When Life Starts After Work

Hong Kong Travel: Day 3 Morning - Dim Sum at Cheers Restaurant

2009-10-20T00:34:00.003+08:00

Frankly, I love Dim Sum. As recommended in my guide book, it’s a must to try in Hong Kong. That was why i made it a trip to try it in Hong Kong before boarding the ferry to Macau.

I found a restaurant called Cheers restaurant (欢喜大酒楼) nearby my hotel that served dim sum at around 11am. Hopefully the name meant that they want the customer happy with the food and not them happy with the billing part.

One of the thing in Hong Kong restaurant is that if you don’t come in group, you will usually be forced to share a table with other people. For me, I shared with 3 old-aged aunties that kept talking about their grandchildren, maid, the in laws, their neighbors, the property, the government, the….. Yeah, they kept refilling the tea and kept talking. I guess maybe when I got old I shall do the same thing too, talking about stuffs and forgot about it the next day and repeat the same topic everyday. Hmm…

Anyway, to order, all I need to do was tick the menu, pass it to the waitress and then wait for the food.

Not to make myself looking awkward while waiting, I pretended to read the Chinese newspaper even though I was not good in Chinese words… nice pictures…

So what I had?

Okay, I didn’t know if the waitress had made a mistake or my Chinese words understanding had reached a sucky level, but I could swear that the upper right corner dish were beef meatballs. Maybe the name of the dish was too fancy that it misled me. Because of my respect for my grandma, I was not supposed to take beef. Well, since I accidentally took it, hope it was a real meatball and not part of the bull’s genitals.

Well, the dim sum was okay, still love the one in Malaysia though. Maybe the one here were customized to local taste. How much did it cost me? HKD155 and they said that dim sum was the cheapest meal of the day! Ouch, my wallet hurted!

Hong Kong Travel: Day 2 - Budget Traveling, Victoria Peak & Lan Kwai Fong

2009-10-19T08:01:00.001+08:00

The second day was the time I visited the more luxurious site of Hong Kong. Similar to the different of Penang island and mainland, Hong Kong island was where most upper class citizen stayed. I was quite impressed on how the transit track could be built under the sea, linking mainland and the Hong Kong island.

Budget travelling is when you try to minimize luxury transportation such as Taxi and utilize public bus or tram. I walked a lot everyday, never once in my life I put my legs to so much stress test. Well, it was also time to put my map reading skill to test and honestly I got lost a few time!

For example, I took this public tram till end of the line until chased out by the bus cleaner! L I was looking for Kennedy Road to get to Victoria Peak but ended up at Kennedy Town! By the way, it was a must try for the tram, except when Hong Kong was on heat wave because there was no air conditioner inside the tram!

Anyway, I finally got my way to Victoria Peak and there was nothing much to see but cloudy Hong Kong, blaming the heat wave again!

I bet it would be nicer on other days! By the way, everything is money, from the inclining tram to the peak to the panoramic viewing area of the peak.

Single journey: HKD22
Return journey: HKD44
Sky Tower entrance to see paranomic view: HKD15

During night time, the best place to be was the clubbing area. The famous area on Hong Kong island was Lan Kwai Fong. It was an upper class area with luxury cars and branded stores. Trust me, I lost count on the number of Porches, Lamborghinis or Ferraris.

By the way, guess what shop was this?

Anyway, this place was so famous that even the road sign was a popular spot.

Being ‘kiasu’, this idiot also ended up taking a photo there.

Did I mention this place was suitable for people from all walks of life and any religious background? I’m wrong? Why was a monk doing there?

Trying to enjoy the atmosphere, I ordered a glass of Hoegaarden even the price was HKD55. I guess a small glass would not intoxicate me much… again, I was wrong, I need two hands to hold the glass!

I took the 12.30am railway transit back to the mainland and walked back to my hotel while trying to act sober. J

Hong Kong travel: Day 1 Evening - Tung Choi Street (Ladies’ Street & Goldfish Street)

2009-10-18T13:08:00.007+08:00

In the evening, I went to visit the nearby Tung Choi Street. Actually I was aiming at the well-known Ladies' Street (女人街). But to my disappointment, no pretty ladies, just like a Malaysian style Pasar Malam or Petaling Street.

Even the goods are not really for ladies. Can’t imagine a lady wearing these on their body.

Next, I headed Goldfish Street(金魚街). Do you know that in Chinese ‘goldfish’ also meant prostitute? So I thought I was a sort of red light district, so curiosity got the best of me to try exploring this area. Guess what I realize? It was really an area selling goldfish! Damn!

Hong Kong Travel: Super Tuition Teachers

2009-09-28T02:23:00.002+08:00

One thing I find amusing in Hong Kong were these big banners or expensive advertisement, which were in front of big buildings,

or busses.

At first, I thought it was a pop group or some sort of new uprising superstars but when I studied the advertisement, they were all tuition teachers! It seemed that tuition teachers were packaged like superstars or idols in Hong Kong!

Even the newspaper advertisement was designed, staring a tuition teacher that looked like a celebrity!

The advertisement in TV was also quite amusing! Tuition teachers seemed like superheroes that save the day, helping students scoring As! So, superman or batman, try to beat that!

What happen to the usual celebrity or superstars that I have seen on tv? Are they not as famous as these teachers? Never know that teacher could be packaged like an idol or celebrity.. hmmm…

Hong Kong Travel: How Expensive Was The Food?

2009-09-27T09:31:00.002+08:00

Hong Kong is famous of its food. Just try to walk into any food stall or shop and you will definitely agree with me! If you visit the right place, some food would bring tears to you (yeah it was that good); however when the bill came, it would usually bring tears to your wallet too (yeah, they were pretty expensive!).

The thing with Hong Kong is the living standard is so high that a cleaner’s salary is around HK$8000+ (which is around RM3600++). This meant that every Hong Kong folks I met was far richer than me. I was the poorest of them all! Gee, imagine being the lowest earning guy in this society! Maybe I should be the one cleaning the cleaner’s place, or the person who opened door for the hotel doorman, or even the guy who polished the beggar’s shoe while asking for tips from him!

So, how expensive was the food over there?

Wanton Noodle – HK$36 (around RM17)

I took this noodle at an ordinary eatery called “Yun Kei”.

Look at the Wanton’s size, as big as golf ball!

The noodle was tender and nice! Although the price was still bearable for me, it made me imagine the price for those famous foods.

Yinyong Beverage – HK$18 (around RM9)

Accompanying my wanton Noodle was Yinyong.

This beverage is made from a mixture of coffee and Hong Kong Style milk tea. It had a rich silky taste, but I suggested you finish it before the bill come.

So as you could see, a normal food plus 10% tax would be around RM36 in Hong Kong whereas in Penang if we were charged RM5 at a coffee shop, we would be scolding the cook, or probably his mother, his family or whoever related to him or her.

By the way, the roasted goose and pork rice was good too, again around HK$36.

Anyway, I also tried the famous mango desert at Hui Lao Shan (许留山).

It was priced at HK$32, so no matter what I need to show that it taste good, right?

Actually it did!

Well, I too tried the stinky tofu but forgot to put the chili sauce, so it was tasteless for me.

Felt like biting into a normal fried tofu. Oh ya, the strange thing was it smelled bad, really bad until you had the first bite, then the smell seemed disappeared. I think it might be too smelly until my nose or taste bud shut down, masking off the stinky smell.

A lesson learnt was that after eating stinky tofu, remember to cover your mouth when asking for direction, and if you were asking for the toilet, remember to let them know that you had stinky tofu, else they would think you have accidentally sh*t or pee into your pants.

Still, Hong Kong food is really too expensive for me. Can you imagine the price of the food in restaurant? Nah, better don’t imagine, you might faint…

Hong Kong Travel: As Bad Lucks Followed...

2009-09-25T19:36:00.000+08:00

In my previous entry, I mentioned bad lucks following me to Hong Kong. Well, it’s time to elaborate that:

1^st Bad Luck: Heat

On the day I touched down in Hong Kong, heat wave started. The weather was so hot that Hong Kong Observatory issued a “very hot weather warning” the next day.

I with Malaysian-Design-Heatproof-body could not withstand the 35ºC. I was forced to change into a singlet but still sweating heavily.

I really didn’t understand some people who still managed to wear coat and tie in this kind of condition, either Hong Kong was full of crazy people or the people had blocked pores that preventing them from sweating! Gee, I was at the wrong place and wrong time! In addition, I packed a lot of long sleeves clothing and jackets, thinking the weather would be 28ºC!

2^nd Bad Luck: Lost

Getting too used to the transit in Malaysia where usually there is only 1 or 2 entry points, I actually printed a portion of the Google map to guide me to my hotel. I thought it should be quite straight forward – from A21 airport bus drop zone, Tsim Sha Tsui Station marked with green box to Ramada Inn marked with yellow box.

When my bus approached that area, I was surprised to see so many entry points for Tsim Sha Tsui Station ( ‘ж’ symbol marked with Green Box). I was immediately lost!

For a while, I was walking in circles, carrying a printed google map with blurry street names. Wrestling and rejecting lots of street people who was offering nice accommodation with cheap price, I managed to arrive my hotel 2 hours later under super hot condition. By then I thought I could finally have a nice bath and go for nice meal, but I was wrong!

3^rd Bad Luck: Hotel Problem

“Sir, we could not find your reservation or any payment made in our computer. Let’s us do some manual checking for you and get back to you shortly” I almost fainted after hearing these words from the front desk. I panicked and began to wonder whether I was scammed into paying a fake agent for my accommodation.

After telling the staff that I would be back after 2 hours, I left the hotel and went to a nearby park to draft for plan B.

It was not an easy task because hotels in Hong Kong were super expensive, in average a small room would cost HK$600++ (≈ RM290) unless you dare to try your luck with those offering cheap accommodation by the street.

Under enormous heat, not having a meal since I left Penang and body sweating badly, I tried to scout for nearby hotels with reasonable pricing. It proved to be difficult as many hotels were fully booked mainly by tourists from Indonesia and Philippines who took the opportunities of their public holidays to visit Penang.

2 hours later, I was glad that everything was settled and I managed to check into a small room.

Oh well, lesson learnt.

Need to do a final checking on the weather before packing for that country
Do not use the transit station as a landmark on the map because there might be multiple entries into that station.
Remember to print out the confirmation code after booking the hotel, or I might be sleeping on the street next time.

A bad start for my trip in Hong Kong? Stay tune!

Hong Kong Travel: From Penang to Hong Kong

2009-09-24T18:15:00.002+08:00

It’s an unplanned trip, so last minute that I was:

Working in the office 15 hours before the flight (3pm);
Researching the internet on Hong Kong 12 hours before the flight (6pm):
Gave up preparing information about Hong Kong and bought a Frommer's Hong Kong guide book 9 hours before the flight (9pm); and
Only manage to finish packing 4 hours before the flight (2am).

I finally could have a few hours of sleep when I took the 6am flight from Penang International Airport to Hong Kong International Airport, although I was forced to sit other that my assigned seat because of an ignorant semi-bold and fat Penangite who landed his big bulky butt in my assigned seat, telling me in Hokkien “Air Asia can sit anywhere u like”.

I planned to tell him “If so, can I sit on your face?” but before I opened my mouth, the passengers behind told me that there was vacant seat there; so I just took the seat and tried to grab some sleep.

Arriving Hong Kong, I was greeted with the most complicated airport terminal – there were so many stairs, so many elevators and so many directions to go. So, no choice, I need to deploy one of my survival strategy,” Monkey See Monkey Do”, I followed where most passengers went (except the ones that went to the toilet), and found my way to the immigration area. I didn’t know whether it was me or the officer was having a bad day or he didn’t know English at all but when I greeted him with “Good Morning”, he responded with an odd expression, as if I was going to kill his family. Maybe it was because I was from Malaysia which was famous for H1N1 virus that he thought my existence would kill him.

After getting green light from the custom officer, I went to pick up my backpack and finally exited into the public area. My guide book recommended me to get an Octopus card for convenient purpose, so without hesitation, I went to counter to get one.

Before I flew to Hong Kong, I was advised to speak English instead of Cantonese or Mandarin unless my Cantonese was as good as the local. The reason was that most Hong Kong folks disliked or looked down on Chinese from China (or they called them “Mainlanders”). Speaking inappropriate Cantonese or mandarin would sort of associate Chinese ethnic folks with mainlanders; and it would certainly deny those travelers to some assistances or services. Wonder why so? Watch the video below:

Despite being a crown colony of the United Kingdom for more than a century, I found it amusing when the guy at the counter tried to explain the usage of Octopus Card in English. It reminded me of a guy in South Park Animation, the City Wok Restaurant Owner and yeah, he sounded like him:

Well, it seemed I was ready to meet Hong Kong by then; I boarded bus A21 and headed downtown with my HK$67 (HK$100 minus bus fare) preloaded Octopus Card.

