The Day 1 Million Youngsters Spoilt My Company Event

Company event was something which I always perceive as an event where the whole company goes out for a little get-together. I always into the idea of going out traveling. I missed the last time the company went for a holiday trip to Melaka as I was in Middle East posting.

I've seen company going for a Mount Kinabalu hike. Angkor Wat trip. Though it is something to be jealous of, but sometimes instead if thinking negatives why not count our blessings? One of my colleague said to everyone in the meeting,

"Why are you complaining so much? In my previous company they don't even have annual dinner!"

True. We have to go back to basic and reality. We are being paid salary. That keeps a roof above of us. Meal on the table. And wheels on the road. Bonus and annual event is deemed an extra thingy. If you have it, then we should be thankful. If we don't have, life just goes on.

Having been an organiser for two dinner functions in my university, makes me appreciate the effort of the organiser. Meeting. Marketing. Sponsors. Venue. Decision making. Effort to please everyone (that's the toughest part). Of course when there is a list of 3 choices given to us to choose from, we tend to come up with the fourth choice which is our own "suggestion". There is always a possibility that you won't get a round table agreement unless choice number one is an all-expense paid 5D 4N trip to Disneyland! 

Even when the venue was chosen, people will start arguing that their partners and family members need to be in the event too. Now this is the part which I have my reservation on. First and foremost, please get this right. Company even is supposed to be a company staff event. Though I understand that partners and family are  important person to each staff but I always believe that annual event is something where we get along with our colleague and build up a better teamwork. It does not serve the purpose if you are just sitting with your family the whole event. But, if they allowed and budget is there, then why not? Never say no when there is a "rezeki".

Fortunately, the lucky draw are entirely for the staff. Just imagine, if there are top three prizes of IPad2, IPhone 4G and IPod Touch went to the wife of XXX or the child of YYY .

Shoot!!!  I'm sure you won't get along with that colleague/ boss for one week (unless that XXX and YYY are your family members!). Nevertheless, a sumptuous meal, slimmest thumb drive and a good RM200 shopping voucher.

A Jamie Oliver Twist - God Of Cookery

“Remember not to put so much salt”

That’s the advice my boss’s wife told me when my girlfriend joked that I applied leave just to cook for her on Valentine’s Day.

 “You never cook for me before!”

Well, girls like to repeat the same sentence over and over again. The sound is just a bee buzzing your ear over and over. Well, I decided to take matter in own hand and kill the bee once and for all. That morning, I took my shopping bag and grabbed all the ingredient and groceries I needed. I spent most of my time preparing the dishes while I regularly took some photos. You have to or else they will say,

“Cheh. Must be your mom cook one la!”

Not satisfied, I even took video of me cooking just in case she says,

“Cheh. You just took for the picture of your mom cooking only!”

I used to like some cooking shows like “Yan Can Cook, So Can You!” and Oliver Twist. I noticed one similarity among all those cooking shows. After they prepared everything and jumped to the part which required some waiting i.e. marinating or baking, they will come with this line,

“Because of time constraint, I’ve prepared this in advance.”

And then he/she took out a prepared dish out of nowhere (normally the camera crew hid it in the oven).

(With a revised version of me) Because of the length of the blog constraint, I would like to fast track my description using animated photos instead. Basically, I prepared 3 dishes+1 soup with rice. Sounds little huh? But when you consider one person has to do the shopping, preparing, marinating, cleaning, cooking and then cleaning again, you will go back every day and hug your mom, thanking her for doing that for the last 30 years without complaining! If you have spared money, you might as well heed Andy Lau advice on the latest OSIM advertisement and buy her one massage chair.

Stir-fried pak choy. When I was in UK, shopping for grocery is the most enjoying moment because you get to come out. I always like to know what certain vegetable are called in English. After all, I was into the mindset that the Chinese name my mom taught me might not be understood by any vegetable sellers abroad. While browsing through the vegetable area, I stumbled upon pak choy on the fridge rack. I recognised this must be the vegetable that is always served up in the dining table back home. The label shows “Pak Choy”. Looks like they are lazy to come up with an English name and decided to follow the Chinese name instead.

