Encounters

I was at The Curve a few weeks back. It dawned on me that we Malaysian's are pretty inspirational when it comes to signboards.

Here's why.

Saw this while i was waiting outside the fitting room. Totally discriminatory. Like what would we do inside anyway? :D

I am sure the person that designed this signboard have not accompanied their loved one shopping before....

And why do we need a hole in the middle of a mouse?

Thoughts......

As many people know, next year would be a very challenging year for many of us Malaysians. With impending retrenchments and a foreseen global economic slowdown, many will have to tighten their belts to face the coming year.

This is all so true especially for the lower income group as a global economic slowdown would result in the closure or at least, partial operation of many factories in Malaysia.

I was talking to a few of my patients this week. All of them are anxious about their jobs. Its disheartening to hear their woes as I know full well I am one of the fortunate that may not be as badly hit by this turn of events.

One patient of mine lamented that the electronic factory that he is working with is only operational 2 weeks in a month. He is now forced to survive with 2 week worth of salary. For a factory worker with only a basic salary of RM700 and 4 children, how on earth are they going to survive in the long run?

Another patient told me that her supervisor informed them that there may be a high possibility that the factory would close shop in February, laying off 400 workers. How are this group of people going to survive the coming year when basic necessities like food are not coming down, despite fuel being at it record lows?

One thing for sure, we shall all be facing tougher times next year but nothing will compare to the true lower income group where tougher times may constitute inability to survive.

We complain about food being more expensive and yet we still are able to buy the designer bag that we longed for albeit at the expense of eating out less. For this group of people, they don't even have time complaining as they are busy surviving.

Be glad with what you have.

Daily Journal

Dad's 70th ended with a bang. Really happy with it.

The family support was outrageously great. I am really blessed.

On a side note, was really pissed with one of my supplier. Its like me buying clothes from this shop regularly and now they doing another offer on shoes but in order to buy the shoes at a discounted rate, I will have to sacrifice the discount that I already enjoy from the clothes that I have been buying from them since donkeys years for that particular month.

They can go bugger off.

Shall play hardball if need to.

Its not fair!

The old always envy the world of the children;
They think our worlds is full of fun,
But this is not always so,
For when a child breaks a glass
He is going to get a scolding;
When a child gets to bed late,
He is sure to get a rebuke;
When a child does not perform very well in school,
He is sure to get a dressing down.

But when a father breaks a glass,
Mother only says, "Well...."
And when father gets his spelling wrong,
Mother only says "its due to tiredness"

So you see, the world of children is not always full of fun,
For we never have a reason for our mistakes

Collins Abassah, 18, Ghana

Daily Journal

Can't believe that its already December, time seems to be flying away.
So many things yet to be done and so little time to do it.

My company calender is finally done and I got it picked up today.
Pretty happy with the new layout.
Its just a regular "horse" calender with the regular 12 page of the year kind.
Got them late this year, hopefully I can distribute all 700 of them by this month.

This month gonna be a very busy one for me.
Apart from work, I will be organizing my dad's 70th birthday bash.
Already booked the restaurant, now to sort out the guest list.
Going to Penang this weekend for a wedding.
I'll also be attending the GT2 launch by Carl Zeiss on the 10th at Sunway Resort.
Then its heading off back to Ipoh for my clubs installation on the 11th.
Then come the birthday bash on the 21st.
Another wedding to attend on the 28th at Cititel Mid Valey (not sure if i wanna go yet)

Busy Busy

Joanna Wang - For No Reason

I stumbled upon this lovely artist called Joanna Wang when i was searching for a song called "For no reason" that I liked through a singing competition recently.

Upon listening to more of her songs, I am slowly falling head over heels with her voice and talent. She is definitely up there along side Olivia Ong as one of the really good "English" Chinese singers out there, a Chinese version of Norah Jones so to speak.

A slight introduction to this Taiwanese born singger :-

Joanna Wang (王若琳) is a Taiwanese singer/songwriter, daughter of famous Taiwanese music producer Ji-ping "Bing" Wang (王治平). Her debut album, Start From Here, was released in January 2008 as a double-disc set, one in English and the other in Chinese. The album reached #1 in Taiwan and has been popular throughout the Southeast Asian region. It was released in Japan in June 2008.

