I wonder if its a coincidence that it takes me 100 days to get back here and pen a few words!!!

Well, the rollercoaster ride has slowed a bit now. Dad has been much better since the last posting. Life is getting to be more stable and predictable. Events of the past few months had been very very disturbing for all of us. On the plus side though, both sisters came down with their kids. That itself must have accellerated his recovery. The sight of young ones that he helped take care years ago.

Thats the beauty of life I guess. Anything is possible. The good, and the bad. Things that youve given up hope, appears when you least expect. And the worst that you least expect, may happen at any time. From a parent's point of view, how I wish my daughters will continue to have the benefit of spending much time with their grandparents. For that matter, we've been lucky my mum-in-law has been kind enough to spend much time here helping us out.

D's 3 and a half now. A very sensitive lady, yet so playful and talkative. K's going to be 2 next week! And this young lady has turned out to be helpful, considerate and playful. Always ready to assist. And she's picking up language faster. Only problem is feeding K. She's lazy to eat! Thats our guess. Hope to see a pediatrician. later today and seek his advice.

As for work, we have been fairly busy for the past few months. Not as busy as last year, but nevertheless its still good. Hopefully by early next year, there will be much more work. By then we would expect everyone in the office to be familiar with their responsibilities as well as the computer system thats been installed. The database system is still down. Need to spend a few hours and get it up and running.

Was hoping to sit down with the MD and propose an interim bonus for the staff before the holidays next week. They deserve it. And am guessing, the remaining directors will have no objection to an early payment. We've all been doing well.

We're doing a MOM buka puasa do tomorrow. Placed a bet with Pat that the place is called Chimosa and not Chismosa. Sigh. There goesRM25!! Me and my. %$%^&## !! LOL!

I keep reminding myself to finish writing an article for the newspapers. How does it reflect on the state when the drains just outside of the Menteri Besar's residence has plants growing in them! Some of them being at least 3 feet high!!

Its been a year since we had a new Prime Minister. So much promise at the start. Yet the changes have been very very slow. There is still hardly any accountability. Enforcement of laws is a joke. Money politics in the ruling party's recent election was widely reported. The Pahang MB even said he knows its happening, BUT refuses to act because he doesnt want his friends to get into trouble!!!! Isnt that kind of statement enough for the Anti Corruption Agency to haul him up and act!! Seriously I believe the way forward would be to put online the asset list of every civil servant and serving politician. Let us see who has been living beyond their legal means. All this talk of combating corruption or how well the country is run, is mere rhetoric. There is much hypocrisy here. The very things the ones in power ask the public to refrain from doing, they will do it blatantly.

Citizen Nades of The Sun paper has written much on this. He's always a good read. The voice of dissent is always a good listen I guess. Perhaps I should rewrite my early blog and add a few photos and email him the article. Now the only problem is, the issue of anonymity.

Time to head home.

Its 30th of July! How time flies.

Computer system is up and running. Theres still bits of bugs here and there. There's still much work on integration. Work that was appearing to slowdown, suddenly is appearing to buck the trend. A relief. The first half of the year has been good.

Too many things has been happening at the same time. A rollercoaster ride of emotions. Dad's been unwell. A week to go. Pray all will be well. Kids. How much theyve grown over the months. Its a joy to just spend the day with them. Wish I could just retire and do just that. D, being past 3, is able to talk quite fluently now.

Wish could write more. But do have to finish up work. Too much to be done now.

Almost 100 days since i last blogged. Wish i did it more often. I tend to forget things that occur.

Did meet up with old classmates quite a while ago. Was it a month or two back. About 25 of us turned up. Fancy meeting friends you've not met for almost 22 years. It was fun. We will probably meet twice or thrice a year.

D just turned 3. Was very disappointed cos i was not around. Even more devastated now that they've gone on a short holiday away. No kids to hug or play with when back at home. None to pamper.. to pacify... to console. Got to be patient. It will be tough. Very very tough. But work takes priority now.

Still rarely chatting nowadays. And on those rare occasions when i do enter chat rooms, am lost. Hardly know anyone. Thats nice. I dont hang around too long. I get out and continue doing work. But then, am rarely online at the office.

