Treasure Hunt

I have never had high hopes whenever I participated in company event like treasure hunt or team building etc. Most of the time the judging process is so messed up... in the end there would be no justice. Similar for the treasure hunt yesterday, looking at my team I had high hopes and wanted to win something (never won anything b4 except for thumbdrive), but I just knew the judges will mess up. Going through the answers for the hunt, it seemed like we nailed it if not for a few questions.

But finally... I won a portable 120gb hard disk.... thats for third prize for the treasure hunt. So dissapointing... aiming for 1st. As expected, judging was suspicious. As far as I am concerned, there were only like 3 team including us who are eligible for the top 5 prizes because the rest arrived late and should have been disqualified..... The judges decided to ignore that and count the points only. We skipped like 2 questions to save time and I drove like a maniac albeit arriving in one piece... but what morons!!!

But it was a decent event, started in bukit jalil and ended at Pulai springs near JB. Drove past PD beaches, Melaka and Pagoh (!)..... I really like Melaka but didnt go into JB. I asked one of my colleagues from JB whats good in JB..... she replied there are quite a lot of snatch thieves....

Career talk again

This is like the gazillionth time that I (and many people) talk about career etc, I mean... will this ever end?

The new crop of management trainees
I look at the new batch of management trainees here, young, innocent, fresh out of college, energetic always with that huge grin on the face and a cheerful "Good Morning" everytime you see them at the hallway. I used to be one of them, and know I know exactly how people felt about us when we first joined. Just wait, maybe 1 year/1.5 year, and we will see if you can sport that cheerful nature and humongous smile again. If yes, fair enuf good for u, if not welcome to the club.

On leaving
Such a huge relief when I finalised my resignation from here. It is like a huge burden off my shoulders. When I went against basically everyone's opinion and joined here, people were almost shocked on why I did it. Had to deal with comments like "you selling ciggies or what", or one from my favourites was when I went to UK to conduct training, and someone asked me in serious tone "what u doing there, are u training people to smoke?". Me being a non-smoker, and strictly against it.... it made me feel like a total immoral person.

I am no engineer
I think most people have no idea what my job is. My Family at least have no idea. Some even think I am still an engineer. Even when I explained to them what I do, I dont think they understand. They have got this ciggie image in their head, and when trying to superimpose that with the image that I tried to portray of what I do, it does not make sense. My dream was to be an architect, but I am beyond that already. Dream to be an engineer in oil n gas..... over that as well.

SAP no more
SAP is such a lucrative industry, and I am leaving it so it does not make sense. People always say that the chance will come with patience. I think they are absolutely right but I'm leaving anyways. And on my new job.... I cant even explain what the job is in detail to other people. To be truthful, I am not quite sure myself. It is strange that I feel 100% that its the right thing to do when I am not even sure what my job scope will be.

On karma, luck and sweat and blood

'My Name is Earl' is one of my favourite tv shows, it is quite funny I must say. I really like the whole concept behind it, the whole bad karma thing. I think its quite an original idea at least for the first season, before it started to get dare I say it old?

I am quite a believer in this karma thing myself. Not in such a way that people would start screaming syirik or khurafat like madmen, I believe. I just believe that you do good things and God, whichever that you worship, would make good things happen to you, just the same way with the whole karma concept.

Another topic related to karma is how 'lucky' a person is. For me, as cliched as it sounds, no one is born lucky to an extent ( if u are born a royalty you are definitely lucky I guess, unless, retarded or with other complications. If u are born Bradd Pitt but very low IQ, it is kind of lucky but unlucky so it cancels each other?). Luck is earned, and for me there are ways to get lucky: work hard and do good deeds.

If you see a guy getting a damn good new job, job scope matching all criteria that you would define a dream job has, at a world class MNC, and he was your slob colleague, 100% you will think that guy got it just by sheer luck. But then again, he had worked hard to make this happen, and that includes spamming countless companies with resumes and cover letters, or pretend to have thick face and make countless annoying phone calls to HR personnels all over the country to follow up on all his job applications.

Not forgetting doing so much research before interviews to gain as much knowledge and skill that he never had in the shortest time possible, in a manipulative attempt to oversell himself to prospective employers as one with all the required skills and experience for the dream job. Yes he was hired, but on the job, as work started piling in, things would start to get tricky as the defficiencies were exposed and he would feel helpless. And as the confirmation deadline was approaching, things would turn scary. This is when karma comes back to haunt him.

One thing in the news that caught my attention was one about a man who lost an envelope of money earned from tireless hours working at a restaurant in UK, bunch of money termed his sweat and blood. Ironically he lost it upon arriving at KLIA, when he flung his jacket over his shoulder and accidentally the envelope was dropped. In a magical turn of events, a couple found the envelope and manage to return the money to its rightful owner. Such stories give us so much hope at these times when KLites seem to be the most opportunistic, immoral people on earth.

However what I want to know is why the man with his sweat n blood in hand would be so careless to put the envelope in his jacket, and furthermore flung the jacket over his shoulder? Didn't he carry a briefcase or sling bag in which he can keep the money securely? If for some reason u have your sweat and blood in your jacket's open pocket, at least don't flung it as if nothing would come flying out of it.

