Meju hana chu sei yo

That's about it, 2 months in Korea, with the compalcency that most of the guys I deal with speaks good english, I ahven't pick up much Hanggul. Apart from the normal Kamsahamnida and Anyoheseyo :

1) Hanggul sarang aneiyeyo
2) Meju Hana chu seyo
3) Soju hana chu seyo
4) Ipoyo
5) Wine hanjang chu seyo

dun even know if the pronunciation is correct or not. haha

Winter Sonata

No la, this is not about white snow covering the land in Okpo, Korea. There was snow for a few days last week and that was about it. It is an interesting experience for me to work first time in a cold climate country.

The considerations are different compare to when you are travelling to cold countries for 1-2 weeks holiday. For instance, heating, who thinks about heating when you are checking into a hotel during winter? It is taken for granted. But if you are staying in an apartment alone, you then think about the timing to heat up a room or a whole apartment etc. Same goes to laundry, when holiday all you need to do is make sure you ahve anough clothes to cover the whole trip and bring everything back home for cleaning. Working here you need to think about timing to clean and dry the clothes, whether if you even neeed to put the cloths in a dryer (they actually shrink!) And the fxxking laundry area is not heated is freezing cold when you try to hang your laundry.


Your boiling hot tea gets cold within 5 minutes you put on the table if the room is not sufficiently heated. And if you go out to have dinner in restaurant, which is normally heated, you will have to take off the layers of jacket on your body before sitting down to order you meal, and then put them all on again before going out to the freezing cold.

So far coldest in Okpo is -4C, without wind chill I am OK with one round nect T-shirt with my workclothes and then a jacket on top of it. Jeans have been sufficient so far to cover my legs, but notice that it becomes insufficient when windchill effects comes in. Not sure what alternative I have for that, long johns? hate that.

btw the picture is Seoul 2 days ago during their presidential election (it was -11C!), and Korea have their first lady president.

Reading

Bought a lot of books in KL, never really found time to read. Here in Korea I actually managed to finish 3 books so far, just 2 months in Korea.

1 about politics in Malaysia, most of the content I already know, only interesting thing is the book is authored by a multi millionaire in Malaysia. Good to know the rich and famous have the same view towards our country.

The other 2 are bibliography of 2 successful businessmen in Malaysia. One of them, Dato' Tan owns Mid Valley City Mall, a landmark where everybody in KL knows. reading his story only make you feel how insignificant we are.

You think you earn a good living, have a good family, but to have a life that gone through the second world war, building the first condo in KL, largest mall in South East Asia, won 3 Melbourne Cups and a Grand chess master must be exhilarating!

In the book he describe his friendship with Malaysia's first Prime Minister, something he said made me feel a bit easy where the first prime minister was having fun until 40 yo, then only his journey to greatness began. I now have something to look forward too.

OKPO, KOREA

Finally, like a dream, this is my 3rd month in Okpo, Korea. Staying alone in a studio apartment; feeling the weather changed from 15C to -3C currently. Last week it even snowed.

First time working in a country that actually change season is exciting, the winter so far is bearable, with 2 shirts and a jacket I manage to survive most of the time, only killer is the wind chill due to proximity to the sea.

BBQ joints everywhere, some raw fish joints, due to presence of large expat community, sandwich bars are easily available. It is just an easy 1 hour flight to Northern China and Japan, I keep reminding myself not to make similar mistake I did when working in Sudan, 2 years in Sudan I never even manage to visit Egypt which is just beside Sudan.

I think the next 2 years here will be fun. A game changer.

Remembrance.Mooncake.Old friend.

Mooncake selling everywhere, Some names you only see when mooncake festival is due, seems as if they only do business for this one month. I have been advised that there will be a reunion dinner on the eve of an old friend's 1 year anniversary of his passing. I will not be around. Whenever I think of him my blood boils... WTF!!???! He was one of the most promising star in our group of friends... why did he do what he did? because fortune and fame came too early for him? Did I not do what a friend should ahve done? Advised him and pull him out of the abyss he was in? Maybe we did not do enough... Did he kill himelf? He was an athelete during school days and still reasonably fit, no one closed to him believed he just pass on like the way he did. Well, old friend... this one is for you... just the way you like it...

