I went to check out my apartment today. The management has started sending letters asking some of the owners to collect the keys. It's good news. Those folks whose bank have released all the housing loan should be able to get the letter soon... including me. I went up to the 10th floor unit 10. Looks okay overall. The pool area is almost completed. The swimming pool itself is average in size - probably about 20 sq metres??? There's even a slide in the pool for kids. Downside is gotta fork out another few thousand bucks before I collect the keys.

Shit lah! Even though today is Friday but I gotta work the next day!
Tomorrow is Saturday and it is also a working day.
It's so unproductive to work on Saturdays.
But what can the salary earner do? We are all treated like slaves.
I don't like it but this is top management's way.
Even if we get promotion but there is only little change in pay.
Top management only knows how to play.
Golf and karaoke girls are their preys.
Fuck the management... they are all gays.
A new and better job is all I pray.

Okay...enough of whining and complaining. I got some pics that will make you salivate... :p

A handsome serving of "ice kacang???" made in Taipei with sweet strawberries.


A "spiderman" dessert made in New York...


... Spidey is dead but still smiling


Winter in NY

My trip to Hong Kong end Aug will set me back by slightly over RM2000. This trip will be for 6 days and 5 nights. I will put up at The Royal Plaza Hotel in Mongkok. I am now confirmed to be flying with Cathay Pacific flight no. CX720 ETD Penang 0750 ETA Chek Lap Kok 1345 with a one hour stopover in KLIA on 31 Aug. The return flight is CX721 ETD HK 1455 ETA Penang 2035.

I have also confirmed my attendance to join a short trip to Haadyai by bus on 14th and 15th Aug. Haha... enjoy lah next month!

I attended my first lecture for this semester. The class was Finance. As expected, I was drilled and tortured for almost 5 hours from 2.30pm right till 7pm with 2 short breaks in between. Module 1 covers topic such as NPV, IRR, interest rates and bond valuation among others. We will continue with Module 1 tomorrow from 9pm to 5pm. Just the thought of sitting for almost 8 hours in Finance class freaks me out. I am not a fan of Finance. This is probably one of my least favourite subject but I will try to love it and live with it for the next 6 months. After all this is my last paper. I cannot emphasize that more to keep me motivated to complete this course. This will be my last last last paper so I must really hammer the nail right on the head. I vow and promise myself that I must study more for this paper, spend more time to get to know Finance better for she is my friend, not my enemy for the next 6 months. I have doubts I can keep this promise but I will try.

Here is my exam result for Strategic Information System. I sat for this paper with barely one week of studying and amazingly I managed to get an A...

First things first. The wait is finally over. The exam results are out this morning. Managed to get my Registration no. and Student ID from home to check my result through the net. Wah! I cannot believe I got an A for this paper. I was only hoping for a pass but I guess the examiner must have shit stuck on his/her eyes when marking my paper. In hokkien, it is "buck chew kor sai." This is totally unexpected. I am now thinking whether I should pamper myself with PS 2. Yea, I am a big "kid" and still like playing video games once awhile. One more paper to go and I will be certified by Heriot Watt as Mentally Below Average.

Another surpise came this afternoon about 4-ish when I checked this blog. Sometimes my itchy fingers just wanna klik klik a little bit to push up the number of visitors here.... haha.... pathetic isn't it. Anyway, the surprise was someone actually read my rants here and even leave comments. (See comments in last post). One fellow blogger from Penang by the name of Cindy stopped by - thanks. Naturally, I visited her blog and then stumbled upon Terry's blog. Beware when you enter... you will be "anal"ized by Terry.

Alright so it's friday and it's Malaysian Idol night again. Geez... did you read the write up by Rubin Khoo in The Star today on how bad last week's show was? I was right, wasn't I?

I have also decided that I will be going to spend one weekend in Haadyai next month. Hope no untoward incident will happen.

Damn! how fast time flies when one is so stressed by work. Most of the time I don't even have time to drink some water or go "pang jiu" when I am at my desk.

I am so tired of my job. Why I complain so much about this job is because I have no control whatsoever that will happen. Murphy's law is at work everyday in my workplace. Have you ever wondered when is the right time to change job? I try so hard to enjoy what I do everyday when I am at the office but I can't seem to find the reason why I should continue to work for this company. Just last week, a staff from another Sales department had resigned. People want a career .... not just a job!

No! I don't like this feeling. I hate the feeling when the exam results are about to be released on the internet. I have been logging in to check my exam results everyday for a couple of times since middle of last week. Day by day I am getting more nervous and anxious. I hope the examiner made a mistake in computing the marks and let me scrap by this paper!

Here is another picture of my new apartment. Almost ready now :D
 

The presentation of Malaysian Idol last night was awful, horrifying and shocking. Not that the contestants are performing badly but the producers must be sleeping. The set up of the stage was so cheap. What is the difference between Malaysian Idol and the other talent/singing shows produced locally? What were the producers thinking? Oh... I sounded like my boss' boss there. Anyway, there was no live audience. The only audience were the contestants themselves and the 3 judges. Kak G's comments are always the same or as how Paul Moss would put it "no originality". Everytime you will hear Roslan say something like "Bagus! Bagus! Apa pandangan G?" which Fauziah Latiff in turn will say "Kak G setuju, cuma pitching...blek blek blek..." What the fuck? I cannot imagine how these 2 were selected to be the judges. Such low standards and so "siah sui only!" 

