Burglar scare

Pheeeew....what was that last night........

Attempted burglary at our house last night.....

Both Jess and me still feel a bit shellshocked by the occurence.....and here below is the copy of a posting I made on our Sunway SPK Residents Forum right after the incident.

Dear all,

I live at Jalan 13, and yesterdaynight at around 1.30am before my wife and me went to sleep we heard some strange noises (metallic clangs) from above our masterbedroom.
Sure the water tank is located above us, but since that we had already switched off the pump, we found it strange that there was noise coming from above. To make matters more stranger, both of us heard muffled voices. (if I was the only one hearing voices, and my wife did not, then yes...I better go see somebody....but WE BOTH heard the same noise)

I went downstairs to doublecheck on the rest of the family and our maid, to see whether the 'voices' were coming from them. But no such luck. The noise (metallic sounds and voices) continued,....my wife wanted to overhear what those 'strangers' might be talking about and switched off our aircon unit. The moment it was switched off, the noise from above immediately stopped. (remember that our aircon outdoor unit is located on the rooftop).

Taking precautionary matters I called the security guard house and informed them to come and take a look. It took them about 5 minutes to show up (2 guys on motobikes) and then only did I dare to venture out on the road. After a while 20-30 minutes later, Sunway/Polis van showed up with a guard dog in tow. A sweep of the backlane and adjacent vacant houses provided no clue as to the whereabouts of the 'strangers'. Security guys however did not venture into my house and check the rooftop as they told me it was not necessary to do that. Anyway, I was a bit mesmerized by it, but decided not to question their professionalism and opted to catch some zzzz's. (whilst they continued to lay on the prowl for those 'strangers')

Thing is, this morning, I informed my neighbour who is doing renovation works at his vacant house, (he has no people staying overnight), who immediately checked his premises. And yes, the proof was there. As he has not installed a security door at the back of his house (adjacent the back lane), he has temporarily put up a common door, and uses a ladder from inside his house to block the door (in order to prevent outside people from coming in). And sure enough, the ladder and the door were removed. Hypothesis is that those strangers were on top of our roof, trying to get access into either our house or next doors....and once upon hearing the arrival of the security guards, moved to my neighbours vacant endlot, lowered themselves down one floor and vacated the premises by removing the make shift door obstacle.....and they vanished.
Since no 'foreign' cars or motorbikes were spotted on the 1hour security sweep at our street and neighbouring streets, we can assume that these 'burglars' are 'living here'. But since I have no real proof of who or what they are, I can keep on speculating.

FYI : there is an access door to the rooftop, reachable from your attic (where the water tanks are located), and luckily we've put a padlock on that particular door, just in case..... As far as I can see, no real damage has been done, or nothing has been stolen (they failed to get access to our house at that moment). But as you well understand, we feel that our sense of security has been dented.


There are too many negative occurrences lately (desperate times?), but heck, something must be done.
I know that Jap Fong, is representing all of us concerning many issues, and I thank him for his sincere, diligent efforts. Hopefully, someone, somebody, can remedy all the hiccups. Day before yesterday, attempted car burglary, and yesterday night attempted break-in into a house.....bad guys might get bolder and bolder if they learn that Sunway SPK Damansara is ripe for the plucking.


Oh yes, another thing.....I just talked with one of the security guys at the guardhouse, whilst I was driving in. The guy heard about it and said "No lar....nothing happened, nobody there!!" ....... waving it away, just like that.....it surely improves my sense of security here....thank you very much indeed.

Demise of a companion

Alas........

Our 'friend' of the last 3 years has finally succumbed.

Dodgy factory installation and QC, overheating problems, have rendered the little machine nearly useless. Shining the 3 dreaded, red rings of mortality and displaying a last 'fatal' message, E74, which is machine lingo synonimous for a continuous horizontal line on the cardiogram. ("beeeeeeeeeeeeeeep")

All we can do, is sent it to a 'pathologist', of which the useful 'organs' can be saved and re-used in an other machine.

