Bitchings Galore!

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Football Shorties

The defeat by ARSEnal was really hard to swallow. Losing to a goal right at the death was really heart breaking but that's football. Life goes on and we're Manchester United, we never do things easily. We let Bayern think that they're going to win the Champions League only to beat them at the end. Muahahahahaha.

Anyway, I caught Sportcenter on the telly this evening and they aired a very interesting news clip. So, there's this bloke in the UK who did a research on the origins of a football club's song. This would be the song that the supporters sing at their stadium. Apparently the song You'll Never Walk Alone that those Liverfool supporters so proudly sing was originally sang by Man United supporters first as a tribute to the players and staff who perished in the Munich air crash in 1958. They stood outside the grounds to sing the song in the days following the crash. Liverfool supporters only started singing the song in 1963. Very interesting indeed.

I also managed to watch the last 20 minutes of the Malaysia v Singapore-dan-lain-lain match on the telly last Tuesday. Is it just me or is the pace of the game in this part of the world rather slow? Anyway, that's besides the point. Malsysia controlled the match but fell victim to a goal that appeared out of the blue. The ball was lofted into the box and it looked like this guy came from nowhere to head it in. I say this because the defense didn't even bother to look/pressure/challenge/tackle/kick him when the ball was sent into the box. Totallly hopeless defending. The best part of the game was when the ball hit the corner flag and it broke into two. The referee had to stop the game for 2 minutes just to get a new corner flag in. Hilarious.

P/S: The best part of the Chelski v Liverfool match wasn't the scoreline. It was when Drogba nutmeg Ballack. That was the first time in my life watching a player nutmeg his own teammate. Priceless.

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Books

If any of you want to buy books, Citibank credit card holders are given 15% discount when you purchase normal priced books at any Borders bookstore.

If any of you want to buy The Reluctant Politician, there's a 20% discount coupon in The Star's StarMag book review section last Sunday. The coupon is valid at any MPH bookstores.

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Good Customer Service

I had dinner with my sister at this restaurant named Devi's Corner in Taman Tun on Monday night and I encountered a restaurant manager who provides the best customer service I've seen in a long long time. Here's a list of things that he did for his customers that would go a long way to ensure they continue to patronise his restaurant.

  1. He has a cheerful smile when entertaining his customers (I've met some who look as if some one stuck a foot up their asses).
  2. When he saw us waiting for our food, he came over to our table to look at our order list and told us he's going to take a look at what's causing the delay.
  3. When my mee goreng came with taugeh, I told him that I ordered without taugeh. He asked the waiter who took our orders if he had categorised my mee goreng as "special order". The waiter said yes and he summed up that the mix up could have happened in the kitchen.
  4. My new mee goreng came with more mee that usual.
  5. I went to the kitchen to get a lime and he told me to take a seat while he went to get one for me.

So due to the excellent customer service provided by the boss, I'll certainly make more trips there in the future. The fact that their mee goreng is damn sedap is an added bonus.

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Review: 2006

Studies
2006 was a defining year for me because it marked the end of my studying life and the start of my working life. I'm truly blessed because I managed to graduate with the kind of grades that I didnt think I could achieve back in Beta Trimester 1. After much hard work and perseverance, everything worked out real well for me. I'm glad my Final Year Project received very favourable grading from my supervisor and my moderator. It really helped push my CGPA higher. Overall, I graduated from university with many funny memories of lecturers (Elvis Koay, Lembut Ibrahim, etc.) and fond memories of my uni mates.

Travelling
My first trip for 2006 was the KL-Penang-Cameron Highlands-KL road trip I had with Ashwin, Choo and Keng Mun. We started the trip right after our final exam papers. We stuffed ourselves crazy in Penang with ikan bakar, char kuey tiow, cendol, dim sum and had a great time staying by the beach at Batu Ferringhi. Then, we enjoyed the jungle trekking in Cameron, filling our lungs with fresh highland air and black diesel exhaust from the 4X4s. That's also where I had my best ever cup of teh tarik, which is at the Boh Tea Plantation cafeteria.

The next trip was the Genting trip with Ashwin, Choo, Gary, Siew Lin, and Siew Har, right after the end of the World Cup. We spent the time there playing Uno, sharing stories, singing karaoke till our throats got sore and screaming our lungs out playing the outdoor rides. Genting was also the place where we noticed that Choo spent most of his time sms-ing. Something must be on with the guy and our guesses were correct after all.

Then I was off to South Korea with my family. The autumn temperature was very cool and refreshing, away from the haze affecting Malaysia at that time. The scenery was beautiful, the people were not (those handsome guys and pretty gals you see in the TV are a real rare species). The food was great for the first 3 days, then I got tired of it. There's no beating the wide variety of food you can get here in Malaysia.

The last trip was just 10 days ago. I went to Singapore with Ashwin, Allen, Choo+Alyssa, Chek, Stella and Wei Lee. Siew Har was our tour guide there, taking us to Suntec City, err...that's all I guess. We went to the Science Centre and Orchard Road by ourselves. Hahaha. The Science Centre was really good with so many interesting stuff but sadly I didnt manage to see every exhibit. Counting down Christmas at Orchard was wet and "snowy" due to the fake snow that everyone was spraying on each other every other minute. The lightings and decorations were nice but I think when you've seen it once, you wouldn't need to come back every Christmas to see it again.

Work
I started job hunting after the World Cup ended and was targeting only a specific industry, the oil and gas industry. After more than a month without any replies or interviews, everyone told me that I should try looking at other industries. I took their advise with a heavy heart because the oil and gas industry is the most exciting engineering industry out there. However, I'm lucky I finally landed a job in a company that provides services to the oil and gas industry. I'm really enjoying my work now and I'm looking forward to learning more things everyday.

Football
Football was a sensitive issue to me in 2006. Rehabilitation was a long and arduous programme and it takes a lot of patience, hard work and perseverance to go through it. However, the thought of playing football again gave me the strength and focus to continue with my rehab. Watching Man Utd, the World Cup and especially watching my friends play was really hard for me. The lowest point in my life happened in October 2006. After completing 1 year of rehabilitation, I decided that my knee was strong enough to start playing football again. My first game was a futsal game between a group of my friends and Audrey's cousins. Unbeknown to me, the muscles surrounding my left knee were still not strong enough for contact sports which require rapid cutting and twisting motion. I injured my knee again 10 minutes into the game. The pain I felt was so familiar that I couldn't believe I was experiencing it again.

In the days following the injury, I was at my lowest and I even contemplated walking away from football. I thought of giving up the game that I loved playing, the game that I fell in love with when I was in primary school, completely. I was prepared to give it all up so that I wont have to go through the injury again. However, a simple sentence, uttered to me by a friend of mine, managed to save me from my depression. So, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Siew Lin for saying "the Glenn that I know wont give up so easily". That sentence still rings clearly in my mind and I now use it to motivate myself when I exercise my leg. Looking back, I couldn't believe that I actually contemplated giving up football, one of the 3 things that mean so much to me (the others being family and friends). Thankfully I have friends to help me through that difficult time and get me back on track again.

So, my only target for 2007 would be to return to football again after a slight delay in 2006. Hahaha.