Leading the wild into the ways of the man…
I have resigned from Huygens Asia effective immediately. It was an amicable departure and I will stay on for a full handover to facilitate the transfer. It is a relief in a sense as I have bipolar issues which stress me out. I am going to Sibu for my next job, temporarily as a teacher (no, seriously) before going into another private company I’ve lined up after I’m better (stabilized on the meds).
I had fun at Huygens Asia. I’m still friends with Alex. Goodbye, and all the best everyone!
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This is Alex, our head honcho. It’s his birthday today, so we pitched in and got a blueberry cheesecake for him with a single candle (see last year’s post).
In the spirit of Huygens Asia Sdn Bhd humor, he blew out the candle with our weather monitoring station. 🙂
The cake goes “Happy Birthday Alex” and is adorned with fruits. It’s a chilled and layered cheesecake and it tasted great!
Happy Birthday Alex!
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Huygens Asia is the surveillance solutions provider and systems
integrator that I work with. This is our soon-to-be ex-office (we’re
moving end of this month) at Jalan Padungan. The office is being
shifted to a place of our own in 2 1/2 Mile in Kuching as well as a
simultaneous move to setup a branch office in KL (will be going there
soon to oversee operations). This is a write-up of the office that I’ve
been working in for nearly two years.
The current office in Jalan Padungan is shared with AT&A Home
Ideas, an interior design firm (which is kinda like our sister
company). We’re on the first floor while they occupy the ground and
third floor (yes, there is a third floor, much to my initial surprise).
This is the back entrance that we usually use as the car park is
located there. Notice the surveillance cameras mounted at the front and
back of the office? There’s a lot more inside. 😉
Let me give you a tour of this office and its inhabitants before we
move…this is the back doors that we usually go into after parking our
cars at the car park located behind. There’s no parking in front, only
stop-over parking lots.
The doors leads to the back room of AT&A…
…and we go straight through until we’re near the front show room of AT&A.
This is where we make a right and walk up the stairs to the first
floor. Notice the mirror? It’s very useful for checking yourself out
before you walk into the office. Just don’t drown in the reflection. 😉
We make a left at the stairs that leads up to…the Huygens Asia signboard.
This is Huygens Asia Sdn. Bhd. The door leads to…
an array of video conferencing units (which we’re not selling anymore) and surveillance cameras (which we’re still selling).
The view pans to more surveillance cameras, an IT rack, and moving right…
…the reception.
This is Penny, who usually seats there.
This is Alex on the technical workbench.
Here’s the technical support staff…and moving on, we head into…
The inner office which is currently occupied by the CTO, Marketing Manager and System Engineer (that’s me).
This is the workplace which I occupy between the hours of 8 am to 6
pm (usually). I like this place for the sole reason that my back is
against the wall. This allows me the luxury of being able to see most
of the office but not vice versa. 😉
This is me wearing a smirk that you’ll love to punch out of my face
for having my monitor and notebook facing backwards, and thus allowing
me to do whatever I want (such as updating this blog) without anyone
noticing. 😉
The current Huygens Asia office is rented from Angel of AT&A.
We’ll be moving out to our own office space in 2 1/2 Mile, Kuching
(near the 3rd Mile Bazaar) and opening up a branch office in KL at the
end of this month.
You can access the various (12 – count them!) real time IP surveillance systems that we’ve put up in the office at the official Huygens Asia website
[huygensasia.com]. Please feel free to surreptiously watch me at work
if you feel a burning need to do so. There are multiple demo
surveillance systems that allow you to do so. Oh, and purchase a GPRS/EDGE surveillance unit [huygensasia.com] while you’re at it – it’s my ticket to London. :p
Alex celebrates his birthday today, and the Huygens Asia staff all
chipped in to get a chocolate cake for him from Crown Plaza (about the
only place you can get decent cakes here). There’s an inscription on it
– it goes “Happy Birthday Boss” and a single candle was put on it
(probably coz we don’t know his age ;)).
