I have a new home! I have a new home!!!!! YAY!!! It’s gonna be so much fun to set it up and decorate it anyhow I like!!!
A new website lar… :p But it’ll take some time before I can get it up and running coz I don’t have as much time as I want to work on it.
Watch this space! 
Hello everyone! Welcome to my new home
So recently I was invited to spend a night at The Westin, KL, free-of-charge. Of course I jumped at the chance! Me being the jakun that I am i.e. haven’t stayed in enough of 5-star hotels to realize that it is just a room with a bed and bathroom and tv. But hey, 5-star hotels are usually COOL rooms with awesome bathrooms and really plush beds! What to do, I’m no high-flyer, so I dun get sent all around the world to stay in 6-star hotels and attend very important meetings :-/
Anyway, me, Westin, FREE! Weeeeeee, here I come! Haha… 
… is non-existent in this country.
A colleague was relating his experience with Jaring. He had called up Jaring’s customer service line to find out information about registering for their broadband service. He’d put in an order and he was told that he had to go to a Jaring outlet to complete his registration. First thing the customer service agent didn’t go was to tell him exactly what documents he was required to bring along to complete the registration. Secondly, when he got there, they couldn’t find his order no. Then, when he read the Terms & Conditions on the form, one of the T&Cs said that subscribers can cancel their subscription within 7 days if they are not satisfied with the service. My colleague double checked with the Jaring person. The person said no, subscribers cannot cancel the service and must sign a 1-year contract. And even if they wanted to cancel the service, it would be subjected to a Jaring technician’s inspection and their approval of your reason to cancel the service.
I’ve got a few comments here:
In the end, my colleague told the Jaring person that he will try the service and if he’s not satisfied, he’ll cancel within the 7 days and see what they (Jaring) will do.
My boss related her experience with Streamyx. She had wanted to set up a WiFi network in her home but when she asked the Streamyx people to set it up for her, they said that they didn’t know anything about setting up WiFi and they told her to do it herself! Come on lar, you are an internet service provider. Customers can have access to the internet, regardless of whether via WiFi or not, so it is part of your domain to assist your customers in both methods!! With WiFi becoming more common and easily accessible these days, it is only common sense for you to upgrade your staff’s knowledge and expertise with the latest technologies in order to serve your customers better. That way, when people see that your staff actually know what they are doing and can offer value-added services, they would be more than happy to recommend your service to their contacts. Which, ultimately, increases your income. But see, these dungus (you know who they are) prefer to lose income and rot in outdated technologies than spend the money to invest in their staff training. The least they could do is refer the customer to their partner who specializes in WiFi. Their installation services are contracted out anyway so what’s so difficult about getting a partner specializing in WiFi?
But it’s an infinite loop. At the end of the day, if consumers don’t voice their dissatisfactions and act to ensure something is done to address their dissatisfactions, the service indsutries will continue with their lackadaisical attitude and continue to bully consumers.
I know I’m guilty of this as well coz sometimes, I’d think “Aiyah, so small matter only. No need to complain lar.” or “It’s too troublesome/inconvenient to file a complaint lar. Forget it.” but then you see, all these small things add up and the more we turn a blind eye, the more daring these people/companies will get. And in the end, we consumers are the ones who will pay for our lack of action.
However, in saying that, the ONE place I wouldn’t complain would be in any restaurant. If I don’t like the food/service at a restaurant I’m in, I would just not return to the place again and I would not recommend it to anyone I know. Or I will only complain AFTER I’ve had my meal and plan not to return again ever. Everyone knows why. Heh.
One good experience I had recently was at the LCCT. We’d arrived back from Bangkok and were queueing up at the the immigration autokiosk (is that what it’s called?) to scan our passports. There were 2 scanners and two long queues so they opened up another counter to manually scan the passports. The immigration guy who was manning the counter was such a pleasant fella, smiling all the way. And the scanning was very quick. So I was satisfied with that service. Fast and pleasant, that’s what I like.
