wedding dinners.....sweet dreams..........

14 Feb 2004, KL

2005-07-07T19:17:00.000+08:00

The whole thing began with an even bigger bang on my head. Actually the street poster was staring at me when I was stuck in a traffic jam along Federal Highway. Le Tour de Langkawi is gonna pass through KL on 13 and 14 Feb and many roads.....MANY ROADS will be closed for that event.

14 Feb 04
Couldn't sleep much the night before, was quite excited. The "chee mui" were quite kind to me when I went to pick up my wife. Nothing much, they made me ate some unripe bananas, sang a song (but had to resing a few times because it sounded like I was "pulling a cow up the tree") and made me promised to take good care of my wife. Things went on ok so far. Then it dawn on me, quite a few guests were stuck in traffic jam, because some roads were closed off in stages. Praise God everything went on fine. It was a wonderful event, thanks to my wedding planner who did an amazing job arranging and taking care of everything. And also a lot of help from the CCFers too. But the journey back to Puchong was taking me 2 hours.....it would have taken 20 mins on a normal Saturday.

Dinner started late because most guests were trapped in traffic jam. Luckily most guests were having a good time catching up with friends and chit-chatting. The food was great. By the end of it.....we were all so tired. But the sense of relief was so great, 2 out of 3 done. The last dinner in KK was relatively stress free for us because my parents were coordinating it. But then again it was the largest of all 3 dinners.

Next stop......back to KK for the final dinner.

8 Feb 2004, Butterworth

2005-07-07T18:49:00.000+08:00

6 Feb 04
The whole episode began with a bang. Parents, brother and relatives all flew in from KK for their bus trip to Penang on 7 Feb. Imagine the logistics of coordinating the time, air tickets (thanks to AirAsia, the hole in my pocket was somewhat smaller), transport around KL and accommodation in KL. A simple thing like having dinner is suddenly amplified by the number of people involved. Thanks to all the patience of everyone, everything went really well.

7 Feb 04
Then the trip to Penang, 1st we (CH & I) started late from KL, then we were lost because of the detour due to the landslide Bukit Lanjan. Praise God we arrived in good time. The pre-wedding dinner at my in-laws place was superb. The authentic Penang dishes they served earned tremendous reviews from my relatives and also my uncle's bro-in-law who were back together with my 3rd Uncle mom-side from Canada for a holiday.

8 Feb 04
Then dinner reception for my wife side. It was the usual chinese dinner with the karaoke all in. Pretty fun and loud.....what is an authentic chinese dinner without the karaoke and loud toasts. At the end of it was telling wife, "One done, 2 to go.....hi ho hi ho...."

Then it was back to KL to prepare for the church wedding and dinner.

Been there done that??!!......

2005-07-06T18:17:00.000+08:00

Was talking to a colleague a couple of weeks back. She was mentioning about her preparations about her wedding next year and her predicament. Then I shared with her my wedding marathon.

So where shall I start.....the logistics. Well I couldn't wriggle my way out of any of the chinese dinners, so I had to have them at 3 places Butterworth, Kuala Lumpur and Kota Kinabalu all over 3 weekends. Quite an achievement actually. 8 Feb (Butterworth), 14 Feb (KL) and 21 Feb 2004 (KK).

It all started a year before that with the following criteria:-

Must be a Saturday.
After Chinese New Year (usually after Jan/early Feb).
Before July/August.

It was more for convenient sake rather than anything. And it must be God's plan because 14 Feb 2004 was a Saturday, it was after CNY and obviously before July/August.....duh!! And on top of that I scored some brownie points for being romantic.....hhhmmmm which yours truly is not always known for. Deciding the date was quite painless and we hurried on to book the church and everything.

Then the reality sets in. Logistics? Dinners? Where? Butterworth/KL/KK or all 3. Luckily we engaged a good friend of CH as wedding planner and she was really good.

Next.....1st Dinner - Butterworth.

I fried my brain with movies.......

