Another Wisdom Tooth Extracted

It has been about 7 years since the last time I extracted my left lower jaw wisdom tooth. Now, my right side is giving me a problem. So I decided to extract it as well. It cost me a bomb. The whole dental surgery cost me RM 1,100, which includes X-ray and the local anaesthetic.

 

So I went to Khoo Dental again for my hopefully last wisdom tooth extraction ever. On the left, it is my x-ray for the wisdom tooth that I need to get rid of. Apparently it seated very close to my nerve so making the operation a little bit scary for me. But I still go through it and finally I gotten rid of it. The dentist cut the tooth into 4 fragments. I did not retrieved back this tooth as it doesn't hold its shape anymore.

Today is the 7th day after my dental surgery, my gum is still swollen and occasionally still feel the pain. Of course when I touches the wounded area, the pain is there. Otherwise, I think I can still survive it.

Eating food has become a challenge for me as to be able to chew my food without hurting and feeling the pain is almost impossible. I just hope that it will recover soon so that I can really enjoy my food again, especially chocolates.

So this is the end of my post this week. I hope I can blog weekly for now.

A Quick Update of My Life Over This 2.5 Years

   It's have been 2 years and 8 months since I last blog about anything in this blog. Looking back on my record, I gradually reduces my post from 79 posts in year 2009 to 42 posts in year 2010, then 9 post in year 2011, 4 posts in year 2012, and 1 post in year 2013. After the post in year 2013, I have started a new chapter of my life. I take a leap of faith and courage to step out of my comfort zone. That is one of the reason why I did not take the time to blog anything, other than I totally set blogging aside. 

   In May 2013, I took a big change in my life by stepping out from being an employee to become an entrepreneur with Douglas. I used to work with him in the same company before, and we attend the same church, same cell group, and we are best friend as well. This changes have a huge impact in my life and it does grow me to who I am today. He still remains as a best friend and I do hope it will never change. 

   We started our coffee journey by taking up a local coffee brand as we have literally no experience in the art of making coffee. With their help, we learned that there is a lot to learn and work for to be an accountable and reputable café in town. Although we did not have a great experience working with them after half a year into operation, we are grateful because of that, we swore to be better that bring us to what we are today. 

   After about a year, we departed from them and built our new brand together with some new investors and partners. Since then, we have been operating under the new café brand till today for slightly over a year. A lot of great and bad experience throughout this journey, and I appreciate that the Lord keeps shining His blessing over me. 

   Since this post should be a quick overall update of what has been happening around me over the 2 years plus, I will keep things short and simple. Hopefully I can post more post in the future to talk about it and new stuff that happening around me. 

   In year 2013, I had an opportunity to visit London, England and Milan, Italy for the International Hospitality Exhibition - Fiera Milano (HOST) held in Milan itself. I got to visit Singapore for the Food and Hospitality Asia (FHA) Expo in 2014, and travel to Melbourne on the same year. This year, I got another opportunity to travel far, which is to Seattle, Washington, USA for Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) Expo and the World Barista Championship. Not to mention some local short trip to learn about coffee at Johor Bahru and Penang. 

   As for more personal vacation travel, I travelled to Siem Reap, Cambodia in 2012, Bangkok in 2013, Taiwan in 2014, and Hong Kong and Macau this year. Planning to go to Perth next year though. Since I have been in the café business for awhile, since 2014, my trips have include some café hopping in those places that I visited. I have tried coffee in several café around Taiwan and Hong Kong. 

   I have made new friends, meet back some old friends and reconnect with them, and I lost some old friends too. It's part of life that nobody is for sure to be there for you forever, except the Lord. My sister is finally in college, taking the course of interior architecture. My brother is working now with Honda service centre in Petaling Jaya. I traded in my old car for a new car this year. I think that's all about the major things happened around me this period of time I'm not active here. 

Got My Ingrown Toe Nail Removed

It's a brand new year of 2013 and the Mayan is the only one that got extinct so far as the prophecy concerned. Well, we are still so alive on this planet Earth.

