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)