Wat-te-ver

Welcome to Malaysia again..zzz

2008-10-16T21:06:00.006+08:00

I have stopped posting things about Malaysia for quite a while now because the news that went around were just really crappy... but this news that I read today deserves to be posted for a special reason. Simply too crapppppppy!!!

Read here.

Police closed one of their beat base in one of the notorious downtown area because the policemen were feeling UNSAFE there!!

Harlooowww??? Police feeling UNSAFE, aren't you supposed to be making sure that those areas are SAFE??

I rest my case.

Fruits of Labour

2008-09-08T16:01:00.004+08:00

This morning, I have just taken ownership of a new car. It is the brand new Peugeot 407 by Nasim Sdn Bhd.

I have been wanting to buy a new car for a long long time. The plan has been postponed time and again due to other more important commitments that I have. Yup, the waiting was long but the end result is sweeeeet!!

I just love the car. This is the first brand new car that I own and I will definitely keep this for a while :)

Sony PSP

2008-09-08T15:57:00.003+08:00

See this :

Yes, please envy me now. I won this in the HLB Online Contest. Just received the package this afternoon.

Malaysia Boleh!!

2008-08-21T10:58:00.005+08:00

Yes, Malaysia Boleh!! We won a silver medal in Beijing Olympic all thanks to our local hero Lee Chong Wei. Eh.. sorry... it will be Datuk Lee Chong Wei very soon...

Not to undermine Lee's commitment and his contribution to the sports, but I think the recent fanfare is just plain too much. Read it here!!

Yes, I would agree that it is a great achievement, but look at the rewards that came pouring in. Datuk Lee has been given a reward money of RM300,000 and a pension award of RM3,000 per month for the rest of his life!!! On top of that, he will be conferred the Datukship by the Penang government. All for an Olympic SILVER MEDAL ONLY.

Too bad squash is still being left out of Olympic, otherwise Datul Nicol David would have been RM500k richer!! I personally think that Nicol's achievements in her sports outshine Lee's achievements. However the rewards that they have both received are so different! Nicol has only been given RM200,000 minus the lifetime pension fund for her win at the World Squash Open whilst mantaining her world number one ranking for months now! Read more about Nicol's here.

Also, Michael Phelps wished that he should have been a Malaysian. I seriously don't think Americans government will be so generous to him. In Malaysia he could easily become Datuk Michael Phelps, at least RM2 millions of reward and will be enjoying pension fund for the rest of his life some more! Afterall, he is now the greatest olympian with 8 records setting wins at the Beijing Olympic!! 8 gold medals x RM300k = RM2.4 millions minimum! World records some more so he will get couple of hundred thousands thrown in as extra.

Talk about sports "NEP" in Malaysia!

Afterthought - I Swear

2008-08-18T14:14:00.002+08:00

This just crossed my mind. Next time, in Malaysia, if you want to sue somebody, you shouldn't recite the very dramatic line - I will see you in court!!!

Instead, we should Malaysianise it ->

I WILL SEE YOU IN MOSQUE!!

or...

I WILL SEE YOU IN CHURCH!!

or...

I WILL SEE YOU IN TUA BEK GONG TEMPLE!!!!!!!!!!

I Swear, by the moon and the sun in the sky!

2008-08-18T13:40:00.007+08:00

All 4 one, that is the famous boy band that sings the song I Swear.

A nice song, which the lyrics have been fully brought to life by our fellow Malaysian!! However the lyrics have been slightly modified for local content and please see what our local composser has to say about this.

So Mr PM, you're saying that by swearing on the religious text, the act will be sufficient to declare one's innocence?? Oh man, you must have great law makers advising you -> Guilty until swearing is done on religious text? So if I have committed a crime today, I hold on to a bible and swear that I didn't do it, it will be good enough to drop the case in court? Yes... no?? Why not throw all the judges out of the court rooms and filled them up with pastors and ulamas... I am very sure this will certainly improves the current efficiency of our judicial system and speed up all the proceedings. I am sure we will get zero convictions and all crooks can swear on their mother and father graves and promise not to be bad again......

Btw Mr PM, I never know that you're also a judge -> Abdullah reminded the people that Saiful was a victim in the issue. Victim?? Hrmm.. so no point lar asking DSAI to swear also, you already pronounced him the villian!

08-08-08 - 8th August 2008!!

2008-08-08T13:17:00.005+08:00

Yes, today is the big day. The super duper auspicious day of the triple 8!! It's so auspicious that 238 couples have decided to tie the knot in the Klang Hokkien Association today!

It's so auspicious that the opening ceremory of the 29th Olympiad - 2008 Summer Olympic will be held today!

Afterthought - What is the priZe of Truth?

2008-08-06T17:03:00.003+08:00

You know what, the radio station should start inviting our dear politicians, policemen, judges and any government officials that are suspected of corruption or graft, and grill them openly on the national radio. Not a good idea?? I think it's a fantastic idea but I doubt that any politicians will dare to accept this challenge!

What will be the prize offered to them? How about the mandate to run the country for a good 4 - 5 year if you prove your integrity to us on the national radio? It maybe ridiculous you think, but from all the lies being spun on the main stream medias now, I would love to hear the truth for once.

What is the priZe of Truth?

2008-08-06T16:34:00.004+08:00

What is the price you are willing to pay to find out the truth?? How about this, one of Msia leading radio station is offering you RM1,000 PRIZE money instead, for you to find out the truth? Sounds like an awfully good deal... no?

They are actually offering you the opportunity, to hook up the person you wanted to grill for truth on a polygraph machine, throw in an expert and he will tell you whether the person is lying or not! Read it here.

This morning, a wife puts the husband secretary on the hot seat, whom she suspected that the husband was having an affair with. The brave secretary took up the challenge, and she came clean with the accusation. However, that was not the end of the story, the secretary subsequently revealed that the husband is indeed having an affair and it wasn't the first time he was having it!! The wife actually left the radio station in tears.. unable to continue with the broadcast anymore as the truth was unbearable.

I supposed she and the secretary will receive the RM1,000 prize money... however, at what price??

Would you dare to take up the challenge?

Good Business!

2008-07-31T10:49:00.001+08:00

When you have just sold 14 new E200 Kompressor to the government, you are guaranteed profit!

Read it here!

Blue chips extended their gains in early trade Thursday in line with firmer regional markets while Cycle & Carriage Bintang (CCB) surged after proposing RM1.40 in dividends per share.

Travel Log - Barcelona (Sights)

2008-07-23T13:44:00.014+08:00

These are some of the photos during my trip

The hotel I was staying in

How you hitch a ride in Barcelona

I was there during the Easter week

I was in Nou Camp!!! Even though I am not a football fan, the stadium was awesome.

The Barcelona football team in training!! All the visitors was screaming hysterically when they saw the 3 guys approaching but I have no idea who they were :P

Travel log - Barcelona (Food)

2008-07-23T13:21:00.007+08:00

Back in March 2008, I was in Barcelona for the duration of 3 weeks for training, I have tried quite some of the food there but I didn't actually take too many photos of them.

Generally the food in Barcelona is very fresh, the fruits & seafood there are fantastic! However the people there don't really drink milk and it's hard to find fresh milk to be sold anywhere. What I normally got was heated carton milk in the hotel buffet breakfast.

This was one of the best ice cream I have ever tasted, I don't remember the name of the shop though.

The KFC tastes twice as good as the ones you can get in Malaysia!

Fat juicy strawberry that was the size of my palm!

Not forgetting the oranges, apples and grapes that were so crunchy and sweet! The fresh produces that you can get in Barcelona are simply fantastic!

Last but not least, you must try the local champagne that is known as Cava -> not that it is only cheap, it's very very good as well.

Well, I will be returning to Barcelona this coming October and I will definitely explore more of the local delicacies. More of the payaya and tapas this time.

Bon Odori 2008 - Part 2

2008-07-23T13:07:00.011+08:00

This is a continuation of my previous post.

Here are some of the photos taken by myself from my oh-so-outdated Canon A520 Powershot. Yes yes... so many of my friends are nagging me to get a DSLR.. they're trying to "poison" my mind :P

The reluctant models (so many people were grabbing these 2 kids for photos)

Waiting for the start of the dance

First ondo

Ultra"wo"men!

Dee's Jelly

2008-07-23T13:02:00.005+08:00

Baby Dee took some time to make these yummy pandan rose jelly. I still have 2 tupperwares full of them in the fridge :D

Taken under warm light

Chloe the Naughty & Margaret the Baby

2008-07-23T12:22:00.007+08:00

Quite a few people have asked for Chloe picture, so here you go!

The sleepy head

Here is the elder sister, Margaret

The Three Stooges

2008-07-21T16:43:00.004+08:00

18SX - No Pun Intended

2008-07-21T16:18:00.004+08:00

Well, the artist is none other than Ganny the Bunny.

It's only a joke that the Baboon, myself and Ganny could understand.

Sterilize!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wat-te-ver Daily Awards - 21 July 2008

2008-07-21T11:39:00.003+08:00

This news certainly deserves the Daily Wat-te-ver Awards - read here.

Our dear MBs from Terengganu have just gotten themselves 14 new Mercedes E200k for RM3.43 mil as their new rides!!!

**Mentri Besar Datuk Ahmad Said said the state government had planned to purchase the cars for a long time now to replace its Proton Perdana V6 Executive fleet in a move to cut cost.

