Project Pongo - the German meeting

For those who have been following my blogs, you may remember that sometime in May of this year, I had to go to our factory in the East Coast of USA for a face to face meeting with the Project Pongo team. We were trying to re-engineer the Support Assist team structure - roles and responsibilities. I am managing the Asia Pacific team. Since the project began early this year, the team have been having telemeetings on Wednesdays and I always ended up with a 10pm to midnite slot - EVERY WEDNESDAY!!!. There is only so much one can do on the phone and so, we had to have another face to face meeting to thrash out the details of the plans. We met in Waldbron in the week of 27th August.

The meetings were scheduled for the whole day and on one of those days, it dragged on till almost 8pm. You can see the hagged look on the team members. Okay - a couple did smile for the camera.

But it was not all work and no play. As I have stated in my previous blogs, August this year seems to be Middle Management Month - my middle, my waistline. After a hard day of meetings - including the one which ended around 8pm, we went out for dinner as a group. Those who know me knows that I am a social drinker. And even then I limit myself to a glass of beer, max is 2. In that week in Waldbron, I drank more beer than I normally would have in the previous 6 months. If my WW boss - Mark D, who was also in this meeting sees me writing this, he would probably have a good laugh as he was drinking beer like water. It was not just the beer - there was the food. Most times, I try to order something relatively light like FISH. See what happened when I ordered spare ribs. I did justice to it.

In my previous visits to Waldbron, I normally stayed at the Stathotel Engel. This time, I joined the majority of the team and stayed at Erbprinz Hotel. It is a building full of history. On one of the days of my stay, they even provided me with a fruit basket. In the hotel entrance and courtyard, there were various plants, flowers and trees. For many Asians, we normally eat chestnuts without knowing what the tree looks like. Here is a chestnut tree, with the chestnuts still wrapped in it's spiky skin (looking very much like a mini durian). There was also a lemon tree near the entrance. Rooms are much more comfortable than the Engel and for once in more than a decade, I did not rent a car. I car pooled with Jon. That meant that when I had to go back to Frankfurt Flughafen (airport), I had to take the train. That was actually quite fast and comfortable. Pat and I took the taxi from the hotel to Karlsruhe Hauptbanhof (main train station), took the ICE to Mannheim, changed platform and within 70 minutes was in Frankfurt airport. Here is Pat taking the opportunity to get some rest.

All I want to say about the airport in Frankfurt is that there seemed to be planes landing almost every 2 minutes on the side that I could observe - which had 2 runways. I will be lucky to see more than 1 plane landing in the KL airport for the duration that I am there - typically 2 hours.

Beijing Aug 2007

Travels for August started off with a trip to Beijing to participate in the Middle Manager Program.

First of all - look at the display at the KL airport. The transport ministry promised to reduced late flight take offs. Seems like they are achieving it BECAUSE they have been cancelling MAS flights that night!! :)

First thing I did on Monday was to go to my regular tea merchant. Had to get some tea for some Friends and to replenish my stock. I am only consuming Loong Jin (Dragon Well), Oolong Char Wong and Pu Er. Pu Er can be kept for years and their price has been escalating over the years. I buy mine in loose form, not the discs pancakes. The loose form is cleaner and does not require a tool to take chunks out of the disc when brewing tea. Spent 4 hours sampling different tea in the shop and almost 1000RMB on tea purchases. The shop also sells oolong char in balled form. The balls are a little bigger than a basketball.

The MMP started on Tuesday and we were assigned to 2 universe - a BLUE and an ORANGE universe. I was in Blue 1. Here's my team. We had a good mix from Korea, Scotland, China, Malaysia, coming from backgrounds of Support, Finance, HR, Manufacturing and Marketing.

