Yiu Vee's Cyber Room

My first trip into Thailand has so far been unexpected.

Starting the journey early on Monday with a shocker that my other car was underperforming - at the users error.

Drove up through Dannok or southern Thailand, observed procedures that is require for immigration and custom clearances and also travel card requirements. The drive from Kuala Lumpur took about 7 hours with 2 stops for breakfast and lunch before arriving in the evening. I stayed at the Hatyai Rama Hotel which was so called far away from the city at a very reasonable rate of about RM60 per night, which came with free wifi coverage with excellent network in the whole hotel.

 

The first evening, we walked the near the hotel looking for a snack - fried kueh teow (fried over charcoal stove), then we walked on before the rain set in, we found shelter in a small shop selling a delicacy - fish maw, mushroom and a type of rhizome (it was nice), before having dinner in the hotel (its halal this hotel). It was a dinner meeting and therefore there was a lot of talk about a project we were about to do, the fried rice was good and the tom yam was nice and not too spicy. After dinner, we decided we called it a day and retired to the room. The room was about 175-190 sq ft, comprised of a king size mattress, a television which has something like 80 channells which were mostly in Thai and didn't interest me, only the wi-fi interested me.... ha ha........I was asleep rather quickly as I was rather tired from travelling.

 

The next day, it was a breakfast meeting at a place called Sami..... quite traditional Thai muslim food, was there for lunch too, they have dim sum, rather small portions, not too oily, but i find them rather simple, meat, sausages, some vegetables, prawn sticks, eggs, fishballs and pau. Lunch was much more spicier - eventhough i like spices and chilli, the soup was really fiery (not advisable if u can't take anything spicy - this really KILLS), then had ikan 3 rasa which was averagely spicy, vegetables, kerabu mango laced with chilli padi and a fried fish. This lunch also was a cap to last nights meeting as well, so much more talk..... and more food...... We had another meeting scheduled - hydrogen power. This may be another hit in the world, so let me give it more study. Dinner was sea food - fresh crabs, squid, pomfret and prawns. We went back into town and walked around, much more people were around as there was an unexpected event happening the following day, alms offering to monks in southern thailand (they expected 10,000 monks to be present). It was a night that many didn't see for a long time, the people had come back to Hatyai, albeit for just a day. Called it a night at about 2300 as I had to be awake early for the event at 0600.

 

0600 - was out of the hotel - this place was a strategic location as it was at the end of the whole event area which made our exit from the hotel after checking out very convenient. Sat through the whole even of prayers, speaches and the offerings which took about 2 and a half hours. Then it was back to the hotel for breakfast and then shower and checking out.

 

This trip was mostly of food and listening to information..... well, hope all talk gets some action soon. Till more next time.

Life has just been exciting. More so that i have felt that I was just not in total anticipation of what has occured. From getting a nice job to wondering what I would be doing in the near future. The company that I am in had given notice of winding down and so I just needed to finish some paperwork in finance before leaving at the end of June. The company kep professionals decided that it was not their cup of tea already and wanted to change business direction back to what they originally wanted to do like 4 years ago, IP building. I had also taken a nice trip somewhere for some relaxation as well (cutting the story very short).

 

Being in office daily was therapeutic as it required me to get up at a regular time of 620a.m. so that I could beat the morning traffic to work, as I didn't want to take the public transportation as my commute was to get to work and move about to do other errands which required a very convenient mode of transport. Its getting to be a very horrid weather as well, with the haze and the extreme heat of the sun, coupled with occasional showers and thunderstorms.

 

I accompanied my boss for a meeting with regards to building automation, something that he has a passion for, and given this opportunity, I would love if this did take off and I would get more new experience in the technical field, I love learning new things, but can never excel at them.... ha ha.... sssshhhh.... this is a secret. I wondered if its always possible to create some AI (Artificial Intelligence) that can work itself or with minimum human interaction to save cost and also further green the earth. It was a rather enlightening experience talking with people that have a higher IQ and a sense of humor that is different from mine.

