Glasswing Butterflies

Glasswing butterflies live in South America. These butterflies have transparent wings. They are rare and beautiful. As delicate as finely blown glass, the presence of this rare tropical gem is used by rain forest ecologists as an indication of high habitat quality and its demise alerts them of ecological change.

Rivaling the refined beauty of a stained glass window, the translucent wings of the Glasswing Butterfly shimmer in the sunlight like polished panes of turquoise, orange, green, and red.

All things beautiful do not have to be full of color to be noticed.

In life that which is unnoticed has the most power.

Dragon Cousin

My son, Ernnes, 6 and my cousin's son, Daniel, also 6, both born in the year of the Dragon! 

Herbal Tea Stall @ Penang Chinatown

One of my favourite herbal tea stall located at Campbell Street in Penang Chinatown. As usual you may find some sweet and bitter herbal tea. My favourite is the bitter herbal tea added in with some medicine powder. Good for reducing heatiness in the body system. 

Pork Shogayaki @ Aji Nippin Japanese Restaurant

One of the first Japanese restaurant set up in Ideal Avenue shops is Aji Nippon Japanese Restaurant. Passing by this restauarnt a few times but did not try the food until tonite.

Ordered Pork Shogayaki dinner set instead of my favourite Salmon due to pricing. Apparently the food there is a bit pricey. The onion pork is done perfectly superbly with lots of gravy. The set is priced at RM28.00!

Lucky me, as I'm holding a UOB credit card, i was entitled for a 10% discount. Seems like a long time since i'm using credit card discount!

Thin Lam wedding

Thin Lam wedding, originally uploaded by See Teck.

Went back to hometown Bidor for my cousin, Thin Lam & Li Ying wedding dinner. The Cheng family eldest son, Thin Fook has a Singaporean wife while youngest, Thin Lam has a Chinese wife. My grandpa should be proud of them!

Grill Salmon @ Zakuro2

I was in Kuala Lumpur and was entertained by a business associates. She selected a Japanese restaurant, Zakuro 2 at Jalan Ampang.

As usual, my order was butter grill salmon fish. Nothing unusual, but it was the price of RM19.00 which suprise me! Cheap and affordable.

Penang 2006 Oktoberfest

The first Oktoberfest took place in 1810 to celebrate the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese of Sachsen-Hildenburghausen. The first Oktoberfest in Penang was organised by the Malaysian-German Society in 1973!

The festival is to celebrate cosiness, the notion of belonging, social acceptance, cheerfulness, the absence of anything hectic and the spending of quality time in a place not too large, well heated and nicely furnished, ..eh... cosiness.. Everybody sit together without any social barriers, talk to each other in a relaxing manner, have some good food and nice drinks to enjoy the day off with beautiful music and dance.

I attended the first Oktoberfest in my lifetime, yesterday at the Malaysian-German Society. The signature to this event is the ever popular Oktoberfest Song, Ein Prosit, ein Prosit der Gemuetlichkeit. Immediately after the song, everybody will shout aloud, oans, zwoa, gsuffa (in Penang, follow by a long 'yum seeeeeeeng'!) and takes a big gulp of beer.

Lots of good German food i.e sausages, meatloaf, pork knuckle, sauerkraut and not forgetting the beers and wines. Entertainment was provided by a 6 piece German band, Inntaler Musikanten with their 'oomph-pah-pah' songs, dances and games! In fact this is their 15th visit to the Society.

Tashiro San @ Kirishima

Tashiro San, originally uploaded by See Teck.

My Japanese Sales director, Tashiro San, and I were having Japanese food at Kirishima Japanese Restaurant at Cititel, Penang. According to him, the best Japanese food in Penang is at Kirishima!

He is enjoying his Seafood bento set, priced at RM33.04! Comes with rice, grilled seafood, tempura prawns, vegetables, pickles, cawan-mushi, miso soup and 2 slices of watermelon.

Ten Zaru Soba Gozen

Ten Zaru Soba Gozen, originally uploaded by See Teck.

My favourite Japanese food is salmon! However, today, for a change, i've ordered cold buckwheat noodle and tempura combo. Ten is actually Tempura, Zaru is for the bamboo mat used to place the soba, the buckwheat noodle. Gozen, is combo! The combo set is priced at RM18.26 only at Kirishima Japanese Restaurant!

I can translate this is because i have with me, my office, Japanese Sales Director, Hiraku Tashiro San.

New Flyover being constructed in Ipoh

New Flyover, originally uploaded by See Teck.