Steamed egg with century egg. Now century egg does not mean I’m using a rotten 100 years old egg. I once remember Joe Rogan used this egg to fear the contestant into believing that this egg is a rotten egg in Fear Factor. But it’s totally untrue. It’s actually a preserved egg. Still, the process of how this egg comes from will disgust some of those who never ate it before. But, believe me. It’s good. If durian also can be king of fruit, I don’t see why this can’t be king of eggs.

Oven baked fish. I was introduced the way of using baking when I was in UK. When I was young we only fry, steam or stir fried. Seldom have we baked unless it’s cake, bread biscuit or pizza. I would say baking is more to Westerner style. I found baking is healthier after steaming. Don’t believe me? Take one fat chicken. Put on top of the grill and place a pan at the bottom. 45 minutes of baking. Take out the pan and you can have one week supply of cooking oil.

ABC soup. ABC does not stand for Air Batu Campur. The term is used by the parents to “trick” their kids into believing that the type of vitamins it has from the ingredient used.

Rice. The staple food for Asian. Without it, it’s like eating dhal without roti canai. I once saw in a vegetarian shop when one guy can gorge down half bucket of rice! Seriously, I doubt how one can stuff so much into one small built frame body.

The outcome was good. The taste was well OK. Reasonable. My mom used to say this,

"If you cook for me, I'll be very happy already no matter what."

I believe that those words come from those who understand the art of cooking. He/she who really sweats it out to prepare the food before knows the story behind every dishes served. Judging from the look of one food served, it really can reflect the effort one had put into making it. 

They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.

Sales Engineer, Anyone?

Yesterday, I had a dinner with my ex-roommate. In our conversation, we both shared our working problem and what’s has been boggling our mind recently. He told me his work problem. I told him mine. How my company this and how my company that. He then stopped me. Gave me smile. He too faced the same problem before. How loaded he was and how dissatisfy one can feel. He gave an example of a person whom we should emulate. I sat back and waited for his answer.

“Salesperson!”

I gave a frown face.

“Salesman?”

The reaction I gave was due to my perception that salesperson is a type of job that most people dislike. As I listened further, this friend of mine opened up my eye. Now you see, salesperson possesses one powerful character that others might not have.

Self-motivation.

Every day, salesperson’s target is to sell. And people nowadays are very stingy and not so into buying directly from someone who promotes their product. Savvy buyer will go to the Internet and look for the cheapest and the best brand available before making a second thought of the item introduced to him in the shop earlier.

Salesperson is a type of job that will make you a tough character as no matter how handsome and sweet talking you are, you might face rejection from even the ugliest girl on the street.  The word “Tak Nak” echoes his/her ear so frequent that some salesman who smoke might give up smoking eventually.

Out of 50 people who say “no”, probability of one saying “yes” and willing to sit down and buy your idea is like searching a needle in the haystack. Well this does not apply to YTL, OK? Unless your product is well sought after. What would you do when dealt with such situation.  Legs are tired, throats are dry, mind is worrying how to meet end of the month quota.

I tried to recall. Actually, I've been a sales boy once, trying to sell my school's family day coupon. Gosh, I must tell you how tough it was. One coupon booklet just costs RM5. I managed to persuade one guy who is only willing to give me RM2. But I told him that this is for school charity. There is no point he gives me RM2 when I can’t sell one complete coupon booklet.  Well, I can pocket the money but hey I’m not a beggar. Eventually, none buy from me. I was quite sad. Motivation goes down the drain. Morale level hit the lowest level.

My friend brought me back to conversation. He added, “It’s not the ability to sell that make one salesperson being respectful but how he self-motivates himself when he was dealt with negative response and complication almost every day in his life that makes him so great”.

Working has been hard-hitting on me lately. With so many pessimistic and disapproving words around, it’s quite inspirational to listen to such a story.  This roommate of mine who shared the same room with me for one year advised me to be more resilient in the mind. Try to overcome your mind on negative thought. He even told me that even after we got away this period, there will always be a time when the down beating emotion creeps in again. When that happens again, it is the time that you need to rethink about the salesperson story again. 

