Friday, May 30, 2008

Taking Credit

In The Star newspaper, there was a piece of news from Penang where the former political secretary of Tan Sri Koh Tsu Koon has chided the Penang Chief Minister Mr Lim Guan Eng for claiming credit for two high profile FDI into Penang.

The new state government took control about 2.5 months ago suddenly they are able to bring in RM1.315 billion in FDI. Hmm.. and the two companies can decide in two months to invest such a huge amount of money, just like that.

Mr Lim, give credit where credit is due.. and this case, to your predecessor who did all the hard work to get the companies to Penang.

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Congratulations to the MC Cagers '08

The Malay College Cagers basketball team managed to win the Piala Hamdan Tahir for the fifth time in a row during the recent Hari Kecemerlangan SPB in Jitra, Kedah.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

The Wan Zaleha Radzi Encounter !

I was in still in MCKK when I had my major crush on Wan Zaleha Radzi. When everyone else was going ga-ga over singers and actresses (it was the Debbie Gibson-Tiffany-Raja Ema days, mind you), I was smitten by this petite yet stunning lady who read the news on TV3. I mean, its not often that you get an unbelievably stunning lady, who is educated and once represented the country in athletics (I came across the back issue of Dunia Sukan magazine which has a picture of Wan Zaleha during an athletic meet. I was estatic!). Wan Zaleha is truly "beauty and brains" personified and whenever she was on air (whether for Buletin Utama or Majalah Tiga), I would pay extra attention to the TV. Yet, despite all that, never once did I meet Wan Zaleha in the flesh. Sigh.

So, here I was with a friend at Ikea for lunch when I caught a glimpse of a petite lady wearing white jumper and her shoulder length hair tied back. Could it be after all these years? Lo and behold, it was Wan Zaleha having lunch there too.

I would love to rant more but I do remember that my wife reads this blog too, heheh:)

Monday, May 26, 2008

Indiana Jones...

Last friday, Honey Dearest and I made our way to the GSC at One Utama to catch the latest Indiana Jones movie. Honey is a big Harrison Ford fan (heheh, really BIG fan!) and since it's been 20 years from the last Indiana Jones movie, we decided to catch it early.

I remember back then, about 21 years back I was interviewed by Berita Harian (something about my scholastic achievement, which honestly, was not really something to shout about) and when they asked me what was my ambition, I replied "Archeologist" (which they wrote "Ahli Kajipurba"). The article actually appeared on bottom of the front page and made me a "mini-celebrity" at my primary school and "sekolah agama". But why the ahli kajipurba ? Hehehe, coz i wanted to be like Indiana Jones :)

Happy Birthday Sayang :)

Today, the 26th of May, 2008 is Honey Dearest's 30th birthday!

Baby, you dont look a day over 25 years 3 mnths, so here's for more wonderful birthday to come!

I love you so muuuccchhh!

Thursday, May 22, 2008

JPA Scholarship : Part Deux

I would like to express the following in mixture of English and Bahasa Malaysia

Hari ni ada sorang lagi dok hantar surat kat The Star pasal tak puas hati tak dapat biasiswa dari JPA. Hish, sorang lagi yang nak main the "racial cards". Really spoil my morning bila aku baca the letter pagi-pagi buta masa aku nak breakfast dengan Honey Dearest.

Aku tak paham betul la bila sesetengah orang tu ingat, bila tak dapat something they want, it all boils down to discrimination (read: racial bias). Tolong la sikit. Hebat sangat ke engkau dengan 10A1 and A2 engkau. Kononnya "getting 10A1 and A2 for my EST has become more of a burden to me. I have become too good to enter matriculation but not good enough for PSD (JPA). Maybe I shouldn't have studied so hard and played more."

Apa yang engkau cakap ni ? According to him, dia rasa cheated sebab he thought "all students with 10A1 would automatically be given scholarship by JPA". Memang JPA akan bagi scholarship, tapi yang JPA gurantee is the scholarship for studying at local institution. Yang engkau minta tu overseas scholarship. Aku ada dua issue yang aku nak raise kat sini. First sekali, yang engkau mintak tu overseas scholarship. Engkau ni ada baca suratkhabar tak ? Engkau takkan tak tahu yang overseas scholarship under JPA ada 2000 tempat aje and engkau tahu tak ada berapa orang dapat straight As ? According to JPA, ada 6,262. Yes, read that again.. SIX THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED SIXTY TWO. Out of that entah berapa ribu yang dapat more than 10A1s, so sah-sah you know where you stand kan ? In fact, yang mintak for the scholarhip ada 15,000 orang and 7,500 made the cut. Congratulations, since you were among the 7,500 but paham le sikit, benda ni gila competitive. Besides, ada ke JPA bagitau engkau your marks for the interview, co-curricular activities etc. ? Mana engkau tahu you did well in the interview? Entah2 apa yang engkau jawab is not what they are looking for. Why do you people (well, some of you at least) assume that just because you get 10A1 and god-knows berapa A1 lagi, you guys are simply the very best? Hey, kalau engkau dapat full mark pun dlm the academic portion (by virtue of your 10As), setakat aktif dalam co-curricular activities, mana cukup ? Mungkin engkau presiden Interact Club but the other guy may have represented the country for some other activities. Sah2 le engkau lose out.

Lagi satu, apasal tak mention pasal applying for local universities ? Tak cukup BAGUS untuk yourself ke ?