The photo is kinda blurry since it was taken while he was moving to blow the candle out.
Happy Birthday, Alex!
I went to Ainsley and his wife Michelle’s housewarming party at
their new place in CountryVale last night. It’s a residential area
located about 4 1/2 miles away from Kuching and the place is so
pristine, it’s amazing. They just moved into a large corner
semi-detached house and I received an invite to the housewarming (which
came with a much needed map ;)) with most of the Huygens Asia family at
their place, starting 7 pm.
Ainsley (we work together) and Michelle managed to get a good plot
of land too – the view is full of dense foliage since there’s a jungle
located right beside their place. I went early with Kenny (another one
of my co-workers) and managed to see the view just before sunset.
There’s a shallow valley and miniature hills too – the place is serene. Lots of fresh air, good neighborhood, nice location – it’s a great place, Ainsley! 🙂
There were tables laid out on the front lawn for the guests – I
think we were the first to arrive, coz what we thought would be a 30
minute drive turned out to be much quicker, due to what I can only
attribute to Kenny’s excellent speed on the highway. I was
impressed…he drives with the same abandon that I do, except he
doesn’t get into…er, road mishaps, shall we say, as often as I
do….which is pretty often. Cars, trucks, defenseless old ladies, you
name it; I’ve accidentally mowed it down while driving. :p
The food was prepared on another table and I managed to get a couple
of blurry shots of the fare…my apologies for the less than pristine
photos. Please forgive my Nikon 7900 – it indulged in various
benzodiazepines and had more than a couple of tokes from the peace pipe
before arriving, so several photos didn’t focus well. Myself, I went to
the housewarming party sober, I would never think to insult the hosts by attending a family friendly event without all my faculties intact. 😉
There was a wide variety of food at the housewarming…I remember
eating a lot of chicken drumsticks and helping myself to the fried kolo
mee/kampua mee…
…it was enough to feed about 30 adults and children. I was starved
and I ate my fill, and so did most of the Huygens Asia family, and
there were still leftovers. It totally ruined my fantasy of eating
everything in sight during the munchies. 😉
Lest we forget, there’s also a cooler filled with beer and soda at
the lawn. I did not know alcohol would be served, two thumbs up to
Ainsley for arranging that.
The front porch is lined with shrubs and huge cacti pots, which
leads to the front door. Everything is so clean and new, and I was
impressed that the place remained pristine despite the guests going
around. I don’t know how they do it…
Ainsley was kind enough to give us a tour of his house – this is a
piano in a nook just off the first living room. There are two living
rooms…so I think this would be the guest living with the one at the
back designated as the family living room. I don’t know though, I only
have one living room and I’m sleeping in it. 😉
There is also a very realistic looking dog beside the futon (very
soft, the futon, not the dog). I thought it was real at first, that’s
the detail it had. It’s realistic enough to give home intruders reason
for pause, and if that doesn’t, the countless surveillance cameras
(some hidden) hooked up to DVR’s and video servers for remote
monitoring would. We are, after all, in the IP remote video
surveillance industry. 😉
The back patio with transparent skylights would be an ideal place
for breakfast with the breeze and fresh air. It overlooks the backyard,
which is going to be installed with a fish pond.
The family relaxation room was populated with children and their
guardians digging into the food, which gave me a new wave of the
munchies. There will be a projector screen TV installed here in the
future too.