He who controls the present, controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the future.

No Paint No Gain

My colleague once told me to be more positive thinking rather than being a pessimist. Well, of course when you are doing a project it’s better to have some reservation in your planning. Forrest Gump’s famous quote, “Life is just like a box of chocolate. You never know what you going to get”. My senior thought me this saying, “Hope for the best, pray for the worst”. In life, we should never give up until the last moment.

I was watching the badminton final of Lee Chong Wei versus his nemesis Lin Dan last month on the Asian Game. Well, we knew the game was won by Lin Dan. Han Ching who was watching with me at the local mamak stall that time had given up hope on Chong Wei when Lin Dan was leading by huge margin in the rubber set. After the match, she told me that she has a belief that every time she watches the game live, our players will lose. Some sort of bad omen. That was exactly what I thought when I was small watching Foo Kok Keong fighting for every shuttles. Bringing bad luck to our players by watching them play.

Soon, I realize that no matter I watch it or not, it will bring no difference because I’m watching it via television. Whatever I do or cursing the opponent, I won’t “convey” this message to them. In other word, they won’t be affected by our act of watching them live on television. Unless, we are the spectators inside the game. Who knows, if I shouted, “Dan Dan, will you marry me?!” will make his legs shaken, eventually lost focus and then caused him the game. It is in this situation I agreed that watching the match will affect the result.

She was pushing me to leave when she thought there was no way Chong Wei managed to catch up. I told her to wait and finish up the game. There might be miracle. I explained to her again that what if Chong Wei keeps on playing without giving up. And of all the sudden, Lin Dan suffered a sprained knee trying to pick up a smash. The pain might be too unbearable and he can even stand up and then concede the game. This can happen you see.

When I was playing in chess tournament in school, I used to tell my team members to never ever resign the game. Even when you are left with one King to play. You will never know what will happen. People tend to make mistake when they are too confident. There was one game I read that the opponent was disqualified because he didn’t switch of his handphone during the competition. Just imagine if I was playing with Gary Kasparov with many punters putting their money on the chess grandmaster only to be beaten by me because he didn’t switch off his phone. Well a 1-0 is 1-0 no matter what and the result stands.

Besides, why would you give your opponent easy way to win instead of squeezing him to the limit and make him play with you to the last move? Even if you know you are hopeless, at least show to your opponent that you are willing to fight to the end and not a quitter. Earn some respect mate.

I learnt this moral fiber from my closed friend in secondary school. You see there are people who walk out from the exam hall with 30 minutes left. Two possibilities. The question paper is darn easy or the paper is darn tough and he had given up hope. Back to this friend of mine, he’s very good in English subject. I was sitting behind him. Well, of course not peeking at his answers. My English is not as good as him but I had finished my questions with 30 minutes left!! So, I thought this friend of mine will finish with 45 minutes left. But no. While I was laying my head on the answer sheet, I looked at him. He was still doing his paper. With 5 minutes about to submit with most of the classmates had left the hall, he was still flipping the question paper and scribbling on the answer sheet.

It makes me wonder whether the paper was too easy to be true and was too tricky. After we submitted our answer sheets, I approached him and asked whether the paper was tough as he seems to struggle to the last minutes. He shook his head.

“No? I see you writing till the last minutes” I said.

“Not like that Au Yong. You see, we have 60 minutes to answer, why not fully utilized it? I used the extra time to recheck my answer then see whether I fill up the correct answer.” he replied.

From then onwards, I was the last person in every exam I sat. Until the last minutes. Recheck, reread and recheck again and again after I finished answered. What’s the hurry of leaving the hall? You only have one chance to do the exam (unless you know you will be re-sitting) , why not do it wholehearted so that you won’t have any regrets. And who knows, since only you are left there, the examiner will come to your table and pointed on your wrongly answered question. Believe me, it happened to me before.

Therefore,

“Never ever say die until the last minute”

Even if you are surrounded by your enemy in a paintball game.

.

Gomo Kelate Gomo

I’ve been busy this month yet again. I now became to realize what Spiderman had told me before.

