31 March 2009

Got a sudden craving for satay but too lazy to drive to Kajang? Now you can have satay Kajang (at least the Samuri kind) near home. That is if you live near where I live. Not many people knows this but there's a little Samuri satay outlet at the Mex (Maju Expressway/KLP) R&R near Bandar Putra Permai. It's accessible on your left side if you travel from KL to Putrajaya and you can also use the entry ramp just before Jusco Equine.

Unfortunately the satay we ate today was not that good. I thought my taste buds were deceiving me because of the runny nose and all but my wife also said the satay was no good. The beef satay was especially bad, to elastic for my liking and the peanut sauce was below par. Is it just our luck or all Samuri satay's is really that bad? I've been to Satay Mas Kajang a hundred times but they satay is always above expectation. Well at least they're not undercooked or hard as a chewing gum. We probably won't go there ever again but if you guys wanna give them a try, go ahead. You've been forewarned.

30 March 2009

10 seconds. That's how long it takes for me to catch a cold. I was fine one second and then suddenly I sneezed 5 times in quick succession and after that I got the cold bug. Need I tell you that it was a really miserable day at work with this cold, sore throat, runny nose and all? Even the regular little yellow pill didn't work as much as before.

Help, we've got Tarzan in the house! If we just let her be she will climb even higher. But usually she will cry halfway up the grill because she doesn't know how to climb down.

28 March 2009

This morning Linda went to take another one of her KPLI tests in Kelana Jaya. She bought the form and took the test like every year but she never got pass the test part yet. This time though it's gonna be the last time she'll be taking the test because next year there'll be no more KPLI, yohoo! Anyway she said she's fairly confident sitting the test this time around. Besides she decided to choose the least popular subject - Special Educations (Pendidikan Khas) that few people applies for so she has a relatively higher chance of getting it. If she gets called for the interview that is.

While waiting for Linda to finish her 2 and a half hours test, I took Adam to where else, IKEA of course (we left Mia at the nursery). I left him to play at Smaland for an hour or so while I relax on the bench surfing the Internet on my phone. I have lost interest in strolling around IKEA. No money and no point.

I might have said that I'm not very interested in joining the over-hyped Earth Hour thingy but I did switch off all our lights for like half an hour or so. For the record, we usually have one 25 watt light bulb on at night anyway so it's like we've been doing Earth Hour almost everyday before, so no biggie. When I drive to the 7-Eleven store tonight I saw like only 1 in every 5 house turned of their lights. Obviously Earth Hour is not a big thing round here. Heck even Nora whose been promoting on this program on her blog didn't turn off her lights, so how?

OMG NOOOO!!! Rini had just been booted out of AF tonight!! The world as we know it has ended. I got the feeling somehow she's gonna come back into the show you know, since all the guys are into her. Tee hee hee.

26 March 2009

Mia Ariana turns one yesterday so today we brought her to the local government clinic to get her one year old jab. Contrary to popular belief, she didn't develop fever or any type of sickness after that.

Linda got her much deserved (and awaited) bonus and pay today. Being her selfless self, Linda bought us a pair of this Casio wristwatch for an undisclosed price at the Mines later this afternoon. She lost her watch that I bought for her birthday and my own watch broke for the second time not long ago.

Then she bought Adam his very first bicycle for RM120 at a bicycle shop in Serdang. Sort of a very-very belated birthday gift for him. He didn't take long to learn to ride the bicycle and he rode it for hours this evening until it get dark.

So thanks Linda for the watch and to her employer too for the bonus.

24 March 2009

New ruling for all bank employees.

Attention all bank employees. After much discussion and haggling with BNM and major bank employees unions such as NUDE and BISUBISU, we have agreed to enforce this new ruling for the good of everybody. With immediate effect, below are the list of Penalty Rate for the each respective offence.

