Wednesday, November 30, 2005

missing the point ......

The 2 weeks, the hit news topic is 'chinese woman mis-treated' ...we, as public, read the news, felt ashame of things like this happening. Kancil is in China now, pity him, this news just spread there this week, now started to broadcast. When Kancil introduced himself from this country, people at the back commented on this case liow. Malu or not ? Put yourself in this shoe now, can you imagine how you could introduce yourself from Msia ?

Our PM asked for private investigation and if need to, if we are wrong - go apologize, do something to remedy this issue. However, the police force officer insisted to find out who was the culprit who took the short movie and passed around..he is more interested, angry to find out this culprit, then to do his internal investigation to find out the truth , the tudung lady etc ..My pastor commented - he is missing the point. Gee, he is either missing the points here or he is trying to cover up the real truth, the shame - sometimes I feel like nak 'cekik' those folks who are high power, yet buat and talk nonsense...

A comment posted on 'The Star' which was related to this topic - said that 'we are now like Americans'. Hmm, Americans treated Iraqi badly, Iraqi is their enermy - so treat them bad still make sense.... but we pula doing this to our visitors, humiliated our visitors - so we are not like Americans, we are worst than Americans leh. Next, tudung lady - a law enforcer - suppose to be a religion worshiper - what was in her mind to have done such an act ? where is the basic human sense ?

Friday, November 25, 2005

entertainment

:) last year - Bahija gila 'Phantom of the Opera' , especially December - went to watch the movie version many times. This few days - suddenly hor - I'm surrounded with musical information , hehe

November(this weekend), a lot of my friends are watching 'Snow Wolf Lake' musical from Hong Kong casts.

December - 'Perhaps Love' is a another Hong Kong/chinese musical movie version - this one local cinema ada - so Bahija cheap2 will go try see see look look ..

'RENT' musical - Karen Mok is playing lead role in this musical, kat Singapore - I 'boh lui' lah ..

Then, AR told me 'Producer' is out on Movie version too ...I hope this movie is shown here locally , checked Gsc upcoming future movie lists - tak ada 'Producer' yet ...

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

woman and flowers

Today is my eldest sister's bday. Eldest bro-in-law aka her hubby is away on business trip to Switzeland ( yah, he called home and said this "life is not complete without visiting Switzeland" ) My sister mentioned many times that buying flowers, sending flower bonquets are a waste of money. Today, I gave her a surprise -sent her '16 delicious Ferrero Rocher Chocolates arranged into a Hand Bouquet together with peacocks & statice' ...she's thrilled....her colleagues envied her - thought that her hubby so sweet, so 'romantis' sent her flowers :) HaHaHa...she smiled happy mood whole day.

Moral of this story and proven result, we - female or venus somehow like flowers lah, even though some women may say that buying flowers seem like a waste of money bla bla bla , but you know - when a woman receive flowers - I'm sure her heart is flooded with sweet blood - the feeling is cool :)

Today I broke record la, bro-in-law never send her flowers leh , aiyah - I ter-jumped queue. Personally, I dun agree in over-doing this, yes, this pleasing gimmick is expensive (money can be well spent in other better way)- but sometimes - this is what I call 情趣 ...got to have this once a while , to spice up the life mah

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

7As

Bahija punya Msian niece #1 scored 7As for her UPSR 2 yrs ago. Today, niece #2 also scored 7As. WOW , pandai hor ! I sudah 5 mths ++ didn't go to movie theatre :( this is not a good sign leh. This saturday, celebration for nieces - all of us are watching HP4 ....next Chicken Little , hey, my fav movie kakies - where are you ???

Next year niece #3 will sit for UPSR - I think she'll be under tremendous pressure trying to keep up with the good record. Hope she is the easy going, do her best and doesn't stress herself too much type of kid lah

Saturday, November 12, 2005

my jp trip

Firstly, big thank you to Anti-Ringgit - for his 'Insight Guide to Tokyo' and a few brochures, and Sanguine - for websites and emails...