Little did I know, my bad luck followed me to Hong Kong. Stay tune for the next entry.

Leaving on a Jet Plane...

2009-09-16T00:01:00.001+08:00

Well, it’s time to do a checklist before leaving the country. Where am I heading? A country that Chinese or Cantonese folks thought that it smell nice. Here’s my chance to see if they were right or wrong.

My criteria of picking this country are:

It is a direct flight from Penang because I don’t like taking many connecting flights in an uncomfortable budget plane;
There is no need of any visa, so entering this country should be no problem for me;
I usually will relax myself watching dramas from this country, so there is a sense of familiarity; and
I know no one from this country, a perfect place to clear up my mind.

Let me do my checklist:

Travel Back Pack – the heaviest thing that I would be walking around with. Just in case, it got lost, I would lost my everything!!! I pray that the airport staff will not let this happen.

Changing the currency - RM1K could be exchanged to $2190! Not bad! Or is it not a good deal? Nah, it does not matter, as long as this is real money, then it should be okay. Hope that Queensbay money changer staff is honest enough.

Credit Cards – I don’t know which credit card is popular in that country, so let me bring all of them, Visa, MasterCard and American Express. This should cover all possibilities.

Universal Travel plug – This plug should be able to enter any hole around the world… oops I mean power socket. No worry for not able to charge my handphone, so I am still reachable by cell.

Disposable Underwear – I don’t want to wear the same underwear everyday although there is a suggested way that could make it lasts for 4 days per underwear (1^st day wearing it normal way, 2^nd day switch the front part to the back, 3^rd day flip it inside out, and 4^th day switch the front part to the back again!). So, to maintain my personal hygiene, just dispose it and use a new one everyday. A pack of 5 perfect for my 5-day trip!

Passport – My key to this country, luckily my face don’t change much.

My flight ticket / itinerary - If you still not able to guess where am I going. Time for me to show you my breakaway spot.

Well, I guess I have covered everything! 2 more days left!

Please don’t expect me to blog about it because I am not going to bring my laptop. I guess when I am back, I will be the same old me again! But if you don’t hear from me after next Thursday, I might either be lost or dead. Don’t miss me, ya? It’s probably a good thing being dead….

The Rain...

2009-09-12T12:40:00.002+08:00

Woke up early for a volleyball session this morning, I really need sports to clear my mind up. Judging from the attendance, I guessed I was not alone, there were people affected by this changes too! I might be the stronger one instead. But again, I should be, I should be the one cheering but I really can’t. The most amusing part was everything started with a ‘why’ and ended with a ‘why’ also, really defied all logics.

Half way through the game it rained heavily. Usually I would just scold the weather but today I didn’t, I purposely stayed longer in the rain. It was like the sky was telling me “Wake up, man! Wake up!”

For the first time I enjoyed the rain, thanking it for assisting me shedding some tears and trying to wash away the pain. For the first time, I didn’t feel cold at all as I knew I deserve this big splash of endless water on me. I sat by the roadside, hoping for more until an uncle looked out from his window and got scared, fearing that I was some kind of thief lurking around, posing to strike at his property. I left the place immediately….

Last night, I came face to face with the cause. I really didn’t know what to do. I panicked and checked myself into the office washroom to clear my mind. Then I related the whole incident to a close friend. I guess this was the time that I was thankful for having a shoulder to cry on, a female shoulder. (Damn, I really sound like a pussy, right?) Anyway, thanks a lot, I really need the comfort and emotion outburst! It made me feel better after that, until I dare to face the problem… for a while.

Now, I’m planning to accept my fate, going towards comfort than wishing for something else. Don’t want to aim for excitement that all the time ended with pain. Maybe I shall bring some good news next year. Just wait and see…

Tonight, I shall get myself drunk. There is a BBQ with booze going on and I shall make use on that to clear up my mind.

Anyway, on Monday, I shall brave myself to come face to face with the cause. Maybe by then I shall be more prepared, maybe by then I shall be stronger. Still, looking towards my big break 6 days later, praying it come sooner.

Feeling Down...

2009-09-10T23:09:00.001+08:00

I’m down….really down. The feeling is pretty awful. I feel like what to hide somewhere and escape to a place where no one knows me, escape from the reality of life. Every night I wonder how I could face tomorrow, how could I put on a brave and happy face accepting the challenges ahead. I have lost my appetite, I have lost my sleep, I guess I have lost myself.

Now I’m looking towards next week holiday for recovery, just somewhere I could find a peace of mind, somewhere no one knows me, somewhere secretive.

I never know I am weak in accepting changes, I thought I would be the happy one, but the pain is unbearable, it hurts till the heart, I guess I am human after all.

If only I think less, if only I am stupid a bit, if only I am not aware of what is happening around then I guess the impact is not that huge. If only… I am who I thought I should be… happier.

Hmm.. hope I feel better after bursting this out. Hopefully it eases the pain a bit. Was feeling like something stuck on my throat and not able to get it out, until I force myself to vomit out everything inside.

Please don’t ask me what happen, do not feel like sharing it at the moment. 8 days left for me to be momentarily invisible.

Professional Words vs True Words

2009-09-07T00:00:00.004+08:00

In this professional world, usually when we said something nicely, in our heart we usually meant other things instead. I had such experience when speaking face to face with a guy in the office from a different department a few days ago.

The people from that department love leeching on our departments work and then make it as their accomplishment. It usually ended that they were awarded the highest recognition in their department, the Department Recognition Award; whereas our department only manage to ‘eat lime’ (‘食桔’, Cantonese meaning of having nothing when the effort is all yours).

So, I met up with that guy and tried my best to convey the message to him professionally, “I know that it is really inconvenient for you, but it is better that we follow the formal process if you wish us to assist you in your task. You know our department is currently overwhelmed with important projects and if you route your request to our managers then he could assign the correct priority or attention and we could work on it accordingly. This is because later your request is far more important than us and we did not response on time.”

Actually what I meant was “What the hell! @!#$%^&*(&^%$ You personally asked us to work on this without our manager knowing and then you guys just sit there while we do your job! In the end, what we got? NOTHING! And you guys get all the awards and all the promotions! You think we were THAT STUPID again?!!! We will make sure our manager SCREW YOU!”

So, the guy agreed and emailed to my project manager; and of course got a slap in the face because usually they just threw everything to us and asked us to solve the issue without knowing what really went wrong.

My program manager said this to them (censored or modified some content to avoid leaking out some work sensitive stuffs):

When I thanked my program manager that time, I realized he actually meant something like this “When you went to see a doctor, the doctor surely would ask you what’s wrong!"

Yeah, he got a point. You were not expected to go to the clinic, striped yourself naked and asked the doctor to check what’s wrong with you!

Not-So-Eerie Events @ First World Hotel

2009-09-06T15:59:00.001+08:00

Finally can take some days off to spend my time with my family at our usual gathering place, but still need to check my work at Starbucks. L

So which Starbucks is this? Yup, Genting Starbucks.

Talking about visiting this ghostly popular place at the period when Chinese consider inauspicious (Hungry Ghost Festival month), let me share some eerie real events talked among my friends regarding the hotel that I am currently staying, First World Hotel; but with some twists in the end.

Midnight Visitor

One of my friend, Alex (not real name) visited Genting. He checked himself into First World Hotel. I told him that some hotel rooms were haunted, so it sort of scared him when he checked into a room with the unlucky number ‘4’ on the 14^th floor. The first thing he did was surely check whether any dead body under the bed and to his relief he found nothing.

It was around 3am, Alex just came back from winning a lot in the casino. He remembered me saying that if he won a lot ‘something’ might follow him to his room. So, he went into his room and tried to force himself to sleep. Drip, drip, drip… The sound of the dripping from the water tap seemed becoming louder and louder. The dripping sound was from his washroom where the tap water could not be shut tight. He got up his bed and shut the washroom door. Everything became quiet… sooo quiet…. until…. “Knock, knock, knock!” Someone knocking on his door at around 3.30am! He tried to shut his eyes but the knocking became louder and louder.

He could not stand it anymore and went to peep through the door. He freeze for a few seconds, a long-haired girl wearing red dress was at his door! He shouted “I did not do any harm to you, don’t come to me! I’m a nice guy!”. The girl then answered back “Mister, since you are a nice guy, why not pity me. Just cheap cheap RM300 and I could spend the night with you. I don’t have any business lately, please pity me”.

It turned out that she was a prostitute!

The Knocking Above

Another friend of mine, Jasmine (not a real name too) also checked herself into First World. While sleeping in the middle of the night, she was rudely awakened by knocking on the ceiling. She switched on the light and examined the ceiling. She peeked through here half-opened eyes. There was nothing there! Once a while, she could hear faintly screaming of a girl. She was terrified, and thus she called the reception, describing the situation and requesting a room change. Moments later, the reception called back, saying “Miss, we have called the room above and requested them to keep it down. Sorry for the inconvenience caused”.

It turned out that some couple was having ‘enjoying’ moments upstairs!

Well, this teaches us that sometimes First World Hotel is not as scary as we have imagined, but sometimes, it is …..

“Small White Face” (小白脸)

2009-08-16T12:28:00.002+08:00

Have you heard of the term “Small White Face (小白脸)” or a guy that “eat soft rice (吃软饭)”? “Small White Face” although literally translates as a guy with fair complexion, doesn’t actually mean so, else me (yes, I look fair, don’t believe? Date me! Ho ho) and this guy would be in the same category.

As for “eating soft rice”, it doesn’t mean eating porridge. So don’t go around pointing at guys having his nice porridge, saying “Aha! Eat soft rice!”.

It is actually a Chinese term, saying a guy that depends on his female partner for living. In Chinese perspective, it is always expected for the guy to be the financial support for his female partner. For any couple related events or activities, he is supposed to be the one footing the bill. So, if you see a guy coming out from a fashion store with the female partner paying for his clothes or after a romantic dinner, the guy just sat there while the female partner paid the bill, the chinese around might started to brand this guy as “small white face”. So, now you could see how hard it is to be a guy nowadays, so does that explain why some guys transform themselves into a girl?

As for me, call me old-fashion but I always stick to this gentleman rule. Although some times I asked a girl to treat me to a meal or movie, it always ends up I insisting on paying for them in the end. That’s why I look down on guys who borrow money from his girlfriend or have relationships that end up the girls got cheated off her money.

Lately, I stumbled on some scenes from “Sex and The City” (For guys who don’t know what series this is, it is definitely not porn!) where a highly-paid female lawyer was dating an ordinary bar tender, it triggered me to wonder what if my girlfriend earns a lot more than me and living in a more luxurious lifestyle that I could not afford. For example, a regular dinner for her would be around how much I spend for my meal in a month. If we ‘clicked’, I would eventually become “small white face” because of affordability since I always hope to get the best for my love one. It would then be a tough dilemma of dignity vs love.

So, in this world of gender equality, it is wrong to judge a guy without understanding the situation? What’s your opinion? Hope I would get stuck in such situation.

By the way, I still look down on guys borrowing money from girls.

A Glimpse at My Past...

2009-08-09T12:08:00.002+08:00

Things changed a lot! Not long ago, I was branded out-dated for not having a facebook account. After much persuasion I signed myself up, and got connected with a lot of my old friends. So much things have changed, lot of my peers seemed to have upgraded their social ranking:

Rank 1: Single

Rank 2: Married

Rank 3: Married with Kids

Rank 4: Dead

Thank god, all are still alive… I think, but most of them are in rank 2 and 3, while I am still in rank 1, so disappointing. L Even the most unpopular guy or girl, finally found their own happiness! I tried to stay positive and look at it from a different guy’s perspective to make myself happy:

Rank 1: Freedom

Rank 2: On a Leach Controlled by the Wife (or Wives)

Rank 3: On a Leach Controlled by the Wife and Kids

Rank 4: Total Freedom but Cannot Enjoy It.

