Loan shark email template

I have a friend who owes me some money but I keep forgetting to ask the money from her. One day, she remembered it and she told me to remind her again. So, what i did was send her the following email. However, I have modified a few of the original content just to make it more professional. Here it goes.

Hi XXX,

From my 3002 Ebolg accounting system, it shows that you haven't paid me the amount you've owed me for quite sometime. However, currently I have a promotion and I'm charging you the amount you've owe without interest.

The total amount is RMxx.xx. So, please pay quickly because the promotion ends soon.

Regards,
Ah Long - Ivan

I think some time things can be done in style, even in asking back your money or taking a loan from friends. :D :D

Warning: DO NOT use this template for anything related to legislation.

Photo Album

I have created a account at Zorpia.com to put some of my photo there. Currently there are 3 albums availabe. Go here to check it out.

Presents

Up to date christmas present available under the chrismas tree photo. How many presents are there? I have no idea, maybe i can try to count it in the picture. Why there are presents under tree? Well, my company is going to have a gift exchange event before Christmas. I think that will fun when that day(22nd) comes. :D

What Color Heart Do You Have?

Your Heart Is Pink

In relationships, you like to play innocent - even though you aren't. Each time you fall in love, it's like falling for the first time. Your flirting style: Coy Your lucky first date: Picnic in the park Your dream lover: Is both caring and dominant What you bring to relationships: Romance

What Color Heart Do You Have?

I found this in one of my friend's blog, Corra. Click on the above link to get your own test.

The smell of Christmas is near. :D Christmas tree located in my office reception. 

Better than Coffee

I felt sleepy after I had my lunch and I almost fell asleep in the office. Fortunately, I found a way to keep me awake. It’s simple, keep eating.Luckily I have bought some junk food to store in my office. :P

The Movie Race

05 Dec - At 6.00pm sharp, I and my colleagues left the office and headed straight to the PUTRA train station. We have planed to catch a movie named “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe” and the tickets are won thru an online contest.

Everything was according to plan and we arrived to a stop where we need to make a transit to KTM train. I was ahead of everybody when we were walking towards the train station platform. Suddenly, I saw a train stop at the station and as normal people would do, I tell my colleague the train is here so we can catch up with it. After checking the electrical destination sign board, which only has one destination indicated, we confirmed this is the train that’s heading to our way. So, we all aboard on to the train and we’re one stop away to reach the cinema complex.

Sounds like a happy ending, until I saw our stop passed us by at an amazing speed (80kph perhaps?); then I know something has definitely gone wrong (duh!). We’re started a little panic because we thought it would stop at the following station but it didn’t. So, where this train going to take us? Is it going all the way to another state? (Oh boy)

After asking the onboard passenger, we found out it’s going to stop at one of the station and fortunately we’re too far from our stop (Phew!). Nevertheless, we have lost about 15mins. I thought it was OK since we have colleague went there to collect the ticket first. Later, I found out that some of my colleague, who’s taking train with me, needs to get there on time to redeem the ticket as well. I can feel how serious the problem is, if we are unable to make it on time. (The shows starts at 8:30pm; the redeem counter closed at 7:00pm; we’re still waiting for our train to come at the wrong station at 6:45pm) So, this is where the race begins.

When we finally arrived to our stop (that was exactly 7:00pm), I and my first colleague rush out from the train first and heading to the redeem counter. He’s running very fast and I couldn’t catch up (unless it was my house on fire, maybe I can catch up with him). Then the second colleague, who also needs to redeem the ticket as well, catching up on me. I was shocked because she was wearing high heels and running. (OK, it’s quite reasonable because the truth is, my house wasn’t on fire). So, I ran with my own pace and found out that I was just behind her all the way. From there, I can see there are some “I want to see the show tonight no matter how” a.k.a “Never give up” spirits here and I’m really impressed. (By the way, I went to the gym and run on the machine so many times. There wasn’t once I have this much of spirit running with her.)

In the end, both of them was able to redeem the ticket and also thanks to friend who was already there, holding on the redeem counter. We took our dinner there and enjoyed the show that night.

Note: In order to identify an express train from a domestic train. Check out the driver’s window, where they put the “Express” sign there and not on the electrical destination sign board (duh!).

Look to the bright side

I heard the news from my colleague yesterday. It was about my department is going to be spilt and most of the team member will be assign to other department. I don’t like the idea but I’m looking forward to this news to be announced. This is because I rather heard the news officially announced in the company meeting and see how it goes.

Today, I went to the meeting and the news was true. The company meeting didn’t put up much of the detail how is going to be done but for a second moment, I was heart broken. I looked to one my department colleague and he gave me “There’s nothing we can do about it” look. When the meeting was ended, I met up with my manager on our way back to our place and I joked about this issue; whether I was able to assign to a popular department. (Big mistake; never tell joke to your manager about serious issue) He didn’t say anything it but I can feel the tension is there.

Later, we have our own department meeting. I saw most of the team member faces don’t really like the idea. Anyway, it was decided by the management. People in the meeting talked a little emotional. I think this is because we’re a strong team. We have encountered a lot of issues and solved them, furthermore everybody is working happily. (I think) Beside that, most of the impact should felt by those who start up the department, which including me.

The department was start up by 5 of us, where we actually went to Delft to learn it. We learn everything they provided there in 4 weeks time and take it back to Malaysia. After we take over, I can see things are moving very quickly. We’ve managed to complete a project, solved some tough issue which people in Delft unable to solve it (Maybe it’s the distance problem) and I can see it is going on track to become stable and better.

Today, it faces the reality to be split in order to get things done even better. No doubt, this measure does really provide it advantages by solving the misunderstanding between departments. As my manager said, “Look to the bright side”. Well, the bright side which I can think of are, new things to learn and new colleague to meet in coming days. Nevertheless, I’m going to miss my department colleague where we’re working together as a team and really make something out of it.

Dinner is ready

12th Nov - It was 8:30am. I got a call from an unknown number (it's a lady voice) and the phone conversation goes like this.

Unknown: “Hi, is this Vesco?”
Me: (Still blur after woke up by the phone) “No, this is not Vesco.”
Unknown: “Are you Vesco from XXX” (I forgot the location XXX in the conversation)
Me: “No, I'm not Vesco. What phone number did you dialed?”
Unknown: “Is there anybody called Vesco there?”
Me: “No, there's nobody here called Vesco”
Unknow: “Sorry, wrong number then” (Hang up)
Me: (Went back to sleep)

I thought when I answered the phone, “No, this is not Vesco”, should end the conversation. Somehow, this lady sounds to me like, she deny the reality that she made the wrong called. (She never missed a dial?) Or maybe I should answer, “Sorry, wrong number” and hang up after she said hi (It's rude, I know, but save a lot of time). :D Anyway, fast forward to 4:00PM.

