Irresponsible to shift high fuel prices to future generations, says Najib

So is it fair to increase fuel price to the whole nation, while channeling the subsidies to improve public transport systems which mainly benefit people in the city?? What about those who are living in rural area and haven’t had a chance to enjoy any public transport improvement (if it’s ever going to be successful) but have to take on the new fuel price?

Or is it a responsible act to continue to squeeze money from the nation who once voted you to fund yet another project after having to fail in so many previous instances?

So… we need to be responsible to future generations, what about weaker spending power and inflation resulted from fuel price increase? Wouldn’t these affect them in a negative way?

Anyway Najib, my advice to you: the more thing u say or do… the more unlikely the future generations will vote for you

It had been a tiring 2005. I’ve been traveling since Jan then for at least 1-2 weeks a month and some were connecting flights from one destination to another - east to west to east. I could feel myself getting older as I could no longer cope with the jet lag and recuperation takes a longer duration. By the time I get adjusted to a timezone, it would be time for me to fly home. There were also various occasions where I would arrived at the destination at 6am, freshened up and headed straight to the office and worked till 10pm at night. I’m not the only pathetic person in the world but my colleagues do that too and I salute them for being able to cope with all that stress. Anyway, I’ve finally informed my managers that I could no longer travel and this KL trip would be my last. Some are pretty supportive but some are trying to negotiate a 30% traveling requirement with me. So I guess at the end of the day, it depends on how unyielding I am to accommodate such request in the imminent future although I am adamant with my decision at this point. I’m sure a lot of you have been in such situation when it comes to work and have to compensate for a fulfilling career but offload personal desire and probably work-life balance - mel.

Unless it’s your first time here, otherwise you would notice that the layout has changed. The previous layout just couldn’t cope with the content when Mel is struck by her literary inspiration. Hopefully, this layout will make pages appear shorter and save all the scrolling.

2 days ago, I was sharing about how fortunate everyone is. We should always make the best out of our life if things are within our control unless one day, God has decided to call us home without prior "notice". I’ve been working on a project for the past 1 year and it has not been a bed of roses with many challenges, obstacles, chaos, resignations, stress and illnesses and what could be worse than a sudden bereavement of an invaluable manager - a leader whom we all looked up to. Yesterday was the worst day in the history of our professional life. She collapsed in the office and passed away so suddenly that no one till this moment as I write could accept the reality. When I first joined the organization as a contrator, we had our first team dinner together at Chillis BSC and I remembered her chatting endlessly with us in the interest of wanting to know the new joiners better. Subsequently, she moved on to different roles and finally landed in our project again to be our new boss. She was a gutsy woman and lead in steering directions within the project and corporation. She rewarded praises and appreciation when recognition was due. A leader, an employee, a wife, a mother, a daughter whom anyone could have ever wanted. The morale is still low but it’s nothing compared with the grief of her immediate family and friends. However, it has impact us all in some way or the other and through this incident, she had taught us all an important and priceless lesson once again - pursue a work life balance, to value life and spend quality time with loved ones. Personally, although I was not present at the scene but it had shaken me. I was due to meet her next week in KL for advise and discussions. I’m seriously reconsidering my working lifestyle and heavy travels. I’ve been through it all but what further benefits can it bring? Possibly more money and promotion but I would rather not trade those for my health if the journey is gonna take a while….. If there is only something we could all do. Readers, treat this as a wake-up call and be responsible with your own life as it’s not governed by your company nor obligated to the company. Don’t just say it but do it! Learn to say NO if things are hitting beyond your limit…Our deepest sympathy and condolences to her family and may God let her rest in peace.

Julie passed me an url to her photo album yesterday… man, I am impressed ! She is now part of the DHL cheerleading team representing Malaysia and what impressed me most is that her team has won the competition in Sg and will head for next challenge in Germany ! This used to be very-quiet-girl in ECnet is now not afraid of being thrown in the air and doing the 360` degrees ’spinning’ action. See the pictures and you will know what I mean. I showed Mel the photos and she was impressed (and surprised) too. Btw Mel likes dancing, if Shell ever organizes this activity, bet she will be the first few to signup.

Julie, all the best for your Germany challenge (Malaysia boleh) and Congratulations on your ROM (know for sure it is not a very good news for some guys out there)

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Few have asked me ‘how much have I spent for the trip?’. Many expect the trip to be expensive and luxury as it includes the dog sledge, ice hotel visit and the icy experience. Have a look at the breakdowns

Taxi to airport £36 + flight London-Stockholm £178 + train Stockholm-Kiruna £203 + Kiruna hostel £32 + ice hotel entrance and coach £40 + Dog Sledge and Overnight cabin £160 + Stockholm airport transfer £32 = (approximately) £681.

