corrupted

I'm in a service oriented business.

I've been in the business for about 9 years now.

Year in and year out, I would say, my firm has been doing ok. Not too great....not too bad either...

But I want to improve. I believe, some if not all of my staff and colleagues, would love to improve.

We don't want to stay stagnant and wait for something to happen...

However, as we go on and try to secure more business for ourselves, we've met with a lot of challenges.

One of the challenges is our inability to 'suap' the people involve in the decision-making.

Of course, it is our very own fault in failing to get 'close' to the people involve in the decision making.

I found that to do business such business of ours in Malaysia, it's all about networks and who you know.

Your degrees, MBAs, Chartered or whatever doesn't really carry a lot of weight if you wanna secure the business

It's all about getting close and give 'em what they want.

Sometimes I felt frustrated and I felt trapped in a room with no doors.

At times, they would just say, we will consider your request and have a look at your profile. Obviously, we would never see or hear from them again.

At times, when we call to make an appointment, the answer that we get was 'we will review the panelship in bla bla bla....till that moment comes, you can submit your profile and let us review....

Now, it'll be a totally different story if we have the ability to 'rub' their backs and say....hey listen, if you could give us X amount of business, we would be happy to give you some token of appreciation.....

Sometimes, I really don't know what to do...but I'll have to keep on fighting for the sake of myself, my family and my colleagues...

Shall I follow the others and do what they do....or what?...


errrrrrrrrrr....rant over....

Hello

Hello folks....

Wow...it's been ages since I last updated my blogs....I'm out for some soul-searching for the last couple of weeks....I'm looking for answers to questions that I don't even know in the first place. Hahahaha. Conflicting remark I must say....

Well to be honest, I needed time to re-focus and start thinking of doing other things. Alhamdulillah, I've achieved some, if not all, things that I wanted to achieve. Hence, now, I'm looking to do more. I believe I can.....

You know, at times, you dreamt of achieving something and then, you work towards it and finally, you managed to achieve it. That's how I feel nowadays. You achieve that little goals that you have and I felt slightly stagnated.

Anyways, I'll keep on searching.

Have a good day

Switchblade

Last weekend, I had dinner at a Switchblade restaurant in Dutamas with the family...

To be honest, I love western foods and my favorite restaurants will be TGI Friday's and Chilli's. Hence, when I saw an ad about this restaurant at FB the other day, I decided to give it a try.

Upon reaching the place at Dutamas, I wonder how does the owner pays the rental for this place. It could cost him loads of money!! I would assumed that the overheads in operating such operating at an expensive location would be enormous!! I salute him for taking a big risk in running the food business!!

Anyway, I like the way the owner sets up the restaurant. It's totally different from any other restaurants that I've been too.

With regards to the food.....I have to be honest...it's freaking delicious weii!! Habis semua diet2....hahahaha.....No doubt it's a little bit pricey but that's understandable.

I will certainly come here again...but not so soon lah.....

Dough-nuts anyone??

I'm not a fan of doughnuts.....but when a colleague of mine bought some from Big Apple, I thought it was good, although it was super sweet....

Jemput makan......

What???

How things have changed eh?.....Wonder how life was in the 50s or 60s....

Nov 2011

Right.....

It is now Nov 2011. In a about an month and a half's time, we would celebrating the new year.

New year means new resolutions. New aims, new objectives and so forth....

I think it's a good time to sit down and jot down your achievements for the last 11 months or so. Not to forget, to write down the things that you should've done and the things you wanna do for the next couple of weeks....

Perhaps, it's a good time to start planning what you wanna do for 2012.

For me, in terms of investing, it has been very 'stale' especially from the property side. No doubt that I've save some money that I invest in various places but I think I could do more....Earlier, I planned to add another 2 properties under my name but haven't be able to do so. Nahh, I won't blame it on BNM with their ruling but I blame myself. It's ok as I think I learn my lesson.

2011 for me is about discovering new things in investments especially being a landlord. Previously, you only read stuff from the books and hope you learn bits and pieces from it. But to be honest, nothing beats experiencing it by yourself. There are things that I should've done but for some strange reason or another, I didn't.....