After I took a shower, I brought a bottle of Baileys into my car and head straight to my colleague's house for dinner. It was planned couple of weeks ago where we finally decided to have a dinner at one of the colleague house. I really like this idea because I have been eating out a lot and I am bored with the restaurant or stall food. Initially, the plan was agreed by 4-5 people. Later, they start bringing people in to join us and from there, it grows to 11 people. (Luckily it wasn't 13) Beside that, this dinner is special than other house dinner because it was prepared instead of one chef, we have 3!

While I was stuck in the traffic jam, I got a call from one of the chef suggested me to get the movie ticket. (The plan included movie after the dinner. Later, we found out that it was a bad idea) I agreed with her and head straight to the cinema to get the ticket. After I got the ticket, I received a call from my colleague stating that we have 3 more colleagues waiting at the train station. He asked me to pick them on the way to the house and I agreed (Again). Well, this is the first time I went to the Subang Jaya train station and I'm not really familiar with the road in this area. However, I got a little helper luckily. It's a Klang Valley map book. (It would be better if it was a GPS. Global Positioning System)

After I have picked up the 3 colleagues, I head straight to the house without delay because I think we're late. By the time we reached there, it was 6:15PM and the dinner hasn't started yet. Then I waited on the living watching TV for the food to be prepared. The dinner starts at 7:30PM and I was glad because I was really hungry. (Maybe they do that on purpose because food tastes better when the person is hungry)

There are 6 types of dish and a soup on the table: 2 chicken dishes, 1 mixed vegetable, 1 tofu, 3 cawanmushi, 1 fish, and a mixed vegetable soup. Those dishes tasted really good except the soup has less taste in it. (Good for health because it has less salt/msg in it). I think we managed to finish to all the dishes in 30mins but there is more; dessert. Dessert was served with chocolate cake, sweet red bean and jelly. But before that, as promised to my colleague, I and one of my colleague was assigned to wash the dirty dishes. Some of the colleague helps to clean up the floor after I have done the dishes. My Baileys was served after they finished their dessert. Everybody seems to like the taste of it and they almost finished the whole bottle. I think because of too many people sharing a bottle, therefore nobody get drunk and it’s safe for the driver to drive.

After the drinking session, we all are prepared for the movie. Things went out a bit rush because some of them wanted to take a shower before going (So, it was a bad idea to watch movie after a great dinner). As for those who are free, went to the cinema first; others will catch up to them later. At the cinema, those who took the shower arrived at the cinema around 5mins behind the first car (I wonder whether the driver did get drunk and arrived at the cinema at this amazing speed). Anyway, the movie turns out really nice and the title was “Chicken Little”. (Yeah, chicken again after 2 chicken dishes)

Finally, I really like this kind of dinner once in a while because the next workday, there is a lot of opinion and complaint from the chef regarding the dinner (therefore, it’s better not do it too often). Suggestion was raised such as everybody brings their dishes there instead of cooking all the dishes in one place; less clean up to do in the kitchen. Nevertheless, I bet there’s one coming in the near future. :D

Penang Trip Part 3

23rd Oct – It was 7:30AM in the morning again. I was waked up naturally without any help from the alarm. After I get myself brush up, I wait for the others at the living room. By the time everybody was ready, it was around 8:00AM and we’re heading to Bukit Bendera for hiking. Again, it took us quite a while to actually find the place. When we reached there, it was 9:00AM already and it wasn’t the place we were actually looking for. Let me explain. The place we have arrived is actually a tourist place; the hiking place is actually from the other side of the hill, according to one of the friend’s information. We even confirmed that after we asked the local people for direction. Thus, we can’t hike from here because there is no hiking path except the tram. Well, there wasn’t much time left for us because we need to check out at 1:00PM. Therefore, we changed the plan from hiking to have a walk in the Air Hitam market, a market nearby Bukit Bendera. Since we haven’t taken our breakfast yet, we went to the market to have some of the local delicacies.

After the walk in the market, we take a spin around Penang city center. We stopped nearby some shops just to get the famous Tam Bun biscuit and Buah Pala. We wanted to moved on to the famous Cendol, which just located nearby but it was too late for out check out. So, we decided to come back later after we have check out from our apartment. We was manage to get back to the apartment around 12:15PM before the check out. There was a rush on the shower and the packing because it seems that there wasn’t enough time for everybody. Fortunately everybody was able to get their shower and we was manage to check out in time.

We went back to location where we found the cendol and have our lunch there. The cendol stall was located nearby an old cafeteria, where it has some other food beside the cendol. I tried out the cendol and it was really good. It has almost the same taste I had in Kuantan (it was long time ago) but not in KL. Beside that, I was told that the laksa there was famous and it was true. The laksa taste was one of its kinds where I just can’t find the same taste in any other places. It was so good that I even empty the soup as well. Hahaha.
After the lunch, some of the friends went to get the biscuit and some went for shopping. After everybody finished their shopping, around 3:00PM, we head back to KL. Along the way back, we have couple of stops at the rest house. This is because after the meal and the weather were hot, I felt sleepy and needed the break. Nevertheless, we reached KL safely and the time was around 8:00PM. I sent one my friend to a LRT station and went straight back to home.

Conclusion, the name of this trip was Penang Eating Trip (Sorry for mention this at the end of the blog) and no doubt it’s all about eating. However, I think most of the time was spend on traveling because we are not familiar with Ipoh and Penang’s direction. And I think it would be much more fun to visit the local tourism places where we can put some of the energy on foot instead of sitting in the car all day. Nevertheless, I considered it a good trip because I met some new friends and all of them are very sporting. Maybe traveling wasn’t much about the places that I’m going; it’s about who I’m going with. :P

Penang Trip Part 2

22nd Oct – I and my roommate got a wake up call from our organizer at 7:00am. After we brushed up, we went down to the hotel lobby. It was 7:30am by then and to my surprise, nobody there except us and the receptionist (I wonder why she made up the wake up call, but no showing up before us). After handling over the keys and payment to hotel “manager”, we went to the hotel car park and take our car (Believe me, there is a hotel car park in this building). When I was waiting for the others outside of the hotel, I found an oil leakage in the right rear wheel of my car. The leakage is from the wheel bearing and I start to worry about it. I remembered that my sister took the car outstation before and it happened to be broken in the same wheel. Fortunately, there was no scratching sound coming out of it and the leakage wasn’t too bad. I suspect that the leakage happened when my car speed reached over 120kph but at lower speed, it works fine.

The first destination we went in that morning was the famous dim sum in Ipoh. It was a short distance to go there but it took us some time to actually locate the place. At the restaurant, it has a very nice dim sum environment but it was air-conditioned. As a fact, dim sum is best to served when it’s hot. Due to its small sizes, plus in an air-conditioned environment, it will easily get cold. So, it’s better to eat it fast when it was put on the table. However, a funny thing happened after we sat down. The waitresses poured all the dim sum on the table and telling us to choose which one we don’t want. At first we thought, this is not a bad idea. Nevertheless, there are flaws with this one of kind service. Dim Sums that are required to be cut was cut and put on the table (Example, Egg Tart). When we ask ourselves who ordered it, nobody answered. Of course, “cut food” cannot be returned since it has no resell value. In order to enjoy our pleasant morning Dim Sum, we absorb the unclaimed dim sum just avoid further argument. Beside that, I preferred order Dim Sum when we need more because it stays hot in the steam cooker and more service is provided to the customer.

