Paying peanuts to get monkey manners on board Air Asia

Phew. This has been the longest hiatus I've taken. It's not for a long break, holidaying somewhere but more of because of too many projects at hand and work piling up.

Now I'm back and I'm sorry to say that I've to start with a criticism on our local budget airline. Which one you say?? Of course the famous one, the red and white CI colour.

One of the few things I'm used to is to be greeted courteously whenevr I board the plane, whether be it Mas or S'pore Airlines, Cathay whatever airlines. But I did not hear any of these words when I board the flight of AK6335 on the night of 18/09/07.

I took a flight out to the East Coast to attend my fiancee's sister's wedding and it was really a totally unpleasant experience. No greeting, or probably it was too soft I couldn't hear what they muttered, but I can still live with that but boy was the flight attendants unprofessional. None of them bothered to smile, what more the Head Flight Attendant had the nerve to scowl at my fiancee's uncle when he enquired about something.

I wonder whether is this a norm for them, to not smile?

Too bad for her, my fiancee's sister saw the scowl and being stressed out enough for a bride-to-be with so many last minute details to look into, she lost her cool and demanded the Head Flight Attendant to apologise to her uncle.

Well, surpise, surprise, the typical Malaysian attitude kicked in (what else other than the "tidak apa" attitude). The Head Flight Attendant couldn't care less what she was asked to do, instead she had the nerve to nod her head then walk past her uncle prentending all the conversation never took place. No, "I'm sorry sir if I was rude to you". She instead hid beind the storage area where all the food is kept till the captain announced that it was time to land, did she only came out. She walked to my fiancee's uncle with a sheaf of papers, telling him, if he would like to make a formal complaint, he would do so by filling up the forms. WHAT THE F***ING HELL HAPPEN TO PROPER COURTESY??!!".

Not saying sorry but instead being cocky. This is Air Asia style!

So I'm still thinking, does paying peanuts means you get monkeys to serve you? I believe monkeys' will have better manners than her don't you think so?

This would be the 1st and the last time I'm ever taking Air Asia even if they offer free tickets to Paris. Damn!

Bus companies made liable

This was the topic that caught my attention and must I say IT'S ABOUT TIME!!!

It's stated in The Star paper that, Kurnia Insurance has decided to make the bus firms out there be partly liable for certain damages if certain conditions are not fulfilled. I find this very reasonable as it's about time these bus firms take responsibility on their part.

Think about it for a moment, customers pay a certain amount of $$ for a bus ride, they of course expect get proper comfort and of course to arrive at the destination in one piece, not one arm flung into the ravine while one leg on the highway. (Sorry, if it's too descriptive). So is it so difficult to ask for the bus firms to bear a little responsibility for the welfare of their passengers? I mean how much is RM5,000 of damages for death or injuries compared to a whole bus load of "you know what"?? I'm thinking that RM5,000 is considered pretty measly amount, taking into the fact that, 1 individual can be insured up to more than 1 million. Alright, I mean that's a personal thing, but RM5,000?? Can you actually put an amount on a life of a person??

It is also a good implication for the bus firms to get their act correctly. They'll have to think twice, NO, more than twice in actually hiring proper bus drivers, not any Tom, Dick or Harry just to fill the position, not taking into account whether the individual is wanted by the police even.

So, I'm hoping that other insurance companies will not take advantage of this issue and use it as a business opportunity in offering these bus firms their insurance coverage instead if Kurnia decides to go on with their plan.

** Won't be updating my blog after this for the whole week as I'll be outstation (no access to the internet).

Monkey Business

Weekend's here so let's do some monkeying around. Just kidding.

I met up with a friend for tea today at Cheras and I happen to chance upon 2 monkeys. Yes. You did not read it wrongly. I actually saw 2 monkeys swinging on a tree. Exact location would be in front of a mamak, same row as Kaki Corner in Cheras.

How often do you actually see a real monkey so close up within the vicinity of an urban development?? It's actually pretty heartbreaking to see these monkeys living in a tree, literally 1 tree where what's left around it are stretches of highways, shops and further development.

So, before we all think of further developing our nation, maybe we should learn to nurture what is left of our rainforest, the natural habitat of wonderous creatures you and I might see but not our future generation.

