The one with basket of fruits

When I was in Accra, Ghana for a UN conference recently, I stayed in this lousy hotel (2,3 stars) due to the unavailability of better hotel because so many people from all over the world came to Ghana for the conference. My room was okay I guess, I had better room before but I won’t complaint much. Simple guy!

Well, I was there earlier from the rest of Malaysian delegation since I was supposed to ensure everything is up and running by the time my big boss arrived in Accra. Anyway, I have a bit problem with the suite that they prepared for my big boss. The suite they provided was unsurprisingly very bad and I was kinda worried. So after some discussion with the Malaysian High Commissioner there, she was kindly enough to put her own carpet in the room just to make it nicer. She also prepared a fruit basket to be placed in the suite, so that when big boss came, look bit better with carpet, fruits basket and stuffs.

Thus we arrived at the fruit basket story ….

That afternoon, High Commissioner prepared the fruit basket by herself I may say, you know with grapes, oranges, apples, bananas etc and some decorations, it was nice with basket and all. So on the way to the airport to pick up the big boss, she stopped at the hotel and asked her driver (who is a Ghanaian) to go up to the suite and place the fruit basket on the coffee table.

So this guy went up, did what he was asked to do, came down and get into the car.

High Commissioner asked him, have you put the fruit basket in the room? He said yes, and dengan selambanya told the High Commissioner “here is your basket back!” High Commissioner was shocked and surprised and immediately asked the driver, what is this basket doing here? (of course with high pitch la) The driver replied “ooh, I have put all fruits in the fridge and I’m giving back your basket to you”.

Seriously I can’t hold my laugh that night ….

The best of education ... sort of

This morning conversation with my 5 year old son will make all Manchester United fan in the whole wide world love me!

Afif : Ayah, ayah which football team do you support?

Me : Manchester United, like the jersey that you are wearing now ...

Afif : Ahah, yes, yes. Ayah, Afif know which team "yang jahat" ... (the bad ones)

Me : Ok, which one?

Afif : Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea!

Me : That's my boy!

Ha ha ha ha ... Glory glory Man United!!!

Kenangan Terindah

aku yang lemah tanpamu

aku yang rentan karena

cinta yang telah hilang darimu

yang mampu menyanjungku

selama mata terbuka

sampai jantung tak berdetak

selama itu pun aku mampu

untuk mengenangmu

darimu ku temukan hidupku

bagiku kaulah cinta sejati

bila yang tertulis untukku

adalah yang terbaik untukmu

kan ku jadikan kau kenangan

yang terindah dalam hidupku

namun tak kan mudah bagiku

meninggalkan jejak hidupku

yang telah terukir abadi

sebagai kenangan yang terindah

The one with not-so-idiotic things

One of my colleague told me to share something light in my blog compared to some issues that I have discussed next time I update it. She said, since we work in a stressful place perhaps I should write something light just for the sake of fun. Ok la zaireen, you got your wish.

Anyway, this is actually a problem for me because I think I am not that witty enough or creative enough to write that way. I am cracking my head to think what can I write and I am afraid that I am gonna suck doing it.

Should I write about what I do in a day. Duh, boring. Probably tell people different kind of stroke that available in tennis game, even more boring. I am not going to any vacation yet to share perhaps beautiful photos with others, that can wait though. So, what's left in store?

Well, let me try. How about things that without I'm realizing it I do it in a day to day basis which really doesn't make any sense and suddenly you realize that it's habit for you and you cannot live without it. It must always be that way, whatever, whenever. And I am pretty sure that everybody has their own way as well. It's not superstitious, it is just that, preference.

Firstly, to think of it, I always like to hang my working clothes with only black hanger and the "cangkuk" must be on the left side so that when I face the baju I will be happy just looking at it. Ohh, and it must be this one particular black hanger, no other hanger will do. Hmmm ...

What else? Oh, I must always sleep on the right side of the bed, it's a must! If not, it will just feel weird. Which reminds me of one of the episode in FRIENDS where Tom Sellect was Monica's boyfriend. He said he must sleep on the right side because the sun is rising in the east or something like that. Well, he has reason and I don't have any. I just prefer it this way.

When I play tennis, I must hold the racket so that when I hit a forehand stroke, the damper's brand on the racket (damper is the shock absorber placed on the string) must not face the ball, it must face me. Somehow, I feel I will hit the ball better this way. Okay la kan, compared to some footballers who will always wear the same underwear so long as they are winning!

It is the same with double sided ping-pong bat, the black side must be for my backhand while the red side must be for my forehand. I just feel better hitting the ball that way. Hope it does not sound creepy.

If I think really carefully, probably I can come up with some more not-so-idiotic things that I do on a day to day basis but perhaps this is enough for now.

