01:02:03 04/05/06

No, this is not the time I am aiming for in the coming Pacesetters 15K run, I wish I could do it.

That next month on Thursday 4th May, 2006,
at two minutes and three seconds
after 1-O'Clock the time and date will be exactly:
01:02:03 04/05/06

This will never happen again.

LETS CELEBRATE, ANYONE BUYING ME LUNCH

How it all began

It was year 1984 when I just found a job with a local construction firm as an IT executive. And before that I working as a part-time storekeeper for about 9 months with a locally incorporated Dutch organization that distribute a range of products ranging from electrical goods, toiletries, hard liquor, etc, etc. At this workplace was where I ate a lot and drank hard liquor almost every alternate day. Late nights were a norm because I went out doing sales entertainment with the salesman. My body grew horizontally day after day, and my stomach was blotting out. My physical fitness was way down the drain and I feel lazy all the time.

Until things started to change..............

More details in Runner's Malaysia site

The bug is gone

Finally the bug is GONE. It was almost one month since I am suffering from this persistent cough, and the whole throat and lungs area feel very congested, full of phlegm. Have gone to visit the doctor twice during that period and cannot imagined the amount of medication that I have taken. Well, I hope it doesnt come back and strike me again.

I was feeling better towards the last two weeks but just that the cough doesnt goes away completely. Yesterday the cough sort of gone completely and I am not taking any chances yet to start eating those fried kuey teow (which is my favorite), curry laksa, and all sorts of spicy food. Need to make sure its gone completely bcos in about 2 weeks time I will be going for my fifth climb in Mt Kinabalu. I am making sure that I done get sick when I am there.

After the climb, I will probably be back in full force in my running regime. Have committed to give the Penang Bridge International Marathon - 42KM a shot. I will have 3 full months to train and to me this is a big commitment on my end, to others it is SUP SUP WATER!!!!. Along my training program, I will have the Pacesetters 15KM run on 21 May and the PJ Half Marathon on 18 June.

This week will be an extremely busy week for me.
IT'S QUARTER END AGAIN.
I NEED TO ENSURE THE NUMBERS COME IN........

Cheers.......

Siem Reap

Siem Reap, Cambodia - thats the next destination I am having my vacation. Am doing some research now and according to my friends its easy to move around and the people there do speak some English. Thats make it perfect for communication.








































































Have a good weekend !!!

You Know You're Malaysian When...

You complain about the quality of the pirated DVD you just purchased. "What, RM10 for DVD5?! Aiyah, boss ....sound no good, cheaperlah ..."

You're willing to consume sambal petai and durian and gladly suffer the bloating and wind-breaking incidents.

You're exceedingly polite to the Mat Sallehs but you slag your own kind. "Hello, sir. Why don't you sit here, it's got the best view of the city skyline." But, "Aunty-ah, your table is over there next to the kitchen."

You order Maggi goreng and fried chicken, complain about how oily the food is, and then proceed to finish it anyway.

You love to talk about food. You're already thinking about what to have for dinner while eating lunch. "I'm stuffed. What shall we have for dinner?"

You dive into a communal-style meal the moment the dish lands on the table only to hesitate at the last morsel of food on the serving dish. There are two possible explanations for this: the first is the pai seh (embarrassed) factor, while the other is the myth that the person who eats the last piece will be a spinster.

You hit the accelerator the moment the first drop of rain hits your windshield. "Alamak, it's going to rain. Sure traffic jam one. I'd better drive faster."

You seize the opportunity to make a U-turn anywhere ... especially where there is a sign telling you not to. Well, so long as the cops aren't in sight.

You feel a burning desire to send text messages and even have the gall to give your friend a blow-by-blow account of the movie to your friend on the handphone during the screening of the movie. "Okay, now that girl Lizzie is impersonating an Italian singer; she so doesn't look Italian ..."

You forsake your loved ones for the all-important four letter-word: S-A-L-E. "Sorry, mum, I can't take you to Aunt Mary's because I have to go to MidValley before the crowd." You're also more than happy to be part of the insane traffic jam that forms around malls during weekends and sale periods.

Reality shows Akademi Fantasia and Malaysian Idol dictate your social life. "What, no TV at the mamak? Count me out, I'm staying home. Rinie needs my support."

