Moving on to Tumblr

Recently discovered the beauty of Tumblr. It is so easy to use and so convenient to post via mobile phones.

So I will no longer continue my blog in Blogger but instead will be updating at fishmandiary.tumblr.com.

When that time comes...

2 weeks ago, at a very early hours of this day, I received a call. While still in-between the state of being asleep & awake, I heard this distraught voice of my friend telling me that another friend had passed away. It felt really unreal as if I was in a nightmare... and frankly speaking it still feels the same.

Unfortunately, this is no nightmare. This friend of ours, a mother of 3 young kids, passed away from an accident. It was a sudden news, it took all of us by shock... and considering we have just met her a week before the incident, it just didn't seem to make sense.

Yeah... I guess that's what death is, especially when it is so sudden. It doesn't and probably will never make sense.

Like it or not, she is no longer with us and what we can do is to keep the good memories alive, and may she be well & happy wherever she is.

Life is indeed fragile. We'll never know when it is our time. Have we done enough to prepare ourselves when that time comes?

Me, a gangster??

Yesterday at the parking lot of mom's apartment, youngest bro-in-law & I got stopped by 2 policemen in their police car.

Apparently these policemen were doing random check. So we, being at the "right" place at the "right" time, got spotted as we got off my car.

This has never happened to me before, so for a while there I was having fixed emotions from panic to being irritated to anger. We (and my car) practically got body searched, very much like what they do to criminals on TV. Maybe I should be thankful they didn't do strip search & ask us to squat or something.

After that, the policemen filled up some forms as records of the search, reminded my bro-in-law to always bring his passport with him (he is a Singaporean), and left us alone.

Funny how although we know for sure we haven't done anything wrong, there was still a sense of panic. Maybe because the policemen were carrying their guns during the whole process; maybe we were suspicious of their authenticity; or maybe just on whether they would nitpick so that they can get something from us. See la on how confident we are of our police force.

Later in the evening, after conveying the whole incident to my family, another bro-in-law said that perhaps that was a part of the operation to clamp down on gangsterism, something which the government has publicly announced.

Now, now... do I look like a gangster?

New gadget, perhaps?

I have been known to my friends as someone who changes mobile phones every year. Well those were very long time ago.

My current phone is Galaxy Note which was released 2 years ago. When I first used that, friends were smirking or laughing seeing me holding such a big phone to my ear. They would make jokes that I looked funny holding an iron to my face.

Then bigger screens phablets came along (ex: Galaxy Note 8.0) which some people still use them as a phone without the bluetooth headset. So putting my Galaxy Note to the ear no longer looks ridiculous as big screens have become a norm.

Recently Samsung launched their products for 2013 lineup. I am tempted again by one of them. This will be my new gadget, perhaps?

Being Thankful

Yesterday while having a chat with my sisters, they brought up about the importance of being thankful for all the good things in life, and a practice of counting 10 of your blessings each day. Yeah, I think this is a really good practice to keep ourselves in a positive state of mind.

Here are the 10 things I am thankful for, in no particular order:

1. I am thankful for my overall good mental & physical health
2. I am thankful for my love ones and their good mental & physical health
3. I am thankful for friends, some whom I may not meet always but stay in my heart
4. I am thankful for having a job that enable me to sustain my lifestyle
5. I am thankful for good bosses & colleagues
6. I am thankful for my home which is in a good condition
7. I am thankful for my safe neighborhood
8. I am thankful for my car which I love soooo much
9. I am thankful for being able to go for vacations now and then
10. I am thankful for having all that I need in life

Ikea PS Cabinet

Sigh... after waiting for the price to drop for more than half a year, I finally gave in and bought this Ikea PS Cabinet for the original price of RM275. Ikea had a promotion last Christmas for this item at around RM195 which I missed.

Assembling this cabinet is surprisingly easy where there isn't any screws to hold the pieces together. It is very much like fitting the pieces together like Lego and voila, a sturdy cabinet! I got that done by myself in around an hour's time.

So now what I need are a nice big white painting, a cool white table lamp and a small decor; and I should be done.

My Dining Area

Act of Sabotage

Last night when we were on our way to Scott's Garden, Old Klang Road, we noticed this eating place with lots of people. So we decided to give it a try.