Well, Chinese New Year also just over for a week. But my luck is not that brilliant to start with. My house water pressure seems low and many house chores are affected by it.

Worst, I had the ingrown nail for sometime and the doctor suggest me to remove it. I finally did it but it's painful like shit. I'm in MC for 2 days so far. Guess this snake year doesn't really give me luck.

Trip to Gold Coast Australia

I wanted to share a little about my trip to Gold Coast Australia.

I will update more stories soon..

Please click on the this link to view all the photos.

Some Nights - FUN

Some nights, I stay up cashing in my bad luck; some nights, I call it a drawSome nights, I wish that my lips could build a castleSome nights, I wish they'd just fall off
But I still wake up, I still see your ghostOh Lord, I'm still not sure what I stand for oh..What do I stand for? What do I stand for?Most nights, I don't know anymore..  
This is it, boys, this is war - what are we waiting for?Why don't we break the rules already?I was never one to believe the hype - save that for the black and whiteI try twice as hard and I'm half as liked, but here they come again to jack my style
That's alright (that's alright).I found a martyr in my bed tonight.Stops my bones from wondering just who I, who I, who Ia-a-a-am, oh who am I, m-mm, m-mm.
Well, some nights I wish that this all would end'Cause I could use some friends for a changeAnd some nights I'm scared you'll forget me againSome nights I always win (I always win)
But I still wake up, I still see your ghostOh Lord, I'm still not sure what I stand for oh..What do I stand for? What do I stand for?Most nights, I don't know...
So this is it? I sold my soul for this?Washed my hands of that for this?I miss my mom and dad for this?
No. When I see stars, when I see stars, that's all they areWhen I hear songs, they sound like a swan, so come onOh, come on. Oh, come on.
That is it, guys, that is all - five minutes in and I'm bored againTen years of this, I'm not sure if anybody understandsThis one is not for the folks back home; I'm sorry to leave, mom, I had to goWho the fuck wants to die alone all dried up in the desert sun?
My heart is breaking for my sister and the con that she called "love"But when I look into my nephew's eyes...Man, you wouldn't believe the most amazing things that can come from...Some terrible lie
The other night, you wouldn't believe the dream I just had about you and meI called you up, but we'd both agreeIt's for the best you didn't listenIt's for the best we get our distance...

Rushing Like A Mad Man

Wow! First day of the week I'm already rushing like a mad man. This morning, have to settle a customer's order as they need it urgently and I've to prepare a bilingual quotation for the Melaka government department.

Everything have to be done before 10.00am as we need to head to Melaka to do a presentation to the government department, and our target is to impress the chairman, who is the Chief Minister of Melaka.

Thank God that I'm able to get all the things done just in time to get heading to Melaka. This is the second trip to Melaka in this month, both for working reason. It's just boring to be in the car for approximately 2 hours.

I'm not sure how the presentation going to be, but I hope it will be great. Just later we will have to rush back to office after the presentation is done. We still need to entertain another US customer that are coming over to our company for audit. It will be such a busy Monday.

Car Crashed Again

I didn't know that I could be this clumsy. I crashed my car last year September, and I was already thinking that is the worst thing ever happened as I crashed my car for the second times since I got my car 5 years ago. It's like an average of one accident for 2.5 years.

Today, I manage to crash it again totally due to my careless and absence minded. I was feeling blur blur since I have slight headache and I was just recovered from yesterday fever this morning. I didn't notice the pillar in front of my, just at the blind spot of my right hand side, and I turn my gear to 'D' and it crashed gently to the pillar.

My heart smashed with the crash and I felt that is the most stupid thing I ever done and the clumsiest. This all happened in during this Chinese New Year, what a bad sign. It's the worst luck ever that I can get and there it goes all my ang pow money. Well, I only manage to get somewhere around RM200++. To fixed my car, I think I need more than that.

I will go on an official broke category again very soon after paying off the car repair bills and any other bills that coming my way soon. Not to forget that I need to settle all my credit cards bills. Now, I wonder how nice if my company pays out bonus and give me a pay rise. Well, all this can be dream but reality still reality.

