me.life @ saudi arabia

watch out december, here i come..

2007-11-12T17:50:00.000+03:00

my leave is approved. the paperwork is done. hr is processing it. now comes the waiting part. for the day of departure, my flight tickets and my re-entry visa. waiting for the tickets and visa is the most annoying part of the whole process. the relevant departments can take their own sweet time to do it whereby its just a one day task. a little bit more efficiency people!

my leave is cut short anyways by martin. i wanted to return on the 16th of Jan. he wanted me back earlier as i'm quitting anyways and hoping to leave by Feb (in time for CNY, i hope). so now, i'm going to be back in the office on the 12th instead of the 18th. basically, i dun't really mind as jo will be back at work on the 2nd of Jan. and plus they will be paying me for any leftover annual leaves which i have. win win situation anyways.

well.. soon there will be varieties of food again, when i'm back home. for now, just have to suffer those fast food / indian food which we eat everyday.

back in the hole

2007-10-24T20:59:00.000+03:00

well.. time seems to pass by faster when you're on holiday. I have been back home and now i am back here at the hole. yeah, from now on this place would be referred to as the hole. looking back at it, i have been in the hole for 20 months and in another 4 months time i would be heading home, it definitely was an experience to work in the hole. this trip home, i have took back some of the unused items i have here (mainly clothes). for my next trip home in December, i planning to bring back the PS2 and other gadgets which i wouldn't miss for my last month here.

this trip home is tiring but in the end managed to do all the stuff which was planned for. meal tasting, dinner deco, florist, invitation cards. the only thing left is the guest list. i am sorry that i wouldn't be able to invite quite a number of friends due to the limitation of tables. hopefully we can always do lunch / dinner to make it up. till the next time i see you all, its great to catch up with you. till the next time i see you all, take care!

holiday in sight

2007-10-05T02:36:00.000+03:00

its another 5 more days before i get on the plane and go home. although there are some very important deadlines to meet (10 over new destinations to be launched simultaneously being the most pressing matter), but there is nothing much i can do. this trip home for me would be quite hectic too with all the preparations that need to be done.

things to be done:

meal tasting for the dinner
appointment with florist
appointment with vicky (planner)
hand in registration form

at the moment, this is all i could think of but i'm sure there are more things which i will remember. but one thing i do know is that i'm going to enjoy all the food that i can. :)

Selamat Berpuasa!

2007-09-18T13:38:00.000+03:00

RAMADAN KAREEM! Fasting season is here again. and this will be my second time which i go thru RAMADAN here in RIYADH. first one wasn't so bad cause i had partners in crime for lunch and all. this year round, there is only me alone here. no eating during office hours, there is only water and coffee. and i have to stay in the pantry to sip on those.

well the first week has passed, and that will be another 3 weeks to go. which makes it another 2 weeks plus before i'm heading home for Balik Kampung celebration! Be prepared ....

weekend @ bahrain (part 1)

2007-09-01T22:31:00.000+03:00

its was planned ahead by fK for the 'real' farewell party for PG. by the definition of real, i meant a farewell with booze/liquor and plenty of it. Basically it was non-stop for 2 nights straight of pure drinking.

we left from the office around 2.30pm and i was with Fk in his car, Marty & Claus in one, PG in a car with Mel & family. journey from Riyadh to Bahrain was basically a 4 hour drive to Dammam @ speed limit (till now, i'm still not sure of the speed limit on those so called highway through the desert.),and another hour to cross over to Bahrain we made it into Bahrain slightly below 3 hours. Yups, Fk was driving at a constant speed of 220kmph. And the car was freaking steady and stable, as if we were just cruising at 100kmph. and i almost went deaf with Fk blasting his huge sound system all the way..

once we crossed into Bahrain, we headed straight to the hotel and check-in to our rooms. Crown Plaza is one of the 5 stars hotels around Manama and Fk managed to hooked us up with some dirt cheap rates for it (considering its still summer holidays). settled our stuff in the room and we wasted no time and head to the hotel pub. the first thing we ordered was a pitcher of beer, Amstel draft beer. we finished up one pitcher before we even ordered our dinner. the live band started around 9.30pm (it seems like very pub/bar has a live band performing). as usual, Filipino band which consist of 3 gals and 3 guys. started to belt out variety of songs from different groups and they do sound good.
Marty & Claus reach around 10pm and joined us at the bar. that was when we started the mixture of drinks. beer, whiskey, vodka. we hardly notice the deafening "music" from the band and continued are drinking session. PG joined us around 11pm and there goes another round of drinks. this continued till around 1am which by that time, Fk is wasted and managed to find his way back to the room himself. we continued another round and by 2am we had to leave (because thats the closing time all entertainment outlets in hotels)........ 2b continued...

New term. CyberSlacking

2007-08-29T12:19:00.000+03:00

feeling bored? a good read to kill time, but make sure you dun't let your boss catch u reading this.

Bling Bling Market

2007-08-25T12:04:00.001+03:00

on thrusday night, we (me, ann, zan, muiz & nurul) went to the jewelery market because ann wanted to get a pendant as one of her "hantaran". the market is basically like any other market. shops lots all over. something like our wet/dry markets which your parents go and do their grocery shopping on the weekend. instead of stalls, replace those with shops. and every single shop sells jewelery. the area of the whole market is roughly like 1U's open air carpark.

we reach there in good time and started walking in to every single shops. certain shops are having their summer sale with discount up to 70%. as we went in the first shop, the feeling is like walking into a goldmine. the concept of jewelery shop here is totally different compared to back home. the have jewelery package/set that comes complete with ring, ear-rings, necklace & pendants.

one major difference is that the sell second hand jewelery. and all of it looks brand new. Ann got a pendant with LOTS of diamond @ a price of RM 2700. its a second hand pendant with a original price of roughly around RM8000 according to the sales person. one thing is, you will never know whether its real diamonds or fake, which makes it a bit dodgy for my liking. one thing is for sure, you will never find such a place in Malaysia as this would be a target for all robberies!

imagini.VisualDNA.

2007-08-16T20:57:00.000+03:00

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

facebook - better than friendster?

2007-08-09T15:51:00.000+03:00

Facebook - better than Friendster? Actually i did have a facebook account since May (courtesy of Fred kz). at first i thought "darn, another spin off friend/connection/community sites". There seems to sites popping up weekly asking you to join and connect with friends. it gets tiring after a while, thats why i didn't bother to setup my facebook account. this is until i received an notice from uncle leong, saying that he has added me in facebook.

then the next thing you know, i 'explored' what facebook has to offer. and i am impressed! seriously i would say its best of the lot at the moment. with lots of application which you could add into your profile, there's definitely not a dull moment.

50 Wishes as a malaysian

2007-08-06T11:40:00.000+03:00

50 Wishes as a malaysian

what would your single most wanted wish for Malaysia to be? After 50 years of independence, progress has been made. This i'm sure of it. Even though it might not be where we hope / want to be. But the past few years, there have been quite a lot of complaints regarding the condition that Malaysia is in. Basically, we know how it happen, we know when it started to happen, but are we doing anything to improve?

There are always 2 sides to a coin, therefor we must consider both side of it before coming to a conclusions. Which is what i think Malaysians in general lack. They only take their view of things, and do not consider how the other side will feel. This is a recipe for disaster waiting to happen. Some just take whatever that is handed out and eat it, without thinking for themselves. When they start to think for themselves, they get clamped down. How are we to improve if we do not think for ourselves?

Just my 2 cents on this matter. Malaysia is always home to me. But living in Malaysia is going to get more difficult if things do not improve.

norah jones - bring her to malaysia

2007-08-02T12:00:00.000+03:00

Bring Norah to Malaysia.

to all those Norah Jones supporter, this is your chance to play your part in getting Norah Jones to perform in Malaysia. Gumz & Amanda start this, and it has been gathering momentum from the online supporters. Join now and visit the blogsite especially dedicated to this effort!

the end of harry porter..

