Missing something..

It's been a couple of months since I've left the fabulous city which I've lived for many years. How I miss the wonderful sunset at the beaches, the best I think I've ever seen in Malaysia. Whenever I'm bored or there is a need to get acquainted with the great outdoors, there is always the wonderful beach and sunset. All I need to do is to grab my camera and then perhaps a cup of steamed corn from the many sellers nearby and sit to watch the sunset. A mere 10 minutes away from my apartment. Parking is never a problem. Right next to the beach. And it's free. Watching children playing at the beach or looking at tourists having a walk by the beach is so relaxing. Chatting up the kids is so easy. The people are pretty friendly.

In the current city I'm staying, don't even bother looking for sunset by the beach. Even looking up friends is not easy. At least 45 minutes away plus RM4 toll charges. And frequently everyone has their own things to attend to. Most of the time is probably work related. Any extra time they will probably need to allocate for their chores/family. There is really no time for real friendship.

The daily grind of waking up 6.30am, doing rounds, rushing to clinics, writing reports, doing some presentations, settling some ward problems and then going back after sundown sucks big time. Any extra time even weekends, will be obligated to attend some stupid drug talk which tells you that drug A works better than drug B by 5%, CMEs and so forth (becoz boss asked or for the sake of the stupid PTK thing). If I had to choose my profession again, I would stay far far away from the medical profession. I just don't see the point.

I guess most of us earn a living as to be financially free so that we can spend quality time with our friends and family and do the things we enjoy, and not to worry about our next mortgage payment. But in order to achieve financial freedom, we are sacrificing all those things dear to us. And at the end, we may never achieve real financial freedom anyway. We will never be satisfied with how much $$ we have. We stand to lose both ways.

If we can already spend quality time with family and friends and do all the things we enjoy why on earth we need to go into that rat race? It's ironic...Maybe it's for that Porsche car.

So there goes again the daily grind tomorrow...sigh.

Retards

After a couple of weeks at my new office, I decided to call the IT department to set up an intranet email account for me as it was the practice that all internal communications are relayed through internal email, just like any MNC out there. After a few weeks of bliss, somehow I wasn't able to access to my email anymore in the same manner I used before. I wasn't bothered then. Anyway who reads boring internal emails.

A couple of weeks went by however, I felt that I had missed out many important internal emails which could be of interest to me. So I called the IT department again to assist me in correcting any settings in my email set up. Well, it worked after that. So far so good I thought.

In the evening when I tried accessing it again, dang...stuck, some error came up. Called the IT department again and after some remote assistance, voila it worked again. Unfortunately I wasn't able to see what was being done as I am calling the IT department far from my computer, as the only phone was a distance away. And I was put on hold while they worked at my computer. Anyway I was glad it was solved, or so I thought. However I was getting a little pissed off as a simple task like this can be so daunting to the IT experts here.

The next morning, I tried accessing my email again. And whaddaya know, some error came up again. So I politely called the IT again, for the 4th time. And again I was put on hold while they did something to the computer. And so it worked again. I was kinda pissed off this time. I sent a polite albeit a little sacarstic email to the IT department asking them to look into the problem so that it will not recur again.

Then this guy, the boss of the IT department replied my email in an extremely crude and rude manner. I didn't really expect such a rude reply. To cut the story short, he blamed me for not learning about the IT system and asked me not to blame the IT system as it was my fault I wasn't able to access my email. What the f**k ##$??!!! All I asked was for him to look into my email account set up if there was any problem. Something the IT staff themselves have set up for me 3 times previously and failed to work later. Something is seriously wrong with this fella. He was extremely defensive, not to mention rude.

Thinking he was a smart alec, he asked me how was I able to email him if my email account wasn't working? Obviously he didn't read my email to him properly, in which I told him that the email account was just set up the 4th time (and working) but I wanted him to look into the matter so that it will not happen the 5th time. Some bl**dy moron. I wrote to him in plain simple Bahasa Malaysia which any Standard 1 kid will understand.

I wrote him a nice sacarstic email which I struggled to be as polite as possible. Using his logic, I mention why doesn't he just blame the patients for not being able to treat themselves when they are sick?

I just don't f**king get it with these people. IT support my foot. They can support my ass. That also I'm not too sure they can. He can f**ck off for all I care. And why should I be learning IT from an IT department which failed to solved my problem in the first place ? I'm just waiting for the day when he gets ill and then I'll tell him why didn't he learn how to treat himself...

I'm amazed that such people are given the extremely important task of overlooking the IT system in a fully computerized hospital. Maybe he spends his time snooping at patient's electronic records for any sodomy cases or downloading porn. Who knows? Only in Boleh-land...

