Yet another colleague leaves

25th Aug was EeChia's last day.

Some of us got together to give her a farewell dinner on the previous Friday. We had our do at Euro Deli located in Damansara Kim. Euro Deli serves a range of Sausages, Bacon, Ham, Bread rolls - you get the idea. Essentially, Euro Deli (as the name suggests) serves European food. Duh!!!

We ordered a couple of sausages platter, a couple of pork knuckles and beer. Some of us shared a 1 pint beer (cost effective) and some thought they could finish off a pint by themselves. All I know is that Irene and Kah Weng loses their inhibition after a couple of gulps of beer. Very interesting.

Good Luck to you Ee Chia in your future endeavors.

1Malaysia or 1Malaysia for you and Many other Malaysia for them?

As Malaysia celebrates it's 52nd year of existence, a religious (and in Malaysia- that almost always equates to racial and political) situation is brewing just outside the capital of KL. Intolerant religious, political scumbags are objecting to the relocation of an Indian temple to the area on the grounds that the area is a Muslim majority are.

For all the reasons they have put forward (noise being the prime one), we can apply them to the mosques all over Malaysia.

And what will that get us as a nation??

Do you know where your food comes from?

Do you know who is preparing your food??

For many months now since this particular franchise was offering a sandwich and a cup of java for a reasonable price, many of us have been patronizing the outlets nearest to us. And since these are just franchises, the food is presumably centrally prepared and then sent to the outlets.

Ever give a thought about the places preparing the food that is being sold? Are they like, preparing the food next to the toilet or rubbish chutes? Are the workers practicing personal hygiene? Or are they the ones who may be having flu like symptoms and still working? Wiping their runny nose with the back of their hands and then touching the food during preparations?

I ask this because today, one of my colleagues ordered a sandwich, brought it back to the office and just as she was about to take a bite, noticed that the "raisin" looked a little hairy!! Before she brought it back to that outlet, I took some shots so that I can share this with you.By the way, that outlet gave her a voucher for any drinks - no limit on the cost stated. Is that all they are doing? Should they or are they even going to review their food preparations??

Your guess is as good as mine.

More FOOD gorging last week

As with any events where we have visitors from overseas, it is almost a guarantee that we would be gorging ourselves. Last week's Lab Asia event was not an exception.

On the first day - 11th Aug - we ate at the hotel next door - at the Japanese restaurant. Standard fare - nothing that would be interesting enough to blog about.

That evening, we had dinner at Mum's place at Damansara Perdana. Mum's place is now high on my list of places to go to when there are visitors. The place is a little pricey but damn, the food is good!! The food is also halal (kosher).

Mum's Place

31-39 Jalan PJU8/5A

Bandar Damansara Perdana

Petaling Jaya

Tel No : 03 -7727 8443/8449

My favorite is still the cencaru fish with petai. It is deceptively mild looking - none of that fiery red color that you might expect from a spicy hot dish. As Hwee Sian found out- looks can be deceptive. The spiciness crept up on her and within a couple of minutes, she was gulping her beer like a fish!

That was followed by FRIED otak otak ( a fish paste). Normally, Otak otak is served wrapped in banana leave and barbequed. The fried otak Otak was heavenly!!

Then there are the soft shell crabs. You eat all of it including the shells. The chef does it just right.

The prawns. Ah.... the prawns have to be eaten to be believed. Looks just don't do it any service.

And you must eat your vegetables. We had sweet potato leaves fried with prawn paste and chillies. Yummy.

The Tom Yam soup was so so only. Just take my word for it.

After all that, the next meal at Fatty Crab on the next night just don't come up to par.

And finally, on Friday night, we had dinner at Oriental Pavilion at Jaya 33. I have written about this before. So i just want to say Roger is so taken by the food we had, he wants to bring his family and friends there ASAP!!

How time flies!!!

The past week, Lab Asia 2009 was held in Putra World Trade Center(PWTC) in KL and Agilent had a booth there to show off some of the latest technologies and instrumentation. I volunteered to help man the booth for all 3 days as well as to document the event through photography.

A few key lessons could be gleaned from the event.

First lesson, as we age, we build relationships and networks. They span the range of the good, the bad and the neutral. I am glad to say that most of the lasting relationships and networks that I have built up over the years have been more good than bad.

During the event, I met up with so many people whom I have not seen for quite a while. There was Mr. Ooi from Chemopharm, who now have Khoo Teng Liat and Lim Teck Thai working with him. Khoo was instrumental in hiring me into HP back in 1981 and Teck Thai was a Pengarah (Director) of one of the departments in Chemistry Department then. 1981!!!! That's like a millenia ago!

There were ex- staff who continues to move around in the same industry and circles. Lip Woon Thiam and Teh Teong Soon still work with us. Koo Siew Ling and Dr Law Khoon Huat work on the competitive side and some are kind of neutral.

There were the customers who have gone from being students - like Dr Tan Soo Choon ( in 1981 when I first made his acquaintance, he was studying for his Masters in NDRC, USM) to being key customers who can influence purchases.

There were many whom I have not met for more than a decade since I no longer work directly with the customers in Malaysia, who still remembers me clearly as the engineer who can lift the GC by himself from floor to table during installations. The ones who came by the booth were people like Mr, Jeevan who heads the chemistry dept now, Danny Daulan based in Kedah and a bunch of ex Petronas people who are now in different companies.

Secondly, such events provides the opportunities to work with your colleagues from different countries and fucntions. I mean, one knows these people, but in the normal course of work, you normally do not interact with them in any significant way. We had our Marcom ladies Lynn and Sirada. The AE manager Hwee Sian Rob Solazzo, Miji Lee and so on.

Third key lesson of such events - you can still make new acquaintances despite being around for dinosaur years. As I look at the other booths, I see many are manned by much younger people whom I do not know.

It's time to turn on the charm!