The M'sia Mega Sales Reminds Me of a Friend

The Malaysia Mega Sales is back in town. Before I went for my movie tonight, I managed to sneak into Zara for a quick look and end up spending quite a bit of money.

While I was shopping inside, a sudden memory hits me. Last year about the same time, same Sales and same shop I was shopping with a friend of mine. I've lost touch of this friend. Not too sure why. But it's really sad how much has changed compared to just a year ago. Really do miss the time spent at the Curve on Friday nights eating some heavy food and proceed to have the oh-so delicious Sweet Potato Macchiato at Holly's Coffee in Cineleisure. Then before 12am, we turn back to the same restaurant that we had dinner in to have a few pints of Paulaner.

Those were the days. Now I don't have a friend who can do that with me anymore, in terms of enjoying the same kinda stuff. Good friends are hard to get, not to mention great friends. Hey M, I hope you are doing well down-under. I'm sure you will. Take care aite. Miss ya friend.

Rojak Entries

Colleague
The colleague whom I wrote about in the previous entry is fine. She gave me a scare, but anyhow she's coping it fairly well. And now she's ready to move on to the next big thing in her life.


eBay and PayPal
I've finally registered for eBay and PayPal. It's a long procedure with the credit card verification and stuff, but seeing all the good price they have online, am drooling now. Yah, even if it includes the shipping cost, some stuff are like 50% cheaper than I can get in Malaysia.


Safari 3.1
It's a new browser developed by Apple. I downloaded it yesterday and got the chance to try it today. I've read some review about it. Overall, the speed and design is really attractive. Some review wrote that it's even better than FireFox. Of coz there's 1 or 2 flaws. So far, a few flaw that I discover is:

1. The font looks damn fat. But the review that I saw warn about it already.
2. Since Steve Job doesn't think Adobe Flash is all good enuff yet, the Safari doesn't come with a Flash plug-in. As almost 90% of the website now contain some sort of Flash (Slideshow from photo hosting website, nuffnang advertisements), I keep having messages popping-up and say I need to get the plug-in and it's getting irritating for every page that I load, I get the same pop-up message. (refer to the screenshot attached below)
3. Normally when I'm writing entry in blogspot, I will use Ctrl+U because there isn't any button for me to underline. Safari doesn't allow it.

Hiatus
I am going to Labuan for vacation from Friday onwards. Won't be back until Monday. Yup, it's sweetie's hometown and it's my first time going there. :P Don't know how it looks like, but hopefully can catch a few nice pix there. So, all being said I might not blog while I'm there.

Streamyx
Seems like Streamyx has caught "The Great Malaysia Traffic Jam" virus as well. The connection has been so slow since Tuesday. I called up their call centre on Tuesday to hear if there's any announcement about some problem over at their side. The funny thing was, when I called up and select "English" as the language, there wasn't any announcement. Then when I accidentally pressed "Bahasa Malaysia" as the language I got an announcement for traffic problems in somewhere in Pahang and also Setapak (which they wrongly announced it as Setapak, Selangor).

Sad, fed up, helpless and useless

Something happen to a colleague in the office today. When I heard the news, I was shocked. I didn't know what to do. Or even, what can I do to stop it?

She one of the only 2 friends that I have in the company. Now that she's gone... it's really sad. Though it's juz a matter of time she is leaving (according to her plan), but this soon... it's juz not right at all.

I tried sending her a text and calling her, but she's neither replying my text nor answering my call. I'm sure it's a big blow for her. Now it feels so empty without her sitting behind me... not that we speak a lot, since we can't do that... but we did write a lot.

I'm sad, fed up, feel helpless and feel useless. I feel that I have to bear part of the responsibility of what she's going thru. Afterall, I was the one who got her back into the company. Afterall, I'm probably the bridge that can link things given the privilege that I have.

I'm so sorry...

It's been a while

Haven't been updating my blog for quite a while. Since the last blog, a lot has been happening. I've got my PSP, that explains my laziness in updating my blog while I am at home... Hehehe... Then it's the work. Been really busy with work in the office and what am I working on was to get Su Chin back and Mei into the department. Yup, my lovely colleague that went to Shanghai is back. After all the dramatic endless farewell dinner, she's back in Malaysia and back as (probably) my boss. Hehehe... glad to have her back today into the office.

Another busy stuff that was occupying my working life is the move. I'm no longer a Cyberjayan. I've officially moved to KL today. Yup, office has moved, not the whole office, juz my department. It's great to finally being able to work in the town. As usual, there's always pros and cons. Pay extra for the fuel and car park, but save an hour everyday from travelling. And I finally got a desk where there's windows nearby, actually it's everywhere.

Now, my department is a team of 5. And few more to come. It's going to be different from it used to be, but there are always pros and cons to everything. So, I am eager to see what's installed for the future.

