She Never Smile (At All)

Sometimes I do wonder why people still stick to their job if they are not happy at all. Just an example about this tea lady in the gym I frequent. She manned the beverage counter, cleaning the glasses and cups, fill up the jug with drinking water and at times get out from the counter to collect the used cups/glasses some lazy idiots customers left behind.

Personally, I have never seen her smile or showing a bright, positive facial expression. Everytime, it's a 'dark' moody face as if WE are making her life miserable, we are the one who gave her work to do and perhaps, we are the one who make her life sexless.

When she took up this job, I believed she was and still is fully aware of her job scope...so why the 'no sex for ages' face, madam?

And to the outlet manager of this gym, the one very near to the SkyTrain, do once in a while, take a look at your staff manning the beverage counter and experiecnce that 'guilty' feeling she's making us felt. (Madam, I sincerely apologise for making you wash the cup I drank and also for imagining you having a sexless life).

To me, if the job is so unbearable, I would have just quit.

And I Begin to Wonder: Pets & Languages

While on the way to buy my Chaa Yen (ice milk tea aka Teh Ais) this morning, I came across a homeless woman with her dog doing her morning routine. Suddenly I heard dogs barking and seems that her dog was having an argument with another dog. So this woman was scolding her dog in Thai. And it makes me wonder if the argument between the dogs are also in Thai.

On my way back, I came across another woman screaming at 4 mischevious cats in Thai. At that point, questions arised in my mind in terms of the communication between owner and their pets and between pets itself.

Malaysians, coming from a multi-racial and multi-cultural country, spoke at least 2-3 languages. Hence I wonder if the pets in Malaysia could also speak in different languages. When a Malaysia dog bark or cat meow, is that bark/meow any different from the dog/cat in Thailand?

If a cat in Malaysia managed to travel to Thailand, could this cat communicate effectively with the cats in Thailand? Hmmm......


Or a cat belongs to a Mandarin speaking owner (who had been brainwashing the cat with Mandarin) suddenly got longs and end up in a Hindi speaking home. How fast could the cat learn the new language? And would this make the cat smarter than other cats? And how easy will it be for a Mandarin brainwashed cat communicate with a Hindi brainwashed cat?

And that my friend, is my last blog for this week...unless something interesting happen tonight or tomorrow.
BTW, I got a new mobile phone already (yay!) and I'm broke! (waaaaaa!) More nagging on my phone next week.

Scoop the Soup Coup

Believed it or not, it has almost been 4 days since the Sept 19 incident. And thank whoever it is up there (if there's one) that no bloodshed or violence until now except yesterday evening with about 100 idiots people staging a peaceful protest in front of the main shopping center. Not that I totall support the incidence but compared to what is happening in other countries, I totally say aye to it.

If this person and his aide has been innocence, genuine and honest all this while, I wonder why there is a need for these people running away to another country. If you are not guilty, nothing will happen to you. The fact that they cowardly ran away cleary indicate something fishy. No?

The Thai students in Oxford complaint about it...but hey...you guys should look at the situation since February. And please get back to your studies! Oxford or not, study first, talk later.


The US is not happy about it and made such fart noises and suprisingly, I'm not hearing any complaints from them on Hungary (the so-called peaceful protest!), the recent violence in Indonesia and what about the claimed from Pakistan that the US government threatened to bomb the country back to Stone Age. That is the US so-call Democracy which is supposedly good for people since blood had been spilled.

Well, I leave it to you to decide.

That's His Goal

After a few walks across the music stalls and repetitively heard Shayne Ward's songs being played, I decided to give it a try. His first song that was being played over Thailand was No Promises (over VH1) while his first ever single, his winning track in X-Factor, That's My Goal is finally seen being played over Channel V for the past 2 -3 weeks.

The album comes with 13 tracks, mostly slow ballads (clearly targeting at the teens, especially females). Like many UK artiste, this album comes with quite a number of cover versions, which I found to be not-intresting. Just like what the judges regularly complaint in American Idol on originality, I found this album sounds more like Shayne's own Karaoke collection. No originality and nothing special about it. For example, a few times of hearing I Cry, I begin to feel I'm listening to Westlife.

Besides, the two singles mentioned above, there are indeed a few outstanding tracks. What About Me is one of them. A nice soft ballad with strong piano influence. Another track is definitely Someone To Love. Starting off sounding like Aguilera's I Turn to You, but somehow Shayne managed this track well.

The last track is a live recording of his Over The Rainbow performance in X-Factor. I've never heard Katharine McPhee's version in American Idol, but it was nothing much to shout about. I've heard a much better version coming from Everything But The Girl.

If you are looking for an album full of lovey dovey songs, this is definitely an album for you.

It's BACK!