Joanna's views on said album tend to be rather negative, as she has stated often in public interviews that she greatly dislikes its corporate nature, its blatant commercialism, and its misclassification as Jazz. It is rumoured that her sophomore album will be comprised entirely of original compositions.

(source : Wikipedia)

To those that have not heard of this talented singer, I would strongly suggest you try listening to her songs on youtube.

Can't wait till she comes out with her second album!

Blessing

I believe that upon times of need, everyone needs a blessing.

Indulgence Restaurant Ipoh

If your around Ipoh and fancy some fine dining, perhaps the only established name I could think of would be Indulgence. Indulgence is an award winning restaurant an was awarded the "Western Cuisine Restaurant of the Year" 2007/2008.

The lady behind the scene is also renowned in her own rights. Julie Song was awarded "Best Western Cuisine Chef" in the Hospitality Asia Platinum Awards in 2005.

Besides being a fine dining restaurant, this place is also a boutique hotel which offers 2 theme sweets (English Country & Moroccan) and 4 themed deluxe rooms (Contemporary, Chinoiserie, Thai and Italian).

The restaurant also has a wide variety of wine as fine dining is never complete without the accompaniment of wines.

Specials of the day!

Anyways, I was at Indulgence last weekend to taste first hand, what this shout of the town was all about. To be honest, I've had mixed reviews from people I know that have frequented this place. Some call it over-rated while some thoroughly enjoyed their eating experience here in Indulgence.

Picture paints a thousand words, so I shall let you feast your eyes on the food we had that day.

Fresh Angast Oyster

Black muscles in yellow and red pepper strips

Holland Mushrooms, Avocado, Hokkaido Scallops & Fritti

Salmon Basque

Pumpkin Risotto with Soft Shell Crabs & Cherry Tomatoes

Seafood Spegetti

Sirloin Steak

T-Bone Steak

Lamb Neck-Red Braised with Tomatoes

Crem Brulee

All in all, I would say that Indulgence is expensive if your a Ipoh guy since they charge KL rate. However, if you do appreciate fine dining, then the rate are pretty fair.

The food that was served to me was pretty decent and you should not leave this place without having some of their deserts. Indulgence is definitely a place to go if you have a sweet tooth and enjoys deserts.

If I would to give an out of 10 mark for this place, I would say it would definitely be a high 7.

Indulgence Restaurant
14 Jalan Raja Dihilir
30350 Ipoh, Perak

Restaurant Opening times - Wednesday to Sunday, 9.00am to 11.30pm

Stupid Gameshow Answers

If you really need a good laugh right now then do have a look at clips I have below.

I bet you don't see this often in most game shows... lol









Enjoy!

A Brief Moment of Calm

We had a blackout a week back at home which lasted about 30 mins. Been having quite frequent blackouts recently. TNB not doing their job.

Anyways, here I was sitting in my room with a single candle being my light source, I find myself sucked into a sudden calm. Somehow I felt a moment of peace for no apparent reason. I was told by a friend a long while that looking into a lighted candle may sometimes bring relief to the soul. I may have just experience that for the first time.

Hmm.........

Business this month have been up to my expectation so far. However today mark the first day since I came back to Malaysia in which we registered our worst one day sales. However, I am still up as regard to the figures for the rest of the month. Still very much optimistic that this month will be a good one with some expected patients pre-booked.

On a non-relating issue, I've somewhat got an uneasy weird kind of feeling about one of my staff. All her mobile ringtones, sms alerts and call alerts now come with animal sound. To top it off, she seems to be changing them pretty often as I have been hearing a lot of different voices of the animal kingdom. I wonder if her desperation in getting a husband recently has anything to do with it.

I've got an urge to spend money again. Get that kind of feeling from time to time but this one seem to linger a bit longer. Maybe I should finally get a laptop that I've think of getting but know I won't be using much of.

Air Asia Goodies - No More Fuel Surcharge

Just read this from TheStar Online.

We now no longer need to pay fuel surcharges for international and domestic flight.

