Asian Tiger

I own a Nokia 9500c and I am regretting I ever bought it. First off, I talk a lot on the mobile phone; often over 5 minutes. Within that 5 minutes, my ears will be smoking hot and I can feel my temple throbbing. The heat emitting from the phone is tremendous given the slimness of the mobile phone which is one of the reasons why I bought it in the first place. This is probably the slimmest Nokia I came across.

Secondly, the keypad is a little difficult to depress. Texting over its small keypad area is a little frustration especially after you have used other Nokia mobile phones such as the 6300. I find it one time too many the errors I made from depressing the wrong keys. Imagine using the predictive text function and pressing one wrong key, the result can be embarrassing.

Thirdly, since I talk a lot on the phone, the battery lasts me for only a day and I’ve got to task myself to charge it every night. If I forget to charge, I will be cussing the next day. I won’t blame the Nokia designers for the short battery life but rather on the sleazy salesman who claimed that this phone has one of the longest lasting talk time. I was downright cheated but since the salesman looks fiercer than me, I shall let this one slip.

Lastly, this mobile phone has only 1 port; for hands-free, charging and USB connection. If this one special port screws up, you might as well throw the phone away. After all that I have said and done, the sleekness of the phone and overall cool design is what made me keep it…

How many times have you wished that you have another 12 hours in your day? For the busy individuals and the busy business people, I am sure you have had uttered those words or something along that line. If you take a quick look at your work schedule for the past few years, you will realize that your office work has crept into your home and your home has started to be your office.

This phenomenon is not because of the way individuals work but rather because of business globalisation. Just as aeroplanes are capable of zipping us around the globe, similarly, technology enables office work to follow us around; e.g. email, blackberry and thin clients. Suddenly, you find that you are poor of time but rich in work. With long hours at work, we stand to lose quality and social life.

How often have you forgotten birthdays? How many times did you miss your child’s grand day?  Well, I have and I’m sure you have too or perhaps you have come very close to that.  If you are in this situation or hard pressed for time, the words concierge service and lifestyle management will become magical terms in your life.  When I first heard these words, I was like “What?”.

Well, I soon learned that these magical words are services that will enrich my life — where quality of life is once again part of me and my family. Believe it or not, there are companies or establishments providing services to make your life easier or rather I would say, to help you prioritize the important things in your life. Anything you need, absolutely anything at all, is serviced by these companies; from purchasing helicopter rides to booking golf tee-times through to pet-sitting.

These godsend companies relieve the hassles of my domestic chores, my business and personal life’s nitty-gritties in exchange for the priceless minutes and hours of my life.

If you do not know already, tomorrow, Malaysia is making all passengers in the rear seat buckle themselves up in a bid to increase road safety. Compared to Germany, we are 24 years behind. Yup, if my math has not failed me, Germany introduced the rear seat belt ruling in 1984. In England, that rule was enforced in 1991.  It’s about time that Malaysia has this rule.

When I was in England, I had to get a car seat because you can’t possibly buckle up a baby using standard seat belts.  I was in for a rude shock when I shopped around for it.  The price for a single infant car seat is in the region of RM700-RM1000.  Discounts are given but at 10% – 20% at best.  Thankfully, in England, there are weekend flea markets called car boot sales.  I love these car boot sales where you find 2nd hand items at an obscene bargain.  Leather gloves goes at 50p, Peter the Rabbit jackets at 2 pounds and car seats at 20 pounds.

With the deadline to rear seat belts buckling starting tomorrow, shops with infant car seats and booster seats will probably find themselves running out of stock.  So, folks at the back, buckle up beginning tomorrow. It’s for your own good