It comes out to be £1000 inclusive of meal and expenses for 2 pax. It’s not expensive considering the sort of experience you are getting. Of course, if it wasn’t because of Noreen’s accomodation in Stockholm, it would have been more expensive (Thanks, Noreen).

So if you are coming from Malaysia or Singapore just add another £500  per person for return flight. This should give you a ballpark figure.

If any of you interested to know info regarding hostel/train/url/tourbooking and stuffs, let me know and i will post further.

 Rosman’s baby

Name : Hanif Naufal
Birth date : 16th Feb 2006
Weight : 2.5KG
Place of Birth : Temerloh
(Submitted by Rosman)

Congratulations and best wishes to Rosman, Loh, Melvin, Cheok, Chooipeng, Yoke Keen & Mun Lim, Steve Sim, Intan, and Daphnie & Paul on their newborns! Wow! 9 babies in a row calling us uncle and aunty Here’s a little dedication to all the new parents.

Babies are Angels that fly to the earth,

their wings disappear at the time of their birth

one look in their eyes and we’re never the same

They’re part of us now and that part has a name

That part is your heart and a bond that won’t sever

our Babies are Angels, we love them forever.

~Unknown~

- Warmest Rgds from Eng & Mel

That’s the topic presented by the church speaker today. The speaker emphasized that most people fear on how others think of them and as a result, they often put on masks in order to paint a beautiful picture to others. This would probably win attention and caused others to be impressed but will definitely not gain genuine friendship, sincerity and honesty and would only bring dissapointment in the long run.  But I guess everyone has to find their ‘anchor’, something or someone that an individual can trust so that it would become the support and motivation throughout life. Do not let fear stop you as that would only prevent you from progressing. Instead, think of what you fear most and what’s your anchor to help you get on with life - mel.

It was St Patrick’s day yesterday. There was a French Gourmet Market just off Waterloo Train Station (nothing to do with St Pat’s). Approximately 5 min walk from where I work. Bought lots of food - duck liver pate, ball bread, cheese (a mild one recommended by my colleague; I can’t tolerate strong and mouldy ones), mustard and some other dressings. There were free tasting and my favourite happens to be Rouille which contains caviar…yummy! The french guy advised that I can prepare some good soup with it. Whenever I get the chance to visit these type of markets, I will end up buying loads coz there is no such gourmet  markets near where we live. We only have the normal vege market. It’s usually all in inner London. Been quite adventurous with cooking lately. Cooked lamb curry last night but Eng said the spices were too strong. Both of us always crave for curries and hot food…Tonight will attempt chicken with ginger + spring onions. hmmm talking about that, nasi lemak has just popped into my mind…yeah I’m greedy, I know - mel.

         

11^th March 2006 Saturday We visited Skansen, the open museum in the morning and the rest of the day was dedicated for food shopping. We bought some caviar, biscuits, Smörgåssill (pickled herring), pickled cucumber and a Kosta Boda bowl .

taken in swedish gourmet market, good choice noreen!

we did have a couple of good cooking sessions

 
12^th March 2006 Sunday We bid Hej då to Sweden and board SK531 at 1110 back to London. We have a collection of 800 masterpieces from the trip (embarrassing!). Much appreciation to my colleagues for the Nikon “lah” and not forgetting our IPOD shuffle did help a lot too. It was one of our best holidays that we had even been – survived from the ice and frost bites, inspiring, abundance of exposure to the nature, culture and knowledge. Definitely raises our expectations for our future breaks.

9^th March 2006 Thursday I was awaken by the sudden chill, looked over my shoulder and noticed that there were no woods left burning in the fireplace. I contemplated to burn more woods due to the fact that I felt so sluggish at 0030. However, the iciness won over me and I strained myself to add more woods to trigger the fire. By the time the fire started, Eng was already wide-awake by the noise. He was caring and gentlemen enough to let me sleep in his sleeping bag at his corner, which was supposedly warmer. I had to wear thermal, wool, jumper, the clothing provided by Henrik, winter jacket, thermal socks and tucked into 2 sleeping bags in order to keep myself warm and subsequently able to sleep soundly (Not very proud of it) Comparatively, Eng just wore a yellow jumper and trousers to sleep. He had the urge to visit the P area (designated outdoor spot as men’s toilet) but resolute to hold as long as he can due to the coldness and darkness outdoor. 

fire place

Eng’s desire to fulfil a good sleep just couldn’t ensue due to the increased coldness and urge to visit the P area. His feet were freezing although he was also tucked into 2 sleeping bags. The time was 0300 and he decided to answer natures call. While watering the local plant life overlooking Torne River under the clear sky, he witnessed some strange poignant shadows and sounds of cracking ice as well as animals’ foot steps echoed in the dusk with little light from the reflection of snow. It was definitely not an experience by choice. He then returned to the hut to lit more fire before retiring for the third time that night. He managed to slumber an hour later by burying his head in the sleeping bag as it was just too cold and wondered how the guests in the Ice Hotel could sleep comfortably in sub zero.

lower than freezer’s temp?

