So-called awards night

[Taking a break from the EXTREME let's go to Young Avengers - excellent Cheung art work with Heinberg story - collected all 12 when it first came out]

What an absolute load of bullshit! We had last minute issued cards for nominating best employee for front and back of house. We are to nominate someone from another department. But guess what? It's a popularity game. After all, how are we to know every other staff - o about 500 of them and what they do everyday right?

Natch, my HRD said they checked each nominee etc and I don't get it because my 2 staff were nominated and while nice people, not even near a star performer and have not done 1 significant thing that is out of the ordinary ... and I asked HRD to ensure all nominees are not having problems especially disciplinary .... they assured me it was done ... to my surprise after my enquiry, they said they made a mistake in the points computation! Well, I cannot trust them, can I?

I sent to the Pus and guess what? Yup, he did nothing

We had the ceremony ... and of course with time off from work and free food, people turned up ... but there were enough grumbling to let us know the mood of the people ...

And when we awarded for fire, even more grumbling as apparently there was a fire in Jul but we totally forgot about that! And to give the award to people like Pooch and Martz when they just arrived and were on duty ... well ... and all they got was a cert ... at the stage when we were presenting these ... Pus man said he felt cheap and whispered what he should do ... give me a break, man! What's wrong with you?

That unfortunately is not the only highlight. At night, I was with IT for dinner and to my utter surprise he came by with Ahmad for a private chat. What was the chat? He spoke in French about the new restaurant and plans for the future hoping we would not understand but Ahmad told us afterwards that he asked Ahmad to commit at least another 10 months without looking for a job! Simply because of the new restaurant. I asked Ahmad but is he committed or not? Will he leave Ahmad hanging?

What a ... what a? What a DICK!

Kampung!

Good days and bad days ... they all happen ... be it personal life or professional, right? So the highlight for today ... (let's stay positive) ... is our kampung night! After talking with Sneeze n Samsu ... we decided to do this as our next project after the successful Arabic night ...


And it was great ... we had the stands from Ramadhan with all the Malay colours ... 3 huge kampung kuali with curries, seafood and fried chicken ... olden day tables and lamps and congkak ... guests were snapping photos ...

Inside were more foods on 2 sides of the ballroom with the front a Malay village and tables for people to sit and chill out ... our staff then did a few dances including traditional blowpipe and it was a hoot ... people loved it and loved them ... all in a big success!

Best part of all, the owners team who were in a meeting even came over to wolf down food and shook hands ... both Darr and Viv came too!

So all in, it was a great night for all of us but not so for our odd Pus. He was eyeing it weirdly walking in and out and acting like he was mighty busy elsewhere. What's next? Oriental Night!

Inside was more food and on the stage

The Juicy Juices

[Youngblood relaunch ... and the start of more relaunches than issues?]

Okay! With the fire of yesterday, you know what to expect today, right? Yup, insurance brokers and adjusters, paperwork and annoyances. But you know what nade the day? Gossip!

I was at Sepoi x 2 waiting for the brokers and hanging out with the Sneeze when who should come by but the Dare ... so we exchanged a few words ... and to my utter surprise, he uttered his concern about Pus ... he said they were originally impressed with him in the first 6 months but lately they noticed the chinks in his armour ... whoopty-do-dah, right?

Lots of these Caucasian expats are here for this reason ... they are either lazy or underachievers and come to Asia to make their fortune because we still have this passion in believing their words ... if these are superstars why would they uproot themselves without ever going home?

After the brokers, we had our usual weekly session ... we did contract review ... we discussed the DOSM Benz ... Dare shared his concern that the guy seemed a-okay but there is a lack of sincerity in his excuse for leaving ... he used the reason of his wife ... but the wife was not suffering anything major ... I said normally most of us would not trash our current employer to potential employer as it is just not done/ right ... so he said he would think about it ... we need a good DOSM badly
[Rob could never sustain his quality - here's one where Badrock becomes giant man? Hah!]

Then we come back to contingency planning and what we do for change in upper management, where we swing the group towards and all that ... in the future ... interesting really!