Smelling coffee early in the morning

The last Raya trip home further reminded me that I am turning into an old man and getting really out of sync with the 'younger generation' in general as well as my extended family. Raya is really the only time that we all (almost) can meet as a family nowadays. It used to be such a close-knit group, with get together or makan makan used to happen at least once a week or so, that was before kids started to grow up and starting moving to other cities in search of knowledge, money etc.

I love my hometown Kuching, it is such a nice city (for retirees....), but as long as it stays as pathetic as it is right now (the best cineplex there is like 15 years old with speaker bunyi pecah..... how can??), I dont blame other young people moving to other cities. I just dont understand, it is a common fact that Kuchingites are not that poor at all, and they always fly to KL for shopping or whatever (I see them here every school holiday....).... why dont anyone just invest there.... ie: GSC open cineplex in Kuching.... and then no need to fly to KL anymore??

back to family matters. My nephew was 7 months already, he has grown quite big and turned out to be one hyperactive baby. I have seen him being thrown into the air by his parents (hands-off!!)... on another occasion he was in the baby seat (the baby basket thing) and there he was swinging quite extremely with his father holding the handle..... and he had the loudest baby laugh that I have ever heard (macam org tua). I came to knew from my younger sister that these 'extreme' things happen quite often..... at some point I was not sure if these people knew what they were doing to the baby lol (but pretty sure no harm done).... but at least the baby had a lot of fun. One extreme baby indeed.

I also found that I do not know what is going on with my younger cousins. I see myself imitating those whom I regarded as 'silly old people' when I was young(my uncles and aunties)... everytime I went back I would ask the young ones what standard/form they are in.... or what course they are taking, when theyre graduating etc.... but by the next visit I would have forgotten all these and would start asking them all the same questions again....

Don't you find your self imitating those exact people that you thought had no idea what they were doing (eg your parents?)..... I have always thought I can be better parents than my mom and dad. Their parenting style to me at least was suitable only for the 60's, to me their skills were solely derived from their own childhood experience, and what they thought were the right thing to do as parents (this was in the 60's).... which I concluded as irrelevant when I was growing up (in the 90's). So now, I am supposed to know the right thing to do based on my childhood experience (90's)... but if I ever had a child... thats like at least 5 years from now, then by then what I perceived as the right thing to do to my children would be irrelevant????

Post Aidilfitri

Still stuck in office having to listen to all those noises coming from the people drilling. Cant believe they are doing that while we are still working. Apparently they are taking out the gate-thing at the door, perhaps installing something more modern that produces less noise (I like the one at fitness first the Curve.... we also have that in our London hq..... very sleek)

I have finally made the final decision. Cant believe I will no longer have to deal with this shift thing again in 2 months. Shift work can go to hell hahahahaha.... It all started with a chat with an old friend..... who was also in the same line and basically same predicament. I didnt expect her to be so frank in expressing how she felt about work.... it made me analyse my situation more truthfully and I guess that I need not be in denial and accept the fact that I hate the f87678kin system and Im outta here lol. Forget the dream of getting 5 figure contract.... realistically how can u get there when you have hate deeper that Mariana trench of the true essence of the whole thing?

Cant help it, I just have to say how good radiohead's latest, In Rainbows, is. After listening like 20 times through, I had to switch on hitz.fm.... too much. Among my favourite tracks are Bodysnatchers, Arpeggi, Nude, Jigsaw falling into place, and the mother of all tracks, Reckoner.

The Malaysian melting pot

Aidil Fitri is just around the corner again, and with that droves of KL-ites rush through its exit points, be it highway tolls, airport, bus station et cetera. All so excited to reach their final destination; the thoughts of awaiting family members, lemang and ketupat and family cat or whatever making the journey seems so exciting. Yeah thats what usually happens right, but I remember last year during Chinese New Year, I was in KL and thought all KLites left for the holidays, so I was going to Midvalley to catch movie; with no one around, the easy parking is worth the journey. And yet...we end up taking almost an hour to find a spot!!.....

It seems that every other person u know in KL is not local. In my team, final count reads one sarawakian, 1 from kedah, 1 penang, melaka, ipoh, seremban, couple from johor, mentakab...probably 3 from klang valley...... my neighbour's johorean, and he left like last weekend for Raya. And my ex housemates..... 3 from Johor, 1 batu kurau. A couple of houses along the row opposite mine, whose owners are Malay, have been vacant I think.

I was planning to catch a flight yesterday, but on air asia thursday was fully booked. So settled for Friday morning. And this was way back in early September. I am going a bit early to Lcct tomorrow... I am pretty sure the lines are gonna be long, and its gonna get ugly. All sorts of people are gonna be there.... entry level execs like me.... mbak mbak and ibu ibu.... students.... Sarawakians from Kuching.... Sarawakians from Kapit or Bau or Sarikei.... young family... u name it, theyll board the flight with you. Students are like the poorest people around..... they look for the cheapest of everything, I know because I was one.

