The Proton Experience...

It started off as a very exciting day today... the anticipation of going to the Proton Platinum showroom at Mutiara Damansara with my significant other to pick up the Liquid Orange 1.6 Highline version of the Satria Neo that was ordered nearly a month or so back. Was actually rather surprised that it took such a long time for the car to be delivered... Seems that production for the new Proton sedan which will probably replace the Wira in due time, is ramping up.. Hence the delay in getting a manual highline... Auto's however are a different story as every dealer I've checked with seems to have some ready stock...

Upon arriving at the dealership, the salesperson was taking his time to make sure that he explained every feature of the car before handing the keys over and sending us on our way. Two thumbs up for him taking his time explaining things as though we were first time car owners.

However upon closer inspection of the car... a couple of faults were discovered...

- a light scratch mark on the left side rear quarter panel which seemed to have escaped their attention

- a kerbed rim, on the rear right tyre.
(Was quite peeved on this actually, wanted them to replace this on the spot but sanity prevailed and this should be sorted by the 1000km service in a couple of weeks time)

- a piece of ill-fitting plastic trim on the sides of the dashboard.
(What do they need, magnifying glasses??)

Seems that the sales advisor hadn't counted on us being a couple of 'impromtu' quality inspectors, going through the car with a fine tooth comb..

Anyway, impressions of the Neo have been rather positive as it feels rather sporty and handles well, something which I thank the fellas at Lotus for fettling the ride and handling of the car.

On the mechanical side, the engine feels very smooth and doesn't seem to be as lethargic as the auto version is. As the sales person was going through the car, we found out that the car had only done 30kms so it still is reasonably 'tight'. It should improve as the miles or rather kilometers roll on.. With a 0-100kmh time of 11.5 seconds and a top speed of 190kmh, the 1.6 litre Neo is not fast but it is quick. Besides, with traffic conditions and legal limitations in Malaysia, the performance figures are more than adequate.

The 1.6 engine produces 112PS (111bhp) at 6,000rpm and 148Nm (109 lb ft) at 4,000rpm The same collaborative engines and transmission can also be found in the Gen-2 but for the Satria, they have been tweaked for better low to medium acceleration and flexibility.

If emissions and frugality are important to you, it is better to go for the 1.6 manual. Official figures are posted as; 27.9mpg (urban), 61.4mpg (extra-urban) and 42.8mpg for the combined cycle. The car is fairly 'Green' too with 157g/km CO2.

Going through the web i found some interesting information on the Neo, it's been engineered to be a very safe car engineered with high-tensile steel to score high points in the NCAP car safety assessment. Have a look below..

Proton makes full use of its sister company’s technical know-how and it shows. Lotus had a hand in the design, ride-quality systems and engines and a whole arm in the handling set-up. The result is a car that is as surprising as it is stunning. Certainly a better car overall than the previous Wira's or even the Perdana set-ups.

The King and my poor lil' toe

Hi Folks!

As usual the weekends are packed with the fun activities... Caught up with the gang - Marcus, Swee, Kelvin and his girlfriend for a taste of culture in the form of Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical 'The King & I". I for one was certainly keen to see if there was any difference between this production and the one I watched at Her Majesty's Theatre in Sydney more than 10 years ago..



I must say that it is one of the better productions that have come to Malaysia. Set in the year 1862, this dramatic and uplifting tale brings us a story of an English widow, Anna Leonowens, and her young son, Louis arriving at the Royal Palace in Bangkok, the capital of Siam. Anna, having been summoned by the King to serve as tutor to his many children and wives eventually is asked by the King to assist in having his perception of a barbarian by the West, be altered. All of us had a hoot of a time, courtesy of the King's antics and the 'clash' between the East and West. Anyone who hasn't seen it should really catch it while they can... The production of the musical here in Kuala Lumpur ends 26 July 2007.

You might be curious as to why I'm also talking about my lil' toe... Somehow, I got 'inspired' to spring clean my room clearing up whatever cobwebs and unwanted stuff in my room, whilst carrying out an old set of speakers one of the tweeters fell smack right in the middle toe of my left foot.. I've put it on ice for quite a while now, don't know if it's fractured or not... Still can bend albeit, with a slight bruised sensation as you can see from the pic below.. :p Oh well, another battle scar to add to the cap I suppose.



Well, at least I've now got my room in ship shape with nary a speck of dust.. An accomplishment to behold off :D:D:D At least it kept me out of more mischief this bleary weekend, rain, rain and more rain... Guess it's something to be thankful for, unless one likes to see KL blanketed under a thick cover of haze, smog or whatever u may call it... At least when I head to KLCC to catch Die Hard 4.0 I'll be breathing better too... ;)

That's all for now folks! Have a great week ahead!!

