A New Year Has Come...

Just a short wish to all my fellow friends...

Lab Papa & Nika & Little W

Rin-chan

Aza

Chegu Carol

Ajie

Rizwan Hawk & Linachu

Poppet

Kadusmama

WMSiew and Team Nicol David Online

Dragonn Angel

Black Kid

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009!!

(tomorrow.. hehehe)

Hope we all will have a positive year ahead of us, lots of laughters and fun..

Despite being overwhelmed with whatever it is we are facing - works, family, relationships, people full of 'garbage', etc., just carry on and hopefully things will get better.. (Though, happy are those who don't have that hahaha.. lucky you!!)

I know this should be posted tomorrow but.. I won't be able to visit this space tomorrow.. probably busy celebrating it... hahaha

Christmas Crumbs...

On 19/12/2008, the three of us went to Donggongon town for a dinner. We intended to have it at the place we always go, but we didn’t believe what we saw - it was “under renovation”!! the whole shop is totally stripped to bare. Perhaps they are going for a total renovation…

So we went to the next shop across the building. While waiting for food to be served, I noticed two of the stalls which were previously ‘stationed’ in the original “under renovation” shop plying their business there… I wonder if the restaurant closed down. I wanted to ask the guy manning the grilled fish, but my son kept me busy…

At the same time, I noticed that there was some kind of function being held at Buhavan Square. I decided to have a look while my wife had her dinner first. I took my son with me as I have already feed him and he seems to be ‘full’. I know he wanted to have some 'running' in the open space..haha

This is what I saw :-

Perhaps this is the highest Christmas tree in.. err... well.. Penampang.

It's decorated with green and red clothings, with ribbons and big boxes of 'presents' hung around it. And of course, some decorative lights..

I appreciate the effort but I've seen much better Christmas tree from this one..

It's too "rigid" and too "flat", at least in my point of view

 

This 'screen' is supposed to show the 'going on' on the stage inside. But I've been here for about an hour and the only thing I can see is a blue screen. I pity those people who wanted to watch via the screen..

The audio is a also terrible. From outside of Buhavan Square, people are getting irritated with the 'echos' and 'delays'. From my point of 'hearing', the terrible sound system/set up makes the singers as if they're singing out of tune and out of tempo. Or perhaps they actually sing that way?

Perhaps that's why few people go and 'really' attend the so-called "Penampang District Inaugural Christmas 2008" event. Maybe, there are less publicity for this event? What I saw is only a handful of people standing. Some of them are only "passer-by" like me. I bet the organisers and their families are the ones who fill up those empty chairs

The veterans singers sang Kadazan oldies songs, which in my opinion, do not reflect the Christmas occasion they are organising. It became more of alike a wedding party to me. At one time, the emcee suddenly announce "Penyayi seterusnya adalah.. Velvet!!!" (I think it's Velvet Lawrence of AF4). But the actual "singer" who came on stage is not Velvet but an "underground" band (I think) who sang Awie's song...

Is the emcee trying to attract people outside to the place? maybe.. but it's cheap publicity and "cheating" the public too. Anyway, if it's reallt Velvet, the people outside won't hear him because the sound system as I mentioned earlier is really "great"...

I don't want to be harsh in my comments but I do hope the "Organisers" organised it in more organised manner. It's the Penampang District's event after all. It's not a small function and it's done in the public too. I do not know about publicity, as I myself haven't heard of the event.. maybe I didn't noticed or hear about it.

ahh well.. they won't read this anyway.. but my nieces and nephew organised our recent family Christmas celebration much better them.. hmm..

Blessed Christmas My Friends...

I'm going to do a li'l bit of carolling here, those who knows please sing with me.. haha..

"O Holy Night! The stars are brightly shining,
It is the night of the dear Saviour's birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining.
Till He appeared and the Spirit felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.

Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices!
O night divine, the night when Christ was born;
O night, O Holy Night , O night divine!
O night, O Holy Night , O night divine!

Led by the light of faith serenely beaming,
With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand.
O'er the world a star is sweetly gleaming,
Now come the wisemen from out of the Orient land.
The King of kings lay thus lowly manger;
In all our trials born to be our friends.

He knows our need, our weakness is no stranger,
Behold your King! Before him lowly bend!
Behold your King! Before him lowly bend!

Truly He taught us to love one another,
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains he shall break, for the slave is our brother.
And in his name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
With all our hearts we praise His holy name.

Christ is the Lord! Then ever, ever praise we,
His power and glory ever more proclaim!
His power and glory ever more proclaim!"

To all my Christian friends, have a blessed Christmas and may the true reason of Christmas enlivened within us during this Holy season and forever..

And to my non-Christian friends, have a great holiday ya!!!

Cheers from Hombidai Boibud the Rambler and family

New blogger on the prowl...

Haha..