This eating place is called Ah Wang Bak Kut Teh, and upon tasting the Bak Kut Teh and the Assam Fish Head, we understood why there were so many people there. Yes, the food were really good and tasty.

As we were finishing our meal, suddenly we heard loud noises which sounded like fire cracker or gun shots and people were screaming away! It was a total commotion!

We ran out of the place and saw some people standing at the highway above. Those were the Rela members who chased away some saboteurs who were on the highway earlier to hurl big rocks/bricks onto the zinc restaurant's roof. We heard that this was not the first time, and that sometimes they used faeces.

So in my mind, this act of sabotage must be from a competitor or that the restaurant did not pay "protection money". Sigh...doing business really is not so easy.

Anyway in the commotion, many patrons took advantage to leave without paying. That surely incurred some losses to the restaurant.

As for us, we went back to our table, ordered a refill of bak kut teh soup and finished our meal. And yes, we paid before we left.

My paintings

I believe buying paintings really depend on "yuan fen"(缘分) which means afinity. I remember how I was walking around the art centers at Chatuchak Weekend Market Bangkok last year to get some paintings for my new house, but nothing attracted me until I saw this shop by artist Kanisorn.

The painting of a little monk with red background immediately captured my heart and I knew I had to have it. I bought 3 paintings i.e. of a little thai monk, a little chinese monk and a little western monk. They are on my dining room's wall and I love them so much. Looking at them bring me so much peace.

Recently I was looking around for some more paintings, especially one to put on my shoe cabinet that faces the main door. I wanted to get one with red background to match my 3 little monks. Anyhow it wasn't easy as "yuan fen" wasn't there.

Then one fine weekend, I received some whatsapp's messages from my colleague who has gone back to her hometown, Malacca. She knew I was looking for a painting and as she happened to be in this art shop called Titi Art Gallery, she snapped some pictures and sent me.

I was driving during that time, so I quickly scanned through the images she sent and suddenly, "yuan fen" was there. The goldfish painting on the top right hand corner of the 2nd picture above caught my eye.

I called my colleague who was still in the shop, told her that I wanted a bigger size of the goldfish painting and with 9 fish (1 fish being black). Yeah... that's for feng shui. :) Proceeded to place my order and 2 weeks later, I received it.

It is on my shoe cabinet facing my main door now to welcome all the good fortunes into my home. Hahaha... really love the cute round goldfish, and it really jive with the theme of my home.

Here's a picture of the painting with the artist, Titi Kwok. I told my colleague to specifically snap a picture of him when she went to collect the painting for me.

Apprentice Asia

The first Apprentice Asia is down to final 4 and I wonder who will get fired next.

I have watched US Apprentice before, but nothing felt closer to home than Apprentice Asia. After all, we do say that different countries/continents have different working cultures, right? ... and so I thought.

Going through the episodes of Apprentice Asia reminded me of all the previous Apprentice US that I have watched before. It is practically the same format with all these big shots looking for the same quality kind of person.... the quality of scheming & back stabbing others to get to the top.

Yes, I know this sounds pretty dumb coming from someone who has worked more than a decade, but are these really the "qualities" that qualify people to hold high positions? Perhaps that's why I am still not at that level.

In all episodes, the contestants would work together on a task. I felt that throughout their tasks, they just made sure that they are "loud"... making noise for that sake without giving any real contribution. Oh and of course to lookout for any other's mistakes as well so that they can load up their artillery for the boardroom as it is all about attack & defense there. Yes, survival... but ruthless, right? Team work my foot!

Looking back on one of the earlier episodes of Apprentice Asia, the Thai lady quit because she couldn't stand the level of bickering & back stabbing within the team. I think I would have done the same if I am in her position. I am too, someone who is not "cut out" for all these scheming & back stabbing for the quest to go to the top.

Yeah, guess I am pretty much a loser... but at least I could sleep better at night.

My Forte - Random Pic

Cursed

Don't you get so irritated sometimes when you see these people holding up traffic because they got stuck either at the Touch 'n Go or Smart Tag lanes of the toll booths?

There are many of such incidences at LDP, the highway that I use regularly to and from work. I often cursed these people and thought that they must be morons for not understanding the huge "Touch n Go Only" or "Smart Tag" signs. 

