Matfoo’s Weblog

My blogging activity is not “hot hot chicken shit” (hangat-hangat tahi ayam) or in English – “Just initially excited but later lost interest”. I was on away mode. Away from city life, away from work and away from the Internet. My in-laws came for holiday. So, I became the tour guide and brought them around some of the interesting places in the Klang Valley. The tour started from KLCC to Putrajaya before embarking a climbing hill journey to Cameron Highland. I shall split this blog into two parts for I do not want to bore you all with long long long….writings

Klang Valley

Day 1: KLCC, Sky Bridge & Aquaria.

Of course one of the must see and visit place is KLCC, the twin tower. Set off to KLCC with two plans i.e. Sky Bridge and Aquaria. Reached KLCC at around 11am and to our dismay the queue was long till the time for us to go up is a very very odd time, we decided to abandon plan #1. So proceed with plan #2 i.e. Aquaria. This visit was a consolation to our miss-out Sky Bridge. In fact, the day we of our visit was the Shark feeding-day. Spent around 2 hours in Aquaria and took some really interesting pictures.

Day 2: Ikea, Ikano, The Curve, 1Utama

This is another popular area in Klang Valley that one can visit. Actually the main agenda for the day was Rock Climbing. Since 1Utama offers the rock climbing facilities, might as well pay a visit to the nearby landmarks – Ikea, Ikano & The Curve. Spent the whole morning in Ikea and the lunch in The Curve and a sneak peak to the Ikano before going off to 1Utama for the rock climbing. The company that offers rock climbing is called Camp5. Man…. to find this place is just almost near to impossible. There’s no sign! At the end, had to call so and so to get the direction. So, the location of Camp5 is located at the floor above the GSC Cinema. You take the stair case near the entrance to the bowling area up to the abandon/close-down arcade. Walk all the way till you reach a door. After you open that door, that’s where Camp5 is. But, I didn’t rock climb. It was for my sister-in-law and my wife. They wanted to rock climb. I was just the guide

Day 3: Putrajaya

A visit to the new administrative capital of Malaysia – Putrajaya is a must. In Putrajaya, I discovered that a visit to PICC (Putrajaya International Convention Centre) was a worth visit. Drive yourself to the top of the PICC and you can get yourself a very nice view of Putrajaya. In addition, there’s a new place to visit in Putrajaya called the New Monument. It has the shape of a pencil and it recorded the history of Malaysia from 1400 to 2004 in the form of pictures.

Day 4: Sunway Pyramid
The reason we were there was for Ice Skating. I had a terrible experience with ice skating hence, again I stayed out of this one. While my wife and her sisters went skating, I checked out the new phase of Sunway Pyramid. Still a lot of lots displayed, “Opening Soon”, but the I found out one interesting thing, (which I was so unfortunate that the camera was not with me to take that picture), Shogun is opening their branch in Sunway Pyramid. If you think Saisaki nearby KLCC is hard to go and Shogun in 1Utama is always pack, in the future, you can try going to Sunway Pyramid new phase. They are opening soon.

So, that conclude my away mode part 1 for now. Will continue the part 2 (Cameron Highland) soon after I finished selecting the appropriate pictures.

I’d made some blogging about breakfast tip in Cyberjaya not long ago. Due to the fasting month and preparation for Hari Raya, several stall located in Cyberjaya Bus Terminal was closed. Hence, some of the best food didn’t manage to make it to that blog on Breakfast Tip in Cyberjaya – Part I. As for today, I finally have the compilation of some of the best food choices among terminal breakfast goer who work/study in Cyberjaya.

Chinese-style Fried Noodles with Fish Cake from Stall K

Malay-style Fried Kueh Teow with Wedges and Mini Sausages from Stall M

Puree with Chadnee from Stall P.

Last but not least, the best food in Cyberjaya Bus Terminal that people will pack 25 packs of them for company breakfast is the Nasi Lemak from Stall O. Apparently most people who eat there will agree that this Nasi Lemak is one of the best. Unfortunately, Stall O does not have a nice fried chicken to accompany the Nasi Lemak. Hence, our general choice of combo would be Nasi Lemak from O + Fried Chicken from M. Here, I present to you the best breakfast combo you can find in Cyberjaya.

So, next time you somehow ended up in Cyberjaya around 7:30am to 9:30am, you can drop by Cyberjaya Bus Terminal (located in between Auto Bavaria BMW and Street Mall) to try out these breakfast. But if you don’t like the combo I’ve written there, I guess we don’t share the same taste bud.

