Summary of 2012

There are only a few more days before the end of this year. I realised I have been very busy trying to cope with marriage life and have not been updating my blog frequently. It is difficult to balance work and marriage.

There is less than a week's time before 2013, I didn't take time to reflect what I have done this year during my birthday, so I am going to do it now and give myself a few days time to think of my new target for 2013.

I have been travelling a lot this year, visited 6 countries this year and revisited half of them again within a year. The travelling schedule was especially hectic over the past two months. I visited 5 countries over the past two months, spent 3 weeks of November in 3 countries. It may sound odd to many, but I really don't want to board a plane to anywhere now, not in the near future, neither work nor leisure.

Other things I did this year:
... Started picking up readings again, and found a few good books. (刘墉 《我不是教你诈》系列、禤素莱 《战地情书》、Clayton Christensen "How will you measure your life?")
... Went to Siem Reap and was amazed by the life of history. It was my first time to Cambodia.
... Visited Korea for the first time, and managed to visit again late this year, which I managed to spend a good day in a palace in Seoul by myself.
... Went to Bangkok shopping trip for the first time.
... Conducted product commissioning for the first time in Philippines. It was my first time to Philippines too.
... Conducted vibration diagnostic on a finished product for the first time on my own in Taiwan.
... Attended government organised marriage workshop, it was pretty informative but too bad my husband couldn't enjoy it due to the language barrier.
... Got my father an iPhone.
... Brought my mother to remove her cataract.
... Secured over USD 1.3mil sales in my first year involvement in sales activities.
... Received silver star award for my contribution to the company sales.
... Celebrated Chinese New Year the first time as someone's wife, and was shocked by my husband's extended family members that visited them on the first day of the new year.
... Called a stranger for the first time to chase for money.
... Was tailed by a road bully in a morning due to protesting his reckless and unsafe driving. I saw him again later this year on my way to work.
... Discard the use of handbag and changed to a small purse to avoid unnecessary attention from snatch thieves.
... Experienced the longest traffic jam (3 hours) in my life so far, due to the rainy Ramadan after work rush hour.
... Late for work for the first time, thanks to the flash flood. It took me over 2 hours to get to work as I was stuck at less than 2km away from the office for over 1 hour.
... Late for flight for the first time, due to the lousy traffic planning for the Sepang International Grand Prix. The traffic craw started right after the toll house and it made me craw for over an hour to the airport, it was about 10km distance. The traffic police did nothing to ease the scenario.
... Argue in public for the first time with the AirAsia ground crew due to their rude attitude. I was not allowed to board the flight after my luggage was checked in. (I arrived at the gate just when the the gate was closed). The ground crew manager, who dare not even show his name, told me, "In here, you listen to me, not I listen to you!"
... Faced a difficult "Mat Saleh" customer in Taiwan.
... Challenged the management and fought for my rights when bullied by the managers.
... Got my company phone upgraded from Nokia monochrome GSM candybar to Samsung Galaxy Y.
... Finished paying my car loan.
... Fell down on the tar road when walking a dog.
... Re-organised my messy bank accounts.
... Enrolled into a Korean Language class which starts next year.

I think I have completed or almost completed the things I planned to do in 2012:

1. Finish moving and unpacking my stuff.
I have bought a cupboard from IKEA in August and unpacked most of the stuff. There are still some minor things in boxes, which I was thinking if I should just throw them away or find space for them. It is hard to throw your memories away.

2. Find a new career.
I am still struggling on this, the newspaper job adverts are getting thinner and thinner these days.

I applied to a few companies, one of them was pretty interesting but their 3rd party recruitment agent kicked me out because I couldn't fit in all their check boxes.

I went for an interview with another company this year, it was a second interview with that company. There was no response from them after that meeting. I called their HR to follow up, but their HR avoided my call. I thought that was pretty rude, as one should at least give the two finalists an update call or email. After all, we took our day off to participate in the interview, and they even knew I cancelled my honeymoon flight to attend the interview.

I need to find harder in this new year. If you heard to two-factor theory or motivation theory by Frederick Herzberg, the hygiene factor in the office is getting worse by day. The MD's contract will come to an end soon, he has been getting very desperate hygiene factor is the least of his care now. He may get his extension, but he has gotten into the dynamics of pointing the fingers to others.

3. Take care of my own donation accounts.
I have took care of them, and wonder if I should increase a few more donations.

4. Participation in charity work.
Well, I have not been participating over the past few months due to all the travelling.

5. Exercise 3 times a week.
Hard to keep it, I don't get to leave the office sharp 5pm everyday in order to arrive home at 6pm to exercise. Leaving the office 5.30pm means I arrived home around 7pm, which would be too dark to jog around.

