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.

Cape Town part 2

We managed to go to Cape Town last weekend to do all the touristy stuff. Taxi fare here is damn expensive and theyre not that safe either. We arranged the transport with the company driver who apparently do part time on weekends. It still cost us 350 rand (RM175) return trip (for 30 mins trip), but that’s significantly cheaper than taxis.

Its quite difficult to get around here due to security reasons. There are so many problems in this country, and it shows just how shitty it can be if you have a huge gap between the rich and poor, and especially when the majority are poor.

The ‘Welcome to Cape Town, prepared to be blown away’ signboard greeted us as we were exiting the highway. This city can do just that.

We took a boat tour, hoping to see some whales and dolphins. The tour operator promised that we would see dolphins, but whales migrated north during spring. But of course no dolphin can be seen, and if not for the fantastic view of the city and table mountain, it would have been a total rip-off.

Hopped on the ‘Topless bus’, a double-decker which gave us quite a good tour of the city and suburbs. It took us around the city center, and also the Bo-Kaap…. the cape-malay area. And of course to the table mountain, were we hopped off and took the cable car to the top. We could see everything from up there, fantastic view of the seas and city on one side, and the wine lands and mountains on the other.

Coming soon…. more pics.... from top of table mountain...!

Yello from Stellenbosch

Im not exactly in Cape Town, but in Stellenbosch, about 45 mins drive away from the 'Mother City'.

Touched down Sunday morning via Johannesberg. On the way to Stellenbosch from the airport, we went pass a squatter camp. Its similar to the squatters in Jakarta.... only that its in the middle of nowhere and surrounded by a 'fence'. That was going to be the only hint of Africa during my trip here that I would see up till now.

Beyond the squatter camps, its just endless vineyards surrounded by beautiful mountains. Stellenbosch is right in the middle of South Africa's winelands. This is where you can get supposedly the best wines in the world. There are a lot of guest houses, wine country resorts, wine tours and all that stuff here. I just never get this wine route tasting country-resort thing.

Stellenbosch is quite a beautiful town. Its a university town, with the university of stellenbosch buildings scattered around the town. Students form a third of the population, but theyre all away for the summer. So the crowd is a bit mature now, and less things to look at(all though its still not bad!). A lot of nice restaurants, bars and stuff like that.... all the fine dining crap. it reminds me of Ann Arbor in so many ways.

People here are predominantly white. Unfortunately, most black people I have met so far are the driver, receptionist or waiter. Standard of living quite high, and you can see a lot of german cars. The people here are beautiful.

We are staying in some guesthouse. Sadly to say, this place is more suitable for a couple in their 50's. Everything is 'old-fashioned'. My toilet seat is made of wood. Are you freaking kidding me. My room smells like some wood. It is just so weird when at the breakfast, 2 young asian guys among some old couple who are obviously here to enjoy the wine country stuff. I think my dad will love this place.

One week has gone by, and one more week of training to go. Tomorrow we are planning to go to Cape Town, and do all the touristy stuff like table mountain and the waterfront. Cant wait for tomorrow cause I feel like I am 50 already after staying at this place.....

Cape town, South Africa

Blogging from MAS lounge at KLIA. On my way to Cape Town. Will be there until 4 dis. Its going to be 2 crazy weeks there.

The past week was hell week as well. So glad its over already. Screwed up so many things along the way.

Looking forward to get on the flight and have the ever fantastic MAS sate.

the third world

It has been a while.... the last time I was in hometown Kuching was like 4 months ago. Even after 4 months.... nothing.... I thinks its becoming stagnant. Apart from the new flyover near the airport, I dont see many changes in this town. Kuching enjoyed its heyday in the 90's..... after 97 it was like nothingness..... even the roads look dusty now. It used to look like a garden, well kept decorative plants and flowers, tree-lined streets and boulevards....maybe the new mayor has got something to do with this.....

Houses dotting the hilly landscape of Monterrey. Its pathetic really.... this is like the only decent picture of Monterrey that I managed to take. I would probably never step my foot in this city again..... and yet I couldnt find the time to explore the city and take more pictures. The schedule and jetlag was too exhausting. Got the picture from my hotel room.

Luckily there was a mall across the street from the hotel. It totally reminded me of the mall near ann arbor.... the two-level one.... twelve oaks or something. The shops and brands were no different than those you can find in the US. In fact this city in most parts could be mistaken as a southern US city I think. Its cool to see walmart, ford trucks, mustangs.... I even managed to catch conan o brien on tv..... freaking hilarious as ever. American football was shown everywhere in bars...... prolly because americans were everywhere..... but too bad couldn't catch the Michigan-msu game.....

On my way back, was in transit in Mexico City. I was told by the other guys on how crazy the Mexico city airport is. Some people would prefer travelling to Monterrey via Dallas just to avoid this airport. It thought it was OK.... until I bought a lot of chocolates and candies and the security took ALL of them away. I was already late at the gate and didnt have time to argue with them.... in SPANISH. Anyway, the Mexicana flight gave us fantastic view of the expansive city.

The view of Los Angeles was also fantastic..... I could even spot rodeo drive from up there. It really felt good to be in the states again.... even only for a few hours of transit. The pure american accent was fantastic and refreshing...... such a relief from the fake accent of KLites and american wannabe malaysian. Too bad I couldnt spend some time in the US.... I only have business visa anyway.

Anyway its still good to get just a little bit of americana again. It must be realy gorgeous in ann arbor at this time of the year when the leaves change colors.

Hola from Monterrey

Greetings from Monterrey, Mexico. I am gonna be here for about a week, coming back on a Friday flight. We have a training workshop here for our project, which is the main activity for global deployment.

So this one in Mexico is catered for Project Managers in latin America and the caribbean, 20+ of them. People from places like brazil, mexico, honduras, argentina and so on.... and 2 guys from KL and one from London.... it is just crazy. I have one presentation to do in front of these people... its quite scary and I hope my superior will change his mind about me doing it and he does it instead.

When we were in KL, were told jokingly by a brazilian that the training is gonna be in Spanish. Well, it wasnt a joke... the training is in Spanish. At least I have some use of the very basic Spanish that I studied in Michigan.

I am still trying to recover from jetlag. So far have no time to go sightseeing. Looking at the schedule, it will get more hectic. Hopefully can get some picture of the city and buildings. Its a nice city, and is very similar to the US due to its closeness to the border. Too bad I cant extend my stay into the US... maybe couple of days in LA or something like that.

moronic car owners

Someone left a dent on my car. Its a small one, one has to really look and explore all angles before it can be spotted. Nevertheless, it is such a sore sight. I would rather get a minor scratch than a small dent. At least the scratch can be get rid off by waxing. He who left the dent... i surely hope ur car's body is flawless and somone will do the exact same thing to your car.

This makes me paranoid whenever I need to park my car. I really need to choose my parking spot, preferably next to an expensive car or a really well maintained car exterior wise. I am also tryin to avoid family cars- suv, minivans, and mpv. More often than not, these are filled with a family, housewives or obnoxious kids who do not have a care in the world about how deep a dent to other peoples car their act of opening the door would result in.

You only get this kind of problem here in KL. You can park as close to any other car in Kuching and not to have to worry about your car being dented by morons.