I also felt fortunate that my previous feeling of disappointment of being rejected by the girls that I was after last time being compensated that they were no longer as attractive as last time. Some have shifted to watermelon shape instead of the previous ‘hour glass’ figure,

some looked older than my mum, some got my pity for ended up with abusive husbands or husband having extra marital affair (See? Not accepting me…), and some ended up being control freaks for their husband (phew!). Okay, I’m being extremely cruel in commenting this because of my previous cruel rejection by them (trust me, you can’t imagine what they did), but I could not believe myself that I could finally say this “LUCKILY I DIDN’T END UP WITH YOU!” It is definitely a final closure of my once broken heart, but I do still wish that they have happy lives ahead.

Anyway, I was glad getting updates from all my friends around the world. Some previous grudges were totally forgotten and those happy moments seemed flashing through my head, especially the funny volleyball one.

I’m still wondering, when is my rank 2?

I Don’t Know What Are They Singing, But They Are Good???!!

2009-08-05T17:21:00.003+08:00

I don’t know whether anyone experience this before – You listened to a foreign song, you don’t understand what were they singing actually but ended up being obsessed with the band. This is what happens to me lately. Think of it, it is weird, right? Who knows they might be scolding me right from the beginning of their song till the end; while I am being stupid, enjoying them repeatedly cursing me. It might also be something like this:

Anyway, I got to know a band called ‘All Around Attack (AAA)’ after listening to the opening theme of a children-based Japanese superhero series called Kamen Rider Den-O. It was a happy song that made me searching for this band performing the same song live:

I became more obsessed after watching some of their live performances on youtube – great performance and great song; just that I don’t know what they were singing about.

So, anyone is having such experience?

How Come Female Cosmetic Brand Sound like Chinese Foul Words?

2009-08-03T11:01:00.002+08:00

Last time when I was young, I learnt to pick up a few foul words because of bad influence. However, if my parents caught me scolding that, I would be in big trouble because usually they would be threatening to wash my mouth with soup water! Nowadays, it’s completely a different case; if any Chinese foul words accidentally slip out of one’s mouth, it might be the name of a famous cosmetic brand!

Years ago, when I was walking around the supermarket, i almost saluted the child who I thought was scolding her mother’s mother. I thought she was asking her mother to XXX up her mother, until I realized that she was just repeating a famous cosmetic brand name from Japan – Kanebo.

I don’t know the true meaning of the brand name but I do love the idea of ‘legalizing’ foul language into brand name. Imagine, I said this word when I was young, I don’t know whether I could be even speaking again (my parents wash my mouth with soup water, remember?).

I’m sure everyone heard of the Lancôme Paris, a prestigious cosmetics brand.

If the name was pronounced correctly, it sounded something like ‘land comb’; however if this brand name fell onto the mouth of a Chinese girl who don’t speak much English, then it would be a disaster! Once, I busted into laughter when I heard a Chinese girl asking her boyfriend to get her the facial product, “I would do anything for a ‘lan come’!” If I did not see that she was pointing at the product, I would have asked them to get a room! In hokkien, ‘lan’ actually means a male body part, and the pronunciation is different too. So, asking ‘it’ to come… you get what I’m trying to say. By the way, if it was said the over way round, there is a new set of meaning.

Last but not least, heard of this famous French brand?

I really don’t know how to pronounce the name, that’s why I never try to do so. Not that I am afraid to make mistake, but that my life would be in danger if I do so. Imagine I go to the perfume shop and said this “Hi, can I have a look at your ‘strange dick’?” I would be ended up in police station, because the only way I know to pronounce 'Guerlain' is ‘Guai Lan’ and what does that mean? Click here.

Hmm… I thought that it is hard to understand female, but it seemed harder to understand the name of their cosmetic products.

I Hate Promise Breaker!

2009-07-30T17:55:00.000+08:00

I just realized that among my friends there is a promise breaker. Before that, I thought it was me that the person cancelled our appointment at the last minutes for a few times (Yeah, I thought I am not a nice person to hang out after work). However, this time it was work-related, and a few months of planning gone into waste. So, for sure I am pissed … but silently.

I guess the reason that I am so angry about this is because of my family. My father is a businessman, so every word he makes, he never breaks it. Breaking a promise is a very serious thing in business world. I am brought up in this condition, so I seldom make promises, usually use the word ‘maybe’ or ‘try’; however, when I make a promise, I do intend to keep it.

I remembered when I was in Form 3, I ended my friendship with a friend, after that person repeatedly cancelled the appointment at the last minute, each time promising would make it up to me during the next appointment. I guess I did a childish decision that time. But at that time I was sure that people who never kept their words did not worth it to get to know them.

Now, I am re-experiencing the same situation. So, in order not to make a harsh decision, I went researching on what I should do next and I bumped into a site where you teach you have to deal with such friends. The suggestion was … “You could abandon the friend and the friendship!”

Since I did that 12 years ago, I guess I would just lower my expectation on such friend, maybe try my best to stay a distance from this kind of person. Don’t think I would even talk about this with such friend.

Do you think that I am over-reacting? What’s your comment? But I am feeling much better after vomiting all my disappointment out… Thanks for reading. J

Password - Your Choice and How Do You Remember?

2009-07-27T00:09:00.001+08:00

Our digital life revolves a lot on password. I don’t know about others but I have a lot of passwords to remember because some need different criteria:

ATMs: 6 digits
Office: Alphanumerical with at least one special character or different casing of alphabet; and the need to change it every 3 months
Public Emails: Some don’t allow special characters and cannot be too long
Some Online Forums: At least 8 characters long
Some Online Gaming Site: Maximum 8 Characters long.

That’s why I usually store all my passwords in a place where I protect it with another set of password. L Anyway, changing password is also a head-aching task.

When you run out of password to choose, you tend to use stupid ones, such as body part; but ends up having personal impact. J

So, how do you guys manage to remember all password? How do you choose a new ones?

Older Parents Got Abandoned

2009-07-26T11:37:00.002+08:00

I get extremely upset whenever I read news regarding children abandoning their parents. I know it is no such a big deal in western countries because the children was forced to leave their home when they reached the age of 18 as a sign of reaching adulthood and the government no longer sponsors their living expenses. It might even be funny to know a guy still live with their parents at that stage.

Imagine, a guy bringing a girl home for a ‘coffee’ (you know what I mean because western countries have different ‘culture’) and when things got ‘hot’ the guy told the girl, “Can we keep it low, my parents are sleeping”, or half way through the intimate moment suddenly the voice upstairs (no, the voice not from god) asking “ Son, are you alright? Did you break ous favorite chairs again? We hear you banging on something at this hour!”

Anyway, Asia is a different place. Most government do not pay for children living expenses right from the time they were born. Parents usually fought hard for that so that we could live well and happy. When I started working, I realize that it is a very difficult feat. Working by itself is stressful enough, not to mention trying to fulfill the basic necessities of the children. However, it seems for some, when the parents get old and responsibilities have been switched, the children no longer do the same for their parents, some even abandon them and let institutes or hospitals taking care of them, such an irresponsible act!

I’m sure when everyone gets old, the only thing they want are to enjoy the golden years with their grandchildren. It should be a happy moment. I remembered my father told me this when I was young “I will always work hard to give the best to you”, I shall pass back this message to them in the future and also to my children. As for those that abandon their old parents, I curse that your children do the same to you! Hmmm.. or maybe this was how the chain of reaction started….

My Old Phone (No Mood for Blogging)

2009-07-12T13:07:00.004+08:00

Okay, I have to admit it. Lately there is no mood for blogging at all. I mean blogging for the public, because I have made blogging as part of my daily task for my company – using blogging method to entertain everyone in my office. Yeah, how cool is that! But I still have to do my daily task, so ended up 24 hours was not enough for me.

Anyway, the other reason is that my crappy older phone is a turn off for me to snap photos or connect to the internet at home. Still cursing whoever that stole my phone! By the way, I learnt that in China, a new bicycle costs RMB90 (almost RM50) and a second hand motorcycle costs RMB600+ (almost RM350). So, you can imagine how rich was the person who stole my handphone which cost RM2K (almost RMB4000). Maybe for him or her, it was like hitting a jackpot! Imagine how many bicycles or motorcycles that person has now!

So, what phone I am using now? These 2 – Sony Ericson J230i and Motorola A780. The former one is for public use and the later one is for private / personal use. So, whoever have my digi number, yes, you are important to me. J

A780 is the one i’m using as a replacement for my stolen phone, it considered as the first phone I bought from the savings of my first, second and third paychecks 4 years ago. It was an high-end phone during that time with touch screen capability. Imagine how cool during that time when I flipped my phone and answered it and then I could use the touch screen feature for my work stuff! But now it feels like a brick to me.

Anyway, I love to find special reasons to get a new phone – my HTC TyTn II reminded me my first business trip, the cheap SE J230i reminded me of my current job that restricts camera usage in the lab and my A780 reminded me of my first job. So, before I have special reason to get a new one, I would try to make the best out of it. Well think of it, this phone is good in some ways, it’s crime deterrent in the first place. Don’t get what I mean? Watch this commercial.

Yeah, I won’t hesitate to throw it at someone because when I was working in Motorola last time, I got to know that my phone passed 3-storey height of drop test. That means if it’s a need, I could use it as a hammer to drive the nails into the wall or even smashing those hard shell crabs. Not bad of a handphone!

Still, this phone is getting old and partially malfunctioned. I could not answer it by putting on my ear because the internal speaker is dead but it is okay when I put on speaker phone mode. I felt like talking on walkie-talkie when answering the phone, there goes my privacy if I don’t have my headset with me. In addition, I lost my stylus and the external keypad could not be used anymore, only could use my hand on the touchscreen for dialing.

By the way, I was tempted by someone who recently got her hand on a suspected imitation Chinese phone. It was way better than those high-end handphones with those nicely integrated features. If not for the suspected high-radiation and the possibility of exploding in my pocket, killing my ‘reproduction engine’, I might be getting one for myself! Maybe I should rephrase my words, if I am a girl, I will get one! J

Funny China's English Language!

2009-07-01T00:00:00.000+08:00

Have you ever heard of a China Chinese speak English? I did and I almost vomited. Some Chinese wanted to sound sophisticated by mixing a few English words in their conversation but ended up sounding stupid in front of those English speaking folks. On my way to Shenzhen International Airport on Monday, I overhead a Chinese trying to say “Oh my god” on the phone, but sounded like “Owl might good”. To make it worse, the way he said those words sounded like singing with every word in higher key than the previous word (try mixing ‘Do Re Mi’ keys into ‘Owl might good’, then you should get what I meant).

A few days ago, I flipped through the hotel information guide and saw this statement under ‘Power’.

If you enlarge the photo, you would see this statement “220 dog days, 110 dog’s days”. I read a few times and really did not understand what it meant until I read the mandarin section - “220 V, 110V’. Wow, who translated this information guide? “Volt” = “Dog Days”? The translator either hated this 4-star hotel in Meizhou or the English standard over there was really low! I bet the later!

Lastly, another proof that the Chinese public has zero knowledge on English words or should I say the most common English cursing.

Sorry for those who do not understand the name on this signboard, but I bet you should be able to match its pronunciation. In Mandarin, it pronounces as “Hua De Fa” but it is acceptable if you make it sound like “What The F*ck”. I do hope that it is not the owner’s name. J

China Banned Google Using Stupid Reasons!

2009-06-30T03:13:00.003+08:00

Okay, I promised that to update my blog everyday when I was in China, but sadly, I could not fulfill my promise because Google is inaccessible in China!!! This meant that all those Google related sites were being blocked too, including Gmail and Blogger services!

And the reason? Let me quote: “…searches could bring up links to pornography, content associated with the banned spiritual movement Falun Gong and information deemed harmful to national security…”

If you ever strolled around most places in China at night, you would realize that there were a lot (and I meant a lot) of barbershops which operated at night! And these barbershops were full of girls who dressed sexily. Curious me went to ask around and realized that these places were brothel in disguised! So, why not China try to stop these places instead of blaming Google? Don’t tell me that there is an unwritten policy saying “ Not allow to VIEW pornography but say yes to DO pornography?” Anyway, let me borrow the photos below from flickr’s dcmaster to prove my point (no choice, my phone was stolen, remember?).

Okay, China argued that some content that we managed to search was associated with the banned spiritual movement of Falun Gong. First of all, I never heard of such movement thingy until the Chinese pointed this out and made it as if when I pressed ‘enter’ at google search engine there would be an advertisement showing such action. Secondly, have you ever read this article regarding this specific movement able to hijack Chinese Satellite Signal to beam whatever video they want? If they could take over satellite signal, I bet it would be an easy job to take over any search engine, radio or tv broadcast around China, so why only shutdown Google? They should close down every mode of communicate around China!