Time to plan for the next holidays :)

Court Orders Raja Petra's Release

The Shah Alam High Court this morning ruled that the detention of well-known blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin under the ISA was illegal and ordered his immediate release.

Judge Syed Ahmad Helmy Syed Ahmad said that Raja Petra's detention was unconstitutional.

He said the Home Minister had not followed proper procedure under Section 8 of the ISA to issue the detention order against Raja Petra.

The judge also ordered that Raja Petra, editor of the popular Malaysia Today website, be produced in court by 4pm today after which he should be immediately released.

(source : Malaysiakini)

There is hope yet for the Malaysian Judiciary.

I wonder what kind of statement our Home Minister and others in the government will issue from this turn of events.

The World's Hardest Game

If you think your a game whiz and most games out there simply do not give you any challenge, then this is a game that would be best for you. Its called The World's Hardest Game. When I was first introduced to this game, the first thing that came into mind was, "how hard can it be?". After playing it though, you will realised that life is just fodder. You will die and die many times before being able to proceed to the next stage.

The game would either keep you frustrated for hours upon hours or you'll be like me, gave up half way.

It is that hard.......



The game interface itself is pretty simple. You control a red square and you are tasked to avoid the moving blue dots and get to the other side of the green area (beacon as they call it in game)


At times you are required to collect a yellow dot before you can go to the green beacon.

If you think your up for it then visit this site
http://www.media.perthnow.com.au/multimedia/2008/07/html/hardgame.html

Do tell me how you fare in the game.

As for me, I gave up at level 7 after dying 60 times or so.

Barack Obama becomes US first African-American President

Barack Obama won the election on a landslide.

Will be interesting to find out what this historical win would change Americans and their foreign policy. The good thing is, we won't have another Bush for the next few years.

I am pleased

Yesterday, I wrote a very sarcastic and nasty letter to the top management at KL and SG of one of my dealers regarding one of their sales representative.

This guy is not only stupid but have refused to answer to my complaint.

Today I got a call from him regarding the letter.

He's arranging a meet up with me tomorrow at my office to save his sorry ass.

I am pleased *grin*

Overheard at Low Yat

Encountered this interesting conversation at Low Yat last week.

Customer : Excuse me, whats the difference between this (pointing at Brand A 50x thumbdrive) and this (pointing at Brand B 45x thumbdrive)

Sales Rep : Different brand

Customer : ............................

I don't think the sales rep will be keeping his job for long with this kind of mentality.

All in a days work

2 Mak Nyah (man dressed as woman = tranny) came to my shop to do some frame repairs.

Nyah 1 : Hey leng chai, boleh tolong saya dengan ni? (showing me "her" broken frames)
Nyah 2 : (eating banana) Sekarang makan pisang saja boleh.... pisang orang tak dapat.
Me : ..................................
Nyah 2 : Leng chai nampak kacak je hari ini?
Me : Sorry... tak boleh repair.............

My girls was giggling non stop at the back.

Do not take things for granted

Last week marked my last chapter of my 2nd decade of life. I am not officially paving my way to the 3rd decade and honestly, I see a pleasant road in front of me.

Life have truly been a relatively good road so far. Although I have encountered plenty of roadblocks, bumps and accidents in life, it has all borne great significance in enhancing my perspective in life.

Anyways, on a different matter, for the first time this year I verbally reprimanded my clients for negligence. I have not been that pissed off at people that actually pay me money for a long long time. Of course when they pay you for your services, its a general consensus that you leave them happy. However this was not the case today.

Anyways, here's what happened.

A patient came in accompanied by his son. Apparently the father just had a collapse yesterday night and was hospitalized for the day due to hypoglycemia (too little sugar in the blood). At a look at his records, this patient came to me about 3 month back complaining of poor vision, however I referred him on to the eye specialist since he was suffering from diabetic retinopathy (to put it simply, inside his eyes were bleeding).

His vision had deteriorated severely (one eye blind) since then due to his diabetic condition. He told me that he was initially booked to see an eye specialist at University Hospital 2 month back but his children refused to sent him there since they were all busy with work. I was fuming when I heard about it since I specifically told them that if treatment were not done, his eyes could be severely jeopardized.