In the evening, the China Support team invited Yu Sung Han (Korea CSM) and myself out for dinner. We had it at a place called Kung Iichi(sounds something like that). Food was great. They had an in house yellow wine which was sweet and easy on the throat. It was served in a warmer as seen above. We also took in a bottle of white rice wine. it was a wonder that nobody got tipsy, though there was certainly a lot of loosen tongues. After dinner we had a boat ride around the lake and finished off close to midnight!!

As if that was not enough food for the week, we ended the Program with a cocktail and dinner. The food below was just half of what we consumed!

Looking back at the weeks and the amount of food consumed - with Asam Laksa, Char Kway Teow, Crabs, Mum's birthday lunch and then the group dinners and MMP cocktail and dinner, this month has definitely been a Middle Management Month - My Middle, my waistline!!

Mum's 68th birthday

This week seems to be the week to get really Fat, Dumb and Happy. At the very least - it is a week to put on some pounds (or Kg for the metric minded). My mum's birthday falls on the 25th of this month, but I shall be somewhere in the air between Beijing and KL on that day. So, to celebrate her birthday, the Tehs, Yeohs, Yaps, Cheahs and relatives were invited to the East of Highway Restaurant in Seri Kembangan. We have been eating there over the years and it so happens that today, there is also a writeup of the place in the Star ( http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2007/8/19/sundaymetro/18582307&sec=sundaymetro ). They serve reasonably good Szechuan food.

More than 30 years ago, my mum worked for the Mr Teh Gin Sooi's family. He was the secretary of Badminton Association of Malaysia. They allowed us to stay with them in Lucky Gardens in Bangsar and in many ways, they were like a surrogate family to us. When the older Tehs retired, my mum went on to work for their eldest daughter - June Yeoh. So, in a way, today's lunch was a family lunch. I had also invited my brother to join us.

As usual, mum ordered enough food to feed not only the 2 tables. We could have fed at least 4 tables of guests!! Siew Yong arranged the bouquet of flowers and Allan the birthday cake (no - that is Alex holding the flowers for Grandma)

Well, it is her 68th. Happy birthday mum

One day trip to Port Dickson

It was one of those sudden urges that some department members had. Out of the blue, somebody suggested a trip to Kuantan. No, no, Kuantan takes 6 hours round trip and we have to stay overnight. How about Port Dickson, since we just want to have some fun on the beach??

And so it came to pass that we managed to organized a trip to Port Dickson at the last minute. Details were still sketchy. Here is the composite photo to show the group at Tmn Connaught and then just before they boarded the banana boat.What are we going to do there besides swimming? Some team members opted out at the last minute and some who opted out showed up on Saturday morning when we met for breakfast at Taman Connaught. In the end we had 3 cars and 11 people in the group.

I was leading the convoy all the way up to about the Teluk Kemang site, where parking and food was readily available. We plonked ourselves onto one of those tables and chairs (paid RM20 to use the space for the whole day) and started to get ready for fun. First team event was to get onto the banana boat. The team was dunked twice into the sea and almost everyone said - never again!! Some amused themselves building sandcastles and others rented inner tubes (RM5 each) and tried to drown each other.

All that can be very tiring!! Look at the sleeping beauties above. Ee Chia sleeps with her eyes opened!!!

So after some napped and some swam, it was time to look for lunch. After lunch, we went to the PD Ostrich farm. We were just in time for a series of shows. There was a monkey plucking coconut show, an Ostrich race and feeding of the crocodiles. Abu the monkey made many friends that day

Many in the team tried to break the Ostrich eggs that was placed on the ground for visitors to attempt to break them. None succeeded.

We had Ostrich satay and then left for the Light House located at Tanjung Tuan. There was a barrier across the entrance, but it was raised. I took the liberty of leading the convoy up all the way to the light house (FORBIDDEN!!! but we got away with it). We managed to walk all the way up to the light house (but not get in), went around the base and then skedaddled out of there.

We finished the day trip with a visit to Seremban Restoran which is famous for their barbecued crabs. The crabs was served with their special sauce!!Had to make 2 stops at petrol stations in Seremban town to figure out how to get there (near Market of Seremban). Great food.

