The beginning of a new era in F1 racing

Hungaroring F1 GP, Budapest, Hungary: Fernando Alonso made F1 history yesterday to become the youngest F1 winner. This also means that it is the first win for Renault after their return to the world of F1 racing... the first win in 20 years! Alonso heading a podium with Raikkonen (McLaren Mercedes) in 2nd and Montoya (Williams BMW) in 3rd, consists solely of a new generation of F1 drivers marking the beginning of a new era.

On the other hand, is Michael Schumacher's luck running out? It has seemed that way for the past 2 races. What's even more upsetting for the Ferrari bandwagon has to be the fact that Schumacher was lapped by Alonso who maintained an amazing lead in Budapest.

And what about the tyre war? Michelin has been giving Bridgestone a run for their money. The cars on Michelins have been dominating the races since the last half of the 2003 season.

Lastly, a big hooray is in order for the Williams team. They've managed to spruce up their whole package in time to catch up for the driver's race title - where the top three consisting of Michael Schumacher, Juan Pablo Montoya, & Kimi Raikkonen - are just 1 point ahead of one another in that sequence... and of course, not to forget, Williams is now leading the constructor's championship!

19 Aug, Tue: It's way too cold in the office... I'm freezing... *shiver* No appetite to finish lunch. By 1+pm, I have a fever in reaction to extreme cold. 30 mins later, my supervisor tells me to go home. It took me one hour before I left the office. That one hour was used to leave my cubicle and to stand around the sun filled region of our teabreak area. I only left the office at 2:30pm - just after feeling warmer and fit to drive home and make a visit to the clinic.

20 Aug, Wed: One thing about medication - it really makes you sleepy. So... no one will seem surprised if I'm resting on my desk for a while. Anyway, during our team communication (briefing session) - I was leaning my head on the side of a cubicle for a rest everytime I felt like dozing off for a few minutes. :p

17 Aug, Sun: Morning - went for a swim at the club and couldn't give a damn whether it was drizzling or not. It drizzles. It stops. It drizzles again. I only got out of the pool when the drizzling got slightly heavier... arhhhh.

But the stupidest thing of the day... make it the stupidest thing I've done this year so far... is what I'm about to write below. Ok, so here goes!

After dropping my dad off where he's to catch his bus back to KL, I drove home. I drove over something in my driveway and I thought... maybe it's something with the tire. I reversed. I rolled over something. I moved forward again. I rolled over something again.

I opened my door and saw my handphone on the ground. Holy mother of God! I just rolled over my handphone, THRICE! Shit! Shit! Shit! I thought I had left my phone safely at home on top of the TV shelf. But no... it seems that my short term memory is as good as Dory's.

But as far as product torture test goes... I can tell you that my Nokia 3310's original casing passes the torture test. No cracks and not a single scratch. There you go! Support original casings... only if you have a damned good plastic cover to give it extra protection too.

I can't say the same for the LCD screen though. Half of it is still visible while the other half is as good as gone. Only one of my keys is not functioning and that's because the rubber extension for that key has been shortened because it was squished. So now I need extra effort to be able to press zeroes.

Otherwise? Well... the phone still works fine. I can make calls. I just can't make out SMS-es nor write any of those. It's not good to have a failing short term memory. Help!!!

16 Aug, Sat: After dropping my grandpa at work, and going home for breakfast with mum; I dropped by my office to check if I was scatterbrained enough to have not finished my 250ml of Dutch Lady milk, last evening.

Reaching the office door, I fumbled with the doors lock combination. I don't really know how it works but by some miracle, I managed to open it. I ran for my cubicle.

First thing I noticed to my extreme relieve; I have actually finished the milk and the empty box is lying safely in my trash can. The danger of having spoilt milk spewed via the straw onto my table was totally non-existent. I then decided to take some notes home to go over during this weekend.

Going back out of the office and locking back the doors, I tried to figure out what I did to open the door. Then Poh Lin who was inside the office came by and opened the door for me.

