My Wife's Nightmare

No, my wife's nightmare wasnt me but this little critter. You can find these lizards everywhere in Lagos. But the worst are the big ones who roam the rooftop of the hotel we're staying. Their tails are so heavy that they you can hear them walk on the roof at night. Just imagine how big they can be.

Lagos Sunset

Beautiful sunset in Lagos.

Six Billion Secrets

Do you want to know the secrets of 6 billion people?  Well then, check out Six Billion Secrets.

Can You Get a Refund for Household Goods Purchased in Malaysia?

Note: I received this information from a friend which I think all Malaysian consumers should know about.

Dear All,
 
I concur this message about Tribunal court claims. To support this story, let me tell u guys about my experience two months ago.
 
I bought a robotic floor vacuum cleaner for slightly over rm1000 after believing the sales talk and seeing it perform live on the counter top. It seemed to do whatever was promised there and then. So, I got one for myself after that.
 
After trying it out for 4 days at home, I was totally dissapointed and fed-up with the unit in terms of performance output and convenience of use. So, I brought it back to the outlet in 1-Utama for a refund. Of course their 1st reaction was to persuade you to exchange it for some other electrical appliances but I insisted on a refund only. They stood firm and refused my request. So, I did exactly like what was said in this e-mail, I told them that I will bring this issue to the Tribunal Tuntutan Pengguna Malaysia and file a court case against them. Immediately, the supervisor called his boss and after repeating the same speech to him myself throught the phone, he relented and gave me back my money in full.
 
So, guys n gals out there, know your rights and STAND BY IT! I did...and I got back my hard earned money - rm1000!
 
- Curtis
 
 

 

Contract Law In MALAYSIA
 
Legal Issue on Contract Law in Malaysia - Good for us to know 

This is something I like to share with you from one of my seminar recently. If you find this informative, pls circulate. It was conducted by A/P Catherine Tay on Legal issues in E-commerce.

Notice that most of the time, the receipt / invoice you received from the merchant carries this exclusion clause or similarly worded statement: 'Goods sold are not returnable' or 'No refund once sold'.

The thing that I have learnt from her is that : 'As long as your good is purchased for home use and not for business ( i.e. to be resold), the above exclusion clause is VOID.

That means, as long as the good is defective, regardless of what is worded, you CAN get back all your money spent. You do not have to accept a repair on the good or an exchange. You CAN ask for a refund. AND you are LEGALLY right and entitled to! What a relevation!!

And most of the time the merchant will refuse to return you your money. 

Her advice?

From her own experience ( and no less than 7 and all successful!) , she will threaten the merchant with four words: 'SEE YOU IN COURT!'

The court here refers to the Small Claims Tribunal Court.

However, you don't have to tell them what court! All you have to pay is RM10 admin fee and the loser (the merchant) will have to refund you the money PLUS the admin fee!

She shared this with us because she felt that even educated people are cowed by such unfair wordings (which includes her jaded friends who are not lawyers).

Pls try not to let the merchant fleece you the next time you have a defective good.

I know where to file this. On the 16th floor of Putra Place (The Mall opposite Putra World Trade Centre). The form cost RM5.00. The Tribunal will settle within 2 months period.

Tribunal Tuntutan Pengguna Malaysia ,
Tingkat 16, Putra Place ,
100, Jalan Putra ,
50622 KUALA LUMPUR  
Tel: 03 - 40492300 / 40424181 Fax: 03 - 40424259 

Lagos Traffic - No Different from Kuala Lumpur

Pictures below depict the after work traffic situation in Lagos.

Isn't the traffic condition the same in Lagos as that in Kuala Lumpur? 

I guess both governments are not well versed when it comes to traffic and town planning, are they?

But we're lucky. We stay only 45 minutes away from Victoria Island. Some of our Nigerian colleagues have a 5-hour daily commute to work. We look at them with pity. But isn't it how our colleagues from the west look at us Malaysians when we say we have a 2-hour commute to/fro work daily when they only take about 30-45 minutes?

Malaysia - so much more to learn and develop, there's no way we'll be developed by 2020. From the current political scene, it looks like we're heading backwards!

So much for Vision 2020!

When Does KL Roads Look So Clear?

When and how often does the roads in KL look this clear?

These pictures were taken at 7.30 am in the morning when even the moon hasnt gone to bed yet. Oh how I wish it was like this in the evening.

And no, these pictures werent taken during school holidays when the roads are relatively less packed with cars. This was a normal working day.

A TV Interview Which Was Never Aired In The UK.

You know there are so many TV channels, each starved of new programs.
 
In a rural program for farmers, a female TV reporter seeking the main cause of Mad Cow disease arranged for an interview with a farmer who may have some theory on the matter.
 
