Old Is Good

Barely a month after getting my car back from the workshop, another problem appeared. The car boot was always wet during a rainy day and the wooden board that was there had turned into sludge-like material. So it wasn't any good just replacing the board, it had to be certified water tight so this does not happen again. 

There weren't many workshops around that are willing to test for leaks and repair them but I did find one eventually. That was the first time I've been there so I looked around at how their other customers repairs were going along. Interestingly I was the only one at the shop for repairs, all the others were there to upgrade. A burly chinese man was installing new lights and door handles to his Ninja King (Land Cruiser), a JPJ officer was lowering his car and changing the rims and another fella was haggling over a new sport suspension kit but decided in the end to just change the bodykit on his Dmax. 

This got me thinking too... my car is currently about 13 years old and there will definitely be an increased cost of maintenance due to its age, so why not just get a new car? As I was entertaining this thought, I noticed something.

I had the whole car repainted while it was at the workshop and so fast there's a major scratch! Most of the time my car's exposed to a lot of things when I'm at work. Its an open air and a high traffic car park at a hypermarket and who knows someone might have knocked a shopping trolley into it accidentally or parked too close and swung his door open carelessly.

These things are unavoidable in such an environment. I don't know who did it, but I do know that I'm not going to get a new car now. The heartbreak will be a lot more intense! I'll probably drive this one till its wheels fall off or situations or am in a situation that makes it necessary for me to get a bigger/new car.

A Life Lost

"Your business is about to f**king swim down the Hudson," Ramsey said to Cerniglia, while offering advice on how to turn his business around.


One must really wonder how much influence the words Gordon Ramsay bluntly said to restaurant owner Joseph Cerniglia in 2007 had on the latter's decision to take his life in that particular manner. If you've watched his shows then you will realize most of the time his lips will be moving but there will be no audio. That's because its mostly profanities.

When he was interviewed by Jeremy Clarkson on an episode of Top Gear, Jeremy brought up the topic of Gordon having received an OBE and jokingly asked if it was for services to swearing. Gordon doesn't just have colorful language but gets angry a lot and is very rude. Well no doubt this helps the show's ratings. The main reason why many people watch American Idol is because of Simon Cowell though no contestant has taken their lives yet. And thats 2 for Gordon! Well I think its because Simon looks like a buffoon anyway and no one takes him seriously.

In our line of work we meet all sorts of characters daily and this is a very timely reminder to never take anything personally no matter how much pressure we are under. The results can really be fatal.

I'm Back!

I've spent the past couple of weeks travelling around Australia and its been a blast. There were many things to prepare and attend to but it was all worth it. My wife and I visited Melbourne, Sydney, Gold Coast and Brisbane in a space of a couple of weeks and left with many fond memories and pictures. 

A kangaroo gets close

There will be more posts on the trip after the photos have been sorted out. I do plan to make them into an album as well but that will be much later. Here are some thoughts on the trip...

- Zebra crossings (the ones without traffic lights) mean nothing in Malaysia but over there, they are very important. Pedestrians always have the right of way on zebra crossings ... a concept that I found very hard to get used to. I almost ran over 2 people and had to remind myself to slow down and look out for people each time after that. 

- Koalas sleep 20 hours a day! And don't call them koala bears. They're not bears.

- 50% of the people we meet in Brisbane are Asians. 

- It must suck to be a tourist from China. Souvenirs are all made in China and I wonder how its like to fly over seven thousand kilometers to a foreign land and buy products at prices that will cost a trivial sum if they had bought it at home. I didn't see any Malaysian products there though I did pity the fella who was driving a Proton Persona (Wira). 

This kangaroo got too close...heheh

- Planning a trip all on your own as opposed to going for an all-inclusive tour package (like our Korean trip last year) is a lot more fun but tiring. No one is there to greet you at the airport, take your luggage and ferry you around. You have to read maps, learn train routes, decide between different modes of transport, etc.  It was a great experience but will think twice before doing something like this again. 

- Nothing beats the feeling of coming home. Really.

Mobile Blogging

I'm giving this mobile blogging a go and updating my blog from my iPhone. Now this isn't the first time I've posted from the phone but this is the first time doing so while uploading a picture.

I'll be going to Australia later this week so it's just as well that I discovered this option of emailing the picture from the iPhone camera roll to a predetermined blogger mail account.

I'm also glad that my friend Mr Procrastinate is no where to be seen. I've started packing slightly earlier than usual. It was a tough choice deciding what cameras to bring but I decided to go with my gut instinct and bring 4. With few days left to decide that may change. But no matter what I bring, I know it'll be a great trip and am looking forward to it.

