Salted egg crab

I had a craving for salted egg crab yesterday. One of the best restaurants that had this on their menu is Cheng Ho.

Cheng Ho is a restaurant that specialises in Chinese Islamic seafood located at Wangsa Maju and owned by Amy, the well-known rocker of the famed rock band, Search. I was introduced to this restaurant late last year. While the price may be on the high side, the meals prepared, to me, are very delicious. And salted egg crab is my favourite dish there.

So, after work yesterday, I went to the restaurant. They open for lunch (until 2.15 p.m. if I'm not mistaken), and reopen again at 6.15 p.m. for dinner. I arrived just before opening time. The restaurant was still closed, but I could see from the outside that the staff were having a briefing. Before the briefing began, there was a recitation of the doa. I said to myself, "How very Islamic!" What I saw really impressed me. Not many restaurants I know perform a short prayer before they are opened. This is, to me, an effort, on the part of the owner and staff to ensure that their efforts are blessed by Allah SWT.

This little effort on the part of the restaurant staff only served to increase my confidence in their service. And I have to say that the salted egg crab was tasty. If anyone ever got a chance to stop by Cheng Ho, make sure that you order the salted egg crab.

[Cheng Ho, or Zheng He, was of course a Muslim Chinese admiral assigned by the Emperor of China to establish relationship with the Sultanate of Melaka during the 15th century].

Expensive help

Maids or domestic helpers are virtually a must these days for Malaysians, especially in big cities where both husband and wife work. Unfortunately, it is difficult nay, impossible, for us to find local helpers. Most locals prefer to work in factories where the pay is better - and really, this is only logical.

As such, we have to resort to foreign helpers especially from Indonesia. I was surprised therefore, when I was told this morning that the cost of hiring a maid has sky-rocketed if we use agencies. Of course, the alternative is to source for the helpers ourselves, and take care of all the bureaucratic procedures on our own. That way, we can reduce the cost.

For me, I prefer agencies for two reasons. Firstly, I find the process of sourcing for maids and applying for their permits a bit tedious. I know this is a sorry excuse, but I just don't have the patience for this sort of thing. Secondly, and more importantly, most agencies train their maids for two months before they are hired. The training involves a lot of things such as familiarising themselves with Bahasa Malaysia, hands-on training in taking care after babies and infants, using electrical appliances common in Malaysia, etc.

From my personal experience, the training is a lot of help when the helpers come to work for their employers. Miscommunication and the time taken for them to settle down into their jobs are greatly reduced.

However, because of perceived bad treatment that the Indonesian helpers receive in Malaysia, and because of the lure of higher wages in other countries such as Singapore, China and Saudi Arabia, most Indonesians prefer to work in these countries. This resulted in lack of manpower supply for domestic helpers to Malaysia. Even when they want to come to this country, they prefer to work as restaurant helpers, cleaners, factory workers and construction workers - where the freedom is greater.

I was told this morning that it now costs RM8,000 to get a helper through an agency, and their monthly wage is now RM600. So, for a two-year contract, an employer would have to fork out nearly RM20,000 for one domestic helper.

If we were to spread this over two years, that would come to about RM833. Wouldn't an SPM holder want to work with this wage (accomodation and meals included)?

08-08-08

Today is the eighth day of the eighth month of 2008. Today is also the first official day of the Olympics in Beijing. This day (08-08-08) only comes once every century, and I guess that's why many couples are tying the knot today.

I am not the superstitious type (more about this here), but certainly the attention given by people to this date is noteworthy. While I regard 08-08-08 as another day in my life, I certainly hope that with the opening of the Beijing Olympics today will usher in goodwill and better ties amongst the competing countries. And on a more patriotic note, I hope the Malaysian contingent could deliver at least one gold this time around.

Here's to a great show of sportsmanship and a successful Olympics.

Maintaining the momentum

The third week of 2008 has been pretty much good.

On Monday, the organisation I am attached to has signed a contract with a government agency to undertake a consultancy job. This is indeed a welcomed development as we had been in numerous negotiations since early 2007. While the signing certainly brings about sighs of relief, the true work is only just beginning.

On Thursday, I attended a meeting organised by the National Transplant Resource Centre (NTRC) at Hospital Ampang. We were there to look at a possible media awareness programme presented by a company. I must say I am impress with what they have presented. If NTRC decides to accept this proposal, I am sure that awareness on organ donation would be increased.

Then on Friday, I received the keys to our newly-bought home. Again, this is after waiting for over a year. We look forward to moving in next month.

Later that afternoon, I met up with Azhan who works in Switzerland. He was in town after a business trip to China before returning to Switzerland. As we don't get to meet that often now that he's based overseas, the opportunity of chatting "live in person" was something that neither of us wanted to miss. We met up at KLCC for about an hour and a half, and managed to catch up with each other, while of course reminiscing about our time as students in that place called Glasgow.

I wonder what the coming week has in store. Hopefully, this positive momentum that began with the dawn of the new year would continue.

Tumbling down

Economics has never been my strong point. Sure, I did my MBA way back in 1995, and one of the subjects was economics. But to be frank, the subject is too subjective for someone who is used to handling chemicals, test tubes and the Bunsen burner in laboratories. Give me organic chemistry anytime.

Anyway, this past few weeks, our media has been running a lot of stories on Malaysia's impressive economic showing. There were people who are happy with these indicators. This is because Jack and Jill were both going up the hill. Nonetheless, there are detractors here and there in the blogosphere mainly who refute these claims as not painting the full picture. Sure, Jack and Jill went up the hill, but is there water on the hill that they can actually fetch?

However, I am no expert in economics. So, I take the figures as they are - simply, figures. For the figures to matter to the man on the street like me, they have to be translated into something that I can derive direct benefit from. For instance, my buying power, my income, my expenses, etc. So far, I have yet to "derive" any direct benefit from the figures that has been released periodically saying that the economy is good.

And of course, when the Chinese stock market tumbled as reported everywhere today, the regional economies feel its impact. Malaysian stock market also came tumbling down. Just asJack fell down, Jill also came tumbling after. It could have been worse if not for the institutional buying at the eleventh hour. While many people see this as worrisome, I for one am at least grateful that I wasn't affected directly because I am not an investor per se. But I do worry if this is a sign of worse things to come.

Things have been pretty much fluid and unpredictable these days. I hope that the powers-that-be know what they're doing because if the economy is run by Jack and Jill who only know Economics 101, then we're in trouble as things would surely come tumbling down.

But then again, who am I to comment. Like I said, I'm no economic expert.