Thankful

Each day I wake up, I'm thankful I'm alive

As I walk down 18 floors, I try not to complain because I'm thankful I have legs

As I play the piano, I'm thankful I have hands to play and ears to hear the music

As I shop for Christmas presents, I'm thankful to have people I care and love about to buy presents for

As I listen to my parents nag me, I'm thankful for having such loving parents

As forwarded emails flood my mailbox, I'm thankful that I have friends that care enough to forward me emails

As I complain about my work, I'm thankful I have a job

As I write this, I'm thankful that I was given the opportunity to attend school to get an education

As I write this, I'm thankful that God gives me nudge from every now and then to remind me to rely on Him and not to try to run my own life without Him

As I write this, I'm trying to remind myself again and again not to take things for granted.

Drafting of letters

Re: Complain on itemised charges.

Dear Sir / Madam,

With regards to the matter above, I would like to make an official complaint. I've been charged for all these items (not appropriate to mention here) in my bills for the past 7 years and I've made verbal complaints after verbal complaints but to no avail. In the terms and conditions fineprint, it clearly states that I would only get charged the first time I signed up for the service. I'm very disappointed with the service provided and how this matter is handled.

Attached herewith are the itemised billing for the past years as proof, starting from May 2000 till August 2007.

I expect a written reply on this matter ASAP. If I do not get a reply within 5 working days, I will proceed to cancel my service with you.

Thank you.

You guys must be wondering, what the heck is this lady doing, writing a complaint letter for this blog. Nope I'm not complaining about any service in particular but just happened to have a friend that asked me to draft a complaint letter. Let's call this friend of mine, Shawn. I was kinda stumped on what to blog about today, then as I was chatting with Shawn on messenger, he asked me to do him a favour, to draft a complaint letter for this service he's paying for monthly. This letter's just a draft for him as I still haven't gotten the clear picture on what the whole billing's supposed to be like and I've been asked to exercise some discretion on this matter as some big organisation is involved. Therefore, I can't comment more on this .

This is not the first time I'm asked to write a formal letter for friends, family members, etc. I still haven't perfected this skill of writing formal letters either to government bodies, or organisations, etc but I'm brushing up on it. It is quite an interesting thing to do. I wonder if this is my calling??

Tick tock, tick tock

Time ticking away. It's been passing me by. And I'm still trying to find enough time to do so many things, to accomplish them within 24 hours. How do I find time to squeeze everything into 24 hours??!!

Mornings are a blur for me, rushing to get ready for work, at work it's rushing for project datelines, after work I'm still trying to rush through traffic to go for an appointment with friends or to rush back probably for a spot of exercise, then rush back to blog, read blogs, check my mail. Forever rushing. It's been more hectic lately, more responsibilities, less time for personal things. I've been spending my honeymoon week at work last week to actually think whether I want to do this for the rest of my life, to keep rushing against time. Even my blogging has taken a toll. I'm not updating it as often as I want to, not able to read that many blogs, not able to spend time with my family members.

I'm contemplating to maybe start something on my own, but I'm also wondering, whether it'll actually squeeze more of my time instead of giving me more time. It's time to think about all these at this point in my life, which probably meaning taking a pay cut but the upside of it, I would be able to spend time with my parents, friends, people I care about, able to do things that are meaningful.

Such difficult questions and it's even more difficult to get answers to these questions.

Cartoon

Typical Sunday would be a laid back one. Spending quiet time with God is a definite. I've been frequenting 1Utama for the past months so I've decided to take a break from all those window shopping. Yes. I'm a girl but I don't literally shop just because there's a sale.

Today's no different. As I sit here and think of what should I blog about today, since it's a Sunday and I've totally used up my brain juice for the week, I'm stumped. My fiancee's watching tv, in particular the cartoon channel. I'm actually quite amazed that he still finds the latest cartoons interesting to watch. I've no idea whether he's watching it for the animation, storyline or just because there's nothing else to watch on the channels. I've always love cartoon. There were classic ones like Little Mermaid, Cinderella, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

But nowadays cartoons like Danny Phantom, Ed, Edd n Eddy or The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, just doesn't jive. Probably I'm too old fashion about cartoons. My version of cartoons would need people, animals "drawn" properly with a proper story line, it can be comical, filled with all those "aw" moments but it definitely has to be something that we all can relate to somehow or the other. Not something like the Untalkative Bunny. I mean, what's with the horrific looking bunny acting dumb? I wonder what they're trying to potray to the childern watching it? Look "adorable" but dumb at the same time? No offense here. I've got high respect for all the animation producers, the artist and effort they put into all these drawings to make them come alive but at least the story should potray something useful or something for the kids to learn.

I'm lost for words. But hey, if that's what the new generation is into now, I'll just have to go with the flow and hopefully I don't end up being less intelligent than what I am now.