Why can’t all services be like that?
Email from the Animal Rescue Network:
All of them have been nursed back to health and all of them are already spayed and vaccinated.
Kindly contact Pat Lim at 016-6568 997 for more details and for viewing of the puppies.
If you know anyone who might be interested in adopting, please forward them this email. Serious and responsible owners only, please!
I was walking around my condo grounds this morning, trying to look for one of the stray cats that I was planning to take to the vet to get neutered, when I bumped into one of the residents who stays in the unit few floors below us.
Resident X (peering into the cat carrier that I was carrying) : Eh, how come empty one?
Me : I’m trying to catch one of the stray cats.
Resident X (eagerly) : Oh, you’re taking it to the SPCA?
Me (to cut a long story short) : No, I’m taking it to get castrated so it doesn’t fight with other cats.
Resident X (visibly disappointed) : Oh…
Sorry lar… I’m not going to take the stray cats to the animal shelter coz the shelters are already overflowing as it is. And the cats that are around here would most likely be euthanized (i.e. killed) coz they’re not the cute, adoptable types that people seem to like. So no, I’m not going to do the dirty work of first, taking the stray cats to the animal shelter and second, having the record that I’d voluntarily sent a healthy animal to its death on my head.
Bah… people.
… is always the best policy.
One of the notable experiences that I’ve had in my recent BKK trip went like this…
I was a Paragon shopping for shoes when I saw this pair that I liked. So I asked the sales guy to get my size. He went to get the size and when he came back, he was apologetic coz they didn’t have my size but they had one size larger, which he had brought with him. I said it’s ok, I’ll try it anyway so he took the shoes out of the box. When he picked up one of the shoes, he took a look at the inside sole of the shoe and his face became even more apologetic and he indicated that the inside of the sole was a bit dirty, and was kind of reluctant to pass the shoe to me. I said never mind, I’ll try it anyway just to see if the size fit.
In the end, I didn’t buy that shoe… but I bought the same design in a different colour! But what struck me was that the sales guy didn’t try to cover up the dirty sole and hassle me to buy it, which was what would’ve happened if this occured in KL. If it were here, I think the salesperson would’ve said “It’s ok, can wash one” or “Never mind, it’s on the inside so nobody can see”.
So yeah… I appreciated the sales guy being honest about the dirty shoe… and I ended up buying two pairs of shoes from his section of the shoe department
Another good experience I had was when I was shopping for belts at MBK. Was at this shop that sold belts of all kinds so it was a bit overwhelming coz there were belts everywhere. So I saw this belt that I liked; it had some fake sparkly stones on the buckle. The salesgirl who was helping me got one for me and after trying it on, I decided I would get it. When I was about to take the belt, she started looking for another belt in the same pile and when I looked confused, she showed me that there were a couple of stones missing on the buckle so she was getting me another one. Now, how nice is that??? That’s how customers should be treated! I bought 5-6 belts from that shop
Things I love about Bangkok:
So that was my birthday gift, a trip to Bangkok. Thanks, babe! 
*You can stop at Chit Lom (Gaysorn) and walk all the way to MBK (National Stadium). Or the other way around, whichever you prefer Please note that these are only the malls that we managed to visit. There are MORE!
Suan Lum Night Bazaar is another awesome place! It’s similar to Chatuchak Weekend Market, just smaller but even so, there are still tons and tons of shops to look around! We didn’t need to go to Chatuchak this time around and the best thing is, it’s closer to the shopping district than Chatuchak and it opens every night, if I’m not mistaken. They have an enormous food court/beer garden, with many many stalls selling different types of food. Just like Chatuchak, different sections of the bazaar sell different things so you’ve got one section specially for home furnishings, another for apparel, and another for souvenirs, etc. It’s not as big as Chatuchak but even so, there are more than enough stalls to keep you busy for a few hours, especially if you’re like me and like to stop at almost every stall, haha! To get there, just take the BTS Skytrain to Sala Daeng and follow the signs to the MRT (there are very clear signs, you can’t miss it!). Take the MRT to Lumphini and the bazaar is literally at the exit of the station.
