Penang Trip

I went to Penang for work on Tuesday, hitching a ride on my colleague's car. Happens that the factory I visited is in a town called Tambun and as most of us know, Tambun is also popular for its Tambun Biscuit. If you do not know what is Tambun Biscuit, it is a kind puff with green bean paste, baked to golden brown. Below is the photo of the Tambun Biscuit.

Therefore, after the work at site, I phoned a my fellow technician, which is a local in Tambun area to direct me to the shop where I can find such biscuit. However, it is partially my mistake as this technician of mine is a Malay person, hence, they do not eat this biscuit as it is normally made by Chinese bakery.

So, trying to be helpful, he somehow directed me to a Chinese bakery shop at Tambun. As I went down and asked the bakery, they say they don't sell Tambun Biscuit. Just imagine this, I am in Tambun town, so called the town this biscuit is named after and the bakery don't sell this biscuit.

Then, I called to another Chinese colleague of mine only to found out that Tambun Biscuit is only available in the island itself and not to be found anywhere near Tambun. Not at least the popular maker (it is not convenient for me to tell you the shop / baker name here).

Isn't it ironic, a food that is named after the specific town and it is not to be found in the town where its name came from. If it is only available in the island, then call it Penang / Gurney Drive biscuit. Why call it Tambun biscuit if it is not sold in Tambun? I give up searching....

Weird....

Long weekend ahead

This coming Friday is the 1st of May - Labour Day, yet another public holiday and another long weekend.

I remembered last year's Labour Day holiday, I had spend a few days in Cameron Highlands with my gf. It was really an enjoyable trip at the top of the mountain. However, this year, we didn't plan for any holiday trips as we are leaving for India in June to attend a friend's wedding.

I will start my leave on the eve of Labour Day itself, i.e. tomorrow (30th of April). Tomorrow's activity is full. The day should start with me sending my mom to the bank to get her monthly retirement salary, then me myself goes to the bank to sign up for my new account, followed by a trip to send my car to the mechanic for the periodic maintenance and hopefully have enough time to spare to have dinner with my beloved gf.

Then perhaps on the 1st of May, there will be nothing much, possibly we will go catch a movie - "X-Men Origins- Wolverine" as I had make a phone reservation for the movie. Hopefully we will enjoy a good movie and after that some nice dinner.

Well, too all my readers out there, have a wonderful weekend break ahead....

Flu bugs

Lately, perhaps due to the weather pattern, I notice a lot of people around me having flu symptoms. I think if you were to just notice a glance at your office, you can find a handful of people is either sneezing, having running nose or coughing.

At times, I don't really understand those people. If you are having flu-ish symptoms, why don't they just stay back at home and get some much needed rest instead of coming to the office and spread the virus to everybody?

Most of the offices now have a central air-conditioner unit. Therefore, with just one person sitting at one corner of the office sneezing out the flu virus, the bugs can easily travel to circulate the whole building and before you know it, the other innocent person on the different floor would have caught the flu already and this goes on and on.

With the latest flu bugs in Mexico, I think its best to take lots of vitamin C and have good rest to build up our own immune system to ensure we are able to fight this virus from circulating around the world.

Stay healthy people...

Volunteer Work

Last Sunday again, I went to become a volunteer with Tzu Chi, but this time it is with the branch near the place I stay. The one which we (my gf and I) use to go previously on every 2nd Sunday of the month is for refugees and joint event with UNHCR, but this is a free clinic for locals which operates every Sunday. However, they do not expect you to be there every Sundays, there were divided into teams and the team I am in is on every 3rd Sundays. Again here, it is free GP consultations and dental checkups.

For this weekend, I became a dental assistance, assisting the dentist when the patient come into the clinic. I learn about the local anesthetics, the dental tools, the way to sanitize the equipments after each patient, proper way to clean and sterilize the tools after use, prepare the tooth filling paste etc etc.

Besides being able to help people in need, I also get to learn about dentistry. Not that I am going to be a dentist in near future, at least it enriches my experience in dentistry, something out of my daily routine work and something new to learn.

Its kinda fun being able to just spare a few hours once a month to reach out to those in need. Not that I had helped a great deal by slowing down / reversing the global warming, but at least I have manage to reach out to a few individuals that needed help. That itself is good enough for me. I kinda like the tag line of this charity organization "To have a good heart and to do nothing about is it not good enough". I think this is very true.

I think I will continue to participate more actively in this volunteer work.

Orchestra Experience

Well, as my previous entry written, I went to the orchestra with my gf last Saturday (18th April 2009) evening.

To me being the first timer going for orchestra, the performance and music was "powerful". I can't do any comparison but I thing I can say is that it was really impressive. The team work and time accuracy shown by the all the instruments players was amazing.

There were easily more than 30 people on the stage each with their individual musical instruments, be it violin, viola, cello, double bass, drums, bass clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, trombone, tuba etc. (apologise my ignorance on not knowing every single instruments on the stage), but they all played like a single person playing one type only. The timing is so perfect that I can't even notice any slip ups. It is a group of people sitting in front of you playing but it sounded like a perfect edited recording.