Looking back, I actually posted something about this here, and that was in 2007. From then until now, I must have cursed thousands if not millions of people.

........Today, the table turned.

I was the one who got cursed....probably for 7 generations. 

I got myself stuck at the Smart Tag lane and it was not because I couldn't read the sign. I have a smart tag with me, just that it chose not to work on this fateful day. No, no... it wasn't the battery.

I think I am going to have phobia passing through the Smart Tag lane tomorrow morning. Please do not fail me once again!!... I do not want to be cursed and called a moron again.

Kia Cerato unveiling!

The new K3 or Kia Cerato as known in Malaysia is unveiling tomorrow! This is one fine looking car, and if I was not desperate to change my ailing Inokom Matrix 2 months ago, I would have waited longer for this.

Anyhow, I did not regret at all getting my Kia Forte as it is one handsome looking car too. What more with only 1.68% as car loan interest and priced at RM97.8K for a 2.0 which is within the budget I set. With the specs of a C-segment car, Kia Forte is definitely a steal!

Heard that Kia Cerato will be priced at RM99,888 for a 1.6 and RM118,888 for a 2.0. Thank goodness I didn't wait cos it is definitely out of my budget anyway!

 

Services vouchers from discount sites - do they work?

Although am not an obsessed discount voucher sites fan, I do scan these sites for something to buy (or rather some inspiration on what to buy) at least every weekend. Yes, buying stuff do give me joy! Though some look like really good deals, sometimes you can get better prices from Lelong & ebay. Further more, Lelong & ebay merchants send the items out almost immediately after receiving the payments.

Anyhow, you don't get services type of discounts such as restaurants, beauty, home cleaning etc from Lelong or ebay. So very much you still have to fall back to these discount sites. So far I have purchased several restaurant discount vouchers, 1 facial voucher & 1 cleaning services voucher. Never had any problems with the restaurant vouchers as long as I do early bookings. Some food are good, some not...and all these have to do with the restaurants, not the vouchers.

For the facial voucher I got, it was from Facial First (under Bizzy Body) which I redeemed yesterday after having problems finding an available slot for almost a month!

Got a bit pissed when the facial consultant implied that I did not read the treatment details properly which supposedly tailored for acne-ridden people, which I am not. I told them that their description of "prevent blemishes" didn't really imply it has to be acne-ridden, did it?

So after giving her a piece of my mind, we did a cut-down of the treatment so that I did not have to waste the voucher. Oh and as expected, she tried to sell me treatment packages for my high sebum and low moisture skin, which I politely declined.

And the biggest nightmare of all, was the home cleaning service voucher that I purchased from Groupon. The merchant here is One Bright Cleaning Services. Tell you folks, when you see this merchant's name, you should just walk away! This is such an irresponsible merchant.

I bought the voucher early this year and hoped to use their services for pre-Chinese New Year cleaning. They started with a online appointment booking form. They replied me that all the sessions during the period of time were full. Fine, so I made another booking for after the peak period. No reply from them and I had to email them a few times to get a response that they had changed their booking method. Apparently they could not cope with too many vouchers redemption.

So the new arrangement was that they would call you to arrange an appointment. That was in Feb 2013. Up to today which is the expiration of the voucher, no news at all. All my emails were probably routed to trash in their mailbox. Calling was not an option cos they would never pick up.

So I gave up yesterday and contacted Groupon and sent them my email thread with this irresponsible merchant. Groupon was kind enough to refund me and I opted for Groupon credits.

Seriously, how dumb can this merchant be?? If you put up your discounts into all these sites, you should expect that you'll get many purchases right? Isn't that the whole reason why you partner with them in the first place? If you can't cope with the responses, then don't put up discounts!

Anyhow this experience really made me think twice before purchasing any of such services vouchers, except for those restaurant ones.

So do services vouchers work?... I would say Yes... if they are from good & reputable merchants. Even so, please prepare to be patient in getting a convenient slot for yourself. Try to redeem your voucher much earlier and not wait around until almost nearing the expiration date.

There will always be the bad merchants like One Bright Cleaning Services which does not hold the end of their bargain, but in these cases, lets just hope the Discount Voucher sites are more responsible to give us back the refund. At least I know Groupon is.

