HazE !!!

This is the view from Jalab Sultan Ismail overlooking Lot10 and Sungai Wang. The visibility is less than a kilometer away. Just before I posted this blog, I went to the toilet and was welcomed with a blurry vision. Man, I wonder when this hazy days would end...

Scratched and unhappy...

It's early 9 in the morning,
Without a doubt nor a warning,
I was driving my car in the highway,
Not expecting anything coming my way

Just as I reach my office today,
One stupid car adjacent the parking entrance way,
You see, it's through a lift to the parking bay,
I need a bigger arch now and getting into is also bit suay

Without doubt, with confidence and a niff,
I turned and head the car onto the lift,
But the security guard thought he had the gift,
Trying to hold the door of the lift

I steer clear a bit to avoid that stupid chap,
In which I went in I hear a crack,
Damn it ! My car had got the lift at the back,
Now I pray my wallet wont get the whack...

It's scrached and thanks to these urban heroes,
One idiot guard and a car that parks like "orang bodoh",
I have part to blame as I am also "behind the wheel" hero,
In which I should have banged both of them like tins of "milo"

Sunday

This is the first time I write a blog off my Mobile device. It's 2:55pm on my device and the 80s song is streaming via wifi from sky.fm internet radio channel.

Pity that I can't upload pictures from here directly, if not I will be able to show you folks how would a broom head looks like. Yes, I need a haircut today...

*Update, the pocket pc is a bit tedious in the sense of writing a blog. I decided to cut the idea before I get a portable keyboard to go along with it...

Sea, shore, sun, swim and shove !

Hello and greetings from Cherating ! I managed to take a day off from the hectic workload and took a breeze holiday with my girl to Cherating; the east coast of Malaysia and located right off the Kuantan town in the state of Pahang, Malaysia


The trip to Kuantan from our capital city takes around 2 to 3 hours depending on how you drive. The journey is quite straightforward with fewer towns along the way as compared to the west coast.


As you can see from this picture, the highway itself is pretty empty - making the journey boring and tiring (especially if you're travelling in a hot and sunny weather)


Nevertheless, we also need to pass through the way to Genting Highlands and Bukit Tinggi and having to enjoy the highland views around there


After 3 hours of agony in the car, we finally ended up in Kuantan town. Road signs are quite friendly in the town area. It's a quiet town with very few cars around. Jam only exist due to traffic lights and road accidents...


As we branch off Kuantan town, we head off to the journey to Cherating. All along the way you would be able to see the rural areas with lots and lots of coconut trees around (Well, it's the coast you see)


Some of the Kampung (rural) houses around Cherating area...


More coconut trees ?


We finally ended up in The Legend Resort after one hour drive from Kuantan town. This resort offers quite a few facilities as compared to many hotels around the area (However I still prefer Club Med though)


This is the scenery from the hotel room. The beach is just a walk away


As for the room, it's nothing so special about it. Standard wooden cupboard and furnitures, door with key access does not gives you the pleasant feeling as in many 5 stars resort/hotels today


As the evening approaches, we took a look at the hotel's menu and finally decided to go out and look for some seafood. As we were trying to look for some chinese restaurant along the way but we finally ended up in a malay restaurant after going through the state border in Trengganu. (Around 20 minutes of driving with not much pleasant eatout place in sight)


Because of the hunger while driving cross broders, Michele finally gave in and ordered something before the main course. However she claimed that the fried chicken as shown here is quite delicious ! (Hmm... strange, I had tasted it and thought it's quite different as well !)


One of the the main dish: Sotong Bakar (BBQ Calamari). We also ordered a BBQ Ray and Tomyam soup. Altogether it cost us RM41 and a sore throat next morning...


Newx morning : I'd always expect something special from the hotel buffet breakfast but as you can see from this picture, we are not surprised by the so called exclusive buffet breakfast at all...


"Well, how about we go out and look for something nice to eat later ?"


Nevertheless, the environment is quite revigoring and relaxing. The 4 swimming pools ranging from kiddie pool to 6ft deep adult pool is sufficient for many people to enjoy the day there...


