A busy Sunday... 奸商 in action...

I woke up at 6:30 a.m. this morning and got myself ready for a big busy event this morning... yeap it's the once a year LNH food fair and I'm the OC from my club this time.

This year we have 4 stalls:
1. Hot Dogs - PIC Jo. Assistants were Audrey, PP, Franc and Juliana
2. 2nd hand goods - PIC Cynthia and Derbe. Assistants were Derbe's sis and Aileen.
3. Lucky Dip - PIC Alison & Ja. Assistants were PP and people from Tupperware.
4. Drinks - PIC Alex & CK. Assistants were Jason & Pei Pei.

The event photographer was again Pig Pig.

Guess what??!!.... We successfully raised RM2346.10 with RM0 club fund used!! Just RM300 cash sponsor from friends and tupperware sponsor from Alison & Ja. Wow, it's almost an 8x profit margin... hahaha, just imagine what kind of 奸商 we were. In fact after doing food fairs for so many years, we have learned the way to multiply our profit margin to the maximum. Basically we just drop those ideas with low profit margin and adopt those that really 'con' people... kakaka...

What were the tricks this time? Look...

Hot dogs - We mixed the normal sausages with those with many flavours. The normal sausage hot dogs were sold at RM3, so of course the one with flavour should be more expensive i.e. RM4. Then we provided another option i.e. to take away the bun and make sausage on stick which the normal sausage stick costs RM2 where the flavoured sausage stick costs RM3. In fact, the cost for one normal sausage is only RM0.20+, and the flavoured sausage is about RM0.80+. By attracting people with the flavoured sausages and the nice smell from the grill, we made good profit from the mix and match, which really fooled many people. In the end, we managed to make >RM700 from this stall.

2nd hand goods - 1-2 months ago, we started to encourage our friends to do their spring cleaning, i.e. to clear their wardrobe and donate them to our 2nd hand stall. With all the unwanted clothings, bags, magazines etc, we have a cost free stall to start with...hehehe... Then the nice and flashy goods were marked with higher price to stop people from 'sapu' fast but kept there to attract people. The rest were sold at only few RM. In the final hour, we made announcement to sell everything at RM1, so people started to 'sapu' fast... In this way we raised >RM800 from the unwanted goods given by others.... what a magic!!

Lucky Dip - The selling point is : every dip has a prize. We bought 240 bottles of mineral water as consolation prizes. There were 30-40 nicely wrapped tupperware to be won, and 1 grand prize worth RM200. Every draw costs RM3, with one chance to get either mineral water or small tupperware prize + 1 chance to enter for the grand prize draw. Sounds like a good deal but most of the time, people paid RM10 for 4 draws and walked away with only 4 bottles of mineral water which only costs RM0.40 each, but we guaranteed nobody walked away empty handed... how reasonable.... Well, we managed to raise >500 from just conning people this way.... hahaha....

Drinks - We sold tofu and cincau sarsi drinks, cost ~ RM30 and made >150 (again 5x profit)... hehehe...

Setting up........ Ready to go.......

(click to zoom in)

Busy in action....

Job well done... counting $$$...

Well, we just have so much fun challenging the figures every year. This year both 2nd hand goods and hot dogs broke previous years' record. New idea Lucky Dip also brought another good profit too. With only 4 stalls and RM0 cost, we actually did quite well!

Let's see what better ideas we all come out next year...

Hanging out with 'Teng Sua Keh' - LPPL Dom

Dom came back last week. PP, Pig Pig and I were happy to find one more 'kaki' to hang out with. Seems like the 'Sim family' makes good hang out 'kaki'. We used to hang out a lot with Thea and Jou, and Dom too. The commonality is, these 'kaki' are all somehow related to the 'Sim family'.



We went to Exza (the place that we planned to have birthday dinner for Pig Pig last time but got cancelled due to some 'accident' happened... hehehe). Anyway, let's check out what's nice over there.... the fresh watermelon juice is nice (according to PP) and the hot whiskey chocolate cake there was simply delicious!

Where else did we go??... Yeap, our favorite cafe 'Frappe'.

My mango frappe... nice...

The 'o-ji-ba-la' drinks that PP and Dom ordered...

The very yummy walnut cheese cake (I finished most of it)...

