old friends

Met up with a few of my primary school classmates on Saturday night. These are the people that I met way back in 1984 during my first day in primary school. Some of us are still in contact, but some I’ve not met since last day of primary school.

It’s good to meet these friends again after all these years. Also glad to know that most of them are doing well in their respective career.

We’ve decided to have another meeting in August, and hopefully we’ll have more long lost friends turning up.

Another trip to Miri

Arrived in Miri early this morning for a three day working visit. Work has occupied all my time during the day but after sunset, I set aside works and try to make myself occupied with other things. The problem is there’s nothing much I can do.

Going for dinner in a while, but haven’t decided what & where to eat.

Have to decide what to do after dinner. My options:
• Walk around town and the two shopping complexes nearby the hotel.
• Surfing in the hotel lobby. Staying in a hotel with no WIFI in the room.
• Surfing in Coffee Bean.
• Watch TV in room. But will there be any interesting program to watch?

Whichever option I choose, I’ll still be growing mushroom at the same time.


Updates:
Just had dinner. There must be so much good food out there in Miri but I ended up having KFC’s dinner plate at Bintang Plaza. Went for a walk around town and the two shopping complexes, completing the course in less than one hour. Bought two packets of peanuts and three cans of beer to make myself occupied until I’m ready to sleep. Hope the three cans are enough to make me sleepy. Sometimes too little actually make me more awake.

Just realized that the room I’m staying this time is still within the hotel lobby’s WIFI range. I can surf in the room.  Sorry to the management of Coffee Bean coz they won’t be earning anything from me this time.

The TV programs are so boring too. “Saving Private Ryan” is on HBO now. But there’s something interesting early tomorrow morning. Germany is playing Turkey in the first semi final of Euro 2008. I’m expecting a Germany win.

Going to start keeping myself busy with peanuts and beer. Good night.

then and now...

While waiting to collect some documents from a government office yesterday morning, I saw a group of bank officers promoting their products and services. Then one of them, a young lady, walks towards me with all those product catalogues, and immediately I tried to avoid her and whatever product she wants to introduce to me.

Before I have time to turn away, this young lady called out my “funny“ Chinese name. How come this lady knows my Chinese name? A total stranger but she calls me by my Chinese name in full. She came nearer and politely asks if that’s my name. I asked her how come she knew my name, and shockingly she told me that she’s my classmate in kindy. But how come she can still remember me, I asked her. That’s 25 years ago. Do I still look the same? She told me I still look the same.

We chat for a while and finally I recalled that we were staying in the same area years ago. Her family and mine are neighborhood friends. But after kindy, we went to different schools and never meet ever since.

It’s a good thing to meet up long lost friends. But what she said got me thinking. I still look the same, 25 years ago and now.

Positive thinking: I still look as young, baby face and probably cute, just like 25 years ago.

Negative thinking: I’m already so “old” looking 25 years ago!!!

One thing I can be sure of, I have more hair on my head then. Ha ha ha….

"growing mushroom" in Bintulu again....

Another outing to Bintulu today. I have been to this small town a few times already, and most of the time, my official duties are completed around noon. But thanks to the very limited air services, I have to "grow mushroom" in Bintulu for around 5 hours or more before my flight back to Kuching. No difference today.

After my meeting, a colleague of mine from Miri dropped me off at Parkcity Mall, a modern shopping complex here. After checking out the food at the food court, I decided to have my lunch elsewhere and ended up at Marrybrown. Then I realized that it's a WIFI zone here. Lucky me. The number of mushrooms will be lesser this time. At least I can reply mails, read blogs and stuffs online. And now I'm blogging "live" from Bintulu's Marrybrown at Parkcity Mall.

Let me just describe my surrounding now. Though this is the most modern shopping complex here in Bintulu, the crowd is really scarce. Right in front of me a bunch of direct selling promoters hang around, approaching everyone passing by to take a look at their cooking pots, stove, water filter, etc., but most people will just try to walk pass as fast as possible to avoid them. But they spend most of their time sitting around talking to one another. Retail shopkeepers just sitting/standing in their respective shop chatting to fellow shopkeepers or looking around out of boredom. Wonder what's on their mind. Most of them must be thinking how long more before they can go home. One thing I'm very sure of now is that the shopkeepers easily outnumber the patrons here in the whole complex.

