Rare Christmas Card

When sending Christmas greetings via SMS' and emails is the norm these days, receiving a Christmas greeting card in the old fashioned way was truly precious indeed!

Think of the effort the sender went through in going to the shopping outlet, choosing the specific card, writing the message, getting the stamp and mailing it.....

Well, for this Christmas, beside cards received from business associates, we only received one card from family members- a special card from my niece and her family.

Thank again. Your effort is truly appreciated!

For our clients and business associates,we still faithfully send out the cards the old way- That's personal touch.

Another Battle Scar !

When it was announced this morning in the Church that Eunice has left to be with the Lord on Saturday morning, there was this choking in the throat and heaviness in the heart that we were helpless to do something to reverse her fate.

It was only Friday night that we still prayed for miraculous intervention to change her destination, but alas to no avail.

It was said that when one is first saved, he is so full of faith and vigour to share the power of this new found faith. Somehow, this zeal and vigour is slowly lost along the way. Is this to be another battle scar that makes us less ready and fearful to share the Good News of salvation ?

Yes, there will be reasons by many to justify such an ending. But looking at those who are left behind to struggle to live on, it is difficult to find appropriate words that could minimise this loss and pain.

Of course, the world will still goes on ! Let treasure every minute of living in it !

World's Best Pizza

We were also introduced to a little shop at Mundaring in our recent trip to Perth which serves the world's best pizza.

As to whether the claim put up by this little shop is justified or otherwise, the faces of these diners do give a bit of the clue of the verdict. Any less favourable verdict probably will come when I find another better one somewhere else latter on.

A bit of contemplation at the encounter with the so called "world's class pizza"

Fish Head Mee Soup

Fish head mee soup in Perth introduced by Meng How and serene was really good and we had to go for a second round before making back home to Sabah.

Not to be outdone by the Perthians, we also had a go of it back home (credit goes to my wife of course !) with Paul as our guest.

Welcome Home, Paul!

There is a Time for Everything

The months of October and November seem to be favourite for wedding. We have just under ten invitations. Unfortunately, some we won't be able to make it because of timing and distance - we will be away in Perth!

So far, I find the marriage of Marsha to Luis Garcia, a Chilean almost material for a movie! A Malaysian Indian verses a Chilean. English speaking verses Spanish. Geographical wise, each comes from opposite side of the globe.Time of falling in love-3 months when this Luis fellow went to NZ for a student exchange program. To pursue his love, he resigned from a well paid job in Santiago after graduation and flew to Australia so as to be near to his dream girl. The story ends well- this Luis was offered a job in Australia to work in Kuala Lumpur. That makes Marsha's parents very happy indeed.

Well, when you are truly in love, you will do crazy thing! Like this Luis fellow. Of course, some went to the extreme like King Edward VIII who gave up his kingdom for a non-English and non-royal socialite all in the name of love!

Separation Anxiety-Neutralised !

This year, celebration of my birthday was held at the 5-star Peppino and joined by Sam, a rare coincidence these days! This also happened to be Sam's parents' 30th marriage anniversary. Hence, this expensive feasting was more than justified.

Trust

Last Friday, I almost asked one of my residents engineers to "leave".

This RE (Mr. X) was posted to an east coast town to look after a project. He was entirely on his own and I would not know whether he actually carried out his work responsibly and diligently or otherwise. Everything seemed to be under control whenever I called him. Reports from other sources were that the work quality was comparatively worse off than other areas in Sabah and the work progress was also behind schedule.

Then on that Friday, another staff (supervisor) who is also posted there, told me, " Boss, I can't 'tahan' anymore and I want to tell you something". He continued, "This Mr. X has been absent from work and he was practically not on site half of the time". Immediately I called Mr. X. There was no reply even I called him twice and sms'ed him. Then, the supervisor called him in another number and Mr. X told him he was in fact in 1 Borneo Shopping Centre. Mind you, that was during office hour.

Finally, I sms'ed him using the new number and asked him to call me back. Finally, he called and when asked where he was. He answered, "I am now in Semporna".

I was really angry over such lying but I kept my cool. I told him, "I know where you are. Come and see me at 4.30 later in my office in KK". He was still trying to be funny by saying that he could not make it as he was not in KK. I said, "I do know exactly where you are. You better come to see me at 4.30!". That was 1.30pm on my way to the airport taking a flight back to KK.

By the time I reached my office at 4.45 pm, he was already waiting there. I could see he was really pale, almost shivering and almost in tears.

I had made up my mind before seeing him to ask him to go. He was extremely remorseful and begged to be given a second chance. After almost an hour of tongue lashing, I finally decided to give him another chance. One crucial factor in his favour was that this project is at the tail end and it would not be easy for someone new to take over. I showed him the resignation letter I had prepared beforehand. I said, " Well, I won't ask you to resign this time and be very very sure not to repeat this ever again". Just to add, I was diplomatic in the "tongue lashing' and was not too harsh in the words used. In Sabah, one may never know that staff you asked to "leave" may one day sit high up in some government department literally being your boss taking charge of one of your projects ! So, always have this in mind!

Trust once broken is not easy to reinstate again. Hopefully Mr. X learn his lesson and this gesture of mine would spur him to really buck up and work responsibly again.

Being in the Company of the Likes of Nelson Mandala

Being the other half of the new Pengarah, I had the honour of being invited to join the farewell dinner hosted by 30+ lecturers of IPG last night.

The food was good but the most memorable and touching moments were when each lecturer shared each of his/her feeling and perception about this outgoing Timbalan from the bottom of their hearts.

