Entries from January 2008 ↓

My poor car has been so covered with dust and grime I could barely see out the windows. I kept meaning to hose it down but never got round to doing it. After being repeatedly warned by my dad that the grime will eat through my paint job leaving it looking like a leprosy victim, I decided to take it down to the local car wash.

Here in Malaysia, a car wash isn’t an automated machine that you drive your car through while water and soap sprays onto the car. A car wash means a manual wash done by a group of men whose ambition is probably to own their very own car wash and to do so, they have to get your car clean and shiny in the now.

4 men, 1 car.

20 minutes of washing, getting wet, scrubbing, cleaning, wiping, drying, vacuuming, and polishing. 20 minutes later, I drive away in a shiny and so clean-you-can-eat-off-its-bonnet car.

How much did this cost? RM8.

That is just about RM2 per worker without taking capital cost and expenses into account. If you opt out of the vacuuming it usually costs RM6. As I watched them, I could not help thinking about how cheap the labor cost is here, and how much we take for granted.

RM8 to us car owners means the convenience of not having to get wet and sweaty and tired out washing our own cars (those who can - my condo doesn’t allow it).

RM8 to these 4 men could be the difference between having KFC or curry rice for the day.

Puts things in perspective, doesn’t it?

All through Thursday …

… and many hours later…

Introducing India, my photo-reality alter ego who might be making an appearance from time to time. She is narcissistic and sarcastic… erm… pretty much like me.

My site was down the last day and a half due to a glitch at a data center in the USA. I think it was a power failure. Left me with a lot of time on my hands, I can tell you! But I’m glad my host kept my informed and updated all the way so there was less worry on my end.

If my sites go wonky over the weekend, don’t panic. There is some server migration going on. Till then, here’s wishing everyone a happy weekend!

An open letter to Citibank:

Dear Citibank,

I have held your credit card since 1999. 9 years later, I’m rethinking my loyalty.

Situation #1

I have never had the occasion to ask for a replacement card until last November when my wallet was stolen. It took you more than a week to replace my Visa card unlike HSBC which had my card replaced in 2 days.

You never replaced my Mastercard till today. You never followed up on my verbal complaints. You then charged me a replacement fee for a non existent card.

It took a written complaint by me for any action to be taken by you. You then copped out of the issue by sending me a renewal Mastercard instead.

Situation #2

Halfway through the Mastercard saga, you sent me an unsolicited surprise upgrade to a gold Visa card. When I called your tele-bankers yesterday to activate it, they could not find the card in the system. The card number is non existent and no one knows what is happening.

I received a follow up call to say that as the card is non existent, I was to destroy it and you will send me a new upgrade card.

I never asked for this gold upgrade. I have no need for your upgrade. You sent it to me and then you give me the runaround?

A global bank with very local issues. Its time to ponder the merits of remaining loyal to Citibank - the Citi never sleeps if this is how loyalty is rewarded.

Yours incredulously,
Paris Beaverbanks

Here I am, chasing prosperity with the Lunar Year of the Rat fast approaching. For those keeping tabs, today is the 1st day of the Chinese lunar month (or chor yat - cantonese, chuey it - hokkien). This is also the last month of the Lunar Year of the Pig and in exactly one month’s time, we will usher in the year of the Rat, to chase the Pig out the door.

And this year, I resolved to do something I’ve never done before this - eat a McDonald’s Prosperity Burger!  Would you believe I’ve never eaten a Prosperity Burger in all this many many years McDonald’s has been running their annual  run up to Chinese New Year?

So, today I bit the bullet (I’ve sworn off McDonald’s) and succumbed to advertising and curiousity. RM9.88++ poorer, what I find myself chowing down on is a beef patty smothered in black pepper sauce in a long sesame bun (not unlike the Ramly burger special sans egg), curly fries (not unlike that found in A&W) and a cup of ice cold jasmine green tea.

I could live with the burger (it wasn’t too awful surprisingly) and I have a soft spot for fries, especially curly fries. What I could not stand is the artificial sweetness and fragrance of the jasmine green tea. I don’t drink Chinese tea at the best of times, and when I do, I don’t take jasmine tea because of that cloying fragrance. So I wish they’d stick to the orange juice they served in previous years.

So, now that I have had my taste of prosperity, bring on the Year of the Rat! dong dong chiang!!

Picture Credit of jhhwild

Following the Chua Soi Lek (CSL) sex dvd scandal saga with morbid interest (despite being sick of it), I have noticed an interesting turn of events.

When he admitted to being the one in the sex dvd that was widely distributed in the southern state of Johor, there was public outcry and horror over the scandalous disclosure. Apparently, “public polls” showed that a majority of the people wanted him to resign. And resign CSL did, from his position as Health Minister, and from all political positions within the MCA.

In The Star online today, 2 separate people are “praising” CSL, but for different reasons. One for the work he had done in the Health Ministry and the other for taking responsibility for his personal actions and resigning. Interesting that one should be from the ruling party and the other from the Opposition.

Have the antics and subsequent actions of CSL turned him from a villain to a hero?

Even more interesting is the comment by a former Bar Council President (reported in The Sun) that the law outlawing oral sex is “obsolete” and should be repealed. All this in light of the very same sex DVD that can now apparently fetch up to RM50 in Selangor.

Instead of working on finding the culprit who invaded the privacy by installing a camera in a hotel room to film the antics of its occupants there is instead, talk of whether CSL would be charged for indulging in oral sex (which I assume must have been seen in the DVD). I wish the police would get their priorities right - protect the people from fiends who invade privacy, not charge people who are victims. This is the exact same mentality that makes the rape victim the one at fault, not the rapist.

What next in this CSL sex video scandal? CSL for President?!