Malaysia Is a Desert In Its Driest Month

I have always hated February as it is the start of the driest period in Malaysia. It always lasts for months, sometimes right up to September, but February is always the hottest month followed by March and April.

These days, the Earth feels like a burning hellhole that I wonder if God has given hope on humankind. The sun stings skin deep. The heatwave is in the air. Even when you're in the comfort of your home you could still melt like butter, baby. When it does rain, the angriest sound of thunder permeates the grey evenong sky as if someone has stolen God's PSP. Lightning cracks through the horizon in quick succeession as if the end of days are near. Ohh, shudder!

All these years, I have never been thankful for the annual haze 'pilgrimage' from neighboring Indonesia to here. But this year is a grateful exception; the haze blocks the direct sun ray. Now, I could at least go under the sun for five minutes without my UV-umbrella. Yep, I am kiasu like that...

Dear Blog

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrggggggggggggghhhhhhh!!

Mary, Mary Quite Contrary

A 'rock fell to the ground' (sort of) in the form of cousin Mary. It was Wednesday - the sudden public holiday announced by the PM. I had the day planned but her last minute call on Tuesday evening means I will have to re-schedule. Killjoy!

I had to get her from KLS then to her place. Had to show her how to get around from her apartment to her training center. In between the walk, the ride, the food, the drink, the ...whatever, I had to listen to her never ending questions. If I don't answer, she will repeat herself. No escape!

An inquisitive character she is, bordering on the really busy body type. And just so you know it, I FVCKING HATE QUESTIONS. So to pacify myself, it's okay, I thought, juuuuust for Wednesday. I was wrong.

She found me on Thursday and Friday and Saturday and Sunday. In the days after her arrival on Wednesday, I had to endure questions, more questions and continuous flow of questions. They are all seemingly innocent questions but as I have mentioned already, refer above statement in big caps.

Let me give you an example. On the topic of living, here are just a few of the many questions I had to face...

Where do you live? Is it far from here? About half an hour or more? How much is it if by cab? Is there a bus going there? Is there a 'commuter' going there? Ok, is there LRT going there? Who do you live with? What race are they? Are they good? How did you know them? Can you trust them? Are they trustable? How do you know you can trust them? Are they working? What are they working as? Are they your colleagues? Do they work nearby your office? How old are they? Single or married? Do you cook? Do they cook? What do you guys eat everyday?

For once, I really wanted to tell her to STOP BEING A BUSY BODY but out of 'respect' (she's a lot older than moi), I just have to be content saying it out loud in the head. You probably think I made that up, but that's the truth and it's not screwed.

I spent the whole Saturday afternoon till 10pm with her at MV. Towards the evening, when my legs and knees couldn't take it anymore, I told her to do her shopping on her own and I will be movie-watching on my own while waiting for her.

I went to GSC Signature, paid RM20 for a Premiere ticket. But 10 minutes into the show and about to sink into the whole RM20 worth of experience, the guy behind my chair started to periodically 'accidentally' knocked my chair. If you have been to Premiere halls, you probably noticed the legs space between the rows of chairs are so bloody spacious a cow could practically sleep there.

It really is inconsiderate for the motherfucker behind me to do that. Considering my agitated state of mind thanks to Mary's ceaseless verbal 'prodding' earlier, I was considerably calm when I politely told the guy not to rock my chair because I feel uncomfortable and nauseous.

He did not reply. Zzzip. Quiet.

Still, throughout the movie, he kicked the back of my chair more than a couple of times. See, polite seldom works?

Right after the movie ended, I stood up, turned around to face him and said, Hey you, you know there are alot of space between your chair and mine, yet you still kick my chair when I asked you not to!

Instead of apologizing, he had a smirk on his face while saying, Is it? Is it? Is it?

He was pretending to be dumb and challenging me, sort of. Hah! Okay. Sengaja wan lah...

He probably didn't anticipate what I did next. With my vocal 2 notches higher, I told him off (right in front of the other moviegoers) : Of course you did. Are you pretending to be stupid or is your vocabulary really that limited?

He was sitting then, but upon hearing my rather loud 'comment', he quickly stood up and hissed, Bitch!

Hah! Wrong turn.

I replied, Ahhhh yes, apparently I am BUT only to deserving people, LIKE YOU. And apparently too, you only LOOK rich from the outside, what with all the brands from head to toe, but money does not seem to be able to buy YOU brain and manners. Oh wait, by BITCH you mean your girlfriend? That's her naaaaaaaame? The one who deep-throated you just now? Hah! Makes perfect sense now!

He's probably stumped so before he could utter a reply, I left as fast as I could. Hah! I bite! I do!

