Busy busy busy... that's what I've been since my first week back to work in Malaysia. No time to go gym, no time to read the news, no time to upload my photos from my camera... even time in the office just seems to fly like nobody's business. I'll come in at 8:30 and with a blink of an eye... it'd be time for lunch and I would have hardly gotten anything finished. Come back from quick lunch at 1, *blink*, 6pm... What the?!?! Where did time go?
I'm finding it a little hard to adjust being back in the office. When I was in Bahrain, all I had to do was that project and nothing else. But being back here, means I'm easy prey for the bosses. First day back and had two deadlines to meet by the next day. Bleh. Plus... audit is coming so we have to rush to file all documents properly and to make sure that we've got everything in order. Also, am put on a new project which I am totally not familiar with so really need to do some reading. But where's the time?
Eee... I want to go holiday again... Phuket was great! Even though having my wallet stolen was a HUGE dent on the holiday... but nevertheless, I still had a great time being a beach bum :)
Next destination to look forward to: Bangkok at the end of May. Although technically it's not a holiday but some training, still... since there will be bunch of us from the dept attending the training, it's going to be a blast!
Okay... time to get back to work... no time to go toilet also!
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Back from London...
What can i say? I had a wonderful 3 and a half days in London. Definitely not enough time to sight-see and shop though. Will definitely have to plan another holiday there. Thanks to my wonderful sister who provided me with accomodation, some payment of my food and transport and a visit to a West End show. The public transport there was superbly efficient. Of course, you would expect that from a city that's centuries old. I love the architecture of the city. The mix of centuries old buildings with new and modern skyscrapers. I love the Victorian buildings and the cobblestone streets and the statues / memorials that are around every corner. I love the tube with its centuries old tunnels even though they're infested with rats. I love the parks and gardens at every corner and the posh apartments with their Victorian architecture and red brick walls. I love the churches and their steeple tops. I love the buildings with their chimneys sticking out which remind me of Mary Poppins and the chimney sweeps. I love the street names which brings back fond memories of when Monopoly was a huge part of your life. Mayfair and Park Lane are the posh and expensive part of the city. You've King's Cross station just around the corner. Picaddily Circus and Leicester Square just adjacent to each other. Bond street. Oxford Circus. Regent Street. The whole city is so picturesque that you can never stop taking photos and so I decided to not take any photos of the architecture because every building is just so unique that if you take a photo of one building you have to take photos of every building to give them fair justice. Hopped over to Portobello Road market which made me think of Bedknobs and Broomsticks. Went to Buckingham Palace to catch a glimpse of the changing of the guards. Queen wasn't in :) Walked the streets of Covent Garden and Chinatown. Roamed the theatres of West End. Appreciated Van Gogh's Sunflowers and Chair, Leonardo da Vinci's Virgin on the Rocks, Monet and Reubens at the National Gallery. Climbed the steep steps of St Paul's Cathedral to the Stone Gallery at the top of the dome. Gazed in awe at the wonderful knave of the church and walked in sombreness in the crypt. Stood outside Westminster Abbey and gazed in awe of the church but didn't have time to go in. Saw and heard the bells of Big Ben chiming the hour at the Houses of Parliament. Saw London Bridge that isn't likely to fall down. Walked the span of Tower Bridge. Saw the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London and had a tour of the castle / prison with the original guards of the Tower, the Yeomen Warders (or more popularly known as Beef-eaters). Saw the tower Elizabeth I was kept in. Took a cruise along the River Thames. Went up the London Eye to look at the wonderful city from a bird's eye view. Visited the Tate Modern for a view of modern art. Walked amongst the pigeons of Trafalgar Square. Shopped along the streets of Oxford Circus and Regent Street. Caught an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical at the Palace Theatre. Window-shopped in Harrods. Ate lunch in one of the many parks on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. Love the food there as well. M&S has such wonderful take-away food. And pretty cheap too. I love M&S!!!
London is magnificient. And I obviously didn't have enough time to go outside of London to Bath to go see the Stonehenge and the Roman Baths. Buckingham Palace was also closed to visitors so I didn't get to see the Queen's staterooms. Definitely need another trip back. And the shopping was pretty alrite. Got an England jersey (kids size) for myself for only 9 pounds. Was on sale. Plus, if England win the World Cup, I can get a refund on my jersey! Got cordurouy jeans from GAP for 10 pounds and a few more other items. Too bad most things weren't really on sale. But every London-er seemed to be out on a shopping spree during the weekend. Met up with my cousins whom I haven't seen for 10 years. Aunt and Uncle were away in Amsterdam so didn't get to see them.
