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Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Reunion with Good Friends - Part 3

Main Label: Life Flashback

Yes! A long waited entry... Finally again... managed to find some time to continue this long waited entry liao... Haha... Hmmm... now I even forgot how to continue the story... sigh...

I guessed I stopped at we "lost contact" after Nanyang Poly ba... Then we carried on with our life not contacting one another until... this year's CNY... On the 4th day, 初四,after receiving this special sms, and in the afternoon, he called me finally and we had a short chat after which, we arranged to meet on that night to have a long catching up!

And then another twist had come then... Not long after, Haw Chon, sms me again. Haw Chon... the very best friend of mine when we were in secondary school... Well, he is also another long stories lor... To really cut short the story, Haw Chon also befriended with Samuel very well every since we all know one another. Haw Chon and I had also "lost contact" some times / years after we graduated from Riverside Secondary School... He went to KL to further study since then, we managed to meet a few times. But after he flew to Australia, we really lost contact since then. And until recently, like last year, managed to "find him back lor"...

Ok, come back to the CNY story. Haw Chon, who prefers people to call him as "Haw" now, happened to be in JB, his hometown for CNY. And he asked me whether I got any programs for the night, I quickly replied to him the news about Samuel. And the very night, the 3 of us met up together after a separation for about 12 years!!! We all concluded that it was an absolutely rare gathering! We had a good catching up and stuff and finally went for a movie, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, a highly not recommended movie though...

Through the chatting / conversation / catching up, I learned that:-
1. His father had died of lung cancer before CNY, therefore he was in JB to 避年 “avoid CNY", and he stayed in his "friend's" house.
2. I asked, "of all the years, what makes you contact me now?" And he said that he so happened to check the e-mails in the "friend's" house, and happened to read my "Cow-Bull-Ox" email and then he was reminded about me.. .Ahaha... So I guessed sending greetings occasionally does provide "certain" help one way or another ba...
3. I changed my mobile phone number quite frequently, and I just wonder how he got this Malaysia number of mine. I remembered that I didn't tell everyone about this number leh... After some time of thinking, I remembered that I did emailed everybody this number, and the Singapore number last time ba... That's the only possible way le...
4. He then changed the word "my friend" to "my girl friend". Haha... so funny, should have said it in the beginning mah... And that could explain lots of stuff already... lol.
5. He knew his girl friend in JB. She is working in a facial wash shop where Sam went there very often. It was through the regular met-up that the 2 of them had come together. And therefore he always comes in JB here to do the spending and as usual, his comment about spending in JB is definitely "real cheap". He comes in here to buy birdnest for his mother, car washing, movie, etc. etc.
6. And now I have one movie-kaki here in JB liao... No need to watch "expensive movies" in Singapore liao.
7. Now we are planning to meet more old friends! But until now, not much progress... :( I also planned to go to his house to "finally" pay his family a visit to show my gratitude and stuff, but again... I failed to do until now, because I am reserving my passport pages for Shanghai trip on April.

There was once we planned to meet up for a lunch with another mutual friend, Wei Yuan, who is now a wanton mee business owner. It was his family business for the three genation, and if have any chance, I will definitely bring my friends and family to eat one. It is very tasty one! And he had a website one: http://www.hosengkee.com go there for more information.

His timing is always very pack and had little holiday or rest, but it so happened that recently he gotta move to a new location, his family and himself had one week "holiday" to do the shifting preparation and stuff. And thank-God-ly, we arranged one Saturday for the lunch in Permas Jaya, 二重丸, another nice Japanese food restaurant in JB... Their Salmon Sashimi comes with dry ice as decoration and giving those smokey effect lor... Just before the day we had arranged the three of us for the lunch, I received a sms from Haw Chon, saying that he would be back to JB this weekend and asked me got any plans or not. So I told him he had come back for the right timing! And on that Saturday afternoon, it was another mere rare gathering for the 4 of us! Don't think that this is not so rare lor, poor Wei Yuan gotta head back for preparing his new shop after his lunch. His phone kept ringing while he was eating. And we had spent only an hour together for the lunch and after that, he rushed back to do his stuff liao lor...

It only left the 3 of us and we planned to watch movie, but no timing suited 3 of us because I would be having a company dinner that night. So we shopped around and sat down in Starbuck in Jusco. Talking about many stuff, and Haw Chon was eyeing at a new dual SIM phone from Samsung, the Samsung D980 Dual SIM touchscreen phone. But it was quite expensive... When about 5.30pm, we left and called it a day lor...