Bad news is that Dom is now back to 'teng sua' again, so we lost one good hang out kaki. Good news is also that Dom is back to 'teng sua' again, or else I'll be gaining more weight pigging out every night :p

P/S: All the pix were taken by my SE W800i.

9:30 p.m.... when shoppers meet shop keepers...

9:30 p.m. in Singapore - the closing time when shoppers meet shop keepers on the way out.

M.I.A.... Where did she go??

You are probably wondering where I went M.I.A. last week... Well, I was in Singapore for training. In fact, more for shopping, gathering and food... let me show you some pix from my trip.

This time I stayed at Clarke Quay. This is the view from my hotel window:


Clarke Quay is famous for places to chill out. There are whole bunch of pubs and restaurants by the Singapore River bank. It's a very happening place at night time.


There is even a Hooters bar with waitresses in hot pants. Haha... you can find this Singapore bungy jumping place by the river which the person instead of jump down from the bridge, get 'shot' up to the sky and hang there (refer to the last few pix above)... quite stupid.

Guess what I did the most during the week in Singapore besides attending classes? Of course, it's shopping. Basically I make sure I finished the case studies every afternoon lightning fast and disappeared from the class before 5 p.m. and went shopping...yippee!!

Christmas is 1 more month to go but walking along the Orchard Road makes me feel like it's already Christmas...


Besides shopping, my next favorite thing to do in Singapore is to check out interesting places for food...

Club Chinois at Orchard Parade Hotel offers 'French' style 'Chinese' food, meaning small portion with nice presentation. The service there was excellent but of course it comes with higher charge. The meal costed me around SGD60++ which is ~RM140. Well, it's still worth it considering its nice ambient, after walking at the crowded Orchard for few hours.

Japanese food is just something that I couldn't miss everytime I go to Singapore. It's relatively cheap and the sashimi there are much nicer and fresher, and the menu usually has much more selections. I went to meet up C.K. at Sakae Sushi at City Hall. The selections there were not too bad. I was delighted to find Ikura (salmon roe) on the menu as I couldn't find this in Kuching. Recently I also started to love tenzaru soba. Almost every japanese restaurant I go, I must order this.

I personally like Kuishin-bo at Suntec City a lot, so as Ying. It was introduced by my housemate Pig Pig. The japanese buffet there is only SGD25+ per person which is really cheap and it serves quite a wide range of Jap food, from sashimi, sushi, rolls, tempura, grill to some other cooked dishes. I went there last Saturday with Ying, Mak and Duck, ate till we 'peng'. Unfortunately I forgot to take pix of the food there as I was too busy catching up with my friends.

http://www.res.com.sg/kuishin_bo_locations.htm

Another place that I tried was the shanghai style fast food 鼎泰豐... I went to the branch at Orchard with my ex-colleague Sze Mei last Friday. It was quite crowded there. We ordered
小籠包, 蒸餃 and noodles. The taste was quite authentic. Seems like this shanghai food chain has managed to expand quite fast in Singapore, as I could almost find it at every major mall I went.

Last Saturday morning Duck's hubby Yanbin drove her to meet me up at my hotel after I checked out. He drove my luggage home while Duck and I went shopping at Suntec together and met up with Ying and Mak for lunch at Kuishin-bo. Then Duck and I went shopping again at Bugis Junction and later we took the MRT to Bi's place. We had a gathering at Bi's place where she invited Ying, Mak, Duck, Yanbin and I over for pizza + KFC dinner.

The old old friends - Bi, Ying, Jo and Duck

After the gathering, Yanbin drove Duck and I back in Duck's vet van which is basically a 2 seater with a compartment to cage the animals at the back. It was quite an interesting experience to be 'caged' together with Duck at the back of her van, feels like we are both dogs, but I kind of like this experience though...hahaha.

I went to stay at Duck and Yanbin's condo at Bukit Timah last Saturday night. The place was cool, renovated into Zen + Balinese style with open concept. The living room has a wide door opens out to a balcony that was extended bigger, with a fish pond at one side of it which further enhance the leisure mood to the living area. I like the thoughts they put in to do up their place. The whole place is quite resort like, which is exactly what I expected the two of them would do to their home, typical Aries + Gemini taste.

