Dog Killer

I may have killed a dog recently. I was driving out for dinner. There were a few maids walking their dogs. I actually stopped my car since the dogs were occupying quite a fair bit of the road. When I thought the coast was clear, I went over something. Someone shouted and I knew I ran over a dog which was not leashed. Like any other accident, the incident happened very quickly. The dog managed to went back home. The girl owner started crying and I stood there helpless. I didn’t know what to do. This is my first time. Later, the girl drove off with her dog, presumably to a clinic.

Now I am afraid to check on the dog. I am afraid the dog may have been put to rest. I am kind of short this month. So I couldn’t offer to pay for the clinical fees. I would feel real guilty if something bad happened to the dog.

Report Card Day

There is actually a report card day in John’s school. Parents are invited to collect their kids report card from their class teachers directly. The school has allocated half a school day just for this function. Suzanne can’t make it. So I went on my own wondering how I was going to communicate with John’s class teacher. Do national schools have report card day? My memory sucks but I don’t remember such.

Anyway I was amazed to see the number of parents queuing outside the classrooms. This must be a big deal in chinese education. John’s class teacher had to attend a course. So she wasn’t around. I collected John and went home.

John scored an average of 89.4% in his second semester exams. He had all A’s except for B for 2 subjects. To my surprise, his position was only 26 out of 40 students in his class. His position in the entire form was 400+ out of 600+ students. Wow. Talk about high standards.  I am guessing the top students must be scoring 100% across all the subjects. Now I know why chinese education is valued so highly. So parents who are not from chinese educated background, kindly prepare yourselves for this culture shock.

The Price War Is Over

The price war between Tesco and Giant is over. Both hypermarkets did not publish any new ads attacking each other yesterday and today. Hopefully it is really over.

The Price War Continues

The price war continues between Tesco and Giant. This time around, Tesco got smarter. Tesco decided to place their ad on Saturday instead of the usual Friday. As a result, Giant couldn’t retaliate. Not too sure if it was planned or purely coincidental. So Tesco is using the word “Honest” in their ad now. Let’s wait for Giant’s reaction this week.

The Price War

Tesco

Tesco started a war by putting the above ad in The Star on the 22 May 2009. According to a leading international research company, Tesco has overtaken Giant as the “New Low Price Leader” in Malaysia. Tesco has also crossed Giant’s billboard ads which you would commonly notice along highways.

Giant reacted immediately by putting the above ad the very next day, chose to focus on the historical results rather than the latest data as published by Tesco the day before.

The attack continued the very next day where Giant claimed that its hypermarkets, supermarkets, Cold Storage and even Guardian are cheaper than the “mis-leading” Tesco. Giant has upped the ante by calling Tesco “mis-leading”.

The war continued into the third week when Tesco put the following ad below.

Tesco now claimed that shopping in Giant is point-less. As expected, Tesco was promoting its ClubCard.

Of course, Giant reacted again. Giant is claiming that its co-branded credit card with Citibank offers more points than Tesco’s ClubCard. Once again, the word “mis-leading” was used.

What does all this mean to the shoppers? Cheaper goods of course. Giant and Tesco can fight all the want. As long the shoppers benefit at the end of the day. Hopefully, this “stimulus” package created by Giant and Tesco will help boost the FMCG industry.

Does An Office Make A Man?

I have always wondered how it feels like to have your own room. Does it mean you have reached the pinnacle in your career when you have your own room? Do you expect to be treated differently? Would your peers treat you with more respect? Well, I reckon this room thingy is slightly over-rated.

Here is the list of inconveniences:

1. For one, you have to start locking your room door now. You would have to ensure you bring the door key to work every day.

2. The room window leaks every time it rains (it’s an old building). I suppose that is a small price to pay for having a window.

3. You are so used to pinning your documents on your workstations. Now, you can only use the self-stick bulletin boards and you wonder what you are going to do with the extra pins.

4. All the sudden, you are all alone. You used to work in the companionship of your other colleagues. Now, you feel you are inside a matchbox.

Well things are not all that bad. You will definitely have more privacy. You can get to watch the latest episodes of House and Chuck without having to worry about anyone finding out. The space is more spacious. And you get to have personal discussions right in the comfort of your own room without having to book a meeting room on a different floor.

Anyway, it is too soon to really come to any conclusion. In any case, who would reject a room when you are given one anyway? So let’s see how things would pan out later. Cheers.

Dr Kutner – Rest in Peace

David Shore and Katie Jacobs are taking this”audience engagement” thingy to a new level. Dr Kutner had committed suicide out of the blue in House Season 5 Episode 20 entitled Simple Explanation. No one saw it coming. No one knew why. All the sudden, House has to deal with death again. Come on, what is going on here? Isn’t this an overkill? Harlo, remember Amber, Wilson’s girlfriend? So now, we only have 13 and Taub left. Talk about high mortality rate. We are talking about a show that tried to save lives here. Yes, I am angry and sad. To David and Katie, I hope you are happy now.

Cycling World Championship

Azizul Hasni Awang has proved that size does not matter. Both Azizul and Rizal Tisin have proved they are worthy successors to Josiah Ng reign on the track. Now in keeping tradition with past successes, it is time to award datukships to Azizul, Rizal and John Beasley. Yes, Chris Hoy didn’t participate. So let’s remain humble and not assume the 2012 gold is ours for the taking. At least now, we don’t have to rely on Datuk Lee Chong Wei and Datuk Misbun Sidek alone. Cheers Azizul and Rizal.

Change

Change is the most popular word used in Malaysia’s political world ever since March 8 general elections. I saw this photo in The Star newspapers a few days ago. Kind of scary Samy Vellu is still around, don’t you think? Ong Tee Keat is 53 years old while Koh Tsu Koon is 60 years old. Samy Vellu is already 73 years old and there is no sign of a smooth handover within MIC anytime soon.

On a separate note, this is the face of the new Youth leader in Malaysia. Another scary thought yah.

Shopping at Giant Hypermarket Kelana Jaya

Did you shop at Giant Kelana Jaya on New Year’s Day? I did. I was pleasantly surprised when I was given a RM 5 voucher after I have completed my shopping. The cashier didn’t say anything to me when she handed the voucher to me. I was disappointed when I tried to redeem the voucher today. Apparently, the RM 5 voucher was only valid on New Year’s Day. So I “lost” RM 5 just like that.

Anyway, it was a very nice gesture of Giant to provide this RM 5 voucher. Giant may want to consider extending the validity of such vouchers. Seriously, I had just completed my weekly grocery shopping. What else could I buy just to redeem this voucher? As much as I would like to cash on this voucher, I am not going to spend another 30 minutes queuing at the cashier again. So Giant should consider allowing me to redeem this voucher during my next visit.

Well, enough ranting for today. Good night.