But I love London. The rich history behind the country and city fueled by countless reads of Victorian romance novels intrigues me. Would I want to live and work there? Definitely. Is there a chance? Maybe... in the near future... if I play my cards right :)
London is a city of walking. Everyone walks. They take the tube / bus and walk to their destination. I have never walked so much in my life for a very long time now. The hectic running around of sight-seeing is something I haven't done in a long time. And the ladies wear gorgeous heels and boots and I wonder how they walk so fast from one place to another with those 3 inch heels. And the wonderful and stylish coats everyone wears! And me with my plain fleece jacket and borrowed scarf and sneakers. It's no wonder I was freezing my ass off!
And so ends my journey to London where there are more photos kept in my head than actual photos taken on my camera, my sister's camera and my phone.
London is magnificient. And I obviously didn't have enough time to go outside of London to Bath to go see the Stonehenge and the Roman Baths. Buckingham Palace was also closed to visitors so I didn't get to see the Queen's staterooms. Definitely need another trip back. And the shopping was pretty alrite. Got an England jersey (kids size) for myself for only 9 pounds. Was on sale. Plus, if England win the World Cup, I can get a refund on my jersey! Got cordurouy jeans from GAP for 10 pounds and a few more other items. Too bad most things weren't really on sale. But every London-er seemed to be out on a shopping spree during the weekend. Met up with my cousins whom I haven't seen for 10 years. Aunt and Uncle were away in Amsterdam so didn't get to see them.
But I love London. The rich history behind the country and city fueled by countless reads of Victorian romance novels intrigues me. Would I want to live and work there? Definitely. Is there a chance? Maybe... in the near future... if I play my cards right :)
London is a city of walking. Everyone walks. They take the tube / bus and walk to their destination. I have never walked so much in my life for a very long time now. The hectic running around of sight-seeing is something I haven't done in a long time. And the ladies wear gorgeous heels and boots and I wonder how they walk so fast from one place to another with those 3 inch heels. And the wonderful and stylish coats everyone wears! And me with my plain fleece jacket and borrowed scarf and sneakers. It's no wonder I was freezing my ass off!
And so ends my journey to London where there are more photos kept in my head than actual photos taken on my camera, my sister's camera and my phone.
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Wah!!!
Was just doing some searching online... and London is one bloody expensive place! All the dang tourist attractions have an admission price! Just to go see a church (St Paul's cathedral), I have to pay 9 pounds! That's RM63!!! Was doing some calculating and my money spent on tourist attractions will amount to about 50 pounds!!! Wah!!! Actually it'd be more since I don't have the full pricing list of some of the other places I want to visit. The admission price for Madame Tussauds is already 24 pounds! Not to mention I'd have to spend on transport and food. Plus I would like to buy a few things of course. And I want to watch a West End show. How now? Looks like I'll have to purchase the London pass (for tourists attractions) and the Travel Card (for traveling on the tube). Why so expensive!!!
Things to buy:
England football jersey (for him... and if not too pricey, one for me too!)
Small (and affordable) souveniers for dear friends
Clothes (let there be cheap clothes!)
Nice English butter biscuits from M&S (I love those things!)
Again... London, here I come! Expensive as you may be...
Things to buy:
England football jersey (for him... and if not too pricey, one for me too!)
Small (and affordable) souveniers for dear friends
Clothes (let there be cheap clothes!)
Nice English butter biscuits from M&S (I love those things!)
Again... London, here I come! Expensive as you may be...
In brief...
I read this in the NST today:
He doesn’t like to be ‘boss’ "YES, boss" or simply "boss" has found its way into the local vocabulary and most people have come to accept this form of address.
Not so Datuk Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar, BN MP for Santubong. "If I see something I really want to buy and someone calls me boss, I won’t buy it," he said during question time yesterday."When I was at a hotel yesterday, the chef asked me, ‘Boss, what do you want?’ I said to him: ‘Thank you, I don’t want anything’."
Dr Wan regretted that the word "boss", which was used by Americans during their gangster era, had taken hold in Malaysia.He wanted to know why a "useless and bad" word like "boss" had become a "culture" in the country.
Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim said the use of such words was the result of accepting words from other languages into Bahasa Malaysia.Rais said a committee consisting of representatives from his ministry and the Education Ministry was looking into the matter.
(They should discover that the word "boss" is from the Dutch "baas", meaning "master", and was used to mean that long before the "gangster era" in the US.)