Sheepishly, I quickly asked her how does the lock thinghy actually work because I surely would not want to look like someone trying to break into the office the next time I have to open that darned door. She kindly told me how it opens and thank God for that, I think I'm now knowledgeable enough to handle that lock.

At 5:30-ish, I went off to get my dad from Kampungku. Luckily I reached in time to pick him up before the drizzle began. It rained rather heavily again for about an hour. Shortly after I arrived home with my dad, Sharimalan called to say that he's in Penang and asked for us to meet up. Cool!

Ok... so I recruited my colleague Irene (whom I recently found out was actually also my collegemate and Shari's friend too... again... SMALL WORLD!) - for tonight's outing. At 10pm I picked up Irene and headed to Tari Cafe. There, we met up with Shari with Sally & Daws where Shari imminently told us that we are shifting to Ali's at Argyll Road.

Finally settled and regrouped at the new venue, we caught up with one another. One thing we noticed immediately... Shari had shrunk! He had loss his fats and looks fit now... and not as "selekeh" as he once was.

The other thing was he looked a bit tired and he was more subdued. We all miss him though. He'll always be our personification of bubbly (well that's how he really is like when his engine is in full performance mode anyway).

Very sweet of him to bring souvenirs for us too... except it's souvenirs from Sarawak instead of Russia though. He got those while he was doing his 4 days of practical at one of those district hospitals in Sarawak. Aside from that, it seems that the rest of his first few weeks back in Malaysia went into attending practical training in Jitra Hospital.

15 Aug, Fri: It's a wet, wet day. It drizzled shortly in between torrential bouts of rain for most of the day. And tonight will probably be the last time I will see my young friend, Chris Ng, before he goes to Wisconsin to continue his studies.

At the office, the day was pretty relaxing. Not much to actually shout about (and that's a good thing too). Don't wanna think about what's in store on Monday. When I left the office, it was just starting to drizzle again.

15 mins into the traffic jam, visibility swiftly dwindled to about 10m. My planned pitstop at home to collect my camera became a rainstop. Waited for a good 40 mins or so before driving myself up to Island Plaza in Tanjung Bungah.

Reaching my destination, I headed to KFC for dinner with Alan, Chrissy-boy, Mei Sze, & Evonne. It's always nice to watch Chris & Mei Sze battle on anything and everything... Sometimes, Mei Sze will battle herself on certain things... it's quite amusing! Really! That girl is just quite uncontrollable. One time she exclaimed so loudly that the whole of KFC was silent for a few seconds! Even the fussy baby at the table behind us became quiet.

Later on, we moved to Starbucks. It so happened that our friend Victor was working the night shift there too. And so we continued to bergila-gila there. Shakila and Marie joined us a little later. Chris then started to be melancholic and told us that he gets hit by pangs of loneliness in the nights for the pass two weeks.

We told him its the "leaving blues"... and we know he hates to leave behind the close friendship that has developed between everyone in our group. Marie then gave Chris her contact in US in case he needed a friend while he adjust himself in his new home for the next few years. She is after all still studying there and is going back there on Sunday.

We, of course, snapped photos. I later convinced Chris and the gang to come by my house so that I can give Chris a "farewell for now" gift that I forgot to take out with me earlier... and also because I can't see him off when he leaves via Penang Airport on this coming Tuesday afternoon.

Slightly after midnight, Shakila left with Marie. The rest of us left Island Plaza only after Victor cleaned and closed the shop for the night. Later, back at my house, the gang hung out at my porch while I darted in to get my token gift for Chris. The curious group wanted to know note I've left on his gift and he offered to read it out loud.

Luckily the note was not sappy but had more of a friendly banter-ish tone to it. At 20 mins to 3am, we all traded goodbyes. With Chris, that included a farewell hug and wishes for his safe journey.

Half yellow half red
The angsana blooms merry
Unlike all others

Half bright hardly bright
Off to work and later back
Still ever darkness

Joyous light I see
If chance says be off early
Hip, hip, hip, Hurray!