The interview went as follows:
 
Lady reporter: "I am here to collect information on the possible sources of Mad Cow Disease. Can you offer any reason for this disease?"
 
The farmer stared at the reporter and said, "Do you know that a bull mounts a cow only once a year?"
 
Reporter (obviously embarrassed):  "Well, sir, that's a new piece of information, but what's the relation between this phenomenon and Mad Cow disease?"
 
Farmer:  "And, madam, do you know that we milk a cow twice a day?"
 
Reporter: "Sir, this is really valuable information, but what about getting to the point?"
 
Farmer:  "I am getting to the point, madam. Just imagine, if I was playing with your tits twice a day and only screwing you once a year, wouldn't you get mad?"
 
The program was never aired  .....

Ship Wreck

A ship sinks in high seas and the following people get stranded on a beautiful deserted island in the middle of nowhere:

A. 2 Italian men and 1 Italian woman
B. 2 French men and 1 French woman
C. 2 German men and 1 German woman
D. 2 Greek men and 1 Greek woman
E. 2 Polish men and 1 Polish woman
F. 2 Mexican men and 1 Mexican woman
G. 2 Irish men and 1 Irish woman
H. 2 American men and 1 American woman
J. 2 Indian men and 1 Indian woman

One month later, on various parts of the island, the following is observed:

A. One Italian man killed the other Italian man for the Italian woman.

B. The two French men and the French woman are living happily together.

C. The two German men have a strict weekly schedule of when they alternate with the German woman.

D. The two Greek men are sleeping together, and the Greek woman is cooking & cleaning for them.

E. The two Polish men took a long look at the endless ocean and a long look at the Polish woman, and they started swimming.

F. The two Mexican men are talking to all the other men on the island trying to sell them the Mexican woman.

G. The two Irish men began by dividing up their part of the island into Northern & Southern parts, and by setting up a distillery. They do not remember the Irish woman because it gets sort of foggy after the first few liters of coconut whiskey; but at least the English are not getting any.

H. The two American men are contemplating suicide. The American woman is bitching about her body being her own, the true nature of feminism, how she can do everything that they can do, about the necessity of fulfillment, the equal division of the household chores, how her last boyfriend respected her opinion and treated her much better, and how her relationship
with her mother is improving.

J. The 2 Indian men are still waiting for someone to introduce them to the Indian woman..
 

How Old Do You Think This Car Is?

How old do you this car is? Obviously from the design, its unmistakeably a Mercedes Benz but to see such a beauty on the roads these days is rare. 

Women - Butt and Brains!

Today, on Facebook, a friend posted this:

With time, women gain weight because we accumulate so much information and
wisdom in our heads that when there is no more room, it distributes out
to the rest of our bodies. So we aren't heavy, we are enormously cultured,
educated and happy.
Beginning today, when I look at my backside in the mirror I will think,
Good grief, look how smart...

So for all those women with small butts, just like everything else on their body, does that mean their dumber than women with big behinds?

Hmmm......

How To Protect Your Email Address

Bumped into this service today, scr.im.  Something like all those URL shortening sites but this one shortens your email to keep it safe. But to come to think about it, what does it matter since if an email can reach you with this shortened address, so can spammers! But apparently scr.im has a way to blocking spammers and bots. Go try it out if you're a geek.

IBM ThinkPad or is it Lenovo's?

Well, it's no longer IBM's Thinkpad, its now Lenovo's Thinkpad and despite the old, clunky look, its still one of the most efficient laptops in terms of heat dissipation.

My wife was just given a Thinkpad and despite leaving it switched-on for hours, its keypad is still cool as ever compared to my darn Dell and Acer laptops, which become so hot that I can probably cook an egg on them daily.

Efficiency over style - that's the Lenovo Thinkpad for you.

Be Thankful!

Be thankful, life could be worst.

Petronas Twin Towers Missing?

Sorry if I misled you but the Petronas Twin Towers were covered by the low lying clouds due to the early morning rain last week. I couldnt see the towers until the clouds went by.

Kuala Lumpur: Big City - Small Town

These pictures were taken from Kampung Baru, Kuala Lumpur. Kampung Baru is probably the only place in the city where you can find old, village styled houses.

I was there visiting my wife's friend who just gave birth to the tallest little girl I have ever seen. Parking on the road side's were safe - car didn't get any ticket or got towed away other places in town where you'll either get a ticket within 10 minutes or find your car missing, been towed away to Jinjang.

It's still nice to see the old village type of houses within KL. They add some color to the monotonous brick and mortar layout that KL seems to have.