After the Dim Sum, we went back to town to search for the Ipoh famous white coffee (I thought we just had our breakfast). It was located in an old building, near by a market street. The place is packed with people and we have to sit separately, because there’s no table big enough to fit 12 people. I had 2 of those white coffees because it really tastes nice. After that, we went back to take our car. Suddenly, I can’t crank up my car. Oh boy! After couple of try, it works again. At first, we thought the battery is dead, but I remember I just change it last month. Fist was the wheel bearing; now it’s the battery. Anyway, the journey goes on.

I thought after we had our coffee, we should be heading toward Penang. After couple of turn in the town, I found out that we’re still in Ipoh and we’re heading toward a new eating place. We stop by an old cafeteria and I was told that this place was famous of its chicken noodle (Alright, no more chicken noodle back to KL). It’s true because I saw some newspaper cutting stamped on the glass of the stall, stated about how good it was. Due to the dim sum and the coffee, I had to pass this meal because I was very full. I waited there until they have finished their meal and after that, we heading towards Penang.

We reached Penang bridge toll around 2:00PM and we take a pee break there. The first thing I do after my foot touches the ground is to check the wheel bearing condition. Luckily it didn’t leak (What a relief). Then we moved on to one of the friend’s house (She’s from Penang) to pick up her hubby before checking into our apartment. After I have leaved my bags in the apartment, I send my friend and her hubby to their hotel, in mean time; I asked them where I can find a car service shop in Penang. I dropped them at their hotel and went to find a car service in town alone. Fortunately I was able to find one before reaching the town and I got my wheel bearing fixed. However, the battery problem still exists because the service man suggested me to change the car starter but it was too expensive. The service man suggested me to look for a wiring man and make a start relay for my car, if I decided not to change the whole starter component (duh!). When the wheel bearing is fixed, our organizer called and she suggested me to eat out with the rest first before looking for the wiring man. I agreed and we went to the Gurney Drive to have our “afternoon tea”. Here I found out a Penang special drink called “Umbra” and it taste really good. It was made by a special fruit called “Umbra” and a dry sour plum in it.

After we try out some of the food there, then we head on to find a wiring man for my car starter problem. Luckily, we were able to find one and surprisingly, the wiring man said it was caused by the battery. He found the problem, fixed it up within 10 minutes and then he charged me only RM5. Comparing back to the service man where changing the whole starter component cost me about RM175, and it still won’t fix the problem (Better get a second opinion if the cost is too high).

At night, we went out from Penang Island and head straight to Tambun for the seafood. It took us some time locate the place cause the restaurant is located in side a small village. When we reached there, I can see the restaurant was build on top a river bank by woods. The scenery was nice until I checked out its toilet. The toilet was actually a hole on the wooden floor and I can see the river thru it (Hahahah. Hopefully our meal is coming from the top of the stream). Anyway, the restaurant offers some interesting food on the menu and we all enjoy ourselves there.
After the dinner, we went to a bakery shop to get some bread for tomorrow Bukit Bendera Hiking. At the same time, they also get some ice and a Ribena because one of the friends brought a bottle of Vodka. We went back to our apartment, get a shower, and everybody plays some games while enjoying the drink. Our organizer even brought a set of Mahjong but it was a short game, because most of us don’t know how to play it. I went to bed around 12:00 midnight because I think I’m getting drunk.

Penang Trip Part 1

I had a trip to Penang with my colleague and friends last month. I wanted to put all the experience there onto my blog but I'm was busy with Call of Duty. Fortunately, the game was short and now I'm back to write down the whole experience of the trip. The whole trip took 3 days and I divided this blog into 3 parts. I have finished Part 2 and currently I'm writing on Part 3. Here's Part 1

21^st Oct – Just as planned by our organizer, I left my office at 7:15PM after finished my work (or did I?) and went to the food court to meet up the rest of the trip member. I didn’t take my dinner at there, because I had a very huge lunch (City Square Clay Pot Chicken Rice) that day. I met up couple of new friends from my colleague and more is on the way. We spend around an hour there having dinner and by the way, it was a long queue to get dinner due to “buka puasa” for the Muslim.

After everybody on the name list (Thanks to our organizer for the name list) has arrived, we divided ourselves into 3 groups and meet up at a petrol station. Before that, we have 2 walkie-talkie provided by one of the friends (Cool eh?) for those who are not familiar with Ipoh/Penang road (That’s me). We took off from the petrol station and heading to the highway. Unfortunately, there’s traffic jam on the way and by the time we reached the highway toll, it was already passed 9. It took us another 2 hours to reach Ipoh and the first thing to do when we arrived, is to check in into a budgeted hotel.

Most of them were shocked when they saw the hotel. First, it was located in the red light district (I guess, because I saw some lady boy was hanging around there looking for business). Second, the hotel is an old building and only has 4 floors. The furniture, the air-conditioning and the tiles on the floor is still old fashioned (I believe the hotel owner never renovate his hotel). However, I’ve been to the worst than this one, so it won’t be much of the “mental impact” to me.

After we have settled down our luggage; without any shower, we went to the famous Ipoh Chicken Noodle shop by foot. The place was very near to our hotel by 2-3 blocks away and we had our supper there until 1am. We went back to our hotel, get a shower and by the time we went to bed, it was 2am.

See any UFO lately?

My secondary friend: “Do you still remember my name?”
Me: “Sorry, it seems that I’ve forgotten your name.”
(Actually, I wanted to say. “I was abducted by alien and they brainwashed me. I’ve forgotten all my secondary school friend names except faces.” Hopefully this will works for me to divert the embarrassment to a UFO issue if I ever see a secondary school friend again.)

Just now I saw a familiar faces after I have made my coffee (I usually get fatigue after lunch, and I need a cup of coffee to keep me awake. But sometimes, even the coffee had failed me) and walking out from the pantry. I saw a girl with a familiar face sitting on the reception sofa, as she was waiting for an interview, and suddenly I recognize who she was. I walked towards her, greeted her (without her name) and she quickly recognize me as well. The first issue we talk about (and always the same issue) is that, it’s been a long time I didn’t went back to my hometown. (I wonder whether I was wanted in Kuantan because it seems that everybody knows I’ve been missing from Kuantan for quite sometime.) I told her I’ve settled down in KL and seldom went back to Kuantan.

I asked her about the rest of my secondary school friend. Fortunately, she’s still in contact with others and I was able to get some news about them. It great to hear one of them married in Penang and others went into professional work line: such as biochemical and engineering. After that, we exchanged phone number and I wish her luck in her interview before I went back to my work place.

