Where I jot down stuff

Selamat Hari Raya

2011-08-30T11:08:00.000+02:00

Scooter kidss

2011-08-28T16:48:00.001+02:00

Lana with her new scooter (the last one got stolen last week), and Aryan with one of Lana's old ones.
After days of unpredictable wet weather, today looks pretty good with bright blue sky and moderate temperature. The kids pestered me to take them to the nearby kindergarten's playground. I was getting bored myself just sitting indoor at home, though i should have been working on my assignment. Oh well, laziness ... Rules. I'll see if I am in the mood in the evening. All that I can think about now is food. Two more days to go with fasting .... And to "raya".

Jemput jemput

2011-08-28T15:41:00.001+02:00

Marina, Saifol dan kami sekeluarga akan mengadakan rumah terbuka pada 10 September. Kawan kawan yg telah menerima jemputan, harap semua dapat hadir. Selamat Hari Raya! .. dan maafa zahir dan batin

Salam Aidilfitri ..

2011-08-28T15:31:00.001+02:00

Syawal is here again ...

HARAPAN RAMADHAN (Man Bai and Raihan): Turn this on, close your eyes and listen ... even if you don't understand the words, concentrate on the melody .. simply beautiful. Dedi...

How do you kill time on train

2011-08-27T21:04:00.002+02:00

This is too long and i'm getting restless. Geneva, Aarau .. next Brugg, then Baden, jump on bus and next home. Those legs' owners seem to enjoy the ride. Clearly, they r heading to some fun night out. I just need a good shower and quite time at home. Get me there fast train.

Paris, its stressful with the Metro

2011-08-25T23:54:00.001+02:00

Once it was fun to fight with the crowd, and checking out some hot chicks in the underground in London; and Paris wasnt so much different. Finding the ways through the colourful network of lines was fun. Getting on the wrong train and arriving at the wrong station wasnt a big deal. Backtrack and it would all be ok. All these were 15 years ago. It aint that fun no more.

Tour eiffel

2011-08-25T22:02:00.001+02:00

I wonder when was the last time i was near the Eiffel Tower though I have been numerous times in Paris since 2006. Possibly in the same year after we moved to Switzerland. Having seen it a number of times, the first one being in the mid 90's, (student budget trip), there's nothing left thats special about it. Nevertheless i still enjoy lazying on the big park opposite it watching tourists getting into all sort of actions and poses trying to come up with the best pictures with the tower.

Why isn't it in Malaysia?

2011-08-24T23:20:00.000+02:00

Why isn't cocounut slices like below sold back in Malaysia?

Basel airport

2011-08-04T23:24:00.004+02:00

It's my last residential school, and this time in Brussels; flying from Basel. I was extremely surprise to see how nice the Swiss lounge is at the Basel airport. Simply stunning!

B20 is history

2011-06-22T08:01:00.001+02:00

Finally the day of judgement came. The B820 result came out yesterday. Strangely enough there wasnt any email notification like the first module B713. Juan posted a note on some of our walls, and I hurriedly went onto the website. The big red PASS label was totally missed by me, too eager to see the number. 48%. Thank god, a pass. Not a good pass, but a pass is a pass. Plus, considering my bad TMA marks, it wouldnt make so much difference even if i got a slight better score in exam. Amsterdam, here I come.

Missing those DJs?

2011-06-09T22:03:00.001+02:00

Fellow Malaysian overseas,
Missing listening to those radios that used to entertain you along the Federal Highway while stuck in traffic jam? It's all here - http://www.radiomalaysia.net/. May be not all of the stations, but certainly some of the common ones. Enjoy listening ..

A life that began with uncertainty

2011-06-09T20:37:00.003+02:00

Lyris, the moment she was taken out of her mommy uterus thru c-section. A small sound of cry brought relief to everyone in the operating theatre. A 1.5 kg preterm baby, she's now a healthy 6.5 kilos 5 months into her life .... Or technically 3 month-old.

Mind mapping - a good one for Android

2011-06-09T20:08:00.002+02:00

If you need a a good simple to use mind mapping software for your Android device choose this - http://www.thinkingspace.net/

Acer Iconia A500 Tablet Review

2011-06-08T21:48:00.001+02:00

This is not bad for 449 USD. A fantastic machine.

Barca the Champ again 2011!

2011-06-05T20:57:00.004+02:00

Barca the Champ again 2011! a video by arylana on Flickr.

I was very hopeful that ManU could find the right rythm and touches to contain Barca. Unfortunately Barca was simply awesome, unbeatable. Xavi, Inniesta, Villa and Messi, together make a formidable force. They totally outplayed ManU. Hernandez, who's been sensational in the EPL, was a quiet little boy in the 90 minutes.

The room in Surrey Court

2011-06-05T20:44:00.002+02:00

The room in Surrey Court, a photo by arylana on Flickr.

After leaving the uni for more than 10 years, I returned in March to spend a couple of nights in one of the resident rooms - the Surrey Court. I had to attend my MBA school in Milton Hills near Oxford, and on the way back I just decided to spend a some time in Guildford, plus I needed to go to London to renew my passport. The university on the external has changed a lot. Inside, in the residential courts from my time, things have not been so much different. This room above is exactly I as remember it.

It wasn't a fun visit though. I caught some flug bugs from Milton Hills and the two days I spent in Guildford it was all about stepping in and out of the toilet - a horrible experience. I probably shit more than I'd ever shit in my entire time at the Uni.

Street dance in Paris

2011-06-05T20:26:00.002+02:00

Street dance in Paris a video by arylana on Flickr.

Quite cool - a group of youth performing dance near the Opera in Paris.

I took this video on the first evening of the last visit to Paris I did in May for a Nuclear management meeting. As usual, I hate eating in proper restaurant, being served and all that. A short metro ride from Levallois is Opera (on one line, no change); and I usually take a strole along the high street and get some quick bites from some of the takeaways there.

Summer is here

2011-06-05T13:50:00.001+02:00

It was burning on my back walking to the local swimming pool. So hot. Sunny. Beautiful day.

The kids enjoy the treat to the pool. Despite the water isnt as warm as thought it would be, it didnt deter us from having a good time.

cablecom - what a piece of crap

2011-06-04T19:48:00.000+02:00

I've got to say the above this time. I never had any problem for good three years when I had the old non-HD mediabox. This new one really sucks! Jeff had some problem with his, now I have one too, and it wasn't quickly solved when I reported it.

Finally, a technician came over, just to confirm that the mediabox was faulty which a good, rational person would have made the deduction much earlier based on all the evidence I'd given. I guess it's one of those Swiss social / economical frameworks - each business (incl the Technician) needs to be ensured of enough demand. Crap.

A new mediaBox arrived Saturday. The excitement didn't last long. All plugged in and set to go ... and it's just another faulty box. After ten minutes, it went into reloading mode again and again, this has been a persistent feature ever since. It's been 24 hours now.

Wha a crap - http://www.flickr.com/photos/shreky/tags/cablecomproblem05june2011/

Lyris

2011-05-22T20:22:00.001+02:00

Lyris, a photo by arylana on Flickr.

Lyris Adira, born on 13th Dec 2010. At 1.5 kilos she was considered a big preterm baby of her age. Nevertheless she had to be in close care of the hospital for over 1 month. Today, she's a healthy, chubby 5-month old baby.

Jom meet up! 2011

2011-05-22T20:18:00.001+02:00

Jom meet up! 2011, a photo by arylana on Flickr.

June, another fellow Malaysian created the Malaysians in Switzerland FB group. Today the group met at the a park near Zurich, and a good number. GReat to see you guys!

hola

2010-08-22T17:19:00.001+02:00

hola
Originally uploaded by arylana

The Shoddy 1Borneo

2010-08-17T13:24:00.000+02:00

Managing house / apartment renovation is not easy. It's freaking headache, and in my case, it's just interior works with simple built-in cabinet, kitchen cabinet and small area of floor tiling. I can't imagine myself dealing with bigger, more complex works. To make matter worse, I'm thousand of miles away from Malaysia and the contractor that was presentable and looked like someone you could rely on is far fetched. He's obviously a trustworthy person, no doubt, but I guess he just takes things too easily and over relies and trusts his workers (who are with questionable skills). While on a business trip in KL recently I managed to find a time to quickly check out my place in KK. It's in a mess! The whole place was simply a dump site. With torn light wrappers and boxes all over the places, and left over food etc., it was disgusting. The cabinets which I had hoped to admire appeared to be as good as used units - it was dissapointing. I was quite surprise when the contractor himself, when asked, replied "shocked to see the shoddy workmanship". How could you be shocked of your own people's quality of work, unless they had been picked up from the street just for the job.

After getting a mouthful from me, he promised to clear the place, and at final inspection, if I'm not happy with any parts of the cabinets, he will replace them. Fine, but I doubt I would get better replacements.

The whole quality of the apartment workmanship also sucks! I was hoping to see all the defects I'd reported to be fixed. Far from it. In fact none of it. What the f. That's 1Borneo for you (http://www.1borneo.net).

messing around with wordpress

2010-08-14T04:35:00.000+02:00

It's 4.32 AM and I'm still messing around with my wordpress.ORG hosted site. So flexible yet, so many things you need to know .. but I'm getting there. But, it's fun I have to say to be able to install different plug-ins and messing around with the themes etc.

Selamat Berpuasa / Happy Ramadan / Ramadan mobarak !

2010-08-10T21:53:00.000+02:00

Turn this on, close your eyes and listen ... even if you don't understand the words, concentrate on the melody .. simply beautiful.

Dedicated to all Muslim friends and families around the world.

Ku mengharapkan Ramadhan
Kali ini penuh makna
Agar dapat kulalui
Dengan sempurna

Selangkah demi selangkah
Setahun sudah pun berlalu
Masa yang pantas berlalu
Hingga tak terasa ku berada
Di bulan Ramadhan semula

Puasa satu amalan
Sebagaimana yang diperintahNya
Moga dapat ku lenturkan
Nafsu yang selalu membelenggu diri
Tiada henti-henti

Tak ingin ku biarkan Ramadhan berlalu saja
Tuhan pimpinlah daku yang lemah
Mengharungi segalanya dengan sabar
Kita memohon pada Tuhan diberikan kekuatan
Ku merayu pada Tuhan diterima amalan

Selangkah demi selangkah...
Dengan rahmatMu oh Tuhanku...
Ku tempuh jua

A mosque on the ground-zero site? Why not.