My new novel from Dan Brown

Yeah...finally got Dan Brown's new novel "Inferno".

I remember how much I liked "The Da Vinci Code" the last time. I practically had to stop myself from reading and go to sleep, only to end up having weird dreams. Then the next 2 novels "Angels & Demons" and "The Lost Symbol" were equally spectacular as well. They were too good that the movies did not do them any justice.

Anyhow, those were ancient history. I bought "Inferno" a few days ago, and I have yet to start reading it. Perhaps I have lost interest in reading, or perhaps the temptation of internet and astro are overshadowing the urge to read.

Frankly I have no idea what "Inferno" is all about, and hopefully that'll add in the suspense when I actually start.

Why so action?

I seriously do not understand what's the problem with some people in my office. We work in the same office and share the same pantry... and there are still bound to be those who seem to just want to ignore you.

They would avoid eye contact at any cost, as if any of those would send them to the fire of hell. Even if there is such contact, they would act as if you are transparent... and any friendly smile from you would just invite a look away. Gosh.... why la so action? Further more, they are not really of a higher position to warrant such a display of snobbishness.

Oh well...I am done trying to be friendly to all these people. Perhaps it's time I show my "action" side to them as well.

First Service

After driving my new Kia Forte for 3 weeks, it has reached the 1000km mark & time to "de-virginised" i.e to go for its first service.

So I chose a work day thinking that I would probably be the only one there. To my surprise when I reached, there were already around 5 cars there for servicing. Couldn't imagine if it's on a weekend.

The girl at the reception gave me the impression that she didn't like her job much or it could be the time of the month. Too bad for her black face, or she could be considered as pretty.

She asked a few basic questions on my car's service history & car issues, and entered all these into her computer. Then told me that the cost will be around RM170+ for the lubricants (discounted price) and to wait for around 2 hours. Hmm....people have been telling me that 1st service would just take a breeze.

So here I am, at the service center, waiting & waiting.

Info that I got from forum is that Fuel Consumption (FC) for new cars are usually high & after a few services, it will get better.

My car's has been at the average of 10.8l/100km which is around 20cents/km on 90% city driving, as in getting caught in the jams. Hopefully FC will get better after this.

Handsome Fella

After the Sierra Glow treatment, my Forte looks so "handsome" according to a female colleague. Too bad she was not saying that about me. :(

Anyhow, here is that handsome fella.

The coating layer also causes water beading... pretty cool to look at.

My love is glowing (Sierra Glow'ing that is!)

I so love love love my new car, the Kia Forte 2.0SX. Such a big upgrade from my old car.

As with any new love, you will be obsessed (slightly or to the extreme, depending on people) and will be more than willing to "invest" on it.

I have to say that I am not extremely obsessed as compared to other Forte owners who are doing so many mods to their cars. I on another hand am more of "where can I get a nice case for my smart key", "what is a nice decoration to put on the dashboard" or "how to change the skin of the head unit" kind of owner. So I do not think I have been spending a lot of money on enhancing my new love.. until today.

Today, I sent my Forte for coating.

So what is coating and why does our car need it? Well...I am not a car person and from what I gathered, coating is to apply a layer of semi-permanent substance onto the car's paint to preserve it. Besides preserving its beauty, it also makes the car easier to wash & maintain... and that is the main reason that attracted me.

After surveying from forums and asking friends who coated their cars, I settled for Sierra Glow mainly for its reasonable price as well as good reviews. If you are a Forte owner and a member of MyForte Club, you get a discount too!

So after making the appointment, off I went to get my love coated today. I reached the shop in USJ around 9.35am (they open at 10am) due to my kiasu'ness. Well, Mr Choong (the director) did tell me that it's first come first serve. An Optima was already there when I arrived. So got more kiasu people than me, ok?

 

Waited a little while and Mr Choong arrived. Nice & friendly guy who checked my car and told me that I have to be careful with cement dust. Yeah...a lot of construction happening at my residential area as well as nearby my office. If not cleaned often, these cement dust will harden with moisture & will be difficult to get off.

After chatting with him for a while, his staff arrived, I passed them my key and they started to wash my car.