The upstairs rooms have all been fully furnished and include a
dedicated home office for Ainsley (shown above). There’s also a fully
equipped air conditioned entertainment room with a large TV and A/V
equipment in front of a sofa for his kids as well. Hey mom, how come we
never had one of them “entertainment rooms” when I was little? 😉
I passed by some of Ainsley and Michelle’s wedding (or was that engagement?) photos in the hallway…
…which leads to their children’s bedroom. The starfish light decor
is very trippy – it flashes and pulses with different light
intensities, looks like a perfect trip toy. 😉
Here we have the master bedroom…it will be a one phrase
description since I feel like I’m violating their privacy already. :p
However, there’s a very interesting contraption beside the bed…
…a Lorenzo chair! I felt totally at home chilling out in this
Lorenzo chair…I need to get myself one of these – it’s perfect for
reclining in, with its contoured curves and padded sides. I mean, just
look at me! I’m totally chilling out here…in fact, I’m so relaxed,
I’ve let Cali surfer dude speak invade my language syntax! 😉
The rest of the invited guests decided to grace us with their
presence at this point, so we adjourned downstairs to get something to
eat…
I think I had three or four rounds of food…
Props to Ainsley and Michelle for being gracious hosts! Thanks for having us! 🙂
There was a thing (yes, a thing) going on at the Civic
Center in Kuching yesterday and ntv7, RTM, Vision 8, etc (basically the
entire alphabet soup) were there as well as major papers from Malaysia.
Most of them featured the guest of honor (not us, the big wigs, it
wasn’t a press conference for us), but surprisingly one of the papers
did print a full page story of us. I did manage to position myself in
front of several press photographers and rolling TV cameras but I don’t
know if I managed to get my ugly ass on the air coz I don’t have TV.
I got into Sin Chiew Jit Poh, one of the largest Chinese dailies
though…here’s a scanned image of me. Unfortunately, the shot didn’t
have one of my much lauded Kung Fu Hustle (TM) poses. The images in
this post are all from Sin Chiew Jit Poh.
Oh, mirror mirror on the wall, who is the biggest publicity whore of them all? 😉
Elvinna and Robyn have just submitted their resignation letters and
left Huygens Asia today to pursue their careers elsewhere. I’ve been
close to the two and while it’s sad to see them go, I wish them all the
best in their next job. Keep in touch! Much love, it’s been a privilege
to work with you guys. 🙂
SARBEX 2004 is going into its last day today, so I reckon I should
focus on what SARBEX is all about – property. SARBEX is basically a
property fair. The vast majority of the booths are taken up by housing
developers showing a variety of apartments, gated communities and so
forth.
There are premium condos and exclusive retreats like Santubong
Suites, which bills itself as “an exclusive condominium precinct for
those who appreciates the finer aspects of life”.
How would you like to live here?
The above shows a model detached house with it’s model roof taken
off so you can see what’s inside. There are a lot of to-scale models
being displayed – you know, the kind that’s just begging you to touch
it. Naturally, the exhibitors recognize this as a threat and most of
them are kept under glass. 😉
There are some large commercial developers here too…like this
Bandar Baru Semariang booth, which encompasses several normal sized
booths and is re-decorated nicely to give it an elegant look.
Bandar Baru Semariang is a commercial cum housing development. There are shop lots and residential settings on offer here.
This is one of the semi-detached houses in Bandar Baru Semariang.
It’s starting from RM 299,888. That’s a 99 year lease though. I love
the attention to details in the models – look at the cars, the road,
the porch, the garden, the pillars supporting the structure…it’s
great!
You know what I’ll really like though? An office…with lots of people working in it.
There’ll be a conference room, where we can have inane discussions to while away the time…
…and when I’m not in meetings, I’ll be sitting here in my cushy
office, surfing the net, updating the blog, watching movies/TV
series/DVDs…
Now, that’s the life!
NO-BURN is a product that’s marketed as fire retardant paint. It
looks out of place in an exhibition which focuses almost exclusively on
property. However, it seems like a damn interesting booth and we
Huygens Asia people went to check it out. 🙂
The thing that catches your attention from this booth is the stack
of wooden structures being displayed that looks like it has been
burned. The charred boxes, despite the superficial aesthetic damage,
still retain its structural integrity. The world is now a safer place
to live in, says the literature, with a picture flame under the world.
