Happy Deeparaya

To all my Hindu friends who are celebrating Deepavali, I would want to wish you all the best wishes for the light festivals. Not forgetting the one who is in a foreign land at the moment who will be celebrating the festival for the first time away from the country.

Kepada kawan Muslim saya, saya ucapkan Selamat Hari Raya Adilfitri. Semoga beraya dengan sepenuh hati dan berhati hati lah di jalan raya. Jangan lupa KM444 Lebuhraya Utara Selatan, ada perangkap kelajuan di sana!!!

New Bra - Made in Ipoh

My sister sent me an email which have the following photos which claimed to be the new type of bra from Ipoh.

Photoblog - Fully Operational

Finally, I managed to upload photos to my photoblog.

Thanks to the advise by SooHK.

My Photoblog called KK's Eyes

I have today created a photoblog to put in my photos. It's call KK's Eye.
(oops... left out the "s" at the end of the word eye).. It's OK now, I got it corrected.
It's called KK's Eyes

Following this link http://caesda.blogspot.com/

I am having some problems to upload the photos from Photobucket.com. It seems that to prevent spamming, Goggle has implemented some sort of word verification system called CAPTCHA just like the one use when putting in comments for a posting. I will try to resolve this issue to upload more photos to the photoblog.

The permanent link will be updated to the template later on.

Another new toy - Playstation 2

With the school holiday coming, there would be a need to keep my children not to be bored for the 2 months holidays before they restart their schooling in 2006.

They already are accessing the net but the most interesting thing to keep them at home is a Playstation 2. It has been a long desire of my son Darren to have a Playstation 2. Actually I have bought the Playstation 1 about three years ago when my children was hooked to the game Tekken which was played with my brother's PS One.

They soon got bored with the PS One because they only know how and like to play only one game... Tekken. In the end the PS One was chucked one side with no one playing it with. I passed the whole set of PS One to by brother whose PS One was quite old (his older PS One was passed to his brother-in-law, who treated it like gold).

Yesterday, when Darren and me were at Cheras Leisure Mall, we stopped at the video game stall. A lady was getting her son a PS 2. We were just watching the lady getting the set and when they have completed the transaction, I approached the stall lady boss to asked the price of the PS 2. The price was reasonable considering that when the PS 2 was first launched it cost RM1,200. Now it cost RM760 which comes with 12 free games.

What the heck? Got to get the PS 2 and cannot wait for the PS 3 to come next middle of the year which would cost more than RM1K.

Twelve games free..which inlcude Tekken 5 and Tekken 4 which were the two of the games that were selected. Also was Burnout Revenge, which is an exciting game where you need to crash your car to get money and to win your position.

Today, Sunday (23 October), the PS 2 dominated the TV in my living room with no opportunity for the rest to watch Astro programs. The favourite game played was still Tekken 5 where my children battled it out against each other on the console. While I am writing this posting, Carrie is still playing Tekken 5, it her favorite game.

Let's just see how long will the PS 2 last with my children before it will chuck one side with no one playing with it. Maybe I will try the same trick and offer the machine to my brother again!!!

Property market in KL

It's been a year now since I have shifted to my new house. The whole family has adjusted to the new environment and routine in the new house. However, there is still one sticking thorn which has not been resolved. My previous still remain unsold till today.

The house has been up for sale since we shifted out last October. The house was first assigned to be sold by my long time friend. He left the bank and joined a realty company to start his new "venture" and selling my house was his first assignment. He managed to get a buyer within 2 months but the terms did not worked in my favour and the deal was aborted. I have even put in my own advertisement in the papers and calls that I got were all from agents and not from individual buyers themselves. The worst was when I advertised it in the Malay paper... not a call was received.

Just to change things, I have now assigned the sale of the house to a friend of my wife. A change to a female "property negotiator" might change my luck. Any how, I was on leave and took her for a ride to the house and told her the various good selling points to get the house sold.

In our discussion, what I gathered now is that there are many houses being built in and surrounding KL. There are buyers but the sale of these houses (which include condos) are rather slow. To add on to the number of houses for sale are houses which were left vacant when the owners upgraded their living quarters, just like me.

With house prices going above RM150K to nearly RM200K, it is not easy for a person to fork out 10% of the purchase price. Bank borrowing is easier nowadays as there are ample choices from the various financial institutions but then again the purchases repayment capacity will be the determination factor to get the loan. There are those who have been staying in flats and lower cost apartment who have accumulated enough funds to get a new house.