Nope, I didn’t go to Bali and I have never been to Bali before. The title actually refers to my feast week which started in Bumbu Bali Restaurant. My feast week began from Saturday to Saturday, from Bumbu Bali and ended in Le Meridien.

NOTE: Despite all these “rich” food. I STILL observe my proper diet.

Feast 1

My wife’s Platinum Club organized a “makan” trip on the first day of Hari Raya. They were supposed to meet and eat at Pizza Uno but Pizza Uno was closed for the holiday, they decided to change to Bumbu Bali, a Balinese cuisine restaurant. Five of us ordered several interesting food of theirs and I pretty much enjoyed the food. We had (from top left to right), Pasta with Grilled Squid, Grilled Lamb and Chicken (from bottom left to right), Balinese Set which I forgot the name and Fish and Fruit Salad. This meal cost about RM 30 per person (appox. USD 9 per person)

Feast 2

From Bali to India. Second feast of mine was Indian cuisine. My wife’s colleague cooked and prepared all these dishes. We had (from top to bottom) Lamb Fried Rice, Vegetable Salad in Yoghurt and Fried Putu Mayam. I personally am a big fan of Indian cuisine and I enjoyed this feast pretty much.

Feast 3

From India to Korea. I had blogged about this in Generous Dae Jang Gum. This was my first (and more to come) to a Korean restaurant. I enjoyed this one very much. I thought Korean food and me are quite good friend. So, anyone still want to try Dae Jang Gum can find me as I still have one more Dae Jang Gum coupon, which expires 30 Dec 07. Maybe we can eat there again.

Feast 4

From Korea back to Pulau Ketam. Cell group had a “makan” outing to Ho Ho Steamboat (Pulau Ketam). Personally, I’m not a steamboat fan. There reasons are:

(a) I’m not a seafood fan except for fish and squid. The rest, especially prawn and crab, sorry…not my cup of tea. For some reason, I don’t like prawn and crab.

(b) I don’t fancy the waiting for the soup to boil. Yeah….I’m a lazy eater, hehehe…:P Even I eat prawn and/or crab for the sake of courtesy, I’m lazy to peel off their shell. Sorry if my statement offended steamboat and seafood lover.

But, I did enjoy the fellowship and “fei-lou ship” with the cell group members.

Feast 5

From Pulau Ketam, I ended my feast week in Le Meridien, KL Sentral. This was to attend the wedding dinner of my wife’s colleague. The wedding dinner was Chinese style. The food decoration was fine. Other than that, I would say it’s just a typical Chinese wedding dinner with several course of dishes.

At the end, it all ended with Le Meridien…

I was actually listening to Lite FM on one particular evening, and this DJ was asking anyone who wants to call in to tell them about their childhood ambition and are they fulfilling their childhood ambition today.

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”
“Are you fulfilling your ambition today?”

The DJ’s childhood ambition when asked by his parents was to be a MARINE BIOLOGIST. Cool! He then described that he told his parents that was his ambition because it was the longest, coolest and most unique a little child would tell to impress his parents. And today, he is a cool Radio DJ for Lite FM. So, he didn’t become a marine biologist though .

Of course I didn’t manage to call in. (You all should have some experienced regarding calling to radio station. It could a be strings of busy dial tone…and you gave up). In fact, I didn’t call cause I was driving

So, today, am I achieving my childhood dream?

What do you get when you have teacher + doctor + scientist + engineer?

Looking and thinking back at all my childhood ambitions, I would say I pretty much achieving bits and pieces of it .

I am a lecturer (teacher), doing research (scientist) in engineering field (engineer) towards my PhD (doctor), though not the “real” MD doctor, anyway the name still counts

In all, I really thank God for His wonderful blessings upon me. He is a faithful God. Glory be Him.

Flora and I had the chance to try out Korean food yesterday (17 Oct 07). Actually, for don’t know what reason, I have been craving for Korean food, especially Kim chi. So we decided to try out at Dae Jang Gum at Bandar Puteri Puchong. Oh, by the way, 6 of us went (just in case you all will be wondering how in the world Flora and I can finish all those food).
We flipped through the menu and we were like @_@ as we didn’t know what to order. There’s English description but all looked so nice and tasty hence, that’s why we didn’t know what to order. As the rest arrived, finally we decided to place our order.
We ordered two types of BBQ Pork

and

We also ordered Kim Chi soup

We ordered a dish forgot the name but is mixture of squid, pork and chicken with lots of vegetables.

And lastly a Rice Cake but we canceled it after realizing the food that we had was really really a lot and struggling to finish.
NOTE: All those food portion you see in the picture is already scaled down to one person’s portion. The waiter had already distributed evenly among six of us.

