Last night I had a dream about you, and in this dream I'm dancing right beside you

The thing is, my company has always had overseas annual trip/dinner, but due to the economic condition, we have decided that we should do it within the country. The only problem is, I don't understand why it has to be in Melaka. My home town. The place I least want to be for an annual trip. The previous 2 years, they traveled to Phuket. Last year, they went to Bangkok. And this year. Melaka! I thought to myself; "from an international flight downgraded to express bus". I wouldn't even mind flying on air asia or jetstar or anything for that matter!

Ok, enough with complaining. The trip was good actually. And in fact, I enjoy becoming a tour guide, something I always wanted to do although I am not good at it.

All of us, (my boss did not approve of my request to drive back to melaka) boarded the bus down to Melaka, listening to the official tour guide talking about Melaka along the way and pronouncing entourage as "and-too-rage" and we stepped down at a local merchant square here local products are being sold, a place that I have never stepped into. After about 20 minutes we proceeded to our hotel for check in and went for lunch.

And let me skip the talks and team building as it is something that happens in every annual trip or dinner in every country. So we proceeded to dinner, where everyone was clad in cowboy attires and our very enthusiastic MCs did the utmost impressive job in keeping the audience entertained and my role in handling part of the PA system and the impromptu MC-ing part. We also had a damn good performance by our entertainer, Mr Lenard Tan who cracked some of his witty, political and satirical jokes like how he explained that "a few sodomy cases have been transfered to the traffic department for 'illegal entry' and how "Yo, what's up, bro?" got translated badly in subtitles into "yo, apa naik, abang?" among many others.

It was one of our colleagues birthday after 12am, so I, as the Melakan, who is not the one celebrating my birthday, brought the crowd of 15-20 people to the nearest cafe which was closed, so we walked to another one which was nearby. The only problem was, the Director wanted to buy all of us wine, but it wasn't available. I could only think of a club: Pure Bar, and headed there. Fortunately, the live band was good and they served wine.

And then the managers and Directors partied. That was the highlight, as you see them party hard, the part you never get to see in office, but nevertheless, they are really fun and laidback people to mix with! We all partied till the wee hours of 3am

Ok, I was thinking alot about the trip the night before and the preparation of the event as I was part of the committee of the event. So I guess, putting it into priority for the night before kinda left the other priorities on a lower position which I am really sorry for doing it.

But like they say, we learn from mistakes and mistakes are never intentional, otherwise it would be called bad intentions. I'm doing all I can to make ends meet too, and as they say, with great power comes great responsibility, to be able to talk with someone as far as 10,000km or more, means that I have to sacrifice two bowls of Wanton Noodles, I'm willing to go to that length to get !! Thanks Jerm and Sharon for the Bluetooth (Butut) Headphones!

I apologize for my wrong doings na!

Pics

(l-r): Yan Sean, Eileen, Aina, Rosalind, Farrah, Jessica and Tiffany

Wingman - Winglady

The fantastic new company t-shirts

Farrah and Aina

We always think that Rosalind and I forms KLCC while Shino always comes in between as the bridge on the 44th level and since Ian comes into the picture, I've decided to name him the maxis building! LOL!

What a catch...

Last valentine's day, I received a parcel containing a DVD among a few other items. It is a movie entitled "Sliding Doors" which I decided to watch the monday after, after it was recommended to me. It stars gwyneth paltrow and john hannah, revolves around the life of Gwyneth paltrow, at that particular moment, what would happen next should she missed/taken the train back home. The movie is set in 2 parallel universes, the consequence of the train incident.

It has always been a question in one's mind as to what would happen if do/don't do something. Correct me if I'm wrong; we always think "oh if only I didn't mark "A" on the exam sheet" or "If only I sms-ed her" cos we always contemplate about our decisions. And this movie explains it in the perspective of Gwyneth Paltrow's life after the train incident.

The story line moves about a-la Robert Frost's The road not taken. As much as we would imagine but will never realize what would happen, obviously because time moves forward and not backwards, this movie brings us through at its best gwyneth paltrow's parallel universe and the different people she will meet and end up with. Well unless we venture into rocket science, i guess its hard for us to reconcile the events in both universes. But Gwyneth Paltrow certainly gave a stellar performance in her effort to make ends meet in both universes while john hannah played the love interest who would be her lover only if she did not miss the train.

The ending in both universes were really soothing, in the line where she missed the train, she eventually met John Hannah, whom she quoted his favourite phrase and sort of sparked a dejavu (of the other universe). In the other universe, John Hannah promised happiness to her all his life.

The funny and interesting moral of the movie is IMHO, that while some things are meant to be known, some things are not, sometimes, no matter what happens to us, it will lead to the same consequences.

Just like the Bangkok incident.

***

This may sound funny to you, but there is a guy in facebook, with the screen name Ryan Lee, who uses my photo on his profile. I was informed about this by my gym mate, who told me she received a message from me but with a different name. I told her I go by Julian Chow and not any name and that my profile pic is a caricature of myself. She said she remember seeing my picture of me holding a guitar and got me curious.

She showed me and to my dismay, he has not only one, but a whole bunch of my photos in his profile photos, which I could clearly identify they come from my friendster page. The saddest thing about this is: He has MORE friends than I do. Now everyone in the gym calls me Ryan Lee.
Ok, this issue needs to be addressed as I am Julian Chow and not Ryan Lee! Damn it! Now I can call someone a freaking Poseur! Hah!

If he/she happens to be your friend, please on behalf of me, ask why this is happening. Thank you!

***

Sunday is the day we decided to have home cooked dinner session every weekend we're around. And Feb 15 2009 marks the day, the Bros decided to have the first cooking session, Jamie oliver style.

