bye grandma

i woke up at around 9:30am today, only to find out that grandma has left us. she has gone to a better place.

i miss her already. i will forever miss her warm smile, her gentle touch, and her words of wisdom and encouragement.  she must be one of the kindest soul i’ve ever met.

to quote a few phrases from 1 corinthians “love is patient, love is kind. it does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. it is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. it always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. love never fails.

grandma had so much love for all of us. i’m truly amazed that she has the time and energy to love all of us, so much. though we are not the kind of family that tells each other how much we love each other; but we, for sure, are able to feel the genuine, the unconditional love that grandma showered us with.

grandma left us at the age of 84. even until this day, she was perfectly healthy for her age, fit as a fiddle. she mends the garden, does house work, and she takes a half an hour walk to the market everyday in the morning.

today was no exception. she was at the market going about with her business. to her surprise, she bumped into a bunch of her old friends from lenggong (a place where grandma and grandpa ran their coffeeshop many years ago. and frankly, they made the best kaya puff that i’ve tasted, ever).

grandma was happy, she was ecstatic. she had a good laugh with them. and that was that, her last laugh. she collapsed. the doctor pronounced her dead at 9:30am.

i’m grateful that grandma left us in the manner that she did – laughing. she led a good and happy life. i thank god for the happiest ending that i can think of for our deserving grandma.

i hope that the family will be strong for the next couple of days. tears will be shed, cries will be heard; but i hope we will forever cherish all the good times that we had with grandma, our family and loved ones.

bye grandma, we’ll see you again sometime

 

 

 

early x’mas

i wonder if  global warming has anything to do with the changing of seasons, but christmas this year seems to have come earlier than normal. some indications of an early christmas:

1. witnessed the first day of snow in beijing this year on 1 nov, more than a month earlier the previous year, and i mean a lot of snow;

2. gifts and presents were given and received. well, at least i got a surprise gift;

3.  malls are being decorated with beautiful trees and lights. pavilion kl has got a very nice setup this year.  

4. and for whatever reason, people on the streets seems more jovial than normal. i wonder if this has got anything to do with the debut of maxis on bursa the day after tomorrow?

 

taxi

my ambition… is to be a taxi driver.

when we were young ones, a common question that teachers would ask us would be - what’s our ambition. there are people who would like to be teachers, policemen, firemen, doctors, nurses, etc. i wanted to be a taxi driver.

notice all the more common ambitions are perceivably more “noble” professions? so, does this mean that i’m not so noble? judging from some of the reactions that i’m getting, even right now, i guess not!

i’ve never really given up on this ambition. if anyone were to ask me now what do i really want to do for a career, i would say that i wanna be a professional taxi driver!

but i wonder how a professional taxi driver would be like?

and i wonder how a taxi driver’s resume would look like?

 

setapak kopi

i remember a time (many, many moons ago) when i heard this “don’t go out with this guy, he’s just a kopi seller. sure got no future one…”. i can’t blame this overly protective auntie - there wasn’t any setapak kopi back then.

believe it or not, setapak kopi is one of the largest coffee franchises in the world. no joke, it’s the envy of all coffee shop owners around the world. everyone wants to own a setapak kopi shop.

to give perspective (mine only, of course) to how successful  class=”hiddenSpellError” pre=”successful “>setapak kopi is, let’s do this simple case study:

customers pay an arm and a leg for a pencil-neck-fat-ass-made-of-steel coffee mug, and at the same time, advertise their coffees for them. cool eh?

lesson learnt? customer loyalty (branding) - customer power!

anyways, going back to the mug…

so, does the steel serve a function? yes, so you won’t be able to break it for being hyper from an overdose of caffeine. does the design serve a function? yes again, so that you can also “cook” the coffee over a stove (in case you don’t have electricity, or if the coffee maker breaks down). does the word “starbucks” printed on the mug-like thingy serves a function? of course it does. that’s where the 1000% premium on the selling price of the mug comes from!

and, how do you properly wash this mug, when you have a big fat hand like mine? i  duuno!