2005-06-28T07:33:00.000+08:00

Caught 2 movies recently.....felt I have made my Ringgit work hard enough for both. They will fall in between Shrek and Austin Powers for my "knock me in the head with something different" movie scale. Oh ok.....maybe not Mr & Mrs Smith but I have to agree....the marriage counselor scenes are very enjoyable and almost on par with the gun-fighting scenes.....opcors the chemistry of the couple is very very.....believable.......not...yes.....not....yes...go figure yourself.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Not your usual Hollywood fare..... very funny.....if I understood the jokes correctly....very British at that. Love the dark humour and jokes of it ALL.....ALL.....ALL. Love Marvin (was that the name?!) the always depressed robot which knows everything.....so cute and funny..... :) The planet that uses fly-swatter to hit people's nose when they think was really effective in converting people into brainless morons. You have to catch it and reflect on the cliches and irony of all the jokes in there. Deep-thought was great.....and opcors the famous idiot box was there to punch-in the irony of it all. Really enjoyed it very much.

Mr & Mrs Smith

Thot it would be an eye candy show, but it turned out quite nice.....with me almost reaching for a tissue.....then again pardon this guy who watched Titanic 5 times and still couldn't come out with dry eyes. Yes 5 times.....all at the cinema.....yes all at the cinema.... :) Loved the marriage counselor scenes and somehow it drove home some points. The high tech gadgets and stuff really adds to the whole story rather than makes it like a James Bond movie.....where you go for gadgets and nice cars only.....ok and the girls too.

OK so my brains got fried recently.....big deal.....have a great week ahead. Urrgghhh I am suffering from lack of brain cells. Help.... :)

Politically Incorrect......

2005-06-22T19:48:00.000+08:00

I think I am gonna get fried for this piece.....

It all started with Austin Powers I think, that is the first time it came to my mind that it is so politically incorrect that it is so successful and funny. Then it went on and Shrek......was my all time favourite.....the ultimate of "bohchapness", so cool and unfazed that it made such a great statement.

Then I thought to myself maybe I like it because it is so.....ummm.....uuummmm......ME?! Deep down I am quite a caveman.....so some people told me. Then again I thought to myself, maybe I am just socially challenged, networking challenged and just like to be plain me.

Hmmmm WYSIWYG is probably the word to describe it......then again don't let this nice looking, talk, dark and handsome facade trick you....ooopppsss did I just describe myself....I meant that was my evil twin brother.

Hmmmm........

Thank God.....

2005-06-15T07:16:00.000+08:00

Visited a friend in hospital last night. Didn't know how bad was his condition because, initial info I got was that he had a heart attack. Was very relieved when he was quite alright, he could speak, walk and joke too.

Thank God for His blessings, even the doctors according to my friend, were quite surprised that the 1st level heart attack didn't leave much drastic damage which may include - half body paralysis, unable to speak properly etc. Good to see that this friend is smiling and joking last night. Hope he recovers fast and rest well. More importantly, to take care of himself better.

Reminders for myself.....

2005-06-13T19:49:00.000+08:00

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

I think I have short memory and every now and then the devil plant some thoughts into my mind.....

"You sure or not.....you sure you believe in the right God?!, all gods also the same one.....god is who you make it out to be....." - Luckily, as Arnold pointed out the object of my faith is more important than my faith. How do I know the God I believe in is real?!.....from study.....from life experience.....from prayer.....from my heart. Will I stand up to it with my life.....as the saying goes the proof of the pudding is in the eating. I pray that if it is his will, I will have the courage and convinction to fulfill it.

Come and see......come and see

2005-06-06T07:55:00.000+08:00

Come and see, come and see
Come and see the King of love
See the purple robe and crown of thorns he wears
Soldiers mock, rulers sneer
As he lifts the cruel cross
Lone and friendless now he climbs towards the hill

Once in a while my Catholic pratices come back to memory and it suddenly dawn on me to think beyond the actions/rituals and find meaning in them. At least my interpretation of them.....

1. Cross with Christ on it. Catholic crosses have always had a Christ figure on it. To me it was no big deal but some friends has explained to me that Christ has risen and therefor the crosses should not bear Christ on them. Well does it sound like we should not perform last supper for remembrance? Should we not revisit Good Friday? Should we not remember Christ's death? You get the drift?

2. Kneeling in church. The whole practice of kneeling, brings a sense of submission and reverance to the worshippers. I know we should not hold much to rituals etc but I guess most friends will agree with me some point in time or some time most churches have one or another activity that is supposed to bring about similar effect - rally, revival, confession, prayers, altar calls etc.

3. The colourful robes and ornaments. I suspect human has short memory. That is why messages have to be repeated, discipline has to be meeted out repeatedly and reprimand has to be used once in a while. And I suspect the colourful robes may not be anything more than a reminder - be different from the world. And coming to that, how effective do you think the Catholics are in being different from the world.....I think they are pretty good.....most will notice the bright robes and ornaments.