I can't exercise in the morning, because I leave home around 6.15am in order to avoid the traffic. There isn't much time for me in the morning.

I wasted a lot of time in the traffic jam, a normal single journey takes 1 hour. It would extend to 2 hours if it rains. If it were the Ramadan month, the day before and after the long weekends, first day of school, a single journey would need twice the amount of time.

6. Keep in touch with my friends.
I met them a few times this year, but mainly organized by one of my old friends. I didn't take initiatives in calling them up.

7. Visit my family once a month.
Have not been visiting enough due to the travelling schedule and works at home.

8. Rewarding myself once a month.
I took a few days off work in November to rest from the hectic travel, and made use of my replacement holidays in December to do nothing but stay at home.

I saved some amount over the months and blown all of them in the shopping trip with my friends in Bangkok in October. Not to mention that I have bought a few polo-shirts that shrunk 2 size after washing.... *frustration*

9. Start growing my own vegetables.
My baby leeks weren't doing well, I transferred them to a pot and put them under the sun. They are growing ok now, but the quantities are not enough to make a meal for the family.

The passion fruit plant was badly damaged when the residential contractor installed the barbed wires along the fences a few months ago. We were forced to cut away majority of the plant to let it grow again. It is still recovering, it produced one fruit since then.

My sugar cane was chopped away recently by the residential contractor too, when they came by to cut the grass in the neighbourhood. They mistook the sugar cane buds as wild grass, it was about 1m tall when it was chopped away.

In fact, they cut away my baby leeks previously too, they seemed to mistake everything as wild grass.

I brought two more branches of sugar cane from my parents' house to grow them here, and put little fences around them this time. Hopefully they won't get chopped away again.

I would like to grow some aloe vera and papayas in 2013.

10. Went for Siem Reap for honeymoon, it was a great place.

11. My world map project has yet to start. My fridge magnets continue piling up.

I need to think of some better targets for 2013.

Cataract removal

My mum just went through her cataract removal procedures. Both her eyes had the new lenses now.

I have been on annual leave since first day of her operation. Today will be the last day after staying with my parents for a week. I feel sad that I have to return to my husband's house tomorrow, while he will be away for business trip, leaving me and my mother in law at home.

The cataract removal is a simple procedure, but it takes a lot of post-operation care. My brother helped with the cooking most of the time, while I have been the driver. I don't enjoy the kitchen work, and don't have much passion on food. I much prefer stucked in the traffic than stucked in the kitchen.

I am pretty depressed now.

Bits and pieces

I have been busy travelling between my husband's house and my own home recently.
My mum just removed the cataract from her right eye today, she will do the same for her left eye coming Monday. So I am staying at home during this time.

After the visit to Korea, our agent had placed their first order, which is also my first order today. Not much, but was pretty pleased. Despite all the quality issue we have recently on our China product, and the discouragement from our MD, I am still feeling rather pleased... may be some hint of disappointment, because now that Korean market has showed some potentials, the MD said that he will take it away from me, and let some other sales person handling it.

There are still a lot of work to follow up for the order. So I shouldn't slack too much.

In fact, I should actually start looking actively for jobs, instead of letting the workload pouring over me. I am too tired covering Decamouth's work due to his incompetency, trying to open a road for myself by keep requesting to be in the sales team, and trying very hard to adapt myself to this new life after marriage.

I think I deserve a better treatment for my contributions.

1st Chinese New Year as a wife of someone

As we all know, Chinese have a lot of traditions to follow, and depending on the clan, there are different ways of doing things.

This is the first time I celebrated Chinese New Year with my husband's family. It is a totally different culture to mine. Although I am not particularly in agreement with some of the things they do, but in the name of respect, I kept my mouth shut. Nonetheless, I played along and entertained tonnes of stranger relatives and their intimate questions. I hope when it comes to my husband's turn to visit my family, he will at least stay for a longer time, without playing with his phone or flipping the TV channels.

I feel that women after married lost their identity. They become someone's something. Wife is just one of the checkboxes in men's life. Chinese stress on caring the elderly, ironically I always felt that the maternal family and relatives are conviniently forgotten, or put at a lower priority.

I guess gender equality can only be achieved without getting married. Once married, you are done.

Anyway, men and women must not argue on such things, there is no right or wrong. We can only agree to disagree.

Happy New Year 2012

I would like to accomplished the following during this 2012 new year:

1. Finish moving and unpacking my stuff in my new home. -- I have lots of rubbish accummulated over the past decades, which I am having trouble finding time, energy and space to sort them out and place them nicely in this new home. My room is like a war zone now... and will be like this for a long time, because I will start work from tomorrow onwards. This means I have about 1 hour a day to do anything useful at home.

