McDonald's Latest Promo - Gold Medal Meal

It has been 1-2 years since I saw McDonald came up with an interesting gift or collectable item. I still remembered the first time McDonald came up with its teddy bears collection. I think there was 60 of differently dressed bear. I kept it till this very day. Now that I have my own place, I'm going to display it soon. Got to buy a wooden display case first. Have to be custom-made to fit my style.



Talking about McDonald's latest promotion, the Gold Medal meal that comes with a coca-cola glass with embossed sport graphic is quite nice. I'm a coca-cola fan and collector so I'm overjoy with this promotion. I don't think it comes free though, bet the cost is already in the meal we pay. There are 5 sport design glasses to choose from. My personal favourite is the volleyball. I hope I can collect 1-2 of it but don't think I can afford to eat Mcdonald everyday to collect all 5 glasses. Hmmm...unless my colleagues is willing to eat the meal and I get the glass. That would be owesome.



It's great that the tied the promotion to Spicy Chicken McDeluxe meal because it's my favourite now. Each time I go to McDonald, there are already pre-ready so I think there're a lot of customers who like Spicy Chicken McDeluxe too. I ate it as it is without the chilli source and the taste is nice. It doesn't has much of the greassy taaste of deep fried. So psychologically it feels healthier...LOL. The burger comes with quite an amount of cabbage (well, the outlet at my area does). Most important of all, it doesn't have pickles. I hate pickles. Each time I buy burger at burger king, I have to hand-pick the pickles out before I eat my burger.

Furious Friday, Wind down Weekend and Moody Monday

Last Friday ended furiously. Well, it was me feeling furious as a manager. Having open system sometime comes with over-do staff. We are now in our super peak production time where my department has to paginate and finalise the publishing of our 7 books. The sales closed was 30th June and we had parts of the books that required manual pagination. It means designers have to layout the advertisements and information manually using Adobe Indesign. Each year, we would improvise our books to stay on top of competitions. However, it has been a month since sales closed yet I haven't seen the first draft of the manual pagination. My concern that what happened last year will repeat. When things take own sweet rim to complete until last minutes, there're practically no QC. Remember I work in a very less than dynamic company here. They can't think fast enough or adapt to changes quickly. They follow a routine of over 10 years. You give them something new, they take at least 2-3 years to adapt and familise. Sometimes it's more than 2 years because they rememeber the process in first and second year but forget in the third year!

Well, to minimise the incredible high errors rate. What made me hit the roof was to found out listing that were suppressed yearly for the last 2 years, was forgot to suppressed and the data entry staff fail to noticed it during their few rounds of amendments and checking. IT doesn't know how to automate the suppress headings yearly or their routine task during production. Everything has to be remind and highlight and inform. As for the manual pagination, I have to prepare the arrangement since the department in charge has no head and the managers refuse to take the responsibilities and play dumb. No choice but I need the first draft to visualise the whole book and so I can move the pages around to revealed which section and page comes first. 1 month and all i see every day in the tray are the cover pages of the books. The staff goes home early but I seen nothing. I questioned my CD about it. He has this stupid habit of sour-face and angry each time his mistake was pointed out. That morning, some kind of 'draft' was out. But when I checked, it was just copied from last year version and changing the templates. When I told him that his team shouldn't take their own sweet time to finish the work. Some of the sections should have completed at least 2 weeks ago. That evening, his team rush to get the pages done and print out. My CD has the guts to say I 'cepat merajuk'. Am I a manager that doesn't allow to be angry or merajuk when team members make mistakes or very slow in their work? You answer.

I was in no mood for a outing with the team that Friday and went home early. I spent my weekend at home watching DVDs and went to Ikea. I bought the wrong series of Desperate Housewives :-( so I'll watch some of the episodes that I missed in season 3. I'm looking for season 4. Does anyone knows what season we are in for CSI LA and CSL NY? I'm a great fan. Besides that, I'm watching one of latest japanese hits anime. It comes in series so now is series 27-52. Yesterday, I went to Ikea due to the sales. I was quite dissapointed because the sales wasn't on the hot items. Only a few items usual were on sales like rugs, storage boxes, chairs, tables, photo frames etc. Even those are selected items only. Either way, I managed to buy a few stuff for my house. I finally got a contractor who will do my wall mount items from Ikea this weekend. What else, I bought more wall mount items yesterday and some more rugs for the floors. This weekend I need my apartment's cleaner to take away the boxes. Need to find him earlier.

Today I went to work feeling moody. Maybe I still carry the effects of last Friday. No choice, life goes on and I have to face the day the best I can. I don't like people to step my head when I'm nice and think they can get away without doing work or did a half cook work for me.