Okay! So I dreamt about a weird tree with a wide canopy... the whole tree was covered in flowers - a bright yellow on the top slanted half, and a scarlet red on the bottom half. Very cheerful colours I must say.

The rest is just well... mundane stuff. I do believe that every chance I get to be home early, I'll run for the exit! Otherwise, I hardly ever see the sun on a weekday - Moving out early before the sun lights the sky into a clear blue; and getting home when the sun is already hidden behind the hills and the sky a dusky sepia... or perhaps its already dark.

So... I must say that I'm happy to be able to see the sun when I walk around the office car park in the evening. And of course... thank God that I've been going back earlier for the past week! I don't wanna know when I'll have to miss seeing the evening sun again.

Btw, my mentor from Singapore has arrived on Tuesday. He's been very helpful in attending to the tirade of questions from all of his mentees (4 including me... and the occasional person whose mentor isn't on site...). His colleague who mentors another 3 in our sub-team arrived on Thursday... she's a cute little Filipina with beautiful straight long hair. We'll be playing tour guide to them tomorrow afternoon.

Meanwhile, I finally managed to get myself to do my banking today; restocked on my engine oil; get new wipers; and in the afternoon - went to Carrefour with my parents to do our grocery shopping. I must say that the amount of milk and paper products we bought (various tissue paper... get the idea?) makes us look like we are stocking up an underground safe-haven. You know... like stocking up to live in the aftermath of a major disaster?

I just have one thing to add for now... yahoo!!! Montoya won the Hockenheim F1-GP.

1 Aug, Fri: Today I have 6 hrs of class, a 2 hr lunch break, and a communication session at the auditorium for about 45 mins. At night, I joined Jocelyn, Hei Li and a few of their friends at Coffee Bean... and after that... Joce, Hei Li, and I decided to go hang out at the sup kambing place for to get a drink and a snack.

30 Jul, Wed: Hmm... odd... Why is there a small traffic holdup on the fastlane leading to my office? It's only 7:10 a.m. or so. Then I saw it... a furball. Closer still... what the?! An owl?!! o.O What's it doing on the road next to the road divider?

31 Jul, Thu: Today is day 3 of our live support for data entry. I must say that the order that was given to me by my mentor was much harder than than the other 2 orders he gave me in the last 2 days. Better still, today we actually have a deadline to submit the order. Argh!!!

My order came in about 30 mins before lunch time... so there's nothing much I could do about it other than study the faxed documents. I went out for lunch with my old colleagues at Suat Lee's house in honor of Say Hua's birthday celebration (in advance). There, we met her handsome young man... a very cheerful toddler. After that, it was back to toil at my desk at exactly 1:40 p.m.

Shortly thereafter, in the midst of figuring out a confusing statement in an email from my mentor in Singapore... a few from the Taiwan team told me that their Acrobat can't read Chinese... and that we needed the CD to update the program so that it can interpret the Chinese characters properly. Erm... ok... so I ended up updating the PCs of 2 people.

Then JO came around saying that this is happening because I didn't install it properly. Right... whatever... then for the sake of curiosity... I tested the PC where, as far as I know, Acrobat was installed by JO himself. Hah! It needed updating too. I must say my blood was beginning to boil. Next, I asked JO what should have being selected upon initial installation... and he replied that we should activate both options for the language. Aha!! So it wasn't my fault... he only told me to activate one option the other day. Better still, that was what he demonstrated.

I blew my top. Firstly, it was his fault for misinforming me prior to my going about to do the installation for the remainder of my team yesterday. Secondly... he said it was my mistake before recalling that it was him who demonstrated the wrong thing for me to follow... and he quickly offered to do the damage control. Ahh... that's more like it. Hrmph! Don't mess with me when I'm stressed.

Back at staring at my order, I quickly made a checklist of what I should enter into the system... made some clarifications with my mentor regarding a few issues and wa-lah! I officially finished it 15 mins before the deadline of 4 p.m. After that task was all done, relieve clouded over me and I was back to being cheerful and all.