2. Find a suitable job to continue my engineering career. -- I had a nonsensical meeting with the corporate HR the other day. They told me despite my technical competencies and cross-functional roles in the office, they will not promote me nor transfer me to other departments, as it is not within the company's expectation for me to continue developing myself after returning from the USA office. They will, however, train Decamouth to become a better leader, so that myself and Ms England would like to continue working for him.

They requested me to give them 6 months period to see the transformation. Otherwise my resignation will be treated as my personal grudge against Decamouth.

I think it is time to change course. I will find a job in this new year, and leave them to their monkey business.

3. Take care of my own donation accounts. -- My parents have been managing those accounts since I was young. It is time for me to take care of it now.

If possible, I would like to visit these organisations this year.

4. Resume participation in charity work. -- I have stopped participating in charity work since before leaving to USA in 2010. Now that I am more settled, I guess I could take out a weekend per month to join my husband for some charity work.

5. Exercise at least 3 times a week in the park in front of my house. -- I haven't been doing much exercise, and after moving to this new place, there is no more reason, the park is less than 5 mins walk away from my house.

6. Keep in touch with my friends. -- I have been meeting my friends after married pretty frequently, and I love the time spent with them.

Unlike my husband who has all his friends and relatives around the same area, and could meet up for a chat anytime. I need to drive a little further, if not flying, in order to  meet up with my friends, which of course would spend a little longer time comparatively. I guess time management is the key.

7. Visiting my family at least once a month. -- Given that my family is pretty busy, it is hard to find them available at home... But I miss home after married.

8. Reward myself once a month, without blowing the budget. -- I have not been rewarding myself enough throughout 2011, and have dumped all the money at the end of the year for crazy shopping... I am guilty for spending a little too much in the shopaholic shrine.

9. Start growing my own vegetables. -- My passion fruit plant in my house has started producing large, juicy and passionately red fruits for months. I have started planting baby leeks in front of my husband's house. Let's hope it would start growing.

10. Go for honeymoon. -- My husband's friend has bought us a travel package as our wedding present. It is a travel package to Cambodia. We have not claimed or make any bookings, will need to get that done some time soon.

11. Find someone who can carve the world map onto a 4ft tall x 8ft long steel flat plate. I would like to hang it onto the wall in the stair well, and hook up all the fridge magnets collected from all over the world.

My experience with slimming center

I have been feeling bad about my lower part of the body since young, and since I am getting married end of this year, I thought I should put in some effort to make myself look a little better. Since I have never been able to wear pretty dresses because of my body size.

So, I walked into one of the famous slimming center in town, which have been endorsed by various Hong Kong actresses.

Upon walking in, the lady was desperate in making the sale, she brought me into this consultation room, and asked me to strip off my clothes. I dislike the way I was asked, as she was sitting down, crossing her legs, and her tone was like giving commands. No one feels natural stripping in front of a stranger, though I still keep my undergarments, I felt uneasy.

She took my measurements after that, and I realised she made up my measurements when she filled in the cards. My waist and hip measurements were added two extra inches between the measurement belt reading and the consultation card. My weight was added a few more pounds too. She thought I wasn't aware of it, and thought not many people would be sensitive to pounds and ounces in this SI unit country. She was messing with the wrong people here.

After taking the measurements, she started introducing the slimming treatments that are "suitable for me". She tried explaning how the slimming treatment works scientifically, but again, she was messing with the wrong person here. She clearly didn't do her homework, when she is selling their hottest product -- radio frequency and infra-red treatments. She can't even tell the frequency that the waves could penetrate the skin, and at what level the reaction would take place -- these things are all over Google. But given that she is not a technical person, I didn't want to catch her.

Total up all the treatments, I was quoted RM 66,000! She quickly said it was a list price and she could give me a discount by phoning her manager (so much like those car sales men I met in Kansas!). She came back and gave me a discount, the discounted price was RM 23,000.

She then pushed me to make decision on the spot, and when I explained that I didn't know I have to make payment or decision on the first consultation, she threatened me that the price will not be the same when I visit next time etc. (It stated clearly in their website, that the clients are given the freedom to make their decision after the first free consultation)

She even asked me to use my ATM card to go to the banks outside the shop to take money for down payment. I refused, but she didn't allow me to leave the consultation room and kept offering other products that are not relevant to me, but lower price, so that I could swipe my credit card.

