A Picture

This picture was taken on the Christmas with his new found friend at his mom's new premise. He was sure having fun with all the attention surrounding him.
My wife decided to move to her Rice Cafe to a new premise after seeing her business keeping on declining at the old venue. After securing loans from her friends and her god mother, she managed to secure the present premise. It's located at the Sri Pantai Motel, a beach front motel just behind the Chinese Swimming Club. She is planning to take over the motel too if her husband(that's me) or his family supports her financially.
I really am sorry for her. She doesn't deserve the hardships that she is experiencing now. Same does little David. Her husband and his father is as useless as a brain dead zombie. I can't support her or comfort when she needs me the most. I can't give her the life that I was supposed to. I feel so useless. With that puny allowance, I can't even buy David a decent dress or toy to play around. Am I desparate? Of course I am. We both love him very much. It's not fair for him to live in this shit. It's not fair!
My lunch partner just told me that the person who interviewed me is resigning. Look like my hunch is correct. It's too good to be true. I will have to keep on looking again. Intel is having a job fair next week. I think I am going to give it a try.
Speaking of which, I going to make sure that lil David will not follow his father's mistakes. He will be free to choose the life he wants to live. As long as he's not into gay thing(bisexual ok lah(he must be the one who jabs lah) but no homo lah), I am going to make sure of that.

Le Run Bicycle

Ever Polygon of Indonesea takes over this company, they have been trying to upgrade the quality of products of Le Run. Le Run used to sell consumer grade bicycles. That means they are not competition grade machines. You can use them to cycle to the wet market nearby for grocery shopping. But they will break into pieces when they subjected to abuse.

I looked at their 2006 line up just. It's basically Polygon's products. Polygon is a bike manufacturer that is serious about building quality products. They have their own trade team and line of high quality bikes. But they are not well known in the cycling community in Malaysia.

With the build and the price posted on local newspaper advertisement, I must say they are very attractive. Of course I still have few grouses on the part they are putting on the bike. Shimano high end parts with entry level front fork?? Look like there are some improvements in their part matching deparment!

Will they be able to convince hardcore cyclist like me to buy their products? I am going to say it will be difficult. Unless they appear in major cycling magazines and being test ridden by them and come out with flying colors. Also, I think they will need to get participated in major cycling events like Tour De France, Tour De Langkawi, Sea Otter International or MTB International Champaionship to get noticed!

Giant has done it. So does Tank. They sponsor major trade teams and won few prizes. Then average cyclists like me start to get notice. Their price is just nice. Where can you get a professional graded racing bicycle at less than RM10k? That reminds me of my once own Giant TCR ONCE(it reads On-Say). That's another sad story to tell.

Anyway, lets see what happen. Proton has failed miserably. I'd rather thrown my money into sea than buying any of their bicycles! I do hope that Le Run will become another successful local brand.

http://www.polygoncycle.com/newproduct.htm

Road Sign

It really caught me off guard when I saw this. But upon closer inspection you can see that actually the sign has been authored. There's a school next to the sign. Kids can be very mischievious. I know because I was at their ages before!

Btw, Merry X'Mas. I am going to have a quiet one.

To someone that I care for, Merry X'Mas to you too. I wish you finally make up with your loved one. I'll pray for you two if I go to church. Well, the chances are next to zero I must say. I mean me go to the church part...;)

No news yet from my last interview. I think I should KIV it now.

Oriental Whip Snake

I saw this beauty when I was on my way to hunt for a geocaching site. Nice, isn't it?

I was supposed to go mountain biking but I woke up late. So I decided to go geocaching at the Youth Park instead. There were two new sites recently set up by others, one in Point 3 and one at G84. The weather was quite good even it was close to 10am. It must be due to the incessant rain for the last two days. As the time was late, I hardly saw any hikers on the way up. Along the way I also saw few downhiller doing their stunt on the trail. They must be very surprised to see me going up. Apparently the leader recognized me. He greeted me although I had no idea who he was(He was on full face crash helmet).

I thought I could hunt at least two caches. But I ended up only one. The one that I planted at Point 5 rest station was muggled, and I had to attend to it. It was the second time for it to be muggled. I don't know if it was an coincidence. For twice when it was muggled, it always happened after someone found the cache. Some nosy hikers checked and stole the content of the cache maybe? The English stash note that was accompanied in the cache did not spare it from being opened and thrown away. Well, what can I expected? I am living in the third world country. I cannot expect the others to act as first class citizens. Anyway, I moved the cache to a new location, and hopefully it would remain there longer. But if it happens again, I'm going to disable this cache.

Oh yeah, did I find the one hidden at Point 3? Yup. While I was searching for it I saw this beautiful reptile. According to the info I found on the net, it does bite but it won't kill you. Well, it'd better to be safe than sorry in the wild. So if you see it next time, don't kill it. It deserves to be lived. Just don't provoke it. Let it go. At the same time appreciate how beautiful it is. We should share our space with them!

Time to dinner. Talk cock later!

Info on Oriental Whip Snake: http://www.ecologyasia.com/verts/snakes/oriental_whip-snake.htm

My friend's blog

A friend of mine sent me the url address of his blog. So I think I'll post it here, http://andytans.blogs.friendster.com/my_blog/. It's still new. So we will have to bear with it for the moment.