“Please understand that the Proton Perdanas go through continuous long-distance journeys. It’s costing us a lot of money due to high cost of maintenance.**

In a move to cut cost? Wow, I never know that buying a Mercedes is a long term investment that could save so much money that it will worth the investment as compare to owning a Perdana V6!! I think I should go out and get myself a E200k this weekend, since I am actually considering buying a new car.

**Ahmad cited the example of the Proton Perdana of state Commerce, Industry and Environment committee chairman Toh Chin Yaw, which has twice undergone expensive repairs costing RM50,000 within 36 months.

“In the long run, Mercedes cars are cheaper to maintain and could also save us fuel costs.

“This is the state’s long-term plan – we are farsighted. The cars could also fetch a high market price, when sold as second-hand cars.

“
We studied all angles before deciding to buy the Mercedes E200 cars,” he added.**

Repair costing Rm50k within 3 years? Man, our dear MBs and state excos must be some rally drivers in disguise, maybe they drift their cars to their destinations as well. You know, arriving at some opening ceremonies in style! With tyres screeching & smoking to mark their grand entrance!

We have studied all angles, hrmm.. have you studied the possibility of buying Toyota instead? Or Perodua? No no no.. Mercedes is cheaper! Darn it.. it's the cheapest car to maintain in the long run and doesn't matter it cost RM3.43 millions. You haven't heard of INVESTING FOR THE FUTURE?? You know, you actually GAIN from all the savings from fuel and maintenance.

Mental "Roadblocks"

2008-07-17T10:50:00.004+08:00

10 out of 10 people that I have spoken to, are very frustrated with all the on-going roadblocks around the KL city & Klang valley. If this is the idea of the police force and politicians to intimidate the general public, I must say they have failed miserably.

As the political saga unfold, the general public is reprimanded with ridiculous delay to their daily routines with all the "just-for-show" roadblocks. If this is allowed to continue for another week, it will only further upset the general public. The police defended their decisions and was even supported by the lame head PM as those road blocks were necessary to maintain LAW AND ORDER in the country. Well, all I can see is unjustified & unlawful decision to create so much CHAOS to the general public. Baboon said it well in his monkey rants here.

From my personal experience today, I needed to pass 2 roadblocks on my way to work and an usual 15 minutes drive has been unnecessary lengthened to 45 minutes. That is a 200% increase on my total travelling time! On those said roadblocks, the policemen(women) were just waving the cars to move forward, without showing the slightest interest on the drivers or passengers. Yes, to me they are the mere puppets that were forced to stand on duty.

Seriously, our politicians have serious mental roadblocks when coming to decide anything in the public interest for safety. Malaysia will continue to be the laughing stock of the other nations while we scare away all the foreign investors and also bring the whole KL city business to a complete standstill in the name of law & order.

Anwar vs Shabery

2008-07-16T14:20:00.008+08:00

I was watching the much anticipated debate between Anwar Ibrahim & Shabery (the new Msia misinformation minister) last night. I must say that Anwar scored a very critical political point last night, after almost 10 years away from the mainstream TV, he carried himself very well infront of the viewers, he also came prepared with credible facts and suggestions to alleviate the fuel hike situation in Malaysia. To simply put it, he has substance to his speech and he is believable. However I do not think that it will assist him much in his quest of becoming the 5th PM of Malaysia.

Shabery was simply disappointing. He resorted to personal attack on Anwar and didn't come prepared with credible facts and suggestions to enlighten us idiotic people on how the current ruling government is prepared to ease the surging inflation in this country. He came with lots of historical facts though, to which I am not interested as the past is the PAST! Show me the future but he failed miserably. The simple message from him was, the government has no choice so you people shut up go back to your miserable life and change your lifestyles! Nevermind we're being compared to Norway which has almost 5 times our per capita income. Carrying the title of INFORMATION MINISTER, he is the worst listener in the debate and he failed to stick to the theme and to answer some simple questions thrown at him.

I am even more disappointed with the way of how mainstream medias have been reporting this. They declared it a draw??!!?? Come on, that is equivalent to daylight robbery. Please give more credits to your readers as we have watched the same telecast last night and we saw what happened!

State controlled medias, biased reporting, screwed judicial system, corrupted police force, cronies government servants........ the list goes on and on. Some how, I wonder if there's still sufficient time for things to change, but I must admit that it looks bleak.... the country looks pretty certain to be screwed unless a miracle happens in the political scene soon.

I can only say that the ruling party is continuing living in a state of denial. There's so much things to do yet there are not many arses moving. I used to be very optimistic about the future of this country, but nowadays I find myself thinking of migrating to other countries more frequently. Being an Aussie's PR still beat being a Malaysia citizen, this is the level of confidence I have with the current administration now.

Baboon quoted me in his blog today - "Different angles to look at things, but you're still f**ked from all angles"

Bon Odori 2008 - 12th July 2008

2008-07-14T14:57:00.014+08:00

This was where the event was held :

Ganny the bunny asked me and baboon last friday whether we want to check out some japanese chicks, so we naturally said yes and we brought along our wives on that day (many of you may go.. wat?? u brought ur wife along to check out chicks? Yes, we did... our wives tagged along to make sure that we uphold certain standards in the chicks checking process :P)

The desparate ape & the horny bunny with myself :

It was an interesting experience, on such rare occassion you get to see so many Japanese and Japanese wannabe dressed up in kimonos and other japanese costumes - yeah.. you gotta check this bunny out. Ganny was kinda cranky as this bunny has stole the bunny of the year award from himself! Btw, that's the link to the baboon website.. make sure you check it out his various monkey rants as well.

The stadium was really packed, there were practically hundreds of people lining up at the various food counters for overpriced sushis and japanese snacks that you could very well find from the Jusco & Isetan outlets. We had some Japanese ice cream which were pretty nice, but nothing to shout about.

The evening proceeding started right on time. Yes, Japanese are a punctual bunch! A short speech was given and the dance performance were started. There were some drummers and dancers dressed up in kimonos on the center stage where they performed 3 "ondo"s and the crowd formed a huge circle around the stage and followed the dance. It was really interesting to see so many people just dancing along. Check out the crowd!

(Picture borrowed from Baboon-~~wanks~~Werks)

Update : You gotta see this from Bunny!! Hahahahaa

Sorry Ganny, the most talented bunny of the year award still belongs to YOU!!

You may read more about the festival here.

I am a locksmith today

2008-07-14T14:30:00.007+08:00

This morning, I received a call @ 7.00 am from my staff, that the door entry system in the office is faulty and they couldn't get into the office. Being a regional IT helpdesk, this is a serious problem as we're contractually bound to deliver the services from 0700 - 2000, 7 days a week & 365 days a year. Even though I have been working for the past 8 years, none of those years have prepared me for a situation like this. I was kinda dumbfounded... like.. harr... yes.... hrmm... geeeee.....

I forced myself out of the bed, quickly got ready and rushed out of the house (not before I kiss my wife good morning and said sorry to her for not being able to send her to work), and armed with some "ka chang", I arrived at the office as a lock smith. Btw, it was crazy traffic this morning, due to our beloved Bolehland politicians and policemen... I am sure many will concur on this.. it was really mad mad traffic jams, I was lucky that I got out of the house at 7.20am and reached the office in 30 minutes, a lot of my staffs were caught in the jam for hours! Anyway, I am not going to write more about the situation as the political dramas in Bolehland is just getting so ridiculous to the point that it doesn't warrant my time to blog about it.

It was too early, maintenance ppl of the office building have yet to arrive, and I do not have the contact number of the company that has installed the system. Hence, I was forced to act on the situation. Armed with a crowbar and a screwdriver, I started dismantling the magnetic point and after an hour, I managed to force the glass doors open! Phew.. lucky for me nothing was broken in the process and we manage to resume our services with minimal disruptions.

What the ???

2008-07-11T10:45:00.001+08:00

Can things in Bolehland gets even more ridiculous?? Yes, it just did!!

Read here!

A report was lodged against fellow officers for not distributing bribes fairly?!!?? wat-te-ver......

We have a BABY!!

2008-07-09T22:12:00.003+08:00

Sorry to disappoint some of my friends that are reading this blog -> NO, my wife is not pregnant. Actually, we have recently purchased a little puppy maltese, and her name is Chloe (yes, it's a human name, some of you opposed saying that I should reserved this name for my actual children next time, sorry.. it doesn't work that way because I treat my pets as part of the family)

Chloe is the second addition to our family. Margaret, our 4 years old guinea pig was the first (yup, both of them got along pretty well) :D She's a mischievous little rascal but we love her very much.

She's born on the 6th of February 2008 and she's just celebrated her 5th month birthday.

Chloe is now grounded in her room because she has just broken out this afternoon and had a feast on the whole package of dried dog food. On top of that, she has left us landmines all over the house!! I have scolded her and now she's left to "reflect" her own doings in her room.

Having a puppy is pretty fun, however it could get really stressful when the puppy is misbehaving and creating havoc around the house. We're lucky than she has been a pretty good girl so far other than the occasional mischevious stunts that she tries to pull.

Reliable Online Tickets Agent?

2008-07-09T12:15:00.005+08:00

I have been looking at the prices of air tickets to Spain since last week and I have yet to make any actual booking yet.