She also tried to attack my self-esteem by critising how bad my body looks, and how badly I need those treatments. I felt rather hurt there.

I eventually said I wanted to call my husband for opinion cause it involved a lot of money, and I increased the phone volume (so that she could hear what he said), and purposely asked him some bimbo questions to make him angry. Of course the plot works, and I managed to get out of the consultation room by saying that my husband is against the slimming package.

I guess the 23k quotation gave me a good slap on the face, and that I am wide awake now, knowing that I have to learn to accept my body. I exercise regularly and have healthy meals, I took good care of myself, so I just have to accept whatever that was inherited to me. Sad but there is really no shortcuts in life.

If I were to have that amount of cash to be given out at one go like that, I would prefer to use them at places that are more worth it.

Ear piercing

Got my ear pierced this afternoon at the local jewellery shop. Cost RM30. It came with a pair of dummy earrings. I am supposed to wear it for 2 weeks, before replacing it with the gold earrings for 3 months. I can only wear other earrings after that. Need to refrain myself from seafood and nuts during these time. I had my ear pierced long time ago when I was a child. But due to regular X-ray on my head, I didn't put the earrings back, and the holes eventually healed. In the old Chinese believe, when a kid were ill most of the time, it means the evil spirits are disturbing the kid, making it difficult to raise the kid. In order to avoid being disturbed, the parents would pierce the kid's ears. It is a way to tell the evil spirits that this kid is no longer perfect, and hoping the spirit would not take this non-perfect kid away. Anyway, this is the second time in my life I got my ear piercing. I hope I could get over it smoothly.

First time driving in snow

It started snowing since Saturday night, through Sunday until now. Nonstop.
I drove the first time in snow on Sunday. It was a short distance, the snow wasn't thick, my car skid a little when I made a 90 degree turn, but was managable.

It got worse this morning, when I need to drive about 15km to go to the mechanic's shop to have my engine oil change. It took me more than 1 hour to get there.

My car skid a few times, because I didn't know how fast I should drive. The brake hardly works when it gets about 40mph. I had to quickly switch lane so that I don't bump into the car in front of me. Also, when big truck drove pass me, I could feel that my car skid a little.

Things that I took for granted in Malaysia got to me now. Windshield wiper, I never thought they could stick onto the screen so tight.

Water on the windshield could freeze in seconds that it actually scratched my wiper rubber.

Air conditioning becomes so valuable at this time, because it helps the back of my car to stay clear. (I don't have a wiper at the back)

Can't see the road, can't see divider, can't stop properly, can't drive straight well enough. The pond behind the office was frozen since November and it is now covered with snow. I wonder if anyone would think it is a flat land.

The snow was about 4 inches thick this afternoon, I think it will get thicker tomorrow. Worse thing is, since the ice on the car melted halfway when I drove it, it is going to get harder when it re-freeze tonight. I am starting to think if I should walk to work tomorrow.

May be I have gotten used to the temperature here, I don't feel that cold. I never experienced less than -3degC before, and I was outside when it was -11C these few days... I guess without wind-chill effect, things become more bearable.

Crazy women

When I first came to Kansas, I met a great colleague from Germany. He gave me some help in adjusting to the life here. Though it was minal stuff for him, I am very grateful for his help, and we became friends since then. We kept in touch after he left Kansas, on work and off work, occassionally.

I sent him a few lines before Christmas, wished him happy birthday and merry Christmas. And this is what I got on the second day of the new year (I deleted the names mentioned in the email) :

Hello,
I am D´s girlfriend from Germany. We are more than four years together. Now I see that you communicate via mail with him. I have visited him in March/ April in Kansas. We were together in Chicago. During my Kansas visit, I met many of his colleagues and friends, but dont heard your Name before, I cann´t remember. So who are you, what are your intentions? Please explain me where and when you met him,
I hope for your honest answer

Happy new Year and
Best Regards
T

I pity this colleague. His gf apparently was checking his personal emails, I hope she is not controlling his life.

I think she should learn to respect her bf and his friends, have some faith in herself and her relationship, and learn to be more matured -- just because her bf are friends with other females, doesn't mean that there is something going on.

It can also proof that she is all about herself, because if she really loves him, she should have known that harassing his colleague risks jeopardising his career and reputation.

I originally wanted to reply to her email, but experiences told me that would only create more nonsense, so I decided to ignore it. There is nothing going on between us, which I felt that there is really nothing I need to explain, especially to a stranger that wrote a rude email to me.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time I met this kind of women, but she is the first one that puts things in black and white. In fact, I met women like this when I was studying:

Some of my guy friends' gfs got so worked up, they started brain washing my friends, and eventually I lost these guy friends. Some called to question me for spending time with their bfs after school. I can't even attend one of my friend's wedding due to his bride. I'm warning you girls who want to study mechanical engineering, this is one of the many shits you would get.

