TEDxKL

I was quite excited about TEDxKL. It was an opportunity for me to reconnect with the ideas, positive energy and passionate people in Malaysia. There are 11 speakers from different part of the society.

Amongst all the speaker, there are two speakers, Peter Nicoll and Aloha Lavina, really got me thinking. Peter from Scotland is running a Community Action Group based in KL to "get people off the street" (address the symptoms of both urban and rural poverty through street food programmes, etc). I was shock that we have 770,000 population in KL are hard poor, living on the street and with hunger. It is HUGE but how many of us in KL actually aware of it and trying to do something to help them. I really appreciate a foreigner, has no responsible to this city/country, but doing such an amazing things for us.

Aloha Lavina, who is a photographer based in Bangkok. First, I love her accent and the words she were using during her presentation. It just sounds so beautiful. It is very interesting to see the world through a photographer philosophy. Three messages she was trying to delivery in the 18minutes - trust process instead of the end result, have fun and pure awareness (Attention shapes reality). She mentioned that you will stop having fun when you are losing your attention. I totally agree with it. At the end, she wrapped up with a phase "The World Is Your Idea". Believing in and focusing on our idea we can shape the world we want.

Pramesh Chandran, who is a technopreneur and was appointed as CEO of TIME dotCom in 2008, is another good speaker. He has given lots of very useful information to the audience why the broadband speed in Malaysia is way behind developed countries and countries in Asia which has high speed broadband with affordable price. It was way out of my imagine how many other parties, government are responsible to this. Except his overtime speech, it was a very informative and interesting presentation.

This event has inspired me to be more proactive and actually make a change in Malaysia society. There are so much I can do and need to be done but what I have I done to make a change in the past eight months? I always want to be an entrepreneur and owning a business. However, I do not want to be someone who only care about how much profit in their business. Impact that I could create always my motivation. I am very excited when I know there are people actually have the same dream as me out there and I am not alone.

p.s. Congratz to a very successful event with great speakers and audiences. One part I was very impressive was the organiser tried very hard to make sure everything on time. It is very rare amongst Malaysia's events. Although it is not perfect, I do see the effort and it is what Malaysian should learn to be.

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More than a cup of coffee

From searching the best Hot Choc in Auckland, the best Mocha in Wellington, now I found the best Cappuccino in Malaysia at Cafe Departure Lounge. 

I am very used the life which could easily access a cup of good Mocha in NZ (Ahhh.. I miss Cubita). It become slightly hard in Malaysia. Yes, Malaysia has lots of coffee franchises/cafe. Sadly, 99% I will receive a cup of coffee with over frothed milk (burn your tongue), coffee is watering (bad coffee bean and milk), which are the perfect combination to ruin my day.

Luckily I can at least have a good cup of coffee once a week at Cafe Departure Lounge. Thanks for the owners who have the passion in making a good cup of coffee and serving good food. Now my perfect weekend (if I am in KL) is spending my afternoon there, having a cup of GOOD coffee/mocha, reading my book, eating a slide of cheese cake and teasing their staffs. What a luxury!

When will they open another branch just next to my office?

p.s Congratz their barista, Yee, for winning the "best cappucino" and 2nd Runner-up awards at Malaysia Barista Championship 2010. It was a very good weekend to experience the passion of coffee. 

It is more than a cup of coffee.

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No more house hunting!

One of my main tasks after back to Malaysia is looking for a house for my family. Mum has been wanting a landed house for years. However, my sister and I were not within the country so it has been delayed. 

I was hunting the house through few property agents. It was a nightmare when dealing with them. They are on and off depending on their mood! I know that I don't have a million dollar budget but at least still above average! What kind of shit service I have been receiving. Personally I can't deal with bad service so I decide to buy a house without going through property agents and start searching the developer website. 

At the end, I found this place - Sutera Damansara Ria II. It is pretty much a perfect house for us (except we have to wait for 2 years but it is not like we don't have a place to stay now). It is within our budget, a very nice neighbourhood (with mountains, reserve forest around, human make lake), convenience location (easily to access all the main highways), perfect size and modern design (with high ceiling and well used of space). Everyone is happy with the house and everything so we make our final decision within 24 hours.

Just need to settle down all the financial part then I am done! I'm actually very proud of myself that able to get this done perfectly. 

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