Generally I can purchase the ticket directly from the airlines, through a local travelling agency or an online agency. Prices range from USD 1350 - 2000 depending on the chosen method of purchase. So far, the cheapest airline that fly to Barcelona, Spain from KLIA is only KLM. Well, honestly I am not too keen on flying with KLM again as they're the most boring flights that I have taken so far. Although the services are quite good and the food is pretty delicious.

Buying from a local travelling agency is the most expensive so far and it costs me almost USD 600 more totalling at USD 2000 for the round ticket.

Buying directly from KLM is very reasonable at USD 1400.

Buying directly from online agent (Expedia.com) is cheapest at USD1350. The downside is I have read quite some complaints about expedia.com services and not sure if it's the wisest choice to buy from them.

I think the best option is to go direct to KLM for the peace of mind and I will be able to earn the frequent flyer miles as well.

What do you think?

Official Lauch - Peugeot 407

2008-07-09T12:09:00.001+08:00

Check out the specifications of the car here!

I am still thinking of whether I want to attend the function tonight... sigh.. fickled minded me.....

To buy or to hold??

2008-07-07T14:32:00.005+08:00

I have been wanting to get myself a new car, it's something that I have shelved a year ago due to the new house that we've bought. Yea.. having your own place and furnishing it could really burn a hole in your pocket.

Anyway, since then I have made considerably progress in my career and of course my bank account and since the begining of 2008 I have been toying with the idea of getting myself a new ride. I have tested quite a few new cars in the market and now I am pretty much settled with these 2 choices - the sleek looking Peugeot 407 or the reliable "New" Toyota Altis. Personally I really love the look at the Pug 407 and the long list of equipments that comes with it. The Pug 407 that I am considering is a new CKD version with the price tag of 135k. The car will be officially launched on 9th July 2008, this coming Wednesday. I have been invited to the launch event but I do not know if I want to attend it now. The problem is again with.... our dear F**KING government.. opss... sorry for the obscenity here but I am really pissed.

If you have read my previous two very impromtu "political" posts, you can pretty much tell that I am not at the most optimistic front about the current political landscape of Msia and the development of it worries me. Simple, instability = unpredictability. Buying a car in Msia is a huge commitment and it's a liability rather than an asset. I am just not ready to make that commitment as I can almost smell huge changes in the country in the coming few months.. maybe it will be wiser for me to just stick with my trusty old Nissan Sunny for now and see how the year will end before considering it again.

Wake up! Wake Up!!!

2008-07-07T11:21:00.000+08:00

With all the dramas that is going on in the Msia political stage right now, the way our dear sleepy PM comments on the dramas could be really disappointing -> here

“My main priority is to pay attention to important issues like the rising prices of fuel and goods, and to continue with the development programmes for the people,” he said. -> Are you sure?? You're not sleeping on the job eh? Seriously I have not seen much improvements going into the development of the country. I do not feel that there's less corruption in the government departments & agencies, I still need to pay a hefty sum of "under-table" money to get my foreign skilled workers visa done... so where's the improvements eh? Are you talking in your sleep now Mr. PM?

"I hope the people will join me in focusing on efforts to overcome all the problems and challenges faced today so that we can ensure peace, security and prosperity for the people,” he added. -> Efforts.. what efforts? Where's the plan for the efforts you're talking about? Can't HEAR YOU! Yes, it's very effortless for you to fly around in your private jets to pretend that you're working. Do something already.. you wanna tackle the challenges in the country? Pick one up now and really work on it, not harping on it and hoping the people will forget about it later.

“The general election is over. The people have already given their trust to the political parties of their choice. The people have chosen Barisan Nasional to continue to rule. -> Yes, the general election is over and I am generally very disappointed with how things are progressing. I think the country is degressing since March 8. Maybe you're not sleeping on the job anymore with all these "back"stage events taking place.... but you're still pretty much SLUMBER on your job only.. understand.. SLUMBER LAR YOU! wat-te-ver.......

Best Screenplay Adaptation

2008-07-04T14:49:00.000+08:00

Well, I am not going to blog about some movies that I have watched... rather this is regarding the political scenes of Malaysia at the present moment.

Seriously, somebody ought to produce a drama or movie about Malaysian political saga. All the essential elements for a blockbuster is there.. sex, lies... perverted sex.. and more lies.. and it definitely will have an "EXPLOSIVE" ending! C "4" yourself here and here. I think the movie will certainly put Malaysia on the map as the movie will surely win couple of Oscars!

The future certainly looks bleak as the country is being managed by some Mollywood wannabes that crave nothing more than a few moments of glory on the front page of a newspaper.

HOLA!

2008-06-20T15:25:00.000+08:00

I know.. i know.. I am indeed feeling guilty for neglecting my blog for so long. It's just that so much have happened both in my personal and working life for the past 11 months and I just couldn't find the time to update my blog.

Up from the date of my last post - back in 31st July 2007, I have since changed 2 jobs, made a business trip to Barcelona, Spain.... bought a new puppy (which is btw so adorable!!!) and I am in the midst of planning my 2nd trip to Spain. This round I will have the opportunity to visit Madrid!

I have just purchased a spanish language learning kits and I am determined to order something other than sandwiches for my dinners on the next trip! :P

Jokes anyone?

2007-07-31T15:44:00.000+08:00

What is the Employee Provident Fund for Singh?
It’s Kumpulan Wang Singhpanan Pekerja!

How do you order a house specialty from a singh restaurant?
May I have your Singhature dish please?

Some silly singh jokes that I came across… no offence to all the Singhs out there. :D

Lucky Draw - Count ME IN!!

2007-07-25T12:09:00.000+08:00

I have won something during the lucky draw from the last 3 companies' annual dinner that I have attended. Yes... I feel kinda lucky!

2007 - A brand new Artek portable hdd casing that comes with 80GB Hitachi 5400rpm 2.5" hdd.

2006 - A brand new toaster and a water filtering machine

2005 - A brand new 512MB Ipod Shuffle

Anyone that needs some lucky draw "drawing power"? :P Please invite me to your company's dinner!

I'm a Foxprorian

2007-06-21T17:26:00.000+08:00

You must be thinking that I belong to some computer geek club that is very crazy about foxpro.. sorry.. you're wrong!

Foxpro is the sports team that I belong to in SITI. This saturday will be the annual inter-dept basketball competition and I am one of the chosen one to play! :P

Basketball has been my favourite sports ever since secondary school.. I used to play basketball everyday after school.

My new pair of sports shoes... in 4 years

2007-06-21T17:17:00.000+08:00

I have been searching for a new pair of sports shoes for very very long and now I've finally found it!!!

See it here!

My first painting

2007-05-28T15:14:00.000+08:00

Since the first time I saw the painting more than a year ago…. I was captivated by it.

Yesterday, when I walked past the gallery. I made the decision to purchase it and this will adore the wall of our new house.

It’s a good investment, and I am very happy with the painting. Some facts about the painting.

A Special Moment (Le leçon de tricot)

45 x 33 inches

Oil on canvas

Signed and dated 1874 (l.r.)

Emile Munier (1840-1895)

Munier was the must favored and prized student of famed French artist, William Adolph Bouguereau. It was as a result of Bouguereau's training that the porcelain-like features of the skin are derived in his paintings. He traveled with Bouguereau and A. Lucas studying and painting in the various museums through Europe.

His favorite subjects, as those of his teacher, were genre scenes and portrait paintings (primarily of peasant girls). Munier exhibited frequently in the Parisian Salons between the years of 1869 and 1895. At the Paris Salon of 1882, Emile Munier received honorable mention for a portrait of a young girl.

Today, Emile Munier has become the artist to watch. Most collectors are comparing him to William A. Bouguereau. They feel that his works are very under valued. Works by Emile Munier can be found in important private and museum collections through out the United States and Europe.

Stitch!

2007-05-22T22:46:00.000+08:00

Panaromic view of the Perth City and Swan River from the Kings Park.

Fairy

2007-05-21T16:35:00.000+08:00

We've met a fairy just right infront of London Court, Hay Street Mall in Perth.

Baby Dee calls these ----- Fairy Dust! :D

Fremantle Harbour... breathtaking view

2007-05-21T16:24:00.001+08:00

Kailis

2007-05-21T16:08:00.000+08:00

Kailis, in one of the native australian aboriginal language, means the boomerang.

Well, but I am not talking about the boomerang this time. Kailis - Fishmarket Cafe in Fremantle, WA is one of the oldest and more well known seafood restaurant. (actually, most the the cafes around there claimed that they're the oldest and serve the best Fish n Chips).

Some photos of the restaurant.

More on Swan Valley

2007-05-10T09:18:00.000+08:00

Picturesque view of a lake during our wagon ride

Rocky bringing us down a rocky trail! :)

Sheeps grazing on the open land...

Swan Valley Vineyard

2007-05-09T17:42:00.000+08:00

During our visit to Swan Valley in Western Australia, we have had the chance to get pretty up close with the vineyard around the area.

It's a beautiful sight, too bad it's just after the harvest season thus we don't get to see or pluck grapes directly from the vines. Anyway, it's still an eye opening experience.

Do you know that table grapes are usually grown on T-shaped stands because table grapes needs plenty of shade thus T-shaped stand is ideal for the grapes to grow and be sheilded from the sun.