You pepper every sentence with lah. "No-lah, I can't see you today-lah. I have to study-lah. You know-lah, the prison warden aka mak is watching me like a hawk-lah"

You fail to function normally without your daily dose of teh tarik and nasi lemak.

You have owned at least one Proton in your lifetime. Cheap, cheap. That is until you start to make enough dough to buy that Merc or Beemer or Honda you've been salivating over.

You slow down at an accident site to take down the car number plate, but won't step out of your car to help... the victim could be a robber!

You'd rather park your car along the main road outside the mall, where there's a yellow line, rather than pay RM1 to park inside where there are adequate bays.

You plead, bat your eyelids and relate a sob story to the officer at the town council office to let you off the hook (or reduce the amount considerably) for the fine you incurred when you parked your car on the double line.

You make an appointment for 10am and conveniently show up a half hour late - Malaysian time, what ...

You pop open the wet tissue packet at the Chinese restaurant by squeezing the trapped air to the top of the packet before proceeding to smash your fist into it. The louder the pop the better.

You greet your friend / neighbour / acquaintance on the street with "How are things?" or "Have you eaten?" or better yet, by stating the obvious: "Went to market ah?"

Ramlee burger is the "piece de resistance" of your growing-up-years cuisine.

You catch all major televised events at the mamak.

You have roughly six meals a day (breakfast, mid-morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner and supper). Then there's the snacking keropok ikan, pisang goreng, muruku, jam tarts and the like.

You get the whole family dressed to the nines, jump into the car and head for the minister's open house and ask for styrofoam boxes and plastic bags to tar pau food.

Your accent and language style vary according to the race of the person you are conversing with.

You've got a friendly disposition. Smiles are abundant and your "Apa khabar?" is warm and sincere.

You exclaim loudly how expensive everything is, even though the items may in fact be going for a steal. "Wah! So expensive, ah? Hak sei ngor (Scare me to death)!"

You dig deep into your pockets to contribute to the latest appeal for donations in the newspapers.

You "dis" our country all the time, but as soon as something good happens (like winning the Thomas Cup), you morph into a proud Malaysian.

You never travel abroad without a bottle of chilli sauce, or sachets which you can sneak into restaurants.

You eat durian for dinner and feed your pet dog with durian as well.

You're proud to be Malaysian - and you pass these jokes on to all your Malaysian friends!

Semi passive mode

Still have not fully recovered. The nasty bug is still with me. The cough is slowly subsiding. Did a slow 8km run on last Saturday to gain back some momentum (have not been running regularly for almost 2 weeks). N drove back to Ipoh in the afternoon to send my mum back since she was in town staying with me for the past 2 weeks. Lazed around doing nothing much except for a shopping trip. Got myself a pair of glove in preparation for my Mt Kinabalu trip on May 4-7, 2006. While in Ipoh on Saturday, got a SMS from my running buddy "Tomorrow got energy to do a 11km double hill run?" Guessed he is itching to do some running again after our break since KLIM 2006. Hey buddy, "R U game for the Penang Bridge International Marathon - 42km"

Not much training that I put in for this trip except running. Just wanted to test out this training regime on whether it is sufficient to reach the summit, else I will be the sweeper this time. A friend of mine just came back from the climb about two weeks ago and he said the weather is beautiful with a good view of sunrise, and he is climbling with me again for this trip. N he is bringing along his 16 years old son with him. Hope we can get the good weather too.

Carboman, Cheong, CS and Newton:
You guys must plan a trip for Mt Kinabalu and get to the summit.
Its a whole new experience !!!

Thumbs Down

What a disgrace!!!. The Malaysia hockey team are at it again. After losing 0-1 to Japan, they lost again yesterday to the Koreans with a scoreline of 1-3. And there are 3 more games to go playing China, France and New Zealand and as usual our officials are hoping to win it. (You think these 3 teams are easy meat, no way Jose) Just bcos we won a bronze medal in the Melbourne Commonwealth Games 2006, the respective officials cheated themselves thinking highly about the team and was hoping to get a semi-final berth and automatically gain entry into the World Cup proper. Hard luck, man. For Malaysia sake, please stop embarrassing the country. The Sport Ministry shud know better. And please DO NOT waste all the tax payers money by sending these bunch of jokers out there thinking highly of themselves but actually the team is just a bunch of rookies compare to the other nations. As usual we do not do our homework, and please dont blame on others who spy at the team during training.