Fire

[Rob took a hiatus before coming back - and boy were we glad because you get such awesome covers from him when he is back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]

That sums up my Sunday ... I had big plans ... to go get haircut, meet up with friends for lunch and then coffee ... and shopping ... but when I wake up after 4 hours of sleep ... checked my phone and DAMN ... fire ... the Pus ... sms and asked to be in by 8:00am ... how is that possible when I just saw the message at 7:37am?

Anyway priorities first ... so I headed to the bank to bank in the cash that I changed ... then it's time for a nice dim sum breakfast at Uptown (Hehehehehhe) before taking a cab to the resort ... and once here, it is one long, hot, sweat-covered day until nearly midnight! I had to chat with Pascal ... and he disappeared home to chill out ... while I spent the day doing PR (Darr, Wong, Pak G) ... vendor ... staff ... etc etc etc ... and of all days, IT system crash ... internet, tv, phone ... when it rains? It really pours!

Last thing I did was to go for dinner with IT and vendor ... then talk to Hanie of FO until all done and is good ... then hang around on standby until now ... will try to go to bed at 1:00am ... once there is no other issue!

[The first issue of his comeback ... and not only do you get a wraparound cover, great interiors, awesome colors and to top it off new characters and an interesting storyline - unforch 1 issue was all - everything was downhill after]

Great day, isn't it?

Let's do some highlights ... the cab ride ... we went to Tropicana - no cab ... we went to 1 U - no cab ... we went to Tmn Bahagia - finally there are cabs but the guy refuses to use meters and want to charge a premium ... when agreed, he continued complaining how far and he isn't sure of the route ... twice I had to offer to get out ... pissed me off ... on top of that, he was a nightmare driver ... drive and jerk brake every few minutes ... felt sick ... and he had problems with his eyesight trying to read signages!!!!!!!!!!!! Can you beat that? So glad to finish the ride

Next highlight?

Spa Episodes

[All I know is that way cool cover and the Pitt intro within - the pages also popped in terms of quality and colouring - aces!

Nothing monumental happened today ... except ... hehehehe ... workwise, it was the usual trying to work with the whole team to finish polishing their areas as the team was poorly set up ... from the assembly to the work flow to the actual work done ... thanks to my predecessor ... I am sure she had her challenges but ...

Ad came by the resort for his work ... we met up ... and he said his boss was keen to work together for Penang project ... more money for me if I can pull it off ...

And then to my surprise Ali Am Maldivian (AAM) replied ... seems like he actually wants to pay me for work in Maldives ... so time to take it to the next stage with contracts and all that ... and who knows? If I can give it to my current boss that would be brilliant ...
[And this had Prophet ... not the best intro ... but Prophet the series was good]

Finally I went to test spa with Viv ... Palm @ IOI ... we had a good chat there and back ... and after an average treatment ... she wanted dinner ... all the better for me ... and she chose Marriott except the fact that the food, restaurant and service sucked majorly we both agreed!!!!!!!!!! Hahahahaha! We had the Japanese ... the staff didn't smile ... the food was not fresh ... and they open sat and chatted so loudly the staff that is ... while folding napkins in front of the restaurant! So much for the brand!

Ikan Bakar Round 4 ...

[Yup it's time for the Rob show ... I admit that I loved his artwork ... and bought these over the past few years after the world has moved on for the covers ... interiors were kinda lame and as for the storyline ... too simplistic]

What happened today? Hmmm ... nothing major ... usual office work and stress ... usual Corny feeling of being sick ... and that's it ... so ...

[And here's the most lame cover Rob did ... this totally didn't work for me]

In the evening, I talked to the gang and said I needed to continue checking out the Ikan Bakar restaurants around the neighbourhood ... and we went to the shop next to our hotel (I call this shop 1) ... we have done shop 4, shop2 and shop 6 ... and now 1 ... and ... and ... and ... generally it was pretty poor in terms of cooking style and taste/ flavour ... we ordered nasi lemak (average), otak bakar (horrible), kangkung belacan (watery), pari bakar (tasteless), shellfish sweet n sour (average), fried rice with fried chicken (horrible), pattaya fried rice (average) and mee mamak (average) ... so much for uric acid and cholesterol ... hahaha!