I forgot how I knew him. But it was one of the mountainbiking outings that I was used to be very actively involved when I was working(Don't ask why don't I right now. I will be getting very upset when I mention the reason why.). He's currently working as a senior technician at an MNC. The job title can be deceiving since he's earning more than some engineers in the same company!

So far I have yet heard from the company that I last went for an interview. I already expect from the worst. Look like I have to start looking again now.

Little David and his mom

The title says it all!

Yup, I have not updated info about him for quite some time. Look at him. He's so grown up! Must be the expensive baby formula that we have been feeding him!

Little David on top of the rock garden, Botanics Gardens.


Little David and his beloved mom, Penang Watersport Center


Little David's running up a slope, Botanics Gardens


Little David and his mom at the bed room

Kerrenga

I stumbled upon this nasty little creature when I was going to kitchen at factory to refill my coffee mug. This thing stings! I would never want to encounter to it if I were in the jungle. I wasn't sure of what it was called since it looked different. SO I posted on the forum to ask if anyone knew. One of the members replied. It is Kerrenga in Bahasa Malaysia. Checked the Malay dicyionary and found its Latin name. Meta searched it and found it was weaver ants or tree ants depending on where do you find it.
So next time if you see them in your kitchen, grab your insect spray and spray the hell out of them! You don't wanna your little loved ones to meddle with them!

Some links about weaver ants:
http://www.myrmecos.net/formicinae/oecophylla.html
http://www.naturia.per.sg/buloh/inverts/weaver_ants.htm

RICE

It was the last day of Rice in operation last night. The Rice Cafe, the pub that mu wife has been running for the last 7 years decided to call it day.

I did not know what to say to my wife. Give her a hug and said it was okay to let it go? Or said I am sorry because I couldn't help her to salvage the pub as I was in a financial deep shit? My heart sank when I saw my wife gave her pub a last deep stare to the front door.

She's a brave and strong woman. She knows when to let it go. I can only hope that I will give her an easier life. I haven't told her about the job offer yet. AS long as I don't see the employment letter whatever the interviewer is promising is merely a promise. Just send them a reply as today is the due date to submit my decision. I am waiting for their reply now.

Rest in peace, RiCE!

Loan shark

The other day I went to visit a customer nearby Megamall Prai. He was out and the door was shut close. Called him and found that he was on his way back. So I waited in front of his office feeling like a dork. Something caught my eyes. There was this big grey metal box standing by the roadside. It is a power junction box. That was nothing about the box. But there were many small stickers on it. Upon closer look, I could see the stickers were about providing loan services at "reasonable" rate. No address and no land line telephone. The only contact is via the cell phone number(s) provided. If you look at the prefixes of the cell numbers again, you can find that all of them are prepaid numbers.
From an ignorant glance people might say what's up with those guys. Offer service but no fixed address and telephone numbers, and the only contact is thru their pre-paid cell numbers? Are they so poor that they can't afford to have an office and post cell phone service? It's a trick by those so called private financial service providers. By not telling people where they are and their fixed line telephone so that they could run away if anything happens. Yes, you guess it right. They are loan sharks. Illegal money lenders who would make your life miserable if you "forget" to pay your debt in time! Ever notice that the stickers are printed in Mandarin and Bahasa Malaysia only? That also tells you about wo are their target customers/victims.
They exist because of the difficulties of getting financial helps from the legal instituition for small traders, those who are ignorant about how to get loan from banks or someone who do not have good credentials. These crooks were quite efficient in lending out money and very easy to get their approval. But their can be very high. I don't know how high the rates are but I am sure they are high enough that it will take the debtors forever to repay the loan.
Anyway, it's just thought. By the time I started to wonder why people approached them although they know would have to pay back with high rates, my customer arrived. I quickly broke my thought about this loan shark thing and was ushered into my customer office.
No I will ot approach the loan shark to solve my problems so don't worry!

Absence

I realize I have not been updating my blog recently. It is not that I have nothing to say but actually there are lots of happening. I just don't know where to start.
The picture taken was the waterfall at Sungai Ara(Ara river). I go there mountain bike very often but I seldom take notice of it until this Sunday. I was on my way to plant a geocache there.

Got in touch with her again. I think it is a mistake to start contacting her. Since then we found every opportunity to get in touch. She sounded unhappy with her boyfriend. She complained about him not being romantic and understanding. I have a feeling that she makes comparison. Her boyfriend is a momma boy type. I hinted her that bad boy doesn't make a good husband again. She looked a little annoy by my statement. Anyway, other than that it was a pleasant and cozy meet again. We had a lot of things to tell each other and before we knew it, it was time for her beauty sleep again. She waited a moment before she left my car. I didn't take that moment to my own advantage. I still love my kid, very much!

By the way, I came back from a successful job interview. The interviewer wanted me to give them answer if I accepted their offer next week. I haven't decided yet. It's not about the salary they offer. I actually consider it to be good since I left electronic industry for so many years(5 to be exact, and it is considered to be a long time if you see how fast the electronic stuffs have moved on in 5 years!). In addition to that, I also get to enjoy contractual annual bonus, highway toll and travel allowances and medical insurance. It's about her. She works at the same company too. I am waiting for another job offer. It offers slightly more but no benefits. If that the latter gives me an affirmative answer, I think I am going to go to accept the offer, for the good of me and her.

Sad, isn't it? We found each other at the wrong time!

How much more they offer me? Lets just say it's 5 times more than I am getting now, with the benefits included!