Broken Bridges

Just came back from watching the locally produced musical, Broken Bridges. It's about a Ipoh-born young man who dreams big dreams... and want to explore the big city, wanting more than what small town Ipoh (back in the 50's) can offer.

One word: BRILLIANT! The songs were great, the lead actor was fantastic (love the voice!) and the story-line... heart-wrenching. Towards the end, couldn't stop the tears from falling. Absolutely brilliant.

If you like musicals, I'd highly recommend it. GO WATCH IT! It runs till this Sunday, so grab your tickets fast!

ps - Jo & Maybel, fantastic job! You should recommend it to Joe Hasham to bring it down to Singapore or even overseas!! I'm sure it'll be a sell-out! :) Fabulous! :P

A Smile Goes A Long Way

We always complain about bad customer service in Malaysia. How you wait for ages in an extremely long queue that does not seem to shorten. The heat during the long wait and sweat is dripping from your forehead. And when you're at the end of the queue, you're faced with two possible situations: (1) The person at the counter tells you that you've been standing in the wrong line, and the queue you should've been in is as long as the one you were in! Or, (2) The person servicing you at the counter is so unfriendly and aloof that basically you wished you didn't have to be there. Sigh...

But I think it's much better now. Malaysia has evolved and customer service has improved a lot in the past 10 years. For example, many things are now automated such as the passport renewal service; banks have online and phone banking which makes banking a whole lot easier.

I think the most important improvement in customer service is "Service with a Smile". When the person over the counter serves you with a smile and a happy disposition, it makes all the difference and your whole experience becomes more enjoyable. It makes you want to come back again and again. It's amazing what a little smile can do. :)

But as the phrase goes: It takes two hands to clap. There are two parties in a "Customer Service" relationship: the customer and the service personnel. The service personnel plays their role in this relationship by providing "Service with a Smile". But what role does the customer play? To me personally, it's in the attitude of the customer. I've seen customers who are the ones who actually make life difficult. The service provider is friendly and helpful, but it is the customer who is aloof and unfriendly. They treat the service provider like dirt and as if they are beneath them. This hardly improves the "customer service" relationship.

For all the promotion of "Service with a Smile", maybe we should actually be educating the public to accept service with a smile. Customers should start treating service personnel with respect. Customer Service is a two-way relationship. Like any relationship, both parties have a role to play to make it a successful one. And the first baby-step for both is to SMILE. Believe me, a smile does goes a long way... especially when it comes both ways. :)

My new salsa shoes!!! :P

I got my new salsa shoes this morning!! They are so comfy! Can't wait to try them out at the salsa class this Sunday! ;) Check them out!

What a beautiful post!

And it's all about me! Hehehe... Please read it at Kea's blog. :P

Oh... what a beautiful day!

My birthday couldn't have turned out any better!!! :D Ok, so what if when I woke up this morning I wasn't really ready to go to work. I wished I could've slept in a little longer. But getting to work, I had a steaming hot cuppa cappucino from Coffee Bean. Then I started getting sms wishing me 'Happy Birthday!'. Hehe... It's such a nice feeling to know that people remember your birthday.

Then my sis called, to tell me that... my blog article was chosen as the RM50-winning entry for today [Whose fault is it anyway?]!! And it's actually printed on theStar!! Check out page N46! If you didn't get a chance to, dun worry... I have it photocopied and possibly gonna be laminated! Hahaha.... ;) How good to know you actually wrote something people feel is publish-worthy! Guess I will continue to post my blogs on theStar. I may get lucky again! :D

During lunch hour, my colleagues actually bought me lunch at Hanabi. Yummy! It's not the food I guess, but the company that counts! We had a great one, just sitting there eating and chatting. There were 15 of us there in total... almost everyone was there. :) I think it is a first that we actually went out to lunch to celebrate someone's birthday for the dept, so I felt so honoured and touched. *sob sob*. Seriously...

Then after lunch, my best friend from US called me and we had a good chat. Upon arriving at the office, there was a bouquet of flowers waiting... from my parents! Another first!! What a great surprise that was!! I think I was the envy of the dept, having such great and cool parents!! :P

The afternoon went on without much event... and towards the end of the day, the dept got together to present me with my 'present' (which I bought for myself! Hehe...) together with flowers. But then another surprise came, when a colleague of mine actually picked up his guitar and sang Man Bai's "Kau Ilhanku"... a song that I had mentioned I loved! It was beautiful! And so sweet! *sigh*

After that, was dinner plans. 2 other colleagues had booked me for dinner, and so we headed to Chilli's, where I was gonna have my margherita. When we got there, I was shocked to see that actually my sis, cousins and Balan were there!! Hahaha... Gosh... really surprised!! Later they made me down my margherita, and since my alcohol tolerance is extremely low, I... err.... hmm.... actually puked it all out in the toilet!!! Yucks!! :D Well, something I can remember my **th birthday by. Hehe.... :D

All in all, it's been a fantastic day! And thanks to everyone who helped make it so very special and memorable. :) Thanks to all!! Love you guys! :)

And how can I forget! My little sister's cute and sweet card!! She wrote it bout a month back when she was back in KL, and left it with my mom. How sweet is that! It is now sitting proudly on my office desk. :P
And also forgot to mention that it was my second sister that organised the whole surprise party! :) What more can a girl ask for! :)

Your Birthdate: August 14

You work well with others. That is, you're good at getting them to do work for you. It's true that you get by on your charm. But so what? You make people happy! You're dynamic, clever, and funny. And people like to have you around. But you're so restless, they better not expect you to stay around for long. Your strength: Your superstar charisma Your weakness: Commitment means nothing to you Your power color: Fuchsia Your power symbol: Diamond Your power month: May

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

"Superstar charisma"? Errr... I don't think so! And I'm not THAT bad with commitment!!