Later in the evening, I went out for a delicious seafood dinner with 3 colleagues and 3 of our trainers in Batu Maung. We had a Thai appetizer, 2 dishes of crabs, a steamed fish, a dish of prawns, a dish of shellfish, a plate of vegie, some satay, and a dish of fried maggi noodles. The best part of all, we found out that a cute-sy and hunky trainer of ours is afraid of ghost. We had so much fun just telling local ghost stories to spook him out... after all... it is also the Hungry Ghost month in the Chinese calendar :)

Luckily I booked my tickets for the 5:20pm "Tomb Raider 2: Cradle of Life" at Prangin's MegaPav a day earlier. It was sold out when Jase and I went to collect our tickets about 1 hour before the show. Oh yeah... then to kill time, we went to get some DVDs. I finally got myself a copy of The Hours, The Majestic, Catch Me If You Can, and Roberto Benigni's Pinocchio.

Next, I popped by Popular bookstore to get some stationeries but the selection of items there were pretty bleah... so... I didn't get anything from there. Looks like I'll have to go look elsewhere for the stuff I need.

Going back to the cinema, I spotted Pinky. I quickly looked out for Jase and grabbed him to let him reacquaint himself with Pinky. It was quite funny. He couldn't quite recognise her while she pranced cheekily and grinning to test his reaction... until I said it was her. Hehehe...

Ok... now! About the movie... it's definitely way better than the first Tomb Raider. More drama and the storyline is not so plastic. Ditto.

26 Jul, Sat: Today it finally hit me that the reason Pinky was back in Penang since Thursday was because today is KDU's graduation day. Oh man, I'm so blur!! Luckily I remembered in time to wish her a timely Happy Graduation day.

Later in the evening, we all met at Cravan Cafe in Pulau Tikus. It wasn't easy getting there because of that Long Buffet thinghy was being held along Gurney Drive. Traffic was hell. But forget about that because at least we all had the chance to meet up and had fun catching up and talking crap and such. Head counts for this gathering included Shakila, Chrissy-boy, Pinky, Mei Sze, Kant, Alan, Apple, Rusdi, etc.

25 Jul, Fri (Part 2): It feels good to be in the company of friends. Tonight, my college groupies and I had an ad hoc gathering at the airport's Nandos. We stayed there until they hinted it's time for us to buzz off... and we moved out to talk. Yup, we stood outside at the arrivals' corridor and chatted... and of course, we stood at where it would be least obstructive to the people who're moving in and out of the airport with luggage. :)

25 Jul, Fri: Yesterday, someone found their network drive missing and I had a debate with JO about the network drive mapping method used. He was piffed that the more unreliable Win2k's drive mapping was used instead of doing it via our proprietary software to connect those drives at logon.... to the point of wondering why I had let it be done that way. But here's the problem - I didn't do the communication to my team - the core trainers did that... and they are none too savvy about IT issues.

So today, I happily reported that a few others are beginning to find net-drives missing to JO and he simply asked what I wanna do about it. Well... so I asked nicely if he'd help with damage control only for the joker to tell me that it's not a request but an order. Ok... fine... let me rephrase myself... and I made it an order for JO to help with damage control on Monday.

This is really a small matter but the less IT savvy may not think so... and it is easier for us to organize a round of damage control than to be interrupted in future each time someone reports a missing drive or so. Easier to track what we've done too of course, no?

I must say... the Silverstone F1 GP was the liveliest race of the year! Plenty of superb overtaking took place throughout the race, one loony dude in a kilt running onto the track (and pulled off the tracks by concerned race marshalls... good thing he didn't get killed by the machines of superb speed), and 2 safety car sessions (one due to a a part of David Coulthard's head rest falling onto the track). The result of the top 8 was one that wasn't all that predictable due to the many wayward circumstances of the race itself... the top 3 being in the order of Barrichello (a win after a long spell of lesser fortune), Montoya & Raikkonen. Kudos Barrichello for a job well done!