2010-08-10T21:45:00.000+02:00

There are debates whether permitting construction of a mosque on the ground zero site of 9/11 is the right thing to do. Some seems to have the opinion that it will wreck the heart of those having love ones died in the atrocity. I'm with the remaining who think that there is nothing wrong with it. Mosque is associated with Islam / muslim, but the atrocity of 9/11 has nothing to do with of the religion. Al-Qaeda does not equal Islam and vice versa. To say that building a mosque is illustrating support to the terrorist group is totally wrong. Bear in mind that there were also many Muslims who succumbed to death in that terrifying terrorist attack.

The debates and location where the construction is proposed to take place - http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2010/08/ground-zero_mosque

Stop pushing me sister!

2010-08-10T21:35:00.001+02:00

Oppss
Originally uploaded by arylana

My two little ones .. one with "Mommy loves me" and another "Daddy loves me"; you can guess which is which with one already labeled. Setup: Both standing on the table in balcony with background of the outside.

My most popular YouTube video

2010-08-06T22:31:00.001+02:00

This was captured during my visit to Prague a couple of years ago. Scary little thing that sounds good.

Visit Arylana Channel @ http://www.youtube.com/user/shreky69

Opps .. my Blackberry is a Crackberry in Dubai

2010-08-06T16:52:00.000+02:00

This is interesting, some countries are getting pissed off that they can't break Blackberry data encryption. The UAE has recently announced that it would ditch Blackberry services other than normal phone calls unless the company, RIM, being more open with the encryption the device's data transmission encryption to give the government ability to access the content. There seem to be a suggestion from some analysts that the reason for such threat is a result of impression that RIM has been more open to some countries such as US but not others. Thus, they demand the same level of playing field. Hearing this, India has also decided to follow suit, likewise Saudi Arabia .. and today, a colleague told me he'd read somewhere that Indonesia will also like join the club. Irregardless of the reason behind it, and whether rumours about RIM being double standard toward some countries are true, the threat that now attracts other participants needs to be looked at very seriously by RIM. UAE being the a large transit hub for air travellers, and India and Indonesia with their huge population could bring quite serious implication to RIM's sales. Or will it?

Well, transits in Dubai usually take only around 3 hours, and those longer are usually in small numbers. Users could live without Blackberry services for the few hours - it won't bring any business to a halt. Those who will need to be in Dubai for longer duration could always boot up their notebook and shoot out emails. So, it will not be the end of the world. For India, Saudi Arabia and China, well ... they will just let it be. Users / corporations will start moving to different gadgets. At the end of the day, RIM will be the sole loser. Thus, it needs to be really cautious about this, and start talking to the UAE's communication authority.

another one .. beautiful song .. good luck girl

2010-08-06T00:38:00.001+02:00

Is your favourite colour blue?
Do you always tell the truth?
Do you believe in outerspace?
And im learning you

Is your skin as tanned as mine?
Does your hair flow sideways?
Did someone took a portion of your heart?
And im learning you

And if you dont mind
Can you tell me
All your hopes and fears
and Everything that you believe in
Would you make a difference in the world
I'd love for you to take me to a deeper conversation
Only you can make me

I let my guard down for you
And in time you will too

if you dont mind
Can you tell me
All your hopes and fears
and Everything that you believe in
Would you make a difference in the world
I'd love for you to take me to a deeper conversation
Only you can make me

if you dont mind
Can you tell me
All your hopes and fears
and Everything that you believe in
Would you make a difference in the world
I'd love for you to take me to a deeper conversation
Only you can make me

4x
Deeper Conversation
let me

Is this the end of summer ?

2010-08-05T18:00:00.000+02:00

Since I came back from Dublin last week the weather has been unpredictable here. For many days it was rainy, a couple of days of sun and heat and today, back to rain. The thoughts of cold, wet and gloomy sky doesn't encourage me to see the end of summer. Nevertheless it will come, during when I will again ask myself, what are you still doing here?

Guess which one is the bitch?

2010-08-05T17:06:00.001+02:00

Guess which one is the bitch?
Originally uploaded by arylana

This is funny. Look at the little dog and the tiny thingy popping out below it's stomach (you have to click on the pic to see the bigger version). You obviously know which of the two is the bitch lol! unless the little man has problem with his sexual orientation.

Picture taken in Dublin.

Dan Sebenarnya ... dialah Yuna

2010-08-04T21:29:00.000+02:00

Since moving to Switzerland 4 years ago, I have really been out of touch with the entertainment industry of Malaysia. Yuna who? That's the reaction my a friend was telling me about the girl below. Then I listened to this song, and oh Yes, I heard this before ... she's the singer, now I know. What a beautiful melody.

Next course paid B820

2010-08-02T00:54:00.000+02:00

For the past 9 months I have been undertaking the first module towards my MBA with the Open University Business School (OUBS). This "initial suffering" will end on 13th October when I will sit for the exam, but to be followed by 4 tougher modules.

I just paid close to CHF ?K for the second module ... sigh. In the next coming 1 to 2 years I think I will be busy counting dollars. Too many things to pay highlighting the criticality of selling off one of my apartments in Malaysia. .. quick agent! get me some buyers.

I need a second job.

how to start windows XP in safe mode??

2010-08-01T22:08:00.000+02:00

Keep pressing F8 when computer starts up ... it'll take you the menu to select start up options and safe mode is one of them.

the days have begun ...

2010-07-23T15:01:00.000+02:00

That's the view from my Crowne Plaza hotel room - perhaps on the side no one wants. You get that feel of being in captivity.

I got to Dublin for my MBA residential this morning, arriving at the airport at 10.30 local time (1 hour behind Switzerland). The sky is a gray and despite coming to the end of July, it's hardly 20 deg Celcius. Some believe it'd improve comes weekend .. let see.

The registration seems to suggest possibly 100 people will be participating, of which 5 from Switzerland .. me, and four others. On you mark, get set ... GO! Target Monday, big presentation!

Various photos from recent trip

2010-07-22T22:19:00.001+02:00

A promotion girl at the World Cup party in Bukit Bintang

Air Asia plane getting ready to take off at LCCT

Air Asia plane close-up

Spectacular view of Hong Kong from within its airport

Need to renew your passport in Switzerland ?? Here is the answer

2010-07-22T14:03:00.003+02:00

Hello The One,

Thank you for your email.

You have 2 possibilities of having your passport renewed, you come to the Embassy and fill up the application form (signed and thumbprinted), attach 2 passport size pictures with navy blue background (3.5 x 5 cm), bring your current passport and Malaysian IC, as well as your Swiss Permit. Additionally you have to bring the copy of the payment from your bank. Payment of 50 British pounds must be paid to:

Malaysian High Commission
HSBC Bank
19 Grosvenor Place
Hyde Park Corner
London SW1X7HT
UK
IBAN: GB 51 MIDL 40031711144979
BIC: MIDLGB 2106 N
Sort Code: 40-03-17
Account No. 11144979

We will forward your application to London and it will take about 3 weeks till your new passport gets processed and sent back to the Embassy.

Your other option would be to fly to London and have your passport renewed there, if you come in the morning, it will be ready by the afternoon.

Should you decide to have it done here, please call me up so I can set up an appointment for you.

If you have further queries, please do not hesitate to contact me.

kind regards,

Eva
Ms. E. Bernhard
Consular Section
Embassy of Malaysia
Jungfraustrasse 1
3005 Bern, Switzerland
Tel. 031 350 47 00/ 031 350 47 10 (direct)
Fax 031 350 47 02

Touching down in KK

2010-07-17T23:57:00.001+02:00

Touching down in KK
Originally uploaded by arylana

What a hectic one week. In 7 days, I took 9 different flights !! Zurich - Amsterdam - Hong Kong - Wuhan - Beijing - KL - KK - KL - Amsterdam - Zurich.

Despite the short business trip I decided to still go to KK for a while to check on the progress of the renovation of my 1Borneo apartment - turned out to be a disaster! The cabinet and wardrobe looked like used units, the whole place a garbage dump site and no interior defects fixed. Both the site supervisor and my contractor got screwed hard - thoroughly deserved.

sepang 2005

2010-07-17T21:45:00.001+02:00

sepang 2005
Originally uploaded by arylana

...

want taste of home in Zurich??

2010-07-17T18:24:00.000+02:00

No problem .. try this place - http://www.tiffins.ch
I heard it's own by a Malaysian dude. You can't find anything closer to what you get at home than what are served here. One of cooks is Malaysian - Aboy.

Flaunt it baby

2010-07-17T18:22:00.001+02:00

Flaunt it baby
Originally uploaded by arylana

I'd always been wanting to visit the South of France - Cannes, Nice, St Tropez. Finally, it came through with cheap flights from Swiss.

The visit was literally an "eye opener". Bare boobs were just everywhere - all shapes, sizes and colours. I wouldn't be surprised if any half blind man regained his vision upon visiting the place.

Petronas Twin Tower, KL

2010-07-17T17:42:00.001+02:00

Petronas Twin Tower, KL
Originally uploaded by arylana

I never really realised how beautiful the Twin Tower is until tonight when I walk passed it going back to Prince Hotel from the Pelita Nasi Kandar restaurant on Jalan Ampang -- a long walk simply because I couldn't get any taxi at 10 PM.

Look at it .. just amazing how it sparkles in darkness of the sky (simply taken with by "crapberry")

sitting on the edge

2010-07-17T17:41:00.003+02:00

sitting on the edge
Originally uploaded by arylana

It's another hot day in Switzerland ... and so humid too, the most humid since I came here in 2006. 5 minutes in sun, and you are drenched. Everyone was out, enjoying the two, three months before it turns into a gloomy, gray world again.

This photo was taken across the Sex shop in Baden (sorry, don't remembar the "platz" name, only that there is a big sey shop there :)).

lost in moscow ?? read my back

2010-07-17T17:41:00.001+02:00

lost in moscow ?? read my back
Originally uploaded by arylana

Once I got the opportunity to visit Moscow for a small database implementation in our newly set up office there. Prior leaving I wasn't quite sure what to expect; may be a run down, old city with traces of of the former communist ideology at every corner? Not at all. I got booked at a huge mega hotel, with three quarter of the floor filled with gambling machines and tables (a super casino). To enter everyone had to be scanned just like in airports. I don't remember. Surprisingly, I saw a number of Malaysian government officers (or could also be politicians) entering the premises. How did I know they are the government guys / politicians ... the little pin badge on the coat lah.. what lah! want to go to Casino hide lah the badge. Some more got malaysian flag on it.

