Feeling Better Today

Woke up this morning and felt like shit. Didn't feel like going to work, I thought of calling in sick, but .... what to say ah? In the end, I decided to go anyway.

At the Kelana Jaya LRT, I started having this massive stomach ache. Oh oh, I thought, must be pyschosomatic, I must have wished so hard that I was REALLY getting sick.

Still, made it to work in the end. Checked my email, the partner and the customer were very magnanimous, they all said, lesson learned, let's all move on. But boss is still angry with me, I guess he will take a few days to cool down.

Anyway, things moved quite fast today, had a few bugs, but by 4 pm all were solved and we were back on track.

Just felt very sleepy from lack of sleep, gonna try and catch up during the weekend. And also watch all the Episodes of Amazing Race Family Edition that I missed. Thanks, Media Queen! ;)

Sickening

Just had my first major screw up in the new company that I moved to five months ago.

I don't know what happened to me, I just completely forgot all those risk management skills that I so painstakingly learnt in the last three years and made a number of ASSUMPTIONS which, as Murphy's Law goes, will definitely go wrong and bite you in the ASS.

And bite they did, my boss went and told everyone that's its the other party we are integrating with that's at fault, and finally, finally, after three nights of hard digging and sleep deprivation, I found out that its OUR problem!!! Crap.

But, oddly, it felt good that I was the one who found the problem. The developers from all sides couldn't find the problem, in the end it was the project manager (me) who found it.

Depressing day :(

Speaking of Wedding Dinners ...

If you're Chinese, you tend to attend wedding dinners, as opposed to actual weddings, which is more of a Christian thing nowadays. There are the occasional few non-Christian ones where we get to join in the bride collection process (corrupted by tricks learned from Hongkie serials), but invites to those have been almost zero since I got married (Married guys don't qualify, you see).

Over the years, wedding dinners have been a blur of the same things - the long wait, the happy couple's entrance, the salty food, the Powerpoint presentation, the Kenny G music, but there were occasions when I got something different:-

1. Best food - my wife's ex-room mate's dinner in Kampar back in 2002. The ikan bawal was to die for. A distant second was JW Marriott KL, 2004 - distant cousin's wedding - he didn't have too many relatives in KL and I had to make up the numbers.

2. Longest wait - another of my wife's ex-room mate, in Federal Hotel 2001. We started dinner at 9.15 pm and finished at 11.30! I wanna see someone else beat that.

3. Fastest dinner - the same one that won the best food award. Started sharp at 6 pm, finished sharp 8 pm. Who says quality has to take time?

4. Most punctual - and Kampar wins again! Yay!

5. Most environmentally friendly - Klang 2004. This ex-colleague of mine actually put a note on every table explaining why they decided to replace the usual shark fin soup with herbal chicken soup instead.

6. Lousiest food - Hope my good friend and ex-colleague won't mind, but this has to be his hundred table banquet held at Palace of the Golden Horses in 2002. Everything was sloppily done.

7. Most expensive - 1000 bucks per table, see no. 6. Oh, the irony of it.

8. Best service - JW Marriott, distant cousin's dinner 2004. They struck the right balance between thoughtfulness and fussiness.

9. Best Powerpoint presentation - this has to be the two done by Simon, a good friend who did two very funny yet touching cartoons of the happy couples' stories. Way to go, Simon!

10. Best live presentation - a live rendition of one of Ah Niu's Hokkien songs to the happy couple, with modified lyrics, church friend's wedding, 2001.

11. Most drunken - The Gurney, Penang, 2000. After the dinner, the couple invited a group of 20 friends (yours truly included) to their suite to help themselves to two cases of hard liquor. No one was able to hold their food for the next two days.

Another Wedding Dinner

I hope the bride doesn't mind me mentioning this, but a major reason I'm looking forward to this tonight is meeting up with the guys and gals from the ex-office. I think the last time was I caught up with them was during the farewell for two pretty ladies back in August.

Can't wait!

Highbury

It was my dream to visit Arsenal's home ground, so off I went last Saturday to Highbury. There was a home match against Sunderland on, so at 2 pm I set out from Central London towards Arsenal station.

