Rise To The Challenge

I stayed back after work yesterday for an extra 5 hours to attend a motivational talk entitled "Rise to the Challenge" that was organised by the company for those who were directly involved in the mini company. This includes those who were in Logistics, Manufacturing, Engineering and Quality. There were all together four session held, two were on Sunday from 10am-2pm and 2pm-6pm while the other two were on Monday 5pm-10pm and 10pm-2am. As a result, the company had a shutdown for this two days to facilitate this motivational talk. I attended the third session which was from 5pm-10pm. Initially, I was not supposed to attend this motivational talk as trainees are not required to. However, I had asked permission from Mr.Parry, one of the organisers of this talk whether I could come and have a look. I wanted to merely sit in and listen to the current company progress and also to hear what the invited speaker had to talk about in order to motivate the staff of PSS to achieve a better production at the end of the fourth quarter.

It had been a long and tiring day for me as I was feeling very sleepy the entire day due to not having sufficient rest during the weekend and also staying up to watch the big match. My eyes seem to close everytime I take my concentration of my work and my body showed a few signs of lethargicness throughout the day. I was wondering whether I should attend or not in the first. However, I manage to pick up the little energy I had and stayed back for it. All of us began to gather at the cafeteria where the tables were arrange and everyone was sitted according to their respective modules. There were all together 6 modules, from one to seven minus number six. I had belong to non of the modules and took my seat at the available place at the end of the cafeteria. The session began with an ice breaker song "Fikirkan Boleh". Then, Mr John Lim who was the QA Manager came forward to present the company current progress report and highlighted a detailed account of what is taking place at PSS in terms of production and whether the company was at currently. My eyes were trying its best to stay awake through all th figures and graph that was displayed.

Next, Mr Ramli who was the second to the GM came on to talk about what does "Rise to the Challenge" means. He had mentioned about this theme previously during the company quarterly meeting which was held two weeks ago. This topic was to motivate the people at PSS that despite the decline in production and the increase in customer complain of late, Mr Ramli spur us to look forward and try our very best to achieve an improvement that would help in next years production instead. There was no turning back and no denial that this year PSS had fallen short from its proposed target but were not ready to give up without a fight. He mentioned that Mr. Theo, the GM who was currenly on a two week vacation was very supportive of this campaign that he had allowed a funding of almost RM20,000 for this event alone. Besides, company had to shutdown and this means that there would be no production that would result in a loss of money as well. Despite knowing this, the management of the company were convinced that they would still go ahead with this plan as they believe that people were very much more important.

After a lengthy speech, we then made our way to the cafeteria counter where a box of 3 piece KFC box and a coke were given out to those who were present there. We sat at various spots and some were made no delay in eating it. On the other hand, the Muslims began to sit with their boxes in front of them as they await the time to break fast. Some were really hungry and decided to order rice with dishes as well. I made my way to the corner of the place as I could not find someone that I knew to sit with and decided to have my dinner alone. Besides, I did not want to disrespect those who were fasting and placed my back against them so as not to show my obviously indulgence. I was beginning to feel a little bit out of place as I did not know anyone there although I saw one of my supervisor who only gave a short stare and hardly made any conversation with me throughout my internship here despite my numerous smiling attempts. My box were soon empty in a short while and sat staring at the glass reflection of those behind me while sipping a cup of Coke.

As I was beginning to leave my table to find somewhere that I could hang out, two person approached my table and sat with me. They had seen me sitting alone and decided to join me. I introduced myself as a trainee and I began to share a conversation with them. They were Latha and Sow, the two module managers for Module 5 and 1 respectively. It was interesting that most of the time PSS workers seem to sit and talk about company related issues. Not that it was boring but it seems common to do so. I learned alot about the company through conversation such as this. I was also surprised to find out that Latha and Sow are from outstation and travel to work daily. Latha resides in Semenyih which is about 40km away while Sow is from Bukit Puchong in KL. I had come to know that there were not the only people who were travelling daily as I had seen a lot of people with outstation number plates coming to work. Other than that, it was interesting to find that both of them came to PSS from different background. Latha is a Mathematics graduate and had worked at PSS for the last 6 years. On the other hand, Sow a mechanical enginner was here since 2000 after moving from Indah Water. My curiosity of his change of work involvement was left unanswered as he decided not to reveal it infront of a plate of Kuay Teow less he looses his appetitite. It was a nice knowing them.

After going into the office and getting my things to put in the car, I made my way back to the cafeteria for the motivational talk. An ex army personel whom I could not recollect his name came to speak to us. He was a former personel who had served in Somalia and Bosnia and currently is a counselor. All of his talk was done in Malay and initial thought would be it was going to be a boring session. This was the never the case as everyone ended up laughing till the cows came home. He started the session by defining three groups of people that a company would normally encountered. The first group was people were called as "Berjaya" or Succesful whose today was better than yesterday. "Sia-Sia" or Wasted were the second group of people who made no improvement that today seems the same as yesterday. The third group was defined with a heavy word "Celaka" or Useless who makes no improvement at all but instead caused today to be worse than yesterday. Besides that, he also make a comparison between male and female worker and stated the the difference approaches that is needed to deal with this two group of people. One of illustration he gave that seem to stuck in my mind was the idea of Contributor (Penyumbang) and Passenger (Penumpang). He gave a comic describtion of people sitting in a bus where there is a driver and passengers in it. One of the passenger had not visited the bathroom for a couple of days and suddenly released one the most distinct smell in the fully packed bus. A chain reaction starts to take place and one of the passengers who has an alergy of foreign smell began to vomit in the bus. The sight of someone vomitting initiated others to follow suit as well and soon enough almost everyone in the bus were caught in a pool of vomit. The driver was oblivious to the scenario that had taken place behind him and countinued driving. What are we to do? Most of us, as the speaker said would just sit in our chair, tired from the outpouring incident. Suddenly, one of the passenger stands out among the vomit filled bus and goes to the front to inform the driver of what had taken place and request for a stop so that the passengers involved could washed up and also allowed the bus to be clean. The person who stood up was obviously a great contributor towards that incident. This group of people are apparently a rare breed and he urge the company to look out for people such as this. His explanation were simple ordinary day to day living but it had manage to bring across a point. There was also the contrast between Perception and Reality which spoke about people who tend to make up a situation in their mind which is far from the truth and this at time causes miscommunication.

Other than that, he also began categorising the people who were there into their birth of dates and group them into the four quarters of the year. I was apparently in the third quarter together with those who were born in July, August and September. Each of the quarters had different characteristics and it seems most the characteristics that were brought up reflected partly about myself. People in the third quarter were stingy, hardworking, serious, attentive, loyal and big mouths. I would say that I tend to be stingy, at times hardworking depending on whether the job or thing interest me greatly and also loyal towards people or an organisation. Besides that, I tend to talk alot and most of the time loud but I do have my quiet moment especially on unfamiliar grounds. The insights were interesting and crude at times due to the amount of horny and corny jokes that bombarded both the male and female. This was all good in the name of laughter and it did help us clear my minds from tiredness and also allowed me to enjoy myself.

We ended the meeting by a time a self reflection about what was being said by closing our eyes, accompanied by the sweet sounds of Kenny G in the background. Most of the people whom I knew took this oppurtunity to doze off. On the other, I was more concern about the idea of this so called meditation and remain cautious of such practice even if it might look innocent at first. It was then time to leave and we got ourselves to the table to sign our names and left with a souvenir mug as a rememberance for our participation. I quickly left for home as I was really tired out and quickly had a bath and a browse through the newspapers before going to bed, one of my earliest attempt to do so.

An Interesting Weekend

Reuniting With the Jedi Master

The weekend was quite an interesting one filled with much activity. I had to endure almost 4 hours of music practice on Saturday as I had to practice for Sundays worship and also reherse for Paul's wedding the following week. Someone had forgotten to inform me of the practice and was fortunate to be there to know about it. Hillsongs "One Way" seem to be highlight of the three songs as it was a song that got us jumping and really enjoying ourselves. I could see it was the couple's favourite song and its no wonder that it made it into the top three list. Other than that, I manage to meet up with Terry who was back for the weekend. I found out that he comes back once in a fortnight. We met up at the nearest mamak to his house, Curry Leaf. I decided to go there as I had not eaten dinner and waited till I met him up as both my parents were away in KL to do some spring cleaning. It was a good time just to catch up with each other and also to enjoy a game of football at the same time. We manage to catch Chelsea in action and the four goals in which Gudjonsen scored a hattrick and Damian Duff added one more against his former club, Blackburn Rovers. It has been almost 2 months we have since had our internship and time seem to pass so very quickly. Work is strainous as it takes up long hours and can be boring at times if there is not much that could be done.. However, the joy that comes from it is I did not need to study and take any exams. I have asked a few people that I had met so far and it seems that many of us like the working experience yet prefer studying life as one is not confine to a standard working hour and thus makes it less routine.

Be Strong

Sunday came and it was a joy to come back to church as I was missing in action the week before. I was certainly blessed by the preaching of a visiting pastor from Tabernacle of Grace Penang who was Pastor Andrew Teh. Initially, he appeared to be someone whom I had to endure for the next few hours. However, all of this was turned around when he delivered the message about learning to be strong taken from Ephesians 6:10, "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.". I did not know why but the message seem to speak directly to my heart. It somehow was related to me on my current way of life and it seems like I had failed to be strong in Him and had succumbed to countless temptations that I had become weak and vulnerable that has caused me to be weak spiritually. I had been given a choice to make a decision but I had failed to make the right one especially when I am on my own and alone. The message was really practical and it underline a few strong bible verses that seem to bring me out from darkness into light. Despite the well presented message. it would seem countless and fruitless if I did not take head to this message and act upon it. I have to agree with the speaker that we should not wait for God to do something, God is actually waiting for us to make a difference. It is a choice that we have been given and we should seize this oppurtunity to make our lives worth living for. It would seem like a long and tiring road to set my feet upon. However difficult the way is, I would need to rely on His strengh to carry me through. This would require me to sacrifice some bad habits in order to grow.