With some free times after office hours and it was hot summer time, I got some opportunities to go around the city. This picture is a special one, of a girl with a map printed on the back of her blouse. Useful? Not sure. Sexy? Certainly :)

Zurich Street Parade 2008

2010-07-17T17:40:00.001+02:00

Zurich Street Parade 2008
Originally uploaded by arylana

August is party time in Zurich. The street parade that takes place every year features so called love trucks taking tonnes of (mostly) great looking girls and man across the main street of the city. Loud music everywhere, stages feature sexy dancers, people donning all sort of colourful costumes and not to forget those who prefer no to wear nothing at all, or very little I should say.

For a photographer, it's a great place to be at if you manage to get a good spot. The colours, the characters, fun atmosphere, some crazy girls .. great photos!.

the pole queen

2010-07-17T17:39:00.001+02:00

the pole queen
Originally uploaded by arylana

Walking home one fine afternoon, I saw a poster near an underpath in Baden on an exhibition called Extasia. For a split second I thought it was something about Asia .. but with skimply dress women in pictures .. hmm .. Asian porn exhibition? none of these. It was simply a sex exhibition and why the word asia, I don't kno until today. The web site http://www.extasia.ch/ does not explain much either.

It was my first time at such an event - so, wasn't quite sure what to expect to be honest. Following the map I got from the web site, it took me to big hall near Zurich called "Messe Zürich" in German. I paid around 20 CHF if not 40 I could remember correctly.

This girl was one of the show girls, dancing on the stage. From the looks, she's probably from Romania or one of those countries in the region. Great looking body, beautiful, and such amazing moves ...

stroboscopic day - may 2010

2010-07-17T17:38:00.001+02:00

stroboscopic day - may 2010
Originally uploaded by arylana

After been dreaming about it, I got my first chance of experiencing studio photography - organised by a group called the Swiss Strobist (http://swiss-strobist.ch/), led by a German-fluent British dude. I was quite fortunate to see the invitation early enough and immediately signed up. There were only 12 seats.

The session took place in a small village outskirt of Berne, miles away .. even the walk from the bus stop. The studio was run a lady (with a tattoo on her arm .. not sure why I remember this crystal clear) in an office building that seems to also host some apartments (?? strange). For the first time I got to know how easy studio photography is .. piece of cake .. and delicious. Although we wanted more only three models (unpaid :) or rather very little) were available - 3 ladies, and a boy; in the photo here is Julia (check out her other pictures from the below, as well as the others).

The model profiles:
Julia: http://www.model-kartei.de/sedcard/modell/55868/
Laura: http://www.model-kartei.de/sedcard/modell/155100/
Erika: http://www.model-kartei.de/sedcard/modell/66446/
Dominik: http://www.facebook.com/dominik.naegeli

More pictures are available here - http://www.flickr.com/photos/shreky/sets/72157623908260035/

The crazy bunch

2010-06-29T03:30:00.000+02:00

Bree's last day, and the last snap. All were meant to show their tongues ... where are they guys?

Picture courtesy of Bree.

spider man

2010-06-10T04:01:00.000+02:00

How cool is this ??!!

Search for the race queen

2010-05-01T22:32:00.000+02:00

KK Race Queen .. the search
Originally uploaded by arylana

While I was visiting the 1Borneo shopping mall, there happened to be an event held searching for a race queen of KK.

5 weeks in Malaysia was finally found to be tooo long, especially with soaring temperature. With close to 40 deg Celcius and no aircond in my laws place in KK, it was agonising. Driving requires full blast aircond and stepping into a car long park in the sun is like entering a sauna, minus naked women sitting on the seats.

While in 1Borneo, there happened to be an event to search for a race queen .. some were happy to pose :)

creeping back after a long time

2010-03-02T22:44:00.000+01:00

knock knock! i'm back

After a looooonggg time.
Yes. I'm eager to start blogging again. Well, let say .... I'm eager to develop the eagerness to start blogging again :)

London

2008-09-02T23:19:00.000+02:00

London
Originally uploaded by arylana

Having just got my new car (or rather .. company's car which I pay monthly) and my wife wanting to drive somewhere far we made a quick decision to shoot off to the UK. According to Google map it would take around 11 hours non stop to reach Dove ... not bad - break to the journey into two, 5.5 hours each halve, would be fine.

Towards the last few days, we crashed at a friend's place in Essex, and on one of the days took a train down to London. Pack with people still busy doing summer shopping. One of my masterpiece on the side captured in front of a famous lingerie label shop.

A new place with a better view (only if they knew it!)

2008-01-21T18:35:00.000+01:00

I got back to the office this morning to find out that the whole of my department have moved to a new place at the other end of the block. I thought I was the earliest bird until I turned on the lights - all desks were empty, except mine and other lady who'd also been travelling!

It didn't take long for me to move all my things to join the others.

My new workstation is a lot less spacious that the old place. I used to have an L shaped desk and now they've given me a much smaller, normal shape desk. Somehow, I kind of feel more comfort here than there. It's a downgrade in many sense, but a comfort somehow to me.

When most were hoping a seat next to windows, I was happy to choose where I sit now. Only to discover late today what I've missed! We are actually facing a changing room of a small gymnasium. Where we are gives us a perfect view into the female area, and some views of the men as well - our secretary saw a naked man waking across the hall. ha ha ha ha

Dinner in Wuhan

2008-01-16T22:46:00.001+01:00

After a hard day with interviews, we celebrated it with a dinner at a local "hot pot" restaurant which also serve among others big green frogs.

Missing flight! And finally in Wuhan

2008-01-15T16:31:00.000+01:00

It was a long journey to Wuhan since yesterday, started with a missing flight (Can you believe it, I missed the first leg to Frankfurt! I was in the dreamland ...). After an hour delay in Shanghai, I finally arrived in Wuhan at around 4.10 PM local time. I was totally knackered, first due to the long haul flight with 2 transits and second because a Chinese tot kept shrieking and crying all the time on the plane, and I couldn't sleep.

Don't be surprised if the Swiss think they are the clever ones and we are just the stupid apes

2008-01-12T10:28:00.000+01:00

In August 2006, having just arrived in Switzerland, we were in the process of getting to know the long list of social rules in Switzerland. One of these many rules is about waste management - i.e. what kind of garbage bags you should use, where to send your empty bottles for recycle, how to separate them into different types, when they collect used papers, what you need to do with compost and the list continues.

On one Thursday evening I received a visit from an old man with a bag of garbage. He goes "Is this your garbage?". "Possibly so. I will have to check the content. But, it doesn't matter. Give it to me.", I said, thinking that even if it was not mine, I could just throw it back afterwards. "OK. But you've used the wrong bag. This black bag is cheap. You must use the blue one which is more expensive. Get them from Migro or Coop. Also, you've thrown this garbage in the bin that belongs to the apartment next door. Yours is at the other end of this building.", he continued. "Sure. I will go and get myself the blue bags. Thanks for the info.", I said. After he left, I opened the bag, and it was in fact my garbage. Initially I wondered how the hell that he knew it. Then I realised he had searched the garbage and found envelopes with my name. So damn Swiss!

The next day, Friday, I went to look for the blue garbage bag the man had told me about from the local supermarkets; Coop and Migro. I could not find it, and no one who worked there knew about it. This is not right I thought. A colleague later in the day told me it is only available at the Coop and Migro in the area I live which is ONLY about 8 minutes away by bus! This is madness. So, off I went and they indeed sold the bags there, and they are f*cking expensive! Each bag costs 2 Swiss Francs.

Having got the right garbage bag and used it, I thought that was the end of the story. Not!! Not with the Swiss. I don't know if they think they are smarter that the rest of the world, have bigger dick and tighter pussy or just pure racism. On Monday, I received a call from my wife informing me that I had received a written notice from the police, possibly a summon, and it had something to do with waste management. What else are they not happy with??? Straight away I went home and took the notice. With the help my department secretary, I learned that someone had reported about the mistake I made, and now the police wanted me to go down to the station for some kind of stupid briefing session related to ... how I should handle my waste I guess. She called the police station and had a chat with the responsible officer for about 15 minutes and in the end, they agreed I didn't have to be present at the station, however, should it happen again, I would be blacklisted and fined 200 Swiss Francs. And what pissed me off the most was that I had been reported to have been using the wrong garbage bag many times. That is total bollocks! When that old garbage inspector or whatever his job was, came to my home, it was only the second time I had used the black bag, and pure unintentional. Now that we understood where we went wrong and corrected the mistake, what else were they not happy with. I just don't understand. I will never do.

digitec.ch

2008-01-09T21:22:00.000+01:00

Finally, digitec.ch finally sent me the three 516MB SIMMs I'd ordered a few days ago. It's time for 4 year old PC to get its RAM upgraded.

Installing RAM is normally a piece of cake. As long as you get the right type of SIMMs compatible with your motherboard there should not be any problem. So, having installed all the three alongside an existing 516MB, things seemed OK. The machine booted up fine and Windows started to show up and .. damn! .. all of sudden the whole thing just hung. Normally this is caused by loose SIMM, but unfortunately it was not the case this time. I tried swapping the positions of the SIMMS, pressing them in harder etc., but the problem didn't want to go away. For some reason something was not right. I wasted almost two hours pissing around with the tightness of the SIMMs and their positions only to discover later the network card was the culprit. Apparently it came off the socket slightly when I pushed the SIMMs in. 2 hours just got wasted for something stupid like this.

Coming back to digitec.ch, it's probably one of the best business models I have seen in recent years. They sell mostly electronic stuff and some clothings. And the due to the simple setup their prices are very competitive. A few months ago, I got myself a Nikon D40X with two lenses at 500 CHF cheaper then any other places in Switzerland. The way it works is that you order what you want online and then you can either go and collect the items from their collection point in Zurich or a few other ones in Switzerland or they send to you at a minimum extra charge. If you decide to fetch the ordered items, just pop by to one of the collection points, key in your order number on the registration kiosk, wait for your number, collect, pay and go. Easy, fast and efficient. The drawback, you can't open and check the items when you collect them. Take as they are and should there by any problem then only you return them. The SIMMs are my second order from digitec.ch, and they are definitely not the last.