Lastly, regarding information harmful to national security, I really don’t understand this point at all. Maybe the spies in China did not know how to use those special gadgets or methods to exchange secret information like how we saw in those James Bond movies but maybe relied on blogging? In additional, if you typed “China Military Information” on Yahoo search engine, there was more information as compared to Google search engine. Again, is this a solid reason?

Anyway, I think I better stop writing about this. Who knows maybe my life would be in danger when I click the ‘publish’ button. Maybe the Chinese has set up a special taskforce to monitor and silence people like me? If there is such taskforce, I think the best name for it would be ‘China Independent Brigade Against Influences’. Sound funny? Try gathering the capital letters and you will get what I mean. :P

Journey From Shenzhen to MeiZhou (My Phone Got Stolen!!!)

2009-06-26T17:11:00.003+08:00

My phone was stolen! It was raining and the bus had just stopped at LuoHu bas station. There were already a few Chinese folks waiting at the door trying to sell umbrella. I decided it was best to ignore them because there was too many cheating case around. So, I struggled through the Chinese crowd and went to retrieve the luggage. After that I walked to the nearest shelter, by then I realized that my HTC TyTn II was no longer there! @#$%^&*

I went back to the place but the bus had just left; and I tried calling my phone but it could no longer be reached. My hatred against China and Chinese (China-made) had reached a new level!

Earlier on, when I was on the way to Shenzhen by flying with Air Asia, I realized that Chinese people not only talked loudly but could not sit still at all. After the flight took off, and “Fasten Seat Belt” sign was no longer on, I felt like someone had opened the cage and monkeys started to roam freely in the plane. My seat was kicked and pushed all the time when the 3 Chinese sitting behind kept moving around to talk with their 同志 (Counterpart). I barely could grab any sleep especially when anyone of them started laughing loudly. Damn, Monkeys!

So feeling tired and miserable, I got off the plane 4 hours later. All the passengers were then screened through by the Health officers to make sure that we were H1N1 free.

By the way, you should try listening to a Chinese (again China-made) trying to explain the procedure in English. It not only sounded like Korean but I really did not understand a word at all! From the airport to Luohu bus station, the bus ticket cost RMB20. I actually took lots of photos but sadly MY PHONE WAS STOLEN!!! *sniff sniff*

After blocking my sim card and grumbling over the lost phone for 2 hours (the phone that accompanied me to India L), I boarded the train to Meizhou. It was 5 hours ride and the ticket cost RMB73.

Again, I could not grab much sleep because every stop there was people selling stuffs, but this was no ordinary people, it was the train staffs themselves! They stop in the middle of the train and started promoting socks, toothbrushes, cigarette filters and counterfeit identifying device!

By the way, China is famous of using counterfeit stuff such as fake money, train tickets, phone, cigarette, etc. I was warned by my parents to always examine the money before receiving them because of too many this kind of cases! There were cases where u gave the shopkeepers real RMB100 note but later they calmed that it was fake and returned you a fake note.

So, arrived Meizhou at 8:45pm, checked into a hotel and then went for dinner at nearby shop. I noticed there were no stray dog around Meizhou, why? Because of this!

There were many shops selling dog meat! This means that if you want to have a dog in Meizhou, choose the small skinny ones like Chiwawa, not those fat and meaty ones like American Bull Dog; else the poor dog will become something like American Style Creamy Bull Dog Soup and “part” of the dog might become a real meat-‘balls’!

It was a long tiring trip to Meizhou, but I cursed the person who stole my phone! Hope my phone will accompany you to your grave! @#$%^&*()*&^%

A Night in LCCT (Sleeping On The Floor)

2009-06-25T03:00:00.001+08:00

It’s almost 3am now, I’m in LCCT airport. For some personal or should I say ‘family’ reason, I was requested to go Meizhou, China. The journey later would be tough because I would need to take a flight to Shenzhen, bus to Luohu Bus Station and then train to Meizhou.

Earlier today or should I say yesterday, I took a 10:45pm flight to LCCT from Penang. Life started hard after that. I was sort of sleeping on the floor while waiting for my early flight to Shenzhen. Yeah, it flight like being homeless or being optimistic a bit it felt like travelling in budget – backpacker style. As I was blogging, here was the view from where I was sitting.

If you had looked closer, you could see a lot of people sleeping on the floor! I really respect some people because he could sleep on the floor while snoring as loud as he could, waking everyone around him!

Some fortunate folks were lucky enough to find chairs and tables to lay their heads on.

Anyway, there were some inconsiderate people too! While everyone was asleep, they were chatting and laughing loudly! It was even sad to know that they were Sarawakians because all of them were wearing ‘Sarawak ITF’. Don’t know what is that stand for, maybe “Sarawak IdioTs Federation”?

Well, try to grab some sleep! Hope I would not wake up naked, being robed. L Will do more updates on my journey later, if there is any wifi available. Sorry that i am not able to make this entry sound interesting because i am really too tired.

Malaysia Cinema Suck Big Time!

2009-06-23T22:23:00.001+08:00

Hey! I had watched Transformer 2: Revenge of The Fallen! No, I’m not watching those pirated DVD, this is my proof.

But I ended up wishing I was watching pirated movie instead.

It was a rare sight seeing a group of only guys going to the cinema to watch movie with some of them not bringing their girlfriends, but it was logical because girls mostly would not be interested in this kind of movie and I also didn’t think it was a good idea to date a girl in front of scenes with the world coming to the end, unless that couple get turned on by scene with fighting robots, explosion and people dying.

Honestly, I did not enjoy the movie because all because of the cinema. I finally understood why pirated DVDs or downloads are popular among Malaysian. First of all, the movie was supposed to start at 5pm but ended up starting at 5.30pm. There was too much advertisements that I finished eating my popcorn even before the movie started. In additional, some advertisement suck big time! Imagine a war between human race short clip ended up trying to advertise a shampoo? Who approve such advertisement?!!

Anyway, towards the end of the movie when it was reaching the climax and I was at the age of my seat, suddenly the film got stuck and burnt. Nothing could be seen from the screen. It was such an anti-climax!

Not to mention about refund, there was even no apology or announcement given to the patrons by the cinema management. We were made to wait without any notice.

After around 15 minutes, the management managed to fix the problem and started playing a few scenes earlier. By then, I had already become confused because I had forgotten where I had left off and what was happening before that. To make it worse, the cinema cut away a big portion of the ‘broken’ scene, and I seemed not able to connect the storyline. Such a big disappointment!

In conclusion, DVD is still the best because our cinema is still not professional enough. What I mentioned just now is just a rare happening, those usual happenings like people chatting loudly on the phone, baby crying, and the people around you rudely showing off their smelly feet by taking off their shoes and the cinema management personal just ignore them, are usually the reason people go for pirated DVDs!

Some Engineers are Born Stupid

2009-06-04T12:42:00.004+08:00

I always believe that in order to be an engineer, you need to AT LEAST know how to make a logical conclusion; not to say making those complex decision that need a lot of data. However, my recent encounter with an engineer from another department proved me wrong! These were the conversation:

Case 1:

Engineer: How come it is not an issue with Test B? Is it because running Test A also failed?

AsX: Because we are not running Test B at all.

Engineer: Yes… and the system also failed.

AsX: So it is not Test B issue!!!

Case 2:

Engineer: Now you fixed the problem, can Test A, B and C actually run concurrently with Test D?

AsX: Are you running concurrently with Test D now?

Engineer: Yes, it is running. Concurrently with those tests (A, B and C).

AsX: Then, Test D can run concurrently with them!!!

Now, do you get what I mean with stupidity?

However, some engineers are just overworked…..

Snow Beer (雪花啤酒) @ Ipoh

2009-06-01T07:50:00.003+08:00

When I was in Ipoh, I was introduced to beer which was ‘snowed’, or they called it ‘Snow Beer’ in Mandarin Direct Translation (雪花啤酒). I had in at a sort of hidden place (Gee i make it sounded like an 'illegal' area) in Ipoh town called Restaurant Fren’s Corner. It was so hidden that it could not be found on wikimapia (at where the cursor is pointing).

The trick was they iced the mug; so that when cold beer was poured into the mug, the water content of beer was immediately snowed while not the alcohol content. It was a nice sight, but I had a lousy camera to capture it nicely. L

For those who didn’t know, they would probably blame the waitress for her bad technique in pouring the beer because the snow portion looked very foamy.

Anyway, snow beer seemed to suit Malaysia weather because of it coldness and any beer could also be ‘snowed’.

When you go to that place, don’t expect anything else except for the beer. No pretty waitresses accompanying you, no special lightings, and it was just an open area. Maybe that was why it was not found in wikimapia. Oh gee, I missed Lounge 2 @ Kuching!

Eunice Turns One!

2009-05-29T01:06:00.004+08:00

Do you guys remember who this is?

This is baby Eunice and she has just turned 1 year old. She now looks older than a 1 year old child, don’t know what her parents feed her, maybe fertilizer?

Okay, I meant a Happy fertilizer...

Last weekend, I travelled to Ipoh to celebrate her 1 year old birthday.

It was quite a grand celebration because we actually celebrated in a nice restaurant with red wine.

So, what has changed in Eunice since my last visit? Her first word was “Mum” but her mum was not really happy about that because Eunice was referring to food (Baby Translation: “Mum mum!” = “I Want Food”).

Eunice has learnt to walk, so when I met her, at first I kept asking her to come to me;

but then I got carried away and making more strange request like “roll over” and “sit” ( I thought I was playing with Max). But Eunice not understanding what I meant was scratching her head instead.

Eunice love taking photo with her mum, because she will naturally smile in front of the camera.... or maybe she thought her mum is her food?

It is not wise to make Eunice angry because she knew how to take her revenge, like confiscating my phone. Hopefully, she did not called up my parents and complained about me.

Anyway, Happy Birthday Eunice! Wish you grow up healthy and be a pretty lady. J

Is Exposing Your Butt a Trend?

2009-05-19T08:36:00.001+08:00

I know exposing butt crack is a trend. It is usually done by those sexy girls, trying to be sexier. It is similar to those wearing low-cut bras. But how do you explain this?

She purposely didn’t wear any panty and she purposely let down her pants! Maybe her butt was too hot till she need to cool it down by exposing to the air. Or… maybe she just wanted to fart freely. I really don’t know, but it reminds me of an animal!

Furikake, a Poor Man Food for Japanese

2009-05-18T00:01:00.001+08:00

I love Japanese, from the fresh food, cutes girls (is there any Japanese girl out there?), animes to the gadgets. Can’t deny that they are smart peoples! Do you know what is Furikake? It is a dry Japanese condiment meant to be sprinkled on top of rice In other words, it is an instant food sprinkler packed inside a jar.

It is nutritious because typically consists of a mixture of dried and ground fish, sesame seeds and chopped seaweed.

I came to know about this thing when my parents related their trip to Japan. The tour leader explained that during university time, she was poor; so in order to save on the meals, everyday she just took plain rice with Furikake. So, in other words, Furikake + Rice is a poor man’s meal.

My parents gave me one jar of Furikake with wasabi. They said that it was expensive. A check at the local supermarket showed that the most expensive one cost RM16. In order to simulate a Japanese poor man’s meal, I went to buy a pack of 1kg Japanese Rice costing me RM13.

I love Japanese Rice because it is larger in size and contains more moisture.

So, here we go, rice with sprinkled Furikake. It makes the rice looks nicer!

Hey! I tasted nice! It is like eating those instant noodle with those fake food flavoring, but the good thing of Furikake is that it is of real food, just chopped or minced into bits! I guess I will be living my life as poor Japanese for a few weeks! If I could make 10 meals out of this jar then my meal would just cost around RM2.90 each, not bad! I love Japanese!

Max, the Cute Maltese

2009-05-17T03:46:00.005+08:00

This is Max, a Maltese. It was a really cute puppy.

I got to know it when Dreckker and I was hanging out at Daniel’s new house.

Just in case you don’t know who are Daniel and Dreckker, they are my best friends since primary school! Daniel is a charming person that is due for delivery;

whereas Dreckker is a smart person who knows a special technique or style that could handle a dog while I snap the photo below. In short, should I name the style as….

Do you know why Daniel name the puppy, Max? Because he was too inspired by the movie Max Payne. I forgot to ask Daniel which one comes first, the dog or the name. Probably Daniel was not expecting his wife to get a toy dog; or maybe he wished Max would one day grow up and save the world.

Guess what was Max’s toy? A doll bunny!

We used it as a toy for Max to play fetch.

