July 2009

The Archives

• Free Meal

  07.31.09 | Permalink |Travel, US| 1 Comment

  Before I came to Colorado Springs, I ask my US counterparts what’s the weather there. All of them said hot and sunny. I landed here and it was cold. Now I am freezing. I didn’t even bought any jacket with me, just a knitted sweater. I have been drinking hot tea to keep me warm. Ooh, I brought rain from Penang too. It has been raining since the day I step foot here.

  The other day I walked into Boston Market to get a ¼ roast chicken with 2 sides for dinner to take away. The chicken wasn’t ready. I waited and waited. The chicken was still roasting. The waitress was nice, she offered me a drink. I sat down. She took my order. Next thing she packed everything and told me it was free. How nice.

  
  
  

  The reason it was free because the service was slow. Hey I only waited for 5 minutes. Don’t you just love it here? The chicken taste delicious too, better than Kenny Rogers. It was juicy and superb. I will go back again! Next stop, in-and-out burger. Yummy!

• Shopping At Castle Rock

  07.28.09 | Permalink |Shopping, Travel| 5 Comments

  I drove 35 miles to Castle Rock Factory Outlet on the day after I land. Fun starts before a busy week of work. They have summer sales there. You cannot imagine how cheap and how much I bought. There are many outlets there like Coach, Levi, Guess, Gap, Corelle and many more.

  
  
  

  Driving up there wasn’t too difficult because it is a straight road, just like Gilroy. However with Castle Rock, the shops are all in one place. I don’t have to drive from one zone to the other. If you are tired walking, there is a little nice food court for you to eat and relax. It has wifi too.

  
  
  

  Ok, here is the interesting part…..COACH IS ON SALE!!!!! It is not just sale but SUPER SALE. Yes, crazy price too. Most bags were like 50% discount and there are so many choices there. By the way, there is no queue whatsoever and not very pack with people too. Some bags were USD$99. See for yourself. You cannot believe how many I bought back. Now I am broke!

  
  

  

  
  

  Look at my Oshkosh receipt, clothes below USD$5. Back home, it is selling above RM40. Now you know why I have a problem packing. Not forgetting all the preordered toys that my children listed for me.

  
  
  

• Dreadful Flight Schedule

  07.27.09 | Permalink |Travel, Work| Comments Off on Dreadful Flight Schedule

  Yeap, I am off to US and my flight schedule is terrible.

  Thurs Night -> Fly to Singapore, stayed overnight at Transit Hotel.
  Fri Morn -> Fly to Narita, Japan. Then head to LA

  In LA, I arrived at 1:30pm, waiting for my Colorado Springs flight at 8:30pm. It was a long wait. There is nothing near by the airport, that I can do. I stayed in the airport and went online.

  Flight delayed until 10:30pm due to technical problem in the plane. They got another plane. I landed in Colorado Springs at 1:30am. Fortunately they didn’t cancel the flight else my plans all go down the drain. A few flights were canceled while I was there. United is really going downhill.

  There was one flight, they were overbooked. They made an announcement to give a free round trip on United in US, to anyone who want to give away his/her seat on that flight. Hotel and next flight arrangement will also be provided. I don’t mind if it was my flight.

  I am so glad that I made a decision not to collect the car on that day. I chose to stay near the airport and pick up the car next morning. At 2 am, no one will be there to hand you the car. It will be waste of money to take a cab to my hotel and back to collect the car. At least with hotel near the airport, I can use the airport shuttle.

  Most of the time, when I reach US, it is at night. I can sleep after that. However this time, I reached in the morning and I don’t have a place to sleep. It was really tiring and went to sleep straight after I checked in.

  Next up, shopping spree and you cannot imagine what I got! Ok, a few of you know because I was too excited to share the news…..

  
  
  

  Here is my rented car, no hybrid car this round…

  
  
  

• Calling BBGS-ians

  07.19.09 | Permalink |School| 1 Comment

  If you are an ex-BBGS, there is a big event on 4th August. It will be a MEGA reunion. Sob sob, I would be around to attend it. If you know anyone from BBGS, please tell them! Let the BBGS spirit leaves on. Oh, for those who donno, my ex school has transformed into a prestige shopping mall called The Pavilion. It is really quite sad.