KOREA KOREA

Not sure why but my adrenalin has not really kicked in like what I had in 2005 when I went to Sudan. It will be life changing experience to work and live 2 years in Korea but I am not feeling it yet. One of the main reason might be it is just work, this job has not been able to give me the kick I need, I am just sticking around as the job pays well. I have draw up a to do list for my 2 years sting in Korea, learn the language, understnad the culture, travel the country, travel to Japan, North China, Russia maybe (dun want to end up like my last overseas assignment, the spinx is just beside Sudan and I never visited it 2 years there. By the time I am doen with Korea I will be in my early 40s. Hope that I will have already seen the light at the tunnel by then. Be an enterpreneur? Be an International gun for hire? GODS know...

Anxiety

Haven't felt stress and anxiety such as these for long time. Transition to a country up North with my impending legal entanglements is not for the fainted heart. You want to push but you do not want to push too hard because you do not have all the chips to gamble. If they call you tend to loose more than gain. Transition coupled with legal case is bad, worst still if the timing is not with you and your mew. To tell or not to tell is another dilemma here. If told will upset a lot of old "pantangs" but make life much easier, but do we want to risk it? One thing I am proud for myself is that I manage to work out every other day now. Hopefully will get my weight down soon so I do not feels o lethargic all the time. It seems these are the only few issues that is top on my list now, though some of the earlier efforts have started to pay off, a contractor friend manage to sign an international agency agreement with my help. hopefully there will be something to work on with vast opportunity in HCM. Work is wokr, how to play like the mat sallehs?

Anxiety

Holy crap! The IE crashed twivce before I posted my 200+ words post for the month! Where is the autosave file?

Life next 20 years

So sometimes we wonder what should we be doing. We like to travel, we like movies, food and massages. And we spend a lot of time in front of the screens, be it smartphone, TV (upstsirs, downstairs living hall and bed room, tablet…

Our work pays well and not very demanding, and we are usually bored or let time flies over the weekends. We work 5 days week. We talked about doing charity or something good for environment. I am keen in politics she is not.

We started a food blog on restaurants around our neighbourhood and promised ourselves to update weekly but so far failed. We tried to join a charitable organization which could occupy our time for some good to the community but just to lazy to find which one is right for us.

Too many excuses? Sound like many of u out there? I sometimes thnk this is why we will never make it big. How we envy the corporate figures we read in magazines and nes paper we will never be, because we are not lucky? Too lazy? Not as disciplined?

We travel few times a year and keep a file of the receipts, brochures of the places we visited and promised ourselves to compile a scrap book but never get to it. Heck we haven’t even print out the photos we took from our Sweden trip 4 months ago.

She quit her job last year and spent half a year at home to prove to herselve hat she can make her internet marketing gig worked but again it was half cooked and we end up with a bunch of products at home wondering what to do with them.

I setup a company with a few friends last year hoping to capitalise on our networking to get some business so we can wheel away from our mundane jobs but again nothing happen as no one is taking the first step. Chinese say u need to sink the ship to cut yourself out so the only way is to move forward. All of us are in our comfort zone and we are not hungry enough.

Start this week we promised ourselves change, we dedicate 2-3 hours every weekend to work on our blog and our internet marketing gig, as I believe as long as we spend quality time and effort on something and keep ourselves in the game, opportunity will come and we will be ready to grab it. 

Will we achieve change? Stay tuned...

Where to go from here?

Been to South of South Korea recently, really nice country with nice weather, food was excellent. Only issue was communication and the people are realy a closed community lot.

Good news from my mew. Things will change from now on. The next few months will be crucial.

My upcoming mobilisation to Korea in October is hoovering on unknowns. Uncertainty of contract contents and solvency continue to add pressure to the new events happening around me.

Looking at 20 years from now, this might be the biggest crossroad in my journey in this llife. Decisions made now will have impact in the coming years.

I did not March in BERSIH 3.0

I have mixed feelings for BERSIH 3.0. In my younger years I would have not hesitated to follow the march, the sit down, the rally. After BERSIH 2.0 I told myself the next time they organise this I will definitely attend. However come BERSIH 3.0 I did not go. Just spent most of the time in front of a computer trying to get updates from Malaysiakini, Malaysia Today, FMT, Malaysian Insider or whatever non MSM sites I can think off. I gave my self a few lame reasons not to go, "It will be too difficult this time, road are closed, more people will turn up." or "It will be more dangerous this time, getting near to election, the government will do whatever it takes to curb this rally"

End up my 80 yo father happily jumped up the LRT and stopped at Pasar Seni to walk towards Dataran Merdeka without informing us. Thank God he was already on the way home when all hell broke loose after 3pm.

Thnigs did went South as I expected, but was it sufficient an excuse for me to hide in my hole and let others do the dirty work for me?