The next time the fire was gone, it was 0630, sun had risen and the bright ray was penetrating through the window in our hut. Eng couldn’t consider a better reason to sleep and thus decided to get out of bed and wear more clothing. At the same time, I woke up and we both freshened up and prepared some hot coffee to drink with cinnamon ginger biscuits, Pringles and German rice biscuits. It was minus 25 but we still took a stroll by the frozen lake. We could hear the resonance of cracking ice. Our growling tummies alerted us that it should be breakfast time. Bread, cheese, salami, muesli, yogurt, apple jam, marmalade and hot chocolate which both happened to be my favourites were readily served for us in the main cabin. 

After breakfast @ 0900, we walked leisurely down the river bank. The day scenery was breathtaking; large pieces of frozen ice were floating and spectacular forms of pebble liked ice at the edge of a multilayered snow; we enjoyed the tranquillity of the surroundings; just like heaven. We decided to turn back after the long adventurous wander and as Eng was stretching his neck, he caught sight of 5 wild animals – reindeers (this time with horns) and some white reindeers about 800 metres away.

Approximately 1100, Eng was very eager to experience ice-fishing but prior to that, the ice needs to be checked. Alexander, Henrik’s son, drove his Yamaha snowmobile to the middle of the frozen lake to corroborate that it was suitable to fish but encountered some problems with his vehicle later on. Unfortunately, there was too much water on the surface of the ice, which could be unpleasant for the activity. Apparently, the previous night was too cold which caused more ice to be frozen and subsequently increased the water pressure to overflow to the surface of the adjoining ice (a metre in thickness). Eng was no doubt disappointed but that created an excuse to return to do some ice fishing in the future. Since we had some free time before our departure, we treated ourselves to one last round of “snow gliding” on mattresses. Eng resurfaced some patches so that we wouldn’t bump into trees during the slide.

a snowflake on my glove

By 1230, we had to pack our belongings, as we need to clear the room for the next group of French and Chinese tourists. We ate one last luscious meal of smoked reindeer with macaroni. It was so mouth watering that we couldn’t resist from finishing the entire dish of meat. I was sitting beside Henrik at the dining table and he didn’t have the same food as us but he drank reindeer blood + vodka instead…..eeeuuuuuuu. I lied as after lunch, we had the final round of “snow gliding” but did it at the wrong slope and Henrik couldn’t drive his snowmobile up since he had to brake for us. All of us had to help him push the motor and he was obviously not too happy about it. Anyway, Eng paid him 2900 SKR and £40 tips to buy good food for the huskies.

click the picture for panorama, its 90kb

We waited till 1500 before walking round the lake for 15 minutes to reach the huskies’ waiting area. 13 huskies were competing for attention when they saw us. Henrik arrived and selected 3 huskies to be seconded to their cages while the rest were equally divided and assigned to 2 sledges. The ones allocated to a Hungarian couple in the other sled had 2 leaders.
As usual, the huskies were eager to run. The Hungarian’s huskies were a bit slow and Henrik had to console the leaders by chanting some dog language and they immediately became alert again. I took over the driver’s position from Eng at half journey. I was thrilled but nervous. During the run, the leader slowed down to answer nature call (they do this all the time) and I couldn’t step the brake on time and caused the sled to jolt the huskies to the side of the path. The second husky’s harness was tangled and Eng spent 2 minutes trying to readjust the harness while Henrik appeared calm and patient. I released the position to Eng 10 minutes later as I was emotionally tensed by driving the sled and the thought that I might unintentionally hurt any husky.

driver had to stand throughout and be prepared to step on the brake pedal

The remaining ride on narrow trails was bumpy and we were impressed with the huskies familiarity with the route that they could lead us back to the destined spot without Henrik in sight. We then helped Henrik unleashed each husky and direct them back into their cages. There was an ill husky with us in the car as he accidentally swallowed a harness belt that had caused stomach discomfort. Henrik shared some information with Eng and mentioned that over aggressive huskies will be exterminated whilst the respectable ones could be sold for 20000 SKR. Not exactly what he wanted to hear. He ultimately dropped us off at ICA for some food shopping before we adversely leave the paradise to board the train back to Stockholm. We will definitely miss the encounter and the huskies but as the same time vow not to dog sledge again as we felt pity for the huskies. Mixed feelings. Dog lover, you tell us!

to all the huskies in Kiruna, we will remember you!

