new fuel price

i bet all malaysians are sick of the new price, but there is nothing we can do to change it...

however we do have options to minimise the impact... for example, car pool... but heck, we are all so used to having the "freedom" and car pooling simply means that no more such freedom is available...

we can take the public transport, some say... yeah right! the public transport systems sucks...

read something pretty interesting on the email today, i think i'll paste it here... we malaysians are always asked to count our blessings... we have been using cheap fuel for a long time so it is about time for us to start paying more money to get fuel... literally this is rather logical... but please read the following to see if this is still logical to you...

A fisherman caught a sea bass and cooked it for his son to eat. Before his son could eat the sea bass, the father asked his son to pay up $10. The son thought that the fish was caught abundantly from nature and therefore at little or no cost, asked his father why. The father said “son if I buy that fish in the market, the fish would cost you $15. Therefore, you should be thankful that I’m asking you to pay only $10 because I had subsidised $5 for you!”

everybody is affected by the fuel price hike, i was buying fruits from an old lady by the road yesterday, and when i asked her how much, she said RM1, she usually sells at RM0.90 and she told me that the price of delivery has gone up, therefore she needs to increase the price to keep up...

one thing leads to another... by the fuel price going up, it also means that everything that is related to transportation will go up... food needs to be delievered, so it's definitely going up... toiletries that we use needs to be delivered, so it's going up... what else is not going up? let me see, ah, our salary!!! our salary will remain the same despite the rising costs... so what do we do? nothing, we complain... that's what we do best, that's what i do best... i complain... nuff said... better get back to work, before i loose my salary...

an update, apparently

sudah lama tak update blog yer? jie jie go update your blog...

it's obvious that i left this poor blog unattended for a long long time... sorry peeps...

anyway, here is an update...

current i am sitting in banda aceh again, trying to get the working schedule into place... i lost count how many versions i made, but what the heck, the projects speaks for itself!!!

for the last 5 months, nothing much has happened... i made a trip to india, only to find that malaysia is still the best, for me, at least...

i'm not quite happy with the political events that took place, but hey, i can live with that...

i bought a house, in bandar botanic, now still waiting for the documentations and legal procedures to complete before i can occupy it...

quitted some of my online games to make time for real stuff instead... a good change i believe... but quitting the games also means that i am not spending so much time online anymore, which also explains the lag of blog update... ok, that was a bluff... i was lazy and didn't know what to write about...

bought a new guitar... hope to get back to playing it... hope i have the preseverence... my old guitar is somewhere in my sister's house, my brother-in-law wants to learn, not sure if he got around to it... but who cares, i was too lazy to ask him back for it, so i bought a new one...

well, that's all i guess, let's see when i'll blog again... not too long i hope...

shopping weekend

budak kecik made her grand visit on friday... picked her up from subang train station and we head straight to the new aeon near my home... had dinner and did some window shopping there...

on saturday, we went to cheras, she has to attend an interview... so drove there early morning, because i was worried that i will get lost... reaching there, we were too early, so we parked at leisure mall and started shopping... needless to say, i spent my whole next month's pay check...

in leisure mall, there was this big crowd, and i was wondering what happened... so i went and see and saw that wynners, were having an autograph's session, so i bought a CD and joined the crowd... after a long que, got there and got their autographs... ummm.... they are not exactly my era, but what the heck, it was all fun and worth it... kenny bee looks amazingly gorgeous although he is already old... alan tam was there, and he looks great too, but he was very friendly and i wasn't expecting that... i mean, alan tam being one of the heavenly kings in the 80s, is actually friendly...

after that, budak kecik came to rejoin me after her interview, and we called mr. pancit and wife to come for lunch... went to kenny roger's and waited like half and hour for mr. pancit, oh, what else is new? how often does mr. pancit comes on time? we sat there for a whole 3 hours chatting away...

then budak kecik and mrs. pancit wanted to shop for shoes, so off we went... guess who bought shoes? me of course! bought myself a platform shoes to go with the dress i bought a couple of weeks ago... mrs. pancit said "you are already so tall, and you still want this?" (implying that the shoes are too high for me... sigh)... i am not tall, i am average, and gurls, if i am taller than you, it's not me, it's just you, you are short, *chuckles*

went home and we were too tired to do anything...

sunday morning, went to aeon, had breakfast and we did some last minute shopping before i sent budak kecik to the train station... i made a huge mistake... we walked into this outlet, jewelleries to be exact... i saw this pair of stunning pearl earrings... they were gorgeous, i was in love... asked for the price, and i almost died... can't afford it, those earrings cost a hefty 16k...

that is the end of my shopping spree... nothing really happening happened... another not so great weekend...

sweet ol' memories

I was at a class reunion, and almost everyone asked me "are you on facebook?", so I thought I's register and see what it has... and this is the result of my search...