Then it was my Hong Kong vacation on Aug 8-12. Was really nice, except it's a group of friends which stands at 11 people includes me and sweetie. It was a bit chaotic. Nonetheless, everyone went shopping crazy. The sales and stuff is irresistable.

Anyhow, that's the quick update... Had watched a lot of movies, almost complete my 8+1 movies to watch this summer. Will update on that in a bit. Now, back to my PSP. Hehehe...

Long forgetten family

Went to a (kinda) reunion with my ex-teammates. It was Jack's belated birthday and so he took the effort and excuse to finally get everyone out. It's a damn good excuse I must say. If he don't do that, we can only see attendance rate of on 40%. But this time, we can see a 70% attendance, remaining 30% got some emergency or pre-set appointment.

Here's the pics.

Suresh, Jeet's husband.

The birthday boy is lighting up his own cake.

Birthday boy singing his own birthday song.

Lina (setting up her camera), Renne (setting up his camera TOO), Jaime and Selve (setting up for me to take their pics).

Overall, it's great to be able to see everyone sitting together and talk about the past and habits again. Gonna remember this external family forever.

Random Pictures

Angeline and Agnes. My colleagues. Someone was saying that Angline looks really pretty that day, hence I forced her to take a picture. Somehow, a phone camera is still a phone camera. The lighting part really spoilt the quality (prettiness) on Angeline's face.

Dusk at Cyberjaya. Taken while driving... dangerous I know but I can't control myself looking at such beautiful scenery.

A grandfather who was sitting at a taxi stand with his grandson waiting for minutes but still couldn't get a taxi. After this picture, they walked away and back home. I could remember my childhood with the same scene with my Ah Kong.



Su Chin's farewell in Alexis Bangsar. She's filling up the Exit Questionnaire which she was suppose to fill up before she leave.

Su Chin's little precious daughter. Cute and pretty isn't she? Yah, my camera sux.

Was having lunch with this 2 fella over the weekend. We started talking about our time in UK. Spent hours chatting about it until sweetie and Keong's gf must have feel bored, since they don't understand a single thing. This is the poster I created with Eric which struck our mind when we saw this 2 poser taking a "Internal Affair" (cantonese: mou gan tou) position during our trip in Blackpool. Yuky did the marketing (by mass-printing it in color and distribute it out to all the classmates).

Emotional Ride

Thought I escaped from the office after giving Su Chin a hug and goodbye. But the ride home in the bus was rather like a ride thru time and uncontrollably, my eyes is filled with... you know what. I could remember the day we started off in the department when we were still strangers. Then the 2 weeks of intensive learning curve and overtime where Hele was the first to leave us and bring a sense of missing an important piece.

Later on, it's the lunch at Nasi Ayam Malaysia in the Street Mall, a lot of chats. Later on it's the listening and singing to Jay Chou's songs. And come the hard time when she has to jump into the project that I'm doing to help me out. The confrontations with those defensive bastards. The late nights and extremely early morning (6am leaving the office together). The part when you have to encourage each others to keep our eyes open even if it's 3am and we are still in the office.

And recently the almost neverending farewell dinner for Su Chin. And finally today...

Leaving on a jet plane...

Today is Su Chin's last day in the office. It's really sad. Even her last day in the office, she will have to do overtime. Has been seeing a lot of people leaving, but the most saddening is still Su Chin's departure.

We had been working together for almost 2 years now. She has been like a big sister to me. Offering career advise, discussion our personal relationship of our own families, gossiping, having lunch together and trying hard to forecast our boss' weather everyday.

Now, she's leaving for a better future. But no matter what, she will be missed by everyone. Yesterday, when all the Senior Managers drop by our place, everyone was so thrilled to meet her, some for the first time. Then I thought to myself and agree, people like her who has made a different in the work she has done, there's no doubt she will be missed when she leaves the company. However, people like me... that's a different kind of story. No relation with any of the big shots in the company. No one can even remember me by name. So, when the day I decided to leave the office, the only person that will notice is the colleague who's sitting beside me whom I disturb everyday.

Anyway, I don't know what I'm writing, but it's just sad to see this day has finally arrive. Su Chin, good luck in your new environment in Shanghai. I'm sure with your capability and good relationship management skills, you will be high in the corporate environment one day. Please remember the iPod 30Gb that you had promised. :P
Take care my big sister... :~~( Hope that our path will cross again some day and we shall be working together with the synergy that we have had when we were working together. All the best.

Weekend of ....