Futsal Friendly

Later in the evening, I was pretty much geared up for a section of weekly futsal. This week our play would encompased two courts with more than 20 people. The reason behind this was that we were going to have a friendly match with a church from KL. We turned up early to warm up before the game as we await for their arrival. It was pretty hilarious when they came into the place as it seems like our group of players comprise of guys and mostly middle aged man. On the other hand, the group from KL were a youthful bunch which comprise of both girls and guys. The different mixture of ages and also sexes did make the whole match interesting. We broke ourselves into 4 teams of fives. I was listed under the group that comprise of Michael, Gordon, Voon Fui and Ming. However, I did not play with them as I was going around making some snapshots of the event that I ended up joining another group which comprised of Uncle Dominic, Steven and two new people, Ah Chuan and Ah Mun. It was pretty normal for us to see new people coming and joining us in a game of futsal. Most of this new comers are friends of those who studied in IMU.So, it was a good avenue for us to meet new people and strike a chord with the non-believers through a game of futsal. Our game soon started and we were given 10 minutes for each round. Two teams would enter the court while two awaits for their turn.

After much playing for the last 3-4 months, it seems like we were outclass especially with the more senior players of the visiting church. We were practically hammered down with a series of goals that they had perfectly set up. It seems like we had failed to organised ourselves properly. Other than that, most of us were not season footballers or were new to each other footballing styles that we had not adapt to. However, all was well as it was merely a friendly match and we took it as a learning exposure for some of us. The other court saw a much younger team facing the older guys from my church. Never underestimate girls on the court as they had manage to produce a few goals that had the guys in awe. I pressume that they could not really play as rough or physical with girls around and this was an advantage for them. In conclusion, girls are the best defense for a team.

It was certainly a tiring affair for me as before I could catch my breath after a game, I was soon called into the game. I realised that I still needed to work on my stamina although I can relatively say I am quite alright. Besides that, I seem to run around the field more and it seem to make me tired out easily. However, I took it as a good endurance test for me and needed to practice more to improve my game especially my shooting skills which I always failed to deliver when I am given the ball in front of goal. All in all, we played around 2 hours of football and time seem to pass by so very quickly that only a tired body would tell one to stop from it.
Throughout the friendly, most of us were very much in the game. We were concentrating on trying to score or lay a good pass for our fellow team mate who were in a better position to score. Some were not as coorperative and prefered to go for goals on their own. It is interesting to see the various characters and personaly on the pitch. The way they handled the ball and contributed to the team spoke alot about their true self. Besides all of this, there was a lack on interaction with the visiting team. Most of us only exchange a few words like "Good game", "Well done" or "Good defence". There was a lack of oppurtunity to get to know them in person and strike up a conversation. However, I was fortunate enough to get to know one of the two new guys who joined out team during the break which was Ah Chuan. He is currently looking for a job after coming back from Sheffield University, UK after completing his degree in computer science.

After the long and tiring game, I made my way to my grandparents place who had called my parents and I in the morning for early dinner. This was because Auntie Carol and Uncle Ju Seang were back for the weekend. It was good to see my two young cousins who were constantly seeking for me to play with them and also enjoying hitting by but as I walk to the kitchen and back. We sat down for dinner and the table was spread out with an array of food from my grandma's cooking that included Steamed Minced Pork and Curry Ikan Haji with fish eggs, coupled with some Malays kuih and snacks that my Auntie had bought from the nearby Pasar Ramadan at Ampangan.

The Big Match

My body was physically drained out and was hoping to have a short rest when I return home before the big showdown between the two big teams, Manchester United and Arsenal. I laid in bed to rest for an hour but could not shut my eyes even when I was so tired. After some time, I woke up and then made my way to my dad's room to catch the match with him. It seems like everyone was gunning for Manchester to win this match and win they have at the end of 90 minutes of 2-0 with a penalty shootout that was converted by Van Listerooy and a field goal from Wayne Rooney. Despite their win, there was nothing much to shout about. It was not fair game and Arsenal lost because they played well and fair with many good oppurtunities in front of goal. The only barrier for them to score was the goalkeeper. It was an uptight game and the game seem to be a one sided affair as usual. Manchester seem to be on the upper hand due to the referees inability to conduct the match fairly although Mick Riley was reputated to be the best referee in England. It was a shame to see him succumbed to the pressure of trying to avoid any intense moments between the players by keeping his book to his pocket until after 30 minutes when Ashley Cole was awared the first yellow card of the game.

Manchester's players were given much leniency despite a push from Rio Ferdinand to deny Ljunberg was head on to goal, ankle jamming towars Reyes by the both the Neville's brother and Van Listerooy jab towards Ashley Cole knee when he tried to keep to the ball in play. As an Arsenal supporter, I must admit that I do not like Manchester United due such obvious incidences where players are vicious in bringing down players and granting favour from the referee just to win a match despite being second best. Its frustrating to see how an underserved team like Manchester United had won the game. However, I am pleased with Arsenal's response and spirit that despite failing to achieve a 50 match unbeaten run, they are still confident that defeat does not mean an end to their title chase to remain at the top of the table and also to achieve other great feats such as making it through to the last few stages of the Champion League despite a recent poor runs of draw.

Week 7 : Fitting In

It has been another week. I skipped last week entry because I could not generalise the whole week into an entry due to the activity that I had taken apart. This week had been another week that did not have any outstanding events. The only change that I had so far this week was a change of place. I was supposed to take over Pei Chin's computer this week as she was due to end her 7 months and a half internship last week. However, due to unforeseen circumstances she was supposed to stay back for another two more weeks as she had to write another program to allow mobility for the user to make changes using notepad and also to be access easily from the server where it is stored. As a result, I am currenly sitted between Elfiz and Mahadi which is where the phone used to sit comfortably. It is a bit cramp but I managed to make do with it as I am currenly using my laptop to do work. I decided to bring my computer again as it would be a hassle to obtain a computer and a place to put it due to the office full capacity. Therefore, my cubicle is the most filled compared to the rest. I was quite afraid to be place between them as I did not want to bother them with their work and had scouted around for a new place but found none. I even brought a chair in from the meeting room last week and place it behind Pei Chin and it was like a standalone office by itself. Fortunately, I made some ammends to my work schedule and decide to attend to other things like audit to spend my time. Elfiz apologize for this inconvenient but I was more concern about disturbing him instead. He was nice to accomodate me and had to sacrifice some space for me to sit in.

My computer had been having some problems for the pass few weeks ever since I installed a Window Update. My dates has been jumble and could only display year 1999 and 2099 although I had yet to change the battery for my internal clock previously. I have to boot up in bios everytime to change my date and time. Besides that, decimal places seems to be missing and it is really confusing when you found that there is extra hard disk in your computer when there is no such change except for misplaced decimals. As a result, I decided not to installed the VB project from Pei Chin's comp which I had previously worked on and decide to make some adjustments like reinstalling Windows and Visual Basic 6.0 before continuing programming. I am currently working on a dummy database using Access so that I would be able to link it with my project and present it to my supervisor. I had not much experience using Access but now I can say I know what tables and query are all about and how to link them up. Its interesting to learn how to use new programs when the project that I am given requires me to find ways to make myself learn it. It seems like a better learning method compared to reading slides and studying about it which I usually can not remember at the end of the semester. All is working out well but there is some areas which I have yet to find a solution. Hope to see myself finishing this project as soon as possible before shutdown and venture into other areas.

My company will be undergoing a shutdown from 10 to 17 November 2004 in conjunction with Deepavali and Hari Raya. It is an shutdown they do annuall around this time due to number of Indians and Malays working for the company. A shutdown means that the machine will be stopped from production which normally occur round the clock. As a result, I would be getting a 1 week break which actually sums up to two days only and would return after Raya. This shutdown is timely as I would be having plans with my family including my grandparents and my auntie to Penang to spend Raya there.

Other than that, I had been spending a lot of my time this week mixing around with the new engineers of my company by having lunch and tea breaks with them. I finally got to know the last of the two new engineers namely Sugu and Ajay. It seems pretty much fun mixing with a bunch of guys. Most of them are Indians and it does remind me of my group of Indian friends that I used to hang out with in secondary school. The group that I normally mixed with comprised of Stanley, Baljinder, Long, Lim and the two new guys, Ajay and Sugu. This are the additional people that I had mixed with besides Ah Hew and Pei Chin. As I mixed with more people, I began to learn more about the people I mixed with. I have not been hanging out with Pei Chin recently as it is pretty hard to make a conversation with her. I had wondered why and realised this week that she is more connected to girls instead of guys. She currently mixes with a group of ladies which she seem much comfortable. Ah Hew on the other is very approachable and we could come up with a conversation about anything under the sun. Food seems to be our favourite topic. However, he is a more personal and one to one conversation seems to suit him more. Besides them, I got to know the new lady senior engineers, Chan whom I heard did Chemincal Engineer and a Masters in IT. I had also manage to exhange a few words with the loudest guy you could hear speaking over the phone, Mr. Yap. I did not know him earlier but had managed to learn much from him just by listening to his conversation and learning the way of addressing people in different way. I noticed that the people had begun to take notice of my presence as I had managed to get some feedbacks from the smiles I usually send across to them. This had make me feel a bit more at home and I am feeling alot more comfortable now compared to previous.