The food above shows the Sang Cheong (Fresh intestines), Luk Yoke (Veal) and Chook Tahn (bamboo clams)

And on the way back, i believe most of the passengers were pooped. It had been a great day - no fixed schedule and yet we managed to get enough into the itinerary.

What's next??

Asam Laksa - round 2

Looks like this week is Asam Laksa week. Today's trail brings us to Little Penang cafe at the Curve. We have a smaller crowd today, so Kah Leng drove.

The Asama Laksa in Little Penang has very much thicker soup stock. Looks like most of the ingredients (bunga kantan, lemon grass and what have you) have been ground into the soup. The fish meat (looks like Kembong) was also very much finer and made the soup really thick. Very few pieces of the fish was in chunks, unlike Kopi Time. Yesterday's Asam Laksa at Kopi Time was such that as you eat, the mouth started to get a spicier taste. Little Penang's was the more you eat, the more sourish the Asam Laksa got. And Despite a similar soup bowl sized serving, it was perceived that the actual amount of noodles was less in Little Penang, and it cost more - at RM9 per bowl.

Elaine opted for Nasi Lemak. 2 days of Asam Laksa straight is a challenge. The sambal that was served on the plate was a miserable pinch. You have to ask the waiter to bring you more.

Here are the 3 pretty lasses after the feast.

It is not possible to have Asam Laksa tomorrow (Thursday) as the Sales team has an event at a local hotel. But we are already planning Friday's lunch - Char Kueh Teow at Centerpoint!!

Asam Laksa - Yum yum

For lunch today, my God daughter, Elaine wanted to go for Asam Laksa. Apparently, she went with the sales ladies yesterday and got hooked at this place called Kopi Time on the ground floor of Atria Shopping center (near to KFC).

The food was served in soup bowl portion and the price was also appropriately soup bowl prices - RM7.50 per bowl. And it was good. The shop called it Penang Asam Laksa ikan Tenggiri. And the fish pieces were chunky!!

Look at what I did to my bowl!!

So, after lunch, we had a picture of the happy faces seated at the table.

Lunch anyone??

I just booked a new car!!!

When I started working, I started to acquire things that I aspired in my younger days. First thing I got was a 10 speed bicycle that I bought using my own money. Some of my friends thought I bought it because of the influence of a show that had similar situations - young man aspiring for a 10 speed bike. The truth is that I never did see that movie and only heard about it from others after I had bought the bicycle.

Then working in TAR college, transportation became an issue. Our public transportation system sucks big time. Staying in Hot Spring New Village at that time meant that I had to wake up very early, take a bus out to the main road and then another bus to the college. And since the changeover point was in the middle of the bus journey's from KL to TAR college, it meant that it is almost a certainty that the bus is jam packed by the time I get go it. So, like the majority of poor blokes at that time, I bought a Honda Cub 70 cc. The cub chai was fantastic. It provided me mobility that I never had. Only drawback was the traffic, smog and fumes from traffic and of course the rain. Mind you, traffic in the early 70s was relatively less than today. Occasionally, I would borrow my friend's larger capacity bikes (with clutch) just for the thrill of riding a bigger bike. My license was valid for up to 250cc bikes. It was great fun to ride scramblers (Yamaha) and the really heavy Suzuki 250cc then.

The cub chai lasted me until 1981 when I switched jobs to Hewlett Packard. One question that the interviewer posed to me when I went for the HP interview - do you have a car?? Oh oh, car?? Expensive lah. Heck, I was desperate to get the HP job - so I committed to get a car if I was hired. So when they did offer me the job, I scouted around for a second (third, Fourth, etc??) hand vehicle. I managed to buy a Toyota KE-30 that was 13 years old for $3000.00. No aircond, very basic, but what the hey, it is a car - 4 wheels, no worries about the rain. Except that when it does rain, you need to constantly wipe the windscreen from inside, since there was no aircond.