FOOD!!!
Friday - Went for a hearty but fun dinner with 2 colleagues that's leaving the company (Su Chin & Agnes) and 1 colleague that had left the company, Mei. We had our dinner in Champs, Centre Point, Bandar Utama. It was great. Had some really nice pork ribs with Heineken. The dinner lasted from 8pm - 12am.
Saturday - Since it's less than a month for Su Chin and her fondness to bring people to places with good food, our whole group from Friday night were out again, but this time, it includes my boss. We had our lunch at SOHO in One Utama. It was fabulous. The Shanghainese dim sum is mouth-watering. So, that's the weekend full of food.


p/s: It's sad to lose you all, Su Chin and Agnes. But am sure all of you will be in a better place. All the best!!!

Weekend + Good Company = Drunk + Knock Myself

Last weekend was great. In the afternoon, went to my MD's house warming in Country Height at Kajang. The house is humungous. First time saw my MD in his super casual Timberland t-shirt, shorts and Japanese slippers.

Then it was at night. Was drinking with 2 of my mates from Sheffield Hallam time. I was dead drunk. So does the rest. Drank a lot of vodka and in the end, puke even more. The most embarassing thing, I knock my right eye against the edge of the door not even knowing it until the 2 days later when sweetie teringat what happen.

Here's a picture of how I looked like. Damn, couldn't even hide it by wearing cap to work. It was so bruised that everyone saw it once they look at my face. Anyway, that's how my last weekend looked like. Another new weekend coming.

Happiness don't last

It's funny how life works out. For the past few days, had been off from work to help prepare for my best friend's wedding. Since last Thursday I was in Batu Pahat hangout with friends, all coming back from either KL or Singapore.

We spent most of the time drinking, yamcha and gambling. It was tired as hell till the wedding day. But it feels like all of us are back to the good old highschool days. Sitting around doing nothing meaningful and chat and booze all the way till late at night.

After the wedding dinner on Saturday nite, we proceeded to the karaoke and sang our throat out till 5am. It was tiring but a great day. All of us barely slept for 3 hours the previous nite. When comes Sunday, most of the bro from da hood left and headed towards their home, either Singapore or BP. It feels kinda sad having to part with friends. And I guess like the old chinese sayings, "There's no one banquet in the world that does not end". Which also means no happiness last forever...

Met an old friend

About a week back, my company was doing some corporate video shooting in the office. Since my department's kamcheng very good with the communications department, I was forced to say some funny phrase in front of the camera. What's the phrase ar? Hmm... forgot, some mushy mooshy words that meant to present that I love HSBC.

Anyway, that's not the main thing I wanna say here. What happen was, when the Comms people (Noreen) was bringing me to the temporary studio setup in the office, she intro me to one of the guy taking charge in the shooting. And OMFG!!! It's my highschool mate. It's been years since I last saw him. Though I accidently bumped into his blog bout 1 or 2 weeks before I met him, such coincidence.

He's changed a lot. He used to be like a "close to nerd" but not. Maybe because that time he was mixing with all those nerds. He has become today someone who works in production and creative line. I couldn't even believe my eyes, but I have to. Ohhh... by the way his name is Isaac.

Anyway, am glad to see him. Couldn't chat much with him, but still happy can catch up a little and exchange our phone number. If you still have not know me enuff, I'm someone who don't like to lose touch with friends. I love my friends. After all no man is an island. Friends are important. But of course I love my sweetie too ler. :P

Uni Friend's Wedding

Just got back from my friend, KW's wedding. We went to Sheffield Hallam together and basically, we juz click eventhough we had not met previously due to his sense of humour and friendliness.

Tonight's wedding dinner is like a reunion for all of us. We really enjoyed ourselves especially with the presence of Keong, Eric, MK and Yuky.

These are the like the fond memory of my short UK life in 2003. Most of all, our 7 days Scotland road trip.

Office Environ / Annual Dinner / Best Friend's Wedding

I've moved into the new office environment about a month ago. Two Heads of Department (including my boss) has their office facing my computer screen, hence I can't really blog in the office. I know, it's been very less updates in my blog nowadays. But there's nothing I can do.

Anyhow, out of the topic. Last Saturday was the Annual Dinner. The company booked 4 halls in MIECC (Mines International Exhitibition and Convention Centre). There were tables for 3000 seatings, though the turnout was not as much as 3000. Everybody put on their best night gown and suit. Girls went to saloon few hours in advance to set their hair and etc. It was a nice night out though I hardly know 10% of the people.

Here a picture of my and my ex-teammates. Best team I've ever worked with.
Last week during a game of mahjong, my best friend told me he's going to get married at the end of January next year. I was stunned. He's the last I would expect to get married first in our hood (the so called Bro From Da Hood). Nonetheless, I am feeling excited for him. Thinking of how we have grown together from our High School years and now he's getting married already. I know what you thinking, he's not getting married because a new life is coming to this world. It's more like a family pressure and partly they think it doesn't matter whether to get married now or 3 years later.

