Kagum / Impressed

Kagum...Impressed....

the exact words that came to mind when the house door bell rung around lunch time earlier today..sapa kat pintu? Dari segi uniform merahnya, macam McD punya delivery boy, tapi takde la pulak sesapa dlm household yang ada place an order...Rupa-rupanya, delivery dari MyEG.com...

Yes..recently...to be exact, pada tanggal 28 Dec (Ahad) kita telah me-renew drivers licence online via portal MyEg.com linked through JPJ punya website...paid through credit card and requested for it to be sent to house address...dalam website tu dia mention, delivery dalam masa 5 hari bekerja....so aku click laa ok...dalam hati calculate, Ahad, pas tu, ada Awal Muharram, new Year...kira-kira more than 5 hari la kot, baru dapat slip renewal driver's licence tu.....TAPI! today, 30 Dec, dua hari lepas aku click 'SEND'...dah sampai!!! WAAAAH!!! Cayalaaaa!!! My faith towards the government services have been restored!!

SYABAS!!! Memang 'hassle free' and mudah....keep it up!!!

a tribute to melamines....

Sejak dua menjak ni, kita sekeluarga sibuk pindah rumah....yup...Alhamdulillah, the apartment that we bought around 2 years ago dah siap, and now slowly kita dalam proses pindah rumah....tapi belum official....pindah sikit-sikit...nanti bila dah betul confident, baru lah duduk permanently...

Dalam proses packing and unpacking ni, tetiba, terjumpa la pulak satu kotak penuh ngan cassette lagu-lagu...semua hasil kumpul masa zaman skolah dulu....time tu, mana laa ada download2 lagu from internet...mp3 lagi laa belum pernah wujud lagi....so, kalau nak layan lagu, kenalaa beli cassette. CD bukannya takde time tu, tapi masa tu tak mampu!!!

Tengah seronok belek cassette album2 band-band macam soundgarden, smashing pumpkins (melloncollie - 2 cassette in a set!), Nirvana nevermind, foo fighters...tiba2 terjumpa la pulak beberapa cassette TDK and Sony....terus slot into the player and layan.....guess what I found? my old cassette recordings time jamming masa zaman after form 5 dulu!!!! PERHHH!!!

I sat down in the hall, lying on my front, facing the hi-fi speakers, and was brought back to the good ol' jamming days, with my buddies Arman, Is, Lan, occasionally Ja'a, my bro Mickey...and all those gang who used to follow us ke mana saja kitorang jam.....sambil dengar all the 'beautiful noises' we were making, teringat zaman kitorag naik turun tangga studio. Almost every week, tak kira kat Ampanglaaa, Melawati laaa, Setapak laaa...even right up to Shah Alam!!! memang macam addicted time tu....and macam dah jadi lumrah, kalau jam aje, mesti bawak walkman and at least 2 cassette kosong for recording....

dengar balik cassette2 tu, terasa bangga la pulak....walaupun taklaa orang kata perfect soundnya, tapi taklaa lari beat and at times, kira boleh dikatakan best la jugak...walaupun most of it lagu2 cover b bands like Nirvana, butterfingers, weezer, etc, tapi yg bangganya, ada jugak lagu-lagu yg kitorang wrote sendiri....

bila dengar balik, macam tak caya lak lagu tu kitorang punya....heheheh...masa tu punya la bangga sampai siap buat demo bagai..under our band name: the melamines

well...now sejak memasing dah kahwin, beranak pinak, ber kareer, dah sangat JARANG kitorang jam....sayang rasanya....but that's the way life is....unfortunately...

lately nama melamines di sebut2 di seluruh dunia - tapi malangnya, bukan band kitorang, but isu susu dan makan yang di cemari oleh substance with the same name....but still, whenever I read or hear that word mentioned, my memory always wanders back to all those late night 2 hour jam sessions, making beautiful music with my buddies, the melamines.....long live the melamines!!! you guys rock!!!