Well, too much to write about the trip to Singapore but I do enjoy meeting up with my old girl friends Ying, Duck and Bi. I'm glad that they are all doing well, also happy to see Ying and Mak back from Australia, which means it's easier for me to meet her up next time. Welcome back Ying!

Implanted Calories Calculator

Don’t know since when I have this biological calories calculator in my brain. Basically what it does is to do a daily accumulative calories summation for my food intake, and alarm me when the total is beyond the daily limit (2000). The counter will then self-resets to zero when I go to bed at night. Well, most of the time I just wouldn’t care much about the alarm but will just kind of alarm myself that today I’m on the gain or loss side. If I have too much today, then I will try to cut down tomorrow.

This recently, this hatable PP started her diet program. Basically everytime we went out for lunch or dinner, she would start to count the calories of everything. She often just ordered a glass of ice chinese tea instead of 'teh si peng', as according to her chinese tea is 0 calory. Another hatable person is my housemate Pig Pig. Why are these two person hatable by the way? Well, give you an example. Let’s say we all ordered the same chicken soup and rice, just after I finished all, I often discovered that one of them would just finish half a bowl of rice and the other one would have all the chicken skin peeled off and piled on the table. This makes me feel cheated as they usually didn’t say a thing when I was having mine, but right after I finished all they would start to make me realized that I have more than what they consumed. Guess that makes them feel good about themselve, and makes me feel guilty.... Shit!

Anyway, few weeks ago, PP dumped me a booklet called “Food & Exercise Guide” and asked me to read it. Basically inside the booklet it lists all the Malaysian food and the amount of calories and the equivalent to how many bowls of rice. This suddenly makes both Pig Pig and I even more conscious about our daily food consumption.

Some of the high calories food are as below:
1. Fried Kuay Teow + cockles = 743 cal (3.5 bowls of rice)
2. Nasi Lemak (gravy added) = 644 cal (3 bowls of rice)
3. Murtabak, mutton = 722 cal (3.5 bowls of rice)
4. Laksa = 589 cal (3 bowls of rice)
5. Fried rice / chicken rice > 600 cal (3 bowls of rice)
6. Deep fried baby squid = 630 cal (3 bowls of rice)
7. Claypot rice = 898 cal (4 bowls of rice)
8. Hari Raya Open House = 1900 cal (9 bowls of rice)
9. Christmas party = 2000 cal (10 bowls of rice)
10. Chinese wedding dinner = 2000 cal (10 bowls of rice)

From my today’s food intake, I’m sure to gain weight.... Look:

Lunch : 0.5 bowl of laksa (shared with Pig Pig) + 1 bowl of Claypot rice = ~1200 cal
Afternoon : Hari Raya Open House visit = 1900 cal (9 bowls of rice)

In total, I had 3100 cal and 16 BOWLS OF RICE!!!

So I got so guilty that after I went home, I started to clean up my house, mop the floor, brush the toilet etc. just hopefully to lose some of these extra calories. Well, now I’m exhausted…

Damn PP, you shouldn’t have dumped me that stupid booklet, it’s a bad idea!!!

Do give a hand when others need it

Today an ex-colleague called me from China, asked me if I want to work in China. This is the guy who I helped him before when he found out that his girl friend was pregnant.

He called me up asking how I'm doing. He said he heard from another colleague that I'm not too happy at work lately. So he offered to help me.

I'm happy to hear from him after he left for 2 months and that he still cares about this ex-colleague of his. What I'm more touch about is he called to check how I'm doing and to offer help with sincerity, after just a few days I chatted with one of our colleagues that I’m very sick of my job.

To me, I always believe in helping others as a good act that brings joy to myself. I didn't expect any returns from it. However in many occasions I do find that the world is small and round. What goes around does come around. So do not see it as a trouble when others look for you for help, in a way you are creating a door for opportunities for yourself sometimes. It’s just a matter of time. Even if there is no return, I’m sure you will be appreciated and remembered for offering a hand when others need it.

This is what I learned today :)

Role Play

What roles do I play in my life?

Tonight I thought to myself this question. Well let me think…my current roles include:

1. My dad’s daughter
2. My mum’s daughter
3. My brothers’ sister
4. The aunt of my niece and nephews
5. My friends’ friend
6. A root cause finding and problem solving engineer
7. A senior and mentor to my junior colleagues
8. A 9 to 5 white collar
9. My boss’s subordinate
10. A member of a charitable club
11. An apartment owner and a landlady
12. An ‘Anego’ etc.

