KLIA to the U.A.E

I haven't sent anyone of my buddies off at the airport for a long long while, I reckon since 1999 when I was still in uni. Well back then friends come and go everytime summer break rides in with it's 40 degrees celcius heat.

Well last Sunday was one of the rare times I get to send a close close buddy off at the airport bound for Abu Dhabi, UAE. Dude, I know you will only be there for 3 months and like we told ourselves, with MSN and stuff like SKYPE, far away doesn't seem very far away after all, since keeping in touch isn't hard at all. But you know lah, sometimes when we get caught up in the grind of our daily lives, the simplest of things often gets done the last, or worst, forgotten!

Anyway, I just wanna say that I'm both happy and proud that you got such a nice 'surprise', the opportunity of a lifetime even before the year of the rat began. Congratulations, man! This cannot in any way constitute as luck at all because I know that you have worked hard to be where you ended up in today, even if it's in a desert town far far away from the comforts of everything you ever know or love.

I've always knew you had it in you to come this far and much further than you could possibly imagine because all there is in you is the virtues of pure hard work, sacrifice and determination, not forgetting, knowing when to have fun while you're at it.

Well, do keep in touch, mate! And while we're at it, thanks for all the good advice that came from you all these years. It has helped me align my direction when i lose focus sometimes.

The 50th blog entry!

i like this comic (above) copyright of jeroen of www.kartoen.be

I'm popping the bottle and pouring some champagne to celebrate my 50th posting on Blogger.com!

"...i've received some encouraging comments from those who have dropped by and read my blog and I would really like to thank them for taking the time to read the stuff I've written here. Someone complimented me a couple of days ago about how well written this blog is. I wish to thank you from the bottom of my heart, but I believe that there's much more room for improvement and I will keep improving myself..."

Here I am sitting in my 20th storey cubicle in Wisma Genting while staring out of the window at a gloomy Friday afternoon. It's 2:40pm now, I'm counting down another 1 hour and 20 minutes till 4pm when I am finally go home. Today is dress down and leave early day, a day everyone looks forward to like the highlight of the week.

And as I ponder upon my activities for the coming weekend, the long term planner in me is busy at work scheming in the backgroud on what I should be doing in the long run to escape the monotony of the daily grind I go through as described above.

After chasing him for 17 days for the monthly rental due to me, yesterday I finally got him on the phone only to hear him say that he'll be staying till the middle of march before moving out. Initially he said he would not be paying me any more rental cos he wanna use up his 2 months deposit paid to me initially, then it got me pondering... stay for 2.5 months more but, 2 months deposit and won't be paying me anymore rental. Something not right here somewhere, so I texted him back and told him that he should be paying me another half month rental. Unless he will move out by the end of february.

He replied saying "No problem, I'll move out at the end of feb". So here I am left in sort of a quandary.

I have just been staying in my current place for about 2 and a half months only and although it's an old dodgy place full of rats and cockroaches and lizards, but I'm slowly getting the hang of staying here. It's really convenient and peaceful. On one hand, I wouldn't mind staying put where I am for a couple of years before I move to another place, and on the other hand, I've got my own apartment, which I have to pay roughly a thousand bucks every month for which is going to be vacant in another 1.5 months.

Another thing which is bugging me is, I recently came across this MBA program in Communications and PR from Limkokwing University which caught my interest. I was seriously contemplating MBA programs during the first half of 2007 but after landing this job, the plan slowly took a back seat as I didn't really have much time to do anything else after the grind of the 9-6 I was putting myself to for the past 6 months.

Now that I'm kinda settled down here plus the office move from Pulau Indah (Westport) to Wisma Genting in the middle of the city, I am left with alot more time to pursue whatever I had put on KIV before, and one of them included my MBA plan.

I remember telling my friend SK in Penang back in 2006 that one of my 2007 new year's resolutions was to embark in a MBA program. Look at how time flies? It's 2008 already, exactly 14 months after I shared with someone my new years plans for the past year, I'm yet to fulfill it!

