Goodbye

this year, the end is near
for many it'll close with tears
new year it'll be without cheer
instead starting the year with fears

with memories lingering
of those who were killed or missing
for it came without warning
left many with questions wanting

who can predict mother nature
no one, there's someone higher


my heart goes out to the survivors of tsunami devastation

Dry Run

Ok, the year is almost over but the new year's not yet. the new year resolutions are ready to be implemented (you can see them here). the only problem is that my body and parts of my brain will get a 'jump start' and i have no idea what will follow next. as they say the spirit is willing but the body is weak !

so....my good wife have advised me to do a dry run ! what a good idea. today tomorrow i'll ease my systems into it.

if i don't continue to blog, it can only mean that my body has gone into deep shock, call 911!

routine

today very embarrassing. due to using smart tag for years. today i forgot to bring it. so when i enter the toll plaza i collected the ticket, but while going out i drove to the smart tag lane ! with my window down, coin and ticket ready to pass to the lady at the counter.
i only know i was in trouble when the alarm sounded !
quite embarrassing. sigh...
routine...they get you into troubles.

Merry Christmas !

Gigantic Shopping Centers

yesterday i took my family to ikea, we sometimes go there coz my children wants to go play in small land and eat their rm1 ice cream (yes, they're really good). of course being out of the house after spending the whole day with 3 noisy children is also something to look forward to for my wifey.

from ikea we hop over to the curve. it's much bigger than it looks from the outside. after walking there for a bit (most shops were not opened yet so we thought we'll save it for later). the shopping center was very tastefully decorated but there were few people there. from there we hopped back to ikano power center and by that time we (my wife & i) were exhausted. the children being children were full of energy and still running around.

1U is already big enough for me. when they had only the old wing, i liked it very much coz you could do all the shopping you want and still want to do some other things. with the new wing, it's an effort but you could still manage it if you really want to.
i wouldn't want to walk all the shops of the 3 in 1 gigantic shopping center to just look around or look for what i want(not to mention getting lost in the process). it's takes too much out of you. i might occasionally visit them but these moments will be rare and quite far in between.

i think we need gigantic parks rather than gigantic shopping complexes. after a while all you will realise that most of these shopping complexes have the same shops in them. except if you're going 'cuci mata' then it's a diff case altogether !

the only plus point is you can now do your workout free (brisk walking ! - i'm selling maps & instructions),if you are 'rajin' enough, you can burn heaps of calories by walking form 1 end to another. good for people who stays near them. don't have to worry about rain,it's air conditioned and with guards.
oops..., the other would be, my children fell asleep pretty fast after they hit the bed. tired out form all the running ! got to spend some quiet time together with my wifey. :)

holidays

most of my staff will either be on leave or on shoot. tomorrow i'll be the only one holding the fort.
anyway i'm ready for it.



hehehe...they're for the shoot tomorrow !

Poems

last weekend i went a poem hunting
for not 1 but 2 of them rare

they are indeed a special thing
to me at least, so here they are

THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS

by Clement Clarke Moore

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house.

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,

While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;

And mamma in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap,

Had just settled down for a long winter's nap,

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,

I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.

Away to the window I flew like a flash,

Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow

Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below,

When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,

But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,

With a little old driver, so lively and quick,

I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.

More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,

And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;

"Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!

On, Comet! on Cupid! on, Donder and Blitzen!

To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!

Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!

"As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,

When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,

So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,

With the sleigh full of toys, and St. Nicholas too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof

The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.

As I drew in my hand, and was turning around,

Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,

And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;

A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,

And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.

His eyes -- how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!

His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!

His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,

And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,

And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;

He had a broad face and a little round belly,

That shook, when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly.

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,

And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;

A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,

Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,

And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,

And laying his finger aside of his nose,

And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,

And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.

But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,

"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night."

Tyger! Tyger!

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies

Burnt the fire of thine eyes?

On what wings dare he aspire?

What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what the shoulder, & what art,

Could twist the sinews of thy heart?

And when thy heart began to beat,

What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?

In what furnace was thy brain?

What the anvil? what dread grasp

Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,

And water'd heaven with their tears,

Did he smile his work to see?

Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

William Blake (1757-1827)

buying new car

yeap, i'm doing that, the only difference is instead of owing the bank, i'm buying this one part by part.

to be fair it's already 12 years old. but i like it very much. it's my first new car. Nissan B13, very powerful ( can do 0-100 in less than 10 sec - once upon a time), economical, comfortable have a spacious booth & we love it.
on wed, i had the aircond fan changed and it cost quite a bit(or feels like it esp around christmas time!).
so far we've gave the engine an overhaul and later changed the engine (mainly due to neglect). changed a power window motor, central locking system, a wing mirror, gave it new coat of paint, modified the air cond compressor, have left the sound system as it is (does not work), and that's all.
come to think of it, that's not too bad, especially for one who does not know how to take care of car. (i confess i know nuts about cars !...phew...... that feels better)
i'm now driving my wife's car (proton iswara) while she drives the nissan. we exchanged cars coz our iswara does not have power steering, so i get to drive it at night when we go out or during weekends.
when i get to drive the nissan, i still drive f a s t and my wife prefers to sit behind (i suspect sometimes she closes her eyes as well). i'm not reckless and go fast only at highways.....Ok,ok occasionally on federal highway as well but not reckless.
ahem....back to buying new car, all these are cheaper than buying a new car !