Whatever it is, I thank Allah for opening my eyes in becoming an investor. I had nothing prior to 2008. Nothing...Zero....Zilch...even my ASB balance was pretty depressing to see....I had very limited savings.....but now, I guess, I can be a little proud of the efforts that I had put in for the last 3 years. However, I do realize that my journey is still at its infancy stage. I hope I can double up my efforts, take a wee bit of risk and pray a little harder for 2012....

Some time, my friends asks me why would i be an investor (part time that is....)...My answer is simple, to make sure that the financial being of my daughter is taken care off when the time comes. Having a kid changes your perception towards life. Especially when you start to think about her education, her needs as well as her wedding day. Hahahaha. I'm told not to worry about it but how can I not...:P

Anyway, at this moment, all I'm thinking is to maximize my wife's ASB savings. If I can achieve that, that's a big, big achievement. Hehehehe. On my part, since I wasn't able to purchase a property this year, I might do it next year....but having need to pay 30% deposit with your own money, I don't think it's a wise move....Thank you BNM!!

Have a nice day

Spelling mistake?

During my way back to Ipoh for the short raya holidays last week, we decided to skip the highways and hit the old trunk road from Behrang uptill Tapah as we received some news stating that the PLUS highway's traffic was bad....

Hence, we decided to have our lunch at some nasi kandar restaurant in Slim River. And over there, I found this rather disturbing 'advertisement'....

Is that how you spell kuay teow nowadays? I'm not even sure whether I spell it right or not. Heehehe....Anyways, the food wasn't great at all but the teh tarik was good!!!

By the way, the traffic was bad on Saturday. The heavy rain didn't help either. We took about 5 hours to reach the destination....huhu....I dread to think if I were to use the PLUS highway, it might even worse at Tapah....

have a good day

Hell-o-ween parteeee

Last weekend, myself, wifey and kecik attended a helloween party at Royal Bintang, The Curve.

To be honest, I've never been to a big scale helloween party before. And I really thought, the party was just for kecik and her classmates. But to my surprised, the party was held in the grand ballroom of the hotel and everybody seems to be dressed up except me and wifey.

I felt a bit out of place though but I thought everyone were sporting enough to dressed up. It was an interesting event and I was wondering, the organizer must have spent easily more then RM30k. Loads of free gifts, free foods, games, face painting, monsters, ghosts, smurfs, pharaoh, cat women, you name it.......and booze for the drinkers as well...

Anyways, kecik enjoyed herself and was playing around with one of her classmates. It's bit unfortunate we came a bit late as most of her classmates has returned home. Perhaps, if we are invited the next time around, I'll dressed up like a rock star!! hahaha

Chomski....:(

Chomski has been part of my family for the last 6 years.

She was adopted from SPCA when she was still a kitty.

Unfortunately, she was put to sleep yesterday evening.

She was suffering from leukemia.

We'll miss you choms!!!

2005-2011

Good morning....

HOw was everybody's weekend?

I had a nice and busy weekend.

Spent later part of Friday night lepakking with some friends. It's been ages since we last met but we certainly had fun!!

Nevertheless, I was home quite late and was up and running again on early Saturday morning. I went to play golf at Tiara Melaka, of which, I think I played rather well....Considering the fact that I was playing like a beginner for the last couple of weeks before....hahahahah

Anyway, I'm expecting a busy week this week!! I have all the appointments lined up till Saturday.

I hope to get a new tenant for Desa View Tower before the end of next month, and obviously, if I can get another tenant for Unipark Condo before November will be a super bonus!!

Have a good week everyone!!

Ultra Magnets.....

Fridge magnets....I love 'em.....

Wherever I go, I'll try to make sure I get at least one fridge magnet from that particular place...Hehehe....

Can I claim.......................Can I??

I was browsing at some websites and found this article relating to PKR.... It's about the PKR Election Manifesto....So I took a quick look and read the manifesto and something caught my attention.

In the manifesto, it is stated that Rakyat Selangor is entitled to receive RM75 for every sons and daughters they sent to nursery. In addtion, rakyat Selangor is entitled to receive RM50 for sending their kids to Pre-school kindergartens.