Kewl, now we are stuck with more than a dozen titles, who remain on the bookshelves gathering dust.

Are we thinking of replacing our little 'friend' with a new one? Might consider doing it, but for now, we are in mourning.

Go rest in peace on the mountain of techno rubble

Hoola Girl

We've had a hoolahoop in our store room for ages, but nobody knew how to handle this thing.....

But the little lady came back from Aunty Joanne's house last week and put up a demo for us.

Which ofcourse left us standing there with our mouth open.....

"Who taught you how to play hoolahoop?"

"Aunty Joanne told me how to do it"

"She showed you how to do it?"

"No.....she TOLD me, so I come back home and I try it"

Wow, we'd better ASK Joanne how to do it too then.....

Rightful punishment

Where was my mind......

Yes, I do know that our car has problems with its central locking system, thus requiring us to manually lock every single door everytime we exit the vehicle.

But somehow yesterday this slipped my mind. Manually locking the door whilst the carkeys are still in the car is definitely a nonoo, ugh.

There I stood, in the hot, glaring sun,....spare keys at home, which was miles away.

Luckily there was a workshop nearby, where the friendly workmen immediately rang up one of his contacts to help me out.

The locksmith was there in a jiff, and pulled out his tools. Gosh, it looked like a bag full of tools befitting a professional burglar.

I assumed that he knew what he was doing, but geeeez, I didn't realize that a "Proton" door is so difficult to pry open.

5 mins, 10 mins, 15 mins,....25 mins...35 mins....a bleeping 50 mins to open my door.

By this time, I was soaking wet, getting a bleeping sunburn and my forgetfullness cost me RM60 (17 euro's).......

First signs of Alzheimer......kewl

A 'monstrosity'

I admit, I'm ignorant.....can somebody please explain to me what this is?!? It looks like the trunk of an elephant if you ask me. And no, don't you dare to think of something else too!! :p

I really don't have a clue.....my in-laws told me this is a seafood delicacy, thinly cut into slices, eaten raw with some wasabi.

And yeah, I was appointed to put the knife through it....and heck, it was still slightly moving when I pierced it.....don't accuse me of 'cruelty' now....

It tasted like some kind of rubber, abalonesque......nothing fancy about it, or maybe my taste buds weren't used to this kind of food (probably the latter).

Never too old to try out something new

"Liverpool till I die"

I didn't realize that there are quite some die-hard Liverpool fans around here in Malaysia until I came across my football friends, John Wong and Ken Lim, who are Liverpool fans at heart.

True enough, many peeps cheer for Man U. or Chelsea, but those are mostly from a younger generation (who only became supporters because of these 2 teams recent successes),.....whereas the argument of the 'Liverpudlian' is that at least Liverpool has history on their side. (have to check it though)

So as our football club CNY party came to an end, some dudes of us sat around and does what one does when under intoxication....the 'real' dude came out, dropping the facade.

Mr. Yeoh, a fellow resident, and a bigtime litigator (partner in a law firm), showed his true colours. A Liverpool fan since the early '70s.....and this guy knows most of the fan songs, which is extraordinary, since he has never made a trip to the holy of the holiest....Anfield Stadium, Abbey Road.

Talking about a true supporter, hats off.......

Dance moves

One has to wonder where our little dragon girl has picked up these particular dance routines.....ain't us that's for sure

Will she dance like that in a decade's time? Errrrmmmmm, I'd better accompany her if she wants to go clubbing.

A small come-together party

Yes, yes, I know.....it's been a bit quiet here on my blog past 3 weeks., but please bear with me.

A few guys from the football club came up with an idea of holding a Chinese New Year party and as a result a few guys and me kinda 'volunteered' to organize it.

The original plan, 'plan A', called for a small event with a few families having a good time outdoors, but the response was so great that we had to switch to 'plan B'.

Erm.....what is 'plan B'?