Finally CNN, BBC, CNBC & Bloomberg are back on air. But according to a blogger, seems that everytime the news about the situation here arise, it would be filtered/blocked. Also the new ministry will monitor all comments on the internet including blogs that all political comments are not allowed.

Homebound, Clueless & Uncertain

My scoop on the coup...

It’s almost 2pm now, I’ve been spending my time basically checking emails, updating myself with the local English news and international news over the internet, exchanging emails with friends, YM-ing with my bro…so this is just to update you all what’s it like being here now.

It was quite a relieved to learn that today is a holiday, the coup was a success without any bloodshed, TV is back to normal after the 9am announcement (except all international news network are still off the air).
Looking out at my window, it’s drizzling, some rich idiots are enjoying their golf session, the construction workers are busy building up the condo/apartment. The Skytrain is in operation, taxi and public buses are also in operation. Also noted some cars and people moving about.

The mobile line was up again (finally), managed to contact a few people here. Once it strike 10am, I decided not to get out to get myself some groceries (long story!). Surprisingly everything was quite normal. No army personnel or police officers along the streets. Everything just like a normal weekend (a quite weekend though). As I reached the main junction, I noted three army personnel with their scary snipers. But everyone including the HK tourists acted like normal. Little eye contact, calm and alert.

As I reach the Hypermarket, it was quiet. No End of the World shoppers. So…to me, it’s just an extra holiday for now. How is the martial law going to be? I’m just as clueless as you. All I knew is about media control and no public gathering of more than 5 people. Curfews? Is there? At least I know I’ll stay indoor the whole of today. HBO is still on. I have a few DVDs yet to watch.

Let’s just hope that this will continue to be a peaceful transition and everything is back to normal as soon as possible. Can’t bear to see the baht depreciate.

Last but not least, thanks to everyone who keep me companied since yesterday night.

What?

Don't ask me about the coup...no idea...but totally suprise. At my most vulnerable situation as my handphone was stolen last Friday...so all the contact numbers are in there... conspiracyeven transmission of CNN, BBC, CNBC, Bloomberg and CCTV had been cut off...WTF!

Gee...better sleep now...worry about it tomorrow...now where's the phone number of my Thai teacher...

Taking A Bow: Reviewing The Path Ahead

As we reach into our early thirties, changes in our life seems to really begin. After my departure from the company that I’ve spent my six excellent years, others also began their departure. Those departures that really make an impact are from those who have been with the company for more than 5 years and they are all in their early thirties.

And what was it that makes us made such a drastic decision? I mean we were all in our ‘prime time’. We are almost the ‘who and who’ in the company, not just locally but perhaps regionally. Yet our decision to depart means that we are likely to start all over again in the new company we are venturing to. Is that worth the risk?

Everyone had their reasons (or so we claimed) of making the decision. And these are my thoughts. After graduation, we may take a year or two hopping from job to job to find our true career (not applicable for doctors though!). Once we get that, we spare no time to put our 110% to work on it, climbing up and established ourselves. In doing so, we somehow sacrifice our personal life. By the time we hit our 30s, we would have about 5 years plus in the career that we chosen and would have at least accomplished something in our career. We are likely to be in a situation where we are very clear of where we want to be and who we want to be. While they are those crazy ‘S-Oles’ who will continue their aggressiveness to reach the top, they are also people like us who decided to stop for a short while, enjoy the moment (at least for a year or two) before we speed up again.

Some may not agree with our decision to stop and enjoy for a while (at least not my ex-boss). But looking back to my six crazy years, though I enjoy every moment of it, I also lose out in enjoying another part of my life, which I’m supposed to have AND which I’m now having. Catching movies as and when I like, spending hours in Starbucks, visit the gym more frequently and so on.

I guess it is not a bad idea (at all!) to really stop for a short while to review the path ahead of us. Instead of being very determine with that one very clear path ahead, there’s nothing wrong to stop and look around for (perhaps) some other path at the side that we could have missed. These paths may lead to the same destination but longer yet provide much better scenery along the way. And if we were to die along the way (without reaching the destination) at least we did enjoy some sceneries.
So if you are in your early 30s, think about what I’ve just said. Forget about what your boss or mentor might say. “It’s up to you, NEW YORK NEW YORK!!!!!!!!!!”

[Update: I would recommend everyone to watch Adam Sandler's CLICK to know what I'm trying to say here]

He Talk, She Talk, They Talk (Shall We Talk?)