Just to inform everyone that I have added a new blog link from a friend of mine - Ajie..

Feel free to visit her blogs ya...

Go.. go.. Ajie... (tu lah ko lupa ID and password ko, harap ko tidak lupa lagi kali ni.. ho ho ho)

Throw Durians at Them...

The shoe throwing incident on the outgoing US President, Mr George Bush has received a lot of attention worldwide. A lot of people, I believe, are praising the journalist who throws the shoes while shouting "This is your farewell kiss, you dog!", although there are, perhaps, some out there who condemn the act too.

Our Foreign Minister also praised it by saying, "That shoe-throwing episode, in my view, is truly the best weapon of mass destruction to the leader who coined the phrase 'axis of evil' to denote Iran, Iraq and North Korea"…

Well, I don’t want to comment on that incident or the reactions to it. I better leave it at that...

As a culminations to that, I was actually wondering if we can we throw shoes to those people who insult women. Read my previous post here ... we may even use something of “local culture/taste”… like durians, eggs, etc.. how about that? If that guy can throw something at someone as powerful as Mr President Bush, why can’t we throw something at someone who is not as big as the US President?

And I wonder if the person who throws such things gets praise for that act?

Will someone say "That durian-throwing episode, in my view, is truly the best weapon of insult to the person who insulted women by their acts or words like ‘bocor’, ‘gua’ etc., treat women as though they are mere ‘things’,"…

I wonder…

Did I insult anyone?... if yes, I may get thrown at with something I suppose…

True Reason for the Season...

“Jingle bells.. jingle bells.. jingle all the way...”

“I’m dreaming of a white christmas…”

“O Christmas.. o christmas tree…”

“Dashing through the snow, in a one horse open sleigh…”

“You better watch out.. you better not cry.. Santa Claus is coming to town..”

“Rudolf the red nose reindeer, have a very shiny nose…”

Aaaah… those were some of the songs that we always hear on the radio, TV, shopping malls etc when Christmas is near… yes, it makes it merrier and sets the mood before 25^th December… I love those songs...

Decorating christmas tree is fun, of which I had for the first time in my life this year, together with my wife. My son just sit and watch us setting up and decorating the tree… but once we finish, he starts un-doing the decorations… haha. I also had my first carolling at home this year, thanks to some friends who still remember us. They made the effort to drive some kilometres away from the kampong just to serenade us with carols and yes, they sang beautifully. Nice!! Thanks my friends…

Oh noo.. I haven’t bought my son any new clothes. My wife has been reminding me from early this month. Look like I’ll be doing some late shopping…

But the “jingle bells”, christmas tree, buying new clothes and all those merry things sometimes let us forgets the true reason of Christmas. Yes, it happens to many people and it happens to me too. I do know the true reason and it’s engraved in my mind.. but things around me keeps on ‘dirtying’ the place where it is ‘engraved’ and I will ‘lose sight of it’. Only when I go and ‘clean’ the ‘rubbish’ that makes that place dirty, sometimes beyond recognition, then only I will ‘remember’ back what it is. Of course IT will still be there for the rest of my life. It’s up to me to always go there and ‘clean’ it.

That’s why the Church has a season called ‘Advent’, which is about a month (or four Sundays) before Christmas. Advent is a time of preparation for and anticipation of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, of whom we celebrate on Christmas day. It's not about "santa claus coming to town" or "rudolf the red nose reindeer" or the worse, "christmas tree with lots of blings".

In my opinion, Advent is a way to makes us remember the true reason for Christmas. Again in my opinion, the Church does not forbid us to make Christmas a fun and merry occasion, but the Church also want to keep us always reminded the true reason why there is Christmas in the first place.

I am not writing this because I am pious or what. I am just an ordinary person and human. It’s just that I only want to remind all of us (including myself) who celebrate Christmas, not to forget the true reason for the Season while we are having fun, good times etc…

Cheers everybody…

Pissed-off again...

Now they really really really pissed me off… (well, it’s the same architect firm who made my life really ‘wonderful’ on two previous occasions!!! )

During the first discussion a few weeks back, they commented that our roof truss drawings are ‘wrong’, not according to theirs. And they asked us to go back and check and clarify whether our dimensions are correct in relevance to the structural drawings of the roof beams. We, of course, went back and rectify our drawings as per their requirements/ instructions/ comments. Not to say that our drawings are totally wrong, but being two young guy whom I would say still quite ‘lacking’ in experience, we are quite unprepared to justify our drawings at that time (a lesson learned well IMO)

Yesterday, we arranged for a second discussion on the same matter but unfortunately they are having a meeting, so it was postponed until today. At the same time, they requested for us to fax the roof structure shop drawings in advance for them to have a look. Well, I complied and faxed to them later in the evening, as I was having a meeting myself in the morning yesterday.

