The wife and I visited the Melaka Home fair recently and found it wanting.

The scope of Home retail and RENOVATION IS A WIDE ONE but the amount of retailers  and promotional products on display related to the industry present at the Fair was not representative of this field.We had a good time testing out all the bedding and pillows on display, though and walked away with pillows (worth RM 165.00 a piece each !) and nothing much else.Sad really, as the Melaka MITC is a good hall and venue for these promotions. But, the support and sales must have been a concern of the retailers when they considered all these factors as I'm sure business men will never pass up a good opportunity to sell. Sad story but seems one of the Achilles heel of malaccan retail and infrastructural offerings. We have the buildings and infrastructure but we lack the purchasing power and sheer numbers in terms of sales.

Even our chief minister seems to understand the underlining causes of the poor response to the prospects on offer in this fair city, but due to the politics of the day and the stand taken by them in relation to the types of business and people they want to  nurture and support, the apathy and lack of business acumen amongst this populace down grades the fantastic opportunities this city offers to the world. 

Anyways, as i was saying, after the visit to the Fair we carried on towards the Melaka Raya supermarts and the Club to relax, recover and recuperate. Of course, we took up the offer to sample certain dishes on offer in the buffet our SMR Club operates and enjoyed the fraternity of friends and flavor that preceded these events.

The crowd was jovial; the food was good 

( I  took particularly  fancy to their  wonderful sweet and sour chicken !) and surrounded by the bevy of beautiful young ladies in low cut blouses, it was a proper occasion to let loose and be happy.

The next day was meant for some fast driving and walking tour of Kuala Lumpur with foreign clients so we call it quits after the meal around 5 pm and headed towards to the sanctity of home and hearth.

Unfortunately, I couldn't sleep the entire night and only managed to drowse off towards 4.15 am before awakening at 6.00am to prepare myself for the meet and greet session with my clients. 

Had my break fast at a usual mamak stall in front of the entrance to Tmn.Merdeka and met some former friends that I used to work with back in the days when we used to haul goods in lorries and trucks from Melaka to JB after school hours as clindens.

Not many people know that word now days but it used to mean" second driver "or support driver during the age prior to the north south highway when every thing from goods to people were hauled across malaysia using the old coastal roads and inner throughfares of the interior. I would have been only 15 or 17 at that time when I did this work daily after school hours. We normally made the return trips within the day or by early morning the next day in time to attend school ! I also remember taking sub contracts at that age together with my class mates and best friend Vincent ( now a software engineering dept. head for Likom) for what is now known as the Multi Media University. That place was built with our blood and sweat as many incidents still fresh in my mind occurred during the construction period. At that time there was no such thing as occupational and safety officers at these sites and the many lost lives; broken bones; fights and accidents were norm around these sites and stand testimony of those hard and often rough times.

Coming back to the present,  because we started off early from malacca, we had time to do some hardware shopping at Berjaya Times Square;enjoyed ourselves silly at their indoor theme park; later when off to climb the Batu Caves in Selangor, and continued the late afternoon with some fancy driving at the tracks in Batu Tiga before having dinner at the Petronas Twin Towers. 

A throughly enjoyable day for all of us as the clients were very happy and satisfied with the planned itinerary and our services and that in itself is a huge compliment to us!

The Car;The Location;The Record.

Further along the week, we found ourselves enjoying the company of the Marina Sands sales team on the personal invite of Arthur Chernov; their Vice President for International Sales as they started on their first ever sales promo in south east asia. It is an honor for me and my son to be amongst the  list of invited VIP's as Lenny (the Sales Manager for Malaysia & Indonesia) told us that we were the only selected invitees from Malacca ! The rest were all high rollers from Penang and KL and Media people only. Being the only Blogger around, you bet I took some nice photo's of the entertainment and Food to comply with the nature of this Blog for your visual entertainment !

The night started off with pleasant company from the ladies as we were entertained with pre-dinner drinks, liqueur, and canapés. After the obligatory greetings and  smooching, we entertained ourselves with the other attendees and mingled with the crowd as Utheya (my son) followed along. I think it was an eye opening session for the young lad as he had never been to these cocktail and smooching events before but it was good that he is able to acclimatise to the surrounding rather fast and was able to enjoy himself though I could see that he was not very comfortable in these surroundings.

The surprise of the evening was when Sarimah Ibrahim took to the stage as MC and belted out a very nice opening song for all of us . What followed was the obligatory speeches and welcome talks by the Hosts and a very nice video on the immense project called the Marina Bay Sands Casino and Convention Centre in Singapore.

This was quickly followed with some dinner Jazz sung by a songstress that I could not identify but who sung like an angel. Such a beautiful voice ! The Band accompanying her was also superb and it was a pleasant start to a wonderfully charged evening. Great Tempo, Beautiful Voices, Wonderful Songs. Simply Superb-lah!