First we saw that food price multi-fold, now we allow bus fare to increase

RECAP
MIRI: There has been a multi-fold increase in prices of foodstuff and drinks in Sarawak after the fuel price increase two months ago. A random check showed that iced milo and iced lemon tea is now sold at RM2.30 a glass in some outlets compared to the previous price of RM1.50. The price of a bowl of wantan mee had also shot up. In some outlets, dry wanton mee is sold at RM4 compared to RM2.50 previously. A bowl of plain kolok mee is priced between RM2.50 to RM3 compared to RM1.70 before. A plate of economy rice (with two vegetables and one meat) now costs between RM4 and RM5. Only a handful of outlets are selling economy rice at RM3 to RM3.50, which is the old price. Prices of wet market products have also shot up. Pork costs RM15 per kg, an increase of RM3. Restaurants and high-class coffeeshops selling food with pork as its main ingredient have raised prices as well. A plate of char siew rice at a renowned coffeeshop near the city has increased from RM3.50 to RM5.

TODAY
Government says yes to bus fare hike
PUTRAJAYA: The Government has agreed to increase stage and express bus fares but has not decided on the quantum. Entrepreneur and Cooperative Development Minister Datuk Noh Omar said the new fares would be announced before Hari Raya in October. Noh, however, shot down the Pan Malaysian Bus Operators Association’s appeal for a 100% fare increase, saying it would be a great burden on the public.

...memorandum from the association was accepted during the National Inflation Council meeting chaired by the Prime Minister on Monday...“We understand their financial problem because prices of diesel, tyre and engine oil have gone up a few times since 2005, while fares have not increased,” he told reporters after presenting excellence award to 68 ministry staff here yesterday...“They said some buses do not want to operate during the festive season because it is only full for a one-way journey such as Kuala Lumpur to Johor and returns with fewer passengers,” he said. Among ideas the Government was studying to help prevent bus companies from incurring losses, particularly when running services to rural areas, was to issue permits for them to transport school children and factory workers...

My View
The global has seen a decrease in fuel prices but our country are not dynamic enough to adjust the fuel price accrodingly. Is it because of the subsidy that make the government having hard time to re-count? I'm sure a group of think-tank should come up with a formula in a short time, right? One after another, our salary has seen little change since the last few years. I understand that prices go up each year. Everything is more expensive compare to my grandparents time. But their increase seem to be in sync with their standard of living and cost of living at that time. Now that I'm an adult, why am I feeling differently?

Although my salary has double since my first job in 2000, but my spending power is lesser than what I have 5 years ago. My saving...well, I can't save anymore. Few years back, I can saved $500-600 a month. Now, my piggy bank is empty. By 3rd week of the month, balance at ATM is $20+. 4th week, skip lunch, eat instant noodles or break for dinner. On the 28th of the month, received my salary. That weekend, buy month groceries before I ran out of cash and buy few DVDs for my monthly entertainment. Comes 1st week of a new month, pay bills, credit cards, loans, rental etc and ATM remain $300-400 for the remaining of 1st week and the rest of 3 weeks. The reason why I spend on DVD is because when I have no money, I stay at home and watch old the DVDs. Value for money. When I watch in cinema, I pay $9 for a movie but if I buy DVDs I can watch it again after few months later. It's also a good gethering with friends over some light snack and we watch DVDs together. cheap and rewarding.

I just received my arrears due to me in my July's paycheck. With that is I cleared all my credit cards. Yup! all. I'm damm angry with the BNM rule of abolishing the 20 days interest free period for card holders who don't settle all their payment. I personally think that credit card are not much different than cash or debit card, I refuse to give BNM the pleasure of getting interest out of me. Now, if I don't have enough cash, I don't buy shoes, clothes, facial, books, etc. In fact, I tell the promoters that economic is pretty bad and I don't have money. When they say I can pay by credit cards or installment, I told them I have to limit my credit card use because of no more 20 days free interest if I owe the bank. I'm sure there are a lot of people out there who do the same. It can't be just me, right?

I even took the time on weekends to check what public bus goes to my place and where I can take one. So far I haven't found out the waiting time and traveling time. I bet it's not going to be on time (although I saw a notice board with time table of the buses). I bet the journey will be long due to the inifficient time table. I don't mind the many stops and jam. I can tolerate that because it's part of the journey. I took buses when I was in Melbourne, Sydney, Vancouver and Edmonton. There are all on time, some to the minutes and seconds. My wishful thinking that my country can be at par with them in the next 1-2 years.

Some Of My Furnitures

Some of the furnture I finally bought for my house. There's still more to go but I believe all the necessary items will be completed by end of August. After that, I can move in permanently. Hooray!!



After that, I don't have to trouble my friend whom I'm carpooling now. I felt guilty each time we are late to the office due to me. You see, my area is very jam and it took him at least 15 minutes to get in and out of there. Also, I don't have to tolerate with his temple when he's late.

