Finally.. it all's over

what's over? Olympics, Anwar's by election?

yes.. Finally. Have to say, i enjoyed both these 2 events tremendously..
But i am still stuck in traffic jams in Penang. And today, this unneccessary one really amused me as (1) i am in a good mood (2) getting my blood boil doesn't help with my blood pressure!

Well, i was caught in a massive jam to work, due to road block on the coastal highway (which is of course the way to go over the bridge to Permatang Pauh!)

Later i found out that there was a robbery in the Bayan Lepas airport.

Anyway, robbery occurs at 9:30am, i go to work at 8am. Do the maths! Cops must have premonition!

31 years young!

To all my friends, thanks for all the e-cards, birthday greetings via MSN, sms-es, facebook, friendster and emails and also the cyber e-White Chocolate cake (which i am still waiting for HS to bake in Brisbane!)

We had a birthday bash in Buluh room as usual, of course. No surprise here! What surprised most of my non-lunchmates colleague is that from today, suddenly i got a new name, Amber Ping as given by my project manager( looks like he not only is naming my projects, but started naming cute puppies and R and D Engineers.) Haha... Since the TAO birthday bash has become a norm for us, what surprised me is that how did they managed to buy the cake, as i was with my lunchmates today!

Anyway, if i were to harbour a guess, i think CC went to in the afternoon to get it? Am I right? As after the party, he mentioned that he paid for the cake! Anyway, whatever it is, thanks a lot for the effort.

Well, the TAO-reans sang me a birthday song, and i get to cut my cake with a real plastic cake knife (CC got to use a ruler) and blow the candles. TT keeps wanting to add candles to my cake, 4 is enough for me this year! Thanks. GM asked whether did i make a wish, and whether did i wish that we sell 3000 units of pegasus/per annum? Huh?

Well, the big celebration began @ Sharkeys' Corner 2 hours later. I feel really honoured that the 2 mummies (KY and YL), my guests of honour managed to make it for tonight's dinner! TT had a chance to show off her cooking skills.. Well, our steamboat soup started really bland and tasteless, and she managed to transform it by the time, we are nearing the end of the dinner!
As for CC, he managed to give a shock to the Char Koay Teow Chef, when he asked for "2 eggs please?" The extra egg char koay teow was really good though!

My boss asked me why is it everytime he goes for a buffet in Penang, it is really crowded! The last time our whole team went for buffet in Rasa, it was packed as well! I dun understand it either... maybe, penagites just like to eat!

All in all, i had a wonderful time. Btw, i am still fully awake at this time of night! No thanks to the espresso i just drank just now!

Flying Man and Rings - Let the games begin!

My favourite pic of the olympic ceremony. 飞人点火！ Amazing!

Praying to Ancesters -would they have like 1 big yummy cheesy pizza?

Well, as you know, currently it is the lunar 7th month!

The description from Wikipedia.
The Ghost Festival (simplified Chinese: 中元节; traditional Chinese: 中元節; pinyin: zhōngyuánjié) is a traditional Chinese festival and holiday, which is celebrated by Chinese in many countries. In the Chinese calendar (a lunisolar calendar), the Ghost Festival is on the 15th night of the seventh lunar month.
In Chinese tradition, the thirteenth day of the seventh month in the lunar calendar is called Ghost Day and the seventh month in general is regarded as the Ghost Month (鬼月), in which ghosts and spirits, including those of the deceased ancestors, come out from the lower realm. During the Qingming Festival the living descendants pay homage to their ancestors and on Ghost Day, the deceased visit the living.

Well, the list of the deceased i prayed today is 16 in Batu Gantong (a columbrium in penang). My mum prepared all the food, i just did the folding of the 7 coloured papers!
And the list gets longer as the years goes by!

And that place today was crowded. As usual, me being nosy, it is kinda interesting to see what type of food other people prepared. Besides, you know the usual, roast pork/chicken, these days you see Moon Cakes, durians, rambutans as well, and also something as simple as a box of Chicken rice! i think pretty soon, our ancesters will get stuff like burgers and pizzas! I haven't seen that yet here in Penang! Imagine, praying to all 16 of my ancesters will just one big round pizza! So clean and easy! I think my grandpa will like it (we used to have quite similar taste when it comes to food) I suppose i will need to explain to my other grandparents that you know, maybe Marco Polo bought this pizza technology back to Italy from China.. Haha.. Hmmm.. WHat if they dun like cheese? :)

my mum doing qi gong

Taken from today's 光明日报

Pre-Olympic Fever

Looks like everyone is all prepared for the Beijing Olympics!
And here, i don't mean the athletics.