Anyway I wont lose sleep over this bcos I will never have any faith at all especially to our hockey, football and sepak takraw team. Just a bunch of jokers embarrassing themselves year in year out.

Have a good weekend and Cheers......

Start Them Young

Starfall.com - click here to enter site

This is a children education learn-to-read website highly recommended by a colleague of mine. Start them young in recognizing characters, words and reading sentences. If you are a young parents, no harm trying the website out. Your kids will LOVE it.

Down with a nasty BUG

Down with a sore throat (ulcers), bodyache and a slight cough. I am experiencing a mild fever too. Legs aching and feel very lemah. Goosh, its been a while since I have contracted ulcers in the throat. And therefore didnt even bother to put on my rubber trainers over the weekend. Feeling shitty this morning, have to drag myself up the bed and when most people that I knew are on PTO bcos Tuesday is a horiday. Have to come back to office for a sales forecast meeting. Nos not coming in for the Q !!!!

188 Hugh Low Street, Ipoh, Perak

This is the address I belong to, born and breed, brought up along the streets of Ipoh (new town) for 25 years before my migration to Kuala Lumpur for a greener pasture. The address is located at a pre-World War II building built in the year 1931. My grandma use to operate a coffee shop in this building during the good old days, and our family stay upstairs the shophouse. My grandma specialties are charcoal toasted crispy bread (the thick hainan white bread) and spread with home-made kaya. Tau Foo Fah is another specialty, and we have chilled and hot offerings. So I grew up with these two delicious specialties of my gradma and therefore I have very high threshold when comparing those available in the country. Most of them cant even come near to what I used to consume. Free flow of cigarettes bcos in those days cigarettes are also sold by per stick. (I am not reviewing whether I smoke at a very young age!!!)




































My dad was a goldsmith and my mum works as a tailor operating her small business in the same premise. I came from a low income family and my parents are too busy working, worrying about the end of month expenses year in year out. No one bothers on what I do when I was growing up. So with such freedom I would said that I roam around freely painting the town red at times. Cycling was my means of transport and that limits me in reaching places that are further away from town. Until I got my motorbike license and a motorbike (Yes, I can ride a motorbike with a license to ride motorbikes that are 500cc and below) my adventures started to get further away from town to places like Kampar, Lumut, Taiping and the costal town within Perak.

Hugh Low Street in Ipoh are full of activities since this is the main road that connects the New Town and Old Town of Ipoh, and is divided by the Kinta river that cut aross the city. Any festival possessions will definitely run thru this road and to me this is like The Strip of Las Vegas. Being one of the busiest street, accident rate are also very high. So I do witnessed some very high impact accidents that are quite growse like victims lying on the road motionless. Rows of shops can be found along Hugh Low Street operating their business ie shoes shop, coffee shops, optical shops, garment shops, goldsmith shops, bicycle shops, biscuit shops, book shops etc. You name it Hugh Low Street have it.

So going back to Ipoh will always bring back good old memories to me and I will make it a point to at least go back to the places of interest where I used to frequent during my childhood days.

Ipoh - The land of tin mines
Ipoh - The land of leng luis
Ipoh - The land of nga choy khai
Ipoh - The land of pomelos
Ipoh - The land of limestone caves

Ipoh mali, tadah sombong punya!!!!!

I will miss my quota

This quarter numbers are not coming, not enuf
I am scrambling like a headless chicken
Help me, Help me, Help me...
Otherwise I will be a dead chicken

a few thousand words II (The Sequel)

Click here for Part 1

Driving ethics

Majority of Malaysian drivers on the road have a lot to learn when it comes to driving ethics. The bad habits were clearly outlined this evening when I was on my way back from the north to KL after Cheng Beng. The N-S Highway was very heavy with traffic and as I reached Slim River the crawl started. The traffic was bump-to-bump moving slowly and at times there is a standstill for a while. This condition was a common sight all the way till Lembah Beringin when the traffic ease of a little bit. And as usual you will find all those impatient and inconsiderate drivers cutting into the emergency lane overtaking everyone dangerously and travelling at high speed too. I was praying very hard that these IDxxT drivers will bump into the police having a road block for these Q jumpers. And true enuf there are 2 blocks that were setup (about 5km apart) by the police to nab these inconsiderate drivers. When these Q jumpers are stopped, everyone that was driving on the 2 lanes sounded their horns giving the police the thumbs up by putting up these blocks (and hopefully issue the summon) This sums up very well that in general, there are still a majority of Malaysians that do not care for anything when driving on the highway. They just have themselves in mind. No wonder we still have high accidents rates.

