Last Entry of 2007

Despite having nothing much to write, i still need to make sure that i have at least the last entry for 2007.

It is a very scary thougth that another year had pass by and especially for this year with so much changes both at work and personal, I really have no idea how it would be for the year of 2008, again both work and personal.

It has always been something that I believed I'm very much in controlled and kinda planned but it is really a scary thought when you realised that it is revolutioning beyond one's control. But like my Thai teacher would always said to me, we had to soldier on no matter what. I won't be like my cowardly father, who shout so that people believed he's right and when things got out of hand, he just did the rattest thing, frequently...that is running away.

While I am not going to make any resolution but I will promise myself that I will embrace whatever comes in 2008. And perhaps make another life changing decision along the way....

Albums that had me jumping and crying in 2007
Sugababes: Change
Westlife: Home
Andreas Bocelli: Amore
TakeThat: Comeback Concert
Josh Groban: Noel

Movies
300
The Lake House
Meet The Robinsons
Transformers
Lions for the Lambs

Well, Goodbye 2007 and Hello 2008.

Should we...?

Ain't it funny how you think
You're gonna be OK
Till you remember things ain't never gonna be the same again
Ain't it crazy how you think
You've got your whole life planned
Just to find that it was never ever in your hands

Change

You don't see it coming...Change
When the future comes knocking...It changed
It can make you and break you too
You just have to make it through

Change!

Culturally Lost?

I can't believe that i'm having late lunch or what Malaysians would called, a Tunch for the third consecutive days. It all started last Thursday when I had a proposal presentation at 1pm while we are still making last minute adjustment to the deck at 12-ish. Yesterday was more of a planned late lunch though we didn't realised that it would be that late as we only decide the venue on a very last minute basis. And today? Well, i was waiting for my bro's friends to call so that i could pass them their train tickets. Said would called around 12-ish or 1 but till 2, I still find myself lazing over the sofa at home. And for the second consecutive time, I fall asleep while watching The Date Movie. Anyway, I finally met them at around 3-ish, and so here I am at McD with my tunch.

And this is what this entry will be about. No, not another round of bashing on McD crew. I'm not that cruel. But while ordering my food, I overheard a tourist of Indian nationality giving her orders. She was mumbling this burger and that burger and finally she said '...and a vegetarian'. I think the crew was a bit surprise with the last order. And the funny part was, she too was surprised by the 'do not have' response. The fact that both the Indian tourist and the crew continue to deliberate over the 'Vegetarian burger' made it more funny and enlightening. Even after the crew showed her the full menu with pictures, she still tried her very best to ask for a vegetarian burger...'what about cheese', she said. The crew happily guide her towards 'Cheeseburger' of which I wish I could laugh out loud.

Firstly, the crew is of a senior position, i believed a supervisor or manager. Therefore, his ignorance of the customer looking for a vegetarian meal, had me wondered his ability or competence. While it is of nobody's fault but generally cultural difference or cultural ignorance from both parties but I believed the crew could have at least made an effort to explain as well as to offer the fresh salad.

And as a tourist to another country, one should at least be prepared to accept the non-availability of items and always have alternatives in mind. This will at least make sure that you are not to be totally disappointed due to such situation. While we could be familiar or have some knowledge about the Western culture but we normally tend to show the lack of knowledge of the culture of the Asian countries, including our neighbors. While most Asian tend to have one main core value, however, that doesn't mean that our culture or lifestyle are very much the same despite the relatively close distance and at times sharing similar religion.

Perhaps instead of learning more of the Western culture, (in fact, do they have one?), we should learn more of the cultures of different Asian nationalities which I believed is rich with diversity and colors.

And had learning, adapting and following the Western culture had us, Asians culturally lost?

And We Thought It's Over...

It's 4 days to 2008 and we thought nothing big and bad would happen to this world, that the days would have generally passed without much fussess and much bloodshed. How wrong are we?

The assassination of Pakistan leader, Benazir Bhutto, is quite a shocked. When I first saw the headlines over at Yahoo last night, stating 'uploaded 13 minutes ago', I was like, 'Huh?' 'Bhutto?'. While I am no expert in world politics or even domestic, but at least I knew she's an iron lady and one of the few easily recognizable female leaders in this world. No, I'm not talking about Oprah or Martha!