10th anniversary

this friday tomorrow is my tenth wedding anniversary !

10 years have past so fast
being with you have been a blast
looking forward to many more years
where we can share our joys and tears

being a wife and mother to 3
you've done much more than me
i appreciate the sacrifices you make
just remember to take a break

thank you for all you've done
i've not said in often enough
thank you for all you've done
i've still not mention lots of other stuff

An excellent wife, i have found
For her worth is far above rubies
always beside you i'll be found
sticking around for many more anniversaries

happy anniversary mrs chief!

mr&mrs Chia

today my sister got registered; chinese still place lots of importance in the traditional wedding ceremony and couples who are registered are not really considered married till after that) it was done at the national registration department in klang. everything went smoothly, the groom was there earlier to queue for registeration. when we arrived at around 10.20am, they (NRD guys) were ready for the happy couple.
the first thing to get over with is the paperwork, they marriage certificates were printed and they had to pay a rm 30.00 fee. Rm 10.00 for ‘pendaftaran’ and rm 20 for the certs (?). i must say their certs are much better than mine. mine is as thin as a tracing paper and God forbid that i should get it wet for I’m sure it’ll just melt away.
the ‘ceremony’ was done in a room, large enough for a medium sized entourage(30-35). after everyone was seated, an officer proceeded to read the oath to both husband to be and wife to be. Both responded with enthusiastic ‘ya’ when their names were read and the ‘binding’ question asked. marriage certificates were signed and no they did not mention anything like "i now present you mr & mrs Chia".
it was quick and depending on the entourage, it can be quite fun when all the official stuff is done. we took lots of photos ( 3 digital cameras snapping away ), rings were exchanged, the groom even get to kiss the bride on the cheek. all for the photo opportunities.
all in all, the whole paperwork plus ceremony thingy took about an hour.
from there we proceeded to a sumptuous lunch, and headed home. nice and quick……for now. the messy one will be in march next year. that’s when you get the tea ceremony + the killer dinner. all will be calm till then :)

today

today i really don’t feel like going to work, don’t know why. maybe coz it’s dec and the year is nearly over. i feel like i am running a marathon and i know i'm near the finishing line but it’s still out of sight, about to drop, just managing to walk to the finishing line. of course i want to run but too bad my legs have other ideas. ( i ran the penang marathon once )
then at a traffic light stop, i took some time to look up at the sky..., it was blue, not a cloud in sight and so calm, i felt better after that. strange effect it had on me.

as i was driving into my office compound; there stood the chief security person requesting to see my company id tag below being allowed to drive into the compound.
must be evaluation time for him too. either that or there’s a major ‘shake up’ in the security dept. i’ve noticed a new over zealous in-house security guard around 2 weeks ago.

tomorrow i’ll be on leave again, my sister getting registered. should be interesting as this is probably the 1st time i’m attending and as a witness as well. most of the weddings i attend are conducted in church and that’s where the signing ceremony takes place as well.

when i sign mine, the pastor whispered to me ' there’s no turning back now '. have not and will not. a good wife is really a gift from God and is like a precious stone. Pr31:10 says - Who can find a virtuous wife? For her worth is far above rubies., it goes on and stops only after 21 verses, all describing virtues of a good wife.

Photo in Blog

first photo in blog ! yeah. this means more coming !

new year resolutions

i've a 2005 calendar on my desk already, courtesy of one of my producers. well here are some of my new year resolutions.

1. wake up earlier - 6.45 am. when you sleep late you obviously cannot wake up early right, so maybe next year i'll have to change my blog's name to early sleeper !

2. go for jogs 3 times a week. monday, thursday & saturday. this is related to resolution # 6.

3. finish reading the Bible in a year. many a times i've gotten stuck at Numbers and have randomly finished various book from there, sometimes reading the same book 2 - 3 times ( the result of not following any plans )

4. do a book study every 3 months. i would want to do Romans, Corinthians, Revelation and 1 more - open for time being.

5. pick up a new hobby, playing guitar would be easiest ( i think but could be a challenge for someone with a low threshold of pain and a bit deft when it comes to music )

6. bring my weight down to 61Kg. i've been consistently gaining 1 kg every year since i got married and my wife bising already.