I just think that thank God that there is still people I can rely on and ask for help. Without them, I think it is even harder for me to handle all this stress. So, I think I still should thank Him keeping me unharmed and physically safe all these accidents that happened to me. I would still love to praise Him for that. But if can, Lord, please do easy on me the next time you test my faith. Hehe. Just kidding.

Car Accident and Shean Ming & Lit Teng's Wedding Dinner

Yesterday consider a bad day for me. The rain cause so much trouble. Because of the rain, there is not many people come to KLCC. It's pretty sad to see Malaysian doesn't care about the environment, or even so, they care more about their pocket. Can't blame them.

I've in grown nail on one of my toe and it doesn't recover for the past 3 weeks. Been seek for doctor advice but I was only given antibiotic. I think I've to seek the doctor again. It's damn painful.

To make my day worst, I had an accident. I wasn't driving fast but I lost control over my car because the road is slippery. Partly my fault, I think my trees are not having enough air and I was thinking to pump it when I get the petrol station later. Who knows, accident happened.

I'm luckily that I'm physically fine. No damage to my body by my car is in very bad shape. Well, I think my car span for one round before it stopped. I was scares to death.

Ironically, I've to attend one of my ex-course mate's wedding dinner at that time. So after I've log a police report at the police station with the help of my brother to settle most of the stuff with the police, I went home.

Well, anything regarding to my car, I'll refer to my brother since he is a car mechanic and he has those relationship with those call man, I'll let him help out. If not, I think I'll pretty blur.

To attend the wedding dinner, I actually borrow a car from my uncle. I wonder how am I have the guts to drive just after an accident. Well, I did it too and back in one piece.

So Lit Teng's wedding was great. We have fun with meeting up some of our ex-course mates and catch up a little bit of their doings. We had some beers and crap a lot. It's really fun.

Well, I've to back to reality. Although I know that I can claim my car insurance, I'll have no more NCB for it. My next car insurance renewal will cost me a bomb. Well, worst is that I've to renew it next 2 weeks. I've to pay summon and etc., and that cost me too.

Worst, I'll have a few weeks time without a car. How am I going to go to work? My office, there ain't any public transport that I can use. No LRT, bus and even taxi won't want to fetch me there. It too far. I'm having the headache at first. Thank God that my uncle willing to lend me his car temporally. Hopefully, he won't want it back before I get my car back.

I'll be flying off on 23rd this month, so I'll at least need a car for this 2 weeks. By the time I get home, hopefully I'll be able to get back my car. But seriously, it's pretty painful to see your own car at the state. I've attached some photo of my car.

IGEM 2011

I've been at Internatioal GreenTech & Eco Products Exhibition & Conference Malaysia (IGEM) 2011, at Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC) for 4 days, exhibiting my company's eco-products. The response is not to say bad but the flow of people is not at good as last year, the first IGEM organised.

It's held at KLCC on 7th to the 10th of September 2011 and I've been the first one to be at the exhibition for the last 3 days. So I'm the one who start up the booth or 'buka kedai'. 'Tutup kedai' past 3 days also I'm doing it alone. Felt like I'm the 'kuli' already.

This exhibition is good to know more about the green technology and green products available in the market. Well, not all are relevant to end user or consumer like us. Green cars, like hybrid car from Toyota or Proton, and even Panasonic also have their eco car. Cool right? I never thought of it also.

Others will be those green lighting, solar energy, rain water harvesting, wind energy harvesting, organic food, organic clothing, biogreabable plastic, bioplastic, oxo-degradable resin, eco paint, eco wood, eco building, etc.

Working Life - Greatpac Sdn Bhd

Reading back on my previous blog, I realized that I did not blog as often as I used to be. I blog more than 10 blogs about my previous job in AIA Shared Services Sdn Bhd than I blog about my work at Greatpac Sdn Bhd. It's not that nothing happened at my current job. Perhaps I don't have that leisure to blog as often as I used to be. I think I will try to spare some time to blog more if I could.