1. Coming even 1 millisecond late to work for whatever reason - RM15.00
2. Did not sign in or out in front of the prefects - RM15.00
3. Leaving workstation more messy than a chicken coop - RM20.00
4. Posting Hello Kitty or Doraemon posters at locker - RM13.00
5. Leaving stinky socks or undergarments at locker or workstation - RM8.00
6. Installing pirated software (unless approved by unofficial IT guy) - RM20.00
7. Forget to give present to Boss on his/her birthday - RM50.00 or an IKEA flower pot (which ever is higher)
8. Telling off a customer because of bad mood - No penalty (we're all human)
9. Cooking and eating Maggie mee at the pantry - RM5.00
10. Gossiping about your colleagues and got caught by a supervisor - RM20.00
11. Complaining about having to do compulsory over time - RM30.00
12. Taking noisy and unruly kids to work during weekends - RM40.00
13. Failing to attend a colleague's wedding - RM19.90
14. Rolling your eyes to your immediate supervisor - RM5.95
15. Complaining or discussing this ridiculous new ruling - RM100.00

Please disseminate this message to all your union members accordingly.

20 March 2009

Remember when I said growing hair makes me more susceptible to colds? True enough I just recovered from a 2 days full blown cold and it sucks. Only today that I feel better. The good new is my house and car is clean now. We did some spring cleaning this weekend and our house is not a total mess anymore. In fact you are all free to come here today see around our very tidy place and I will personally take you for a ride on our spanking clean car afterward. The offer's valid for today only.

Just because I hate the SMS voting concept doesn't mean I cannot layan this show right? It's okay if you want to watch this senseless reality show, as long as you keep your money in your pocket. Here in this house, everybody from 5 years and above watched the show. Well I didn't actually watch the entire show, just snippets here and there. And everybody here has their favorite students too. Adam likes the one with the spiky hair (Obri) while Linda rooted for Isma and Hafiz (yucks!). Me of course I'll be supporting Rini, the least ugly and fat yet the most gedik of them all. Go Rini!! Then again, somehow I got the feeling that drama queen won't last for long in this show.

Midnight today is the first of the crucial must-win 9 match battle for the league title. If we don't win this, our previous romp on United would be almost totally useless. Come on you Reds!!

18 March 2009

All my life, my hair has always been cropped short or kept very long. There's no in-between normal short hair cut. This year I've decided to keep my hair again. I'm tired of the old hair style. Besides, too many people here sports that hair style nowadays. Case in point: Syawal - our dispatch guy. He never had any hair for as long as I can remember. Now bald or short cropped hair is becoming quite the norm. I don't want to be normal. Normal is not my favourite word in my vocabulary. I want to be different.

The thing with long hair is, I have to shampoo them once in a while, use conditioner and comb them everyday. So much hassle. Previously, I didn't even bother to look at the mirror, ever. Plus if you get to be near enough to me you'll see all the gray hair that's sprouting on my head. Sometimes I felt like I'm 70 with all those gray hairs. But the one things that bugs me so much about keeping long-ish hair is I tend to catch a cold very easily. I think I'm twice as much susceptible to colds now than before when I'm bald. And that sucks.

But you know what they say. No pain, no gain. My hair grows real quickly. If I shave my hair on Monday, it will grow back like really fast and I will have an inch of hair already by next Wednesday. They're like so healthy and fertile. So far they've never failed me. But today my hair is not really long. It is still short. Short like a regular guy's short hair cut. And I feel like I looked really ugly in it. That's why you don't get to see me much here.

Oh yeah, one more thing. The hair stays until Liverpool wins the league title. I hope I won't have to wait another 5 years for that to happen.

17 March 2009

We left Kelantan early in the morning and arrived around 1:30PM here in Seri Kembangan. Stopped by Jusco first to get some groceries. It's been an incredibley long journey and everybody is tired. I dozed off for an hour or so upon reaching home.

Our car is very dirty inside-out and the house is a complete mess but we're simply too tired to tidy up and stuff. Is it worth it, the 1000 kilometers round trip? I don't know now. I just hope I can last till the end of the month.