The first thing I noticed was how crowded the train was. Then I realised almost everyone was wearing Arsenal shirts. Being the coward that I am, I couldn't bring myself to take a snap of them.

When I came out of the station, I realised that Highbury is smack in the middle of a residential area! I pity the residents, having to deal with 40 thousand plus people trampling through their streets on match day. To add insult to injury, there's a large police presence, and all of them were on horses, and horse shit was everywhere!

I was dying to get a ticket, but quickly lost my appetite when a scalper offered me one for 120 quid (about 800 ringgit). The match was officially sold out, so I had to make do with soaking in the atmosphere and snapping some pics:


The official Arsenal shop :


More pics :

So this is where Osama lives ..

I woke up from my sleep on the plane to see my fellow passengers staring out the window. So, being the typical busybody Malaysian that I am, I looked out, too, and saw these:



Its Afghanistan, and if you look carefully at the pictures, you can actually see villages! Makes you wonder why people would choose to live in a place like that, but I guess different strokes for different folks....

What's a Good Company? (Part 2)

Felt like adding on to the previous post after reading some recent posts on a blog run by a bunch of ex-colleagues.

Somehow, in this place that I worked for five years, we all managed to develop genuine deep friendships that carried on even after we left. The first thing that I noticed is that everyone laments how they never find that kind of friendship in all the places that they've worked for (with the exception of one or two :) ).

The second thing I noticed was how most people said that their career actually went backwards after they left. This made me wonder - what happened to all the great IT companies in Malaysia? Aren't there any? I know writing software is a difficult and risky business, but surely someone somewhere would have made it, especially with Microsoft based development tools?

Ultimately, in this business, its the people that make up the place that really matters, and no company that I currently know of is savvy enough to realize that. They may SAY they do, but they probably don't MEAN it.

Back To UK Again

I was just informed by my boss that I'll heading back to the UK again for a few weeks from end of October onwards, so it looks like I'll miss out on the long Raya holidays.

Not really looking forward to the trip this time as the weather is colder and the sun sets earlier. This time around I try to be more prepared - bought sleeping pills, eye mask and head cushion so that I'll wake up refreshed when I get to London, and a warm jacket.

What's a Good Company?

Since I was made manager some years back, I try my best to make things better for my staff, encouraging them to grow, trying to give them constructive feedback and generally treating them the way I thought they would like to be treated. At times, what I do seem to contradict what the company and the HR department have on mind, and there's resentment from both myself and the staff.

In my new job, no one really reports to me, and the work is about 70% technical, so these issues sort of dropped out of my mind, until a recent article in BusinessWeek brought me to Mini Microsoft, a blog by an anonymous Microsoft employee who has become a celebrity of sorts for his rants about how things are being run at Microsoft. It is interesting that such a successful company as Microsoft also faces the issues that I used to agonize over in my previous job.

Spam, Spam Everywhere and Nowhere to Hide

Spam seems to be everywhere nowadays. I log into my office email, and there are viagra offers and stock tips. I check my Yahoo email, and another 3 dozen (mostly x-rated) offers awaits me. And when I check my blog, the comments from spammers crowd out my friends' messages.

During the day, various telemarketeers try to interest me in insurance schemes, personal loans, time share schemes and what not.

And when I get home, I find a bunch of flyers and junk mail in the mail box!

If half of all these efforts were put into charity, I'm sure Africa would be a rich nation by now...

Man's Best Friend

A few days ago, a movie caught my eye while surfing through Golden Screen Cinema's website - a Japanese film called All About My Dog.

So off I went yesterday with my other half to GSC MidValley. When I said "two for All About My Dog, please", the guy at the counter hesitated and said he'll be right back. Next thing I know, he says the show's cancelled. Huh, why? Coz there's no customers, he said. Eh, you've got two standing right in front of you, lah, gundu! Fortunately his supervisor walked past at that point and relented. Woo hoo, we're gonna have the cinema all to ourselves! Not quite, in the end there were another three. Must be a record of some sort, five persons in a cinema.