Maybe the main obstacle back then was my financial situation. Not that it has improved dramatically now, I'm still broke as hell. While the funds from my EPF will help out a little and inch me a little bit closer to my dream, I still have to work my butt off to find the other 60-70% of funds to pay for the program fees.

So right now what I'm contemplating is, should I move in to stay in my own apartment in March or sell it off and use whatever money I can from it to upgrade myself with an MBA degree so that in the long term, my job prospects would be better and (possibly) I could aim to buy a much bigger house or drive a much bigger car because of the opportunities it presents me.

Not that I'm complaining about my situation now, but I will be turning 31 this year and I don't want myself to be stuck in a dead-end job with no prospects for the next 10-20 years whining about missed opportunities and watching my friends and peers wheeze by me in their flashy BMWs and Mercedez Benz talking about how successful their lives has become and me ending up snuggled cosily in the 'Middle class' cradle thanking my lucky stars to be alive and talking about how I made do with less to put my kids through school and university.

On a lighter note, this is my 50th post on blogger! I'm giving myself a pat on the back, maybe not so much for a job well done, more towards for being able (and consistent) enough to write 50 entries from 2006 till today. I know some of the entries are short, some are only pictures and a little message, some are nonsense and a little humour, but most of it are close to my heart, and I guess this one is no different either.

Thanks to blogs we get to express what we tend to keep deep inside us. If not for writing in them, we'll all probably be walking time-bombs just inching closer to blowing up cos we are unable to express our feelings.

Till next time! Thanks for reading and visiting my site...

Life is a Highway!

Barely reaching home, I’m all restless wanting to go right back to my pad, fire up the notebook and start typing away again. I wonder if this is what they call hypergraphia. Oh my goodness, my dream was to become a famous writer, not a famous quack who couldn’t stop writing! I guess this is born from all the emotions and feelings buried deep down inside just exploding to come out.

Maybe all there is to say has been poured out, and there’s nothing left to say, then maybe I’ll be one suffering from writer’s block. How’s that for a change?

Ever feel that urge to just pour everything out at once? What you feel at work, your family, your friends, your neighbors or even about stuff like politics or the economy or just simply your radical views about the weather, the climate change thingy.

If you ask me, this may very well be one of those days. Not only do I feel like I’m suffering from acute hypergraphia, I think I’m suffering from acute anything that has hyper tagged along with it. I spent an unusually large amount of time at the gym today, having being absent for almost 1 month. I think I’ve been away so long that I couldn’t even recognize the face of my group exercise instructor anymore. When he went about his usual welcoming the newbies routine and asked first timers to put up their hands, I was almost compelled to do so. After an unusual 2 hour work out, I then adjourned to the pasar malam next door and walked some more.

I don’t know what got into me but if it was a jogging spirit, it couldn’t have picked a worst body than the lump that I am.

Anyways, my thoughts of the day. Of late, I have been checking out profiles of my childhood friends whom which I have lost contact with some for more than 15 years. Many of them are in Australia and Singapore, places which I have stayed in before for many years before deciding that at home in a more familiar surrounding is fun too. So here I am, 2008 and turning 31 years old in Kuala Lumpur.

Not that it’s crappy here or anything, but the fighter in me is slowly waking up and trying to hint at me that there could be more to life that the comfortable routine I am putting myself through right now. I don’t know if it’s a form of self sabotage or the likes but every time I get comfortably settled down somewhere, I pluck myself up and relocate somewhere else for the sake of doing it. Then later on when I’m visiting a friend in his/her beautiful house, I start to envy how settled down they are and their ‘beautiful’ lives.

Don’t I have a chance at it too? I guess I do but for the past 5 years I chose to live (literally) like a nomad, shuttling between Singapore, KL and Penang constantly. My car doubled as my bedroom most of the time and when I wasn’t working the daily grind, I would be on the road traveling.

Now I’m contemplating if, at 31 I should put myself through that ‘experience’ again. Come to think about it, if I take another 10 years do be on the road, traveling and staying at places I had only wished upon during my childhood, the worst it could get is, I get settled down at about 40!