Most current house owners now have more one one piece of property. Take for instance, in my case, I own 2 houses now, even my wife owned an apartment of her own (which is now rented out). Then what about others who have better financial standing.

Conclusion, there are property buyers out there but the market is in the favour of the buyer at the moment. So I have to wait for my property to be sold.

Forty four and still alive

Well I turned forty four today. That means that I have been in this world as a human for the past forty four year (minus the 9 months or so tucked comfortably in my mother's womb). Forty four what a number, four plus four hey it's eight what does that means... great fortune coming for me!!!

As usual I don't fancy much about my own birthday celebration. Birthday to me it's just another number. For kids the number signify that they are growing up... but for me, the number as it increases signify I am not getting any younger but older. To me everyday should be a celebration of life. Birthday only signify the end of the circle and the start of another one. Staying alive for forty four years must be an achievement for me until today. BTW my father is older than me by 30 years, he's seventy four already.

I started the day no different from the rest. Woke up at 6.00 a.m. brush my teeth and went downstairs to boil the water, wash the cups and prepare my breakfast while waiting for my daughters to come down to go to school. Carrie, was the first to wish his father Happy Birthday. It touched my heart to received the first greetings for the day.

Then I am off to office and started the days as normal. Then my handphone sounded with a baby's voice "Alamak, ada message pulak" that's my SMS tone. It turned out to me Pauline Goh, it read " See tau, happy birthday! Surprise or not?" Well it was a surprise to receive an early SMS greetings from her. The next was a picture message from my wife. She was still asleep this morning when I left my house.

When the buzz of the office started, Leong Chee Moon was the first one who came to wish me happy birthday. Then there was Thiagarajan. Patricia surprised me with a gift ... a bar of Swiss chocolate. That was very thoughtful of her. Thanks Patricia.

I left the office at about 6.50 p.m. that's when the traffic "buka puasa". Reaching home and Darren greeted me with a birthday greetings. Carrie came with a plastic bag with "EXTREME" printed on it. It was my birthday present from the kids and my wife. It turned out to be a yellow "Billabong" designer T-shirt.

Birthdays in my family is celebrated by a cake. This year I got a Secret Recipe's Mocha Walnut cake. Four big candles were placed on top of the cake and another three small candle... what... three small candles? Someone got my age wrong!! Cake was cut and distributed among all in the family.. Delicious.

Another surprise, I logged on to check my mail. As usual, there were tons to junk mail. While going through the trash folder before emptying it... I saw the name "Ruby Wong" as the sender. What a surprise!! A birthday wish from Ruby all the way from Kuching. It make my day receiving her e-mail. Ruby.. we all missed you.

The thing that is different this time around for my birthday.. I got to document it on this blog. Never I have had the chance to document down all the events that have happen to me on such a day. Thanks to this blog, today will enable me to remember what actually happened.

Well tomorrow's another... life will have to go on as long as our body and mind will....HAPPY BIRTHDAY to me!!

Xiaxue.blogspot.com - refurbished

This girl's blog (her name is Wendy Cheng from Singapore) under www.xiaxue.blogspot.com has done it again. After winning the 2005 Best Asian Blog, she's getting ready to win the award again in 2006 with her new and revamped blog design.

Make a visit to her blog, it's very good looking. Makes my blog looks ready like an amateur. By the way she's only 21 and she's got a long way to go. On the average she gets 10,000 readers from all over the world as compared to mine which I think the best readership only reached 14 a day.

But she's a full time blogger as mentioned in her faq while I only writes as and when I has something in my mind. From her blog's posting, she's enjoying her life very well and shares her daily experiences very well without any "dull" day in her life.

Don't Give Up Schumacher

This Sunday's Formula 1 race at Shanghai is the last race of the year 2005. Fernando Alonso became the youngest Formula 1 Champion in history taking over the crown of 7 time World Champion, Michael Schumacher.

Michael Schumacher admits 2005 has been Ferrari's worst season in years, but says he is determined to bounce back after his reign at the top was brought to an end. He remains in a battle with Juan Pablo Montoya of Colombia to finish the season third, but has no chance of catching Kimi Raikkonen who will end runner up to Fernando Alonso no matter what happens in Shanghai.

Ferrari won 15 of the 18 races last year but have only won once this time around, in the controversial six-car United States Grand Prix, and Schumacher's best 'real' result has been a second place finish.

While Schumacher, 36, is clearly heading towards the twilight of his career, he has at least two more seasons left in him, his agent Willi Weber told the German press this week. He has confirmed that he will not turn to the "dark side" to drive for MacLaren before he retires.