"We are still the best. Let us hold our heads up and move on. I believe wherever we are placed, we will still shine because we have overcome the worst rejection and biasness"

HEY, apa yang engkau imply ni ? Granted, you did well by scoring that 10A1 and A2 but siapa yang reject engkau because of biasness ??? Dah tak dapat tu, as you said, move on la. Engkau tak mintak ke scholarship lain ? Engkau tak sudi ke nak belajar kat local U ?

Mr Lee of Kuala Lumpur... please la. Grow Up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Good Neigbourliness

I just want to find out.

When we buy a house, what constitute as our property is up to the front gate right? The road is considered as public property and the small patch of land between the drain out of our fence/gate and the road does not constitute as our property right ?

You see.. I had this rather irritating experience of neighbours (not immediate ones but about 5 houses away) who put potted plants or rubbish bins in front of their house so that no one can park in front of theirs. It so happened that there was this one particular night where I was back late and it was the ONLY parking spot available. So, I parked my car there (and its not I intend to leave it there for days or weeks) and whadda you see... a note in the morning "Please dont park your car infront of our house".

... and you park BOTH your cars inside your house!

So, to the SS18/** resident living at that particular house... %*&$&#@## u!

PSD Scholarships

Without fail, we will face this issue every year. 10As, 11As, god-knows how may As will write in the newspaper and complain that they will are being discriminated by some "upper hands" who tends to award overseas scholarship to undeserving "son of the soil". Standard arguments raised would be things like "...he/she only scores 4As, 5As"... " politically-connected family"... "high income parents".

I guess sometimes it just gets to me when these things are being brought up every single year. No, this time I am not going to join the PSD bashing but I think the people who are complaining and the political parties who are riding on the issues should really stop acting like victims.

Come on, its not like there are a handful of these 10As.... I think it comes to about a few thousands! The PSD DG explained it in an interview in one of the sunday papers that while academic score may consist 70% of the total mark for selection, the remainder 30% should not be totally ignored.

Obviously a few thousand will score 70% for the academic marks but with competition so stiff, it will take more than "being active in school activities" to tip the balance. You need to be really outstanding. Period.

Please dont forget about the interview session too. Sometimes you may do well in both the academic and the extra curricular activities but if you cant carry yourself well, then, sorry... other people who are better than you deserve it.

Please, stop making it a racial thing. It has come to an extend where if bumiputras were to obtain scholarship, there are "whispers" that "yea, must be some crony/well connected politician etc...".

Meritocracy is alive and well. Just because a bumiputera managed to secure a PSD scholarship, its automatically "a racial thing" again. Are you saying we are that DUMB ?

Saturday, May 17, 2008

May Updates

I guess I am at it again... late in my updates. It has been a month since I last posted, but well.. like what Datin Seri Wan Azizah said in the media (albeit on a totally, totally different issue altogether), its better late than never.

May 6 2008
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Honey Dearest and I went for another checkup at Dr Ani's clinic. We found out that Dr Ani is also pregnant and will be delivering at about the same time as Honey Dearest :) It will be her fifth, if I am not mistaken.

Anyway, this is the fifth month checkup and with a scan to be done, I will find out whether Junior will be a going to koleq or to the school at bandar Enstek :) The scan wasn't very clear as Junior seemed to be good at playing hide and seek, but from what we saw, it will most likely be another Idris House member walking down the hallowed halls, heheh :)

May 7 -12 2008
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It's the MIHAS week, the Malaysian International Halal Showcase. For people in my industry, its THE trade show for the year. I have been attending the show for the past two years, and this year the venue is the Matrade HQ at Jalan Duta. I have requested for Kamol (my Thai partner at our Thai operation) to be in KL for the show and he has arrange for his flight to be on the 8th and returning to Bangkok on the 9th.

The first day of the show usually begins with the Incoming Buying Mission (IBM) meeting where local companies are matched with foreign companies interested to procure goods from Malaysia. This year, I have chosen companies from non-tradionational market such as Eastern Europe and Asean countries as the products I am selling normally will have a hard time to penetrate the stringent EU regulations or the complexity of the US markets (maybe later, when all things are in place). Matrade, sensing that they can make a killing in parking fees, charged RM5 per entry and by 10am, the parking lot was already full! It didnt help that the main exhibition halls are erected at one of the bigger parking lots, thus deprieving visitors more parking space.

The meeting for the two days of IBM went well and I made some good contacts and potential business. Kamol arrived at KL Sentral on thursday and I took him direct to the exhibition. Of course, the majority of the exhibitors are SMEs producing the traditional products such as sauces, spices, seafood etc... but we managed to identify a few products that got Kamol excited about its prospect in Thailand.

As always, Kamol puts up at Holiday Villa Subang and with the voucher from my mother-in-law, the price isnt so exhorbitant. For the night, Honey Dearest and I decided to spare Kamol the usual mall fare and we took him for dinner at SS13, where they have a nice "gerai" that serves tasty food. The problem with our "gerai" is that most of them employ cook from Thailand and serves a lot of Thai dishes, so we were careful to order food which has no resemblance to Thai food :)

On friday, after submitting a tender at Royal Selangor Club, Kamol and I went to MIHAS for one last look. I went for friday prayers at the Masjid Wilayah and after prayers, I sent Kamol to KL Sentral for him to take the shuttle to LCCT, en route to Bangkok.

The weekend
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Arrghh.. I was down with fever and flu.