Have a great Sunday and a smashing week ahead.

Radio Shows

Morning norm for me is to listen to Fly FM Big Bang Breakfast Show. It's not that my taste for music has changed but more of like which DJ's hosting the show.

Back in the college years, Hitz FM had the craziest morning crew, Lil Kev and Fly Guy. Boy were they hilariou. Even before that when there was no Astor yet, I listened to Radio 4, Yasmin and Patrick. So you can all guess as much what's my age now. Hahaha! I love all that sarcasm, the "freedom of speech" when Patrick just "taruh" or what proper English sayas as to criticise. I mean he wasn't bothered about people's feelings or anything at all. Just went straight to the spot. Anyway, I'm going off track here. Back to the topic.

When I was in college, Hitz FM were pretty good but all good things will surely come to an end one day. Both Lil Kev and Fly Guy decided it's time to explore further horizons. So, with nothing to entertain me I switched to Mix FM breakfast show with Shazmin & Richard. They weren't as crazy as Lil Kev & Fly Guy but their constant head butts on topics kinda make the show interesting. I especially love the "Battle of the sexes" game on the show, where a guy and a girl calls in ahd whoever answers all the questions thrown to them correctly wins. And both Shaz and Richard would definitely help their own gender group and made bets on it and I remember Richard lost one of the many bets and had to cook roast lamb as a penalty.

Well, after both Richard and Shazmin decided to break their "duet" bond for the breakfast show, I was stuck again in choosing which channel I would listen to. I tried staying on to listen to the new trio of the breakfast show in Mix FM but somehow lack the "oomph".

In the end, I decided to try FlyFM and I got hooked. I was kinda skeptical at first, since I've always thought it's just another Hitz FM station wannabe since the songs they air is not dissimilar to Hitz. I mean let's look at Mix, it's a mixture of all types from the latest songs to the oldies, chinese songs to korean songs, etc. While Lite FM or what it was used to be known as Light & Easy, potray more relaxing to oldies songs.

But with listening to Big Bang Breakfast Show, I'm quite pleasantly surprised with it. It took a while to get use to but both Phat Phabes and Ben are really so comical. They really can make a person laugh till they cry mind you. But the best part of the show would be the Fix It for me. It's where listeners actually email Ben & Phat Phabes their problems and they try their very best to solve it or what they call Fix It. It can range from small petty problems to full blown problems that might include certain authorities.

Well, everything evolves and I guess my taste for radio station channels evolves as well and I'm contented with what I have and I'm fortunate enough to listen to all the past radio stations.

So what do you listen to?

First day disaster

This is how it actually feels like on my first day of work in a new organisation; a totall disaster.

When I first arrived, I was greeted by one colleague from another department. As a new comer and I don't know where I was supposed to sit, I went straight to the pantry where I met this colleague. There was introduction of course. I mean I'm still friendly even though I can be what people presumed to be stand-offish if they don't know me well.

As usual, introduction of name, previous attachment, was the main topic of discussion. When it got to who I was supposed to report to, I got a shock of my life, the AVP (Assistant Vice President) that interviewed me left the organisation. I thought, ok. That's kinda normal, people come and go. I can still accept that.

As usual, when a new comer arrives, a senior will bring the new comer around to know the rest of the team and neigbouring departments so today was no different. I did my rounds, saying hi, shaking hands, you know the drill. After that comes the serious part, job scope or so I thought. As I was briefed by one of the regional manager, on the on-going projects that I was supposed to take over, I was told of more bad news. I mean how much bad news can a gal take for one day, let alone one morning? Get a load of this for a first day, the regional manager himself told me that he's resigned only after 6 months serving the organisation. Another project manager in our team has also resigned as well. Which means both are serving their notice now. It felt like a bad dream and boy was it de-motivating. It was not a good feeling to start a day with. How do you feel if on your first day most of your team members tell you that they're actually serving their notice and left because of certain issues. They cited reasons such as workload issues where the main bosses have the tendency to say yes to practically everything which ended up them having them to do everything from branch to hr even, red tape issues, being forced to do other department's task, etc. I believe that each and every organisation would face these kind of issues.

But DAMN. The feeling was like having a huge wave pound your head over and over again, while you're trying to re-surface for air but keep getting dragged down under water by the current. Feels like something what the cantonese call "seong che" which basically means being cheated.

Now I'm trying to figure out whether I've made the correct choice in accepting this job while turning down another offer. Only God will be able to help me through this rough patch. Sigh.