2007-07-27T10:41:00.000+03:00

finished reading deathly hallows last night, and seriously i do not think i would have preferred any other ending. its been a wonderful journey and the end was conclusive. and i think even if there was spin off, nothing much can be done on harry porter. well those that are still reading it, what taking you soooo long to finish it? hahaha ... those that are waiting to get it from their friends, WHY so kiamsiap?!?! buy one copy and read it.

anyways, now is 3 more movies to finished up (i haven't watched order of the phoenix), we will definitely see more deaths / fights / killings in the coming movies! maybe they would rate it up to PG18 ?!!?!? can't wait to catch the potter movie, dunno when is my next trip out (dubai/bahrain, i dun't care. show me a cinema!)

farewell..

2007-07-20T15:02:00.000+03:00

its time to say farewell to one of my malaysian colleague. he is heading back to malaysia and start work with another carrier. Good luck..

first of the many, with me as the next possible candidate to leave. I've already decided not to stay beyond my contract (feb2008). I know its going to be rough trying to get another job now or later. although i have started sending in my resume to 2 regional airline, expecting an answer or even a reply would be hoping for the best. there is another possibility, but its a last resort for me.

there would be another start-up project in Middle East region. still not sure about that, but it would definitely be better than KSA. and the option is available to me, just a matter of wanting the job and getting the right package. hopefully i do not need to exercise this option, although it would be great for my resume (there are not alot of people that can say that they help started an airline from scratch, let alone twice). start-ups are definitely be more challenging and learning curve is very steep. what you implement would be the basis of the operation. joining a existing airline, changing SOP would be difficult, even if it will make the operations smoother. changes, i guess humans are non-receptive to change. we'll see how things go then......

what is your daemon?

2007-07-16T16:30:00.000+03:00

Dubai "expedition"

2007-07-16T09:07:00.001+03:00

got back from my first Dubai trip, and conclusion is the place is somewhat different and yet the same both at the same time. didn't really see much of Dubai, although managed to spend one whole afternoon at the Mall of Emirates and watched Transformer. I guess that was the highlight of the trip. throughout my 3 days there, there were a few facts about Dubai which i realized / make known to me.

Liquor is legally allowed here, yet you can't get it off any supermarket / shopping malls.
the only place where you can get liquor is at the hotel bars or clubs. other than that, there are no liquor supply at all.
Happening clubs practice the "couple policy".
if you want to go to clubs (not those seedy, pick-up clubs), you would need to be accompanied by a female or vice versa. this is to maintain the ratio and balance of the gender in the clubs,
Traffic condition is bad
especially in Deira area (old section of Dubai) , its a 2 lane main road which get congested easily. Imagine a 10 minute drive (without traffic) could take up to 45 minutes when its congested. and this is on a straight road (somewhat the old section's highway)

Thanks to Freida for being our chauffeur during our stay in Dubai. hopefully next time you would be able to arrange an outing with your friends, include us into the equation then we would be able to enter the clubs without any problem!

Kena fly Kite ..

2007-07-04T22:52:00.000+03:00

Dubai trip was postponed (hopefully not cancelled) till further notice due to the "scheduled" maintenance of aircrafts. which is sucky, cause its entirely not our fault. we have to clean up shit which other people forgot about and left it lying around. not the first time we have to clean up shit, while other people get all the "shine" after the shit has been cleared. sometimes it make you wonder, maybe should just let the shit leave a stain to remind people.

dubai summer sale is on and hopefully will still be when i make my trip there. i've got request for a bag, purse, digital camera & ipod. seems like everybody thinks when it's sale there, its bloody cheap. which remains to be seen with my own eyes. once i see it, then i will believe it. what i heard was branded stuff (gucci, lv, prada, fendi, salvatore ferragamo) will really go for quite cheap. dun't expect to be the current season design though(which i wouldn't know as i can't differentiate their design 10years ago and now). let's just see how things go and what (if) i purchase then ....

DIcey Business..

2007-06-29T16:35:00.000+03:00

It's the weekend again. Spend most of it watching my series "dicey business" which i stopped after 3 disc. the only thing about the series is that it's dubbed in Mandarin! Didn't check it properly when i bought it from Hong Kong. Well, better than nothing at all. after this, there are still 3 series for me to watch: Prison Break (season 1 & 2) + Heroes. this should last me about another month at least. anyways, next weekend would be in dubai, so wouldn't be boring anymore.

First trip to dubai..

2007-06-23T21:56:00.000+03:00

it has been approved. my first trip to dubai, on official business too. free flight & accomodation. and we're staying at the Marriot too. talk about travelling on company's expense. Althought this trip started out as a personal excursion, i managed to arranged some meetings which justify us being there. My boss agreed to it and will tagged along for the meeting (just another excuse for him to get drinks).

started planning for the weekend in dubai. foremost on the list would be to watch transformer:the movie, which coincidently premiers in dubai on the 5th of july. then it would a visit to MOE, the mall of emirates, which i think is one of the biggest shopping malls in dubai. and coincidently, its the summer sale festival in dubai. hahaha..

it's all finished ...

2007-06-22T15:35:00.000+03:00

Finally, finished Kingdom Hearts II last night. By the time i finished, i realised it was 4am in the morning. Overall, it is a wonderful game i would say. grahic & gameplay wise, its one of the best games that i have played.

now... what should i do to occupy my time?

Addicted to ....

2007-06-18T22:40:00.000+03:00

Its been 2 weeks since i came back from Malaysia, and this is only my 2nd post. I'm not sure is this a good thing (spending less time in front of the laptop) or a bad thing ( addicted to PS2). Yups.. u've heard it correct. I'm hooked on the game Kingdom Hearts II. It looks childish (involving characters from Disney's family), but the graphics are soothing for the eyes. Gameplay wise, its ok. Although i was never a fan of "shoot-them-up" (disregarding the time when we were playing DOOM during the cybercafe years).

Basically, i look forward to going home now. quite a fixed schedule for the past week once i reach home. 30 Minutes of Dance Dance Revolution (a form of exercise, just to sweat it out), dinner and then bathe. After that, it would be Kingdom Hearts all the way till i sleep. Its an addictive game (at least for me). At least it would take me another week before i will finish the game. Until then, dun't mind me if my blog post gets very infrequent. Adios!

End of a wonderful period

2007-06-11T18:11:00.000+03:00

3 weeks. It has been a wonderful 3 weeks.
Now its back into the shit hole for another 4 more months before my expected next trip back in October. Before that, i have to clear up 3 weeks worth of shits. Just unbelievable the amount of shit that can accumulate in 3 weeks time. Nobody here knows/bothers/tried to clear up any of it. Just wonderful. And all those donkeys that got affected, starts to point their fingers everywhere else but at themselves. Wanted them to handle it in the first place, but refused. With me on holiday, they are the obvious targets when issues comes up. And they got caught with their pants down! Serve them right.

time to go home

2007-05-16T23:14:00.000+03:00

to all those people back home.... i'll be back .. for 3 whole weeks! get ready to party........ see you all once i'm back home.

changes is coming

2007-05-11T00:48:00.000+03:00

we were invited by claus to a BBQ at their place for a malaysian-only celebration. this was basically peter's idea to thank us and acknowledgment of our efforts in setting up nas air in 8 short weeks. peter just got back from UK and we were sort of like expecting some big news from him, due to the rumors circulating in the company. and news we got, as peter told us in strict confidence that he would not be the CEO for nas air within the next 10 days. he made this "choice" based on some decision the management made. although no more longer the CEO, yet he can't leave the company as its stated in his contract of a 6 months notice period therefor, we still will be seeing him around at least until the month of November. Thank You peter for your support and leadership. we would not have done this without you at the helm. Cheers!

a brush with the law

2007-05-08T19:13:00.000+03:00

on the way back from work today, we had a brush with the law for the first time. it all started when ghulam (our driver's name) ran a red light at one of the traffic lights. right after that we saw the blue lights of a patrol car right behind us. stopping by the side, the ghulam went down from the car and was talking to the officer when he walked up to the car and had a look inside. then things got "interesting" from there on.

there is a law here that says that female mustn't sit in the car at the back with male unless he is the husband/brother/father. and in our case, philo was sitting at the back with me, danny & fauzi. the officer started to question ghulam why is there a female sitting (squeezing together is more like it) at the back. then he requested to see all our iqama. obediently, we passed our iqama to him. and he walked back to his patrol car and we were like "shit, definately have to go to the station now". ghulam continued to explain that we are working for NAS, which belongs to Prince Khalid (newphew of the King) and we are malaysian (which never fails to impress the arabs). ghulam even showed him a "forged" document saying that he is assigned by NAS to be our driver.

after 15 minutes of "discussing", the officer came back and says that philo shouldn't sit at the back and it is not allowed. so all we did to satisfy this "rule" was moved philo to the front and hisham squeezed at the back with us. after that, the officer allowed us to continue our journey home. things get to go our way when you're working with the right company and the right nationality. if we were Filipinos, we would have spend the rest of the night at the station (locked up) till we get our sponsor to come and solve this matter.

well, nothing much can be said about this country except that its a totally out-of-this-world. they are after all, one of the richest third world mentality country you would find in the world.....

what to do during the weekend?