Well, here come queries:
1. Do you think those so called 'intelligent' people knew about this? What about those intelligents in the States? Or Bush just closed his eyes on this one?
2. How much unsafe can we all be? Do you still have the dream of growing old? Well, perhaps let's start thinking about getting through the last few days of 2007. Who knew, it could happen to anyone of us next. okay...touched the wood already.

May the next few days get through with nothing but smoothness and fun.

Happy New Year, y'all. Hope to hear from me again in 2008.

Chilling out.

Almost a DejaVu

Firstly...Merry CHristmas, y'all.

I can't recall where I was on last Christmas eve but probably staying at home. While this year, we had a long weekend where holidays begin from 22nd all the way to Christmas, I somehow did not get to fully enjoy much of it at all. Sunday was great as i managed to do all the filing of all the receipts/billings, went to the gym on time and was very much looking forward for the Monday breakfast that a friend of mine is treating me. After gym, I stopped by at Central Supermarket to buy myself dinner. As always...too many choices. I finally find myself with two final choices, both Japanese sets, 1. white rice, pan-fried salmon and grilled steak 2. garlic fried rice, pan-fried salmon and japanese curry chicken

I ended up with the curry chicken set, reached home 30 minutes into the X-Men movie. Everything went well until suddenly i felt bloated, too full and abdominal pain. I knew something is going to happen...at about 10pm...IBS happened. At 3am, i forced myself to vomit out whatever that's in my stomach...

So..on christmas eve, i was staying at home, lying on the bed most of the time, with the thought 'Not Again!'. If you recalled one of my earlier entry, I was having similar fate on New Year's Eve and was lying on the bed throughout New Year. Well, at least this time, I'm in a stronger mode on Christmas. This is almost DejaVu...am I not supposed to celebrate the holidays?

By the way, Beyonce's DejaVu was being played in the gym on Sunday. Creepy!

Absolutely Nothing

Honestly, I have yet to do much this Saturday and it's already 7pm. Besides waking up almost noon, had a huge lunch, watched a nice love movie called Little Manhattan, the day had been hot and just hot.























Fortunately, I decided to take a bubble dip, basically short nap in the bath tub and wake up to a nice sunset and perhaps a cooler evening ahead.

Not Stopping the Music

Did I say something wrong?
Oops, I didnt know I couldnt talk about ... [i musta been crazy]
Did I stay too long?
Oops, I didnt know I couldnt speak my mind [what was I thinking]
Did I say something true?
Oops, I didnt know I couldnt talk about ... [i musta been crazy]
Did I have a point of view?
Oops, I didnt know I couldnt talk about ... [what was I thinking]

Express, don't repress
Repress, don't express

Did I Fucked it up?
BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!

Ma ma say ma ma sa, Ma ma choo sa
Ma ma say ma ma sa, Ma ma choo sa
Not stopping the music.

Always Have...Wanted to...

Bad Thoughts from a Rebellion

Haven't talk for almost 2 years now
Received sms every now and then
Reply I have not
Too tired to scream
Not bother to worry
SOS 2 weeks ago
sniffing trouble brewing
hope it is not
but every now and then
will search for headlines in newspapers
especially on that particular town
especially for a familiar name
and at times wonder...
why such person still survive?

Aiyoh! Technology...

Another week had passed and the weather for the past few days has been getting hotter, making it so unfriendly in building the Christmas mood. But no worry, you can easily create your own Christmas 'feel' right in the smack of your own home. Blast the aircond to the max, then put in a Christmas CD, then once the room temperature feels right, had yourself a glass of white wine/champange or mixer...which is basically what i'm doing right now.

It has been a week since I bought the new gadget (mentioned in my earlier entry) and while I still have yet to fully master it but I'm quite delighted by its abilities...in providing music, accessing to my yahoo mail during client's meeting, getting me hooked up to Sudoku, and taking photos too...

Perhaps the only thing with such technology is its hunger for power supply. It is a very power hungry gadget...

Er...well, this entry is about nothing eventually but just to sum up my Sunday...good lunch, bad afternoon, good dinner (cooked by yours truly), good movie (the Holiday over HBO) and now, good Chrismas ambience, with a nice glass of Vodka Orange..................

