End of the road, but hopped onto another..

Yea, today's my last day here in FBIC. I left sooner than expected when another much better offer came along.

3 person left at the same time, including myself, making it 5 this month. Yesterday, the whole company, of those whose present in the office yesterday, had farewell lunch together at Uncle Chilis, Amcorp Mall.

I initially planned to work here for at least 3 years but for the past 2 years, I've turned down numerous calls for interviews and declined many resume request from Jobstreets because I was eager to complete what I planned.

That was until one company requested my resume twice. Then the next thing I knew, I started attending interviews. This company that initially requested me didn't turn out well, maybe because my pay demand was too high for them, or they found me not suitable for their position on offer.

But doubled as a recruitment agency serving only business partners, my resume was also forwarded to their business partners, and T-SYS came into the picture. The interview went ok, but was surprised that they offer me a position that very same day.

One barrier was the pay they offered was too far off from my expected salary. True they're a very good company, so I've heard from many of my ex-colleagues currently in there. Also, their line of business wasn't something I'm really keen on.

Having slowly gaining my establishment on ERP, I'm not really willing to start over with their credit card systems. So I declined them, after spending some days thinking.

Not a while later, got a sudden e-mail from Western Digital for an interview. Surprised as I have not applied for any position with them, I went on with the interview nonetheless, and soon found out it was for the Dynamics AX position I applied with another company. Turns out, that company too is an agency.

Things turns out pretty well. I got an offer, and still successfully negotiated for an additional RM100. Maybe I should have tried at RM200 instead... hahaha.

In joining WD, I would have 2 concerns at the moment. Firstly, I'm just a contractor, meaning, I'm hired by the agency but outsourced to WD. So should anything happens, I'll most likely to be the first to go.

Secondly, the AX project will not begin so soon. Yet they need me eagerly for their HR project. Supposed AX failed to take off, I may need to rethink my options, something which I do not want to see happen, for at least so soon in a new company.

Oh well... will just need to wait and see. Haha...

My name is Toshihide

Haha.. just chatting with my Japanese colleague and somehow the topic diverted to my name which I asked what it meant in the Japanese language.

So after showing him my name in Chinese character, turns out, they're valid Kanji characters, and also a very common name in Japan.

Toshi (Chun) Hide (Eng).

So now, I can also be known as Tan Toshihide... kakaka

Driving License

Was having a chat with my Japanese colleague last week over his driving license because he's currently trying to apply for a Malaysian driving license so that he could drive in Malaysia.

Over our chat, he asked how much does it cost to get a driving license here in Malaysia, driving lessons included.

So, we just casually told him, it cost around RM 1k, also depending on the no. of lessons you sign up for.

Well, we always knew that the living cost in Japan is high. Things are also very much more expensive than here in Malaysia.


But we were totally shocked when he said that getting a driving license in Japan cost 10x more. Goodness, if needing to get a driving license in Malaysia would ever need RM10k, what would happen then is a little beyond my imagination.

But to look on the bright side, this means less people can afford to get driving license which in turn means there'd be less cars on the road :D

Back from my camping-cum-trekking-cum-waterfall trip

Was away during the long weekend to Sungai Lembing, Cherating to revisit nature.

It was fun fun fun... and I got very tired tired tired once I reached home.

Anyway, we went on a bus loaded of people and trek Panorama Hill in Sungai Lembing for the sunset, played in the Pandan and Rainbow Waterfall (one in Kuantan, the other in Cherating, if I'm not mistaken).... camped by the beach next to the turtle santuary on our first night, and had a home stay on our second.

Still waiting for some photos... will load them soon.

Dewan Filharmonik PETRONAS

Attended my first ever orchestra concert held in the Dewan Filharmonik PETRONAS, KLCC.

Last night's concert was known was Chamber Concert but I wonder what that means.

There was 2 groups of performers. The first group consist of 3 violinist and 1 cellist, of which 2 of the violinist are Asian girls while the other 2 are white men.

The music choice of the night was the slow and a little gentle type, the type which can easily put you to sleep if you got yourself too comfortable and the pieces has lots of repetitive scores, which can be boring at times.

But the back rest is a little hard for comfort and to low that it you can't rest your neck. I guess they want to ensure that you won't fall asleep during the performances.

