reflections of 2007 (warning: very long post)

2007 is nearing it's lifespan. As much as I hate endings, somehow it opens up other doors. So I guess we should look forward to what the new year has to bring us. Here're some moments in 2007 that I managed to capture:

gathering with old friends during cny. talk, talk & talk.

gathering with newer friends. eat, eat & laugh.

I've to handle the Taiwanese market starting 2007. Had to do some business trips there. The reps insist on me giving presentations to the customers in Mandarin. Anyway, managed to do it in mixture of Mandarin, Hokkien & a little bit of English. This was taken during mins before the bullet train ride from Taipei to Kaoshiung. First time taking a ride on the bullet train. There's a display that showed the train's speed during the journey. My balls shrunk a little when it showed 290 km/h.. and going faster & faster... I survived the ride.

After dinner at some restaurant up in the hill in Kaoshiung. My chinese ain't that good, what does the 5th word mean?

My surprise birthday celebration with my adopted Taiwanese family. I've not seen them for 2 years. I know I looked like shit, but I had to wake up early and just travelled from Kaoshiung to Taipei to meet them.

Finally found the time to be back for Ching Ming this year after after missing it for the past few years. Well, someone's gotta keep the tradition alive. Also, I have to be respectful to the elders, whether they are still around or not. Takut nanti kena strike by lighting. Will promise to go be back every year for this...

Dinner & beer with the sales reps in Manila. Had a great time there as whenever I'm in a foreign place, I've always wanted to experience what the locals do, and not to some fancy restaurant. This is a place by the roadside where they serve grilled seafood. The reps insists on taking "Red Horse" beer instead of the usual "San Miguel" which has higher alcohol content at about 7-8%. The place was packed as it was end of the month & everyone just got their salaries. Adds to the atmosphere!

Made a couple of trips to Taiwan this year. View from a hotel in Kaoshiung. My rep booked me into a >100 storey hotel. Taiwan's full of earthquakes & luckilly nothing bad happened. The hotel only costs USD110.00 per night, and it's cheap considering the quality and service there. Also, I experienced how Taiwanese partied the night during this trip. The rep wanted to introduced me to his staff, so we had dinner, and during dinner we were already drunk, and when we checked in the hotel, he insists on drinking again. So we drank in the hotel pub. I tought I could get some sleep after that, but NO! The night is still young, we're going to karaoke! So we went, and it was not like our usual Redbox where we had our own room. It was open-type and everyone had to go up to stage to sing a song. Well, what the hell? When you're drunk, you have the courage to do anything.. so up the stage I went.. haha...

This laughing buddha pic was taken during our drive from Kaoshiung to Taipei. We drove this time, and in between that journey, we went to couple of kampung areas. There, I saw the girls selling "pinang". Fuiyoh.. they were practically wearing nothing! I wanted to take pic with them by my rep stopped me..

I insisted on having traditional Indonesian meal when I was in Palembang, Sumatera. That's my Indonesian rep in the pic.

I wanted to take this pic in front of this Indonesian university when I was in Palembang.

I have to climb up (well not really climb up, but there was a lift) this stack (about a 100 meters high) to show my commitment to the customer so they'll buy our product..

Looking like a complete dork with the safety helmet on with the customer up in the stack

Sept 2007... we had our Asian Representative meeting in The Laguna Resort in Nusa Dua, Bali. All our reps from Middle East, Northern Asia & South East Asia attended. All about 50 persons attended and we had a wonderful time there. This is a pic after the meeting, just before the dinner where some reps started to get drunk.. haha..

During dinner in Bali by the beach. We asked the hotel to prepare seafood BBQ by the beach for us. Persons sitting in this table... reps from Taiwan, Korea, Singapore - very lethal combination. The person in pink is the one responsible for showing me how Taiwanese partied in Kaoshiung. The person in red shirt's from Korea, starting to turn red 1/2 way through dinner because of all the alcohol.. haha.. By end of the dinner, he was as red as his shirt! They wanted to get me drunk.. but..

... my saviour was sitting next to me! My Malaysian customer who used to work in a beer factory.. beat that! haha! He helped to drink for me that night..