My handphone has gone kaput and am currently using a 3210 which my mum has been keeping aside. It all happened when I was in the toilet taking a bath when the alarm came on although I had close it and began vibrating on the table and soon was at the edge of the table and down it when with a hard knock on its head. I could not turned it on and this was a quick end for my phone.Sigh!

A Thought To Ponder

Dinner time had always been a time when my parents would start advising me about my future and what I should do to prepare myself especially when I am currently doing my internship back in my hometown and am going to graduate next year. The issue of finding a good job at a good company have always been the issue that I had to faced. This has become more frequent especially when my sister prepares to go for her internship next semester. My parents have always stressed that she should get a good company so that she would be able to countinue working there later if the job is good.

It seems quite obvious that my parents seems to be adamant about working in KL. They are able to come out with a hundred to one reason why KL is not a good place to work. This had strengthened their reason even more since I started training in Seremban and they have always mentioned that it is a blessing to stay here instead of working in KL where I had to endure the tiredsome and long jams that KL is famous for.

To a certain extend, I must agree to their reason that I am quite fortunate for not having to travel down to KL to work as intended to and have the oppurtunity to be close to home where I would not get myself in such a situation like this. Besides, food is applenty and I have the oppurtunity to rest and see as much TV as I can back at home. It seems Seremban seems to be an ideal place to live and even to find a job. They have insisted that if I was to graduate that I should apply to work here if I did not manage to get a good offer that be a better option to stay in KL.

KL seems to be a place of hustle and bustle. Besides, it is not easy to live in KL especially for a fresh graduate who need to come up with extra money for house rental and maybe to even finance a car. There would be not a single penny left in the pocket at the end of the day. It would merely be surviving. I have heard of similar incidences as this and the thought scares me at times.

I do agree to a certain extend that Seremban is certainly one of the best place in Malaysia to stay. Geographically speaking, Seremban is one of the most strategic places to live in as it takes less than an hour to travel to the city of Kuala Lumpur which is reputatable as a shopping paradise and a happening place to hang out, to the beaches of Port Dickson, to the KL International Airport to travel to the rest of the world and the to the mountains and hillsides of the places liek Jelebu and Ulu Bendul. Besides, there is not much of a problem when it comes to public transport as Seremban host one of the central points where people could take buses to anywhere in Malaysia (considering many people only know Seremban because they had temporary stopped by while on the way to other places like Malacca or KL) and the KTM Komuter which takes one to to KL without having to go through the jams. Other than that, the cost of living in Seremban is pretty low as compared to KL. Food is reasonable and the cost of renting or even buying your own house is so much affortable here.

There is so much advantage in Seremban that it does makes you wonder why does everyone throng to KL to get stuck in the rat race life. I do agree yet cannot imagine myself now staying and working in Seremban. It is not surprising as I have met some fresh graduates from as far as Sarawak to as near as KL who have come to Seremban to work. However, weekends would see them heading to KL instead as there is not much to do in Seremban. My parents have even given me some thought about staying here to work for a couple of years so that I would be able to save enough money to buy a property or even save up for my future whether it be for my wedding or setting up a business.

I still have yet to ponder as my current mentality is to pursue my career in KL just like everyone else. Right now, I am not so sure. However if there is a good oppurtunity for me to stay, I may consider it after I have calculated the cost of staying in KL instead. A thought to ponder.

Cruising Down Memory Lane

The sky was finally clear from a week long of haze that had prevented the hills from showing itself and for me to get to my gear and go on my rounds up the beaten path where I would travel upon to loose some weight. Its been almost a week since I had jog though I was not deprieved of any exercise considering I still had my weekly futsal to get me in shape, I hope. I went about the usual road that lead to a under construction site which had a steep road that encircled the area. Many people had taken the initiative to come here for their daily walks or jogs, most of them twice my age. After completing 3 rounds of jog and 3 rounds of walk, I made my way back as light soon turned to darkness. I was asked by my mom to go the nearby shop to get a few sticks of satay to add to some other dishes that my dad was buying back. After waiting for some time for the shop to set up and paying it in the end, I made my way back. By now, the sky was pitch black and the street lamps were the only source of light to get me back home. Suddenly I recalled my days back in primary school where I would go on afternoon errands to the nearby foodstall to get lunch before I get ready to go to school. Mom seldom cooked and eating out was considered a norm to me ever since I was young. I could recall making my way to the back of the shops to get a few packets of chicken rice which were topped with fried garlic and also wan tan mee. It seems such a long time since I had walk to the shop to buy food ever since I started driving. The walks to the shop had stop and it was much easier to drive there instead. I missed those times and this was one of the chances I had to recall such a time as this.

My Weekend Part 2 : Grandma's 79th Birthday Dinner

I was off to with my sis to KL to meet my parents who were already at the hotel which we would be staying over for the night. My mom still had an extra room to use and wanted to use it before her membership expires at the end of the month. We stayed at Prince Hotel and decided to opt for the deluxe superior suite which was located at the highest level on the 29th floor. The room may seem a big bigger than the previous room we had stayed in. It was divided into two sections, the living room and the bedroom. There were two bathroom. One was near the entrance which was neat the entrance of the door and the other was situated in the bedroom area which was very spacious that one could have mistaken it for a dance studio due to its wide mirrors. It was equipped with a bathtub, a wide wash area with two basins facing a huge mirror, a toilet bowl, a "washing backside" bowl and a shower area within a glass enclosure.

I personally did not like the set up of the area as I felt the space had been deprived due to the wall that separated the living room and the bedroom which was connected by an open door. This made the buildup of the room to be relatively small and cluttered up. I would prefer a spread out area without much visible boundaries. However, I must admit the finishing of the room was first class as it was adorned with goodquality wooden panelling, colourful soft carpet and even an automated curtain drawer equipped with a remote. The only thing that I had failed to utilise in the room was the free broadband connection. The thought of bringing my laptop slipped my mind although knowing about it when I was here previously. All in all, it would be an idle place for two person to stay in. It seems quite a romantic place to be in especially for its wide bed that could sleep three and the enormous bathroom where I could imagine a couple spending a huge amount of time in it.
After a quick bath, my family and I got ready to travel to the destined restaurant to meet my grandma, uncles, aunties and my cousins. We were to have our dinner at Noble House which was situated along Jalan Delima adjacent to Imbi. It would seem like a very posh place to be in as we drove up into the area where valet parking seems to be the only option to put one car. My dad left us at the entrance and went to the back of the place to find a reasonable parking place. The place seems different as the entrace brought me into not an open place with chairs and tables but a reception area where there were covered rooms everywhere. It seems like the concept of this Chinese restaurant was based on an enclosed private room concept. It kind of reminded me of the old chinese movies where one enters into a so called restaurant and hotel cum brothel that had private rooms at the bottom and the top of its place. Our room was easy to find as it was the first room situated in front of us as we entered the entrance. There, we found my grandma, Auntie Yee Fun or Ah Mui as we are used to call her, Uncle Yee Hoe and wife.Uncle Yee Kiat, Auntie Chin, Ah Mei and Kok Hong entered later into the room making up for the 13 of us. We exchanged greeting and soon food was served. It was an incrediable dinner that left me in awe, both in taste and price. The list included;

Three Chosen Treasure
( three spoons of lobster prepared in three different ways with a lobster head as decoration)Seafood Soup
(an individual bowl of soup that contains a piece of sharkfin that was not shredded, crabs, sea cucumber and other delicacies served with beansproat and )

One Whole Abalone
( a whole abalone served in clear brown sauce with brocollis at the side)

Steamed Cod Fish with Chillis
( a piece of cod fish that was accompanied by clear saltish sauce top with chillis blending two flavours in one)

Roast Piglet Skin
(a serving of three nicely roasted skin of three piglet)

Roasted Piglet Meat
(this was from the piglet we had ate the skin of which was fried again)

Hand Made Noodles
(a very fine noodles that does not stick to one another which reminded me of pasta cooked with chicken meat and some garnishing)

Pear stuffed with Snow Jelly in Sweet Syru

(p/s : No available photos for the food as it was not appropriate to take the glorious food although I wanted to. Name of food is just a guess as I couldn't remember the real names of the dish and decided to made it up.)

It was an experience to savour. Both my sis did not really like such exquisite food and prefer the ones you would find at hawkers instead. As a result, most of their left over was passed on to me which I gladly accepted. It was pretty interesting to hear the different topics which was tabled during the dinner session. The topics includes our features to feng shui and to studies. It was quite common to keep up to date with one another as we hardly get a chance to meet with each other except during Chinese New Year. I kind of realise at the moment as I sat beside my cousins, Ah Mei and Kok Hong that I was not very close to them. What was more surprising was that my sisters and I are do not have cousins that we can say are very close to us. It seems like we were close within our family and not beyond that. Its quite puzzling for me at times when I compare and wonder why others have such a good relationship with their cousins or even familiy members. It does boils down that we hardly did spend much time with one another while growing up and this has cause a gap in the relationship although we are related to one another. We seem not to know each other and our presence seem foreign to one another. Besides that, its hard to make a conversation as the conversation does not really progress but stops after a question have been answered. Its hard to build back the rapport between family members especially with my cousin and I wish I have a chance to do that.

I did not sleep very well that night due to a bad cough I was suffering. It seems to get very bad at night and dad had to wake up in the middle of the night to give me some hot water to drink which had help the cough and allowed me to sleep. My family did not go to church on Sunday morning and it did felt a little strange as we do not usually skipped church on Sunday. However, we did not go due to time factor and the availability of a church nearby.