To cut it short, I gave the son 20 minutes worth of lecture on how to become a filial son and that he should be setting his priorities straight.

The only petty excuse that he gave me was, "I didn't know it was that bad".

Bloody hell, if I ever had a son like that, I would have chopped him to little tiny pieces and fed to the fishes.

Moral of the story, do not take your parents for granted or regret it for the rest of your life when its too late.

Madonna and Guy Ritchie to divorce

So its finally out.

Madonna and Guy Ritchie finally announce their divorce.

After 7 1/2 years of marriage, they finally call it quits. Just makes you wonder if any of the mega celeb marriage can actually last.

More of the story here

The Power Of Photoshop

The reason Photoshop is such a powerful picture editing tool.

Blardy Adorable.

A Near Miss

Just came back from a weekend trip from KL.

Bloody tired as always.

However, it could have been worse. I was fortunate enough to escape a major car pile up accident on the way back.

It was raining pretty heavily the whole journey so I decided to drive at a much slower pace then my usual cruising speed.

The bus in front of me slowed down suddenly and I followed suite.

A few seconds later I realized there was a major accident up ahead and the bus stopped to avoid hitting the already damaged car up ahead. Then I heard some major emergency brake action behind me and cars honking frantically. At that point, I had virtually stopped my car leaving about half a car length between the bus and me. I was prepared for the possibility of my car being knocked from behind as I held my steering wheel tightly (just in case I need to do some last minute maneuvering). Fortunately the car behind didn't hit me but frantic honking continued behind me.

A minute or so, the bus managed to maneuver his vehicle past the damaged car in front of him and i followed suit. As I drove through, I saw what may be 10 damaged vehicles (3 turned turtle). I looked my side mirror and realized that no car followed behind me. I wondered if another pile up proceeded behind me.

Anyways, glad to be home.

Kampung Warisan (Heritage Village), Muzium Sabah

I would say that if you only have time to visit ONE heritage site at Kota Kinabalu, Muzium Sabah would be the place to go.

Built in 1985, the museum complex is cited where the then British North Borneo Governor's Istana was once located. The Museum consists of the Main Building, Science and Education Centre, Heritage Village, Sabah Art Gallery and Museum of Islamic Civilization.

You are not allowed to take pictures inside the museum galery. I was stopped by the guard the moment I went into the building since I had the typical tourist posture with the camera hanging over my neck.

Personally, the most interesting part of the museum is the Heritage Village (in which I shall be blogging today).

At the Heritage Village, one can sample the various type of traditional houses of the various indigenous groups of Sabah.

I must say that as you walk along the footpath, one can't help but be amazed by the serenity of the park and its surroundings.

One of my favourite of the whole village. A man made lake surrounded by heritage buildings

Same place but different angle

Another different angle of the same place

Guess you are getting bored of the same scene huh? :P

Self Explanatory

Rungus Longhouse or "vinatang" (in Rungus Language)

As the name suggest, the Rungus Longhouse is indigenous to the Rungus people. They are a subgroup of the KadazanDusun community.

Each Rungus Longhouse (vinatang) measures 3 meters by 15 meters and comprises a long gallery or corridor (langsang sid apad), where socializing and community activities takes place, as well as several family 'apartments' (valai) each with own sleeping unit (tingkang sid ongkob), areas for cooking and working (langsang sid ongkob) and an attic (abai sid ongkob) and (abai sid apad). each family has its own valai. A typical longhouse has about ten valai, but larger ones may have fifteen or more.

Rumah Cina (Chinese Farm House)

Sulap Bangkawan (Skull Hut)

Another interesting place to visit is the Skull Hut which was a culture left behind when headhunters still roamed Borneo.

A "Bangkawan" hanging at the ceiling of the hut

A bangkawan is a collection of human skulls which is used to be suspended from the rafters of a Kadazandusun house in the old days. Sometimes sea-shells and animal boned were added to it.

This is a relic of the headhunting days, when the owners believed that hanging the skulls in the house would bring good fortune to the household.

A feast called magang would be held every five years to appease the spirits of the skulls. The ceremony carried out by bobohizans or priestesses involved invocations to drive away evil spirits and would last for seven days.

