To Hebe

原来只是爱唱歌的女孩, 十年前组成女子天团风靡多少少男少女. 也许是三人当中较为平凡的, 没有S般可爱漂亮, 也没有E的男子头调皮性格. 也许不是特别出众, 但的的确确是个爱唱歌的女孩. 也许是三人当中唱得最好的, 但那重要吗? 必竟是偶像派, 唱得热热闹闹就好了. 但H也许心有不干, 十年前, 十年后, 还是要持续同样的模式, 歌唱得热热闹闹受欢迎就好了吗?

所以就有了離島, 所以有了寂寞寂寞就好.

我覺得這樣的距離很好

就隔著一片海互不打擾

我是一座離島, 人海邊的離島

世界和我禮貌微笑, 不擔心我這島居民太少

人口的密度 就這樣剛好

我是座小小島, 裝不下大煩惱

我是座小小島, 容易滿足的小島

懂的人懂得就好

我是座小小島, 心滿意足的小島

我愛的人愛我就好

应该不是巧合, 怎么听, 都象是一个失落感比较重的女孩在低声倾诉. 我是座小小島和我是一只小小鸟有异曲同工之处. 一只小小鸟透过老赵高亢、沙哑的嗓音, 唱出了每一個平凡男生隱藏在心裡的不安, 不满和激愤. 老赵虽沒有一张“藝人的臉”, 但成功在那個偶像當道的年代创造了一個傳奇.

SHE也许红遍台灣大江南北, 大陆和东南亚各地, 是数不清少男少女的偶像. 但对爱唱歌的Hebe来说, 没有一张属于自己的唱片肯定是一辈子的遗憾.

所以就有了離島, 所以有了寂寞寂寞就好.

对于一个年过四十安哥级的人来说, SHE 不过是年轻人的那杯茶, 歌唱得热热闹闹的, 就是触动不了内心底处. Hebe摆脱了SHE的偶象框框, 透过空靈清透的嗓音, 娓娓唱出十年磨练的人生高低起伏, 呈现出更高层次的感动.

To Hebe……是一张值得听了又听的专辑.

Fascinating Yunnan - Jade Dragon Mountain

Having visited China a couple of time since 2007 I somehow get addicted to it. Many friends have their preferences in holidaying in Europe, Australia or New Zealand, Japan, Korea or other famous destinations in North or South America but to me, holidaying in China is truly worth for money and more fascinating especially I can see for myself the historical sites that I have learned since young in school or through reading.

When I stepped on the great wall a year ago it was a little bit emotional and it makes you wonder how the ancient Chinese could build such a giant fortification which stretches more than 8,000 km to fence off their enemies. Thousands and thousands of lives were sacrificed. Bloods and tears were melted into the bricks and soils of the great wall. I guess that is something special for a Chinese educated person like me to visit the historical sites in China. There are some emotional attachments that make a holidaying trip more meaningful.

Just came back from Yunnan a few days ago and it was another fascinating holiday over there. Beautiful scenery in Stone Forest (石林) and JiuXiang (九乡) at Kunming, the Jade Dragon (玉龙雪山) or Yulong Snow Mountain at Lijiang were the main attractions and for that reason these places were so crowded that there were long queues to get into cable cars or electric tourist carts. We took the cable car up to Yuen Shan Ping (云杉坪) which is about 4000 meter above sea level and none of us were affected by high altitude illness apart from one lady did complained of severe headache that resulted in her swallowing a dozen tablets of Panadol during our few days stay in Lijiang.

I specially admire an elderly couple of more than 70 years old which were so sturdy all along the trip to the Jade Dragon Mountain although the old lady which is 73 years old had to puff some oxygen from time to time. The local authority has required the tourists more than 70 years old to pre registered prior to visiting the Jade Dragon and our local tour guide which is of Naxi (纳西族) origin had duly did so when we arrived at Lijiang a day before going up to Jade Dragon.

I guess the thin air at high altitude did cause some adverse effect on me but not severe enough to develop into mountain sickness as my wife noticed that I was less enthusiastic or more sedative and weak at the Jade Mountain as compared to other scenic areas at the lower altitude. I guess that was right, it was my first experience at such an high altitude after all, you will definitely feel some difficulty in breathing if you walk a bit faster due to lower amount of oxygen in the air.