Where else, wine grapes are grown on Y-shaped stands because of the totally opposite reason. They need plenty of sunlight thus Y-shaped stand will enable to sun to penetrate deeper into the middle of the vines.

Interesting indeed......

Quack quack...

2007-05-09T16:41:00.000+08:00

A signboard found in the little Guildford town.

Guildford

2007-05-08T17:12:00.000+08:00

Guildford is a small town located at the northeast of Perth. It's the gateway to the famous Swan Valley and it's a beautiful quiet little town.

I just love the european style architecture found all around Perth. It just makes it that much interesting and unique to look at.

See, this is how a small town post office looks like :

Friends from Perth

2007-05-08T14:30:00.000+08:00

Yup, we are back from Perth. It was a lovely trip. Nice country with plenty of genuinely nice people… seriously, this is the most friendly and polite country I have visited so far J

Along the trip, we’ve made a number of friends, here they are in no particular order.

This is Rocky the Stallion

This is Tommy the Fearsome Donkey! Yeah, he actually "HE HO HE HO"angrily at us when I tried to immitate their sound :P Baby Dee actually ran away!! hahaha

This is Tas the Devil.. they're actually quite cute :P

Kitchen Cabinets

2007-04-24T13:10:00.000+08:00

The first room that we're going to furnish in the new house is the kitchen. Yes, the all important kitchen where we will definitely spend a lot of time baking and cooking next time.

To me, kitchen is the heart of a home, it is a place where conversation takes place... it's a place where you can be at your creative best .. or worst some times :P

We've been searching for a good kitchen cabinet shop for a long time (almost 1.5 months) and we've finally decided on the shop to buy from.

Kent Kitchen that is located in Dataran Sunway (slightly further in after The Curve Damansara) offers good price with excellent worksmanship on their products. The owner Ken is an experienced professional (> 15 years) in the field. He offers good advice and insight into the whole kitchen planning process and would recommend the best product that would suit your budget and needs for the kitchen.

IKEA offers good innovative products, however their pricing is a little bit on the high side. For something that is going to last for 10 - 20 years in our house, we're definitely going to invest for better material with quality finishing.

HSBC – Starbucks

2007-04-17T17:54:00.001+08:00

So, what is the relationship between HSBC and Starbucks in my life? There’s only one connection, I always use my HSBC card to pay for my starbucks coffee. Why? Because I enjoy a 10% discount on the purchase.

Well, you can imagine how disappointed I am when I found out that HSBC has discontinued the privilege program with Starbucks coffee. Basically, there’s no more incentive for me to hold on to their credit card anymore.
Yes, after this I shall draft the cancellation letter and fax to them…

9878999 088 099 9878999 0098797

2007-04-17T17:20:00.000+08:00

Yes, I am bored today... try entering the numbers listed in the title with your phone while listening to it...

Excel excel excel.. I wanna excel!

2007-04-17T17:05:00.001+08:00

Yes, I wanna excel in using Microsoft Excel. :P hehe…

I love the versatility Excel offers and recently I have been trying my hands on writing VBA (visual basic for applications) codes to design my own functionality. Have managed to produce a module for comparing values in different columns and also another one in generating an HTML outlook message directly from Excel.

I have not been writing any programming codes for more than 4 years already and it is rather refreshing to use it again.

Pretty cool!!

Busy weeks ahead

2007-04-17T16:56:00.000+08:00

We have just received the house keys last week and we have been busy meeting up with contractors and drawing plans on the renovation of the house.

I am definitely delighted with the news that a traffic light will be constructed on the cross road leading into the housing area. There has had been couple of accidents at that cross road already and I have been constantly thinking about it.

Been getting lots of referral of contractors from our friends and colleagues as many of them are doing renovation to their house as well. It is good to share and see a lot of examples before making our decision.

Well, I am going to KLIA after work to pick up our flight tickets to Perth. Yup, the trip is pretty much confirmed and I am also busy preparing the itinerary for the trip as well.

Qing Ming Jie

2007-04-04T15:51:00.000+08:00

Everytime when I think about this “festival”(well, personally I don’t take it as a festive period meant to be celebrated happily), I can’t help myself but to recite the following poem made famous by 杜牧.

清明时节雨纷纷,
路上行人欲断魂,
借问酒家何处有,
牧童遥指杏花村

5th April 2007, tomorrow will be the day when we remember and honour our ancestors. It is not necessary to pray and give offering on the actual day itself. It is common for people to perform the rites 7 day before and after the actual date.

Last Saturday marked the first time I carried out the rites by myself and my wife. This year, I have opted for something different as well, instead of going to the crematory where my father’s bone ashes were kept, I have gone to the Kwan Yin temple where the ancestor’s plate has been placed.

It was a more personal and quiet experience, and undoubtful a more welcomed one. How often do you remember your deceased family members? I feel particularly ashamed of myself, as father has always been left at the back of my head, washed away by the daily hassle of living and present problems.

It is a struggle some times, trying to recall his image or his voice. The serenity of the temple, the continuos chanting of prayers, has given me the opportunity to actually sit back quietly and remember him.

Cherish those whom you loved, count the days when you appreciate them.

The Lunar Warriors - Book of Seed – Chapter One - “Brothers in Arms” - 4

2007-03-29T16:24:00.000+08:00

Realizing that Bertrand has arrived, Alden exchanged a quick glance with him before continuing his conversation with the Grand Master. Bertrand could immediately tell from the expression on his brother’s face that something has gone terribly wrong. There was that dark cloud of concern looming over Alden’s brows. Walking down the aisle, Bertrand quickly found a seat at the front row bench and sat down.

Bertrand could faintly make out the conversation between Alden and the Grand Master, “Yes, tonight .. to depart…..” “ Yes, it… not encouraged… seek….” Shutting his eyes, Bertrand tried to concentrate on their conversation. However, their conversation ended abruptly when Solvin interrupted to inform the Grand Master that the hall was ready. Taking a step back, Alden bowed to the Grand Master, and took his seat beside his brother at the bench. A clearly excited Bertrand nudged his brother and whispered, “Hey Alden, what’s going on? What is the commotion all about?” Alden just replied, “Be patient brother, just listen to the Grand Master announcement.”

Fidgeting in his seat, Bertrand was very anxious as he looked around the hall, wondering what had happened that such an urgent gathering was called. All attendance has taken their seats around the oval-shaped hall. Two rows of benches encircled the main stage, which was located in the middle of the hall. Grand Master Eldorn took the stage and raised his right hand up, signaling the hall that he was going to speak. The hall immediately fell into silence, and all eyes was resting on the Grand Master, as Bertrand found out that he was not the only one perplexed with the happening of events tonight and there were many hoping for an answer.

Clearing his throat, the Grand Master voice filled the room, “Sons and daughters of Lunar, we are gathered here tonight as a matter of emergency. We have just received news that the Sunis tribe has resurfaced after laying dormant for the last four decades. The village of Moonlit up north has been caught by surprise and they are currently under continuous assault of the Sunis tribal army.” A wide-eyed Bertrand looked at Alden sitting beside him, while gasps of air swept across the audience. The Grand Master continued, “Casualties have been limited, as the village elders have managed to put up a magical barriers to ward off the intruders temporary. However, the situation is dire and they have called for help from all the nearby lunar tribes.” Thoughts raced through Bertrand’s mind, “We are the nearest to home and we are hundreds of miles away!!” Being a nomadic tribe, Lunar tribe members were scattered around the Land of Wayworth. While some were nearer to each others, some were extremely far apart.

Shocking Burglary

2007-03-28T16:10:00.000+08:00

Just chatted with one of my ex-colleague, she’s just lost all her hard-earned money two weeks ago to bunch of f@$%^ burglars. The house was ransacked at mid-night, when all the family members were fast asleep upstairs.

She’s lost two laptops, handphone, wallet, digital camera… and the worst -> her new Toyota Vios!!!
I can’t help but to feel the pain for her… all gone in just one night. It also made me think of my newly completed house. I gonna plan and do all I can to secure the house.. but we can never be too careful in this country now.

Udang Besar (M) 9.89/kg only!!

2007-03-26T14:01:00.000+08:00

This was the scene when you’re selling king prawn (m) @ 9.89/kg in one of the hypermarket.

It was all started by Tesco Malaysia during the CNY 2006 period to sell prawn at a ridiculously low price. The move was soon matched by the others hypermarket operator and the price have never gone down for a long period of time.

The tussle is most evident between Giant and Tesco. With the most recent price lowering exercise by Tesco, consumers can be guaranteed a prolonged price war between the two hypermarket operators and reap huge savings as the margin were lowered for most of the goods.

Always remember, to shop at Giant hypermarkets that are within the vicinity of a Tesco outlet and I can assure you that you’ll be finding a lot of cheap goods on sale.

Sunway Alam Suria – Our Home

2007-03-26T13:22:00.001+08:00

Yes, we’ve just received the letter from Sunway City that our house is ready for vacant possesion.

This is our first house, and we’re both very excited about it.

Planning planning and more planning on what to buy and where to put em…

Shall post some photos on the new house soon!

My new Compaq nc6400

2007-03-16T17:54:00.000+08:00

Just received my new notebook from the office administrator yesterday. It’s a new Compaq nc6400.