 

I did get sick this month, with a week long flu like symptoms that didn't come with fever or a cough, more like the mucuous tickling my throat and forcing me to expel it only. Quarantined myself away from the little ones and successfully, they didn't get anything from me. Recovery was a bit slow, not sure my body is feeling older or getting longer to recuperate from viruses.

 

I did also meet a friend whom I have known online for sometime like 3 years, we went for a movie, a dinner and some clubbing at a place called Mist in Bangsar.

 

Supposedly I was to get something done urgently, but then the executor is not available, its surprising that when I want to do something mostly, things get rather complicated when I want to execute it...... I also did some classified searching, looking for a nice job, doesn't have to be high pay, but I have to enjoy it...... any recommendations?

 

Till then......

 

Oh..... some of you might have wondered... my other half..... she is having loads of fun, coming back once often enough to see me, which really makes me ever too happy, just that...well...... ssshhh.... another secret. She has visited places like Paris, Amsterdam, Auckland, London, just to name a few. Well, she is the nicest, always buying me food from different parts of the world and sending me post cards. Maybe its time for me to make another visit to HK soon cause......um um..... i fly cheaper... ha ha...... She will be back for holidays in August, but thats only for her birthday and she did request me to spend my birthday in HK...... ha ha ha.... well, maybe i'll find a job there as well....... depending on a lot of factors like accomodation as well.... its really really expensive, thinking on the long term if its viable to get a property on that island or not....

Well, well, even if its not an occasion i celebrate, at least i welcome this holiday even if i have to think and work today. Being the naturally aspirated mild workaholic, i decided to do some paperwork and investigative chats with people today, with regards to the project at hand. Its not even in hand but yet i do wish that it will materialise soon. Not a very big project, neither do i consider it a small project, its something that i worry about, caused me to lose sleep for over 4 days already.

Since the boss has committed that he will be part of the discussion, i'm not so worried as he is getting his contacts ready to go to battle, its an uphill task that would require a lot of pushing and grunting, but at the end the payday will make it worth it. Am trying very hard to not to fall asleep now... its 1600 so i can sleep well tonight and be reenergised to get more paperwork done. I think that i really got the office designer worked up for the last 2 days as the dateline was today - eventhough knowing that today was a public holiday, but then, its for a project that is not in Malaysia, so that work rule, it doesn't really apply. Well doing business with international customers, requires one to adopt of toe the line that is set by them, eventhough it means working on Saturday and Sunday.

Anyway, the past week was just researching for useful information that i can use, including arranging for a attendance in 2 seminars, which i already attended last week, followed by one in two weeks - SecurityAsia 2009 on the 4th week as well as ACCA's meet on the final week 31st of March. A tiring month as well, who doesnt get tired when stress just mounts and time becomes of essence.

By the way, will be trying to have a relaxing weekend this weekend as i do hope that i can get things settled into order by Thursday. The meeting does not require me to be there due to certain conflicts of interest, but if the boss insist that i do go down, then it would be really nice to drive there, even if i know i would get lost at a certain point in time. Need to get my GPS ready, download the maps.

Well, i really do hope something comes out of this, but cannot put much hopes, my chances are always 1:10, even my boss has that concept, but perfection means, doing it the right way, the first time. Ha ha. Sometimes i frown on myself, I did it 8 times, and yet its the wrong way. So hopefully this time is the right time, the right way, the right target.

its already march , 1/4 or a quarter of 2009 is gone, time really flies, especially when you are having loads of fun.

Its been a full month slugging out, there more i slug, the more i need to slug. Really a great opportunity for me to really get moving....... get you moving, moving....