Eventful? Yes, indeed. I screwed someone.

Stressful? Definitely. My legs, my waist, my knees, my feets, my entire system. I am aching all over.

Brain damage? After all that interrogations, I am almost there.

Right after sending Mary back to her apartment, I thought of taking a rest on Sunday so I told her, Hey I am not coming to see you tomorrow, I need to do my laundry and some other things plus I don't really feel well already, I need rest. You have been here a few days already, I am sure you know your way around to the nearby shops to find food and do your shopping.

By then, I had sore throat, headache, slight fever as I was hot all over and it was that time of the month too. She said, okay no problem.

But that was yesterday.

Today (Sunday), she called up to inform me she's lost in Sg Wang and to please come find her.

I was sleeping the whole day, not because I wanted to, but because I wasn't feeling well. Terrible headache.

Well, I told her this, Can you just ask any of the sales assistant in the shopping mall to help you or find information counter and ask for the way?

But she wouldn't listen. In the end, she said, she'll wait for me to fetch her no matter how long it takes for me to arrive because she is lost and couldn't find her way out. KNNCCB!!!

Seriously! Age isn't a measure of how well a person uses his/her brain to think.

I am not going to blog what happened after. Just enough to make me edgy and an ass, right till this moment.

About Nothing At All

Hello Darkness my old friend, I've come to talk to you again.

About how one fine Saturday, God was in his best mood that He decided to throw in a RM30 worth of phone credit bonus my way. Some phone dealer must have screwed up at the other end but God is good to me.

About a comment like how fluid I was on the creaky board while losing myself made me happy.

About having two cells yet both turned off pissed me greatly. What if?

Right now, I want to down these thoughts in loud music in my search of a greater perspective.

Right now, I miss the best buddy I ever have, the kind of friendship that transcends boundaries, but he's oh so far, far away at the moment.

Right now, I wish time stops and then brings me back to the time when Buddy and I were on that bus going to destination anywhere - throwing caution in the air and feeling the wind caressing two carefree souls looking for a little bit of grounded adventure.

Right now, I wish I was back to the time when I was riding that blue jet ski towards the setting sun with Jerome holding on tight for his dear life and shouting out to me, 'hey Crazy, where are we heading?' I remember giving him my wicked and evil grin.

Right now, I wish to be transported back to Christmas five years past, when the best of gifts is not the one received but rather the joyful sound of laughters ringing in the air.

Right now, I gotta be doing that gap analysis thingy but hey, where are you? I need my analysis.

This is my life. Oh, the memories. My memories. Your nothing at all.

I Hate Maxis Malaysia

First the award,

Malaysia’s Worst
Customer Service Call Center Award
goes to
Maxis Communications Bhd

Then Congratulatory Note goes next,

To the Maxis Customer Service team and boss(es),
Congratulations.

Then we roll the story,


This is a shout out to anyone who wants to change to Maxis and Hotlink. Before you do, please think and think and think again. If you must, think again.

There are many users out there who are not happy with their service including myself. Jeffooi.com, Lelong.com.my's Forum, Cari.com.my's Forum and Mobile88.com's Forum are just few examples of websites where you could go read about Maxis and Hotlink services. Most rant are from Maxis and Hotlink users who have experienced poor quality of customer service.

Google "Maxis Sucks" and you will get about about 142,000 results for just those keywords alone.

So why the devil am I mad, mad, mad? Because I am using Hotlink Prepaid from Maxis and desperately tired of such pariah customer experience from Maxis and Hotlink Customer Service. I personally have had terrible user experiences with their lousy network and non-existent customer service.

Maybe all this pariah treatment has to do with unwritten policy employed by Maxis : Postpaid subscribers are Kings – higher usage, higher revenue. Prepaid users generates only a small sum of revenue to complete the pie.

Even if that is true (Believe it!), if Maxis were to take out the prepaid revenue pie out of their system, I don't think they would even go that far.

For once, imagine this situation in sequence.

Your office is located at Petronas Twin Towers.
Maxis have Receivers installed somewhere in the office bearing numbers like Maxis-A1-T2-L62-1
They installed it for free.
Next to the building IS the Maxis HQ Building.
Your phone has no problem. At all.
Your phone shows full line but the message says (*changes from time to time)

• Emergency Calls Only or


• No Access To Network or


• Searching… or


• You have received 10 missed calls from X numbers.

