T = Terrible

Talking about services.. I recently expereinced several which I would like to comment.

1) Syabas. Really syabas to these guys. Tho a State Owned Enterprise, they have displayed awesome customer service. They have a 24/7 customer service line, they seriously worked. Called them at 1am and a cheerful/helpful attendent answered and gave me the information I required. Called them again 7am on a day where most govt owned enterprises are on holiday, and not only was the customer service line open, the retail outlet was open too. And they were really helpful and courteous I might add. Syabas and Bravo.

2) On the other side of the coin, decided to activate my MyKad TouchNGo (TNG) function. Service semi sux, as not all TnG sensors work. So, using it its like playing russian roulette.. not as severe but just as scary. You never know when its going to work or when its not.

3) Tenga Nasional Berhad (TNB). They suck too. Called one of their office, and no one picked the call. When the call were picked up, they forwarded me to an extension which no one answers. And when u finally get someone to answer, they are not the right person.... sounds familiar? And even when you get the right person, they tell you that you got the wrong branch and that you have to go to another branch. Sigh... its soooo frustrating. On top of that, they only open on Monday - Friday; till 5pm. Implication? Private sector workers have to take a day off just to see them. It just makes it worst when they give you the pinball treatment. Typical plague of most government offices.

So, what does that tell us, "T" stands for Terrible. :p
Oh yea, some cousins from UK came to have a holiday and the all of us decided to go Go Karting. A rare moment where you can get so many of us together. Did I win the Go Karting Event? Ofcourse not.... I was a close second tho. Think the kart was abit slower and I was heavier than my cousin..:P My typical excuses. Below the pic.

Get well soon, Hamster....

Havent been blogging for a bit. Been busy with work in Cyberjaya. Yes, u heard me.. cyber... just cant escape that place. Feels as though it was meant to be... :P
However, because of that, I was peasantly impressed by the RapidKL Bus which services the route to Cyber. Cheap and dare I say somewhat 'efficient'. Yes.. I am taking the bus. Not that bad, besides I get to sleep in the bus. So long I dont need to wait to long for the buses, I am ok with it. Fingers and toes crossed, so far so good... havent had any dude wharfing wet, fishy sardine smells in the bus as yet. Touch wood, tht will never happen.








On a sadder note, one of my all time favourite TV presenters Richard Hammond a.k.a. 'Hamster' (of BBC "Top Gear" Fame) is seriously injured in a crash involving a Jet Propelled Vampire Dragster. He was shooting for next season's Top Gear when it happened. Apparently, he was doing... get this... a whopping 280 MPH (i.e. 448 KMH) when the Vampire dragster veered off and crashed. Goodness... don think my guts can even muster a 400 KMH ride. Most I have done is 250 KMH and that was pretty scary.








Anyway, my prayers are with you Hamster. Get well soon and hope to see you real soon in TopGear!
On a lighter note, a friend sent me this and its pretty cute. Ever wondered what happens to animal stars after they are no longer popular... yes.. I have found Lassie. After entertaining millions of fans in the 70s... the show got canned... and we never hard of Lassie since..... until a few days ago... check this out... Lassie has a new job.. and it involves the family too.. All the best Lassie. ;P

Here, kitty, kitty...

Ok... havent had much time to blog lately. Been busy working and also tending to the house... too much work I tell you... :P
Oh.. the stupid cat came into the house again... and this time... gave it a scare before letting it go.... hope this is the last time it comes into the house...:P Next time round... the smackings will me more severe....:P

Sotong for the day

Today is one of those days.... where I am at the most unattentive....
Firstly, woke up, cleaned up, made a cup of milo.... seems harmless enough... after eargerly waiting for the milo to cool down.. well not quite cooled... I took a gulp... and OWWW..EEEWWW..YUCK.. (*followed with a few spits*).... little didnt i realise that instead of putting sugar into my milo (ran out of condense milk) .. yeap...I put salt... and as if that wasnt enough .. I burnt my tongue. So my impatience gave a salty coco sensation with a tad scortched feeling on the side... phankiu vewwy much....
Then .. yes, it did not end there... was ironing my clothes... (so I am domesticated.. so what... ).. I burnt my fingers.... luckily I had an ice pack handy to ice the fingers out... now I have racing lines on my fingers. Anyhow.. have to be more alert around hot objects.. esp salty milo.... (imagine calling something like that at a mamak.. milo masin ice!... kurang masin... yuck!)
On a separate topic, ever wondered what if Darth Vader turned out to be a good guy and is on the Force rather the dark side? Imagine the scene where Darth Vder rises and then says screw you emperor.. I going over to the force.... wonder how he would look like? Well, I found the profound picture... Hello Darth Vader.. the good guy...:P

Is it still safe to be outside....

There has been quite frequent rob&kill, rob&slash, rob&rape cases popping up in the media lately. Real alarming if you ask me.
Am wondering if its the police who has been slacking (after all, they did circulate a note saying that with the advent of the internal audit committee for the police force, they would let crime slide upwards), or are the robbers getting more bold in their activities.
Which ever the case.... how safe is it for us to go outside these days?

