Friday, January 30, 2009

To Sum Up The Week

  1. The whole family went back to Melaka during the Chinese New Year break (more details at babychikjournal.blogspot.com). As usual, a lot of thoughts were put to making sure the journey will not be spent too much on the road and indeed the journey was really pleasent. Are there less people going back to their home towns or a lot of them are taking advantage of Plus' offer of discount for travelling during off-peak period ?
  2. My son reached a very important milestone this week - dah boleh meniarap! He seemed pleased with his newfound abilities and been at it for most of the time!
  3. Driving to work on Wednesday-Friday was truly heavenly. Barely any traffic on the road.
  4. Met up with an old friend from my primary school days. I haven't met Yong Sean since after the SPM examinations. Even when I was in MCKK, we would meet up during our school break. A lot of catching up took place and since Singapore is just a bus ride away, I could always look him whenever I am next in the Lion City.
  5. The online store is on track for launch Feb 1, 2009. Get ready for it :)
  6. Also, its time to put something from the past behind.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

I am 34 today

I turn 34 today. My wife would be laughing when reading this as I have been telling her that every year my age will be a year less than it actually is :)

Also today is the inaugration of Mr Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States of America. I remember watching "Are you smarter than a Fifth Grader?" where one of the question is on the inaugration date and it was told that January 20th was the date since 1937.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Physically... me

Its already the second week of 2009, with 50 more weeks to go. 2008 wasn't such a bad year (especially with the birth of the apple of my eyes:) but really hoping for 2009 to be a better one. Good signs are there but with the current economic situation, it will be more challenging than before.

Year in year out, there is always this one thing that will be on top of the list. Lose the pounds, brother. Again, year in and year, not happening as planned :)

I am not in the best of shape, when it comes to fitness. By weight and girth of the tummy, I would be catergorized to have in risk in god-knows how many types of disease, hehe! Not to forget the history of heart problem and hypertension in the family.

Every year I resolved to shed those unwanted (and un-neeeded) pounds and its not because I want to fit into some old Dockers pants (it'll be nice to fit in those, though) but its because I know that the longer I am in this current physical shape, the more risk I am taking with my health. True, ajal maut di tangan Allah but I do want to live long enough to see Amir Haris (and insya Allah, his siblings) grow up and become a Muslim that I would be proud of.

Now, where is that nice Docker Pants that I could fit if I lose another 5kg ? Heheh...

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Gaza... are we just sitting here doing nothing ?

Are we?

The scenes on the TV during news everyday really breaks the heart. For innocent children to go through such deathly and traumatic experience is totally unacceptable. Israel is nothing but a war-crazy county hell-bent at obliterating the people of Gaza from their rightful land.

Thursday, January 08, 2009

Multi Lingual

At best I am only bilingual : Bahasa Malaysia and English.

Rightfully, I should be able to command three more languages: Arabic, French & Mandarin.

Back in MCKK, we were asked to choose between Japanese and Arabic as our third language. I am not really sure what made me choose Arabic (I do believe I was trying to be more Islamic at that time, hehe) but I did quite well in my first two years. It helped that I had one year of Arabic at the "sekolah agama petang" so in form one, it made me look good ! However, as I moved up form (with SRP being the priority in form 3), I was neglecting the language and when I did took the SRP Arabic Paper in form 4, I was pratically marking the multiple choice answer sheet without actually reading the questions. Rugi tak belajar dulu...

In PPP/ITM, I took French. Yes, the thought of mastering the language of romance was a good enough reason to learn it. It was two semesters of "berbelit lidah" but I had so much fun learning it. Our teacher even gave us frenc name and mine was Jacque. It sounded cool, until I found out that Jacque in France is as common as Ali in Malaysia (No offence to the Alis, ya?) Lack of practice (yea la, kat mana nak pakai French in Malaysia ni ?) slowly diminish whatever proficiency I have in that language. Rugi tak practice...

I started work in 1998 and took my masters a year later. After completing my masters, perhaps due to lack of active social life (read: NO girlfriend), I decided to take the Mandarin class offered by the Language Academy of UiTM. At that time, I have two salesperson under me who are chinese-educated Malays and I thought with them around, I could at last have somebody to practice with. I took three semesters of Mandarin (which means that I am half-way through the Intermediate stage) and I was having a good time surprising some of my suppliers and clients when I spoke to them in simple Mandarin :)

Alas, due to lack of practice (my two salesperson left for greener pastures)... you know how this ends :)

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

2009

Its the first week of 2009 and with so many gloomy predictions on the economic climate for 2009, one tends to think that things just look almost impossible. A lot of industries has already felt the brunt of the downturn and even my small business is not spared the repurcussion : cargo movement at the port seemed to be slowing down.

In spite of it all, I truly believe that in times of crisis, there is always opportunity available for those who are willing to look hard for it.

Sunday, January 04, 2009

Prefect Leadership Programme : MCKK










I have lost count the number of times I have gone back to Kuala Kangsar at the beginning of new year to play a small part in the leadership programme for the school prefects. I was among the first participant when it started in '92. Although there are some old boys who made fun of our effort but hey, this is one way I am giving back to the school, so buzz off :) Its heartening to see a group of young men with so much potential and not afraid to speak their mind.
This year, managed to sneak two golf games during our free time too :) Played a round at Taiping Golf Resort and another one a the KK Golf Club. Unfortunately the course was a bit soggy due to heavy rain during the week.