Max is a super active puppy, but sometimes when it is tired; it would just rest under the table while licking or chewing people’s toe.

However, when it starts to get annoying, we will just need to jail it!

Don’t know when will be my next time to visit Max again. L

Drinking with a Jerk

2009-05-16T14:08:00.003+08:00

Gee, I’m missing Kuching now. Missing all those drinking session with Dreckker although I sound like a duck and could sing “What a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong nicely. Okay, I don’t mean he sounded like a duck, still respect this wonderful singer.

Anyway, there was one drinking session where one of my friends joined in. We usually did not mix around with this person, but since I was in Kuching and he sort of wanted to catch up with me, so I too sort of invited him. Then he started to do those silly things:

Treating Waitress as a Whore

He might be drunk (without drinking any beer), but he kept asking the pretty waitress named Sharon to strip if she lost her hand when playing cards with us.

After realizing his ‘nagging’ was unsuccessful, he asked her to kiss me or Dreckker! Come on, she was just a waitress not a whore and we were in a pub not a brothel. Maybe he didn’t realize that he was in a pub; or he had just taken Viagra; or maybe he was too used to going to brothel till he forgot to switch off his ‘horny’ mode. Waitress is a human too! Some were just doing part time for their education fee. They might be smarter than most of us….emmm okay.. I mean some…

Wrong Way to Join in People’s Conversation

I always thought that joining in someone’s conversation would need some skill, like when people were talking about soccer, I should not join in and started talking about volleyball, right? Most importantly, when people referred a world known bank branch manager as a ‘banker’, you should not try to join in and said you were a banker too when you were just a small potato (Bank Assistant aka Credit Card Salesman) in that company! That was what he did! It was like when a doctor talking to others saying that he worked for a hospital, and you as a Domestic Hygiene Engineer aka Janitor in that building also claimed so!

Howling for No Reason

The simple rule in a pub was that no matter how hot the music was, if no one was dancing or getting ‘high’, never attract attention by being the first person howling for no reason. People would thought you had just escaped from the mental institute; or maybe that was where he was hiding all this while… hmm.. By the way, it reminded me of an animal.

Friends Are Never Your Customers

I disliked people with hidden intention. When I said wanted to wind down and had a beer, please stick to that. This so called friend of mine, started asking me whether interested in getting credit card from him or not. I just needed to apply then cancel it a few months later. Unless he tried to give me a platinum card free for life, which I would be really thankful, even though there was a sales person offering so. But please, friends are not your customers! Don’t meet them up because you wanted to ‘use’ them for your own benefit! Before that, I had already helped him by promoting his stuff on my blog but sadly, it was not enough for him. L

Anyway, not going to ask him out next time. Maybe only to those secluded places.. emm think again for my safety, maybe no. J

Bad Review: Buffet @ The Eatery, Four Point by Sheraton, Kuching

2009-05-15T17:00:00.000+08:00

It was supposed to be a nice buffet at The Eatery of Four Points by Sheraton, Kuching. Dreckker told me that it was worth visiting, so we decided to go there on Saturday evening. We made a reservation for 2, but somehow it was not recorded in the computer.

Later we told the receptionist that we had requested to dine outside, beside the pool for some reason and this triggered the waitress’s memory! Why? Because we were the only 2 idiots that requested to sit outside!

Look at the varieties! It seemed to have all!

Local Dishes,

Chinese,

Chicken Rice,

Italian,

Fried Tempura Stuffs,

Raw Stuffs,

Bread and Cheese,

Desserts.

Despite these, everything was a total disappointment! The Fresh Seafood was not fresh at all! The Fresh Oyster and Scallop tasted like they were drowned in the water a few times. I felt like eating those flour-made-seafood-imitation stuffs, those usually consumed by vegetarians. No taste at all!

The Fresh Salmon looked ‘dead’ for days (a fresh salmon would always have a visible white stripes and the meat is more reddish-looking!) and tasted like dead fish!

As for dessert, there was new stuff – ‘FLY’ing Muffin (Fly-In-Muffin)!

The chocolate fountain was not a fountain at all. Nothing was flowing. I think a non-operation chocolate fountain machine made a good decoration than a bowl of white chocolate sitting on top of an electrical stove.

The macaroni pasta tasted like macaroni with cheesed based soup, too watery!

The cream soup was not creamy at all; maybe they meant they use cream to make soup (Eg. Chicken to make chicken soup!). It was so tasteless and watery that we sent it to the waitress straight!

Anyway, you should try the herbal soup. I finished it all! And I was proud of it! They should make it as a Fear Factor challenge or some sort of competition! It made bitter gourd tasteless! Personally I think it only suited those older Chinese Folks and not everyone could stand the bitterness!

As for the service, it was bad. They seemed shorted on waitresses! Dreckker and I kept waving for attention but it seemed no one noticed us. Our table ended up with more and more dirty dishes!

I only found my favorite food when I was going for dessert. The cheesecake was marvelous, but it was gone within seconds; and replaced by other cake that was less delicious.

As for Dreckker, he went to this buffet to enjoy the Chicken Rice??!!!

For those who are interested (Buffet Dinner):
RM58++ (Sunday – Thursday)

RM68++ (Friday , Saturday)
Children below age of 12 will get 50% off while those below 3 eat for free.

Over-selling Promotional Video

2009-05-14T00:01:00.002+08:00

I saw this promotional video when I was waiting for my flight to Kuching last Friday. I didn’t pay attention at the wordings below; just mesmerized by the places it showed. I was shocked when I saw the place it was promoting! (Enjoy the video).

Yup! Penang! The production company really did a good job! First, I could not even recognize that it was Penang and secondly it seemed like over-selling Penang! I for once want to be in those particular places inside the video, but not at the real place.

Sorry for the big reaction, but I think they overdid the video. Look at the water at Batu Ferringi, since when it was blue in color? Look at the street, since when it was so clean? In additional, some of these places even the local Penangites had not heard of!

I bet this video attracted lots of disappointed tourists, but it was one hell of a video!

Anyway, it reminds me of those Wrestling Action where they always oversell things to the extreme!

J.O.V.I.T.A

2009-05-14T00:00:00.000+08:00

After being complained (at the comment box) last year, I made it a must to ask Jovita out for a dinner for my Kuching trip. Jovita herself reminded me of how much I had aged throughout the years in West Malaysia – Going out with her gave people an impression that I was an old man preying at those underage children.

To make thing more interesting, she is currently a teacher (Guy! I know what you are thinking. Go and clean your brain!!!). I don’t know how a girl who looks like a 16 year old manages to handle a class of students that not only look taller than her but around 16 years old also. But from what I was told, she manages to handle it well. In additional, she was very fierce in class. (It makes me agreeing to the logic that smaller dogs are fiercer than those big ones. Don’t believe? Try observing the dogs around your neighborhood)

I have known Jovita for 10 years. She was the only person that gave me a present for my graduation (which I forgot to send any gift for hers. Shame on me… L) I still keep her present in my cubicle. It was 2 Parker pens with my initials carved.

I have even kept the note that was wrapped together with the gift – “Congratulation On Your Graduation!!”.

These pens were only used for my signature.

Anyway, this might be my last outing with Jovita because she threatened to reject all future outings with me because I didn’t allow her to pay for anything. It is always my personal policy not to let girl footing any bill when it was just 2 of us (unless she is my wife or gf J).

By the way, for those who are interested, Jovita is still single and available. J Oh ya, if you notice, her eyes were quite special. (I should have a more close-up shot than secretly snapping photos of her)

A Summary of My Nightlife in Kuching

2009-05-13T08:45:00.003+08:00

Let me try to summarize my nightlife in Kuching for 4 consecutive days.

Fast Cars

Open Bar

Draft Beer

or Draft Beer Accompanied by Cigarette

Pretty Waitress accompanying us playing cards. Her name was Sharon by the way.

My sight when I arrive at that bar

My sight when I was about to leave

My best friend when I need to relieve something…especially for stuff coming out from my mouth.

Return Penang ‘Broken’…

My Home, My Garden

2009-05-13T00:01:00.002+08:00

This was part of my house in Kuching, it was where I belonged.

A place where I grew from a small little plant…

into a rebellious young tree that kept rejecting all fertilizers or chemical that placed on it…

and hopefully into a strong tree that not only provide shelter from the furious sun or heavy rain but also fruits to quench people’s thirst.

It was not easy to maintain this garden but my dad kept insisting we did it on our own instead of hiring some caretakers. The reason was that every effort we put in, we would enjoy the outcome more. So every month we need to mow the lawn,

rack the leaves or grass,

and sweep the sidewalk.

Sound easy right? Not if there were always thousands of these blood-sucking bastards following you around!!!

Proof: Air Asia Seat Uncomfortable

2009-05-09T15:38:00.003+08:00

I always complain that Air Asia seat is very uncomfortable, especially for domestic flight (where there is not XL seats). Some people just don’t believe me at all. Well, here is a proof for all of you.

Imagine this guy taking a seat trying to be comfortable for 2 hours journey to Kuching. Maybe he might end up being stuck in one of the seat. Poor guy he could not stand after the flight, maybe his body has deformed?

Righteous Figure

2009-05-03T20:07:00.002+08:00

There was a complain forum for my workplace that allow any unsatisfied employee to file complaints or questions on anything they like. Once approved by the administrator, the stuff would be published to all and then someone from the top management would be responsible to answer it.

Lately there was a complaint being filed related to what I said in my ‘Double Standard’ entry. Although the management did not publish this complain, it was answered by our division manager through internal mails. My colleagues who read my blog thought I was the one responsible for it; this is understandable because what I complained was basically the content of the complaint. But what surprised me was that non-readers also pointed their fingers at me, saying I did a good job.

For once, I felt happy instead because in my colleagues’ mindset I was considered as a righteous figure, the one who dare to stand out for everyone (probably the one who get fired first L). I guess maybe because of my past action that implanted this thought into their mindset – I wrote an email to the management, telling them about a crazy janitor that kept barking (scolding I mean) at everyone in the lab (Maybe I shall blog this in future). This photo reminded me of the janitor.

Well, still it was a nice feeling. I suddenly felt as righteous as Superman…. emm… not this one!

Double Standard (A Dissatisfaction Voice)!

2009-04-27T08:51:00.002+08:00

Just want to voice out my dissatisfaction against work life. I realize that there is really double standard in my working place.

Under the same organization, there seemed to be different treatment among different group of people. I’m not complaining that I need to be in dungeon mode but the treatment among our group and other group of employees who is under the same mode. To make thing worse, the reason that dungeon mode was being initiated because of misjudgment among some minority within that special treatment group. That’s why I have become disappointed with my organization.

I remembered in November 2005, I left my previous company for the same reason. Production and Research and Development (RnD) team seemed to be living in 2 different worlds. Comparing privileges, benefits and salary increment, RnD team seemed being appreciated more; while production team not only did not have such treatment but they also need to go for 24-hour standby call! Unfortunately I was in the production team and during my Exit Interview (An interview for people who were leaving the company), I told the interviewer that such double standard existed. She knew that and told me that it was a normal practice by every company. That was why when I left my previous company, I swore to myself not to step into production floor again!

Interviewer: RnD job has better benefits than production. This is the market trend. So, you are leaving this company because of this dissatisfaction?

AsX: No, I’m following the market trend. J

Now I am having such unfairness dissatisfaction again! I guess our group is not truly appreciated by top management after all!

Fake Tax Submission Site?

2009-04-27T08:17:00.002+08:00

Just now I was planning to finalize my tax form submission because usually the server would jam up on the last day. However, I forgot the website and plan to ‘google’ it through using keyword ‘ehasil’.

Strangely, 2 similar sites popped up – one with ‘gov’

while the other one with ‘org’ as the address.

I got curious and visited both sites. Everything was exactly the same!

I knew that the ‘gov’ one was the real site but for now I seemed could not find out the difference between them and the hidden intention behind the ‘org’ one.

Maybe there are some experts or specialists out there that could look into this?

Trick to Enjoy Special Meal & Better Service but Original Price

2009-04-23T00:00:00.001+08:00

If you want to enjoy special meal with better service but at the same original price, bring along a big camera when you enter the shop. Just pretend to snap a few photos when you enter that shop, tell the boss or workers that you are doing a food blog. Trust me! Everything would seem better!

The food would taste nicer with probably extra ingredients.

No matter how many people are waiting for the food, you would probably be served first. And you could see the workers are being more hardworking, especially when clearing up the tables around you.

