Six days in KL

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

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

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

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

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

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

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"