“With great power, come great responsibilities.”

When you know more of something, the more work they put onto you. When I was small, the teachers loaded us with tonne of homework to do during our month-long school break. I remember that was Chinese New Year break for one and half week. The teacher dumped us with hundred pages of homework to drill. You know what? The moment the teacher finished her last question on the blackboard, we embarked on a mission to finish the homework right away. If I’m not mistaken, by the eve of CNY, I’ve finished up all the homework. Efficient, heh? But that time, the scenario was I get to enjoy the next couple of days without even have to worry the homework anymore. I can play all I wanted during the festive break.

However, this enthusiasm can’t be replicated to our working life nowadays. The earlier you finished, that doesn’t guaranteed you will be able to spend the next couple of day free. The “homework” is never-ending. It will keep on adding and adding until you have to raise the white flag. Having said that, the reality of working life does not dampened my once-believed philosophy. Last weekend, I went into the office. One Japanese staff came to me and says,

“Wow, you look certainly a busy man, huh?”

“In Chinese, there is one saying which goes, today’s work, must be finished by today, because tomorrow will have its tomorrow’s work that need to be done”, I replied.

But writing this blog makes me eat my own words. It’s been quite a while and I still haven’t finished my blog on some of the adventures I’ve been through. The last one was on Sungai Lembing, which I went there on February this year. So much to my today’s-work-today-do-thingy, huh? Now let me pick up from where I left out.

On March, I was shocked to see one yellow envelop on my desk upon my return from work in Thailand. Secret admirer?!! Who else in this company aren’t married yet?! Upon opening it, it was a “bomb” encased inside the envelop. Well, this “bomb” if put inside your pocket, will blow a hole out of it. Normally, it might cause a damage of RM100. But then again the scenario is a bit different. Attached with the envelop is a first class flight ticket to the venue with shuttle from airport to the hotel itself. That would add another couple of ringgits into the red packet. Red packet aside, even my left side pocket isn’t spared as it was a one way flight ticket only. Well, anyway it’s still an enjoyable trip to another state in Malaysia which I will only mention in my Geography lesson all these while. Kota Bharu, here I come!

Chinese wedding is a typically the same everywhere in Malaysia. It’s not like those days when the bride will be carried by 4 servants to the bridegroom’s house. Then, the bridegroom comes out to give a Bruce Lee-kick on the palanquin door. The sweet-talked big lady who speaks auspiciously every time she opens her mouth will piggyback her inside the bridegroom’s house. During the whole period, the bride’s face is covered with red cloth.

Jumping back to modern wedding, it’s the bridegroom who goes over to the female side. Of course, you won’t be unleashing the kungfu kick on the metal grill door. It’s locked. The worst part is ‘petals’ guarding the doors. Petals! You know the ‘petals’ of the flowers that are meant to make the rose looks beautiful. In this world, there is nothing that can’t be solved with money. They are there for business. No money no talk. Don’t be surprised in the future, credit cards, ATM cards, Western Union, bank draft, checks or even an internet-equipped laptop connected to any internet banking are offered as an alternative. Daytime robbery. If you are lucky, you get to meet your bride after that.

Those who are not so lucky might need to be physically, mentally or gastronomically strong. 50 push-ups, wear girls’ bikinis or draining down 1 liter of bittergourd+durian+whatsoever-item-you-normally-won’t-put-inside-your-mouth juice is a norm. Those days, it’s palanquin to fetch the bride, nowadays sorry. It’s no longer BMW anymore. To some, it is just another Bus Mini Wilayah. The latest trend it ATR aircraft!

Chinese wedding ceremony is not catered 100% for the couple of that night. It’s catered for their parents. The more well-known your father is especially those who involved in business, the more not-familiar faces you will see in your wedding dinner coming up to congratulate you. How about my colleague’s wedding that night? Grand. Nice food. Pretty girls. Handsome guys. Torturous 50s to 80s karaoke session by those who have been longing to unleash their bathroom singing talent.

P/S: Out of the 30 songs sang, I managed to find 3 songs that are to my generation.