That's one of the pool...


As you can see from here, there isn't much pollution around the beach as well. The water is clear and looks very inviting and no doubt that you would wanna run to it !


When the beach is too hot to handle, you can hang around the shades, order a drink and enjoy the sea breeze as well !


Our journey ended as we packed and checked out at noon the following day. The journey is not to our expectations as we were planning to stay for 2 nights but finally ended up with one only. Anyway for a fee of RM165 a night, I guess you may say it's worth it for 2 days off to see the sun, sea, shore, swim and shove !

Mobile blogging !

I am updating this blog from my IPAQ device. I guess it would be quite interesting having to blog events on the spot as I go around. Watch out folks, I guess you would hear more from me as of now ! :)

Last working day for my pal - Zaini

30th July marks the last day of our beloved sales director (aka Zaini) in our company. Well, his real name is Zaini bin Yahya and he is a malay. There were a few times when our customers had mistaken me as Zaini (during my tanned days) and himself as James (as he is quite fair and looks very much like a chinese)


5 years in this company as a sales director, we are still wondering how he managed to get his room clean just this once in the last 5 years...


"Well of course the tea lady helps me out duh... can't you see how relaxing am I here ?"


Now of course having to know him for the last 5 years, he is never the type of person who would take advantage of others... His motto in life that had taught me well was, "Sometimes you just have got to work on the wrong way to get things right".... (Erm, I still wonder where is that CD he was holding in the picture though...)


Nevertheless we adjourned his last day in the office to MidValley (The Chili's) for a farewell dinner for him. We had also invited some ex-colleagues to come along as there aren't many people left in our company though...


Now come to think of it, we really don't have that many ladies in our company ever since the last time...


Along came Hew (our channel's manager) to sort of like "taking over" our sales director's role while the interview goes on for the future sales director... Yeah, perhaps we'll invite that new sales director for a treat - on his tab of course ! Another guest were CS Lim's wife - Beh.


That's me and Michele... see something in common here ?


That's CS Lim and Zaini... How about anything in common here instead ?!


Interesting enough, when you get 2 ladies who have not meet each other for a couple of months, they tend to do funny things... Well, I don't recall them ordering Margaritas or Bloody Mary. It must be something wrong with the fruit juices...


Just when you thought 2 ladies were acting funny when they had not meet for a while, try 4 of them instead !


Each person having their own personality huh ? That's a start...


Just when things got heated up...


The sales director jumped in !


I guess these 4 never able to sit straight and face the camera properly...


Okay, that's a good one ! Keep that smile ladies !


Now if you ladies can hold on while we slot in the Channel's Manager into the picture...


It's quite simple for the guys though... one shot and off we go !

Desmond Choong VS Dengue

Desmond Choong, one of my close friend ended up in a hospital recently due to dengue fever. Apparently the mosquito liked him so much that it took quite a few hits on him until he ended up warded in Tawakal Hospital (Along Jalan Pahang)...

Well, of course we went in a bunch. That's me, Anthony and his gf and Jonathan. Ah... friends ended up in the hospital must go visit... Got chance to meet up some cute nurses as well though...

Well, our conversations got more interesting as he tells us his experience with Anal Probe from the aliens in War of the Tawakal.... (What am I talking about here ?)

Finally we figured out that he's okay - seems like the high fever din fry his brain. So we decided to leave him with his girlfriend to share the moments... *ahem ahem...

The story of my new bed

Ah... can you believe it, a king size bed that fits into this little room of mine. Well, the reason I blog this up is not to brag about a BIG bed but rather the effort to bring this 6ft by 6.3ft monster up to the second floor of my room.