Starbucks mug

note 1: setapak kopi is pronounced “star-bucks cof-fee” in some places. it really depends on what slang that you’re more comfortable with… 

note 2: thank you setapak kopi for the free wi-fi, and the over-price coffees… (hmm… wonder if they’re looking for any coffee brand ambassadors?)

bling

we are connoisseurs in our own rights, in the things that we like, of course. for example:

1. ask any ferrari fan about f1 cars. observe how they describe the cars and its functions - look out for the sparkle in their eyes, the pumping of the fist and the proud smile on their faces. this connoisseur of fast cars is probably a person who’s driving a pretty nice car, and is most probably thinking of buying another nice(r) car.

2. ask a fan of branded handbags (or any lady, for that matter), and she’ll be able to tell you everything about a bag, from its variouis sizes, difference in materials, functions (i always thought the primary function of a handbag was to store money, how very wrong i was… dead wrong…), etc.

a connoisseur of branded bags is probably a person who owns a few branded handbags (??), and is probably thinking of buying more handbags (???!!!) to fill a purpose-built-handbag-storage/display-cabinet in her walk-in wardrobe.

3. ask a fan of cigarettes (please note that i’m not promoting smoking - just take a good look at the nice pictures on the cigarette boxes) and don’t be surprised at how a simple stick of nicotine can be described to be! tempting…

a nice young lady asked me this interesting question over a beer just a while ago: “you mean you’ve never smoked a cigarette? not even one puff?” well, yeah. never… so? but it’s tempting, though.

i could see the connoisseur in her, describing the choice of cigarette that she smokes (capri – not available in kl), the “stock” that she has (anything more than 2 cartons in storage is described as stock), and the lighter that she uses (bling-bling zippo!) - (note: this is again, not a paid ad). 

lighters are an integral part of the whole smoking experience. the cigarette says to the lighter “you, complete me”. this is something only true cigarette connoisseurs would appreciate…

check out the bling-bling:

Bling-bling Zippo

cool night

“lets go have fish” is one of my favourite one-liner. what it means is, we’re going to genting highlands!

genting has always been my favourite hang out (or in this case , “hang up”) place. it’s 6,000m up in the sky with cool crisp air – a perfect getaway from the hot and stressful life down on mother earth… and it’s a place of many fond memories and happy moments.

the night was exceptionally cold and clear tonight after a downpour. looking down from the mountain, the city was beautifully lit up with street lamps and building lights; and looking up at the skies, the pitch black background was filled with countless blinking stars.

given that it was the first day of hari raya, there was a fireworks display to celebrate the event. i was surprised (unexpected in my case) and excited to have witnessed a 5 minute display of a 2,000 year old technology dancing away in the sky along with the “boom-boom-boom”. as a kid, i’ve always admired beautiful fireworks, and of course, how-it-works.

but…

what started out as a night to have nice steamed “soon hock” fish ended up at a mamak stall having nasi lemak and teh tarik. no prizes for guessing what happened…

free money!

an overly friendly chap walked up to me with a big darlie-smile said “affin bank is giving you free money today!” (yeah right,  it’ll be raining diamonds tomorrow, maybe). but i have to give it to the guy, he delivered the simple message with more enthusiasm and excitement as i felt, as a potential recipient of the supposed “free duit raya”(money)”.

i must say that i was curious to find out more (who wouldn’t be, right?). consensus was given to take the free money. as soon as i nodded, out came a fish bowl, with lots of little envelops in there. instruction was given to take a pick from the little fish bowl, which i obediently went for the nearest envelop.

to my surprise, i pulled out a 1 ringgit note. frankly, the amount was immaterial, what mattered most was, they promised free money, and yes, it was true!

then off course, i had to put down my name and contact number and contact number (the ‘free lunch’ wasn’t completely free after all). anyhow, this may sound ludicrous, but i was happy to give them my number. i’ve reminded them to call me!

two things that i’ve learned from this:

1. from a marketing point of view, it’s a pretty inexpensive way to mine new leads and contacts

2. deliver your promise, plus 1% – delivering what your customer expects, plus a little extra, creates a ’wow’ factor

truth be told, i’ve never expected anything much from affin bank. and frankly, i don’t think that i’ve even thought of affin bank, ever… but

i had a pretty good first impression of the bank (yes, i’m quite cheap, and i can be bought with just 1 buck), it was a definite positive customer experience for myself.