In fact these things occurred to me even when I was in high school. I knew this guy through inter-school activities and his sister was my junior. He used to picked his sister up after school and hung out in our club room while waiting. We shared some common views and chit chat a lot.

Unfortunately, I was stalked and bad mouthed by the girls from his school. One of them threatened me not to get close to him. I questioned him for the malicious rumours spread in his school about me, because I thought it was him that initiated it, otherwise who else would know me from his school? He didn't react, so I guess technically we didn't quarrel, but he looked very disappointed. I avoided him out of anger, distrust and fear from those girls. I eventually lost contact with him. A few years later, I heard from someone that he passed away due to leukemia. I regretted for not trusting and not having confidence in the friendship, and listened to those strangers' words.

I was naive by answering to these hostile confrontations honestly when I was young, but I won't acknowledge these nonsense anymore. Because there is nothing anyone could do to instill trusts between a couple.

To those guys that avoided me because of these women, you have no balls. To the girls that does these nonsense, you are mental.

Happy Birthday

These are the things I have done before last year's birthday: Things I have done this year.

For this year, I won't list the things I have done, because being able to come to USA, even for less than a year, has given me a lot of "firsts".

The most important lesson I learned this year, is to be comfortable in my own skin. I hope I get to keep this feeling for a longer time, even after returning to Malaysia. I am really not looking forward to returning...

Of the goals I set at the beginning of this year, I guess I achieved most of it. I need to continue working on those which needed a little more push. There is still December left, before 2011 comes.

Here are the goals I listed at the beginning of 2010:
1. Improve my inter-personal skills (+)
2. Continue practising my violin (-)
3. Try to draw more. (-)
4. Try harder to be myself, as in trying to voice out my thoughts more. (+)
5. Keep in touch with my old friends. (0)
6. Need to think more creatively. (0)
7. Save some money, or perhaps increase my income? (0)
8. Love myself more. (+)

(+) is improved, (-) is not improved, (0) is hanging in there.

And I would like to be more confident, have more faith on myself and gather enough strength and wisdom to overcome the pasts, while opening a new future, starting from now.

The journey to Washington and New York got me started thinking to venture into studying architectures...

Ambank Online Banking

Not sure if you can see the message above, click on it to view the original picture. It said:

Kindly be informed that the AmOnline will not be available daily between 11.45pm to 06.00am. Thank you for banking with Ambank Group.

This happens every so often, it makes me wonder what is the purpose of having online banking?

And worse still, how about their overseas customers? Do I have to wake up in the middle of the night to do the banking?

Malaysia really boleh...

Long Live the Smoke Alarm

After listening to my neighbour's dog barking at 4am on Friday morning, suffered migraine due to lack of sleep, which also affected my sleep on Friday night, had a very busy Saturday... When Saturday came to an end, the day light saving finally started!

Just when I thought I finally "earned" one extra hour of sleep, the dang smoke alarms woke me up at 4am with beeping sound every 20-30 seconds. I have two in my house! -___-!

I tried reset it, it won't help. I slept with ear plugs, the only thing that made me feel good was, I hope my neighbour's dog heard it. Because I really hated the Americans with dogs -- To me, if you don't know how to control the behaviour of your dog, then don't own one. That dang dog bark when sees car passing by, heard me playing violin, and most importantly, when the owner leaves the house, which is the worst offence, because it would bark for 2-3 hours non-stop.

I woke up first thing in the morning rushing out to get batteries. But the darn smoke alarm won't stop blinking, and still beeping away after replacing the new batteries.

Googled for the manual to reset it, but only good enough to get rid of the beep, the flashing red blink still going on until now.

I tried disconnect it from the mains, took away the battery, man, the darn smoke alarm was like having a life of its own, it continues to beep, as if taunting me for being so naive, thinking it would be quiet by unplugging it.

Anyway, I am going to let it blink, until the next beeping event occurs. For the time being, I am not keen to contact the management, as it takes them forever to solve problems. Especially the front desk lady, who spends long time chatting with young and handsome tenants, and ignoring others. She even told me -- I am busy with XXX, if you can wait, I will be with you in a minute. I waited for 15 mins, hearing her trying to ask that guy out, and how that guy just wanted to get things done and got out of there. I gave up eventually and left. This was not her first, but was the worst to me.