St. Francis Xavier Church Sports New Altar

Went to St. Francis Xavier Church (SFX) this morning for mass and was pleasantly surprised to see their new altar. The altar reminds me of a Gothic century church altar, just like those in Canada although I don't know what the white piece of structure on the roof is supposed to symbolise?

But the interior of the church was warm, despite the multitude of fans blowing away. I guess air-conditioning the church just like the Jesus Caritas church in Kepong Baru wasnt part of their renovation plan or someone overlooked it. I know of some SFX parishioners who were complaining about why a little parish like Jesus Caritas can be air-conditioned while SFX could not. Well, SFX is a huge church. Getting the air temperature in such a big space down to 24C within an hour is certainly not possible. Jesus Caritas is such a small church comparatively.

Anyway, on the way out I saw a brand new Prius in front of me. Way to go hybrid car.

Quote by Erwin Schrodinger

If you cannot, in the long run, tell everyone what you have been doing, your doing has been worthless.
- Erwin Schrodinger

Á Wife's Mystery...

Disclaimer :  Issued in the public interest of all the "bachelors" and any coincidence to a real life "married" situation is purely accidental &  unintentional!     

The Wisdom & Joy of Making Haste Slowly

by Philip Humbert

Remember the saying, "haste makes waste?" We live with constant change and tremendous impatience. We want solutions and we want them "NOW!" We want relief, we want success, we want the future to arrive easily, cheaply and soon!

And, at the same time, we want peace of mind, simplicity, and release from the stress of moderne life. My friend, George Dubie, says, "hurry is the devil" and he's right. I love the quote from Gandhi that "there is more to life than increasing its speed."

This week, I watched Steve Jobs offer a free case to "fix" the new iPhone's antenna problems. In their rush to market, apparently they over-looked something and now they've got egg on their face. How sad!

I think nature is constantly trying to tell us this. Recently, I saw a National Geographic on how change takes place in nature and while this was not their major lesson, here's what I got:

1. Rapid change is often marked by chaos, confusion, pain, suffering and sometimes disaster.

2. Slow change is marked by growth, beauty, evolution and astonishing complexity.

Now, obviously those rules don't always apply, but here are my thoughts. Rapid change comes from things like volcanoes and earthquakes and hurricanes and floods. Yes, change is quick and powerful and awesome. And, yes, there is beauty in Mother Nature's power, but the results are unpredictable and filled with unintended consequences.

On the other hand, slow change created the Grand Canyon, Giant Redwoods, and the rich soil of the Great Plains. Slow, methodical human labor created the great pyramids, the Great Wall of China, and the Taj Mahal. In his biography of Wilbur and Orville Wright, Fred Howard makes the point that they were successful precisely because of their methodical experiments, careful notes, exhaustive research and willingness to learn from others. They took their time and learned to fly!

We know that fad diets and rapid weight-loss often lead to gaining the weight back within a few months. A better way is to change lifestyle, burn more calories than you consume and slowly, methodically (and safely) achieve your desired outcome.

In the quest for "instant wealth," how many have fallen for "get rich quick schemes?" In our "need for speed," how many of us have run aground, taken the wrong turn or rushed impatiently down the wrong path?

There is wisdom in the story of the tortoise and the hare. Remember their race? The rabbit jumps off to a dramatic, frenzied start while the poor lumbering tortoise doesn't seem to have a chance, but I'm sure you remember how the story ends!

Sure, I want to reach my goals as quickly as possible. Sure, I like going fast! Of course I prefer my high speed internet connection! Who doesn't?

When it comes to reaching our most important goals—peace, prosperity, loving families, personal satisfaction and the joy of living well, Mother Nature seems to know something. She moves slowly and methodically. She does her work in small increments, day by day, always moving forward, taking her time and doing her work with exquisite beauty. We can learn from that.

Guess What This Is?

Guess What This Is....

     

Hint: picture was  taken in 1956...

Answer  below...

Yes – it is a Pan American Airline - Plane

And NO – it is not a Toilet

It's a hard disk drive  back in 1956... with 5 MB of storage.  

In September 1956 IBM launched the 305 RAMAC,

the  first 'SUPER' computer with a hard disk drive (HDD).

The HDD  weighed over a ton and stored a 'whopping' 5  MB of data.  

   

Do you appreciate your  8 GB memory stick a little more now?

 

Is This The Future of the Hard Core Poor People of the World?

Is this the future of the poor people in the world - caged like animals?

Romantic?

A husband comes home from a family seminar. He greets his wife and lifts her up. He then carried her around the house. The wife was so surprised and she asked, "Did the lecturer preach about being romantic?"
The husband said "No he said we must carry our burdens and sorrows"