Brunei House

Can't remember what this house is called but i love the observatory tower.

So if you are visiting Kota Kinabalu for the first time, do not forget to give this place a visit.

Plurkaholic?

Recently, I have been spending more time then I anticipated plurking.

To those that haven't signed up already, its generally a journal that allows you to tell others what your doing, whats in your mind or even share pictures or youtube's. You can set your plurk for public view or just among your circle of friends. As per most similar sites, it allows comment to be made for each journal entry.

Most of the time I end up chatting with people and I find that I am using plurk to chat more then MSN!

I may be turning into a plurkaholic.

May god save me from eternal damnation :P

Kids are Quick

Got this off the email today.

Sometimes kids are just a bag of laughs.

Other times, they drive us nuts...


TEACHER: Maria, go to the map and find North America ..
MARIA: Here it is.
TEACHER: Correct. Now class, who discovered America ?
CLASS: Maria.

TEACHER: John, why are you doing your math multiplication on the floor?
JOHN: You told me to do it without using tables.

TEACHER: Glenn, how do you spell 'crocodile?'
GLENN: K-R-O-K-O-D-I-A-L'
TEACHER: No, that's wrong
GLENN: Maybe it is wrong, but you asked me how I spell it..

TEACHER: Donald, what is the chemical formula for water?
DONALD: H I J K L M N O.
TEACHER: What are you talking about?
DONALD: Yesterday you said it's H to O.

TEACHER: Winnie, name one important thing we have today that we didn't have ten years ago.
WINNIE: Me!

TEACHER: Glen, why do you always get so dirty?
GLEN: Well, I'm a lot closer to the ground than you are.


TEACHER: Millie, give me a sentence starting with 'I.'
MILLIE: I is..
TEACHER: No, Millie..... Always say, 'I am.'
MILLIE: All right...... 'I am the ninth letter of the alphabet.'


TEACHER: George Washington not only chopped down his father's cherry tree, but also admitted it. Now, Louie, do you know why his father didn't punish him?
LOUIS: Because George still had the axe in his hand.


TEACHER: Now, Simon, tell me frankly, do you say prayers before eating?
SIMON: No sir, I don't have to, my Mom is a good cook.


TEACHER: Clyde , your composition on 'My Dog' is exactly the same as your brother's. Did you copy his?
CLYDE : No, sir. It's the same dog.

TEACHER: Harold, what do you call a person who keeps on talking when people are no longer interested?
HAROLD: A teacher

My Raya Day

As per usual, I was working on Hari Raya Day albeit just for half a day. I am more or less used to the fact that I work while everyone is having their public holidays although at times I do wish that I could hang out with friends a bit later before heading home the night before.

Anyways, decided to bring mom for a bit of shopping since both mom and dad would be going to China soon. She's been wanting to buy a pair of Nike shoes for her trip for a while. My sis as per usual (whenever she is back) accompanied us.

Maybe this time I would be able to use the RM250 cash voucher that I have accumulated this year.

First stop was my usual shop at Yik Foong. There's where I get all my pirated DVD and Blue Ray Movie's from. Woah... today I was really in luck. I bought a total of 17 DVD's! Normally I would only be able to get 10 DVD's at best. But then again its been over a month since I've visited this place. I got this obsession of collecting all blockbuster movies that I can get my hands on. Although I haven't watched over half of the DVD's I have bought so far, I know I would one day. Of course the DVD's I got are all not cinema quality lah. I normally wait till the clear DVD version is out before getting them.

After that we headed to Kinta City. To sum it up, it was not a very eventful day since i didn't manage to get mum any shoes except for some convection pots during one of the many detours that we had.

Oh yeah... let me finish this post with some interesting convo's that I had today.

A : We're going to the toilet. You want to come?
Me : I'll just wait outside.
A : Why don't you want to go to the toilet?
Me : Eh.... why should I go to the toilet just because your going to the toilet.... no urge lah!!


B : The other day there was a 18 car pile up around this corner of the highway. Nasty stuff.
A : Woah... the cars pile up on top of one another?
Me : Can you tell me how 18 cars can pile up on top of one another????!!!
A : (laughs)
Me : ................................... ^_______________________________^

300 Parody

I know some of you may have watched this parody of the movie 300 before but this clip cracks me up everytime. If you don't like the music just mute it.