Also, I am not comfortable having people entering my house when I am not around -- I don't have any place to lock my important belongings. As safe as it seems in America, I don't come from a safe and trusting place, a place called "the rest of the world" -- Human being is as good as human being, you never know when or what would make the person decide to behave otherwise.

Birthday coming

Saw JW's message, reminded me of her birthday in October. Happy birthday JW!

Most of my friends are celebrating their birthdays towards the end of the year. All starting around October, through December.

Mine is coming soon, and it is not the first time I spend my birthday overseas. But it will surely the first time I spend it in America.

I am starting to think of what I have done this year, and what I want to do for next year... let me start by digging out my list from last year.

me is from Jamaica

The toast masters committee wanted me to be the grammarian on the coming meeting.They said I have a British accent, so, shoud be good at grammar.... I don't see the correlation between the two, and I certainly don't agree with the British accent.

Within the same week, someone called a wrong number to my house, the person asked if I am from Jamaica, I said no. He then said, nice accent, I thought you are from Jamaica.

The Jamaica reminded me of another wrong number call while I was in UK. An American lady called and she insisted she called the right number, and it turned out as an interogation... she asked if I were in UK, how come I have Jamaica accent.

There were several other incidents, where I was mistaken too... I was mistaken by Chinese as a Taiwanese; also by Taiwanese as a Chinese. I think I was also mistaken as Korean once.

Now I am curious how Jamaican speaks...

Come to think of it, Americans have relatively bad score in their world geography knowledge... I bet most of them think that if you were not American, you must be Mexican or Jamaican....

A wedding in early October + Self-esteem practise

Knew about this wedding since a few months ago.

So, I took the time to equip myself with the necessities -- gown, accessories, shoes etc. Also took the time to equip myself with the make up skills.

Anyway, the day had finally arrived yesterday. It took place at the golf course behind my apartment. I was so out of time, after spending one hour trying to put on the seemingly basic make up. I left the house in a rush without taking the phone and gps.

The wedding ceremony was great, and very pretty. There was some great selection of musics -- Bach's sleepers awake, Pachelbel's canon, Vivaldi's winter largo etc.

The reception was in a different location -- down town, where my gps is most needed. Anyway, I tailed the rest of the cars and managed to arrive safely. The dinner was simple and heart warming, the dance music were great.

I also got the bouquet... the fan is the wedding gift from the bride and groom.

I went to a course offered by the local college, called "Bullet-proof Self-Esteem", yesterday morning. Somehow found out that it is really ok to just stand up for yourself, and if I lose some friends because of that, it is ok.

So I practise it during the after dinner party. I was assumed into a position without knowing -- I offered to drive one of the guy, J, home because he was a little tipsy and we live close. So, when he said he wanted to spend some time at the after dinner party, I don't see any harm and agreed to drive there too.

But that idiot guy I mentioned in the previous entry (here)wanted to tag along, and he talked to J. J said ok, and I nodded, though having a bad feeling that something bad would happen. The idiot brought along a Thai guy.

The distance between the club and the wedding reception was 10 mins drive.

About 1 hour into the party, most of the married couples and J wanted to go home. I didn't know my way home, so though J said he would follow the rest of the married couples to leave, I was afraid that I wouldn't find my way home. And since I was feeling rather bored and tired, I preferred to go home too, as my initial attention wasn't to stay for the party for long.

But the idiot didn't tell me he is the pack leader. And the Thai guy assumed that I was the lead driver. They accused me for ruin the party, and wanted me to wait until they are done with the drinking. They said the lead driver should stay until the end.

I don't like people assuming me into the position, they didn't tell me that they want me to be the lead driver in the first place. If they want to be the pack leader, I think they should drive their own car, instead of hopping into someone else's car for convenience sake.

The usual me would just compromise and stayed unwillingly, go home late, and wasted my remaining weekend feeling tired and angry about myself. But I wanted to practise what i learned from the class, and I stood up for myself. I said, I have a commitment, and I am telling you guys my plans now, so that you can find an alternative way to go back to the dinner venue to get your cars later.

In my mind, 10 mins ride, they could easily get a taxi outside the club anyway. Downtown area is very happening during weekend nights, and lots of taxis parking there waiting for customers. But I was accused, and forced to apologise.

I apologise for ruining the party's atmosphere, and mentioned that I did not know that idiot was the pack leader, and I didn't know their plans either.

Eventually, the idiot agreed to follow me to my car and take their belongings, after he sorted his way back home. And I could leave early. Only then I realised, they actually wanted me to drive them home, instead of driving them back to the dinner venue to get the car.

I guess I learned my lesson -- instead of relying them to tell me the plan, which most of the time, they don't have one. I should tell them right away, that I don't plan to stay late.

