I'm sick

I am on sick leave today. This is my first ever sick leave taken since I join my current company. Haha, yesterday I just chat with Yah Chin and told her I never on sick leave for more than a year, and she was so amazed; after that I just got fever after I reach home, so ceh.

I woke up at 9am this morning, went out for a breakfast, then come back sleep again till 3pm!! I think the medicine really makes me feel drowsiness. But I feel much better after the long sleep.

tic toc tic toc

It's the end of the year again. Usually I will start to recap on what I have achieved for the past year at this season. Hmm, I need some time as well to set my 2008 new year resolution. However, the new year resolution thingy is nothing more than just a ritual, sometimes I even forgot that I have set such resolutions. Haha. Anyway, it is still something need to be done every year.

Let's start with the checklist of my 2007 resolution

• To be OCP certified
• CHECKED
  
• Be disciplined to go gym at least 3 times per week
• PARTIALLY, I have stopped my Fitness First membership in September, reason being? Lazy lo.. :(..
• Get myself a saxophone
• FAILED!!!! failed again after so many years!! I wonder is that so hard to achieve this??
• Go backpacking
• Yeah, went for a 8 days backpacking in Bangkok + Phuket with Allan.. Not a smooth journey due to us missing our flights, but overall it was fabulous. I miss Khao San road so much.
  
• Read more books
• Hmm, I think so. Actually not just books, I bought a lot of CD and watched lots of movies this year too. My most favorite book of the year - Kite Runner; my most favorite movie - Capote, or is it Munich? or Brokeback Mountain? Wait, I think is Lust Caution, hmm, really can't choose just one among these la..
  
• Master yoga skill
• Well, forget about it. I don't even remember why I had the enthusiastic in Yoga last year and set such resolution.
  

On top of that, one most memorable thing happened in 2007 for me is I watched the Phantom of the Opera!!! I have never expected that I can have the chance to watch this, I thought I can only catch the play when I go to Her Majesty's Theater when I am older, thank you Ah Pao for planning this trip, you are always so understands me. Besides that, I am happy that I can keep in touch with lots of long lost/seldom-get-in-touch friends this year, especially my schoolmates from primary and secondary school. Besides having fun, I also started the monthly direct debit for the MAKNA charity organization; It's just rm30 per month but I'm happy that I have started it, I may want to increase the amount but perhaps it's better to diverse the money to other similar charity organization.

OK, now, 1+ month to go for year 2008! Let's set my new year resolution.

Seremban

I was back in Seremban for the past week. I've never stay such a long period in Seremban since the last few years; not even during Chinese new year. A lot of thing has changed, and there are a lot more that hasn't.

This is the place where I grew up, the memory will never fade. I had a good moment for the past week in Seremban by chit-chatting with my bro&sis about the past especially about our parents, it is a sweet thing to recall the memory that we shared with our parents. I am so surprise that I can still remember a lot of thing that happened when I was a kid.

Time flew, the kid of my neighbor is no longer studying in kindergarten but is in form 5 now. Suddenly feel myself is so old. I know I talk like an ah pek now.

Swim swim swim

I went for swimming today!!!! Not just playing with water ok? I am actually SWIMMING for few laps in one hour. Very tired now and got muscle ache. Ouch, I'm very old already la.

Lunch + Ear Candling

Me and Allan wanted to have the "Yu Tao Mai Fan" (Fish Head Mee Hoon) for our lunch today, it is one of our favourite dish. I don't quite like Yu Tao Mai Fan but this is the only shop that I will order it, because it is delicious! They even serve with the big prawn and the "Zhu Yao Zha" with the mee hoon. This shop was being screened in the recent episode of "Ho Chiak" programme. We didn't realize that the show was so influential and the shop was damn crowded just now la. Usually it is not that much of people one... Aiks, I think it will be crowded for some time after this show.

So, thanks to the "Ho Chak", we changed our mind to eat the pork noodle. After our lunch, we went to do the ear candling at one of the massage parlor near by. This is my first time 'candling my ear', when the girl light up the candle which placed in my ear, I am quite scared actually. While the candle is burning, you can feel a suction sensation from the candle to your ear, and you can hear a tinge of explosive sound. Haha, it is quite ticklish and I giggled, haha. Actually it's nothing much, perhaps just feel that my ear is cleaner and clearer now. They said it will helps you sleep better at night. Let's see how's my sleeping tonight.

A Helpful Crocodile

Do you constantly frequently annoyingly face the same thing that you can't make the decision? I do!!! Who should wash the dishes tonight? Who want to bathe first? Who's turn to decide where to eat? Who's turn to drive today?... It is very annoying especially when everyone is reluctant to do it. And now I bought this very useful tool... so from now on, who kena this will have to drive out for lunch!! hahaha.. anyway, isn't it cute?? hehe..

Grrrhhh..

Beware, I bite!!

Ok, let me try..

What?? Me?? You mean I gotta clean up Presto's poo?? Me?? Presto's poo??

Something Unexpected

I admit that I always wish to get a chance to work in oversea, friends that know me well are aware of this. And I did occasionally apply some oversea job when I come across it. Anyway, I never put high hope on it because I understand it is not easy to get an oversea employment.

Until today, I got an offer from US, I know it is unbelievable.. it is totally out of my expectation. Yes, I am keen to go oversea, but I never expect it is from US, I applied some job in Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong and/or Taiwan, but not US. For me, US is a country that I can only see from a movie or read from a book.

They contacted me few months ago about this job opening in US. The company send some HR people to Malaysia to conduct this interview this week. I went to this interview today, there are quite number of candidates there. There are few round of interview asking about your education background and working experience. Then they ask you to sit for a test which consist of 40++ question regarding your expertise. The test I did is about the new features of Oracle 10g. Then they mark the test and give me the offer letter on the spot! Of course they do give me some time to think about it. I'll have 2-3 weeks before I hand it back to them.