I was browsing facebook and found Hui Ming… Hui Ming and I go to different school, but we travel to school together, if I remember right, she is a year younger…

I messaged her and after exchanging a few messages, she sent me this “The memory of someone throwing egg at someone still makes me smile.”

I burst into laughter the moment I saw that line… this incident has clearly slipped my mind, and I think I never told anyone before, so I guess it’s time I confess…

I think I was 14, I can’t really recall which year, but based on the stuff that I remembered, I was having home ed., the teacher told us to bring the raw ingredients to school for the lessons… so we brought, at the end of the day, I had an extra egg, which I need to bring home… I was having this egg in my hand, holding it carefully for fear that it will break, you know how bad a raw egg smelled?

In the school bus, we were chatting away like usual, ah, carefree students days… and then, there was a boy, my age? Maybe a year older? Or a year younger? I really cannot remember… well, he is such a snob and thinks that all the girls are falling for him… to be truthful, he is not even good looking and he doesn’t converse very well in english, I think… I only know that I never liked him… so while we were chatting away, with the egg in my hand, (was it me? Or was it someone else? I need to confirm on the facts… ) we had a naughty idea, I was suppose to get down from the bus, and throw that egg at him… which I did… and the rest was history…

Of course, the bus driver made me apologise after that, which I did, but we never became friends… who would want to befriend a girl like me?

Good old memories… more to come as they popped back into my head, but I need people to remind me…

it's all my fault...

Your top priority is Lhoknga… I believe I heard right, this is not the 1st time I am hearing this, I’m cool with it…

But what I am not cool with is, why tell me now that this is my top priority? A year ago, when I asked for more involvement in this project, answer was “NO, we have a site planner, you only need to be involved up to the time when the contract is awarded” so, contract has been awarded for a year, I am not involved in this project directly, I have not attended to any project meeting, suddenly, boss came up to me and told me “other than Jacques, you are the only one who is in the middle of everything”… since when have I been in the middle of everything? Since when this has become my baby?

I was involved in the beginning stage, and then it was instructed that I hand over to the site guy… which I did, and then the site guy resigned, I was asked to take over from him until they find a replacement… when they found a replacement, I was not informed. There was no handing over whatsoever… naturally that guy at site have not a single idea of what is going on… and then I was told to take my hands off this project, which is fine, because I need to work on a few other Indian projects…

And then, out of the blue, the told me that they’ve engaged an expert from Switzerland to do up a project plan, and I was told to tag along to assist him to get the info… and the tagging along process ended rather bad for me, because I ended up being the one who does everything… the site guy commented “this is not my work” and the expert said, “well, it looks like you have to do it”… I didn’t complain, although I really am upset over the whole thing, after I completed my assignment, the expert just mail that stupid thing to my boss and assume that he has done all the work… and he gets paid like don’t know how many umpteen thousands of Euros… and I get peanuts…

After that, I was asked to revised his work according to the site conditions, and then I started digging for all available information… a lot of information are missing… so I questioned the designer, I questioned the technical managers, and I cannot get answers… so, it is my fault that information are missing?

the expeditor missed a date, and I was blamed for not highlighting it? How can I highlight anything when the information is not available? I am supposed to run a look ahead to know what are the tasks that should be taking place, but how the hell would I know if I don’t have complete information?

The award of the equipment erectors has not been done and this is my fault? I planned to have erection works in March ‘08, so people, get it awarded before March…

I asked for a progress update from site and got a reply after 5 e-mails… I asked for schedule update from suppliers and contractors, and I have not got a single reply, so what am I supposed to do? A mission was planned for next week, but it was not confirmed, and this is my fault? Damn, everything is my fault! I need confirmation like there are actually people working before I go to site, what is the point of going to site when there is no one working? The steel structures came down, and thank god, for once, this is not my fault… but is there a stop work order? If there is, what is the point of going to site? When I asked for confirmation of mission, I have no reply, and this is my fault again… man, my job really sucks…

I cannot have information at my finger tips when I have no idea what goes on where… I cannot be in the project for one day and out the next day, and still know every single detail of the project, like when the next shipment will arrive… why would I need to be doing all this, when this should be done at site level? Why would be doing this when you are already paying someone at site to do it? And to make the matter worst, the guy at site gets paid more than me… I really get peanuts… so I guess that makes me a monkey… as the saying goes “if you pay peanuts, you get monkey”...

i think it's time for me to say "this is not my job"... i think this is really over and above my original scope...