2007-05-05T10:44:00.000+03:00

i get a lot of queries regarding on the topic what do i usually do during the weekend. and basically i have been telling them the same thing, and the answer is "nothing special". activity wise, since moving to riyadh, the weekend activities have been cut down a lot. i seriously miss out on the diving activities during the weekends while in jeddah. at least i only have to figure out what to do on fridays, whereby thursday would be spent the whole day at the beach. riyadh, nothing to do except sleep/watch tv/surf/chat at home during the weekends. shopping complexes here are strict when it comes to its patrons. most of it only allows families to enter during the weekends.so with ann busy now with her bf, its even harder to get a female companion to qualify as a family to enter such malls.

thats why i'm seriously considering taking up photography. might get myself a dSLR camera on this trip back home. at least i can learn / play with it during the weekends. dSLR functionality are very much advanced compared to those point-shoot digital cameras which i have been using all this while. you might never know, might be good enough to become a part time photographer in the future. :)

2 weeks more

2007-05-04T11:26:00.000+03:00

yups. 2 weeks more and i will be on my way home. This is seriously a welcome break for me. didn't get to have my chinese new year celebration with my family for the first time, this break will allow me to spend some time with them.

all those people, prepare yourself!

why is the rum gone?

2007-05-02T18:47:00.000+03:00

nuffnang is giving away free tickets for the opening night of Pirates of the Caribbean 3. and i would be back in malaysia during the period. talk about being lucky (if i do get the tickets). so people, get a move on it and get those tickets. only 250 tics. limited!

counting down...

2007-04-24T08:43:00.000+03:00

It has been approved. It has been purchased. From the 18th May till 9th June, i will be back in Malaysia. Hoorah! Hoorah! I would be flying back from Riyadh on Etihad Airways, via Abu Dhabi. Its the cheapest flight, with alcohol on board! There is a direct flight via Saudi Arabian Airlines, but that is the most boring airline in the world, so i wouldn't suggest flying with them even if they have the cheapest/fastest flights available.
At the moment, my schedule is still open. But i guess i will be doing mostly meals with friends to catch up on things.

Below are some of the things planned
Things planned
1.Singapore trip on the 19th till 21st
2.Kuantan trip on 26th till 27th
3.Weekend breakfast excursion with organized by Bkee
4.Visit at least 3 shopping malls.
5.Watch at least 3 movies in a CINEMA
6.Have "drinks" with gang
7.Snooker Snooker
8.Mahjong Mahjong

Things i wanna eat
1.Bak Kut Teh (Seapark)
2.Siew Yuk Mee (Jln Sultan/Petaling Street)
3.Yong Tao Foo
4.Char Siew Rice (Mayang)
5.Sakae Sushi

Well people, hope i can meet up with all my friends when i'm back. Just miss you all loads and loads .. SEE YOu in 1 MONTH's time!

My Nephew: Shane the adorable

2007-04-13T22:51:00.000+03:00

Its such a cute adorable bundle that i couldn't help myself. I had to post it for all your viewing pleasure. Yes, that's Shane, my adorable nephew.

something to be proud of?

2007-04-13T11:21:00.000+03:00

Karen Kong, newest album "Mulakan" is out since february. I didn't know about this artist until only recently. Thanks to max for being one of her "Fans". I got her album and i'll say that its quite nice for a first time recording artist. And a Malaysian Chinese coming up with an Malay Album as her debut album. That sure shows the versatality of Malaysian. So should we be expecting a Malay coming out with a Mandarin /Cantonese / Indian album anytime soon?

this one is for you.

2007-04-08T21:12:00.000+03:00

First of all, a big happy belated birthday to Sean, for the 2nd person in the group to reach the big 30! Wished i was there to wish you personally, but sometimes we don't get to do what we want to. Anyways, a bunch of the group went to Sanctuary to celebrate. And they drank and drank and drank till ... the highlight of the night. The birthday boy was WASTED! and its was only halfway through the night. The moral of the story: Flaming Lamborghini + Black Label + Hennessy + * BOTTOMS UP * = WASTED!

When you do this....

In the end, we get the situation below ....

New genre of music

2007-04-06T14:24:00.000+03:00

The weekend is here, yet there is nothing much to do anyways. Spend the whole of yesterday downloading songs. Clazziquai & Loveholic are my lastest downloads. For those that dun't know, they are korean band/group. Clazziquai is a mixture of electornic, jazz fusion. Not bad at all if i do say so myself. And i found a new source for downloading music - Multiply -. Yup, for Korean and Japanese mp3 you could practically find whatever songs you want to get. Give it a try.

No Music, No Life

2007-03-31T10:35:00.000+03:00

Music plays a very big part in my life. I constantly need music to keep me entertained when i'm bored or in my room. Even during my daily trips to the office, once i'm in the car .. my Ipod starts playing. So the worst possible thing happend today.. MY IPOD is KAPUT! arrgghh.. what a nice way to start the week. Hopefully the Apple Dealers can help me in repairing the IPOD. Sigh, and god knows how long it will take. Please please say it can be repaired, if not ... i would have to Purchase another player. :( Just when i was thinking of getting my dSLR camera. This has to happen. It will be a no brainer, i would definately get an MP3 player instead of a camera if i have to choose. *keep finger crossed*

Picture of memories

2007-03-26T21:17:00.000+03:00

Was clearing out stuff from my portable drive this afternoon. Looking thru all the folders and clearing away unused documents are tedious. And i got to my pictures folder.. looking at all the pictures made realise how much i miss home and my friends.. and i realise most of the pictures are taken with the same bunch of people. What does that say? I don't have a lot of friends? I dun't mix around much? Nah, i think.. i'm just comfortable being with them. period. I treasure my time with them, therefor the pictures. I'm compiling a bunch of my favourite pictures and posting them for your viewing ... enjoy.. like i enjoy looking and remembering the memories..

Government Declared Holiday

2007-03-22T10:54:00.000+03:00

It will be a long weekend next week. Goverment has declared holiday for Riyadh on the 27th and 28th of March. This is because they are having a Middle East Conference / Summit in Riyadh during that time. Looking at the traffic situation & security reasons, they declare it as holidays to "encourage" people to stay in doors. Seems like there would be a lot of security check points setup around the city. I'll be going to Dammam (a city on the west coast, 45minutes away from Bahrain) with Muiz and Fauzi for a meeting with one of the major travel agency in the country. Then we will spend our 2 days "holiday" in Bahrain (hopefully), as it all comes down to getting our re-entry visa done.

Its has almost been a month of operations now. And everything seems to be going smoothly, with the occasional hiccups along the way. This is expected i was told. And i was told SAMA (the other low cost carrier) which started their operations on the 18th of March, had to delay their first flight by almost an hour. (first impression: nas air 1 sama 0) And i was told that they faced another delayed flight due to technical issue yesterday, and they had to moved all their passenger to saudi airlines. Well, so much for smooth operation on their behalf. At least, we only had one delay so far (30 minutes, due to operational paperwork). No more such things we can hope, but we usually never get what we hope for anyways.