It was a good lesson learned after all and kudos to my wife which always walks much slower than me wherever we go, flat-out beating me at the Jade Mountain.

Positivity & Negativity

It makes me wonder how come a company could still incur huge financial losses despite of implementation of the so-called bullet-proof good management practices such as key performance indexes, risk management policies, SWOT analysis, whistle-blowing, accountability and transparency and so on and so forth. The funny part is that nobody in the company seemed to be aware of the financial implications until the company dropped a bombshell and out of the sudden, cost overruns amounting to billions of dollars gives us a real shock of life by the time it is already irreparable.

Often I attend our company’s townhall meeting seeing the big bosses presenting the quarterly result of their divisions and everything seemed so rosy and everyone seemed to be talking about how well the company is generating good profit. Some say as a leader you must know how to talk, how to talk convincingly. I guess all of the bosses know how to talk, or to be more specific; how to talk to impress rather than talking the real facts and consequences, good and bad alike.

That’s how it goes, if the bosses are all the while thinking and speaking positively and sweeping all the negativities into the carpets one of these days the so-called positive attitude will backfire. Very often in a meeting when we talk about negative things or something that opposed to the view of the bosses, the first thing you get is your boss will shoot you down and label you as negative. To them, everything is Malaysia Boleh, everything can be done despite knowing that there are shortcomings or limitations.

That’s how positivity backfires, it leads to irreparable damage sometimes. No doubt we have to be positive to face various challenges and obstacles in work or in life but understanding our own limitations is a prerequisite to converting a positive attitude into success. Negative attitude is not at all bad, it gives you a clearer picture of you own limitations and how should these limitations be tackled first prior to charting a workable roadmap to success.

A fantastic weekend; an explosive F1 Finale

It is a fantastic weekend for sport enthusiast; a 4-corner fight at Yas Marina to decide who will be crowned the 2010 F1 World Champion, EPL matches and the live telecasts on the Asian Games are all set for tonight. In the long history of F1 series, this is the first time that four drivers are still in contention for the World Champion going into the last race and it goes to show how tight this season is.

Red Bull with their “no-team order” and unbridled racing philosophy is a class above of the rest undoubtedly as their cars and drivers were supremely fast in many circuits and if not because of the DNFs and backfires of their strategy allowing both driver to race on each other, Webber or Vettel could have been leading the championship comfortably at this stage despite of now Webber is in second and Sebastian Vettel third with 8 and 15 points respectively adrift of the leader Alonso.

In the qualify session last night Vettel again proved that he is fast enough to defend the trophy he had won last year. It is the 10^th pole by Vettel in this season and it goes to show how quick this young lad is. Could he overturn a 15-point lead by Alonso and be crowned the youngest F1 World Champion? Would he move aside to let Mark Webber win the title shall Alonso is in third position? All these will be answered tonight.

It is going to be an explosive F1 Finale anyway and I hope that the weather is fine tonight so that the bloody sickening Astro live transmission would not get affected by rains.

Dove or Hawk?

A colleague dropped by and we had a short chat on some latest promotions of a few personnel in our company. Since merger, some people seem advance must faster than the others and definitely there are disappointment for those who failed to get promotion. There are people saying that so and so are the blue eye boys or girls of the new boss and therefore getting promotion much easier than the rest of the people, like riding on a helicopter so to speak.

A few of us were in fact asked by the boss to apply for a higher position some time back in June or July. I didn’t bother to apply and was not call up for the interview. My colleagues did and went for the interview and not surprising they were not successful and it turned out that the management already had someone in mind to sit in that position and funny enough the guy was not even called up for interview.

That’s how it works sometime. Bosses also want to be nice guys, they certainly do not want to offence anyone in the manner as such that they play their tricks to make you believe that you have a chance to be promoted even though they already have somebody in mind. Therefore they call up all those who are senior enough to be promoted to be the side-kicks so as to make the occasion merrier.

