A fallen hero but soon to be resurrected!

The title may seem a little too dramatic for the absence of a neccessity that we utillise so much but we take for granted; our cars or to add a little luxury to the word, automobile. Most of us have them, while some are in the process of getting one and some who feel it is more convenient to use public transport or a motorbike.

Be it whatever car, from a Mazda RX-8 to a Perodua Kancil, the owners take pride in their machines for daily commute and simply for fun! I guess it is not only about the value of the car but the ability to be mobile and the freedom to move boldly where our hearts desire.

My recent post here is a sad one about something that both Ruby and I treasure deeply; Ruby's Perodua Kelisa Auto @ "Christine".

Last Wednesday, I received a call early in the morning from Ruby saying that someone had knocked her car from the rear. I jumped out of bed and made a few calls to my favourite Perodua service centre in Penang, near to the Gama shopping complex, but to no avail as it was before office hours. Thankfully Ruby was fine and was able to tell me what was going on at the scene.

Ruby's car could still move so she took the culprits contacts to meet up later that day to make the police report and subsequently arrange for the cars to be fixed. Well, most deffinitely the culprit's insurance company will pay for the repairs to Ruby's car!

As we speak, Ruby's car is currently in the Perodua Main Service Centre in Penang under the care of my "boys", hence, everything is "organized".

Dreadfully, it is going to take approximately two weeks to have the car repaired and collected by Ruby. It is something I very much dislike but I have no choice but to leave it in the hands of the relevant authorities.

The point that I would like to bring up here is the agonizing fact of owning a car but you can't use it because of someone elses fault. Yes, accidents are inevitable since the dawn of the car. When cars came, accidents came with it too. Nonetheless, I cannot stop outpouring my dissatisfaction over this.

Being without a car can be a real pain. I know what it feels like as I have been in the same situations before with my old car. God forbid anything were to happen to my new one!

No matter how careful we are on the road, there are always other factors that contribute to an accident; other motorist, road conditions and weather. It sounds pretty scary and some may be very stressed out with driving due to extreme stress of being involved in an accident. However, I assure you, in life, we can do so much. There will be always be other things that be the reason for things to go wrong.

What I have learnt from this event is that it is good to have an automobile association or a reliable insurance company that handles accident claims and towing away the car to a safe spot. In addition to that, the complicated paper work and people to see to get the issue resolved can be tedious.

Based on my experience, I am a member of AAM(Automobile Association of Malaysia) . My parents and my aunts have been loyal supporters of AAM for many years. When I first got my driving license, my mom got me a supplementary card under her as a precaution.

When I started working, I joined on my own as a member. They handle my roadtax, car insurance, my driving license, vehicle breakdowns and accidents (towing and all the necessary paperwork). It is convenient in the sense it puts you at a little ease of being a car owner and driving. The service I admit is not perfect but they get the job done.

One thing that I try to practice is defensive driving. Be always on the lookout and alert to different situations in traffic; motorist, road conditions and weather.

Motorist are unpredictable. They are like sperm that roam freely during conjugation to fertilize the egg. Some of them are in a rush and some are just plain stupid! We always need to anticipate the moves of such people for the bennefit of our safety and that of our our loved ones and the safety of our vehicles.

Roads in Malaysia are tricky. Some are good roads but most are not; roads are filled with uneven surfaces, potholes, confusing road-signs and road-kill. Using our instinct, we need to be always alert and adapt to these changes and abnormalities. Also, this is to protect the wear-and-tear of our cars like from potholes that could damage our undercarriage, tyres and suspension system.

Weather these days is unpredictable. The rain sometimes gets so heavy that it disrupts our view while on the road. A suggestion would be to switch on your lights and wipers and lower your speed. Never use your emergency signal lights as it gives the wrong impression that the car has broken down and is stationary.

Always ensure the tyres have sufficient thread to sustain grip while driving. A tip would be to check the grooves of a tyre with a coin. I suggest that if only 25% or less of the coin is "hidden", it would be best to change your tyres. Don't go for re-threaded or uncommon brand names. Stick to the main tyre manufactures like Sime Tyres. However, despite having new tyres, we still cannot take for granted the road conditions on a rainy day.

With this post in mind, I do hope everyone drives safe, be cautious while driving and try to help others by giving them a lift if needed! :)

Sleep more to feel healthy and happy!