Well, a friend gonna take Marriage leave to watch olympics, not sure how he gonna produce the cert yet.. haha

My mum already told me to come home early on Friday. If i get back later than 7:30pm, i will have no dinner! :(

Another poor friend is grumbling and is willing to pay me to her night shift on Friday night! If only i could, i would... Haha.

Well, all this enthusiasim makes me kinda excited too! Yeah... only 5 more days to go!

Life like that

Jokes of the week...
In such stessful times, we need to take a break and have a kitkat!

1. Read this from Patrick Teoh on costs-savings.

2. Frog in shoe

My colleague managed to wear his shoe (with a frog inside from his house from BM all the way across the brigde to work. He realised there's a frog in there half way on the bridge, but decided to only release the poor frog when he arrived! Poor frog immediately sprang out of his shoe in the car park to breathe some fresh air!

3. Sodomy Experts/specialist

4. Eye test

You know those word verification bloggers used when you leave comments? To check that you are not a robot!
Some guy asked :" why are they testing my eye sight???!!!"

Where is my MONEY?

1. Millions paid to RM650 company
2. Agusta
3. Mercedes vs Perdana

Actually i could still go on....i dun think i have problems listing 50 or maybe 100s of items. Buying of aircrafts, bugalows, trips overseas to see pig farm, shopping trips for wives...

Looks like i am living in a damn rich country with really rich ppl who worked hard to pay taxes and who really don't mind losing some loose change ( just a couple of millions nia).

KNS!

Our goverment must think we are really gullible, naive, simple stupid idiots when you hear some of the reasons they give when they are caught red-handed!

" Mercs cheaper than Perdana in the long run!"
" We make profit from 1 Euro business deal!"

oh.. btw, on the merc case, they took 2 bloody long years to think/evaluate this! Wow, so this is not an implusive action of a shopper. Hmm.. we must be more stupid than we think we are!

Truth...

Have been watching the political drama of Najib, Anwar and RPK and everyone who is out there to get everyone unfolds, and i must say, it's kinda entertaining when viewed in the drama perspective. This is definitely not the quest for truth, as in no one seems interested in getting to the bottom of who did what to whom, but rather, how this political game is benefiting me! hmmm.. As a Malaysian, oh..i do worry about the future... both ecomnomically ( as in how prepared are we to face the rising inflation and probably comming recesssion) and also socially ( looks like if you are in power now, you can do anything you like, without a care for the law)It's a " It's looks like me, it sounds like me but it's not me" syndrome!

Well, was listening to Ajahn Brahm's talk the other day. Was really intrigued when he said that there's religions that "bends the facts to fit the faith" and some that "bends the faith to fit the facts!"

Yes, this make lots of sense to me! From young, i never believe lots of "pantang-larang" that my parents and bro tried to impose on me! I was the rebelious type infact.. i would sweep the floor on first day of CNY to prove my point, and go agaist lots of superstitions that to me is just utter rubbish....No pointing to a moon etc.. err??? who cares? The moon definitely dun care if you point to it!

Well, these days, my bro is still the extremely superstitious and i am less rebellious now. I adhered to the no sweeping rule on CNY just to make everyone happy. Well, for those superstitious ppl out there, "if you want to be lucky in life, this is what you do... be thankful for what you have and help others in need whenever/wherever possible! It's always possible! and please, dun expect anything in return!" Make sense to you?

Ending this post with a quote from the Dalai Lama:"If you want others to be happy, practise compassion. If you want to be happy, practise compassion." That's the true truth!

Happy 1st Birthday 昫衡！

Wow, it was a really busy sunday morning. Woke up at 8am and was out of the house from then on... Was late to little Herng Herng do by a couple of hours. Very sorry from Aunty Ping for bringing the present in so late! I am sure he is more forgiving than Botak (who incidentally shares the same birthday, 28 years apart!) Botak is still complaining that i didn't treat him during his birthday last year!

My appologies for missing his birthday cake cutting and blowing of candles.

Well, here is the picture of birthday boy Herng with 2 red eggs!


Here's a pic of him opening his pressie from daddy, mummy, TT, Botak, YL, Ivan, ChungHL and me!