One of my favourite songs...

2007-03-18T00:02:00.000+03:00

陶喆:天天

太阳天或下雨天
人挤人的咖啡店
找一个能想你舒服的角落
看着情人肩靠肩
慢慢转开我视线
有个女孩让我好想念
我的心已经飞到这个城市里面
看着你，我爱的脸

我心里的感情都对你说
那马路上天天都在塞
我们每个人天天在忍耐
没有你日子很平白
原来这样就是恋爱
我想要你在我身边
这就是命中的一切
我想要天天说
天天说,天天对
你说我有多爱你

A lazy weekend ...

2007-03-16T23:14:00.000+03:00

Spend most of the day in my room. Didn't really felt like stepping out of the apartment (Other than to go down to Hisham's place to eat lunch). Might be due to my new carpet and small table which i bought yesterday at IKEA. Now my room feels more homey i guess. Now i get to sit on the floor and not on my bed. Previously, without the carpet the floor was torture to my arse because it was too cold!

Spent the whole morning talking to jo regarding the wedding bands. We were coming up with suggestions on what to engrave on our bands. Due to Jo's current craze of korean culture (it sounds better than korean series), our engraving would be in Korean. I started to look for our names in korean writting and there is no such writting for JOSEPHINE. There was Joey, Joel & Joseph but no Josephine. I managed to find my name (대니스) Came up with suggestion of using Joseph (죠셉)and then add the "INE" and the back. Then the name would look like this --> "죠셉INE" I think she didn't quite agreed to that name. Hehehe .. anyways did managed to find our names in Japanese.

nas air - the first budget airlines in the kingdom

2007-03-15T02:14:00.000+03:00

" Presenting to you .. the first budget carrier in the kingdom of saudi arabia: nas air. Started operation on the 25th of February, 2007. Currently flying to/fro Riyadh and Jeddah with more destinations in the near future. "

Well, what can i say? We have started (finally) operations. After rotting for a good part of 2006, things picked up at a drastic pace (at least for me) and i had a whole lot of shit to deal with. But everything turned out well (i guess), we are flying. Thats the most important point. Operationally now, its time to patch up all the holes we have covered up to meet the deadline. And believe me, there sure is hell lots of holes to cover. This would take time......

Didn't managed to go back for CNY. i think this is a first time i didn't celebrate at all in my entire life. Guess there is always a first time for everything. But i do miss my family. i miss jo. i miss my friends. i miss hanging out for drinks. i miss jo. i miss those gambling sessions. damn, i sure miss a lot of things. Did i mentioned i miss jo? hhmm guess i did. Well .. come June and i will be back home for 3 weeks. Yeah! looking forward to that.

p.s. congratulations to Ian & Jenny and Adrian & Jovina. Both become parents to healthy baby boys. I'm still waiting for those pictures!
p.s. congratulations to Denise and YinYin. Both officially went off the "market" and become part of a union, for better or for worse, till death do us part.

a new beginning

2007-01-04T22:03:00.000+03:00

its the new year.. a whole new beginning..

got back from hong kong last night. it was a wonderful 4 days break from riyadh. Now i'm back, its time to launch an airline. that is where the challenge is!

frustrating @ times

2006-10-17T11:29:00.000+03:00

its seems frustrating at times... it hurts..... that someone that matters just blows up in your face ... just because you asked something a few times ..... when the intention is just to see whether she / he wanna participate in something ... fark! arrgghh! .. you dun't see me blowing up when i get irritated do you? arrgghh wtf ..i'm just grumbling here...

@ riyadh .... finally settled ...

2006-08-14T11:12:00.000+03:00

i'm now officially residing in Riyadh. Finally moved to Riyadh during the past week, cleaned our apartments and moved in during the weekend. Its a nice comfy brand new apartment compared to the one i was staying in Jeddah which is old, dark and gloomy at times. Its a change for the better i hope. Have my own tv now but no satellite signal yet due to some screwups of the cable guy. We do not have a hall as it has been converted to a room for fauzi. In total, 5 units of the 8-units apartment have been occupied by us ( hisham, danny & azman, muiz, me &amp;amp; kc & fauzi, ann & philo). The apartment is now unofficially known as Rumah Malaysia.

What is the world coming to?

2006-07-14T11:31:00.000+03:00

Beirut's airport is currently closed due to the damages done by the rockets sent over by Israel. Mumbai's commuter train services is disrupted by the 8 coordinated bombs. Efforts trying to stop North Korea and Iran's nuclear programmer. These news are currently splashed all over the local newspaper daily. Is there no more happy news anymore?

Israel is one of the main "actor" in this world stage drama. First of all, its long standing feud with Palestine on its teritorial dispute. Now they have started another drama with Lebanon by bombing Beirut's airport, which is one of the major airports in the middle east/gulf region. And reading the responses from some of the major world regarding to the bombing is sickening. Quote US President : "Israel has the right to defend herself.. secondly whatever Israel do should not weaken the government in Lebanon" .. thats all he can say? Beirut is currently now facing a blockade by sea and air by Israel military. I guess this is blatant display of selective policing work done by self proclaimed protecter of the free world. BS!

Boat trip @ Red Sea

2006-07-07T10:56:00.000+03:00

Came back from riyadh on wednesday excited about the boat trip on thursday with Omar/Suhair. As this is my first boat dive, definately looking forward to it. Woke up around 6 in the morning to have a light breakfast, and check all my gears. At 6.30 sharp, the taxi came and off we go heading towards the marina. The trip took about 30 minutes, and the marina is full of people eventhough its only 7am! The boat was scheduled to leave at 7.30am but due to some latecomers, we only left the harbour around 8am. take about time concious people. Tsk tsk tsk...

Reach the open sea and the view was ... blue! no land in sight. and endless horizon of blue. Our boat captain was navigating with no maps. Only a compass and the GPS device (i guess thats all your need). And when he just stopped in the middle of nowhere, saying that we have reached our first dive site. Gearing up and into the water, and when we looked down its was a whole stretch of coral reefs. Right smack in the middle of the ocean, with no reference point at all. haHAHa.... separated into 2 groups (Open Water / Advanced) and down we went. It was different with diving at the beach. This is totally new and exciting. Althought there weren't as much fishes as the beach (due to the wide area of corals, the fishes are all spread out). Pictures were taken (Hopefully i would get some pictures with me in it) and we stayed down for about 30minutes.

Once we have all safely board the boat, the captain took us to the 2nd dive site known as the Wreck. An actual ship wreck site. hehehe ... But my ears started to give me problems once the boat started. Halfway thru the journey, dolphins started to swim beside our boat! And they were jumping out of the water, doing their dolphin thingie. We started counting and there was about 6 or 7 of them. Wild dolphons! Swimming in the open sea! Sure beats those you see in the SeaWorld or whatever Zoo.

We reached our dive site around 2pm and the sun was shinning BRIGHTLY! felt like burning the skin it did. I didn't go in for the this dive, cause my ears are still giving my discomfort. Darn....

to be continued....

@ RIyadh the City of Extremes

2006-06-30T10:39:00.000+03:00

Been here for the past 2 days and its really realy really freaking hot! Goodness, walking out during the day feels like walking straight into a baking oven. The heat from the ground with the brightness of the sun makes walking around an unbearable task. Even during the night, its like a sauna turned on to the maximun. Even when the wind blows, your face feels like burning. Urrgghh... this is extreme case!

Things will change ...

2006-06-23T02:10:00.000+03:00

Its seems like things will be different soon. we came as 11 people team, now we are down to 10. And soon we might be down to 9 (very high probability). The 2nd person leaving would be my housemate. He was offers on the table, just deciding which one is the worthwhile going back for. Management style here really sucks. And it seems like only this company has such problems. Jo was saying that i tend to get myself jobs which has sucky management. Always the worse than before. I guess its all planned out by someone else.