1. Catering for 160 people
2. 5 huge canopies, incluse tables, chairs, light and fan fixtures
3. A lucky draw contest (luckily Mr & Mrs Tan of Jalan 'road' 20 were so friendly enough to contribute 5 big hampers and on top of that I 'bugged' our property developer, Sunway SPK, to come up with some goodies too........no sweat, all settled in this department
4. Karaoke DJ providing songs for the local 'Idols'
5. Liquor, beer and soft drinks aplenty to quelch the thirst
6. 4 big boxes of fireworks (but keep this stumpff as litting of fireworks is still deemed an illegal activity here in Malaysia.......need to obtain permit first, involve police and fire brigade....blablablaa)
7. Lion Dance Troupe booking.......ai, scratch that....no budget....kewl

Oops, almost forgot, our event was co-hosted by Mr and Mrs Foo of Jalan 20, whose entire household helped out tremendously before and during the event itself, thank you, thank you very much

Okay, I admit, those 3 weeks, I went to bed 'thinking' about the 'gathering', 'dreaming' about it, and when I woke up, my first thoughts were about the gathering again. Totally out of this world

You might wonder why? 'Cos of the bleeping budget overrun, capiche !!!

• Total cost : RM7900 (1750 euro's)
  
• Total income : estimated at the start of the party : RM6700 (1500 euro's)
  
  
  

So we were looking at a shortfall of nearly RM1200, but the show had to go on, money or no money......kewl....we just had to figure a way to cover our losses once the party was finished

Ow......yes, the party itself......attendance figure was about 200 people, the food was great and more than plentiful, the wannabe singers amongst us entertained the crowd, as for the lucky draw contest.....sorry, can't give every household a gift.


By lack of having a professional MC around, the dudes pushed me to become the event's MC....come on, Im a behind-the-scene guy, I shy away from the limelight, but to no avail.....this fella had to give a speech and present the awards and etcetera (phew, luckily I didn't screw up).....and to round it all off, 2 rounds of mesmerizing fireworks display.


In the end, it turned out that due to some big contributions by fellow residents, notably Foo, Kok, Lim and many others, our deficit turned out to be less than RM100 (20 euro's).........what a relief ..... our club funds can take care of that small amount :p


The families went back home satisfied, the dudes with a penchant for hard liquor continued their drinks until the wee hours of the night....my dear wife crashed early with our gal, and I ....I had a very goodnight sleep.

PS : all the pics can be found on our FC website, http://sspkutd.dyndns.org/

PR stunt

The current worldwide economy slump has been correctly blamed on the credit crises woes of all the banks across this planet. People's savings having been evaporated, consumer confidence is at an all time low, spending is barely sufficient to keep the factories operating, if they operate at all. And moreover the labour market is distressingly very tight. And there is no end in sight, .... better scratch off year 2009.

In an effort to improve its tarnished image, banks are doing all they can to promote their "so-called recession free" products, like super low interest rates, life free waiver of credit cards and etcetera.....and since it is the season of Chinese New Year, why not throw in a bash of CNY party at the local branch to entice people to part away with their hard-earned cash.

Hong Leong Bank, a local Malaysian bank, opened its doors on a Sunday, trumped up a troupe of Lion Dancers, set up a huge canopy at its entrance, and rounded up the whole staff who put up their best smiles to let people know that their bank is the people's best friend-next-door.

Sure enough, we stopped by on our way home, even the God of Prosperity paid a visit to shower all the attendees with 'luck and prosperity'. But best of all were the pair of Lions performing their routine. Accompanied by deafening drums and cymbals, they sure made an impression on the gathered crowd.

At least the banks give us something 'free'........how about that !?!

Capturing Kid's hearts

Gan Zhen Lin, a long time student of ours, wished that he could celebrate his 8th birthday at our center with all the fellow tuition students....

And ofcourse, we made his wish come true ......

A grand dinner provided by the restaurant next doors, a tasty and colourful birthday cake, ....all in all, the basic ingredients to make one's birthday memorable.

The year has barely started, and many more birthdays to come.....watch the calories.