I will be boarding JQ66 in 5 hours time and it’s raining heavily outside.  I am going to Sydney, Australia, to attend my brother’s convocation.  Will be travelling on JetStar, the low cost flight for Qantas.

It’s been 6 years since he left Malaysia for Australia to study.  Now that he’s graduating, that means that he is a man now and will be ready for the workforce. 

Anyway, I’ll be bringing a laptop over to Sydney as I have some work to be done.  I hope everything is fine in my workplace when I’m gone.  This week is the busiest week as we need to be wrapping up the magazine already. 

Oh yeah, a few post back I said that I’ll be getting a new toy.  It’s a Canon EOS 350D DSLR camera.  This camera will be the first step for me to better photography (or maybe worse).  I got a third party flashgun for it just now, about 6 times cheaper than Canon’s original flashguns.

I’ll also be taking the new HTC TyTN II to Australia.  I swear it’s for work purpose! I’ll need to submit a two page review when I’m in Australia.  Maybe I’ll do the review on the plane. 

My next entry might be next week, when I come back.  So see you guys!

Been busy these few days.  The reason is I’ll be taking 1 week’s off to go to Australia next week for my brother’s graduation and next week (third week of the month) is usually the busiest times in my work place.  Hence I’ll have to finish up my stuff before going for holiday.

I will be working on Hari Raya as well, which falls on this weekend.  Have tons of stuff to review and also plenty of news to write.  I hope I can finish my work.

Anyway, I am looking forward to the Australia trip.  I haven’t been out of the country since July 2005, where I went to Hong Kong with Eileen.  Singapore is just 6 hours drive from here, so it’s not counted as “out of country”.

Instead of carrying my Macbook to Australia, I will be taking an ultra portable laptop to Australia with me.  Just got it for review today.  It’s very light and it shouldn’t hurt my back as much.  I need to get some work done in Australia.

Oh yeah, if I don’t blog in the next few days, I’d like to wish all my Muslim readers “Selamat Hari Raya!” and to all my other readers, happy holidays!

Blogged with Flock

I know some of you guys are laughing! Do you remember when you had your very first name card? That’s how I am feeling right now.

A while back, I’ve written an entry about cards and I said I really wanted my own name card? Now I’ve got it! No more saying “I’m still new and my name card isn’t ready yet.” or “I’ll leave my number with you because I’ve ran out of business cards.” kind of stuff anymore.

Lo and behold, my name card:

By revealing my name card here, you guys will most probably guessed where I work, despite my utmost effort to focus on my name.  At least I managed to cover the address but my company logo is very much visible.

So what are you guys waiting for? My first issue is out at your favourite newstands right now! Go buy a copy, leave a comment here and I’ll autograph it, that is if you want my autograph.

I am sitting in the office alone, everyone went out for something.  I don’t feel like having lunch today.

Just finished reviewed a notebook.  Kind of bored right now. 

Anyway, just want to write something on my blog.  Nothing much.

I might be getting a new toy tonight! Stay tuned!

So you guys enjoy the suspense? Yes, you! The 10 of you. There were only 10 readers yesterday and that’s already the highest this month. Is my blog so unpopular?

Anyway, to continue my story

Last Stop: Carcosa Seri Negara
Yes, you read it right. Carcosa Seri Negara! Where Queen Elizabeth stays when she comes to Malaysia, where all the super celebrities stay when they come to Malaysia. It was the official residence of the head of the British Government when Malaysia was still under the British governance. It is now a getaway residence for the super rich and famous.

It was my first time at the Carcosa Seri Negara and it was a pleasant one. It has its own private road leading to the place. No one would have expected there is a place like this smacked right in the center of the city.

We reached Carcosa Seri Negara at about 3.30pm, registered ourselves but no press kit! How am I supposed to write stuff without a press kit? Anyway, HP called the event their Big Bang event. It’s an annual event where to launch one whole bunch of stuff from scanners to printers to desktop PCs to iPaqs. We went into the press conference, the speeches starts about 10 minutes later. All the product managers of HP was there, which means that this was one of their most important event of the year.