Forget about 2005 and look forward to 2006. Don't give up Michael!!!

It's the annual appraisal time again

It is the time again in October every year that we have to perform the annual appraise of the performance of our staff. The dateline for submission will be the end of the month of October. However, I have not heard of any time that the whole bank managed to submit all the staff's appraise on time.

Coming to this time, I would always wish that I could look at a monitor which was able to show me all the high and low of the job activity of my staff to enable me to access their overall performance for the year.

Using the scoring method, I am able to "moderate" the appraisal score of a staff but when it come down to the remarks of the appraise form is where I am always caught. I usually ran out of work to describe the achievements and ways for improvement of the staff. That's why I wish of the monitor showing all the ups and downs of the staff performance to guide me to write the remarks and at the same time used to replay the scenes of the ups and downs of the staff to enable them to improve and not repeat the mistakes that they have made through out the period of appraisal. Of course, the scenes in my imaginary monitor would be as though I am the one who was holding the camera.

Personally, I am not bothered about the scores of my appraisal. The comments and appraisal are in the view of the appraiser. I am only bothered whether I am happy working in the same environment or performing what my duties required.

Utimately, I would say that there is no appraisal system that would satisfy anyone. In my view, no one would like their weakness to be highlighted and mentioned. It's easy to say to take all criticism positively, but deep inside all of us the feeling is very much different.

Seditious Messages and Comments

I am sure that you read about the two young Singapore bloggers who were jailed and fined for posting racist remarks online.

28-year-old Benjamin Koh Seng Huat, 28,a kennel keeper at an animal shelter, has been sentenced to one month's jail. He pleaded guilty to making racist remarks on his web blog which sparked off more than 200 comments.

His former assistant marketing manager, Nicholas Lim Yew , 25, was sentenced to serve one day in jail and a maximum fine of $5,000.

Lim, whose postings were regarded less serious than Koh's by the court, was also charged under the Singapore's Sedition Act.

On 16 September 2005, The Malay Mail also reported that "Blogger Ammer Zulkifli, or Mack Zulkifli in the virtual world, received a seditious message in his blog, brandmalaysia.com from good man in a commentary..." However, this report was not of a posting of a seditious blog but a seditious comment was made at the blog.

I was wondering why on earth did these two Singapore bloggers post racist remarks and the Malaysian wrote seditious comments at other's blog.

Even though the blog is mean to enable oneself to voice their opinion and comments, but I feel that there should be a limit to what is posted or comment. We should respect each other.

Let us all blog harmoniously and never let our "dark side" overcome us.

News from Siva who is in Aberdeen

In August (refer to my posting dated 12 August 2005), we bid farewell to our Siva who went off to Scotland to further his studies. On 6 October, to my surprise, I got a call from Siva all the way from Scotland. He was asking whether I receive his e-mail which he sent to my office e-mail. I told him no because the e-mail in my office is so smart that any mails that are coming from Yahoo (and even Hotmail) will be rejected.

Well it was nice to heard from him. I told him to corresponds with me via my other e-mails (plenty of e-mail addresses). I reproduce below the e-mail that he had sent:


From: Siva Parasuraman
Date: 10/07/05 19:23:35
Subject: Greetings fr Scotland

Greetings!!!
MALAYSIA BOLEH!!!!! Quite settled down. I doing jz fine here. I went down to London the other day (12 hours per journey by express coach) Met few frens of mine n rounding a bit at some "happenning" places. It's wonderful.

Hmmm...things are slowly settling down here but only thing the chill n gloomy weather makes me sleepyyyyyyyy...ha...ha...ha... Other then....EVERYTHING jz fine. It's chillier the Cameron & Genting Highlands...imagine Aberdeen is by the seaside..North Sea.

Classes have started n it's very much mixed crowd. Wow!!! many from China n India..i would say 50% of students in my class (even in campus) are from this two countries...Awakenning GIANTS..."Chindian"...ha...ha...ha...

I m started to do some cooking...Yeah!!!! Y'day i cooked fried potatos...not gentang goreng..yah.It's indian menu...my flat-mates like it. As everyone said, home cooking is very cheap. U know... the veges, fruits etc are VERY CHEAP....i mean without conversion to RM ok.

Well, my room is jz nice. Including bed, study table, dressing table, a cupboard n a door..hiiii...hiii..hiiii. It's quite comfortable..yah.

One interesting thing here i hv noticed so far....is many elderly couples (i mean very old..ok) are still active doing their daily activities. U will see them doing shopping in hypermarkets..pushing trollys, gardening, walking on the happenning street called Union Street. U must see them walking slowly holding hands crossing the road...so cute...hi!! hi!! hi!!!