Looking back, I have been working with Greatpac for a year already. It's the longest duration that I serve a company at this moment. I guess for my division, I'm considered the senior person already except for my senior manager, who happens to be my best friend (Douglas) and my brand manager, Shaun. For for executive level, I will be soon the most senior person after Jia Yee left.

When I joined the company on July 2011, Douglas was the export manager and Shaun is still the brand manager. Of course Douglas is the head of department of my division, JASA Eco. There were a senior executive, Sherman, and an intern named Bryan. On September, Sherman leaves us and followed by Bryan, replacing by a new intern named Cheston.

Early this year, Cheston leaves us and we joined by Shirah, the new sales coordinator on May 2012. She is to assist us, mainly me for our main customers and some other coordination tasks. Sad to hear that Jia Yee is planning to leave us too. So, I think I'll be the most senior person soon in my division. LOL.

Working in Greatpac is stressful in some extent. It's no longer like finishing up your quota for clearing up cases like I used to do in AIASS, but to make sales. Lots of decision need to be make and to be executed in order to make sure the company is running and surviving.

Well, I don't think I can share so much about the insight of the company as it's shall be confidential and proprietary. I'll share more on other issues. In conclusion, there is so much work to do.

Despite loaded with work, I do make some friends in the company. Most are very nice but maybe I just can't get along with so much with all of them. They are definitely elder than me. Those around my age also I didn't manage to make much a close colleagues as I used to at AIASS.

I have no idea how with that kind of relationship with my colleagues, it can still spread rumors of me, trying to date someone in my company. That girl is just a new colleague that happen to be nice to talk with. Seriously there is no way I will fall for her.

I felt like primary school again, those colleagues are like little kids, love making up story and match making you with anyone that you are close with. Luckily they didn't match me with my boss, as I'm pretty close with him. LOL.

I Lost My iPhone

It's the worst day of the month for me. The precious iPhone that has been with me more than a year finally been kidnap by someone idiotic yet brainless people. Its my mistake that I left my phone in the first place. However, I quickly went back to the restaurant where I left my phone just 10 minutes I left the place, and it's gone.

I was hoping in the first place, I left it there, those staff might help me to keep it and give us back if we look for it later. I wasn't so worried in the first place. I tracked it with MobileMe.com, and it shows that my phone is at the exact same spot where I took my lunch today. So I went back and asked, and the answer I got was none of them realize there is a phone when they clean up the table.

WTF! I'm shocked. Maybe I have a good impression that such restaurant like Dragon-i or Tony's Roma, where the staff will return customer's belonging that they left behind. I had such experience before. Dragon-i's staff actually chase out to past me back my wallet and Tony's Roma's staff keep and return my phone when I claimed it bak from them.

This Wong Kok Restaurant at Sunway Giza is my nightmare or should I say it's not my Zen area. It always seems something is wrong there, and today is the worst scenario for me. I started tracking my phone since then via MobileMe.com, an application from Apple to track the location of your Apple products. It keep on showing the location of Sunway Giza and I'm able to call my phone without fail but no one is picking it up.

I use MobileMe.com to send a message to my phone to tell that someone to contact me as I'll reward him for giving it back to me. However, nothing comes back. I'm already have a bad feeling for it. I went back to that place to ask again the staff as I'm seriously want my phone back, not because it's an iPhone but all my information, data, company email, personal email, plans, contacts, etc. are all there. It's really troublesome to retrieve it back.

I can still track my phone when I'm already home. It's only after past 10.00pm, I can't track it and I couldn't manage to call my phone anymore. So I'm strongly believe that the staff took it, although I can't prove it. Now, I'm facing a great challenge and financial constraint. I'll have to get a new phone, barred my cellular provider service and get a replacement SIM card, and live with the fact my phone is gone.

It's very inconvenient when you depend so much on your iPhone on those amazing applications (where you call it apps in short). I'll have to start tracking back all my friends' contact number, emails, birthday (which is the hardest cause you would ask your friend their contact number along with their birth date), etc.