Even though Ipoh is a city, she does not have many flyovers. There was one recently completed at the junction of Jalan Azlan Shah and Jalan Kampar whereby vehicles entering the city from the south i.e through Gunung Rapat will drive unobstructed to the city centre!

Here another flyover being built at the junction of Jalan Azlan Shah and Jalan Raja DiHilir in front of Pantai hospital. With this flyover, there will be no congestion with a direct linking to the airport and the city centre.

Ipoh is progressing NOW!

Ipoh Field

A view of the serene Ipoh Padang snap in the morning. The field normally is full of activities holding cricket competition, hockey/football tournaments or other festivals. The tall building on the right is the KLK-Kepong group head-office, one of the first plc head-office to be based in Ipoh.

Riverside Seafood Restaurant

A business partner recently took me to a seafood (halal) restaurant in Nibong Tebal near the Nibong Tebal river. Ordered curry prawns, fish and vegetables. The prawns were big and the curry was superb. We ordered rice but most of the customers there ordered bread to go with the curry prawns. The prawns were big & fresh!

Grand Seaside Send-Off

The Nine Emperor Gods festival were celebrated for 9 days since last Sunday, October 22, 2006. The festival held in the ninth lunar month of the Chinese calender, is dedicated to the 9 sons of the Godness of the North Star. The Godness is said to control books of life and death!

The temples are thronged by devotees, burning joss sticks and praying for blessing!

During the 9 days festivals, yellow flags were decorated near the temples and plenty of makeshift stalls around Georgetown offering all sorts of prayers paraphernalia for devotees to offer to the gods!

A lot of vegetarian stalls are put up, dishing out various type of vegetarian food to cater for the devotees whom become vegetarian for the whole 9 days...

The celebration ended on Monday, October 30, 2006 with the grand send-off of the Nine Emperor Gods. There were processions with decorated flower floats and a sedan chair carrying the sacred urn and the yellow Emperor's Boat to the seaside.

No haze in Georgetown

The view of Georgetown taken from my apartment showed a clear morning, yes, without the haze! I believe this is mainly due to the Nine Emperor Gods festival. Why, because it is always a wet season during the festival. If you don't believe it, try to check the past years record or ask any elderly chinese people.

Old Building

A 'Kedai Permata' i.e jewellery shop owned by the 'Sultan' i.e the King, located in the middle of Jewellery Centre in Georgetown, is available to let. Hmm, now I know how to contact the Sultan thru his handphone! Who said Malaysia is not transparent? Even the King's handphone no is available to the public.

Panorama View of my Apartment Bedroom

I was exploring some of the camera features of my new Sony Ericsson K610i handphone. The above 2.0 mp panorama view picture was shot using my handphone.

My MD's father passed away

Last weekend, when everbody is celebrating Deepavali and Hari Raya holidays, i came back to Penang to attend my MD's father funeral on Mon, October 23, 2006. He passed away at a ripe age of 91!

No wonder, my MD at 60 years old is still strong and fit, it could be from the family gene! 

Nirwana Memorial Centre

On September 16, 2006, my daughter, Chong Ernni and i, paid our last respect to my TAR College coursemate, the late Adam Cheah at Nirvana Memorial Centre at Off Jalan Sungai Besi, Kuala Lumpur. Woh, the Centre is like a posh hotel, with lifts and grand lobby.

DOCFILES: Ms. Dewey, Please search me...

My doctor, mind you, he is also my PDA sifu! Beside prescribing me, medicine for my illness, he also takes care of my PDA problems.

Well, he always spot on for wonderful blog such as the above Ms Dewey.

I agree with you, doc, she is such a sexy and cute! I don't mind her searching me also. Guess, what is the answer for my first search question, "Are you married, Ms Dewey?"

Well, she is married to Microsoft

Missing Blog in September

There were so many events happened in September, but i was not free to blog. Well as usual the blame is on work. September is always the busy month for me as I need to finalise the audited accounts, preparation of the annual report and the annual general meeting and etc. I'm working in a plc!

I am also blaming on my blogging equipment, i.e the digital camera and notebook. As my family is staying in Ipoh, they have recently indulged in taking digital photos, especially my daughter, Ernni! So i, left the digital camera with her for her usage. The other blogging gadget is the notebook. My Ipoh house computer was burnt out! and i have gave my personal Toshiba notebook to them for their usage. You know, my wife and my son, Ernnes, can't live without playing computer games!

I know when i take up the challenge to write the blog, i should be consistent. I promised myself that i will try to blog every week, but later procrastinated to once a month! Ok, hopefully my determination power is still strong and will still contribute my nonsense blog to all my faithfull readers!