 

The company i joined recently, needed a marketing guy, but don't know why, accounts was like not done within the company for the last unknown amount of years, maybe dormant (which is like my own company which i closed down due to being dormant for so many years and paying all the fees rugularly), its expensive for one, and silly for the other reason which i cannot think of, or just that the accounts were to small that the accountant decided to do everything the RC way (recovery centre), only the off-site one works of course. So there I was, testing and downloading and testing multiple programs till I decided there was not a program available that was multi-user, multi-currency, web-based or could sit on a LINUX machine without having to pay a bomb for it, not sure if its scalable as well, or just wait for the company to further expand before i know the real shortfall, but as of now, things DO BALANCE, financial statements which are the Income & Expense Account do come out and of course the Balance Sheet does tally.

 

Now getting down to the real work was doing data mining, to find out what theorethically the company is after, what sales and which customers, which I was about to think of formulating. This company is named Jayway Malaysia Sdn Bhd, well they want to change it to a new name, CodeDragons Malaysia Sdn Bhd, which was previously also known as Bali Automation Sdn Bhd. Well, Bali is a name of a tourist destination (eventhough I have never been there before) was doing something which we call office automation or things that can do control automation, like a control box that has control of the toilet lights, the music player, the water, the temperature, the cameras, you name it, all with the use of one box or an interface box. THEY DO HAVE THE IP!!!! Jayway was slated to do Java Mobile Applications and other Java related applications, may it be programming or coding. Well now the company is growing little by little so the name has to be change to give it a new lifeline. So here is CodeDragons.

 

CodeDragons pride themselves to be 'the' troubleshooter of software design, architecture and development They claim to be the Java Open Source Specialists as well. They do the big tough projects that not many would dare venture into, even they themselves admit that sometimes they scare themselves into doing something that they are not sure they could have done. Of course to claim to be the best in South East Asia is what they want, to be known, wanted and sought after to solve cases where SHIT HITS THE FAN!!!!! and goes all around the room, i hope it never comes to that - its UGLY i can tell you. Its all getting too deep here, for the layman, its just ONLY THEY TOUGH SURVIVE. Their rates, I can say are pretty stiff in the market, well, i've heard of rates that go to USD1,500 per hour or sometimes just the normal USD500 per hour, depending on the level of expertise or support that you need, well they do somewhere in between, but they do get the job done. CodeDragons have clients in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, Japan and Australia. Its not surprising that this office occasionally never sleeps as support needs to be done during normal business hours in every country.

 

Well, as for me, I am still learning on what Open Source Software is and will bem so that i can at least give an idea on what the concept of selling will be to my future portfolio of clients. Been surfingm posting the company name everywhere and of course my own email addresses, that is till they give me a company account, but who cares, it WORKS!!! which is what i see when i load a localhost apache webserver on my own machine. Took down notes that may be helpful, written down some ideas, discuss it round the office, with friends, hey.... even msn n yahoo chat with most of my chat friends and fiends of what i'm doing now, so at least if got any jobs or reasons to be called for a RFQ or RFI, I would be there that time. Internet has been slow too, don't know why, heavy usage or a terrible jam in cyberspace??

 

Another reason why I need to be late, transportation..... well, public transportation and thanks to my parents, I do get to work, but I need to join queues, LRT queues, didnt know I will be relying on them for a while, maybe 1 or 2 months till I get ready to attack areas not covered by the LRT line. Sometimes its really packed, sometimes is lightly packedm but of course its mostly packed. Have to go early like get on the train latest by 0745 to be able to reach office by 0845 (thats an hour commute). If I were to drive it would be about the same amount of time and cost, but it will just be a tad too stressful and tiring for me, looking at the way that I drive and curse and swear at people who think that only they are not in a rush for time. Parking too... its darn way too expensive to park where you want, so I actually have to walk further than the LRT station distance to get a carpark at a very reasonable rate... RM2 for a day.... incredible ain't it in Kuala Lumpur. Just that the traffic is totally unbearable to me now, knowing that the LRT also I can encounter HUMAN JAM.