For those dog lovers among you, you must catch this show before they take it off soon. It was very weird, but at the same time very affecting. If you've grown weary of the cynical, self-centred world that we live in, this might make you shed tears of knowing some are still capable of simple, pure love. It also reminds of innocence lost, and dreams forgotten.

If you're the type who loves what Hollywood's been feeding us, then this might not be for you. But if you're looking for something different and memorable, then this comes highly recommended.

Mr Proton, You're Fired

I'm a big fan of The Apprentice, and often couldn't help but think that our local managers would benefit from getting a dose of Mr. Trump's weekly business lessons. Despite the theatrics and obvious made-for-tv contrivances, I felt there were always genuine business lessons to be drawn from them.

The saga of Proton's decline must be familiar to most people by now, and so far they have blamed everybody (including the consumer) but themselves. Worst of all, a very senior retired national leader (you know who I'm talking about here) has brought in a nationalistic angle into the argument, further clouding the real issues.

I think the first lesson that our soon-to-be-number-two national carmaker (Perodua is poised to overtake it at the end of this year) can learn is that you don't build products that people do not wish to buy. The current Proton Wira is at least 7 generations behind the Mitsubishi Lancer it was based on, and consumes as much petrol as my 2 litre Korean car. The Gen-2, while a genuinely good car, was hampered by poor positioning and marketing. A large number of Proton buyers are in the smaller towns, and few uncles and aunties felt comfortable buying something that looks more like a sports car than a family sedan. A large number of Proton buyers are family people, and for them, the Gen-2 was just not practical enough. If Proton had brought out a more conservatively styled family sedan based on the Campro, I'm sure it would have been a roaring success.

The second lesson is NOT to assume that you know what the market wants. What's this deal with launching cars that has only manual transmission, no ABS and no airbags anyway? Even Perodua fell down on this aspect, they readily admitted that they were caught by surprise that a full 70% of the MyVi buyers actually went for the most high end model (with ABS and dual air bags). Surprisingly, Proton repeated the mistake with the Savvy, and is now belatedly giving an auto transmission option. The Malaysian consumer has moved on, educated on a steady diet of information from cable tv and the Internet, while the car makers still assume we are ignoramuses.

The third lesson is not to alienate the consumer by blaming THEM for not buying your car. So, not buying Proton is not nationalistic? Come on! If Proton feels that the consumer is unfairly judging them on past quality problems, then why not put its money where its mouth is and offer an extended warranty at no extra charge. The Koreans did the same with the Hyundai Sonata, where the US consumer went "Oh, its a nice car, but I don't know whether it'll be as reliable as a Camry". Hyundai put their doubts to rest by offering 10 year warranties. Yep, you read that right, 10 years.

The fourth lesson is understanding that for many people, buying a car can also be an emotional thing. Many people were taken by the Kelisa's looks when it first came out, and now the same goes for the MyVi as well. I remember staring at the Kelisa whenever I spotted one when it first come out, it looked so, well, huggable. Nothing from Proton so far has ever evoked this.

The final lesson is that if you never learn and change, you'll be fired, i.e. kaput. There's an article in The Star today that says the analysts suspect right now Proton is in a negative cash flow situation. Any half decent accountant will tell you that if this goes on, the company will just bleed to death.

I do appreciate Proton for having provided me an opportunity to buy a car at an affordable price, but the time for self pity and finger pointing is long past. Wake up, Proton, or you're fired.

Home

Recently, I made a nostalgic trip back to a place that haunted my dreams for the last 10 years – Belfast, Northern Ireland. I had spent 4 years studying and working there, and the place holds many fond memories. As the years passed, my memories of the place faded and had become romanticized.

I spent two days exploring all the old haunts – the Indian takeaway that I used to frequent, the café where I usually had my breakfast, the local newsagent that I used to visit to check whether the latest issue of Empire had arrived. Everything seemed so familiar and yet so remote.

I found out to my horror that they were tearing down the student hall that I stayed in for two years.

And the newsagent was taken over by the bookstore chain Easons. The Indian takeaway, however, had survived the times, as did the video rental shop next to it.

I also went around the university, which remained very much as it was before, except the computer lab was replaced with a five storey building.