come to think of it, i’m easily impressed these day…

disappointment

i’ve always wanted to leave only memories that are worth remembering (means, good ones). maybe it’s also good to keep a record of lessons learnt in life (means, bad ones)…

people in general promise us lots of different things when they want or need something from us. but when it’s time to deliver those promises, some of them will give us lots of different excuses when we are not wanted or needed anymore.

but when these disappointments are coming from people whom we like, and hang around with sometimes, it hurts, literally does.  

i doubt that i’ll ever forget all the lessons that i’ve learnt today, but i’ll put it down in writing anyways. 3 simple lessons (“words of wisdom”) that i’ve learnt from 3 different people, all in one day (and they are not my teachers):

1. “but this is just how it is” – gone where the days when people take responsibility for their actions. nowadays, some people are either  too busy covering their asses, or too free making ludicrous accusations. do people derive pleasure in watching people suffer for other people’s mistakes and misdeeds; and seeing them fail?

2. “but i’m just saying only, it’s not serious, rite?” – i’ve always kept at heart the saying ’say what you mean, mean what you say’. whatever happened to the good old handshake? what happened to words as strong as oak? are words just mere words these days?

3. “no, there’s nothing for you, it’s just too bad” -  when we promise anyone anything, we deliver, or die trying. but what we do not promise people (at least not out loud) is to screw them! so, when someone, like maybe a friend tells us ’yes i’ve screwed you, too bad, and i’ll probably screw you again, but lets move on’. so, where are we moving on to?  

all in all, all i have to say to this all is, it’s been a really bad day. i can’t remember when was the last time that i complained about a bad day, but today was just as bad as it gets (starring: yours truly).

note: this is a not-to-do list

service

coming back from jakarta, i’ve noticed there’s much for us to learn from our neighbours. of the many things for us (means myself) to learn from them is service quality.

being sort of in the service industry myself, sometimes i feel ashamed by the level of service that we are able to provide as compared to the quality of service that we’ve received.

the service that i’m referring to is not some “robotic service” governed by an sop (ass-oh-pee) where service staff are trained to provide standard greetings and answers. i’m really talking about real service from the heart.

call me lucky, but most of the people that i’ve met in jakarta were very friendly and helpful. cab drivers were willing to accommodate the weirdest requests; restaurant owners/service staff were sincerely happy to introduce to us the best food that they have and attended to our needs; people on the streets were glad to show us where we needed to go, and some even took the time to bring us there!

i’ve noticed that they’ve got a “service culture” that we can all learn from. and it’s real service, not something out of a self-help book.

maybe we should send our service staff to jakarta for some real-life training?

what to do?

i’ve been travelling to jakarta pretty often since march this year, and it has since been sort of a monthly affair for me now.

jakarta is a huge city, with about 22 million people (registered) packed in the whole of jakarta. compare that to kl, we have only a population of about 27 million people. that’s about the whole of malaysia’s population in one place! man, it’s crazy over here, the city is really, really like one huge durian! (come to think of it, i’ll go for a durian buffet when i get back home).

but surprisingly, there’s hardly any tourist attractions over here that i’ve come across (i didn’t even come across any tourists, weird). so, i turned to trip advisor and wikitravel for some help. guess what?

both my favourite travel websites mentioned that the main attractions here are pasar baru and glodok (chinatown). herein lies the little issue. i stay within walking distance to pasar baru, and i have my dinner at least once every trip here in chinatown (kam sing restaurant). so, does this mean that i’ve seen every attraction there is in jakarta?

a simple survey of a few locals here just  amplified my concern - their favourite past time here is sleep, watch dvd (at least it’s cheap, about 2 bucks a dvd), and maybe sleep some more.

i think i’m starting to blend in with the local “culture” here. i’ve been sleeping a lot more over here; next project, buy lots of dvds. i’ll be turning indonesian really soon!

come to think of it, these are some of the luxuries that i don’t get to do much back home. so, jakarta ain’t that bad after all!