When we were babies, we used to sleep a lot. In fact, our parents and grandparents ensured we slept well during our early years of our lives when our body adapts to the world, outside of the womb of the mother and to ensure the healthy growth of our body and organs. We would be put to sleep right after we had been nourished with milk. I still remmeber KLIM milk powder back then in my early years! :)

As I grew older, my sleeping hours has become less due to my activeness. I noticed this during my school days when there was tuition to attend and homework to complete. Then in university because of the Internet and the wonders of downloading and watching tv series and going out with friends up to the wee hours of the morning, time spent sleeping was less.

Now with work, I have to constantly keep myself abreath with the growth in IT and international economics so I spend a lot of time on the computer. Also with work during the day, it leaves me only with the nights to do my laundry, iron my clothes and wash my car. I wonder what will happen when I have kids someday? :S I may be so busy till my sleeping hours will be even more less!

However, despite my hectic lifestyle, time management is now totally super important to me. There are so many things to juggle but what I have learnt is to prioritize. I may not be satisfied that I could not get to wash my car on a particular day because of other chores like laundry but instead wash the car on another day. I know I may sound so rigid and up-tight but this is what I need to do to ensure smooth "operations" of my life.

The same goes for my sleep, I need to ensure that I have sufficient sleep and rest before starting a brand new day. I used to sleep at crazy hours of the morning on a work day. Now, with my timetable, I have enough rest to begin a great morning and day at the office. It may be long hours at the office but I will not feel tired because I have rejunevated the night before with sufficient sleep. I also feel, sleep plays an important role in influencing our mood for the next day.

Ruby and my mom have also been telling me to ensure I have enough rest and sleep so this was a form of encouragement for me to prioritize on my sleep. At first I was wondering how can I achieve sufficient amount of sleep. Then, after some minor planning to my lifestyle, I have that time now. I trully feel happier and healthier.

These days with the change of weather, I have been falling ill often. Who hasn't this year? If you haven't, your lucky! This was when I realized how important sleep was to heal the body. I mean you cannot avoid consuming medicine but with the sufficient rest and sleep helps to heal your body. For example, taking two Panadols and sleeping it off when your sick. The next morning when you wake up if your lucky, the illness may have gone away or have been less intensed.

This is what I have discovered and I felt I should share this with all of you. Less sleep is something we are all experiencing these days and we should do something about it as there are lots of bennefits from sufficient sleep.

Catching up on sleep over the weekend honestly never helps and wastes your good weekend for sleeping rather than getting out there and having fun! Sleep more people! :)

Thailand goes bang!

What comes in mind of the people of Thailand is there gentleness, respectfulness, courtesy and kindness. Some guys drool over Thai girls thinking they are the ultimate rosie cheeked soft-gentle sexy women wrapped in batik style cloth that would turn their wild fantasies into realities. The people that build up the country gives it a very peaceful and calm nation.

That mindset has now changed with the recent political turmoil that has rocked this holiday cum shopping destination. The people of Thailand are protesting for the return of the ex-prime minister, Thaksin, back into power. It is really sick and sounds disgusting.

Thaksin was charged in court for fraud and squandering the citizens money as his own. He use to be the ex-owner of Manchester City for a while before selling it off. There are stories that he was a billionaire even before being the premier but a lot of people are doubting how he became rich. As of now, he has divorced his wife to protect the wealth of his assets from being exposed to all.

With respect to his leadership, he seemed like a nice guy. I remmember the time he visited KL and met up with the then Prime Minister of Malaysia, Dr Mahathir. A lot of ties were forged for economic bennefits of both countries, monitoring the illegal trade of rice and petrol and safety at our borders at Bukit Kayu Hitam.

As for the current crisis, the protest is mostly contained within the busy Bangkok. The protesters clad in red T-Shirts march to the streets creating chaos; vandalizing military vehicles and terrorizing cabinet ministers of the coutry. Some say that these protesters are being paid by the billionaire ex-pm to organize such demonstrations. How can people say this is a peaceful protest? How can a once peaceful nation have a misconception on the term peaceful? Thais are not stupid people despite the language barrier towards the world but they could be clever in bull-shitting. This is bogus!