But I would thoroughly enjoyed even more had there's been a glass of drink, preferbly wine or liqour, and a sofa for me to lie on. And that would have been total enjoying of life. Hahaha...

Perhaps I might consider creating a sound-prove music room when I have my own house in the future.

Back on the performance, I can't help but to notice one of the girls playing the violin. I thought she has much more body movement compared to the rest which I thought was a little exaggerated. But nonetheless, this was quite a good group.

The 2nd group played a more hyper form of musics but I still can't help but to wonder who could a person could actually sleep through their performance, which some guy behind me did. He even started to snore a little.

I thought this group was a little unprofessional at the start of their show for fine-tuning their instruments just before they play, right on stage. This group has got a Chinese girl playing the grand piano and 4 other white men, 3 of which played the violin while the other white man played the cello.

Overall this group was better but one of the violinist had at times, played the violin out of tune.
But for the RM10 ticket, you kind of expect that this isn't the best group of musicians the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra has to offer.

Chicken Frosts & Lotus Paste Biscuit (莲蓉鸡丝饼)

Thanks Candiman for getting me the biscuits from Ipoh!!
For more details about this biscuit, just surf to Candidman's blog.

He got it from here:

Happy Mid-Autumn

It's been a while since someone actually played the candles and lantterns in my house during the Mid-Autumn.

Last night, my sister bought 10 packets of candles for her daugther, and I just joined in.

Quite a good way to relax and waste sometime.

Lighting up the candles and latterns does reminds me of the good old times. Sadly, old folks like me don't get to really enjoy myself these days. And even the drizzles almost spoilt the night.

My 'devil' niece and I...


It's also been a while since I last took a photo... damn.. got to work on my thin line eyes...

It's been a year

Can't believe it's been a year. Time sure has past when we never realise.

This morning we had prayers for my father's 1st year anniversary, based on the lunar calendar.

My current addiction

Life's been really free and boring of late. There wasn't much to be done at work this week and I had to practically crack my head thinking how should I prepare my daily work report.

Doing that was like... damn, what should I be reporting? Beats me...!!!

Then, I found a new application in Facebook known as Text Twirl where you have to figure out as many 3 letter to 6 letter words possible from 6 scrambled letters.

My new found addiction and I've been hooked up ever since.

Click here to add the application into your facebook.

Fuel hike effects

Last night was the first time I pump my fuel, 2 weeks after the new rate took effect.

At the old rate of RM 1.92/liter, I could cover 170-180 km for every RM 30 of petrol, now it roughly covers only 130 km with the new rate of RM 2.70/liter... so how great is the effect on me anyway?

40 km is almost a week's drive to work, so the impact is kind of great.

I used to spend around 17-18 cents/km. Now, it worked out to around 23-24 cents/km.

The current price hike is inevitable, but with my current lifestyle, I guess I cushion it comfortably. Thank god for that. Amitabha...

Personal Milestone

After months of procrastinating, I've finally completed the full settlement for my car loan yesterday, 26 months early. Having completed the payments last week, I was at JPJ yesterday for the final procedure. But despite settling it 2 years earlier, I barely saved a year's amount in interest fees.

Still, I was glad when I saw the word, "DIBATALKAN" stamped on my car grant. So the car's rightfully mine, and mine only.

The Three Little Pigs

I once mentioned that there are 3 people in my team sharing the same birthday, all 3 whos birthday is on 5th of April.

Fate really brought us together. All 3 of us even sits beside one another.

The 3 of us... Me, Phoebe and Henry.

But now, the 3 piglets are no more. Only left 2 as Henry has left the company after only 9 months to move into auditing. The photo was taken during Henry's farewell dinner at King Crab Restaurant, Kelana Jaya.

And you might ask, why us 3 pigs.

Well, Henry and I are born in the year of the pig as both of us also share the same birth year. Besides my brother, he's the only one I knew, who shares the same birth year, birth month and birth date as I do.

As for Phoebe, her surname is Choo. Pronounce that in mandarin, it rhymes with the word 'pig' in Chinese.

Hence, us, the three little pigs.

And since 5th of April is always associated with the underworld because of Ching Ming, so we posed:

Busy week

Really, I've never been so occupied at work like the ones I had last week. I touched down from Bangkok on the night of Nov 17th, had a day rest and then attended a 4 day VB.NET training in the office.

Training was ok, but this means that my other work is thus delayed. Then, it became, training in the day, working in the night as I had a list of issues to look into.