Who says pregnant isn't sexy

2008-01-09T06:44:00.000+01:00

Check out Daphne Iking in her best bunny pregnancy outfit:

... and more ...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12852587@N03/1812088059/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12852587@N03/1812087795/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12852587@N03/1812929552/

First spam email in Facebook

2008-01-09T03:40:00.000+01:00

This is the kind of emails that need to be blocked totally from entering Facebook. So far this is the only one I've received. Hopefully the last.

Looking for quality electronics at wholesale prices?
Between You and Jenny Jones

Jenny Jones

Today at 5:37pm

Report Message

If you are looking for quality electronics at wholesale prices, you've come to the right place. We are an international direct distributor company professionally sell electronics. Computers, Televisions, Cell Phones, MP3/MP4 Players, Digital Cameras, Camcorders, Video Games Consoles, GPS and Autobikes, most items are sold at wholesale prices, you will find lots of great bargains here. And we have a sales promotion from now on, buy more, save more and get more! When you have time, welcome to visit our website get more information. Thanks.
Contact us thru the following ways:
Website: http://www.ylmshop.com
Email: ylmshop@hotmail.com
MSN: ylmshop@hotmail.com

The Wonderful Facebook

2008-01-07T22:36:00.000+01:00

The invention of the year! Yes, it's got to be Facebook.

All these while I have always hated MySpace, Friendster and the likes because they are just full of rubbish. Young kids and adults who like to be kids continuously dumping shit into them creating a garbage bin rather than social networking web sites. Then came Facebook, with much neater, uniformed and more grown up, controlled look and feel. I just fell in love with it immediately, and could not stop being online even early in the morning in the toilet - thanks also to my ugly P990i.

What amazes me the most is the fact that since I signed up I have managed to touch base with some many of old friends from schools, university and previous companies where I worked. After a while, even my boss got on board and one or two other key persons of the company. There was this idea from my financial controller to get everyone in our department to be on Facebook which I think is brilliant!

Having said that, Facebook does have the potential of becoming a rubbish dump too with increasing numbers of so called "applications" are being developed by some and getting added every single second, and distributed to thousands of people, creating in way a new family of spams to members of the network. I'm getting like 20 invitations to add these applications daily and they only way to wipe them clean is by deleting each one of the applications individually. Such a pain in the arse! Bear in mind I only have around 160 friends and only a handful are really active, and excited (sometimes too excited) about these applications and cannot stop inviting the rest of the world to join them. There needs to be some mechanism to better, more easily control this craze over the applications.

Other that, Facebook is indeed a masterpiece of social networking web sites.

The Super-Extreme Swiss

2008-01-06T13:18:00.000+01:00

Before I moved to Switzerland, a friend told me about a friend of his who had decided to leave the country not able to stand the complaints he got from his neighbours about flushing toilet after 10 PM. Both of us laughed thinking it was probably an exaggeration. Even if it was indeed true, I thought it was a one-off case and would never happen to me.

Came August 2006, the first month in our rented apartment in Switzerland, the nightmare began. A female, unemployed, 40+, single neighbour who lived above us started complaining about our baby crying at 3, 4 o'clock in the morning. Although she was not direct with the complaints, and pretending to be nice, it was obvious that she was not happy with it. She thought we had been feeding our daughter wrong food and tried to be clever by suggesting us to change her diet to eggs (eggs??? what the hell was she thinking?) instead of porridge. Tired of hearing her so called "concerns", I told her to talk to the paediatrician. If he is OK with the food, who is she to argue? Since then she stopped mentioning about the cries.

Later, she started complaining about us thumping our feet when we walked. What? It puzzled me for a while. She lived ABOVE and not below us. How the hell that she could hear it? It is even more puzzling when we don't use shoes indoor - how much noise could we make from walking? We are not kangaroos that hops around. Then her nuisance got worse when she also complained about us flushing toilet late at night or very early in the morning and making noise from pulling toilet paper from it's metal holder. What the hell is wrong with this woman. From this point onwards I just got used to her complaints started ignoring her.

Not long after that, along came the saviours. An Indian family moved to the unit above her and a young Italian opposite her. After a while I heard the same story from the new Indian neighbour about the complaints. She also complained that he Italian couple have been arguing all the time - nobody else heard this but her .. strange. Tired on all the complaints, the Indian neighbour called up the landlady, and the response from landlady was "Just ignore her. She's has a bit a problem, and has always been complaining about everyone". Ha! ha! ha! Even another Swiss finds her a bit weird. Perhaps she's the extreme one.

No long after that she moved out not being able to live among the Indians, Malaysians and Italians. LOL!!!

Tits'n'ass

2008-01-05T21:24:00.000+01:00

This is another good one from Urban Dictionary:

Tits'n'Ass

First born in Scarborough, Ontario. A form of a traditional clinking of beer bottles as one would say "Cheers". First the involved parties clink together the tops of their beer bottles and announce "Tits!", following closely is the clinking of the bottom of the bottles together announced "and Ass!".

titsex

2008-01-05T19:08:00.000+01:00

Guess what's missing in the following definition found at Urban Dictionary ???:

titsex

A form of sexual intercourse involving the application of the penis in between the tits of a voluptuous woman. This procedure is most effectively performed with the addition of some form of lubricated substance which is used to facilitate the sliding friction between the respective sexual organs. It is advised to proceed with caution in the performance of the maneuver as there can be significant irritation to the head of the penis as well as a potential for the busting of a nut.

The complete definition should have been:

titsex

A form of sexual intercourse involving the application of an at least 15 cm penis in between the tits of a voluptuous woman. This procedure is most effectively performed with the addition of some form of lubricated substance which is used to facilitate the sliding friction between the respective sexual organs. It is advised to proceed with caution in the performance of the maneuver as there can be significant irritation to the head of the penis as well as a potential for the busting of a nut.

It won't work with 5 cm for sure.

And "Potential for the busting of a nut"?? Really? What a joke! What kind of tits are those? ha! ha! ha!

Ciao 2007, Welcome 2008

2008-01-01T17:53:00.000+01:00

After been talking on the phone, an old friend my University days in UK finally drove down from Luxemburg on the new year eve. At least we would not be alone at home celebrating the beginning of 2008 and the end of 2007.

It's ironic that we were sitting together after almost 10 years since we left Uni and watching a program on Spice Girls reunion ... sad lol. It brought back the old memories the younger days in England and Spice Girls at the start of their stardom. How time flies.

Compared to last year, it's a quieter celebration here in the town I live. Except for some small personal fireworks, there was nothing else on stage. Perhaps in Zurich there were some fireworks in display. I would be surprise if there was also nothing.

With some cheers, and a few drinks of champaigne and icea tea, we welcomed the new year. And we welcomed it again for the second time at the strike of midnight in London which was one hour behind us, ha ha ha.

Just after one AM, we all slowly retired to bed, ready to face new challenges in 2008.

Never Judge the Book by the Cover

2007-12-31T07:55:00.000+01:00

That's what I learned from buying the Sony Ericssson P990i. I had always despised all the versions of the model. They just looked ugly. Possibly the ugliest you could find in the market for the same class and range from other brands.

Had I had a choice I would not have bought the P990i, for the ever same reason that is because it is just ugly! However, strangely enough once I started using it, I just fell in love with it. It looks ugly, but: very comfortable to hold, has all the right buttons at the right places, has dual keypads which are just so practical, top class camera pictures of 2 MB, top quality sound, 3-G enabled, name card scanner and wireless access among other features.

Check out the complete overview at the official web site of Sony Ericsson

"A phone, PDA and imaging machine packed with media and applications to support business and leisure activities. It takes the work out of the job." - Sony Ericsson

The Rest of the Days in Munich

2007-12-29T05:20:00.000+01:00

My litte girl's condition worsen on the second day. The temperature was not settling. As a result, I had to stay in looking after her in the morning while my other half went out sightseeing. In the afternoon, when her condition improved, we took a short walk to the main pedestrian area, and took some pictures and visited some of the shops having sales. The Cathedral on Marienplatz was amazing.

Dinner time ... it's pizza and pasta.

Short Break in Munich

2007-12-28T08:02:00.000+01:00

Last year, the destination was London. Not a great place to be in winter, but it was not best option given the free (sort of) accommodation at the Berjaya Hotel and cheap flight ticket (99 CHF, how much cheaper could it be!). This year, with my daughter in the new classification of "child above 2" ( i.e. no longer an infant), travelling by flight could become quite expensive especially when you wait till the last minute to make the bookings. So, in the end the decision was to take a 5-hour train journey to munich and spend a few hundreds EUR on a 3-star German hotel for a few nights. What a way to waste money.

Actually, it's not that bad taking a long train journey. Apart from the daughter getting too excited at times and decided to go up and down the seat for like 20,000 times, the journey was quite relaxing. We arrived in Munich just after lunch time. What a freezing day. Sooooooo freaking freezing. The moment we stepped out of the train station, I could immediately see a few halal kebab takeaways. Hmm ... looks like eating will not be a problem then in the next few days. Locating the hotel was not difficult, especially when you employ a humanoid navigator. The cost is probably much higher and comes with no warranty. But, definitely much better in terms of user friendliness and functionality. She also comes with other goodies.

Munich is a dead city on 26th of December, likewise any other locations in Europe for that matter. I took a quite stroll along the main street to get a quick glimpse of the city. Pretty nice with some really amazing old buildings around. 26th of December was also the day we practically spent the whole second half of the day killing time in the hotel room. Too cold to get excited, and my little girl also began to get sick again. Thank god there was a German TV channel with back to back EPL matches.

Dinner time ... what else, kebab.

The rebirth of my humble blog

2007-12-20T18:09:00.000+01:00

After stopping blogging more than a year ago, I thought it was a good idea to start it again. All the entries below this one are those transferred from my earlier blog.

6th., final day in KL

2007-07-19T14:56:00.000+02:00

Finally, it comes to the end. The last day in KL.

After dropping by at my condo’s management office to settle whatever matters still remaining, my cousin Emma took me to KL Sentral. As a gift from Malaysia, we got involved in a “honking argument” with another fellow Malaysian driver on the way up to the parking floor of KL Sentral. Not only hoking involved, but also fingers and shouting. Oh … I miss that. What a stupid girl. She stopped exactly in the middle of the entrance to the parking floor. She basically blocked us and everyone else from entering, and she absolutely refused to budge! The honking exchanges between us + other motorists blocked and her went on for quite a while before it was finally concluded with a few “finger signs”. That’s life in KL …

Faradina (a former colleague from iNet Solutions) and Imran (her husband) came down to see me before I took off to KLIA. We had dinner at my favourite Chicken Rice restaurant. Faradina was looking good after all these years and two children (in case you guys read this, it’s a compliment to both of you :)) and Imran is working hard on his diet (mesti mau maintain handsome mah …).