Day 1 - Oct 31, arrived Tokyo Narita airport at 7:30pm Monday night. Both of my phones not working in JP, luckily cellphone rental is not expensive - found ABC rental at airport having 50% promotion - 250 yen (RM9) per day, the costly part was the call charges - 200 yen per min for both local and international calls. Then, paid 3000 yen ( RM 110 ) to board airport limosine bus to tokyo Ikebukuro. It's 2 hours travel time. When the bus passed by Roppongi , I saw I-kei building :) Though it's 9pm at night, I still could see a lot of people working late in the offices, meeting rooms still packed with people, attending round table meetings. My airport bus stopped at Metropolitan Hotel. I paid 650 yen (RM 11 ) for 0.5 kilometer of cab ride to my motel ... mahalnya.... I did it bcoz it was dark at night, I didn't want to spend time dragging a luggage wandering on the street looking for the motel. Cab in Japan - no need to open or close the door - it opens automatically. I stayed in Ryokan Kimi in Ikebukuro- the cheapest I could find within Tokyo, 18,000 yen for 4 nights ( RM 610 ). Ryokan is traditional Japanese style motel - a super small room with tatami mat(www.kimi-ryokan.jp) - the place was clean, simple, strategic location, reasonable price. I like the tatami bamboo smell whenI entered the room - but I didn't find the staffs friendly at all. Oh, this place has curfew hours ....close and door lock from 1 am to 7 am ..aiii, Bahija couldn't visit Tsukiji Fish Market at 5 am - to see the tuna fish bidding and trading fun time.



Ryokan room, bought sushi and sappora beer from Family-Mart ( like 7-11 store ) . Hot green tea is free from ryokan





Day 2 - woke up early, thought of locating In-kei to dial in for meeting, In-kei is somewhere in Marunouchi, but I knew I cannot locate this office ....plus it was Deepavali holiday - people should be cuti back home...so I happily rushed to join Grey Line Tokyo Day Tour. First visited Tokyo Tower, then Meiji Shrine ( Nov 3 was Culture Day - lucky loh, managed to see their traditional way of praying and some other unique offerings), Akasaka Guest House, passed by National DIET Building ( their House of Parliment ), then enjoyed a pleasant walk through East Garden of the Imperial Palace. On the way, passed by I-Kei again - funny, I-Kei logo on the building is black and silver background. The logo on the front entrance is white on red background - what happen to the brand logo blue and white ? Then had yummy 2000 yen lunch at Ginza. Ginza is the most expensive business district. Japanese businessmen usually bring their customers to Ginza for high end expensive food, then adjourn to entertainment area Ginza. After lunch, I enjoyed a nice 30 mins boat ride to Asakasa on Sumida River, here - could see the blend of old and new Tokyo. Reached Asakusa Kannon Temple - famous temple in Tokyo, crowded with people and stalls. There are 2 major religions in JP, Shintoism and Buddhism. Shintoism doesn't has a praying object - it believe that everything has a spirit, eg Mount Fuji is a holy mountain. Buddhism like what we have here, chinese culture, temple. Most japanese are not strong in religion, they are usually bi-religions - celebrate whatever , then on Dec 25 - all japanese turn into Christians, as they celebrate Christmas in a big deal ( this was the joke told by my petite tour guide). After Asakusa, passed by Nakamise, Harajuku, Kappa Bashi, Akihabara. Bahija end the tour at Ueno - went to Ueno night market.

Day 3 - Boarded bus to Mt Fuji - 3 hours from Tokyo. We can only go to Station 5 of Mount Fuji - 2400 meters. The trekking trail starts from here. Nice panaromic view driving up there.