Then, coming, on the 29th Nov, I'm scheduled to attend another training known as HORENSO (HOkoku-RENtaku-SOdan), a followup from the first training last 13th Nov.

I've been so busy, that I don't even get the chance to blog about my Bangkok trip. Damn it, why must my pace of life fluctuates like that.... like in the stocks.

See you next life

Can't believe it's already been 49 days. It felt like yesterday when you left without saying goodbye. That I could still remember them very well,

- the time when you left home fresh and healthy as usual and that was the last of you.

- the time when I had to identify you from the mortuary freezer, something I never thought would ever happen.

- the trouble we had to go through to reclaim you.

- the trouble we had to stop the hospital from performing post mortem on you, and when the police demanded thousands to release you and how the undertaker managed to help us settle them without the payments.

- the time how I had to carry you and place you into the casket.

- and the time, we finally sent you away.

Thinking back, I always thought that you won't leave so soon, especially with the history of longevity in the family.

Since you left, I've hoped that you'll return to pay us a visit. You've made me wonder, how is life right now? How you've been doing and what else you want or need us to do?

All those dreams of you... yet I could not understand what you meant.

Will I be able to see you again? Perhaps I will only know when it's my turn.

I want this!!!

I've never tasted a toast bread as delicious as this. It was given by a colleague of mine.


The wrapper looks like this:

The moment I opened the wrapper, the aroma was so strong, I knew I was going to love it. I did. The sugar spreaded on the bread tasted just about right and was not too sweet nor too plain.


Wonder if I can find them here. If I ever were to go to Japan, I'll definately be looking for this.

Somehow we've been destined

Hahaha.... just occurred another discovery. Looks like I have 2 other people from office to celebrate my birthday with me. A while back I mentioned that someone with the same birth year, same birth month and same birth date had joined my team.

Already, I thought that was rare.

This week I found out another senior (also from my team), one who left the company before I joined and recently rejoined the company, also shares the same birthday. Just that this senior of mine is a couple of years older.

Is this fate? I'm not sure. But when the company celebrates our birthday, it's going to be one heck of a celebration. A truly unique occasion. Hahaha....

Things changed

Anything and everything can really change all of a sudden, in a blink of an eye. Now that some things have changed, I wonder how things are gonna be from now on?

My style?

True ar?

Your Seduction Style: Ideal Lover

You seduce people by tapping into their dreams and desires. And because of this sensitivity, you can be the ideal lover for anyone you seek. You are a shapeshifter - bringing romance, adventure, spirituality to relationships. It all depends on who your with, and what their vision of a perfect relationship is.

What Is Your Seduction Style?

Abbreviations

Got this picture via a forwarded email. I don't quite agree with what it says and certainly, don't think it's true because I don't believe all boys/men is gonna sacrifice or do everything for the girls/women.
And I also do not believe that girls are so ungrateful to the guys, although I do know of girls who would make use of guys to achieve their goal. So what say you? Time to ponder...

My long lost triplet?

Hahaha... this would be the most interesting topic I've ever posted.

Last night, I was at my friend's place for his 24th birthday party. A group of his friends, all from the Faranatics (a fans' club of Farah, one of the Malaysian Idol 2 finalist), when saw me thought I was Daniel Lee's (Malaysian Idol 2 winner) cousin. At first glance, they thought I was him. So could he be mine and my brother's long lost triplet? Hahaha... XD

But here's the more interesting part. My friend also told me that the father resembles my father as well. So could he actually be my father's twin brother's reincarnation? Yes, it's a known fact. My father WAS a twin himself. I used the word 'WAS' because his elder twin brother apparently unfortunately passed away at the age of 3 due to some unknown illness. That was some 65 years ago. If so, then that guy 'would be' my cousin already.

I have yet to meet that guy. My friend promised to let us meet a long time ago but never did. But it does seem a little scary to have such coincidence.

By the way, being a twin and coming from a family of twins (I have other twin relatives), it was often joked that I would one day have twins as well, since the twin genes are already in my blood. So any girls out there thinking of getting twins? I won't mind selling my sperm.... muahahaha... only joking okay, don't take this too seriously.

But who knows, they could be end up being a pair of a girl and a boy (but that has yet to happen in my family). In that, you don't have to go through the labour pain twice.

:P