We only order 5 oops no 4 dishes as we canceled one. It may look quite little for 6 person BUT………. I found out that Dae Jang Gum is really generous with their side dishes and you tend to get some additional food “on the house”
Here are some of the complimentary food.

NOTE: All these side dishes can be REFILLED!

Then, the restaurant gave us these two dishes “on the house” i.e. Fried Sweet Potato

And Steam Egg

In fact, there’s another dish which we get for free as I had a Dae Jang Gum coupon. The free dish is the Korean Seafood Pancake. In fact, we were all so full till I forgot to capture the picture of the pancake. Anyway, the food was very nice (at least for me). I think I’m the only one savoring the nice sour and spicy taste of the Korean food. The rest of them….. well……not so enthusiastic as me.

Price: approximately RM 26 per person (around USD 8). (I think, judging from the price of the menu and since I didn’t get to pay ). I thought the price is alright from the portion of food that we had.

As part of the preparation to go abroad, I need to change my postal address from Selangor back to Sarawak. One of them is my EPF statement. So I went to the EPF website and I was very amazed by the website. Is user friendly and I can do my change of postal address online! How cool is that! Impressive 1 Not Impressive 0

UNFORTUNATELY, to do those thing online, I have to get myself a i-Pin number. This i-Pin number can only be obtained from EPF Smart Kiosk or EPF Office. Which means, I still have to go to the nearest EPF office. Impressive 1, Not Impressive 1

Being lazy to go to the EPF office, I tried to call the customer help center to ask whether can I do my change of postal address over the phone. The phone got connected. I was expecting a very “demotivated” officer to answer my call. But I was wrong. I was very surprise with the friendliness and politeness the officer towards me.

Impressive 2, Not Impressive 1

Me: Helo, saya Foo, nak tumpang tanya, boleh saya tukar “mailing” address kat sini?
Officer: Ok, Encik Foo. Boleh encik beri nombor IC encik?
Me: XXXXXX-XX-XXXX
Officer: Encik Foo nak tukar alamat pos kan? Encik boleh tukar secara online.
Me: Tapi, online kena pergi pejabat EPF. Saya tinggal kat Cyberjaya, mana ofis yang paling dekat?
Officer: Encik Foo boleh pergi ke Kajang. Pejabat EPF Kajang berdekatan Balai Polis Kajang.
Me: So, boleh tak, saya buat pertukaran alamat melalui telefon?
Officer: Tak boleh encik. Sebab encik kena isi borang. Tetapi kalau encik buat secara online, encik boleh tukar alamat terus secara online.
Me: Ok. Ok. Terima kasih.

I was very impressed with the officer as she is really polite and helpful. But my heart was like duh….. still have to go to the EPF Office. Impressive 2, Not Impressive 2

Finally, I have no choice but have to make my way to Kajang. The office is not that hard to find but not that easy to find as well. Thanks to my friend who accompanied me that saw the sign, “KUMPULAN WANG SIMPANAN PEKERJA”. Else I would be turning round and round in the busy town of Kajang to look for it.

When I reached, there’s a long queue at the Smart Kiosk machine where most of the people there are queuing to get and print their latest EPF statement. The Smart Kiosk is actually quite cool though. You insert your IC and scan your thumb print and either request for i-Pin or Latest EPF statement.

As simple as that. Impressive 3, Not Impressive 2

The EPF officer encouraged us to use the Smart Kiosk (there’s ONLY one in the office) instead of going to the counter (there are 4 open counters). My friend wanted to check his statement via counter, so he took the number. What’s so funny was, the counter is faster than me queuing for the Smart Kiosk. Impressive 3, Not Impressive 3

However, as soon as I’d created my i-Pin, the Smart Kiosk machine went into “MACHINE TEMPORARY OUT OF ORDER” mode. I was very embarrassed for everyone in the queue behind me was staring at me as if I was the bad guy who spoiled the machine. Furthermore, the EPF officer wasn’t there to save me. Impressive 3, Not Impressive 4.

So, I just left the EPF building quietly and quickly went off. So, finally was I impressed with EPF? The scoreline in BOLD should have told you my final verdict.

Five and half years in academic may not qualify me a “senior” status as an academician, but I do encounter all sorts of “interesting” character of students that get me very upset.

1. Begging To Pass While Answering Nothing In The Final Exam – Often I see “senior” students wrote notes to me in the final exam booklet “begging” me to pass them. The problem is, how do they expect me to pass them when they answer only 3 out of 4 questions and leaving lots of blank pages in the exam booklet?
2. Asking For Chapter Distribution In The Final Exam – I do get lots of email asking how many questions will be asked per chapter. The reason behind this is student plan to skip certain chapter and study only certain chapter.
3. Asking For Tutorial Solutions – I will also get emails from student telling me that they didn’t attend tutorial classes at this so and so week.
   
