Memory Lane

As my previous posting, I mentioned that I went to Langkawi for a working trip. The hotel we stayed had pass by the hotel me and my gf stayed once.

It was one of our first trip together being a couple. Or more precisely it is one of our first trip taking a plane to the destination. I remembered that time she came back for holidays from her studies and we went to Langkawi for 3 days 2 nights.

As I passes thru the hotel we stayed, I can still remember the time we spend together. The beach the hotel have that is so nice and clean, the swimming pool. The nearby stalls for tasty food we had.

We went there in the year 2005 if my memory serves me right. So fast it was like 4 years ago already. Since then, we had been to lots of places together, Cameron Highland, Frazer's Hill, India, UK, Kuching just to name a few.

I am looking forward for more places to travel with her.

Working Trip to Langkawi

I went for a one week seminar to Langkawi. We stayed in a "once a nice hotel". The cruise ships use to dock there with visitor from our neighboring country. However, the situation there is now the opposite.

The hotel was run down, the rooms are not in a good shape. When I first went in the room, just as I open the door, the rooms smells like as if 1,000 people had smoked inside. The smell of cigarettes was so strong that I have to open the glass door to ventilate it for the whole afternoon.

The food they offered was also nothing impressive. All the meals were covered under our seminar packages, all buffet meals, however, after the 2ND day I had enough. The menu seems the same everyday. Especially breakfast. Everyday is the same dish. As for lunch and dinner, the usual dishes are there everyday with only one or two dish that is different.

One this good about the place is the seminar rooms were big and the air conditioner is really freezing cold making everyone sleepy, especially after lunch.

In the seminar, my effort at work was recognised by the management. The company awarded me with Certification of Above and Beyond the Call of Duty (ABCD) for the work that I have done for the pass year. It was signed by our Group Vice President from the US which happens to be there for this seminar too.

All together we spend 4 days and 3 nights there, in which it was totally roaming in the hotel area only. Non of us left the hotel for the 4 days. Nights were spend by chatting up with colleagues with drinks on the unlimited tap.

During this trip, I manage to meet up with one of a manager which I worked with very closely when I first join this company. He is now based in Australia and he was so keen to see me helping him with his work there. During this time also, grounds were set for the coming year and what is the finale that the company wanted to see by December 2009.

Overall rating, the seminar was good. It manage to set clear the goals for this year and the coming year. Just the venue was not as desirable, but then again, during this slow economic times, at least our department manage to secure budget to organise such a seminar as compared to other departments which need to cancel their yearly seminars and meetings, there is nothing that I can complaint.

Meeting day

Today is kinda interesting. Spend the whole day meeting, one meeting after another. Good thing that I came in the office early this morning, there was a meeting at 0900. The meeting was done by 1230 and after coming back from lunch, at 1430, there is another meeting again. This one is rather short, it finishes at 1545.

Then, at 1550, a contractor came and meet me to discuss some issues and also I had requested him to give me a quotation for a potential customer which we are bidding now.

Just manage to come up and sit down in my office to do some work. Just winding through for the day and only realize that there were so many meetings for today.

One question remains in my mind.... Is all the meeting the whole day fruitful? Is it going to contribute to the company growth in the coming months? Well, only time will tell.

100 things about myself

I have seen so many blogger like to list down about themselves. So, I thought it will be kinda nice to do that to myself and see if I can write 100 things about me or not.... lets see...
I ...