Riding Horses @ Ipoh Equestrian Club

September 24, 2006, the Ipoh Equestrian Club hold their annual open house whereby the public is allowed to visit the club located at Ipoh Turf Club. There were pony and horse riding, equestrian competition and etc.

Ernni and Ernnes had their first experience in riding a horse! Hey, it is unfair! I've yet to ride a horse.

Chong Family

I went back to my hometown, Bidor, and took an old family photo in black and white for digitisation. The above is the final result. With the digital photo, i can post it here for remembrance and be shared by my other family members. Unfortunately, I can't recall the date when this photo was taken but I know i'm just a little boy.

Graduation Nite

My youngest son, Chong Myson, graduation nite on September 17, 2006 at Politeknik Ungku Omar. He will be in Standard One next year! Until today, i have yet to spot him on this photo. Do you agree with me that all uniformed kids are lookalike.

The passing away of a TAR College mate

On September 15, 2006, one of my college mate from TAR College passed away. Adam Cheah, the Chief Agency Officer (Central & East Malaysia) of Prudential Assurance Malaysia, passed away and leaving behind his wife, Lee Ru Pyn, sons Bryan Cheah (aged 8) and Edric Cheah (aged 7).

My deepest condolence to the family of Adam Cheah.

He was my Diploma in Commerce (Business Management) classmate and one of the active boy involved in sports and outdoor activities!

Adam, on behalf of all our TAR College classmate, we will definitely miss you.

Workaholics

As extracted from an article on workaholic, "Death in the office" by Emilie Filou published in the World Business (Issue 4, July-August 2006) in association with INSEAD (The Business School for the World) :-

WHAT IS A WORKAHOLIC?

Common myths
- workaholics are always working (many are chronic procrastinators);
- workaholism affects only high-powered executives;
- it's only stress and can be 'managed' with stress-reduction techniques;
- no one has ever died of hard work;
- workaholism is profitable for corporations;
- workaholism is a positive addiction; and
- workaholics are super-productive!

Hmm. those are my thinking of a workaholic, anyway........

Actual characteristics
- multiple addictions;
- denial i.e first defence of any addictive process;
- self-esteem issues;
- dishonesty i.e exaggerated achievements and minimised failures;
- inability to relax;
- obsession i.e life centres around work; and
- isolation i.e no life outside work!

In both China and Korea, there are now words for 'death by overwork', guolaosi and gwarose, respectively. In US, workaholism has been recognised as a form of 'obsessive-compulsive behaviour' and in Japan, 'karoshi' is thought to kill nearly 1,000 people a year!

I am a workaholic! a phrase to describe 'addicted to work'! All workaholics work towards rewards except me. I am working in a listed Company and I am holding the most senior position. So there is no chance of me being promoted. While for monetary rewards, I do not expect any at the moment due to the Company is in the red for the past few years.

What am I doing now to my addiction and being burned (burn-out) alive? Hopefully, the wake-up call is not from my family problems!

View of my Penang Apartment

Penang Apartment
Originally uploaded by See Teck.

This is a 'rainy-night' view of my 32-storey apartment block where I am staying in Penang, Malaysia. I am staying at a 3-rooms unit at the 28th floor.

I used to be afraid of height but I'm almost cure.

Scary View

Cloudy Day
Originally uploaded by See Teck.

This is a scary view from the balcony of my Penang apartment. Don't know whether there is any alien spaceship hiding beneath the dark cloud.

My Children @ Polo Ground

My Children
Originally uploaded by See Teck.

My children, Ernnes & Ernni, enjoying themselves at the playground

Polo Ground @ Ipoh

Polo Ground @ Ipoh
Originally uploaded by See Teck.

When i am back to Ipoh on weekend, I'll bring my wife & kids to the Polo Ground, for Sunday morning exercise. The park is a popular place for Ipoh folks to relax and exercise. Music blasting throught out the park courtesy of Majlis Perbandaran Ipoh. They also organise group aerobic every Sunday morning.

I'm on 3G Now

Sony Ericsson
Originally uploaded by See Teck.

On a spur of the moment, I decided to upgrade my Sony Ericsson K700i hand phone to K610i, a 3G phone.

As a matter of record, I'm on 3G with effect from Wed, August 16, 2006. My first video call was to my lawyer friend, Parmjit Singh!

The different between a 2G & 3G phone is that on a 2G phone you put it near to your ear and speak, while for a 3G phone, you speak to the phone... Take some time to get use to it.