And yet.... my Raya flight bills as follows:
One way to KCH on Air Asia: 385.00
One way to KL on MAS: 218.00

This does not make sense at all to me. On the same day of my MAS flight back to KL, on air asia the cheapest price was around 300++. I was just glad that I got the 218 deal. I just could not believe my eyes. Was it a system glitch.... or a super saver ticket.... regardless its all good, it just made my holiday season more wonderful with extra like 100 bucks.

Final note, Selamat Hari Raya to everyone... maaf zahir batin, and take care.

P/S: Radiohead has released their latest album 'In Rainbows', now only available as online download, will be available in hard copy format end of the year. You can get the download here: http://www.inrainbows.com/, very easy u place ur order, u get a link, and download. The cost..... anything...... u can put 0..... u can put 50.... can u believe it... Radiohead rocks.

what to do what to do

I feel like good things seem to come to me all at the wrong times...... for sure I need them but to have them all at the same time means that I only can choose one and this decision making process is where I will most probably mess up. It is like going to the bazaar Ramadan and with so many stalls with smoke from the bbq or ayam golek and the unmistaken aroma from such a variety of glorious food.... I just have to go buy food from three stalls which are probably the worst.

Read somewhere that Ramadan is more of a 'feasting' month here than a fasting month. I cant agree more. With buffets skyroceting to 50-100 bucks per head, look around KL and you will think that we just have too much money to spend. Now how much food do you need to eat to make you feel that the 100 bucks are worth it? If they serve lobster maybe 2-3 tails would do it.... but I dont think that many buffets have lobsters....

Yes indeed I went to the Taman Equine bazaar which is the nearest to my house for the first time yesterday, but the food that I got were not too good. I usually go to the one near UPM cause they have more variety, and for some reason I have this mindset that old, kampungy places (like Serdang...) have better food?? This is just based on my 'feel', no fact to support this. But so far all the foods from Serdang bazaar have made me happy during breaking of fast.

And then the Putrajaya bazaar. Out of boredom I just decided to take a drive there and see what can we find there. Dam the biggest bazaar so far. So many stalls with so many variety.... you can smell the smoke and aroma from one mile and salivate all you want.

Theres this roti john stall which have always had at least 10 people lining up for the roti.... very curious about this but so far I have managed to control the urge to just get in line to find out what the fuss is all about. Also a popiah stall with as many people lining up always... how good can a freaking popiah be??? Never tested this also. A stall selling 'satar'... I have never heard of such a thing before, apparently its like otakotak of some sorts but in pyramid shape.

Then theres this kerang bakar stall. The first time that I had it it was like the most delicious kerang bakar ever. The kerang is marinated with spices similar like ikan bakar; the kerang itself inside the shell gets the marinade somehow. Before this when I had kerang it has always been the kerang taste purely like kerang.... no spiciness or marinade and what not, but this one was so different. But the second time was not so good. The spice-marinade thing was still there, but the kerang was not fresh, at all. I had to throw away the whole thing. But Im gonna give the kerang makcik a second chance, just because of her spicy wow factor.

Club Med!!

Just got back from Club Med Cherating. Went there by by coach wednesday and returned today. Thursday the whole day was all about meeting, officially called the 'post implementation review' for our already concluded programme. Yesterday was what we were anticiapting for though.... all day activities and fun the whole day.

The resort was quite nice, well maintained and elegantly designed with traditional malay architecture and modern style blended together. The rooms were quite small though. I still vote Westin Langkawi the best resort that I have ever been to.

But its not about that in Club Med. Here its all about fun activities, free food all day (except fine dining of course) and free drinks and booze for alcoholics. To tell you the truth this is the most fun that I have ever had on a resort holiday (holiday.... sort of), considering that my expectations was low as we were there 'mainly' for the meeting... . I must say that if you want to have a good holiday with your family, this is a very good place to go and it is worth the money (it is quite expensive though).

Yesterday basically the whole day we were just trying to try as many activities as possible. I managed to do sailing, wall climbing, beach volleyball, aqua gym, ping pong, tennis.... my goodness I have never done so much in a day. My whole body is aching.... sore muscles, burning surnburn and whatsoever

Sailing was OK considering that could be the only time I am gonna have the chance... it was a small cantamaran that could fit 4 people. Go the chance to be the captain (hold the steer)... not bad but quite boring as the wind was not that strong. Aqua gym, kinda dragged into it, was relaxing at the pool when the instructor came and asked us to join. We did join somehow.... aerobics in the water... what can I say... what a waste of energy and dignity.... So dissapointed I didnt have time to try the trapeze (circus) as well as the bungee bounce (human slingshot of some sorts).

There was a show every night.... some variety stage performance. Catered mainly for kids I think, as I really find the comedian annoying, and others plain suck. Either that or they think the guests were retarded. But still its good for the kids. Also got the chance to watch the circus (trapeze) show... not bad, quite professional. And of course the open bar with free drinks.... what can I say.....

I must say Club Med did really well in making sure that their guests enjoy the holiday by trying to get them out of their rooms, join the activities and party. What I really like is they try to get the people to mix around.... I mean they saw a bunch of tourists lepakking near the volleyball court, and suddenly a beach volleyball tournament.... and made sure everyone wanted to join.... that sort of thing....