So, where did the above dialogue took place? It happens when we exchanged our phone number and she wanted me to key in my name in her phone. It seems that I’m not the only one who forgotten the names. (Or maybe I was wrong) :D

I'm going to miss you, morning sun shine

In the evening before going home, suddenly I smelled alcohol in my place and it puzzled me. Then I just turn to my manager, who just sits near me, and asked what that smell is. He told me it was alcohol and he was been drinking just now in a karaoke session. I thought it was true (I’m slow when taking jokes from my manager); then later I found out from the company announcement that our software final release testing was a success. In the picture from the announcement, shows there are couple of wine bottle on the table with all the testers (Unfortunately, I’m not one of them) and managers. It was great to see that the software has finally become more stable, reliable and ready to be in pilot phase. That leads to; tomorrow my working hour will be back to normal. From 1030-1930, changed to 0900-1800. (Can’t they just make up their mind? By the way, it just one more day to go) Anyway, I prefer the previous working hours where I woke up naturally (I was woke up by the light of morning sun shine) instead woke up by that noisy alarm clock.

Peak Hour & Lost Contacts

Peak hour
I was told by my manager last week that there is a new time schedule. Everybody in my team has to come at 10:30 am in the morning except him where he has to come at 9 am. Therefore, I left my house this morning at 8 am, where I estimated I’ll reached to my workplace at 9, one hour plus earlier before I start to work. (I like to take my time to walk slowly; surf some internet news or magazine site before I start to work.) When I hop into the 8:30 am STAR LRT train, there is no sit left for me. For me, I was surprise cause I usually able to get a sit when I took the 7:30 am train. Then it gets even worse after the train has passed 3 stations where people keep coming and there’s no one getting out. It becomes so packed like a can of sardine until I can see people skip the train after there is no more space to squeeze in. (The roof, perhaps?) After this experience, I realized that there is a peak hour for this train which I didn’t know. I’ll take the 9 am train tomorrow and see what will happen then. Hopefully I can find a sit then. (Else I have to stand for at least ten stops before I reached my station)

Lost contact
I had an easy task for today’s work, where I was needed to do a documentation review. The truth is, it was boring. It will get excited if there was an emergency on the software and the documentation is needed desperately. Anyway, the review is needed to be done before it will be release for the customer. Since it’s not an urgent task, I login into a community site, which I not really active on it, just to kill the bore after reading couple of technical pages. I was lucky that after searching into my friend’s community, I found my secondary school classmate wedding photo. It was like nth years that we didn’t contact to each other. From the photo, I start digging and found some long lost contacts as well. It is understandable why this would happen (sadly) because I didn’t go back to Kuantan (my hometown) after I was graduated from my secondary school. All my relative, college and university are in KL. My parent usually came to KL instead we (children) go back to Kuantan for any event celebration. Beside that, I didn’t get any contact number or address from them before I left my school. Anyway, it’s great to see the newly wed couple and the others as well. Thanks to the extra friend community that helped me find back those long lost contacts.

Something worth writing down

It’s been quite some time I didn’t update my blog. However, today there are 3 things I would like to write it down.

First, in the morning, I was told by my manager that I would need to provide a presentation to a group of staff regarding about my job function (QA for ERP software) in the evening, after he has done his presentation. So, I asked him what I should present. I’m a technical guy and the audiences are more functional part of the software. He told me that just present the functional part of my job. I did ask him whether I can join his presentation and what he told me was, there is no such need for me to attain. Since it was sounds easy as he mention, I didn’t do any preparation for the presentation. Then, evening came and after he has done his presentation, he came and informed me to do my part of the presentation. When I arrived to that meeting room, I was a bit shocked after seeing so many people there. Even though I was told to show my job function, but I didn’t bring my PC there where all my tools were stored in it. This is because I thought it was so easy that it can be done on my manager lap top. Anyway, I calmed myself down; downloaded the appropriate tool to the laptop; do a little bit of testing on the tool and then start the presentation. I asked a technical question that I shouldn’t ask, and they all look at me with the blurred look on their face (This is why I asked my manager whether I should attain his presentation to know how much they have learned, so I can continue from there). Without any hesitation, I start my functional tool presentation which I used in my job function. Unfortunately, it didn’t work. (Of course it didn’t work, because there wasn’t any rehearsal done in the first place). Error message box was prompt out and the whole group laughed. Luckily my manager cut in just in time and said the tool actually performing validation check (which is true). Then I carry on the second tool and explain the functionality and the objective of the tool. However, this tool wasn’t run as well because there is a security locked on it, not allowing me to run it. Presentation still went on with just explanation and no actual function was done (And they all do believe me that the tool actually works!). It took me by surprise when I show the data comparison part of the tool, where it shows some invalid data was found on previous test, and the whole group was very paying attention to it. In the end, after the question and answer section, and everybody are leaving, I was told by one of my colleague that I didn’t mention my name in the presentation (So, my presentation was a failure in the first place. hahahaha). It doesn’t matter anyway as long the group understand what’s the whole presentation all about (or do they?).

Second, after I have finished my work and on my way going to the bookstore to check out some books, I saw one of my secondary schoolmates. I found him when I was on the escalator going down and he just called out my name after he recognized me. Then, a sense of shame running under my skin because I forgot his name! (Gee, I’m getting old is it? Shame on me) Nevertheless, I walk to him and shake his hands. I felt he understand that I forgot his name. Anyway, we chat about where we have been all these years and which company we are working with. After exchanging our name cards, we go to our separate ways. It was rare for me that a secondary schoolmate still remembers my name (Maybe I was the rare one who always forgets schoolmates’ names). This is because I wasn’t that popular in school. (I’m not really active in clubs or a top scorer in school either. I think I was shy boy then.) Anyway, it is great to meet him back again.

Third, in the bookstore, I didn’t have any idea of what book I should be looking for and then suddenly I remember I wanted to write the presentation event down on my blog. Since I was enjoy writing, so why not just get a writing book and improve my writing instead. I started to look for a book titled “How to write your journal”, which I have been looking it before just for temporary curious. However, I didn’t found that book but I got this one instead, “The little red writing book”. Sounds like “The little red riding hood” fairy tale book but the content are very good for writing. I check out the others as well (imagine a book about writing fails to attract people to read it) but this one is the best.

Finally, it’s good to have something to write again.

Shoe Hunting

Last week Sunday was my younger sis’s birthday. She mentioned about that she needed a USB pen drive for her work before, so I thought of getting one for her as a present. After I have cleaned up my room and done my laundry in the morning, I drove straight to the city center to get the pen drive. Beside that, I wanted to do some shopping as well.