As stated earlier, moving to Riyadh is going to happen soon. How soon it will be, well .... i will just leave it at that. Definately, i would be looking for a place alone. Or maybe i would just share a unit with my colleague(well, the thing is. .. sharing unit with a colleague can be troublesome). Will just see how things go. One thing would be .. no more diving by the sea! shucks, just when i got my license. damn it.

internet freaks

2006-06-21T14:50:00.000+03:00

Thats what we are being called, at least 4 of us in the room. We can't live without internet connection while working. We are very efficient when it comes to notifying Ahmad Sharqawi (our IT dept) regarding the downtime we are experiencing with the office internet connection. Thats when he started calling us Internet Freaks as we keep hounding him till the connection is back up (most of the time, its the ISP's problem. So there is nothing Ahmad can do at all).

being the internet freak that i'm accused of (i plead guilty to the charge), i couldn't stand it anymore and join this site MIKE MIKE LAND. They offer MP3 download of the lastest and current albums from Hong Kong and certain Taiwan singers. its about RM 100 for a month type of subscription. The last time i joined (back in 2002 for the same package), i managed to download 700 over mp3s. And this time, it seems like i'm on the course of breaking the record. First 3 days of Membership and i have already downloaded close to 250 MP3s. That would really show how busy i'm in the office. HahAHA... i guess the ipod is going to be loaded with the new MP3s. So if any of you out there want any songs (old or new), just drop me a message. I will try to download it and pass it to you in september (when i go back for my 2 weeks break).

p.s. Our monthly internet dialup charges at home is ~RM500, 3 buckeross per hour. Shucks, we could really be freaks!

world cup fever 2006

2006-06-16T00:21:00.000+03:00

After 4 years of waiting, its finally here. Its the World Cup 2006 in Germany. And after 1 week of matches, i do say that its not as exciting as one would like to be (except for certain matches). The dramas, the heartbreaking losses, triumphant roars of wins, agony of a miss oppurtunity, the celebration of a wonderful scored goal. Its all in there.

with plenty of debutants in this world cup (mainly african teams), there are a good mix of footballing giants and minnows. The most impressive team (my 2 cents worth) of the debutants, would definately be Ivory Coast. Although they lost 2 - 0 to Argentina (which i didn't think played well at all to win), they were the better team, but argentina took their chances well to score 2 goals on their counter attack. Even teams like Italy, England and Brazil played dissappointingly.

Well, now starts the 2nd week. A clearer picture of which are the inform teams would be known. First games are usually affected by jitters of playing for the first match in World Cup. Hopefully the standard of play improves from now on.

p.s. Spain i think was lucky to win 4 - 0. Ukraine is definately a better team than that.

its takes forever.

2006-06-10T20:37:00.000+03:00

Yups. thats how long it takes for a laptop be to reformatted, reinstalled with windows & drivers. Its unbelieavable, the amount of time it takes. IF i weren't to sit there and wait for him to do it, i think it would have took 2 x forever the time. This new guy in the IT Dept, really is the master of procasination. Couldn't find the drivers(due Wrong CD), kept on trying and trying. Hello!?!? it doesn't work the first time, means it wun't work whether you try it the 2nd or 3rd time. The drivers are not in the CD!!! dumb ass.

Then he started to look for other cds around the office and started trying it. I really wanna strangle him. Search from DELL site. It takes 2 minutes, and 15 minutes download time. Thats all it took me to find the drivers and downloaded it (Yes, when he gave me the laptop, some of the drivers are still missing). Arrggghh!! one laptop, and he takes 8 hours to do it. Imagine if 4 or 5 laptops, so? He has to take 40 hours to format/reinstall everything issit? Bloody hell.

I might not know how to setup the user access and all, but i know HOW LONG it takes to install windows with fully working drivers, even without the installation CD.

4 Months and counting

2006-05-31T08:53:00.000+03:00

4 months and counting.
Accomplishment :

Survived on my own. (knew i could, didn't have the oppurtunity only)
Completed my Open Water Course.
Got to know the locations of certain citites of KSA which the locals didn't even know exist.

In the books (planning)

Hope to be able to go US/UK for training.
Make a visit to Bahrain, Jordan, Dubai in the near future.
Complete my Advanced Open Water Course

Till laters.....

it is confirmed. but not finalized.

2006-05-24T16:33:00.000+03:00

its seems like i haven't posted for a so long time, but it has only been 2 weeks plus. A lot of things have been cleared up, but then alot of things are still in the dark.

Things confirmed :

We do not have to moved to riyadh in the near future ( near future means in the next 3 or 4 months)
My application for an US visa has been rejected.
Our launch date will not be in 2006
I'm a certified open water diver
I'll be back during september

Things still murky :

License to operate an airlines (will only be known in december)
Where we will be based (riyadh, jeddah or maybe even damman)
Organization structure. (investors revamping to streamline operations / manage cost)
No name for the airline / company for now.

Thats the list for the past 2 weeks. So now we are helping out in other sections/departments involved with the application for the license. I'm helping out in the flight scheduling dept. Nothing serious at the moment, just double checking sectors, flight / route map and such. better than sitting around with nothing to do.

local method of legalising prostitution?!

2006-05-08T13:57:00.001+03:00

Marriage contract. its a new law, you can sign a marriage contract but you do not have to stay together. Under previous law, once u get legally married, you would have to stay together. With this new ruling, you can get married and fill up your quota (4 wives) and do not have to spend time with all 4 of them equally. Just get married to have sex, and after it all get divorced again? government might have realised that is the way to go. So now, you can legally have sex with your 4 "wives", without any binding t&c and divorced her once you are bored. (Divorce rate in jeddah is very high, by the way).

on the move.. again?!

2006-04-30T12:19:00.000+03:00

sorry for the long silence, cause at the moment.. its soo boring till i can't find anything much to write about. Other than diving & the usual office boredom (i shall not bore you all the details), my life is basically an empty page now.

my thrusdays are basically spent on the beach. Did 3 dives last thursday, no more swimming pool sessions. Yeah!

Getting used to the salt water now, didn't choke when i swallowed the water under the sea. Having an easier time going underwater too, although still have to stop and equalize frequently. The amount of fishes are unbelieavable. From small to big, colorful to plain dull, you would find alot of varities here. Managed to see a live octopus too. I think i would have to get a wetsuit soon, it seems like the back of my ankle has a sign saying "food stop". Got niddle/bit on a lot by this specific type of fish. It bleed when i came out of the water. "Scars" of diving. i got cut by the corals too when i was coming out of the water.

And we might be moving to Riyadh. Very likely and soon. sighs... just when i was getting the hang of scuba diving and the lifestyle here. Whats the difference between Jeddah & Riyadh? Well.. jeddah is a port city, more foreigners, more open-mindness, more flexiblity, more entertainment outlets (malls, beach, parks) . Riyadh, capital of Saudi Arabia, take away all the points above. Religiously strict. Middle of the dessert. Melts when its HOT!, freeze when its COLD!. From source here, 9PM everything closes. Unlike in jeddah. That is basically the idea. Guess will become very HOMELY once we moved there.

By the beach..

2006-04-15T12:09:00.000+03:00

Got my first lesson in scuba diving and it was really a new experience. And it was only in the swimming pool. Couldn't wait for my turn to jump into the sea! haha .. Reach the beach around 10.30 in the morning and spent almost an hour waiting for my instructor. No complaints, just sat there and enjoy the breeze. This is a private beach, meaning you have to pay to enter. There goes SR50 for each trip to the beach, plus the cab fare of SR30. Hmm .. just going to the beach cost about SR 110 already.

As i was alone, i had to sit at the "Single" section. Sighs.. even the beach they had to separate the people. Abayah is non-existent here, so here u would find girls in their bare minimun. Bikinis, and shorts anything you would find proper by the beach. This beach is quite famous for its diving facilities, as there are only 3 private beach which allows diving activities. But one thing is .... NO CAMERA / PHOTOGRAPHY allowed. Thats why i didn't post any pictures up, as i couldn't take any ...