Life is a highway right? Or that’s what they sing about all the time. I guess I’m one of the suckers who got sucked into all that hype. So I guess in situations like this, it’s not that awkward to be saying “Now kids, don’t try this at home!” How corny!

Well a crossroad is a crossroad. When u ride up to it, there’s probably only 2 choices you can make there and then, go left or go right, or if you’re lucky enough, you get to go straight ahead and choose to exit at the next one. Anyway you choose to look at it, sooner or later you have to choose. Its been 2.5 hours since I turned on the pc just now and thank goodness my little hypergraphia binge is slowly wearing off.

I still feel like saying a lot more, but thanks to the magic of blogs, I can still come back tomorrow when the craving starts and I start to write a whole load of crap again. So hope to see all of you here again soon!

The week that was

Friday finally! Other than dragging myself out of bed at 8:30am in the morning and speeding down the kesas highway at 120km/h to work in the rain on bald Michelin tyres, I guess the rest of my day went pretty well.

Today was also to be the last day I will be going to work in the cruise terminal in Port Klang, 50+ km from my house, paying RM13.20 in toll charges daily and an average of RM15 for petrol. All those traveling for the past 6 months had really taken it's toll on my health, but nevertheless, the beautiful sea and port view, ships sailing by, sound of the waves always leaves me with a refreshed feeling and a renewed perspective of things everytime I think about it.

I took some great pictures of the team with my handphone, without me inside :( toiled for half the day like a labourer carrying boxes, had a good lunch with the boss and the rest of the team members and pretty much enjoyed the whole of today (my last working day at Port Klang). I know I'm gonna miss this place but I know that everything that happens, happen for a reason. And I do believe that good reason outweights bad when it comes to moving to the city to work.

Going to work in the city ain't so bad after all (I hope...) as many say that it's both fast paced, fun filled and challenging. 3 words which are seldom used together unless it's for going to a Keanu Reeves movie or running a marathon. Today I'm not very sure I can take another day of cramming in a crowded LRT train commuting to work in downtown Kuala Lumpur everyday with a few hundred thousand people. It brings back really unpleasant memories of my life in Singapore a few years back.

It's not that I hate public transport... I HATE PUBLIC TRANSPORT! How's that for a statement? Well, since it's convenient for me, living just 15 minutes away (walking distance) to the lrt station, I'm gonna give it a shot for the sake of trying and if it sucks eggs just as I had anticipated it, then I'll stick to riding my rickety old motorcycle to work every morning. I don't mind all the traveling on the road plus all the dangers thrown in, but at least I get to travel alone, not having to smell somebody's foul body odour beside me.

I don't know why but today suddenly I had a tingling urge to find out more information about Px2, a large payment processing enabler. Not that I have never heard of it before, but the idea bulb in my head suddenly blinked on as if possessed and shone a bright shiny yellow light in my head. The little birdy in my head told me that if I could come up with an idea to emulate the business model of this company, maybe I can propose it to a company which has the resources to kinda duplicate this company.

Naturally when I get these kinds of sudden idea binges, what I'd do first is to research the alternatives, as well as pros and cons to this company and it's product. Looks like I have dug up quite alot of dirt as well as gold nuggets based on this idea alone. Well, seems like whoever reads this might have the slightest clue what I am talking about, don't worry, it's for me to refresh on in time to come and understand what was going on in my head at the time, as in this time. What I can say after reading through the overload of information on the internet is, it's a good idea and the thing with good ideas are, most people come up with it and sit on it after that. I have learnt after all this years that, to succeed, you must TAKE ACTION and TAKE ACTION NOW!

Happy New Year 2008, so far...

WELCOME 2008! THANK YOU 2007 FOR ALL THE OPPORTUNITIES YOU HAVE PRESENTED TO ME!

1st Picture: Bright lights from a lighthouse
2nd Picture: If you turn this picture 45 degrees to the left it's actually a picture of the banks of the Birmanian Lake, this picture can only be taken once a year with the right camera angle, right lighting and right tide.