In life, there are many things that you can happy of, and of course, there are also things that make you sad and want to complain about life. To me, even when life has many problems that are yet to solved, as long as there're also stuff or events that can "make my day", I will be very happy and ragain the hope and energy and belief to challenge those problems again. What are those stuff that can "make my day"? -- Meeting close friends, talking topics that we are interested to, watching movies and stuff, etc. etc.

But I had a challenge... most of my friends are in Singapore... And really, the spending in Singapore is quite expensive, and to me, because of the currency rate, everything are all double cost to be. But as compare to JB, it is another story, another heaven for Singaporeans. That's why I keep promoting to Singapore friends to come JB here to spend, to watch movie. My idea of watching movie in JB as compared to Singapore is, using the price of one Singapore cinema ticket to watch movie in JB (or Malaysia) is like "buy one gets one free". yes, you can buy two tickets in JB with the price of one Singapore movie ticket lor... This is like a win-win situation for both party... First win is for friends who can "save a lot" while spending here, second win is for myself that I no need to spend those double cost lor... Unlike when I am meeting friends in Singapore, it is not a win-win situation, everything is double cost for me. And for themselves, they only spend "normally", and not cheaper lor... Haha...

That's why I appreciate friends like Sam a lot lor... And also to those who love to spend in JB one lor... Haha... Oh yes, Ting Ting, if you're reading this, I am refering to Reub and you lor... Ahaha... If wanna save up for London Legoland trip, then must spend time and money in JB lor... Haha... I am waiting for you 2 to come in and find me!

Just recently, I had another 2 friends to come in JB to meet me... But that was another interesting story that waiting for me to blog about if I have the time lor... But nevertheless, I also wish that I have more friends who are willing to go out of the comfort zone in Singapore and make a trip to JB where heaven awaits you... Erm... heaven lor... win-win situation also, you're either in shopping and eating and movie heaven or if you meet robbery, you might also go up to heaven straights... Ahaha... just joking... NO, just becareful when you're in JB. :)

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

A Lot to Blog, No Time to Blog

Main Label: Life Updates

Just want to pin down some thoughts and update here before I go about doing my work... Now is the beginning of a new month -- March, and oh no! Can't believe it! 2 months has passed just like that again! Argh~~~! And I haven't finished my CNY event updates and ... my Birthday updates... I thought that I am going to write all of these down now but since is the new month, I got many work to do...

You know it is kind of different to blog / write down what's in your mind right now the very moment, and to write a flashback of your life. Those memories that is closer to you in time, tend to be clearer in your head; and those of past-tense-stories, you will need a time of sit down and recall, of which it takes more time... So I thought of writing some random thoughts in my mind now rather than continue my CNY and Birthday updates! And I kind of worried that I will forget these thoughts so I think I better to write them down now...

~ A Lot to Blog, No Time to Blog ~
My life is full of "somewhat dramatic" stories that I always wanted to write them down... Those stories and thoughts are sooo interesting that I am so afraid that I will forget about them. This is one of the reasons that I started to blog, to write down all the interesting stories in my life... However, after I had setup a space in blogspot to blog, wanting or having the desire to write down every memorable events that I ever encountered, until now I still haven't written much of those stories yet... Just like in my "What's In My Mind Right Now?" column (only in lieh-not-enough.blogspot.com) had said, 有好多好多的想法,概念;有好多好多的回忆,都想把他们一一记载下来。。。因为我真得很害怕把它们给忘了。。。我发现。。。我是个健忘的人。。。

I discovered 3 reasons for this...
1. Inconveninces for blogging, such as time and places and availability of Internet connection. No time, because of work, other stuff, daily / routine stuff, and stuffs that I always wanted to do. No places... Whenever I want to blog, I will prefer a place of quietness or being alone, because any distractions or interruptions will hinder my thoughts mechanism, resulting me forget what to write or how to continue the sentence or paragraph. When that happens, I will tend to become frustrated and losing my temper a little. And this is what I don't want to happen.

A place of quietness is not easy to get... Definitely, people will think of going to cafe, like Starbucks to use the Wi-Fi there to surf Internet or doing anything online with their precious laptop, but to me... I got a lousy laptop... Well, that laptop of mine, I just suddenly recalled that there are quite a lot of stories about it too! Not of good testimony though. But of those how noisy is it and it is not for outdoor purpose because the battery will run out within an hour... Erm... "an hour" was too nice of saying... Actually is within 30 minutes! And so, I can't go out to Starbuck with that laptop of mine and order a 10 bucks ++ coffee sitting there all day long to do my blogging! And that's why, I always wanted to buy a brand new laptop for myself... I am thinking of Sony VAIO... But nevertheless... I cannot afford it now...