By the way, I didn’t go for shopping for quite some time (Just for clothing and I know it’s normal for guys) and I wanted to buy a pair of sneaker. I have a pair of converse sneaker which I bought it when I was studying in Australia. (That was about 4-5 years ago) After 4 -5 years of torturing on that shoe, it is starting to peal off a little and the shoe bottom is almost gone out of patterns. However, I still wear it for any outdoor activity since there are no holes in it or anything that makes my foot uncomfortable. Until Friday, I found my shoe gone. After some questioning with my family, I found out that it was my younger sis who throws it away when she was cleaning the front yard. (Maybe it’s just too old, but it was my favorite pair of shoe. By the way, some advice for the girls; before throwing out any men (related or non related male) clothing stuff; please do let them know about it. As men stuffs tends to be rare, more expensive, last longer than women stuff in terms of clothing.)

After getting the pen drive at Low Yat Plaza, I went to the nearby shopping plaza to look for some shoes. What I had in mind on that moment was getting a sneaker or boots that comes in leather. This is because leather shoe tends to be last longer, I think. After checking out the price, brand and style; I found out that they all looked or cost almost the same. Mean while, I heard one of the customer conversations with the shoe store owner where the customer is looking for a particular shoe name started with the word “CAT”. The customer described how great the boot is and he wears it for 3 years already (See…!) Unfortunately, the shop owner didn’t sell that brand anymore. From his statement, I know the brand and the price (since every brand almost cost the same) of the shoe that I’m looking for.

So, I went to KLCC shopping center to look for that shoe, which I remember I saw that brand before in one of the sport outlet. After 20 minutes of driving and walking, finally I reached to the shop and found that brand. I choose one of the design (sneaker type with leather made), which I found it very good looking and asked the sales person for my size. Unfortunately, they are out of stock, and even for the other color. I was disappointed at first but somehow in my heart say, I wanted to get that shoe no matter how.

So, I start off another journey to another shopping mall which located in Cheras. I took me another 20 minutes to reach there and again to my disappointment, there wasn’t a shop there sells that brand. (Please don’t laugh until roll on the floor). So that leads me to the next location, Mid Valley which is near on my way back home. I reached Mid Valley eventually and it took me another 20 minutes (I know, this is madness.) Guess what, it fails me again. (eeerrrrrrgggg!) It seems that, a lot of people having the same size of foot and taste as me. Or is it fated that I couldn’t get my hands on that shoe? (Question that has no answer really doesn’t do me any good at this moment). After walking out disappointed from that shoe store, I had my next destination in mind which is the Sunway Piramid. (This one will take me another 30 minutes of drive *sigh*). Anyway, my body tells me I need a break and I agreed with it. So we both (mind & body) went to a café and enjoyed a ice blended mocha (for the body) with some magazine (for the mind). While I was enjoying my mocha, my mind keeps telling me to give up this shoe hunt madness and go home. I was really tempted by it and beside; I have tried to hunt it down for 3 times and failed miserably. Nevertheless, the spirit to hunt the shoe down was still there, but the body and mind disagreed with it.

After finished the ice mocha, I’ve decided to check out the books at MPH before driving to the next destination. Browsing through the fashion section, I found a book regarding fashion for men. In the book it stated that, men’s clothing doesn’t necessary has to be branded or expensive. Anything that looks similar in terms of style and quality will do just fine. Thanks to that book, I stopped my hunting madness instantly after reading that line.

In the end, I end up with a book, a CD (I liked the songs of the group so much until I wanted to get the group’s CD) and a pair of sneakers after traveling for 4 places. Instead of ending up with one item, now I got 3. Not a bad hunt, eh? :D

Think twice before paying

Well, the story starts like this. A month ago, I went to my life insurance company to settle one of my life policies (I mention it before in my blog "parking space"). I wanted to cancel the policy because it just too expensive for me after holding it for 2 years (Life is getting harder and harder these days). So, i went there and talk to the customer service personal. I asked her how to cancel the policy. What she told me is to change the payment from credit card to cash and let the policy lapsed. Since it was just that simple, I agreed and signed the document. It’s just only a piece of paper and there is no customer copy for it.

After a month and guess what, they still charging me to my credit card. When the credit card bill came and after I have saw the familiar amount appear in the list, I was really mad. (Anybody would say anything from this point, I think I have covered most of them) I start asking myself questions that I have no answer for it. Example, what the hell is going on here? It all went to worst until I can’t even sleep well that night.

The next morning, I still keep asking myself question that I don’t have answer, which I don’t know why I still doing it. Nevertheless, I gave the company customer service line a call to clarify the issue. A girl picked up the call; I mentioned my name and gave her the policy number politely (Until this point, I was able to holding myself asking “question that have no answer” to her successfully). I asked her regarding the payment type for the policy and the reply just as I expected. It didn’t change at all. I told her the whole story and she started to panic. (I think any staff would panic because most likely they would get a call like this with a lot of shouting and screaming) I asked her what are the procedures to refund the money back and she told me to write a letter about it and fax it to them. I was calling from home and there is no fax machine installed. Further more, I don’t want to mail the letter where it might be lost on the way there. The only choice for me to settle this issue is to go to the HQ personally on Saturday.

And I did. It was Wednesday I made the customer service line called and I felt much better after 3 days has passed. This time, it was another personal who served me. I told her the whole story and the reply I got is “It takes some time to refund your transaction. Please check your credit card account after 2 to 3 weeks time.” I didn’t shout or scream and I agreed with her again. (I think shouting and screaming doesn’t help much here) However, i requested a customer copy of that form just to be saved. Anyway, the issue will be found whether it is solved after 2 to 3 week’s time.

Using credit card to make automatic payment indeed, does provide a lot of convenient and time saving to the user. However, it also gives the user a lot of headache if something goes wrong with it.

Stop driving and start walking

Okay. It’s been going on for 2 days already. I haven’t announced it on my blog but anyway, I announce it now doesn’t do anyone any harm either. (Why not postponed it to 2 years? Not a bad idea, eh?)

Well, it’s project that I have been telling to my friends and colleague before I start taking action on it. (Well, the project might fail in the first place. So, it’s better to keep it low profile) It is a project about “Stop driving and start walking”. That was the new title when I was writing this blog. The original title was, “Taking LRT* go to work for a month” and the progress so far for 2 days is so far so good*.

I have been driving to work for years already and the idea of this project came from increased petrol prices, lack of parking space (I have mentioned about parking space issue in my blog before), encouragement from colleague, and recently, one of the giant corporations has booked half of my usual parking place for its own staff only. All these issues lead to the success creation of this project and I really appreciate to their contribution.

So, what are the advantages and the disadvantages of taking LRT? Well, let’s look on the good side. No traffic jam, lower transportation cost, less pollution to the environment and that’s all I can think of. (I bet there are more and I’ll put it into the blog comment when it pops into my head). Now look on the bad side. No more listening to my favorite radio station, although no traffic jam but the amount of time taken from home to work seems the same, distance from my house to work doesn’t seems closer.

Anyway, lower transportation cost takes most of the point of being advantage by taking LRT to work.

Beside that, in my blog profile, I have stated "A normal office working people that you will see them all around walking in the city every morning when you go to work.". Before this project I was bit far from the statement; now I felt I’m much closer to that statement because I walked around the city instead of drive around.

