Which Part of Malaysia is Safe? Or UnSafe?

Ever wondered how safe your neighbourhood in Malaysia is? Well, wonder no more. Kegan Gan has developed a website called Malaysia Crime that keeps a track of the crime rate in Malaysia. There is also an extension for the iPhone.

I dont know how long this website will remain as the statistics will go against what the Malaysian government is trying hard to hide, which is the crime rate is increasing and not decreasing as what the government says.

Let's see what happens...

Lunch at the newly opened G-Tower.

G-Tower, the so-called exclusive self-contained and integrated corporate office, hotel and club at the heart of the Kuala Lumpur (intersection of Jalan Ampang and Jalan Tun Razak), was our venue for lunch today as a colleague mentioned that the tea served in the cafe was immaculate. So we went, all 6 of us, hungrily.

The cafe waitress ushered us to a table large enough to fit 5 thin men and 1 hefty one. And so we ordered. Sandwich sets, which came with local tea, were RM15, which I considered reasonable for a high class establishment until I realized that the sandwich cost RM7.50 and the local tea made up the balance RM7.50. Pretty expensive for a plain old teh tarik, inst it? Seeing my hesitation, my colleague offered to share his tea with me since the tea was served in a pot, enough for one or two cups.

I was severely disappointed when the sandwich arrived 30 minutes later. First of all, I was terribly hungry. The sandwich arrived so late and then the bread was tiny. Aaaahhhhh. For RM15, cant they serve something decently sized? But then again, my luck wasn't as bad as my lanky colleague's as he waited for close to 50 minutes before getting his sandwich. They ran out of salmons and the waitress over promised him, so she had to make good on her promise and ran away for some time before coming back with a nice salmon sandwich for him. By then he was fuming mad. I offered him a portion of my sandwich for a trip to McDonald's later for seconds but being a Penangnite, he respectfully declined.

Then came the bill. We had a hard time getting the bill - first, we couldn't get their attention to call for the bill although the were standing there doing nothing. Second, after we got their attention, getting the bill took another 10 minutes. I thought they were calculating the bill by hand.

The other thing that got us fuming was people coming in later than us had their food earlier than we did. At first we thought they had pre-ordered the food until the waitress said no pre-orders were allowed. Hmm, so why did they get their food quicker than us? Expats? Hmmm....

But on the plus side, we had a wonderful waitress. She was immaculately dressed, very polite and served us well. She even went out of her way to get the extra salmon sandwich that she over promised to my lanky, hungry colleague.

All in all, RM15 for a sandwich, tea, the ambiance and the elegant waitress, yes, I would go again.

When Does Your Malaysian Driving License Expire? Check Online...

If you're too lazy to pat your butt and pull out your driving license to check its expiry date, then head over to JPJ's website to check its expiry date.

What to do with your Children's Lego?

Dont know what to do with your child's old Lego sets? Well, worry no longer. Use the Lego pieces to rebuild your crumbling wall.

 

Shortest Speech by the CEO of Coca Cola.

Disclaimer: I dont know if this is really the CEO of Coca Cola as he looks to thin, but the message is clear enough. Life is too short to be spent at work. There is a balance for everything and I am making a move to find it.

How to Look Like a Hero

by Miles Burke

We've all heard that old adage, 'Under-promise and over-deliver', but how often do you make promises that you end up not sticking to, or -- worse -- end up spending more time or money on the project than the client expects?

There's nothing worse than being told you'll get that report by Friday, to then have to chase it up the following week. It leaves you disgruntled and annoyed. The reason for that is simple: your expectations weren't well managed.

Managing expectations is a large part of what we should all be doing, yet that often seems to be ignored. There's a very good chance that your clients don't know how busy you are, don't know how long a task should actually take, and aren't sure when they should expect a deliverable.

It's up to you, then, to embrace the idea of under-promising.

Say a client asks you to provide some new design concepts. Let them know you'll do some initial rough sketches and that you'll provide two alternatives. Then, you spend that time crafting more polished concepts than they were expecting, and three alternatives in the same time that you've quoted.

You can imagine how the client will feel; you've gone beyond the call of duty here, and provided better quality deliverables than what they were expecting.

The key here is to set the right expectation. Perhaps you always provide three concepts, for all of your projects. This new client doesn't know this -- they expected less from you. But you've given them more, and now they're excited, not just satisfied.

The same advice applies to budgets and timelines. If you believe a job will take 25 hours, suggest it will take 30. You've been smart in adding some buffer time, since you may actually require it, but if you do manage to do the work in just 25 hours, the client will be very happy.

Take our printers, for example. Recently, we sent them a printing job that they said should take only five to six business days to complete. We expected to hear from them in a week or so, but you can imagine our delight when they called three days later to say the job was ready to be picked up!

The printers likely knew, based on their schedules, that they could get the job to us in four or five days. However, urgent jobs come in, and unexpected events happen, so they erred on the side of caution with their five-to-six day estimate.

They likely didn't work any harder to turn the job around faster; all they did was manage our expectations well. I literally told our contact at the printers he was our hero when we picked up the job.

How easy is it for you to be the hero in your clients' eyes, just by managing expectations better?

IPAD Stand

Although the iPAD is not officially available in Malaysia yet, its always good to get its accessories first when the price is cheap.

UFO in Malaysia?

Apparently UFO's were recently sighted in Malaysia. The video clip below shows a brigth light hovering above some high rise buildings.



The original story was picked up from a post by Michael Cohen.

When Cars Got Too Quiet?

First we wanted quiet cars.

But then cars became too quiet that they posed a danger to us.

http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/7/6/business/20100706091428&sec=business

Carrefour Losing to Jusco in Malaysia & Closing Shop?