(***Pictures will be up shortly***)

My Weekend Part 1 : CF Comm Meeting

I headed down to KL this weekend to attend the CF committee meeting which started at around 9am and exceeded until 6pm. I could not stay until the very end for prayer as I had to travel down to KL with my sis to attend my grandma's 79th birthday. The day started very much early in the morning at around 6.45 am. There didn't seem to be much of a difference compared to other days as I would wake up around the same time to go to work. After a short breakfast, I headed down to the KTM station to make my way to Serdang. The travel would take me about an hour to reach. Shen Shee gave me a lift to Cyberjaya as she was also attending the same meeting as I was. Fortunately, she was staying in Serdang as well or else I would have to wake up very much earlier to travel down and also endure the time consuming bus ride that would take me to Cyberjaya.

The meeting saw most of the committees attending excepy for Peik Yin who could not be around as she had some dinner preparation to attend to. Though she was not physically there in person, she was very much in the meeting as she had wrote a lenghty mail in respond to Leona's previous mail on the agenda and Beatrice was chosen as her spokesperson. It was a relatively long meeting which was something not uncommon. There were some issues that needed more time to discuss and others which were mainly updates about the development of pass and future events. Sister Annette was with us momentarily and needed to leave us early as FES was hosting an International Student Night on the same day. It was quite a fruitful discussion though I had tried to guard my responses in the discussion which I know at times I could get abit carried away and may response in an unkindly manner. I have taken into consideration of my responses and realise that I needed to be more sensitive in responding to someone properly by making sure that whatever I wanted to bring across be presented in a positive manner.

In the meeting, I decided to stress the importance of communication and submitted my plea to my fellow committees to constantly update everyone on things that they have planned and are doing. This is to allow us to be aware of each others progress and activity. At the same time, this would allow anyone of us to respond, to give feedbacks and to pray for one another. I feel this is lacking in the committee as there are many instances where some of us are left in the doubt about certain events that are being carried out. Those who are undergoing industrial training like myself are not aware of certains decisions made or are being carried as we are not in CF most of the time. I just hope that the person who is leading the CF would facilitate in making sure this communication takes place. Sometimes I wish I could help in this area but I am not in a position to do so though we have said that we are equal in status. However, I still believe that each of us are given a part or position to play in. All I can do is to give my views and suggestions and hope that we are able to see in the same light.

My Audit Experience Part 2

I would had to make a decision to either either one of the audits that were sheduled to be going on in the morning. The choices include "Calibration and Measurement Standard Action(MSA)" or "New Product Initialisation (NPI) Process". I asked for advice on which to attend from Fizah who was sitting beside. She recommended me to attend NPI instead of MSA as it would be more interesting. She would be sole representative from the other fresh graduates to attend the management side of it while the others were headed for NPI. I was still not very sure about which to attend and made a quick search over the intranet for some information. I decided then to attend NPI as it was under the Engineering Department which I deem would be more practical for me to attend compared to MSA which was under QA. My decision to attend the audit brought me to Common Room 1 where it would be held and I managed to meet and introduced myself to two fresh graduates, Lim and June who were going to attend the same audit. I finally found the oppurtunity to have a conversation with them although I had greeted them with a smile before but made no verbal contact before. We went to the room and found ourselves earlier than the rest. Both the auditor, Mr Lau and Mr Kelvin were already there browsing through their laptops and making preparation for today's audit. Mr Kelvin left the room thereafter as he was conducting the MSA audit which would be running concurently. We were later joined by Mr. LT Chan (Engineering Department Manager whom I had met previously during lunch previously), Jeyanthi (Documentation Personel), Mr Fong (NPI Head) and Mr John Lim (QA & Customer Service Manager). Other people who came into the room later or were requested to do so included TT Long and Baljinder (two fresh graduates in QA), Mr Matthew (Chemical Department Head, a fellow church member), Mr. Lotfi (Test Engineer) and Mr. KS Ng (FMEA).

It was a gruelling 3 hours where we set in the room. However, there were some snacks and drinks to help us forget the long hours.I sat behind to listen to all that was going on during the audit session as Mr. Fong presented his department to Mr. Lau. There was a series of enquiring about the process and also highlighting certain area that seem to be grey and needed to be attended to. One the highlight of the meeting was the issue of communicating and working hand in hand with the product design in Hamburg, Netherlands and the process at PSS. There does not seem to be a distinct connection between the two sides. Besides, there was also a highlight regarding about the the preventive measures that did not seem to served much purpose as documents had been signed to validate a certain problem could be handled but changes were still ongoing and there was not much updating that was done to state this changes. The issues were asked from different perspective of the entire department. What was interesting was to see how Mr. Lau chose to right question to address despite having a general idea of what the process is all about. It was interesting to see how someone is able to address an issue and ask the necessary question that even left some of them in doubt. Experience in previous audit in other manufacturing served as a good backbone for him to do so as he began to recollect certain scenarios that he had audited before. There was occasional disagreement but I totally respect the way the audit was handled professionally that allowed two parties to settle and discuss issues in a control enviroment without having a venting of emotions or feelings.

Sitting in for a meeting for three hours was tiring task. However, it was soon paid out when I joined the rest for lunch which was prepared for those who attended the audit at the cafeteria. The spread that was laid out at the back of that place was different. Even the plates was different as well. The food that was served today was something not of the ordinary that I usually eat at the cafeteria. The array of food included fried rice, bolognaise spagghetti, fried potatoes, chicken chop cooked in black pepper sauce, fish fillet and cauliflower. It was simply different that made it delicious. Besides that, it was free. I set in the table with the fresh grads who attended the audit as well which included June, Long, Lim, Baljinder and Fizah. It seems pretty obvious that Lim also took notice of. The fresh grads and myself, the trainee were sitted on one table and the big bosses were sitted beside. It was another obvious scenario of a socially divided society.

I made a stop over at my cubicle before I was coerce by Fizah to go for the audit final meeting which would be at 2.15 at CR1. Initially, I did not want to attend as I wanted to do some of programming which I had yet to make any major modifcation to the codes. Since I had already attended the previous audit sessions, I could not missed hearing what the results were. As I made by way to CR1, I was shocked to see the room packed to the brink as everyone from every department in the company were there to hear the much awaited accessment. This would not be the final result of their certification but it would give them a rough idea of their chances in obtaining it. Mr. Lau and Mr. Kelvin took turns to present their respective analysis during the 3 day audit. There were all together 18 areas of interest in which Mr Kelvin took eight and the rest were from Mr. Lau. In spite of its serious environment, there were certain moments where laughter broke out that were brought about by both the auditors themselves or members of the floor. In the end, it was all boiled down to how many Non Conformity Results (NSR) they had.

There was a great improvements compared to last year as they obtained only two NCR. Their accessment were based on the guidelines that were stated in a book to entitled a company to obtain a ISO/TS16949 certification. The audit this time was a followed up from the previous audit last year when PSS obtained this certification. This certification is important to PSS as it would allow them to supply their products to automobile companies thus extending their market beyond the electronics appliances. However, their results would have to be based on the audit from both Hanburg and PSS. Other than that, they were also required to meet the datelines of 90 days to make the necessary changes to their current process before everything can be finalised. The results took just half and hour and it ended by the auditors crediting certain improvements being made compared to last year and also the presentation of appreciation to them.

My participation in meetings did not just end there as I was off to the company's quarterly annual meeting which was held at 3.15 at Training Room 1 & 2 (TR! & TR2). People from the the top management level to the technicians made their way to the meeting area to hear about the progress of the company since the third quarter of the year. The General Manager of PSS, Mr. Theo Halders chaired the meeting. He started the meeting by going through the progress of the company by reviewing a number of graph in the past quarter of the year and previous years to see where we were at and where to look towards in the next quarter and also next year. This was done by giving us a scenario of a typical American sport movie that depicted an inferior team who had beat all odds in surviving through the preliminaries and were getting ready for the final game. Things were beginning to turn for the worse as they started to loose the game due to various reasons that include their major players who were either off form or injured before the game. Mr. Theo added that we were in a similar situation and rallied the group to look forward to the second half of the game where they would need to work hard and be high spirited to go pass this competition.

We were informed that the we would not be able to meet our target sales due to certain arising issues which had cropped up in the third quarter that had made a significant impact on the company's progress. One of the biggest issue that had cropped up is the increased of customer complaint starting from the month of August till now. This had forced the management to make necessary decision to cut cost to balance and contained the situation from turning bad. This would cause the company to reduce the number of contact workers in the company which would mean that a certain group of people would be laid of their jobs. Another impact prior to that would be the reduction in bonuses that many people had questioned. Mr Theo gave an explanation to all of them that this was because of the decision of the company to come out with the bonuses at the end of this month before Deepavali and Hari Raya so as to allow those who would be leaving this month to obtain their bonuses before they leave. It was obviously a hard decision to make as there were many aspects that needed to be looked at besides reducing which included taking care of the welfare of those who had going to leave PSS.

Other than that, other speakers such as Mr. Ramli (The Assistant GM) came forward to spur the people to look ahead by providing us the goals and also the solution that were needed to shftt us in the direction of success. He also reiterated that what we are about to do now would not change the fact that we would be unable to meet our goals for this year but stressed that it was for the benefit of the year to come. There was also a ceremony to award gift and recognition to those who had made PSS proud. This recognition was to be given to the group who had gained many reputable mention in the recently concluded National ICC Competition that was held at Istana Hotel. The meeting ended after an hour around 4.30 pm and I made my way to the cafeteria for a cup of warm tea with Fizah and Stanley.