Mt Fuji


Next, drove to a nearby city - Hakone - this is a famous hot springs resort area. Again, passed by I-Kei - impressed leh, I-Kei has an office in this small resort area. Took Hakone Sky Gondola to enjoy the view of volcanic Hakone Mountain ..niceeeee. Then, we went to Owakudani Valley ( the valley of Hell) - here we saw steam escaping from the rugged mountains of Owakudani, sulphur smell as well. This is the place where we tried Onsen Tamago (an egg boiled in hot spring water). Next, took pirate boat cruise on Lake Ashi. Relaxing :) I took the Shinkansen (bullet train) return to Tokyo (30 mins). It's amazing watching the high speed bullet train passing by - zzzzooommmmm. yet, when I sat in the shinkansen, it was so comfortable and stable , felt like the speed of 100/km only leh ...padahal it was running at 400/km ...Arrived Tokyo, I went to Shibuya. Shibuya has a lot of shopping places. Sanguine suggested Shibuya 109 mall, I went in - hmm, felt so bad, felt so ulu, so kampung girl. Those japanese girls who shopped in this mall - their dressing and hairdo were so 'IN' , I obviuosly couldn't fit in :)

Day 4 - It's a holiday in JP - Culture Day - a lot of folks praying in Meiji Shrine. I saw quite a number of women wearing kimono. I like their kimono culture - make the woman in kimono very lemah-lembut, neat. Bahija didn't want to spend RM 500 on train ticket to Kyoto - thus decided to just lepak in Tokyo, so walked around Shinjuku and did some shopping. So, I went to Kinokuniya, Takashimaya, Isetan, Seibu, Tobu .... hmmm, things are way too expensive for me. Only saw one small 100 yen shop - bought some food to bring home. Everywhere was jam-packed with people - crowded. I didn't enjoy those heavy crowd - made me pening - loss appetite ( old liow ) ....so completed my tokyo trip by 5 pm and went back to Ryokan to rest, and packed for home sweet home. I was so eager to go home liow

Tokyo is too crowded, just another big cosmopolitan. Subway is full of all walks of people at any time ... during peak hours - sandwich trains - people running around, some quite rude. Genereally they bow heads a lot, some quite polite too...Japan population is 120 million, 10% 12 million in Tokyo. 6000 homeless folks ( this I dun understand, 6000 is a small number, yet the authority didn't take care of this social issue - we can see the homeless sleeping on the garden opposite Imperial Palace). Average commute time to work is 1 hour subway/train one way. Property is way too high, a couple usually get married at 28 - 30, then at age 35 - buy a property outside Tokyo. Office worker average income is USD 45 - 50K annually, 20% income tax. Fried rice KL standard is 500 yen there ....Toyota is always no 1, whereas no 2 or 3 cars are either Nissan or Honda. Favourite car is Toyota Corolla - USD 15k. But their challenge is parking space. To own a car, must have car park first. Suicide cases is increasing, 34k cases last year, 2 yrs ago was 30k - victims were young executives - they couldn't handle the situation after being fired or lost a job - 'face' issue - felt shamed....aiiii - given up valuable life just because kena buang kerja ( stressnya this society )... japanese also spend a lot of in wedding ( USD 20 - 30 K ) , they prefer ang pow USD 300 for one, USD 500 for 2 person. I definitely don't want to attend any japanese wedding - pok kai. Japanese diet is very healthy - breakfast sushi rolls, lunch sushi or noodles, dinner same , drink a lot of green tea. Life expectancy is longer now - men is 78 yrs old, women is 85 yrs old - there is a proposal to extend the retirement age. This society also facing a big issue - higher silver-hair population which needs more maintenance funds... Overall, it's a fruitful trip to see, to learn about a new country, frankly, I wouldn't want to stay in Tokyo. The positive side of this trip is that - Bahija enjoys her traffic jam back home now - at least traffic jam also - I can sit in the car listen to music, read newspaper without sandwich with others - better, cozier....Do you know what is the nickname of Japan Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi ????



Japan Richard Gere .....





Changgih toilet service from 'TOTO' - the manufacturer of this toilet seat. I say Innovative. During winter / autumn time, when you sit on the seat - it's warm ... felt so good warming your buttock. Then urine also malu suara loud, there is a music button, while urine, push that music button for music ( so that others cannot hear the urine sound), after complete the business, choose the cleaning method- water flush out to wash, then to air ....like massage kind of feeling -hehe. Aiyuh, I can tell you, my first trial, I spent > 5 mins inside the loo , hehe. I wish we can deploy this kind of toilet seats in MY - then our toilets won't be so dirty. Hmm, may be I should go talk to TOTO for distribution rights ...