1. enjoy driving fast on highways. But not breaking the law of course.. I am a good citizen.. ;P
2. like listening to music.
3. like sleeping.
4. enjoy swimming.
5. taught my gf how to swim.
6. enjoy playing futsal - indoor football and badminton.
7. enjoy good coffee.
8. enjoy reading newspaper, "Ping Tan" comics, jokes,"Reader's Digest".
9. enjoy trying new restaurants for new type of food.
10. like the smell of soil after watering it on hot day.
11. enjoy watching movies in the cinema.
12. love seeing my gf making funny poses / facial expression, especially they way she "scratch" her nose.
13. enjoy helping people in need.
14. enjoy hanging out with my friends in "mamak" at night.
15. enjoy "teh halia".
16. like to learn about medical terms or in a way enhancing my knowledge in medical line.
17. was frequently ask by medical doctors am I myself a doctor when I consult them.
18. wanted to become a doctor but due to some reasons, I ended up studying engineering instead.
19. enjoy good beers.
20. love spending time with my gf, even doing nothing, just sitting and looking at each other over a cuppa coffee.
21. waking up late in the morning.
22. like the 'cheap trills' whereby I will set the radio alarm on weekend to wake up and switch it off again and going back to sleep knowing its weekend.
23. like Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indian, Italian, Malay, Javanese, Hainanese etc Food... as long as they taste good, I will never hesitate to try them.
24. like travelling. Good thing is that my work does required a bit of it, so I have been to many "lovely" place that I might not want to pay by myself to go... hehehe..
25. have worked in Kuwait, Pakistan and Sri Lanka before. When I tell people this, they eyes looks as thought it will drop from their sockets.
26. tried SCUBA diving once in the Philippines and will want to take it up professionally later together with my gf.
27. like small kids and babies - not too young ones though.
28. like watching the medical series - "House".
29. really hate to be accused for the things that I have not done.
30. hold an engineering degree with honours.
31. hold a MBA.
32. wanted to do LLB after completing my MBA but the fees is too expensive. Also because I just spend a fortune on the MBA.
33. like to learn everything I need to learn on the area I work in.
34. eat only chicken, pork, mutton and seafood.
35. don't eat beef.
36. don't eat satay, but I enjoy the "ketupat" and peanut sauce.
37. don't eat any other meat than those mentioned above.
38. enjoy vegetarian food as much as non-vegetarian food.
39. dislike traffic jams.
40. enjoy watch Cantonese serial movies.
41. speak Hokkien at home with my family member and relatives + my gf's mom.
42. can converse in Mandarin, Cantonese, English (of course), Malay.
43. can understand Hakka, but can't converse with it fluently.
44. can read and write simple Chinese words.
45. know how to write my name in Chinese.
46. can count 1 - 10 in Tamil language fluently.
47. like dogs better than cats.
48. wanted to keep dogs but most likely it will be either my mom's dog or my wife's dog after a few weeks / months. So better not burden them too much.
49. dislike ironing. I don't do a good job generally.
50. like well pressed shirts and slacks.
51. always holds to the principle "Honesty is the Best Policy" and do it in all ways of my life e.g. earn a honest living, be honest to friends and families, never tell lies etc.
52. can eat the same food for days and days and never get bored with it as long as it is freshly cook.
53. am more a technical person than a sales person.
54. don't do sweet talks, but i know my gf would disagree... ;P
55. initially think this world it is either right or wrong, black or white on all matters, until when I came out to work, there were so many grey areas and learn to adapt to it.
56. keep my promises when I make them.
57. can eat with my fingers pretty well.
58. find it difficult to throw things away cause in my mind you mind need it one day later.
59. collect miniature models of cars, planes and would like to collect anything that comes in miniature as long as it is within my budget.
60. believe in gender equality.
61. am a 1st Dan Black Belt holder in Tae-Kwon-Do martial arts.
62. use to have squirrels, rabbits and fish as pets before.
63. always think that guys that beats up girls are useless and hopeless guys and should not be forgiven.
64. wanted to take up photography and own a SLR camera, unfortunately, until now not able to stand firm on the brand of camera I should buy due to the ever dropping prices.
65. have my own room in the office to work in total peace and away from disturbances.
66. like the "rojak buah" sold in the night market or "pasar malam".
67. dislike office politics and gossips. Will normally walk away when hearing ppl gossipping in the office.
68. dislike fishing as I think it is very cruel to hook the fish by the mouth and also its a waste of time sitting there to wait for the fish to bite the bait.
69. enjoy orchestra performance and have attended my first orchestra performance in the Petronas Philharmonic Orchestra Hall with my gf.
70. enjoy good cakes and muffins.
71. enjoy seeing my gf laugh and smile.
72. enjoy roller coaster / trill rides.
73. dislike salesman who is not familiar with their products and try to sell it to me.
74. dislike people that 'hog' the road.
75. had my car hijacked however, lady luck was with me, found it back about 1 month later in perfect condition.
76. believes in 'cause and effect'.
77. think I have higher IQ and EQ.
78. am not very good in drawings, my parents always says that my cat looks like dog, however, to my surprise, I manage to score a distinction for the government exam.
79. have a very bad handwriting and most of my teachers always tells me my handwriting looks like doctors handwriting.
80. find it difficult to write 100 things about myself.
81. have not won any lotteries before, but still hope to win it one day.
82. plan with my college mate to celebrate our 40th birthday by going to Germany for the October Fest.
83. flew all the way to India with my gf just to attend a friend's wedding.
84. knew my gf through mIRC chat while I was in the UK in 1998 and now we are couple.
85. made some good friends in the UK where until today, after 10 years we are still in-touch with each other.
86. lost weight drastically after 2 years in the UK, but gain it back when I came back here to "Food Heaven".
87. scored straight As in my standard 6 exam and my Dad gave me a "Lerun" 18 speed mountain bike as a present and also allow me to follow my relatives for a tour to Haadyai & Songkla, Thailand.
88. went to Singapore for 3 days just to buy jeans to go to the UK.
89. don't wear jeans until I went to the UK.
90. had a White Christmas in 1998 when I went Glasgow for holidays.
91. took a 10 days, 10 countries Europe tour in the summer of 1999 for a 'glance' of Europe from Brussels until Venice, Italy and back to London.
92. attended my gf convocation twice, once in the UK and once in Malaysia.
93. got my promotion news over a discussion / drinking session with my boss in a hotel.
94. designed, over see the manufacturing, lead the installation and commissioning of the tallest and longest gantry crane my ex-company ever build.
95. am a pro insecticide user in which when i see a cockroaches, the first thing that comes to my mind is the roach kill insecticide.
96. have most of my T-shirts in white.
97. have been wearing the same watch since 1992 until today.
98. always put family first in everything I do.
99. am glad that I finally can reach my last thing about myself.
100. misses my Dad a lot!!! Never one day have passed that I never thought of him. I Miss You Dad!!