Note: For today, I will have to give the thumbs up to the police in doing the right thing knowing very well the traffic along the N-S Highway will be extremely heavy. And setting up the roadblocks along the emergency lane will definitely teach those IDXXT a lesson.

Cheers.

Cheng Beng - The Festival of Tombs

Since last week, Cheng Beng was observed by Chinese communities all over the world. And is no diiference for the Chinese in Malaysia. Also known as Cheng Beng or Qing Ming or Chinese All Souls Day, which falls on April 5 every year except on leap years when it falls on April 4.

During this period, the Chinese community will be busy making preparation to visit graves of deceased family members and ancestors to pay their respects. It can be done 10 days before and after the actual date of Cheng Beng. Graves are weeded and cleaned, joss-paper is burnt, and offerings are made.

Click here for more details.

And it is no difference for me as I will be making my way back to Ipoh today and offer prayers to my dad who passed away. Today also happens to be my dad's 7th Death Anniversary. My family together with my mum will be visiting the temple since my father was cremated and his ashes are at the temple instead of a grave at the burial ground.

This doesnt stops here as I have to visit my grandparents graves in KL next week. This is a trandition brought down during my dad's era although I have not even meet them before. This will be a once a year family weekend outing where the kiddos will enjoy themselves helping to clean the graves and trim the long lallangs and weeds around the graves.

So it will be a back-to-back weekend for me visiting the temple and grave during the Cheng Beng period.

Dream of owning this car

This Porsche Cayman S could be yours. Just pay RM50.00
Come on Man, wat is RM50.00, tats chicken feed













Any takers????

Great Truths

GREAT TRUTHS THAT LITTLE CHILDREN HAVE LEARNED
1) No matter how hard you try, you can't baptize cats.
2) When your Mom is mad at your Dad, don't let her brush your hair.
3) If your sister hits you, don't hit her back. They always catch the second person.
4) Never ask your 3-year old brother to hold a tomato.
5) You can't trust dogs to watch your food.
6) Don't sneeze when someone is cutting your hair.
7) Never hold a Dust-Buster and a cat at the same time.
8) You can't hide a piece of broccoli in a glass of milk.
9) Don't wear polka-dot underwear under white shorts.
10) The best place to be when you're sad is Grandpa's lap.


GREAT TRUTHS THAT ADULTS HAVE LEARNED
1) Raising teenagers is like nailing jelly to a tree.
2) Wrinkles don't hurt.
3) Families are like fudge...mostly sweet, with a few nuts.
4) Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground.
5) Laughing is good exercise. It's like jogging on the inside.
6) Middle age is when you choose your cereal for the fibre, not the toy.


GREAT TRUTHS ABOUT GROWING OLD
1) Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional.
2) Forget the health food. I need all the preservatives I can get.
3) When you fall down, you wonder what else you can do while you're down there.
4) You're getting old when you get the same sensation from a rocking chair that you once got from a roller coaster.
5) It's frustrating when you know all the answers but nobody bothers to ask you the questions.
6) Time may be a great healer, but it's a lousy beautician.
7) Wisdom comes with age, but sometimes age comes alone.


THE TRUTH OF SUCCESS
1) At age 4 success is . . . not peeing in your pants.
2) At age 12 success is . . . having friends.
3) At age 21 success is . . . having a drivers license.
4) At age 35 success is . . . having money.
5) At age 50 success is . . . having money.
6) At age 70 success is . . . having a drivers license.
7) At age 75 success is . . . having friends.
8) At age 80 success is . . . not peeing in your pants.

Have a great weekend.

Cheers.

I Love My Job