FD complimenting his own cooking

But what can I say? It's a job well done and we're proud!

Jules: "Shit, before you take the photos, better look around if anyone is looking. They would think we're crazy taking photos while taking turns to cook
FD: "Yeah, and they must think 'what are those two idiots doing so excited about cooking?', they have already cooked for so long they can't be bothered anymore and these two guys are enjoying and taking photos??"

A few things about doing charity


Just my two cents on the aforementioned subject. I'd also like to know what are your thoughts on that.

Not too long ago, I have had this conversation about giving donations to the needy. I've always been a firm believer that charity always starts from home and that if you can't even do good for your family, there is no reason to practice charity outside of home. Especially if it involves money.

For one, I believe many charity bodies are syndicates. Or. They may be asking for donations from the masses but only a portion of the donated amount goes to charity. If this fact is not stated clearly, then it is obviously a scam. No matter how much a personnel can verify that he/she is legit, how many of us will take the effort to actually go to the authorities to verify the body? Plus, how would our actions be reflected by the society if the body is in fact a legit one? (This is one reason I could come up with among a few others).

As I have mentioned, only a certain amount of the donation would go to proceeds to raise funds of a certain cause. I've experienced going through a campaign that involves driving donations through purchases in malls (involves buying a recyclable shopping bag, in which a certain amount of the purchase will go to a charity body), so I certainly can assure you, not much of your money actually goes through charity. In other words, if the donation drive is not highly publicized in the media, chances are you may be giving money to people for free.

Thirdly, I certainly do not support charity bodies that offer an exchange that does not have any impact towards our donation, for instance, like giving pens or handicrafts. Just thinking about it, if they could offer say with RM10 of donations, you will get a book about recycling, a small biodegradable bottle, recyclable shopping bag, charity themed t-shirt would mean much more to your RM10 (or RM20 for that matter) than getting useless exchange that serves no purpose. PLUS, would you pay RM10 for a pack of 3 lousy pens that may not even work when you use them, or handicrafts that wouldn't even end up at any places in your home to be displayed. Make sense? moreover, we're all moving towards a greener generation, so why offer useless exchanges? The fact is, they may as well be rip offs.
In order to gain more margin from your donation, they spend on less cost, but at the same time disguise as though you're getting something back from your sincere donation.

I am strongly against monetary donation. Coming from a poor man's perspective, my money is hard earned and it only serves for one purpose, which is for what I want to do with it only. I think buying a meal for a friend or family means more than donating money to a body you may never be sure if it is real or not. I only believe in donating in the form of goods. Just like how monks will not accept money as offering, I, too believe this should be the way. I agree with cleaning the old folks' home, i believe in helping to paint the orphanage, I believe in donating blood, I believe in donating organs, I believe in running for charity among other hundreds or thousands of people. But never will I donate money for pens or handicrafts.

I never felt good donating money while I'm eating in a coffee shop or restaurant. I would not say I feel bad either. I always have that mixed emotion when I do donate to a claimed to be valid charity body (feeling if it was right or stupid doing so). But everytime I go to a hospital to donate blood I always feel nothing else short of great.

And just another note, welcome to the society of take but never give. Go to a hospital and you'll see. The Blood bank is the only department in the hospital where you don't have to queue up and wait for your turn.

***

25 Random Things You May Not Know About Me (Tagged by Rosalind)

1. I hate my skinny chicken legs
2. I wish Bangkok is just a stone's throw away
3. I enjoy staying at home alone on weekdays night
4. I enjoy doing stupid things like learning the nunchucks, juggling oranges, rubik's cube; for the sake of impressing people and showing that I'm better than you! yes! you!
5. I am obsessed with crossfit
6. I believe in god in times of trouble
7. I think i can't sing better than i did last time
8. I like/hate people at first glance, and most of the time, i'm right about it
9. I'm obsessed with abs workouts.
10. is an ah beng at heart
11. Loves timepieces
12. I have many best friends. Best friends are what you expect of them to be not what everyone expects them to be.
13. I want to have a chubbier face but with the same body
14. I do not usually have supper
15. I do not usually have deep fried food. Chicken skin will go to rosalind or my mom
16. I have to listen to music to sleep
17. I wanna go to bali!
18. I have the worst sense of direction
19. I start to like britney since toxic (she's a comeback queen ok?)
20. I only play on hard mode in guitar hero
21. I'm an impulse spender
22. I hope everyone starts exercizing
23. I hope there are no deep fried food
24. I hope I can be famous
25. I always hope

***

I am glad to be part of pushmore and I have always been proud and honoured that I am one of the few guys to be in the muscle up club. To be honest, crossfit has always been providing me new challenges to face and keeps me going in life. We are human beings, specifically male human beings. We are the kind of creature who find satisfaction in achievement. Even in cooking. If you could cook a damn good meal, it would be something to be proud of. And for me, winning challenges is what keeps me going. I.e muscle ups, bar muscle ups, one arm push up, jerks, double unders, that's the beauty of crossfit, it puts your body to the test. So everyday after a stressful day at work, I just let loose and go to the gym and start the other part of my life where I find things to achieve. I did not use to be that last time.

See, when you change a goal of something similar, it will become a totally different thing. Like how going to a normal gym is so different from training at pushmore. Like how parkour aims at the flashiest way of moving around obstacle, Free running aims at moving around obstacle in the fastest way. Which is why setting the right goals for yourself is important to help you achieve it. Make sure you have a reason to do something, and you are clear about it.

***

Dear all of yous, Happy Valentine's day, and I hope you guys have a good one this year. Although I could not celebrate it this year due to a limitation, nevertheless, the advancement of technology these days have been a great help for me this Valentine's day. Enjoy!!