As I checked places off my list, I was surprised at how despondent I felt. I then realized why – without the people whom I had spent the good times with, Belfast was just another familiar city. I had fond memories of the place because of the people I had spent time there with, not so much the place itself, although Northern Ireland is still as beautiful as ever (and the weather as dull as ever).

The visit brought some closure to me, helping to put an end to the longing I felt for the place since I got back to Malaysia. Over the years, I plotted ways to go back to UK and live there, but never took the courage to do so.

I realized that the things that I should cherish the most are not physical, but all the people whom I love and care about. As long as these people are near, that’s where I belong, and that’s where I call home.

Faceless People?

The haunting, lilting chorus rose through the hall. I stared at the group in front that was singing acapella, five guys and five ladies.

Concert at KLCC? You wouldn't have guessed - they're Myanmarese who joined my church. As I sat there awestruck, it dawned upon me that these are the same people that I tend to meet daily, in coffee shops, by the construction areas, working and serving us.

We give them so little thought that we probably treated them as faceless robots, not human like us. At that moment as I sat there listening to them singing about their home, their heritage, it dawned on me that the guy who puts kopi 'o' on my table at the SS2 coffeeshop has a family, has feelings, has a heritage that we couldn't even imagine. They are not dumb people, they just have problems with our language.

Public Transport In Klang Valley

Since the abolishment of mini buses in 1998, public transport in Klang Valley basically sucks. Despite the hapless efforts of the late Tan Sri Yahya to make things better through his Intrakota buses, everything went downhill from that point onwards.

Having just got back from London on a job assignment, the contrast could not have been greater. Sure, they get delays galore (no thanks to Al-Qaeda), but basically the system works, i.e. carry a person from any point in London to another point in London. And I do mean any point, if you don’t believe me, try this : journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk

The government has recently completed the Klang Valley Integrated Public Transport Plan, but its implementation seems to be years away. Meanwhile, as I write this (1st August 2005) the good ol’ govt has just increased petrol prices by another 10 sen. Granted, the rich folks in their SUV’s won’t care too much, and neither will the motorcyclists, where a full tank is RM 4. It’s the middle classes whose situation is becoming increasingly untenable.

Here’s some suggestions for the govt to consider:

i. Use the savings from the petrol increase to immediately purchase another 1500 buses. We have a population of around 3 million and we only have about 500 buses, for goodness sake! At peak hour, that’s going to carry about 30,000 people, at most. Last I heard, Rapid KL is being forced to spend their limited funds to repair another 500 buses, an unacceptable state of affairs considering we are paying folks billions to build navy patrol vessels.

ii. Immediately fix more bus lanes so that the buses run smoothly. And get the buses to avoid jammed areas.

iii. Reintroduce mini buses for all the suburbs around KL. Too many aunties driving around in their mpv’s running their errands only makes things worse.

iv. Slap an annual surcharge on all vehicles travelling in the klang valley, and use the funds to subsidize the buses.

Close Encounters With Malaysian Customer Service - Other Side Of The Coin

Okay, I thought I'll give credit where credit's due and celebrate, hey, great customer service in Malaysia! (yes, there is such a thing)

There's a bank in Malaysia where if you get a number that's 100 away from your turn, you still get served in half an hour.

There's a bank in Malaysia where if you used the wrong form, they will happily fill up the correct one for you instead of giving you a sour face and asking you to requeue.

There's a bank in Malaysia where opening an account takes less than 30 minutes, including sorting out your ATM card and internet banking.

There's a bank in Malaysia where if their customer service line is busy, they offer to call you back on the number you just called. (how come no one else thought of this? I was once put on hold for 40 minutes by a telco!)

There's a bank in Malaysia where they DO NOT HAVE normal banking counters on the first floor (inconveniencing pensioners, pregnant ladies and the like) because their priority banking counters are on the ground floor.

Step up and be recognised, Public Bank!

I'm a recent customer and I must admit I'm impressed :)

Close Encounters With Malaysian Customer Service

Whenever I encounter "customer service" in Malaysia, I always try to tell myself that at the other end is just another guy trying to make a living, so don't take it too hard on that person.