And he loves it!!! Watched by proud Mummy and Daddy :)

The River of Life - Blood

Another pal, JH joined the bloggers bandwagon. Yeah!

If you want to know more about blood and blood donation, here's the site:
The River of Life

Be Thankful

Remember my previous post complaining about siting in an aircraft in NY? REading this now,
I suppose i should be thankful for still being alive to type this!

It was a positive milestone acheived with the public Anwar vs Shabery debate! Unlike some of the childish stuff happenings in the parliament recently, i tot both guys conducted themselves pretty well, considering..

Both guys made their points... would really like to see a repeat, or some other couples... like Abdullah and Mahathir, Rosmah and RPK.... Haha.. that will be entertainment!

I am no businessman!

Wanted to puke...
Go and read http://anilnetto.com/accountability/proton-sold-mv-augusta-for-1-euro-harley-buys-it-for-us109m/

Oh, btw, it's more than 20 years now...err.. the power windows still dun work!

The Force Field

It's been a long time since i read...err..my last book was Harry Potter! Well, as i am currently down with a cough and cold which kinda ruined my 3 days weekend, well, couldn't go hiking with CC and geng!

Anyway, this is not a book review.. and i am still only half way through this book called "The Field" by Lynne McTarggart. and i say, "wow!" Want to know how quantum physics is being applied in humans, yeah.. not those tiny protons or whatever -trons or in StarTrek! Looks like the Buddhist Monks, QiGOng masters really know what they were doing in their practise and meditation. This books is based on properly carried out scientific experiments. You don't have to be a believer of any faith or religion.

Looks like a startrek future is actually not that far away after all...

Going down the longkang!

WHAT ELSE! OUR COUNTRY-LAH!

well, i haven't blog about politics in quite a while, as getting bored and tired and sick of all the childish mud-slingging!

Anyway, looks like no one is bothered enough, to see what is happening, going on in this country. Everyone is busy politicking, dishing out dirt of PM and SIL, DPM and wife and a model, and of course, the hot topic today... the alleaged "sodomy" about a certain old (61 yr) man and a certain (23 yr) old ...

Anyone telling me how's our present gov. helping the rakyat now that crude oil has hit 140USD per barrel? By increasing the rates for electicity?
Anyone telling me how's the poor rakyat gonna cope with the increased cost of living by almost 20% when our pay remains the same??
How about the sad state of public transport in penang? No more MONORAIL, PORR?
Not too sure about the 2nd bridge either??
Petronas gonna spent money on a luxury hospitals for their STAFF,http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/85066??? Why and not spent it to improve the general hospitals???
i could still go on... but why bother anyway? everything is going down the longkang anyway! Next time, you see a Malaysian longkang tersumbat, you NOW know why!
HOW NOT TO GET CLOGGED WHEN ALL YOU GET IS RUBBISH!

First time getting interviewed on video

hee, today Penang Net TV came to make a documentary on HYS Blood Donation Campaign.. and gee, i got to say something.. Hmm.. dun know what it turn out to be.. But a first for me, Didn't set my hair, didn't apply makeup.. just got this sleepy look.. Haha.. Anyway, i was way way too nervous, too shuttering. :) But it should be an interesting documentary, as you will also get to hear the point of view from our very supportive donors!

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On an unrelated issue, this is the first time i get to use GPS today In Penang too. TX very kindly loaded the Malaysian map into my GPS. I just tried it out from Sunshine Farlim to get home.Cool! My parents were really impressed!

thinking back all the old arguments between husband and wife in navigation, the husband who gets bad tempered losing the way, saying "i know, i know" And the wife getting esperated as she does not understand why or why does men do not want to stop to ask for directions! GPS is indeed a wonderful tool. Bliss when driving in a new place!

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On another further unrelated issue, I sprained my back again during BDC. I keep forgeting that i am not as young as i used to be! was instintively doing heavy work, lifting things etc.. Gai lor! Hopefully i do not need painkillers to get to work tomorrow!

Round the world in 80 Days!

Well, just came back from my round the world trip... well, not 80 days, hey, it's the 21st Century now, u can do that in less than 80 hours!


Anyway, i flew off 2 weeks ago from Pg to Singapore-Japan-LA- Denver.. Spent a few days working there and flew off to Atlanta, the olympic city of 1996. and then 2 days ago, started my journey back via JFK, New York - Frankrurt- Sg- Penang!