Liverpool 6 - Derby 0

The title says it all, doesn't it...

Liverpool looked awfully too strong for Derby tonite. In fact this could be the strongest Liverpool team ever since the premiership started. I cannot remember such a balanced Liverpool team. Most of the times there were always something wrong here n there... sexy attractive footbal of Roy Evans era let down by comical defending.... or Houllier's superbly organized defence but lame attack.... or early Benitez era when the strikers get chance after chance but could not seem to find the net.

Well in Fernando Torres Benitez got the man who can get the job done and get the goals. This guy is strong, quick, clinical, hardworking and skillful.....could be the most complete striker in the premiership currently. Babel has looked sharp and full of ability albeit not looking gelling yet with the rest of the team. The two other new guys are not bad as well. So solid.... this is the best chance yet to win the league!!

Areas that I feel could be improved... could do with a new central defender. A backup might be sufficient right now, but since Hyppia and Carragher are already veterans... Benitez might want to get one for the longer term. I really like Micah Richards.... the thing with Liverpool defence is they are not quick and could be troubled by players like Drogba. With Micah Richards, you get Drogba in the form of a defender. A speedy winger would be welcome as well.

Also Liverpool IMO need to depend less on players such as Kuyt and Pennant. These two are not good enuf for me, just do not posess the quality to kill off games. Kuyt is such a frustrating player.... he could have scored a hattrick tonite but instead got none. These two players had always seem to play well and involved in a game.... but always do not produce the results. Whereas someone like Babel was anonymous the whole game tonite up to the moment he scored that wonderful goal.

The Killers: Sam's Town

This band's career did not really take off as many predicted. From the success of their first album, people were talking about them being the next big thing etc etc. Strangely since they released the second one last year, they kind of faded from the spotlight.

Probably this has got to do with the lead singer's comment about the second record being the best record of the decade or something like that. As well as so many other commnts similar in nature. To some people this could translate into an arrogant or condescending statement from a relatively newbie in the rock scene, and can really piss off a lot of people especially music journalists.

Well one thing I am sure of is that the guy at Rolling Stone who reviewed this album is one of those having a problem with The Killers. He gave this only two stars out of five. It is not that bad, not bad at all.

I much prefer this to the first one. Actually I did not really listen to the first one, just played a few times. The second one was a bit of hard to listen to at first, but at least for me I could see so much potential in it, did not lose faith, this album just grows on you. My favourite track is Read My Mind; they did a strange video in Tokyo for this one. The rest are really good as well, I can just play this album over and over again.

For me this album is very refreshing. Such a relief from crap produced by the so called big names of today?? namely Linkin Park, Fall Out Boy, Daughtry, My Chemical Romance etc etc and the whole army of Canadian bands (especially the one with the lead singer who looks like jesus... forgot the name already, but what a bunch of rubbish). Add Avril Lavigne to that list I swear that the world is going deaf. (the 'girlfriend' song, can anyone possibly create a more annoying tune than that???)

I really miss music of the 90's. Cannot really listen to the mainstream music nowadays, except for a few. I think I am listening less rock and more of other stuff. The 90's.... miss the days when you have something like 'Jagged little Pill' which sells 16 mil copies.... or classics like OK Computer that I still listen to until today..... or even plain old Sheryl Crow.... I blame Britney Spears. Since her debut, it has gone downhill.

Back to the Killers, for me this could be one of the best of the decade. Been quite a while since I like an album so much (maybe since wilco's last). Talking about Wilco, they just released an album. Until I get streamyx, no idea how am I gonna get hold of it.

Macam P*&%

I am working shifts now since project completion. Today I am on 10 pm - 6am shift. I am man of few words, pls refer to blog title and use your imagination. Sometimes I feel I rather die. What a difference changes can make. Its like I have founded India like Columbus did, or should I say the west Indies (thats what he thought, though he actually found America and west indies). What a dumass.

Moving on to things more cheerful in nature. Influenced by food shows on tv that seem to get ever more interesting everyday (Favourites are Tony Bourdain, Jamie Oliver, Iron chef - no more!!), I feel like I need to share the food knowledge I have to the rest of human kind, be it good eats, sucky food or whatever.

Nasi Lemak - Village Park Restaurant near Uptown
Found out about this place from my sister. How someone living in Kuching know places to eat in KL show how fanatic Msians are about food. Went there for lunch earlier this week. Since then, went there 2 more times!

The three times I went there I had Nasi Lemak - with rendang kerang, ayam goreng and sotong sambal. The most important thing for me is the sambal. The sambal is very intense, very salty-spicy, a bit sweet, not too hot. I would say its very solid. The rice - fragrant, not sticky, not lembik like bubur (some people like bubur-like nasi) and just enuf santan. But, hit the jackpot with the side dishes. The rendang kerang and sambal sotong I can say the best that I ever had in my life!! ..... unbelievable. There is something special in it I cannot explain. The ayam goreng berempah is also fantastic, tho not yet there with the kerang and sotong.

If not for the sambal which is only solid, I could say this is the perfect Nasi lemak. But I had the best ever sambal at the project site canteen in Bako, Kuching, when I was working for my 1st company. The thing looked so bland, but wait until u taste it.... tried once can still remember till now. That set a very high benchmark. Very outstanding.