Now back to my real world!

The one with interesting names

Working in my current division is fascinating. The issue that we have to work with is very interesting and requires a very good level of understanding.

During the course of work, I found something even more interesting. Everybody knows about “meeting” right. I am pretty sure that everybody has attended a meeting one way or another, be it kedai kopi meeting, association meeting or even at world level meeting.

This world organisation that we need to go for meeting is very creative in naming their meetings, seriously. In my office or in my country for that matter, when we call for meeting we would probably say “meeting to discuss bla bla …” long boring name for meeting.

Well, in this particular world organisation, meeting names are short and catchy. Let see:

Green room meeting – Why green room? The color of the wall of course! I don’t know whether the color of the meeting room still green but the story behind it was that the first meeting was held in a green meeting room, hence the name. But don’t play-play, only Ministers can attend this meeting.

Signaling conference – It involves meeting on services where Members need to signal their commitment. I guess they want you to signal your intention but then if at the end of the day you didn’t want to do it, you probably can say only signal not consign.

Open-ended meeting – Talk all you like, noted by the secretary, then chairman of the meeting can choose whether to accept it or totally ignore it when they reconvene next meeting.

Horizontal process meeting – Every issue from different-different subject matter were discussed horizontally I guess, so trade here, give there, let go this, accept that kinda process, or I maybe wrong.

Room E meeting – Can’t go anywhere else except room E for meeting, maybe!

Enchilada talks - While enchilada is actually traditional Mexican dish which is typically made with a corn tortilla dipped briefly in hot oil then dipped in the chosen enchilada sauce (sound yummy!), the origin of this enchilada talk, I myself don’t really know. Maybe they serve enchilada doing the meeting or maybe the first meeting was in Mexico and they were served enchilada. Or maybe the whole process looks like enchilada. Similar like spaghetti effects of FTAs/RTAs, spiralling all over the world in one big plate!

Pretty funny isn’t it! This is just meeting! Don’t let me start on the terms used. So next time around folks, choose something alluring when you call for meeting … Something like “Damas Discussion”. Only officers that eat at Aji-Don everyday can attend!

The one with S-I-R

I am so happy!

Why I am happy? Because finally my prayer has been answered by a certain corporations.

This happiness was related to my previous posting where I was rambling on my loathe of a production named "Tom Tom Bak" because I felt it was a bad influence for everybody especially the young ones. Original posting here. Well, I am entitled to my opinion so if anybody disagree with me than I don't really give a damn. And I also said I rather have spelling bee kinda programme instead. Well, well well, Malaysia is gonna have one.

Back to my happiness ... it is because from April to August 2008, RHB/NST is organising S-I-R or Spell-It-Right competition for Malaysian schools. This is more or less similar to Spelling Bee competition in the United States where for all the ignorant people out there, this Spelling Bee is actually covered live by ESPN okay, a major TV network covering sports. Well, its about time a corporation with a lot of money come up with this and I hope it will be there to stay for years coming.

The S-I-R challenge, is divided into two categories - primary and secondary and will be conducted in two stages, the State Challenge and the National Challenge.The state challenge is open to 36 schools, and each school can send a maximum of four representatives. I Read somewhere that RHB is allocating close to RM2.5 million for this programme and I will say good for you man!

One day, I hope somebody out there has the power to pull off the plug on all the nonsense on Channel 611 especially the one with aznil and AC in it!

The one with three chefs

This is a story about 3 chefs.

Chef number 3 is named Peter Petrelli. Chef number 2 who is the supervisor for chef number 3 is Hiro Nakamura and finally chef number 1 who is the big boss is known as Sylar.

So the story is like this. Sylar asked Chef number 3 to go to Isketambola for a chef meeting to learn about the recipe of latest cuisine available to the world. Each country is represented by one chef and there are about 100 countries or so. So Chef Petrelli went to the land of the unknown to learn and discuss about the cuisine. Chef Petrelli was amazed with the cuisine and so excited by it. He learned and discussed about it with fellow chefs from all over the world. After few days, he went back to his country and ready to unleash the cuisine to his boss.

When he arrived home, he wrote down the recipe and how to prepare the cuisine. He emailed chef number 1 and CC it to chef number 2 about the recipe and the preparation method of the cuisine and waiting for his response and next instruction anxiously.

After a while, chef number 1 finally read the email from chef number 3. After reading the recipe, chef number 1 replied to chef number 3 …. “Please clear the recipe of that cuisine with chef number 2”

Chef number 3 was dazed, shocked and confused.

He asked himself, "What? How am I supposed to clear the recipe with chef number 2 when he was not even there at the meeting!"