Situasi GILA

Uih....last week we were shocked by the news of the terror in Mumbai...lebih-lebih lagi bila dengar yang terlibat adalah antara hotel yang agak ternama jugak laa dalam industri perhotelan ni....gila siot diorang ni....kalau betul marah ngan kerajaan...pi la attack kerajaan depa terus....why go attack civilians? In the end, apa pun tak dapat....

Suspen jugak bila dengar isu-isu cam ni....no matter how many trainings you go through to face such crisis (yes, my hotel has all this trainings on how to handle fire, death, bomb threats, terrorism etc) tapi bila fikir balik, kalau betul-betul jadi kat kita, whatever trainings we had sure tak terpakai nye....maybe as guidelines, but mostly will have to use common sense and berserah pada takdir....skang ni ramai orang gila kat dunia ni.....bukan gila sewel....tapi gila kuasa, gila sebab fahaman masing2 dan sebagainya....

moga2 malaisie tercinta ni kekal laa keamanannya.....harap2 tak laaa jadi situasi gila macam kat negara2 lain tuh...amin.....

Eco-NO-money

The big news that has been on everyone's lips lately is about the current or expected Economy crisis and depression. Tetiba aje, every tom, dick and harry in and around town dah jadi 'Pakar Ekonomi', 'Menteri Kewangan' and even a 'Financial Controller'.....words like 'Credit Crunch', 'US Dollars' 'Harga Barang Naik' terngiang-ngiang di sana sini.....sekarang ni most companies dah mula putting in strategies for cost reductions, budgetting, and even freezing employments....semua utk mempersiapkan diri dan keluarga mereka bagi mengharungi krisis ekonomi yg dijangka akan melanda sekitar 1st quarter next year....



For me, I have lived through one recession so far, but that was in 1997, at a time where I had no care about all this economic issues, as then I had a constant income through 'FAMA' sponsorships (FAther- MAma) and was busy studying...kononnya,laaa



But now I am very much intrigued with the whole issue, as I have been earning plus nak kena suap makan anak bini, bayar rumah, petrol...etc....



It doesn't help also when just recently ada news keluar pasal almost 11,000 workers in Macau may be retrenched due the close down of many Casinos and hotels over there....being a hotelier myself, this is a SCARY thing to hear....as sebelum ni, Macau was like having a MAJOR boom where hotels business was mushrooming and most jobs offered in Macau came with quite attractive packages etc...and ramai memember from various hotels in KL yg dah merantau cari makan di sana.....hopefully they are ok....



Anyway, I was very happy to hear harga minyak dah turun and also ura-ura harga barang2 kat hypermarket nak diturunkan....hopefully all will be well on our side, in lovely Malaisie....

Topic hangat masakini...

• Roti canai went down 10 cents....and petrol also went down 15 cents...Yeay!
• Malaysia football team won against Vietnam....wow....
• Our Astronaut accused of raking in profits through his talks.....sigh...
• AirAsia not charging for fuel surcharge....double YEAY!!!

Time Management and Excuses...

Just the other day I overheard a big sized mat salleh who was on the phone walking pass me telling the person on the other line, "Mate, I'm just 2 seconds away from you mate. Just need to drop by the supermarket to get some...bla...bla..." Two SECONDS? biar benar!!! What an excuse!!! kalau iye pun dah lambat, takkan bagi reason 2 seconds kot? Orang pakai la excuse 'Malaysian-style' macam:

1. On the way - Universal excuse kalau dah lambat.....sebenarnya, most of the time, baru bangun atau baru nak keluar rumah....
2. Tengah cari parking/ just at the traffic light or roundabout (assumed nearest to destination) - standard for those late for work...
3. 5 minutes more - Ini kira samalaaa macam kes 'two seconds' kat atas....tapi kononnya sounds more reasonable....but always wonder why it's 5 minutes, not 10 ke, 15 ke.....
4. Kejaaaap lagi/Almost done - Yang ni biasanya diulang beberapa kali dalam tempoh masa menunggu tu untuk melengah-lengahkan si penunggu setia (yg dah mula mundar-mandir macam laki tunggu bini bersalin)
5. Dah tengah buat/masak dah/tengah masak - ini usually by mamak, gerai or restoran biasa2 during times kalau mamat/minah yg ambil order terlupa nak fire the order, and the pelanggan punya muka dah hampir sama macam corak meja formica restoran tu itself....
6. Kereta rosak/tayar pancit/eksos jatuh/traffic jam/takde bas atau teksi - another standard for latecomers to work...
7. Lambat bangun/alarm tak bunyi/lupa nak set alarm - This is a standard for the career kamikazes....selambaaa aje...
8. Lost my way/sesat jalan/tak jumpa jalan (!) /takde parking - usually used when late for attending a function i.e wedding, open house, official events (and the latecomer is THE VIP) etc...
9. Hujan - A standard excuse for almost all the above
10. Couldn't find my car keys - Also quite common....