My 2 good buddies from Manila were here too! They can drink all night long. I was with them on a trip in Philippines last year, and they even had beer for lunch & tea break time. They could still continue work after that! Girls & beers are on their mind 99% of the time..

Visited Kuta Beach too during my trip there

Managed to find some time to paint the apartment this year. A lot of my friends asked me to hire a painter. Besides being kiamsiap, I just felt like doing it myself. Damn! It was hardwork, but I'd do it again if there's a chance. There's nothing like the satisfaction you get from knowing you did the work.I know a professional painted can do it in 4-5 days time, but it took me 2 months. Still, I've yet to paint the masterbedroom & 2 bathrooms.

My first trip to Kalimantan. Touchdowned at Balikpapan's airport at 4pm and had to drive 7 hours to Bontang where I have a presentation to make the next day. This is the only thing we can see during the drive! My camera ran out of battery, but I had to be on the stack again (like the picture way above).. and I got the chance to see the Sulavesi Sea when I was on top of the stack... man.. it was beautiful.

ahh.. beautiful Los Angeles. Have to be here end of every year for our annual sales meeting.

Having dinner with my colleagues. I don't need alcohol. I was already drunk from the jet lag. Workwise, we had very good year this time. Increased in fuel price has increased our sales as well as many oil companies have the budget to spend. We broke our sales target and this is our best year in history.

Early christmas celebration in Los Angeles (taken early Dec)

Beautiful Palm Springs in California. We stayed at Westin and had our sales meeting there. I got up at 6am for an early morning walk. Air was cold and calm, felt so good & free. The hotel resort had some Mexican architecture, as the California state belongs to Mexico long, long time ago. I want to climb that mountain one fine day.

I finally found out what Christmas shopping is all about in US. The long queue to pay your stuffs.. etc.. man.. crazy. There are many outlets here, from Levi's to Addidas to Coach etc. I only got some Levi's stuff, but did not get any Coach stuff (I don't know about the price difference in US & M'sia, but after checking it out later when I got back, they were real, REAL cheap there) as the queue was was toooo loooong in Coach outlet.

Oh yeah.. went to this place where they serve real American meals, meaning 1 serving is good for 3 Asian. Served with waitresses on roller skates in mini skirts. Hell yeah.. next year, I'm gonna have to ask my boss to take me to Hooters..

My favourite ice-cream shop. I have to have this each time I'm in the US. Rain or shine, tornado or earthquake I have to have this. It gives such orgasmic pleasure that words cannot describe.

watching MCR concert, fun to be wiht the rockers and all rocker-wannabe that nite. ROCKERS, UNITE!

Making new friends & watching hip hop dance competition at RUUMS, KL. Fantastic experience. Made me think of the old days when I was into breakdancing 20 years ago.. wah damn malu just to think of that. **this pic, stolen from Vivienne**

Spending some fun time with loved ones. she's going thru some shit situation with her job, but I guess she'll pull thru. **this pic, stolen from Erika**

It has been 1 year since, & still going on strong on the mandarin course..

year end dinner with malaysian reps

Busy year, but managed to read some good books. I believe somehow knowledge gives me some personal satisfaction. Some titles include: Gengkhis Khan - Life, Death & Resurrection; I'm Not Sick, Just A Bit Unwell; Personal Financial Planning in Malaysia; Maximise What You Have, No Matter What You Have Now; The Chinese Dilemma; The Google Story; The Rules Of Life; The Long Tail; Repacking Your Bags - Lighten Your Load for The Rest of Your life, An Illustrated Cycle of Chinese Festivities in Malaysia & Singapore. If anyone wants to borrow these books, then I charge a minimum fee of Rupiah 0.01 per day.

It has been a very interesting year so far for me. I hope it gets better in these last few days, and next year. Things might not go with what we have in mind all the time, but I'd just like to take a moment here to be thankful that I'm still healthy, I still get to wake up to see the morning sun each day, I still have the eyes to see, hands to play the guitar, I can still smell & taste food, voice to sing, I've still got my legs to carry me, I still get the chance to earn a living, and still be with wonderful friends & families. Hats off to 2007...