It had been an interesting day for me as I had learned much from sitting in the respective meetings that were held. I discovered another avenue where I could go into if I would to continue becoming an engineer which is to qualify as an auditor. The work of an auditor is not an easy task as it requires one to stay up late to check different shift and if require even the early morning shift. Besides that, one needs to made the necessary background research to understand the nature of the company's processes and also to write a report of their analysis. Other than that, it would required one to travel from one place to another. However, I heard the money is good but the work is hectic. There is an option to do this part time or full time as well.

One of the key things I learned was the ability to accessed the company by asking the right questions. It seems pretty easy but it takes one with some experience of the system to look for the necessary information that would help him accessed a company to qualify for a certification. Besides that, my involvement in both the audit and the company meeting had given me a much clearer picture of the organisation. It does give me the shivers thinking about the amount of things that needed to be considered in a company, from the operation to the wellfare of the people working in the company. This has provened to me that it takes a lot of experience and also the right people to run a multinational company such as this. Its no wonder why management is such an important tool in the company.

My Audit Experience Part 1

It has been a pretty interesting day at work for me during the past few weeks. My daily routine of sitting down in front of the computer programming the Yield Module from morning to evening was finally interupted by sitting in for an audit session and the company quarterly annual meeting. I had requested Mr. Elfiz for permission to participate in the audit to get some in depth regarding the nature of it after hearing about it from my informative collegues where news are spread to the entire office by their ever resounding voice of theirs. News and updates of the company are transmitted verbally across the cubicles and it only takes an attentive ear to capture it. I was unfortunate to miss the Manufacturing Audit which took place on Tuesday night where most of the module head had to stay back until 2 am in the morning as auditors reviews their setup and process. Despite not knowing about it earlier, I decided to join in for the other audits to come which included the Quality Assurance Process (QAP) and the New Product Initialisation (NPI).

My first audit on Quality Assurance Process (QAP) took place on Wednesday. However, my initial response to it was not a pleasant experience. I made my into the line the meet the group of people who were going around the line to audit who were previously giving an explanation of its QA Process in Common Room 1. The lady whom I met earlier to ask for permissing to attend the audit did not call me back as intended to. I made by way then to the FA Lab where I had learned that the audit was going on there. I stood outside the lab door as there was a banner that indicated "No Admittance without Permission". I did not there enter the lab as I was a trainee who was not familiar with the people in the audit group and had no intention to disturb their ongoing audit. I stood outside the door smiling to those inside waiting for someone to call me in. However, I was only met by blank and cold stares. I stood outside there for 15 minutes as though I was invincible being. It was a weird moment and I felt stupid. I had intentions to leave as time was nearing the end of office hour. My previous experience of waiting outside someones door somehow kept me there. My worse experience as I recalled was sitting outside a FCM specialist office for two hours before I finally met him regarding about the booking of venue for Cyber Christmas Exhibition last year.

Its an awkward feeling to be ignored. I have began to slowly adapt to the non friendly and hospitable environment that seem to be a common practice by those in the manufacturing industry. It is hard to feel welcome at my company as friendly smiles are usually repaid by blank stares instead. Whats make it even worse is one of my supervisor who is the Quality Assurance Section Manager display such characteristics. He does not seem to be interested in your welfare at all. Chances of one making a conversation with someone or even befriending them would normally had to be work related. It seems that everyone seem to be preoccupied with their work and do not bother areas or people that are not associated or involve with them. Racial and social discrimination are quite obvious during breaks or lunch as people tend to mix with their own race or people of the same level as them. It is a rare occasion to see a mixed environment where there is racial harmony and status breakdown where Malay, Chinese and Indian are able to mixed around with operators, technicians, trainees, engineers and managers. It looks like it would take a long time to be able to know everyone that are around you. I guess its humans to be a divided community.

Coming back to the story, I was fortunate that someone notice my existence and decided to come out to ask of my intentions of waiting outside the door. I told that I had wanted to join them in their audit and I did not enter because I had no permission to do so was an answer that seem to make me look stupid although I felt I had taken that I had been neutral in my conduct so as to not cross borders as a trainee. My audit session brought me from the FA Lab, to the Prepack Unit and the Storage Unit where the last two places were areas where the end product would arrive for inspection before being packaged and stored for delivery to customers. It was interesting to see how the auditer, Mr Lau was really detailed in going through the process by checking the machines, speaking with the people in charge and gathering data from the logbooks which they keep as records of their daily activity. There was an interesting time when we had to go back and forth from the prepack unit and the storage area to check for samples from old and current stock by counterchecking the GSO number that were on the package with those registered in the logbook.

It was interesting to see the way Mr Lau conducted himself to really understand what was really going on and to dismiss any uncertainty by checking the data one by one. I could hear whispers and murmouring in the background as they were beginning to feel restless after such a long audit day and had to cope with the auditer thorough inspection that had extended past the working hour. My audit tour ended around 6.15 pm and made by way back the cubicle to pack up. Mr Elfiz asked me about the audit and began explaining certain details regarding about audit and becoming an auditer. He had previously taken a course on that for internal auditing within PSS and mention the prospect about becoming a auditer which do pay quite well. It was an interesting experience to learn from it and the bad experience that I went through was totally forgotten. I decided to attend the next audit at the following day.

Movie Series & Celebrities

My leisure hours after work includes reading the newspaper and watching television. These are two of my relaxation activity besides sleep that I do after coming back from a long day at work. It seems natural for me to keep abreast with the latest news that are happening both local and abroad as I pour through the many pages of information that may contain news that are good and bad, short articles that deters me from dozing off yet allow me to update myself with the latest issues or technology and the list of TV programs that I looked forward to everyday to pass by time with. Its been a routine for me to read the newspapers ever since I was young. The other childhood activity would be the TV. I must confess I used to be a TV addict, sitting in front of the idiot box switching through every channel and watching any and every show that comes my way. My desire to watch television depleted every since I entered uni and how spend my time during the weekends to indulge on reality shows such as the now completed Malaysian Idol, Survivor, Amazing Race, The Restaurant, Iron Chef and Queer Eye for a Straight Guy and football matches of my favourite team, Arsenal.

I am not much of a movie series fan. It seems to involve much commitment every day to catch up with what is happening. Besides, one seems to be bound to the chair at a particular time in front of the television every day to watch it. Recently, I have subjected myself to such a routine affair after I started following a new Korean movie on TV called, "Stairway to Heaven". It is dubbed in Mandarin but my understanding is only made possible from the Malay subtitles at the bottom of the screen. The story seem pretty interesting to me. It revolves around a rich girl whose father remarried a famous actress who has two children of her own, a girl and boy who was asked by their poor father to live with his extraged rich wife. Things seem pretty comfortable in the beginning until the true colour of the poor girl and the mother began to show forth. The poor girl jealousy and the mother's selfish ambition caused the rich girl to be displaced by them. The mother and daughter similar evil character began to bring unrest to the rich girl who was constantly bullied by them without the father's knowledge. One of the many things that they did was to disconnect her from her childhood sweetheart who belongs to a very rich company. Besides that, she would also have to deal with her step brother having affections for me and constantly pressurising her to love him as well.

The many events that are twisted within the story had caused the story to be brought forward to their adulthood. Today's episode featured the evil stepsister who intentionally run down her when she tried to escape from the house to meet with her childhood sweetheart who had just return from studying in the overseas. Her injury had caused her loose her memory and it is interesting to see what goes about in the next few weeks. Besides the interestingly web storyline that infuses a lot of emotions, I was also captivated by one of actress who played the rich girl who was bullied. A quick search on the net revealed that she was a 14 year old girl by the name of Park Shin-Hye. I seem to be drawn by her cute angelic face with beautiful eyes that seem to exuberate innocence and humility. It was a characterics that I am fond of watching both in TV and in real life. Here are captures of her in various moods. (Picture courtesy from )

Other than that, it was pretty interesting to see the butler to the rich Korean boy is a Caucasian who spoke Korean. Prior to this series, I too am a big follower of 8TV Quickie in which I admiration for the TV host, Marion Caunter. You must be wondering why am I telling you about my admiration of TV personalities. I guess a pretty face on TV does catch a guy's attention in particularly for me. My other admiration for local TV personalities includes Asha Gill and Daphne Iking. It would be such a honour to be able to meet them in person rather than just watching them on TV. My admiration for them does not only include good looks but their witty and funloving character that I find very appealing in a girl.

Marion Caunter

Asha Gill

Daphne Iking

First World Facilities, Third World Mentality

I have come across in recent weeks various articles that spoke about the plight of a few individuals that have made a strong point regarding their achievement which have failed to gain the attention locally. Such reports that had surfaced included articles regarding about the plight of our independant film makers and sportmans. It seems that we have a large community of high achievers in our country who have struggled to capture the attention of the local authority. Such struggle include having to gain support from local govenrment in terms of financial aids which they depend on heavily to succeed or accomplish their dreams. Its pretty funny to read about local heroes making an impression on foreign soil rather than in our own backyard. Many movie makers for instance had their film recognised in international showcase but were disregard by own very own people. A clear example would be the success of the movie Pontianak in film festivals in Japan and Spain. Other than that, many sportman have even show great ability to gain reputable standings in international competition yet struggle to obtain the necessary fundings to meet every competition they attend. Such plight was reported over the newspaper regarding the insufficient aids that our fellow rally drivers, Karamjit Singh and Allen Oh who have stated that they might pull out of the race if they are unable to obtain RM500,000 for their next race.

It seems pretty obvious that no wonder many of our local talents and intellectuals have migrated to pursue their careers overseas. There is a segment in the The Star that report on local heroes who have made it big on foreign soil both in their profession or accomplisments. I feel pretty embarassed that we have the guts to acquire credits for their achievements as Malaysians though we have deprieved them of so much by driving them out of the country.This is due to limited oppurtunity to succeed in Malaysia. A clear example would be the huge amount of local Chinese singers who have made Taiwan as their home base in order to succeed. It seems a common trend to say one is Malaysian if he is born in this country yet have migrated to another country. One such example is associating Malaysia with the current Australian Idol, Guy Sebastian who was born in Klang yet spend most his growing up in Australia. Is this how we label Malaysians to be?