Anyhow, today must be the first of days to come where I'll actually be working in the office until 8-ish PM or more... yes! My new job is demanding but I'm not saying that I'm not having fun coz I know when to de-stress while on-the-job. Tired but kinda happy... ah well! :) Need to browse through some notes before I hit the sack tonight... Arrr... whoops! Need to eat!!! Dinner... here I come!

Let's see... I've finally finished a 10-day course and a 12-day course on Wednesday just past and capped it off with an assessment paper first thing on Thursday morning. By mid-morning, we were shifting our computers from the training rooms to our office desk that was situated one conjioned building away.

Unlike other people, I didn't have to put my computer on a trolley ride. I just have to collect my CPU from the table that was mine before they rearranged the original sitting plan. Anyhow... here's a little of what happened in office... and before that - let me introduce to you 2 blokes whose jobs are to ensure that our web process and infrastructures are smooth-running. Enter JO and Zaf.

For the time being, they've been recruited by the management to help everyone setup their computers and such. They also know that I'm well capable of setting up my PC's hardware and software... and cherishes in making cheeky comments to me with some level of regard to that.

So well... to continue the story... as I was sorting out my PC cables - JO came to my new (temporary) desk and started to b.s. --- "Aiya... you don't need help. You can set up all this and probably better than us in setting up the whole unit" --- and at the same time he was helping me to plug in some cables. HaAaa... ok... wassup... I thought. "Btw, all of you people should belanja us", said JO. Zaf in the cubicle opposite chipped in, "Yeah, and you people must not treat us as a whole group. Must be one by one of you :)" ... and so it went on and on... mostly JO bs-ing while Zaf eavesdrop for a chuckle. And yeah... I ended up whacking JO's right arm to shut him up.

The remainder of Thursday was for us to set up our all important webtools and links. Friday was another day of briefing and refresher course. Oh yeah... and the whole team went out for lunch with our trainers and managers at Batu Maung that day. Come evening, I was blur... and while back at the office... so was JO when I saw him... he was babbling... must say that was quite funny though... hehehe...

But then at later at night, at home, I finally found out why I was so blur... I had indigestion coupled with a sinus problem acting up at the same time. I was trying to keep my nose tract clear for breathing while at the same time not quite sure what was happening in my stomach... I thought I needed to get rid of some phlegm or what not... just that it was worse... I needed to puke out my dinner... bleh! I just hate the feeling of a raw throat after puking, so I tried to drink some water... that wasn't much help coz it just made me puke again.

After sleeping it off into Saturday morning, I felt better. Then it was a trip to the dentist where I think the dentist repaired an old filling that came out on its own months ago. After lunch, I dropped my dad off for his appointment and went to get some stuff from Giant. It started to rain heavily so I thought... "Hey! I'll stick around in here until the rain slows down a little"... and ended up buying another TY Beanie in addition to the groceries. On my way home, I noticed that most Penang roads had at least 2-3 inches of water. Yup... we're flooded again for a few hours.

At night, I watched the F1 Silverstone GP Qualifying 2 session and then later a kid-movie on NTV7 called "Rookie of the Year". It was good for a laugh... and so predictable... yet it's what we all know to be a feel good movie.

Picking up where I left off in Blogger World!

Grandpa was finally discharged 2 Thursdays ago. He's doing well now though we aren't leaving him on his own to sort out his "smarties". But then again, he's a stubborn old man. He'd tried to read the minute daily prescription print and we'd argue with him that he's misinterpreting it. Example: His painkiller prescription says 1 pill 3 times daily - he had at a time of 2 tried to read the fine print and argued it should be 3 pills once daily. And so we concluded that his logic synapses ain't as sharp as before too. 3 painkillers in one taking will OD any living person... it's poisonous when taken that way.

Last weekend, Vij and I tried to synchronize our time to go watch "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" on Sat... it didn't happen on Sat and I tried to ask if she could make it on Sunday. At first she said she can't... but thankfully she buzzed me on Sat night to let me know that Sun afternoon would be fine. And so... it just happened that we got stuck in a traffic jam, didn't book tickets, and arrived 5 minutes before the 3-ish show to notice that the tickets for that are SOLD OUT... and deciding to watch the 5:35 instead. After we bought our tickets, we wasted time by just walking around the place and window shopped for stuff and checked out pricing for a boombox and a VCD player. She's planning to buy them soon enough.

