Gong.Xi.Fa.Cai.2006

Gong Xi Fa Cai! May the year of the dog brings joy and prosperity to everyone.

I have been busy visiting my relatives for the past two days and like every year, my job is to drive my parents around. This year, I have decided to visit every available relative in PJ and KL since I have not seen some of them for quite a while. I also took the opportunity to showcase Windows Vista to my ex-IT relatives.

This year's Chinese New Year is very quiet. The sound of fire-crackers and drums is almost non-existence. I wonder where are the lion-dance troupes?

Enterprise.Library.Jan.2006

Enterprise Library for .NET Framework 2.0, January 2006, has just been released. There are several architectural changes and improvements to the framework as compared to the June 2005 edition for .NET Framework 1.1.

I'm glad to have met Tom Hollander, the Product Manager for Enterprise Library, when I was in Seattle and shared some of my ideas which I did for Paladin RAD Framework with him. It was nice of him to have spent an hour with me looking at Paladin. It was really an interesting session.

My.Seattle.Story

Seattle is nice and I like it there. It's winter there and it's chilly *brrrr* but it's really nice. The cold is quite different between indoors and outdoors. The outdoor chill is nice but too much of it can kill ya. The indoor cold is like normal air-conditioning in a mall.

For me, it was just nice since I was wearing double t-shirts (thanks to my ex-manager's advice) and I have got a trusty double-layer winter-jacket with hood (thanks to Randy's advice). The gloves didn't work for me, so I stuffed my hands into my pockets to keep them warm. Lip balm and moisturizer are a must! It drizzles everyday but of course, it is nothing compared to the showers we have back here.

There, you can still walk in the rain as most people do - just need to becareful not to end-up in a puddle or slipping off the side-walk. The temperature indoors are more or less the same with ours. Infact, I was sweating at some outlets because I was wearing double t-shirts.

The majority of people there are quite friendly. When you hold the door for them, 9 out of 10 people will say, "Thank You". Everyone in the shops and restaurants are very polite and friendly - excellent customer service!

The Shop Assistants, Waiters and Waitresses always greet their customers with "How are you today?". Back here is all, "Leng-lui/leng-chai, sik-mutt-yeh?" (Hey! Pretty face/handsome, wotcha wanna eat?). The people at the restaurants really make sure you are happy with their service and food. They will keep checking you out every now and then. For some of my colleagues, it is of course a bit kacau (disturbing).

I remember one night I was dining-out with Randy in one of the restaurants and they somehow lost our order. Not that Randy and I noticed it because we were too engrossed in talking. The manager actually came to us and apologized and we had our meal for free. I don't think we can get such a thing in our country.

Speaking of Randy, it was nice of him to show me around and brought me on a "night-safari" around the Redmond campus. We went from blocks to blocks and he was telling me the history of each building and what the people in there do. Honestly speaking, they all look the same to me *HeHe* (and they don't have a Sky-Bridge *Hint* *Hint*). Since most buildings don't have curtains, they look like transparent apartments (or more like those toy houses where you have one side opened).

Here's a picture of me in one of the buildings with the Vista logo. *How I wished I can develop kick @$$ products like these. Dream on baby... dream on*

Randy also showed me around his office. Almost everyone have their own office room. How cool?

A few days back, one of my colleagues (another newbie) was flashing some photographs that he took outside the campus and my senior said to me, "How can you not take a picture of the campus when you are here. All Microsofties should have atleast one taken mah..." and he ended with a "What lah you?".

Feeling a bit kiasu, I asked Randy to bring me to take pictures with the Microsoft campus sign. Since it turns dark after 5:00PM here during winter, all I can get are night shots.

And here's the shot that almost all Microsofties will have.

And here's another one. Since Randy said that I'm blocking the "T" and I don't want to step on those flowers. I posed as the "T".


Nice eh? Have droplets effect somemore. Those droplets are not snow but rain-drops. So we have two silly Microsofties taking pictures in the rain. Thank Randy for playing along.

On nights that I'm with my colleagues, we will just dine in whatever place that we can find. Here's a place I went to with a colleague the night before I came home. It is just a few blocks away from the hotel - or was it one block? *Hmmm*

Somehow, my colleague was craving for steak since he heard good comments from the others who been there, but I was just looking for something to fill my stomach. I never really fancy steaks. The closest stuff I like is Chicken-chop or Fish & Chips but I didn't manage to try any of those when I was there.

I was going for those small small bites but even that, I gained a few kilos. Mom had already warned me before I left, "Don't you eat until fat-fat and come back ah!"

So, I usually go for half-size or anything that has small servings. Even that, I won't be able to finish. I am also very happy to share my food with my colleagues if they still don't have enough.