Roti Bakar and Kopi Ais - Kluang Station
With the global coffee madness around the world, what with Starbucks opening and later closing a branch in China Forbidden City and whatever, locals seem to catch up with kopitiams mushrooming everywhere in the Klang Valley.

My favourite has got to be Kluang Station. The killer here is the Roti Bakar. They use white roti, toasted to perfection, crispy outside yet inside still obtaining the fluffy and soft texture of bread. With the overflowing kaya and melted butter meleleh.... man, u will meleleh also. The kopi ais is not bad, but I feel its too 'Kau'. But the roti bakar- gold medal.


Ikan bakar Bellamy - behind Istana Negara
I used to frequent this place, but since I usually order sotong, they dont come cheap (First time I ordered 2 huge sotong and my bill went up to 30 bucks - madness). Therefore, I tend to have an opinion that this place is pricey, considering the place is like warung (macam williams). Also the makcik there can be kerek at times, like shes the king of ikan bakar or something like that, or maybe thats me being paranoid.

Sotong can cost 8 to 12 bucks each, ikan around 6 bucks. I dunno bout the ikan, but people claim theyre good. i have only had sotong, the sotong is fresh and the marinade is nice- very spicy but not hot. But I feel that as long as sotong is fresh, it WILL taste good, so not really crazy about the marinade. So for me, this place is ok onli, and I dont understand what the fuss about this place is all about. I think my dad make better bbq sotong, with minimal marinade (oil, kunyit and seasoning). I just feel grilled seafood do not need too much marinade, just need them to be fresh.

Surgery

Just got back from Kuching yesterday. Got sms from sister earlier last week that my father was having surgery the following Thursday. So I flew back to Kuching Wednesday.


Total Knee Replacement
After years of suffering from Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), my father finally decided that he had had enough. So he listened to the doctor and went for the total knee replacement surgery, on both knees. This is still OK considering some even have to do this on both knee and pelvic joints. Before this I sort of knew that the disease was arthritis, but not specifically rheumatoid. In fact, I am not even sure if my father knew what he was suffering from!


















I have seen the x-ray and I think the prosthetic looked exactly like this one in the picture. The surgery took 6 hours, and it was not as straight forward as per normal. According to the doctor due to prolonged damage to RA and subsequently bad posture, the knee joint was no longer straight and scar tissues were accumulating. So he spent a lot of time fixing that.

Just 5 days after surgery, my father had been able to walk(on crutches of course) and the pain was gone. Now he is recovering doing physio to recover the muscle strength at the joint as well as getting the coordination between joint movements and the brain right. No surgery complications, so everything looks good now.

I guess my point here is that surgery was quite cool. Especially when it can show elderly people, who are understandably sceptical (even I myself would think twice if I were to replace both my knees), what modern medicine can do.

Stim or no stim

I was really looking forward to meet up with my ol buddies from Sunway. As we get older and people start to get attached (to other people, job and etc), we naturally grew apart and we just never see or talk to each other again. I initiated communication earlier the week, and after emails flying all over the place, it was decided that it needed to be tonite, at 10 pm. Then, dear Mr JD Jamal suddenly at the last minute declared he couldn't make it... damn giler potong STIM.

Heck i was trying to initiate sumthing to get the Sunway geng (including girls) together since early May. But that didnt go through as well as I had to go to the middle east, and no follow through after that. I have realized that all my life I have been making a lot of friends, and losing a lot of them too. So really want to do something about this. But it is so hard to get people together, everyone is so busy and has some wedding to go to every weekend lol.

Now that I have discovered that people from work are reading my blog, there is no more freedom of speech here man. This IS the place that I want to go if I have something to say about work. But cant do that now, and that sucks. Not stim at all.

ZJ's food review - Tony Roma's

Initially I had no idea about this place and a bit sceptical (thought that it was a mickey mouse western restaurant). Then I remembered reading excerpts from the star on this new restaurant chain from the states opening a new branch in Cineleisure.

We went to the one in Sunway Pyramid, the only branch that I know of is in Cineleisure. Well, it is has got this TGIF and Chilli's theme going on, a place where workaholics go on Friday nights to have good food and chill out.

Decor
If you compare this to TGIF/Chilli's, I would prefer the latter because TGIF/Chilli's got this casual/fun theme going on (I especially like TGIF's 'ritual' for birthdays--cheesy likehell, just what we need on Firdays!). Whereas Tony Roma has this more high-end exclusive feel to it. It looks a bit like some hotel restaurant and feel less personal, again the lack of a fun factor. It does look trendier though.

Service
Service is crap and obviously being a new chain, the staffs are not that well trained. I also had difficulties understanding what the waiter was saying, on top of that my food arrived last when some even had finished their meal. Thats really bad.

Price
Price is at TGIF and Chillis level, so nothing much that I can comment here.

Food
I like the steak I ordered, cooked perfectly to my expectation, tender and fresh. I didnt like their fries and their sauces; there are 4 type of sauces available and I didnt really like them all. However, the menu is verybasic and limited. Strictly steaks and burgers and some fish, none of those tapas or mexican delicacies you can find at TGIF. Portion is a little smaller here compared to TGIF/Chillis, so those with bigger appetite might feel value for money is less.