Well, I believe I'll lost some of my old pals or old colleagues contacts forever if they don't have Facebook or any way for me to contact with them with. Especially those friends that you didn't contact them for ages, those are the hardest to retrieve back. I guess only fate can bring us back together and/or get contacted again.

In conclusion, I'm just have another worst day of my life, follow with loads of troublesome yet pain sticking things to do in order to get back my life in order (to have a phone again) and my salary this month will be gone. I think I'm doomed. Lord, thank you for all the hard time you have given me to learn to be strong. However, I need more of your blessing and love than all this unpleasant experience. I'm already broke.

Perception of Love

What do we all know about love? I believe it's a complex feeling and emotion that each of us will encounter. Either it's the love from your family members or from your friends and even someone that you just know, not to mention God himself (except those atheist people). I would say love is a good thing yet it can also bring disaster.

Love from family and friends are very common to everyone already. In fact, all sort of love also we kind of familiar and even experiencing right at this moment. However, I would like to share my thoughts about love in term of relationship with someone totally not blood related to you. Well, friends fall in this category. Perhaps I'll talk about common love relationship.

For this topic, I think the song sung by Anita Mui and Jackie Cheung really explain a lot about relationships that occurs in many people's life. I personally feels that the chorus talks a lot about lots of people's relationship. I've attached the YouTube video clip here for listening and for reference.



As you can see, at the chorus part of the song, it mentioned that if loving someone over the limit in the relationship, the couple can tends to enemy and hating each other if the relationship doesn't work out the way they expected it to be. To love each other is really difficult. The difficulty lies in each party has their own expectation, and it's really depends on both party to tolerate and to make the relationship viable and sustainable.

Other than that, simply just to love someone is not easy either. Even just to received someone's love that is considered one sided. There is no way those love can return or repay. Those guilt that builds up and you probably will never able to solve it. If you love someone, it also may not return the way you want it to be.

To choose not to love is not too difficult. Unless you are Buddha that can reach enlightenment or perhaps like those monks that you will not be able to get attach with desires. Other than that, I think it's impossible to suppress your feelings. If you like to ignore love also not that simple. The responsibility or empathy to cherish someone important in your life makes life more difficult to control.

The moral of the story, if you found someone that you love, tell them how much you love them before it's too late. Try your best to cherish each other and makes this life the fullest. No matter how, to love is not easy yet challenging, but not to love is even more difficult and sad. Hope everyone will found that someone worth loving.

Life Will Never Get Better If Without Faith

It's really a journey of life when you have a faith to rely on no matter what happened or going to happen in your life. It's definitely not an easy path but guarantee you will find peace with it. With faith, things eventually goes better in the future or somehow you will find it accommodating.

I'm relying on something that far greater in strength, far more wiser and powerful to help me go through things that I have no idea how to solve it. I just hope things eventually will find it's way to the solutions.

Chinese Year New 2011

This year is the Rabbit year. It's the metal element rabbit some more. I don't know whether it's good or bad. However, I hope everyone also have a great year ahead and the most important thing is having a good health and stable financial status.

Let me share some Chinese zodiac sign forecast with you. Since I'm a tiger myself, I'll share only tiger. For other zodiac sign, please refer to this website: http://www.wayangtimes.com/2011-year-of-the-rabbit-chinese-zodiac-horoscope-forecast.html.

3rd Chinese Zodiac Sign: Tiger – 虎

Magnetic, passionate and grand! When the Tiger does anything, it’s noticed! Indecisiveness and stubbornness can mar the sparkle of the Tiger personality. On the one hand generous, on the other hand a little mean, it’s sometimes hard to know where one stands with the Tiger. Flexible, honest and truly entertaining, one has a friend for life with a Tiger.
Click here for more of the Tiger in Chinese Zodiac Meets Western Astrology Horoscope.

Tiger Fortune in 2011:

Tiger’s friends are just gone through the Zodiacal Year’s fortune, fortune in the Year of the Rabbit fortune will pick up, but it’s still in the average region. There may be some obstacles in the work aspect, there is a will, but not the strength but you do not need to worry too much because there seem to have a honored personin the star palace to lend a hand. That will help solve may problems. This year to make a point to improve relationships, you will have to keep low profile, this will prevent any villains any chance to find fault. Poor physical health, which may affect the conduct of your work, pay attention to traffic safety, prevent accident Xueguang. Luck may not be good with the opposite sex, you may feel emotional instability which may leads to disagreement with your partner.