How's back in M'sia? BPP?

My add is as follows:

96 Craigievar Place
Aberdeen
AB10 7BP

My cell no is: ++0044-079314 37607

Hmmmm...i will sign-off now. Have Fun & take care. Do send my regards to Mr Louis n rest of the gang in BPP.

Cheerz!!!
Siva...Scotland

Sony Expo 2005

The Sony Expo 2005 was held at Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre from 8 to 9 October 2005. I went over to the expo after work today. The expo features Sony products that will be introduced in the coming months and the newly launched Bravia, LCD TV series.

As usual there was also bargain and special items up for sale. Guess what??? I bought some things from there.

The first was the LCD monitor. I have always been impressed by the clarity of the LCD monitors when I visit Sony Wings, I told myself to get one to replace the 15" CRT monitor in my room. At the expo, there was the LCD of 17" under model SDM-H75 series going for RM1,199 where the normal price was RM1,499 a savings of RM300-00. Couldn't resist the offer I got myself a black (it also comes in silver) LCD monitor.

The 17 inches LCD Monitor at my computer table

Then my son has always been asking for a Sony Network Walkman to play songs for his listening pleasure. My daughter, Carrie has bought one unit at Sony Wings in July and was enjoying it since then. The price of Network Walkman has dropped because they are coming out with a newer model which looks like a bean. I bought the NW-E505 Network Player gold in colour which looks like a thumbdrive with 512MB capacity. The cost RM599-00 which earlier cost RM799. The dealers there also gave a necklace headphone and some discount vouchers.

The Sony Network Walkman

Good News for Formula 1Fans

Honda becomes a full fledge Formula Team

Honda will become the sole owner of the BAR team next season.

The Japanese manufacturer said it will own 100% of the Formula One team by the end of the year, after shareholders and tobacco giant BAT agreed to sell their 55% stake in the UK-based outfit. Honda has been BAR's engine partner for six years and currently holds a 45% stake in the team.

The announcement comes ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix, where BAR-Honda driver Jenson Button will be aiming for a podium position.

He will be joined next year by Rubens Barrichello, who has terminated his contract with Ferrari.


The Eleventh Formula 1 Team for 2006

The unveiling of an eleventh Grand Prix team for next year could be less than one month away, Nick Fry, the team chief of its expected technical backer BAR Honda, said.

Honda made it known that they have been asked to supply engines to a mysterious new outfit earlier this week, when they confirmed they have bought a 100 percent shareholding in the BAR team. Fry said talks with the as yet unnamed outfit began more than two months ago.

"It is going to be very difficult to do next year but we will try to do it and see what happens," said Fry. "Honda would not have mentioned this unless it was relatively credible and you don't come out and say these things without a fair bit of activity having happened previously so I am sure the potential new team has done its homework. These are credible people with motor racing experience and the financial backing to do the job. We are not talking about an under-funded team here, and clearly they have convinced Honda, Bernie (Ecclestone) and us that this has got potential."

"I think there is a 65 percent chance, certainly better than evens, that it will happen because if it was not that we would not be saying anything. They have a high degree of capability, proven capability to put together a team."

Little is known about the second team that Honda could supply its V8 powerplants to next year and certainly in Japan this weekend it is a hot topic for debate.

Speaking in the build up to the Japanese Grand Prix weekend Takuma Sato let it be known that the team looking to enter the series next year has made him an offer to race with the team. It now seems that current BAR Honda test driver Anthony Davidson is also in the frame to line-up alongside Sato according to reports from SpeedTV.

Honda is in talks with the mysterious new team about engine supply and admit that the chassis may well be rather similar to the current 007 design raced this year by Sato and Jenson Button. Other than that, the rest is speculation but it seems we may have an 11th team on the grid in Formula One in 2006. And then again, we may not.

Honda of course has supplied more than one team with engines in the past, most recently with BAR and Jordan in 2002, but with Honda taking complete ownership of BAR ahead of the 2006 season, they face a very busy build up to the new season.

In the meantime, we await for the identity of this new team to be revealed.

Fasting on Wednesday

Well, the Muslim will be fasting starting on Wednesday, 5 October 2005. As usual the sighting of the moon is always performed on the first day of the Chinese Lunar Calendar where the glimpse of the moon cannot be seen at all. Full moon will always appear on the fifteen day of the month without fail.

Happy fasting to all my Muslim friends.