…and he got a Deuter 35 + 10 L backpack (THB4200), a suit tailor-made plus 3 pants (THB4500), and many more other things!
That’s it, man. I’m not going to shop in KL anymore. I just need a twice yearly trip to Bangkok to cover my shopping needs for the entire year!
The Thais are generally courteous and they seem more tolerant of each other as compared to Msians. Drivers almost always indicate when they change lanes on the roads, even on highways and they GIVE WAY to others on the roads, even in the traffic jam. On the first night, we took a tuk-tuk back to our hotel and the guy got lost so he stopped at one of the nicer (i.e. more expensive) hotels to ask for directions and the security guy (?) of that hotel, nicely dressed in a suit patiently explained to him how to get to where we wanted to go. Isn’t that nice? I tell you, if in KL, the tuk-tuk guy would probably just get told to get lost! Especially if he stopped at one of the 5-star hotels.
Another thing I love about Bangkok is that the people respect and are kind to animals. Even stray ones off the street. People don’t chase them away, they just let them be. It’s like, they know that these animals have as much right to be on the streets as them. And I think this makes the animals less edgy and more calm (most of them seem to be sleeping most of the time) and less likely to bother the people. Almost all the animals I saw there had collars on them. Outside our hotel, there are street vendors who set up their stalls along the street to sell their wares and there is this black/white dog whose owner seemed to be the lady who has a stall there and the dog just sleeps underneath her stall. How cool is that?! Among all the dogs I’d seen when I was there, I don’t think I’ve even heard one of them bark!
Many of the stalls at Suan Lum Night Bazaar had cats. And all these cats have collars on them (wow, people actually CARE to put collars on their pets!). And they just stay in the stall with their owners, they don’t run out and make a nuisance of themselves. I just find it so fascinating! And such a stark contrast to M’sia. Zen Central at Central World Plaza even allows toy dogs into the store! Gosh, I’m 100% certain that there will never be a day when I’d see a pet (cat, dog, whatever) allowed into any store/building in M’sia! Unless it’s an animal hospital/clinic, that is.
Oh, and Thai policemen and security guards are slim and trim! Unlike M’sian policemen… I shall leave it at that.
Colourful fruit made of green beans…
Cool escalator at the new Suvarnabhumi Airport…
Bangkok’s got a fan for life here! Till next time, BKK!!
Some people just have no compassion and no sense of civic duty.
There are stray cats around my condo grounds. Me and my family feed them. In addition to that, we get them spayed or neutered so they don’t reproduce, and release them back where we caught them. With this bunch of “resident” cats, it minimizes the infestation of stray cats coz these cats have “claimed” the area and other newcomers would think twice about invading their territory. This is not just coming from me, studies on the benefits of the TNR (Trap-Neuter-Release) method of managing stray populations have proved this.
However, the people who live in this same place that I do, all they know how to do is complain complain complain about the stray cats and not do anything to help the situation. I’m losing my patience with these people who can complain and complain about the cats scratching their cars but are doing NOTHING to help the situation! So what if it’s a flashy car? At the end of the day it’s just a piece of overpriced metal that depreciates by the day. The only reason the cats sleep on it is coz it’s warm and seeing that they have no homes, they have to find someplace warm to keep themselves alive. Why can’t people comprehend simply animal survival instincts?? My dad was doing his rounds last nite and bumped into this resident who kept complaining the cats are a nuisance. My dad told him he has no conscience. Way to go, Dad! Gawd, I cannot tahan these people! They don’t even know that we are spending the time and money to get these animals fixed for THEIR (the humans) benefit as well!