Anyway, I'm so happy for you bro. You're a grown man now. Looking forward to your bachelor party. Muahahaha....



Fark, my streamyx connection is killing while I'm writing this blog. It keeps disconnecting and take really long to connect back. What a farking country I'm living in. Can't even maintain some certain standard once these company dominate the market. Bloody TM.

What are Friends for?

Everyone has been saying, "When talk about money, it hurts friendship". I don't find it true, except for just 1 friend. The rest of my friends has never got any problem with me on money. We don't tend to calculate that much with each other.

What happen is, I kinda in a way or another pay some extra money on some certain things for this friend in advance. Even helping him sounds like I owe him that money. "If you don't pay for me, and I don't have money, then how?" That what he said. Alright, as a friend and thinking for his convenience, I paid in advance with his promise to return me in 1 week time.

Hence, he got his opportunity to give his own money a turn and I have got no luquidity to spin when I'm in tough time. It's all ok as long as he return me the money as he promised.

1 week later, asking for the money and he will give me the next day. The next thing I know, he called up and say he will give me a check and ask me to bank it in by myself. For some of you who might have known, my working hours simply does not allow me to have time to go to a bank and the only account I have is with my HSBC bank. Yes, I don't believe in local bank and don't believe in owning a lot of bank account.

Then I got scolded, "What? Why you don't have local bank account want? Takkan you want me to go bank in my own account then withdraw the money and give u in cash?"

Did you see a reverse in role here? Does it seems like I'm the person owing him money?

It's really sad. Even quite a few friends tried their best not to have anything to do with him in monetary term. He's a great friend. But when come to small small stuff, anything at all he can relate them to money and in any term at all charge you if he can. He take him as the only few of my best friends that will come to my aids when I needed friends.

What are friends for?

Singing party before I leave for Hong Kong

I'm leaving for Hong Kong tomorrow. But Adrian came to KL from BP, and out of the blue, Adree ajak go Karaoke. Then we ended up in Neways at Cheras at 11pm.

Here's a sample of Choo's singing. Hahahaha!!! Have some good laugh.

The Bandits of Pantai Klebang

DBKL Rubbish Truck aka Tai

SebadohPop aka Neoh and Graham CORKson aka Andrew

Great-Wife-To-Be aka AhGer

The Stoner aka WY and Pikachu aka Choo

The Banker aka Aaron

The Pornographer aka @ptimistic

Lawyer Buruk aka Lawyer Lim

1-2-5 Posing Competition

Group Category

Single Category

and...

THE CHAMPION

Food Photos from the Historical Land

Arrival Dinner - Rojak Style Lok Lok

Hot and Spicy Lok Lok

Look at the variation of Lok Lok and the longkang-look-alike rojak kuah

Boon Heng, Chiat Lin and Sweetie @ The infamous Hainanese Chicken Rice of Malacca

Yup, this is the Hainanese Chicken with its famous rice ball.

With such delicious food, we finish it in no time.

We call him DBKL aka Rubbish Collector

Now you see what I mean?

All full and ready to go.

Shaking off Salesmen

At this era where money means more than friendships, I have been perceived so many times by friends who wants to sell me various kinds of insurance and multi-level marketing products. And today, I can't run away from another insurance agent. Although he didn't tell me his motive of calling me out, it is apparent.

C'mon, what kind of friend has your phone number for more than 6 years and only call you now to ask if you have to the time to come out for a drink? The most funny part is, he got engaged less than 6 months ago, none of us (his friends) was invited or at least informed. See? Now you know why there's such strong fish smell behind all these sudden "Let's come out for a drink" offer.

Anyway, since he's a friend for so many years it's really hard to turn him down after so many time of doing it.

Firstly, when do I normally get salesmen knocking at your door?

1. Friends who call me out of the blues and ask if I want to go for a drink.
2. Telemarketers who got my phone number from my friends who is not interested in joining their gym.
3. Salesmen who got my phone number from their friend, who is my friend.

Do you see a trend in this? I think I do.

What are the salesmen usual foreplay?

1. "Where are you working?"
2. "What are you working as right now?"
3. "How much do you earn?"
4. "How much do you give your family and spent on expenses?"
5. "Since you have a little to save, have you ever thought of investing or assurance of your future comfort?"
6. "How about the thought of early retirement? You like that?"
7. "Because you are my very close friend, I'm going to show you how to earn a lot of money in a very short time."
8. "If there's easy wealth, then we shall earn it together."

Then how do I normally turn down salesmen?

1. "Errmm... I sounds like a good plan, but I'm not interested."
2. "I'm sorry, I have friends who work in the same company as yours, if I would want your product, I will give my friends priority."
3. "Oh yah, it's great, but I have no money."

Now, do you know how to sing the song called "That's What Friends Are For" by Stevie Wonder?