The attendant at the booth didn’t mind us poking around, so we set
about on doing our own experiments. The photo above shows the sample
test products which has been coated with the No-Burn fire retardant
chemical. There are pieces of plain paper with one half of it coated
with the No-Burn chemical and the other half uncoated. There is also a
stack of cardboard which has been partially dipped into the No-Burn
fire retardant paint.
We started out with the pieces of paper first. I love this sample
tests, one side is printed with an RM 100 bank note as seen above.
There is a distinctive demarcation along the paper…notice that the
treated part of the paper has a slight red tint. The untreated part of
the test currency is white.
The flip side of this currency really cracked me up…it is a spoof
of a US dollar card with NO-BURN in the middle and the phase “In
No-Burn We Trust” on top instead of the usual “In God We Trust”. Nice!
It’s also treated with the same fire retardant chemical, as can be seen
from the discoloration.
We started on this test sample first. We got a lighter and Mancy
tried to set fire to the part of the paper that’s treated with No-Burn.
It didn’t catch fire. Then we tried to burn it even more. It still
didn’t alight, but it did scorch the paper a little. But it didn’t burn
the paper. Damn…
Here’s what it looks like after our repeated attempts to make it
burn. The paper didn’t burn away, it just scorched. The interesting
thing was, the No-Burn chemical treated paper gave off little smoke,
but a strong chemical smell when it was burned. I wonder what it’s made
of…
Anyway, we then started on the untreated part of the same piece of
paper. Oh, that burned all right…it burned very fine indeed. 😉
Thus, we burned it a little more. It’s paper, so it burned very well, we had to put it out by blowing on it.
The next experiment was made with the No-Burn paint coated cardboard.
The results were pretty much the same…the No-Burn paint scorched, but didn’t burn, and the untreated cardboard burned…
We spotted a piece of clothing that has been treated by No-Burn on
one side. It’s supposed to be a curtain and is there for demo purposes,
so test it we did…
Unfortunately, the No-Burn treatment didn’t allow any kind of
ignition to occur. Your silent fireman indeed…next time I’ll bring an
oxy torch.
It was fun though, probably the most interesting booth in the SARBEX
expo. Thanks to Kenny, Mancy, Robyn and everyone who helped out with
the experiment. 🙂
Ignition, they call it an obsession,
But I think it’s kinda bitchin’
I think it’s kinda neat!
SARBEX 2004 was officiated by the Minister of Housing, YB Dato Sri
Abang Haji Abdul Rahman Zohari Bin Tun Abang Haji Openg. No shit,
that’s his full name. I’m thinking I should get a longer name myself,
so that people won’t be able to say it without having to pause for a
breath of air midway. 😉
There was much fanfare…okay, the usual ribbon cutting and tour, that’s all. Let’s move on.
Complimentary food was provided by a catering service, one of whom
had the misfortune of meeting a concrete support pillar, but we already
talked about that yesterday. Just watch out for lorries. 😉
The food is typical expo fare…the cups and saucers, ready to be
filled with coffee or tea, sandwiches and plates lined with disposable
serviettes.
There’s fried beehoon (rice vermicelli) and a very strange mixture of vegetables (top).
Chicken wings are also available, as well as curry puffs (top) and beef slices in a bun (far right).
The bastard son of the salmon-egg sandwich also makes an appearance,
with its unorthodox green (pandan bread), spotted white (raisin bread)
and brown (chocolate bread) layers. It’s also available in ye ol’ pure
white variety, for the ones who prefer to stick to tradition.
The tastiest offering in the free brunch is located under a big
wooden cock, which is guarding over the food. Or maybe it was a
hornbill, I can’t tell the difference.
It’s that plate with the triple dessert arrangements. The outer ring
is made of a white, chewy kueh wrapped in pandan leaves, and the middle
has half of some kind of pinkish kueh which is soft and dusted with
coconut and the other containing tapioca mixed with some kind of sweet
milky thing. It’s great!
This is the plate I had. I went back for second helpings…
