Just the other day..

When A & A (Yeah, the Y generation kids) approached me and ask me to write something for TOC’s blog, I was shocked and puzzled. For a person that doesn’t do Facebook and Friendster (The happening “F” thing) and being perceived as conservative, it was indeed an uphill task; not to mention it would be a fortnightly thing…My Goodness.

During the early 80’s (yes, you are right…nah nah nah and we listen to ABBA and Boney M and we watch Dallas and Dynasty!!), diary is something discreet and personal. We kept our small little secrets to ourselves (love letter to the sweet girl next door, first date, venting frustration on the dumb teacher etc..) and concerned our conservative parents may take a peep and reveal our deepest secrets BUT now it becomes Outdated if you don’t have a BLOG….literally you are standing naked and it is fashionable to make things public….What happen????

After giving a few thoughts and with no choice (Take the blame, gals!), I have to make my maiden trial here.

Doing Road Shows in overseas markets can be fun, challenging and exhausting sometimes; with much planning and efforts to pour in to see the results and yet some expected challenges along the way. Two weeks ago on Friday, 6th Feb 09, I flew to Jakarta and take a domestic flight to Jambi (Anyone has any idea where is this city?) to join our Indonesia agent’s Expo (Education Expo 20090) which covers Jambi and Palembang (Believed most of you heard of it as we studied it in our history book). It was pretty smooth (with occasional turbulences during the flights – both KL – JKT and JKT – Jambi sector) but the first hiccup came when I arrived at Jambi airport where the hotel did not send a driver to pick me up. It ends up with lots of cab’s hustlers kept asking “Pak Mau Pake Taksi” - means sir do you want a cab….first time in last 15 months where agent failed to communicate rightly….No worries...it is ok as this may happen to anyone…..

Worst has yet to come until the next day….. Where we have to take a 6 hours ride by car (Toyota UNSER where we rent it) after Jambi Expo that finished at 7pm …and after dinner …the long journey on hellish bumpy roads (the roads conditions are unlike the expressway in Malaysia ok!). Unfortunately or fortunately, it started to rain where we thought the driver would slow down the speed (Nope the truth is…he kept driving at 90km/hour and we are always in the dark….no lamppost…and imagine the fear we have). After about 2 hours drive along the way, where Ershad, Ade and I were dozing and half conscious (By the way, these 2 lads are from LKW – Lim Kok Wing), out of a sudden, we overheard some unusual noises (like metals clashing …oops) and I quickly asked Ershad talked to the Pak Driver and detect what is actually happened…and I kept telling him it is ok to be slow and we are not rushing…..He stopped the car at the roadside and to our horror and expected (have a weird intuition) and confirmed our rear tyre went punctured. Oh Oh!

Beh & Ershad using their Nokia & Sony Ericsson K750i as a torchlight to help the driver finding the spare tyre.

To make things worse, it was raining heavily (as if it was not dramatic enuf!!) and without hesitation, the driver came down to do some quick fix…of course we have to get our hands dirty as well. (If there are some gals, they may expect their heroes come to save them….unfortunately no gals in the car and we have to save ourselves) – Our job (Ershad and I) are to hold the torchlight (Thanks to Nokia and Sony Ericsson model K750i that has a bright light did a brilliant job – bright enough for the driver to do his fix on a totally dark roadside) Check out the pictures I took (No bullshit, all real) Meanwhile, Ade was a bit nervous; kept finding a shelter and puffing under the roof.

Raining suddenly.. that's why the photo is blur..

Beh also kelam kabut.. want to find shelter while busy taking pictures

It was not new to me though, to tell the truth; where I encountered the same experience in Kathmandu with Nilai, Sunway, HELP, KDU, UCSI and TOC. The only difference is that the tyre was not punctured but the tyre came out almost half from the wheel (No JOKE!) and we had a good laugh on it – they keep teasing me “hey hey, we have a God sent Angel, Beh to fix this for us; after all he is from Automotive College, right?” and of course I am not fit to do the job.

During the repair and fixed up, I sent Frankie sms at 12pm local time and he revert with “WOW, so sui meh (means so celaka ar?)” and I replied “You would never know how FUN to have this!! Ha Ha”. Admittedly, it is true as I had experience dealing with it before. Within 25 minutes and our cheers for him, the driver did an amazing job….changed with the spare tyre and locked the damage tyre back to a deck which hide beneath the car (Amazing and new to me too….how brilliant the Japanese utilised the space).

Almost done.. get the damaged tyre back to its deck

It was almost 12.30 am in the morning when we finished the job and hit back to the road. This reminds me of the saying” When the going gets tough, the tough gets going” – Don’t let the small things in life distract you, get no sweat about small little hurdles that may come along and stay focus and you will get it!!

When we finally arrived at Palembang, it was 2.45 am and yet another record; checked in so “early” of the day in Aryaduata Hotel…all exhausted and tired….surprisingly we arrived early than another car (where it carries Sin Sin, Ibu Erra, Ms Lum of Monash and Sophia of Sunway College) ….hehe…that’s the spirit of a CHAMPION…

Ade & Ershad eventually check-in at 3am in Aryaduta Hotel, Palembang.

Oops for those guys with their face pictures and names exposed in the Blog….do forgives me….even you did not authorised me to do so…will buy you guys some Jus Alpukat in Indonesia when we meet again

Give me some encouragements …leave ur comments or poke me if you like it…I will come back with more juicy stuffs like Rihanna kena hantam by Chris Brown where CINTA turns MASAM…as if I know a lot like PEREZ HILTON…Yo !

See you early March for another BLOCKBUSTER STORIES =) =)