That's why most food review from those TV programs or books are always good but when you visit that particular shop, it taste normal (or maybe like crap!).

Embarrassing Shopping?

2009-04-22T00:00:00.000+08:00

If you are a guy and your girlfriend or sister or mother requested you to buy sanitary pad, would you do it? Yeah, I understand that it is a complicated stuff – Wing, no wing, panty liner, regular, maxi, night and etc. But would you go to the feminine hygiene section and try to slowly select through the racks and probably being stared by those of different species – woman?

How about if you are a girl, would you be going to the birth control section and buy a pack of condom? Do you consider this as embarrassing?

These questions crossed my mind when I saw Guardian displaying disposable underwear for sales on the walkway. Some people are too embarrassed to flip through them, not to mention opening it up and see the actual size!

Except for Gokuson who was desperate to get one for his Japan trip!

Unwanted Pressure at Signing Up Application Form

2009-04-21T00:00:00.000+08:00

Yeah, economy is really bad. It’s so bad that when you signed up anything at a road show, lots of people would be guiding you. This poor guy should be under enormous pressure when filing up the application form. I could imagine that every word he wrote would be like signing a death form.

I remembered when the economy was good and I was wearing shabbily (I enjoyed being low profiled all the time), no one would even bother to entertain me, especially when I walked pass those credit card promoters. I could see them branding me as ‘Poor Guy’ on my forehead. Hmm… but I guess I am really a poor guy after all. But lately, as long as you are a human, they would be trying their chances on everyone. Economy is really bad now!

Interesting ATM Incidents

2009-04-20T00:00:00.000+08:00

How fast does it take for you to withdraw money from an ATM machine? For me, it usually takes less than 30 seconds to key in my password and press all the buttons I want. However, some people really take their time doing so.

On one occasion, I saw a girl flipped out her long list of passwords from her phone, followed by searching for the one she wanted then slowly key in the password. After that she checked her balance then proceeded with keying the amount she would like to withdraw. Finally upon getting her cash and receipt, she went to check her account balance again, just to make sure it matched with the balance written on her receipt! By then, you could see lots of people queuing behind murmuring about her. If I were the one queuing behind, I would have started setting up a stall selling drinks to the people queuing over there.

ATM although common to most people, there is some people who are not so familiar with it. Let me relate some interesting incidents that I had ever encountered.

Wrong Language

There was a Malay girl who accidentally selected the wrong language at the ATM menu. She panicked, turned around and asked loudly “Ada siapa tahu Bahasa Cina? (Translation: Anyone know Chinese language?” Then appeared a kind Chinese Lady who went to help her. Hope by now she understood the ‘cancel’ button.

Body Password

One of my encounters was regarding another girl. She looked worried when it was about her turn to withdraw money. Then she did a very strange thing – She hold onto her breasts, followed by her waist then measured her hip. After that, she happily keyed in her password. At first, I was confused, thinking she was trying to seduce me (Yeah, my brain excited pretty fast). But when she was entering the password, she was saying out loud – “34 -28-36”, then I finally got it! Don’t know how long this password would last.

Wrong Account

Last time there was a donation drive for Palestinian refugees (Gazza War Donation). All Maybank ATM machines would be displaying an account number for us to transfer our donation when we logged-on. There was this old man who panicked when he saw that account number appeared after he keyed in his password. Then angrily he shouted to everyone “Don’t use this ATM machine! The machine displayed my name as Gazza! Someone might have hacked the system!”

Talking ATM

On one case, I saw a guy who I thought just got his ATM card. He inserted the card and then started to talk to the machine “I would like to have RM200.” There was for sure no respond. He repeated “ATM machine, I would like to have RM200.” Still no response. After a while the machine timeout, and the card was ejected. He looked at his watch, turned around and announced to everyone “I think the person behind the machine is on lunch break!”

I guess there are still lots of interesting story regarding ATM that I have yet to encounter. Any interesting ones for sharing out there?

By the way, here is one interesting picture:

Dungeon Mode

2009-04-19T11:51:00.001+08:00

Yesterday my boss’s boss had initiated ‘Dungeon mode’ for everyone in our group. ‘Dungeon Mode’ in our working environment means everyone will be locked inside a confined space where we would be working hard for a project that is prioritized as critical. This period would last for a few weeks, so starting Monday we would not be allowed to leave the building, except going home to sleep at night. Annual leave might be denied too. And all engineers were to only focus on that particular project and nothing else.

Now I am concerned on my May trip to Kuching as well as my time for blogging!

This was the first time my group having this kind of situation, because the project we were working on had reached a super critical stage. Far worse than the end of the world... for me... i think.

As for Dungeon mode, I guess the only way to counter it was initiating Prison Break…. I mean Dungeon Break!

'Rain Man' @ Infinity Cyber Cafe, Sungai Dua

2009-04-18T01:07:00.002+08:00

It was Friday lunch time and for the first time (last time was by accident) I decided to join my colleagues for their daily network gaming session at Infinity Cybercafé, Sungai Dua; because I was getting stressed up at work and I needed some fresh air.

It was just an ordinary cybercafé with lots of computer;

and we were planning to play Defense of the Ancients (DOTA) against each other.

That was when I saw a guy in a plastic raincoat inside the cybercafé.

This was the second time I saw him. The first time was when he was using the computer while carrying an umbrella and still wearing a raincoat inside the cybercafé. At first I thought there was some leaking from the ceiling and the sky was dark and cloudy. But this time was different, it was bloody hot outside!

I could not find a logical solution as why he was doing that. Maybe he was a superstar in disguise (Michael Jackson did wear mask when in public). Maybe he had just escaped from the hospital because of some awful infectious disease and he would like to prevent it from spreading to everyone. Maybe there was a hole on his head that could not be exposed to the air. Maybe he was trying to be a superhero in disguise (Who knows when he stripped off his raincoat, he became….emmm…. himself?)

But what I understood from my colleagues was that he visited the cybercafé regularly usually at noon and still with the raincoat on (just in case someone would like to get his autograph). I could not imagine that when it started to rain, what he would be wearing…. a diving suit together with an oxygen tank?

Anyway, he was walking around as though it was a normal thing. So the longer I stared at him, the more I felt that I was the abnormal one. I was feeling naked!

Guy's Urinal Etiquette (Unwritten Rule)

2009-04-16T00:17:00.004+08:00

For girls who never sneaked into male’s toilet, this is how guy’s urinal looks like.

These things allow us to ease our liquid faster without the need to sit on a toilet bowl and pulling down our pants. Usually those shy guys would rather go to a toilet bowl to ease themselves without exposing any part of their… how to say.. manhood!

Usually there are some unwritten rules when using the urinal – Always stand straight and look at your front; never and ever look around. But I guess this only applies to Asian.

So what are these unwritten rules? If guys don’t know, please play the educational urinal game.

Basically, the written rule is that you should never use the urinal beside an occupied one if there are many others unoccupied ones around…. Or should I say if you are not planning to start a conversation with him. Yeah, I do chat with my boss on work stuff when I am ‘working’ on my pee. =p

But come on, if I don’t know you and there are other empty urinal around, please go to them. I always feel like the person who stand beside me:

Want to compete who complete the ‘shooting game’ faster (Over-competitive people do strange things)
Want to compete whose ‘gadget’ is bigger (If you really want to do that, just ask how big my underwear is. And it is XL!); or
Is gay and want to peek (If you are, why not you snap a photo of yours, magnify 100 times and frame it)!

Some guys need to remember that some people’s ‘devices’ would not function properly under watchful eyes!

Photo Collection: Queensbay Model Search (Female Session)

2009-04-13T14:40:00.002+08:00

As promised on my previous entry, I managed to get a lot of photos from a cameraman. If you would like to thank him for the photos, let me know and I shall pass the message to him. Feel free to click onto the photos for better resolution. These photos occupies 100Mb++ of my storage space! L

Sorry that i need to remove some of the photos because it was not nicely taken.

The waiting period…..

The moment of 1 minute fame….

This girl is cute, my favourite of all!

This is the girl that i think will win this competition.... so mesmerizing!

"生子没屎弗" (Kid without Butthole) Curse

2009-04-13T00:24:00.000+08:00

I don’t know why but all languages I know have some cursing about one’s mother. For instance English, people do curse ‘Son of the B*tch’, without realizing that actually he was cursing the mother of that person instead.

However, Chinese are more cruel, they curse the next generation too! "生子没屎弗" (Kid without Butthole) Curse usually aim at those who did terrible things, so that karma would take effect and that person would have children without any butthole or anus, so that his future generation would just extinct. The Chinese are very particular about their next generation.

At first, I thought this is just an ineffective curse until I stumbled upon news about this. It seems this is called 'Imperforate Anus', a condition that afflicts only one in every 5,000 children! This is a very high rate!

Gee, I shall be doing more good deeds from now on, before I make someone pregnant. =p

Queensbay Model Search (Female Session)

2009-04-12T16:10:00.001+08:00

How come there were so many guys’ eyes wide open, staring at one location?

How come there were so many pretty girls queuing up to go on stage?

It was Queensbay Mall Model Search!

I accidentally stumbled upon this event when I was having my usual Sunday morning coffee at Starbuck Queensbay Mall. The morning session was for girls only and there were about 133 registered participants for the female category! I guess it was the only time guys could stare at girls with their mouths open without the girls feeling offended (Some guys had those stare that could make the girls felt like ‘being raped’!)

First, I would like to apologize for the blurry photo because it was pretty hard to take a good one. The organizing staffs seemed love to steal the limelight;

and usually when I was aiming nicely a head suddenly popped up in front of my camera!

Since this was the preliminary round, you could see different kind of people trying to have a shot at fame, even those Godzilla look-alikes!

Some girls didn’t know to do a proper cat walk, and ended up imitating Asimo;

whereas some thought the stage was a sports field, jogging up and down.

I didn’t know whether my criteria of a model was too strict or my expectation was set too high, but for me I could only pick a few okay ones to qualify for next round. And I think Cath and Cannas would have a better shot at this.

However, I managed to spot an Indian girl who I think could be the winner of this event. Sorry for not taking any photo of her because my camera phone was too mesmerized by her that it failed to function.

I left the place before the male session started, because I was not interested to watch at all. I might try to get better quality photos of the models from other camera man; and shall publish it tomorrow…. hopefully!

A Mask? Don't Get Cheated, Guys!

2009-04-12T08:00:00.003+08:00

The air in Penang lately is quite fresh because of the occasional rain. But I was puzzled when I saw a mask at the living room table. I wonder why my female housemate would use a mask at this time of the day.

I almost put the thing on, until I saw a book on the table. It was a book about pregnancy then I finally got it! It was not a mask, it was some sort of breast milking device! And my housemate was pregnant again!

It would be a stupid thing if I put it on! Lucky me!

Something Wrong with the Water?

2009-04-11T10:59:00.001+08:00

It was a usual lunch time yesterday. I always have my lunch in the café so that I could catch up with my work or have some shuteye before continue the second part of the day.

Suddenly I saw our site Managing Director escorting a group of VIPs to our café for lunch! I guess it must be because of the bad economy that business meal is not allowed anymore.

The VIP went to grab some food from the café and sat a few tables away. By then our site Managing Director has disappeared into our mini-mart and appeared with a few bottles of mineral water! He distributed the bottles to all VIPs!

Suddenly, it scared me! What’s wrong with the water in café? I had been drinking these water for 3 years! Does that means the water is cursed so that I would always be loyal to my company? Does that means I have some hidden disease waiting to be discovered by the doctors? Now I understand why my company is paying us RM70 each for every in-house body check. L

Sorry for not Updating

2009-04-10T00:09:00.001+08:00

Hi! Sorry for no update in these few days. My mind has been triggered in a confusion state lately. Something that I thought was deeply buried inside my mind has resurfaced again. This time I need to find a way to deal with it. Hopefully it is once and for all.

In addition, work is killing me; actually it is killing almost everyone in my department. I guess it is because of less resources and more tasks, making everyone doing more than one person’s job portion. At least, this could keep my mind from being confused for a while.

There are also some personal housing stuffs to deal with. Yeah, I seemed like being overload with stuff. Hopefully when weekend comes, I could rest my mind for while. Let see how it goes.

Stay tune. I would blog again on weekends…. I hope..

Cheated by Ham Sandwich

2009-04-07T00:02:00.001+08:00

Sometimes when I was too busy with work, I would just go to my office cafeteria and get myself sandwiches, just to buy some time for me to work on my stuff.

Strangely, the ham sandwich always tasted weird. I could taste the meat on first bite but the taste seemed fading out on every next bite. Usually I would ignore that because I was too busy.

