To begin with, I don’t even have a racquet

Ok I do have one. A Yonex from decades ago, rusty, cracked at the shaft, due to my excessive usage during my primary school days. Hey it was quite something at that time leh, Yonex CARBONEX 3 with Built in T-Joint leh.

I really couldn’t understand how could I have cracked it. I’m really sure I did not use it to Pek Yau or commit any violence act. Beats me. Maybe manufacturing defect then.

But I got an email from my colleague William Siow about getting badminton back as one of our R&R (Rest and Relax) activities. I said to myself “what the heck? Badminton? Ok sign me up!”. The venue was at the badminton court at the top floor of Pudu Plaza.

I wasn’t really aware that the sign up list was that long ‘cos I really saw lots of other colleagues there! And to add to that, they were all experts and just beat the crap out of me!

Just check out how skillful they are from these photos and you’ll know what I’m talking about.

Retaliate with style, man… Abe, with style, handles the racquet same as how he handles a guitar… style, is everything…

Hey Titan (the guy in side striped grey T), where you lookin’ at? Pay attention la!

Titan: Ok la ok la, I serious la, just don’t regret ok?

Adrian: Offense is the best defense! Agressiveness paaayysss… PAINFULLY!
Abe: Ok lo… you action lo, play the whole game lo, I rest first.

Wilson: I’m not the guy you wanna mess around with. Body smash takes 2 points according to my book of rule!

William (guy in cyan black): Ok, today we’re gonna bring the potential out of all ye lazy rusty bones!

Jeff: Ok gimme the shuttlecock. Christopher, I know my moves are faster than your shutter so you had to snap me only after I got my turn to serve.

Alvin: Ok ok, come on la, not everybody also so geng la!
Christopher: Ok ok, I take back the words I wrote way up there

Yeah well the whole session was 3 hours, of course Alvin was tired la, not that he wasn’t good but he took on 4 sets before I arrive

Hehe don’t have any photos of me but for the few sets that I joined I find that my skills aren’t that rusty after all these years too. Eh I’m a zone representative for my primary school almost 20 years ago la ok… that’s why my rusty good ol’ racquet cracked due to heavy duty use.

However, I sorta faced a bit of problem with counting scores *eye balls spinning* They used the new scoring system instead of the old one, and I don’t know how it works! Damn, was totally a mess during the games. Could have easily fouled tons of times.

At the end of the session I was totally refreshed due to the exercise I got and am determined to come back for more! Haha! And we booked the same time session for the next 3 weeks! And I’m more than determined to get myself a racquet, though I really need to find time… … this might take a little bit longer than “someone’s” expectations

So see ya all guys this coming Tuesday as well, and I’m gonna need you to lend me your racquet too

Just last Saturday (ok I know I’m posting this late :P, but I’m a busy guy ok? :D), me and a few colleagues (Malcalm, Wilson, YC, Stieneke, William Hu {ok the last name is to differentiate ‘cos we got 2 Williams in office }) and their friends went hiking at Bukit Tabur. Well I know that tons of bloggers have blogged about it but I still wanna do so, ‘cos it’s memorable ok? I wanna still be able to ‘read’ my own memory when I’m 80.

Well I planned it for a couple of weeks and the persons above signed up for the ‘death hike’ :D. On the morning itself, KL started to rain at 5am. YC fret and called/texted me early in the morning asking if we’re gonna continue with it (’cos it’s quite dangerous to hike in the rain or right after a rain). I’d just say we continue with it after confirming with all the others that they wanna just give it a try. If it still rains when we gather, we were thinking maybe we’d just go for a morning breakfast somewhere fantastic (still couldn’t think of somewhere though). It was still raining when we arrived at the West Trail starting point, but we just couldn’t be bothered.

In the initial uphill trail, everywhere was greenery and it sorta felt like we were entering a jungle. Sorta like this.

And this.

Then as we were almost a quarter way up the hill (ok, not really sure if it’s quarter way or not), we started to get a peek of the Klang Gates Dam.

Continuing on our journey, we were really sure that we’d get a nice view of everything, like this.

And this.

And also these.

And at this time, the drizzling rain stopped. Mother nature started to shower us with cool breezes after the rain, which dried us up of course.
There are at least 3 peaks, according to the usual path. We went past “check points” like this where you can really fall and die one. Seriously no joking guys and gals.

A girl lost her grip on one of the ropes in this photo where it is used to descend to a lower ledge and fell last month (2008-10-14) at this point. She suffered serious injuries.
That’s me checking out the path to see if it’s passable. The old rope was right below my feet whereas the new rope was somewhere between the two protruding rocks. I see that it’s not safe and hence bailed out. My life is too priceless to be risked like this

This was one of them, too. Fall and die, anyone?

It took us more than 2 hours (I guess, again) to arrive at the highest peak. I like this take. You can see the satisfaction on everybody’s face. Hehe, wait till you get your way downhill. That’s where the nightmare starts. Heeheehee…. *evil grin*

The road downhill was not really an easy one. Maybe due to the reason that our energy levels were really low already. Also maybe due to there were not really as many nice scenes as the road uphill. We weren’t really distracted from tiredness and hence the feeling of tiredness was magnified, amplified.