Free healthcare

This & this is why i think virtually free public health care is not sustainable. If the patient/their family has to pay, they would seriously consider the costs vs benefits of "doing everything possible". Defensive medicine (or maybe monetary medicine) is driving medical practise towards this direction. And some relatives I've met, have "pressured" doctors to do "doing everything possible", even if it is futile, just because it's free.

Hotel California

You have a chronic ailment. Nobody wants the burden of taking care of you at home. Ah, but there is a hotel...

You can have different mates every couple of days, sometimes more often. You are served food and drinks 5 times a day. Your toilet needs are taken care of by simply pressing a bell. Medication is served to you daily. If you cannot swallow, your meds will be crushed and fed to you. You'll get free clothings and free laundry service. If you can't walk, you'll get crutches or a wheelchair with a porter thrown in. You can even bring family members to stay with you over the weekend. Everyday, medical staff will come to check on you. Tight security is provided to you, no worries of being robbed. You can even get counseling services should you have "issues" to let out. Dang...even your room is cleaned everyday.

You can complain if the food is not to your liking. You can complain if nobody comes to turn you or exercises your limbs a few times daily. You can complain if if have to buy your own pampers or additional food. You can complain if nobody picks up after you. You can complain if nobody bathes you or make sure you are clean. You can complain if it is too noisy or too cold or whatever. You can complain if nobody attends to you immediately when you press the bell. You can even complain if there is no entertainment or if there is no motivation provided.

Heck, even your family can complain if you die.

Best of all, it's practically free !!! And you can stay as long as you wish. If not, you can also complain !

Welcome to Hospital California. Who the heck wants to check out !!!

Baffling

I just don't get it. How petty some things can get.

I can understand if a building collapses or if a person got robbed. Then it warrants some serious discussion at the top level.

Small issues should be sorted out by the persons involved. Or even ignored. It doesn't warrant a top level management discussion. I mean, it's like asking the Prime Minister what kind of taxi the company executives should hire to go to work? Or whether they should stand to pee or sit to pee because the office toilet is made a little high. Or whether the door should be painted blue or white?

I feel a little astounded that small issues can turn into big issues. Every small thing said is given undue attention. It is baffling to me. The environment can be very tense and unproductive if everything said by everyone is given undue attention. Just let some things pass and forget it! Not all things will influence the outcome in any way.

Ok, some might argue that small problems must be solved first to avoid big problems. But not all small things will turn into big things if we don't let them. They will turn into big things only if we let them. Sometimes if we ignore them, in all likelihood some small problems will disappear. Not all small things need to be discussed by the board of directors! If not, there will be no end. And the remedy to some things is just to ignore it. Just like that niggling backache.

Sigh, I just feel pettiness is being encouraged by the undue attention we give it. And it's awful if it is the norm of your workplace...

House shopping

Last week was a very hectic week for me. Decided to hunt for my own place to call home. Set out with a friend on a mountain bike. Up and down we went, along the highways, along the alleys, through tunnels and across roads. Checked out an area near to the most inflated properties in Klang valley. Supposed to be an area where inflation hasn't creeped in too bad yet..or so I thought. Initially I thought it might be a good buy for investment as well.

After checking out the general area, looking at condos from outside, I spent the next 2 days contacting real estate agents and the various managements to look at the units inside the various condos. Yup, they were completely new and bare. This is not the problem. The problem is with the really poor finishings. For the price range I would expect some decent furnishings. They do not even supply proper PVC pipes for the kitchen sink. The paper thin piping practically disintegrated on movement. And 3 condos we saw uses the same type of piping, obviously from the same supplier.

Then there was this management agent who tried to push something we didn't want. He probably hiked up the price 40% for an obviously "nobody wants" unit facing the busiest/noisiest highway in Klang valley and said he'll give us 10% discount and throw in a free carpark. And he was rather rude ticking me off for asking if water and electricity has been connected. He replied "How can CF be issued if no water or electricity?" Damn bloody cocky. If his unit was the last unit on planet earth I would not buy from him. Act as if we owe him a living. I'll be damn.

The launch price of a particular unit was <200K for a 1100Sf unit and he is quoting RM350K AFTER discount for a developer's untenanted unit. With that attitude and poor finishings described above, forget it man! A new condo unit near the area with also 1100sf is going for almost 400K. With nothing at all, completely bare except the disintegrating kitchen sink.

Another condo was going for a more reasonable price. Keys handed over 1 year ago with a launch price of RM140K for a 800sf unit but a similar developer's unit now is going for 200K. But with the disintegrating kitchen piping as well. A 1000sf unit would be 280K.

Oh yes and there is a maintenance fee of 25 cents per square feet monthly.

Sigh, I think I'll save my money for somewhere outside Klang valley. Talk about economy crumbling...developers and agents still try to keep up a facade of "highly sought after" and artificially pushing prices up . Perhaps they rather leave it empty, as most units I saw were empty, than to push the prices down. Hope they don't run out of cash flow haha.