D almost created a fuss...refusing to go yesterday. She wanted me to come. This despite spending lots of time trying to explain to her that i wont be coming along. Being her age, its natural she really couldnt comprehend what was going on. K on the other hand was enjoying herself. Running about..screaming.. laughing.. all over KLIA. She's much too young, but then, she's feeling ok since J was going along too.

Too many things not done. Will probably get into office on sunday. Am able to foresee. Its gonna be continuous days of day and nights at the office.

ciao

Its a new year. 2nd of January. Its been more than 40 days i guess since i came here. Much has happened.

Nothing much was decided by the BOD. Will need to wait for interim results in the coming weeks before deciding course of action.

Both the kids are down and recuperating from a bad bout of cough and cold. They got it from me...sigh. Younger one is able to walk, yet is reluctant to do it independently. Got to give her time and let her be on her own pace. The older one is talkative and less naughty. Its comforting, and more fun now. Especially so when she is able to talk more fluently and able to express her thoughts better.

Work? The same. Still very very busy at work. Just got word it may continue for another 2 months. Time to make sure from March and April, theres continuity. That there will be a reasonable amount of work. Would be good if we could achieve a volume of about 75% of what we are doing now.

Surprising end to the year. Got to get in touch with old school mates. 21 years, and finally getting in touch again with some. Unfortunately not been able to meet up with most yet. Perhaps when I make a trip to KL in 3 weeks, I'll be able to do so.

Time to go.

Its been more than a month. I rarely come online nowadays, and even when I do, its only for brief moments. The same story. Work has been overwhelming. Everyone at office has been stretched to the limit. Long hours. It should be a good year.

BOD meets tomorrow. Wonder whats gonna happen.

Yet another new staff resigns. This one does it the day after he is told off for acting in a manner not befitting a person of his position. Playing truant never gets into my good books. Had sort of expected him to tender his resignation. But didnt expect him to just drop everything at his table and walk off. Sigh. Difficult to find decent responsible around. At least the last guy who left made sure all his work was completed before he left.

On the home front, the younger one was 1 year old last week. How time flies :) Theyre both so wonderful to be with. Both almost similar in character. I guess most kids are like that. Have their photos here at office. Comforting and soothing for tired eyes. Though busy with work, have been trying hard to make sure i spend lots of time at home with family. Its so relaxing at times.

Been out twice for breaking of fast with different sets of clients. Met up with a few bankers for tea earlier. So many young ones nowadays.

Its going to be double the usual madness next 2 days as we try to clear as much work as possible by Saturday. Most staff are off for almost the entire of next week. Am not planning to travel anywhere for the holidays. I guess part of the holidays would be spent at the office. Work has to be completed. Deadlines met. Keep reminding myself that lots of work, is better than no work. Keep reminding the staff that too.

Fantasy golf season is over. Made it into the top 1000. Out of 300,000 plus teams i guess. Not bad for a non-golfer. English premier league fantasy football has been on for a few months. Quiet still there. Still behind Pret, but ahead of sic, noh and the rest.

At times the mind does wonder and think of the past. The countless hours wasted on some. Should have been a rolling stone, and not gather any moss. Time and work have been wonderful in erasing most memories. There's still a bit of bitterness. There must always be that. A perfect deterrent. Wont waste my time in future.

All this long hours has practically stopped attempts to download music and build up a collection of songs from the pre-90 days. There just hasnt been much free time.

Time to get off. So much more to be done before i head home.

Its been way too long. And its the same old stories.

Work has been a killer. The load has increased to levels never before seen in my 15 years with this outfit. The staff have been working long hours for the past few weeks. One begins to start wondering if the dangling of a carrot with higher incentive payments will work beyond a certain threshold of workload. I pray it does.

Thankfully Eng Ho has been back from Australia for a short holiday and his timing has been perfect. We have been discussing with the computer vendors are waiting for final approvals for upgrading works. The challenge appears to be to complete the basic changeover while he is still here.

A new staff is due to start on Monday. Another guy comes in on Thursday. Pray that they both turn up. But till then, its madness. Two of the guys have been working today, and I guess all of us will also be working throughout Sunday.