But something happened to me recently that took the cake for bad customer service.

A courier company, which shall remain unnamed, tried to deliver a package to me when I was away. After arranging for it to be resent on a Saturday, I decided to pick up the package myself as I needed to send my wife to a doctor.

The card says their office hour starts at 9 am, so 9.05 am, I called and ......... got a message that all their agents are busy. Hmmm, must be some big hot shot courier company, I thought. After several tries, the call got picked up by a lady who said, no, she's not the customer service agent, all the agents are at the mamak stall having breakfast! Okay lah, give her credit for being honest.

Umpteen tries again later, the same lady picked up, and agreed to take a message that I will pick up the package. 11 am, got a call from them, saying sorry, they didn't catch me at home (??!!) I explained to them that I spoke to someone earlier about own pickup. Fine, the guy said, but you have to come after 1 pm, when the delivery guy comes back.

1.30 pm, courier company office. No customer service counter in sight, just a few guys lounging around with their smokes. A girl came up to me and asked me what I wanted. Then she told me that the manager locked up all the packages at 1 pm and no one could open them because he's on his way to Kuching for a meeting!!

I decided to rant and rave. Girl keeps apologizing, saying there must have been some miscommunication (understatement, my dear). Suddenly, after 5 minutes, she decided to open the manager's office. And there, lying on his desk, was my package.

More apologies from the girl. Have to give her credit for managing to stay cool.

Well, the Malaysian customer service strikes again.

A Tale Of Two Highways

Early morning. Typical rush hour jam, people muttering curses under their breath, blood pressure rising, radio traffic report telling you what you ALREADY know, time to call your boss and inform you'll be late AGAIN.....

Early morning. Serenity. Birds chirping, cars hardly seen.


Believe it or not, the above describes two highways in the Klang Valley at the EXACT same time of the day, morning rush hour. So, what''s wrong with this picture?

Money, that's what. Money that must be repaid to the guys who built the highway, thats what.

The highways in question? Well, there's actually two sets of them - Sprint highway and Penchala link, Federal highway and New Pantai Expressway.

Penchala' s charging RM 2 one way, NPE's RM 1.60 + RM 1.60 (if you wanna join back Federal highway again). No prizes for guessing which highways are jammed up.

The obvious next question is, why don't they lower the toll? Coz the gomen's compensating them, based on some consultant's ASSUMPTION of the traffic volume and definition of reasonable toll charge.

Now, here's an idea for everyone to chew on ...... since both the companies that built the highways are public listed, how about the gomen buying them over with our hard earned EPF funds and THEN lowering the tolls?

Maybe, the correct question should be - why is it NOT being done? No prizes for guessing this one .......

When I Get My Streamyx .....

Yay, TM is finally cabling up my part of the taman, I'm gonna get both my phone line AND Streamyx soon.

My wife often wondered why I need that much bandwidth for, and that set me thinking - WHAT WOULD I DO WHEN I GET MY STREAMYX ?? So, here goes:

• download loads of illegal songs and movies (well, this one's a given)
• watch streaming news from CNN, etc (hey, isn't that what Astro's for?)
• download open source software (don't have to pay uncle Bill)
• download software patches for Windows
• download research stuff for work and, ahem, pleasure
• blog more often (really? how come it hasn't updated it since the last millenium?)
• use Skype (definitely cheaper than whatever deal the telcos can offer)
• download trailers (must be up to date with the latest upcoming movies)
• do my surfing in half the time, or double my surfing in the same amount of time
• errmm, download more songs and movies?

Well, I guess we all know what REAL purpose of getting Streamyx is, then.

Down The Aisle

A dear friend got married recently.

She, plus a whole bunch of us were quite close some years back, but due to career advances and marriage, we all slowly drifted apart.

Back then, she was the blur queen, while I was the blur king, and friends used to play tricks on us to see which one was more blur.

Despite her blurness, my friend has a tender heart and a brave spirit. She endured the ups and downs that life dealt her with stoic patience.

She has met a very nice man, someone who understands her soul. I am sure they will have many happy journeys ahead.

Well, congratulations, blur queen. My gift to you is only three words - acceptance, commitment, patience.