At KLIA, just as I was about to enter the shuttle train to the boarding gate, I bumped into Tom, a former colleague from KL who’s now based in Jakarta. It’s good to see him again. The last time we met was in Baden a few months ago during an “all Malaysians + Tom” dinner at *James’ restaurant.

Bye-bye Malaysia … see you again in October!

*James is another Malaysian who owns a restaurant in Baden.

5th. Day in KL

2007-07-19T14:55:00.000+02:00

It is ironic that today Shahana was the driver and I was the passenger. We went out for lunch at Karyaneka and on the way back to the office she dropped me off at Wisma Genting to settle some personal matters at the Maybank branch there.

When I was still in KL more than a year ago, I used to drive Shahana to the Ampang Park LRT station after work almost everyday. Towards the end of my stay, she told me she was getting herself a Kelisa with modifications for disabled driver. Today I saw with my own eyes how competent and comfortable she was driving her little purple car. What an amazing girl.

After work, I quickly went to see Sharleen again at SOGO LRT station to pass her the bank drafts I’d prepared for the unit trust investments. From there, I took the LRT straight to PWTC to meet Dr. Badrul (my former university colleague in Surrey, who is attached to the Institute of Medical Research). We had a quick dinner at the Mall.

As my meeting with Fauzi didn’t happen last night, we set up another appointment today. Fauzi and Ann fetched me from the hotel at around 9 and we shot off to Brickfields for yet another dinner for me. The place is called B-Station if I’m not mistaken - a mamak (Indian) restaurant specialises in Southern Indian cuisines. The talks were pretty much all about life in Switzerland. There were some opportunities within my current company which I’d forwarded to Fauzi and he was interested to find out more. In the end, we came up with the conclusion that although working in Switzerland sounded exciting, it won’t be a comfortable life for everyone, them included. The reasons being:

1. Although the salary may sound quite good, he has to consider that the wife may not be able to work or may find a job but not in the same seniority and profile as she currently is.

2. As a result of 1, the household income will most likely be less than their combined income now. Even if it’s more, it will not be so much, and with the high standard of living in Switzerland, it will not help.

3. A young family like us will find our life now more comfortable than it used to be in KL. We don’t mind living in a small flat now since we never experienced anything a lot better anyway. Using the Swiss public transports is also not an issue. Some minor inconveniences are not such a big deal. But, the same may not apply to everyone.

4. Bear in mind that Swiss are very strict with social rules - no toilet flashing after 10 PM, no laundry on Sunday and all these shits! Can you take it???

5. For those who are used to having domestic maids (pretty much every middle class and above in Malaysia) it’ll be a big bigggg change. Unless you earn a fortune (like 30K Swiss Francs or more a month), don’t even think about having a maid. The minimum wage here is 3K Swiss Francs, and that does not include her insurance etc.

6. Life in Switzerland is definitely less colourful than Malaysia. For the past 4 days, my day ended at around 1 AM. In Switzerland, you should expect to sit in front of TV not knowing what else to do at 7 PM latest every day. Swiss in general go to bed at 9 and wake up at 4 or 5. Shops close at 5 everyday except Wednesday, and on Sunday nothing is open even clinics. How much more boring can it be?

7. Even if they move to Switzerland, I’m pretty sure they want to keep their property back home. That is an additional commitment and may eat up quite a bit of his income.

The same sort of thing I was telling another colleague this morning who was also contemplating moving to Switzerland. Honestly, for middle-class families, life is much more comfortable in Malaysia. Even the Swiss agree.

4th. day in KL

2007-07-18T14:54:00.000+02:00

After work, I met up with Sharleen at Starbucks in KLCC to register for Public Mutual unit trust investment. We have some savings and thought it’d a be a wise idea to invest them rather than letting them making peanut profit in bank.

Sharleen is my wife’s former housemate in Mahsuri and Intan apartments in Setiawangsa before we got married who has recently re-established herself as a unit trust agent. She’s a Sabahan and still single. Anyone?

Finally I got a good lead to find the replacement strap for my Timberland watch. A shop in KLCC gave me the number for the Timberland watch service centre in MidValley. I called them up, and it sounded promising that they might have the strap for my model. Good. The only question is, how the hell can I find time to go there…???

Once the stuff with Sharleen settled, I caught Putra LRT to Setiawangsa to have dinner at the famous R&K satay restaurant with Shaikh. Shaikh was my senior during my student days in Glasgow, Scotland in 1994. He was, if I’m not mistaken, from the first batch of Petronas scholars who were sent there to do the so called Scottish International Foundation Programmed (SIFP) at Langside College. I still have vivid memory of meeting Shaikh for the first time upon arrival from at the college from Glasgow airport before being taken to our foster families. I happened to live in the same Pakistani populated area as Shaikh and a few other senior guys. Their flat was our usual lepak place in the evening or whenever there was a sudden urge for nasi and kari (rice and curry). Staying with foster family forbade us from cooking :(. — that’s why once I and my flatmate (Nashrul Hadi) were fed Pepperoni pizza! Our first taste of pork produce. Yikes!

3rd. Day in KL

2007-07-18T07:53:00.000+02:00

Thinking that meeting was scheduled for 9 AM Malaysian time, I agreed to meet my colleague at his hotel’s lobby at 8.30 AM this morning to walk to the office. I got it totally mixed up. The 9 AM agreed with other participants was 9 AM Swiss time which is 3 PM Malaysian time. Alamak. What lah …

Nevertheless the morning was quite productive. It was good that the meeting was at 3 PM. We had the morning to do some preparational work.

The new office was really nice (they just moved in about a week ago from another premises). Food is a bit of a problem. Having had been in the centre of everything, from food to post office to karaoke lounge, the people needs a bit of time to get used to the new surrounding, unless if they used to work in the Technology Park of Malaysia in Bukit Jalil (those who’s been there before should know what I mean).

For lunch we had kari kepala ikan (fish head curry) at a nearby Chinese restaurant. My goodness, it costed us (of should I say costed the company … claim, claim, jangan tak claim) more than 200 Ringgit just for 5 people.

The afternoon went by very fast. The night was tuuuuut…….

2nd. Day in KL

2007-07-17T08:53:00.000+02:00

What a nice, comfy bed in Crowne Plaza hotel. I overslept until 11 AM!

I walked to KLCC and took the Putra LRT to Ampang Park to send my M&S suit trousers for an alteration. From there, I took a cab to Kampung Baru to visit Nani, an old friend from UK who’d been attacked by stroke plus diebetes, resulting in blindness and her left arm kind of semi-paralysed. What a perfect timing, by the time I reached her place, the rain started pouring heavily turning into a thunder storm.

About Nani: I knew her through another friend Asnidah (who is now in Canada), during my uni time in Surrey. She used to come visit her cousion who were doing Masters in the same uni and from there I got to know her. Although I was in KL from a number of years upon returning from UK, I only met her a few times, the last one being during the lunch I had at he stall in the food court of BSKL (Bursar Saham Kuala Lumpur) about 2.5 years ago. May be less. About six months ago, I received the news about her condition from Asnidah. It was a shocking news since she’s only 36 years old. What was more shocking is the fact that the siblings, nephews and nieces who live in the same house totally ignore her, and none has the sympathy to help her going through the suffering. From the first day of the stroke attack until now (it’s about 9 months now), she has to get taxi and help from neighbours to take her to hospital for check-up etc.. A few times time she stumbled while getting of taxi. With only one arm usable, you could imagine how diffcult for her to stand up. No one bother to cook for her - once she had to look for food from a cousin living next door. The mother is the one person in the house who has been taking care of her for the past 9 months. At the age of 72, it was understable the worries going through her mind. It was touching when she in tears expressed her concern over Nani’s fate once she’s no longer in this world. She’s been praying that Nani would soon recover, and her advise is for her to leave the family and look for a new life in another country. What they’ve done to her is worse than animals!

Once the rain subsided, I left Nani’s home and headed to Bandar Kinrara to my sister’s. About 6 something I took the LRT back to KL.

A colleague from Switzerland was also in town. So, we decided to have dinner together at Restoran Seri Melayu (famous for huge selection of buffet dishes and traditional dance performance). The weather was improving, which was good.

Having heard a lot about the famous Beach Club, my colleague suggested that we visit the place afterwards. OK, if you wish so. What we experienced later was quite shocking. The GROs (or more precisely prostitutes) working there were so daring that they did anything to get you to agree to take them back to your hotel. One guy from Doha Bank (his T-shirt suggested so), was getting free “a*s-on-d*ck” treatment form a chubby Filipino girl with one of her hands playing with his balls on the dance floor. Shit! It was a shocking act considering how open the club was. I would rather not explain their modus operandi on me. But nothing happened - I left the place alone and slept alone in my big king size bed. My colleague … ? He happily abandoned me at 12 AM. Whether he slept alone, I don’t know ……………… zzzzzzzzzzzz. Another late night.

Six days in KL

2007-07-16T06:52:00.000+02:00

After just over a year in Switzerland, I finally got the chance to go back to KL for a few days for work. I took the opportunity to arrive on Saturday morning so that I could have a couple of days to attend to some personal matters. At exactly 5.30 on Saturday I touched down in Sepang. Straight away I called Jet, my cousin, who works with the company managing the connecting shuttle train between the main terminal and boarding gates (which I think is probably Malaysia Airport itself), and sat down for an early morning coffee. It’s better to do this than going straight to reclaim baggage - KLIA has probably the longest waiting time in the entire world. It’s so long that they are now considering reducing the frequency of the shuttle train, or slowing it down. I don’t know how less frequent it needs to be to solve the problem … once every hour?? Or they could make make it run at 1 km/hr. OK, I’m exaggerating a bit here, but believe me, it takes ages!

I took a cab to my sister’s place in Bandar Kinrara. Hmmm …. the taxi drivers these days are quite techno savvy. Mini TV onboard. Dr. Mashitah was giving a kuliah subuh.

