Wishing you a fabulous New Year 2010!

Dear reader,

I would like to wish you a wonderful and fabulous New Year 2010. May your new year filled with peace, happiness, good luck, wealth, good health, joy and better prospect!!!


*Cheers*

New Year Resolutions

Year 2009 is ending very soon... Are you planning for your 2010 New Year Resolutions?

I found some interesting quotes from Quote Garden.

A New Year's resolution is something that goes in one year and out the other. ~Author Unknown

I do think New Year's resolutions can't technically be expected to begin on New Year's Day, don't you? Since, because it's an extension of New Year's Eve, smokers are already on a smoking roll and cannot be expected to stop abruptly on the stroke of midnight with so much nicotine in the system. Also dieting on New Year's Day isn't a good idea as you can't eat rationally but really need to be free to consume whatever is necessary, moment by moment, in order to ease your hangover. I think it would be much more sensible if resolutions began generally on January the second. ~Helen Fielding, Bridget Jones's Diary

LOL! So, are your new year's resolutions are the same each year too? For me, I hardly set my new year resolutions. Maybe I should set mine by January the second. =p

*Cheers*

Young Corporate Malaysians Summit

Last week I got an email from PostGradAsia.com regarding this 'Young Corporate Malaysians Summit". I think this summit may be useful and I decided to attend it. I was supposed to attend this summit with another 2 colleagues. However, due to some unforseen circumstances, I gotta attend it alone.

When I arrived Menara Integriti, I saw lotsa young people in their very formal office attire. I was so worry that I was under dressed as I did not wear a blazer like others. Luckily, when I stepped into the building, I saw some guys was even more informally dressed than me! They were wearing a pair of jeans with a simple t-shirt! =p

Ok.. After I registered myself and got my goodie bag, I saw this girl, F who was standing alone near the corridor. I approached her and tried to make some conversations... Hehehe! And now, she becomes my friend! She's a lovely and friendly person who works in the Corporate Planning department too! We chatted for a while until the summit was started.

The sessions before lunch were pretty interesting. I even jotted down my own notes! The summit became even more interesting when one of the participants started a 'little debate' with the panel speakers during the Q&A session.

During lunch, I met a final year Engineering student from 1 of the Singaporean universities. Later, I found out that he is from Malacca! Then, we started to discuss about the nice food around Malacca. He told me Capitol Satay Celup. Yeah! I tried that, but I am not a fan of satay celup... After that, I met a professioner trainer... LOL! So happen, I was looking for a trainer who can speak in Bahasa!! What a coincident, manz... =)

The session right after lunch was a little dull and boring... Probably the 'after-lunch effect' had just kicked in. Hahaha!

I remember the final session was regarding 'Retaining the good people'. I love the topic and all the 3 speakers! One of the speakers even agreed that "Malaysians are under-paid"... *Clap clap* I love his statement!! LOL! How I wish I could get a better paycheque?

When the summit finally ended around 6pm, I saw this familiar looking guy. After some head-straching conversation with him, we finally found out where did we first met. He was 1 of my junior in my uni. We were in the same club. Another coincident... Hahaha!!!

In short, I enjoy meeting with people!!

*Cheers*

Fast car? No...

After met with the mad taxi driver in Bangkok, I met with another mad driver along Federal Highway... It was a lovely Sunday morning and I was traveling along the highway at around 90km/h. Well, do not expect me to drive faster as the speed limit was 80km/h only. On top of that, there was an MPV right in front of me traveling at the same speed.

What happened was, a red hatchback Proton car was tailgating behind me for quite a distance! I ignored him at first. After a while, I moved to the middle lane and gave way. The driver sped up and over took me!! Fine...

But, guess what? Two seconds after he overtook me, the right side of his car bumper felt down!!! It was dragging on the ground. Can't help it!! I gotta laugh!!! Hahahahaha!!! I was actually banging on my wheels and laugh out loud. XD On top of that, I showed him a 'thumbs up' sign when I was passing by his car.... *Padan muka*

The moral of the story is, if you're not driving a fast car, do not act like driving one... Your car might end up falling apart.... Hahahahahha!