For 4 nights in a row from Sunday till yesterday (Wed), I had to attend to guests from Singapore and HCM for dinner. Damn tiring, never been so tired for a long time. Finally all the guests have gone back and I am happy to be left alone until the next guest visit next week. Next week, we will be host to 2 american guys. They are kinda like our competitor but their company is in chapter 11 now. The reason they are visiting is to see the possibility of synergy between the 2 companies. Unfortunately, more dinner and lunch to come.

In the meantime, I have already made my booking to Hong Kong on 31 Aug. Cannot believe I am on the waiting list! A lot more people travelling nowadays!

Tonight I will be attending to some guests from Vietnam. We will be having dinner at the Ocean Green Restaurant. Original plan was to go to CRC but it is full so we had to change venue. I am feeling lazy to go but it is part of my job. See I even "work" on Sunday evening to host dinner and yet I get a lousy salary from my company. Am I being screwed by the company or what?

I just finished watching Spiderman II and part I of The Day After Tomorrow. Well, I said part one because I only watched the first vcd. The second vcd cannot be played. Oh well, what can I expect from buying pirated vcds from the streets? Anyway, I bought 3 movie titles on Thursday night. These 2 and the Jackie Chan...Around the world in 80 days or something like that.

It has been a long work week for me. It usually is when my boss is out of town. I got to attend meetings, give reports on his behalf and then report on his behalf in the meetings as well. You know, I got to report with the other senior managers from the other sales department and I am only a nobody - small potato/peanut - in the company. The MD of the company is there, the Deputy MD is there, the Director of Production attends the meeting, the factory managers are all present... basically all the top dogs in the company have to listen to me trying to bull my way through on the monthly report of my department's progress. Heck... I need to learn more 'tai chi' and let my japanese colleague report the next time!

Family is planning a 2d/1n trip to Haadyai (correct spelling?) by bus sometime in Aug next month. Should I go or not?

Logged in to check on my exam result. It's not out yet. Probably it will be released by the exam board in UK around 20th to end July. Whatever! I'll keep on checking and praying and hoping and praying and dreaming and praying to pass this one.

Monday blues again today. Lucky offices in USA are closed today due to the replacement holiday yesterday. 4th of July - Independence Day. Hope the rest of the weekdays will pass on peacefully for me.

I got a letter cc to me today from my housing or rather apartment developer. It's music to my ears and I quote from the letter ...

"The said building has been duly constructed and completed in accordance with the relevant Acts, by-laws and regulations and that all conditions imposed by the Appropriate Authority in respect of the issuance of the Certificate of Fitness for Occupation have been duly complied with."

I guess it's gonna be soon when they call me to collect the keys to my new home!

Went for my routine check up at Tanjung Medical Center this morning at 10:30am although my appointment is at 11:00am. BP was 130/85 slightly on the high side.

After check up, I went to have a look at the progress of my new apartment. They have planted some trees in the compound near the main entrance.

This morning on the way to work I saw a BMW breakdown in front of PCGHS (that's Penang Chinese Girls' High School). It looked like a 5 or 7 series. They passengers of the car were so embarrassed cos their luxury vehicle dissapointed them. Usually, I dont see luxury cars like Merc, BMW...etc breakdown. I can imagine how they felt when the car died on them right in the middle of a busy street on a nice Saturday morning.

I too had my fair share of problems with my Iswara. In fact, my car would not start twice after my lectures due to some problem with the car battery. Had to push start it once. On the 2nd occasion, it decided to come back to live only after a few serious spanking - literally - on the battery compartment. The last encounter I had with this car/junk was when I was driving home in the evening. Just as I was entering Vale of Tempe heading home the car started to lose power. After 10 seconds, the engine died and I began to smell something burning coming from the engine bay. The burning smell was actually coming through from the air con vent. Opened the trunk and went about checking on the engine to see what went wrong as if I was a pro at fixing cars. After 5 seconds or so (I had no idea what went wrong) jumped in the car and decided to start the car again but with the air con off. Car can start and slowly drove back home. Sent car to mechanic to get air con fixed the next day. Other problems I had with this car so far are

1) Odometer not working
2) Air con not cold
3) Back lights also function as aquarium
4) Door in driver seat cannot close properly

the list goes on...

What can I say for a 37k car which is about 6 years old... or is this the quality of Malaysian cars? My car has travelled over 250,000 km or maybe more cos odometer is fwacked.

Been buzy with work this week. It's Friday tomorrow but I ain't too happy about it coz Saturday is a working day this week. It is so stupid and unproductive to work on Saturdays especially if it's a half day. My mind would think everyone is still in bed but I got to work in the office at 8.30am! Just when I am getting all warmed up to start working, the clock is already showing half past 12 and before I know it...I'm driving home after doing nothing in the office on a Saturday morning. I can do so many things like sleep, sleep, sleep and more sleep till it's ten or eleven if I don't work on Saturdays.

My boss and another colleague will be travelling for business this weekend. Boss is going to South America - the inaugural business trip to South America. Along the way he will stop over for a day in Columbus to see a customer and the colleague will be flying to Munich and then to NY for a week. As for me, I have not planned any business trip in the near future but I am planning for my holiday to Hong Kong to see my gf in August....wheeee! Now looking around for a cheap package to HK for 6 days and 5 nights. So looking forward to this trip :) The last time I saw her was like 4 months ago...