This morning, I receive a call from one of their technical staff. He commented that “we receive your drawings and I found that it is the same with the drawings you submitted to us previously”….

FGS!!! Of course it is still the same, dude!!! In the last discussion, we were told to clarify how we get the dimensions as indicated in our roof truss shop drawings and have made checks in reference to the architectural and structural drawings.

Then that ‘dude’ said “we wan’t the correct set-off drawing”. I asked “what is that?” (I confess I don’t know what is a ‘set-off drawing’, never heard of it before).

He didn’t explain what is a set-off drawing but said further, “we need it to see whether your drawing is correct or not, whether it is according to their drawings and the structural one. We won’t know if your drawing is correct or not as it has to follow the architectural and structural drawings”.

I told that dude, “I am not very sure what a ‘set-off’ drawing is. But what I am very sure we have designed the roof truss based on the architectural and structural drawings. It is foolish of us not to draw against the construction drawings and it is pure lunacy to design something which is taken from the sky!!” So I asked him, “why you didn’t say so in the previous discussion…?”.

To add my anger further.. during the last meeting they only pointed on one particular thing only – one wrong dimension, yea one only!! And they keep on ‘attacking’ us on the one wrong dimension. (It supposed to be 1500mm but we put there 1400mm – of which we could explain why but I won’t go and explain it here). And because of that, our shop drawing is ‘not the same with their drawing’…. And yes, they never mentioned about other things i.e. set-off drawings.. then the principal started blabbing about other things unrelevant to the main objective of the discussion…

I was very angry of course but I tried to be professional about this matter. So I asked the ‘dude’ who talked to me to write their comments and list out all they want us to do and fax to us so that we can take the necessary action. I told him, our main intention was to settle this not-so-big problem quickly so that we can finalised this particular section of the problematic roof. That’s all what’s matter to us most – to settle it once and for all and not doing a ‘ding-dong’ here and there..

You know what he said to me? “I will come back to you later”. Of course he never called me back, so I called him an hour or two ago and he told me this – “we (they) will discuss again among themselves and will come out with their comments”. Oh man, what is that? They confidently call me this morning and told me my drawing is not correct, need this and that… haven’t they already discussed/ commented our one piece of shop drawing?

Maybe, they just simply look at that drawing, see it as ‘still the same as previously’ and didn’t really check thoroughly. And when I tell them we can justify that, they ask for other things… oooh man, I am tired of this…

Why can’t they approach this matter professionally instead of always pushing it back to us? It doesn’t mean that they are the consultant and they can simply say this is right or that is wrong. We also need them to justify their comments. Or perhaps they have made a mistake and try to cover-up their mistake?

Well, for me, a mistake is a mistake… no point of ‘beating around the bush’ to cover up their mess and furthermore, try to push it to other parties. (I learn this from an Architect also, of whom I really respect… of which I had the chance to work with during my tenure in my previous job/ projects. Though I cannot say what I feel for this current architect or firm…)

Now I am even tired of typing this post…

They simply pissed me off today!!! Oh mannnn…

Bowling at 1Borneo...

For those who loves to play bowling – a new outlet called U-Bowl were opened recently at 1 Borneo. I found out about it during my recent visit there last Sunday. It's located at 2nd floor (above the South Atrium, if I am not mistaken)

I didn’t play though as my JJ is tagging along.. though I will ‘train’ him when he is able to carry those pesky light bowling balls in a few years time.. haha.. and the whole family can play bowling together!!! (though i will have to wait a few more years and well, my bowling balls will furhter accumulate dust.. haha)

I have not been to CPS Bowl for two years, so I do not know how the charges are now like. But at U-bowl, they are charging RM5.50 per game for walk-in customer and RM4.80/ game for members. You can become a member by buying a prepaid card worth RM50. It will be deducted when you play games and it will only expire in a 100 years time haha. (Actually, they said it won't expire) But, the shoes will be charged at RM2 though – whether you are member or non-member!!

I was told also that they will be opening a café soon there as well and as a member, you will be able to enjoy a 10% discount. There are also K-box and Internet café inside the bowling centre (though I didn't really check it out as my JJ is getting restless.. he wants to run around the big empty space). And for those with children, you can just ‘dump’ them in the U-playground while you try to strike those bowling pins, but you will have to play RM5 per child though and a further RM2 for anyone who accompanies the child.

Here are some low quality pictures for you..

  Ahh.. the bowling lanes. 30 of them, though I have not tried how good are they.. haha

 

 

 

 

 

The U-playground on the right and the internet cafe on the background (actually I am trying to get a picture of JJ.. but he has just zipped pass me..)

 

 

 

 

The space that will become the cafetaria soon..

 

 

 

 

 

I finally 'caught' him.. hahaha

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well... at least when you are bored at 1Borneo, you can always try your hands at striking the pin balls at U-bowl..