  
  Venue: Bintang Circle (Concourse Area), The Pavilion Kuala Lumpur
  Date: 4th of August 2009
  HOTLINE: +6017-871-9357
  11 AM
  Launch of THE ELENA COOKE EDUCATION FUND with Miss Cooke
  Lunch with old friends
  Throughout the day
  Sale of souvenirs – to help raise funds
  6.30 PM
  BACK2BBGS Gala! – The Mega Mother of all Reunions!!
  Welcome Ms Yeap Gaik Khoon and all the former Teachers
  Choral Speaking, The BBGS Alumni Choir, and others
  

• BM Vs English

  07.16.09 | Permalink |English, IT| 3 Comments

  The recent announcement where the govt wants to switch back the teaching of Science and Maths to BM or mother tongue puzzles me. If you look at today, most of the Science terms used are in English. The application of Science terms use in Chinese, Tamil or BM is very little.

  Today we were discussing this in our office and one of my colleagues brought up a good point. He said when he heard the India IT outsource workers talk, they are speaking Hindi, Hindi, Hindi, CPU, Hindi, Hindi, Hindi server Hindi…. Some computer terms has weird meaning if it is translated to mother tongue.

  Let’s take computer terms as computer is my field. Here is some of the translations I found and it really make laugh.

  Mouse – Tetikus or Petunjuk
  Click – Tekan
  Double Click – Tekan-Tekan
  Cut & Paste – Potong dan Gum Lekat
  Save – Kemas Kini
  Enter – Masuk
  Ink Jet – Pancutan Dakwat (hehehehehe….LOL)
  Database – Pangkalan Data
  Access Denied – Laluan DiHalang
  Sound Card – Kad Bunyi
  Motherboard – Papan Ibu
  Monitor – Ketua Darjah??!! (someone suggested)
  Keyboard – Papan Kunci
  Local Bus – Bas Tempatan
  Joystick – Batang Gembira (try translating plug and play!)
  Sound Blaster = Peletup Bunyi

  Maybe these terms are not the official ones but it sure sounds funny to me.

• Billing Me Ahead

  07.13.09 | Permalink |Business| 1 Comment

  Unbelievable! I received two notice of payment that is due in the future. One is due in end Aug and the other in Oct. Are the businesses so bad that they need the customers to pay ahead of time?

  This is not just one month ahead but 3 months ahead. If they give me a discount, maybe I think of paying ahead. Otherwise, I probably pay the week before it is due. Yeah, give me some incentive to close the deal for you. Be creative and not just shove the invoice to me.

  Well I guess, everyone is only thinking about their own business, their own cash flow and their own profit. When times are bad, every business man turns on their survivor mode.

• Professionalism

  07.08.09 | Permalink |Work| Comments Off on Professionalism

  I admired one of my colleague professionalism. He was impacted by severance package but UK has a good labor law that deferred his exit date. He is in the midst of kicking a project out. He makes everything to ensure that this project is successful before he leaves. He is putting 110% in making it work. He even drafted out a good support plan after implementation to ensure it is sustainable.

  As opposed to my managed service contractor who has tender his resignation. He is leaving end of the month. He has been coming in late, not attending his transition meetings and giving me a lot of problems. He even told my colleague that he is not at his desk doesn’t mean he is not in the company.

  Sometimes I wonder does culture really play a big part in being professionalism.

• Coach Bag

  07.04.09 | Permalink |Hangbag| 2 Comments

  
  
  

  I am not a handbag person, meaning I don’t carry handbag. However ever since I knew about Coach Bag, I kind of like the design. Not sure why. When I first saw the coach patchwork design in the Coach KL Shop, I like it very much. However I was rushing to go somewhere and didn’t really buy it there.

  I hunt it down and I found one in Ebay. I was really skeptical of getting a branded bag in Ebay because you really cannot trust some of the sellers there. It may be replicas that they are selling. I found one seller who I have a good feeling that she is selling the authenticated one because she gave me the receipt from coach shop, coach tag and what not. By the way I got it 70% off the original price, last year.

  The shipping fees were not very costly, maybe the seller misquote. The only problem I faced when the bag arrived was custom. The custom sent me a card asking me to collect the item in Butterworth, the other side.

  Fortunately, my FIL knew one custom person to help me. Yes, I did pay a minimum tax on this item. I wonder how people get away from pay tax. It was worth getting it. Until today, I am still using it to travel.

  It will be soon that I am going to walk into a Coach shop in US. Let’s hope I can get another one that I like that is in the acceptable price range. I got this for my mom on mother’s day.