 

Mr Choong proceeded to explain the benefits of coating vs waxing & polishing, and his product. Well these are something which I have already read from his website, but it's good that he ensures his customers know what they are getting.

After that, he got me to sign a form and then I left the vicinity as I didn't want to wait 5-6 hours (as stated in the website) there. Around 4 hours later, I received his SMS informing me that my car is done. Not bad!... 4 hours instead of 5-6 hours. My car must have been easy to coat as it is new and without scratches yet. 

When I got back to Sierra Glow, there my love was... glowing like a diamond in the sky (sorry, I couldn't resist using Rihanna's hit).

 

Love love love it!

Sierra Glow's coating comes with a 5 years warranty and in cases where the coating diminishes, they will do touch ups for you. I shall wait and see on how long the coating will lasts, but I can't deny how I love love love the glow on my Forte now.

Sierra Glow (M) Sdn Bhd

No: 26 Jalan Industri USJ 1/3,
Taman Perindustrian USJ 1,
47600 Subang Jaya, Selangor,
Malaysia.

Contact person: Mr Choong: +6016 - 217 0312
Email: sierraglow@gmail.com

My new ride

I am never a car type of person. If you randomly point to a car and ask me what car it is, I would probably be looking at you blankly unless it is a Hyundai Matrix, as that is the car that I have been driving now.

Being a car idiot, it never crossed my mind to change to a new ride until recently when my Matrix started to show signs of old age. Well 9 years is a long time, and I do love my Matrix. However it has started to malfunction, and maintenance charges are now often over RM1K each time. Driving it nowadays gave me so much stress knowing that it could break down anytime.

So I had to take the next step i.e. to consider getting a new car but with a firm budget of no more than RM10K.

Then, there were so many comments from different people. Some said I should get a higher end car, some said don't get it now and wait for car prices to go down, some said wait for new models to come out first etc. Anyhow, I am the one who is clearest about my current situation and the stress that I go through when driving to and from work. Imagine I am worried now thinking about driving my Matrix to airport to pick up my sister this coming Friday night!

After doing some reading, I decided on Kia Forte 2.0 SX. Here is a review that helped me in making a decision.

Yes, I know this is an old model and that a new one (K3) is coming soon, but I insisted on this decision because
1) the car's design & functions are already impressive to me
2) I intend to drive this car for many years, so not so concerned about resale value
3) There is a promotion going on for the car with low interest rate (1.68%) and many freebies
4) K3 2.0 will be over my RM100K budget...and will need to wait a while to get the car. I DO NOT want to wait any longer.

 So I made my booking yesterday and get to trade in my 9 years old Matrix for RM11.5K. The sales person told me that the earliest would be 6-7 working days but I am praying hard that the car can be available on Friday.

Then I can go pick up my sis from the airport... in my new ride.

Patient patient

The thing about doing last minute chores for Chinese New Year is that you are not the only slacker out there. So no matter what chores these are, be prepared to be in long queues.

So here I am at the car wash center on a Chinese New Year's eve, waiting for my car's turn. I was told that it will probably be around an hour of waiting time, but on this day where car wash centers everywhere in Malaysia (I would think) would be packed, beggars cannot be choosers.

So here I am telling myself 'Patient Patient' and that it's my own fault for not getting this done sooner.

Oh wait....it's my car's turn now! Hooray!

CNY Mood

I haven't had the Chinese New Year mood for a very long time already, but this year is different.

Perhaps it's because I have a new home with more space to host CNY gatherings, and that has really put me into the mood.

Gosh, i couldn't even remember when was the last time I was so excited over this. Been buying plants & putting up decorations to welcome the year of the Snake.

No matter what the predictions say, this year will be fabulous!

Resurrection yet again...

Just when you thought it is very much dead, here it is coming back to life...again. Well what do you expect?...it's called 'fishdiary resurrection' after all.

Guess after a while of facebooking & instagramming, there is still a part of me who loves to write (although not at all good), and another part who loves to read back what I have written before.

Many things have changed since the last time I posted, and many still remain the same. Life..that's what it is. It is not always the case of 'one or the other'...at times, they just co-exist.

Whatever it is, let's just treat this as blog resurrected. For how long this time?..we shall see...Anyhow who ever has the right to give a limit to resurrection?