2. Another reason, which I think is very true is "my interesting stories of life is getting more and more and so much more that eventually I couldn't cope up / catch up / capture with!" Ahaha... You see... the reason why I will skip my 2 "promised" previous updates and writing something different now, could tell that this is so true already...

I could still remember the time when I started this blog (blogspot one), I was in the "transition" of giving up my SPR status. For that, I also got a series of events that happened directly and indirectly related to the story... I thought of writing something else first, like more about myself before I would write the story down. But till now, I haven't written that SPR stories... Haha... And in fact, I haven't finished talking "everything about myself" yet... Whatever I wanted to write about myself, such as "A Typical Piscean" and etc, I also haven't written them yet...

Events... somewhat dramatic events, interesting events in my life keeps on coming and coming that I cannot catch up / capture by writing them now. And story will go on / carry on and somtimes, the twist will come in an unexpected way (well, that's why it is called a twist ya!) that might change the course or add colours into my story... I go about from one status to another status without writing whatever has happened... Status... include my spiritual well-beings, my physical health condition such as weight, emotional feelings, environment around me and stuff. And in fact (again), I haven't blog about my unhealthy and fatness condition until now, even I had lost some weight already! Haha...

3. The third reason simply because is... I write very long... Well, most people can agree with this. Time is used to write a super duper long entry! But to me, it is the every and very little details that eventually make up the big story, making the story the way and the reason how / why it is interesting what...

~ Why Am I Talking About All These? ~
Well... I started to write about this is because a friend of mine asked me whether I am happy or not in MSN. This is the reason for initiated this entry but however, this is not the answer for the question whether I am happy or not...

Actually, it was Eliz who asked me "Are you happy now?" in MSN yesterday. Though this question can be simple, casually asked, it somehow got me thinking... I went about telling her "I supposed to be happy, because I am supposed to be positive minded." Then she kind of like asking me to share... That moment all I had in my mind was one recent "interesting story" that I encountered, so I bursted out to her about the story, not in full details though. And one of the words that I used to conclude is something like this: "You may think that such case is rare, but to me, I already get used to it because I always encountered such things... A simple task that can be done within one step, will take me more than two weeks to accomplish simply because something happen in the middle of the process."

Well... that's already a very simple way of telling her... in fact, sometimes there are tasks that took months or even years to accomplish if you would believe... and to add on that "something happen in the middle of the process", is like, some more thing will happen in the middle of the process, and also in the middle-middle of the process... Haha... It is like: Step 1. Start, Step 2. Done. But because something happen in the middle, so the process become, Step 1, 1a, 2. If got more problem, then: Step 1, 1a, 1b, 2. But when Step 1b got problem of its own, then: Step 1, 1a, 1b(i), 2. For more steps: Step 1, 1a, 1b(i), 1b(ii), 1b(iii), 2.

You don't believe? Well... let me show you one of my life experience, the story that I told Eliz, but this time, in perfected full details... A story of "How I wanted to Install Symantec Norton Antivirus Software (SNAS) into My Office Computer" Sound pretty easy? NOT SO in my case... and now you could have total understanding that why my blog is always so long one...

1. Mami (Elyn) asked me to buy antivirus software because hers had expired.
2. Promised her to buy and that's before CNY.
3. Went to Cytech, a computer shop in Taman University (in Johor) that sells whole lot of cheapest computer stuff... A shop that I always recommend to my friends. I ordered the SNAS, but the boss said this needed to wait for the trasport to come, they don't have stock at hand. I was awared of possibility of delay, so I asked him how long, he said 2 days. So I reassured with him, "are you sure?" he replied, "if no accident, it can reach in 2 days."

I placed my ordered on 19th Jan (Monday), thinking that could get it 2 or 3 days later, i.e. Thursday. And we, Daddee (Meng Hua), Mami, Phyllis, Cai Yan and I had already fixed on Friday to have our "Reunion Dinner", and I thought that I could install the SNAS for Daddee & Mami on that day.

4. On Thursday, I went to take my order. They said the driver (who did the delivery work from other supplier) had already stopped working because of the CNY. So my ordered was delayed. I had to wait after the CNY of which, is not 2, 3 days... but 1 week.

