AN OLD CHINESE BARBER

Since I started my present job, a few years ago, I have always gone to this barber for my hair cuts. There are a few reasons for this, namely, its cheap, its convenient as I can have it done before reporting for work and his work is not too bad. Although I must caution those who wish to try that he is old school and that is what you should expect if you use his service.

Today, as usual, I was waiting for him to open his shop early in the morning. Soon enough he arrived and started his work on my hair. Just as he started so did his rants about how unfair life has been to him. Actually, I have heard them many times before but hey, its his shop and what else have I got to do, so I'm all ears.

"I'm so unlucky, my mother died when I was just a baby. I never knew a mother's love or affection, unlike other kids who are lucky enough to experience this". "My father was such a useless person, he remarried immediately after my mother's death". "I have never spoken to him since many many years ago". "He is such a useless father, who in their right mind would neglect their children's education to finance his brother's who was then in China". I hate him". "I mean, would you be able to love such a person".

He then reached for a photograph of his mother and with a heavy heart showed it to me. "Thats my mother and with her is my elder sister". "I'm so unlucky, not educated, only completed standard six". "Do you know that I can speak and read English because of my own effort". "Many years ago, a politician showed up in my shop and was very surprised that I was listening to BBC on the radio that one of my patrons had given to me". "She was shouting so loudly that I think people from the whole block could hear her". "So, she thinks just because I'm a barber, I wouldn't know English, does she". "Useless, politician, look down on us barbers".

He then shifted his topic to me. "You are so lucky, with a degree and a stable job, earning good money". I was thinking to myself that well, it depends on what you mean by good money. If he was talking about a normal life with most of the modern amenities, then he is right. However, if he is talking about enjoying life lavishly then he is dead wrong.

Anyhow, he continued. "I have to work everyday, just to survive, because if I stop, the money also stops and I do not have any EPF to depend on". Anyhow, that was when he completed my haircut. I thanked him and paid him RM5 for the job.

CUSTOMER SERVICE

Do you find service standards deteriorating nowadays? I personally do, and I think it is because of the general Malaysian “tak apa” attitude and maybe also the general lack of training given to them by their employers. Below are a couple of examples faced by me.

A couple of weeks ago our family decided to have dinner in KFC because of some coupons which we had received at some company AGM. We decided to head towards the newly opened branch at Tasik Prima to have our dinner there. Upon arrival, we noted that the place was in a chaos with rubbish, plates and chairs strewn everywhere. Only later after ordering did we discover that there were flies swarming everywhere in the restaurant. We literally had to be on guard against these pests while having our food, which by the way tasted horrible and was nothing like what Chef Wan described it, in the KFC advert. Can you imagine that?

This was before having to contend with the ordering, where we can see staff loitering around doing nothing while some were busy trying to serve us. I also find the way they prepare food very unhygienic with the all our orders being prepared at one go. Lining up 8 plates and slowly filling them up while flies were lurking around waiting for their chance to land on our food (super yuck & disgusting). The day after this, I had made a complained to KFC which they did not reply, so I guess it had gone down the dumps. No wonder I read somewhere in the news of serious food poisoning in, can’t recall which country, where if I remember correctly caused paralysis to the poor soul who consumed her KFC.

Just the other day, I was pestered by my kid to get him an ice-cream from McDonalds. As I approached the counter I was told to pay at the main one before returning to get my ice-cream, which I did. I noticed two persons ahead of the line and decided to queue there. Upon reaching my turn, before I could mention anything, the cashier decided it was time to collect food for the previous customers. I would have been ok had it not been for the fact that the food was actually not ready yet, and further she even had the cheek to disappear into the back kitchen (I suppose she is so hard working that she wanted to prepare the food herself).

All this while, I had noted the Supervisor with a few staff at the counter doing god knows what. I mean “hello”, you cannot help your staff first and talk later. I always thought food preparers were supposed to prepare food and cashiers to man their cash registers. Why is it now they are doing both while others are idling around. I had also made a formal complaint to McD but this time someone replied and acknowledged my grouses (much better then KFC).

I mean for god sake, you all Corporate crap, want to do business do properlylah, otherwise just bugger off, but maybe it’s because they are already too big to bother or care.

YEAR END APPRAISALS

Its that time of the year again, where HR send everyone an appraisal form for filling in supposedly so one can be appraised for what they did during the year. However, I for one do not really believe in this form of evaluation because how objective can the head be about the abilities or the work that have been completed by his staff.