The Meal was started by a serving of delicious smoked tartar with mesclun greens and lotus roots chips with burgundy plum & onion dressings

Followed immediately by a chicken consommé with lemon-grass and chicken ravioli (a kind of wanton with spaghetti type pasta) Highly tangy but light and filling. A good soup based with asian flavors and western fillings.

We had a Lemon Sorbet after that and this was followed by a plate of Fillet Mignon for the others but my son and I ordered the Salmon steak with sundried Tomato, baked with parmesan and artichokes.

The meal continued with much gaiety,song and entertainment by the MC and her team while we plundered the next course which was the Mille Feuille of forest Berries topped with Yoghurt Ice cream !

The mignardies  (after dinner chocolates & pastries) that was specially prepared for our table. Absolutely mouth watering and visually stunning, wouldn't you say ? The chef certainly out did himself here!

So, there you have it. The past few days in the life of one happy Malaccan.

Cheers, everyone !

TUESDAY, JULY 27, 2010

SATU SIMPOSIUM WARISAN -MELAKA BANDARAYA WARISAN DUNIA TELAH BERLANGSUNG PAGI 27.JULAI.2010 BERLOKASI DI DEWAN BESAR PERZIM
(BASTION HOUSE) DI JALAN KOTA, BANDA HILIR.MELAKA.

Ianya merupakan satu pengenalan aspek warisan negeri kepada Front Liners dan para pemain -pemain bidang pelancongan di negeri Melaka ini.
Melaka sebagai Bandaraya Warisan Dunia merupakan pengiktirafan tertinggi yang diberikan oleh Pertubuhan Pendidikan,Sains dan Kebudayaan Bangsa-Bangsa Bersatu (UNESCO) kerana bandaraya ini terkenal dengan warisan dan sejarah nya yang terpelihara sejak 607 tahun dahulu

Dengan pengiktirafan ini maka Negeri Majmuk dan aman kita, Melaka telah maju setapak lagi dan berjaya meletakkan namanya yang harum di persada antarabangsa dunia, Pengiktirafan yang diterima ini juga berperanan memelihara warisan nyata dan tidak nyata yang sedia wujud di Melaka seperti monumen dan bangunan -bangunan bersejarah agar warisaan ini hidup sepanjang zaman.


Oleh yang demikian, pemeliharaan pengiktirafan ini merupakan salah satu daya tarikan kepada kedatangan pelancong dari luar negeri ke Melaka. Ianya juga berkesan dalam menjadikan Negeri Melaka sebagai wadah yang sangat istimewa dalam mengekalkan sosiobudaya yang harmoni antara kaum-kaum disini sebagai showcase study untuk para pengunjung.

Simposium yang dilansungkan ini bertujuan menjadi persediaan bagi menerima kunjungan pelancong, dan wajar di utamakan bagi semua Front Liner bidang pelancongan bagi memudahkan mereka memberi penjelasan dan pemahaman yang jelas dan tepat kepada tetamu kita mengenai Melaka.

Persatuan Pelancongan Melaka (MTA) menyambut baik adanya simposium sebegini diteruskan dengan melibatkan semua pekerja -pekerja Hotel, Restaurant dan Theme Park untuk melancarkan lagi penjualan produk pelancongan Melaka sebagai Bandar Warisan Dunia.

An Invitation to an Evening of Pleasure & Business

The Marina Sands, in a week's time will be conducting their sales promotion in KL. It will be interesting to see the new concepts and branding theme's that this world  class team will bring to our corner of the earth. It will also be exciting to see  these Las Vegas outfit's Corporate Social Responsibility efforts through their targeted /  themematic sales programmes. I have asked my son Utheya to clear his schedule for this invite as it offers him a good market evaluation of a world class PR and Corporate Retail/Sales team at work.