   
   
   And then they “ask” me to “provide” them with the solution because they want to study for final.
4. Copying And Plagiarism – Despite clear instruction telling them not to plagiarize or copy where heavy penalty will be imposed, student still continue to copy. And when I penalized them, all sorts of begging and reasoning will fill my ears.
5. Do Not Read Instructions – Students tend to take instruction for granted. When penalized, again, all sorts of reason like “Didn’t see the instruction”, “Forgot to read instruction”, “I thought is supposed to be done such way” and etc.
6. Creating Stupid Lies – At times, I would encounter students who came to me for consultation asking how to do certain assignment claiming that they did it by themselves. When I asked detailed questions (actually wanting to help them by clarifying myself with their encountered problems), they will say, “I don’t know. If I remove this part, can my thing run?” or “Sir, what does this part do?” If they have done that by themselves, they should be able to avoid such stupid lie/questions right?
7. Don’t Even Know Who Are Your Lecturer – I have encountered students who came to me to pass up assignment but asked some questions like this, “Sir, are you the lecturer for Control Theory? I want to pass up Control Theory assignment.” I was like “?????” This student attend my lecture or not and if he didn’t how in the world he knows there’s an assignment to pass up?
8. Asking For Grades – I do need to supervise Final Year Thesis students. Whenever students come to me to ask for project details, the next question I’d normally get is, “Sir, if I just do this and this what grade can I get? Can I get A- or A?” My goodness. Project hasn’t even started and grades is what they are thinking and not how to complete the project.
9. Missing Appointment – This is something I really really can get pretty upset. Students emailed me to make appointment to meet me at this time, date and day. After setting that time free, they never appear.
10. Priority Comparison – Last but not least, priority comparison. Students normally take 4-5 subjects per semester. I ever encountered students who came to me asking for supplementary test because they didn’t have enough sleep because rushing for another subject’s assignment. When I told them they should have known there’s a test and should have prepared for it. What upset me was the reason they gave, “I know there’s a test sir, but that project is higher priority!” My subject’s test is not a priority? Might as well, don’t take the test and get “0″ since this subject is not your priority.

The lists can go on and on but these are the top 10 things that I can get upset with students.

Learning a new language is always interesting (at least for me). But how about learning new languageS? Studying in Malaysia is not that bad after all. You are blessed with the chance to learn THREE languages i.e. Bahasa Malaysia, English & Hua Yu. By taking this whole thing further, I engaged in language learning mania. I learnt German, French and Japanese!

Konbanwa. Watashi wa Mathias desu
Back during the undergraduate days, the Japanese TV series is a craze among almost everyone. That is what get me started to wanting to learn Japanese (or Nihongo). Enrolled myself in the Japanese class in MMU. I say, that is the best class I ever had in my entire undergraduate time in MMU. Learning was very fun with Takahashi-san. Managed to learn quite few good basic Japanese conversation phrases. And today? I forgot almost all the Hiragana and Katakana.

Final verdict: 1 out of 10.

Bonjour. Je mapelle Mathias
I started learning French a little bit when Flora took up French class during her undergraduate time. I seriously started my French journey when a French graduate lecturer joined MMU. I borrowed his French book and slowly browsing it. The hard part about learning French is the pronunciation. If you don’t have a French speaking person guiding you, learning this language will be a nightmare. The proudest moment for me to use French was when a French exchange student came and I spoke out, “Bonjour! Ça va? Au revoir” and that’s all. And now, almost returned everything to Dummies

Final verdict: 0.5 out of 10.

Guten Tag. Ich heiße Mathias
German became my latest obsession. There’s a reason for me to learn. Firstly, I made a German pen-pal friend over the Internet and we conversed through email in German! Anytime I didn’t know what to type, I’ll use dictionary to help me. Secondly, I have had a colleague on research leave in Germany and I planned to visit and did visit him in Germany. Hence, equipping myself with German may do me good. Thirdly, I met two German while scuba diving in Lang Tengah island and made friends with them during World Cup in Germany!! That night Germany was playing Sweden en route to semi final where the German won. Fourthly, my friend also turned relative had been assigned to Germany every now and then for work also starting to learn German and hence, at times, we do communicate via German. So, this is pretty much valid and better reason for me to continue learning German. I did go to Germany in April 2007. So, did I put my German to good use when I was in Germany? Well, I did manage to converse in German in these few scenarios,

NOTE: All those ????? means I’m lost and don’t know what are they talking about.