.. to be continued >>

99 Question Part 2

2006-04-12T08:34:00.000+03:00

... continue >>

Dressing it all up

The female population here basically all goes out with the abayah. That is what the call the black piece of clothing that they were over the clothes whenever they go out. As for the head and face, the locals will be covered fully (Known back home as the ninja suits). But for foreigners it is not compulsory for them to wear that. As long as they wear the abayah, its respect to their religion *this is only for Jeddah, from what my colleagues told me if it was in Riyadh (the capital), it is compulsory to wear the abayah and to cover their head and face. For guys, you can’t even go out in shorts. Your knees must be covered at all times when you are in Riyadh. Thank goodness it’s not as strict in Jeddah.

Transportation

Most of the people here move around in car. Its either that or you take a cab. The amount of cars on the road here, if worse than in Malaysia. Most probably due to the cost of petrol and the prices of the cars. Imagine if you were to buy a Honda City back in Malaysia, with the same amount you would be driving a Toyota CAMRY over here (I think it is even less than that). And most of the cabs are either NISSAN SUNNY or TOYOTA CAMRY. So its quite spacious, although the interior might be a bit on the down side. Another thing here are the drivers. They are basically very impatient, rude, do not practice safe driving. Cars can be speeding on the outer left lanes and suddenly they will cut all the way to the inner right lane to make a U-Turn. Scary shit at times.

Food

I have not really tried their local food yet because Jeddah is very cosmopolitan. Mixed nationality. You would find a lot of Philippines, Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis here in Jeddah. So they have a variety of food around the city. They don’t have kopitiams or those food stalls over here. Its always restaurants, and it is pricey although the portions are big enough for 2 person. An average cost of a meal would be around SR10 to SR15 per person. Even their fast food joints (Burger King, KFC, McDonalds) are more expensive if compared to Malaysia.

Entertainment

The only activity the people here like is shopping. This is evident with the 20 over malls situated all over the city. Some of these malls, has a "Family only" rule during the weekends. Meaning, if me and KC were to go, we would not be allowed in the mall as we are considered "Singles". As long as you have a female companion within your group, then it is considered "Family-Status". The shopping malls here are big! With lots of boutiques which the gals would go "goo goo gaa gaa" over their design, colors, and fabric materials.

Movies u ask? Hahaha . there isn't any cinemas over here in Saudi Arabia. If i were to feel like catching a movie, i would either have to take a flight to Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain or UAE for it. Crazy! of course i wouldn't do that. Purposely all the way just to catch a movie? siao wan ar. ...

... to be continued >>

99 Questions Part 1

2006-04-11T16:38:00.000+03:00

Recently, a friend(mish) mailed me and was surprised that i left for saudi arabia to work. She started asking alot of questions. Before i could even reply her on MSN, she starting asking a whole new set of questions. So i finally decided to ask her to compile all her questions into one and mailed it to me. Basically all the standard questions of my decision to come over and the situation over here. Since it will be a good information for other too ( i took about 3 days to reply all her questions), i will post up all the answers here and now.......

Where am i? why am i here?
I’m currently located in Jeddah, as most of you would know. This is a port city, located on the western side of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (from now on will be refer to as KSA), with the red sea as its shores. One of the things that I notice is that, there are not a lot of tall buildings higher than 6 levels. A very different sight from Kuala Lumpur as there are no skyscrapers crawling towards the sky. From my office, I can see as far as the horizon with nothing blocking the view.

I’m here because it was a wonderful opportunity for me to expand my horizons, working in Malaysia is kind of sucky at times. Especially when I tend to jump from one job to another, with the bosses getting from worse to bad. It seems like a dead end for me back home, stuck in this never ending loop. I do need a change of environment, what would be better than going overseas?

The people, the place and the surrounding
First thing that i notice as soon as i step foot on jeddah is that there is not much greenery over here, mostly sand sand and more sand. You see them everywhere and all the building looks like there are covered in a layer of sand (i might be wrong, those building might just be brown in color). The other thing is the wind, as Jeddah is located by the sea, the wind the blows thru the city is chillingly cold. So imagine your skin being brightly pierced by the sunlight and chillingly cooled by the wind at the same time. Easy recipe for people to get sick if there not used to such condition.

One thing about the people here is that they are very courteous towards each other. They greet people whether they know them or not. One example is the office lift, whenever someone comes in, they greet each other. It’s a very good habit & culture I guess. And when they talk, especially when on the phone, it’s like they are arguing. But it’s their just their way of talking.

My residence is a building which you can consider an apartment. The units are small for their standards here. Usually the newer units are 3 or 4 bedrooms type. Ours is only 2 bedrooms with 2 bathrooms, with a hall and kitchen. Enough for the 2 of us. The rents are paid half yearly or for the full year. If you pay the full year, you actually get a discount. We only pay for the electricity bill; water is inclusive in the rent I think. And their rates here is very cheap I think. For a one, didn’t even passed SR20 (SR = Riyal; the Saudi currency).

Raining @ Jeddah

2006-04-09T12:42:00.000+03:00

Its raining! well... comparitively with malaysia, this is just a drizzle. But this is the first time we actually see rain drops since we first step foot on jeddah. Wish i had a camera with me, i would have run out and took a picture of it for your viewing pleasure. Hope it doesn't rain too long / heavy, or else there would be a massive jam due to floods. The roads here have no irrigation at all. So if it was too heavy, where does the water go?

Something to fill up time.

2006-04-03T13:00:00.000+03:00

I've enrolled and attended my first theory class in scuba diving. Can't wait till we hit the waters. Well, its not as simple and suiting up and jump into the waters. There are quite a few important points to take note, safety precaution to know, what to do during emergency and such. I got my diving starter kit from PADI and i'm supposed to read up the first few chapters before the next class. Counting down till i hit the waters.. *can't wait, can't wait* .....

What role do you play?

2006-03-28T11:04:00.000+03:00

In every organization, everybody has a role to play. In other words, the your designation which comes with a list of tasks and respondsibilties. Therefor, then only there wouldn't be a replication of whatever we are doing which in turns maximaze the resources available. Sad to say, my specific job task and respondsibilties sort of got added/edited along the way. I'm definately a development guy, give me a technical problem and i will solve it for you. Give me a stack of paper to read / research to do... goodness.. off i go to sleepyland.

In the past few days, my immediate superior sort of like came up a list of things to start doing. As i look thru the list, i realised most of the stuff are covered in the marketing area. media monitoring alerts, competitors promotion and updates, preliminary market research on internet penetration / online advertising industry in the region. For the moment, i just follow along as i have nothing much to do on my hands. development work hasn't really start as THINGS are STILL PENDING after 1 month plus. I guess thats the problem of having website development placed under marketing department. sighs...

p.s. i have enrolled for my scuba diving lessons. first class would be coming sunday night. Yeah! sharks & corals... here i come ..

Weekends@Jeddah = [ boring ]

2006-03-19T17:23:00.000+03:00

Spent the weekend at home, as there was no follow up on the snorkeling /scuba diving plans. Hopefully I will get to go for it within these 2 or 3 weekends. I have made up a list of things which I must do for my stay here. Mostly consists of activities and traveling around the region. The list includes:-

Take up scuba diving. (One of the more popular sports here, but due to the distance might present a problem)
Participate in Dessert Expedition. (Colleagues already offered, now just waiting for their planning)
Understand and speak some basic Arabic. (Easier to communicate with the people)
BBQ session at one of the private chalets with your own private beach.
Save up enough money to buy a crib back home. Maybe a car too (bloody hell, petrol price went up again?!!?)
Visit Abha. (The Genting Highlands of Saudi Arabia)
Get my passport stamp with Dubai, Egypt and South Africa visa / entry pass.
Visit Greece and its wonderful islands.

This is just some of the things I thought of during the weekend. Will definitely update this list once I get to know more about the region around here.

My pda phone - ETEN M600

2006-03-10T10:00:00.000+03:00

Tadaaa... may i present to you, my first PDA Phone - ETEN M600. After carefully review all the pda phones around, i decided on this. Malaysia has this model too. ETEN is a brand from taiwan, and if i'm correct, this is their 3rd model of PDA phone. Very good if i do say so myself, as i have never really used a PDA phone before. And to go with it, i have bought myself the Blue Tooth earpiece from ITech (Keng: got it before you! haha).