5. The shop reopened on 2nd February, I went to check out again on 3rd Feb... Oh... the supplier there said haven't started work yet... or something happened... Gotta wait...

6. One more week over, think about Friday, the 13th, finally I had gotten the SNAS. So next thing is to go Elyn house to install.

7. In the end, we fixed a day on 20th Feb, Friday to go to her house to do the installation. And also, I expected they would gimme a "surprise Birthday" celebration! Haha... Indeed, the surprise came on...

8. the morning of 20th Feb, received a message from Phyllis that Elyn was warded into hospital, waiting for giving birth to the cute Dora. Indeed a surpirse...

9. That Friday night, after work, went to hospital to see Daddee & Mami. Mami was waiting for giving birth. In the end, we didn't have time to go to her house to install the antivirus software...

10. Mami only out of hospital on 23th, Monday. But their baby Dora had to stayed in the hospital for few days because of the skin colour stuff... Wanted to go to Elyn house to install the thing again, eventually, we fixed on 27th, Friday. It was the day that the baby came home too...

11. Finally, was able to install the thing into Elyn's laptop successfully! And the story didn't stop here...

The version of the antivirus software I bought allowed for 3 users' installation. I thought Daddee and Mami got 2 computers to install, but realized that they only needed 1 account, another computer could not access to Internet connection... Initially, I didn't want to install antivirus software in my computer this time round, but since I got extra users' account, so I thought of installig it.

THE NEXT DAY -- 28th February, Saturday.
12. Insert the installation CD into my office computer only to realize that the DVD-rom had problem.
13. Test the DVD-rom with another computer to confirm that it did not function already.
14. Went to Cytech to buy for a new DVD-writer. The boss asked me whether I want IDE or SATA. My old computer can only use IDE and of which... NO STOCK!
15. Suddenly remembered that my home PC supports SATA, went home and check.
16. Took out the DVD-writer from home PC, because it is IDE, I could use it for my office PC.
17. Went to office to install the IDE DVD-writer. Successful.
18. Inserted the installation CD and successful installed the antivirus software.

NOW... the biggest hit of the story is here...
19. The software now asked for activation, which required Internet connection. (anger not yet bursted)

20. Realised that I didn't connect the modem. So I did it and turned on the modem and tried again... then that software had a message saying that "failed to connect to Internet, make sure that I had connect to the Internet and try again." And it automatically launched Internet Explorer with a link that is... erm... broken... (anger not yet bursted)

21. Restarted and tried again. Failed again... Thought that something was not right already. (anger not yet bursted)

22. Tried go to Symantec main site itself, but received message "Page Load Error". Tried many times and still gotten the same thing. So I concluded that, the site must be busy. Let me wait for Monday to try again. So I went about doing my other work. (not yet)

23. After work, went to the shop again to buy a SATA DVD-driver for my home PC. The moment I got there, they were shutting down the door already... What a luck... (not yet)

24. Sunday went to Singapore... another side story here... so on Monday, 2nd March, i.e. yesterday, came to office and tried the activation again... SAME THING. (not yet)

25. Went to the main site again, SAME THING. So I googled about "Symantec site down" and... found news saying that someone, a hacker spot a bug or something in Symantec site, and the Symantec company shut down the whole Symantec site! Even until now! Yes... I just tried again and still "Page Load Error". Other sites work perfectly fine one lor...

This is one of the links to the news, from networkworld.com.

And for now... I couldn't stop the negative thoughts already... It is not that you can see an antivirus software company's web site got pulled down everyday of your life one lor... And even until now, I still couldn't activate my account. And the interesting story here is, on Friday, installed on Elyn's laptop it was perfectly successful! But THE NEXT DAY, (now you know why I capitalised these 3 words previously), when it was my turn to install for myself. I could not have it done perfectly! And to think that before installation, I gotta change a DVD-driver first! And I am not done yet with this story... now the Symantec site still down and..

26. 2nd March, went to buy the SATA, LG 22X DVD writer and installed it on my home PC. But kind of "not compatible", and in fact, the motherboard of the PC has already got problem itself... and that, was another story about that home PC of mine...

Now... finally... "Am I happy?" I should be... And that's another story too... Ahaha... Got such interesting source of story to tell, should I not be happy? And that just reminded me... my lovely Jesus had told me in person, "I only want you to be happy..." So I am!