All photos are copyright of it's respective owners.

WELCOME 2008!

Wow, what a year 2007 was. I managed to achieve almost all the goals which I had set myself out to do last year with an exception of one or two. It looks like some of the things which I had left out in 2007 would have to be credited into 2008 for me to push for it's achievement or to make right. One of the more significant resolution I made in 2007 was to lose weight significantly, but in the end, as of 31/12/2007, I'm as round as ever! So much so that, when I was sitting in front of the television one day back in Penang watching a gourmet show having a beer with my dad, he turned around, took one look at my belly and said "My goodness, you're as fat as that chef on tv!" and just as he was saying that, the fat bald chef on tv turned around and looked straight at me as if he knew we were mocking him... or me, for that matter.

I sat there grinning from ear to ear, patted my belly and took a sip of my beer and continued watching the fat bald chef take another bite of some friend exotic asian food. At the back of my mind I was slowly trying to figure out what happened in the 12 months I had been going to fitness first and all that membership fees I have been paying them. Perhaps it was the MacDonald's or KFC down the road which I have been frequently going to after exercise sessions.

I don't know if I dare to make anymore new year's resolution that involves a certain degree of pain which I have to undergo so that I gain approval from my peers and family members, but taking another look at the full length mirror in the bathroom, I'm seriously reconsidering my options. Lose weight or lose weight! Now let's see which shall I do first...

Is it just me or I suddenly feel quite depressed talking about new year's resolutions. Let's change to another topic shall we? I made quite an amazing discovery when I went back to Penang last month. I tend to get kind of 'electrocuted' everytime I come in contact with something with metal element in it, like the tap in the kitchen, my dvd player, door knobs, my car door, even house keys. Now I don't really know how to explain this phenomena, but I did ask my dad briefly about it, cos he used to work in a factory where they manufacture stuff in a cleanroom environment. He told me, my body has got extra electrical charges, or was it electrostatic and the only way I can prevent myself from getting these mini electric shocks is to 'ground' myself. I asked, How? With a brown ground wire attached to a metal surface?

Now if one end of the wire attaches itself to a metal surface to channel out all the surplus current, where does the other end go? I dread to even think about it... My bee-hind? God almighty! I'd rather have surplus electricity and enlist in the X-men! Wouldn't that be cool? An electrifying fat beer drinking cussing word swearing dude.

Ok, about the new year... I drove 5 hours from Penang to KL on 31/12/2007 so that I'd make it in time to be in KL to welcome 2008. New year this time around was a little different, special and one I might remember for a while. This was the first time in the many years I had celebrated new year's in KL parked by the side of the highway with a thousand other cars just to catch a glimpse of fireworks going on in KLCC and the infamous Bukit Bintang area.

We caught a glimpse alright, also drenched in the rain as it was pouring! Nevertheless it was worth it I guess. After that, it got better, the rest of the night was spent in some mamak bistro in ampang having a roti naan and watching the new year's concert 'live' on astro, thanks to the mamaks.

To someone special to me, I know you sometimes sneak around and read my postings here as well... hehe.. I would like to say, thank you for the best new year's present you had given me. You may not realise it, but it's what I have been waiting for all this while. However, right after that, because of your doubt, I suddenly doubt alot of things myself.

I know it's tough, but you have to be confident as well. Let me jot that down, one of my new year's resolution is to have a higher degree of confidence! So that I know that if I fell tomorrow, I fell holding my head high. Life is a journey and it's the journey which is worth going through, the destination is not as important.

To end this post, I would like to tell the world that, like me, the new year's resolutions you make this new year need not be a continuation of the ones which you have made last year or the previous years or a repeat of what people are making. It could be as simple as wanting to enjoy all the emotions and experiences which you didn't get to experience in 2007. How's that for a resolution?

Let's say you didn't really experience happiness in it's purest sense in 2007 cos you were going through a bad financial crisis, you could jot down Happiness in 2008 as your resolution. Try maybe... understanding... or a clear mind or maybe peace and serenity.

To my dear readers, Happy 2008! Shalom!