Other than that, just trying to post into the blogs with pictures. If this works well, i would be trying to post pictures up here for your pleasured viewings. hahaha

Deepest Condolense...

2006-03-08T09:01:00.000+03:00

My deepest condolenses to the families of the 2 accident victims in China.
* Especially to debbie *

Malaysians Abroad

2006-03-07T09:21:00.000+03:00

Went to IKEA yesterday after work with KC cause he wanted to buy his Lazy Chair. Khalid (from our corporate relations department) drop us off on the way to send Ann & Fauzi home. We decide to head to the IKEA restaurent to have our "dinner" first before going hunting for his chair. As we were lining up for our food, the executive chef came up and help us out. Turns out he is a Malaysian too! What a coincidence, he joined us at our table and introduced himself. Been working here for the past 1 and a half years, stays nearby IKEA and doesn't really go out during his free time. Told us about his experience here for the past year and a half, been back to malaysia for 3 times since his stay here. Hopefully i would be making more trips than him.

He told us there was another malaysian working at the Coffee Bean factory, (the Chef / Baker of all Coffee Bean confectionary) and another working in a Japanese Restaurent in Jeddah itself. Got to know them thru suppliers but doesn't really go out and meet up. According to him, embassy once told him there was about 300 over malaysians here. ( not sure whether its in jeddah or in the whole of KSA). After about 30 minutes later, we said our goodbyes and off we go hunting for KC's chair. p.s. KC still haven't got his lazy chair yet! hahahaha ... stock will be available in 3 weeks time.

One month and counting

2006-02-27T08:27:00.000+03:00

In another few days, one month will have past. Well, one down… plenty more of months to go. In this one month, we have rented a place, bought the necessities, clean up, move in, bought groceries and stuffs for our apartment. Not bad for a first timer living away from home. I know I should be old enough to take care of myself, but there was doubt whether I could get used to living away from home. So far so good, for I know I can be independent and take care of myself.

On another note, we might be moving out of our current apartment to another unit nearer to our new office location. KC went to look at one potential office site for the LCC team. It is located along Madinah road (on the way to the airport). The problem is, our current crib is located at the opposite side of town. Taking into consideration of the traffic conditions (we would have to use 2 of the busiest roads in Jeddah to get to our “new” location), it is estimated to take up to 45 minutes to reach the office. That means we would have to leave around 7am from our apartments. Moving to somewhere nearer would save a lot of time on traveling, BUT the problem is we have already paid 6 months of rental up front for this unit. Sighs... Hopefully the Corporate Relations (CR) dept can help us in this matter.

We brought Philo and Danny out to dinner today, at the Thai restaurant. Had the usual fried rice and a plate of their delicious chili oil. Order an extra Chicken with lemon sauce to go with our fried rice. Taste ok, the nearest to what we can get as Chinese food around here. After dinner, they were talking about the operations of the LCC. Seems like operations and administration are not going as smoothly as wanted. Internal hold up with the top level management regarding operations centre. Everybody has their 2 cents worth on what seems to be the problem. But basically, I would say its due to unfocused direction of the management, and bad internal communications within their top level management.

Let’s hope things starts to sort themselves out once the CEO comes back from his trip. We will just have to concentrate on our part and let the operations people to work out the problems at their end. I guess in every big corporation, problems tends to happens especially when you are trying to implement something new to it. For the past 7 years, they have been spending huge amount to run their vip charter service flight. Now, its cutting cost when it comes to LCC. Guess they are not used to the concept of budget and cost control. Too much money, so why bother how / why / where it’s spent. Arabs & their money & their connections, all the big corporations are inter related on a personal level. Owner of this is the brother to the owner of that which their father is the relative of some prince / ministry in charge of the same industry. No matter how you look at it, they don’t seem to grasp the concept of conflict in interests. Major shareholder of a company is also the major shareholder of a rival company. WTF?!!?!

Enough of this business / political environment update on the Arabs, its gets demoralizing to think why these people has tons of money and while certain countries can even feed all their citizens…….

Enlightment @ Jeddah - Part I

2006-02-21T09:28:00.000+03:00

After being here for this short period of time, there are a few things which i learned about this country.

Jeddah main fatality rate is due to road accidents.
- This isn't a surprise, as the drivers here are inconsiderate. Ahmad told us that there would be average of 2 or 3 accidents every morning along the main roads like Madinah road and Palestine road.
Crime rate in Jeddah is minimal.
- The chances of your seeing a snatch thief or robbery or murder here is almost next to nill. This might be due to laws practiced here. And they practice public punishment. As an examples for all the people. Which is has its good and bad points. Imagine you seeing a beheadment taking place in a square, having thief's hand chopped off in public.
High rise buildings in the city is limited.
- unlike back home, you could see the horizon from the office (8th floor). Nothing to block your view, all you will see are buildings which are 3 or 4 stories tall, stretch from one end to the other end.
Taxis rate are standardized.
- Usually once you get on a taxi, the minimun you have to pay would be SR10. And if possible, always get on a taxi driven by a foreigner (Pakistani, Bangladashi). For one, the understand simple English. Secondly, they do not charge excessively for the ride.
The "day" usually begins after 8.30pm.
- The shops here opens for business quite late during the days (10 or 11am) and closes around 1am in the morning. During weekends, the complexes opens up to as late (or as early) as 3am. This could be due to their prayer timing. Imagine going to a shopping complex at 11.30pm and you get stuck in the entrance to the carpark.

Check in later for more updates on the lifestyle of the locals here.

2 weeks and counting

2006-02-16T15:14:00.000+03:00

It has been an eventful 2 weeks since i have been here. Just absorbing the culture, enviroment and the lifestyle of the saudis. And this definately is an eye opener, working in an islamic country. At first glance, the place looks like very backwards. No skyscrappers or tall buildings. No high rise apartments or condomuniums. And the building infrastructures here is ... old. especially those shop houses. They look run down and war torn, but it looks that way because there are hardly any maintenance done on them.

One thing that amazes me is their roads. 4 lanes main roads that practically leads you to whichever part of jeddah you want to go. That is if u know the way. Ahmed told us to avoid local taxi drivers and stick with the pakistanis / bangladashis taxi drivers. They speak minimal english and their asking rate is cheaper. Taxi drivers pays the taxi company a fee of SR300 for each day, whatever that is extra belongs to them. And this rental is waived for every thursday and friday. Whatever they get for the 2 days are theirs. Some funny rule it is, but it makes our life "cheaper". During these 2 days, we can take a cab ride for SR5 cause they taxi drivers leave it to us to pay him whichever amount we feel like paying.

Ahmed brought us around jeddah last night in his GOLF. Showed us the night life around. Brought us to mall where only FAMILIES can enter. Luckily, ann was with us, therefor we are considered a family. Quite a big mall, and there was a crowd... at 11pm ... something like 1U during lunch time on a weekend. These people dun't sleep at night, especially during weekends.

Our apartment is quite fully equiped now except for the gas. Once we know where to buy it, and we will be able to cook simple dishes.(or at least cook indomee!). As for you people waiting for pictures, i'm sorry but the connection in our office room is still facing some problems. Once Ahmad fix it up (stabilize it, instead of dropped signals every 10 minutes) , i will upload those pics. Adios for now ...

New accomodation @ Dallah Street

2006-02-14T13:58:00.000+03:00

Past few days has been busy busy busy. Not so as in busy with work, but busy with buying stuff for our new lodging. Yes, we have got our unit and moved in last night. All the furniture and and electrical appliances. Misc stuff like plates and cups. Almost all the stuff has been settled. They delivered the cupboards and beds last night, so did the delivery for our washing machine, tv and fridge. Had a round of cleaning for the house and still our feet became dirty. I sweep and mopped and mopped again and everytime the water turns black. Seriously need to find some heavy duty floor cleaning liqour today and mopped it once again.

Sad to say, my room isn't ready for me. The floor is hasn't been clean up properly. (Previous owner had a layer of carpet for the whole room, and they tore off the carpet when they shifted out. My certain area of the room's floor looks like patches of fur stuck to it. Need specialist to come and clean it up. Another money outflow. For me meantime, me bunking in KC's room till we find someone to clean it all up.

