Hellish workshop

The workshops begun this morning and all hell break loose on the first day. With twenty mouths talking, arguments within internal members itself and some who seem too eager to leave the room, there is just no way you can get your mind straight and feel all spiffy. What got me gobsmacked is the ability of some who can spit out utter garbage in tremendously huge pile, fast and continuous that the tormenting minutes turns out at the end to be 'I don't know. I will get back to you'. What is wrong with this numbskull. Shut the hell up and let's get this moving would ya?

Materials are being prepared on the fly rushing for the impossible. Productivity is on it's highest so far. So much accomplished in such a meagre amount of time, you would not believe it is done by three instead of a legion of army. There is no room for a short fix of anything. This week I think will be the hardest and longest. However, as far as I am concerned, the hardest is yet to come.

30 random notes

I was attempting the 100 things about myself sort of post. However, it has been excrutiating trying to figure out things to write. Hence, I have decided on a 30 item list instead. In no particular order:

1. I seem to be having a constant pensieve mood on a regular basis.

2. My fear of height escalates especially when I look upwards rather than downwards.

3. I like Jazz for it's complexity and perhaps because I can never master understand it.

4. I like the piano for it's immaculate image and somewhat raw, honest and genuine tone.

5. I believe there is no shortcut in learning something valuable, it has to go through some hardship like the old saying "no pain, no gain".

6. I tend to always sleep on the left side of the bed, that is the edge being on my left.

7. I have always dislike sweets, chewing gum and mints and still do.

8. My father is not a man with many words but he often left me awestruck by his wisdom and insight.

9. I have a problem of being articulate particularly when I am nervous.

10. Most often, I would tend to speak in Cantonese but I can only write in English. I only speak Hakka to my family.

11. I think people with a sense of humour are a intelligent lot.

12. I picked up guitar when I was in UK which is rather funny because before that, I was not able to play it in Malaysia albeit many attempts in trying to learn it including learning from my bandmates.

13. I used to play in a 5 piece amateur band before as the vocalist / keyboardist. We are kinda crap as a band but I truly enjoyed the years of playing in it.

14. I used to place my keyboard on an ironing board back then during practise.

15. I enjoy and fancy tea.

16. Sad to say, I do not possess any athletic talent.

17. I do not read books. I have stop reading any non academic books since Charlie and the chocolate factory (which was around 1992 when I read it) but I think I will begin to.

18. I almost always order Double cheese Burger whenever I visit McDonalds.

19. Rock and acoustic genre appeals to me in a huge way.

20. I simply adore live rock band and acoustic performances.

21. I am a virgo and I believe I have a lot of the virgo traits.

22. Slugabed, I am.

23. I find it hard to be amused by comedy shows, let alone laughing out loud from it.

24. I began wearing glasses in the year 2003. Goddamn. That was when I realised I can't read the road signboards while driving until I practically reached it.

25. One of my favourite magazines is Asiaweek. Unfortunately they have terminated the publications many years back.

26. More often than not, Coke will be my default soft drink.

27. I hate strawberries, nangkas, kiwis and yoghurts with a passion.

28. I seldom drive without having at least the radio being switched on.

29. I find it hard to relate to people who does not share my sardonicism.

30. I am messy and lazy when there is a leeway to do so.

Arabic calligraphy

I am back from a short hiatus due to the Eid holidays. We get 6 off days in Bahrain.

Well, 6 days isn't really that short. However, I did not get to do and go around much in this so called respite moments. Most of the time were spent working on materials for the upcoming workshops. It seems to me, the abundance of details to cover this time is of another level altogether. Fortunately Tailou has been a great help in sharing a portion of the dreaded load. On top of all, clients were asking for a complete production line to be set up. As luck would have it, after an initial round of testing, it occurs to me many fixes here and there would need to be carried out for this to happen and personally I am not optimistic about the whole thing.

I did manage to visit one new place though. Of all places, my colleagues and I visited the Ahmed Al Fateh mosque. Yeah you did not read it wrongly. Tailou coaxed us to pay a visit there as there was an event or shall I meekly term it as an open house. As soon as we arrived and got the car nicely parked, we took some pictures and gosh, the mosque is darn huge. Those sand stones of the building blocks are humongous. Meanwhile, Tailou entertained himself by taking shots of islamic geometric motifs. As we enter the mosque itself, we were greeted by an American Muslim known as Quori and he was the guide for us around the mosque. As we enter the vast main prayer hall, the plush carpet and the lightings caught hold of my sight. The oversized incandescant chandelier residing in the main prayer halls weighs 2 freaking tons, I was told. It was a pretty captivating sight I must say. Dazzlingly alluring. The guide told us that the only Bahraini thing about the mosque is probably the construction of the dome and some wood carvings. All others were practically imported from foreign countries namely the Scottish mat across the main prayer hall, the Italian marbles all over the building so much so they are everywhere your sight can reach and the enchanting French chandelier provided that I remember correctly.