Watching these people in Starbuck can be quite amazing. I mean they just can’t stop talking. There’s a middle age couple, I guess friends, talking non stop There’s this group of middle and old peeps, I guess tourist, yakking away. There’s a threesome whispering over their notebook. Then there’s this family also talking non-stop. I mean, you already talking to each other daily at home…what is there to talk about anymore? Is there really so much to talk about? Similarly to those people with their mobile phone, especially in the subway or LRT. They just talk and talk over the phone. Standing, they talk, Sitting they talk. Walking they talk. Is there really so much to talk about? Don’t they get tired with all these talking? From a Physic point of view, energy could not be disposed off; they just convert to a different energy. With so much talking happening, I wonder what happen to these energies. The sound energy that got into our ears and then covert to nodes to send to our brain…and then what? It would be nice if we could have some kind of tool that could convert this energy to power (electricity or fuel). Or we can recharge our mobile phone just by talking. Why can’t someone try to think to develop this. I’m sure it could be done if we could make our wristwatch battery free by having this mechanism that converts the kinetic energy to power up the watch. Now…I definitely would like to get some royalties for whoever who took this idea from me and develop it.

Normal (Again)

After a hectic last week, life is getting back to its normal self, except for this specific moment where I’m writing this article and also the Michael Bolton’s review at the same time. And of course, my first experience in losing my mobile phone. Oh…and I’m gonna curse whoever who took my phone till your anus bleed. BTA, that gives me a reason to buy the Motorola Slvr (or was it Rokr?)[UPDATED: It's a ROKR V3i]…though there goes the money that I have been saving for months (which is why the curse, considering the tough situation I’m in and will be for at least the coming 3-4 years).

What would life be without a mobile phone? To you people out there, it may be a hell but I really do not see much difference since I rarely used my phone. Furthermore, there goes that concern feeling that someone with call me or sms me. There goes that concern feeling that it will get lost, got dropped, etc etc etc.

So much for normal. Can’t get into my usual Starbucks (cos it’s freaking crowded) and ended up at a further up outlet with absolutely no plug point and full with shopping crowds. Survivor Cook Island started and so is Amazing Race 10. Weekday nights will be even hectic, thankfully CSI NY ended.

Michael Bolton Singing Swingin’ It

There are so many ways to start this review that I decided to go straight into it. Some of you may be aware that I’m trying to get hold of a Bootleg version of Michael Bolton’s Second Time Around CD. While got it few days ago, listening it for the second time around, and hence this review.
Before I go track by track analysing nagging, I just want to say one thing. He ain’t no Michael Bublé.
You Go To My Head – A good and smooth song to kick off the album. However, I still don’t think Bolton’s voice is suitable for jazzy stuff. Nevertheless, a good track.
Fly Me To The Moon – I’ve heard Bublé and Westlife versions, did Robbie have one as well? Bublé still the best. This jazzed up version is definitely great for an evening chat session. [And what’s so special with Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte…taste like a normal latte to me though they are charging a freaking price for it.]
For Once In My Life – Nothing much to shout about. Did Westlife make a fool of themselves with this track?
Summer Wind – Another ‘can be forgotten’ track. Could be due to the consistent arrangement since track one.
My Funny Valentine – Now this is supposed to be a nice track. But with a much slowed down arrangement and Bolton’s voice, it kinda creeps me out. It’s like the saddest song EVER!
I’ve Got You Under My Skin – Now what is wrong with the producer? While the previous track was so damn sad, this track was so damn upbeat and happy.
That’s Life – started off with itsy bitsy of country style. Soon after Bolton’s voice came and overwhelmed the music. Definitely not my favorite track.
The Second Time Around – the intro reminds me of Nicole Kidman and who’s that guy in Moulin Rouge. Nicole Sheridan’s vocal here is not distinctive enough and most of the time, seems to being overpowered by Bolton. But nice track.
The Girl From Ipanema – a salsa + jazz track. Quite stylish and thankfully, Bolton put some effort in blending with the music. Nice!
Night And Day – too big band-ish. Would be better if they jazzed it up more.
They Can’t Take That Away From Me – A nice familiar track but I believe Bublé could do better or even Westlife. BTA, Mark of Westlife may end up ruining this track with his R&B-ish vocal.
New York New York – Not even sure why Bolton wanted to sing this track. NY NY has always been to me a female song, no thanks to Liza Milleni. With John Travolta cross dressing for HairSpray, there’s nothing one would not do these days. By the way, this is the last track. And now I wish there were more tracks.

Well…despite my regular comparison with Michael Bublé (they do share the same initial!), it is still a nice album to buy (maybe as Christmas present). But if you already have every Bublé albums, you may want to give this a skip. But if you only have Westlife’s, PLEASE go out and get this one to replace that horrible Westlife’s album.

Of Head, Hand and Leg: The Quest for the Buddha Statue

Whenever there are friends visiting Bangkok over the weekend, I'll surely bring them to Chatuchak weekend market, because things are way cheaper there and you can find almost anything.