Hence, I was just thinking, can I claim this entitlement? If I can, who do I get in contact with or, has anyone received any of these promises as yet?

Plus, prior to 2008, it was called Barisan Alternative and now Pakatan Rakyat. A wee bit odd isn't it when the promises were made by BA instead of PR. Anyway, hope they can fulfill the promises and I hope I can get my money soon.

A&W

I went to A&W PJ last saturday with a couple of friends for sahur. :P

To be honest, I'm not a fan of A&W but I have to say, I like the root beer float and the coney dogs. Hehehe

I think there's something magical about that particular A&W outlet. If I can remember correctly, my dad used to bring me there when I was a little boy. Fast forward 2 decades later, I think, the set up of the outlet is pretty much the same as it was years ago...

It got me thinking, how does A&W compete with the other fast foods chain eh? I would assume, it'll be very difficult for them to compete especially with McD or even KFC. The prices are on the high-side. The staff are not as joy-ful as McD's or KFC's.

The services are slow in my opinion. They only open up 2 counters at that time, which I have to wait approximately 10 minutes before my orders were taken. I would think, A&W has a long, long way to go to reach the level that they are supposed to be. Well...it's up to their management to decide though...

Nyways..I enjoyed eating away those lovely coney dogs, curly fries and drinking 'em root beer floats. It certainly brings back the memories when I was 17-19 years old again....Hahaha

I took the time to 'wiki' A&W a wee bit and I was shocked to know that there's no A&W outlet in Singapore anymore. The A&W outlet in PJ was actually opened in 1965. Hence, that makes the outlet, 46 years old....Hahahaha...

Ipad

After months of thinking whether or not to buy an Ipad, I finally decided to purchase one for wifey at Digital Mall, PJ yesterday. A 16GB one that costs RM1500.

Apparently the other day wifey told me that some of her friends that owns ipads were able to download their medical journals for easy reference. Hence, instead of carrying those super-sized and heavy medical books, she may now read it in Ipad. Where to download?...I have no idea as I'm not familiar with Ipad thingy!!

Anyways, I know that there are alot of education apps for kids in Ipad. So, kecik may be able to learn a thing or two from those apps (If we decide to let her play)...hahaha

So far, I've downloaded few apps that I think I can use especially in budgeting, finances, health as well as some books....Obviously, I picked the free ones at the moment....Not to forget some education games for Kecik....

I'll write more when I'm familiar enough with my latest gadget!! Well to be honest, I think I'm gonna struggle initially, but, need to keep abreast with the latest technology eh?

Have a good week ahead...

Hrmmm

Just thinking about something not-so-important.....

9/11 was said to be committed by some Muslim Terrorist (as claimed by the western media)

What about the attack on Norway?

How I managed to save RM40 a month

Easy....

I wash my own car. Nowadays, averagely it'll cost about RM10 to wash your car. So, assuming there's 4 weeks in a month, and you wash your car every week, you can save RM40 per month. That's RM480 per year. If you put that amount in your ASB you'll get about RM38 (assuming a div of 8%)....

Another good thing of washing your own car is that, it can be a good exercise for you. It's not easy to be honest. At least 1 hour of 'working out'.... Hahahaha. You'll appreciate your car more if you wash it yourself.....

Have a good day......

Ha?...Max speed of 242km/h?.......

Not another Dive trip

Hahaha,

Yup!! It was another great dive trip for me. Again, it was in Tioman. Some might ask why Tioman? my answer will be the cost factor. It's cheaper.........:P

Anyways, the only difference this time was, I dive with Sealantis. It was the first time that I joined em. A good friend of mine wanted to do his Advance Open Water course with Sealantis so that was how I ended up there. Hehehe

I had a great time to be honest. Diving with new people and obviously got to meet new friends along the way. I even managed to talk some serious issues with one of Paya Beach Resort Management team who happens to be a nice Singaporean chap. It was great to hear his ideas on making the place better than what it is now. That's what I call continuous improvement. Obviously, I hope to learn a thing or two from him. We can never stop learning kan?

Anyways, back to diving, I did a total of 7 dives including 1 night dive. I've been to most dive sites bar one, Sawadee Wreck. It's a deep dive of about 30 meters. The vis wasn't great as it reminded me of Pulau Sembilan and we were at the bottom for less than 15 minutes. Not bad lah.