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The Swiss Garden Stories

Ladies and Gents..

Since too many photos were taken of the company outing, I decided on a photo blog to make things sweet and short ;)

For those that just joined in to read the blog, the past weekend I was away from Kuala Lumpur, on a trip to Cherating with the office colleagues for a weekend retreat.

The Swiss Garden Resort in Kuantan.. These are the sea view rooms. Enjoyed the breeze from the South China Sea on my first night there... The AC in the room was a bit lacking, so decided to leave the balcony door open.. Nice super cool refreshing wind that went on and on through the night.
Certain things Mother Nature still does best ;)

Our daily breakfast venue, looks good from the photo doesn't it.. Service could have been a touch better but when you're in good company and having a marvelous time, one just has to
go with the laid-back nature of life here.

Deckchairs just above the beach where I spent a fair amount of time trying my darndest to get a tan...
All I ended up with was being redder than a lobster, thankfully it went away by the next morning or people will look at me strangely wondering if I had one drink too many :p

Evening shot of the beach area..

Spent the most amount of time here in and around the pool area.. Literally from sun-up to sun-down the whole day was spend lazing about and swimming and honing my water polo skills..
What a life indeed... Eat, Sleep, Activities and Drink.... :0

These couple of shots show me going through the impromptu 'team-building' session that we organised..
Great fun... All the gym work has paid off well, my upper body strength got me through the slithering down the pole bit below... Had a good laugh as some colleagues did it as though they were pole dancing...

Me and my colleague from HR.. Background is one of the 'official' photographers of this outing..

A stroll through the beach and having a good laugh at the antics of the fellas having a go at each other...

As the guys were one man short.. I was summoned to take part in the tug-of-war... A good attempt for a newbie.. HAhahahaha!!

Pull with all your might, you wankers :D:D:D
Pic below: What happens when people start laughing and loose concentration... :bummer:

The scene at the hotel lobby after all of us completed check-out formalities.. Nice decor in the lobby, pseudo-Balinese I guess.. Even better that we had buntings all over the hotel, much to a competitors' chagrin... They were a bigger group but didn't feel as special... :D:D:D

Our first stop just outside Kuantan, was at this shop.. Specialising in local goods, you could pick up salted fish, anchovies, dried shrimp all at a very decent price and the snacks I bought were just yummy!!The return leg of the journey started out this way, with nice driving conditions, however, half way through the journeythe heavens open their doors and let loose every single drop of rain.. Good for keeping the haze at bay, but when you're driving at high speeds on the high way, you have to be careful and look out for anything that could happen... Last count i did, there were for separate accidents in various sections of the highway. Thankfully we were spared such ordeals. Kudos to the bus driver... Skillful fellas...

Well folks, a short chronological snippet into the happenings over the weekend.. See you soon ;)

Friday the 13th and its effects

Hi folks...

Due to some rather unforeseen circumstances, I had to arrange for a flight to Kuantan last Friday, which happened to be an infamous Friday the 13th... I somehow had a gut feeling that things on that day won't be in my favour.. As it turns out it turned out to be very true... Upon my check-in at KL Sentral, the MAS counter staff told me that my flight to Kuantan had been retimed to 7:40pm instead of 5:10pm as per the regular flight schedule.

After taking the Express Rail Link to KLIA, I decided to catch up with my ex-colleague at the Pan Pacific KLIA, having coffee and chatting over the latest updates between the both of us whiled away some of the time that I thought I had till 7:00pm, decided to go to the counter one more time to see if there were further updates.. I was flabbergasted when the staff told me that the flight had been further delayed until 9:00pm and the worst part was that they couldn't confirm if the flight was actually going to take off at this new timing. A very big BOO to the Management of MAS for not being able to arrange other alternatives...

It was a nightmare, just imagine you arriving at the airport and upon checking the details at the information board, realise that almost all domestic flights were delayed. truly worried and luckily my boss was very sympathetic towards the whole situation.. This fiasco meant that I had to skip having dinner with my bosses and colleagues, and to make up for not eating with them, I went into the MAS Golden Lounge where a myriad of passengers looked rather lost... Their flights had also been delayed and some of them were in a rush to catch their onward connecting flights.. Having been in that situation before, I could relate to that.

I was ever so thankful that I bought Business Class tickets, though it's only a short trip I could still enjoy the lounge facilities at the Airport This also meant that I didn't have to fork out anything extra food, drinks and snacks.. Moreover, if i had to buy anything that would have cost me more $$$.