These are just some of my limited knowledge and interpretation of things. Maybe someone can enlighthen me on these things. Cheers.

Little things......

2005-06-03T08:18:00.000+08:00

Thot I would share with you all on the little things I notice along the way to work everyday....

Bushes along Seremban-KL highway.....the authorities has just cut the bushes along the highway nearer to the Kuchai Lama entrance....quite a clear line of sight to KL.

I leave home about the same time everyday.....but I reach office about 8.20/25 am on Mon, Tues and Wed..but I reach office about 8.00/05 am on Thurs and Fri.

This 2 weeks traffic has been good....school holidays.....aahhhhh how nice at least for another week.

A dream that never stops......

2005-06-01T20:07:00.000+08:00

Ever had an event that leaves such an impression or memory on you that it even recurs in your dreams?

I have one........

I have it at least 3 to 4 times a year, at least those that I could remember when I woke up.

It has a couple of versions

Version 1
It usually goes like this, I am either running late into a room or am panicking that I couldn't find my study file or notes. I arrive at the exam hall and the lecturer tells me I am late for the exams and I have to retake the paper next term.....usually by that time I would have cried myself awake or woken up by fear.

Version 2
I turn up for lecture and was told that assignments are due and I was totally unaware of it because I didn't receive the evaluation instructions on the 1st day of lecture.

Usually I would wake up and look around...and think to myself....I am working now....I must have graduated already.....and go back to sleep. Somehow it keeps repeating itself and a friend of mine also share the same recurring dream. Geezz talk about mental scars left by the torture of exams. I must be mad to go thru more exams. Oh no...I maybe sadistic......gosh am I weird or what??!!

My weekend.......

2005-05-30T08:00:00.000+08:00

I have to confess....my past weekend has been a feasting weekend. It started on Friday when we celebrated a friend's birthday in Sunway Hotel. Since we could not decide what to eat.....as always.....buffet fits the bill since we could decide when we see the food. Welcome to the age of laziness and indecisiveness.

Saturday was a bit of a rest day, had soup for lunch and nothing much but had a lovely cake when we celebrated another friend's birthday.

Sunday was great....church sermon was powerful and simple....."seek the LORD" simple yet difficult and there lies the irony of a lot of things in life....not that we don't know what to do but we don't do it for whatever reason. Sunday nite we attended a wedding dinner and our table were 3 person short, so 7 of us were eating for 10 person......gosh.....what a weekend.

Then in my feeble attempt to prolong my weekend I stayed up past 1am.....and I am now suffering.....another bad example of not doing what I should have known better......sleep early on Sunday nite so that I can keep Monday blues to the minimum......geeezz me never learn.

Fish fish fish oh fish......fish

2005-05-27T07:35:00.000+08:00

Thot of sharing some weird things or shall I say more uncommon things that I do.....used to do....not I mean still do but not so often.....blurblurblur.....my mind is obviously not working today....rememebr my earlier piece about my mind...

I love to have raw fish porridge.....especially the stall in Petaling Street. I used to drive down early Sat/Sun morning....early I mean around 5.30am so that I can park right next to the stall. Not every week but at least once a month. I have not done that since I got married. I now go around more normal hours. Don't think my wife is gonna appreciate me getting up so early and waking her up in the process or worse still found me sneaking out early in the morning....

If that is not bad enough I usually order 3 plates of fish to 1 bowl of porridge (usually it is 1 to 1). So much so that the owners and also the Indonesian helpers recognise me and I only need to signal them when I sit down and they will know my order.

Recently I up the stake and had 4 plates instead and the poor stall helper was totally confused. She thought I wanted 4 sets of fish porridge but I wanted 4 plates of fish and 1 bowl of porridge.

Master I am not

2005-05-24T07:33:00.000+08:00

In my desperate attempt to prolong the weekend (eventhough I had a 3 day weekend thanks to replacement holiday for Wesak), I am now suffering from post long weekend blues.....(paraphrase from the wise.....Ah Li).

Well we drove back to Penang over the weekend. Was quite a nice drive around the evening of Friday. Reached Ipoh for our dinner - yyuummmmm Ipoh chicken rice......the battle of the authentic chicken rice.

Which brings me to the next point.....do u go to the 1 with all the mat sallehs or the 1 with all the locals.....which is better? more authentic? more......original so to speak. Well we went for the dimly lit, wet floor and with walls that needs a thorough Gif scrubbing shop. Guess you can call that more authentic or original.....all the grime and dirt from the original owners etc etc. Does that turn up your appetite??