A bit bored. Nobody was talking energetically like when we were going uphill.

I was even having cramps on my quadriceps. I always face this problem everytime I go hiking on this route. Later I found out that Wilson had pain on his knee joints as well. Don’t know about the others though.

Nearing to the end of the journey, everyone was so eager to get to the car and get changed / rest. By that time, it was slightly past noon and it was really hot.

Almost 5 hours of:
hiking (see my arm?)

rock climbing (ok that’s me! challenging the vertical limit!)

sight-seeing. (Hey I wanna pose like this too! So 有型!)

sweat squeezing n-th times while guiding rope descending and standing on a place where I can fall and die

I became like this. (Ok, this IS DEFINITELY NOT what you are thinking about)

I’m having cramps and can’t walk properly oredi la and we are going down hill on the slopy walkway at the last part of the journey. Been here a dozen times and I guess it has become a “tradition” for me to walk in such a posture for this part of the route.

I guess Lara Croft wouldn’t have such a problem.
Hey Shao Lin monk, you’re in the wrong movie la… !@#@#$!$^!@$#@#$^!@#$@ (or maybe it’s Tomb Raider: Lara Croft and the Lost Kung Fu?)

Now a couple of posts ago I did say that I got a new job. Well obviously I like this job a lot until I decided to write a post about it. I hope this is not against any company policy or anything thought but I’m sure this action would be more than welcomed by the company’s management, as with the 5 corporate values that dictate almost everything in the firm, from management till peer interaction.

“Quintiq is a leading provider of advanced planning, scheduling and supply chain optimization software solutions that help customers reduce costs, increase efficiency and improve bottom-line results.”

This is what you’ll find at the homepage of www.quintiq.com. This, is what we do, nothing more (could be more) nothing less (definitely). For a proper corporate introduction, I suggest you go through this website. As for the words that follow, these are my perspective on the firm where I belong and should not be taken as words that you, as a reader, use as a reference to judge or evaluate the firm.

From where I stand, I see Quintiq as quite distinctive from all those firms that I’ve been working for before. It is these distinctive characteristics that makes it stand out from all other employers in the market. And it is these distinctive characteristics that makes me feel so lucky I’m a part of it.

First of all, the corporate culture that the management lives by and breathes by, extending it to every other individual in the organization, is so very much beneficial in creating an environment which effectively nurtures knowledge sharing processes. Colleagues cultivate the practice of sending discussion emails like Question of The Day (means for one to ask every other technical personnel a technical question which one doesn’t understand, any recipient who knows the answer will respond and the question/answer is forwarded to everybody in the loop), QS Tips of The Day (means for one to share one’s technical findings with others of similar position), etc. The hiring process is also an important aspect contributing to such a favorable knowledge sharing environment. It ensures that individuals being hired possesses a positive attitude towards knowledge sharing activities and a passion for what we do in the firm, which is referred to as “puzzle solving”, where we work as consultants to provide our customers with the most effective solution for their “puzzle”.

Some of my colleagues solving problems together

Hence in this environment, anybody can ask anybody at all for the information they need to make them do their jobs more effectively.

Second of all characteristics which makes Quintiq a desirable employer is also its openness of the management towards ideas and suggestions from the employees and the transparency of company policies and directions as well.

The directors maintain an open door to everybody

The management maintains an open door policy where anybody with questions/doubts/suggestions/discussion topic in need to talk with the management can just walk right in to the directors’ room and bring the topic up. The level of transparency of the management is also admirable as this practice actually makes me feel very attached to the company and not feel like I’m just there to work. Whichever one puts this, it makes me feel like I’m actually a member of this big family, not an employee. In turn, this makes every employee motivated and likes to come to work, because work doesn’t seem to be as pressuring as work should be, anymore.

Office Monthly Meetings

We would also have these monthly meetings where all colleagues of the office would attend and we will have the directors/management briefing us about the status of Quintiq as a whole organization and other stuffs happening in all the other offices. It will also include some sharing sessions regarding some new internal products, tools, etc.

Everytime before these monthly meetings, we would also gather at the pantry to celebrate for the birthday boys/girls of the month. 

After the birthday celebration, I couldn’t snap one during, so can only see the half eaten ice cream cake and some of us only. Those guys behind are playing the Big2 game. Yes!!! It’s the Big2 card game.

We also have an annual company trip + company dinner last september where we went to PD (ok now I know some of you might just look down upon PD but just don’t do so yet, it’s the content / programme that matters!). We really had a fun time. Well at least I had a fun time prior, during the trip We stayed at the PD Avilion Resort Village. I’ll write a separate post on this, that is if I find time and the determination
There are still tons of stuff I want to show to everybody but I think I’m getting lazy and this post is getting too long All and all, I think I’ve joined an awesome company where I believe I will have years to come to grow together with everybody there.

/ps: Oh yeah our company is hiring right now. All young and bright technical individuals are welcome to apply. Just drop me an email at christopher.choi@gmail.com and I/HR will contact you for an interview if we find you suitable for the position. Hope to hear soon from all of you out there who thinks you are up to it.