Totally cheesed off...

The Mercedes Benz car service people told me it will take at least three weeks to get the replacement ECU from Germany.

This is absolutely ridiculous.

How on earth can Mercedes justify the time required to bring in a component that should be readily available? Am I to believe that this component must be 'made' only upon order? Would a Mercedes customer in Stuttgart waits three bloody weeks while his rather expensive auto just sits there gathering nothing but dust?

I have asked for a written explanation on why it should take so long, but i doubt that i will ever get this. I simply cannot for the life of me, understand why it needs minimum three weeks.

Bottom line? Dont ever think that just because the brand is famous, the goods will be reliable.

DON'T BUY MERCEDES BENZ.

W211, E200 Kompressor, Cylinder Misfiring,

After less than 6 months, and some RM12K of repair bills since the vehicle was delivered, the said car is back again at the workshop.

Last Saturday evening, the car engine was shaking violently, signaling something quite wrong. The car was towed to the workshop on Sunday and on Tuesday, it was confirmed as 'cylinder #3 not firing because there is no fuel to the fuel injector' . On Thursday, they confirmed there was a problem with the control unit.

Two scenarios were given:
- reprogram the controller and hope this solves the problem
- order a totally new unit from Germany and wait for 30 days for it to arrive.

This morning, (Saturday) they called and said the reprogramming did not work and a new controller would have to be ordered.

Looks like it will be a rather bleak CNY and a long wait of 1 month.

The lessons to be learned here?

- Mercedes Benz may not be so reliable after all.
- Should have bought another make
- Should have bought another make and pay a lot less and get better reliability
- Spare parts are not easily available
- Don't purchase another Mercedes Benz

French dinner in Hanoi

Vietnam was a French colony for a long time, and Vietnam still have remnants of French architecture, terms and vocabularies borrowed from the French, and supposedly, possibly the best French food one could find in South East Asia.

And the place most famous for such gastronomical delights is supposedly the old Sofitel Hotel.

We had a rather costly dinner there, and a few of the delights served were excellent, nicely presented and certainly wonderful. But, there were also one of two that were rather hard to handle.


The bread and rolls, spread with their own churned butter were excellent

First on the menu was 'fois gras'... not so used to the taste...

The steak was superb.. topped with shavings of black truffle.

This was served after the steak, a lemon sorbet, soaked with Vodka, i think, and a cheesed clam

Another dessert.

This platter of cheese was the most difficult part of the whole evening.

There were some others items served, including a pan fried chunk of lobsters, but i forgot to take a picture of that dish!.

The bill for the evening? Almost US$2000.

Nuns

A man is driving down a deserted stretch of highway when
he notices a sign out of the corner of his eye....It reads:

SISTERS OF ST. FRANCIS
HOUSE OF PROSTITUTION
10 MILES

He thinks it was a figment of his imagination and drives on
without a second thought.....

Soon he sees another sign, which says:

SISTERS OF ST FRANCIS
HOUSE OF PROSTITUTION
5 MILES

Suddenly, he begins to realize that these signs are for real....
Then he drives past a third sign saying:

SISTERS OF ST. FRANCIS
HOUSE OF PROSTITUTION
NEXT RIGHT

His curiosity gets the best of him and he pulls into the drive....
On the side of the parking lot is a stone building with a small
sign next to the door reading:

SISTERS OF ST. FRANCIS

He climbs the steps and rings the bell.... The door is answered
by a nun in a long black habit who asks, "What may we do for
you, my son?"

He answers, "I saw your signs along the highway, and was interested in
possibly doing business.".....

"Very well my son. Please follow me."

He is led through many winding passages and is soon quite
disoriented....

The nun stops at a closed door and tells the man,
"Please knock on this door"............

He does as he is told and another nun in a long habit, holding
a tin cup answers the door.....This nun instructs, "Please place
$100 in the cup then go through the large wooden door at the
end of this hallway".......

He gets $100 out of his wallet and places it in the cup..

.. He trots eagerly down the hall and slips
through the door, pulling it shut behind him........

As the door locks behind him, he finds himself back in the
parking lot, facing another small sign:..........

GO IN PEACE.
YOU HAVE JUST BEEN SCREWED
BY THE SISTERS OF ST. FRANCIS.
SERVES YOU RIGHT, YOU SINNER

Modern proverbs

Even 'proverbs' need upgrading once a while...

Fascinating Proverbs completed by first grade

1st grade school teacher had twenty-six students in her class. She presented each child in her classroom the 1st half of a well-known proverb and asked them to come up with the remainder of the proverb. It's hard to believe these were actually done by first graders. Their insight may surprise you. While reading, keep in mind that these are first-graders, 6-year-olds, because the last one is a classic!

