Only Consolation in Sudan

As I like to watch football a lot ............... I get to watch it in abundance and it's also the only consolation for being in Sudan. Just look at my English Premier League TV schedule for Saturday and Sunday. We get to watch all of the matches live broadcasted by Showtime Maximum TV channels. This weekend's (not a weekend in Sudan though) matches will start with Middlesborough vs. Arsenal at 3.30pm (Sudan time). I don't need to stay up late for any of the matches. We get to switch to whichever match we want to see at any given time but would normally stick to the best match.

Match of the week would definitely be the match between Tottenham vs. Man Utd, which will start at 8.30pm here. No doubt that Spurs is on form at the moment.

If you are into EPL, there is a poll ready for you to vote upon (on left column).
Tags: English Premier League, Middlesborough, Arsenal, Tottenham, Spurs, Man Utd, Showtime Maximum TV, Football, Soccer

RM1,000,000 Public Toilet Found in ......

China is facing the same problem as we in Malaysia. Some of their government servants do things way beyond human expectation ..... not the good part but the ridiculous part.

Can you the senior management in the Sanitation Department of Wuhan Urban Management Bureau has built a public toilet to the value of 2,000,000 Yuan. Moreover, this toilet is found underground of the Hankou Liberation Park.

Generally, if the news spread out, lots of people will flock to the area to have a look at the expensive toilet to see for themselves. The officials will then do a headcount and justify that the toilet usage has super exceeded what was estimated in the first place.

The officials were proud to say that this toilet is the largest, best and most civilised class of public toilet found in the whole of Wuhan Municipality.

If you were take a look inside the toilet, the design looks ordinary. Maybe expensive materials were used to construct the toilet, for example the basin and toilet cubicles were sourced from overseas suppliers.

Justified?

Reading: Wuhan Builds 2 Million RMB Luxury Public Toilet - China Smack
Tags: China, Wuhan, Luxury Public Toilet, Hankou Liberation Park, Sanitation Department, Wuhan Urban Management Bureau, Wuhan Municipality

More Death Leads To More Business

This specialised company, Nirvana Memorial Park (M) Sdn Bhd, dealing in the bereavment sector is really going all out to get business. You book an urn compartment now and your future cremation is FREE!

Malaysians are known for queueing up for free stuff ...... I wonder what was the response like.I remembered my mom's friend wanted to sell her a burial plot at this memorial park but my mom didn't take up the offer. Mom said she's not in a hurry ..... hehe

This is definitely not a sponsored post.
Tags: Nirvana Memorial Park, Urn Compartment, Urn, Cremation, Burial Plot

Hari Raya Haji in Sudan - Part 2

Part 2 - Day Two ....... were invited for lunch at a senior Petronas staff's house which was in the same vicinity. Less than five minutes drive. This was a two blocks apartment and the compound was properly maintained.












Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaah ...... Malay dishes .....slurp!!!!!
Ayam masak merah, rendang chicken, curry lamb, tender beef ..... you name it lah ... comes with briyani rice too

Ya ya been eating too much actually. It's rude if you don't eat what was served and at the same time, you could be misunderstood by implying that the food was not nice .... no no. Can't let your host think like that.






My three other colleagues agreed and they whacked the food too.

We had to remember not to overfeed ourselves as there was another invitation at night. So, we ate sparingly ..... sparing some space for the night actually.

Ahhhhhh here we are, joined by other Malaysians in Khartoum. The last time (few years back) I heard that there was about 800 to 1,200 Malaysians in Sudan but spread out all over due to work commitment. The Embassy of Malaysia in Sudan held a get together for Malaysians who were in Khartoum.

Of course, there was food too but as I was seated away from the food area, I was lazy to take pictures. Not many choices though but enough for the visitors.

Had to take this picture to proof my existence in Sudan. Our friend who was working in the embassy told us nobody takes such picture. Hehe

Well, we broke the duck and let me tell you, right after me and colleagues had taken the pictures .... roughly about a dozen others took turns.

Some said they have to show proof to their wives. Wondering where they have been all this while? hahaha ..........

The best laugh we had was that our friend in the embassy posed for a picture for the first time even though he has been walking past this signboard numerous times

This was the front lawn where Malaysians from all walks of life were mingling around.

As the night was still young (we left the embassy at 9pm plus), we decided to adjourn to Assaha Traditional Village ..... the Lebanese restaurant. This is definitely one of the better place to relax with a good environment.

The satisfied look of having good meals for the two days of Hari Raya Haji ........... we exist to eat!
Tags: Hari Raya Haji, Sudan, Khartoum, Embassy of Malaysia, Assaha Traditional Village

Hari Raya Haji in Sudan - Part 1

Day One of Hari Raya Haji celebration in Sudan. We were to Petronas Sudan headquarters for a get together for Malaysians.

They put up tents to shield the food from the heat ...... so that we can have fantastic Malaysian food. We arrived there quite late and only managed to salvage some 'sup kambing' or lamb soup / mutton soup whatever you name it.











The place we sat on was situated between the two residential blocks. My company was involved in the construction of this Petronas headquarters.

It comes with the office complex and there are places for badminton courts, gym and ping pong area.