Only yesterday my wife was commenting on how silly Carrefour's point system is where every purchase of RM50 entitles you to a stamp but you're only allowed 3 stamps per day. So anything above RM150 is wasted. We bought groceries worth RM250 and was entitled for 5 stamps but we only came away with 3 stamps. Wife mentioned something about Carrefour losing out to Jaya Jusco's and lo and behold, we find this interesting article on the Wall Street Journal about Carrefour wanting to sell of its South East Asia stores. I guess their really losing money, arent they?

Platinum Movie Seats

 In Dubai, normal cinema tickets were the equivalent of RM30 while the Platinum seats were around RM100. So we were pleasantly surprised to find the Cathay cinema Platinum seats at the Curve to be RM40; more than double the price of the usual tickets of RM12 but what the heck, once in a lifetime experience. (In Lagos, I came across a naive or more probably ignorant female colleague who couldn't comprehend that other countries can have superior cinema's at a much lower cost than in the UK or the US.)

There were only two shows showing in the Platinum screens. We watched Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz in Knight & Day. 


Being a Platinum ticket holder allows you to wait in the Platinum lounge before the movie begins, where there's a free flow of soft drinks, free Wi-Fi and 4 Ogawa massage chairs. Wife and I spent an hour on those chairs. Pictures below show the interior of the lounge.

Initially I thought the Platinum seats were just above the usual audience. Little did I realize that the Platinum screens were on their own, 16 seats to a cinema. The chairs were fully adjustable. You could even lie flat and watch the movie. The seats were so comfortable and very spacious. Each person had an intercom which you could use to call the butler to get whatever it is that you need, like drinks or a blanket and pillow. Blankets and pillow could be rented for RM5 just in case it gets cold, which it really was. I think it was their way of getting an extra RM5 from most people unless of course, you're my size, then you wouldn't need a blanket. 

All in all, it was a good experience at the Cathay Platinum cinema at the curve. Although our butler never arrived when we called for him because apparently the front desk was full, but the luxurious comfort of watching the movie was worth it.


It's back to my RM12 cinema after this.

Gynaecologist's Assistant Wanted

A man from Songkla  saw a card advertising for a 'Gynaecologist's Assistant'. Interested, he went in and asked the clerk for details.

The clerk pulled up the file and read;
"The job entails getting the ladies ready for the gynaecologist. You have to help the women out of their underwear, lay them down and carefully wash their private regions, then apply shaving foam and gently shave off their pubic hair, then rub in soothing oils so they're ready for the gynaecologist's examination. The annual salary is 650,000, and if you're interested you'll have to go to SURATANI.

"My God, is that where the job is?" asked the man.

She answered, "No sir, that's where the end of the queue is."

Norman Rockwell Moment

by David Vincent Gilbert
 
These are possibly the 5 best sentences you'll ever read:

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.

2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

4. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is the beginning of the end of any nation.

5. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.

When Windows Media Player Stutters

When Windows Media Player doesnt stream Internet radio well, dont be quick to blame your internet connection. It could be that your machine could use some additonal RAM. I increased the RAM on m Windows machine from 1GB to 4GB and my Media player now plays excellent, continuous music.

So when Media Player stutters, check your RAM before your internet connection.

Flickr Banned in Dubai?

Apparently Flickr is banned in Dubai!

Last Lagos Dinner

Tonight we we treated to a sumptuous Japanese dinner by our project manager, Samir Ounnas. We went to the Fusion restaurant at the Lagoon. Here’s the group photo of what’s remaining of the 20+ we had in early September last year. Counter clock wise from the bottom left is the project manager himself, Samir Ounnas, Miguel Sasso, Jason Payne, Alek Lokowizh, Hazem Fayed, Paul Charlton, Tim Whelan, myself, wife and Andrew Dryra.

Samir contemplates a lot in the office. Even now he’s probably thinking deeply about his tea.

Trying to make sense of the menu. Miguel helped make some good choices.

Faces of very hungry people. Jason rarely smiles.

Mr. Whelan has a cool iPod Touch. Never leaves home without it.

Some serious discussion going on. All three are accomplished engineers in their field. Two of them are chartered engineers, while one’s an umbilical expert. No mean feat.

Finally, a smile from Mr. Payne. He’s probably the one guy with the whole Egina project embedded in his head. I can hardly keep track of the flowline data but somehow, he has most of the numbers and data stored in his head. Remarkable.

Nice array of bottle lines up against the wall.

Time to pay the bill. The fastest money counter in the whole of Lagos – brilliant personality.

 

Lastly, a picture of the lagoon where the restaurant is located.

 

The team started demobilising early this month. Tomorrow two go home, I leave on Saturday, 5 remain behind for another 2 weeks. Our 10-month TOTAL Egina Deepwater journey comes to an end.

5 OBSERVATIONS

1. Once, all villagers decided to pray for rain, on the day of prayer all the  People gathered but only one boy came with an  umbrella...
THAT'S  FAITH


2. When  you throw a baby in the air, she laughs because she knows you will catch  her...
THAT'S TRUST


3.Every  night we go to bed, without any assurance of being alive the next  Morning but still we set the alarms in our watch to wake  up...
THAT'S  HOPE
 

4. We plan  big things for tomorrow in spite of zero knowledge of the future or  having any certainty of uncertainties. ..
THAT'S  CONFIDENCE


5. We see the world  suffering. We know there is every possibility of same or similar things  happening to us. But still we get married??.. .
THAT'S OVER  CONFIDENCE!!

Who We Are...

We are all souls in costumes.

Some people take their costume too seriously.

Need to Cool Down?

How's this for cooling? Check out the story behind the picture

Only in Malaysia...