As I looked and observed from the various news I hear or read, there is not a shadow of doubt that Malaysia is blessed with so much talent. However, this talents do not stay in Malaysia and have gone to other countries where they have reap the benefits of their talents instead of us. Its pretty ironic don't you think that we are actually providing resources to other countries rather than our own. The more ironic thing is hearing report over the news that we are lack of manpower or resources to progress in any area. Such scenarios are obvious in particular the Malaysia sports arena. We are more concern and worry about the economy than the fact that the reason in the increased in currency exchange is due to migration of our very best people to other countries instead. Its a pity that we have failed to realise the big picture instead and have taken notice of the smaller one. It seems pretty obvious for me to say that we have First World Talents, Third World Approach in Utilising the cream of our nation.

A Night With Theatres

Theatre is one of the many things that I personally like. I could not missed an oppurtunity to attend a play perform by the Footstools Player on Saturday at SIB KL entitled "Let Go and Let God". I had previously seen this Christian theatrical group when they came to CF two years ago to perform a play entitled," ". They are reknown to perform a colletion of skectches that sends a message about God.

I made by way to KL leaving Seremban at around 2.45pm although the play was scheduled to start at 5.30pm. It would be wise to always give yourself ample of time for a headstart due to the unpredictable traffic in KL. Our prediction were soon to be comfirmed when we were stuck in a traffic jam on the way to South City Serdang to pick up Don who was coming from Kajang. My initial route would be to pass through UPM and MiloShake. However, traffic seems to be at a standstill after the roundabout heading towards Serdang. I decided to make a turn around and headed to the expressway but was met by a similar fate on the way to Mines. I called up Don and was relieved to find him in the same jam very much in front of me. WE finally met up and headed towards KL City where I had stop by at my uncle's office to drop off some stuff and then headed down to Bangsar to get the tickets from Actors Studio that we had book in the morning for "Life....Sdn Bhd Part 2.

I was pretty much excited to find out that there would be a sequel to this show and wanted to go for it. The time was right as I would be down in KL for Footstool Players in the evening and would be able to make it for the show at night as both the places were quite near to one another. Seizing this oppurtunity, I decided to rope in my two sisters who were kinda hesistant to it as they thought it would be a waste of money to see a similar theatre presentation, Don who immediately agreed to my inviatation when I called him up the day before as he had thought of going for it and Shen Shee who was quite adamant at first due to the hectic schedule of CGvCG and Footstool in the day. I did not really publicise my trip to Actors Studio this time and decided to go in a small group instead. My first visit to Actors Studio was organised by my sister under the Creative Arts Ministry in March and we had almost 30 people going for it. It was indeed a nice experience to see a theatre production with such a big group. However, it would be pretty hard to get people to comfirm or even commit to such an outing like this. My previous experience and also experience of others who have organise outings for fellow CFers were met by various problems such as late pullouts, uncomfirm participation and late payments from them. Many times the organisers are taken for granted for their efforts in organising such events. I did not want to put myself in a situation and decided to contain it to a few people.

After the collection of tickets, I headed down to CP Tower near Eastin Hotel and began to fnd out way to SIBKL. This is my very first time visiting SIB although I had heard of this place before. We followed a group of people who we took to be going to the same place as us and made our way to the fourth floor. The church was spread out the entire floor and we seem to be the earlierst group of people from uni to arrived. Their arrival was delayed because of the recently concluded CGvCG. We entered the sanctuary and was seated at the back of the church. The church was spreadout in a longitude arrangement in which the stage was very long giving it a lot of space. There were all together 3 projectors for the audience and there was a TV that was facing the worship leader and backups to see the lyrics. It was interesting to see the music team comprising of both old and young. This seems to be rare from the church I come from where youth and young adult seem to makeup a huge portion of the team.

The ushers that brought us to our seats were very smart in red blazers. There were alot of teenagers in our midst as well. After the collection of the offering, it was quite interesting to see the head ushers bringing the offering bags in front and the entire congregration strechthing their hands out towards the bag and praying for it. My initial though of coming here would be a presentation but I found out that I was in the first Service of the week and it was quite interesting to observe other churches perform their services. Other than that, I was quite surprised to see the amount of CGs they had that were spread out every day of the week. Church and CF would allocate a day for CG and it seems a good idea to spread it out to allow people to attend the different CGs depending on which day they would be free to join.

Footstool Players comprise of a small group of people that includes 4 actors, a sound person and light coordinator. I was quite surprised to find Benjamin playing a part in this production as the light coordinator. It was interesting to see a small group of people putting up a presentation like this. The play was divided into 6 skecthes where two of each of the sketch stated a point. The play was very interesting as it seem to bring about modern life situation and stories from the Bible.

I personally took a liking to the stories from the Bible as this was an different interpretation to what could have happened as some were not explain or told in detailed. My favourite scene would be the one where Abraham brought Isaac to be sacrificed on Moriah. The other would be Peter and John trying to steer the boat to harbour during a storm as Jesus slept in. The soundtrack that were played during the intermission between skectches was very nice. However, there were instances when this intermission were too long that were meant for props arrangements and had caused some to loose focus. I personally though that I had seen 4 sketches but it turns out that I did not realise there was another two.

The Front Scene : Actors and Actresses (From Left : Colin, Sean, Jon & Geri)

Behind the Scenes : Lights & Sound (Ben & Dorothy)


After the show, I was asked for my details from one of the ushers. Don and I were given a booklet and tape for being first timers. Both my sisters seem to be left out as they did not realise them. We made a few hellos and bid our fellow MMU people a fast farewell as we needed to rush down to Bangsar Shopping Mall for our show at 8.30pm

As time was passing by so very quickly, we made our way towards the nearest foodcourt and grab ourselves a quick meal of McDonald which seem to be the most affordable meal there. With a minute to go, we made our way to the theatre and make a quick trip to the bathroom. The girls were as usual slower than guys. Don and myself stood ourselves and I was surveying the area for any familiar faces or celebrities whom I might recognise.

It was always a common sight to catch local celebrities or familiar faces I see on TV or magazines on such events. What I was about to see was simply eye catching when I saw Carmen Soo walked out from the bathroom. Boy, was she stunning in real life. She was accompanied by two of her friends, one look a little bit Eurasion and the other was former Miss Malaysia/Universe Wong Sze Yen. They strut their way to the theatre like scenes from "Legally Blonde". Their makeup was extremely thick. My eyes could not stop looking at Carmen Soo. Her complexion was flawless and her hair was long and beautiful. She was quite short and she seem strike an hour glass shaped body. As I await to tell my sisters and Shen Shee about it, they were made aware about their presence as they were in the toilet together and even got a smile from the gorgeous celebrity.

We made our way thereafter into the hall and soon after the play was to begin. The overall show was like a continuation to the first part as the styles were quite similar to the first as one by one they took the stage from the comfort of their stools and chair and began to tell their life story of a Malaysian. The cast this time brought about some new faces to the Life community. They were namly Jit Murad, Ramli Ibrahim and others whom I could not remember their names. The likes of Patrick Teoh, Ari Ratos, Gavin Yap. Susan Lankaster, Joanne Kam and Ben Tan graced the stage as well. What was interesting was a guy called Dino who was a mute person. It was his first performance and he did an exceptional presentation in both mime and sign language. The list of topics ranges from report card, acid experience, an april joke over national radio that got Patrick Teoh in hot soup, circumcision, gays, a single middle aged woman pressured by society to get married, AIDS/HIV, dance and experiences of a mute person.

It was hilarious at times with interesting jokes that comprise of both vulgar and clean. There were also instances of seriouness that caused the atmosphere to quietened down a little. All in all in was a good show and one of the reason why I like it so much because of its authenticity. I personally took a liking for a few presenters namely Patrick Teoh, Ari Ratos, Gavin Yap and Dino. I was amazed by the usage of the English language, the projection of the voice and the body language that goes with telling a story that capture the heart of the audience. However, I personally did not take a liking to vulgar swears that seem to accompany the story as I believe that a story can be told efficient without the need of profanity.

A Better Preview to the Show.....

Theatre seems to be an avenue that allows one to deliver a message without having any barriers to contain or interrupt one to express their thoughts on a certain matter. This would be taking into consideration expects that is concerned with religious belief and social stigma. I had learned in theatre class to incorporate such freedom in order to express oneself freely. At times, I questioned such considerations. I believe in balance. We should be aware as to what we express less we not cross boundaries and borders which may take a toll on someone and caused that person to feel uncomfortable over one delivery of the message. I feel that many times we incorporate our feelings instead, without thinking before we speak. I was pretty concern when one the presentater began labelling Mat Sallehs as being rude considering that there were Mat Sallehs in the audience. However, such frank opinions would depend on the maturity of one to take such comments from another.

I began to see that those who attend theatre or are in theatre themselves seem to be a different level of maturity. They seem to see things at the a different angle compared to common Malaysian citizen. Such response towards a strong point like this would inevidently result in a big hoo haa. I believe that theatre can be used as a tool to deliver an important message to society that would help create awareness to the certain issues that befall our country. I sometimes likened theatre groups as NGOs who are there to maintain balance within the government stating areas that the government could pay more attention towards or change their purpose to bring the country to another higher level.