Er… don’t you think our MPs would have more important things to worry about? Granted ‘boss’ may not be a ‘good’ word but to worry about such things and actually discuss it when there are so much more high priority issues at hand…. I’m at a loss for words…
Another funny comment by one of our esteemed MPs:
‘Overeating cause of failure among athletes’ IS overeating a reason for the poor showing of Malaysian athletes in international competitions? Hasni Mohamad (BN-Pontian) suggested that athletes from Africa succeeded because they did not have enough to eat.
"But our athletes and officials eat too much which causes them to fail at international meets." Hasni was responding to comments by Datuk Razali Ismail (BN-Kuala Terengganu) during the debate on the 9MP yesterday.
Only in Malaysia, can we have someone saying food shortage and starvation is a good thing. I’m sure there are plenty of reasons why our local athletes aren’t doing well but I don’t think making them starve will motivate them any further to excel. Again… at a loss for words…
We should take note of Thailand:
(from Bernama)
… the whole episode was a learning process for the Thai people who have learned about democracy and how it could be made to work the way it was intended.
"People learned that they can take their fight to the streets against a government that has lost its legitimacy to rule, and they can also take their fight to the ballot box. The avalanche of abstention votes cast by democratic-loving citizens was a resounding rejection of Thaksin, his Thai Rak Thai Party and the culture of deceit and corruption that they stand for," the Nation said.
The paper said the most remarkable thing was that the titanic struggle between Thaksin, a seriously-flawed, but democratically-elected leader, and the people who had taken to the streets to oppose him was played out over two volatile months without violence.
How about that? If our dear neighbour can make a change, why not us as well? We just need to get more people to be more aware of what’s happening and for people to believe that we CAN make a change. Most of the time, we just think “Complain also no use… nothing will change….” Yeah… so, c’mon people… be aware of what’s happening and be aware that we CAN make a change.
And looks like our govt is establishing yet another body to oversee the implementation of projects in the 9MP. Another body. Another plan. I wonder when they will realise that a plan is only good if (1) there is actual implementation, (2) the implementation of course has to be done well (ie cost efficient etc) and (3) the body overseeing this implementation has to be free from corruption and crony-ism to make the plan work.
To quote our PM:
"For example, we also do not want a situation where there are no doctors once a hospital has been completed. The people get angry with the government when we do not build a hospital and when the hospital is ready the people again find fault with the government because there are no doctors," he said."Other matters include water, electricity and roads. For example, we do not want to have a completed project without an access road," he said.
So they want proper planning to be done BEFORE projects are actually implemented. Let’s hope it works. I think all of us are too familiar with situations where projects are completed only to realise… Oops, no telephone line. Oops, forgot to build road. Oops, got university but no students and lecturers. Never mind, dump in poor students who can’t afford to fund their own studies. Who cares about shitty lecturers and poor quality of education? Oops, oops oops. Sounds like a Britney Spears song… I’m wondering who will be in this new body. I’m interested to see how things work out.
And apparently, we can be jailed / fined for kissing and hugging in public.
http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/49310
Now I’m no advocate for issues on morality but I just don’t like it when people throw out the words ‘Asian morality’. And I don’t like it when people compare Western value to Asian values. True, just because kissing and hugging are widely accepted in the Western world doesn’t mean we can emulate it too. But doesn’t it all come down to moderation? Yes, we Asians, are supposed to be more conservative when it comes to these kind of things but c’mon, we’re now in the 21st century and more and more people are being more open. Now, if there kids who were in the park were just in the act of smooching (no tongue!) and hugging, I guess that would be alrite. But if it was more like the act of second base, then I’d say “Get a room!” There’s always a limit to everything and this is just one of those things. Anyway, does ‘public’ constitute clubs as well? If so, then the govt will have a field day charging people! Myself included!
I was watching CNN last night and during one of the commercial breaks, an advertisement for Malaysian Tourism came on. Looking at the wonderful pictures shown during the ad, I was never happier to be a Malaysian. But when our PM came on the picture to utter some words of welcome wearing a batik shirt (hehe… how typical), my only thought was “What did he say?” I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t understand what he said coz the pronunciation wasn’t quite there. Heh…
Taking a short break tomorrow onwards. London here I come!
He doesn’t like to be ‘boss’ "YES, boss" or simply "boss" has found its way into the local vocabulary and most people have come to accept this form of address.
Not so Datuk Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar, BN MP for Santubong. "If I see something I really want to buy and someone calls me boss, I won’t buy it," he said during question time yesterday."When I was at a hotel yesterday, the chef asked me, ‘Boss, what do you want?’ I said to him: ‘Thank you, I don’t want anything’."