*LRT – Light Railway Transportation

*So far so good– this rating is based on, my car still in one peace at the LRT car park when I came back from work. I haven’t been robed, pick pocketed, harassed, molested, insulted, and mugged so far.

Surprises

So, the day has finally arrived. Yup, it is my birthday. I woke up from my bed as usual, following the usual routine (brush my teeth, take a shower and etc…) and go to work. I was surprise that later after I start working, I started to receive sms or online messages from friends and family wishes me happy birthday. (Thank you and I love you all.)

Then later around afternoon tea time, me, my manager and colleague have a small but cheerful birthday celebration for me. (To those who able to make it, thank you again. And for those who are not able to make it, sorry that we didn’t left any cakes for you guys. hahahaha)

Later that night, me and couple of my friends went to Planet Hollywood for dinner. But before we reached there, I received a phone call from a friend asking about my car plate number. Then later when I reached to the car park I found some flower on the bonnet of my car. I was a little surprised because it is kind of new to me. Then later after we reached the destination car park, she took a flower from her car and gave it to me. I was really shocked (surprised X 2). After 27 years of growing up, nobody gave a flower to me, especially from a girl. (not even the “tou fo fa”) Well, I gave flower to a girl before and it feels romantic. But receiving a flower from a girl, I really got confused. I think maybe different people have different way of expressing their birthday blessing but anyway, I thanked her for her flower. (by the way, I don’t mind if it was a “tou fo fa”.)

We enjoyed ourself at there and it was a great dinner. We took couple of pictures and we spend our time there around 10pm, then we departed on our separate ways back. After I reached home, I received a sms from my father (who I don’t expect to receive sms from) wishing me happy birthday. Again, I was surprised (I think I got enough surprise for one day) because he usually forgets our birthday and we don’t really mind about it.

It seems to me that, on special occasion can really bring people together or communicating thru phone or online message. Some message was from friends that I didn’t contact for quite some time. Anyway, I wonder whether all these can be started all over again because tomorrow is my lunar calendar birthday. Hahahaha.

Book Review

I never written a book review before and why would I write one now? Well of course, this one is a great book. The book title was “Anyone Can Do It”, by Sahar and Bobby Hashemi. I have categorized this review into 3 sections which I think most people would look for in a book.

1. Who should read it?
Besides having the title “Anyone Can Do It” on the cover of the book, there is more information which is “Building Coffee Republic from Our Kitchen Table”, “57 Real-Life Laws on Entrepreneurship” and last but not lease, “Business Bestseller”. So, it is obvious that this book is for the business reading, people who wanted to know about entrepreneurship or wanted to become an entrepreneur, or people who just likes “Chicken Soup for the Soul for Business People” story.

2. What it is all about?
The first time I saw the word “Coffee Republic”, I never heard about it before except those giant coffee corporations such as Starbuck and Coffee Bean. Nevertheless, after reading the preface in the beginning; to my surprise, it didn’t mention anything about coffee.

It all started with a dream and how do they put their dream into realization. The dream was started by a brother and sister. The brother wanted to start a business and the sister hated her job, and they both wanted to get out from the “employee” world and start a business. (Sounds very familiar right?)

3. What so special about it?
If my review stopped at section 2, the book just nothing but an ordinary book. However, this is where it differs from other books.

Imagine that they treat their business like raising a child (No kidding), and they put a lot of passion and commitment into it. Those are the reasons why they are able to keep up to their business while many others have failed (especially those who just look for the money). They have no idea how a coffee business is ran in the beginning but their passions on the business puts them to learn to make great coffee, choosing the right coffee beans and recipes, went to US to get some coffee business concept (this is when the US was booming with coffee business), getting the right coffee machine and even choosing every single detail design of their store. Imagine that.

In addition, it wasn’t about the money in the first place when they started their dream. They saw a gap in the market (people needs great coffee), nobody doing anything about it and they don’t like their paycheck to paycheck job, given them enough reason to start up their dream.

Finally, I really like the ending of the book (although it is not a nice ending) and somehow I do feel emotional state of author which she described as “bust into uncontrollable tears” (although I’m not an entrepreneur). If any people who just grab the book and flip through just only the final pages. Believe me; they won’t get anything out of it until they read through the whole book.

Parking Space

Monday, I went to my life insurance company to settle some insurance matters. I took off at noon from my company; because that's the time I’m able to do my own business. I walked to the car park and found out that the car park was full. I have a bad feeling that I’m not going to get a parking space when I came back. What choice do I have? I have to settle this issue today no matter how.

I drove off from the car park; went there; solved the issue; took my lunch; drove back and guess what; my favorite car park was full (duh!). I started to get a little panic because I was over my lunch time. I quickly drove around to find the nearest car park which still has free space. Thank god there was one which still has one space left after searching for 15 minutes.

I started to think about it while I was walking back to my company. I drove a cheap car and I can’t find a decent parking space when I need it. Imagine if I drove a luxury car and I’m still having the same problem. What’s the point of having it since I can’t park the car when I reached my destination?

So, it brings to me that, a person own a luxury car doesn’t necessary means he will own a parking space . The same idea also goes to some area, where a person own something like higher status, income, image may thinks he will have "special rights" on some other area, might turn out to be having the same rights as the normal status, income, image person.

If a person planned to buy a car, he might as well consider to ask this question when he meet the car sales person. “Does this car come with a parking space when I need it?” If sales person says yes, the person might just found a great bargain than any other. :D

Sushi

Yesterday after work, as usual, looking some where for dinner. Then I went sushi to get my dinner after I remember I didn't take sushi for quit a long time. So I went there, get into the restaurant, grab a sit in front of the sushi bar and then I heard someone calling my name. To my surprise, my friend was having her dinner there as well with a friend. She introduced her friend to me, and we greet each other (I still can't remember his name. I think I’m really bad on remember names after all), then I went back to my process of deciding what I’m going to have for tonight. Since I’m sitting close to them and l don't want to interrupt them or heard their conversation, so l changed my sit more far apart from them.

They finished their meal and left the restaurant, and I’m still in the middle of my dinner. After I have finished my dinner, I went to the cashier counter to pay the bills (It is a long queue). Then came some Arabian people with video camera in their hands and keep shooting the sushi shops. I was surprised, not because why was I’m not in their video shooting (no video and camera please!), it’s why the shop manager didn’t stop them. People may think what’s wrong with some tourist video shooting around the shop. Well, for me, it’s obvious that Arabian is trying to steal some business concept and they make it well too obvious.

One of the Arabian keep shooting the video and the other was keep the shop manager busy by asking question. Then, one of the customers came to the manager and complaint. I didn’t hear what the complaint about, but I can see the guy was having sushi dinner with another girl. And from the facial expression of the customer, it seems that he is panic about it. (Maybe he is having an affair? Who knows?). After the complaint, he went back to his sit and only then, the shop manager stops the Arabian from shooting the video. Then the same guy came back to the manager again and complaint. Again, I didn’t hear the conversation but I think the guy is trying to tell the manager to confiscate the video perhaps?