Final verdict
It is actually not bad. I quite like the steak (strong point here) but the side dishes were poor. But for me the main thing is the steak, so I would say Tony Roma's is between TGIF (good) and Chilli's(bad). However the decor is more formal and less fun, which I thought was out of place.

What is it with this starbucks guy????

I really felt like I wanted to smack someones face the other day. Or at least just freak out and lose it and just use the can opener and let the worms outtt!!??? But my brain keep telling me to keep cool and just shut the hell up, well thank you brain.

Right now, I just want a cup of nescafe 3 in 1. What is better than a cup of nescafe early in the morning, particularly after the latest version of the 3 in 1 with improved taste and aroma. No need for starbucks latte frappucinno and free internet plus free paul mcartney music. Not to mention free aircond. If i were given a choice between the starbucks package and a cup of nescafe tarik at the dirty neigbourhood mamak stall, I would take the latter, now.

The starbucks package was initially tempting indeed. Good ambience, good crowd, again free aircond, nice huge cup... and wait until u taste. OMG taste like the coffee bean (litterally the beans) hangus man.... totally deceptive cup of coffee. My conscience is almost clear... I need to switch to coffee bean (the franchise)... heck I might just want a cup of nescafe 3 in 1...

Such a coincident that I am actually at a Starbucks and my mocha taste like the bean or chocolate hangus. So I went to the counter and vigorously sprinkled vanilla over my cup. The waitress look at me with round eyes with the 'hello wat are u doing' look. What is wrong with these people????

Argh anyway, yes my entry this time is really random. I have alot of ideas usually, sometimes during office or watching TV, I just want to write something here. But still no internet at my home man, really need to record my thoughts somewhere as as sson as Im in cyberspace, all the ideas are gone. Tmnet....please do the promo for streamyx again (because unless u do, I wont subscribe).

I have been craving for Sarawak Laksa for quite a while now. I know there is a stall in Rasta TTDI that sells Laksa Sarawak, plus other traditional Sarawak food like ikan terubuk, nasi aru etc. I drove all the way there last week at lunch. Unfortunately the stall was closed. I am not sure closed for good or what, if anyone has any idea on this I would really be grateful. I know there is one aunty selling Laksa Sarawak in a Bangsar cafe (near mahbob/the beriyani ayam madu mamak), and according to a fellow Sarawakian, it is authentic. But its non halal, so thats out.

Sigh... next time I go back home I am gonna tapau a bunch of the laksa paste and cook it myself here. And for you guys KL-ites and west Malaysians (if you dont know already), Laksa Sarawak at Laksa Shack is crap (taste more like pathetic curry laksa to me).

In my conquest for the authentic tasting laksa in KL area, I came across this interesting website by a bunch of interesting laksa loving Sarawakian chaps still living in Kuching:
http://real-sarawaklaksa.blogspot.com/

From Beirut to Dubai

Arrived in Dubai early yesterday morning, will spend 4 days here.

Beirut on last day, had a 'surprise' tour organized by the wonderful people of BAT Lebanon. Work ended noon, and after lunch immediately we hopped into a cute Nissan (as featured in Heroes lol), driven by a Lebanese Jean Reno look-alike. We told him we got a plane to catch, need to get back to the hotel by 6, and yes he rushed allright. It felt like I was in Ronin, truly a unique Lebanese experience.










Situated in the outskirts of Beirut, the Jeita grottos are quite a marvellous spectacle. It consists of a network of underground cave systems, with magnificent rock formations, stalactites and stalagmites and pristine underground river system. Too bad no pics allowed. I was quite sceptical of this initially (Im from Sarawak and we have the most amazing caves), but it was better than I expected, beautiful caves minus the guano!

After that with little time to spare we headed to the ancient city of Byblos. Declared a UNESCO heritage site, a crusader's castle dominates the archaelogical site, surrounding it ruins of temples, ancient settlements, Roman columns etc. The site is a rojak of structures built in different era; from neolithic settlements to Phoenician temple to Roman necropolis to the grand Crusaders castle. So much history and culture evidently displayed by the different styles of architecture.

After all that history and culture, were now in Dubai!! 1st day, first thing on my mind is... mall of the Emirates. Rushed there first thing in the morning, straight to the ski slopes LOL. Cant believe I went skiing in Dubai. It cost us around 200 dirham (around Rm200) for a 3-hour-pass, but man it feels good.... lepas gian ski. Quite worth it, considering my colleague has never skieed before, nor has he seen snow, and the snow was fluffy!!









Arrived in Dubai early yesterday morning, will spend 4 days here.
We decided to warm up after that, and went for the Arabian safari. Hopped on the land cruiser and off we went into the Arabian desert. The driver was quite an expert, always trying to entertain us passengers by doing insane manouevers over the desert dunes, seemingly trying to go down the steepest of the hills and up the highest ones. A few people (fortunately not in our car) vomitted. After all that, late into the evening, went to a arabian camp site, complete with belly dancers, camel rides and bbq.