15 March 2009

We slept in Pasir Mas last night because after this we'd be spending the rest of our holidays in Tanah Merah. It is so cold here in the morning. I was shivering to the bone during shower this morning. It's been raining a lot round here too. In fact it hasn't stopped raining since early in the morning as I'm typing this. When it rains, it sure does pours in the East Coast.

I went to send off my sister Izni at her college this morning. She teaches there at the local IKM in Pasir Mas. After that we started off to Tanah Merah but not before stopping for an early lunch at Warung Kurnia Ibu. Remember the place where I had that delicious noodle soup last year? That's the name of that place. I only found out today. We had another taste of their famous noodle soup today and the mouth watering Tkrie coconut shake. MMMmmmm yummy! We simply must go there again next time.

In Tanah Merah I finally get to do the one thing that I wanted to do since yesterday. Get enough sleep! After working my ass down at work and exercising every day, now is the time I can get a complete wholesome rest i.e sleep all day long.

Mia cried a lot today. She's not very used to seeing these 'strangers' (my in laws) so she cried whenever her mother is out of sight. Maybe she just needs a little more getting used to.

A phone with qwerty keypad + Celcom wireless broadband + Opera Mini browser is a blogger's best friend. You get to read all this thanks to my Nokia E61i phone and Celcom wireless broadband. The Internet connection here is quite acceptable too, much-much better than Maxis Wireless Shitband. Kelantan is no doubt a Celcom territory. And the great thing about browsing from a mobile phone is it uses your bandwith very efficiently. I tried connecting using Celcom wireless through a laptop in Pasir Mas but the connection is super-slow. Here on my phone though the connection is pretty fast because the phone and the browser uses only a fraction of the bandwith compared to larger devices like laptops. The font and the image size is greatly reduced and every bytes counts. Only one complaint though. My thumbs hurts a little after typing so much on this tiny keypad.

14 March 2009

It's balik kampung time again. School holiday plus the fact that my wife missed her bantal bucuk at home so much, I had to go. My Mom tagged along for this trip today. We left early in the morning to Manjung in Perak to pick up Linda's mom first. She now works there full time taking care of my nephews. I used the PLUS highway instead of the regular Kuala Selangor route because I wanna get there faster. We exited at Bidor town and drove to Teluk Intan before reaching Manjung. The toll costs RM17 something but we definitely got there faster.

We stopped for about an hour at my in law's place and had an early lunch before continuing our journey. From Manjung I drove to Bruas then to Kuala Kangsar and to Grik all toll free. The trip using the East-West road (not highway) took about 2 hours. The road was in a pretty bad shape in some parts but I had no choice really. The alternative would be the Karak-Gua Musang route or the East Coast highway all which are much further away.

We stopped in Tanah Merah for dinner and to drop off my MIL. For the record, the famous Tok Wan nasi lemak in Tanah Merah is not that good anymore. The nasi lemak is plain and the chichken is forgettable. They don't make it like they used to anymore. We only got to Pasir Mas around 7.30 PM. Later that night I went to a restaurant in town to watch the Man U - Liverpool game which we won brilliantly! The Man U versus Liverpool fans were evenly distributed at the restaurant tonight but you know which side goes home happy right? It felt like all my fatigue and tiredness had all but gone away after the match.

Gathering together at home with my grandma, we couldn't help but talk about politics which my Mom butted in. Being an ardent supporter of BN, my Mom was clearly irritated hearing me bashing BN and UMNO. Being a government civil servant and all, my Mom is the kind of person whose brainwashed for years by government propaganda. She's so ever grateful for everything the government had done for her and Najib is like her icon and hero. I said you gotta to be kidding me. It's their responsibility of the ruling government of the day to take care of the people. I bet PR would do an even better job at managing the country should they be given the chance. It is wrong for BN to give selective development to some and deny the rest for others just because of their political difference. These leaders (whom many are Muslims) shall answer to God in the hereafter for all their injustice and corrupt ways. Naturally my Mom was irked by my lecture and she just scorned there quietly. I guess I should just avoid talking about politics in front of my Mom in the future. She's a lost cause and it would be nearly impossible to change her beliefs.