I didn’t know what happened next after the guy complaints since it is my turn to pay the bills and leave.

Well, in my opinion, public places such as this sushi shop is for public people. If a person who have something or someone who wouldn’t like to show to the public, then the person should find a place which is more private. The same idea goes to some girl who dressed sexy but keeps hiding their sexy body. Example, one time I saw a girl who dressed very, very short mini skirt and she having problem of sitting down. Why? This is because the girl was afraid that people might saw her underwear. Well, she can solve the problem by dress something which has more clothing and the same idea goes to the sushi guy; go to some places which are more private.

Advice

Well, it just another usual day for yesterday. After work, go to gym, get my dinner and back home. Well, when I reached home, my sister heard my footstep going back to my room, came out from her room asked me out for a dinner. Of course I know it not just about a dinner; I felt thatshe have something to say to me.

We went out to the nearest mamak stall, sat down and ordered couple of drink and food. Then she starts chatting. Well, she told me about that she has quit her job some time ago, and will be start working in the new company somewhere in the middle of August. So, currently she is handing over her stuff to the existing staff so they can follow up her work. Eventually, she does not have much work to do and just wait for the timeto pass as she go to work everyday.

However, she has been worrying about the new job lately where she thinks the new job might be stressful and not happy about it. I told her that it is common when people changing to new job and environment have this sort of feelings. (Not to mention that I have to go through an exam before I was confirmed on my new job and if I failed the exam, I might as well lose the job.) In addition, people out there know about her new job and some people give her encouragement and some are not. The thing is she is worrying on the discouragement that other people have been telling her. Discouragement such as "Working in a big company can be very stressful", "Some people work until 9pm in those companies" and "Company managed by Korean is very hard to work with and you can not communicate with them most of the time". The fact is, the company was a local company before and it was taken back by the company's principle which is from Korean. The take over just happened couple of months ago and the company was currently hiring people to help them to grow inMalaysia.

Then I tell her do not worry about those issues and point out some of the facts that she told me before. First, the company is new in terms of management people and she knows the manager who hires her. She knows the manager, who is a reliable person. Second, those people who give those discouragements never worked in that company before. So, what they say is nothing more but bullsh**ting. In addition, there is no point worrying. "If you know what you can do right now in order to stop the worrying, you should be start working on that already; however you can't anything now and what for worrying about it?" I said. I added more, "Get into the company and put as much effort as you can until when people mention about your industry, people will mention your name as well. Then you will show them who you really are." She feels much better after hearing what I've said.

So, it really clears to me that when I seeking advice, I better carefully looking for the right person to ask for advice. Vice versa, when I'm giving advice, I'll make sure that I'm qualified on giving one.Else, I'm might as well considered as one of the bulls**ters. :)

Birthday

Unfortunately, it is not my birthday that i'll talk about here. It my friend's birthday. My colleague's birthday which happens in the end of july. Here is a photo of the birthday cake.


Flavour? Manggo. But the look, feel and color of the cake taste like durian. Hahahaha. But still, the cake tasted very nice overall. Beside that, i have another friend in china who is having her birthday in a fruits farm. (Just go to her blog site, "Sally" in the link section. Please note that her blog is written in chinese. :) ) Well, I never celebrate my birthday in a friuts farm before and it looks to be very fun to celebrate birthday at there.(Maybe I should go hiking at bukit mutiara again on my birthday. :D )

Beside that, my china friend requested me to send her a birthday card. I have send an E-card to her email but it wasn't accepted. She wanted to have a birthday card send to her door step and by the way, E-card sounds too boring for her. As a gentleman, of course i can't reject her request and went to a shopping center to get the card. It strucked me went i found out the gift shop which usually selling all those cards were closed for good. So, the only way to get the card were to go to a book store. I went to the nearest book shop which happens to be on the same floor and they weren't selling cards there anymore. The choices I have left is to went up to the toppest floor, which is the only bookstore left, to find one. Fortunately, they do sell those birthday cards however, with limited choices. (It seems that greeting cards wasn't that popular anymore in malaysia.) It took me some time to actually find the perfect card, put in some word, and then mail it. :D The time taken to mail an e-card can be less than 5 mins but when it comes to the real card, it might took you 50 mins to complete to whole process. (No wonder birthday card is become less popular these days).

Beside birthday cards, I heard from a dutch colleague that dutch people celebrate their birthday by buying those birthday cake themself and celebrate it with their friends or family. For malaysian, it was the other way around, where the birthday person having a party prepared by their friends or family with the cake included. Well, for me, i do prefer to celebrate birthday using the dutch way. Why? If there's no party prepared for the birthday person (people might forget/bakery has closed), then the person must be very sad. This is because he might think the whole world has forgotten his birthday. On the other way around, if the person bought the cake and invites his friend or family to celebrate it, who would say no? (except the cake really taste like durian :D)

Back to myself

I went for the SQL certified exam today and things were really going quite well. It took me 3 days to prepared for the exam and all the hard work (I think i slept at home or playing computer games most of the time instead of studying :D ) really pays off.

One of the session when i was doing my revision, i felt bored. I took out my old, dusty pc games from the shelves and installed it into my PC. Well just to stop the boring feel. And guess what, those old games really turns me on. Of course, this required some skill to really pull me off from the hook to get back on track to study after couple hours of playing. (Gee... can't somebody just stop me?)

Anyway, i started to pick up games when i was young. I still remember the first and most popular games i haved played was the super mario 3 and sonic the hedgehog. (Still my favorite if i can get them on my hands.)

However i have stoped playing games after i have started working (It's been several years). This is because i feel that playing games was a waste of time and money. And I think most of the people agree with this statement. Playing games just involve you and the computer. No social or communication with other people. (Not really true if you're playing multiplayer games. :P) So, i started to pick up books, which is more informative than games, and start throwing away my game collection (only the non original ones).

So, after i have started picking back up the old games, i felt rejuvenate (i don't believe it at first but it's the truth). It's like a long lost feeling that have gone pass several years and now, it's back. (Of cause, this feeling has to be under contorl. Not like, playing games for 24 hours non stop. :) ).

Beside that, i heard from other people where they can't do certain thing they were used to do before. Example, high speed motorsport. This may caused by having a family or partner who tell them not to do those things anymore. Well, until the person who stop them to do those thing has passed away (touch wood) gives them the freedom to go back to do their own thing.

And this link back my statement that says "Playing games is waste of time and money" has died temporary. Just temporary. :P

Moods

Don't ask me why it happens. I think most of the people out there doesn't even have an answer or make up one. Well, the problem is feeling down. I don't know why there's this feeling today. The head feels heavy (maybe caused by not enough nutrition? or is it cause by stress at work? Or using the brain too much lately? Or is it what they called burn out?) I have no idea what is the caused but there one answer that i'm looking for. How to get rid of it?