What a strange experience, from skiing in sub zero temperatures to the Arabian desert in the punishing 40+ c heat all in the same day. I think this is what Dubai is all about.

Beirut update

Surviving 3rd day in Beirut.

So many things going on here in Beirut, I do not know where to start. First of all, bullet marks and bomb holes can be seen everywhere, mostly from the 70's civil war, neglected until now. Army personnel are still patrolling areas especially around government offices, a few tanks here and there. Apparently there are still tensions among the different factions (even if the civil war ended almost 2o yrs ago).

Despite all these, we could walk around at 1030 pm, went through barricades and tents and army checkpoints, and just lepak at night. There's even a road here filled with nightclubs and bars, like Bangsar, only trendier and more stylish. Style is so significant here. The people here are really concerned about looks, and for the ldies it seems like everyday is a fashion show. Maybe too trendy and stylish.

Some parts of town are going massive reconstruction and restoration. The downtown is now well restored and the buildings look beautiful, with a lot of sidewalk cafes and restaurants. Also a lot of high end boutiqes in downtown, a lot of nice cars, I guess a lot of rich people here. Drivers here you can find nowhere in the world, this is the only place so far that I witnessed a car being reversed at a speed of at least 60kmh, on a busy main road!!! Even better, today I saw a porsche cayenne doing just that.

This place is surreal. Some parts make you feel like you are at a beautiful meditteranean city, and other parts make you feel you are at a warzone.

Off to the Middle East!!

Flying to Beirut and later Dubai. Will be back in Msia 23rd. Lepakking at the lounge, there is no better moment to update my blog.

Quite nervous about this trip. This is the first time that it feels funny. I mean I am heading to Beirut. I think the war there just ended last year or something like that. I tried to search for pics of Beirut on the net, and came across a lot of graphics showing ruins in central Beirut or bombed cars and stuff like that. Those were from last year, but still the country is surrounded by Israel, Syria, Jordan and Iraq. Probably the most unstable region off the world. But my hope is to get a pic with a UN personnel with the UN tank in the background.

Looking forward to Dubai, and hopefully can see the Burj. Though dont think there much for me to do there, unless I have the money of course. Lets see if I can bring some Arabian desert sand back.

The Neverending Quest

There was a moment when I remember waking up and then started asking myself what is the purpose(eat breakfast onli), nothingness can drive me crazy. That was the time gap between graduation and returning to Msia for good. But then, now I wake up and whats the purpose? To go through all this s&** again!!!! Damn I really prefer the former. Then again, we never can fully appreciate what youhave got, nor can we feel real happiness in the current moment. Then the moment passes and you start to cherish the moment and sort of living in the past???## You get a good job, then you look at other people and you want their job. You own a honda n you want mercedes. You have condo and you want banglo. Wil this ever end???? ultimately it is all about being at peace with your inner self, and each of us have different life goals that we consider to be success.

In next post.... I will put up pics from London. Managed to get the policeman to take pic of me in trafalgar square. Travelling alone sucks.... might as well not travel. The least is to have one companion, at least got someone to talk to.

I wish I have Hiro's power

It seems like the traffic in KL is getting worse. Its been a while since I had to drive to KL in the morning rush hour, and last wed it took me one one and a half hours to get to KLCC. Even on weekends and recent example on chinese new year, there were just so many people everywhere, dunno where they come from. KL-Seremban highway is just horrible..... the crawl now starts from bukit jalil exit.... I wonder if the SMART tunnel will be able to make any difference.

We had our annual zone 3 asiapac meeting in KL convention centre last wed. It is quite a remarkable occasion, with all staffs required to attend and most of the leadership team flying from all around the world to share the results of the last financial year. Our meeting is different from other companies I think, because the meeting itself is morelike a side show. Most of the day is spent doing all sorts of activities with pre-determined teams, and it usually leads up to the prize giving to the team that scored most points.

Yeah it is a bit weird cause its not really a meeting actually, more like a team building event of some sorts. Nevertheless I quite like it, any free food or time away from office is good. My favourite activity for this years meeting was the rock climbing race. They constructed a rock climbing wall in the KL convention centre, and that itself was quite awsome. I have never thought that I would like rock climbing, and it has also proven that all that time in the gym has at least produced some measurable result......

This month is going to be a hectic month. Im flying off to hometown Kuching next thurs, just in time to see my new-born nephew. Its just scary how time is beyond our control, and now my parents are grandparents, couldn't imagine them doing stuff that grandparents do. The week after Ill be off to London for a few days, alone, and the thought of that brings chills to my bone. There will be a lot of public speaking to do in front of big bosses at the BAT world hq, and I have no idea how will I get through that. There is no other better time to apply Nike's motto, JUST DO IT. Then the week after that I plan to go to Taman Negara.... really hopeful that that will happen.

Tong tong chiang!!

I am working today, and yesterday as well. No one else from my team is here in office, most of them only return next week. I as the one of the non-chinese felt obligated to volunteer myself to work on public holidays. Obligation or is it just plain ass kissing, I am also not sure. The other non chinese is travelling in europe to do some training. Sometimes i wonder why the heck am I doing this.