On one occasion, I got curious and checked it. Damn! I got cheated by the looks, such a stingy seller!

Not going for ham sandwich in the future! Now it makes me wonder, are they using a real egg for the egg sandwich? The egg might not from a real chicken….

Flashy Flashy (Exposed)

2009-04-06T00:18:00.002+08:00

What would you do if you see a guy which his zipper open?

Go to tell him?
Hinting him by saying “Hey Man, the bird is loosed!”
Hinting him by pointing at that location?
Shouting out loud and hinting him at the same time by saying “Hey! It’s red Renoma!”
Do nothing, hope he would notice soon.

I had an incident when I went for dinner at a food court on Saturday. There was a girl who sit so clumsily that she exposed her panty. It almost blinded me!

For a while, the food I was enjoying was so bright! I could not avoid the sight because it was right in front of me… I felt like it was staring at me!

For a while I asked myself, should I go and tell her? But her boyfriend was beside her. So I better don’t risk my life.

The only way I could help is blogging it and reminds all girls to sit properly next time. Don’t spread out your legs… unless you need to. =p And guys, always check to make sure the 'door' stays closed, okay?

My New Baby.... Ellesse Watch

2009-04-05T12:46:00.003+08:00

I finally got a new watch!

It was not a branded one and at first I thought that it was a girl’s watch because the brand name is ‘Ellesse’. I was thinking, “Is it me or girls starting to wear guy’s type of watch? Maybe I am really out of fashion already”. My thought was corrected by the person in the advertisement and it was a guy… a straight guy – Jay Chou!

Comparing from my previous watch it was way cheaper and plus the 60% discount, I felt that it was worth spending. But as long as I like it right? Somemore there is one year waranty period...

See? It looked great…maybe until I broke it then I shall complain again (I am clumsy at times).

I Broke My Watch (Changeable Attitude Salesman)

2009-04-03T14:10:00.001+08:00

It was a heartache moment for me. My Omega Seamaster seemed ‘decapitated’ but it was all my fault, I accidentally dropped it during my shower after my gym session. Maybe it fell by itself, screaming “I rather drop dead than seeing u naked!”

People usually said that branded real products are better in quality. But this is usually not the case. Most of the time, pirated goods seem to last longer than the original one, although the look of the pirated products fade off easily.

Anyway, I went to check with the shop and they said it was beyond repairable, contrasting to what they said when I bought it from them. Here are the scenarios:

Before I bought the watch, I felt like a king:

AsX: Is there any warranty for this watch?

Salesman: Yes, 2 years.

AsX: Can I return it when if later I feel like I don’t like it?

Salesman: Yes, within 7 days.

AsX: It is expensive; could you give some discount for me?

Salesman: Yes, I will try to give you staff discount.

(I should have tried this..)

AsX: Can you bark for me?

Salesman: Yes. Woof woof!

AsX: My shoe is dirty, can you wipe away the dirt for me?

Salesman: Yes. Yes.

When my watch was broken, and asked for repair under warranty (I felt like crap):

AsX: My watch is broken but it is still under warranty. Can I claim that?

Salesman: No, it seems beyond repairable. The warranty does not cover negligent u know? It is written at line 7 under the terms and conditions. (The salesman suddenly turned into a lawyer).

AsX: How about if I pay for the repair?

Salesman: No, as I said it is beyond repairable. (The salesman then changed into a watch repair expert)

AsX: Do you accept trade in? It should worth something right?

Salesman: (Getting more impatient and rude) No, does this looks like a recycle centre to you. (Suddenly sound like ‘Ah Long’ collecting money)

Anyway, I think I can live without a watch for now. Don’t think I have any important date coming up (As if I ever have any date L). Maybe I shall go shopping for a watch at Queensbay mall tomorrow. Hmm…

Post April’s Fool Syndrome (My Apologies to My Victims)

2009-04-02T00:01:00.002+08:00

Yesterday was April fool’s day; did everyone have fun fooling others? If yes, it is time to apologize. I have a list of apologies to voice out to my victims. I remembered the last time I said 10 Sorry was to a pretty special girl. Anyway, here i go:

1. I’m sorry that I taught your kid the ‘international sign’ language.

2. I’m sorry for putting salt instead of sugar in your morning coffee until u thought some lizards have sh*tted in your coffee.

3. I’m sorry for telling all the colleagues that you are gay, until the other real gay attracted to you.

4. I’m sorry for putting lizard inside your underwear until people have mistaken you groping your private part in broad day light.

5. I’m sorry that I have given your dog a ‘colorful’ fashion.

6. I’m sorry for telling your wife that you have an affair with your secretary until she went for another affair just to get even.

7. I’m sorry for poking holes on your condom and not informing you when you use it.

8. I’m sorry to tell you that I have fallen in love with you until you have very very bad nightmares.

9. I’m sorry that I made a false police report saying your male dog is gay. (click to enlarge the report)

10. I’m sorry for calling you a stupid f*cking bitch…. Hold on… I mean that, I take back my apology!

Did I do the above stuff? Maybe yes, maybe no. Will I do that in the future, who knows… I might.

Ghostly Pranks for April Fool's Day

2009-04-01T01:23:00.001+08:00

It’s April fool’s Day and it’s also Qingming Festival (清明节), a time where Chinese would go to pray or pay respect to their ancestor at the cemetery. So, why not we have some ghostly pranks to fool everyone around? Actually I wanted to play these pranks but unfortunately I got too tied up with works and did not have time for preparation. Here are my suggestions:

1. Ghost of Japanese Soldiers

Gather a few friends and rent some old Japanese soldiers uniform. During midnight, march along a busy road with the person in front holding a big Japanese flag. Try to observe the traffic.

If you see cars speeding away when they got close to you, that means your trick works. Who knows you might appear in front of the newspaper the next day! But remember to run away when accident occurs. Some drivers might get too shocked to drive.

2. Followed by Ghost

This prank could only be done at night, as late as possible. Tie a rope with one end to a white clothing and the other end to the back of your victim’s car. Make sure he does not spot it when he gets into his car. When he speed his car, the clothing will be lifted up. It will be like how you try to fly a kite.

When the victim sees something white following him, sure he will scare of out hell. But the faster he drives his car, the higher the ‘ghost’ would be flying above.

3. Someone is talking

If you have a pair of walkie-talkies, turn it on and place it nearby a person who love to be alone or maybe under the seat of the victim’s car. When no one is around that victim, try to say something over the walkie-talkie like “I know what you did last Sunday” or better still, try screaming over the walkie-talkie.

Maybe you can time how fast the victim gets out from there!

4. Hell Bank Notes

Slip some Hell Bank Notes into the victim’s wallet without his noticing. Then try to ask for some changes from the victim. The victim might freezes for a few seconds when he sees Hell Bank Notes inside his wallet.

He might be thinking he had some ghostly encounters without his realization.

Have fun with these ideas! And let me know the outcome. Remember that it is not for the weak of heart!

By the way, here are some less exciting pranks (maybe lame):

For girls only. Call your boyfriend, says that you are pregnant.
Call your partner (husband or wife) and says you have an affair with someone else.
Call your friend at 3am in the morning, remind him to go to the toilet.
Tell your dining mate that has just finish his meal that you had removed a dead lizard or cochroach that was found in his meal when he was not looking at it
Tell your colleague that his boss would like to see him regarding his retrenchment; and tell your colleague’s boss that your colleague would like to see him regarding his resignation. (Make sure you don’t get fired in the end)

My Plan When Homeless

2009-03-30T00:01:00.001+08:00

Do you remember this? Unfortunately the renovation is starting, now the living has transformed from like this

to like this.

So, where should I be spending my few days when the renovation continues till my room?

Here’s the plan:

The gym at my workplace opens at 7am and close at 9pm everyday, even public holiday.

Usually during the opening or around closing time, there will be less people around.

So every morning, I shall use the shower place for a nice warm bath, and get ready for work.

Then I will pretend to walk into the office as if I have just arrived work late (around 8.30am – 9am). Every evening, I shall do the same and get myself ready for bed.

So, where should I be sleeping? Luckily my workplace opens 24 hours everyday, so I shall ‘borrow’ a conference room.

To prevent the guards from disturbing, I shall put a note outside, saying important meeting is going on. This should keep the guards from knocking the door, disturbing my sleep. J

I get comfortable easily, just a pillow will do. The cool temperature from the air-conditioner is a bonus!

Not bad of an idea, huh?

Are You That Actor on TV? (Part II - I'm Spiderman!)

2009-03-29T14:15:00.000+08:00

Since I got mixed comment for my previous entry, I tried to play around with MyHeritage website to see which celebrities looked like me.

The first one was cool! I looked like Tobey Maguire, the actor that played Spiderman the movie…weeeee!

The second photo was okay too, a sloppier-looking Tobey Maguire. Not bad!

The third photo was a girl! Damn!

Hey it was almost the same pose as the second! Does Tobey Maguire looked like Zhang Ziyi also? Nope!

Are You That Actor on TV?

2009-03-29T01:40:00.003+08:00

It was around 4pm. I was strolling at Queensbay Mall hunting for my ‘brunchea’ (breakfast + lunch + afternoon tea), where I saw 2 pretty girls walking in front of him, whispering to each other while kept turning back their heads. I sort of overheard one of them saying “Is it him? It must be….”

Suddenly they stopped and turned around facing me. One of the girl (the cute one) asked me, “Are you the guy on TV?”

I was shocked and froze for a while. I had not watched any TV shows for quite sometime, and the first thing that crossed my mind was Malaysia started to have those candid camera shows that had caught me doing some stupid stuff on TV. I panic. My first response was “No, no, no, you got the wrong guy.”

The other girl (prettier one) tried to reassure “ Are you sure you are not the actor, ‘blah blah blah’ (didn’t catch the name) that starred in ‘blah blah blah’ (I was in panic mode, didn’t catch the show name either)?”

I was relieved a bit because she mentioned ‘actor’. I answered cheekily but honestly, “If you like that actor, I would like to be him but sorry I am not”.

I then introduced myself and managed to get their names – Angie and Yik Hung (雨虹). We exchanged numbers but it didn’t cross my mind to take a picture with them (Still recovering from panic mode) before we parted ways.

But seriously, do I look like some guy on TV? Let me try to display my photo and you tell me. Maybe that actor only acted on a small portion on that particular show - maybe those janitors sweeping the street that had a few seconds of fame.

Don’t think I would be calling them up, but this was the second time I knew pretty girls from odd situation. The first one was when I was having coffee with Dreckker at a hotel in Kuching (if not mistaken, the hotel was called ‘Holiday Inn’). It was after midnight and my flight to Penang was in the afternoon. 3 girls who were sitting in front of our table requested the waiter to pass a note to me.

The note was written “Are you Sean?” Obviously, they had gotten the wrong guy. So, being a gentleman, I walked over to introduce myself, while leaving Dreckker sipping his lonely coffee (He grumbled to me after that). I could not remember their names but we exchanged numbers after our short chat. I never called them up, even forgotten which numbers belonged to them (should be still stored in my phone).

Human Resource (HR) Screwed Up

2009-03-28T14:44:00.003+08:00

* This was supposed to be a confidential stuff. But unfortunately I managed to get my hands on this, don't ask me how. Someone might force me to remove this entry. At the meantime, read it while still available.*

The economy crisis is really getting into the head of everyone. Some people are so worried that they start losing focus on their jobs.

There was one company in Bayan Lepas, Penang where the Human Resource (HR) department did a pretty funny thing. It might be wrong press of a button, or it might be accidentally adding everyone in the company into the mailing list or maybe it was an early April fool joke for the one getting fired; but an email of such was sent out.

Moments later, the email was recalled, but the damages had been done. Everyone in the company knew who was going to be retrenched. I could not imagine how that particular guy felt. It was like a virtual surprise party but the message was “You are fired” instead of “Happy Birthday!”

Later the IT department manager was called into the HR office. He was being persuaded to develop a virus to remove that particular email!

Why? Why? Why? (An Unfair World)

2009-03-27T18:49:00.004+08:00

Why non-smokers contract lung cancer, whereas smokers are still puffing happily at the age of 70?

Why non-drinker suffers from liver cancer; whereas drunk parents are getting ‘high’ and causing the death of their baby?

Why some people got contracted with AIDS for no reason; whereas those who go for prostitute, or maybe too poor for that and start ‘screwing’ bottles still could live till 77?