It’s a T7200 2.00GHz Core 2 Duo with 1GB DDR2 ram…

I’m the envy of the dept right now.. the first one to receive the first batch of the new laptops.

To my fans -> Haha.. if there’s any

2007-03-16T17:44:00.000+08:00

Well, I haven’t written anything personal on my blog for quite some time now. Been busy writing my own fictional novel. Yeap, for those who have been following Lunar Warriors, it is my own creation. Still lots of ideas and images in my mind that I would definitely like to put in words. It’s still at its infant stages, hopefully I will have the motivation to keep writing and finish the whole story.

The Lunar Warriors - Book of Seed – Chapter One - “Brothers in Arms” - 3

2007-03-14T17:45:00.000+08:00

Bertrand was tossing around his bed, unable to sleep because the night has been unusually hot and humid. With his eyes wide opened, Bertrand stared blankly at the barren ceiling, hoping to find some sleep before the morning begins. Hours have passed, and his eyes were finally getting heavier, slipping into the dreamland.

Suddenly, a series of loud bang on his room door jolted him wide-awake. “For heaven sake, what time is it now?!!” he cursed at the perpetrator that has ruined his sleep as he dragged his unwilling body out of the bed to open the door. Bertrand found the night watcher, Solvin standing outside the door with a brightly lit night lamp. Bertrand shielded his eyes from the lights instinctively with his hands as he grumbled, “Argh, I was just falling asleep..” “Master Bertrand, sorry for waking you up at this hour. Grand Master Eldorn has summoned for your presence in the great hall. Please make your way there now.” said Solvin. After delivering the message, he nodded slightly to Bertrand and left the room, bringing away the little night lamp that he has brought along, and the whole room was plunged back into darkness. Caught completely by surprise, Bertrand paused for a moment and tried to gather his thoughts. “This must be something important.” he uttered. Bertrand fumbled in the darkness and slipped into his shirt and pants before hastily making his way to the great hall.

Walking along the long corridors leading to the great hall, Bertrand could feel that the temple was unusually alive at this hour. Torches along the corridors were brightly lit and there were the occasional group of aides hurried by. Doubling his pace, Bertrand reached the main entrance to the great hall and he could see that the hall was already filled with apprentices like him and also the other masters of disciplines. At the center of the hall, stood his younger brother Alden, exchanging words with a very solemn faced Grand Master Eldorn.

The Lunar Warriors - Book of Seed – Chapter One - “Brothers in Arms” -2

2007-03-09T17:13:00.000+08:00

Alden put his hand into his pouch and took out some dried raisin. Leaning against the wall, he started popping them into his mouth, chewing while his eyes were closed, grabbing some much-needed rest, as he had not slept for the past 2 days.

There was unmistakable resemblance between the two brothers. Both of them carried the same hawkish features, almond-shaped eagle eyes and sharp noses. Both of them sported a tattoo of the Red Crescent on their left arms, a clear signage of their descendant from the diminishing but powerful Lunar Tribe. Bertrand was much bigger in stature, with muscular arms and well-toned muscles all over his 6ft. 5 body. Alden stood a head shorter than his elder brother, with a leaner and slender body.

They were on the journey back to their village, after they had received the news that their beloved native land was besieged. Three years ago, they embarked on a journey to the sacred Temple of Moon, located deep in the heart of the Land of Wayworth. It was part of their journey in becoming a true lunaris. A journey, that would take at least six months of traveling through treacherous mountain terrains and poisonous swamps, through the Woods of Dead before ending with a one-week hike up Mount Moon, where the temple was located. The journey was to test them mentally and physically, as well as to attest their skills in preparation for the training in becoming a Lunaris – which meant the “Capable One”. However, reaching the temple had only marked the beginning of their grueling training in becoming a lunaris. They had since spent their last two winters at the temple, trained under the masters of their disciplines.

It was two days ago, in the wee hour of the morning that Alden was aroused from his sleep by a repeated tapping on his room windows. Alerted, Alden’s body sprung to life as he quickly grabbed his staff and recalled a spell of shielding to his mind. “Tap tap tap.. tap tap tap… tap tap tap.. tap tap..” the tapping continued outside the windows. Alden heightened his senses and listened intently to the noise, sensing no immediate danger after a while, he eased his guard and moved nearer to the window.
“Eeeeakkk..” he swung the windows opened. A familiar sight greeted him. A silver owl was perched on the hinges. “Silverhood, what are you doing here at this hour?” Alden said to the bird while extending his right arm. Recognizing the master’s gesture, Silverhood immediately hopped on to Alden’s arm. “I see, you’ve brought a message.”

The Lunar Warriors - Book of Seed – Chapter One - “Brothers in Arms”

2007-03-07T14:59:00.000+08:00

“Tik…. tak.. tik.. tak” the sound of rain drops on the roof, echoed through the room. Bertrand was sitting at the corner of the room, cursing at the rain, his clothes soaked wet with water. His brother, Alden sat quietly across him. Weaving his fingers in the air and chanting the words of magic, he’s trying to conjure the spell of fire, to light up the small pile of firewood that Bertrand has made out from the broken pieces of furniture scattered around the room.

“Give it a rest Alden, those darn woods are too wet to be of any use. We’ve fought hard and long today, better save your energy for tomorrow’s journey home.” Bertrand uttered. Alden just stared blankly at his brother, too tired to even think about arguing such matter with him. He took out a wooden staff, pointed directly at the pile of wood and shouted “fireball!” out loud. A burst of energy channeled through his body, and a fireball shot out from the tip of the staff. For a moment, the light emitted by the fireball lit up the room. Bertrand lifted up his hand and shunned his eyes from the burning light, while mumbling some words to himself. Alden looked at the pile of wood that he had just ignited, shaking his head in disappointment that he needed the help of the staff again to cast such simple spell. Clutching his fist, Alden smashed the staff to the floor, and at the same time he shot a glance to his brother, warning him not to say a single word.

The flickering flame brought much needed warmth to the room. Alden wrapped himself up with a blanket and sat in front of the fire. His hand extended to the flame, warming his cold and slim fingers. Not wanting to waste the fire, Bertrand quickly sat down beside his brother, and pulled out a package of sliced meat that he has salvaged from the battlefield this morning. He skewed the sliced meat with his knife and started roasting them over the fire. Licking his lips, Bertrand eyes lit up in excitement as he watched the meat getting cooked. His stomach started to grumble as the smell of roast meat filled the air. Within minutes, the meat is cooked with its juice dripping into the flame below. Ignoring the heat, Bertrand’s hunger took the better of him as he swallowed a mouthful of sliced meat fresh from the fire. “Ummphhh, Arldennn.., yumm… the meat is pretty good, want some?” Bertrand mumbled to his brother while his hands were busy skewing the meat again. Alden shook his head slightly, he signaled to Bertrand to hand over his pouch.

Monday Moaning

2007-03-05T14:02:00.000+08:00

People like to say good morning… but I prefer not to be greeted this morning. I am moaning over the complaints and sh*t passing acts that have magicked into my mailbox this morning.

It’s a common process where sh*t will fall into the mailbox over the weekends because I am not in the office to shove the sh*t away before they get to me. The sh*ter most probably is having constipation during weekdays because sh*t happens usually over the weekends (coincidentally I am off during weekends)

There’s a huge difference between taking responsibility & taking respons(h)i(t)bility.

Respons(h)i(t)bility usually carries the following characteristics :

- Fall from the sky
- In huge volume that will usually get you stuck knee-deep
- It strikes you right in the head and you don’t even know what is happening, and when you realize it, you are already dirty and stuck thus need to clean up the mess to set yourself free.
- If you get lucky once and you manage to clean up the sh*t, the probability of you being hit again dramatically increased!

Chap Goh Meh

2007-03-04T11:17:00.000+08:00

Today is Chap Goh Meh, the fifteenth day of the Lunar New Year and the first full-moon for the year. The phrase is a direct translate of Hokkien-dialect which means the night of fifteenth.

It is also known as Chinese Valentine's Day, where in certain parts of Malaysia you can see unmarried young ladies throw mandarin oranges into the sea hoping that it will be picked up by their future spouses :) This can be seen from "Number Eight Bridge" in Klang, Selangor and also Gurney Drive, Penang. Well, I only know of these two places so far...

Today is also a day where one of my ex-colleague's wedding dinner. It will be held in one of the famous chinese restaurants in Subang Jaya tonight.

White, black, blue and golden.. Cod cod cod!

2007-03-01T18:04:00.001+08:00

Nowadays we get plenty of variety of cod fish in the market. Sometimes it is easy to get confused with all the fancy names around.

It’s best to buy your cod fish from reputable retailers as some times it is not easy to differentiate the quality of cod fish if you’re not very familiar with them.

You can easily get cod fish from Isetan, Jusco, Cold Storage and Giant outlets. The best cod fish is the white cod with its extremely fresh taste and smooth flesh. To my knowledge, there’s no fresh cod being imported to Malaysia and all the cod fish we’ve got in the market are imported in frozen whole fish form.

When you’re buying cod fish, you’re offered the choice of fresh cod slice (actually they’re thawed) or frozen vacuum-packed (Cold Storage and Giant offer this). It is actually better to buy the frozen cod as they’re essentially from the same source. Buying the thawed cod fish means you will need to cook them immediately and freezing them again is really not a good idea.
Remember, it is never good to thaw and refreeze your meat or seafood as it will ultimately spoil the quality of the product.