The other side of the office complex is facing the Blue Nile River. It will join up with the White Nile River few hundreds metre downstream to form the great Nile River that flows through Egypt up the north and out to the Mediterranean Sea.

As it was winter time, cool air was felt and of course, we were blocked from the sun ray by the building. Otherwise it would still be stinging hot on yr skin.













My colleagues, all got used to the Sudan environment and culture (not all though). We chit chat till it was time to adjourn to another invitation.

We are supposed to cross to the other side of Khartoum city, Omdurman, for the next invitation. We had a map drawn up for us but still got lost. Everywhere looks the same to us.

We called for help ..... the host, who sent his eldest son to lead us the way.

Here we are, found at Mr. Sasooq's huge bungalow house that has five bedrooms, three living halls, one dining area overlooking one of the living hall and one cat ..... but didn't ask how many washrooms were there. He's one of the senior engineers in our client's office.

This living hall was big and if you want to talk to the person opposite of you, like where Amin was sitting, you just have to speak a bit louder than usual.

Don't know what Nazril was trying to depict to our host who was besides me.










At long last ................ meal time. We ate enough to cover our dinner and supper and maybe part of tomorrow's breakfast.

We were joined by senior Petronas staff. Boss, if you were reading this blog, don't worry. We behaved ourselves. In order not to mess up the dining table, we took the dishes to where we were seated.

Let me try to recall what was on the table - deep fried mutton, briyani chicken rice, turkish salad, turkish vege, fresh fillet fish and fresh fruits were served at the end.

As I behaved, I didn't get to take close-up shots of the food that was served. My apologies, has to follow office instruction.
Tags: Petronas, Petronas Sudan Headquarters, Blue Nile River, White Nile River, Nile River, Egypt, Mediterranean Sea, Hari Raya Haji

Healthy Breakfast

One of those days that I thought of a healthy breakfast. Most of the time will wallop the butter or margarine on toasted bread with chunky peanut butter on it.

I did buy one of this supposedly healthy crunchy bar (hopefully not tainted anyhow), the Nature Valley. Bought it for RM10.50 that comes with twelve crunchy granola bars of peanut butter.

This product is one of the sponsors for the PGA Tour golf tournament in the USA. They regard this food product as energy food. It was because of this branding tie up that helped me to decide in trying it.

After opening up and biting it, I don't find the crunchiness as stated on the packaging. Maybe you need to eat it fresh.

It was crunchy but you need to bite real hard to have a piece of it. Do you call that crunchie? Hehe

Disappointed with it.

Tags: Nature Valley, Peanut Butter, Energy Bar, Crunchy Granola Bars, Whole Grain, PGA Tour

The Economics of Blogging

Haven't started a blog yet? A blog was known as weblog in the early days when one of its main function was like a personal diary or to jot down important events or notes for reminder purposes. As time progresses, more people are being exposed to blogs that are hosted by a number of blog platforms.

In Taiwan, blogging is already on a different level. Of course, socio-political bloggers were there long time ago and still around but Taiwanese bloggers are going full time nowadays. Not only that, money is rolling into their bank accounts for blogging.

What do the Taiwanese bloggers do? They worked hard to promote instant food, cosmetics, 3C, travel trips and anything that can be sold. To the extent that in the recent launching of the McDonalds Taiwan new hamburger in Oct 08, there was a need to get three well-known bloggers to taste and blog about the hamburger which was not an option.

The internet advertising agency that handled the McDonalds Taiwan's new hamburger advertisement recruited hundreds of writers to blog about the hamburger to spread the news in a much faster pace.

A known Taiwanese food blogger, 迴紋針, took the opportunity to write about the hamburger but wrote a blog against the product instead. As her blog was well read, the advertising agency has to call her to revise her blog post to which she declined to do so. Personal blog, so personal comments about the hamburger.

Such marketing tactics are known as "blog marketing" or "blog economy" where it is one of the most popular jobs in a time of recession.

Interactive Communications, one of the top five communication agencies, is helping their clients to promote their products via bloggers. End results, sales was twice as much as the initial target. Why blog marketing? Reason number one is that the costs are low and the effects are directly measurable. It was estimated that there are about 200 'blogging spokesperson' campaigns every year.

In Malaysia, there is already a column in the Star newspaper reserved blogger columnist Nicole Tan who usually writes about her travels, happenings around Malaysia, internet shopping or about the blogosphere and bloggers. This is just the beginning for bloggers.

I know of a number of bloggers who are usually invited to attend product launches, events or opening of restaurants or boutiques. The bloggers do not receive payments but free trial products instead. Of course, some full time bloggers do get paid for writing about those functions. Taiwanese bloggers do get paid up to NT$10,000 per blog post. Not too sure what's the market rate in Malaysia.

The world is changing and direct marketing efforts are considering bloggers as the new media era. I have something up in my brain already and have spoken to a hotel in Kuala Lumpur in which bloggers could assist. Can't do much as I'm in Sudan right now.

Besides having a Public Relations Department, companies should be thinking of Bloggers Relations Programme in time to come. Mark my words!
(some of above info was sourced from China Times)
Tags: Weblog, Full Time Blogger, Freelance Blogger, Taiwanese Bloggers, Blog Marketing, Blog Economy, Interactive Communications, Nicole Tan, Bloggers Relations Programme, Internet Advertising Agency