1st May 2010

1st of May 2010 is my Birthday. It was a Saturday, hence, the public holiday was only replaced with one day of annual leave in the record.

On Friday evening, I went out for dinner with a close friend of mine - Sur. We went of some Japanese food here in Subang Jaya SS15. This is not the conventional Japanese fast food. It is a proper Japanese restaurant where the food is prepared only when you place an order.

We started the dinner with some Sashimi (raw fish), then proceeded to some fried stuffs like soft shell crab, deep fried oyster and grilled squids. Since both of us enjoy a fair bit of alcohol, we ordered a small bottle of sake - Big Mountain (Da Shan) as it was translated.

It was nice food and good sake. It leaves a very nice pleasant after taste in the mouth when it is swallowed. All this happened on the 30th April 2010 evening. The dinner ended at about 11pm before both of us headed home. Thanks mate for such a nice dinner and sake...

Then on the 1st of May 2010, I woke up quite early as we had plan for "dim sum" breakfast with my brother and sister-in-law. We left home at about 9am to meet up with my brother and sister-in-law at 930 near the highway where we headed towards Puchong for the "dim sum".

My brother lead the way and we went to a shop made popular by the owner which is a host of a food program in a local (now I think its regional). The food there was reasonable, the service is also not too bad. One thing is as any "dim sum", normally we have a pot of Chinese tea, the hot water top up is self service. Good thing is that the hot water dispenser is just behind me, hence, it was not too troublesome for me to refill it.

My brother told me that the treat have 2 purposes, one is to celebrate the forth coming Mother's Day (9th May 2010 - this coming Sunday) and the 2nd is no other then my birthday. Anyway, thanks Brother and Sister for being so thoughtful to remember my birthday and also buying the meal!!

The shop was crowded and people have to wait in a queue for table, but the service was fast. Within a few minutes, the piping hot "dim sum" is brought beside us for us to take our pick. We took almost one of each to try and it include the must have 'har gao" (prawn type) and not leaving behind the many varieties of "siew mai" (pork stuffed in a kinda wantan skin).

We also ordered a plate of "lor mai kai" (glutenous rice with chicken), stir fried "lor bak gao" (radish cake) and another must in eating "dim sum" the "chee cheong fun" (rice roll) which have prawn stuffings.

The bill came out approx. RM120 for the 4 of us, which is reasonable as for "dim sum" you expect to pay something like RM30 per pax. It was nice to have the family sitting together on a Public Holiday to enjoy some traditional Chinese food which also covers both the meals - breakfast and lunch. It seems the place is open until 3 pm, which means it serves lunch as well.

That night, after my futsal game, me and my mom went and pick up my uncle and aunt to go to our usual hang out place for weekend, Yuen Steamboat Restaurant. Normally we will all meet there but today, my cousin is taking his wife back to the in-law's place, so my uncle and aunt have to hitch a ride with me.

My aunt made some "mee hoon kuey" (rice flour made into a dough and eat with soup - also commonly known as "pan mee") to be eaten there at the steamboat restaurant.

To my surprise, my cousin which came later brought a birthday cake for me. I cut the cake and serve it to everyone there. It was a chocolate mousse cake with fruits toppings. Of course, they also have some candles place around the cake and my young little nephew blew the candles on my behalf. Again, thanks for the lovely cake.

Well, that's how I spend my birthday. Looks like lots of activities for the day right?

To sum up, I really appreciate all those who took the effort to make this day so special to me. Thank you All!!

Demanding Week

This week (19th April 2010) have been a really demanding week for me.

The week started with me in Auckland, New Zealand for a meeting and catching a 1830 hrs flight from Auckland to Sydney and on the 20th, evening again catching a flight from Sydney to Brisbane and back on the 21st evening.

Only today 22nd April 2010 morning, I can properly sit down and do my work effectively in the office. Within the 3 days, I have been on the plane for 3 times, on average of one flight a day.