Fishy fishy where r u?

2007-03-01T17:34:00.000+08:00

Our local fresh seafood supply is very dependent on the moon. The best way to determine when to buy marine fish is by checking the lunar calendar (chinese calendar).

Unlike western countries that practise deep sea fishing a lot, our regional fishermen are still pretty much using the age-old techniques in catching fishes. During full moon period (12th to 22nd in lunar calendar), the night sky is brightly lit and marine fishes (like kembong, mabong, sardin, cencaru & etc) will be diving deeper into the sea thus making the effort to catch them so much harder. When the supply is scarce, most fishermen would not opt to venture out to catch fish because the return simply doesn’t worth the effort.

During this period of time, fresh seafood will be fetching higher prices in the wet market. You will also notice that the quality of fish are less desirable. The wholeseller or distributor will be using their buffer stock or thawed frozen seafood during this period of time.
If you’re unsure of the quality of product, it’s better to eat freshwater fishes (catfish, patin or tilapiah) or frozen seafood (dory fillet or frozen wholefish) as that will guarantee you better product quality.

Let’s go super buy things (as Penangites like to call it) :P

2007-02-28T17:44:00.000+08:00

In today’s retail landscape, we can see many new retail establishments being categorized as hypermarket, superstore or supermarket. The categorization is mainly done based on the retail floor space that a particular store offers.

Then come an interesting question, for an item purchased in the same retailer, let’s say Giant, will the price be the same in their hypermarket, superstore and supermarket?

The answer is no. All the stores of a retailer are often grouped into different banner. The grouping could be geographical, competition (example Giant outlets neighbouring Tesco or Carrefour stores) or the store’s categorization (hyper, xstore or super).
The grouping would enable to merchandising team to come up with their pricing strategies. Generally, supermarket will have premium pricing because the main selling point is convenience and not cheap goods.

Unwarranted Efficiency

2007-02-26T18:19:00.000+08:00

I’ve been using HSBC mastercard for more than 3 years now. I’ve been a good customer, with perfect payment history and I’ve never failed in remitting my payment before the cut-off date until this month.

I missed the payment, mainly due to the fact that I was out of town for the CNY holiday.

I’ve just received a call from HSBC staff :

HSBC : “Hello Mr.Bryan… Ini Mr.Bryan ke??”

Me : “Yes, speaking”

HSBC : “Oh Mr.Bryan, saya telefon dari HSBC credit dept.”

Me : “Yes, anything?”

HSBC : “Ya Mr.Bryan, you ada outstanding bill untuk mastercard anda”

*still talking in malay although I’ve been replying him in english, the World’s Local Bank! Localised indeed as far as the language goes*

Me : “Ya, saya tahu, saya outstation jadi belum ada masa lagi untuk pergi bank”
HSBC : “Oh ya ke, Mr.Bryan sudah tahu. Boleh Mr.Bryan jelaskan bill sebelum minggu ini?”
Me : “Yes, boleh boleh.”
HSBC : “Ok Mr.Bryan, saya akan tuliskan satu note dekat system, jadi you akan bayar sebelum akhir minggu ini… terima kasih.”

Wow, all the effort from the bank to remind me of the outstanding payment. I really admire their determination in doing this, but some how I felt a bit insulted in the process…

My outstanding bill – RM79.85

Taxi… hello Taxi?? – Part One

2007-02-26T17:23:00.000+08:00

I’ve never really taken taxi in Malaysia and after my most recent experience with them, I will pretty much avoid them in the future.

On the third day of the Lunar New Year, I was travelling back to KL from Penang. I’ve reached the Jln. Duta bus station and wanted to continue my journey to either KL Sentral or Puduraya. To my surprise, there’s no longer any feeder bus servicing the Duta station to other locations and due to its “unique” location in the city, we’re pretty much sitting ducks to the preying taxis lining up the station.

To side track a bit, the authorities tried hard to alleviated the traffic congestion in Puduraya by relocating the northern bus services to the Duta station, however they’ve only brought the buses here, without the connecting public transport infrasturucture. Trying to get to Duta station pretty much cost me as much as a bus ticket to Penang. Standard half-boiled implementation and short-sightedness of our local authorities.

Anyway, I was greeted with the usual “pick-up” line from the taxi drivers –

Driver : “Bang, mau pegi mana?”
Me : “KL Sentral, berapa?”
Driver : “ RM 12”
Me : “Oii, mahalnya..”
*Silence followed for 5 seconds*
Driver : “Ok ok…. kita pakai meter”

Without any other alternatives, I hesitantly agreed and hopped on the taxi. Few minutes later, we’ve reached KL Sentral with the fare meter showing RM5.40. I was laughing to myself, there you go… RM5.40 only. Who knows……

Driver : “RM7.40..”
Me : “Huh?? Meter tunjuk RM5.40 sahaja?”
Driver : “Naik dari Duta ada RM2 surcharge.”
Me: “Tadi tak ada cakap pun”
Driver : “Ini standard la, u tak tau ke?”

Exhausted from my travelling, I just don’t feel like arguing with him and paid the RM7.40. I’ve later checked the supposed “RM2.00” surcharge claim and found out that it’s untrue!!

To be continued….

Credit cards - Quest for rewards!

2007-02-22T13:53:00.000+08:00

Just received the new annual credit card rewards catalogue. Out of curiosity, I made a comparison between the points needed for me to exchange for one x RM100 Hush Puppies voucher between my old and new credit card reward programs.

Old Credit Card
Spending required : RM17,000.00
Points awarded : 17,000
What you can get : 1 x RM100 Hush Puppies Voucher

New Credit Card
Spending required : RM5,000.00
Points awarded : 50
What you can get : 1 x RM100 Hush Puppies Voucher

I need more than 3 times spending to get the similar reward. The numbers speak for themselves.

I can only say that I can’t wait to have more points to bid for better items with my new credit card! All expentidure will go through my new credit card now… at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter which bank I need to remit the cheque, as long as I am rewarded for using the card!

Holiday's over!!! Nooooooooooooooo

2007-02-21T17:05:00.000+08:00

It’s the fourth day of the Lunar New Year and I am already back in the office typing away on my keyboard.

Gosh, the number of emails that I will need to go through is mind boggling. It is almost 6.00pm and I am all ready to go home, and suddenly THUNDER + LIGHTING… it is raining cats and dogs now…

Sigh……………

Sun Solaris Holiday Mode….

2007-02-15T14:59:00.000+08:00

#init 0
ok>boot HolidayMode -rs
………….
……………………….
#showrev
“Happy Chinese New Year 2007!”
#exit

Yup... I am booting into holiday mode sooner that I'd thought. The sentiment is shared by a lot of my Chinese colleagues, tomorrow will be an extremely busy evening on the highway as many people will be making the trip back to their hometown to be with their loved ones and family members.

To all my readers, drive safely and may you have a prosperous and happy Chinese New Year!

Valentine’s Day

2007-02-14T16:48:00.000+08:00

Ah, event of the year… always celebrated with expensive gifts and dinners in posh restaurant in most parts of the world. To those who wants a lengthy history of Valentine’s Day, please click here.

It is most interesting to note that this is the second largerst card-sending holiday behind Chirstmas. Also, in Japan and Korea, the role between male and female is actually reversed! It is more common for women to give candy, chocolate or flower to the people they love. How come our country look-east policy didn’t bring this back to Malaysia huh? hehe….

Mandarin oranges, Anglia Shandy & Me

2007-02-14T16:07:00.000+08:00

Mandarin oranges and Anglia Shandy to me, are inseperable from Chinese New Year as mooncake to Mid-Autumn festival.

Having a chilled shandy is just pure pleasure in an hot & humid day. Ahh, that refreshing taste of the drink, gotta have one tonight! :)

Mandarin oranges, well you only get to see a lot of them during CNY period, so they’re not to be missed! Mandarin oranges is also known as “Kam” in cantonese, which sounds like “Gold” in cantonese as well, thus making it one of the must-have during the festive period. You know la, chinese likes everything that carry good meaning!

YEAAAA – NAMASAKE!

2007-02-13T14:21:00.000+08:00

Err.. what? niamahsake? No.. no.. no.. it is NA-MA-SA-KE….

Heck, what is that? Sounds awfully like the catch phrase of a japanase manga character trying to conjure a ball of energy or something like that.. :P

Namasake actually means fresh salmon in japanese sushi. Sushi is one of our favourite food and we patronize Nippon Tei KLCC and Sushi King pretty frequently.

Thinking of salmon, there are 2 main types of salmon being sold in Malaysia, there are chilean salmon (imported from Chile) and atlantic salmon (more widely known as Norwegian salmon as mostly are imported from Norway).

People will usually think of KLCC Isetan, Jusco and Coldstorage when they want to buy fresh salmon. Actually, the salmon sold in these outlets are mostly from the same source and one do not taste better than the other. However, Isetan has the most premium pricing follows by Coldstorage and Jusco.

Isetan and Coldstorage usually sell only atlantic salmon and Jusco usually carries chilean salmon as well. For the readers information, chilean salmons are all imported in frozen form and retailers merely thaw the fish before slicing them to be sold in block. Coldstorage some times have smoked sockeye salmon that is imported from the US, however it is only for those with an acquired taste bud (I personally don’t like the taste of it). Occasionally you might see Cold Storage and Jusco selling salmon trout, this is actually from Norway as well (usually imported in frozen form) and the flesh is more reddish in appearance.