Tiger Career in 2011:

After a downturn in your work from last year, you will now get some retreat and luck seem rising, issue that you have yet to complete from last year will be able to resolve this year. In your career run this year, you will get honored person that will give you the correct direction at the appropriate time. Business development this year can said to be smooth, grand plans to be carry out, but in between of all the plans you made you will somehow still get obstruction from the villains that may cause you to be slightly under perform than the expected result. So this year for the tiger, while you enjoy the good luck, you will also need to carefully deal with some unexpected changes.

Tiger Luck in 2011:

Luck is good, you will get help whenever you need it and many opportunities will come your way by the honoured nobility person. You will get appreciation from the bosses, your effort will be notice and naturally the effort will be paid off. Especially for people dealing with business, you can get inspiration to make money easily simply by what others said, do not miss the opportunity. But this year is also prone to the gaining and losing easily, so do not pay money to do meaningless. In term of speculation or stock trading you will need to careful and deal with a reasonable amount in the sense of proportion, do not exert full input. Be careful of your valuable, in order to avoid loss.

Tiger Love in 2011:

Luck love is good for unmarried men and women. In the Year of the Rabbit, luck with the opposite sex is relatively strong, popularity rise for the individual, good opportunity for the single pal to find a partner. For the attached, you may encounter disputes, but in the end it can solved peaefully and increase mutual understanding that leads to more sweeta nd warm emotional life. However, for the the married couple, you may tend to be more vulnerable to argument, and also do not seem to quickly resolve conflicts that may lead to create friction, suggest that the pair to show more understanding and make neccessary effort to help improve their relationship.

Tiger Health in 2011:

This year for the tiger there seem to have some evil luck in the health aspect. Pay extra attention to the traffic and when dealing with sharp tools. Should pay attention to physical aspects of cold, and gastrointestinal diseases, which may leads to surgery for serious circumstances. For the female, you will have to know how to relieve stress, prevent kidney and gynecological diseases. To conclude the health status for the Tiger, pay lot of attention to your health, any discomfort should consult a doctor immediately, give yourself some rest time and attention to maintenance, drink plenty of water and eat more vegetables.

Chinese Year New 2011 Gathering Time

My ex-course mate, Jeff called me on Friday asking me whether am I free for karaoke session with them at IOI Mall. Since I'm free, I agreed to it. It was pretty fun seeing back some of the old friends, all have their own path in life.

Some still studying at some local university, some already working like me. I think time really passes real quick. Thinking back, it has been almost 2 years that we graduated from our Alma Mater.

Although not all turn out for it, but it's a great gathering. Some, at least bring along their partner. Like Vivian, she was tag along by her boyfriend, Ray. I think soon, we will be expecting wedding dinner from all old friends already.

New Year, New Hope

Today is already the sixth day of the Year 2011. I don't feel anything special or must to celebrate about. As far as I know, I'm dealing with a lot of issue in my company. I don't see there is any possibility we are getting any bonus for last year.

Not to mention the other constant problems with my other department which slows down a lot of my work or even make things goes hay wired. Anyway, let's not talk about that. At least there is some new staff just join my department and he is my old friend. Welcome Boon Hein into the family of JASA Eco.

Well, since it's new year, I should have new hope. Just hope that my career will goes on smoothly, my family stay healthy and free from financial issues.

Christmas 2010

This year Christmas was pretty great. I joined along with Charles and his 2 ladies (well, his ex-course mates) for Christmas eve celebration or indeed countdown for Christmas. Although the initial plan was to be celebrating at a lounge, count down there as well, but turn out that we countdown in the car instead.

We went to Delicious for dinner, and that was pretty good experience compare to the few past experience I have at Mid Valley. I think the outlet in Jalan Tun Razak is keeping it's quality of service. Perhaps due to the location, just next to Duo Residency.