So which roles do I like to play more?? Well, followings are my favorite in descending order:

1. My dad’s daughter
2. A member of a charitable club
3. An apartment owner and a landlady
4. My friends’ friend
5. The aunt of my niece and nephews
6. My brothers’ sister
7. My mum’s daughter
8. A root cause finding and problem solving engineer
9. An ‘Anego’
10. A senior and mentor to my junior colleagues
11. My boss’s subordinate
12. A 9 to 5 (actually it's 9 to 8) white collar

1. I love the role as my dad’s daughter the most as this man cares a lot about me. He is a wise man with vision and often inspires me and helps me when I need a hand. He gave me courage to face the up and down in my life, the self esteem to greet the world with openness and confidence and to stay calm in most chaotic situation. So I’m proud to be his daughter. I’m sure I would be most sad and lost if I lose him.

2. I love the role as a member of a charitable club. That’s the place where I found my passion, i.e. to use my energy and time to do something meaningful. At the same time, have fun and growth. This is a place where gain (in terms of personal growth and self satisfaction) comes with effort spent most of the time. It also helps me to justify the worth of my existence in a way.

3. I started to become a landlady 2 years ago when I bought my own apartment. My tenant is a nice person who pays her rent on time and I get extra $ to spend. The feelings of owning my own kingdom is damn great. Basically I get to do whatever I want in my little kingdom, for example I can laze around wherever I want (on the sofa or the floor) whenever I feel like it, blogging till midnight, making coffee, go shop until drop and have enough space to store all the things. I can have a walk around the pool side down stair, play table tennis, work out etc. I can also sit outside my balcony and watch the street’s lights, the mountains, and the planes landing… cool!

4. I love to be with my friends. I have made some very good friends over years alone in this place away from home. This is one of my biggest gains in life as good friends who understand and accept me well are harder and harder to find when I grow older. Fortunately I have made quite a few along this journey of life and I’m blessed to be still staying in touch with most of them.

5. I love to play with my niece and nephews as that helps to bring out the youth trapped inside of me. I must admit that I’m actually a big kid that is very reluctant to grow up. I’m happy that the kids like me, as I think I do understand their mind well and enjoy to go crazy playing with them. By the way, I like to be regarded as a trusted friend by them.

6 & 7. I also like to be my brothers’ big sister and my mum’s daughter. Most of the time, I play the role as a good listener and an adviser. What I found is that they often look for me when they have worries and problems. Other time, they are quite busy with their life. In a way it means if I don’t hear from them, I know they are doing fine.

8 & 9. I love the role as a problem solving engineer and an Anego. Again both roles help to solve other’s problems, which makes me feel that I’m putting my skills and talent in place to make things better. Even though a lot of time, there isn’t much gain with the effort spent but it’s okay, it’s also a kind of self satisfaction.

10. One of my roles in my current job is to train and mentor my juniors. I kind of like it as it’s satisfying to see their growth not only in their career but also in handling situation and people around them. Sometimes they are like a piece of blank paper, the mentor plays an important role at the work place to guide them in painting the blank page with colors and make it shines. It’s a challenge to gain their trust and to spare enough time and attention to bring out the confidence and the best in them.

11. Obviously I really hate to work for people, especially for those who I don’t like, those who are only good at talking + butt kissing, those who share different baseline and principles with me (e.g. my 狗腿老闆), and for an organization with a crap system. It makes me feel stress, disoriented, angry, mind occupied with unpleasant/unacceptable things.

12. At the same time, I hate to work long hour non-stop for people. This basically means that I don’t have much time for myself to play my favorite roles as listed above. Come to think about it, it’s stupid as I spend most of my time doing something I hate. Yes, I’m still doing it, mainly for the reason that I want to stay at this place where my good friends, my club and my little kingdom are... So it becomes my biggest struggle at the moment, which I think I should work on finding a good solution...

Well, now it’s my turn to ask you the same question:

What roles do you enjoy playing most and what do you hate most??

Answer me and you will know what you should do to make yourself a happier person.