The grading of salmon is based on the colour of their flesh. However the colour makes no difference in the taste. The colour comes from the fish feeds and it can be artificially controlled by the farmers.

Fresh atlantic salmon is air flown into Malaysia on weekly basis and one of the major exporter is Hallvard Leroy. They are the world largest exporter of farmed salmon.

The best way to cook a slice of salmon steak, is to add a spoon of olive oil on the frying pan, heat it up and cook both side of the fish steak for around 2-3 minutes. Bon appetit!

Marinated raw meat or seafood - Yummy???

2007-02-13T11:29:00.000+08:00

This is only relevant to the people of Bolehland as this is a localized content for Malaysian.

Well, sometimes when you visit hypermarkets or supermarkets, be it Carrefour, Giant or Tesco, you might find trays of marinated raw meat or seafood selling at a premium price. All looking nice and tantalizing, however be warned that chances are the marinated meat or seafood that you’re so tempted to buy is not FRESH.

Most of the time, it is done to disguise the degraded quality of products. So it is always better to choose your meat and spices separately and spend a little more time to marinate them yourself.
The deciding factors of choosing a fresh piece of chicken wing or ikan kembong are the physical appearance and smell of the products. Once those are taken away, it will delude the customers buying decision.

Will the real leader please SPEAK UP!

2007-02-12T16:54:00.000+08:00

I am not a believer of seniority at work. I am a firm believer of appraised performance. However, very often we’ll still get people sitting on top of you because of their seniority. It’s downright frustrating that in the event of any incident or problem that requires their position to speak up, they’ll choose to keep mum over the issue simply because they do not understand what is going on to make any intelligent comment!

To manage does not equal to lead. To become a manager simply doesn’t make you a leader in the process. Leaders in any given organization or fields of specialty have clear authority over their comments and speech. We often HEAR our managers but we will only LISTEN to the leaders.

Cai Shen Ye (God of Prosperity) is coming to town…

2007-02-12T13:35:00.000+08:00

You better watch out, you better not cry
Better not pout, I'm telling you why
Cai Shen Ye is coming to town
He's making a list and checking it twice
Gonna find out who's naughty and nice
Cai Shen Ye is coming to town
He sees you when you're sleeping
He knows when you're awake
He knows if you've been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake
Oh! You better watch out, you better not cry
Better not pout, I'm telling you why
Cai Shen Ye is coming to town

Time flies, Year of the Golden Pig, will come knocking on our doors on the 18th Feb 2007.

How to make it hard and “melt” slowly?

2007-02-08T17:44:00.000+08:00

Hey, dun get too excited, I am running a healthy personal blog here, sorry to disappoint you but I don’t have any remedy to men out there needing a boost or two. :P

For those of you out there that fancy an ice-bed display during your next house warming or cocktail party, you can sprinkle some fine salt on your ice to make them harder. They will stay in shape for longer period of time and will not melt away too fast.

Mousey mousey where are you??

2007-02-08T16:26:00.000+08:00

Baby Dee sent it to me today…

Caller : Hi, our printer is not working.
Customer Service : What is wrong with it?
Caller : Mouse is jammed.
Customer Service : Mouse? And how it is related to printer?
Caller : Mmmm.. Wait, I will send a picture.

scroll down...

scroll.. down

Perth -> Here we come!!

2007-02-05T15:51:00.001+08:00

If you ask baby dee, the thing that she anticipates most from this trip -> she’ll tell you without hesitation that is to take a picture with joey!

Joey is actually the baby koala :D

The following website offers very good information about Perth, a must-read for people that is preparing for a trip to Perth. -> www.countrywide.com.au/

From my search for accomodation, the following websites came across as very comprehensive with good offers : http://www.wotif.com/ / http://www.asiarooms.com/ / www.australia-hotels.com.au/

Sorry sir, you cannot do that?

2007-02-05T15:08:00.000+08:00

I was so excited about the MATF that I actually stayed up until the midnight on the day it was launched just to be one of the first to grab the air tickets, never mind that I was put on hold for more than half an hour -> I finally got the booking number, but here comes the twist, the holiday package is not confirmed as I need to make the payment.

I requested to make the payment via my credit card, but the answer I got is “No sir -> you cannot do that because you need to make your way down to either KL Sentral or HQ (@ Jln. Sultan Ismail) to do that because we need to issue all the vouchers and tickets. Gee whiz, when I was put on hold for half an hour the lady in IVR said to me repeatedly “You can now make your payment using credit cards over the phone, just check with our agents.” .. wat-te-verrrrrrrrrrrrr..

Here comes more, “Sir, please also remember to call in again on 4th Feb 2007, to make sure the hotel booking is confirmed.” I thought with all the advanced booking system now it could have been confirmed on the spot, obviously I was wrong. When I questioned them the answer given to me was 1st Feb 2007 is a public holiday, thus no one will be working, so they need more time to confirm??!!? I was then given a deadline of 4th Feb 2007 2.00pm to make the payment or my booking will be cancelled. So can I make a payment prior to 4th Feb? No sir because your hotel is not confirmed yet?!!?!

Frustrated and getting no help from the agent (whom even told me that they’re doing their best as this is a travel fair and everyone of them is working very hard and late). I just told him to cancel my booking.

Later in the morning, I booked and paid for the air tickets ONLINE and booked myself into the same hotel ONLINE at a cheaper bargain!

Moral of the story : Book your flight and Hotel ONLINE because it is FASTER and CHEAPER and not to mention that you don’t need to waste the time with some operator over the phone telling you that they’re doing wat-te-ver they could to assist you!

The art of storing seafood… yeah it’s an art

2007-01-31T16:22:00.000+08:00

CNY is just around the corner and some of you housewives and househusband will be storing a lot of seafood for the festive season. Wet market will most likely be closed during this period because the Selayang Wholesale market (where most of the Klang Valley fresh produces are sourced from) will be closed for one week during CNY.

Well, since I am in the mood today, I will share some tips in keeping some of your seafood fresh for a few days!

Cockles (Kerang) / Lalah / Live Oyster – our friends here are actually still alive when you buy them from the market, so please treat them with respect and do not just put them into the fridge as the temperature will kill them and thus emitting an unpleasant smell. If you have bought too much stock and unable to finish them :
- Get a small pail and fill it up with water
- Mix in few spoons full of salt and put them in.

They will be able to stay fresh and juicy for few days without you freezing them to death! Btw, I would not recommend putting them into the freezer because this will spoil the cooking quality.

Cut fish (Barred Mackerel-tenggiri batang/Threadfin-kurau/Grouper-Jenahak) – these are some of the more well known fishes that consumers like to buy in slices. Sometimes, they can’t finish at one meal so the uncooked balance will go into the freezer. It is again not the best method to store the fish meat, as during the process of being frozen the membrane of the protein cells will break and that will make the fish meat dry and hard the next time you take them out from the fridge to cook again.

- Best way is to take a clean plastic bag and put the fish meat inside
- Seal it up and put it in a container with water and ice (mix half container of ice with half container of water, make sure you mix the ice water first before putting the plastic bag in or else the normal water temperature will cook part of the meat)
- Put the container at the top shelf of your fridge (not freezer!). This will help to keep the meat fresh for 1 or 2 days without spoiling the quality.

Prawns, if you don’t intend to cook your prawns, make sure you dun soak them or put them under running pipe water. Our Bolehland pipe water temperature on a hot day is indeed “boleh” in cooking part of your prawn before you even put them into the frying pan.

If you plan to keep some fresh prawns, do the following:
- Leave the shell and head on. Don’t clean them yet.
- Take a container and fill it up with cold water (ice water is even better).
- Mix in few spoons of sugar (yeah, that’s the secret)
- Put the prawns in and make sure the water level is high enuf to cover the prawns.
- Put it in your freezer! This can last for months.

Why the sugar you might want to ask, the sugar will keep the prawn meat firm and juicy and apparently they’ll taste slightly sweeter too.. haha… for obvious reason.

Rules of thumb in handling fresh seafood :
- Make sure your hand is clean
- Do not leave any seafood expose to the room temperature for too long. Bacteria will grow very fast and thus causing it to spoil faster. Always prepare and store your seafood immediately after you bought them.
- Do not put / soak / cuci / clean / wash – wat-te-verrr… the seafood using pipe water, if you do not intend to cook them.

Well.. that’s all for today. Tune in later for more seafood insights!

I found the perfect credit card!!

2007-01-31T13:11:00.000+08:00

You know what is the most frustrating thing I find about credit cards? It’s their reward programs! I feel like I have been taken for a ride all this while and I have ended up with nothing.

I have just checked out the latest reward program sent by one of the bank, do you know that I need 19,000 points just to exchange for a RM100 voucher??

19,000 points = I need to swipe RM19,000 worth of purchases to get that.

I use my credit cards to pay for everything, bills and purchases… I do make a conscious effort of not overspending. People tend to do that when they have a FEW cards in hand. So I am proud to say that I have no credit card debt and lots of points… but points that are practically useless to me.

Recently I have been introduced to a co-brand card issued by one of our local bank. I can tell you, it offers the best reward program that I’ve known so far.