I will just highlight some of the interesting bits here.



Colorado


Snow Capped Mountains From Denver


A mountainous area, you could still see the snow capped mountains in the summer. Which reminds me very much of Switzerland.

The first night we were there, we were driving along this 4-lane highway to Boulder. And we were the only Car on the road! Colorado also reminds me alot of all the UFO movies i see.. Imagining a UFO landing in the middle of nowhere... oh ya, that's our hotel in Denver, as we were guided by the GPS to our hotel, we were so surprised to see that we were litteraly in the middle of vast area of vacant land, being like 3 mins driving distance from our Hotel.


Atlanta


We were staying right in in the CNN centre and no, i didn't bumb into any newscaster. She was recently hit by a tornado in March. You can see the broken windows... The amazing bit is not that a tornado swept through the city, nor is it the buildings are still standing. We can actually see this black tape being used on the windows tapped from the outside of these really tall towers!

Atlanta City Sky Line

Yup, i got a balcony... but....
You can see the damage caused by the tornado here

City skyline from the Altanta Centennial Olympic Park - notice the white olympics rings?

Food

As usual, being on business trip, i tend to get very very good food! I suppose that best bit that i enjoyed the most is my Coldstone ice-cream, hey, i got to eat twice.. was initially going to sms CC and TT and Ivan with the pics and message "wish you were here" but then i didn't do it due to the time difference... They would be sleeping soundly in their bed that time.

Airports

Since i spent so much time time there, might as well.

My first trip to Singapore T3, I can say I am impressed. Even the Transit hotel rooms looks good. I have this curtain which gives you the illusion that there is a window there, but it is just a curtain blocking a blank wall. What the heck!

Denver airport is really nice and Efficient, unlike the other US airports i have been! No long queue going through security.. In fact, they have like 10-20 lanes for this, which really helps! First airport that the security folks were actually waiting for me to un-shoe, un-belt, un-laptop and un-liquidise.... And this is one airport with lots of escallators and walkalators... It is worth mentioning here as it is 2 lanes each way.

JFK airport, way way too busy, imagine we taxied more than 1 hr 30 mins just to take off. We were number 40 in the queue! What a waste of petrol! Talking about traffic jams in the sky... we were also following this little plane somewhere along Europe... hence, we got to slow down as we can't really over take!

I can imagine in a couple of years time, you will be chosing the route of flying via route that are least congested, to avoid "Sky" traffic jams!

Backache!

What a pain in the back! Well, was suffering lots from this. Took way too much painkillers this trip. Need to get to a chryropractor!

Well, back in Penang, my project manager is suffering from headache caused by missing RND Engineer, Product Engineer, Test Engineer and also Mechanical Engineer for Pegasus! Anyway we are are back! Hopefully he gets happiers with our return!

A worthwhile cause

Hui Yin Seh 28th Annual Charity Vegetarian Dinner 慧音社敬老慈幼慈善晚会

Date : 22nd of June 2008 (Sunday)
Time : 6:00pm
Venue : Penang International Sports Arena (PISA)

You are cordially invited to participate in this event
Sponsorship of one table - for 10 members of the above organisation ( RM200.00/=)
- 2 complimentary dinner tickets will be given to the sponsor.
Dinner ticket RM20.00/= per person
** Cheque Payable to:“PERTUBUHAN HUI YIN SEH”.

For further details and enquiry, please contact:
Hui Yin Seh ( 04-829 5198) Mr. Lim Thung Hin (013-480 2829)
Chooi Florist ( 04-826 2298) Ms. How Sze Ling (013-530 9838)


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This charity dinner is for the old folks, the less fortunate and the handicapped around Penang. 2 years ago, when i first attended this event, i was so touched that it brought tears to my eyes and a warm feeling to my heart! Words are failing me here to describe the electrical atmosphere of this amazing night held once a year. All i know for 100% sure is that quite a lot of old folks, kids in the various home are really really looking forward to this day! Imagine the cheers you will bring to these ppl. Do join us for you will feel for yourself the warm glow in the heart i felt 2 years back. Let's us all help to make this wonderful event a success! Thank you!

What a week!