 

As for relationship issues, well, things are never smooth, challenges always comes up, and so, I have to face it. And now, the time has come, and so I face the final curtain......... sounds like a song to me, but it actually should sound like wedding chorus or wedding bells... ha ha... just kidding.... soon, soon is what I answered relatives that ask when is it going to be my turn. Really!!!! During Chinese New Year, it was like a rhetoric question, is it really printed on my forehead that i'm getting married soon??? Yiu King brought his girlfriend back to Ipoh this time around, he was in Sandakan last year so I guess he would have got much more questioning, but i think I got the brunt of it since I am the elder brother. But I actually gave him the green light to go first, don't and never to worry about pleasantries if he wants to go first. We'll know soon enough, soon enough.

 

Its not nice to want to tell about things that are not so rosy. Life looks rosy, but in fact, no one really knows the underlying problems of many relationships, its one that I never imagined would happen to me, but then it did, maybe I was just being too lax with the way I carried myself, or it is just that people expect too much. Sometimes its just both, but as long as we ourselves know what we have done, then I think that its really not important what others say, cause deep down in our hearts, we know what color is water - CLEAR (of course not the polluted one). As long as there is transparency, trust, consideration, there will be tolerance, care and gentleness, its how we treat it, test it, try it out, make it a success.

 

I went to Penang all the way, just to have dinner with Cheryl when she flew to Penang for work, it was fun, but rather tiring, then came Valentines, she flew back to have dinner with me. This month was lucky, even if it was the shortest month, we had dinner again at an undisclosed location so it was really really nice month. Anyway, she is due to come back after Frankfurt. She has flown to Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Philippines, China, India, Australia, France and Germany. Not a bad job, but also a very tiring and stressful job, well, I hope she enjoys it for a few or many years to come, its good pay, good for travel and good experience.

 

Wow... its getting late.... already 0100, need to rest as i want to go walking tomorrow....

Since I came back from the holiday, I got an opportunity to take a challenge again in the job market. I was recommended to approach this group of people that were looking for a business developer to further grow their business and their company turnover. Rather put to task to direct and come up with concrete ideas on where and who and how to approach the task.

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Its back to my basic work experience, not sure if I still have that energy and drive to succeed in pushing for the new horizon to further emerge, but as life makes it, challenges are rather there for me to overcome or what is there to life. This prospective challenge has it that it will give me the chance to jump from being a corporate employee to being a part business owner and developer, someone who is being given a lease, or a chance to prove myself - can I do it? Its more of a mental challenge, more so that I really do not like to stress myself too much and stretch myself too thin, given the fact that i'm fat and round.

 

To my understanding, the job requires innovation, creativity, drive for success, capability to knock on a strangers door and be allowed to go in with the minimum amount of persuasion, to be able to show that the organisation needs us more than we need them, to carefully select what has the potention to grow and be a cash cow and most of all RESPONSIBILITY to make CRITICAL DECISIONS. I've never had such a long verbal session with any interviewer in my life, or being interviewed this way, I was expecting a more verbal, objective interview, something that is formal, so I dressed formally for that occasion. Not being late was my usual self and then I was there just 5 minutes before the scheduled appointment. Two guys, as casual as can be in jeans and shirt came by, but i was in tie and trousers, really overdressed, better to be that way than the opposite, i actually wanted to use a jacket. Well, being there for a business developer, one has to be dressed to meet decision makers all the way down to office staff, cause they are the ones that does most of the work for the decision maker to decide - are we a NECESSITY type of thing. The product is like any other available, Java expertise, i'm not talking about coffee beans my friends, its JAVA as in JSP type, the JVM or SUN or.... something which we call a programming language. Its something that is CHEAPER, more FLEXIBLE, none or MUCH less LICENSING and of course, MULTIPLIABLE.