All this happens while your phone shows full network bars.
Then you try to text someone. Anyone.
It says “Sending Message Failed".
You call out to a local number.
All you hear is l-o-n-g silence.
Either that or you hear an annoying, TUT TUT TUT TUT.
If you are lucky, you hear a robotic Pissant telling you, “You have insufficient credit to make a call”.
The next logical thing you do is check your credit balance of course.
It displays “Balance: 44.58. Expiry Date: 30.09.2007. SMS Bonus: 0”
You tell yourself, that’s weird, let me try again.
But all you get is free stress.
Frustration starts to creep in.
Every number you call out gives you the same rotated results.
You decide to call Maxis Customer Service Care Line at 1300-820-120 from your cell phone.
Ah, also cannot.
You resort to office phone to call.
On the other end, a lady Pissant answers your call.
Pissant asks for your cell phone number.
You tell her.
Pissant asks for your name.
You ask her, “Is my name not in the system when you key in my phone number?”
Pissant says, “No ma’am. We cannot see.”
You tell her your name.
You even have to spell it out.
To annoy you further, Pissant uses your first name at every possible juncture.
For example, “Okay ah Ms. X, what is your problem with your phone ah, Ms. X?”
You insist it’s not a phone problem.
You tell her THE problem.
Pissant asks you, "How long ago did you encounter the problem?"
You tell her, “Since past two weeks.“
Pissant tells you, “I will escalate this issue to our Technical Team and will get back to you in a week time.”
You ask Pissant, “Is there any reference number for this issue?”
Pissant tells you, “Sorry ah Ms. X ah, we don’t have reference number Ms. X. But don’t worry ah Ms. X, I will send this issue to our Technical Team and they will handle this from there.”
Annoyed by the inefficiency, you ask, “When I want to enquire the status of this issue, what do I refer then? How do I find out? There must be a reference number or something.”
Pissant assured you, “Sorry Ms. X. This issue ah Ms. X ah, I cannot open any ticket for you. We must send to Technical Team first to find out what is the problem then only we can issue the reference number.”
(H)(O)(H)(!).. Like that also can meh?
You reply, “Oh well, what is your name then?”
Pissant hesitates before telling you, “It’s Satia, ma’am”
You ask, “Just Satia? No full name?”
Pissant to you, “Ms. X, you can just call me back at this number and look for Satia.”
You say, “OK you’re going to call me anyway right with the status?”
Pissant last words, “Yes Ms. X, I will definitely do that. “

5 seconds later, a text message arrives asking you to rate their customer service.

You put in 1 for lowest.
You wish there is a 0 for non-existent.

Two weeks later.

No improvement to the network. Still lousy as ever.
No follow up phone call. Liar liar pants on fire.

You call the Customer Care Line number again.
You ask for Satia.
Pissant Two asks, “What is it about?”
You tell Pissant Two you are calling because you want to know the status of your complaint last two weeks ago.
Pissant Two offers, “Maybe you could tell me and check for you. Can I have your cell phone number?”
You give her.
Pissant Two checks her system.
Pissant Two asks, “Ms. X right? ”
You agree.
Satia the liar.
Pissant Two then asks, “Can you explain to me what is the problem you experienced?”
Slightly annoyed, you tell her the issue.
Pissant Two tells you, “Oh, I am not so sure about that. Let me get Satia for you. Can you please hold?”
A silent (F)(U)(C)(K)(!) then, “What is your name? “
Pissant Two replies, “I’m Tina. Please hold. “
You're put on hold.
Eleven minutes later, no Satia.
Nobody picks up the phone.
You hang up.

5 seconds later, the Rate My Service text message arrives.
Again, you rate 1 for lowest.

A week later, no return calls from anyone.

Others within the same company find all Maxis/Hotlink users experience the same issue, prompting a written complaint.

It was solved within 1 second.
You really think they’re that fast meh?
It was solved within a few hours.

No more issues.

No calls from Satia or other Pissants telling you the status too.

Then, Pissant 3 calls.
She says, “Hello I am from Maxis Customer Service Center and I would like to find out why you rate our customer service as lowest?”
You tell her why.
Halfway through your story, she says, “Thank you for using Maxis. Have a nice day.”
Click. Hang up.

Stunned, you decide to call Satia.

All you hear is excuses, excuses, excuses.

Oh don’t bother. Satia is an ass. So is the rest of the team of Maxis and Hotlink Pissants.

Madness

... About February 26, 2007.

... About the bloody bastard(s) who had a field
day ransacking my apartment and stole all that are
preciousss to me.

... About the reply from a police officer who told me
that 99% of this type of cases are unsolved so might as well quit hoping and start living?! Wtf!

... Even madder at comment from people like "Oh, she's rich, she can always buy a new one!" I mean what kind of comment is that?! If YOU (the person who uttered that to me) ever read this and if anything bad were to happen to you, then perhaps you deserve it.