Scenario 1: (At the airport, buying bus ticket to Darmstadt)

Me: Zwei karte nach Darmstadt bitte. (Two tickets to Darmstadt, please)
Bus driver: Vielzehn Euro und zehn Cents. (EUR 14.10)
Me: (I gave him 50 Euro)
Bus driver: Funfzig Euro. ????? Fünfund dreißig und neunzig Cents ????? (EUR 50. ????? EUR 35.90 ?????)
(I suppose he is telling me the change is EUR 35.90)
Me: Danke. (Thank you)

Scenario 2: (At the bus/train station, buying ticket back to airport)

Me: Flughafen Frankfurt für zwei Person. (Frankfurt Airport for two person)
Bus driver: Ein ????? oder zwei ????? (One ????? or two ?????)
Me: Zwei (Two)
Bus driver: Ein ????? (One ?????)
Me: (Start to get confused) Zwei Person. (Two persons)
Bus driver: Einfache? (One way?)
Me: (Ooooo, I finally know what is he asking me) Ja, einfache. (Yes, one way)
Bus driver: Vielzehn Euro und zehn Cents. (EUR 14.10)
Me: (This time I prepared the exact amount) Danke (Thanks)

Scenario 3: (Asking where the departure hall is from the airport bus station)

Me: Entschuldigung. Wor ist der Abflug? (Where is the departure hall?)
Guy: Sie ????? Ein Stock ????? und ????? rechts. (You ????? one floor ????? and ????? right)
Me: (I can only make out those few words but his hand gesture somehow made me understood). Danke schöne. (Thank you very much)

So, what say you about my German? Thanks the DUMMIES and BBC Language for some basic phrases. My problem is listening. The German speaks fast and is very hard for me to catch what are they talking about. So, I need to listen to more German to get myself used to what they are fast forwarding about.

Final verdict: 2 out of 10. I gave 2 as I am still learning and corresponding with friends in German. Too bad not a single German is near me that can help me with my listening. Guess I have to rely on DUMMIES’ CD for the time being.

Shared this wonderful and meaningful songs during the Worship Team Gathering on 6 Oct 2007. Is called He Opens A Window.

When doubt and disappointment hide the morning sun
When all my dreams have ended, all my songs are sung
His spirit soars within me, every doubt is gone
I see a new horizon and sing a brand new song

When every road I travel leads back to where I’ve been
When fears about tomorrow settle deep within
He gives me new direction and takes the fear away
He opens up the future and brings a brand new day
For in His perfect timing
Up ahead a light is shining
And I know the dawn will be arriving very soon.

When God closes the door, He opens a window
He opens a window so I can see
He’s working it out the very best for me,
He opens a window just for me.

Learnt and experienced something today. My first (hopefully the last) date with PUSPAKOM. If I’m not mistaken with effective from 1 Aug 2007 (correct me if I am wrong), all transfer of ownership of vehicles (you are to sell your car inclusive) must be certified by PUSPAKOM. I didn’t know that and only got to know that after my transfer of ownership was rejected by JPJ due to the absence of PUSPAKOM’s certification.

So went to GOOGLE to find where’s the nearest PUSPAKOM. And you CAN find it using GOOGLE and it is a very very flashy website. What I impressed me though was the detailed map of all the PUSPAKOM branches around Malaysia to direct you to find them. There’s one in Bangi near the POS LAJU collection centre, so decided to go to that one.

Reached PUSPAKOM at 10am. Wow, the queue is already building. The procedure is actually quite simple. Show them your car registration card and fill up two forms. Queue your car. I queued for almost 90 minutes. When it was my turn, I need to pay RM30 of processing and certification fees. After paying, give the receipt and all the needed documentation to the officers. He checked the engine, checked whether the ensure the car is not “kereta potong”. He checked underneath the car. All these procedures took about 5 minutes only! Then I was asked to wait for the issuance of the certification. That took me about 15 minutes. “LULUS” was stamped on the certificate. Yay! I can do the ownership transfer. So, as conclusion, I waited for 90 minutes, officers checked for 5 minutes and issuance of certification for 15 minutes. 5 minutes! 5 minutes only! Total “wasted” time is 105 minutes.

Before I left, I had a view of the queue of the cars and it stretched for about 600m. Thank God, I was there early. If not, I think my “wasted” time would be >> 105 minutes. Well, that’s my morning date with PUSPAKOM. On the bright side, I did get to experience part of car selling procedure.