The full-size servings here are really HUGE! Checkout these starters man. Oh! Only the soup is mine. I was smart to order 'a cup' instead of 'a bowl'. I can't imagine if I ordered a bowl - sure drink until lao-sai (diarrhoea). Looking at the servings I was smiling at my colleague. *Ngek Ngek Ngek! Mun-Lei-Sei-Mei* So, I asked him whether he could finish and he said... "Can help me out ah?".

"Where can lah?". So, he tar-pao (doggie bag) the food for his breakfast.

I was also told that there was a cheese cake factory nearby but I didn't visit it. Here's a picture of the factory I took from the convention centre across the street.

There were some cakes served during lunch time in the convention centre but I'm not sure if it was from the factory. I did taste some of them and they were quite good though.

Overall, the trip was nice. I spent most of my time attending the seminar and making friends with people - since all 5,000 plus people there are Microsofties anyway. I sure miss that place and hopefully, I can go there again oneday.

Signing off this post with a picture of my first plate of sauce-fried noodle at the Narita airport in Japan (my first Japanese dish in Japan) and the moose head at Claim Jumper.


Sauce-fried noodle - Cost USD 4.60. Does not taste like anything here.


Moose head at Claim Jumper - a restaurant where I had my first dinner.

*HuGs*

Felt.Like.A.Dream

Woke up this morning with my head feeling a little heavy. It felt as if I have been sleeping for a long-long time and the Seattle trip was just a dream in my sleep. It was only a week ago that I was rushing to get there and now I'm back - back to reality.

My car couldn't start after missing me for about 10 days. The battery was flat and I have to wait for the mechanic to come fix it. Have been catching up with work for the whole day from home. And now... it is time to hit the sack again.... *snore*

Back.Home

Landed today and a tonne of things waiting for me to do. Stacks of bills to pay, lots of stuff to unpack and my car refused to start. So tired to blog about my trip... I miss my pillow and my powerpuff plush... mmm.... *snore*

I.Want.2.C.The.World

"I want to see the world."

That's the common phrase I hear nowadays. Almost everyone I know will declare that statement and talk about destinations like China, Korea, Japan, Europe, The United States and etc. To me, I think it is just peer-pressure. We see everyone is going, we would not want to be left out. So that when there is a gathering or mamak session, we can talk about it and proudly say, "I've been there!"

Have you heard anyone who said the above wanting to visit Fiji, Abu Dhabi, New Caledonia, the South Pole or some unheard-off places? Rarely! (I do have a friend who wants to visit the South Pole to see the Emperor Penguins though). I honestly think there is hardly anything about the world to see in just a few days and few nights. Besides, it is always nice when we are on vacation regardless of the location - try living in that place and you will see a different picture.

Blogging.From.Seattle

It was so rush for me till I had no time to enter an entry to my blog before I left for Seattle. As much as I could remember, it was a dark and stormy night. I had Chicken McDeluxe for dinner and bought Prosperity Burgers for my parents. The cab came early and I was gulping down the soda while munching on the last bits of Twister Fries.

Within minutes, I'm in the cab. It was raining heavily and I can hardly see my parents waving goodbye. Half way through USJ, there was a massive flood. Many cars had stalled as the water rises to almost half the height of the cars. I was so worried as the brakes were not working properly after driving out from the flood.

Thanks to the cab driver, Mr. Singh, who managed to have the situation under control and get me to the airport safely and on-time. I checked-in immediately when I arrived and the next 24 hours or so was like hell for me. I had some luggage problems and I could not sleep well both in the transit hotel or on the airplane.

Now in just a blink of an eye, I'll be coming home tomorrow but I won't be arriving anytime soon because I need to go through another round of 24 hours torture. It's a shame that I didn't manage to do any shopping this time round - infact I didn't plan for it. I was thinking of getting a good notebook bag though, but I guessed I was a little late for the sale.

I will blog more about my Seattle trip when I return. Not many pictures taken though :(

Yikes!

Parking fee increased from RM8 to RM 10 today *Sob* *Sob*

Firedancer.Start(2006);

Happy New Year!!!

I didn't do much this weekend. Didn't go out for countdown, didn't go out shopping, didn't go out to visit friends, didn't watch my weight, didn't clean my room, didn't wash my car, didn't, didn't, didn't. I just stayed at home and read about WebServices in .NET 2.0. Now I'm SOAP-enabled and soon going to be WS-Firedancer *HeHeHe* or maybe <Firedancer />*HaHaHa*

Similarly, I didn't do much during the Christmas holidays. Was at home reading-up on Connected Services Framework (CSF). Six days of year-end relaxation gone just like that. Sigh! Still have to pack and do some final preparations for my trip. There seems to be never an end to things to do.

And Chinese New Year is just around the corner...