I reached my sister’s house at around 7. My god! I was gobsmacked seeing the younger of my two nephews - Zaim. He’s big! So, what the mother’d told me earlier about him growing into a small giant was true. And with a couple of half-emerged font teeth, he needs some makeover.

The day was hectic. 9 AM I was at my condo in Duta Ria in Jalan Dutamas Raya something (see, no mention of “Segambut”:) anymore). They recently gave the street a new name. The old “Jalan 1/38B Off Jalan Segambut” was a bit unglamorous and being a new Hartamas / Kiara / Duta area, it had to go. A welcoming change to most residents in the area including me:). The high water bill for the past 10 months turned out to be nothing more than actual usage by my tenants. The recent increase in the cost had also contributed to it I would think. So, they will pay the outstanding amount. The condition of the peeling floor tiles was worse than I had expected. About 30 pieces had simply came off the concrete foundation. Pretty bad indeed. Ranjit, the management office guy, came to take a look and his response was “this one biasa lah. Other units also have the same proble“. OK .. that’s “very comforting” to hear. And indeed it was a common problem in the condo as I later found out. A friend who’d put in laminated floor when he first moved in had it even worse. The tiles underneath all of sudden just popped up and broke his wooden floor. Since I had no time to really think it through, I just agreed with the maintenance office’s suggestion to replace the broken pieces. It’s not a permanent solution to the problem, but it’s probably the best considering the fact that I don’t leave there now. If I were to do it properly, I would probably need to spend more time and money the get all the tiles removed and new ones installed.

Saifol, my tenant cum friend drove me to the Crowne Plaza hotel after we all agreed with the next steps to solve the water and tiles problems. KL looked pretty much the same as it did one year ago, except for a few new hotels under construction. After checking in I headed straight to Bukit Bintang to look for lunch. For whatever reason, the temptation to have good Malaysian food died. I felt a bit pening(dizzy) and didn’t have the usual apetite for my nasi (rice). In the end I settled for KFC in Sg Wang. Since I knew I had only a few hours before shooting off to Taman Tun for family dinner, I decided to quickly go for a quick massage at my favourite massage centre along Bukit Bintang road - Liang Xin. Aaaahh it felt good .. “one hour relaxation with a happy ending” as my dear friend Mathew likes to put it, BUT not with the same meaning he has (you know what I mean). For those who despise being massaged by men (damn! I felt gay when I tried this before) or old women with a thousand wrinkles and hands like the “toyol” (sorry I don’t remember the character’s name) in Harry Potter movie, this is the place to be. Although the common massages they offer are Chinese, try Balinese also - it’s really good. The ambience is so nice. And it also opens late until 3 AM.

After getting myself a new power supply unit for my PC and a new hard disk from Low Yat, I went to meet Mat Rat, a friend from the same boarding school, in Sg Wang. We spent some time finding the things my wife asked me to buy and then he drove me to Taman Tun to my Auntie’s place for a family dinner at a nearby seafood restaurant. Azmir, a friend from the first company I worked for in Malaysia came to fetch me at 11 and we ended up hanging out next to the Beach Club (cuci mata) until about 2 in the morning … I was so knackered by the end of it. And the worst thing was I missed my dental appointment the next morning.

Summer

2007-07-03T06:50:00.000+02:00

Summer of last year was great. We got sun from morning till 10 PM pretty much everyday. The temperature was the highest for many years. It was a big contrast to the current situation. Less heat, less sun and wet almost everyday. Something, somewhere is not right. With the recent mud slide in Switzerland and the flood in the UK, the mother earth is definitely not in a good shape.

One thing that is always the same every summer is the Sales. Everything seems to be reduced by at least 50%. We are talking good, branded stuff here - designer
watches, sun glasses, shoes, clothing etc.. So far I’ve managed to get two pair of watches - CK for myself and Certina for my father. The latter was reduced by 50% from 300 CHF and the former down to 100 CHF from the original price of 265 CHF. Although I was not a watch person before, I think I’m changing into one after looking at how cheap these watches are. I’m in fact considering getting two more pairs for myself - one digital for sports and one plain, analogue casual for work - and one for my father in law. Ever heard of Navyboot? Yes, a brand associated with quality, expensive leather products, epecially
handbags and shoes. Before Saturday, I had never though of buying anything with “Navyboot” stamped on it purely because of the rudiculously high price.

Hidden from other major outlets in Baden is a shop that sells Navyboot and other branded shoes at really low prices. The choices may be limited but the prices are so low that you feel like grabbing any one of them. And .. finally, I got myself a pair of Navyboot
shoes - was CHF 165, and sold for only CHF 29.90. It couldn’t have been better!

4-Nation Football Tournament

2007-06-25T06:17:00.000+02:00

Presented the star players of Malaysian Swiss Association on the day of 4-Nation football tournament today at the Rumlang Sporthalle near Zurich. Final results: Malaysia 0 - Korea 2, Malaysia 2 - Rumlang Senior Team 0, Malaysia 0 - Indonesia 1. The Koreans took home the championship trophy and we had to settle for 3rd place. Not a bad effort considering the little training we had.

The “superstar” player had to also assume the role of camera-man lah.

Moscow

2007-06-21T05:15:00.000+02:00

I’m in Moscow now. On the last day of the business trip. The weather is generally warm. Occasional light rain in the evening.

After some delay in getting visa, I finally flew out to Moscow on Sunday. The immigration was more welcoming that what I had experienced in the past in Poland and Chezch Republic. No question asked and I was allowed in after the officer was happy with the authenticity of my passport and visa, and my atractive, pleasing appearance was too good to be a terrorist.

Stepping into the crowded baggage claim area gave me the first glimpse of the renown beautiful Russian women. Beautiful … very beautiful. Forget what is said about Slavik girls. Forget about the Scandinavians. Russian girls in my opinion rank top.

Since I had only 3 days, I stole some time afer work to visit one or two key places in Moscow. On Monday, I took the opportunity to briefly explore the Kremlin and Red Square area. Nothing much to say. Same old buildings … except for the churches. The Orthodox seems to have a unique taste in building structure, shapes and colours. Check out some of the pictures posted below.

Made in Russia ice cream! Never judge it by the wrap.

The three days in Moscow were obviously too short to experience every attraction of the city. But, enough to bring back some sweet memories.

Till next time. Ciao Moscow.

911 is kept secret

Soyez bienvenus à Paris

2006-12-04T08:03:00.000+01:00

It's my first business trip since I moved here. To get to know my staff and for them to know me, my boss and I have planned a series to visits to the key locations of the business and Paris was chosen as the first location.

I got to Paris at around 7 PM. My boss took a different flight, so I was alone taking the Metro to the city. On the way I got off at ? to grab a kebab from a restaurant I know. It's not that the kebab is so good, it's just that it's the only want I know in Paris that is halal. I'm sure there are a lot more in other areas. By the time I finished the last piece of the meat, it was already turning dark. I reached the hotel close to 11.

The hotel was very quite nice by European standard. If you are familar with hotels in KL, I can probably say it's similar in standard to the Coronade hotel in Bukit Bintang. The only difference is, it has more more "stars" than Coronade. In the past, coming from Malaysia, I was always booked to a small cheap 3 star hotel. I guess, that's why Malaysia is classified as a Lost Cost Country, which in effect makes the staff Low Cost Employees.

It's been more than 2 years since I was last in Paris. It was not so clear in my mind the direction to the office, but I managed to find it in the end. My boss hadn't arrived when I reached the office. I was welcomed by the head of the IT group there. I was later joined by my boss and the rest of the group. For a start we did a round table introduction of each other. It was kind of weird to be facing my subordinates who were all mat salleh. They did some presentations about the organisation there, their roles and responsibilities and budget figures. Before the session ended, the group expresses their gratitude of us visiting them. According to one of them, it's very uncommon that you get your boss' bosses coming down from head office. I felt a bit chuffed.

All in all, the cost of me coming to Paris for one night is about 600 Euro! I was very surprise when I saw the price of my flight ticket -- it's 700 CHF (equivalent to 470 EURO)! Plus the hotel another 150 Euro. And I can't believe that it's common for some people (mostly in the management group), to live in one coutry and work in another - e.g. live in UK, but work in Switzerland. These people normally stays in the country of work in the weekedays and go back home in the weekend. That's must be costing a fortune to the company! Try requesting a similat thing in Malaysia (live in KK and work in KL for instance), you'll be shot by HR.

First visit to Poland

2006-11-22T08:59:00.000+01:00

We touched down in Warsaw International Airport at around 8 PM plus. Quite an old looking airport building .. the kind that you'd expect to see in Eastern Europen countries. The queue at the passport control wasn't that long. My boss got through without any question. I was standing behind him. When my turn came, I was expecting to let through easily also. What is there to expect otherwise. But, I forgot, with due respect to my boss, the whities always get special treatment. I was asked by the immigration officer if I had an invitation letter to attend the meeting. What a stupid question. Why should I have one? I would understand if I needed a visa to enter the country. I don't. Poland is in the EU. Malaysians do not need visa to enter any EU countries you moron! Having been told I didn't have one, he asked for the full address of the office which I had no idea of. I questioned why he let my boss in, who was there for the same purpose as I, but bombarded me with all the unnecessary questions. He didn't answer to that, but instead insisted on the office address. Thank god, I found it in the Domino light directory which I had just replicated down onto my notebook two days earlier.

It was such a disgusting discrimination!

The Rules of the Game

2006-11-18T07:54:00.000+01:00

It's coming to five months I'm in my new position in Switzerland. It takes me this long to understand what my job is all about. It has been a huge change in how I perceive a job. Coming from technical background, I'm used to seeing the product of my work. I used to spend hours a day coding and the product was a software. I managed an IT department and product was the end-to-end service to the end users. And in this new job, I wondered what I was actually doing? Where was the value add? I felt like wasting my time at times. There were occasions when I was just writing and reading emails for most of the day. Then, there were meetings, some of which I wasn't sure what we got out of them.

Now, I can conclude the following about the job:

1. It's not about creating products, it's about communicating.
2. It's not about micro management, it's about macro management. This is the hardest part of the job for me.
3. It's not about waiting for work, it's about creating work (for yourself and for others). There are times when you have to create work for yourself to justify your position (it's pathetic when I think about it). But then again, hey what the hell ... it's part and and parcel of the being at the this level. Everyone is doing the same thing.
4. Finally, it's about politic - the one thing I was so concerned about before coming here. Believe it or not I even bought a book about winning office politics. It's a delicate thing that can either take you the top or plunging you down. The easiest way to ensure your safety is to be close to one or more of the bigger guys that know intimately one or more of the super bigger guys who can protect you in the event of you stepping into traps. I comes handy to me now because my boss supports me always and there is also one very influential senior person that knows me very well. This should protect me for now from any devious intention. But, it wouldn't last forever. Someday, I'll needs to build my own self protection mechanism or even better master the art of political maneuverism.