There you go... 100 things about myself finally completed. MERDEKA!! MERDEKA!! MERDEKA!! Happy Holidays to ALL!!!!

Interesting journey

Yesterday while I was driving back home, I notice something interesting. As I was passing through the toll, one side of the toll is dry and sunny.

However, just as I entered and pass the toll bar, the sky is pouring heavily until I can hardly see the road in front.

This gives me the feeling like I am in the movie where I drive through a tunnel and a the end of the tunnel is another different world. Well, the nearest movie I can think off for now is the "Stardust", the only difference is that in the "Stardust" movie, they walk through a fence to see a different world while I pass through a toll bar for a change in the weather.

Interesting journey and wonderful weather pattern.

Great Saturday

Last Saturday was really an enjoyable day for me. It is unlike my routine Saturdays. Last Saturday, we broke our daily routine by doing shopping all afternoon and still manage to grab a good seat to catch an evening show of the "Harry Porter and the Half-Blood Prince".

It gave me the feeling as though we had started dating again. It had been long since we last watch any movies in the cinema. I nearly forgot how the cinema looks like. The movie was nice and its long. Almost 2.5 hours.

It was also our lucky day that day. After we decided to watch that movie at 1800, we were lining up at the queue. Then, out of curiosity, I just told my gf to wait in the line while I go and check out on the booking section if the person there will allow me to buy the tickets at it left only 15 minutes before the movie starts. Just trying my luck out, however, I got lucky, the counter guy was kind enough to sell me the tickets without queuing up.

Then, in the cinema, as usual there were so many advertisement, happens that one of the advertisement by bank advertising about using their credit card to buy movies ticket and no queuing required, happens that the cinema number shown on the advertisement was also cinema 5, same cinema as we were in for the movie. So I told my gf, the guy in the advertisement was me.

The day was perfect. My gf manage to get what she was looking for, we watched a movie where we both wanted to watch, timing for all the event was perfect.

Great Saturday...

Persistent Mom

My mom is a very persistent person. When she try a new recipe, she will just try and try until she gets it perfect and right.

There was once she was so into making "ang ku kuey", literally translate to red tortise, which is use for prayers, she had tried it so many times until she gets it right and now she can make near to perfect "ang ku kuey". Just in case anyone of you don't know what is "ang ku kuey" below is a typical picture of it.







She had attempted at least 3 times with changing the ingredient a few times until she gets it right.

There was once she tried to cook a type of Thai curry chicken, learning part of the recipe from my Aunt, she had experimented with it almost on weekly basis and she is still not getting it right. There must be some ingredient that my Aunt would have forgotten to tell her and hence, the curry tasted different.

Why I write this posting? It is because, when ever she experimented a new recipe, we will become her guinea pig. Just imagine eating not so Thai curry chicken every Sunday or try her disasterous 'ang ku kuey' so many times. At times, it turns out too hard, at times it turn out too soft, at times the 'ang ku kuey' don't even look like anything close to the picture above. Just balls of red dough covering the sweet yellow paste inside.

However, having said all that, I don't mind being her guinea pig. At least it will keep her occupied and keep her active. Good way for her to spend her time and if it was a good successful attempt, I have good food to eat.

Whenever we took her out for dinner and tried something new, e.g. japanese noodles - soba or udon, after a few mouthful, she will say "... I also know how to cook this at home what".. sounded like why you all spend the money to eat it outside whereas she can cook it at home for the fraction of the cost?

Therefore, when we go out for dinner, when we order something new, we (my brother, my sister-in-law and myself) will always tease her, see, you also know how to cook right. So eat more now and keep the taste in your mind so that you can cook it for us next time and we will end up having a good laugh.

Mom, keep up the curiousity and persistent and hopefully by the time we shifts to our new house later, we will have an oven to allow you to bake, instead of just steaming now and there will be more recipe for your to try out. Perhaps if you learn to make cheese cakes, marble cakes, over baked chicken, salt baked chicken, etc, I will be most happy to be your guinea pig.