2 sides back to back with 10 kennels on each side, dogs are kept overnight here! That’s Henrik

they were watching Henrik’s movements closely, and hoped to be selected for sledging for the day!

like F1, u need to check properly before the race

set.. ready.. wait for the boss

8^th March 2006 Wednesday Woke up several times as I was excited about the imminent activity. Henrik from Taube company picked us up at 0900 but there were no huskies in the truck. We waited patiently until we arrived at Kurravaara. We put on extra clothings provided by Henrik. There were snowmobiles and sleds but still no huskies. Suddenly, we caught sight of a moving object poking out of an enclosed kennel. Those were the huskies! We do feel sorry for them as they were locked up in individual kennel. They were 20 in total and we had to escort them out of the kennel and leashed them outdoor. Then, we were taught how to harness and handle the huskies and sled. The huskies’ enthusiasm to run was simply astonishing. They started barking, jerking and howling when Henrik the alpha dog (pack leader) illustrated signs of departure. Once we set off the brakes, they started running in full swing for 10 km. It was a splendid and priceless experience. Absolutely worth the quest especially for someone who has been living in a constant tropical climate and willing to chill out in a difference of 60 degrees celcius. We went through the forest and on the ice of Torne and Rautas River. There were no roads in that region and we essentially arrived at the camp and lived in the last wilderness in Europe for 2 days. We had the Lappish specialities – reindeer meat, bread and aromatic hot coffee. They fed us well but it was a trap! We accumulated energy and we had to chop our own firewood for our own hut and it’s not that difficult to guess who did most of the work  Once that was through, we enjoyed the rest of the peaceful evening by partaking in cross country skiing, feeding the reindeers, saunter by the river, BBQ and wooden heated sauna. In essence, we had the best of everything – huskies, river, forest, skiing, sauna…I could not ask for more. Finally, the emphasis of the evening was glimpse of Aurora Borealis or Northern Light. It was like fireworks across the sky; mainly green. An amazing celestial phenomenon generated by the Sun that our Nikon couldn’t capture.

fast and furious, so u know why hp(horsepower) isn’t applicable in this part of the world	they’ll ’scoop’ ice from side path with their mouth from time to time, their natural ice-blended sky juice

eng - obviously, she thought the cabin had ensuite bathroom with unlimited flow of hot water	i am standing on a frozen river! the surface of ice was at least 1m thick

eng - i can’t believe this dwarf looking creature is me!	this was our 15-yr old hut for the night

puppy husky!

6^th March 2006 Monday Free-and-easy was the programme. We took our own sweet time to organize our 16-hour train expedition to Kiruna. Connex departed from Stockholm Central at 1800. We had dinner in the train and went straight to bed. Eng had stomach discomfort during the journey but he recovered by the time we arrived at Kiruna. We crossed the Artic Circle in Sweden along the way by noticing some posters and signs of indications.

7^th March 2006 Tuesday We alight at Kiruna, Lappland by 1030. It was bitterly wintry and attest to get used to the weather as it could be worse up North. We found our route to Yellow House (accommodation for the night) to unload our backpacks and headed straight for food.

yellow house hostel, affordable and clean !

I was craving for some Swedish meatballs (yes, the IKEA specialty) with mashed potatoes and they were indeed delicious. By 1400, we took a bus to the world renowned Ice Hotel in Jukkasjärvi, the other one is located in Quebec, Canada. We were eager to witness the fairy tale land; the immense carving that is being rebuilt every winter. Check out its site if you need to know more but IMHO, the sculptures were remarkable but my feet were too numb throughout; imagine walking on ice with my thin soles from Clarks although I like my boots which I’d bought from the Christmas London sales. Shall not dwell further or else, this blog will divert from its origin

ice hotel, smaller than i thought from the outside

chapel next to the ice hotel, i thought it looks better than the hotel

entrance to the hotel, made from reindeer skin and horns, canggih!	dining area of the hotel with the infamous chandelier

icy reception desk and its friendly staff

Absolut Icebar, with everything made from ice including the glasses

You get proper bed in rooms. From the pic, the bed is a combination of 4 Ice blocks as Legs, wood frame on top of the ice blocks, mattress covered with reindeer skin and pillows

bored yet?	here’s more

5^th March 2006 Sunday Eng and I are early birds and it was unfortunate that Noreen had to wake up the same time as us to have breakfast together. Thanks for waking up pal! Eng could be a qualified travel guide as his itinerary and amount of comprehensive information he had gathered for our trip were pretty impressive and of course, tailored so much to my interests  We left for Gamla Stan after breakfast but we didn’t get to the subway station after half an hour as we were busy snapping photos of the environs outside Noreen’s apartment.

beautiful scenery 200m from the door step

I didn’t realised that I seemed to be obsessed with bicycles as every shot has its occurrence  .

Anyway, we arrived in the end. Gamla Stan literally an “old Stockholm” is a small island in the middle of the city. With its narrow lanes and attractive highlighted buildings, it is a charismatic vicinity to visit.

Identify the fake windows in one of the pix. Apparently in olden times, residents were being taxed for "installing windows" (ooopsss too much IT by now) in their units as it was considered luxurious.