7. do a family nite once a week. (on Sunday nite)

enough already, don't want to break all my resolutions at one go.

please check back from time to time as i will add to the list or do minor changes to it ! not new year yet mah !

i think next i will do what are the things i want to do if i know that the end of next year will be my last day on earth. that would be interesting !

it's over !

like everything else, vbs came and went and it just seem soooooo fast. had a fun but tiring time. makes you have great respect for primary school teachers. every child different in character and eager to do something ( sitting around waiting for something is a punishment for them), it's like they've all these energy pent up since school holiday began and they finally found an outlet during vbs !

we gave them an over view of the bible, how it was passed from word of mouth till it was written, painstakingly copied, printed and translated. + why they should read it everyday & how to have fun with it.

they're fun to work with, makes you feel young and wonder why are people are not enjoying their children. they're bright and respond very well to love. there were this particular girl who were quite rebellious ( boy, do they start early nowadays) but i complemented her on her work and when she does follow instructions, by the third day, she was much better.

not many questions from them, they were eager to do craft work and play games. guess for them lesson time is like a 'filler' till craft or games time. they find it hard to imagine how it was like when paper to write on were for the privilege and they did not mis-spell or wrote wrongly.

tougher than work, everyday slept at 10.30 pm. KOed

today busy catching up on work and this weekend will also be busy. my son's birthday party is tomorrow and there's a dinner at friend's place sunday. whatever happened to nice quiet weekends ??
ps. will try to start doing new year's resolution tonight, it's only 21 days till next year ! arghhhhhhh.....help !

Vocation Bible School

It's tomorrow today !
well, guess i should have know it'll be way over my head when i volunteer as a teacher. like most guys, i'm a last minute person. have not change since university days. sometimes i wonder how i survived all this time. my wife have been bugging me on this long enough to leave me alone nowadays. she'll remind me once, after that, it's all up to me. she gets too 'kan chong' and just don't want to know ( esp. if it does not concern her) and i've actually improve (ever so slightly).

guess it's the jitter before the show, esp when you're dealing with 8 year olds. they're a bit more difficult to con. they won't pretend to understand if they don't and they usually have questions that you'll never think off in a million years, and you'll have to come up with an answer in 30 sec - 1 min. not very fair !

just came into office to photostate some stuff ( on the way from church ) plus 'gatal' want to post something and check on some blogs to see how everyone (blogs i read) is doing. sometimes it scares me coz i actually miss them, or rather their posting.

quick month

dec is going to be a quick month for me, full of activities ...
Vocation Bible School (one of the teacher), workshop to attend, Cell dinner, sister getting registered (wedding registration), son's birthday do, Church dinner, 10th wedding anniversary, my birthday, christmas and new year. i've not even done my shopping yet plus i'm suppose to get a christmas tree last week.
i think my money will run out before the month ! like bustaman, i too will jatuh miskin.

not to mention stuff at work, which is a very busy month as 1 of my producer will not be around and there are shoots going on to rush for the Jan deadline.

i want to be like you

Hmm... i won't even be happy if my daughter/son says this.

during an appraisal session, one of my staff said this to me ! when asked what do you hope to be in 2 years time, he said to be where you are, a mid level management position
it caught me off guard, had to do a quick recovery and pretend i'm cool as always.
i actually don't know how/what to feel. i'm flattered that someone wants my place and yet i think that he's no where near me to be able to take over my place.
it's sometimes amazing to see how people rate themselves.

anyway, here's a brief conversation i had with him.
him : i want to learn up all the equipment/software we have here so that i can be a manager like you.

me : Ok, well you'll have to be informed on new equipments and what's happening in the industry, so far have you been keeping up with these things.

him : yes, but mostly from another colleague. Like i know they just launch a new editing software called....... i forgot the name.

me : ah..., hearing from him alone is not going to be enough. you've got to do a bit of surfing as well.

him : yeah i know but i don't have an internet at home.

me : well, you can stay back and do some surfing, get the info that you need, know what's going on.

him: yeah but now my wife's pregnant and i can't stay late.

me : ok, work something out..

i wonder if he thinks that just because i know how to use almost all the software here that qualifies me to be a manager and by mastering these same software they too can manage an outfit like this. i sure does not work that way. there are a few other chap who are more ready than him. i sincerely don't think he's cut out for it yet, in fact he's a long way from it.

still it got me thinking . . . . . . if he takes over my place, who's place can i take over ??
it's things like this that makes appraisal interesting !

not so secret a secret

just read mr buaya 69's post on introducing mrs. buaya
hehehe.... i had to do the same as well, except mine requested for a printout. we're living off the grid ! actually moden kena lightning. before her there's only less than 5 that knows about me having a blog. so still not too bad..still in top 10 what.

when i told mrs chief, she was giving me the look like...why would you want to do that? plus with 3 chiefs running around, she cannot imagine one having time to do all this. but she's been very supportive about it.
Thanks Dear !

well, mr buaya, lets hope your buaya posts will still be as interesting as ever.

new year resolution

thanks to fragrant of frangipani, i'm thinking about my new year's resolution

funny to be thinking about it when this year langsung did not set any. maybe that's why this year it's been a drift along year. sure you get to steer but most of the time you're being push along.

this year i'm thinking about it earlier as most of the time when i think about it, it's on 30th or even 31st Dec, so cannot come out with a decent list. or i do get it out, it's a 'i also have a new year resolution' list without any real resolve to keep it, neither do i review it from time to time.

guess such things does not matter so much when you're younger but as time moves on and the hair on your head wears thin...., you'll want at the end of your life to have made an impact on planet earth no matter how small ( polluting it does not count, same goes for populating it ).

well one month is not too long, i'll post my resolutions in the blog, so if i conveniently lose the hard copy, i'll still have a soft & declared copy.
till then, happy listing.