13 March 2009

Last month my car battery went dead on me. It costs me a bomb to have it replaced. A few days ago the car started to act out again. Whenever I drive in low gear or go up a slope it started to groan and rumble loudly and it felt like it's going to die anytime soon (semput)

So I searched around at the Savoc website and found another Proton Savvy owner with the same problem. The cable plug and ignition coil had reached their expiry date according to the forum. The next day I brought my car to an Eon service centre nearby and the mechanic confirmed what I found earlier. The cable plug & ignition coil will cost me a cool 800 ringgit there. I don't have that much money to spare.


Just when I thought I'm stuck with a faulty car until my next pay day, my wife, through her colleagues found a mechanic who could fix the car for much-much less. So today we went straight to Ampang right after work. 3 hours later (plus traffic jam) we got our car fixed for only RM520. See how much Proton service centre ripped us off? And the mechanic uses the same genuine spare parts.

So for any Proton car owners who would like to get their cars fixed for a fraction of the normal cost, you can contact me via e-mail for details. This guy has many years experience working at Proton and he's a real honest guy trying to earn some extra income after work.

Now I can drive the car in peace for our balik kampung trip tomorrow.

12 March 2009

One morning last weekend I woke up and recieved a Maybank TAC number on my mobile phone. I don't remember requesting any TAC number from Maybank so I was quite suspicious with this one. I logged on into my Maybank account online and found all my savings still untouched. Still, just to be safe, I quickly rush to the nearest Maybank ATM and withdraw whatever money I have in there.


Fast forward today, my wife told me how a friend of her officemate recieved the same mysterious TAC on his phone. But this guy didn't suspect anything so he did nothing about it. The next time he tried to withdraw his money, he found out 800 ringgit missing from his account. A sophisticated hacker or an inside job? Beats me. But one thing for sure, online banking is definitely not that safe especially if you give out your account number to strangers for business transactions or whatever. I won't keep much money in my Maybank account anymore after this. I'm sure this is not an isolated case and many more had fall victim to this hack. Just be sure not to give any of your account number to strangers. If you really have to, make sure you don't have much money in it or better still, create a dedicated account for such business. Poor dude. I doubt he'll ever see his money again.

And what has KLCC got anything to do with this? Nothing. I was stuck in a traffic jam near there when my wife told me this story.

11 March 2009

It's the second leg of the knock-out round of the Champions League and Liverpool is leading Madrid 1-0 on aggregate. The venue is Anfield but anything can happen. A totally must watch game. So I slept early last night (around 10:15 PM) and set my alarm to 3:00 AM. I did woke up at 3:00 PM alright but the match didn't start until 45 minutes later. Bleh.

It was an amazing game. Torres and Gerrard and the rest of the boys was in top form tonight. They didn't give the Los Blancos any chance. The game ended around 5:30 in the morning and I got like 30 minutes of sleep afterwards. Naturally my biological clock went haywire. I had to rely on Red Bull for support in the morning to stop me from dozing off at my table. In the afternoon it's even worse. I struggled not to fall asleep. But it was well worth it after seeing Liverpool through to the quarterfinals. I'd definitely stay up for the second leg again then.

Maybe I was a bit mean to Madrid supporters out there just now. My apologies.

Yesterday I bought some rice and mutton curry at a mamak near my office meaning to give to Adam. When we got home, Adam refused to touch the food. He just said he's not hungry. So in the end, I had to eat everything, the packet full of rice and the mutton curry. Today when I come to work, I felt my size 36 pants is a bit tight around the waist. WTF?? It's all your fault Adam Farihin!!!

I must sleep early tonight. Laters.