Oh by the way, I tested my recently purchased regulators and I'm deeply happy with the performances. It was a good investment to be honest!! Heheheheh...

Since ramadhan is coming up real soon, I would think that this was the last trip to Tioman this year. It'll be difficult to dive after Raya as most of us will be busy with open house and stuff. Before we know it, it'll be October and that's when the monsoon starts! Perhaps, it's a good time to plan to dive in Sipadan or Raja Ampat or Pulau Weh.....hehehehe

Anyways, enjoy the pics...

Some strange looking fish

Myself and Funny (Sealantis Instructor)

Lion Fish

Some flathead fish I found during the night dive

Yup...yours truly

Have a good week everyone!!

Dive again!!...

I'm looking forward for another dive trip over the weekend....

Can't actually wait to try my new regulator set that I ordered from the States. It took almost 3 weeks before the stuff arrived safely at my home. Prior to this, I've been using a 'beginner-level' set of regulator and I felt the time has come to upgrade to a better regulator.

By the way, over the weekend, I made my way to PWTC to attend the Dive Expo that was held for the 6th time. Obviously met some friends and fellow divers and along the way made new friends as well.

I thought the event was good and there were many booths that were selling discounted products!! I even managed to grab some stuff that I was looking for a long-long time. I did ask wifey to be a diver but due to her time constraint she can only do it after completing her masters.

Anyways, like I said, I can't wait to wake up to a view like this in the morning. With everything that has been going around like crazy nowadays, I need to take a step back and re-charge myself. Who knows, I might change profession and be a professional diver one day. Hahahah. I'm seriously considering of going to Sipadan as I've never been there before. I'm planning to go there before the year ends. Some of my friends has asks me join 'em to dive trip in Bali but I can't make it this year. Maybe some other time lah....

This pic was taken from a friend who bought the same mask as I did....:)

Poseidon X-Stream

Anyways, originally, I planned to take up the EFR & Rescue course by PADI this month, but somehow my instructor has vanished into thin air. Hahaha. Perhaps, it's time for me to look for other instructor or maybe I will talk to the dive centre this week and see how it goes lah...

Have a good day everyone....

Bersih ka?

I have a lot of thoughts with regards to this BERSIH thingy.

I'm somewhat confused as to what good does it bring to the country?

I'm still wondering, why do they insist in doing it in KL? I mean, why can't they do it somewhere like Batu Arang or Kota Bharu or Melor or Seberang Jaya or Gajah Mati or any where else except KL. Even worse, they wanna start in Kampung Baru. Mau cari pasal ka apa nih?

For me, we can shout, we can demo all we want until the cows come home. I believe, this country has all the opportunities for those who works hard and knows what he or she wants. It's just a matter of working hard and smart to get it.

Let's not kid ourselves pretending that all of us are living under oppression from the govt. Are we? We've progressed leaps and bounds for the last 30 years and yet some of us are unhappy. Funny at the same time amused. Especially when we talked about a party that supposedly fight for Islam but made a U-turn to be 'in-line' with some other party. I'm sorry and I might sound biased, but I've yet to see any positive developments made by the opposition parties to the betterment of the country as a whole. All I can see was street demo, inflicting hatred and match shouting.

Anyways, not gonna dwell so much about that, but the most important thing is, kalau nak ubah sesuatu benda tu, ubahlah diri sendiri dulu. Majukan diri sendiri dulu. Kalau ilmu tak cukup, pegi belajar lagi. Solat jgn lupa. Doa pun jgn lupa. Usaha pun jgnlah dilupakan.

Have a good day everyone...

Olympic Qualifying....

Went to the stadium to watch the young tigers against Lebanon last night.

Alhamdulillah we won the game by the scruff of the neck. Pretty lucky too to be honest.

It was good to see so many people at the stadium despite the fact it wasn't the national team was playing. Nevertheless, I thought, it was a good turnout...

I'm looking forward to go watch the national team next week against Taiwan. Hope we can play well enough to meet Singapore in the next round....

Have a good weekend....