Dr Wan regretted that the word "boss", which was used by Americans during their gangster era, had taken hold in Malaysia.He wanted to know why a "useless and bad" word like "boss" had become a "culture" in the country.
Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim said the use of such words was the result of accepting words from other languages into Bahasa Malaysia.Rais said a committee consisting of representatives from his ministry and the Education Ministry was looking into the matter.
(They should discover that the word "boss" is from the Dutch "baas", meaning "master", and was used to mean that long before the "gangster era" in the US.)
Er… don’t you think our MPs would have more important things to worry about? Granted ‘boss’ may not be a ‘good’ word but to worry about such things and actually discuss it when there are so much more high priority issues at hand…. I’m at a loss for words…
Another funny comment by one of our esteemed MPs:
‘Overeating cause of failure among athletes’ IS overeating a reason for the poor showing of Malaysian athletes in international competitions? Hasni Mohamad (BN-Pontian) suggested that athletes from Africa succeeded because they did not have enough to eat.
"But our athletes and officials eat too much which causes them to fail at international meets." Hasni was responding to comments by Datuk Razali Ismail (BN-Kuala Terengganu) during the debate on the 9MP yesterday.
Only in Malaysia, can we have someone saying food shortage and starvation is a good thing. I’m sure there are plenty of reasons why our local athletes aren’t doing well but I don’t think making them starve will motivate them any further to excel. Again… at a loss for words…
We should take note of Thailand:
(from Bernama)
… the whole episode was a learning process for the Thai people who have learned about democracy and how it could be made to work the way it was intended.
"People learned that they can take their fight to the streets against a government that has lost its legitimacy to rule, and they can also take their fight to the ballot box. The avalanche of abstention votes cast by democratic-loving citizens was a resounding rejection of Thaksin, his Thai Rak Thai Party and the culture of deceit and corruption that they stand for," the Nation said.
The paper said the most remarkable thing was that the titanic struggle between Thaksin, a seriously-flawed, but democratically-elected leader, and the people who had taken to the streets to oppose him was played out over two volatile months without violence.
How about that? If our dear neighbour can make a change, why not us as well? We just need to get more people to be more aware of what’s happening and for people to believe that we CAN make a change. Most of the time, we just think “Complain also no use… nothing will change….” Yeah… so, c’mon people… be aware of what’s happening and be aware that we CAN make a change.
And looks like our govt is establishing yet another body to oversee the implementation of projects in the 9MP. Another body. Another plan. I wonder when they will realise that a plan is only good if (1) there is actual implementation, (2) the implementation of course has to be done well (ie cost efficient etc) and (3) the body overseeing this implementation has to be free from corruption and crony-ism to make the plan work.
To quote our PM:
"For example, we also do not want a situation where there are no doctors once a hospital has been completed. The people get angry with the government when we do not build a hospital and when the hospital is ready the people again find fault with the government because there are no doctors," he said."Other matters include water, electricity and roads. For example, we do not want to have a completed project without an access road," he said.
So they want proper planning to be done BEFORE projects are actually implemented. Let’s hope it works. I think all of us are too familiar with situations where projects are completed only to realise… Oops, no telephone line. Oops, forgot to build road. Oops, got university but no students and lecturers. Never mind, dump in poor students who can’t afford to fund their own studies. Who cares about shitty lecturers and poor quality of education? Oops, oops oops. Sounds like a Britney Spears song… I’m wondering who will be in this new body. I’m interested to see how things work out.
And apparently, we can be jailed / fined for kissing and hugging in public.
http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/49310
Now I’m no advocate for issues on morality but I just don’t like it when people throw out the words ‘Asian morality’. And I don’t like it when people compare Western value to Asian values. True, just because kissing and hugging are widely accepted in the Western world doesn’t mean we can emulate it too. But doesn’t it all come down to moderation? Yes, we Asians, are supposed to be more conservative when it comes to these kind of things but c’mon, we’re now in the 21st century and more and more people are being more open. Now, if there kids who were in the park were just in the act of smooching (no tongue!) and hugging, I guess that would be alrite. But if it was more like the act of second base, then I’d say “Get a room!” There’s always a limit to everything and this is just one of those things. Anyway, does ‘public’ constitute clubs as well? If so, then the govt will have a field day charging people! Myself included!
I was watching CNN last night and during one of the commercial breaks, an advertisement for Malaysian Tourism came on. Looking at the wonderful pictures shown during the ad, I was never happier to be a Malaysian. But when our PM came on the picture to utter some words of welcome wearing a batik shirt (hehe… how typical), my only thought was “What did he say?” I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t understand what he said coz the pronunciation wasn’t quite there. Heh…
Taking a short break tomorrow onwards. London here I come!