10 March 2009

Liverpool have cruised into the last eight of the Champions League after an emphatic 4-0 victory over Real Madrid at Anfield, thanks to goals from Steven Gerrard (2), Fernando Torres and Andrea Dossena. What can I say? The Reds totally outplayed and outclassed Los Merengues tonight when they dominated from start to finish. Fernando Torres opened the scoreline on 16th minutes when he taps home a lovely pass by Dirk Kuyt. Steven Gerrard adds second from the spot when Gabriel Heinze allegedly handled the ball in the penalty area. After the break, Liverpool didn't let complacency set in and got their 3rd goal for the night when the skipper hammered home a brilliant pass from Ryan Babel on 47th minutes. Real Madrid showed no real sign of coming back into the game and substitute Andrea Dossena rounded up the game with his first ever goal in a Reds jersey near injury time. Iker Casillas was excellent today and if it wasn't for him, Madrid would have lost by even a bigger margin. His opposite number Pepe Reina was even better when he kept a clean sheet for both fixtures. Liverpool progressed to the quarterfinals 5-0 on aggregates.

I offer my deepest condolences to all Madrid supporters out there. Looks like good looks alone cannot help you win matches. The Madrid team sheet would probably look good on a runway in Milan but in football, they're totally hopeless especially when managed by rejects like Juande Ramos (what did they expect?. Time to support a real club (pun intended).

9 March 2009

Today a few of my colleagues departed to Hokkaido island in northern Japan. As always, the trip was sponsored by our kindly supplier whose ever grateful that we procured a multi-million ringgit worth of goods from them last year. I didn't get to go though but I am so not jealous. Even if I was selected, I'd probably pass anyway. I can't possibly leave my wife behind knowing that she'll be having a hard time sending our kids to school and getting to work. At least not until she can confidently drive the car.

So have fun in Hokkaido guys, Bujal, Rizal and others. Don't forget to say hi to Doraemon and Hello Kitty for me. And remember, during earthquakes or volcanic eruptions, stay away from high-rise buildings and trees!

8 March 2009

Our initial plan today was to visit CIMB's training centre (Pusatputra) in Bangi and enjoy a dip in their swimming pool. We got there around 3:00-ish in the afternoon and to our dismay the pool was closed because there's no life guard on duty today (Sunday). Hah, like I need any bloody life guards <-- wah so action this fella. The training centre is open to all CIMB staff and you just have to flash your staff tag at the entrance to enter. They've got badminton and tennis courts, football field, a gymnasium and of course a full size swimming pool. Maybe next week.
So there's no swimming and splashing in the pool today. We diverted to the McDonald's restaurant in Equine Park instead. Yeah we officially ended our boycott on McDonald's today. Somebody up there in the management is very smart to introduce those irresistible McValue Lunch meals. For a ridiculously low price of RM6.25 I can enjoy a medium sized lunch every day of the week. Like how cool is that?

Nevertheless I think we'll going to continue to avoid the rest of those expensive fast-food outlets, especially in times like these. I know KFC is not going to bring down their price, ever. Plus say what they like, every time you eat McDonald's or KFC or whatever, the owners will still have to pay royalty for using those American brand names. And ultimately, part of that will proceed to the 3 billion dollars that the U.S contribute to the Israeli state annually. And I don't want to have anything to do with that.

7 March 2009

Today we went to Linda's former office mate's wedding in section 18, Shah Alam. Since section 18 is just next door to section 17 where my sister Lina lives, we decided to ask my Mom along and she agreed.

The groom's name was Nizam and I forgot what's the bride's name. We had the usual typical Malay wedding's food - chicken, nasi minyak, mutton and curry. The food was so-so, not exactly brilliant but generally edible (I'm so horrible to say that). Nobody has yet to beat my friend Dayangku Nurul Husna's excellent wedding food that I had almost 2 years ago. Great wedding foods are hard to come by, that's for sure.

As usual we had to endure some terrible karaoke singers as we eat. Linda's office mates and friends are so lucky. She went to almost all their weddings without fail. If she didn't got that means the venue is too far away or I'm just lazy to bother to go. I do hope they will all come in droves to our kid's wedding in the future he he.

Later we stopped by Lina's place in section 17 and hang out for an hour or two.