After driving all the way to Quattro, Avenue K, we found that it wasn't what we initial plan it to be. It wasn't really nice for us and it's damn expensive. Cover charge that night is RM68 for guys. OMG. So we decided to change our location, ended up at The Library, Mid Valley.

Shifting of location causing us to count down in our car at the end. However, we did have our great time at The Library after that. It was a great Christmas, despite two single ladies and two bachelors kept on checking out people around without making any move at all. LOL.

So, Christmas is over. But the spirit didn't die off just like that. Today, my ballroom dance mates just organise a potluck in the studio. After the class, we have a great feast. We have taken a lots of photos and I have posted most of it on Facebook.

To view on the photos taken on Christmas eve, please click here, and

To view on the photos taken for Christmas Potluck a.k.a. Boxing Day, please click here.

US Trip (Part 2)

Let's continue with my Chicago trip. Well, after the Indianapolis trip, which I was required to visit the factory of one of my material supplier with my manager, we have set ourselves to commit to our market research session for the weekday remains.

We woke up on the early Thursday morning (which is not so early) and had our first brunch at UNO Chicago Grill at Ohio Street and Wabash Avenue. It's famous for its Chicago deep dish pizza. So we were so into it and I ordered a salad and a soup to come along with it. Guess what, we ordered a small pizza which turns out look like a regular pizza in Malaysia in term of the dimension, but then its just thicker. How much thicker? The answer is about 1 inch thick. That's crazy. However, the best of all is the soup and the salad. I miss it already.

Later, we had our dinner at Smith & Wollensky, somewhere near to the bridge around Walker Street. That is where we had the largest piece of meat for dinner for the entire trip so far. The service there was great and when we asked him about the size of the meat, he scares us with the information. It's 26 oz piece of meat with bone, which is about 2.2 times larger piece of meat you can get from Tony Roma's in Malaysia. Anyway, in places like Chicago which is cold, restaurant have such service to check your coat for you with some tipping expected from you.

On the next day, we had our breakfast at Corner Bakery Café, somewhere near Elm Street (near to our hotel, which is The Ambassador East Hotel). The cookies there are superb and the pesto is one of the best that I had it again on the day before I left Chicago.

Since we had walked the whole journey back from Walmart at West North Avenue, which approximately 7 miles (11.2km) back to our hotel before heading to the town for lunch, we have to eat at bakery café called Oak Tree Restaurant & Bakery at North Michigan Avenue, somewhere near to the Sear's Tower. The service there is excellent because my manager spilled his smoothies accidentally and the waiter replace a new one for us for free without whining about us messing the place. The salad there was good and the bread there are excellent.

We took our dinner on the way back to hotel at Morton's The Steakhouse, North State Street. Well, nothing much special to talk about steak because I believe you will already expect the same thing - big portion, we have to share the steak, etc.

On Saturday, it's the Halloween Eve. We woke up late so we when straight for our lunch at Frontera Grill, which is a Mexican style restaurant at North Clark Street. I'm not describing it much because it's not really much to talk about as it's almost the same expect that we ate tacos, a bowl of soup and salad.

Our dinner that night was at a Japanese-Western fusion style restaurant at North Halsted Street. Ironically, the street happens to be a Boystown in Chicago. So kinda open your mind that night since it's Halloween Party. You can really see them dressing all sort of character, e.g. Tarzan, Robin, etc. at the temperate merely 4°C. Anyway, the chocolate martini there is really good.

On the Halloween Day itself, breakfast as usual at Corner Bakery Café and we skipped our lunch for both days. Dinner for that night was with our agents at Chicago Chop House, East Ontario Street near North Clark Street. That dinner cost us an arm and a leg.

On Monday, same routine except for our dinner and David Burke's Primehouse and we had a tremendous good service from the waiter, whose his name is Brian. Wonderful experience there. Everything almost the same except I love the steak here the most. That was the last experience in Chicago before we were landed in San Francisco for transit to Hong Kong.