I compare both of my cards, with the new co-brand card, I could exchange for the same RM100 voucher with only 5 reward points. (This bank awards 1 point per RM100)

I need to only swipe RM500 worth of purchases to get that!

Par to par, if I make RM19,000 of purchases with the new co-brand card in a year, I could easily exchange it for electrical items that is worth hundreds of ringgit!

There’s no catch to this, it is an honest and simple truth…

Direct Selling – No way!! But wait…

2007-01-31T12:52:00.000+08:00

Well, I used to be like a lot of people, Direct selling companies = Direct rejection. Don’t come and talk to me about direct selling, must be asking me to buy lots of things and bla bla bla… answer is a simple NO!!

However, as I am growing older and wiser now (ahem..) and being a buyer for a hypermarket chain, it has taught me a lot more than what meets the eye, think deeper and explore a little bit more you’ll be surprised.

The simple truth is, tradisional buying and selling network is like this:

Manufacturer > Wholesaler > Retailer > You (Consumer)

Each hops, will incur a cost on you, as simple as it may sound, no business will exist without a profit being made. Being with a retailer for a year, to breakeven we’ll need to make at least 10-12% of profit. On top of that, manufacturer will be heavily advertising on their products, retailer will do the same as well in their weekly or bi-weekly press ads and leaflet. All the advertising costs, is against sum up in the chain and pass to normal consumer like you. Consumers are easily paying 40-50% more on the cost of actual product!

The coming of network marketing has revolutionized the whole buying & selling landscape, simply by removing the number of hops in the process of delivering a product from manufacturer to consumer.

Manufacturer > Network Marketing > Consumer

On top of that, network marketers will reward the consumer handsomely for staying loyal and market their products to others. This is because network marketing relies heavily on words of mouth marketing. The manufacturer and network marketers also eliminate the external marketing cost (press ads, leaflet, tv ads) and the savings are pass on the consumers as incentives. Annually billions are spend on advertising effort and imagine you could make a cut on this.

On top of that, being in a direct selling environment, a consumer is actually more informed about the products that they are buying. Monthly booklet is sent out with comprehensive information on the products being launched. In the comfort of your own home, you can sit down quietly to plan your buying. You could purchase your items online, or just drop by to the nearest stockist of branch outlet and pick up the items. No hassle and no long queue at the checkout counter!

Start now, start today and make the conscious choice to become a smarter consumer! You can drop me a comment if you would like to know more about the network that I am with >:)

Thaipusam – 1st Feb 2007

2007-01-30T12:35:00.000+08:00

Excerpt from wikipedia - * Thaipusam (Tamil: தைப்பூசம்) is a Hindu festival celebrated mostly by the Tamil community on the full moon in the Tamil month of Thai (Jan/Feb). Pusam refers to a star that is at its highest point during the festival. The festival commemorates both the birthday of Lord Murugan (also Subramaniam), the youngest son of Shiva and Parvati, and the occasion when Parvati gave Murugan a vel (lance) so he could vanquish the evil demon Soorapadman.*

To those interested to read more, please go here.

For the record, I have not been paying any attention to this festival that is celebrated by our Tamil friends and the only thing I know is that they smashed thousands of coconuts on the day during the procession to the temple of Batu Caves.

I do celebrate the public holiday that comes along with the festival. It’s a rare break that I will get in the middle of the week. However, those that know me well will know that I am not too happy as I am paid daily. More holidays = Less salary >:/

Talking bout holidays, CNY is around the corner… 2 more public holidays in February.. now where’s that calculator of mine…

OH Crab(p)!

2007-01-29T14:46:00.000+08:00

Most flower crabs aka blue swimming crab(Portunus pelagicus) sold in Malaysia hypermarkets & supermarkets are frozen defrost seafood. Yup, they come in 10kg/carton box! They will claim that it is fresh but in actual fact they’re taken out from the freezer, defrost and viola -> on the ice-bed ready to be sold. Fresh flower crabs are still available at a slightly more premium price and usually found in wet market.

Male flower crabs have blue marking on their shell and the females are dull green. Most flower crab sold here are imported from India, Indonesia and Pakistan. Newly moulted flower crabs are being used to make the popular soft shell crab.

So, how do you tell a frozen crab from fresh crab so you’ll not get rip-off during ur next wet market visit? Easy -> just knock on the shell and the answer shall be revealed to you! J Hehe.. well actually there’s a simple check that you can do, look at the tentacles that’s sticking out from the front of the shell. For fresh crab, they should be intact and flexible to the touch. Where else for frozen crab, the tentacles are most likely damaged during the freezing process thus either broken or missing.

There, a simple seafood buying tip courtesy from your daily wat-te-ver moments!

Dory Fillet or Basa Fillet?

2007-01-29T11:15:00.000+08:00

I have had the experience of being the seafood buyer for largest hypermarket operator in Malaysia (they’re expanding fast and deserved to be the market Giant by all means) for a year and that gave me invaluable experience in knowing the trade and tasted so many types of seafood!

I guess by now, many of you out there have tasted the dory fish. Do you actually know what is dory fish made out of? Mind you, it’s not the Ms.Dory from Finding Nemo.

Dory fillet, also known as Basa fillet (for US market) comes from the Pangasius fish. For Malaysian, it is ikan patin (river catfish). Surprised? Well, almost all the dory fillets sold in Malaysia hypermarkets and supermarkets are imported from Vietnam. Vietnam is the world’s largest producer of dory fillet now. The ones that we usually see in markets are in packages of 500gm up to 1500gm, containing 2 to 4 pieces of fish fillets. Those fillets are IQF (Individually Quick Frozen). During the IQF process, glazing (25-40%) will be applied to the fish fillets (to protect the fish meat and ensure its freshness). Basically, when u’re buying the IQF Dory fillet, 25-40% of weight are actually water!

There are generally 3 grades of dory fillet (quality and taste), the better grade of dory fillet is creamy and slightly pinkish in appearance. The worst grade of dory fillet is dark pink and yellowish (when cooked, the fillet is smelling and tasting very MUDDY)

When buying any fish fillet, if possible please go for those packages with large pieces of fillet instead of multiple small fillets in one package, this is mainly due to the fact that large piece of fillet contains lower glazing and you’re not paying more for water! Usually dory fillet comes in 3 sizes (120-170gm per pc, 170-220gm per pc or 220gm & above). The price per kg increases with the weight.

3 major hypermarkets operators in Malaysia carry this product. C4, Giant and Tesco. I have had the nightmares -> having only steamed dory fillets (without any sauce or seasoning) as lunch to try all existing brands in the market. The verdict as follows :

C4 – carries only a single packaging of 500gm per packet. Quality of product is ok. However the smaller packaging also means consumers are buying smaller fish fillets, which translate into higher percentage of glazing.

Giant – carries 2 types (800gm & 1.5 kg) pack of dory fillets. Quality of product is the best in the market. Good fillets size with reasonable glazing (you can test it out if you want. Just weight the fish meat before and after thawing).

Tesco – carries free weight. Products are usually repacked in food-grade wrappers or plan clear plastic packaging. Highest percentage of glazing (almost 40%) and product quality is the worst. Strong muddy taste when cooked.

The Country Farm (there’s an outlet at LG Bangsar Village) serves one of the best dory fillet dish around. Go try it out. The Vietnam Kitchen also serves a good dish using the dory fillet. One of my favourite outlets is in USJ Taipan (next to slimming sanctuary), easier to find parking and nice dining environment.

Shoes Hunt... Nike anyone?

2007-01-26T16:02:00.000+08:00

My first pair of Nike shoes, was a gift from my bro. He bought it for me when he made a year-end trip home from UK. It’s been four years already… I am wearing this shoes almost every day and it has already spotted holes here n there which I had tried to patch / sew / glue too many times.

So I figure it’s high time for me to get a new pair of Nike shoes. Everytime I walked past a Nike shoe shop, I will definitely drop by to check out the latest design. So far, it’s been a fruitless search and I am really thinking that I will not be able to find any new shoes to my liking. Maybe it’s the age thing, I just think those new shoes with their fancy designs don’t suit me any longer. (or maybe I am sentimental, cannot part with the old shoes :P)

On the other hand, Baby Dee has got herself a new pair of Nike Free, one of her new fav now! It’s a beautiful pair of shoes… I love the way it looks on her… but I just couldn’t seem to find a pair that suits me…

Sigh.. the search continues.. tomorrow I shall go shopping with baby again!

MATF - What's that?

2007-01-26T16:01:00.000+08:00

31st Dec 2007 – 6th Feb 2007 is the MAS Fair! Malaysian Airline is giving up to 70% discount on their airfares. Well, not going to miss this, been planning a trip to Australia with baby dee and this is a great chance to book our flight tickets! Well, hopefully we’ll be able to secure the tickets on the date we wanted.
Melbourne or Sydney -> Here we come!!! (haven’t decided on which city to go.. hehe, shall discuss with baby dee tonight over our Friday nite coffee break)

Hello World!! Wat-te-verrr

2007-01-25T22:44:00.000+08:00

This is my first post into the myriad world of bloggers.....

I've created this blog to record all the wat-te-ver things that is happening in my life.

Work, life, sleep, eat, friends, colleagues, families - Wat-te-ver!!

It's therapeutic - say it now.. WAT-TE-VERR!