*Cheers*

A frustrating taxi ride in Bangkok

I went to Bangkok over the weekend and this is the X number of times I came here. The last time I came was less than a month ago. Hence, I know the taxi fare/ charges well. For this round, I encountered some problem where the airport taxi driver was refused to turn on his meter. He wanted to charge me a lump sum of THB450 (approx. RM45), where usually it cost less than THB350 (approx. RM35) for the same trip.

My mum and I immediately negotiate with the driver. We even requested him to stop the car. In the end, he agreed to use the meter, while we pay the airport charges (THB 50) plus the toll fare. Well, this is fair as the toll fare and airport charges are to be borne by the passengers. However, he sounded like very frustrated and unhappy with us.

After that, he started to drive like a mad cow on the highway! He honked each and every car on the road and swift from one lane to the other. He was just a crazy idiot driver! On top of that, he used a longer route to reach our destination! He overshot the exit of the first highway and went up to the second highway. Therefore, we had to pay another THB45 for the toll fare. Ishhh!! Then, he made a huge U-turn to go back to our hotel! Yea, this is how he can charge us more!!

I was even angrier when he started to jam the brake in front of the traffic light! When he reached the traffic light of a big junction, the traffic light turned red. However, he was trying to beat the traffic light but it was failed as the van in front of him braked. So, he jammed his brake in a sudden and the impact caused our body to move forward!! Thank god we wasnt hurt. He’s such a terrible driver! I immediately jotted down his details and snapped a picture of his car plate number displayed in the taxi.


After some frustrating ‘city tour’, we finally reached our hotel. And guess what, after adding up all the charges, the cost came up to THB450! And he didn’t even want to come down to unload my luggage from the boot. Ok, fine. I unload it by myself and snapped a picture of the taxi after that.
Guess what? I didn’t close his car boot properly. Yea, I did that on purpose! You can actually see it from the picture... Hahahah!! Since he conned us, I tried to revenge on him! I hope his car boot will open up when he reach the highway!!! Heheheh! It would be funny driving with an opened boot.

If there are any future trips, I will ensure that I check for the taxi fare with the driver before getting into the taxi. In this case, I can simply hop into another taxi, which is driven by an honest driver.

*Cheers*

Part 3 of my Annual Leave

*Continuation*... Again...

Day 5 - Vegetating day
This is the last day of my annual leave. I decided to vegetate at home. I spent almost the whole day to surf the Internet and played FB games. I was so addicted with this "Restaurant City"... OMG! I was busy with exchanging ingredients with other friends, re-decorate my restaurant, upgrade my dishes, wash toilets, repair the arcade machine, etc... (FYI, so far this is the only game I play in FB =p)

Other than that, I also browsed through my friends' profiles and pictures... Guess what? I found this from one of their albums!! I was posing with my colleague's wine glass at my work station... XD

*Cheers*

Out of Klang Valley!!!

This is a continuation of my previous post... =)

Day 3 - Wonderful Malacca trip
I was heading to Malacca early in the morning with X... The weather was fine and the traffic was smooth...

Right after we exited the highway to Malacca, we had to rely on the sign boards coz we don't know our ways. We followed the signboard heading to Pusat Bandar... After a while, we got here!!! The Jonker Street!!!


It was quite pack in Jonker Street. We made a few rounds and found 1 parking spot. The parking fee system is quite different here compared to KL. Instead of putting coins into the parking machine, we had to buy the parking cards from the nearby store. The card cost RM0.70 each (for an hour) and we gotta stratch the card ourselves. I was having fun straching the cards. LOL!! Year >> Month>> Day>> AM/PM>> Hour>> Minute... Finally, its done! Then, I placed the cards on the dashboard and got ready for food hunt!

First stop: Lunch - Chicken Rice Ball *Yum!!*
I love the chicken!! It was so smooth and tasty!! The rice balls were great too! Initially the waiter asked if 10 rice balls are enough for me... I was like, 10 balls for 2 persons?!?!?! I thought the balls are very huge. But when it came, it looks alright. We finished all of them. XD

Second stop: Tea-time - Cendol from Cendol 88
Check out the queue!!! Eventhough there are a few stalls that are selling cendol, this stall seems to be the most famous stall. No matter sunny or rainy days, people still love Cendol 88! I was one of them who waited in queue with an umbrella. hehehe!