I will soon blog about the event after this and upload photo when I have the time to do so. So mean while, please bear with me with pure dry description. Once upload, you can view it. ^^

US Trip (Part 1)

Well, as everyone should know already that I'm going to the States for business trip. The whole journey was not that great to be told. Lots of hassle we been through before we even lay my feet on the "Land of Opportunity".

The journey begin with my flight being delay for about 7 hours. The flight shall be departing at Narita, Tokyo before heading to Chicago, Illinois. Due to the delay, we are unable to catch up with our connecting flight. We shall be sitting both All Nippon Airways (ANA) planes to Chicago. However, due to the delay, we have to board the United Airlines (UA) which turns out to be disaster for me.

Despite the hyper mode I was having during the 1 hour transit in Narita, the other half journey was not that interesting. At Narita airport, after the long 7 hours of flight in MAS (which is much better than in the UA), we finally landed on the land I always dream of. The only regret I have is that I have only 1 hour to walk around the airport and I can't really lay my foot out of the airport. LOL.

The other 13 hours flight in UA, as I mentioned is a nightmare. The air attendance are not smiling and not that friendly as you see in the movie. Other than that, the sitting is like cramp up. Imagine you have to cramp up in the plane for 13 hours with limited space. I almost can't breath. To make it worst, due to the weather condition, the plane landed hard and lots of breaking when we arrived to Chicago O'Hare airport.

That's not the worst I had so far. To make it even worst for me is that the Transportation Security & Administration (TSA) officer make my life difficult. Coming into the States is hard enough as I had the trouble to get their visa, and now they want me to register my departure when I'm exiting their country. Maybe that's only applies to first timer to the States as my manager didn't have that trouble to get in.

Well, that's the first day experience. Despite all the bad thing, I do enjoy the good things which is the food. We have a nice steak in Chicago on that night. I seriously think that even their so-called normal restaurant are comparable with the standard we can get in Tony Roma's, TGIF, etc. in Malaysia.

Since we are seriously exhausted with that jet lag, we ended up sleeping early. We have to catch another flight to Indianapolis to meet with our material supplier. Travelling to Indianapolis was good. The flight is on time and the weather is brilliant. We have a great tour around the factory and had a great lunch at some local restaurant.

Talk about local food and stuff, their local beers are excellent to try. I had a Goose Island in Chicago which taste better than Heineken beer. In Indianapolis, I have tasted the Upland (Wheat Ale) beer and the Bud Light. It seems that each beer has it's own identity. Upland taste not too bad. Bud Light is good if you want something light. It almost taste like water as in the taste is not strong at all. Maybe that's why their called it Bud Light.

Of course other than all those stuff that you can't get it in Malaysia that I have tried here in the States, I also do go for stuff that you can get it in Malaysia here too. Guess what. It's Starbucks. You can literally find it almost everywhere you go. They look the same as in Malaysia. The only different is the price. You can get a hot chocolate, grande size for $3.50, which equivalent to RM10.94 (inclusive of tax).

One thing about the States is that they usually don't charge service tax or perhaps don't charge at all. Their culture is tipping or they call it gratuity. It's a norm for them the receive tips from you when you pay our bill. Usually if their service is average, tipping of 15% will be the the norm and it's advisable to tip them generously if the service is excellent (approximate 20% of your bill). If their service is bad, tip them less but not less that one buck.

I will be posting those pictures I took during this trip when I get back to Malaysia as I don't have a broadband service here. More updates about the trip will be posted once I have the chance to do so. So see you guys.. ^^

Mum's Birthday

Yesterday my family and I went to Mid Valley to celebrate my mum's birthday in advance. I snapped some nice picture of her having her dinner with us together as a family. Although I come up with most of the sum for the dinner, but seeing my mum putting a big smile on her face already worth it back.

I'm didn't get her anything this year. Just manage to treat her a nice dinner together with our family that's all. However she got herself a nice bag and my sister got her something cheap as well. Well, it's not about the price of the gift but the value of remember and cherish each other. I just hope my mum enjoy her day. I love you, mum!!