Lessons from the Walk

I was involved in a car accident a few weeks back and it forced me to find an alternative method of transport. The workshop promised that they will have everything up and running in 3 weeks time. They took 4 weeks. But it doesn't matter. I could not have been any happier than I was yesterday when I drove to work in my own car again. It didn't bother me that the radio station I listen to chose to do a Justin Bieber marathon and my ears were bleeding by the time I arrived. No sir, not bothered at all.

There are a few experiences that I'll probably never forget from my 4 weeks of walking to work.

- There are things you think about when you walk that you probably wouldn't even bother when you are driving. You notice the terrain more ... well maybe because YOU HAVE TO! You learn which stretch of road has the most dog shit. You notice where the trees are and the shade they provide. There's one awful stretch of road that has no shade at all and takes me a brisk 9 minutes to cover.

- The weather. I've not been affected by meteorology since my time in Glasgow but how the weather fares here will determine how fast I get to work. On hot days I can reach in 23 minutes tops but on nice cloudy days, probably 30minutes.

- Roadkill. Birds. Dogs. Cats. Rats. Urggh.

- There are some really kind people out there. I've been offered a ride to work twice.

- Conversing on my terms. The first time I was offered a ride, it was a non-stop high-speed MLM sales pitch till my destination. That made me resolve to control the conversation should I come across the same situation again. Second time round was another fella, a neighbor of mine. Nevertheless I avoided asking obvious questions like, 'so what do you do for a living?' or 'what interests you?' and stuck with safe topics like weather and politics.

- And finally, if I had to do those four weeks all over again, I'd rather buy a bicycle.

FED 5C: A Review of the Soviet Rangefinder

There was no doubt about it. This was an impulse buy. The sensory stimuli that began from cells in my eyes sneakily bypassed my brain and led my hands straight to my wallet. Thankfully I only had to fork out RM190 for this. Dirt cheap yes?

The FED 5C is a rangefinder camera made in the Soviet Union. The company initially started off by making copies of Leicas in 1932 as was evident in their earlier FED models. They then started mass producing the cameras and for such a cheap price, they were notorious for their shoddy quality control.

I had to wait 3 weeks before my camera arrived from Russia. When I took it out from the package, my first thoughts were 'Wow, this is heavier than I thought'. If it turned out to be a dud I could always use it to pound chili or something.

What I love about this camera is the metering. And that it doesn't need batteries. It uses a selenium cell light meter (as you can see below) and I must say that I'm pretty fortunate to get a working copy. Indoors it may get a bit tricky, but outdoors it works like a charm. If you have a camera that has this type of metering, always remember to keep it in the dark when not in use. This will help you to preserve the life of the light meter.

Another concern about this camera was the lens that came as standard on this model. The Industar I-61 L/D lens is not only famous for being sharp but radioactive as well. This is because it contains the the rare Lanthane in its glass elements. After doing some research, I found that the radioactivity emitted by the lens is negligible. You'd probably get more radiation from sunbathing than by carrying this around.

The bottom line is how will this camera perform? Is it just a looker but empty on substance? Is this rangefinder going to be a Kournikova or a Sharapova?

I'd say Sharapova without the grunts. This is probably the start of something beautiful.

More FED 5C pics

Vegenomics 101

A very common gripe among those involved in retail is the constant threat of a price war with your competitors. On the short term this may benefit the consumers and those who gladly cut their prices, but on the long run this may make the business too competitive and many players will exit altogether. The retailers who remain may find that while they have the volume, their margins are so pitiful that they wonder why do they still want to do whatever they do. It is usually the retailer with the deepest pockets that will survive. As for the consumers, there are less shops for them to choose from and maybe they have to drive further to find the things they want.

But wait...if you think retail is tough - have you been to a market?

I was at the Kundasang Market a few days back and it really got me thinking - how do they survive? If you see the picture below, the 3 red arrows are the same items being sold but by 3 different stalls. The same goes for the blue arrows. Yes - the stalls are really that close to one another.

So lets say the average space between two tiangs (columns) can accommodate 2 stalls. From the picture all the way to the end I can see around 8 tiangs. Given that I took this photo somewhere in the middle of the long market, there are probably around 25-35 stalls in that one long stretch of road. All selling more or less the same thing. *Gulps*

To their credit, most of them offer the same pricing. There were some who after peeking over their shoulders to see if their neighbors were listening, quoted slightly below market rate. There were a few that were more enterprising and sold additional items that the rest did not - flowers, cacti, etc.

However, I should not judge them based on all my preconceived ideas. They may seem to have many challenges, but who knows they do make a lucrative living and are very happy with what they do. The latter one being what I consider as an invaluable resource.