Late Entry....

I'm supposed to write an entry last Saturday, the 1st of December but yours truly was not much in the mood, and decided to go shopping. You know how they said that shopping is the best remedy to depression...and hence i ended up spending a bomb on new gadgets. Not going to review here what did I buy but upon reaching home, I found that the charger to my gadget is not the right one....damn! And my bro is definitely going to kill me if he learnt what i bought...hahahaha!

Wait...this entry is supposed to be about the last month of 2007. It was just like yesterday when I had my diarrhea and had to admit myself to the emergency ward on the eve of 2007, without realizing the Caucasians in the same emergency room are the victims of a bombing incident near my home. Well, believe it or not, it's December. Christmas is around the corner. New Year is too. And this will be my second New Year not spending with my friends back in KL. Will definitely miss the parties, and staying on the street till 3-4am.

Looking back 2007, has anything change? I'm into my second year in Bangkok. Getting more confidence about living independently. But perhaps the critical point will definitely have to be in mid-October that had really affected my life, though I'm not going to divulge about it here. Well, we'll see how it goes, going into next year.

Resolutions? I don't do it since I know I'll not take effort to follow it. So why made resolutions? To give yourself hope? or to make yourself feeling better? That's full of shizzle, isn't it? You either Nike it or Nike it not. Saying that, changes is likely to happen next year. It's still too early to say, but I'm thinking about it already...

Thank You for the Entertainment

While cleaning up some files in my hard drive, I came upon this entry, which I believed I wrote while waiting for boarding back to Bangkok more than a month ago. Guess I forgot to upload it. Well, here it is....

...One of the good thing about AirAsia, the low cost airline is that it will provide some nice entertainment especially at the boarding gate. Such entertainment are normally provided by first time flyers, specifically flyers of the following demographic segments: the ‘Aunties’. Passengers of this segment are normally Female, late 30s to late 40s, possibly single or traveling with a group of friends of similar profile and perhaps of Chinese ethnicity.

Here’s how the entertainment started. I was sitting towards the back of the boarding gate area as many kiasu passengers had already line up despite no announcement was made. This group of aunties were coming out from the café nearby and was overwhelmed by the crowd and mentioned something like “Oh we are sitting at the back already”.

Suddenly another aunty coming out from the café kind of shouted “who left this in the café? I’m not sure what it is but the staff said it is from our group and it seems important” “Do we need this?”

Some conversations were made, some aunties checked their passport and bags, then one aunty mentioned that it’s her and another aunty said that the piece of paper is the boarding pass. Then a few aunties compared the numbers in their boarding pass.

A few minutes later, one of the aunty said that she better visit the loo before boarding and the rest of the aunties said that there should be toilet ‘up there’. Then the aunty asked to confirm a few times. But she went anyway.

A few minutes later, announcement was made. As always, the crew will mentioned about the Express boarding at another gate while those normal boarding to be remained. Being a first timer and possibly not familiar with AirAsia latest service, the aunties shouted that the queue is actually in that gate, and hence the herd of them quickly move to that gate. I just kept quite and enjoy the moment when the aunties dragging themselves back to the original line.

As we move on, the aunties start to complain and made suggestion that AirAsia should use the assigned seat approach and it is only as much as having additional numbers printed on the ticket. How fortunate, they are not the CEO of AirAsia.

As we walked to the plane, this group of aunties behave as if they were in a walkathon, walking and at times, jogging to the plane.

Well, that was the last I seen of them. To avoid getting myself having more entertainment (and getting annoyed by their behavior), I took the effort of sitting somewhere far away from them.

And here is my non-food for thought to Mr. Fernandez. Perhaps to produce & publish a ‘Dummy Guidebook’ or ‘Boarding a Plane 101’ for first time flyers and to ensure them from making a fool out of themselves in the airport and probably inside the plane. Oh…and this book or leaflet should be given free too. Just ask the counter staff to identify possible aunties, ask them “First time flying aunty?”, if the answer is yes, then just handout the leaflet to them. “Aunty, here’s a guidebook on how to board a plane. It will tell you what to do and what you cannot do and save you many possible embarrassing moments. And it’s free, please read before you board, aunty”....