Well if it helps I didn't get stomach ache or anything.....so it must have been fine. One thing I noticed the "taugeh" is really short, chubby and full of water.....I am not talking about my fingers.....the bean sprout.....friends have told me it must be the water from the limestone hills around the area.

Sunday was another sleep in day......so nice.....dinner was also great, went to this place, (don't ask me where....I was only the driver) had like 6 dishes for 4 adults and it only came up to slightly less than Rm 50 (though we noticed later that they left out the fried chicken, which will probably cost another Rm 10). We had assam prawns, fried taufu, pig's trotter, asparagus, mutton curry and friend chicken.....phew that was quite a feast.....there goes my diet plans........what diet plans? you ask.....thou shall not even ask further......hell has no fury like a dieter's effort ignored.....

Have a great week......short week too....how nice.......but there will not be anymore until August......ah the king should have chosen a Fri or Mon for his birthday.....

ADOY.....Master I am.......

2005-05-20T23:01:00.000+08:00

Work I must and happy I am, Friday is here. To appear smart, my green friend I must thank, for countering my inefficient mind. Appear wiser I may....may not after all.

Quite funny, it was Starwars. For me ok but die hards fan like may not. Changed it must have viewers' tastes and what sells since the first Starwars movie.....20+ years it must have been. Time flies it must have??!! hhmmm old I must have been.....reminded I am old must be by pounding head in the morning. Ended movie about 12 midnite must have tortured me. Friend quoted...moments after credits come up, "Go we must immediately, early is work tomorrow"

Pretty tough for script writers must be, to write the script. To sound wiser, "transposed" thinking from normal writing I must use. Dwindling grey matter I must be......or never had any to start with, worst still.

"Puking and vomitting blood........." A cantonese phrase of exaggerating the situation.....in some cases.

My inefficient mind.....

2005-05-19T19:56:00.000+08:00

My mind is quite a piece of inefficient piece of stuff.....

Monday...........zzzzz still sleeping......won't be awake probably until after lunch.......

Tuesday........crank....crank......ok it kinda starts up and is working........

Wednesday......hey it is great.......before I realised weekend is near....hahaha

Thursday.....ok still running full steam......man I can work and wrok and work and work.....after lunch.....well Friday is round the corner....maybe I should take it easy.....aahhhh...phew....what a nice lunch.......zzz...zzz..zzz

Friday.....yeehhaaa weekend is here....oooppsss...its asleep oredi...zzzzzzz

So in fact my brain only works about half of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and half of Thursday.....hhmmm

So I have changed the look.....

2005-05-19T19:46:00.000+08:00

I am in a state of fickleness and since I have nothing better to do I have messed up my blog site.

Hmm..... let's see what do I want to write, the day was ok nothing much standard work, standard phone calls and standard emails......

Well I have finally crossed the treshold of procastination and submitted my research proposal for my MBA. Now the real work starts.....I have to conduct my research and do up my report bit by bit by bit by bit...........bbbbbbbzzzzzzzz.

On a brighter note I will be watching Star Wars tonite.....hhhmmmm don't envy me.......on top of that it was given to me by another colleague......lalalalala.

Here I go again.......

2005-05-16T01:02:00.000+08:00

Well I am about to start my engine again for the next step of my MBA. Has been procastinating for 1 month and I think I have run out of excuses for not starting. Aarrgghh there goes my nights and weekends....But hopefully I will not need to panic this time round since I am starting earlier about 2 months before the classes.

Wish me luck.....I will neeeeeedddddddd everything. Hmmnnn I can't wait to finish it and kick back and sit back to enjoy my nights and weekends again.....

The evolution of "kepohness"

2005-05-11T23:37:00.000+08:00

Was just chatting with a friend and the topic of kepohness came out.

1st some unknown people wants to listen to some unknown people speaking - that is the birth of radio.

Then some unknown people wanted to listen and see some unknown people - then came the tv & movie.

Now some unknown people wants to know what some unknown people thinks - welcome to the world of blogging.............

"Kepohness" - A Hokkien-English self created word by a non-Hokkien speaking me and a not so good English speaking me too :)......roughly translated to busybody...........so it is roughly busybodiness (if there is such a word)

This is the day.......that the LORD has made :)

2005-05-10T12:11:00.000+08:00

Somehow this song keeps ringing in my head. Haven't sing it for a long time but somehow it keeps playing in my head today.