At around 6pm today, the furniture people came with my bed. Well, actually this is really the first time seeing the actual bed itself as I ordered it merely based on a catalog while I went for lunch at nearby McDonalds last weekend. It was a good buy though; the king size bed frame cost me RM990 while the King Koil matress is around RM1600, it also comes with 2 free pillows, 1 bolster and 1 bed sheet. I'd reckon that since a bed is going to be a resting place for me after a hard day work in the office - I think I should deserve something better for myself right ? (Overall I've heard that there are some people who paid RM3000 for a bed that gives out funny sound when you jump onto it)

Upon parking their lorry outside of the house, the furniture people came down with 2 big piece of cardboxes (6ft in length) that requires skillful manipulations to go up to my room. Why ? The staircase height is only around 5ft 10inch (Remember, it's less than 6ft). Good thing those 2 boxes were rectangle in shape hence it's considered a breeze to move it up because the height of the boxes are around 4ft only. Next, the matress; measuring at 6ft by 6.3ft. As we approached the staircase, we were already sweating and puzzled as how can this big guy fits through the gap that is less that the size of the width or height of it ? Since it's a matress, we fold it ! With my dad and myself go help the 2 poor chaps we finally managed to get the matress up to the room. (Boy, was I worried that the matress could not enter through the room's door !). Finally is the most challenging part of it; the bed frame that supports the matress - same size but it's not bend-able !

We tried turning upsize down, inside out, backside front and we never managed to get through the staircase... My dad even suggest to disassemble it and bring it up in pieces ! So after giving it some thought (and some dump and bright ideas as well), we finally decided to haul the bed frame through the balcony from the back of the house (through the washing area to the 2nd floor). While the 2 guys pushed the frame up from ground floor, I am supposed to lift the frame while leaning behind the pillars from the second floor. I nearly broke my finger when the whole frame stuck onto my hand while lifting it up ! Good thing those 2 chaps helped out just in time to get me out of that mess. I guess no one would wanna see a customer with broken fingers before they can sign your delivery order right ?

After all the parts are in place, the next step is the assembly portion of it. The manufacturer actually did not provide the assembly instructions to these guys at the furniture shop, what's worse is that these guys had never assemble such bed before ! There were stands and lots of screws, washers and nuts - while it also drives us nuts as well ! Finally, we took around 1 hour just to figure out which part goes onto where by just looking at the catalog diagram. Irony eh ? But heck, this is the final result, the whole operation took us merely 1 hour or so only - in which I considered as quite a good success. Yes, money can buy many things, but I'm sure it cant buy the dedication of the 4 of us (me, dad and the 2 person from the shop) to see the final result.



PS: I'm going to jump onto this big guy after this blog ! WOHOOO ! *Yawn...

Visit to Sintok 01-06-2005

Greetings from Sintok, a town that is quite close to the northern border of Malaysia. My destination this time is the northern university of Malaysia - UUM (Universiti Utara Malaysia)

This university is located in the state of Kedah. A state that is rated as the rice bowl of Malaysia, a lot of the land in the state had been used for rice plantations and when it's harvesting time, the scenary is wonderful (The plant would be yellowish in color and when the sun shines through it, it's like a bed of gold !). Anyway, the largest city in Kedah is Alor Setar - That's where the airport is though

This is the university compound. I've heard that the university had also covered quite a large area as there are a lot of land to spare. The university was officially launched by our former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohd. For your information; our former PM also originated from Kedah.

This is the computer center - the place where I perform my presentation on that day. Well, it's taken in the evening hours - most of the IT staff had went home already (not as busy as the time I arrived earlier though)

This is the adjacent building to the Computer Center, translated as "Faculty of Quantitative Science". Beats me what they study inside there though... I'm just an IT guy...

After the presentation, we were taken to a visit to our partner's office. They are actually the computer hardware provider for the students in UUM. Of course they do research in my company's product as well..

After the meeting, we were invited to try out the "Cendol Pulut Buah" that is located just around the corner of their office. The famous cendol that is being served here comes with glutinous rice (pulut) and durian meat (the buah). However we choose to pass on the durian as we still need to board a plane back to KL and do not wish to be thrown out of the plane because of bad breath...

Ah... the cendol pulut buah... Minus the durian...

We took the last flight back to KL at 9:35pm and I'm back home, I must admit that I am never so happy to see my bed. Exhausted and satisfied about the trip but I had also learned something along - Never to make a day trip to anywhere far and remote (if possible).