Anyway, I guess it once again proof that I should just stay away from some people, who doesn't worth my effort to be nice. And I think I did fine standing up myself. Even though I upset a few people.

The incident reminded me a short conversation I had with an old acquaintance, while waiting for the other friend to arrive. She is an air hostess, and the other friend is a beauty pageant, compared to them, I am the most common one. The two of them seemed to have some tension, and while waiting, the air hostess told me, '... we are old enough now, we should be able to choose our friends wisely. Unlike when we were young, we tend to compromise ourselves to fit in with others.'

In a way, it actually means, if you can't get along with that person, we are old enough not to waste too much of your life to be bothered by it and move forward.

It reminded me, when we were young, we tend to speak what we want without much thinking, yet we managed to get some good friends. Why can't we do it now? I am glad to have found a few friends that are comfortable with me in my own skin.

American pronunciation

I brought a bottle of home made peanut butter cookies to work the other day. The cookies are very small, like the size of the thumb nail, I filled them into the Nutella bottle.

When I put down the bottle on the common area, my colleague thought I brought some Nutella chocolate cookies.

"Oh, Nutella cookies!" I heard them saying 'Nu-tella', where 'Nu' as the Greek alphabet 'Nu'.
I was puzzled, because I have always been reading it as 'Nut-tella', because it is made of hazzle nuts. The way the American pronounce it, it is so nerd, kinda made me felt that I would be a nerdy nut, if I eat Nutella in America.

Anyway, it is just the American ways of reading stuffs, such as:
Route - US version "Raot"; rest of the world "Root"
Multi - US version "Mao-thai"; rest of the world "Mao-tee"
Anti - US version "An-tie"; rest of the world "An-tee"

I guess the list could grow longer...

By the way, I joinned the Toast Master's club, and made my Ice-breaker's speech today. Awarded with the best speaker, and got to keep the little 6 inches trophy for two weeks until our next meeting. Will upload the photos later.

Dumpling and Soccer

Weekend activity: Dumpling and Soccer.

Went to a Chinese colleague's house on Saturday, and was having some kitchen chat with her.
We were supposed to made dumpling together, but my skill was so bad, she ended up making all of it. And my responsibility was to finish those dumplings.

It tasted real good, and I came home with an over-fed stomach.

I intended to keep the Sunday open, so that I could do some window shopping in the shopping mall. So I pushed away the frisbee game with other colleagues, rejected the lunch with some fellow Malaysians in the sushi restaurant.

I woke up late, had a good chat with CX in Derby on the MSN. Didn't know the built in webcam in my new laptop actually comes with built in microphone as well. Awesome. So we both gave each other a house tour by carrying the laptop around.

By the time we are done, it is already 2pm, and if I didn't leave the house by then, it wouldn't worth going to the shopping mall any later. So I drove out... as I was about 3 miles away from the shopping mall, I received a sms from Mr. Techno, asking if I would like to join them for the soccer game -- Manchester United vs. Kansas Wizards.

I longed for that game since before the World Cup, but reckoned that I couldn't find anyone to go with me, nor do I know how to get the tickets. So I gave up and never thought about it.

When his sms came in, it didn't sink into me, that it is this weekend that the Man-U is playing. I continued driving for a while, and finally realised that I should probably join them. Made a U-turn 1 mile away from the shopping mall, made a phone call to Techno and I was there 1 hours before the game starts.

Didn't bring any camera, the lousy phone could take picture, but couldn't download it.

Half way in the second half, the football went to the audience seats, someone threw a beach ball back to the field instead.

Lots of people brought their Vuvuzela, I thought that was plain annoying.

The game was pretty disappointing, Man-U players seemed to have totally drenched themselves in their own sweat, running very slowly. We decided to leave early, it was 15 mins before the game ends, MU 1 - KW 2. It was an embarrassing match in my opinion.

Generally, I think it is a good experience -- watching live football definitely feels different than watching it in front of the TV.

Ironic enough, I rooted for the Royals last week for the baseball game, they lost. I rooted for the Manchester United this week, they lost. I guess next time I shall root for the opposite side instead.

New Laptop with Window 7

Bought a new laptop recently, out of necessity.

I think the last time I owned a laptop, I was running some simulation, and burnt the hard disk while the computer were working overnight.

Since then I switched to desktop, and carried that desktop all the way from UK back to Malaysia. It has served me well for more than 5 years, and still running. I didn't bring it with me when coming to USA.

I came here with the company laptop, and have been surviving with it until I have this new laptop. This Dell Inspiron is the basic model, I was struggling between a netbook and a proper laptop. Since I brought along the drawing tablet, I feared that the netbook would not be able to cope with the drawing.