My colleagues then wondered how come some people got promoted without even have to attend the interviews while some others like us have to apply for a promotion. That’s crystal clear, I guess, those who were called up to attend the interviews are those without any realistic chance to be promoted, not in the boss’ book so to speak, as simple as that or otherwise why the double standard?

My colleague then told me that since that interview incident he tried to be as humble and polite as possible and I asked him why. He said he noticed that those less offensive and polite people and sweet talkers tend to get promotion faster than the rest especially those hardcore rascals like us. I asked him what about a person’s contribution to the company then? What about the year of experience and loyalty then? He said all that not as important as whether or not you align yourself to the bosses.

Well said my friend. That’s the reality of working life as a wage earner.

Royal Town Arau flooded again....

As usual my home town Arau flooded again as it had been pouring over the past few days. I rang up my father this morning after reading newspaper reporting on the worsening of floods in the Northern states and fortunately my house was not affected but the Royal town Arau and my aunt’s house at Jitra was badly flooded. People in Jitra have been evacuated fearing that the floods may get worsen as it was reported that the water dam had to be released in worrying of its bursting due to too high water level.

Every year during monsoon period, flood is recurring but it’s a matter of big or small so people get use to it already and the government seems doing nothing about it. I remember when I was taking my SPM examination some twenty over years ago in that poor Royal town Arau, the examination hall was badly flooded. The exam supposed to be started in the morning but as we were waiting for the headmaster to bring the exam papers from Kangar, the water level kept on rising until the hall was submerged by 1 meter of flood water and our tables and chairs all floating around. Seeing that, the teacher asked all of us to carry our own table and chair to the second floor and we were all wet waist-down.

We kept on waiting until noon but the headmaster couldn't pass through Jejawi which was badly flooded and totally impassable by light vehicle and all of us were hungry, cold and shivering in panic. How to take exam in such condition? Well, some people living in the town may never have the bad experience of flood havoc but poor kampong boys and girls like me and my friends had seen the worst. Some of my friend's houses were completely submerged under flood water before.

And after so many years, floods is still recurring and everyone in the Northern state seems to get use to it. Hey it’s big or small only what, it will subside over a couple of days, the town folks may say. But what about those acres and acres of padi fields flooded and all went kaput? What about those sundry shops losing thousands and thousands of ringgit as all their barang all soaked by water? What about those furniture and electrical appliances of the ordinary family all damaged by floods?

The Prime Minister is so proud when he was announcing that the government is going to build another 100-storey high rise sophisticated building in KL and a few other high-tech related initiatives in the recent Economic Transformation Programmes. Perhaps he should look into it seriously to resolve those recurring issues such as floods affecting people in rural areas. I just wait and see if there is any minister visiting areas affected by severe floods in Kedah and Perlis and of course in Kelantan, a lot of the politician will be flocking there as the Galas by-election is just around the corner.

Alarm with GPS no help?

All this while I thought that Seremban is quite a safe place to stay due to its lesser crime as compared to other towns but I guess I was wrong. Even the Member of Parliament, Anthony Loke’s house was robbed and a few months ago a friend’s Toyota Fortuner was stolen from his house and today it was reported in the Star newspaper that another Toyota Fortuner was stolen from a businessman’s house in Seremban, and that car which was bought through a tender just a couple of day ago, even fixed with an alarm system with GPS but It seemed the supposedly advanced gadget did not work as the alarm system was not triggered and the GPS company could not even trace the vehicle whereabouts.

So the bad luck businessman is losing his hard-earned RM 134,000 as the car is waiting for transfer of ownership and thus no insurance coverage. It seems like there is a syndicate going around Seremban in stealing Toyota Fortuner as there were many incidents reported of late. The thieves must be targeting these popular vehicles in housing estates in Seremban, marking their targets and strike when the time is right as these car thefts seemed well planned and executed, leaving no traces and now even a Fortuner fixed with an alarm system with GPS can be stolen so easily without the notice of the owner right in front of his house.

I guess car thieves nowadays are very high tech and thus the Police need to be technologically well-equipped or otherwise they are losing out fast to the tech-savvy thieves and no wonder the car theft is on the rise as the Police is not capable of arresting the criminals.