The product managers did a skit, showing how your lifestyle could change with their products. I bet no company like HP would do that, where the most important people in the company dropped their meetings and stuff to rehearse and perform a skit for the media.

After the skit, they handed out a VERY thick press kit (since they were launching so many products) to us and told us that we will be grouped into 10 groups. Since Ken and I came a bit late, we were at the last group, Group J, the brown group. We are supposed to get a task book from the press kit and complete 6 tasks. All these task are related to their new products for example, I’ll need to print a Milan’s subway map using their new printer, get one of their iPaqs to SMS myself and stuff like that. There were also 30 bonus questions, where the answers could be found in their thick press kits.

We had 5 people in my group and I was the de facto group leader. So I delegated the tasks to Ken, Me and another guy, and delegated the 30 questions to remaining 2 guys of the group. We practically ran around the Carcosa Seri Negara looking for the stations where we could complete our tasks.

The tasks took a while to be completed then all 5 of us gathered and tried to complete the questions, which were tough. We couldn’t manage to finish the questions, only about 20-25 of them.

We handed up our answers to the quiz master and waited for the media Q&A session. I almost forgot it was a press conference! After the Q&A session, we were escorted to the restaurant, and it was one of the best interior designed restaurant I’ve seen. Everything was so high-classed. Look at the dining chairs:

Cushions! How often do you get cushions on your dining chair?

Look at their dining table settings:

There were so many cutleries I don’t know which one to use! I am not the fine dining type of person. Ken told me I am supposed to use the outer ones first and move in one by one. Yeah, I am from a kampung!

The food was nothing fantastic. Maybe it’s because my tongue is not made for exquisite high class food like this. I didn’t take pictures of the food because I don’t want to look like a kampung boy!

The entree was something with black truffles. BLACK TRUFFLES! I know it’s a type of mushroom that is very expensive, but my kampung tongue can’t differentiate it.

Then it was the main course, chicken something. I couldn’t pronounce it. It’s chicken breast filled with something inside. (This is not a food blog, don’t expect me to know everything about food..hehe)

Desert was something like apple pie with a scoop of ice cream on top of it. But they have a different name for it, something that I can’t pronounce again.

They announced the winners of the game after the entree and as expected, my team didn’t win. I heard that a few teams managed to answer all questions.

So after desert, we chit chatted a bit and left the restaurant and to our surprise, every one was a winner! Everyone of us gets an HP printer as a parting gift! A printer for heaven’s sake! First Carcosa Seri Negara and now printers? The printers are just RM130++ but a printer? I still can’t get over the fact that HP gave printers out just like this!

So I left Carcosa Seri Negara, fetch Ken home and I went home. End of the day.

It was a fun-filled day but a hectic one as well. A summary of what I got for just 1 day of event:

• 2GB pendrive with Kapersky Anti-Virus software, full version (Kapersky)
• Kapersky T-Shirt (Kapersky)
• Kapersky antivirus software, full version (Kapersky)
• A Microsoft Office replacement, full version – I forgot the name of the software (Kapersky)
• Kapersky Pen
• Another pen – I forgot what’s the product name on the pen (Kapersky)
• Canon Towel (Canon)
• Media discount for the newly launched Canon cameras
• Long sleeve shirt (New Era)
• Pendant (New Era)
• Key chain (New Era)
• Paper cup (New Era)
• Bag (New Era)
• HP Printer (HP)

All those in ONE DAY! Not to mention the buffet luncheon by Canon (Kapersky had one as well but we went to Canon’s), and the dinner at Carcosa Seri Negara by HP.

From today onwards, I’ll never miss any events by HP. Never!

On another note, Intel organized a dinner event form the media just now. It was at one of the more famous thai restaurant in Malaysia, Sri Ayuthaya (could be wrong spelling). It’s just opposite my house. Went there after work with Ken. They had 2 caricaturist there to draw us for free. This is me!

It looks a lot like me and I requested him to draw me with a camera. Nice!