Hope you liked it as much as i did.

THIS IS SPARTA!!~

On my recent obsession and some weird incident

I've been mad about TVB drama recently. Just finished watching the 40 episode long Moonlight Resonance (溏心風暴之家好月圓) yesterday. Took me almost a week to finish it up.


I was also watching Rolling Love (翻滾吧！蛋炒飯 / Fan Gun Ba! Dan Chao Fan ) aired on NTV7. The drama finished a few days back.


Somehow I could relate with both drama pretty well as both in some way reflected on my past experiences.

In life we need to take up sacrifices in order to maintain harmony with the people around us. Sometimes, temptation takes over and we tend to act our own selfish ways to achieve something that we want. However ultimately no matter what we do, we do it to protect what we love, be it ourselves, our loved once or even our friends.

On a side note, I had a very weird encounter today.

A lady came to my practice wanting to buy a bottle of contact lens solution. Apparently it was for her daughter that have just came out of confinement.

The strange thing is, the reason behind her wearing contact lenses.

According to the lady, her daughter's new born baby has an eye defect on one eye. She claimed that it was due to her not allowing her daughter to wear contact lenses while she was pregnant!!

She claims that, by wearing the contact lenses now, the child may be cured of his/her eye condition. I was more or less flabbergasted by the statement. I told that she should send the baby to see an eye specialist and not believe in scientifically unproven treatments.

She answered me back... "scientifically its not proven but logically its true".

She then gave me an analogy about a mom having an urge to eat and for no apparent reason, the child would salivate at the same time. WTF!!!

We still have this kind of people in this day in age.

I guess that's the wonders you see when you live in a rubber tapper town like me

Something Amiss

For the past month, I've been having problems with my left ear. The feeling is as if your driving up hill and you have some sort of pressure on your ears.

Went to my family doctor to have it checked out but he thinks its probably something one off and would go away after sometime.

However a month is a bit too long don't you think? There is no pain or anything so I guess it is something harmless.

Maybe I should go see an ENT soon when I have the time.

Cat Fight

Saw this in front of Sg Wang plaza. From the way they were shouting, I guess they must be Indonesian. By the time I took my camera out, the fight was almost over.

Not seen a cat fight for ages. Its still as ugly as ever.

Nick descibed this picture as "2 potato fell from the lorry on the way to the supermarket"

-__________________________________-

Somehow I got a feeling its something to do with some complicated love triangle shit

"#$$%^&#% don't let me see your bitch face again!!"

Pulau Sapi, Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park, Sabah

My first stop during my Kota Kinabalu trip was Pulau Sapi which is one of the 5 islands in Tunku Abdul Rahman (TAR) Marine Park. The island is about 15 minutes by boat from the Sutera Harbour marina (I was stayed at Pacific Sutera - a stone throw away from the jetty).

The Tunku Abdul Rahman Park consist of 5 islands namely, Gaya, Sapi, Manukan, Mamutik and Suluk. Arguably, Manukan island is suppose to be the most popular among the 5 islands. However, since I was planning to do the underwater walking, I went to Sapi instead.

This is actually the second time that I've been to Pulau Sapi. My last visit was almost 3 years ago. The island didn't look as clean as it used to be.

Did a bit of snorkeling and as expected, although there is still plenty of fish, the corals seems to be dying off. I was a sad sight. I asked the guide about the state of the islands and was told that the corals are indeed dying from overpopulation of tourist.

Makes me wonder what would happen in the next 5 years.


Slightly disappointed from the snorkeling, I headed off for some underwater walking adventure. The last time I came I didn't go for the underwater walking cause i felt that it was blardy expensive. This time though (still blardy expensive) i somehow manage to part with RM180 for a 20 minute underwater experience.

We were taken by boat to this platform

The headgear that keeps us alive and breathing while walking 8 feet under

Once we reached the floating platform, we were instructed to wear a pair of rubber shoes that was provided for us. We were then asked to climb down a ladder (see the girl with her butt facing you? That's where we climbed down).

Here's a short clip of me downthere.