I've been studying couple self help quite some time but non of them is about managing stress. (assume that it was caused by stress) However, i currently been studying EQ or what they called the Emotional Intelligence. In the book they mention "how to use emotion to work with you". But so far all the thing regarding EQ doesn't mention about feeling down.

Well, i have come to conclusion that i have 2 choices. One, embrace it. Let the feeling as is it and think about this feeling soon shall pass away. Two, think of something happy, exciting. That might make the feelings better.

I have made my choice of number one. Thinking about this feeling shall soon pass away. This is because i think human is a creature of emotion. Feelings comes and go. Of course i wanted to have the feeling of happy all the time (would that make a person insane?) but that doesn't mean that i can't take the down feeling sometime. :)

Couple of days ago, I went to register for an exam to get a certificate that is required by my company. I have wanted to go this exam for a long time but just can't find the right time to actually take action for it (normal excuses as you can hear them everyday from other people. Example, "I wanted to quit smoking but just couldn't find the right time to do it". Yeah Right!). Anyway, the expenses for this exam can be claim from the company (Free exams! How good is that?). When I was keyed in the company system to get the benefit of having study leave just for going to the exam, I screwed things up. I was using the wrong system to do the process and I was a bit terrified. I found that out when my head manager ask me why this thing happens but that was on another issue. Without my manager knowing that I have screwed things up, I quickly ask my friend (who has taken the exam before), how the processes are done and quickly fix things up. I have managed to cover most of the mistake I have done, nevertheless there are some left that unable to be solved by myself. I think the only way to make sure things is 100% is corrected; I need to report the mistake to the HR staff and see whether they have any idea to help me solve the problem.

Then, I remember that I needed the receipt to claim the expenses which I forgotten for some time after the exam registration. I went back home and try to find where the receipt has gone. It took me while to actually find out where this piece of paper has left. The whole finding process is a bit frustrated to me because I hate finding things. And guess what, the price of losing that piece of paper would cost me a lot. (Why the exam was so darn expensive anyway?) J

But I learn something today and it was a good lesson for me. First mistake I have learned that before doing anything new, try to find any info or resources from document or friend. Unless there is no info or resources to help, then there is no choice but to make mistake and learn. Second mistake I learned that never looked down on piece of paper such as receipt. They might come in handy one day. Especially receipt for books, where we can have tax rebate by buying books.J
 

Yesterday i mention about no sweating after a class of yoga. However, today i went for the advance class and i can't believe what a big difference compare to yesterday class. My sweat is like, after a shower without drying myself up with a towel and straight go to wear a t- shirt. It feels wonderful. Maybe after all, i need to go for advance class instead of intermediate class to really get a good work out.

After the class, drive back to home and have my dinner at a mamak stall nearby my house(most of the time). My sis called and asked whether she can join me. NO doubt the answer is yes. She came and we have nice little dinner. We chat about how's her interview with the new company she've been long waiting to be accepted by them. But somehow she have doubt about it. Well, at first i wasn't so encourage her on getting that job after knowing what industry it involves (it's legal but i just don't like it). However, i do encouraged her to give it try. I said, "You don't know whether you like durian after you have tried it." Of course, there's a price to pay. I might spend money to get the durian. Spend some energy to get it open. After I have taste it, I might find it tastes ugly and wanted to spit the rest out of my mouth. After that, clean up the whole mess just to find out that I actually don't like durian. But what happens if I do like durian? It's like I have found a treasure and it feels like life isn't that bad after all because god made durian for us. Hooray!

I think life should be like that, trial and error. Keep the mind open to try new things. Accept changes. Don't afraid to make mistake. Just because by doing all these, i'm just finding the real me inside. To get to know myself better. :) 

I went to yoga class after work as usual. Spending about an hour in the class and then going straight to changing room for shower before going back home. When i was changing my cloth, i can felt my t-shirt was still dry and that puzzled me. Am i doing any work out here? I can see other yoga participant are sweating in the class. I feel some sweat too but that just only a drop or two. Is that normal? Nobody cares by the way, but somehow i feel that i'm cheating. It feels like going to the gym have a couple of rest, didn't move an arm or leg, and then go straight back to home. The real thing is that i did join and follow exactly what the instructor do and somehow, i just won't sweat. Looking another way round, does a real work out have to be sweeat a lot? That also ponders me.

Basically, this also applies to some of my life senario. Example, working. Some people take quite some time to finish a job, but for some people they just need a minute or two to finish the same job. I'm a fast working person and sometime i just think whether i'm taking my job seriously. Or maybe i just need to slow down a bit to give myself a feel of "serious working". Anyway, i think all this is better to be judged by myself than by others people :D 

Hiking

It was early in the morning when we arrived to that place to begin our hiking adventure. 4 brave gentlemans and 4 brave young ladies has form a team for this adventure. The trip start with jungle tracking (or i can say bush tracking) and the starting point was easy. It doesn't required much of effort to go through the jungle track before we have our first stop. After we have couple of drinks and takes some photos like a bunch of tourist, then come to the serious hiking.

In the middle of the whole trip, everybody is sweating no stop. I can feel the sweat keep flowing out thru my head, hands and body. The breathing was fast and deep. I think this is because we're so excited that the moving pace is fast. To my surprise, the ladies is moving as fast as the gentleman. We went thru some rocky hil that required us to use both hands and legs in order to pass thru. In addition, the hill is very high, as you can see from the picture, and required some courage to get thru. Of course, for the first timer, no doubt there are fears for trying those "stunt". However, i heard one of my team member said to one of the girl who has fear, "If you can over pass this obstacle, you can do anything with no fear once we reach to the finish." What an encourgement, man! I must agree that, no matter a man or woman who has overcome his/her fear, he/her has evolved to another person.

Finally, we going down the hill to reach the final destination of the whole trip. And again, it's a jungle track and there are reward waiting for us. Tropical fruits free for plucking and eating! The variety of fruits includes rambutan, durian(able to see some, but not able to eat it), langsat (very sweet) and duku (not ripe enought to be eaten). One of my team member said, "See those ripe rambutan. I can hear them screaming for us to eat them." Hahahaha. I think this can be an encouragement for people who like fruits but not hiking to come for hiking.

After we have reach to the bottom of the hill, we went for indian food for lunch. The time was just nice because it was noon by then. We eat and chit chat in the restaurant until 2 in the afternoon. Each of us went back home with sense of proud and looking forward for the next trip again.

After the trip, I went back and go straight to bed. I feel very tired that day but with satisfactory. I slept from 3pm to 7pm then from 10pm to 9am in the next day. Hahahaha. This is the most satified sleep i ever had.

This picture was taken in Rotterdam and I like Bryan draws the smiley at the lower right corner. :)

No need introduction for this one. :D

Roxette, my favorite band in the 80s. This picture was taken when i was on my trip to paris