Positions at this level are created to build the communication channel between the top and the bottom of the organisational hierarchy. You don't have to be good at anything, but communcation, to play the role. You don't need to know about IT infrastructure for example, but you need to know what questions to ask the experts. It's all about asking questions, giving opinions, rationalising things and communicating. People below you won't say your are stupid just because you don't know things - because you are the management, you are not expected to be the expert -, people at the same level won't call you stupid, because they themselves don't know that much either. So, as long as you talk confidently, giving good reasoning, admit you are not the expert, then you are safe. And when communicating, as long as you are within the political boundary, nobody is injured, BUT it doesn't mean that you won't get injured.

I'm more cautious about certain things now. For instance, when replying an email, I must understand what the political impact would be if I say certain things in certain ways or if I CC it to certain people. CCing an email could hit someone right in the heart and he/she might retaliate. When making a statement, always base it on some supporting information (ideally facts, but normally some "reasonably reliable" info from other parties is sufficient). Avoid making blind assumption.

There is obviously a lot more for me to learn. It's a different ball game together from what I was used to. I think it'll take me one year to master all the rules.

Read some tips on ... "Win at Office Politics Without Selling Your Soul"

Weekend break in Paris

2006-09-22T08:05:00.000+02:00

Another meeting in Paris.

It's Thursday, and I have just finished another meeting with other top IT guys in Paris. I'm not at the airport and neither am I at home. I'm actually in small hotel near Rue La Fayette together with my wife and daughter. We'll be spending the tomorrow and the rest of weekend here in Paris - first plan for tomorrow --> Disneyland.

I'm currently hooked up to a private unsecured wireless access point. Signal is not so good. So better be fast.Time to sleep.

Grüezi ... What??

2006-09-09T07:53:00.000+02:00

Grüezi (pronounced "greatsi") is probably the first word that one would learn in the German speaking region of Switzerland (Zurich, Basel and Berne and the vicinity). It's the first word that I caught uttered by the locals, and the first one I couldn't find in the High German list of vocabulary. The word essentially means "greeting" or "hello" in Swiss German (the Swiss version of German Language).

For record

2006-09-09T07:14:00.000+02:00

For the record, the following were done:

CT Bank : Enrollment for eStatement
Effective now, no paper statement shall be sent to me. Statements can downloaded
from the web site once notified through Yahoo mail.

CT Bank : Request to Change Correspondence Address and Telephone Numbers

CT Bank : Request to Change Payment Due Date to middle of the month

Standard Chartered Bank : Request to Reregister Internet Banking User Name and Password
Correspondence Address and Telephone Numbers had already been changed. Future statements will be sent to Switzerland
DUE DATE NOT CHANGED!! Remain on 5th of every month

HSBC : Correspondence Address and Telephone Numbers changed. Future statements will be sent to Switzerland
DUE DATE NOT CHANGED!! Remain on 5th of every month

Direct Access : Correspondence Address and Telephone Numbers changed. Future statements will be sent to Switzerland
DUE DATE NOT CHANGED!! Remain on 5th of every month
Balance as of today RM 234.68

May Bank : Correspondence address cannot be changed over the phone. What lah! Will require written request to faxed to Menara Maybank (Fax # 03-2078916)

Merdeka Dinner

2006-09-04T08:13:00.000+02:00

Just came back from the Merdeka Dinner in Zurich. A bit knackered. Baby is fast asleep. She’s probably as tired as me.

The turnout wasn’t as big as I’d anticipated. Apart from us, the rest had been in the country for many many years. One or two were very snobbish, macam bagus sangat. Some were very friendly. This one Abang Mat had been in Switzerland for more than 30 yrs. He came in the 70’s and decided to settle down. The couple I’d met at the airport last night also attended the function. In fact we came by the same bus from the Oerlikon train station.

Once the disco started, we left. Too loud for the baby, and it was past her bedtime.

Back in Switzerland

2006-09-02T08:11:00.000+02:00

I’m on the train to Baden from the airport.

Earlier on the way back from Paris, I bumped into a friendly Malaysian couple with a young daughter who were also on the same flight coming back from Paris. The husband has been living in Switzerland for more than 20 years! That’s a freaking long time. Strangely enough, the wife and daughter remain in Malaysia (??) but come to visit regularly. Apparently, they’d also be attending the Merdeka dinner in Zurich Renaissance Hotel tomorrow. That’s good. We’ll see each other again. According to the wife, there will a mock Hari Raya celebration at the embassy in Berne on the 9th (September). That’s next Saturday. Alamak! That’s the same day an old friend from the old Petronas-BTU days and the wife are coming. Macam mana daaaaa…?

Paris again

2006-09-01T03:08:00.000+02:00

Sitting in the airport lounge waiting for the flight back to Zurich.

I was back in Paris for the 7th or 8th times, but this time only for one night. The plan had been to fly in the morning and returned in the evening, but I’d then decided to go a day ealier (I wasn’t that keen to wake up so early in the morning and rush to catch the first train to the airport.

I arrived at CDG airport at around 7+ PM and immediately took the train to the city. Since it was through Trocadero area, I got off at St. Michael Notre Damme and, as I normally do whenever in Paris, to have a kebab in a halal take away (can’t remember the name) in the area. Not the best kebab in the world. Possibly the worse, but I guess the atmosphere that keeps pulling me there. Plus, it’s halal!

The time I reached the hotel it was already 10+. Wow! As expected, it was such a nice hotel. That explains the price hmm .. (EUR 145, the most expensive I’ve stayed in Paris). It still puzzles me why I had always been booked in cheap cheap hotel (like EUR 80 per night with basic facility) in the past whenever I came here from Malaysia? 3rd class treatment? May be.

Masak Lemak Cili Padi Ayam

2006-08-28T06:05:00.000+02:00

Realising the immediate need (I had two invitations already, and it’s obvious that next one has to come from me), I begin to revive my cooking skill. I tried masak lemak cili padi ayam for lunch today (recipe from http://resepi.mesra.net/) and amazingly, it turned out not so bad.

I think the next one I’d want to try is Kari Ayam Tanpa Santan (http://resepi.mesra.net/Detailed/5062.shtml) and possibly another simple dish like masak kicap or something. For side dish, may be cucur udang.

Just after I cooked, I got an SMS from an ex colleague from Kertih who had just flown in for an interview with my current employer. Kind of weird. He left the company I'm currently attached to in Malaysia for Petronas. Now leaving Petronas for the company's HQ here in Switzerland. I invited him for lunch. Lucky him that I’d just finished cooking. Good luck for the interview tomorrow. Hopefully another Malaysian couple in town.

Another Malaysians Gathering

2006-08-25T06:03:00.000+02:00

An old colleague who just got married recently invited
us to a dinner last night. The best thing was she
cooked nasi lemak … her first attempt. It was
lovely. I wouldn’t say perfect, but for a first timer, plus a Chinese
the sambal was extremely good - as good as what you could get from stalls in
KL.

Those at the dinner: The host couple (I worked for the
same company with the wife about 5 years ago before I
joined the current company), a Malaysian couple with 2
boys (the husband is my colleague), another
colleague who is half Swiss but very Malaysian in all
aspects except the looks and lives just opposite us,
one Malaysian guy who used to work here in Baden,
now with Shell but thinking or returning to Baden, and
us.

Hopefully there are more to come and .. with no excuse
it has to be at our place.

New Country, New Life

2006-08-24T06:00:00.000+02:00

It has been almost 2 months now since I arrived in
Switzerland. It was not easy in the beginning and it
still isn’t that much different now. Regardless of how
many friends you have here, your life is as good as
not knowing anyone. People are in general not very
friendly and don’t expect anyone to help you when you
are in trouble “free of charge”. It’s sad to see that
old folks have to live either on their own or taken
care in nursing homes at their own expenses becoz life is
so expensive that very few of the family members can
afford.

For the amount of money that I’m paying now, I
was expecting something much more spacious, but what
I’m getting, as others in this country, is just a
small apartment with two bedrooms with a shared coin
operated washing machine and a dryer. To make things
worse, one of the coin boxes are located so high up on
the wall in such an awkward position that most asian
women would find it hardly reachable. And for my wife
she can’t even touch it with the tip of her finger
(well… she’s a bit shorter than the average asian
women).

I got a shock of my life today when I received an
order to appear at the local police station because
I’d used the wrong garbage bag. Due to some
misunderstandings, I used the black and not the blue
canton-approved bags. A guy found an envelope with my
address buried in all the shits in the bag, took the garbage back to me and
later made a police report. It really pisses me
off! Thankfully my secretary helped to call the police
station and as a result I don’t need to make the
appearance. But I will still receive a warning letter
… duhhhh. What even more annoying is that,
apparently there were a few black bags which obviously
mean some other people have also gone against the
rule, and possibly intentionally, and I was just the
unlucky one!

Zurich Street Party

2006-08-13T05:58:00.000+02:00

The event I’ve been waiting for! Zurich Street Parade 2006. As the saying goes …. a picture speaks a thousand words … enjoy!

Meetings

2006-07-30T06:51:00.000+02:00

Today for the first time I sat in a meeting with other top guys from the IS management group. I had been a little apprehensive in the beginning in case I didn't portray the confidence ... basically I just wasn't sure how to behave. The leap that I took to reach this position had not been without any hurdle. There were a lot of questions thrown at my boss as to why me - too young, no experience. He probably had some tough moments having to answer them, but I respect him for standing by me and persisted on taking me on board.

The meeting turned out fine. They were just normal guys. Not the kind that I'd had imagined. I was a semi formal meeting that takes place at the end of every month. It's when the sector gets updates from the businesses of things that have taken place in the month, any issues that they might face, and also a time when businesses share ideas and information. It's pretty much talk, talk and talk, present some PowerPoint slides, may be argue here and there a bit for one whole day. Not to forget the lunch break in the middle. Most of the things discussed were very alien to me. I spent most of the time listened and tried to make sense what they were all about. I'll find out about them later from my boss.