 

A lot of people ask, why not just remain Windows version, but what the heck, imagine you buy a personal computer (PC) or notebook, lets say from a supplier, they will ask, what operating system (OS) you require, Windows would be the first choice, its user friendly, its the majority, or would you want a Red Hat Linux or a DOS (this is of course obsolete) or would you prefer to buy an Apple (you get a MAC with a MAC OS X installed) something that Windows users find as moronic (is there such a word) or difficult to use, but once you do get used to it, its just as simple as ABC, you will like to roll left, roll right, touch the pad and it executes, rather than just clicking here and there on the Windows. Did you know its hard or near impossible for a MAC to get a virus? How peculiar. By the way, back to the story, this company or the team of this company prides itself as being one of the best if not the best in South East Asia in Java. Well, not being a programmer, I won't know whats the difference from an orange compared to a grapefruit.

 

Correct me if i'm wrong

 

There is HTML and XML web pages.

 

JAVA, C++. Dot Net are programming languages

 

MySQL and Oracle and SQL are databases.

 

So what are the differences in the statements above?

Well, there is a cheaper one that the other, and also on the other end, it may just be the same as it performs just as well if you know how to use it, am i confused or confusing myself. As far as I know, going back to the idea of installing an OS in the PC or notebook, you need to buy now Windows Vista to operate it... or you could just load Linux, dare you to do so, unless of course you have much wanted support like Microsoft provides. Or the question would be, would you like to have Microsoft Office installed and pay a sum amount as well, or would you just like to download a copy of Open Office into your machine.... these are the questions normally mulled by rather new users of computers or IT (Information Technology). Well, if we do you the word "OPEN" means its open sourced (i.e. much cheaper). Well if you use the cheaper version, these programs are created by a whole group of people that likes to SHARE, something that Microsoft finds it as competitors, however small they may be. So, lets get a server my friends, get a quote to run a Windows server or a non-windows server, then check the licensing cost involved, then you compare. Voila!!! No Windows cheaper, why not we buy DOORS????? its bigger and better and of course should function much better (JUST KIDDING).

 

End of the day, the point is, anytime anything is Windows based program or compliant, the creator pays a certain amount in licensing fees to be able to use their API (Application Programming Interface - something that allows programs to talk to one another), is a set of  functions, data structure some classes or protocols to support building of programs (hey, all these is still alien to me). So what happens when you need to get an API before you can write a program that can be used by Windows? Pay Microsoft some licensing, then you can use - $$$ involved. But if you want a JAVA style or version, go to the OPEN website, get the core, modify it, post back the modified application you did, then its like FREE, of course someone else can later you what you posted. So these guys are GURUS at it, they know who did what, what was done, where it was done, what is going to be done - now, in the future, that all depends. So what happens is, we have someone that wants to change from paying money to not paying so much money? Well, I THINK, get this team in, look at possibilities, if it can save you 200k a year, why not try, its only one off. OR, you want to improve on the system, they can TUNE (efficiency, throughput, redundancy) a system to make it definitely faster. OR this one is not everyones dream, a rather CUSTOMISED and of course anything that is customise will cost a bit, but then, you will be UNIQUE in nature, of course customised systems always meets the user requests initially, but then comes the problem of, how far can you accomodate a user request, nearly EVERYTHING that can be thought of CAN be done, so at what price, cheaper than MS or open source cheaper...... THATS always the QUESTION.

 

So should this horizon be in Color or Black and White, should the approach be OPEN or regulated, why do i need this horizon, how can I achieve it, when can I do it, can I do it, is there a need for a new horizon? There are many questions. Let me think further, till then. Best of Luck.

 

Hey to Christmas and New Year all the way from Hong Kong, Gold Coast in Tuen Mun....... but now i'm back in Kuala Lumpur.