On the flight, from Auckland to Sydney, I remember watching a movie (Up in the Air) if I got the movie title correctly, it feature this guy (George Clooney) which is a frequent traveler which clocked 10 million air miles and is one of the only 7 that had reached this status. More people had been to outer space then those that have hit the 10 million air miles.

It reminds me of the life that I might be heading for in near future after being transfered here to Australia. Australia is a very big country and I am in-charge of the whole of Australia and including New Zealand. We have sales office in most of the major cities across Australia and I am supporting all the sales team there.

Looking at the positive side of it, it is nice as I get to do all the travelling and visiting at the company's expense, but on the negative side, it will be challenging to keep travelling like the way I am doing now when I am older, say by another 10 years or so. Therefore, for this assignment, I just plan to do it for about a year or 2 and then back to my home country and sit there quietly - hopefully.

The bright side of things is today will be my second last day of this 2 weeks adventure visit to ANZ, tomorrow afternoon at 2pm, I will be flying back to my home country.

Until the next posting, cheers mate...

3rd Day in Sydney

So fast today is end of Wednesday (14th April 2010) already. Today is fully meeting day with all the top sales managers presenting and answering to their respective P&Ls and give a projections on how are the going to fair by year end 2010.

As per all meetings teas and dinners are part of the schedule. However, I realize for tea time, the food they serve here is not as good as compare back home in Malaysia hotels. The only better is their coffee which tastes better than those we get in Malaysia.

As for dinner, the team organised a Thai cuisine dinner. First time having Thai food here in Australia, nothing to shout about. The cookings had been altered to suit to the local taste buds here hence, it is not as spicy as typical Thai food should be.

One cultural difference I realize is during meetings, the people over here do speak freely and openly to the presenter when they have doubts. Of course, they will first raise their hands like in schools before speaking out.

Well, as initially I have not expected to update this blog as I never thought there will be any internet access, but I was wrong, they did have WIFI services which was part of the hotel meeting package which allows me to login to update his blog at approx 2230 hrs from my room - 508.

At approx 4pm (local time) I got a SMS from Tzu Chi Foundation Group organizer to ask if I can serve them in this coming Sunday's free clinic. I had replied that I will not be able to make it as this weekend I will be in Auckland, New Zealand.

Tomorrow is another full day of meeting and more numbers to digest. Hope it will be as good as today... stay tune...

2nd day in Sydney

Today is the 2nd day in Sydney office. Woke up at about 6am this morning. Perhaps due to some early rest yesterday evening, was feeling refreshed and took some breakfast. For so many trips I had made to Sydney, this is the first time I got breakfast as part of the room package. All previous trips, my room bookings was excluding breakfast.

Came into the office at about 0745. This morning was productive. Lead the team for a detail engineering discussion for the tender that we are working on and clarified almost every single details required. Also, send out a detail specs to some suppliers to request for quotations. Just a round table discussion for about 2 hours, I think it had reduce the bouncing of at least 20 mails back and forth.

Today was rather interesting. My boss told me that they HR finally agrees to give me a full Ex-pat package for the transfer. Previously the package given to me is full transfer package which is not attractive to me. Anyway, again, lets see how it all works out. Hopefully this will be a better offer comparatively to the previous offer.

Will be leaving at about 5pm from the office. The whole lot of Sales team managers is now at the hotel preparing their presentations and figures etc. for tomorrow's meeting. Me and my boss are invited guest for this meeting. Hope it will be a great meeting for the next 2 days. The meeting is at the hotel we are staying, so don't think I will be in the office for the next 2 days to check my mails and update this blog.

Stay tune for more updates later....

Arrival in Sydney

Departed from my house at about 7pm last night with my regular cabbie friend. Checked in was fast, change some currency and walked straight to the Plaza Lounge. This is a lounge set up by a few banks for their platinum credit card holders.

Not too bad inside. They serve food and drinks all free for members.