Friday, November 11, 2005

come - holy spirit

I just logged on to check my emails ... first email popped up - 'welcoming the holy spirit' - WOW. Tonight, I attended prayer meeting - because I need to pray for strength, family protection and wisdom, plus church mega Hebron project. Prayer title was 'Come Holy Spirit' - so I closed my eyes prayed and prayed, Come, Holy Spirit, I need You; Come, sweet Spirit, I pray; Come in Your strength and Your power; Come in Your own special way , after quite some time of focused praying...... then entah how, I spoke in tongue ....it's still a shock to me as I'm blogging , I'm not sure if I really can speak in tongue now or some other illusion .... need to clarify this with my mentors later ..... but so kiew , as I was driving home , thinking hard, worrying , confused - here I am, received the word of the day in my mail box 'welcoming the holy spirit' :)

PM

Thesedays, colleagues around me kept pouring out their frustration on work, especially on the role of project manager. Their PM play 'tai-chi', not accoutable for their own job roles ....Now, I myself is one of the victim here. Personally, PM is not an easy job, one has to be able to oversee the whole project, able to control within the project, good in managing, documenting, people management, build relationship, making sure the project is profitable or successful, also must know how to escalate. My coming project, consider as 2nd class key player and a free volunteer, yet don't know the project status. Asked for updates, info come piece by piece, sien. What is the role of the PM ? The PM never keep me in the loop of the overall project status, there could be a project status meeting or checkpoint or something - I dunno as I didn't get invited or there could be none may be. Working along - there are many many components missing, not in place, kelam-kabut .... for a simple project implementation chart and timeline - I also didn't see them being published. This worry me that my company is challenging us to move to xx million revenue company, aiiii - an obvious gap - people are not utilizing their best skills / resources. Here I am ada free time to blog, coz I'm sien and dunno when can I start my setup, and for 2 days, my project team members all Missing In Action ....

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

TAR & GC

So Kiew, tonight TAR Family edition were in Grand Canyon :) they were boating in Colorado River to Lake Powell ... nice to view GC. If I ever get ample time next round, I would go for a camping trip at the canyon or water-rafting trip along Colorado River, or other national parks. Friends told me there are many more nicer canyons such as Bryce, Zion canyons up north at Utah ...There are 7 forgotten modern wonders :-
1. Gateway Arc
2. Aswan High Dam
3. Mt Rushmore National Memorial
4. Petronas twin towers
5. Hoover Dam
6. Clock Tower ( Big Ben )
7. Eiffel Tower

Being Msian, we automatically covered one liow , I've completed 1 to 5. Next year targeting 6, hopefully 7 as well. There is an Eiffel Tower hotel in LV, the tower is half of the actual size ... built with USD 30 million. The cost was breakeven after 3 years just by selling visitor ticket at USD 12. After breakeven, the ticket is reduced to USD 9 up to now .... hmm, I wonder if this scenario will happen in my country ? so far, I've seen prices going up, have not experience the discounted price yet ...

Little Tze Xuan


Last Saturday night, Bahija spent fun time with this little baby ....Little Tze Xuan is my high school girl friend CC's baby. He mirror his daddy 100%, very cute - on his fullmoon night - he happily let everyone carried him. Bahija 'shok yow' him a lot lah -Hope to see him often ....haha

I envy baby's life - stress free, makan , tidur, main, cry :)

Yaya, HT - sorry for not calling u 2 weeks ago :)

Monday, November 07, 2005

AZ-NV

Bahija made it to Grand Canyon :) ... I've mentioned GC a few times - finally - visited this world wonder - it is indeed huge and great - billions years of history.
This is where I wish Ringgit is traveling with me, he is a great scriber with super strong memory - one who can described everything, everywhere he visited. Bahija has bad memory, let me list down whatever I can remember before dissappear from my memories :P - this also serve as my mini travelogue ...