 

Left the Boleh Land on the 22nd, i can for surely say that Air Asia really is a market place, should have seen it with your own eyes, all gates from 1 to 6 were like school children waiting to buy food in the canteen, all flights delayed for 15 to 30 minutes, with the excuse, the aircraft is not there yet.......then again, they shift boarding gates left and right, made me confused, thought that being infront was good, but i forgot that human nature needed me to pee and have to give up my line in the queue, therefore, i just decided to join the tail end of the queue, and hence a seat at the second last row of the flight. Luckily and as a consolation, there is free wifi in the waiting terminal, but not at arrival terminal. Flight was delayed for 20 minutes, but we did arrive just about 10 minutes later than the ETA. No freebies on the flight, not even water, I would strongly suggest that flights more than 1 hour should at least get a complimentary bottle of water, rather than paying RM5 for a less than 500ml bottle of water, so i was dehydrated, but not very hungry, dinner was sushi with Cheryl darling, she was at the airport waiting for me, temperature outside was a cold 15 degrees. After dinner, took the shuttle bus back to the flats she is staying in.

 

She flew the next day overnight to er....er.... cannot remember where, Taipei or Japan..... then i got to see her for dinner the next day, even being tired, we went for roasted goose, lets see who went, first was Venus and Gerald, Daphne, Sandy, Grace, Cheryl and me and myself and I. Some people like the skin, some like the meat, lucky it was and even party, so not much went to waste, some calamari taufoo, taufoo, pork and vegetables.... not sure if i did miss out anything, but for sure, we had some wine to go with it, ha ha, good for me, kept me a little warm. Then took a walk to the bus-stop, we went there by taxi.... HKD48 for a 10 min ride, but the bus back was for about the same time, same distance, but only half the price. Traffic was light i guess. The next day, we went down town by shuttle bus, somewhere near downtown, near the river, walked all around before deciding to go into a tower to level 9 for dim sum. Dim sum is rather standard in Hong Kong, the prawn dumpling (Har Gao) was 3 shrimps inside - very fresh and tasty, Siu Mai was one shrimp at the bottom as base and then pork on the top with some kind of other meat, then we had the lotus leaf rice, some pork dumplings (char siew pau) and mini egg tarts (not recommended cause not tasty). Then went to walk to the clock tower, its Christmas sales, lots of people queuing up to enter a branded store, was it LV or Gucci, no idea, but some shope just opened, not enough staff, so they had to shut doors so that not too many people enter and probably shoplift. We walked the walkway of starts along the water edge till the end then walked back, then took a Star Ferry over the seas or river (people call it Kor Hoi - cross sea). Then we took a MTR then walked the whole day, through SOHO, its Christmas, and the Peak Tram queue is like going on for a kilometre - too long to wait, so we decided to walk a bit more before heading back home. We did stop by to have tea, in a shop called 'Xiao Yang" or Little Lamb, we had grilled land ribs, with lamb dumplings (toxic and heaty).. ha ha.. but still wallop, not scared of any attack. The next day, was rest day, tired and cold i think... ha ha....... but at night, we decided to go out with a friend, didn't plan on going out actually but then, a friend Gloria had an appointment in Lan Kwai Fong (clubbing area), so she look for people to go along, so Sandy and Cheryl decided to go along. Gloria is so funny, leave so late, and yet we told her, we want to go back at 1am.... by the way it was already 2300.... ha ha...... then Sandy came down so late... so much expletives.... wahahhaa...... wanted to take bus, but then Gloria really in a rush, she said, take TAXI!!! She pay...... ha ha... siow leh, nearly 40 minutes ride all the way down town, can't remember how much the fare was exactly, but close to HKD250. Then we put a surprise on her..... we go walk walk look for food, she go clubbing with her friends, then we told her, give chance la....not 1am but 2am...... we reach there already midnight, not fair lo, she never even warm up, we want to go home already.. by the way, we had a breakfast appointment at 1000 the following morning...... We went to walk around the area and landed up having wantan mee and beef noodles with black sesame as dessert. We got a bus at 0230 and paid like hkd28.80 (normal fare daytime is hkd18.80) even buses have midnight charge.

