Allan's Brother

It has become a little bit of a pet peeve with me. Being referred to as Allan's brother is a little bit of a thorn in my side. As if I did not exist or defined by my own merit. Being defined as a person by the infamy of my brother's exploits. Its like I don't matter at all... well at least until I am inroduced as Allan's brother. Bloody hell.. even my client, inroduced me to her friends as Allan's brother! Egads!

Perspective

At a friend's farewell dinner last friday, I had the pleasure of meeting a bunch of new people. They were mostly expats sitting on my table. Amongst them, Patrick is officially Malaysian, but I think he used to live abroad for most of his life. He is married to Debbie, who is British but born here in Malaysia and live the better part of her life here. They met at the Wimbledon tournament. Anyway... the fact was that they love it here in Malaysia. Peter and Tina, also British, have lived in Asia longer than they have in their homeland. They share many of the same sentiments as the expats on the table. They extolled the virtues of living in this country for most of the evening and I listened in facination.

You see, I have been a little disanchanted with Malaysia of late. Whilst I love it here, I feel something is fundamentally wrong with the fabric of society. We sit miles away from the typical situation in Carcosa, socialising, speaking well of others, enjoying the company over great food and good wine. I cannot help but feel that whilst the expats that we were there that night and that they trully believed what they feel about Malaysia, they cannot really understand the underlying rasicm that is so tightly woven into our society. Gaining some perspective from our expat friends helps a little.

Unfortunately, some twat will so easily change all that. Today, I experienced one. I drive behind this fella. We wait at a junction to turn left. We do at the next opportunity. He however decides to almost immediately stop by the roadside after making the bend! I toot at hime in disgust, noticing the many NO PARKING/NO WAITING roadsigns along that road. As I make my way past him, he comes out of his car and gives me a great big intimidating stare and a posture of violence. Is it just me or are our Malay friends getting a tad more violent in nature these days. Maybe the rethoric brandished by the idiots in Umno is rubbing off afterall. I pray for us all... The day will come when it will all come to a head. How can it not?

Halo Effect

Just finished watching a 20 minute online demonstration of the iPhone. To say I want one is an understatement! Only problem is, it ain't here yet. The lucky fellas in the states have about 170 hours left to wait, but it will be at least 6 more months before I can claim one for my own. What I felt right after the demo video, was obvious, I want one now. But knowing I cannot get one yet, something deep within my consumer minded mind was shouting, GO BUY a MAC now. Easy pay it! 12 instalments on a RM5000 macbook is a pittance a month! Go buy. Satiate that need. Go buy NOW.

I guess I should avoid watching anymore Apple demo videos for a while....

Boiling Point

You will first see the water churn, strange things are happening to the water you have just put to boil. The air trapped in the water starts to get agitated and form tiny bubbles which float quickly to the surface. The once lifeless water is not bursting with new found energy, it becomes more syrupy to the eye. Its funny, watching water boil because while a great many things are happening to the precious liquid, it does seem to take forever to reach the boiling point. Its a slow build-up of energy transfered through the heating elements through the kettle into the water, until it suddenly bursts with such intensity it almost always catches you in surprise despite the inevitably of it. This my friends is the boiling point!

My colleagues and I are kind of experiencing this same phenomenon at the moment.

We started the year with a niggling fear of a slow-down. Us advertising guys are usually the first to get hit with a slow-down in the economy. Clients hold back budgets, reigning in spending to protect their bottomlines. Wether this is the right thing to do is a topic for another discussion. We couldn't be more wrong. We have been busy as bees and it has in a way taken us by surprise. A little heat never killed anyone and we were all quite happy taking on the numerous projects thrown our way. Start the year well we say, and the rest of the year should take care of itself.

Just like the water first introduced to the flame, we got buzzed. We got excited. We were however clueless to the inevitable boiling point.

This is my fear. When will we reach that point? When will we cease to enjoy our ourselves in our work and lose our cohesion? I fear the time is quite near.

Lembeh Straits - Manado

Back from Lembeh with many happy memories. Only problem is the getting there and back.

To those who have never been to Manado to dive, I really recommend it as there is so much to see on every dive.

Check out my piccies on my site: Lembeh

A BRUSH WITH FAME

I felt really good last week. Really good. I have always mantained that there is no such thing as an original idea. It is foolish and naive to even think we have an original idea, when we have more than 5 billion other people on this earth thinking and creating all the time. So why was I so happy last week?

My "original" idea won a CANNES GOLDEN LION! The award is likened to winning a Grammy Award or an Oscar, and the LIONS are one of the most coveted advertising awards in the world. Unfortunately, my client didn't think it was so, because they rejected the idea a couple of months ago when we made a pitch for another part of the Toyota business. The idea was destined to the rubbish heap, until the awards were announced last week. it seemed, that my idea was "stolen" from me, by the agency who did a series of ads for VW in Germany.

Sigh.. a momentary brush with fame, bringing me no reward except for the small reward of knowing that I was also capable of winning a major award. See the ads for yourselves..


Here is my ad..

This is the idea "stolen" from me! Grin!!

A NEW DIET

Ahh.. one finds the strangest muses. Things of exceptional beauty, of wonderful noise or of thrilling adventure. I found my muse in my hunger. Let me explain. Today is my inaugural day, starting a new diet. My objective is to lose at least 5 kilos, and take control of my body in a way I have never done before. All this Boot Camping I have been doing has raised my fitness levels and I feel my body getting stronger. However, I can still do with a few kilos shed of my mid section. Maybe there is a ripping six-pack hidden away under all that fat. So, I have signed up with Vince to do what is called "Metabolic Profilling". It's basically a diet which does a couple of things. First off, let me say that this is not a fad diet. Its a long term change in the way I eat and I should be better for it in the long term. Losing weight is a wonderful by product.

First, I takes into account the kind of metabolic profile you are. People are generally protein or carb efficient. Some do fall in between (that is a different story). This will tell you what to eat and what not to eat according to what your body is most effiecient in metabolising. What isn't metabolised gets stored! Secondly, it makes you eat healthier and more aware of what we consume. I guess McD's has lost my custom. Hahaha..

Anyways, I have decided to post my journal pertaining to my Metabolic Profiling diet here for all to see.

Day 1.
I find it very funny that I feel totally hungry all the time. The meals that I have eaten can be considered fairly large. Try eating 1 and one half cups of oats. Its pretty filling. Two hours later, I had an apple, and another two ought hours flew by when I had lunch which comprised of a healthy (1 cup) protion of rice, 2 cups of veg and some baked chicken breast. I once said, that I like my breasts in between satin sheets, and I guess my past has come back to haunt me. Then came the cellery sticks with a some peanut butter. OK. The point is, this more food than I normally consume anyway. A lot blander, but in term of volume, pretty compaarable to my normal diet. In fact, I felt absolutely fine when in Phuket on a recent business trip. Being awfully busy meant eating next to nothing for hours at end. And yet I did not feel the hunger I feel right now as I write this entry. Maybe its the water. We have to consume half a reservoir of water a day. More water than an average Kalahari Dessert dweller consumes in a month I am sure. Maybe the water does more than help the body remove toxins and such. As a side effect, the water actually makes our digestive system more effective, hence the quickening of our stomach's ability to digest the food available. I am most interested to see what come out of my rear tomorrow morning. If copius amounts of crap emerges, then I must be wrong in my assumptions. So I am hungry. Very hungry.