The satellite guy will be coming over tonight to fix up our subscruption. Please tell me how does someone watch all 400 over channels that comes with the subscription?!!? Althought 2/3 of the programs are in arabic, there are still 100 over channels for us. Guess weekends wouldn't be boring anymore. Can stay in, cook Indomee and watch TV. Hahahaha ..

Healthy living @ Jeddah

2006-02-09T13:25:00.000+03:00

1 week has passed us by, and getting along fine over here. Living a very healthy lifestyle at the moment. Sleep around 11pm every night and wake up at 6.30am in the morning. Could never do that back in Malaysia. The only thing I miss now is sweating it out on the courts. Can’t seem to see courts or sports complexes for the matter. Must make it a point to check it up and see whether do they actually exercise over here. The gym fees are damn bloody expensive. SR 75 for a day, SR 500+ for a month. Its just crazy charges.

Ahmad, the local IT admin will be bringing us out for a tour of Jeddah city during the afternoon. One of the nicer locals that we met here. Will be bringing my camera along for snapshots. Will post them up once i compile it properly. Off for lunch now, will be heading to starbucks opposite the office now.

Weekend is here

2006-02-08T15:09:00.000+03:00

Weekend is here. In a flash, I have been working here for 5 days. In the office, its not much difference compared to KL. The only thing different is Lunch time. There aren’t a lot of choices for it. We have been eating sandwiches from the small cafeteria below for the past 2 days.

A slight problem regarding our hotel stays came out today. It seems that there isn’t a policy for expatriates stay in the hotel during the relocation period. It seems that we have only 10 days of paid accommodation once we arrive. But as there is no written rule / policy on this and nobody actually brief us on this matter, we will continue to stay for another few days as we wait for the Finance to release our housing advances for our apartment deposit.

A draft estimate for furnishing the unit comes out to about 6K per person. Items required: 3 units of air-conditioner, 1 fridge, 1 microwave, 1 29” TV, 1 TV cabinet, 1 coffee table/ dining table (Japanese style. No chairs required) , 2 mattresses, joint satellite installation (with ann, fauzi and muizz) and 1 decoder (we decided not to have separate TV).

Phews, doesn’t seems a lot but the prices here are definitely not cheaper compared to back home. Even IKEA price their stuff higher. Rip-offs. Speaking so shopping, shops here have sales to up to 70% and more. A con job it is. E.g. a Nike T-shirt cost about SR150, they then give a 40% discount on the item which comes up to about SR90. Is that any cheaper when compared back home? NO! Definitely not. So unless u are buying REALLY EXPENSIVE BRANDED stuff, it’s not even worth walking around these so called shopping complexes.

Reporting in from Jeddah

2006-02-07T08:57:00.000+03:00

4th day @ Jeddah. Tuesday.9am local time.

Life here can be a bore if u do not speak arabic. Luckily, for some colleagues in the office which are very helpful and their command of english is better. We managed to find an apartment in such a short period and time. Location wise, its okie... although the unit we are renting is considered new, but all buildings in jeddah looks war torn and no maintenance has been done on them. Hopefully we will be moving in by the next 2 weeks. Need to start shopping for airconds and stuff. I have decided what to get for my room. 1 mattress, 1 IKEA tv cabinet (like the one in chee seng's house) and 1 cupboard for my clothes. KALAS! (means finished)

Food is another problem. The so called local eateries, looks run down. Presentation wise, first look and you wouldn't even wanna go in and eat there. They like to use LOTS of GREEN PEPPER, OLIVES, GREEN CHILLIES. sighs... haven't really try alot of their food yet. Their main source of meat is lamb and mutton. Chicken doesn not over much variety.

Time to hit the works.. some big shot investors coming in today for presentation. Office in is excited about it as this is a 500 to 800 million investor. Hopefully it works out then ...

Reporting in from Jeddah

2006-02-05T14:43:00.000+03:00

Finally. in Jeddah. Had an uneventful flight. Managed to get to know a few MAS steward and stewardess. Reach the airport on schedule. Eventhough King Abdul Aziz Airport is one of the biggest airports in the world, this is due to the sheer space that they take up. It has 4 separate terminals for International, Domestic and 2 terminals for Haj/Umrah passengers. And one thing that has notice straight away is .... SAND! the runways, the walkways... everywhere sand! Open your mouth too wide and you might even managed to eat some.

The journey from the airport to the hotel, is an eye-opener. Whoever says malaysian drivers are bad, they should come and see jeddah drivers. In and out, left and right, 5 lanes of cars on a 3 lane highway. And the drivers ... all are LATE brakers! A few times really thought the car was going to hit another car or get banged by another. And too think of driving here. i would have a heart attack. haha ..

Will try continue tomorrow. try to upload the photographs soon too.

Leaving in 24 hours time

2006-02-02T04:59:00.000+03:00

Will be leaving in another 24 hours time. The feeling now? Excited.Anxious.Nervous. and so on. Would definately be missing my family and friends here. But 2 years is fast. Jasz has been in brisbane for 2 years. Luckily there is a thing called IM (Instant Messengers). Just makes u feel that you are always in contact.

Happy Chinese New Year 2006

2006-01-29T20:41:00.000+03:00

Happy Chinese New Year! A brand new year. Made a trip back to malacca on saturday morning. As expected, Seremban stretch is jammed up as usual. Luckily it wasn't too bad. Still made it back in time for lunch (2 1/2 hours journey) I guess its expected.. better than some other stretchs of highway (North bound traffic is famous for its jams during the festive seasons).

The journey back today wasn't bad at all. No traffic jams, even for the seremban stretch. Was in time for KC's dinner at his aunt's place. Farewell dinner for him. Departing for London tonight he is. Will be meeting up in jeddah on the 3rd. In my days time, my turn to depart. to the unknown.

Last minute rush!

2006-01-27T09:30:00.000+03:00

Traffic update. Its CRAZY out there. The amount of cars. In SS2 area, in and out. All those last minutes people. There is even a LINE QUEUED up at the "BakGua" shop in SS2.

One more week

2006-01-26T20:07:00.000+03:00

Finally got the last of the things on my list. Now all i have to do is pack it into the luggage bag. Doesn't look like it will fully load up my bag anyways. Really tired. Buying stuff. Meeting up friends. Haven't been getting enough rest lately too. Hopefully doesn't turn me into a sick cat before i leave.

Unka is back in malaysia, Jasz will be back by tomorrow morning. Well, at least get to see 2 more overseas friends before i leave. Most importantly, JT will be back by midnight too. :)

Countdown : 10 days

2006-01-23T20:41:00.000+03:00

Hopefully i have gotten everything by now. Maybe for the exception that i would need another 1 or 2 working clothes and a pair of slacks. And a new slippers / sandals. Other than that, i guess i have got everything covered.

Chinese New Year is just round the corner. It seems that as we get older, the festive spirits lacks the "ommpphhs" of our younger years. Now, its just another holiday where we dun't need to go work. Plus we get angpows. Its just becoming such materialistic world. A certain part of us get "replaced" by this thinking as we get older and more materialistic. Don't you agree?

Tomorrow would be another day out. Hopefully i can finished up by the morning and spend the afternoon at home....

A new beginning. 2006

2006-01-20T20:54:00.000+03:00

Here i am. Trying to kick start another blog. Just that previous attempts always tends to cool off after a while. Well hopefully this one will last. This is a new blog. A new beginning. A new environment. A new culture. I will keep whoever that read this blog updated. Promise!

It has been decided. I will be leaving on the 3rd of Febuary. For those in the dark, i'm leaving the country. Into the unknown. In middle east. Specifically, Jeddah @ Saudi Arabia. A new working environment. An oppurtunity.

Busy with packing now. Still not sure whether i have got all the required stuff. "thanks to uncle leong for his list, i managed to work from the list and omit / add whatever that is necessary."

Well, its another 2 weeks to go. Exactly. I wonder how it would be working in a totally new environment /culture......