The place where both of us were sat is also one of the most ideal place. We got a good view of the whole orchestra team. Not too low that we only see their legs, not too high where we only see their heads from top view.

To my surprise, the hall was about 70% filled up. I was pretty surprised that that orchestra is so widely enjoyed by so many people. Initially, I was thinking the whole orchestra might just have a few people attending it, but I was wrong.

However, I was a bit disappointed with the management of the orchestra. Already charging so much for the tickets, they can't even provide a free cuppa coffee / tea during the 20 minutes break. If you want a coffee / tea / any other beverages, you need to buy it yourself and it is not cheap. A 500ml of mineral water is selling for RM6!!

If you were to just take a 5 minutes walk, you are already in Suria KLCC shopping mall and the 500ml bottle will only cost you RM2 maximum. People already pay minimum of RM20 (for the cheapest ticket), what is wrong with giving a free cuppa coffee for everyone? I am sure the cuppa will not cost anything more than RM2. Don't need to serve espresso / cappuccino with special brewing machine, just normal instant coffee is already acceptable. Anyway, if it is free, no one will comment on the taste right?

Having said that, overall, I really enjoy the show and it was a really great evening which I don't mind going for the next one up-coming. My gf and me are targeting for "Lord of the Rings" musical orchestra coming up some time in December this year. For now, I will be looking forward for a solo violin player playing a complete perfect "Twinkle - twinkle little star" for me until she learn another new song and the player is no other than my lovely gf.

Going for Orchestra

I can't believe myself that I will be going for an Orchestra this weekend with my gf with me wearing a very formal lounge suit. Being the naive me, I don't know why must the spectator wear so formal, I always seek the answer from my well knowledgeable gf and again, just in a few minutes, she explains it to me and now I know the reason. It again saves me precious time to search high and low for the answers.

When I was small, I always this thinking that orchestra / opera is only for the rich and famous. Perhaps it was influence by the movies where only the posh, rich and famous gets to attend these events. This mindset was further validated as I remember seeing one of the orchestra advertisement in the newspaper, the cheapest ticket price is RM500 per seat. Read properly... the cheapest is RM500!! The highest was in the thousand region.

However, this mindset changed about 2 weeks ago when my gf and me was walking from Suria KLCC to KL Convention Center and we saw this advertisement and found that the ticket price for an orchestra is from as low as RM20 and the most expensive is about RM90 or so. I am not saying that the tickets are cheap now, but I would put it as it is much more affordable now comparatively.

Immediately, I became very interested to attend for the show. Just to savor the experience and after all, I enjoy life music / band. I feel there is no AV system that can beat the sound of real musicians playing in front of you. For this also, I am thankful that my partner is now learning violin and I sure to get some great live tunes all my life later on.

Anyway, so yesterday I pick up the phone and booked 2 tickets for this upcoming weekend show. The shows will start at 2030 hrs. It is a 2 hours show. Really looking forward for this event and also need to try on my suit which I have not worn it since 2006 when I attended my gf's graduation in the UK.

I am sure it will be a great show and quite sure I will enjoy it. Let the music play.....

House to Home

Buying a house and converting it into a home is not an easy task. The process starts with choosing the right location, size of the house, working out a budget of the house and other external factors.

Then, after you have decided all the points above, your fun really starts. Begin with a down payment process and the Sales And Purchase Agreement between you and the seller. Here, the lawyer will make you sign pages after pages of documents where you have only a few minutes to browse thru before signing and it comes in four copies.

After having done that comes the loan. Here, again lots of points of considerations, e.g. interest rate, type of loan - flexi, fixed, term etc., with or without insurance / MRTA, the bank's reputation, the after sales services of the banks etc. After deciding on the bank, comes the loan agreement, again, the lawyer will make you sign pages after pages of documents.

When all of it had been sorted, comes the real fun part where you can let your creativity and imaginative cells goes wild. Of course, being an engineer by training and professional and this fact is not only limited to myself, but also my other half, practicality plays a major role.

Being an engineer, I have drawn the floor plan in the AutoCAD. With this software, I can fiddle around with the layout and arrangements and take a view before and after the modification and then knowing the exact space available and where to everything before we go to the store to purchase them. Also, one plus point that we are able to give the contractor the plan to reduce the abortive work for miscommunication.

I can foresee there will be lots of argument and disagreement over the months to come for the interior design. Being an engineer myself and facing another engineer sparks will fly, but I'm sure we will finally come to one best option and get a win - win situation.

If you look at this whole process as a roller coater ride, where I am right now is basically I have bought the tickets and still standing in queue for my turn to board the ride. Have not even decided if I want to sit on the first seat or way to the back. Lets see how everything goes.

One thing for sure, we will definitely have lots of fun doing this... converting House to Home... be assured, there will be more to come in weeks / months / years to come for this topic. Stay tuned....