Monday, April 03, 2006
*silly grin*
I’ve got a new toy!!! Well, two actually. Bought my camera right before I left for Bahrain but just didn’t write about it. Anyway, the latest toy is something I’ve been harping about for a long time. And now I finally got it! And for below RM1000! WooHoo!! What a steal! It’s so white and shiny, I’m afraid to touch it for fear I’ll leave finger prints all over it’s white shiny surface. I don’t think I’ve ever liked seeing U2 so much before!
Anyway, to give some credit to my first new toy:
My new Casio Digi Cam!
How’s that? Woo Hoo! Super thin. Got it for quite a good bargain too. Got a 1GB memory card with it, a mini tripod, LCD screen protector and 3 year warranty. The features ain’t bad for someone like me. Just point and shoot :) WooHoo! Will be fully utilised in a few days time when I fly over to another continent. Can’t wait!!!
Moving on… to my newly acquired toy:
My new Apple Ipod!!
Hahaha! I finally got it! The Apple Ipod 30GB. And for less than RM1000! I couldn’t believe when the salesguy (who was very cute) told me the price. I kept asking him again and again until he finally said “It’s the price I told you!” Unfortunately, they didn’t have anymore black ones. In fact, I just bought the last one they had!
It’s a newly opened hypermarket and I actually went there with the intention to get a 4GB Ipod Nano coz they were having some promo I saw in a leaflet and it cost only RM980. Which is cheaper than what I can get back home. So there I was, looking at the Ipods they had on display and opened my mouth to ask the cute salesguy (CS):
Check out the super reflective screen!
Thingamajigs that come with the Ipod.
Anyway, to give some credit to my first new toy:
My new Casio Digi Cam!How’s that? Woo Hoo! Super thin. Got it for quite a good bargain too. Got a 1GB memory card with it, a mini tripod, LCD screen protector and 3 year warranty. The features ain’t bad for someone like me. Just point and shoot :) WooHoo! Will be fully utilised in a few days time when I fly over to another continent. Can’t wait!!!
Moving on… to my newly acquired toy:
My new Apple Ipod!!Hahaha! I finally got it! The Apple Ipod 30GB. And for less than RM1000! I couldn’t believe when the salesguy (who was very cute) told me the price. I kept asking him again and again until he finally said “It’s the price I told you!” Unfortunately, they didn’t have anymore black ones. In fact, I just bought the last one they had!
It’s a newly opened hypermarket and I actually went there with the intention to get a 4GB Ipod Nano coz they were having some promo I saw in a leaflet and it cost only RM980. Which is cheaper than what I can get back home. So there I was, looking at the Ipods they had on display and opened my mouth to ask the cute salesguy (CS):
Me: How much is the Ipod Video 30GB?
CS: 30GB? Hold on… let me check… (went to ask another salesguy who was ALSO cute – the electronics dept seemed to be crawling with cute salesguys)
Me: Dum di dum…..
CS: Oh, it’s 97.9 dinar (around RM 979)
Me: Sorry? Could you repeat that? (with a silly grin – CS might have thought I was smiling at him, now that I think about it, coz after that he was really friendly and all)
CS: 97.9.
Me: Oh okay. Do you have black colour? (still with silly grin)
CS: Let me check… (rummaging around display case, asking his cute colleagues)
Sorry, this is the last one.
Me: What?! Really? Oh no.. are you sure? Can you check again? I’m so upset… (basically just making a lot of noise and whining)
CS: Okay… I’ll check in the back store room… just for you (smile)
Me: (heart fluttering… yeah right!) okay… I’ll wait.
CS: Sorry, this is really the last one.
Me: That’s okay. I’ll take it anyway. (WooHoo!!!!)
So there you have it. How I got my new toy. Am in the midst of installing iTunes into my computer now. BTW, cute salesguy is Persian and is from Iran. His girlfriend is a Thai. Random information.
Check out the super reflective screen!
Thingamajigs that come with the Ipod.
The only annoying thing about the ipod is that it doesn’t have international warranty. Which means I’ll have to fork out more moolah when I’m back home to buy a 2-year warranty from the Apple centre. But what the heck… Ipod 30GB for less than RM1000!!!
Hahaha…. And so…. Here begins my journey with an Apple. Being the blur person I am, will probably take some time to learn how to sync my stuff with iTunes etc. WooHoo…
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