Finally I got my 2 bowls of cendol. There's Baba Cendol on the left and Sago Cendol (the bigger bowl) on the right. I love the sweet gula Melaka! Besides these, they serve durian cendol, mango ABC and etc... Probably I will try out the rest during my next visit... =p Cant wait to come here again...

Third stop: Dinner - Capitol Satay Celup
This is another famous eating place in Malacca. The picture below shows part of the long-queue... The queue was quite long and I waited for more than half an hour for my table.
Well, this is something like steamboat, where you dip all the food you like in the satay sauce and cook them. I chose my favourite sotong, also prawn, meat balls, kangkung, and etc... Its something special to me but I am not a big fan of Satay Celup... LOL!

Day 4 - Leaving Malacca to Seremban
Before we leave to Seremban for S & Z's wedding ceremony, we travelled back to Jonker Street for breakfast...

Fourth stop: Breakfast - Baba Laksa & Asam LaksaThis is the very first time I took asam laksa for breakfast... LOL! Sour and spicy food early in the morning! Somehow the aunty made a mistake. Check out my bowl of asam laksa on the right! There were 2 big spoons full of tuna fish! *Yum*!!! I love my bowl of asam laksa!

After the wonderful makan trip, we head towards Seremban to attend my colleagues S & Z's wedding. Guess what? I can read map!!! I was reading the map given by S and we managed to reach our destination without much hassle!!! So proud of myself... LOL!!!

I saw lots of my colleagues/ bosses in the ceremony and many of them came with their kids... So adorable. My mistake for not snapping any of their photographs. LOL! The Malay wedding jamuan is quite different from the Chinese. They started to serve the food from noon onwards and the friends and relatives can come and go at anytime between noon to evening. So, we were taking our turns to sit and eat at the tables.

After sending my wishes to the bride and groom, I left the place for the famous Seremban Siew Pau!! However, we couldnt find our way for the 'pow'. =( So, we went home empty handed...

Anyway, I think I had a great vacation!

*Cheers*

My first 2 days of annual leaves

I am now having my 'leave clearing spree'... I have a number days of leave accumulated since last year... I gotta clear my leave before they expired. (Thanks to our new HR policy) LOL! Well, I have taken 3 working days off since last Thursday. So, there's a total of 5 days off including the weekends!!

Day 1 - System failure day
Firstly, I went to the Petronas station along East-West Link for fuel. Grrr... My petrol tank's door was giving me problem. I pulled the petrol flap. However, the tank's door didnt open! This wasn't the first time that the cap refused to open. Even thought I sent it for repair before, the problem still exist from time to time. *Frustrated* Well, this problem can be solved if I pull the flap, while another person help to pull the door at the same time. Hence, I was waving at the kiosk attendants for help... He looked at me one-kind and ignored me. =( End up, I got to walk towards him and 'beg' for help. Guess what? He told his another colleague to help me instead. Ok.. I finally got someone helping me to open my tank's door. Then, another problem occur! ISHHHH!! The credit card host was offline!!! What a lucky day?? I gone through so much trouble and found out I cant pump my petrol?!?! My tank was drying. So, I had no choice and pumped RM5 first. *sniff*

I went to the BSN branch SS15 to redeem some gift certificates. I was surprised that the counter staff was SO polite and helpful! She explained stuff to me in detail and most importantly, she was very patient! She is much better than other private banks' counter staff. *Thumbs up*

After that, I was trying to renew my road tax. *Sigh* The post office officer told me that the JPJ system is down at the moment. In addition to that, ALL other post offices in Subang, Petaling Jaya and Sunway are facing the same problem! =( Why is it system down everywhere? What a disappointed morning?!?!

In the evening, I was trying to pump petrol at another petrol kiosk on my way home. Gues what.... The credit card host was offline too!! why must the systems of all places down when I need them? Maybe we need some major improvement in our systems, broadband, technology, etc. etc......