My short trip started from Phoenix, on highway 17, detoured to Montezuma's Castle National Monument, visited the cave house built by ancient Sinagua tribes, then the Montezuma's well.

Montezuma's Castle
Next, passed thru various scenic routes to Sedona - saw the red rocks, visited Chapel of The Holy Cross - this chapel was built on the red rocks - kind of cool ....and now Robert Redford is building his giant mansion opposite this chapel - blocking the nice feng sui. Then, stopped for rest in Flagstaff, had mexican dinner then head to Lowell Observatory - Flagstaff is a nice dark city - when we looked up on the sky - we saw many many many stars :) the view was so great - dark sky with brilliant 'diamonds', I'm amazed, thankful for that spectacular brightly night - diamonds all over my head :) There was a briefing on galaxy and various planets - pluto, mars, sun, earth, moon etc etc ... I learned another pollution - 'light pollution' - we hardly can see stars in big cities - simply because too much light been reflected into the skyzone. Over in Flagstaff, it is listed in US as one of the best place to research and view stars ....Bahija enjoyed the whole night outing, from the moment I stepped out from my car and looked up to the sky - the sky was so pretty :) best time to sing 'twinkle twinkle little stars, how I wonder what you are'...that night, I used the giant telescope to see M15 stars. Then we could see Venus and Mars, sagitarius and many other stars. I went to bed with sweet dreams thinking of the diamonds :)

Next morning, drove to Grand Canyon - hahaha. First went to watch GC Imax movie .... then entered South Rim of GC , went to a few scenic spots to see the magnificient canyons. The only thing I regret is not able to try mules ride to Plateau Point ( there is only 1 mule trip each day, starts at 7:30 am ). That would be cool to hike down at the Canyon, soaking my legs on the Colorado River .....

South Rim of GC - Mather Point
Next, rushed to Nevada state. It was about 3.5 hrs drive. At 5 pm, I crossed Hoover Dam - Bahija watched 'Fools Rushed In' many times by Salma Hayek and Mathew Perry - been hoping to visit Hoover Dam ...well, wish granted, I did it - crossed the line, but too bad again - didn't have time to go for the tour. Then drove another 30 mins and entered the famous gambling city of the world - Las Vegas. The night before, I had so much fun enjoying the dark sky without any light pollution. Then now - it's the opposite, from far driving down the mountain - could see the whole bright city - full of lights. I visited LV a few times ( > 10 yrs ago). Back then, I enjoyed the walk on the strip - walked in to every hotel and checked out the nice decorations - and kaki tak sakit, tak tired, very energetic, very fun, very excited. Now, when I re-visited LV, the feeling was different already. I recalled 2 years ago - I happily asked Ringgit and Roti Telur to visit LV - that it's a great fun place ...hmmm, you know - I wouldn't say the same thing now. Age change my taste, my liking - to me, LV is just another big city full of hotels, entertainment, casinos, chapels and restaurants, drinks and lights. Given me a choice now, I enjoy watching red color Mars on the sky while sipping a cup of hot tea during this nice autumn time ...非常写意

Saturday, November 05, 2005

my S45

I dropped my canon baby while I was eating my lunch in Seattle. Back home, Canon has a repair center near Subang old airport. Very good service - center open until 8 pm. Always keep customer up to date with repair status and cost via sms. I have 2 batteries, 3 memory cards for my S45. Back then, it costed me a bomb to own him. Thus, decided to dump RM500 to fix it - repaired the LCD and changed the new casing. As I travel - I truly value 'travel light' concept - I'm not good in this area at all ( people who have travelled with me sure faham this, almost everyone commented on my heavy luggages - hahaha ... but I'm getting better and better now - still have plenty of room for improvement. When it is mid day, my shoulder sakit - i wonder what I carried in my sling bag ...one of the contributor is my camera, it's kind of bulky and heavy ( like the dinasour mainframe loh ) , including the charger and converter all in ONE = heavy :P , aiiiii - guess I shouldn't have fix it, shld hv bought myself the slim keychain type light camera ......