Seriously, these people can buy their flashy cars and spend large amounts of money on ridiculous things but they don’t THINK of the simple things they can do to help the strays. No one’s asking them to go out and save all the animals. Just put a little effort to think what they can do to make their community a better place. The stray problem is NOT going to disappear overnight as long as there are still unfixed strays out there and people are still allowing their pets to breed indisriminately. And getting management to capture the strays and dump them somewhere else is NOT a solution coz that’s just throwing the problem somewhere else and making it some other community’s problem.
These people earn tens of thousands a month vs. me, who earns less than 5K a month. Do you know how difficult it is to want to try to get these cats fixed but having to watch my pennies each time? And having to have to limit the number of cats that I can get fixed each month? I don’t think what I’m doing is extraordinary or noble. I just want to make things better for both the strays and the people who live alongside with the strays. And to stop the stupid residents who only know how to complain from complaining even more! Every time I hear of someone complaining, I’d get really anxious and I dread the day when the management will show up with the wire cages and catch the cats and dump them goodness-knows-where.
I know some like-minded individuals who are doing the same as well i.e. spaying/neutering strays animals. But for every one of us, there are like, 100 other people who only know how to complain complain complain and who care more about their flashy cars and expensive hobbies. There’s nothing wrong to have fancy cars and expensive hobbies. But just THINK about those less fortunate than you, and I’m not just referring to the human ones but also the four-legged ones. THINK, when you are in your warm bed and dry clothes on a rainy night, there are kittens and puppies shivering out there without shelter. THINK, when you are driving your fancy, air-conditioned car, there are hundreds of cats and dogs risking their lives and becoming roadkill when they make a wrong estimate and decide to cross right in front of your flashy car.
But more often than not, this person driving his/her flashy would be more concerned about the damage caused to his/her car rather than the badly injured/mangled animal lying on the road.
A lot of times, people make me sick. You’d think we were given the ability to think and feel in order for us to make the world a better place for us and every living being. But no, we only use our brains (WHEN we even use it) for our own good.
One of the residents here has someone in the family who is pregnant and who isn’t supposed to be around cats. They have 3 young cats. Or rather, had. What did they do? They kicked the cats out of the house and the cats are now living at the guard house at my condo. Sooner or later, some residents is going to do what they do best. COMPLAIN. And now I’m trying to rush to see if I can find homes for them before the management decides to catch them and dump them. They are such young things and are very friendly. And it is so unfair for them to have to pay for their humans being such assholes who treat them like objects they can keep and dump at their pleasure. Gggggrrrrrrrr, it makes me soooooo MAD!!!
And people who claim they are so pious and religious but show no empathy at all towards animals?? Bah! Don’t preach to me how good you are and how you follow all God’s words if you can’t even show compassion to a four-legged living creature. Didn’t God say that we should be kind to ALL living creatures?
Some day, I hope all the animals will revolt against humans and take control of the world. And do to the humans, what the humans did to them.
GAH!
I shall let my family and friends tell you about me. These comments may be rather old but I think the gist of them still hold
~~~~~~~~~~
When AiLing runs across someone she dislikes, she doesn’t start a big campaign to destroy/challenge their ideals/motives. She simply avoids them! Hence, if she calls u her FRIEND, u can be rest assured of her unswerving loyalty, care & compassion
AiLing’s unique, authentic & strong-willed. Her love for animals is beyond comprehension (at least for me!). She gets really crappy when stressed & it’s not wise to provoke her as u may end up badly bruised (either physically or emotionally)!!
ok ok ok! To cut the crap… u can consider urself somebody fantastic if she calls u her friend. Conclusion : I AM HER FRIEND 
~Audrey (ex-boss, good friend, now boss again)~
***
This beauty queen has more love for animals rather than human beings as whenevr I tried to flirt with her, I just got kicks from her…
Dnt think of doing any silly thing with her as she is too good in martial arts…. I had a personal experience of that 
Tip for first date with Ai Ling : Go in costume of cAT or PANDA!
Anyway jokes apart, she is a nice sincere (altho I doubt sometimes!) gal to work with and and at the same time a nice friend to take care of u….
