3 calls

Just before my trip to Hong Kong, my dad called me up. My dad normally doesn't do so. He said "Hey karipap, me and mom are going on a trip to Italy this Friday, so, try to call back ..."

I sometimes am so busy that I tend to neglect my pious duties of calling to check on my parents.

I did as my father advised. Spoke to my mom. My dad was happy.

The day of my parents' trip, my dad calls me from the airport. He says "we're here at KLIA. Our flight is just after midnight, wish us the best". My dad called at 830pm. Doh, I thought. But I did as my father told me.

At the same time when my parents went to Italy, I went over to Hong Kong to resolve some operational issues. On Tuesday afternoon, I get a call from my brother. He said "Something happened to dad. He has passed away".

3 calls that changed my life... dad.. I miss you...

Clothes

Some ex colleague found out I was in HK and asked of a certain clothing shop was on sale...

ex_colleague: boss
ex_colleague: are the sales on now?
karipap: ya
karipap: err..
ex_colleague: in HK?
karipap: dono la
ex_colleague: aiya
karipap: i haven't gone into the city
ex_colleague: ask your wife la
karipap: tomorrow la
ex_colleague:
karipap: i tell u
ex_colleague: let me know pls?
karipap: can!
ex_colleague: esp if mastina is on sale
ex_colleague:
karipap: Mastina?
karipap: what's that?
ex_colleague: clothes shop
karipap: where?
ex_colleague: anyway
ex_colleague: they are everywhere
ex_colleague: it's like g2k
karipap: haven't heard of them
karipap: maybe i have not paid attention
karipap: Unless they are revealing type clothes like XIXILI.. then i won't notice
ex_colleague: hehehe
ex_colleague: hahahaha
ex_colleague: office clothes
karipap: aiya...
karipap: then i won't notice la

www.xixili.com.my (Pity its under construction)

Hong Kong

I'm back in Hong Kong.. supposed to lepak with family.. it's the school holiday.. but kanina.. end up working..

I was in Disneyland, wah lan.. while jalan in the river cruise also got conference call. Then at night kena review functional gaps.. jialat man. When will this end!

Mobile Phone!

Nowadays, kids as young as Standard 3 are already using handphones. I was recently at my son's sports day and I saw all the tiny children all SMSing away at the side of the padang!

Anyway, the thought did come across my mind.. do I need one for my son.. he's only in Standard 2!

That thought first came when one day, I was caught in a jam, and I could not reach his school in time to pick him up. The poor fella was quite worried so much so I did think that that's when a mobile phone would come in handy...

Anyway, I didn't get it then.. but a few days ago, my son's Chinese tuition teacher suggested that one way of encouraging my son to improve on his Chinese vocabulary is to use a phone's Hanyu Pinyin SMS capabilities. Apparently, she's been using this approach with a lot of her kids and they all are hooked. And of course la, my son also is hooked... the teacher sets them targets of say 1 SMS in Chinese a day...

So today I went over to the shops and got my son a basic Sony Ericsson J100i. RM 180. I cannot imagine I got suckered into this...

Retirement

I was attending a very senior partner's retirement yesterday. This partner was someone who I worked for for many years when I was in my previous company.

You know, I left my old company in 2005 because I felt there was no way for me to progress further in the firm. Sometimes, I look back and regret that action. Yes, I have more pay right now, but sometimes it is the camaraderie and the "family closeness" of my first company that brings very nostalgic feelings, somethings that are not apparent in the place I'm working for right now. Honestly, right now, I am just a prostitute, working for the person who pays me the highest. I'm nothing more than a hired mercernary.

This senior partner, I remember joining the firm and I was warned not to piss this fella off. "wah, yesterday I heard he tore up an Analysts' resume man and told him to get out". Already I kecut when I heard that.

But this partner has somehow treated me well. I remember some classic moments.. one where he apparently was on a boat in Phuket with some other partners and they were all discussing a problematic project.. "AHhhhh... Kah Ri Pap la.. just send him there.." Words of wisdom that I remember... I was sent to this project to fire fight.. 7000 defects/ SIRs in total. Cheemology.

There was also this other time where I was sitting in the Singapore office, and this Singapore partner comes up to me and says "Are you Kah Ri Pap ah... eh.. this CYC says you're good, man... Come, pack your bags, you're going to Melbourne.." (That time, I had the cheek to answer "but I only have one spare underwear in my bag...")

Ah.. this partner has invited me to his house to eat "tu kar" (pork legs) and "poh piah"... the memories...

But I guess somehow it is the memories of me working in that firm for 13 years that evoked quite a bit of nostalgia and memories.. which make me wonder if I should ponder my mercernary status...

To this retiring partner, I say Thank You for the memories.

Tiles

This afternoon, I did some tile shopping. I was at the Sea Park area and I checked out Niro Granite and Guocera.

Wah, shopping for tiles is also one kinda of an experience... there are different kinds of tiles. Polised. Matt. The sizes also differ.. the finishing... the polish.. ceramic... homogenous... mosaic... stripped inserts..

Cheem...

I tell you, I spent the whole afternoon selecting tiles.. what I can share is the Niro tiles have nice homogenous tiles for the floor (why homogenous, one might ask? Homogeneous tiles mean the whole tile is of the same material.. some porceline or ceramic tiles only have the top layer made of ceramic but if that top surface chips off, you can see a different colored tile underneath). Guocera has nice designer tiles for the kitchen and the wall.

This is what I chose for my floor tiles
http://www.nirogranite.com.my/HTML/Catalog/regal.htm
http://www.nirogranite.com.my/HTML/Catalog/Ivory.htm

For my bathroom tiles, check these out in Guocera's website
http://www.guocera.com

Ponds!