Now I am thinking.. there are lots of smart people from US, my skill is not niche though, why do they come all over to Malaysia to get this bunch of IT people to US? Can't they get any US citizen with the same skill set? May it be some job that the US citizen wouldn't like to take it? Or is this just a scam to employ us as cheap labour?

In fact, the package is not very attractive in terms of monetary, but perhaps is the exposure that matter, it's not that you can easily get a chance to work in US...but is this reliable? I am blank now... it's too sudden, I need time to sort things out. Please alert me if you knows anything fishy about this.

New Resolution of the Year - Think One Step Ahead

I know I have this weakness that I always can't think one or two steps ahead, even my ex-manager has told the same to me. Undeniable, without thinking more steps beyond, I have bad planning as well as bad time management. I used to have hippie lifestyle and I was enjoying all this while although this always lead me in situation where things turn into messy. Now I realize this weakness can be serious and I wish I can get rid of it.

Due to this weakness of mine, I'm not just bringing trouble to myself but also to Allan. As what happened just now - I need him to help me on something but I forgot to tell him earlier, not that just forgot, is I totally never realize how important of this and what will happen if I can't get Allan to do it for me within today. And I just told him until he back at home from work. And he got no choice but to drag himself back to office just to help me to complete this..

I'm so sorry dear, I know this is my fault, I feel so guilty now while awaiting you come back.. I understand it is not a pleasure to travel back to office at this hour! Afterall, it is 12am++ now. This can be avoid if only I tell you earlier. I'm sorry, I promise I will improve myself on this. Thanks for everything you have done for me.

Back on track

After stop going gym for 3 months, I have gained back 2kg!!!! It is a disaster for me, I can't let this continues and I must do something on it!! So I decided to go jogging after work, today is my first day back on track and I feel good about it. I love the feeling of adrenaline rushing through my body; and sweating makes me feel more energetic. Applause for myself and I will keep this up. *clap *clap

Malacca day 2

Basically we have nothing in mind where shall we visit on our second day in Malacca, we just wanted to laze around. So we woke up and had our breakfast provided in the hotel gracefully, read the newspaper, play the PSP, took some photo of the hotel's swimming pool.. then we checked out from the hotel in the afternoon and head to Jonker Street again for our lunch.

I had my first prom night here!!! - Legacy Hotel

It's the remote control of the camera

We wanted to go for the famous chicken rice ball, but it was damn crowded! So we went to another shop nearby which sells chicken rice ball as well. This shop is a tourist attraction by itself, the deco is very nice indeed. Then we ordered our chicken rice ball here... hmmm... but the food is so so only..

See the queue??

The place we had our so-so chicken rice ball

The interior of the restaurant. So peaceful.

Really feel like traveled back in time

The ball of chicken rice

After lunch, we walked to the chendol stall at the back of the Jonker Street. It was very crowded also, but we were so blessed that we manage to get a seat for ourselves. Ooooooo, what is more wonderful than having a frizzy chendol under the hot sun????

The Donald & Lily's Chendol

Wooooo~~~~ Goodie goodie

After that we walk around Jonker Street again and then we drove to Mahkota Parade. We walked to the new Dataran Pahlawan also. It's just another new shopping center and nothing's special. Then we grabbed a coffee at Starbucks. After that we heading back to KL. I really enjoyed this Malacca trip very much and felt so rejuvenated afters.

Disney Mickey Magic Show

I'm on-call this week but I had to sneak out for the Mickey Magic Show just now. Haha, but don't get me wrong, I'm not that daring and irresponsible; of course I have asked my colleague - Eng to cover me while i'm away, he is such a helpful guy and I definitely owe him a meal.

I met my sisters, cousin and their kids at Bukit Jalil. All the kids were so excited since they start to queue to enter the hall. They keep asking me this and that and I don't know who should I answer first. Haha. Then the show started. The overture was great, they had Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy and Goofy. It captured the attention of the kids successfully, finally I can take a rest. But this does not last long, after the first hour, the missile triggered and they started to ask for foods, drinks, toys, hankerchief....

There it goes the interval. I brought the kids out from the hall just to take a breath. There were lots of stall outside selling Disney merchandise. It looked cute and the quality seems quite decent, it is *original Disney anyway; then I bought one for each of them. There are hats, binocular, sword, mug, some spinning thingy, some lighting thingy ... and it is not cheap! each of them costs RM50!!! walao, I think I have never own such expensive toy when I was a kid.

Then the show ended after 2 hours. The finale was good too. I like their stage decoration, and surprisingly, their magic trick is quite impressive too. It is not those "kid cheating trick". Too bad, I can't really pay attention on the show cos I'm too busy entertaining the kids.

My explanation on Database Synonym

This morning, one of my ex-colleague - Teck Ho asked me a database question through MSN. He wanna knows what is a "Database Synonym". It's a bit hard to explain such technical question via text, thus I came out an example and this is what I told him.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Synonym is like a nickname for a table owned by other user. Meaning you don't want to use the original name of the table while you access it, instead you want to use another name - this nickname of the table is called synonym.

As an example. You are "TeckHo", then you has a table called "Ugly". You want other people to call your "Ugly" table as "Lengjai", thus you can create a synonym for your "Ugly" table like this "create synonym Lengjai for TeckHo.Ugly;". So people will call your ugly table lengjai instead whenever they wanna use it - "select * from lengjai;".

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Oh, I think this can really helps him in remember what is synonym for. I'm so pui fuk myself in explaining this too.