 

Next morning, Dim Sum in Trend Plaza - Chao Inn, surprisingly we were not late, but Gloria said, didn't even remove makeup, go sleep then wake up go breakfast, after breakfast, she went home to sleep, but Sandy and Cheryl decided they wanted to go down town for shopping, need to buy a gift for her boy friend, dunno which branded store went in la, one wallet hkd3k........ siao..... so expensive, i won't buy such and expensive wallet to let my backside sit on, then walk walk, walk walk, we sit the tram (ding ding - thats what they call it) nice to stand and look out...... classic and nostalgic feel. We went to IKEA that day and did some shopping, some person don't bother replacing what they broke and like conveniently just ignored the fact that it was replaced, at least say thank you, but i wished that i would be reimburse at most, silly, some people just have no sense. On the way back, we were stuck in a massive grid lock, until people wanna piss also the bus driver won't allow out of the bus on the highway. Apparently 3 cars big accident, cause a jam that was like maybe 5kms long. We had a dinner appointment and hope we would not be too late, I did prepare some curry chicken that day too for the party. Daphne (I hope I got her name right)organise it, we had spagheti with seafood, then i cannot remember the dish, one with pork and another with beef, ROCK chocolate cake, fried chicken and some curry. I got to meet a few more friends, Jovan, Azlan, Adrian, 2 more guys with same names i think and a few more girls.

 

I went to market a few times, i cooked quite a lot of days, really made Cheryl a lil bit rounder. Lets name what i cooked, curry chicken, black sauce chicken, grilled fish - i seem to have gotten to know a new fish called 'lei yu' or tongue fish, rather flat, one side dark with scales and the bottom part white no scales, the eyes and gills on the dark side..... one side only, fettucini with tomato and ham and bacon as topping, fettucini with mushroom sauce and bacon as topping, lots of vegetables, pork ribs with pumpkin, soups and just home cooked food. I am rather suspect of the raw materials from China, pork smells strong, chicken and pork has lots of funny oil floating when you boil it, vegetables emit a strong metallic smell when I blanched it.

 

We did walk the Gold Coast beach, it was like where a lot of films in Hong Kong filmed the beach side, something like that, also that Star Ferry pier, a lot of try to commit suided by jumping from that pier.... ha ha.... can remember the filmshows i guess. I went to IKEA again, took the tram up The Peak, ate an a back alley 'Tai Pai Tong' called Seng Kee Tai Pai Tong.. happening business, but the food is rather a tad too salty for my tastebuds.

 

Temperature for my whole stay there ranged from 12 degrees to 21 degrees, at least i had some sun. Markets started 2009 with a bang, some nearly 20% gains but when i got back it was like coming down 10%. Ha ha, some people made fun of me, asked me to continue staying in Hong Kong, don't come back.... weird.... but then, feel much more humid and nice back here, its very dry and itchy in Hong Kong, not to mention, cold.

 

Let me attach some pictures that i tooked using my phone.

 

 

The Tram (Ting Ting)

 

Yao Tiow in Chee Cheong Fun

 

 

On the Beach - Familiar Scene in Serials?

 

 

 

One of the flat behind is where i stayed

 

Nice Golden Dolphins and the Pier Head (Gold Coast)

 

Here is after the ticketing counter queue for the Tram

 

View from Tram

 

View from Tram

 

View from Peak Tower

 

Anyone for Egg Tart on the Tower?

 

Sing Kee Tai Pai Tong

 

Food

 

Thats my Cheryl Darling

 

This is me in the Ting Ting

 

Dim Sum restaurant on 9th Floor overlooking Bay

 

At the walkway of Stars

 

On the days that Cheryl had to undergo training, I was left to my own devices. Besides just having to look at market, with all the fun of buying and selling being left to imagination, well I could not stomach the feel of not being able to do my financial transactions while i'm so far away, yet, it all turned out all right. The TV had cable, so I had Bloomberg as my constant companion, Star Movies also for me to catch up on my movies (had not watched so many movies in 2 weeks). Then of course just mugging around the place eating and walking.