Hmmm ... is all that these people do? Meetings, meetings, meetings?

After one month at sea

2006-07-29T05:56:00.000+02:00

After one month at sea, our goods finally delivered the local mover Welti-Furer. 3 hours job and all our things are indoor and the furniture assembled. We pretty much have all the essential stuff, except for may be a couple more wardrobes and a single sofa bed which we have ordered from IKEA.

With the weekend around the corner, we have sufficient time to unpack and arrange things before moving in late on Sunday or early Monday morning.

29″ TV

2006-07-23T05:50:00.000+02:00

Now that I’ve learned quite a bit about the life here, I decided to rent a car for the weekend to go buy a TV set and take our things from the current service apartment to the our newly rented apartment in Nussbaumen.

On Friday, I went to book a Ford Mondeo station wagon from a local garage ExtraGent. For 66 Swiss Francs, I got to use the car for 24 hrs. Sound cheap huh! It’s not! There is an additional charge for every kilometers you drive. So, I have to make sure I never get lost not to waste the mileage.

Early this morning I went to get the car. Kind of wary to drive initially thinking of the different driving side to the one I’m used to. But, it wasn’t that confusing after all.

We went to InterDiscount (the only electrical good chain shop which I think exist in this county) to get our TV set. For 399 Swiss Francs we got outselves a 29″ Schneider flat TV. Paying it was easy. Taking is up one floor above to our car was also not bad. But to lift it up into the back of the car was the hardest task. With such weight and box size, it felt like impossible in the beginning. Since we had no choice (don’t expect anyone to help you here), I decided to put the baby on the stoller, let her cry, and with the combined male-female strength of my wife and I, we held our breath and justttt managed to get it into the car. I hope I didn’t damage any part of my back muscle.

And as expected, taking it out of the car into the apartment was also quite demanding … but we managed.

We are ready to move into the new apartment next weekend ….

IKEA

2006-07-16T06:49:00.000+02:00

Since we needed a couple of wardrobes, we decided to go and check them out at the local IKEA store in Spreintenbach (a short bus ride from Baden). Hmmm … comparing it with the store in KL, I have to say it is just dull and nothing much to shout about. The building is kind of old. The elevators are more like those used in warehouse than in a shopping complex. The interior design is not like what is synonymous with IKEA. And one particular thing which is NOT like IKEA that I’d always known is it costs 95 Swiss Francs to deliver my goods. What? Have I misheard it ?? And it took 3 weeks. Am I in Switzerland or India? So, do you assemble them too? Oh, yes. That’s another 95 Swiss Francs. This is crazy. Since we found what we wanted, and the sale was still on, and realising that we had to get them delivered no matter what, we ordered 2 wardrobes, one single sofa bed, one coffee table, one computer table and one small round decorative table. There you go, since it costed so much to get them delivered, we might as well get everything now.

I caused a bit of chaos when the cashier didn’t understand me and I didn’t understand her on the way out. What I learned is that always choose young cashier. If you go for those as old as you mom, don’t be surprise if you end up using sign language.

First day at work

2006-07-04T07:48:00.000+02:00

I officially reported for duty today. A mixture of feelings. Excited and worried at the same time. Excited that there are new things to learn (I hope), worried if I get killed too early.

In my RM 689 two piece suit, I arrived at the HR department just after 8. After being briefed of bits and pieces I was taken to my desk. Seemed that there weren’t that many people around. May be most were still on summer vacation. I wasn’t sure if my boss had forgotten my first day of he just didn’t bother it. But, he wasnt around. Lerr …

I wasn’t long in the office. After getting my photo taken for staff access card, I went back to the hotel to meet up with the housing agent to go and see a few apartments.

Touching down in Switzerland

2006-07-03T04:47:00.000+02:00

Going back a couple of days: At around half six, 30 July 2006 we touched down at the Zurich International Airport (Flughafen Zürich) greeted by what seemingly a nice, warm European summer weather albeit early morning. With excessive luggage with us (I paid RM 4200 for the excess weight!), we didn't waste a single second and went straight to catch a taxi to the city in Aargau where I'd be based for at least the next two years. The baby was in happy mood, which was good - thanked to the 11 hour she had had in the plane. The taxi ride took about 20 minutes, and costed 115 Swiss Francs (CHF in abbreviation)!. Forget about conversion to Ringgit. The value of 115 against 20 minute already sounds atrocious. It's probably the most expensive 20-minute taxi ride you can ever find in the world. Our first introduction to the renown extravagant Swiss life.

Who doesn't know about Switzerland being THE place with excellent courses for hotel and catering management. Ask anyone who in the hotel industry and they will tell you exactly this. We arrived at the hotel with the expectation that there would be a concierge ready to help us with the luggage; after all this hotel was supposed to be the best in the town and the favourite among the top guys in the company. But, as saying goes in Malay "jauh panggang dari api". The only staff on duty were the receptionist and another girl whose appearence suggested that she's probably in the housekeeping department. They had no choice but to give us a hand with the luggage although from the body language I could see they weren't happy. The remark "What do you have in this bag? A stone?" was enough to convince me so. We didn't care. We were tired. We needed a bath. We pay for the service. So shut up! And just do it.

Albeit the shortcomings in the service, the hotel is really nice is a really nice hotel, housed in a newly renovated old building located on the bank of river Limmat.

I’m still serving the SAME company! Don’t you see it?

2006-05-11T07:46:00.000+02:00

One of the terms of my latest contract which I requested for amendments recently is the probationary period notice of termination. Although I never experienced having to leave my employee within the probationary period and I don’t think I will experience one with my new position, enforcing 7 days for notice period in my contract I think is very harsh! Justifications: 1) I am a foreign staff who will suffer greatly should such termination takes place due to the commitment that I have, which the company is fully aware of, and 2) I am a god damn existing employee of the organisation! Why is it that you need the probationary period when you can easily get reference of me from people in the Malaysia's office?? After all we are working under the same umbrella. The policy just sucks! Or it could be that they just took the standard contract template, pasted my name and sent it off. duhh ….

Why should I suffer for the Company?

2006-05-09T06:44:00.000+02:00

Having lost my mobility premium that was initially offered in the original package I turned to my HR department to see if they can assist to pay for it. My expectation was quite high since my boss had said it should be possible. But it wasn’t to be. HR refused with a big No! I was quite upset. Had I known that the chances were gonna be this slim I would have included mobility premium in the list of items for negotiation in my email to the HQ yesterday. Sigh … . Never trust nobody. Now I have to go back to the HQ and ask them to consider giving me the mobility premium as well.

Being in this company, in general, I repeat .. in general, based on my observation, and I believe others would agree, if your skin colour is other than white, chances are you will get second class treatment when it comes to career development. You may reach a certain level but it won’t be far. Albeit multinational, it is not in totality. This is a rare opportunity and a big step for me. No doubt about it. HR should realise this and should support a fellow Malaysian relocate in comfort. Other expats from Europe, Australia, US etc are majority on expat package. Why am I denied such a privilege when the HQ surprisingly is willing to give? huh ??? What lah ! If Malaysian cannot support Malaysian, dunno how we can continue to hold on to the “Malaysia Boleh” spirit.

Development of my Transfer Contract

2006-05-08T06:42:00.000+02:00

Finally, the new contract for my transfer arrived last week. As anticipated, some benefits were taken out from the initial offer as it is now a local package rather than the so called the long term transfer policy or genuine expat package. As far as the annual salary is concerned, the figure is pretty much the same if looked at in totality. Not an issue. But, the overall package is probably slightly less attractive than the original. I immediately sent my response with requests on certain aspects to be amended to ensure I’m not in the losing end and every part of my family’s and my interests are well protected. Some might think I’m too demanding. But, to me it’s better to work it out now than later. After all I’m going there with a young baby and a soon to be unemployed wife. If I were a bachelor, I probably won’t have pushed so much for negotiation.

Looking at the way things go now, I begin to see my self sitting at my new work desk on 1 July. Even if they refuse to give all that I’m trying to negotiate for, I think I will just make the jump. It’s a big big jump. Exciting, at the same time worrying.

Where I jot down stuff

Selamat Hari Raya

Scooter kidss

Jemput jemput

Salam Aidilfitri ..

How do you kill time on train

Paris, its stressful with the Metro

Tour eiffel

Why isn't it in Malaysia?

Basel airport

B20 is history

Missing those DJs?

A life that began with uncertainty

Mind mapping - a good one for Android

Acer Iconia A500 Tablet Review

Barca the Champ again 2011!

The room in Surrey Court

Street dance in Paris

Summer is here

cablecom - what a piece of crap

Lyris

Jom meet up! 2011

hola

The Shoddy 1Borneo

messing around with wordpress

Selamat Berpuasa / Happy Ramadan / Ramadan mobarak !

A mosque on the ground-zero site? Why not.

Stop pushing me sister!

My most popular YouTube video

Opps .. my Blackberry is a Crackberry in Dubai

another one .. beautiful song .. good luck girl

Is this the end of summer ?

Guess which one is the bitch?

Dan Sebenarnya ... dialah Yuna

Next course paid B820

how to start windows XP in safe mode??

the days have begun ...

Various photos from recent trip

Need to renew your passport in Switzerland ?? Here is the answer

Touching down in KK

sepang 2005

want taste of home in Zurich??

Flaunt it baby

Petronas Twin Tower, KL

sitting on the edge

lost in moscow ?? read my back

Zurich Street Parade 2008

the pole queen

stroboscopic day - may 2010

The crazy bunch

spider man

Search for the race queen

creeping back after a long time

London

A new place with a better view (only if they knew it!)

Dinner in Wuhan

Missing flight! And finally in Wuhan

Don't be surprised if the Swiss think they are the clever ones and we are just the stupid apes

digitec.ch

Who says pregnant isn't sexy

First spam email in Facebook

Looking for quality electronics at wholesale prices?Between You and Jenny Jones

The Wonderful Facebook

The Super-Extreme Swiss

Tits'n'ass

titsex

Ciao 2007, Welcome 2008

Never Judge the Book by the Cover

The Rest of the Days in Munich

Short Break in Munich

The rebirth of my humble blog

6th., final day in KL

5th. Day in KL

4th. day in KL

3rd. Day in KL

2nd. Day in KL

Six days in KL

Summer

4-Nation Football Tournament

Moscow

Looking for quality electronics at wholesale prices?
Between You and Jenny Jones