中秋节快乐！我几时可以搬家呢？

Yesterday was 中秋节, and thanks to our "friends" in Indonesia, it was a very hazy day. The visilibility dropped significantly, thus I can't even see the 月亮! Air quality was also bad, I think I can smell the haze, and it's actually causing some uneasiness to my respiration. These inconsiderate, unscrupulous people are really ticking me off. Is the Indonesian government so incompetent? Or are they simply ignorant? Give me an army, and I'll conquer that country and put an end to this once and for all.

Anyway, I didn't end up carrying the lantern and walk around my Taman, just went for badminton, sent my dirty clothes to the dobi shop, quick dinner, and also spent some quality time chatting online and not so fruitful time playing games online. I slept around 3am I think after reading a little bit more of 倚天屠龙记 by 金庸.

I woke up around 8:30am today morning. You must be wondering.. "You're not working, why are you getting up so early, crazy ar you?" No... I'm not crazy, and it was not for exercise. I made an appointment to meet up with the developer's site supervisor and contractor for my new house at 9am. Please take note of the time... 9AM October 7, 2006.

I waited... it was 9:30AM, no one showed up, not even the site supervisor. The contractor's an uneducated retard, so I give him a little bit more allowance. (Ok, that may sound a little too harsh, but I'm not exaggerating at all, and I'm not repentent for saying that!) Why? Because the first time I met him, not only was he rude to me (who's the customer), but also say silly things like "We have different level of education, so I don't want to waste my time talking/explaining to you, blah blah blah..." Oh give me a break, and be reasonable. It doesn't matter if a person has little or no education, but it's all about the attitude and mindset. The fact that he promised to be onsite at 9am, but did not without explanation or proper notification, just goes to show his character and values (none I believe). 华人最讲信用，他连这么基本的做人道理也不会，那不是丢了我们华人的脸，也枉称为人!

Anyway, I was disappointed because the site superviror's no where to be seen! I called him, and he said that he's on the way. Why does Malaysians have to be like that? Don't they know anything about accountability? I think this is why Malaysia's so slow in developing and catching up with other developing nation... Mindset, and attitude! If you say 9am, be there at 9am, not 9:30, 10, 10:30am, or worst.. FFK! If you can't make it on-time, CALL to inform others that you'll be late, don't let people just wait for you unknowingly. That's very irresponsible, and rude! Especially if the people waiting for you are your customers!

The site supervisor showed up round 9:40am, but the contractor's still nowhere to be seen. I waited, and waited, and waited... By 11:15am, I gave up. I called up the developer's manager and expressed my utmost dissatisfaction, and wanted a satisfactory explanation/follow-up to today's situation. Failing which, I'll hold the developer accountable as well, cause I can only assume that they accept the contractor's behavior by condoning his actions, or they simply do not care about customer's interests, despite promising during sales that any defects will be taken care of promptly.

The reason why I'm waking up early to deal with these unhonorable people is because I've been delayed from moving into my new house for 2 months because of the contractor's incompetency in fixing the defects that I've identified in my new house. They claim that the defects have been fixed, but everytime I check, they're still there! Makes me wonder if they're just giving me lame excuses and trying to ignore me; trying to delay as much as they could until I'm worn out, and say to them "Ok... give me the keys, I'll fix the problem on my own, and on my own expense! Please.. oh please give me the keys, I beg you... Oh developer. I know I've paid RM200K for this, and I'm the customer, but I beg you... please... give me the keys... give me my precious...." Duh........ Customer service anyone?

Anyway, I've given them an ULTIMATUM. I want my keys this Monday, I don't care if the problems are not fixed. I'll fix them, and they'll pay for them. Failing which, I'll make sure they understand that ONE angry customer would tell 10 friends that their houses are bad, and 10 friends would tell 10 friends, 10x10x10... You get the idea....

Hopefully this would pressure them into doing something meaningful to solve my problems, and let me move in soon!! Anyway, enough about that. Let me end with some nice quotes on 中秋节 that I found on the web:

• 悠悠的云里有淡淡的诗，淡淡的诗里有绵绵的喜悦，绵绵的喜悦里有我轻轻的问候，中秋快乐!
• 年年圆满如意，月月事事顺心，日日喜悦无忧，时时高兴欢喜，刻刻充满朝气，月圆人圆花好，事顺业顺家兴！
• 秋夜，秋风，中秋月。天明，月亮，汝更靓。秋风月，中秋夜，思乡切。
• 网缘！情缘！月圆！中秋夜语寄相思，花好月圆情难圆。带去问候和思恋，心想事成愿缘圆。
• 海上明月共潮生，千里相思随云去，遥寄祝福千万缕，化作清风入梦里。中秋快乐！
• 清风带去我的祝福，明月捎走我的问候，送你一丝风儿，赠你一缕月儿，风月无边，人间有情，中秋快乐
• 秋江潮水连海平，海上明月共潮生，花好月圆人团聚，祝福声声伴你行。祝你中秋愉快,靓丽一生!