Dolby Surround 5.2

Yeah, we all heard of dolby surround 5.1, 7.1, THX and the lot. But have any of you had the exquisite experience of sitting in a cinema with Dolby surround 5.1 + 0.1? Ah... I had the experience tonight. Cyrene, Matt and me got together for a movie... Pirates 2. In we went into the theather with me stuffing myself full of pop corn. The lights dim.... and out of the corner of my eye, a girl sat next to me.. and I thought.. hello! this seems promising. The movie started and beofre I knew it, Ms. dolby surround + 0.1 started screaming with the littlest of scares from the movie. And I mean real screams.. not like one of those sheepish yelps you get when u step from a toy dog's tail... this was full blown scream. Over the course of the movie, any little exciting or nervous scecne... Ms. Dolby Surround would grace me with her + 0.1 sound effects.... and it was annoying. I can understand if we were watching a horror movie like Ju-on, The Ring or even Shaylaman's movies..but c'mon, Pirates of the Carribean 2? You got to be kidding me!
At one point in the movie, as she was again contributing her Dolby Surround + 0.1 screams, she was quaking with fear. I thought she was going into a seizure. In my opinion, I think she doesnt watch movies much..... how on earth can you not expect something to happen when the charaters says that there is something going to happen.... sheesh!
Anyway, what Cyrene and Matt says is true... she got her money's worth. She got the full experience of movie watching and she was fully engrossed into the movie plot, sub plots and sub-sub plots. After that.... I felt cheated of my money... as I didnt have the same experience. ;) Maybe I shall try to squeel abit in Pirates 3.... and if Ms. Dolby is around.... then it will be a world's first dolby surround 5.1 + 0.2 :P and that I pray will not happen......

The journey....

Well, seems that I have come back. Have been a tough couple of weeks, especially with revelations after revelations.

Was recently made known of another relative (auntie) who is battling cancer too. Didn't know this, but she has been fighting the illness for the past 5 years; and I just found out last weekend. How I came about knowing was that the other relatives were having a mini celebration of her art book which she had done while facing her illness. She found peace and tranquility in her self taught art. All this time, and I didnt even know about it....

In the midst of the mini party, suddenly dawned on me on how focus I am. Sounds cliche, but I am focused on my destinations and not being mindful of the journey... my journey. This made me think abit... should probably start training myself to appreciate the little things that happen around me... the little gestures, the small miracles which I tend to brush off as being irrelevant in my life... Anyway, think its time I learn to appreciate things and people around me. For those who are in my circle, near, cyber or far, (you won't hear me saying this very often), Thanks for being there. Appreciate everything you guys and gals do. The journey so far has been great, looking forward to the coming journeys with you lot!

Resurfacing

After some time of silence.... I guess eventually I have to resurface.... and that I have. To kick things started once again.. I would like to post some things I came across recently....
First up is this cool yet scary toy... depending on how you view it....





What a brilliant disguise! Thumbdrive storage within a teddy bear. I personally like it. But as a friend pointed out... its scary when you acutally plug it into the PC... like the Bear has its head shoved up into the USB port... not too pleasant..... to the bear at least.. but heck I think its cool!.
The other thing I found, it prove that Global Warming does exist!... I mean look at the proof!



No doubt, global warming is really rampant! ;)

A day of rememberence...

5th June 2006 is a day of much grieve and rememberence for me, as that is the date which my dearest Grandmother passed away. She was 86 years old. To all my friends, thank you for all your support and condolences. Appreciate it.

Had to give an eulogy during the funeral, and I talked about the thing I would most remember her by.... a strong characteristic about my grandmother. Whenever I think of my granny, she often strikes me as a person of great strength; physically and mentally. She brought up a family during the WWII alone as my grandad was taken away during the Japanese occupation. Then some ten years ago, she was proud that she bashed a cobra who entered her home. I was afraid for her as she was then 70+ years old with a heart condition.

However, about a year ago when we first become aware of her condition, did I really see her true strength... her spiritual strength. Despite her illness, she stayed strong and faithful to GOD, always insisting to participate in Holy Communion even when she was immobile and could not sit for long periods of time. She sat through the whole communion, and in GOD she found strength and peace.

This inner strength came out during my daily calls to her for the past year. She would constantly remind me of GOD and how HE gives her strength, comfort and peace. I could even hear the calmness and peace as she told me this. Throughout her battle with cancer, she didn't complain much about her paint and I believe that GOD had given her the strength through her illness. Truely, HIS greatness knows no bounds, and I thank GOD for being by my grandmother's side throughout her life and especially during her illness. And I thank GOD for giving her peace as HE took her home with HIM. Though I am grieving of her physical departure, I am relieve that she is with GOD, and definately in good hands. Her strength lives within me and will forevermore serve as a guide to HIS strength. Rest in HIS grace and peace be with you, Grandma. I love you. :_) My life will be forever changed.

On a lighter note, my Grandmother left behind her beloved pets.. all kept her company and gave her great joy. A cat named "Tiger" and a Dog named "Spotty".

"Tiger" the cat. Tis not hard to see why granny named it "Tiger". But he's actually quite tame. Super affectionate....

"Spotty" the dog. Hyperactive and SuperYappy. It was tough getting these shots as he was always running around. Thank god for Digital Cameras. :P And you can see, he is such a poser. Cute and Hyperactive.... great... thats all we need. ;)

Trying times......

Although I usually post weird and unusual insights in my circle, this time is different. It has been a tough week for me. Granny is not feeling well... been battling cancer for a year and its really difficult to see her in that condition. Of late, she has been getting weak and today, been told that her kidneys failed. I feel so helpless.

All I can do is pray for her. And all this I have witnessed that the power of the LORD and the power of prayer is something which can be relied upon at all times. And thru this past year of hardship, I have seen how HE has worked miracles in giving my granny the strength, courage and peace to overcome her illness. I have seen her spirits lift as she turns to the LORD and for that I am enternally grateful to HIM.