~Rohit (ex-vendor, good friend, new father)~
***
I’m not good in writing testimonials but I’m doing it because U are a Great Gal & I promise U one. Hehe…
When we 1st met, U were really Quiet & Reserve. But after a while, U really opened up & our friendship deepens. I’m really Glad to find a True friend in U.
U are not pretentious nor ostentatious. Always helpful & caring. Always listen to my whining & bickering..
Thank U for being such a Sweet Gal. May U be blessed with eternal Happiness.
~Erica, 23/02/2006 (ex-colleague, now good friend)~
***
Always thought she was overworking herself with some many after-office activities, ie. salsa and sutra dance. 2 weeks ago, I finally see what it all amounts to in the end…
AMAZING! She dances so well, I’d want to sign up as her manager to manage her future gigs. Not that she’d let me, but one can always hope. Multi-talented to say the least, but definitely a one-of-a-kind. I’d give 2 thumbs up for this person, cause for me, she’s a Malaysian Idol in her own right.
~Merv, 07/12/2005 (ex-uni mate, always good friend)~
***
Titus Andronicus?!! Run, people, run for the hills!!
Hmmm… your affinity for feral animals, your constant need for hibernation, Titus Andronicus…. oh, God. Can you say Attack of the 5ft She-Cannibal?
She prefers to go under any number of aliases: Dame Sleeps-alot (as opposed to Dame Sleeps-around-alot, that’s someone else. I think.), Rockchick, Catwoman, Salsa Saucy, etc.
The restraining order issued by Josh Groban against her is completely groundless; it was purely coincidence that she was outside his bathroom window that day with a pair of binoculars and a bag of vegetable treats. And baby oil.
Only dresses tartily on special occasions.
~Andy, 02/09/2005 (friend of a friend, very interesting individual)~
***
We used to be ex-colleagues till destiny had a different path for the both of us. No matter, we’ll meet again. Since we are currently still so close to each other. Hee hee!!!!!
Sure do miss those good old days though. At least I got to touch my favourite beautiful things. Yum!!!
~Jean, 25/08/2005 (ex-colleague, now good friend)~
***
the youngest volunteer in ur group + owez smile + listen to my sad SEATRU story + snorkeling + kancil + pasar malam = THAT WHY I OWEZ REMEMBER U.
~Sly, 23/06/2005 (research assistant in charge of the volunteers at SEATRU)~
***
She could stare down any cat, and her CFM (Come Fight Me) poses are known to ward off evil spirits. She’s a perfectionist who doesn’t settle for less, her fetishes for shoes can reach the tops of KLCC, and she can sure spell RYZE with her ***
But don’t let all these fool you! Beneath the killer looks, she a YOUNG, kind, sweet, caring, spunky, innocent, thoughtful lovely YOUNG lass with a heart of gold.
~CL, 31/05/2005 (friend, now my better half)~
***
ailing. What can I say about her? I knew her since I was very young. We used to go to the same kindergarden.That’s like 20 years ago. We had lots of childhood memories together. I can say, she is a great companion…a great friend.Altho we went separate ways…….she was in USA….I was in Australia……this girl has a special place in my heart..now and always. HEY! Its about time to meet-up..and have some fun…Hugz…
~Lily, 05/11/2004 (good friend from way back when we were tiny tots)~
***
my sis: she’s anal, rigid, easily annoyed (it takes soooo little to irritate her!), damned dicsiplined (more than me anyway) and a champion for the environment and animal causes. try and cross her on her ideals and you’re fired meat, man! she’s also quite sweet, very helpful, extremely kind to animals and to some people, and if you’re a friend in need, would probably go all out to help you. But does not like to incovenience her own friends.
oh, and an ok kid sis lah. hahahahah!! used to poke me in the ribs to wake me up, irritated the hell out of me. now i poke her in the ribs to annoy her. occasionally.
~Sis, 08/07/2004 (self-explanatory)~