Another Milestone for Melody

Today, Melody Choir successfully presented 2 new songs. It is the country premier for "Don't Worry about Tomorrow" taken from Heavenly Melody, and rearranged by yours truly for 2 voice and men. The other song was a Cantonese Song, song from a Cantonese series, and words by Mrs Foo. That would be a country and world premier. Then the 3rd song was "How Great Thou Art", which we have sang many times. Edwin did the videotaping and Tze Yoong took pictures. Yup, CSS, Tze Yoong, Min Khuan and Irene came to hear during the church service. After the church service, we proceed to RSGC for late lunch, where we chatted.

Do Your Homework First...

In anything we do, we should do our checkings, research or test first before doing something blindly. It could save us some embarassment and money.

I get many phonecalls from Banks offering Credit Cards or their services. One telemarketer from a particular bank called and offer a credit card. I told her I already have one. Why didn't the bank provide the telemarketers a list of people who are already their customers? Or why didn't they run the database list and cross check? Is it laziness? don't know how to use excel? or the bank has a lousy computer system? I am sure I am not the only one, and if the names could be eliminated, then the bank could save some money on phonecalls.

Same thing with Headhunters, the many Headhunters I know are very reactive. They wait for the sky to drop. They do not have the "oomp" to be proactive and check with their clients. One gave me a reply - the client didn't call back. At least some would say, I will check with the client in one week's time. And there is no follow-up. And I observe that most of them don't have the passion, and some reasons I can think of are they are not Human Resources Professionals before, they just want a job and their network is not good.

Use the Dictionary!

Do you care to use the right words in your documents? Do you check in the dictionary when you are in doubt?
Using the right words to convey what you wanted is very important. Here, I am not just saying English Language, but any language. For my following illustration, I will use English Language. Today, I was asked - what do you call someone who edits, makes suggestions, comments, corrects an article/document, etc? I said it could be a proofreader or an editor. One of his colleagues wanted to call this person a Commentator and worst still later use Commentor. I told my friend, Commentator is someone who knows the topic well and reports on it. Or someone narrating on a Commentary. Commentor or Commenter just does not cut it.
This is just one example. I have seen many more. It does not look good on a company's image, if this is a document going out to a client or public. Spellings too.... worst I find so many in STAR Newspapers, and worst, STAR has a section on English Language.
It all boils down to attitude of the society, wonder why is it so hard to look up the word in the Dictionary when in doubt? Is it laziness? Or the Tidak Apa attitude? It is not a heavy investment. I use Longman Contemporary English Dictionary, where it has the British and American English. So, use the DICTIONARY.

Linaco, here I come...

At 3.39pm, I received a call from Tina, my future assistant that Linaco is offering me the position of HR Manager. Linaco is in Klang, and there will be lots of driving. I start on November 14. The package may not be the best, but my dream finally came through for the HR Manager role. 15 years to retirement.
Funny, some friends live in Klang, but work in KL. I live in KL, work in Klang. ;)

My VIP Bus Ride

Well, many have sat on cars driven by their own drivers, but have you heard about the driver driving only one person on a bus? Well, here I am. I came back to KL yesterday and again I took Nice 2. To my surprise and the host's, I was the only passenger! I could sit anywhere I wanted and I got to choose my movie. It was great fun, first time having the whole bus to myself. Wow. I was given a drink, a sandwich and two cups of Hot drink. I was supposed to get only one cup, but she made a mistake. The bus driver rushed to reach asap, and never stopped at any rest area. So by 3 and half hours, I m back in KL. Yeah!

One Day in Penang

The last time I was back in Penang was in January for work. Godparents are back from England and grandma Chu is back from US, so I went back with my parents by bus. I bought the tickets from Plusliner. Now there are double-deckers going to Penang. Last time was only to Singapore. So I thought let's try it out. Cost RM57.10 one way. We left at 4.30pm. The bus can take about 30 passengers. Below is a lounge and toilet. On Friday, there were only 9 of us on the bus. We were given a cup of water, sandwich and a hot drink and watched a movie. I asked the driver to stop us at Juru, and Bro Pein and Jessie came and picked us up. We had dinner at my favourite store, where I had Char Kuay Teow. Spent a nite at Bro Pein's house, whereas dad and mom stayed another night.
The next morning, after breakfast, we borrowed Jessie's car and went to see the agent at the Changkat Minden House. Mr Chew put up the signage for rent. Since Mr Chew was recommended by grandma Chu and he has known her for quite a number of years, I seeked his assistance to lead us to Howe Cheong to pick grandma Chu. Picked her up and went to pick up Godparents. The streets in Penang have changed a lot to one way. We were trying our luck and finally we found the house. Kai Yeh took his brother-in-law's Unser and loaded all 6 of us in. We went to eat at Ocean Green, a seaside place in Penang city where grandma Chu has brought me there before. It is a nice place, with sea breeze and won't chase you away at 3pm. It is also a place where you can bring your dogs. Kewl! There was a table who brought 2 Pekingnese and a Bull Dog. They sat the 3 dogs on a chair each. The 3 dogs just sat upright and watch them eat. So obedient.
At about 3pm, we made a move. Kai Yeh drove all of us to Loh Guan Lye Hospital to meet Bro Pein and Jessie. They followed us to Kai Leong's mother house. Here, bro Pein took parents back and on the way, dropped grandma Chu, while, Jessie and Sue Lyn took me to the new bus terminal to catch my bus. This way, dad don't have to drive back to Butterworth and no worries of him getting lost.
I have to go back Saturday because on Sunday, I have a final rehearsal with my choir mmbers. Arrived here at 7.30pm and spent a nite at Bro Khon's house. I came back to feed Wrinkles and Sandee, and to my surprised, Sandee is locked inside the Utility Room. She was yelling. Luckily I came back. At night, we wanted to go watch midnight movie, but nothing available. So ended up watching Catwoman from HBO and DVD - The In-Laws. Very nice.

My Sandee is Blind

It has been a while since I posted ... was busy. Mainly since Sandee is completely blind since last week, I paid more attention and spent more time with her. How I knew? She was knocking into chairs and stepping on slippers and shoes. She already has arthiritis and in pain.
Amazingly, there is a website for owners with blind dogs and a support group. The articles informed that I should act normal, don't let the dog feel that you feel sorry for her. She is already depressed. In terms of senses, dogs use more of the smell, hearing and third is sight. So, losing their sight is not the end of the world. And as long as the dog is in the same house, she had already the surroundings mapped in her head. So don't move any furniture, let it be, let her knock and she will get use to it. And she will be familiarized in a week or so. True enough, Sandee nows know her way a bit. She still don't dare to cross the drain with iron grills and is aware of the steps. I will be guiding her as long as she needs me. Just wish that she can talk.

Editing....

Yeah, this whole week, I am helping a friend to edit his master thesis. 86 pages! It was fun to learn the rules again, refresher... The last time I did major editing work was in 1988! Wow...

Vietnamese Kitchen

Vietnamese Kitchen is one of my favourite restaurants which I frequent. It used to have a branch in SS2 and since they closed that one down, I patronise at the 1 Utama branch. This one is bigger and the decor inside is very nice. There is one special thing which caught my attention - the sinks. So today, I went with Kat, Ming Ming and Jay and I brought my camera along. The water comes out from the slanting bamboo through a drinking straw and into another bamboo. Really neat!

Another Milestone...

Yesterday and today, Stephen Wong gave me the opportunity to help him research, prepare and present the topic on Psychometrric Tests to the HR team of UMW. It was my first time doing this for public. Most ot the time, when I conduct training, it is always for people in my company. I did ok, could be better. Next time!..:-)