Anyway, the Inspiron arrived my house shortly after lunch today. It is pretty sleek, and it is larger than I expected. The only thing I dislike, is the glossy finish body -- It is covered with my finger prints now.

Window 7 is a brand new experience. I dislike the fact that they are mimicking Apple OS, and I couldn't access the C:\ drive. Will try to find my way round it.

Though my old Corel Painter Essential is no longer supported by Window 7, it is compensated with a better Paint -- with some basic brushes to choose from. I like the fact that the interface between the drawing tablet and the Window7 has improved, writing is feeling much more natural now.

Haven't fully explored the laptop and the softwares yet. My guess is, it shouldn't be too different from the Window principles we have gathered over the decades. Let's see...

Aircraft and Baseball

Received a flyer about a month ago, in the apartment mail room, regarding an aircraft expo and open house organised by the Commemorative Air Force - Heart of America Wing, at Olathe Century Air Center. The flyer was buried by piles of paperwork on my dining table, I totally forgotten about it. It mysteriously came out yesterday -- the day of the expo, when I was having my breakfast.

So I drove to the venue, and had some fun looking at those military vehicles and aircraft display. Managed to climb into one of the small little one (yes, the one in the picture). It is a really small two person aircraft. It is made of wood and canvas, very light weight.


Saw the Spooky (gunship) and Sea Horse (chopper) that served the Vietnam war (still have bullet holes), I am too lazy to upload the photos. There were many other aircrafts on display, one guy even flew one of the plane, which was amateur made. On the open ground, there were also some antique cars which we saw on those old English show. There was a band performance in the warehouse, some indoor activities for families and kids, and some indoor display of other stuffs. I typically fond of these:

There are a few other, larger guns on display, again, I am too lazy to upload them here. My affection towards guns started when I had my first shooting with my colleagues, I was thoroughly thrilled by the smell of gun powder, and the power that comes out from such small little thing. It is an engineering piece, that turns into art and requires a huge amount of respect.

That was my Saturday activity highlight. On Sunday, I went to a baseball game.

I got the tickets on Thursday evening from my colleague -- two seasonal tickets, with free car park. She and her husband couldn't go, because her brother in law is visiting on Sunday. I could turn it down, because I know if I did, I would regret it. The next problem then becomes how to find someone to go with me. I knew Mr. Techno would love the game, but I didn't want to create any misunderstanding; I tried asking a Malaysian colleague, who is 10 years younger than me, guess what? The misunderstanding I tried to avoid with Mr. Techno, now appears between me and this Malaysian colleague. What could I say? I guess the social etiquette just sucks.

So eventually, I asked this intern girl, who stays in the same apartment community as me. She was feeling extremely bored the moment the game started, while I was shouting and cheering.

The Royals' performance was not as good as I thought, may be their opponent, the Oakland Athletics, were too strong?

Some of the mini games that interacts with the audience and kids are pretty funny, I typically love the running competitions organised by Heinz. They had three kids from the audience dressed up like sausages, one tomato sausage (red), one mustard (yellow) and one relish (green). Had them run for about 1 mile. When the kids were running, they sausage costume looks funny, as it would "nod" along the way. Mustard took the lead, followed by ketchup and relish.

I generally love the baseball game, it is a relaxing outing with family and friends. Though the weather was extremely hot, the crowd didn't mind at all. I hope I get to go to another baseball game again, and this time, with someone who knows baseball and enjoys it.

Those who has my facebook, I have uploaded the pictures there. The blogspot uploading simply takes too long, and I keep having to get into html mode to move the pictures to the right place, that's why I get lazy uploading pictures here.

British food

Sigh, after seaching for 3 months, I have finally come to know that THERE IS NO FREAKING MARMITE IN USA!!!!

I am so sad.

As I surfed online for alternative Marmite supply chains, I have come to know that Marmite is a British stuff. Man, I used to hate British food, because they are plain, the only seasoning would be salt and pepper... BUT, I have finally realised that I have been taking things for granted, they have the ebony elixir -- Marmite!

The worst thing is, as I browsed, I found out more things that I missed... like the Bisto gravy. I used to love having Christmas turkey with lots of gravy. Even having beef with gravy. I would make the meat swim in the pool of gravy.

But in Kansas, though the beef tasted good, there is no gravy! The only sauce most people use here, is the BBQ sauce. How disappointing.

Sigh, I used to complain about British food so much, but now I am craving for their Marmite and thick brown viscous gravy.

It is sad that the Americans don't even know what they have missed.