It always interesting when a chat with another individual can really mess up your mind. Mind you, this individual is like the type of worker who comes to office pissed off every day, no interest whatsoever feeling 'Im doing crap' with an end goal of to get the hell out of here. Sometimes I feel this type of people are too pessimistic and should be avoided at all costs; especially in one to one chatting sessions. But these people do give you a different perspective to a situation and get you back to reality and truth, which are usually not really good. They end up being pragmatic rather than pessimistic, messed up fuckedups.

i am getting free internet again yay

I thought I was getting used to my 4-12 night shift. Now that latin america trainings are over, so does the night shift. It felt like I worked less hours, and I could do a lot of things during the day. It is weird and good at the same time that I could do groceries and go watch movies and theres like no one around.

We had our inaugaural foosball tournament a couple of days ago. After such a build up, with all that practise at lunch break; heck we spent way too much time at the lounge playing foosball; we went out in the first round. It was no peanut opponent though, and it was quite unfortunate that we spent our previous weekend in Langkawi, and literally didnt practise before the game, so were quite rusty. Anyway, they used a new ball for the tournament, a much slower one, and we just didnt deal with that change. It didnt help that our game plan was based on statistics (were like a foosball version of Bolton, with less skills).

It was ironic that the course in Langkawi was all about that, how to deal with change. I think it was a good course, and the group; which for me makes or breaks the course, was good, willing to participate. I am no fan of this type of courses, I only went after seeing pictures of the resort were going to stay in. Westin Langkawi is a fantastic resort; huge plasma screen in every room, biggest ever bathtub with view of the sea, infinity pool, and to top it off friendly staff and good service.

Anyhow, some of my favourites from the course. First, the mbti test, which determines your personality and attributes. Mine is entp(introvert, perceiving, thinking,intuition... or something). This allows me to understand myself as well as others better, especially in trying to make sense of why people react or do things in a certain way in a situation. The other is the take charge thinking model, whereby u focus on the goal and develop the steps to acheive it instead of allowing thoughts or feelings clouding your thinking and judgement. Its trivial, but sometimes its good to step back and take a more hollistic or process-driven approach to how our mind works.

The Ugly Malaysian.....

I came across this article in the NST on the ugly habits of Malaysian shoppers list.... no 2 says people trying on bikinis and leaving their vaginal discharge on the bikinis. And the department store staff had to throw them away of course(sure or NOT!)... I have forgotten what number one was.... but my god no 2 is already like the most disgusting thing ever....

This has inspired me to come out with my own list of the ugly habit of Malaysians, when going to the gym. I had been going to the gym in umich and had never seen these kind of things. This is only in my beloved Malaysia. Here goes:

1. Resting on a gym machine, while picking nose. This is top notch skill indeed.
2. Use hair dryer to dry arm pit. I can still tolerate people drying their body and feet (from a distance) with hair dryer, but it is just ridiculous on armpit. I am just waiting to see someone using hair dryer to blow their u-know-what hair. I think I will lose my mind and smack the guy on the head should this happen.
3. Pee in the shower. These people think their pee smell like perfume and make the whole shower area stinking like animal cage.
4. Fill 1.5 litre bottle at the water cooler. Yes I understand we want cool water to refresh after a good workout, and they dont serve cold water in the jugs, but out of courtesy, use a cup or smaller bottle la. The water cooler is not discharging water at jet speed...
5. Produce 'orgasm' sounds when doing weight training or whatever. This is totally unnecessary, and it doesnt help with anything. If anything, it just make u look plain ridiculous.

It has been a while....

They closed my mail account...

You know you have been offline long enough when hotmail closes your account..... they did reserve an account for me, an I just need to activate it, and that took like 10 seconds. Now i got 1GB of space(previously 250 mb), but they deleted all my mails??!! Having said that, when someone never login for more than one month....

Work

If you have been working for more than one year.... and still not sure if you are doing the right thing, or what the hell that you really want..... what does that mean? I consider a job is worth doing if it surrounds you nd engages you with smart people from whom you can learn new things. Or at least surrounds yourself with more smart people than dumbasses(because sometimes you still need them around). That is good enough for me. Then again, people always say that you spend 5 days a week at office, and basically you only have 2 days only for family or anything outside office. That a hell lot of time spent at work! And if work is shit, your life is shit too.

On being out of favour....

This is really a shitty feeling. This is when you find your superior is making decisions that do not meet your expectations. Everything was going as planned and predicted, and all of a sudden something out of nowhere which really was quite surprising. Being half paranoid, this made me analyse everything to the nitty gritty details, from whatever that ive said during the meeting to the look that I gave to the boss when I met him in the hallway. Or it could even mean nothing.

Who moved my cheese...

This is supposed to be one of the best selling business books. I am supposed to read this as prework for my eagerly waited training/course in Langkawi next week. The objective of this course is among others to basically unlock your potential, and for self reflection etc, in the ever enlightening process of determining what is that that you really want in life and what you are best at doing. Enlightenment is what I seek in Langkawi, and hopefully the course will give me some light on what i should be thinking about now. Nevertheless, I havent been to Langkawi and a long weekend plus two days in Langkawi sounds like a good plan, isnt it.