Drove that for a year and then sold it for $2000.00. Why? Because HP instituted a company car policy and got me a Toyota Station wagon. Why that instead of a regular sedan? Because I was in support services and we were expected to transport instruments and parts occasionally. In the 4 years I had that car, I ran up almost 300000 km!! I drove it to Penang, Johor, Kota Baru and even Singapore!. And then HP started experimenting with the auto policy. They went for long term rentals just like in the United States. I got myself a brand new Ford 1.8 sedan. One thing about rentals - they had problems, the rental company changes it for you. I was driving to Kerteh when I got into a serious accident. While trying to avoid oncoming traffic, I verged too far to the left, rolled the car 360 degree on it's side and ended up with 2 flat tires, a car that looked like it was going right when I was driving straight ahead. I was shaken but not stirred. Drove that mangled heap to Kuantan and got another car from the rental branch there.

And HP changed their auto policy again - no more company car. They give us a monthly auto allowance, we buy our own car. So I purchased a Mazda 626 1.8 sedan. That was the time of Knight Rider and I was the only one in the company with a digital dash. Cool! But my business related travels took a toll on the car. Ran up another 300000km in 4 years, and had to change to another car. This time - a Mazda Astina 1.6. I christened that car a Japanese Porche for it's retractable headlamps. My Japanese Porche lasted me 13 years before I replaced it with the current Toyota Unser 1.8 Auto. The Astina was too small to fit all my son's barang barang when we went for holidays, so I opted for an MPV of sorts. I have sworn off getting Mazda's because of bad experiences with their distributors. Both of my Mazda's had aircond problems within one week of delivery. Within 5 years, both of them experienced radiator overheat. And in the Astina, the clutch and gearbox crapped out in it's 10th year. When I wrote to their distributor for an answer, the admin person handling my snail mail sent me a chain letter. Unfortunately for her or him, the post mark clearly showed it was mailed from the Mazda distributor' company franking machine. So stupid.

So, today, in the fifth year of owning the Toyota Unser, I just booked myself a Toyota CAMRY 2.0G!! Hopefully, this will last me for the next 15 years or so. And my Unser?? I am keeping it. Occasionally,

I still need a utility vehicle and the secondhand price for that is just not worth selling it off. Sales has been so good that the waiting period is now 5 months. My order is for a silver Camry. So I upgraded to a 2 litre car and downgraded from Gold to Silver colour.

I am asking for a pre-Chinese New Year delivery in 2008!

LSCA team bowling

Every so often, some of the dept members get together on Saturday to play badminton. And on one of those Saturdays, someone floated the idea of bowling. And so after much procrastination, we managed to get a couple of lanes at the Mont Kiara Equestrian Club, courtesy of Joy Moi. I also invited a new friend - Serene Lai, to join us and I was pleasantly surprised when she accepted without much questions!! I only just got to know her and she could have ended up with a bunch of grumpy old fuddy duddies!!.

Anyway, I was glad she agreed to join us. She also turned out to be a badminton enthusiast. That should boost our volatile turnout on Saturdays. It has been YEARS since I last bowled. And it showed!!! I was rolling less than 120 in my games. Yikes!!! Luckily most of the team were just as bad.

Of course when the scores were low, we will put up any excuse. These 3 here were saying that no food cannot bowl!!

We were plagued by the number 3 throughout the night. It was either hit 3 pins or 3 pins remaining.Maybe I should buy 3333 for this weekend. Here are a bunch of photos of the team trying their darnest to simulate bowling. Left sikit. Right sikit. Strike....... oops 3 pins standing.

In the end, everyone had very very tired hands.

We adjourned to Soul Out in Sri Hartamas to down a glass of beer, some chicken wings, satay, pizzas and ice cream. Everyone enjoyed themselves so much that we would probably do this once a month or so.