Day 2 - Fruitful day
I fetched my grandma to the market in the morning. While she was doing her 'marketing', I was trying to settle a few things...

1. Pump petrol... The system was up!! I pumped a full tank of petrol!! *gulp gulp gulp*
2. Renew road tax... The system was running!!! There were no queue in the post office too!! *Great* The road tax costs me RM22, including service charge. However, I kept hearing the counter staff said 'Three-ty two"... I was like... huh? "Thirty-two"?? She repeated 'Three-ty two". LOL!!!! It was either her pronunciation got problem or my hearing got problem... XD
   
3. Install new car wipers... My wipers are going to celebrate their 6th birthday in 2 weeks time. They are getting old and not working properly. So, I gotta change them. I changed a pair of new Bosch wiper, cost RM28. I'm gonna test how good are them tomorrow if the sky decided to rain.... =p

After all the tasks, I fetched my gma home from the market.

*Cheers*

WEIRDO NEWS: 'Ghostbusters' scholarship for British student

By METRO NEWS REPORTER - Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Source: Metro News

“A student has won the world's only 'ghostbuster' scholarship this year to study parapsychological phenomena.

Callum Cooper, 21, of Northampton University , was given £1,800 from New York 's Parapsychology Foundation to investigate phenomena like haunted sites, and even text messages from the dead.

He won out over international competition for the Eileen J. Garrett prize, which is intended to help students find possible scientific proof for uncanny happenings.

He plans to write his dissertation on 'the sense of being stared at in public spaces'.”

I heard about this news on Hitz.fm this morning and I found it very interesting!! I really can’t wait to read this guy’s dissertation on how a dead person can send text messages… Perhaps, they use the Hell Network? Or the Heaven Network? The best network coverage with broadband? LOL!!!

Anyway, I think this is a very interesting area to be researched on... Thumbs up, Callum Cooper!!!

*Cheers*

Treasure hunt

About 2 weeks ago, I was doing a spring cleaning for my room. I rearranged my stuff and pack some unused items into plastics/ box. Then, I found a heavy bag. I tried to empty out all the items from my bag and it was still very heavy. I wonder why? I heard some 'cling-ing' sound from the bag. However, there's nothing inside. *Blur*

After that, I was checking if there's any hole in the bag because some stuff like coins might felt into the hole and got into the second layer of the bag. First checking, no hole was found... Second checking, no hole was found too!!! =( When it come to the third checking... true enough, I found a small hole in the side pocket!

Finally, I found a hole in my bag!!!

Then, I tried to dig into my bag... *dig dig dig* The hole used to be very tiny. After I dug into it, it became bigger and bigger. But, guess what?!!?!?! I found treasures inside my bag!!! check out the picture below...

The items found include:

1. My long lost watch... I have bought a new watch a week before I discovered this! Grrr..... Should have discover this earlier.... =(
2. A sweet that I got from a Korean BBQ Restaurant in Ampang... Few months ago after helping out in a company roadshow
3. My long lost necklace... A meaningful necklace to me =)
4. Last but not least, some coins worth RM3.95!!!! These are the main contributor of the heavy weight... I am now RM3.95 richer...
   

I have no idea why I didnt know about the hole in my bag earlier... No wonder it was always heavy. =p

*Cheers*

The Da Vinci Code

Few months ago, I borrowed "The Da Vinci Code" novel by Dan Brown from my brother's university library. It took me ages to read the book... In the end, I didn't even manage to finish reading it before the due date. The next thing I knew was, my dad bought us the DVD! Hahah! Not only "The Da Vinci Code", he bought "Angels and Demons" too!!

Yesterday, I finally found some time to sit in front of the tv and watch it. Well, not to say I am too busy to watch tv on normal days. I do spend a lot of hours in front of tv daily. However, most of the time we have to tune into the channels that my grandmother likes --> Astro Walaitoi, Channel 311. LOL!