 

I'm back now in KL, there is an opportunity waiting, just don't know if i'm up to it right now, interview is counting down and i'm just a tad beneath the weather, hope that i'll elevate and sync with the ground soon...... very soon i hope.

 

Hey... this is my new look after a hair cut.

 

 

Happy 2009 all and hope that everything will be smooth sailing too.

 

 

Four weddings this year, getting fewer and fewer for me, as my age continues its tedious climb upwards. Actually 3 that i attended but then, one fell on the same day. Two fell on the same weekend - Dec 6 & 7.

 

My friend Swei Kien happily married his long time sweet heart Wei Chih.

 

 

He being Mr 'Kan Cheong' asked me to be so early at 0700 knowingly that he only needs to leave the house at 0800. Imagine when by 0650 he has just woken up, whereas I woke up even earlier to meet his first request, to be there early - 0710, no traffic on a long weekend Saturday morning. It was a simple breakfast, as eventful as it would have been, his driver turned up like at 0830 (half an hour late) before me moved out to Bandar Puteri, Puchong. Arrived there to wait again for a while before being put to task of getting through the bridesmaids or their sisters (ji mui), no fun at all for any of the escorts as all the task were smoothly handled by the groom himself. Easy job my friend, just some questions and some serenading the bridesmaids. Finishing what the traditional wedding matrons request and half of the tea ceremony, we rushed back to Swei Kiens house for the other half of the tea ceremony. After lunch, i was tasked to send one of the bridesmaid to another wedding at another place, i then rested a while, chatted online a while then slept. Dinner was at 1900 at Midvalley Spring Valley restaurant, didnt get any pictures taken (what an awful forgetfullness). Let me list down who was there, even if i cannot remember some names, at my table, Phong Yap Wee, Lim Hwee Sye, Li Liang Chi, Wong Kean Yee, Cheah Sin Huat, Kon Mei Har, Tan Yein Yein, Sit Yin Fong and husband, and Yap Chee Kuan. At the other table was Tan Yew Tian and Ang Ean Hoon, Chan Chew Kit and his girlfriend, Choy Sau Lai, Foo Sook Mein, Wai Fung Yok, Tan Peng Wee and wife and (oh crap, i cannot remember one more friends name) .Dinner was good, Swei Kien escaped with minimal damage. I reached back quiet early, before midnight i suppose, cause of the heavy traffic getting out of there.

Another picture from a friends camera, courtesy of Ms Kon Mei Har.

 

 

On Sunday, it was an old friend of mine, Cheryl Phang with Vincent, just dinner, a snapshot of her with me before dinner. Dinner was at Ah Yat Forum Restaurant in PJ, food not as good as yesterday if benchedmarked to Spring Valley (really hard for me to say), but i guess its really true. Dinner started late 2230 and finished before 2300, people were like in a rush to get out of there to go somewhere else, has to be cause Monday is a public holiday.

 

 

 

Congratulations Swei Kien and Cheryl, of cause the standard questions already is like a plague comes out - when is my turn?, hopefully, hopefully, soon soon, wait wait.. ha ha.

 

By the way, the other wedding i could not attend was of Ms Woo Chee Kuan - Congratulations too.

 

This may just be the last entry for this year.

 

I'm going to visit my girlfriend in Hong Kong over Christmas & New Year, its been a deja vu feeling, happiness and sadness, also a bit of planning and long term planning, Dec 22 seems to be also a good day, 8 months, also the winter solstice, i plan to make 'tong yuen' when i arrive so we can have it together, then Dec 25 Christmas, then Jan 1, New Year. So keep tuned, maybe another entry, but most probably it will be next year, till then, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

 

Lets welcome 2009 with a bang, may the stock market and economy greatly improve and wishes continue coming true.