[This is issue 0 and like most youngblood, I cannot recall the story but wow does this cover Rocks!]
O yeah ... the only thing I did is went house hunting ... saw 2 fully furnished ... one is RM500 and the other is RM750 ... the more expensive is nicer ... but then if I rent out 2 rooms maybe I have to pay RM550 still or RM450 ... and with electricity ... I have to pay another RM100 ... company gives me RM300 only ... aaaaaaaaaaaaargh

Johor Bahru Day 2 ...

I woke up early ... actually like my normal darn routine ... I woke up several times ... but the good thing was this place is sooooooooooo quiet that the loudest noise was the drip-drip-dripping of the AC's water condensation ...

Breakfast was after we dropped Baby J at the nanny and daddy went to the office ... poor Baby J had a fever on and off ... most likely his teething issue ... he is so cute when he is chewing the octopus toy ...

We went to this cafe opposite Sunway college ... nice cheese n ham omelette with coffee that comes in a plunge pot ... yummy!!!!!! After that, chill out time at home ...

Next is lunch ... and we went to this fish shop ... fish soup (really nice) ... fish with pickled veg (icky) ... fried mee hoon ... otak otak fish ... then it was more chill out time until late afternoon ... had a nice drive through the old city center right up to the waterfront ... saw the start of Iskandar city ... lots of potential if done well ...

Before we stopped at a few places to choose for a snack ... we ended up at secret recipe ...

And that was just too heavy for me ... by the time I am here at the airport ... well ... I went looking for makan shop ... there was KFC with a queue ... cos the servers were sooooooo slow ... and then I decided on Marybrown ... and true to expectations ... it was as bad as I remembered ... I had to wait for someone to take orders ... then they served missing the mash ... and the bread was still cold ... and the coleslaw was frozen ...

But hey, otherwise, it was a good trip to JB ... I didn't see so much ... but I had lots of different foods ... and it was good to catch up with the old crowd of Iced Jelly ... part of reason why I am now back in Malaysia ... time to SLeeeeeep!!!!!!

Soooooooo bloated ... soooooooooo sleepy ... @ Johor Day 1 Part 2

I didn't know what to expect ... deliberately not going online to read about the attractions of JB ... why? Because I am now back in Malaysia and I am using this time to establish ties with all those around me ... Ice Jeli being one of those ties ... we might have been mates while in Medan but they were good people ... Jeli is the sort of patient husband who has a hint of energy mightily suppressed beneath while Ice ... appeared hyperactive and opinionated all the time ... that's why they made a good match ... hehehe ...

So I got out of the airport ... and was surprised at that early hour MPH was open ... yes they have MPH! Better than KLIA and LCCT ... next was how modern and lovely both inside and outside airport were ...

Baby J and Ice Jelly swung by to pick me up ... and we joked that Baby J is reminisced of Patz ... old potato head ... hahaha ... we had a lovely breakfast at this neighbourhood shop ... that had Singapore style breakfast with panggang otak on Bee Hoon ... I tasted a wee bit of the nasi lemak and that was yummy but the perfection was the mini cheese tartlets!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then it was on to home for a quick chill out before LUNCH ... it was this really nice restaurant where we had yummy fried chicken, surprisingly good tofu, average pork ribs (not as good as Medan Cin Yen) and nice soups ... I skipped the rice ... thank goodness ... what's next?

A trip to the neighbourhood mall ... and a J Co drink ... o so full ...

Then it was home for a nap, some tv, lots of catching up to do ... followed up by a huge helping of seafood porridge ... I was so full ... but Jeli didn't wolf it up so by the time it was nearly 11:00pm he wanted to go to the mamak shop ... I only managed lime juice while he did a plate of fried noodles ... hehehe ... I think he just needed to step out of the house ... I could understand it ... while he loves the wife and kid ... the amount of energy projected from those two can be overwhelming ...

Johor!!!!!!!!!!!! Day 1 Part 1

I have been all over Peninsular Malaysia ... except for Johor for some reason or other ... maybe its proximity to Singapore made us ... when we were younger to just pop straight to Singapore? Maybe ...

