I’m not feeling well…

Ugh. My head hurts. My body joints hurt. I’ve got a fever and cold and the works. Baby accompanied me to a 24 hour clinic near her home and I was met by a doctor who I thought was very weird (almost disgrunted). He didn’t say anything while taking my temperature and other readings and just said “I’ll give you medicine.” So I asked him what kind is he giving me. To which he replied, “What type do you want?” Er, you’re the doctor you tell me! Turns out I was given antibiotics, Polaramine and Ponstan for the fever.

Gizmodo: Apple Logo found on M&Ms

This is an interesting article from Gizmodo. Apparently, packets of M&Ms in Australia may contain prints of the Apple icon on the candy shells!

I’m not sure if it’s real or not, but it sure looks damn cute. I wonder if Microsoft will think of printing the Windows icon on some other candy product?

Read more about it here: M&Ms: Apple Logo Melts in Your Mouth.

My finances

I just received the bonus awarded to me by the company I work for. I was quite surprised to receive the bonus because before that my manager did tell me because of my commencement date of employment was slightly past the cut-off date for performance measurement (that determines the amount of bonus an employee gets awarded). I’m really thankful for the extra cash.

Why?

Because in 2006, I was quite undisciplined with my spending and have amassed a fair amount of credit card debts. I’m posting this fact here as a reminder to myself that in 2007, I must be very careful with my money and at same time pay off as much debts as I can. This would mean no impulsive or random shopping for a long time. Sorry baby if you’re reading this as it would mean fewer nice dinners and surprises in the coming months.

I am however very tempted to get the D-SLR I always wanted. Sigh. But I know I shouldn’t.

Nikon D40

I want one! I’ve been meaning to own a digital SLR for a long time. Ah, same sob story: no money.

This is the latest D-SLR from Nikon and it boasts many of the older D50’s features. I had a chance to play with a demo unit in Low Yat last week and I must say, this camera is perfect for me. I like its compact size (the D40 is the most compact in size in Nikon’s D-SLR lineup) and the grip feels good. It’s light enough while not feeling flimsy. The supplied kit lens was not too bad (it’s a 18-55mm).

The drawback of the D40 in my opinion is that it does not have a built in auto-focus motor. Now this might be an issue in that it will limit what lens I can buy in the future because without that motor, most lenses will not have an auto-focus feature. I suppose I’m OK with focusing manually, but at times when I need the auto-focus feature to capture candid moments…never-mind, can worry later. Only lenses with the AF-S or AF-I variant will have the auto-focus feature as lenses in these variants already have the auto-focus motor built into the lens itself.

I so want one. But same bloody sob story. I just don’t have the money!

Check out the Nikon D40 mircosite.

More information (specs and stuff) on the Nikon D40.

Ch’ng my Myvi!

One Tuesday evening after gym, I had the chance to ride in WS’s new Alfa. Impressive! For a second hand car, the condition of the car, both the interior and exterior of the car was immaculate. He took me for a spin and the ride was so exhilarating! The Alfa’s engine is very responsive (even better at revs of more than 3,000 rpm) and the handling was very good. Thanks to the after market suspension system. Was it a Tien system or Eibach? I forgot. I like the low grunting sound that the Alfa’s engine generates. Such a nice car. Very good buy, dude!

I can see the difference in Japanese and Continental cars. Japanese cars feel lighter and the interior feels simple yet functional/practical while Continental cars are built more solid (car body and performance) and the interior oozes class.

After that night, I was thinking to myself that if I had enough money I’d execute my plans to pimp up my Myvi a little. It’ll be the usual upgrades. Better suspension (I’m eyeing the GF210 sports springs from Tanabe), a front stabilizer bar, 15″ rims in bronze, preferably 6 spokes, bolt on front bumper lip, side skirts and rear bumper lip. A carbon fibre bonnet and the Passo’s rear spoiler. Then I’m going to upgrade the ICE unit in the car complete with kick ass sound system! Oh not forgetting the cold air intake system, iridium spark plugs, more porous air filter unit.

Sigh, I wish money fell from the skies.

A wedding dinner in Putrajaya

On the same day after the Thai massage. I attended MY and RN’s wedding banquet in this restaurant called….<blank> (I can’t remember the name!). Well anyway it was located in Putrajaya (far, so very far away!). Baby came along too.

We were supposed to take her car but realised that there was a flat tire after driving a short distance. Immediately we took my stubby car instead. We were already running late and to make matters worse, it was pouring! AND, we had to pick up EY and SH from their apartment near baby’s place as they could not get a cab to the restaurant (It’s all the way in Putrajaya, not many cabbies will wanna go there from KL, yeah?).

Our journey from KL to Putrajaya took almost 1.5 hours. When we arrived, dinner hasn’t started yet. There was instead a couple (from MY’s dance school that she attends) performing for the bride and groom. They were quite impressive! Swinging and shuffling and all! If it were me, I’d probably be as graceful as a drugged elephant.