As you can probably deduce from the above, we malaccan's are spoilt nowdays with offers and promotions that our bigger city cousins like KL & Singapore has experienced for years. The Good Thing about this retail efforts by the Casinos to solicit market control and introduce their own new products and life style sales is that the retail sector has enable the moneyed people in the smaller towns and cities now with more choices, places and options within 1.5 -2.5 hours drive from Malacca. Taking  into consideration the vast amounts of money invested on these properties, I foresee our malaccan economic contribution to these life style products to increase in the foreseeable future,along with the myriad down stream opportunities that will manifest i.e more of our young working for these  properties, earning and expanding the middle income group within the smaller towns  and cities within a 3 hour flight zone from s'pore & m'sia and eventually more curious  manifestations of economic and knowledge based endeavors borne out of plain, simple business acumen. Of course the flip side of the coin is more marginalization of the disenfranchised; the poorly educated; the slow to catch on and the weak. Basically, more shit will happen through new avenues for the down trodden. Businesses that cannot compete, offer less value added than their competitors will suffer; also poor central planning on everything from pavement size in the future to the size of the  community playground will also bring forth new political repercussions as the citizenry becomes more aware of their own worth. The impact of these business entities, I predict, will open the minds of our people  across cultural, political and societal mores very soon. But, I'm digressing. Genting Resorts promotion for the elderly and localised  citizenry of the inner suburbs. RM 50 gets you a 8 course Chinese Dinner; Staged MC / Entertainment and lucky  draw vouchers to Resorts World ! My Tourism Association is making plans to have an out of town meeting in Yangoon, Myanmar early August. Looking at the developments in Macao, within a year of the arrival of WYNN and Sands Casinos, many of these outer Rim countries will be targeted first as customers and later as the Macao & China's local labor forces get expensive and more selective, as labor supply for these behemoth retail lifestyle properties. It will be proper that we read the level of marginalization well to observe apolitically the coming  possible future societal scenarios.

Speech to Participants of Retreat in Alor Gajah, Melaka

Goood Morning, every one. I stand before you humbled by the charity and time accorded to us in SFA by all of you who are attending today. I see lots of weathered faces and experienced masters in front of me staring at what this upstart wants to say to them-So, first and foremost I would like you to take your glass, be upstanding and join me in a toast to the spirit of Franciscans everywhere; a toast to the culture of gratitude and charity that we are here today to acknowledge and preserve for the young and young at heart!

Thank You.

To start off this hopefully one of many future retreats, allow me to say that we wish to bring changes to the very structure of how this association operates and how we will be seen by our Society; the Christian Brothers and Sisters, our associates and stake holders and that though we will depart from the existing styles of operating this association to achieve that noble goal, we will continue to pursue the good intentions of our seniors before us in maintaining the sacred  association’s responsibility of brother hood, fellowship and charity. Initially so as not to rock the boat too much we will allow the famous attrition method to apply in deciding those methodologies that no longer apply to administrative and support programmes but eventually with the kind indulgence of all of you, we will start to apply a corporate structure of governance for the future benefit of this ALUMNI.

I would guess that by using the TERM corporate governance here, I am referring of a paradigm shift from the default position ingrained within any NGO- an ecosystem that promotes cultures of maintaining the status quo and proven work methodologies of previous years. Many good people with excellent ethics and noble intention labored under such environments and societal & cultural rules to produce what we have today.

  

In what kind of environment is economic development and cultural advances best achieved? This basic question needs to be looked at carefully. Recently, taking an example from our national politics; in the monthly or weekly assembly the PM has with civil servants, he spoke of creating an ecosystem where the best talent emerges. I suppose by that he means the culture- set of beliefs, social precepts, principles by which the best among peers will emerge to lead the masses. Such a proposal is indeed..laudable.

But, how do we achieve that in an environment where we know, the talent level among our contributors is wanting in many aspects? Sometimes this leads to a bureaucratic lethargy perhaps slightly better only than the infamous Indian bureaucracy.

We tend to share the same default position-taking as far as revolutionary and unconventional ideas are concerned.

 Our default position to new ideas is to be negative before any idea can be implemented. No to this idea. No to that proposal. Who can assume responsibility when things are wrong?  Everything is assumed under the eyes of negative perception. Melayu cakap, kejayaan banyak bini, kesalahan banyak janda.

The universal principle borne out in history is that only when men are encouraged to give their best will society progress. So the ecosystem which I have mentioned must incorporate the principle of creating a culture that makes it worth for a man to give his best. That can only occur when the principle that a man is justly rewarded in accordance to his ability, diligence and determination is put in place or willed in place. In any ecosystem where the status quo and default position taking is allowed to prevail much to the detriment of the industrious and the intelligent, we will end with an ecosystem where the abler will hold back so as not to work harder than their under-performing brethren.

  

What today we are here for is to add and improve on those ethical and charitable intentions of our earlier brethren through the use of guidelines and simple written systems of operating.

And hopefully create a culture that allows emergence of human talent and faith in God..
 Let us help build that ecosystem in SFA first. Create that culture where the future committees can adhere and follow through.

We are gathered here today because there is strength in unity. The fastest way to lose public confidence is to contradict ourselves, to assume negative results before trying it out and I believe we are all here today because we believe in these changes and if we have this basic stand of wanting to create such an ecosystem, though they may differ in terms and titles and methods.

Ladies and gentleman, let's set that ecosystem in.

Our system as it is now is that of a Charitable and Fellowship based society based on the privileged desire to serve a better good and to assist where possible.

Desiring the change in the current ecosystem requires the willingness to try new ways and to seek new methods of administration.