Just realized that some travelers are sitting a few tables behind me with their laptops on as well, and enjoying the free WIFI. I think I'll see these people again tonite at the airport. Looks like day-trip traveler like me.

Thought of calling two of my friends working here. One a teacher and the other one with Shell. But they too are busy people so better don't bother them. The one with Shell is surely busy with work, but the teacher is either having tuition class or sleeping. That's the only two things I normally hear her doing most of the time.

I'll continue observing my surrounding here and at the same time write a few memos and letters for work tomorrow.



Note: "growing mushroom" does not mean me planting mushroom. It's just another way of expressing the situation when someone is "stagnant" and having nothing to do. Like a piece of bread left on a table to rot/decompose.

Friday 13th...

Just realized that today is Friday 13th.....

Do you know what Friday 13th is all about? I have no idea too.

See what Wikipedia has for us here

I'm back in Kuching after a hectic 3-day outstation trip to Miri, Bintulu and Sibu. The 3 days passed by so quickly with meetings and discussions taking up lots of time, and the time spent on the road and in the air. Will be traveling to Bintulu again next Monday, but luckily it's just a day trip, going early in the morning and coming back in the evening.

Nothing interesting from this trip, except the journey from Miri to Bintulu. Passed by lots of long houses, and realized that long houses no longer look like the one we see in Cultural Village. Lots of the long houses I saw are made of brick and concrete, with Astro and satellite TV services, and 4WD pickups like mine parked outside. Where are the atap long houses?

Also passed by the Batu Niah National Park junction. I'm not sure the mountain I saw along the way is where the famous Gua Niah is located, but it sure looks so natural and interesting. How I wish to go to the cave. If I have the time, I would want to drive to the park and take a look.

Also passed by the junction to the Bakun hydro dam. But the dam is still very far from the junction. I don't think that place is accessible to us common people.

It's a normal sight to see vast deforestation along the "highway". Most of it are for palm oil plantation. I never know that Sarawak has so many palm oil plantations. Can use palm oil for our cars instead of petrol? hahaha....

Have to sleep now. Busy day in the office tomorrow.

z zz zzz zzzz zzzzz

Last week passed by quickly as I actually worked for two days instead of the normal five and a half, thanks to the many public holidays we have in the country. I've checked and realized that there's only about six or seven public holidays in a year in UK.

The petrol price increase is still the hottest issue, even hotter than the Euro 2008. However, I still see as many cars on the road, and public transport is still not preferred. Those in KL could probably use the available public transports, but the public transport service in Kuching is near to zero, so no choice but to use our own.

Euro 2008 just started over the weekend. I no longer can stay awake all night long for the whole month to watch all the matches. Age factor. But will surely watch the final. Anyway, my fav team is not playing and that too takes away some level of interest.

Will be traveling again to Miri early tomorrow morning, then to Bintulu the next day followed by Sibu on Thursday. This week will surely be a quick to pass by.

End of long holiday...

Got back to Kuching this afternoon. The few days spent in Singapore are fruitful, particularly the medical checkup for baby as we managed to find some answers to those uncertainties we were facing. We also managed to survey some items that we need to buy for our move to Liverpool. The Great Singapore Sale is now on until July, but certain things are still expensive. Bought only a few stuffs and planned to survey the other items in KL soon before we decide where to buy.

A shopkeeper tried to cheat me when I was surveying a camera accessory for a friend. That damn fellow tried to sell me the thing for S$70 when it is worth much less than RM70. There’s no price tag on the product packing and therefore the fellow tried his luck to cut my throat. Luckily my friend had told me that if it’s more than RM50, don’t buy. All the while I thought Singapore is free from this kind of tactic.

Got the news on my way back home that the govt has announced a price hike for petrol and diesel effective midnight. This time the hike is drastic compared to previous occasions. All the petrol stations are jammed, and the queues are so long, causing traffic jams everywhere. I told my wife that we’ll have to cut down our daily after-dinner outing and plan our routes properly in order to reduce the use of petrol for her car and diesel for mine. But I wonder how long would it last. After a while, we’ll get used to the price and slowly will not even realize how much it costs. The funny thing about this round of price hike is that while charging more for petrol and diesel, the govt is “giving” something back in return in the form of cash rebate and road tax deduction. It is just like putting money into one pocket and giving money out from another pocket at the same time. There must be a logical explanation for this. Will have to read more about it.

Read from The Star on the price hike

Going back to work early tomorrow morning. Holiday’s over.