4 March 2009

My friend Bohari took his medical leave again today. That's 3 days in a row. He's still yet to recover from that fever that he's had since Monday. I hope you'll recover soon dude (our clients are all asking for you). I suggest you go to a hospital this time you know in case it's something serious like dengue or altantuya, oops I mean Cikukungya. We don't want to lose 3 staffs in a month don't we?

So since Bohari is sick and Bujal is permanently attached to Puncak Alam and our clients are screaming for their orders, I have no choice but to take Bohari's place today (and maybe tomorrow too). First I went to the Fujitsu service center at Menara Olympia in KL to pick up a notebook. I never liked going to that place. Most of the parking spot that are reserved and empty parking spots are impossible to find at any time of the day. Not to mention the parking rate is cutthroat. And I don't like Fujitsu service centers also. Their service is slow, they took forever to fix our notebooks and they made me pay 120 ringgit deposit for every item sent. Plus they don't have big plasma TV or free drinks like HP do. So guys' don't buy anything from Fujitsu. Their spare parts are not cheap either.

From KL I had to deliver the notebook to Shah Alam. It took me a full one hour to get from KL to Shah Alam this afternoon. The traffic was awful. I got stuck at Jalan Sultan Ismail, Jalan Syed Putra and also at the Batu 3 toll plaza. The worst was at Jalan Syed Putra near that stupid school where all those parent came to pick up their kids in their own bloody car. That school ought to be moved somewhere far away from the city. I was fuming mad stuck in that stupid jam under the scorching sun. Bad timing, bad route choice or plain bad luck? I think it was a combination of all of the above.

I have not been to this company in Shah Alam for a while now so they've got quite a pleasant surprise to see the new me. Some complimented my new look while some even queried whether I was ill or something. I just grinned and shrugged. Totally made my day :)

3 March 2009

So how do you guys family plan? Many use the pill, some use some sort of implant, some use condoms, a few use vasectomy while others use the natural way such as coitus interruptus (withdrawal before the ejaculation). As for me, we usually use the pill since the implant is much more expensive. Sometimes when my wife forgot to take the pill I put on my rubber. I don't mind using condoms. It's just I hate to see those female cashier at 7-Eleven blush or look uneasy when I bought them over the counter. And a few very rare times we use the coitus interruptus method which I disliked the most. What's the use of kissing and foreplay and what not if I had to shoot it outside during the orgasm? That's the bestest, most fun part of any sexual intercourse and when I had to withdraw it just before the climax it just felt so wrong.

Some people argue taking the pill or implants will have some side effects but I'd rather have that then have no satisfaction in my sex life. So how do you guys plan your family? Come on, don't be shy - share with us!

2 March 2009

Okay I have a confession to make. I bought a new phone last week. A Canon LS-120V phone. It is second hand and it's also huge like a calculator. In fact if you didn't look carefully you might mistake it for a calculator!

It has qwerty keypad, 3G, Quickoffice, push e-mail, WiFi, Bluetooth and a 2.0 mega-pixel camera. It has everything that I need on a phone. It's a freaking mobile computer and it's perfect!

The phone also caused me to have a fight with my wife for 4 days. She was mad that I spent our precious money on this useless thing. I'm sorry darling but I just had to buy this phone. I've been having this weird dream where a really old main with white hair and beard demanded that I bought this phoneso that I can be happy in life. You simply cannot ignore dreams where an old man told you to do stuff right? It's an omen. You must do it or else.

Okay enough for now. I have to shut down this PC to preserve energy. Did I tell you I had to skip lunch and dinner for the next 20 days after I bought that phone? And I cannot turn on my PC at home more than 10 minutes a day. Poor me.

1 March 2009

It's all over. Liverpool's title challange that is. Although we lost only for the second time last Saturday this season, we did drew 10 freaking games which explains our dismal league position. It would take a miracle or we need to win all 11 remaining games this season, which is nothing short of a miracle anyway.

I don't care anymore about football. The season is over.