Fast forward a couple of hours later, we were all excited when finally the ground staff announced that the flight to Kuantan is now ready for boarding.. I was a bit sceptical about the whole thing and true enough as we were all strapped into the seat, the Captain of the plane told us that an RMAF helicopter went down around 9:35am on Friday. I thought to myself that the missing helicopter could have also been the cause for the delay in almost all daily flights.. According to this mornings weekend newspapers, the helicopter mysteriously just after 10 minutes out of the old airport in Sg Besi. Search parties are still being deployed for the search, certainly hoping that all 6 of them on the helicopter will be found soon...

In short, things never seem to go your way on a Friday the 13th... So all of you beware of this in future... More updates coming soon...

Up and Down Indeed!

Hiya Folks..

After visiting my aunt in hospital a couple of days ago, it dawned on me that I've been holding something back for quite a while.. I've been having this lump at the back near my spine which I've always thought nothing of it...

I;m now scheduled for a procedure to remove the lump and should be back to my normal self within the next couple of weeks.. As cancer seems to be afflicting more and more members of the family, the doctor wanted to do it ASAP but I've been running around with assignments from the office and juggling around stuff that need tending too at home. Though he doesn't think the lump is serious he's taking the precaution of doing a biopsy on the specimen, just in case.

So i'm now on schedule for the cut in about two weeks from now, which fits in nicely just after my trip to Cherating this weekend and before the trip to Bali with the gang in mid-August, not forgetting my pilgrimage to Sydney which is now overdue... I so need a break :p

Just what I needed, spending more time in a hospital :p

Crazy weekend!

Hope you most of you had a good fun weekend...

I had a mini reunion with my classmates yesterday evening.. Some whom I've not seen since leaving school... Had a pretty decent dinner at Chilli's, our usual hangout in Bangsar.. Followed by a pit-stop at another eatery called Kava, also in Bangsar.. As this place was run by an acquaintance of my friend, we were given a bit of prefential treatment, ordered our jug of sangria, the best so far in this part of the world anyway... and followed up with two complimentary servings sinfully delicious chocolate mud cake.. like totally out of this world on the scale of being ever so yummy..

That was the good part of the evening... The next bit, I was quite hesitant in joining the rest of the blokes and gals.. Reason being was that they had decided to rendezvous with other friends in Bar Savanh along the Asian Heritage Row of Kuala Lumpur.. I somehow had a gut feeling that I wouldn't enjoy the place much..

On the way there, we witnessed a multiple car pile-up just before the corner leading to the Parliament House in Kay-ell... To compound things further, traffic was a bitch around the city, at that time of the evening around 11.30pm. I would have thought it my shortcut way to the city would be a safe bet, unfortunately I was not so lucky and was held up for quite a while for a journey that would normally take less than 15 minutes from where I stay in Bangsar..

Anyway, back to our venue, Bar Savanh.. thankfully the queue to get in was rather short. We managed to avoid paying cover charge, but bought a bottle of Skyy Vodka Vanilla for the princely sum of RM345. Got in, secured our place and was chilling to the songs that were belting out courtesy of the DJ.. All the fun was a bit shortlived for the next 30 minutes after our arrival... Either some poor sod had threw up onto the fuse box or something similar to that effect.. We were virtually in darkness for a short period of time, then the AC regained power.. party lights and music and power supply for their cash registers, chillers and beer taps took a considerable amount of time before it could be sorted out... Boo to the management for not taking precautionary steps to avoid such occurances..



We were even contemplating leaving the joint for another but the rest were either too crowded or hot... Not something that I would like to get myself into... It was also around this point of time that my classmate and best friend from Sydney sort of opened up to me mentioning that he had been through a rough time. I was tasked with lending my ears and just listening to whatever he wanted to say and give some advice as well. This was my sensitive side at work I guess, though at times I felt like I wanted to bang my head against a brick wall, though I didn't show it













A classmate had told him of the rough patch that I had been through when I broke up with an ex towards the end of last year.. That person had an attitude indeed, being possesive to a point where I felt rather 'scared', after dating for a while, I decided that enough was enough and left the relationship that we had. Can't really say I'm sorry but rather begone and vanish from my life. I told him like I told myself at that point of time, things happen for a reason, one should not dwell on the past but rather look forward to what the future has to offer and seize the day! This has since become a philosophy that i'm a firm believer of. Nothing to loose I say :D

Certainly thankful for the group of friends that I have and regularly hang out with... They provide me with an outlet to de-stress and stay human.

Well folks, have a great week ahead!