 

" She was fair in the dealing of all"
"She is always approachable. I feel like I am dealing with a friend rather then my superior"
"She is humble"
"She was always willing to listen to what we have to say and tried her best to solve our problem"
"The two years she was with us is too short and I wish she could stay longer"
and the list goes on.

 

I was almost moved to tears in discovering the impact she has made on so many people in a span of two years.

In my heart, I felt bless to be in the company of the likes of Nelson Mandela or Mother Theresa if I may put it like this :)

Pengarah's Residence

The single storey building is an L-shaped structure with one side housing the master bedroom with attached bathroom/toilet and adjoining with 2 more bedrooms plus another bathroom/toilet. The other wing houses the kitchen plus 2 more rooms, a kitchen, a bathroom and toilet for the maid. The living room is where the two wings meet.
The compound is huge. Being on top of a hill, it has a good bird's eye view of part of Keningau town and distant nice landscape.

The spacious compound is ideal for kids to run around and for barbeque :).

Front view

Huge compound to the left

Another huge compound to the right. The tree is perfect to be decorated and lighted up as Christmas tree during Christmas!

The New Pengarah's Office

The office is cosy, nice and self-contained. At one corner, there are table and chairs for discussion. Another corner is reserved for sofa and a TV set. I counted there are two PC's and a laptop inside this room. There is an attached toilet/bathroom complete with wardrobe and water filter. If a bed and kitchenette are added, it will then be perfect as an office cum living quarter! :)

The chap in black jacket is the Timbalan Pengarah.

Introducing the New Pengarah

As our car was about to enter the main entrance to the compound of Keningau Teachers Training Institute, I drew the attention of the "Pengarah" to a huge banner erected by the road side with the new Pengarah's picture printed on it. May be it is too large for the Pengarah to focus and she yielded, " Where! Where!". I had to literally point to the direction to get her focus.

The guard seemed to have done their homework by studying the Pengarah's portrait well in advance. So, when we drove pass, they stood attention, smiled and saluted and pointed to the direction toward the Administration Building.

As we reached the Admin. Building, another same huge banner hung right in front of the building greeted us. In my mind, it wouldn't be long when she can consider putting up herself as a candidate for the local election:).

The New Pengarah on the Way to Report for Duty

The day for the new Pengarah to report for duty at the Keningau Teachers Training Institute finally came on 12 September 2008. I volunteered to act as her driver cum escort :).

Instead of using the old KK-Penampang-Tambunan-Keningau Highway that most of us are used to, we decided to try the new KK-Papar-Kimanis-Keningau Highway. This new road however is considered controversial due to its steep slope design. Some stretches are as steep as 18% when the recommended limit is only 12%. But after using it, I come to accept it as there seems to be not much of an alternative as the road needs to cross the mountainous Crocker Range. Of course, it could have been better if tunneling or more massive hill cutting or elevated highway was adopted. I guess, cost consideration overrode consideration for a more driver-friendly design! But then, this is still one fantastic road because of the spectacular views especially on the way back to KK - view of the Kimanis Bay, to name one! Driving along this road did evoke a lot of memories. Certain stretch reminded me of the Sydney-Newcastle drive, other stretch reminded me of the Great Ocean Drive and some landscape even reminded me of the driving to Agusta, Southwestern Australia.

JOKE OF THE DAY

A friend sent me this joke which I find it very amusing :

A little boy wanted RM100 badly and prayed for two weeks but nothing happened. Then he decided to write GOD a letter asking for the RM100. When Pos Malaysia received the letter addressed to GOD, they decided to send it to the Prime Minister - Pak Lah.

The PM was so impressed, touched and amused that he instructed his secretary to send the little boy a RM5.00 bill. Pak Lah thought this would appear to be a lot of money to a little boy. The little was delighted with the RM5.00 and sat down to write a thank you note to GOD, which read:

'Dear GOD, Thank you very much for sending the money. However, I noticed that for some reasons you had to send it through PutraJaya and, as usual, someone took away RM95.00.'

Well Done

This is a significant day. I posted the final cheque that I started posting way back in mid 1999, non-stop for the last nine years.

Thank God, I have now crossed another threshold.

70 Storeys above Ground Zero

Malaysian in general were substantially affected by the recent petrol price increase. Well, is that the case in Singapore, I had wondered before going there. Probably not. This may be because majority of the people travel by public transport. The pinch was therefore not felt as there may not have been any fare hike sanctioned by the Government.

But, I did gauge some murmurs from at least one taxi driver who was unusually talkative about his heart-felt concerns knowing I am somebody not from within. Two things he mentioned:

• The Government is going to import Mainland Chinese to become taxi drivers. I doubt it is workable as they can't speak English which is prerequisite in a country like Singapore.
• Government's ministers are paid exorbitant salaries, why can they have a cut to benefit the less fortunate or the poorer sector ?

I was surprised that Singaporean taxi-drivers are a dying breed and that the country needs foreigners to keep this important trade going.

Well, on the exorbitant salaries of the ministers, he was not convinced that high pay is a deterrent against corruption among politicians.

While murmurs and complaints are unavoidable and remain daily routines, my lunch date fortunately was still on. This time at a staggering height of 70 storeys above ground zero. The food and the views were both spectacular and unforgettable!

Sleep - A Must.

What We Ate ..............

Red Bellies at The Pub, Nelson Bay Sidewalk Cafe, Nelson Bay

Super Bowl Chinese Restaurant, China Town, Sydney

Cableway Cafe, Blue Mountain Treasured Teapot Museum, Blue Mountain.

Zilder Restaurant, China Town, Sydney.