Finally back at the cinema and having sat through the whole movie, I've decided that CA:FT is definitely what my brother classified it as - a guy-flick... the sibling to chick-flicks. The storyline is nothing to scream about but the action sequences can leave your mouth gaping. Btw, would you say that this is more of a Cameron Diaz flick? She does get a lot of scenes compared to the other 2.

Alrite... so after having such a splendid weekend so far, there's still a little more to make it better. The France F1 Grand Prix ended up with a Williams one-two with Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya finishing in that order followed amazingly by Michael Schumacher who made the best out of an otherwise terrible weekend for Ferrari twice in succession. My brother and I have also noticed that Coulthard is beginning to sound as whiny as Barrichello - both desperate to proove their worth after a considerably long and dry spell. Is it the end for Coulthard with McLaren and Barrichello with Ferrari? One can only speculate thus far until the truth is revealed.

Did I mention that I don't have an assessment on Monday? Ok! That was why studying has not been mentioned... yet. It's on Tuesday morning instead and of course I'll be studying the night before that. Amen.

Other than that... nothing interesting has happened other than the fact that I'm still sitting through 8 hours worth of training 5/7 days of this past week... and Shakila's back from UK... Jayson & Ethan are back from Aussie... and that I'll be enjoying Monday as a welcomed replacement holiday for the company since today is a state holiday for the Penang Gov's b'day... and that I'm contented that I've finally taken my brother and dad to Kapitan to have the Tandoori Chicken & naan bread. Best Tandoori in Penang!! *burp!*

Today is officially the most stress-free training session in the past 2 weeks for my colleagues and I... simply because we've covered everything for the first set of training... and that it was officially free time for 1/2 a day until the next one began in the afternoon... blisSSsssSss...

p/s: During tea break, I couldn't help noticing that one of the trainer's had an adorable wallpaper of Squirt projected onto a white screen in his class... so cute... and so as history would have it... it triggered me to surf around for Finding Nemo wallpapers and such... NemoOoooOOoo... neEEeeMoOoooo...

On the F1 front...

I’m really happy that the Williams team won the European Race in Nurburgring... and it was even better since there was that Montoya and Michael Schumacher racing incident to spice it up.

However, it was kinda sad to see Kimi Raikkonen’s car blowing up though. Kimi was having such a good run in the lead then too. But then that’s F1 as it is... and you know something yet again? In racing - one man’s meat is another’s poison... i.e. in the case of how Heidfeld and his Sauber earned a point as a result of Trulli having to retire his Renault from the race. Next stop this coming weekend - Magny-Cours, France!

Little Lizzy...

My brother was right. It's better when you don't know what happened... especially when I found out that I trampled on and killed a baby lizard as I was walking barefooted to the kitchen in semi-darkness on Sunday night.

GROSS!!! Gross, gross, gross...! It was better when I thought it was just a wad of discarded cello-tape... Switching on the light out of curiosity reveal the lizard and a tiny leaping tail.

I think I was hardly home last Saturday. Morning - after dragging my brother out of bed and bribing him with homemade breakfast... we dropped by the hospital to give the newspaper to grandpa before moving to the bank where I had to collect my passbook and get my new ATM card. This is very important if I want to get my pay... and even more so coz this is the only Saturday in June when the banks are open.

Noon - get mum and dad from the airport. Afternoon - dropped dad off for his appointment at the club in Tanjung Tokong; went down town to a few errands including collecting my spectacles from the optician; did grocery shopping with my brother and mum; before going back to the club to pick dad up.

Evening - had a scrumptious 8-course dinner at May Garden with the SC group. I bet that I would’ve joined them for some coffee and more chitchat if I didn’t feel tired and felt that I should be home to do something about studying for the test I’m having on Monday. Crap... that little fact sure kills the fun in weekends.