Eventful Weekend

I decided to travel back to Klang with my friends last weekend as I had not been back for 3 weeks. The trip back to Klang was rather "short" because I slept in the car for pretty much the whole trip. I didn't do much Friday night because my buddy's too tired, and was occupied with "Black Hawk Down." Nonetheless, I managed to spend some quality time with my family members.

Saturday was quite an eventful day. The first thing I did after waking up is to go play with Jaynie, my cute baby niece. The angelic smile on her face when she saw me was just PRICELESS. Her smile and enthusiasm in her small little cradle just made the trip back even more worthwhile than it already was. I spent quite some time with Jaynie before going to my PC and print out the music sheet for Yiruma's "Kiss The Rain" (a really nice piano piece). I tried to play the piece through once, but boy was it hard. The notes in the "Kiss The Rain" were so high up (several octaves higher than usual) that I had difficulty reading the notes, as I don't usually play those notes in a normal piano piece. What to do? I've gotten rusty, so had to get a pen and write down the alphabet for the notes, C, D, E, F, G, .... After some extra effort, I managed to play the piece once through, though with many unnecessary pauses and hitting the wrong notes. The only comfort that I had was, I'd only get better the next time I play it.

After having some homemade yam cake, I rushed for Young Adult Fellowship at Jason's place. The meeting was pretty casual. Jason threw a thought for discussion on what it means to live a joyful life to all the Young Adults. We shared, and discussed about the topic for the next hour or so. Jason shared about his ordeal in Vietnam. I shared about how I bumped into this Hispanic ex-motorcycle gang member who claimed that he had turned over a new leaf, and made me part with USD80 when I was on business trip in US. Uncle Beng also shared very very briefly how he parted with some money and still trying to get it back. I don't think I'll elaborate further just in case Auntie Alice so happens bump into my blog. Hehehe.... =P

The YAF meeting ended around 12:30pm. I had to rush to Subang Jaya for the capoeira class in Celebrity Fitness. It was already 1:00pm by the time I reached CF, and the class had started. Nonetheless, I jumped right in and learned some new capoeira moves. Still find it amusing that those aunties who're well over 40 trying really hard to execute those capoeira moves requiring much agility and nimbleness. I spent about 2.5 hours in the gym before heading home to help out with babysitting Jaynie.

I've got to admit, babysitting a newborn is seriously a mega difficult task. If Jaynie's sleeping soundly or behaving all's good and well. However, if she starts crying, the headache and frustration starts. Reason being, you can't really figure out if she really needs something like food/drink, diaper change, sleep, pacifier, etc, OR... she's simply trying to be difficult or naughty. Yes, baby can be naughty and throw tantrums also. If she cries because she needs something taken care of, it is still manageable. However, the latter is harder, because you'll have to carry her around until she's sleepy, or satisfied, whichever comes first. Else, you'll have to carry her around for hours. You must be wondering, why not just put her down? Of course I tried that, but she would start crying instantaneously, how interesting...

Saturday night was pretty quiet, went for Mamak with my buddy WT, and played online game for the rest of the night. I also received news from dear gnelia that she's been elected as the VP of her YM. Was happy for her and promised to buy her a nice lunch/dinner, even if it meant that I had to wash plates to pay for it. =P We decided to have lunch the next day at Central.

After Sunday Worship, met up with Gnelia at Central for lunch. I was prepared to buy her an expensive lunch. However, she was not feeling too well, so she only ordered Seafood porridge and a cup of drink. I on the other hand, ordered the cheese rice which is twice more expensive than the porridge. Silly me... I was supposed to buy her an expensive lunch, not myself. We had an enjoyable lunch together before parting. She had to rush back for a badminton game, and a wedding dinner at night. I went back and helped babysit Jaynie a little before getting ready to travel back to Kulim.

The travel back to Kulim wasn't too bad, slept a little, and chatted with my friends to help ease the 5-hour journey. Reached Kulim around 11pm, and cleaned up a little before heading to bed. There goes my weekend... Another week awaits me, will the annoucement be made this week? Will my counterparts survive the onslaught of the efficiency exercise? Or rather, will I be one of the unlucky ones? Only God knows, and I'll leave it to Him...