We reached the market at about 11am and it's already filled with shoppers. Besides me and Go1, I also had another group of friends, Go5 visiting the market. Since Go5 were in Section 22, the section with those trendy t-shirts, we decided to start our exploration there as well. However, our explore route seems to be different, hence we never get to bump into each other.

Anyway, we spent quite a long time exploring the shops and mazes, covering the Section 20s+ to the Section 16+. We passed by the wood craft section, and Go1 got into his act and began his quest for the Buddha body parts. After checking prices for a few heads with a few shop owners, Go1 finally found his Buddha head. Unfortch, the shop did not have a Buddha hand made of wood. So we continued our quest for the Buddha hand. Since I did not know how to admire these crafts, I clearly just went along, practicing my negotiation skills in Thai language. We finally got the hand at a very reasonable price. The only thing left was the leg. Tired and hungry, I got into my sarcastic mode and start questioning Go1 if there's a Buddha pee-nus and bootockz. I called Go5, hopefully to meet up for lunch but his decision of switching his Thai and Malaysia sim-card really annoyed me. Not able to contact him, we decided to head for lunch ourselves. Had a nice Briyani Chicken Rice, fried-oyster with egg and a nice cup of cold milk tea.

We regained a bit of our strength but due to the amount of stuff we already bought and the ever flaring sun, we were tired soonafter. I started to get moody again; my bag was heavy with 9 pieces of T-shirt, a pack of Chinese sausages, the umbrella, two books, two bottles of Simple facial cleanser, a pair of Bermuda pants, 4 pairs of stockings and 100,000 baht in cash [it's complicated how this cash got into the bag]. Go1 was not good himself, with the 5 packs of cashew nuts (1kg per pack) and the Buddha stuff; we just don't feel like exploring anymore. We made a very quick decision to head home just to drop our heavy items and came back (again). And we did so.
It's already 4pm when we returned, and with most of the needed items bought, we decided to purely explore the rest of the market. A few quick here and there, we headed into the Pets section. Lots of Golden Retrievers, Poodles and stuff but we can't seem to find the Fish section. Unlike the other Sections, the pets section layout is slightly different and could be quite confusing. Hence the maze effect was quite effective that we found ourselves waking round and round in search for the Fish Section. We headed home without exploring this hidden section. Need more rest for clubbing tonite.

Between Left & Right: Of China and India

This is the entry about an adventure on a blissful Sunday. Waking up at 9am, I found myself having a coarse voice, after clubbing for 2 straight nites and too much alcohol. SInce the Floating market tour was spoiled (the tour was fully booked), my friend (Go1) finally decided to visit the Museum of Forensic Science (where they kept all those bodies in different stages of dying, the organs and stuff..mostly for medical students to gnaw at it). We took a boat trip, which costed us 18baht per person, walked through a university and found that it was closed! If you do plan on visiting this museum, please remember that it is closed on Sunday.

We decided to head to Chinatown (not in our schedule) since it's on the way back. This will be my second trip to Chinatown after the disastrous first time. So I'm a bit scared of getting lost again. To make it worst, Go1 did not bring along the Lonely Planet GUide (which had a route map). So we had to rely on our wits and the tourguide on the boat, telling us to walk straight and turn right (that's all we heard through the speaker with his not so amzing English). On the main road, we found a sign stating 'walking street to China town'...and we happily headed that way (though it's turning left!). Walking through the small and crowded street was a challenge. Both sides of the small 'soi' were filled with wholesalers and those independent biz people (with just one small table, etc.).

After going through 3 such streets, we found ourselve not in Chinatown but in Indian Street. Signs with Indian names, shops with Sarees, Indian food were clearlynoted. We question ourselves again that the sign did say walking street to Chinatown. So we walked a short bit of this Indian Street and decided to turn back to the main road that we came from. Instead of going through the soi again, we took on the main street, a few turns here and there, we bumped into the Thieves market and then noted signboards with Chinese words. We knew then we had got ourselves into Chinatown.

We began our search for that famous noodle restaurant. Took us a while but finally saw the restaurant. Had a good rest, a quick meal of egg noodles with roasted duck and wanton plus a big jug of chinese chrysanthemum tea. We knew it's time to head home. Asked the owner for the route to get to the pier. As we get out of Chinatown back to the main road, we found ourselves opposite of where we initially turned. Why did we turn left in the first place?

I Had A Dream

A dream I Had
Not fantasy but very real
mom, aunt, me lunching
about cousin, we chat
yep, getting married she's going
family problems
family facts
sad i woke up
cry i had to
and cry i did
not for me now
but the past we all had
cry i will again
on her wedding day

How Dare He

SMS (again) he did
How dare he of asking
What about the thing he did
Could he not remember
A few months back it was
Suffer we had
Suffer we still are
Apology he did not
Regret or remorse he sound not
How dare he of asking
How dare he
Reply I did not!