Missed March 2012

I told myself to at least keep an article a month. I have also started a blog on F&B in BIntulu few years back and now a blog for KK but have trouble to be consistently contributing to the blogs. I am not that busy btw. I have known for many years that I am good at starting something but would need an executioner to complete the job.

SOmetimes I wonder if that is good enough to get me by? I know I will never be Steve Jobs or Mahathir, and I will never be a specialist like most of my friends are. Sometimes you worry too much, I told myself.

Worthwhile mention for March 2012 was a trip to Stockholm, a beautiful city, where I see snow for the first time drizzling from the clouds...

I am not a good engineer...

When people ask me what I do for a living, I normally just answer "Engineer". In fact I am not a good engineer althought I have an engineering degree is not important.

As a civil engineer I could not even design a simple drain or warehouse structure as I never spent time as a consulting engineer. I spent most time on the field but yet I am not a strong site guy who can bully people around either. I spend most of my time coordinating stuff, closing gaps between groups.

For a good 10 -15 years all seems fine as I always get to get a good job to boss people around. But now I am in a dilemma, at late 30s, there seems to be an imminent crossroad ahead which will determine my next 20 working years.

I used to be top student in the class, from primary to secondary school. I become a average student when I was in Uni, aprtly because engineering was never really my first choice. And partly because I am not disciplined enough.

As an engineer in a multinational copany, you get to earn wages way higher than your peers do in a local firm. You get to play a small part in a big picture and people tend to leave u alone. You also get to have a lot of rest time, big companies do not want to burn you out. The downside is the learning curve is slow and your adrenalin does not boil. There is little to job satisfaction. (In my case at least)

In a local firm, you get less pay as an engineer but you get to call the shots, make important decisions. You get satisfaction, many of my peers are now middle managers in listed companies, whilst I am still a meager engineer in a project team.

I forsee if I continue the path I am in I will end up like the old fellas in my team, a lot of them in their 50s and 60s, doing the same technical work, taking life as it goes, travelling the world when opportunity comes. Getting more than average salary.

Few years back my main motivation is to get a job that pays the most so I can accumulate most cash in shortest time possible in lieu of my failed business venture and corporate debt. IDid the business failed because I was not a good engineer? one wonders...)

Now I began to question my decisiona dn am looking into options which may get me out from the rat race.

A good friend who passed on few months back once told me he share the same dilemma, when we reac a certain age (like we have now) it is hard for us to compete with young fellas coming into the market tecnically if we are not already in a senior position calling the shots...

Well said bro. May you RIP. Seems people are thinking about you on facebook.

I had a dream...

I literally had a dream last night, one which I can remember vividly even after I woke up for work today. Can't remember when was the last time I had a dream with details I can remember after I wake up.

I was working in a office I was not familiar with, the environment looked a bit similar to that of one of my previous office. When the clock struck 5pm, buddy of mine, who is still close friend now called and we headed to a new joint for happy hour.

The place is new and it was their official opening day, it is a porsche club, double story, with wide spiral staircase and fancy lights all around. We walked around and bumped into some guys who were polite to us. They were telling us the boss is a rich fella and from the stories it seems that we actually know the boss, a previous employer to both my buddy and myself.

And then came a young fella who the guys we were talking to say is the person incharge. With the resemblance we quickly noticed that this young chap must be the son to our former boss. As I happen to know the eldest son of my ex-boss, I was quick to ask if he was the younger brother to Adrian, the young chap smiled and coyly nodded, but added that they have a different mother. Haha, the ex boss of mine was known to be a player and we knew that he had 2 or 3 girlfriends (later wives).

We ordered somethin to eat, but it was not impressive, and we were giving tips to the young boy how to stay ahead in competition, citing examples of well known clubs around klcc, some have terrific food, some have excellent live bands, some have hot hostesses... and this new joint have none, so far, it was just a big hug club plated with hard earned cash with no substance, which we think, will not stand the test of time.

Suddenly there was commotion in the crowd, lights were shining and there he was, the elderly guy we use to call boss, standing amongst the crowd like a superstar, now a self made billionaire, people were rushing to shake his hand.

He came near to his son and then he noticed us, qith a broad grin he shook our hands and seems like e was happy to see us. We did not get to chat with him and the boy left us to join his father to talk to the crowd. The father ad his arm over the young boy, which was odd as he was really strict to his eldest son Adrian, always scolding him in front of the staff, seems like this young boy is his favorite son afterall.

Then suddenly there was change of scene and there were car case, custom clearance (toll gate?) and we were last seen laughing walking towards the sunset...

Not sure what it all meant and also not sure why I even bother write about it. It is just that the memory of this dream is so vivid it is odd...

Any theories?