Eventhough this is a very old movie, which was released in year 2006, I still enjoyed the movie a lot! I amazed with how Professor Langdon cracked the codes and removed the clue from the cryptex before destroying it. He's such a genius!! There's lotsa French conversations in between... Thank god there's English subtitles! Or else, I wont be able to understand besides "bonjour"... XD

Anyway, most of my friends advised me to continue reading the book! They say the book is much much better. I think I will grab the book soon... =)

*Cheers*

Gas mask bra among 2009 Ig Nobel Prize winners

Source: Tech.Blorge

This news really caught my attentions... =p I wonder if this invention works for the Asian women who are more conservatives... LOL! And are these bras come in all sort of sizes too?


A bra which turns into two working gas masks is among the achievements to be celebrated at the 19th annual Ig Nobel Prize awards ceremony.

The Nobel Prize is a long-running and well-established ceremony which rewards those who have achieved great feats in the fields of science, literature, and economics. But since 1991 they have been preceded by the Ig Nobel Prize, a parody of the main awards, which endeavor to “first make people laugh, and then make them think.”

According to National Geographic, the ceremony is organized by the scientific humor magazine, the Annals of Improbable Research, and this year were held at Harvard University’s Sanders Theater.

The gas mask bra won the Ig Nobel in public health. Elena Bodnar and colleagues designed a fashionable bra that can be turned into a pair of HEPA-filter gas masks within a matter of seconds. Bodnar designed the gas mask bra after being moved by her experiences as a young Ukrainian medical student helping victims of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

She demonstrated the bra on members of the judging panel, including Nobel laureates Paul Krugman and Wolfgang Ketterle. She said:

It only takes 25 seconds for any woman to use. Five seconds to convert and wear her own mask, and 20 seconds to wonder who the lucky man is to wear the second mask.

*Cheers*

Earthquake in Sumatra, tremors in Malaysia

Source: NST

7.7-magnitude quake hit South Sumatra, tremors felt in Peninsula

KUALA LUMPUR: A powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake hit Indonesia's south Sumatra at 6.16pm today, sending tremors across several areas in Peninsular Malaysia.

The Meteorological Department said the quake's epicentre was 60km southwest of Padang and 452km southwest of Melaka. It said it was monitoring the situation closely.

In the Klang Valley, people rushed out of building which were shaking from the tremors.

Meanwhile, Reuters reported that the quake was 7.9 on the Richter scale and that a tsunami alert had been issued by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre.

This news is so scary!! My office building was one of the buildings in PJS that felt the tremors. However, I didnt feel any shake as I was already at the ground floor. I only knew it when my colleague called and informed me about it. He told me to grab my car immediately and leave the office building before the alarm is triggered.

Not long after that, the fire engine came and the fire alarm was triggered. =( I didnt manage to get to the basement parking on time. At this time, the Security Officers were busy directing the public to the open area. I saw the firemen went into our building and checked the safety of the building. Thank god, everything was fine!

After that, I had a chance to speak to one of the firemen. According to him, the shake was due to the earthquake happened in Sumatra. Besides. the tremors in Penang was even worse than KL. This is really scary...

I hope this wont happen again...

Jump!!

This picture is showing 7 people who were very happy after a sucessful company event... =)

*Cheers*

Spice Garden @ Penang

I took this picture in the Spice Garden, Penang. I love this pic a lot!! It was so hard to snap the butterfly on the little yellow flower. When Aa came and tried to snap it with his camera, the butterfly got shocked and flew away.... =(

Anyway, it was fun walking around in the Spice Garden and got bitten by tonnes of hungry mossies.... LOL!

*Cheers*

Luncheon @ Sushi Zanmai

Last week I went to Sushi Zanmai, Sunway Pyramid with Aa for lunch... That wasnt my first time trying Zanmai. However, this time I tried something new here... =p Check out this 'soft shell crab sushi'... Very yummy!! Its nice to eat with wasabi and soy sauce.... *slurp*

'Soft shell crab sushi' @ RM6.00

Now, check out this 'Chicken Gyoza'. They are something like Chinese 'wantan' or 'gaozhi'... The sause given should be soy sauce (could be different type of soy sauce). I found it very salty. So, I prefer to eat those Gyoza without the sauce... YUM!!