Finally A Good Night Sleep After Great Massage

I was having body ache for the past few months and it became worse last month. I had to put some oilments on my whole back and hips before I can get some sleep at night. My body was full of 'wind' due to my working style. I face computer at least 9 hours a day in the office and sit at least 8 hours a day. Naturally, my muscles are all stress out and every inch of my body was aching to the max. I was reluctant to go for a traditional massage due to the economic situation at the moment. Money is hard to come by and with the inflation, what I earn now is not sufficient enough. I barely make it thought the month end so the 'wants' factor has to be postponed until economic gets better. Since January, I only spent on my 'needs'.

Yesterday, after receiving my salary, I decided to go for a traditional massage to clear the 'wind'. It costed $60 for an hour massage. Yup, it's expensive. That's the reason I don't go for my massage every month. People like me who face computer and sit at least 8 hours a day will absorb a lot of wind and electro-magnetic into our body. Ever had a static charge when you touch a door nob or your collegue? That's the result. It accumulates in your body and you ended up aching all over and having bad sleep nights. So, I went to the shop after work and the owner called the masseur. It was a small shop selling traditional beauty product and offer traditional treatments such as facial and massage. The massage service was sub-contract to a masseur. When the masseur arrived, we started my session. I later fround out her name was Ida.

I'm the type that can't exit wind on my own. So the masseur must be able to exit wind or else we'll both in pain later. I had so much wind in my body that each touch by Ida, she will burp. She burped all the way until we finihed our session. It felt like a frog singing for an hour. Her massage technique was different from the last masseur. She only massage the muscle points in my whole body. It wasn't that painful either. During the treatment, she told me she provide the service from her home at a cheaper price. $50 for 2 hours! Beat that. What else, I got her numbers and asked her where she lives. I was happy to hear that she lives near my office. Good, I can go for a monthly massage from next month onwards.

Last night, I slept like a dead pig. I think I dosed off by 9pm. When I woke up this morning, my eyes were puffy for the first time since a long time. I felt lighter and fresher too

Does Your Apartment Owner Ask For Rental Before End Of The Month?

Since I moved into a new place May, I find my main tenant will ask for rental before the time's up, before the due date - 30/31st of the month. The main tenant is a couple renting the apartment and sub-rent out 2 rooms. One is me and another to 2 working girls. Call me paranoid but I've been renting apartment for years and this is the first time I encounter such people. People who seems to chase for rental before the time's up. It's not even a delay. At first, I don't feel it but every month end I would receive sms like "pay rental on Thursday. TQ" or while I was cooking my instant noodles, the wife will asked me, "when you'll pay the rental?" I'm the kind of person who panic easily would immediately think, "have I forgot to pay my rental?" or "is it over 30th already already?" because my brain is a bit slower in processing data in panic state. Does anyone experience the similar owner like mine?

Well, I've decided that I will move out when I find a new room to rent at the apartment I stay. The good thing about my apartment is that it has a convenience store and normally tenants will post room for rent at the convenience store. Hopefully i will find something by next month so I can tell the couple I'm giving 1 month notice and I'm moving out. Hope luck is on my side.

Criminal Resort To Robbing Children's Home

What a world we live in. 3 Robbers robbed Rumah Kasih in SS3 in Petaling Jaya, leaving the children in fear and without mode of transport. What worse is that the robbers terrified the young girls with parang. One of the robbers put a parang at a 12-year-old's neck and demand money from the caretaker. What's valueable at an underprivileged girls home? Some of the children hid under their beds when they heard the commotion. In the end, they drove away the home's new van and the caretaker's thali.

Have our family institution fallen to such a low degree? Are we monitoring the incoming of immigrants and foreign workers? Is our system efficient enough to solve the crime? Do we have enough menpower to minimise the crime?

Somehow, I personally feel that we are too lenience when it comes to giving work visa or entry visa to foreigners. There are too many low skills or non-skill workers in our country. I believe with their education and family background, they are the highest group of robbers. Mostly robbers come from broken family, poor family, high school drop-outs or drug addicts. These group are really a pest to our country. Poor family won't remain poor forever if they are willing to help themselves. Giving execuses such as society don't help them is piece of crap. I don't get any help from anyone but I try my best in everything I do. If you don't have self movitation and drive, you can't acheive anything. Mostly, this group has major inferior complex issues. I'm not saying that all immigrants and foreign workers are criminal in the making. But due to majority of the snatch thieves, robbers are foreigners, I have little respect for them. I totally agreed with the large scale campaign to wipe out all illegal immigants from Sabah. Sabah and Labuan are at the worse stage already when it comes to illegal immigrants. I believe you also finf criminal on the run among them too. Governement doesn't has to be soft heart. Look at US and Australia, they are very strict with illegal immigrants. Malaysia should learn from them. I believe if we can kick out 50% of the ilegal immigrants and non-skilled foreign workers from our country, we will see a drop in snatch thieves and break-in cases. Someone we have to be cruel to save guard our home, our land.