Salsa... when it all began...

Let this be noted as the day I officially started my salsa lessons. Previously, it was just learning moves from a friend (and he is good!). But today, I finally signed up for my first salsa lesson at Havana Estudio (TTDI). And it was mighty fun, even though today's lesson was more of a refresher for me, since I know the moves already [ie, the Cucaracha (means cockroach!), the Mambo (which is the basic step) and the Right-Turn]. I even stayed back awhile after class to practice with a friend I met there. I'm really looking forward to the lessons later, where they will start teaching moves and routines. I also saw the Intermediate class in action, and boy, one day I will be just as good as them. That's my promise to myself. :)

I've signed up for Beginners 1, which comprises 8 lessons. After I complete that, there'll be Beginners 2, Improvers and finally the Intermediate. Can't wait, can't wait! :P

So if and when I'm a salsa expert, I can look back to 13 August 2006 and say... that was the day where it all began. ;)

New pic...

Since some people call me 'hamster', here's my new pic! :P

And in case some of you didn't notice, I have a new section in my right-hand column (just beneath 'My Links'). It's a chatterbox, where you can post messages there... anything you want to shout out to me which may be unrelated to my blog posts. So feel free to express yourself! And heed my warning: No annonymous messages please!!! If you want to use a nicknam, let me know what it is, so I know who is posting what comment! Otherwise, it'll be deleted! This is a warning!! ;)

Funny maths...

Ok, this probably won't seem funny to most people, but for maths enthusiasts, this is REALLY funny! Hahaha.... (These attachments have been circulating the mailboxes for awhile now, so some of you probably have seen it already... but it doesn't stop it from being funny! Haha...)

Intelligence Test

Click here for an interesting IQ test.

It's quite simple. If the question is "24 H in a D", the answer would be "24 Hours in a Day". Some are obvious like this. Others are not so kind. :P

It's quite a fun one. I think it was part of a MENSA test before. I know they used a similar concept in one of the treasure hunt's crack-a-pots. Tried this ages ago so I knew some of the answers already. I did manage to scrap a 19 this time though! Hehe... Do try it and see how you go.

Sudoku Combat!!!

I found a new addiction online. It's Sudoku Combat!! The website allows you to pit your sudoku skills against a friend or stranger online. You start off with an initial rating of 125 points. And you gain or lose points based on how many games you win or lose respectively. There are 4 levels of difficulty (Easy, Medium, Hard and EVIL!).

Check out SUDOKU COMBAT!

My sudoku skills isn't that great. I still take about 6-7 mins to finish an Easy one, which is quite slow I think. I have a friend who can probably complete it in about 2-3 mins. Sigh... I will have to improve on it by playing LOTS of Sudoku Combat. Kekeke...

What is your hidden talent?

Your Hidden Talent

Your natural talent is interpersonal relations and dealing with people. You communicate well and are able to bring disparate groups together. Your calming presence helps everything go more smoothly. People crave your praise and complements.

What's Your Hidden Talent?

I like my hidden talent! :P Not sure if it's true though. Hehe...

Customer Service... Malaysian Style!

The soft-serve ice cream at Ikea is just absolutely fabulous! Today after a hard-days work (studying... haha), I decided to reward myself with one. :) As I arrived at the Ikea food counter, there was a long long queue there. But for my ice-cream, I was willing to wait. Hehe...

There were about 15 people standing there waiting to make their order. Most of them only want to order a curry-puff or the ice-cream or the hot-dog, so it shouldn't take long. But it did. And you know why? There was only ONE counter open. I wouldn't be complaining if they only had one staff on duty at that time. But no... there were at least 4 people working. One poor soul was the only person manning the counter. Another was an ice-cream 'specialist' whose job was to fill those yummy ice-cream cones. OK, I'll give them points for promoting field specialising. Spread the work out, and make it a well-oiled machine. Brownie points!

But what were the other two doing? One was a back-room 'specialist'. Lord knows what he's doing in the backroom! I could see him through the door, but can't tell what he's handling in there. The 4th person was in charge of another counter that checks out other packaged food items. But the thing is: they share the same check-out counter. Now my concern is with THIS 4th guy. He was just standing there LOOKING at my extremely long queue. Then he looked away, and started using a cloth to CLEAN HIS HANDPHONE. Why can't he just walk over, open the other vacant counter and help out his fellow man with the crowd??

I think it's the attitude of most customer service providers. No one wants to do extra work. If it's not my job, I'm not gonna take initiative to help out. Keep out of other people's way. Why volunteer to do more work when I'm not getting extra pay for it.

Something similar happened in the Langkawi airport about a month ago. Our flight back to KL was delayed about an hour. But when that hour was up, there was still no news. My friend who actually works for MAS went to the counter to ask about the situation. All the lady said was "Saya tak tau (I don't know)". That made my friend pissed off. He called the KL office immediately to ask for himself, and found out that the flight was going to be further delayed another half hour. This lady's job was to provide details about the flight and CUSTOMER SERVICE to passengers. Yet she didn't even try. More importantly, she didn't even care!

That's the point, I guess. When you don't care about your job or what you do, you just can't be bothered to do more. A job becomes routine... something to get you through the day... to get you that monthly paycheck. Now that isn't living, is it? :)