Sometimes we get so caught up in our everyday life that we forgot that each day is made for us by God or more humbly allowed for us to live by God's grace.

I am thankful for:-

The alarm clock.....as my ears are still good. I could wake up and walk to the bathroom and get myself ready for work.

Work.....that God has so graciously provided means of sustaining myself.

Traffic jam.....At least it is cool and spacious unlike the buses or LRT.

Well if only I can find more strength to be thankful for many more small little things in my life.

Thank you.....thank you.....thank you.....

So I truly survived???....hahaha

2005-05-06T23:14:00.001+08:00

My Prof said, coming back to study after working for a while is risky business.

Risk 1 - You risk exposing to the world that you are not good enough, that is why you are hitting the books again.

Risk 2 - You risk sounding stupid in class if you talk too much, which you probably did a lot while working.

Risk 3 - You risk a lot in the exams because you no longer can make do with passable effort and hopefully your superior will pick up after you. You either pass or fail on your own....no buts.....no ifs.....no someone else fault.........man that is risky.....hhhhmmmmm

Risk 4 - You risk not doing anything at all if you fear risk so much.....so after all said and done.....you made a risk to challenge yourself and that is good.

Risk 5 - The biggest risk of all.....You risk confirming all the above if you FAIL your exams.

Hopefully I won't confirm to everyone all of the above..........till next time.........

There I go again.....

2005-04-13T18:07:00.000+08:00

There I go again.....changing job.....well quasi at least.....I mean my job scope is changing and I am moving to a new department.

I fully agree and support job rotation to increase my experience and knowledge of the various areas of the business.

As usual, human nature is such that all changes are rather unsettling and nerve racking at first.

How am I gonna perform? How will my new boss see me? How will my colleagues treat me? Will I fit in? Will I perform well? hhhmmmmm hahahaha.

Well a change is a change is a change and it should offer something different....not necessarily good....neither necessarily bad.....just different.....am I excited??.....hhhmmmm let's leave that till the next.....

I am alive......:)

2005-04-12T18:32:00.000+08:00

.......hi......hi.......HI??!!

I am alive.....I was not sure how I was gonna survive 17 days of classes and exams.....but somehow it went on ok......all a blur now.....

1st week was ok......knocking off the rust...hitting the books and studying for the exams....but 2nd week was terrible...by then the classic torture symptoms are cropping up.

Lack of sleep - getting really edgy....even the dogs stay clear of my path. Pity my wife for putting up with me.

Lack of focus - it was all, wake-up, clean-up, hit the road before traffic builds up, class, assignments, study, rush home before traffic builds up and of course stuffing my face with the hotel food which after the 3rd day lost its novelty and started to make me sick. But by then the system has been broken already and it is all about going with the flow.

Stress and tension - Pimples start popping up and I noticed sleepier eyes and more lifeless expression in the mirror. Thanks to my wife for preparing some traditional drinks etc that helps to lessen the onslaught of S & T.

Sudden urge to cry and jump off the building - I think by that time I was ready to give up the fees I paid and just go home and lock the door and sleep. Somehow the perseverance of my classmates and wife just somehow makes it slightly more bearable to move that 1 step and to push myself that 1 step more.....each step yielded to another and another and another....and before long I was hitting the drinks in a bar.....either to celebrate or to down the sorrow of a failed attempt...... I will only know when the results come in......till then my battle starts again back in the office.

Guess what....?

2005-03-25T00:13:00.000+08:00

Hey, guess what??? I am hitting the books again.

For some weird reasons, new year always gives you a weird nudge/push. And this year it finally kicked me hard enough to do what I have been thinking of doing.....my MBA.

Just like so many yuppies, I aspire to make it, to get it and to achieve it all. If I am honest enough to own up.....I am just as material as the next guy.....

Then something interesting happened.....some friends were emailing around about John Sung and it got me thinking.

http://chi.gospelcom.net/DAILYF/2003/08/daily-08-18-2003.shtml
"What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world but lose his soul?" Those words kept bouncing around inside John Sung's head. The brilliant son of a Chinese Methodist minister, John was in the United States to learn all he could about the sciences. In just five years, even while working to support himself, he completed his Bachelor of Science Degree, his Master of Science and his Ph.D.