Been preoccupied with work that its been many many days since chatted with anyone on YM or anywhere else. Did meet up with sf and madnoh over tea quite a few days back. She appears to be a nice lady.

As for golf, season is ending soon, and am still around the 400+ rankings. A top 200 finish is definitely out of the question. Football is time consuming. So many players, so many positions, so many injuries and suspensions to take note of.

On the bright side, finally managed to install the CD Writer back home. Burned my first CD..hurray. Get to play them at office now.

J continues to look for a job now. Looks like something may come up soon. Keeping fingers crossed. The kids are a joy to be with. D is as cute and mischevious as usual. K has begun to stand. Its a matter of weeks before she starts to walk..and run. As it is, she crawls very very fast now.

Its already 5pm. Time to clear up a bit of work, and head home. Will be coming in early sunday. So much to be done, so little time.

A wet Wednesday its been. Thunderstorm and lightning is bad. Had a heavy breakfast at 10, so lunch can be skipped.

Man U whacked the greeks 5-0. Was supposed to wake up at 3am, but i guess was just too tired to notice the alarm clock go off.

Lots of setbacks of late. The guy from a rival firm who asked to join us, backed off one week before the date he was due to report in. Trying hard to get an alternative. Hope that works out. Work appears to have slowed down somewhat past 2 weeks. A welcome breather, but must make sure it doesnt slacken further.

Had been struggling (more like been too lazy) to work on this blog recently. To add in a guest book. Somehow or rather managed to set up a crude one up. Perhaps on evenings effort must be made to learn a bit on html and the various tools available to make this a better interactive environment. Would be nice to read comments from strangers bashing me up.

The fantasy football site is down. Perhaps its time to continue with work.

What more can i say. Ever so often, what we see is not what we get. Definitely a good decision to move on in life. Exception of course would continue to be the golf and football fantasy games...lol. Aint gonna give em up.

Busy busy busy. Lots of work to be done. Planning to head to KL tomorrow afternoon. But seeing the pile on table, am not so sure at the moment. Will probably need to stay back late tonight to clear up work.

Elder daughter keeps asking to go see her uncle at KL. She's so cute. Ahh ... miss her lots when am at office. Younger one swims much faster now. Wonder when she will start to crawl and sit up and eventually stand/walk. Must let her take her time.

Time to continue with work.

Shortcomings of the state

You have a visit johor year, and thats the time you dig up almost the entire city centre to re-do the drainage, set up pedestrian walkways, get rid of much needed street parking, and cause massive inconveniences to the public as well as the business community. Even the Jalan Tan Hiok Nee walkway has yet to be completed after many many months of closure. Now, the State Exco member has the cheek to blame TNB for the delays of works at Jalan Meldrum. So much for proper planning before approvals are granted for development works. And so typical of pointing fingers when things go wrong. So typical of the Malaysian way of not knowing the meaning of accountability.

At one time, every other piece of state land, was privatised for one form of redevelopment. Naturally, the moment the approvals were granted, the companies were sold and quick profits realised. No prizes to guess who were the people to gain. It would indeed be enlightening to know the list of state lands that have been given such approvals, and the people behind these schemes.

We had the KPRJ semi govt. body supposedly in existence to provide infrastructural works such as roads and mosques in rural areas, which was fair enough. But then, this body was given state lands which they charge to the commercial banks. And the monies used for infrastructural works, which doesnt generate money to repay the loans. And theres no need to mention about the money spent lavishly to set up this organisation. Some people up there conveniently forgot the existence of JKR and the Johor Corporation (SEDC) to provide such development works.

Then we have the Johor Education Foundation (YPJ) which was also given vast tracts of lands for setting up of oil palm plantations etc. And they too couldnt resist the temptation of entering into property investments in the hotel business amongst others.

Johor Corporation made millions getting State land and developing industrial estates. Land cleared and provided with infrastructure such as roads, drains, water and electricity supplies. Naturally you would make money in the good years. But then, theyre amongst the biggest debtors in the country. Big numbers of companies within the group doing badly.

We had the unit trust issue a few years back. The head had the cheek to say the state's shares in big listed companies were to be given to these unit trusts for the sole purpose of inflating the unit trust prices. I guess, they again conveniently forgot that the unit trusts were owned by a small group of people, not the entire population the state.