Kelantan Trip 31st May to 2nd June

Trip was planned eons ago by JH and LL from HYS. Woke up at 5:39am on a Sat morning and drove all the way to this land of wau bulan! It was quite refreshing to drive litterally through contry roads...lalalala" Country road, take me home..." Nice scenary! :)

Our 1st stop was Jeli Hot Spring... Well, it's on the way from Grik to Jeli town... it's pretty secluded and abandoned... Pity.. The hotwater there was pretty hot.. took lots of time and courage for me to put my foot in.. the 2nd pool, i didn't want to cook mine in the first pool where the water was steaming hot. We stopped for lunch at a Malay Food Stall in Jeli town.

After satisfying our tummy, we proceeded to KB town to check in our Hotel, then we out to the silversmith and then later to PCB where we had our dinner.. and then we were guided by TX's gps to look for Wakaf Che Yeh, a open-air night market.

The 2nd day, we started off after a good breakfast in the hotel to all the temples + the duty free zone (market) near tumpat. Not going name them 1 by 1 here, but you can see them in my picasa album, which i took pains to name everyone of them! We managed to bump into a nice chinese Restaurant about lunch time and had a sumptious meal, We had a big fish, prawns, oysters etc.. and the surprising bit was that the bill only came to RM140 for 10 person! Wow.. cheap...We find Kelantease food tasty, just a wee bit of the salty side. hehe...

After our pilgrimage to all the tumpat temples. we headed back to town and visited the Royal Museum and the Handicrafts Museum. Then the laddies wanted shopping... so we went shopping for batik... Me, and the rest of the guys were getting pretty bored... We were looking forward to our next stop, Kite Flying!

We did multiple stops on batik shopping, much to my and Little Jun's missery.. We just wanted to fly Kite... Not shop shop shop... haha...Anyway, finally our wish were granted and we had a fabulous time flying kite in Kelantan.....

Dinner at the famous thai restaurant was alright.. not really outstanding, but then, by that time, i was pretty tired. After dinner, we proceeded to KB Mall... No Karaoke here in Kelantan, but you can go bowling...

3rd day.. Hmmm... going home day.. Visited the famous colourful Siti Khatijah Market! and the state museum.

Well, the bit i enjoyed the most is of course the flying kite session! The wind was so strong there that it almost take no skills to lambung. had fun just running along the beach, and lazing about on the beach under the sun!


The interesting bit about the colours! I would think it is almost the most colourful state in the country! Well, for a start, the cars on the road are even more colourful than penang( where we tend to stick to all the dull metalics). The women there of course tend to wear colourful, bright batik baju kurung. That;s a strange description for kota bahru, however, i suppose, it is the first thing i notice, having come from a grey place like Aberdeen. Haha...

Colourful Kites


We visited 8-9 temples near the tumpat region on our 2nd Day. Most of them were pretty impressive! I suppose most of them were more impressive than penang temples. I mean you just have to take a look at the scale of size of the statues to know what i mean. In this state, you will see huge statues of buddha in Standing, sitting (various positions), and standing position.


This is one of the most unique templesWat Mai Suwankhiri i would say in the region is this dragon boat one... Literally a temple on a dragon boat. This pic is actually taken from the dragon boat... Impressive!

Kelantan, although a poor state under opposition rule for the past 20 years, has better roads than Penang!!!! At least most of their major roads are well maintained! Just drive around the affulent areas of bayan Lepas area, you will see what i mean...

KY's Birthday - 3th June


Hmmm, had lunch at Secret Recipe, than followed a cake cutting ceromony in TAO room and followed by big big seafood meal in Hai Boey! We went to Hai Boey about 7pm, after TT pimple removal ordeal. 8 of us sat on a table for 12.... haha... As we wanted to order lots of stuff! And we did, lalas, balitungs, helicopter, fish, crabs, prawns etc etc.. Had a really full meal and of course the company was great! Yup, I think i am gaining weight from all these outings! Oh no... Maybe i should follow Botak to the gym!


Besides the hearty meal, i also had a good laugh on the way back to town. Haven't laugh so hard for quite some time. Poor me, getting breathless laughing!

Petrol Price rocketed

I was swearing all the way home....hmmpf.. what lying scumbags! wtf!

RND treat 5th June

had lunch at palace de India followed with Hagen Diaz..... We managed to try all 14 flavours by ordering 2 7th Heaven! Haha.. My favourite still all all the coffee and rich chocolate ones, like Belgian choc, Tiramisu, Coffee, Rum and Rasin!

Really need to get to the GYM!