Last weekend I decided to go pond shopping. Now, how many of you have gone out and "bought" a koi pond? How much do you think a 10 feet by 6 feet pond will cost?

I thought 2-3K. Wah lao, my testicles nearly popped out of their sockets when I got a quote of 10-14K. And I shopped around.. it is indeed that amount! Ya, I got a 8-9K quote but the guy was honest, he said there are "contractor materials" (means crap) and there are "materials we sell to customers" (means good stuff).. so that's why there is the difference.

My god.. more than 10K just for a pond? Why? All just to have a water feature.. sigh.. this pond better rake in more money in the long term for me man...

The guy tells me a lot of things go into making a pond
- must dig lobang
- must treat the lobang (mmm mmm)
- must put some base/ fibre glass thingy
- put concealed pump and filter
- etc etc...

Jialat man!

I'm learning more and more just by renovating my place!

New School

Today was a day for fun and sadness for my son.

Firstly, he had his school sports day. Now, my son goes to school in the afternoon and he normally wakes up at 830am.. but today, he was so fired up for his sports day that we just shoke him a bit he shot out of bed at 630am, ready for the world!

The sports day was fun for him.

After the sports day, we drove him to his new school. Now, most of you know that I'm moving to my new place in Desa ParkCity.. so there's a school very near to Desa ParkCity.. (like 2 mins away) so obviously it makes sense to send my son to this school. But we knew that he'd fight tooth and nail not to go to this new school.. so today, after his sports day, we nicely drove him to his new school...

He innocently asked "eh.. what's this school ah?"

Then we told him.

Wah lao.. my son's tears all came pouring out... I was so sad for him... I know that moving to a new school can be difficult, new friends, missing old friends.. so my son was so emotionally taken aback that he kept silent the whole trip where we brought him around his new school...

I had to do something drastic...

I went over to Cineleisure and bought 4 tickets for SpiderMan 3 with my Titanium Card (buy 1, get 1 free!)...

Adsense

Notice that I've turned on Google Adsense?

I was inspired over the weekend when I read the NST article abt this Malay dude, 20+, all he does is blog and he turns on google adsense and his 4 figure USD comes in. I'm like wah lao eh.. like that oso can ah.. i must also try man...

But I guess for this to happen I have to advertise my blog to the world.. something I'd probably not wanna do.. you know lah, my humour quite cynical and "one kind" one... you think some dude from the US of A reading my Manglish can unnerstand one ah?

I may have to go commercial and blog abt handphones!

Survivor

I just finished watching the latest Survivor Fiji. I must say that this has been a very disturbing episode.

For those of you who don't follow... there's this 54 year old Chinese dude in the game. Computer Engineer. Damn smart. Frail Looking. But he found the immunity idol. And when it was down to 6, this Chinese dude, Yau Man, won the reward challenge. That got him a kick ass USD60K truck. This guy decided to make a trade with this loud mouth black cheerleader coach called Dreamz. The deal? If both Yau Man and Dreamz are in the final 4, if Dreamz wins immunity, he would give it to Yau Man.

And guess what?

In the final 4, Dreamz wins. And at tribal council, the f*cker decides not to honour his word and Yau Man gets voted out!

Wah lan.

I'm like how stupid man. Firstly, if you do shit like that, even if Dreamz gets into the final, the jury will look at him like a lying sonafa bitch! And when Dreamz goes out into the workforce, everyone will never ever trust him.

On the other hand, lets say Dreamz did give the immunity to Yau Man. Worst case is Dreamz gets voted off.. but he joins the jury with his integrity intact, and when he steps out to the work force, everyone will remember him as someone they can trust.

Wow.. I've never blogged abt a reality show before, but I must say my heart went out to the Chinese dude. He played well, and he should have been the ultimate survivor.. but he got crapped on by a lying stinker...

Renovation Starts!

I started my renovations last week.

I asked my feng shui master, eh.. what date to start ah.. basket, out of the blue he tells me on Friday that I had to start on Wed! Wah lan.. and that Monday I was flying off to Korea.

So that previous weekend I scrambled like eggs lah. Wah lan.. got specific time to start one... my contractor oso quite feng shui savvy. He even ask "got any specific animal pantang step into your house or not during renovation start?"

Cheem!

What not to do with your passwords...

You know the old joke.. people sticking their passwords and IDs on the screens.. Here I am in Hong Kong, major office relocation, applications moving to different data centres.. and I'm sitting on the table of an actuary, and she has this sticking to her telephone...

HomeDec 07

I was at HomeDec 07 in the KL Convention Centre. I tell you, this was a 4 day convention which I went for 3 consequtive days! Was it good? It was great!

Lemme tell you..I was scouting flooring.. gatal... wanna see if it makes sense to replace my upstairs flooring... After scouting around, I found this solid wood Burmese teak flooring going for RM6.90 a square feet. Now, I compared this with Engineered Wood (which is 3 layers, with the bottom layer being plywood) at RM5.50 a square foot, and Laminated Wood which ranges from RM4+ to RM8+ per square foot (and laminated wood is thinner than solid wood). Amazing.

Then there were also great deals on kitchen hobs, hoods and ovens. I got this deal for RM1.5K less than Harvey Norman!

LCD TVs and Home theatres were also abt RM1K less than normal prices...

I got good deals on sliding wardrobes (come and talk to me.. I now know all the technical details abt anti jump mechanisms!)

After 3 days, I think I have learnt quite a lot abt furnishing a house!