Suddenly, one night, his soul was transformed. He began to weep and to shout for joy. He raced to tell teachers and fellow students. The next thing he knew, he was locked in an insane asylum! In the eyes of the spiritually dead school authorities, his behavior indicated that he had gone mad.
John was allowed to take only his Bible and a pen into the cell with him. In the 193 days that he was locked up, he read the Bible from cover to cover forty times. He later said that that was his real theological training.
After his release, John returned to China. On the ship, he threw overboard all of his diplomas, certificates and awards, keeping only his doctorate for his father's sake. From that moment on, his life was dedicated to winning souls.

Man..... talk about God speaking to me?? I dunno, maybe I am too sensitive or maybe I am reading too much into it. But it sure got me thinking.

Then amazingly the topic of pursuing a career also came up in my church recently...hhmmmm coincidence.....I am thinking.....still am??!!

Why am I doing my MBA? Some thots??

To improve myself? Or to improve my career? I don't know it may help or it may not help, I will just have to wait and see.
To fulfill my dreams? My dreams or keeping up with everyone?
To pursue knowledge? Maybe.....I find some interesting reading along the way.

To.....aarrgghhh.....I don't know much.....someone mentioned....if we know the "why" for things in our lives we will stand up to any "how" of the world. It sounded better when I first heard it... :)

Why? ah? why?

Why am I unhappy?

2005-02-18T15:04:00.000+08:00

Will more money really make me happier?

Sometimes I really thought so, then again I remembered the last time I had a raise and I was very happy but then it kinda died down after awhile. And I am back in the dumps again after a while.

No doubt I had more money than I had a few years back but I don't seem to be happier. On the contrary I seem to feel more and more tied down by stuff I had bought with my extra money. Even holidays now drags me down into the dumps because I think about the amount of money I need to spend instead of the joy I could get.

Deep down inside me I begin to suspect maybe I will die a miserable person - saving all my money and worrying about not spending it that I forgot what life was all about??!!

Maybe I am a natural money whiner.....always wanting more, more and more.....when will I be contented??!!

Little thots.... :)

2005-01-31T11:07:00.000+08:00

What is a tear?

A tear is just something you don’t show – so I heard from young,
B ecause it means you are weak.
C an I at least shed some tear when I am really sad.
D on’t shed a tear even if you are hurting like crazy.
E nough about tear, my dad said, grow up.
F or you are a guy and are not supposed to cry.
G irls are the only ones allowed to cry.
H ow I envy those who can cry freely and not be judged.
I think tears bring so much meaning with them.
J oy of a mother giving birth sheds tear of happiness.
K indness is amplified when we reach out and touch someone’s life with a tear.
L ove between couples grows when they can shed a tear and laugh together as well.
M ixed feelings tear is hard to explain – a single mom looking at her newborn child, happy and worried.
N evertheless, tears are probably the greatest expression there is when no words could be found.
O nly tears can express the great loss felt by parents’ of a child who passed away.
P salmist said - PS 116:8 For you, O LORD, have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.
Q uit shedding tears. Bring them all to the Lord in prayer.
R est assured that everything happens for a reason.
S ing praises to God during both bad and good times.
T o know that God has everything in His control is comfort enough for me.
U nknown to myself God is doing everything for my own good.
V ery well I said and thank you Christ.
W et eyes see clearer, for the dust has been wiped away. Thank you Jesus for dying on the
X (cross), thank you
Y ahwey, for my swollen eyes are ready to rest in your loving arms.
Z zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Miracles do happen - Part 3

2005-01-31T10:50:00.000+08:00

Yes life as I know will change forever.....I was sticking needles into my stomach/leg day and nite and it went on for 2 weeks.

Then I started feeling funny. I am a rather big size person and I usually feel warm at home but somehow I was beginning to feel chilly at night. Then I met a colleague who related his son's incident to me and advised me maybe I should cut back the jabs and keep close monitoring of my blood sugar.

Then miraculously I was able to go off insulin and was still keeping my sugar level normal well close enough i.e. 6 to 8 mmol/l random and maybe 5 to 6 pre-food. I was beyond words.....I didn't take the jabs for 2 weeks when I went for a checkup with the doctor. I showed him my log book and he was surprised.....

He just mentioned sometimes "honeymoon" period does happen and I should be careful about it. But nevertheless I was in heaven thinking God had given me a second chance at freedom. So this is the 2nd miracle that happened. Thank God. A brother in Christ mentioned to me, I was saved for a purpose.....so I should make full use of my time while I am alive. Amen.