First time I was almost there was a job interview way back in 2001 to 2003 ... cannot remember already ... had the interview in KL ... was scheduled to go to Johor to see (Sedona if I am not mistaken) ... and then? For some reason, the job is no longer available ...

Second time ... was when Air Asia intro JB not yet Singapore ... on a lark, I was with Suan ... we took the flight to JB and then bus, cab etc just to get to Singapore ... first time, last time ... too much stress ... easier to take train or bus if we were on a tight budget ...

Finally? It was this year and I was supposed to visit Ice Jelly when they had their baby shower ... but for some reason or other we couldn't make it ... or rather I couldn't make it ... and so ... am so GLAD that YES YES YES I am now at the airport before 7:00am waiting for my flight to JB ... so stoked!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A birthday with definite improvements

[I actually read the first issue and the interior artwork sucked so bad I never went back for 2]

I wasn't expecting much except for maybe some embarassments ... especially after living through last year in Medan where no one really cares and when they find out ... unless you are paying them $$$ they don't bother to go out with you or anything ... except my staff Rudy who took the trouble to buy me a present!

This year, at the morning briefing, there were the usual set up until the end ... when the cake never arrived and neither did the beverage ... no surprises especially when it was organized by F&B and my fave dept, HRD!

[And now we have Marvel Zombies ... love the covers ... and the unique storyline ... hated the interior artwork ... hence never purchased a single issue]

We had our own (Niz n Cheffy) at Sepoi Sepoi later on ... coffee and a good chat!

Then it was with Penny and Peter from Bali who are here for our spa review ... along with Darr and Viv ... again at Sepoi x 2 ... with sandwich n springrolls n blended coconut juice. Then Albert from Purchasing was asking if I wanna go out but I said I was tied up ... then staff asked me if I can make it for dinner and I said we had the open house ...

And to my surprise, the staff bought cakes and KFC ... everyone joined in which was fun ... I had my first ever cake in the face ... and to my surprise they had a second cake ready ... they even made a really swell card ...

Finally after the open house ... Darr n Viv took me on a little drive to Tg Sepat ... and then dinner at their fave spot ... so that was nice as well ...
[Check out the cool artwork ... really would love to see the interiors]

And to overeat, I came back and ordered room service hahahahaahahah!

So all in, it was a better birthday than last year especially with staff n Darr/ Viv!

A little improvement ...

[To take a break from all the Zombies ... let's talk about this Marvel offering ... Zorro ... which never took ... and if you read this, you will know ... lame ass artwork with lame ass storyline ... Dynamite ... years later ... are more successful with reinvigorating all these old heroes like Lone Ranger ... Green Hornet ...]

In terms of health that is ... I was worried that the slightly better feeling was due to the painkiller so I decided to skip it ... and the whole day was painful but not as bad ... the pain was a wee bit more when I got into bed just now ... before I got out to type this ...

As for work, AA actually showed up! Wowie wowsers ... hahahaha ... I had to give him a hard time and he promised it should be the last time ... but I said that was what he said the last round ... he admitted it is due to mounting financial debts ... but the odd thing is he has no house or car ... car is freebie from parents ... so it means it is either gambling or drugs ... ugh ... imagine his brother is still giving him spending money!

With that in mind, I have made up my mind to not share house with him and Uncle F ... better stay on my own and with people I know!

Illness Attack

[At the height of the next craze, Zombies ... everyboday and their nephew were churning out these ... and here is Dark Horse's offering ... the covers were so not my taste that I never bothered to even flick through them]

I woke up ... and horror of horrors ... the pain in my left foot around the knee is still there ... giving me a hard time all day long ... what with work and all ... it is now 6:55pm and I am going to my room shortly ... need the rest ...

So annoying working here ... the AA as expected messaged that he couldn't come to work again ... so from last Monday to this Monday, he has a perfect record ... screwing up every single day ... and this is getting from bad to worse ... past 4 weeks it has been like that ...

And as for the elderly uncle, he is here ... but as usual he didn't check his work ... and makes assumptions and blames everyone and everything ... except his own area ... seem like he has poor understanding of anything that is different!

What a DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!