Generally speaking, as far as my own experience is concern, most if not all the time the favourites of the bosses / heads would be the ones getting the high scores, while the others would either be in the average or lower groups. Also about the part where you are suppose to agree with the evaluation of the head, how can we do that? Do we tell the boss off or try to explain. Well from personal experience, let me tell you it does not work, never has and never will.

So happy appraisals everyone.

MOVIE PREMIER - IMMORTAL

Yesterday went for another premier also won by the missus at E-curve. I must say the movie was rather boring with no much substance. Majority of the time, the movie was just about killing, with gory scenes depicting how many ways a human or god can be mangled.

Some of the things happening makes no sense at all. An example, if people who worship you are fighting to prevent you from being hunted down and killed, would you assist them? I bet you will. However, in this show, "the gods" choose not to, and in the end many of them were slaughtered.

Another thing about the cinema. Aiyo, no need to switch on the sound system to its breaking point, its hazardous to our health (I believe their sound engineer or who ever is tuning the sound must be a deaf person himself). Here is my ranking of the few main cinemas. I think the most refine sound goes to TGV and GSC (depending on which) has a balance between refinement and excitement. However, I find Cathay the worst with tharshy sound (like listening to some mini hi-fi switched on to the max). All in all, personally if it not be for the free tickets, I definitely would have given this show a miss, not to mention this cinema as I value my hearing.

MOVIE PREMIER - TIN TIN

Just recently attended a movie in 3D (my first time really) with the missus. The show was not bad with good renditions of the visual as well as audio ques, especially the pin point location of all that was happening on screen. All in all a recommended show which brings back some of my childhood fantasy adventures while reading the Tin-tin comics.

However, I wasn't very happy with the popcorn that was sold by GSC. Firstly, the popcorn was rather blend with only some coated with so called caramel. Secondly, the they were cold and not piping hot as I had expected. Lastly. and worst of all they were mostly soft and no longer crunchy (masuk angin). For the exorbitant price that I had paid for them, I would rank them as a measly 0.5 out of 10. Shame on you GSC for skimping and not ensuring customers get what they had been charged for.

BUDGET 2012

What is everyone's opinion on the budget? Going by what the mainstream is saying, it looks like a very good budget, however, I beg to differ.

I am sure all those civil servants and felda settlers will be very happy as they rightfully should be given that this budget gave them full focus. The following would be some of the reasons for my saying that the budget is "crap".

Now I am a middle income, or should l say lower middle income earner. I work hard and earn an honest living, diligently paying "TAXES", why, so someone else can enjoy the benefits!!!!!, while I just sit back relax and pay more TAXES.

The policies thought out by the Government is really nice, first we tax the middle class because they are not much they can do since most of them are workers, we give incentives to the rich because most of them are businessman and heck they can give us problems with their lawyers and what nots, we help the poor because if they get angry, they can cause havoc with protest or looting. Anyway, we need the rich to help us with our campaign come election and the majority poor to vote for us if we are to win (given the majority falls under the poor category of more than 60 percent of the population).

DIY

How many of you have tried your hand with DIY? I am sure many of you would like to try but think twice when you realise that things may not turn out the way you planned. I can personally vouch for this, because I have embarked on quite a few DIY and although I manage to fix the thingy it didn't turn out as good as I had planned.

Additional things that may deter many from DIY would be the mess that may happen or mistakes that may cause the supposed cheap fix-it to become even more expensive.

Anyhow, yesterday I had finally decided to buy a tap and a piece of aluminium piping from a hardware store to replace the one that had been damaged in my house. It had been damaged for quite some time now and it was a hassle to have to use the kitchen sink whenever hands needed to be washed. I had earlier on bought a tap but did not do my homework and when I tried to fix it on, found that the piping was not long enough to fit the tap. Well I guess this is cost savings for the developer using the shortest piping possible and getting taps that have extraordinarily long screw fittings. Disappointed, and almost having a leaky piping due to my not being able to get the original tap securely back on, I gave up.

Now however, I had both the tools ready and after some 8 minutes managed to replace the two items successfully without any problems. What I am trying to say here is DIY may seem hard in the beginning but after some time you may find it to be very interesting and as a bonus it feels good to use something that you have fixed yourself.