Thailand has been changing prime ministers like how Paris Hilton has been changing boy-friends. Where is the symbol of the country's stability? Can you just imagine the impact of this political volatility have on the nation's economy especially during this current economic crisis? Thailand is a haven for holiday makers but I am sure they will think twice if not three especially about their safety. When 9/11 happen in the US, it openned the eyes of the world that such catastrophes could happen anytime, anywhere and to anyone.

After Thaksin left office, there have been so many replacements. However, the people have some reason to get rid of them be it corruption woes and non-democratic selection of their leaders. Thaksin is hoping to return back to Thailand and regaining his control of the country as Prime Minister. This would include a some-how genius idea of clearing the charges against him and pretending nothing happenned. Fat hopes lah coming from a non-political science scholar.

I personally think that the current Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva is a nice guy. He is deffinitely a wise choice as leader having graduated from a prestigous institution in the UK. His international relationship is very good and is trying his best to boost the economy especially travel. If you go to CNN.com, you may still be able to view an advertisement of Thailand beginning with him introducing himself and elaborating on how wonderful Thailand is to the world.

The chaos continues until some form of convincing, clarification and persuasion can come to the country. I feel the best person to make this happen is the highly respected king of Thailand as everyone looks up to him. He is respected almost God-like and most Thais display their affection to him with his photo all over from inside their wallets, front of their shops and key-chains.

There is no place for the US to get involve in acting as mediator or whatsoever. This is not another Iraq or Afghanistan. It will do a lot bennefit to bring back the stability and peacefulness of the now torn nation. I am optimistic and hoping that things will return to before, once this issue has been resolved as Malaysia and Thailand have very close business ties.

The new Sheriff!

It has been a week now since Najib took over the relm as prime minister of Malaysia. I have nothing much to remmember of his predecessor except for his wide smile. :)

Being in Najib's shoes, it is a rather bad time to come in during the current economic crisis to deal with unemployment and the drop in purchasing power due to difficulty in obtaining loans. Also, with the severed relationship amongst races, it is difficult to pull everyone together to build a stronger and harmonious nation.

With more and more people being convinced that the opposition is better than the current government, it is hard to gain the peoples support for the governments efforts and policies. We have been waiting for Anwar but nothing has materialized. Who likes waiting? The opposition who is rulling certain states in the country are governing base on trial and error and still seem a little virgin to procedures and dealing with issues.

Trying their best to be transparent be it in murder trials, human rights and corruption, the new government is doing their best to win the hearts of the nation.

Mahathir is also back in the leading party having renewed his membership with the party. He is trully brilliant as we all know and has led Malaysia to outstanding heights. We are actually now somewhere in the world compared to our neighbouring countries. He has shown his support to the new premier. Somehow, whatever Mahathir says, we listen and we believe in it because concretely he has done a lot for us. Mahathir may have made some errors or misjudgement but what he did right has outweighed or substracted the bad.

From what Najib has done so far has made me think that he may be of some good afterall. Yes, it is quite evident there have been lots of rumors about him and some have judged his leadership and sincerity to serve the people. However, what I applaud of him is his vision. A vision is vital in bringing any organization or body to where one wants it to go.

Isn't he making some difference to the people so far? It could be a sign for better times to come I honestly feel. The release of the ISA detainees and booting of certain cabinet members whom we all felt hurt and unworthy by are amongst the changes he has done so far. ISA is now under evaluation of it's effectiveness it protecting the country and ensuring it is abiding my human rights policies. It is the same thing that Obama did for the US in shutting down Guantanamo.

He may not be able to solve the current economy crisis because it is a global issue and has hit badly in the United States and in Europe but he could try to repair the fault and defects of the previous administration.

Too be honest, anyone can lead the nation has long everyone is protected, no discrimination or marginalizing certain sectors and their is equal rights to citizens. Psychologically, it is difficult to bridge the divide amongst different races and culture. When people see differences, people see breakdowns that prevent us from achieving our goals together.

I know it sounds weird that I may have changed my views suddenly of who can best serve the people but it could be pre-mature and we shall see what happens. As for now, I would like to give my support to the new PM and see what he can do to fix the brokeness that has affected many homes throughout Malaysia. Let us give the new guy a chance! We may not know what may turn out of his leadership and I am saying that with positiveness and optimism for good change.