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!

good car

to me, a car has always been just another mode of transport. a vehicle that has an engine, four wheels and a steering wheel  that’s able to take me from a point to another, safely, is a car. a good car is, all of the above, plus air conditioning. 

somehow, i’ve been hearing from many lately that the good car that i’m now driving isn’t good enough. now, why’s that? it has all the criteria of a good car. what’s missing?

i guess the missing link is a step up - a great car; which is a good car plus all the accessories and gadgets, ie abs (pronounced ay-bee-ass), air bags, automatic gear shift (i’m still driving a stick shift), on board gps, etc. sounds great isn’t it? wouldn’t it be great to drive a great car?

now, what colour would a great car be?

so, if i can visualise the car and draw it up, post it to santa at the north pole, hopefully i’ll be able to get one by christmas… 2012…

pig-out sunday

today is a very unique sunday. my sunday started at around 2:30pm; i must have slept for about 12 hours and i feel great! it’s nice to have peaceful, uninterrupted sleep once in a while. i’ve never understood this little pleasure until quite recently, and i think i may have just found a new hobby – sleep! (just kidding… )

had my cereals whilst finishing up a book – the devil wears prada. it’s a hilarious book about a freshie with no sense of fashion going into the world of fashion. it’s really entertaining looking at high fashion from the author’s point of view. nevertheless, i do prefer the movie a tad more than the book, ‘cos fashion should be seen, not read about in a book, methinks (but, who would really care what i think, rite?)

my ever hungry stomach was growling for more food, and since i’ve decided to eat more to put on some weight, on to pavilion!

coming out of pavilion’s car park, i spotted a very chic little restaurant called cafe stelle in the middle of the mall. it’s a fancy italian restaurant that served one of the best tiramisu i’veever had! and the place comes with superb service. i feel that the service is as good as any 5-star hotel, if not better!

and speaking of coincidence, i just finished reading the devil wears prada, and have begun to understand and appreciate high fashion a bit more; and i noticed that i was sitting right in front of the prada shop. a quick check of my environment revealed i was surrounded by tiffany & co, celine, tod’s, ysl, chloe, chopard, bvlgari, gucci and of course, prada! all the brands that i read about in a fiction that i just finished reading.

it’s really a treat having a wonderful conversation, tasting good food whilst looking at beautiful people going into the said shops around me. it’s like a whole new world to me. i would think that i may just like this lifestyle! (which ultimately means that i would have to work until 150 years old).

since i’malready in the mood, might as well go shopping! i must say i surprised myself with my level of excitement and enthusiasm when shopping today. i was cheerfully checking out stuff like a small kid in a candy shop.

a quick check on my watch reads 5 minutes to 8pm. it’s raceday in valencia, spain. can’t miss this, no way. i made my way to a sports bar just in time for the start of the race. kimi had a good start from 6th to 4th at the 1st corner. and after a lap, it’s time to order food.

i remember promising myself this when i was lying on the hospital bed about a week ago – i’m going to have a nice fat juicy burger with super-cold beer to wash it down. it’s now time to fulfill that promise! there’s an apt name for my burger in the menu – “bm burger” under the f1 sandwich section. such a cool name for a burger on raceday. and the perfect pairing was 2 glasses of hoegaarden – the wonderful belgian white beer.

everything went on great. kimi finished 3rd eventually (which is really a great result), and my stomach was satisfied. this is how i would describe a “perfect sunday”, if there’s such a thing.

all in all, it’s been a great day.

anyways, whilst putting this down in memory, i’m also packing for my trip to jakarta. i’ll remind myself not to bring “anything” back from jakarta this round…

grey hair

here’s another first – my first grey hair!

whilst doing a routine check with the mirror, i noticed something strange about my hair. there was a little sparkle, something shiny, but out of place. i mean, something looked different, but i just couldn’t spot it immediately. it took me round-’n-about 5 seconds to notice that i had a little grey hair sticking out from the top of my head. my reaction?

i was excited about getting my first grey hair. call me crazy, but i always wondered when am i going to get my first grey hair. well, this is the day, and i spoke to myself, out loud – “cool…”

now that i’ve got my first grey hair, what’s next?