Ladies and gentlemen, with that I conclude and say once again a big Thank You to all of you for attending today’s Retreat.

  **************************************

A FOOD FIESTA

It has been an appetizing and enterprising week for me this past 7 days or so as many opportunities have come knocking on my door in terms of both eating out,business and pleasures of the flesh.But, more on the eating out as i'm sure no one's interested in the whimsical pleasures of a middle aged man.:)

I was recently entertained to Hj.Moidu's new restaurant in Limbongan with it's array of mamak styled food and i must confess the spread he put out for me  and my friends were sensational to say the least.The murtabak's thick chicken curry just for beginner's were just what the cholesterol doctors ordered we must try. Followed closely by a big plate of Indian styled Briani rice and mutton dalcha with side toppings of ikan pari curry and a big plate of Rojak Penang for salads.This was later topped up by a heavenly serving of Kashmiri Naan and fried free range chickens.

Extremely well fed, we managed to cool down all that sumptious food with jugs of teh tarik halia!

Not to be scorned is also the Straits Meridian Hotels Buffet which was one of the places our regular meetings are held in, often with the food supplied by our gracious hosts-the Seet family.Their mee curry is to die for! Also, with a fairly healthy serving of local food, this buffet is one of the many in Melaka that is worth the price it's charging.

Another good place ,of course is Sazali's Sri Malaysia coffee house which is the choice quintessential Malay restaurant for many in the Ayer Keroh, Batu Berendam, & Gapam areas.His wide selection of southern and nothern malay fare is always a good pick amongst the professional caterer's in Melaka and in the coming weeks of Ramadhan, his Seri Malaysia Hotels will outshine most others with his succulent offers of both malay and traditional malaysian food offerings !

A growing healthy family is every man's dream come true and i'll be lying if i said i wasn't living that dream.The kids are often tasting every kind of food and fare available to us here in southern malaysia although truth be told, just having burgers (chandra) & black pepper chicken (shoryn) will suffice for them at every meal!

Several official appointments and meeting thrown into the mix and it was a week that surpassed the last few weeks altogether, in terms of variety, food fare and locations ! 

The jovial atmosphere combined with the wine and fellowship of the attendees made the affairs one that is to be admired and remembered for future regaling!

The follow up get together by members of my own team made the entire week one that will be long remembered for it's fun and frivolities and friendships made.

Even a simple Indian fare for foreigners is a blast if you have it in an old part of this historical city, where the ambiance and smells of the streets blend in with the heat and curry as you swallow every appetizing mouthful of our spicy simple south indian meal. 

Not to be forgotten are also the daily grind of dialog and decision makings which is all part and parcel of a normal life.If looked at with the passion and love that one must cultivate for this kind of  unpaid , thankless jobs, it ain't too bad,a life!

The week was hardly over when several calls to my phone by the masseurs (massage) were recorded and we duly went over for the obligatory body rub.  Here in Melaka, we are spoilt now-a-days with choice of massage centers and masseurs as with the proliferation of these types of businesses also comes the many styles associated with massages.

There is the Indonesian body massage which concentrates on your ligaments in the upper back and lower lumbar regions ; The Chinese massage which also starts with you on your back with an emphasis on your neck and the spine curvature in the upper deltoids and  thoracic ; The Thai method which concentrates on the cartilages of the Femur & Tibia areas before doing the gluteus maximus right up to the lattisemus dorsi and upper areas of the Trapezius concentrating on the posterior surface of the vertebral column with emphasis on the lympatic system drainage. Then there are the ayurvedic massages run by professionals trained from India which is a different kettle of fish altogether as they are trained not only to subdue the lymphatic systems but to do so through the calming of the bodies chakra systems  ! 

Along the way, as you have been kneaded and oiled you will feel extreme pleasure as the expert hands take control and do what they do best. Naturally, after a good work out like this you will be hungry again ! This being the season of Durian, a good helping of the smelly stuff  is always in order.The smattering of intermittent rain and cool weather  towards the end of the week also made it conducive in the evenings to check out our usual haunts where money, babes and food are all located under one roof. As the pictures point out, Lady Luck was again in our favor as my buddy and 

I made quite a killing in the jack pot machines, again.The new club housebuilding and facilities in Melaka Raya just opened two days ago for the one arm bandits, and we were invited to check it out. First impressions are always very important and we were very impressed with the size and trappings of the new Games Room.

 All club members are given free points to play at these machines on their individual birthday and this week it was RM 200 for my friend to spend.This time, the beers were unlimited, the meal kosher & the company extremely conducive. BTW, we even did so well the management invited us again coming Tuesday for a  follow up dinner and game on them ! Probably to give us the chance to lose it all back to them, i'm sure.

All in all, a very good end to a fantastic week.