Public Etiquette

There was a piece of news I chanced upon recently in Yahoo, reported through BERNAMA where the headline read: BEIJING CITIZENS SPIT LESS, QUEUE MORE THANKS TO OLYMPICS

It was said that as reported by the China Daily, a Renmin University poll of 13200 people including 1200 foreigners living in Beijing, showed that the politeness index (there is such a thing???!) has risen 10 points to 82.68 on a scale of 0 to 100. Apparently, it was found that lesser people spat "wherever and whenever" compared to last year and the percentage of queue jumpers also dropped!! This was all due to the great efforts by the city that had distributed 2.8milliom papmhlets on etiquette and polite behavior to prepare its citizen to welcome the world for the games.

taken from: http://malaysia.news.yahoo.com/bnm/20081031/tts-beijing-manners-993ba14.html



Wonder how something like this could be applied here in Malaysia....to lessen our on road queue jumpers, rude taxi drivers, litter bugs, 'loud speakers' while on the handphone in public, vandals, mat rempits, poor timekeepers and others....

Titles of honour.....

Topic pasal kita punya Wira 'Silver Medal' Badminton dapat 'Datuk' belum lagi habis diperbahaskan di kedai-kedai kopi dan kopitiam2 seantero negara, sekarang timbul pulak isu hero Bollywood, Shah Rukh Khan bakal dapat pangkat Datuk dari Kerajaan Melaka....hmm...it's definitely not my business or any layman's business to debate who gets what honours from a state or federal rulers, but lately it seems like the 'Datuk' title is so easily given away.....takde ke dah pingat-pingat lain nak diberi? mesti ke bagi sampai peringkat 'Datuk'?

In my humble opinion, yes, the Olympic is a big sporting event and all.....but Datukship for a silver medal? And if the reason for Mr Shah Rukh to get a Datuk because he has been so called promoting the state through his film....was it solely his decision for the shoot location? Kalau macam tu, Jackie Chan pun should get 'Datuk' for his film 'Police Story 3' where he promoted Kuala Lumpur by risking his life doing stunts all over the city....and perhaps we should also see a Datuk Sean Connery and Datuk Catherine Zeta-Jones for promoting both Kuala Lumpur and Melaka in their 1999 movie 'The Entrapment'.

Just imagining one day if a Malaysian football team actually makes it to the World Cup Final, would there be 11 Datuks on the field?

Intro

Testing-testing....

assalamu'alaikum and salam sejahtera kepada sesapa yang happened to visit this new blogpage....

This is not the first time i've ever blogged....been blogging for years now....dah lama daaah....but my other blogs were mainly about myself, and the other was about my career....since both areas tu macam tengah tak happening sangat, so I decided to create this blog entitled 'fabrique en malaisie' which actually means 'made in malaysia'....NO! Bukan niat utk mengikut jejal RPK or other controversial bloggers....but merely to express and share my observations, hope, grouses, comment dan sebagainya....kadang tu, bila terjadi sesuatu, kita macam cakap sorang-sorang, or cakap dalam hati....so- I thought of blogging about it..

to the blog police out there, if any - please note yang niat di hati bukannya politikal atau nak mengutuk sesapa....cuma nak meluahkan hati dan perasaan....kalau tersinggung, harap di ampun....

So to all readers (if any) enjoy and read with an open mind......

salamz...

boo-tofu