The moment I got inside there, I grab myself a cup of black coffee and found a corner to sit and called and spoke to my gf for about an hour or so. The flight is scheduled at 2210 hours, so only checked in at 2130 after talking to my gf.

The flight was not too bad. Manage to catch some sleep and didn't feel the 7.5 hours flew by. Landed this morning at 0730 in Sydney and took a cab from the airport to the hotel to drop off my luggage and refreshing myself after flying the whole night.

Then, at 0930, left the hotel and came into the office and had some short discussion with the team on the progress of a tender that we are working on together.

Now, nothing much to be done, so just have time to surf around and chit chat with anyone available. Waiting for 1645 hrs before calling for a cab to head back to the hotel can calling it a day and that is another 1.45 minutes to go.

Well, another day gone by not very productive.....

2 working weeks abroad

This Sunday (11th April 2010) I will be travelling to Sydney for 2 consecutive week.

The travel is extensive. Below is the plan:

11th April 2010 - 15th April 2010

KL - I will be in Sydney from the 12th April until the 15th of April.

16th April 2010 - 19th April 2010

Sydney - Auckland

19th April 2010 - 20th April 2010

Auckland - Sydney

20th April - 22nd April 2010

Sydney - Brisbane

22nd April 2010

Brisbane - Sydney

23rd April 2010

Sydney - KL

Looking at the schedule myself, I pity the secretary that does the bookings for me. However, she did a great job and got all the details sorted out well.

Don't think I will have time to update this blog for the next 2 weeks or so, hence, will only come back and log my 2 weeks outing when I get back to my office later.

Tune in for more in 2 weeks or so time.. I will try to do simple updates whenever I have time in ANZ...

Officially a Tzu Chi Volunteer

On the 28th of March 2010, I attended a formal Tzu Chi Foundation official training / coaching.

I have been a volunteer with Tzu Chi in their free clinics for more than one year already. So fast time passes by. I remember the first time I was involved in their outreach clinics was in March 2009 (referring to my old posting) and in April 2010, I am formally their volunteer.

My lead group had requested me to register officially since early of 2010. However, due to the workload and after a few times being request to fill in the form, in March 2010, I filled in and submitted the form officially. Then, it was like almost a week later, there is this coaching session that was for the first time being organized in the branch which I serve. Without much of hesitation, I attended this coaching and have understood more about this foundation.

They were full of protocols and formalities that the members follows. No, don't get me wrong, I am not saying it is red tapes and no I am not complaining at all. I think with the existence of these protocols that makes the foundation so successful as it is today. It members were respected worldwide as very highly discipline and organized team of volunteers.

We are not army or any Red Cross society which we have to fall in line, practice marching etc. The protocols are simple rules that is to be followed as in temples and very simple hand placing techniques that makes the whole team looks like as though they have been trained for hours and hours to achieve the results.

The coaching started at 0830 with registration process all of us, approx 100 people were led into a hall and seated. Then the coaching started teaching us the basic protocols and give all of us a history of the foundation, both internationally and locally, the founder and their missions.

I was most impressed with the lunch serving ceremony, where very senior volunteer actually brought lunch boxes for us and kneel down in-front of us to serve us the lunch. In this foundation, they teach us to be thankful and do good deeds. When we help a person, we do not wish to be thank by the recipient, but in-return we thank the recipient to give us the opportunity to help them and improve ourselves. This is a very positive and good mind set which had changed my view on lots of things recently.

Perhaps this is one of the many secrets to the success of this foundation. The training ended at about 1630 and now officially I am entitle to wear their junior volunteer uniform, which is the grey collar T-shirt with white long pants, white socks and white shoes.

Personally I felt so proud of wearing the uniform every 3rd Sundays when I go for my routine free clinic volunteer work. I can see the patiences there have such a great respect and admiration to the dedicated team there.

Hope I am able to progress more in time to come and eventually be a full fledge volunteer one day.