1.	Don't change horses	until they stop running.
2.	Strike while the	bug is close.
3.	It's always darkest before	Daylight Saving Time.
4.	Never underestimate the power of	termites.
5.	You can lead a horse to water but	How?
6.	Don't bite the hand that	looks dirty.
7.	No news is	impossible
8.	A miss is as good as a	Mr.
9.	You can't teach an old dog new	Math
10.	If you lie down with dogs, you'll	stink in the morning.
11.	Love all, trust	Me.
12.	The pen is mightier than the	pigs.
13.	An idle mind is	the best way to relax.
14.	Where there's smoke there's	pollution.
15.	Happy the bride who	gets all the presents.
16.	A penny saved is	not much.
17.	Two's company, three's	the Musketeers.
18.	Don't put off till tomorrow what	you put on to go to bed.
19.	Laugh and the whole world laughs with you, cry and	You have to blow your nose.
20.	There are none so blind as	Stevie Wonder.
21.	Children should be seen and not	spanked or grounded.
22.	If at first you don't succeed	get new batteries.
23.	You get out of something only what you	See in the picture on the box
24.	When the blind lead the blind	get out of the way.
25.	A bird in the hand	is going to poop on you.

And the WINNER is...

26.

Better late than

Pregnant

Hanoi, Vietnam

Vietnam has always been a prominent country as far as communism in South East Asia is concerned. If i understand history correctly, one of the main reasons why the USA got into Vietnam was to stifle the advancement of communism in the region. And for many decades, Vietnam suffered.

Two years ago, Vietnam was admitted to the WTO, and i supposed they have not look back since. The population is some 80 millions, and all trying their best to catch up with the rest of the world. This is pretty evident by the ever growing numbers of motorcycles, the first and probably most prominent method to show that any country is advancing forward.

We flew in to Hanoi last Thursday and returned to Malaysia on Sunday. The main objective was to look into the possibility of setting up something there. We visited a few industrial sites, spoke to people who are involved and spent time with foreign investors.

we also took in some of Hanoi street scenes.

Perhaps the most incredible thing about Hanoi is how cars and motorist jostle and zoom past each other without slowing down or indicating where they want to go, and yet able to go where they want!! It was purely amazing..

Some photos of Hanoi and the kind of food we had at some posh places..


Street side eating cafe; a few of them even have WiFi..


saw the repair men doing some rather complicated wiring...

Motor bikes are ever so useful...

Motor bikes parking lot.


Appetizers... individually fried battered corns

Steamed/Boiled prawns..very fresh.

Something like Thai 'kerapu'..

grilled oysters

Rice porridge with clams.... instead of clams chowder

French...

From a friend.....

A thief in Paris planned to steal some paintings from the Louvre.

After careful planning, he got past security, stole the paintings and made it safely to his van.

However, he was captured only two blocks away when his van ran out of gas.

When asked how he could mastermind such a crime and to make such an obvious error, he replied,

"Monsieur that is the reason I stole the paintings.

I had no Monet

to buy Degas

to make the Van Gogh"!!

Since I finally mustered De Gaulle to steal them,

I figured I had nothing Toulouse.

Scrabble

The wife and elder daughter fun day playing scrabble...

Another weird sea creature

As the last chapter in my fishing expeditions for the year 2007, three of us took a small speed boat out from the Royal Selangor Yacht Club to fish the waters near Pulau Ketam.

We started off in full spirit until we tried to start the out board motor... It took three changes of the spark plugs, countless pull on the starter, lots of sweat before we could actually start the motor. However, once started, we were on our way.

We anchored at an abandoned beacon tower, which provided lots of fun with many bulos. The Bulos is a small fish, white almost transparent, small mouth, and really fun to pull up. We used very small hooks (probably size 4), a small piece of prawn as bait and we were pulling them in.

In the midst of all that, I caught a rather weird creature. I am still not sure whether it was a mobile creature or part of a coral.


when the creature was first pulled up..see the do? looks like eyes..


A closer look..


Anyone knows what this is?

55th Wedding Anniversary

On this day, 55 years ago, my parents were married. The Rev. Chong Nyit Fah and Mdm. Lo Siew Fun are still together after all these years.

They had 11 children, 9 daughters and 2 sons. And at last count, 25 grandchildren.

The Rev. Chong, my father, was a teacher and upon his retirement from teaching, attended bible college to become a full time, ordained minister in the Sabah Anglican Church. He is now almost 80 years of age having retired from full time ministry about 10 years ago.

Mdm, Lo, my mother, was a full time house wife and more than full time mother having to look after 11 kids. She is now 78.

I remember the difficulties in our childhood days. The only occasions when we got to eat chicken were during festivals and birthdays. On other days, the normal fare on the dinner table were mostly greens, which we grew in the land in front of our house. We also reared pigs for sale.


My parents when they were young..


My mum in her younger days.


My parents during a Christmas eve service



Picture taken during one of their overseas trip.

The sacrifices my parents made for their children can never be repaid; and I think the only wish and prayer for us children is that we will continue to love and serve the Lord whom they love and serve as well.

Mum and Dad, Happy 55th Wedding Anniversary.

And Thank You.