Can we have an audit to reveal publicly the extent of help the government had given previously, and the failures of these bodies?

No one noticed that the number of non-Malays within the abovementioned state owned bodies is miniscule, perhaps 1%? or less? I digress perhaps, but then its a fact thats undeniable.

If its one major weakness in the entire governance system, its the refusal to accept the fact that the government is there to manage the assets of the country, the general public. Unfortunately, what we have is a system where those governing is more interested to enrich themselves and their friends/families.

Once, i commented to a civil servant on how the civil service seem to wantonly spend millions on functions, opening/closing ceremonies, speeches and functions at posh places; monies that belong to the public. Not surprisingly the response i got was, the civil servant strongly defended saying even the public sector was lavishly spending money for such purposes. Sad to say, it didnt cross the person's mind that the private sector spends money that it earns. It doesnt spend public money. It seems that citizens pay taxes so that civil servants can have a good time.

Instead of spending money to improve infrastructure and provide more facilities, for the past few months much money has gone into landscaping works all over the town. Carpet grass everywhere with flowering plants at every imaginable road junctions! Not to mention decorative lamp posts that supposedly cost RM20,000 each or thereabout! The only ones laughing to the bank would be the suppliers/contractors and most definitely those approving such works.

Water rates have gone up. Supposedly to finance infrastructural expenditure. Me thinks its more to fill up wallets. They couldnt even write the notice to subscribers in decent english.

Parking coupons in the state is divided into 2 zones. Northern and southern johor. Today the state says theyre looking into having one standard coupon and company managing the entire state. They couldnt standardize it now? Why not just leave the ticketing to the local authorities and let them make all the money.

The MPPJ signboard issue which was highlighted by The Sun papers recently was perhaps the tip of the iceberg. One wonders whats the situation in the other state local authorities.

Are we investor friendly? Hardly. We seem to have policies that go against national policies at times. Remember the FIC guidelines issue previously? The state required further payments for such approvals. Recently they even amended the state law and said the penalty for foreign purchases was RM100,000 i think, instead of the normal RM10,000 previously. Naturally when the issue was blown up by the papers, the state defended that it was a typographical error (yeah, i believe that...yeah rite)

If only things are done for the good of the State and country. And not for individual self interests or ulterior motives.

Its a nice place to stay. Its where i am born. Yes, its my home. I only wish they run it better.

Oh yes... Visit Johor! Its Visit Johor Year!

Work has indeed been overwhelming over the past weeks. Theres not much free time to write. Whatever time online is mainly to reply emails as well as maintain the yahoo fantasy football and golf teams.

Was at KL for the Merdeka weekend with the family. It was a pleasant trip, except for the Man U loss to Southampton on Sunday night. Sigh. Was at a wedding at KDU, and later drove up to Bangsar to watch the second half of the game. Found a quiet pub that was surprising only had one other customer. Perfect to watch a game over a couple of beers. Damn team lost.

Highlight of the trip? I guess it was meeting up an old buddy and having dinner at the Jalan Imbi hawker site on Tuesday night. It was good to catch up with him. We used to meet up for lunches ever so often whilst at JB. On hindsight, wish we didnt go overboard with the amount of food we ate.

Should be up at KL this weekend again, for another two wedding functions.

Its been 2 months plus now since i stopped chatting in the chat rooms. Am glad i did it. Too many disappointments. Too many false pretences, facades. Am no saint either. I know of my shortcomings. Am surprised though there seem to be some attempts to log into my yahoo account, causing yahoo to suspend my account a couple of times over the past month. Why cant they just leave me alone. Had never been interested in being in a popularity contest. Perhaps i've stepped onto too many toes over the years. Well, am blunt, and try to be as frank as possible. And if it so happens someone do hack into the account, even better. Will just delete the account, ID and email. Entire history of its existence will be wiped out.

Doing fairly well in fantasy football, though the KL trip caused me to lose valuable points in golf. The effect of not switching players was dropping down in the rankings to 313 now. Damn. Did very well last weekend. Could have broke into the top 100 perhaps if not for that earlier screwup.

The annual dinner is coming up in a months time. And of all persons, am to be the MC. Much work and preparation there. Sigh.