Pictures Courtesy from Footstool Players ("Let Go, Let God") & UK Alumni Network (Life Sdn Bhd Part 2)

A Star Is Born

This would the faceoff between two very outstanding individuals who had survived the many weeks of competition to be where they are today. Their pesistance and efforts into making sure that they go through every phase of the competition flawless in order to garner the votes of the public which would either bring them a step towards becoming the first Malaysian Idol or not. It was really interesting to watch the 12 finalist do battle on stage trying to outwit each other with a good performance. The atmosphere would certainly be a tense one yet despite the stiff competition between them, they seem to exuberate a sense of brotherhood and sisterhood. Those who left at the end of every week gave hope to those who stayed on to press on and give their very best. The contestants who remain in the competition encourage one another through their support, help and prayer. This have caused Malaysian Idol to be a truely professional event of amateur singers. It had also displayed a sense of unity between every one of the participants without any obvious rivalry.

The Final 10 (Nikki is the second from left in pink)

In a competition such as this, there would be obvious favourites. I learned that many people have different preferences of what an idol would be. Some go for good looks and attires, others go for good voice and performance. I chose the latter. My choice of an idol would be one who was able to deliver on a World's stage because that would be the ultimate goal for an idol. There were a few candidates that had impressed yet did not manage to make it through to the end. One such candidate would be Nikki who simply blew me away with her rich and soulful voice despite being at a tender age of 19. Her first appearance durng the audition in Sarawak stun the lights of everyone when she sang "Emotion" by Mariah Carey. Despite having an angelic voice, she needed to remain consistent every week. A lack of experience had a part to play in it as she did not manage to command a good stage presence although she had tried to express herself, both in body movement and facial expression. There were also many incidences of bad pitching and starting the song at the wrong note. I can see its not easy to stand infront an audience to perform and it takes a lot of confident to do that. She has the potentials to become a very good singer. All it takes is for someone to take her under their wings and nurture her.

The faceoff at Arena of the Stars, Genting Highlands on Friday would be the highlight of the four month journey for everyone involve in this production. A huge crowd of 6000 strong supporters gathered to support their favourite idol. I would be one the many millions of viewers who were glued to their television to witness the the last of the divas. It was predictable last two as both the contestants had improved greatly and managed to remain consistant to this very day. They were non other than, Dina and Jac.

The final 2, Dina & Jac

Dina appealed to me as one of those cool rocker kind of girl with pure "gilaness". Her impressive record to stay in this competition was really surprising. She manages to go through the auditions but had failed to make ti to the top 30. However, she was called back into the competition to make up the remaining three in the top 33 selection. She persevered through every week with so much improvement that even the judges were amazed by her effort. She had worked hard despite being a dark house in this compeition and surive through the compeition until this very day.

Jac was a familiar face for those who were updated with the local music industry. The first time I saw her was during one of the Malaysian Top 10 episodes on Hitz.TV on ASTRO where she was a guest on the program introducing her new single and album. Her participation in Malaysian Idol seem to baffled many people as people questioned her entry despite already being a singer and cutting an album. There was even a time when she was one of the two contestant with the lowest amount of votes and was at the brink of being voted out. However, she had manage to persevere through all this critism and circumstances, emerging as one of the strongest and favourite contestants in this competition.to be the first Malaysian Idol. Many were impress by her powerful voice, creative singing and a commanding stage presence that cause the audience to pay attention to her. I was at first adamant to fully support her as I did not feel her voice was as good as Nikki's. However, it make me realise that it does not take a person with a very good voice to be a singer.

You need other attributes to complement you as well. A contestant with an okay voice with an impressive stage presence that includes clearl spoken lyrics, movement around the stage, well dressed and connecting with the crowd through the presentation of the songs would be some of the qualities to go through this competition. This has proved evident in allowing Jac to be the very first Malaysian Idol with a comfortable 76% of the entire one million votes. Jac had gone through a live determined to be a singer one day despite her poor background. Her exposure in singing in pubs and her perseverance to seek for the best oppurtunity that were available to allow people to see her true talent proved worthwhile. The person who would be there to bring up this girl would be non other than her mother who had work odd jobs to make ends meet in order to provide for the family and also to support her daughters endeavour. I truly believe that Jac deserved this title more than anyone else as she had work very hard in the past to get to where she is now in life. This would be a true testimony of somoene who had work hard to achieve their dreams and it had taken a long time for her to finally realise it.

Malaysian First Idol, Jacklyn Joshua Victor @ Jac

Pictures courtesy from Malaysian Idol Official Website

Training Week 5 : Leaping Logic

This week had revolved around a lot of programming. My initial thought that I would not be able to take into liking the behind structure of the program turned out to have got me interested in it. I was able to find solutions to various problems through trial and error. It was not easy understanding the concept on the language as at times there were different view points of it, both myself and the program. I learned a lot about understanding the structure of the language and it has got me to be able to think in the same wavelength as to what programmers have been trained to think likewise. This has allowed me to understand programming and slowly take a liking to what I was currently doing. The reason behind programming that had caught my attention is the fulfillment one get when you managed to solve a problem that you had been tiredlessly trying. Your face practically lights up with excitement when you obtained your desired results.

In this week, I was able to improved on the main form by modifying the arrangements of the buttons to solve the delay from one button to another. Besides, I manage to obtain a clean main menu by implementing mouseover at the different areas where there is a possibility the cursor may appear at. I was able to program some forms mainly the six forms under "Register" and five forms under "Settings". The rough layout and structure of the program have already been in place. I was able to link from one form to another and returning to the previous forms by constructing the "Cancel" button and the form unload. Besides that, I decided to maintain only one form on the screen and hide the rest so as to allow the user to only concentrate on one form.
I would be touching on the on the remaining "View" forms and also touch on the program for the other form this week. After this have been done, I planned to show it to my supervisor to review it and asked for their comment. Other than that, I would try to get my hands on Access to construct a dummy database as to fully test the software.

Writing Frenzy

The reason behind my deliberate posting today is something rare for those who visit my blog often enough. It takes me ages to post something but it had taken me a day to post an extensive amount of writing. I have indeed gone into a realm where my thoughts needed to be written out to a point that I had spend the whole morning today typing away. This is a confession I make before you witnesses of cyberspace that I had taken a leave from work and indulge in an expression of my thoughts. I do admit that not much had been achieved at work today but I am sure vomitting this out feels a lot better. There seem to be so much words here that I feel many would immediately turn this site off less be haunted by a rambling of words.

What Would I Do If.....I Was In An Unequally Yoke Relationship?

I must agree that the issue of social boundaries of this country is very eminent in today's society despite being a multiracial community who had achieve its independence for around 47 years ago. Race, religion and gender seems to be barriers we put up infront of us all the time. Even Christians are no exception as we too place such barriers in our life that keeps us separated from individuals that may differ in our barriers. A good example that was pointed out is renting a house that require only Christian housemates only. "Love your neighbour as you love yourself" would be one of the two important commandment in the bible which had existed as a verse in the Bible that had made any impact in our life as believers. Though we have been called to be "The light of the world", this light seems dim.

As a Christian, I find this issue a familiar scenario in my life. I had placed before me barriers such as habits, mentality and social status on many occasions. Judging people based on this seems to be the easiest thing to do, reflecting Christ in myself to break those barriers and accept them as they are seems to be the hardest thing to do. I have been guilty on many occasions and many times God has revealed my faults in love that I had been convicted of my actions. He reveals that Jesus died on the cross for all sinners including myself and He has broken down every barriers that was made possible by reaching down to our imperfect being and encouraging us live a life with purpose, not as individuals alone but as a community with the people around us so that we can do the same just like what Christ has done for us. It is true what Robert quoted saying "The meaning of one's life is determined by giving meaning to another one's life."

The issue of unequally yoke between a believer and non-believer, such as the case that my group was asked to discuss seem to be a topic that have been debated frequently by many Christians. There are many approach towards this issue, the head and the heart. My belief is most of the time we use our head to deal with this issue. Most of us would know that we are not to be unequally yoke with our partner. Knowing this, our response would be not get into a relationship with a non-believer in the first place. There should not be any feelings or soul bonding with that person. This should be an order that we should obediently take heed. However, many do not take heed in reality due to our rebellious human nature.

The reasons behind it are endless. It seems the reason for many is "it just happened". We are unable to control our feelings and we get into a situation without realising that we have disobeyed. "Love is blind", as some might termed it. Now that you are in such a situation, the choice is to whether to pursue this relationship or not. In pursuing this relationship which would eventually lead to marriage, there are different scenarios that they can expect. One would be each one of the couple respect each others belief and is given the blessing by the other to continue their religious beliefs. They disconnect their religious beliefs with their relationship. The other scenario would be to have one party submit to the another religious beliefs. There are two response which is acceptance or denial. Acceptance would cause both party to be a believer or fall out of it. On the other hand, denial would cause each other to remain to their belief with the pressue of another to comform. This would put the relationship in contention for misunderstanding that may lead to endless quarrels when the issue of beliefs is brought up or worst case, a divorce. This would also cause one to either remain a believer or fall out of it.

My concern would be the approach towards not pursuing a relationship with a non-believer. What approach do we take? I would reckon that both are very much in love and have decided to take a step further in their relationship which would lead to marriage. There are two different types of individual, open and close individual. The approach towards this two individuals are divided into to, immediately call it off or to wait. Calling it off who result in the two individuals to be separated by placing different religious beliefts as a reason for a breakup. The love that had been shared by both individual would eventually come to a halt. This would lead to the response from both party based on their mutual understanding and level of maturity of each other. They can either separate as friends or separate without speaking with the other anymore. The latter relationship would result in a broken relationship where both or one party have decided to ignore the existance of one another.