The next day, we went for a day trip at this PAS conquered states to see how different it is from KL. We headed to the Siti Khadijah market in town center. We couldn’t find any Siti or Khadijah there. What we remembered most was turtle eggs still being sold and there were young school girls who bought it. Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello and Michelangelo, I’m so sorry for you guys.

As for food, you just can’t miss out nasi dagang or trade rice. The next one is of course the famous Yati’s Ayam Percik or Splashing Chicken. To be frank, I have absolutely no idea why they called it percik/splashing. The chicken is not that juicy enough to splash out any when you take a bite. Trust me, the stall is so famous that it got linked to Wikipedia search for the nicest food in Kota Bharu. Another treat is the Khao Jam, which we missed out the Axian recommended stall. It was closed on that day. Nevertheless, we managed to find the second only Khao Jam rice stall. Nope, no peanut butter or strawberries jam. It’s infused with strong herbs and coconut shred rice plus a few anchovies. Simple yet delicious.

Although Kelantan is an Islamic state, don’t be surprised here is one of the states with the most temples you will ever find. Longest leaning Buddha, standing Buddha or sitting Buddha. I understand these influence came from the fact that it’s near to our Buddhist neighboring country, Thailand.

Even though Kelantan are ruled by PAS government, the town is just like any other towns I’ve been to in Malaysia.

Except for the sea!

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2 Seconds With Cup Of Life

Han Ching and I were waiting anxiously in our queue. Well actually it was me. I handed the invitation tickets to the staff there. Showing a peace sign signalling for two persons. I was surrounded by fanatic Malaysians who defect their own country to support the likes of England, Brazil and Spain and Argentina. It’s the sensation that will hit the nation this coming June when all the people around the globe will take a pause of what they are doing daily. That is the year where the staff utilisation in every company will drop. People will spot more panda eyes.

We were ushered to an open space to view the second main attraction of the event there. The 3D show. Well, this 3D thingy is starting to grasp the attention nowadays. Some part of the Europe will even get to view this coming live telecast match with 3D effects too. As the crowd is gathering pace, the MC there was trying hard to keep the atmosphere lively.

“Come on, everyone... Can anyone of you tell me which team you support...?”, he rallied the crowd.

(cricket sound) As everyone was a bit shy to break the ice. Sensing that his rally was not working, the MC rephrased his words.

“Come on everyone... Who supports… France!?”

(2 guys shouting yeah)

The MC continued,

“Everyone, how about …….. Brazil!?”
(5 guys shouting yeah together with 1-2 guys booing)

The same response goes with the other countries from different continents the MC shouted out. Not satisfied with the reply of a few out of 100 people inside the dark chamber, the MC must be thinking he was a failure by not pumping up the atmosphere inside.

“Ok then... Anyone..of you… supporting… Enggggg……landddddd.??!!

The once silent crowd suddenly erupted with roar… The vociferous noise was loud enough to tear down the roof top, signalling approval for the team that captures the heart of everyone there. That includes me too. After the 3D yet looks like 2D show, it was the moment of truth. It was the moment where everyone that came here had been waiting for. I walked along the memory lane of previous venues that this competition was held that led to the gallery. They also paraded the match ball used in each series.

One could really see the evolution of the ball used from the pentagon-sewn-shape ball to the sanitary-pad-shape used in the last held competition. As we were getting closer to the gallery guarded with heavy security, we saw flashes from the camera brightening up the set. The photographer was getting bored and frustrated with all the antics put up by some idiotic fans. I guess never in his life, the vocabulary of “next” is so frequently used in one day. I was getting nearer. I brushed my hair and straightened my clothes. So, no room for error with this once in a lifetime experience.

Then, I was rushed up to the platform by the staff there and wala…

My 2 seconds experience with the World Cup trophy.

KLCC Vanished In 60 Earth Hour!

IstructE Book Award

After one year, I thought I will never get it but last week went to the award ceremony at Bukit Kiara Golf & Equestrian Club.

I was given a plaque.

And my RM500 book voucher. But all the money was then channeled to my mom. At least some photos to remember.