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).

Penang Trip 27-05-2005

My trip to Penang starts off with a rainy day on the 27th of May 2005. My destinations are 2 customer site that are located in Bukit Mertajam and the Island itself. Actually, I'm always amazed about the marble hills around Ipoh, so I grab my camera and ready for some action this time.

In case you have not visited Malaysia before, our country actually had a huge amount of land for agricultural purposes. Here in this picture is a Palm Oil farm.

Ah... a convoy of army trucks escorted us on the way there... not bad huh ?

As we approached Ipoh, this sight is the beginning of the Marble Hills surrounding it.

Though some of these hills were torn down for marble productions but portions of the hill itself is still filled with flora and fauna

This is the original creation of nature - untouched by mankind.

During the night, we were brought to the "Bangsar of Penang" (Plaza Gurney) after a splendid dinner in an Italian restaurant.

The tea were good... But then again, I don't believe anyone would go Bangsar to drink tea only right ?! Of course the ambience and ladies there are good as well !

Before my trip back to KL, I brought my sales director to Kek Lok Si temple. Nah, we aren't there for the prayers (Overall, my sales director is a Muslim) but instead for the Asam Laksa !

This stall is located just next to the wet market adjacent to the Kek Lok Si temple. The 2 containers you see in front are filled with the Asam Laksa gravy - yummy !

Now, you won't get such delicacy anywhere in KL. Why ? For a start the gravy is THICK, furthermore the fish meat are all within the gravy itself and last but not least... It's only RM2.20 each bowl !

Look at him ! My sales director said that he never tasted such Asam Laksa anywhere before...

... and guess what ? He went for 3 bowls !!!!

The mix road runners !

We had managed to catch up with these guys and grab load of freebies ! These people are very friendly but they are always in the run - you can only locate them by listening to the MIX radio station or by visiting their website.

Coco Lim...

Once I promised a friend that I'll take a picture of my dog and post it up in my blog. There you go then, it's name is "Coco" (and because it's my family dog, we gave it a surname of "Lim") and it's decendant from my late dog named "Dino". My late dog died in the year 2002 due to old age.

Janice...

This is Jonathan (aka Janice) my counterstrike gaming partner from my cybercafe days... This eatout is located in Sungai Long, mostly serve odd drinks but delicious indeed.

Ken's Wedding

On the 21st May 2005, my old pal Foo Yoke Ken finally ties the knot with his girlfriend Tan Yin Fun. The wedding was held in Federal Hotel, Kuala Lumpur

From left to right; Michele (my girlfriend), the groom (Ken), myself and Ho Chee Chew (My college mate - never expect to meet him there though)

This guy is another special friend of ours. Elbert Foo (Nicknamed "Ah Boy") the groom's brother, he's my friend since badminton days (around 15 years of age I think), he's my teammate when I played games in the cybercafe, he's also the person who helps me with my car and most of all he's one of my trusty friend !