Why do innocent girls kept falling for “mouth-sweeten” playboys, whereas good guys still spending Valentine’s Day alone?

Why those who practices bad things go unpunished; whereas those who do good still suffer from chain of unfortunate events or even die young?

Why hard workers are still struggling at the lowest corporate pyramid, whereas those ‘bullshitter’ or ‘orbiter’ (they ‘suck balls’) are being promoted and having good life?

Lots of people are asking me these questions lately. I too ask myself these questions very often. But I just don’t have the answer. Are we living in a fair world? Is the secret of life is being bad to live well? Where is justice? What is Karma? What is Life?

Reaching for Support (Donation for Yvonne)

2009-03-27T00:59:00.004+08:00

Update 27/3 5:05pm: Funeral details - 9.00am on 29th March 2009 (Sunday), refer to map for location.

Update 27/3 7:35am: Received an sms msg: "Yvonne has just passed away."

Earlier this month, I got to know from Lessy that her friend cum colleague, Yvonne Leow suffered from Lymphoma cancer which name as Burkitt and currently in stage 4. She was just 30 years old, but currently under intensive care unit of Penang GMC hospital. This really saddens me, why this is happening to her at such young age, where she has just started a family.

Surfing through the blog that is updated by her husband everyday, I can’t help it but feeling moody. I look at myself, all those bad lucks I am suffering could not compare to this, not even a little bit.

Although I don’t know Yvonne, I sincerely hope that she could recover soon. Hope she would continue fighting and not giving up the slightest chance! That is I tried to my very best to help. Currently, Yvonne’s medical bill has exceeded her medical coverage and there are 2 ways to help out – Making blood donation to Penang GMC blood bank under her name, and every donation could help deducting RM50 from her medical bill; or make monetary donation.

Since I consider my blood as dirty and full of bad cholesterol, I opted for monetary donation instead. Today, with the help of some colleagues, we managed to collect some money to pass to Yvonne’s husband. But still, I don’t think I have done enough to help out. Therefore, I try to blog this out, hoping to get more supports from everyone out there. For all kind hearted people out there, if you are interested to place some support, you could always make donation to the account below. Yvonne’s full name is Leow Ying Won; and her husband’s name is Anthony See Chaur Yih.

Maybank Account: 557175410230

Name: See Chaur Yih

Tel: 0164044321

For Penangites, you could always go to GMC Blood Bank to do donation under Yvonne’s name (Leow Ying Won); but remember to schedule an appointment before going there.

I don’t know why I am so involved in this, especially for someone I don’t even know, maybe because I felt the warmness when someone expressed their supports when I was laying half dead, suffering from Herpes Zoster Virus. Maybe because someone really helped me a lot that time till I wish to spread out this act of kindness.

For now, I wish everything goes well for Yvonne….

My Life Coach (updated)

2009-03-26T00:01:00.004+08:00

Update 26/3 12:50pm: 'Chicken' purposely called me up to add in the advise from one person.

A few days ago, I watched ‘Yes Man’, starred by Jim Carrey. It was a really motivating movie!

The message that they tried to deliver was “Never say ‘no’ to an opportunity”. I made me want to try something else in life and explore all possibilities that life could offer. Then I remembered that I too had some life coaches. Their words shall always be kept in my mind my whole life.

To be fair, I would state the good life coaches and bad ones.

Good Coach:

Benny Sng, my volleyball coach during Secondary School: “Life offers a lot of stuff. Dare to try everything, good or bad; just don’t get addicted”

Yap HM, my work mentor: “It’s either the environment changes you or you change the environment; why not try to be the active one”

My Dad, indirectly taught me: “There is a solution to everything, all you need is just use your brain. Nothing is impossible! Be creative!”

Bad Coach:

Daniel, one of my best friends: “To improve your alcohol intake limit, all you need to do is just drink and drink and drink until you puke. Then you would be better next time.”

My ~~'Chicken'~~ friend on smoking (see whether I could piss him off by this): “All you need to do is ‘tarik’ and then ‘tarik’ again!”

Ting, one of my primary school friends indirectly taught me: “Gamble? When you lost the first time, double up! If lost again, double up the total again and again and again……” (Don’t ask me what have happened to him)

(just added) Another of my closest friend: “Say no to prostitution! Say yes to illegal massaging outlets run by those pretty China girls with super extra services”

Hope some of my words do give people good guidance because sometimes i talk a lot. Hopefully they don't remember the bad ones =p

Thank You, Readers!

2009-03-25T01:00:00.003+08:00

I had received people saying that they liked my blogs, but never once I saw people leaving comments on other’s blog saying so:

Since I could not contact him to thank her personally (the address showed a dead link). Therefore I would like to express my gratitude to her as well as all the readers and friends out there for letting me share my comments, words from the heart or even scolding towards some people. Thanks a million, you know who you are!

With this, I would be fighting for more privileges just for my readers! Again, thanks a lot!

Free Haircut

2009-03-25T00:48:00.001+08:00

I planned to go to gym yesterday but when I reached my car I realized that I had forgotten to bring my gym bag along. Since I was too lazy to walk back to office looking embarrassed, I decided to go for a free hair cut at Quickcut, Queensbay Mall. The hair cut should be free because I had accumulated 4 stamps as required for the free haircutting.

Last time when I just came to Penang, I did not know of any barber or hairstylist in this island. Before then, I only had my hair styled at one particular shop in Kuching. It was a family shop where my father and brothers went there in groups for haircuts. Most of the time my hair was cut by a mentally unsounded man. Seriously! Just to correct your imagination, he was not as dangerous as this.

He was good, really good! Although once a while when he was cutting my hair, he tried to read something from the bible as if he was styling someone possessed by evil spirit; or related his swimming experience while scooping my hair; or sang a song happily while once a while clapping his hands. But it was nothing to get worried of, my hair was still in good shape, nothing compared to this:

So, back to not knowing any good hairstylist in Penang, I chose Quickcut because the stakeholder was a celebrity, an almost bald celebrity – Eric Tsang.

The funny thing was that I thought his baldness was a result of wrong hairstyling experiment. That was why he ‘erased’ his hairstyling error by balding them! So I thought he would be teaching his employees to follow his footstep and not trying new style on the customers before successfully trying it on themselves.

The problem with me was I am a very loyal person, when I set my eyes on one thing, I would not change my mind. Since my first experience was good because they were fast and met my expectation, I had never been to other places for haircut. As for hair style, I always stick to ‘Spiky’ although in Kuching they called it ‘Monkey Cut’ (Maybe monkeys in Kuching used this style) or ‘Gay Cut’ (Now you know why gay friend and gay-gay friend are attracted to me).

Smoking Pregnant Mother

2009-03-24T00:10:00.006+08:00

Trust me, I have nothing against smokers. For me, if you smoke responsibly by isolating yourself against non-smokers, I would be respecting you at least; because you know you are harming yourself instead of others.

When I went to have my lunch at Dome Queensbay Mall, I saw a pregnant mother bringing along her small kid, puffing at the smoking area. Sorry about the blurry photos because I was sitting quite far.

I was really angry at this kind of mother. I know being a mother is a stressful job but if you want to get pregnant, don’t smoke! If you want to smoke, don’t get screwed without protection! Don’t you know that you are harming the baby?!! How to distinguish you from those parents that abuse their kids?! You are harming your very own ~~fresh~~ flesh and blood even before birth! What kind of mother are you?!! Some more she was bringing her own kid to breath in her second hand smoke!

Yeah, I know it was someone’s else problem, but I really could not stand it! Maybe she wanted to create a smoked yogurt flavor kind of breast milk for her baby or kid (There was a research proving that a mum’s diet could flavor her milk)!

If I caught my wife (if I ever have one in future) smoking or drinking alcohol during her pregnancy period, I would surely disown her, no matter how much I love her!

Please please please smoke or drink responsibly…..

Proof: Engineer is Poor

2009-03-23T00:13:00.000+08:00

Long long time ago, Engineer is considered as a highly respected and well-paid job. Now it is really a different case. Lots and lots of engineers get retrenched in Malaysia. I guess it is no longer considered as a high paying job now. Let me try to show some proofs by comparing me to my peers:

This is what is currently driven by my close friend, a Research Analyst.

How about my IT Director friend? Honda Civic 2008!

He is considering switching to Mercedes some more.

My doctor friend is driving a BMW currently.

And my friend who graduated with the same engineering course as me but decided to turn pilot has bought a Volkswagen Golf GTI.

As for me (an engineer) and my boss’s boss ; we are still settling with a national brand.

To make thing even worse, my boss’s boss who wanted to do an expensive tinting on her Proton was response with a big laugh by the tinting guy because the tinting might cost more than her car!

Engineering is really a poor job. L

Buffet at The Golden Triangle @ Queensbay Mall

2009-03-22T12:23:00.007+08:00

It was the eve of my brother’s birthday. Just in case my brother had some plan on the actual day, I decided to treat him for dinner on Saturday. He suggested the Golden Triangle at Queensbay Mall after seeing the promotion advertisement.

The first impression was not that good because the restaurants worker was not Malaysian, seemed like from either Vietnam, Laos or Thailand; because I told him that we her made some reservation and she looked at me with ‘question mark’ on her forehead. I then said booking then she understood. But this proved that the restaurant prepared actual food originated from these places!

The environment was quite good but sadly it seemed that no much people knew the existence of this place!

Arming ourselves with plate, spoon and forks, we were ready for food.

These were the menus for the buffet. There were some strange food names like ‘Choo Chee Fish’, ‘Namprik Kapit’ and ‘Papet Prawn’; but we decided not to take the risk. J

We later realized that the food actually came in the portion of 2! Luckily we did not double the quantities.

The juice was made fresh but sadly there were only 3 choices, pineapple, umbra, watermelon; my bro picked umbra.

So, these were what we ordered:

Deep Fried Spicy Soft Shell Crabs, not really spicy but very crunchy!

Tempura Fried Sotong, I thought this was Japanese stuff? A Japanese who lived in Thailand created this?

Thai Curry Powdered Prawns, I realized Thai Curry was also not spicy, unlike Malaysia ones. But look at the size of the prawns! And the prawns were fresh too!

Seafood Otak-otak in Coconut. Usually when we ordered this outside, there was no proof of it being cooked in coconut; maybe they cooked in coconut essence or artificial coconut flavoring. This was the real stuff! And look at the content inside – Prawns and Sotong (Calamari)!

Tom Yam Seafood Soup, okay, this was a real spicy stuff! I ordered another glass of water just because of this! There was no shortage of ingredient inside.

Sotong in Spicy Thai Sauce, still not that spicy, but it tasted good!

We ordered a plate of Belacan Fried Rice because some of the dishes really need accompanied by rice. Or maybe we as Asian could not live without rice!

As for desert, we took risk and ordered ‘Thap Thim Krop’! It was a water chestnut cooked in coconut milk, not bad!

Looking at the menu posted on their website, the restaurant workers should hate us! We ate so much! But honestly, it was a great buffet! Would be visiting there next time! If there was no such promotion after today, yeah, you could blame me and my brother!

Paranormal Activities at My Working Place

2009-03-20T18:49:00.001+08:00

I was trying to cheer someone up by telling that person ghostly incidents at my work place (Ya, I am a bit abnormal to use scary stuff to cheer people up) until I realized that maybe I should blog this incidents too!

The building that I am now working is never considered old but there are some strange incidents being reported. There was one case where a female janitor went into the female toilet for cleaning and ended up screaming for no specific reason. It was like she saw something illogical and went mad momentarily (Maybe the sh*t was talking to her)! The janitor was then reassigned to other place; and could not be found after that…. maybe mental institute or what. So what really happened inside the toilet, no one really knows, except those from higher management. But their lips are sealed!

I worked in a restricted lab that only accessible by certain people. The lab was decorated with lots of security cameras, so we always would turn to the security when things gone missing within the lab. Strangely, the security guards never once let us view the tapings. They would only release the result of the investigation to the manager. This raised my suspicion because some of us who worked late ever experienced strange happening such as seeing a shadowy figure sitting at one corner (from the corner of our eyes) that disappeared when we turned our heads; a white sheet that sort of flew pass then disappeared at the blink of an eye; the sound of our security enabled entry door open and shut with no one entering the lab. At first, it was thought that the mind was playing tricks but when more of us comparing notes and found the similarity, it did raise the hair from the back of our skin!

So is that why security did not allow us viewing the footage from the CCTV? I guess I would never know the answer till one day I become someone important. However I would like to share one clip about a schoolboy who caught ghost from his camera. This incident was reported in the newspaper.