MY and RN didn’t dance. Bummer! Her excuse was that her wedding dinner gown was too long. His excuse was that they had indeed already danced for us, but they were moving too fast. So fast till we didn’t realised that they’ve danced. Makes sense? She looked happy that night. I’m happy for her.

Thai Sanctuary

Last Saturday, baby and I went for a little bit of pampering at this massage place in Sri Hartamas called Thai Sanctuary. We got 20% off our bill because we had our session before 12pm. It worked out to be pretty cheap!

I didn’t want an intense massage session, so I opted for the milder Thai aromatherapy while baby went for a standard Thai massage. She likes getting her limbs yanked so I guess that’s right up her alley.

The setup of Thai Sanctuary was nice and cozy. The theme of the center was very minimalistic with small wooden decorative panels lining up most of the walls. The lighting was rather dim but there was still enough light to allow me to see my way around. Most importantly it was quiet.

The friendly therapists (who were from Thailand) led us to our rooms and we began shortly after. The session was good. It wasn’t too intense and was very soothing for my tired shoulders. I like the aroma of the oil used during the massage. I think it was probably lavender.

After the session, I felt quite refreshed and baby definitely loved her first experience having Thai massage!

I liked the place. The service was good, the therapists knew what they were doing and were very friendly throughout the whole session. The price we paid was reasonable. All in all, it was a good session! I would definitely go back again.

Worn out

Work has been pretty crazy this whole week. I’ve been clocking on average 10 hours a day. There is more to come. The work requests just keep coming in and I sometimes feel like I cannot keep up. Today was particularly bad. All these happened in the span of 5 minutes:

1. My program returned inconsistent number at the last month of the report; I had to rerun the program to generate all the months to be reported again.

2. The manager from another department sent an email to me trying to tai-chi some blame to me.

3. My manager asked for a document from the folks in the regional office. The last I remember hearing over the phone is “Chase!!! Chase!!!!!”

4. My manager standing behind me asking: “Do you have my stuff?” for the umpteenth time that day.

5. ET dispensing “advice” to someone over the phone for everyone to hear for almost 30 mins – annoying!

6. Deciding that I should generate up to date reports for Monday’s meeting as a result from point 2.

Yes, I know there can be worse experiences, but I just wanna let it all out.

I’m pooped…

What a strange driver on the road

I had a late dinner because I finished work late and baby accompanied me. Getting home, I decided tonight that I would take the Federal Highway home instead of my normal route along the SPRINT Highway.

I was on the right lane going at about 100km/h (20km/h above the legal speed limit) when this Kelisa drove up behind me and flashed his car’s high-beam at me once to move out of his way. I was about to switch to the middle lane when he suddenly flashed his high-beam again, this time more frequently. Feeling irritated, I decided not to switch lanes. He continued flashing and even maintained the high-beam for a couple of seconds. I think frustration gave in and he overtook me from the left.

Seconds later when there were more traffic along the highway, he started to weave in and out of traffic. I just cruised at 100km/h and stuck on the right lane. I observed him being unable to switch back to the right most lane after weaving  and so drove behind a slower car till he was out of sight in my rear mirror.

I don’t understand it. He was so keen to drive so fast by flashing his high-beam multiple times at me and then weaving in and out of traffic only to suddenly slow down. If he had a sense of urgency to get some where, well he probably did not feel like that anymore. Or, him needing to use the toilet urgently was not necessary anymore. Some people are so strange.

My Threadless t-shirts are here!

After a long wait, I finally received the 2 t-shirts I ordered from Threadless.com. I ordered Permafrost and Pillowfight. I got them in medium size and after a quick try a couple of minutes ago, I’m glad that they fit me.

Actually, before I got my t-shirts, I had to go collect the parcel from the General Post Office in Shah Alam. This is because no one was home when the postman delivered the t-shirts. So they left a little pink card with instructions printed on how I can claim my package.

Last Saturday, I was nearly driven (pun intended) to insanity while trying to locate the post office! There were no road signs and no maps. It took me 1 hour to find the building accidentally and this after some help I got on directions from a lady at a petrol station. Ugh.

So this morning, I arrived at the post office at 8:20am. To my amazement, there was actually a mob waiting outside the main entrance to get in at 8:30am, that’s when the post office opens. When the doors opened, the mob rushed into the building. I was caught in the flow of people and was at the counter to take a number when the clerk said that I need not queue and have to go to another counter outside the building for collecting my parcel.

I found the counter and presented the clerk my pink card. She looked at it for a while and told me that I had to go and look for the delivery supervisor to collect my parcel. She directed me to another side of the building where I found the supervisor, along with his peers giving a prep talk to all the postmen that were working here. I overheard things like how they (the postmen) should be more efficient in doing their duties and how they should fill in forms properly among other things.

When the speech was all done, I found the supervisor and I followed him to his office. There he took out my parcel from a locker and began to fill in a book with the sender particulars of my parcel. He was nice a friendly thankfully and I signed the book and got my parcel hassle free. Phew! All in all, I would say the experience was not as bad as I had expected it to be.

Oh, this post office has a drive through counter. That’s a pretty good service to have!