On the way back to Perth from Guangzhou, we had a 2-day stopover in Kuala Lumpur. It’s been a while since I’ve been back and boy did I miss the food! So the next three posts about my short visit there is dedicated to the food, OMG food.
The first place we visited was this open air stir-fry restaurant – one of my uncle and aunty’s favourite places.
Among the things that we had …
were satay …
and stir-fried kai-lan.
After dinner, it was a short walk over to this stall selling durians.
I don’t normally like durians, like I don’t mind eating it but I don’t crave it, but these were really good. And pricey – two of these came to RM80.
By the way, there’s a reason there’s this food post all of a sudden. It’s nearing winter and I generally eat more during winter. Food, delicious food. Mmm.
In particular, there’s two comments that I want to address. One was by an Asian guy (and presumably not a troll although he sounds like one and I had to delete a few of his comments) who has a victim mentality and likes to see racism and discrimination in everything, and another who laments that he couldn’t date a Caucasian despite having a few of them as friends.
I’ve said it before, and that is: why this need in some Asian guys to date non-Asians in order to feel validated? Instead of obsessing about dating a white woman, you should all obsess about dating the right woman.
Of all the things to get upset about, don’t you think this is very pointless and trivial? And seriously, what’s wrong with dating nice pretty Asian girls all the time? I don’t see a downside to it. So get a grip and move on to more important things yeah?
Most days I’m happy to have lunch at my desk because I get to instant-chat with my friends and browse the net. But lately, the workload and pressure has been affecting me greatly that I’m compelled to leave the place.
Going out of the office allows me to mentally split up the day into two by being somewhere different, and in a different mind set. The walking around also helps take my mind off of things. And it really works. Two separate chunks of a day are easier to handle than one long drawn out one.
I’d rather that the workload wasn’t so hellish at the moment but at least I’ve got a coping mechanism for it. The only thing that would make it better? If we were allowed some alcoholic drinks at work to take the edge off.
a new head deck for my car because I need something that can play MP3 and that my iPhone can connect to. That will save me having to burn CDs all the time.
a new computer that I can do a lot more video and photo editing on. My current one is coping well but really shows its age when I’m splicing together those clips for Youtube.
I only drive on the weekends so I’m leaning towards the computer since I’d spent more time using it. I’m gonna add approx. $1000 and get a Dell Studio XPS Desktop. Although it probably wouldn’t stimulate the Australian economy directly – it’s an American computer assembled in Malaysia from parts made mostly in China – anything that stimulates an economy elsewhere would surely trickle back.
At the very least, the Australian economy will still be helped this way: there’d be a dock yard worker who’d unload the computer from a container on a ship, the fork lift driver who’d then put in on a truck, and the truck driver who’d deliver it to my house. So indirectly, I’m helping save Australian jobs even if I’m not buying Australian-made. The important thing is to spend the money here in Australia and not overseas!
You are suppose to not take things personally at work. “Nothing personal, it’s business.” But it’s hard not to take it personally when you are dealing with customers who are angry and frustrated. Most times I temper that with the fact that it’s mostly due to the customer’s lack of knowledge and that a little guidance and some hints and tips will solve most of their problems.
However, what makes it harder is when you know the customers’ problems are directly caused by your company’s actions. Usually, those actions are for the long term improvement of the way we do things. The employees can see the benefits but customers are more often than not, focused on the short term pain.
They are paying money for a service and they expect that service to be flawless 100% of the time. Some understand and will accept that nothing’s perfect. Some can put things in perspective – “It’s a few hours or at worst a day or two out of 365 days”. Some are in the service industry themselves and know the pain and difficulties of serving customers.
But not all customers are like that. However, it is more or less true that 20% of your customers are the ones who complain 80% of the time. It may get hard not to take things personally but at least I can always keep a sense of perspective about it because it could be a whole lot worse – at least it’s only 20% of the customers.
Plus, the importance of having good colleagues and managers who look out for you cannot be overlooked. Because when you are dealing with difficult customers, you don’t need a toxic working environment piled onto it. I’m glad I’m not in one because I would have burnt out a long time ago.
At the end of the day, literally, it’s only work. It’s only one part of your life. You’ve got your family and friends and that’s where you should make it personal. And for your sanity’s sake, try to find some time to play!
Last night I convinced a bunch of my friends to go check out Bodyrox, UK purveyors of electro-house, at Metro City. As good as their songs are (“Yeah Yeah”, “What Planet U On?”), as a live DJ act they weren’t satisfying at all. I say “they” but really, there was only one guy from the group who came.
The mixing was inconsistent with a few good tracks in between the mediocre ones. What I love about electro house are the vocals and the thick synth bass line that permeates the songs. And although you can argue that most electronic songs are repetitive and sound the same, good mixing can create an ebb and pull feeling, taking you up and down. But sadly this wasn’t present last night – after a while, everything *did* sound similar and repetitive.
Nonetheless, other qualities of the night saved it. Getting mildly sloshed with friends (curse you Bacardi 151!), throwing inane banter back and forth, and ogling the Asian hotties who frequent the place were highlights for me. And man, there were a lot of them last night. Woohoo!
The day started off with a sausage sizzle at Simon’s place. Here’s a group pic – you can see most of us in the group wear for the day. I <3 Trance!
After lunch and some drinks, some of us went in a car and the rest hopped into the hired van for the 30-minute ride which felt very long. On the way we saw cows, horses, vineyards and farmland. And because it was hot on the day, we felt very weary during the ride but we got there eventually at around 4pm. Also, special thanks goes to Wendy who offered to drive us both ways even though she didn’t go on the day. Thank you Wendy!
As we climbed over the hill and saw the amphitheatre and heard the pumping music – I got super giddy. Woohoo!
It was a huge semi-spherical space …
with steps forming concentric half-circles facing the main stage. It was packed as the day got later.
Before I get to the DJs and light show, here are some pics of us in our shirts being silly.
The highlights for me were Marco V, BT, Sander van Doorn and Judge Jules. By the time Judge Jules came on at 7pm I was fully ecstatic and I didn’t take another photo until I got too tired at around 9:30pm. It was madness and I got the sore muscles and joints to prove it too.
These were my favourite shots of the day. First up, Marco V and a hands-in-the-air moment.
BT in the lights – the girl’s expression on the big screen pretty much sums up everyone’s mood on the day I think.
Sander van Doorn in the lights – with the fantastic light work, it was quite easy to take good pictures.
The closing act on the main stage, Aly and Fila in the lights.
And finally, a nice photo of the crowd bathed in a pink light.
The full set of my photos are in my Flickr set, with some being pilfered from me Facebook buddies.
So here are the highlight clips … watch the trippy lights, see happy people dance and the DJs spin, and hear me screaming and woo-ing like a girl!