Lunch at SOULed Out- Desa Sri Hartamas

Within a week's time I went to SOULed Out twice. The first time was last Tuesday when I have to pass an air ticket to Heng Theng. I called Mazhar along for company. I went there today with Anuar, Shariman and Shaiful because of two reasons. Number one, Shaiful and Shariman wanted to have a feel of how the ride in the Accord was (Never mind Anuar, he has been in the Accord a few time already) Number two, Ramadan is coming and this might the last chance I could have lunch with these guys before they fast.
Well I choose SOULed Out because it's a nice place to have lunch. The people there are friendly, the food is good, the environment there is comfortable but most of all I enjoyed the free car jockey service. Where else can you get a person to park your car when you just have to walk out of your car, past the key to the jockey and walk directly into the restaurant for a meal and the service is FREE!!

Actually, I have been to the place previous and have enjoyed the place. It became a mid-point meeting place between me and the vendors who came from Petaling Jaya. Most of the time, when the vendors called for a lunch, I would usually meet up with them there. It was a compromise of traveling mid-point and enjoy the food at the same time.

Another reason why I choose the place for the pass two trips was that I could demonstrate the power of the Accord when it was going from Jalan Kuching to the Penchala highway before going into Desa Sri Hartamas.

BTW Tricia, if you are reading this please, provide another other bristro or restaurants in the Desa Sri Hartamas area that offer good lunch. For other people, don't ask me who is Tricia, she wants to remain anonymous.

Nine Emperor Gods Festival

Do you know that it's the ninth month of the Chinese Lunar calendar? I am sure you do, it wasn't that long ago that you have tasted the mooncakes while playing with the lanterns (oh you don't play with lanterns anymore!), that's the 15th day of the eighth month. After eating those mooncakes two weeks ago (where is it now?) and we are already in the ninth month.

The ninth month of the lunar calendar marks the start of the Nine Emperor Gods Festival. It is celebrated for exactly nine days. In Kuala Lumpur, the celebration is at Kampong Baru Ampang. People staying in Ampang will not like it because the traffic condition there is terrible.

If you would have noticed, it will also rain on all the nine days of the festival. Today it started raining in the morning and while I am writing this posting at 4.50 p.m. it is also raining. The roads will be flooded, yeah flooded with cars when the office hours end!!!

Nices photos from Chromasia

Click on the photos to get a larger image

Persatuan Penduduk Damai Rasa - Part 2

Continuing on the posting on the gathering of Persatuan Penduduk Damai Rasa.

Most of the items raised was on the security of the residential areas. However, the chief inspector came to invite us to join in as Rakan COP. Rakan COP has proven to be very effective in combating crime and lowering the crime rate. Overall, the Chief Inspector's advise was to contact the Pondok Polis which is located in Alam Damai.

Even though the representative from Dewan Bandaraya did not arrive, they have contributed a lamb or a goat for the gathering. The lamb has used as barbecue for the gathering.

Overall, the gathering has served its purpose of getting all the residents in Damai Rasa together. All residents were required to registered themselves where the details such as phone numbers, vehicle number and e-mails were gathered. The information will be disseminated to all those who have e-mail address and at the same time a Yahoo Group has been set up to enable all residents to post their views, information and also be used as a calendar to schedule meetings and gathering in the future.

Persatuan Penduduk Damai Rasa

Well by October 4th this year, we have moved into this new house for exactly 1 year.
Thanks to some effort by some residents, a small committee was formed to look in ensuring the security of the neighbourhood hood and at the same time to foster good relationship among the residents of Dama Rasa.

On Tuesday, a pink circular was place in the letter box. In the circular, it was an invitation for a gathering on 30 September for all the residents of Damai Rasa organised by Persatuan Penduduk Damai Rasa. The itinerary include a barbecue and lucky draw. The objectives of the gathering was to get to know the neighbours who are mostly new residents (the oldest resident of Damai Rasa is slightly over 1 year old). A dialogue session with the Police on the issues of crime prevention. A discussion with Dewan Bandaraya to raise the amenities standards and cleaniness of the neighbourhood.

At the same time, a gotong-royong is also scheduled on 1 October.

Tonight was the night of the gathering. The response was overwhelming and many residents turned up. The first thing to do was to register ourselves where the details of each resident including telephone contact numbers and e-mail were collected. Then there everyone started to introduce themselves with many handshakes being seen here and there.

The police inspector came but it was no show for the representative from Dewan Bandaraya.

It was a good effort by the Persatuan to hold such a gathering. I will write on the details of the gathering later on.