One of the itenary was free writing of your name in arabic calligraphy. And voila, this is how my name looks like in Arabic calligraphy.

After the departure of a lofty colleague back to Malaysia for good (no pun intended, tongue in cheek takes place though), the apartment now is very quiet. At some point I would almost term it as serene. The mood now is blithe and sometimes I wonder if I am in a reverie.

On another more happier note, my flight back to KL is on the 2nd of February. Yay!

I sometimes wonder whether or not being reticent conforms to the society norms.

You know you are in Bahrain when

You know you are in Bahrain when:

1. You are expected to step on the gas immediately or at least show signs you are about to, that is by releasing the brake pedal when the traffic light begins to turn yellow prior to green. Otherwise, you'll get a courtesy pat at the back that comes in the form of honking which could very well leave you all huffed up and subconsciously spark some silent cursing towards the direction of the drivers behind as for the reflex lag acknowledgement.

2. Besides Arabic and English language, you hear Malayalam being spoken a lot.

3. All restaurants typically cater arabic, western, indian, thai and chinese food albeit the taste are strongly localised or shall I say indian-ized.

4. Almost all restaurants like those described in number 3 offers free delivery to homes and offices because either Bahrainis are just too lazy to get their asses out to the restaurants or the exhorbitant prices charged justified themselves for the delivery and therefore we must as well enjoy the service.

5. Tap water are tinged with hint of saltiness.

6. Tasteless raw water are known as sweet water.

7. You see cars parked beside a roundabout or on top of a roundabout.

8. Traffic lights that are knocked down silly by cars are a common sight.

9. The frequency of car honks on a street such as Exhibition Avenue are akin to a morse code transfer in process.

10. The people here obviously have either only one pair or many pairs of the exact same uniform in their closet. This applies to both gender and at any time of the day.


*disclaimer - Content represented here shall be taken as fictional or of the author's opinion only. The author shall not be liable for any aggravation resulted from reading this blog.

Quote of the day

He is a Mutawa. Tailou invented a new noun yesterday that sent all of us into boisterous laughter. Basically he modelled this term from the characteristics of the Project Director here who gave him the inspirations to do so.

"If you don't like someone just say, he is a Mutawa"

Mutawa
n

1. One who is long winded and uses too many unnecessary words to convey his or her message/point.
2. One who is generally considered as irksome.

2004 in retrospect

Time to jot memoirs of 2004. This is to the beginning of 2005.

Celebrated the eve of entering year 2004 in hooligan packed streets around Times Square. Celebration involved suffocation of foam sprays sold by lalachais and enduring traffic jam madness. Concluded the night by proceeding to Bar Med to booze the year out.

Most of my friends, particularly my university mates are now working. A great majority in the IT industry while others are in a wide variety of jobs and businesses ranging from selling second hand cars to insurance, butchery to improper medicine, owners of a mobile phone shop, street wear boutique, graphic design studio and probably an upcoming performance tuning garage.

No more pressure from studies but instead from work. Learnt that debugging can totally vexed me to hell. Patience is the most needed virtue in any programmer. Frustration is the most likely virtue of any programmer. Learnt that front end applications are major bitches as they keep changing.

Had a friggin weird lunch with Gimli. The double chicken rice shops. That was quirky.

Work tasks have shifted towards a different domain, namely documentation and testing. Have been putting programming to rest for many months now and I didn't regret one bit of it. It seems though that, even now it is still changing.

Met her. So sweet. I'm lost for words.

My blog is now a year older.

Blacked out from boozing and required help from friends to drag my ass back. Consequently, have had a major hangover that lingers on till the afternoon of the following day. The K kills. Nuff said.

Never had the faintest idea that I will be working in Bahrain for a considerable period of time. Had a shock then but all sank in now. Learnt that every event has a double edge effect to it and I should weigh things more optimistically. Anyhow, here I am to usher the new beginning.

Celebrated 2005's New Year's eve by sleeping, still in Bahrain, I am.

*translation:
lalachais = Ah Bengs

Quote 119

I just noticed that I was quoted in Rice Bowl Journals, Consider Yourself Quoted Project.