'Chicken Gyoza' @ RM9.80

Not to forget other dish... The 'Chicken Katsu' came together with a bowl of Soba actually. After we finished the chicken, 2 of the waiters kept trying to take away my plate... Isshhh... I love the veggie, ok? I havent finish them, let me eat...

Besides that, the 'prawn sushi' on the black plate were good too! There were 6 pieces of sushi actually... We had eaten 2 before snapping the pic. =p

'Chicken Katsu with Soba' @ RM8.80 & 'Prawn sushi' @ RM4.80

In the end, our bill came to... RM36.10 *(^_^)*

*Cheers*

One way to prevent A(H1N1)

Please wear your mask to prevent any "hini" viruses... =)

In order to prevent us from catching the "Type A" flu, my company is giving away masks for free! =p Ermm... Its not easy to breathe with the mask on actually... Anyway, I was hangat-hangat to wear it for the first day only.. After that, I never put on my mask already.

To all those who are infected by the flu, please take care and get well soon! *pray*

*Cheers*

Me and my walkie-talkie

I had a few days of nightmare in Genting last week... Don't get me wrong, I didnt encounter any ghost or whatsoever... *touch wood!!!* Well, I was very busy in helping out in my company's convention. I got to check this, check that, confirm this, confirm that... and also to arrange this and that... LOL! So, most of the time, I was running around with my walkie talkie...

You might look cool when holding this walkie (Looks like some tai-lo or tai-kah-jie at work. hehe!). In fact, I find it very heavy and bulky. It is not convenient to bring it everywhere and those people around you will be able to listen to your conversation. This is not so great... However, it saves our phone bill... $$$$$ Kekeke!!! =)

The smallest walkie talkie (on the right) which labelled with "Jac" was mine!! =p
"Jac calling Izz, rodger"

*Cheers*

My first trip to Gohtong Jaya

I just got back from a 4 days 3 nights trip to Genting Highlands. Sound good huh? Well, I wasnt there for holiday!! I went there for a company event... Its already 2 days after the event and I'm still feeling tired. Is it a sign of old age? LOL!

Well, for the first day, I went to Gohtong Jaya to unload some stuff into a Sze Chuan Restaurant. This is a restaurant with some interesting Chinese antiques and full with spicy szechuan food! They serve everything with dried chillies... *HOT* If you are not a fan of spicy food, better get some icy drink to cool you down. =p

This is the entrance of the restaurant. Quite unique right?

My company's van and lorry reached there before my colleagues and I... These 2 vehicles were full with our stuffs... Over here, we gotta unload some mineral water bottles. As I mentioned earlier, the szechuan food is really HOT! So, we gotta standby some mineral water for our participants. =)

All the 55 boxes were unloaded by our drivers and security guards. *clap clap* These boxes were really heavy!! My colleague, Iz was there marking the boxes with our company names. While I was snapping this picture as a proof that we left our boxes here. kekeke...

Right before we left Gohtong Jaya to Genting Highlands, I found this creative and environmental friendly idea. The restaurant actually recycled the empty alcohol bottles and created a 'barrier' for the garden. I find it very nice! *(^o^)*

*Cheers*

Facebook Games

Recently, I got addicted to the FB games! All thanks to my colleague - M... She told me that this Restaurant City is great!! We can hire our friends to be the waitress/ waiter, chef and even cleaner! So, I am actually busy managing my restaurant. LOL! I gotta ensure that my employees and customers are happy. besides, I need to buy ingredients to upgrade my recipes. I also need to arrange my tables and chairs, other facilities, etc... Its actually quite interesting. However, the website is always down. =(

Whenever its down, I will go to another FB game, which is Happy Farm... I get to plant my veggie and flowers... If there's any pest or weeds, I gotta kill them!!! LOLz!! I will also get points if I help out my friends in killing the pest or weeds in their farm. However, the best part of this game is we get to steal crops from friend's farm!! Not bad right?

See! I have a guard dog to take care of my farm... But he is hungry now... I do not have enough money to buy him dog food and increase his energy level... *sad*

Anyway, the games keep me entertained when I'm bored at home...

*Cheers*