If I would placed myself in such a situation, my answer would be to wait and take time to give a chance to the other party to know of my beliefs and to share with that person of my beliefs slowly with love. This would apply to whether that person is open or close towards my beliefs. One would be easier, the other would take a huge lot of effort. However, I would place a certain time factor in this relationship where I would inform the other party much early about my intention of marrying a believer and made a decision to continue this relationship in a duration amount of time before we decide to take another step towards the relationship or not. I would make it clear to the person that he or she should not comform and accept my belieft because of what we have gone through as a couple, the time factor that have been place before or the intention of getting married. The idea I would post is whether we are able to live with one another in love and harmony with God as the centre of our relationship. Should the person accept to become a follower of Christ, to God be the glory. If this would not come to pass, it is my duty to end the relationship with love and to still maintain the relationship as best friends because of the love we have shared with one another although we are not able to continue that love with marriage. I do not believe in fencing away people with my belief. However, I believe that everyone should have as many chances as possible to know Him as their personal Saviour.

A Fulfilling Day

Today seems like a very good day for me. The reason behind this was because I had manage to achieve many things today. It was a good day at work where I had manage to find a solution to the suggestion that was brought forward to me by my supervisor, Mr Soo. I had manage to construct a new interface that would allow the company to make the necessary changes easily if there is a possibility of expansion where new machines would be added or a new setup would be implemented. I decided to remove the option button and implement listbox and combobox to allow the user to make the necessary changes and linked it to the database. The software would then be able to obtain the new format through the database. I retained fields that are unlikely to be changed and used list and combobox to obtained the updated modified information from the database. This had lead me to reduce the number of forms(interfaces) needed for the software. I was able to construct a new "View All Field" form and a separate "Analysis" form that would show detailed representation of data both in figures and in diagrams. Besides that. I also manage to standardized the outlook of the respective forms for View namely "Date-Time", "Machine" and "Defect Mode" that would display an interface that would show the main details, the selected details and an overall result. This would be linked to a standardised "Analysis" form that would reveal a detailed information based on the user's choice of details with the exception of the "Defect Mode Analysis" form which had a different format. However, I have not created a dummy database to test it out although my job specification would not involve me creating the main database. The idea of the project seems beckoning and I have thoughts of getting my hands on the database and also interfacing the database with the machines to pull the necessary data, mainly input and output.

All this ideas and solutions that I have listed would not be made possible if God had not intervened and guided me through. I had only realised the significants of it at the end of the day. This was because of a simple prayer I made at the beginning of the day to ask Him for His guidance and to give me ideas of how to do my project. Its amazing how God answers prayer instanteneously with me knowing until I reflected on my day and realised that He was helping me. A testimony of God's all sufficient grace and wisdom. To God be the glory.

I made a trip down to Cyberjaya last night mainly to pay my first visit of the semester to the CF and to borrow some books from the library as reference for my VB project. This was planned a week ago as I managed to find the best time to come down so as to kill a few birds with one stone. A trip down to KL would involve various factor that includes well being, whether I was tired or not; time, to travel up and down; money, for fuel and toll; objectives; whether I would be able to cover as much grounds as possible in my short trip there. It may seem like a simple trip but there are many underlying factors that at times we fail to see or consider. My outlook on this may be due to my upbringing where I have been trained to look beyond the facet of a situation and consider wherether any actions is appropriate or not. It seem like a very objective thing to do and I feel very strongly about planning everytime a decision is to be made or an event is to take place.

I arrived in the heavily developed area of Cyberjaya at around 7pm. There were a few new things I took notice of on my way to MMU since I was here some 2 weeks ago which include a new construction of an office building in between DHL and Fujitsu building. BWM regional seem to be nearing completion with only the interior and exterior of the building to be done. The buildings in MMU were also making some progress as one of the building structure was completed. However, I seriously doubt the entire phase 2 would be completed after I graduated or my wish to have my convocation in the new main hall would materialised. I did not attend the first half of the CF committee meeting and prayer session as I had to pay a visit to the library to borrow some books for reference. I met Hong Jau and a fellow classmate of mine who were at the ATM withdrawing money. We were surprised to see each other and exchange news of our training with one another. It was surprising to find out that they were still doing researching on microprocessors even after one month. I bid them farewell and hurriedly got myself three VB books from the bookshelf before I headed back to the car to store them. It was already dark then but I managed to spot Eunice, Eileen and Ong who was walking back after their class. My initial mouth wisel to them was not a success but I managed to get Eunice attention who was wondering who in the world was this person. They were able to acknowledge me after I called for Ong and ask how they were doing briefly. At the carpark, I stumbled upon Jia Vern, Nicky and Audrey who were on the way to the CF room for music practice and CC prayer separately. As I emerge into the CF room, some of the CF comm who were in discussion at the back of the CF room were surprised to see me. I sat down and joined them in their sharing and prayer.
Before I came to the CF, I had decided to remained as an invisible figure among the people in CF eventhough my presence would be surprising to many due to my training back in my hometown that would reduce my chances of coming to CF. This was not to draw too much attention to myself. I tried to take a quieter position at the back of room. However, it seems that there was a neon sign telling everyone that "Joseph is Here". Various individuals had come up to me and asked how I was doing at training. I guess many were interested to know and find out what each individual were doing or not doing during training. I was glad to see a few seniors who were still attached to MMU attending CF namely John, the recently promoted tutor for FIT and Kevin, a Research Officer doing his master. Besides that, I was surprised to see Robert, who was called to speak to us today. He was accompanied by the three musketeer namely Justin, Joash and Samuel. It was great to meet this bunch of people that I had come to know during previous IF camps. Meeting like this was a rare occasion due the distance between two campuses but we manage to still make some laughs and both Justin and Joash were cheekily trying to converse with me in "spastic" and producing the jargon "Oh, really!" that my younger sister had so called founded. They were simply amazed with architecture of the Cyberjaya campus and rated it highly compared to Malacca which I found pretty the opposite.

My encounter with people in CF were met by warm reception and cold shoulders. Many were welcoming, some were cold in their reception. It was good to see familiar faces that I had enjoyed being in their company besides the casual chat I would usually have with them online. I was met by loud cries of "Fat One" from Cindy and the "Fat One" herself, Poh Yee from Gopeng. Peik Yin had a new haircut and was proud to see her up in front chairing the meeting without having someone accompanying her. They were a couple of moment when she seem nervous and ended up "praying for the announcement" than "praying for the offering". Other than that, there was a moment when her face litted up into a red blush. Esther spotted a new fringe which apparently looked good and made her looked much younger.

Besides that, it was good to see my buddies Belle who seem to lost some weight and John who was macholy striking the guitar as he accompanied worship, Leona on the other hand was the other trainee around in CF and we exchanged news of each others work. It seems that she is enjoying her work with fast connection speed in the office for download, the chance of working with routers and also the oppurtunity to sleep at work when she is on the night shift. Besides, she seems to get a reasonable pay for all of it. It seems like her internship at NTT was a miracle for her considering that she was not an NTT scholar. Beatrice on the other hand was looking frail but managed to attend CF despite her lethargicness. Annette was around this week and she was sporting a "Malaysian Idle" T Shirt that seem to tell everyone what a prospect she would be in the coming competition. I wish I could name all the individuals that I had meet but overall, it was good to be back in CF again and meeting with the CF people whom I had found much comfort in. My initial response to remained quiet did not materialised as I was back to my old self bellowing with my creepy high pitched chuckle and my loud audacious voice. It seems I can never pretend from being my true self especially when I am in the company of the most comfortable group of people that I had come to be associated with.

Robert brought forward the message of the day "Breaking Social Boundaries by breaking us up into groups for a case study. There were 5 cases all together which were evaluated by two group per case. I was given the number 5 and my group consist of people like Vincent, Dr. Ian, my sis Julia, Tiong, Clement and Leona. The situation that we were given was based on a Christian Chinese family response towards their sons intention to marry a non-Christian Indian girl. The difference in both faith and race needed to be under consideration. However, many of us felt it was a spiritual incompatability than it is of racial. There were two answers which was "No" and "No Answer". "No" seems to inform the parents concern of the possibility their son encountering problem in the future with the unbeliever especially when the plans of getting married seem to be under consideration. "No Answer" would revealed a directive to wait and not say a "No" as an answer. There is tendency to further that relationship with a hope that the partner might come to accept Christ as their personal Saviour. Besides that, visiting the parents of both parties before they make an important decision like this would allow both parties to get to know one another and discuss the concerns that they both parties might have.

Our topic seem to be one of the two serious topic in the list as the others were filled with a humorous solution and approach especially the one regarding about employing an Indian employee from a list of prospective candidates of different race with equal qualification for a brewery company to reach the Indian market. There was also a short debate by one of the newcomers to CF on the situation of having a first year international student from Malawi volunteering himself to be the president of the CF which turns out to be a true incident by itself. The representative for that group seem to be an eloquent speaker with a good command of English and a deep newscaster voice to accompany it who seem to point out his interest on giving the international student a chance at the position. The atmosphere was a bit tense and funny at this moment due to conflicting ideas in approach but Robert manage to wrap up that session nicely.

After a brief fellowship at the end with the some of the people at the CF room, I made my way to HB3 for a quick dinner. The time was nearing 10.30pm and I had initially decided to leave then as I did not want to return back too late due to work the next day. My stay extended to around 11.15pm having dinner with some of the CF people and enjoying the fellowship that I had missed. I arrived back home safely around 12 am. Thank God for His protection and quick reaction as I almost hit the side railing on the fast lane due to poor visibility at one stretch of the road which had just been tarred and the white lines that separated the lanes and indicated the side of the road were missing, which made it difficult to view the road in the dark.