OFF THE ROAD

Finally! i'm back to the comfort of my queen sized bed, orange walls and internet access after almost a week on the road. My 5-day trans-Peninsula tour started at 1am on Wednesday as Gav and i headed to JUUP (kiss in thai..) CLUB Johor Bahru to setup for a cancer stick event, then back to KL and i was off to Penang (ALONE!) after spending less than 20hrs in KL... of which 16 were spent in the office or carrying out work related tasks. From Penang it was off to Seberang Prai at 11pm. Here's where it gets real bad.. due to the St.Anne's Festival in Bukit Mertajam, it was impossible for me to get a hotel room (even in the smallest of motels..). So, i made the decision at 4am to head straight to Taiping and the rest of the crew can meet me there the following afternoon after they check out from Prai. Reaching Taiping at around 5am, i only managed to put my head down on a hotel pillow at 9.45am. 9.45am!! Who would've guessed that all the hotels including cheapo motels to the Taiping Golf and Country Club Resort would be fully booked for that night!! Unable to keep my eyes open any longer, i decided to head back out to the North South Expressway where i noticed a hotel attached to the Bukit Merah R&R stop. I'm a fuss pot when it comes to hotels... my team at 360 would gladly tell the world about it... this GRAND PARADISE HOTEL (located along the north-south expressway at selected rest areas) takes the cake for being the worst hotel ever! GRAND PARADISE? oh my.... it was a good thing i was dead tired, as i hit the bed fully clothed and fell asleep in a blink of an eye. The facade and clean lobby of the hotel hides its dark seedy truth... the room not only smelled like a week old wet t-shirt wrapped around a giant ashtray, but the carpet was sticky and stained and mini fly-like bugs hovered around the shower stall.... utterly revolting! My life was saved by the rest of the crew as they had managed to secure the last 4-rooms at Panorama Hotel Taiping. i checked out as fast as i could and made haste back towards Taiping town once again. Panorama isn't the Bvlgari Bali but it sure felt like it after spending a few hours at the previous dodgy dump...

Taiping is a really nice scenic place to visit, with rolling green hills and home to Maxwell Hill and the oldest Lake Garden in Malaysia. Little did we know that a concert (organized by ThreeSixty) in this quiet serene town would attract close to over 20 plus thousand people!! where in the world did they come from??
Continuing with the road tour... after packing up in Taiping, we headed off to Ipoh to resolve some major issues with regards to next week's scheduled concert in GIANT, Sunway City Ipoh. And now... i'm finally off the road, back in Petaling Jaya for the next few days... whew...

early in the morning!

The clock on the office wall reads 3.05am.. Monday morning. Yes.. its 3am and i'm still in the office, proof'ing a Flash animation for our newly created 360 tri-button interative screens, and figuring out how a car jockey system should work. All this is for a "cancer stick" event in downtown KL.(i'll talk more about the venue after the event is over, just in case some of you decide to drop by unexpectedly!). To top it all off, i have to manage costings, human resource, logistics, clients, etc for 17 shows!
We've overloaded ourselves with too many events for the next 2 months, which resulted in us spending numerous nights here in the office till the wee hours of the morning. I pity the flash designer who's been struggling the last few days to churn out a million-dollar looking animation for a couple of G's (your efforts are much appreciated mate!), only to have the client change the design over and over again. Last design change was a couple of hours ago which is also a few hours away from event time... fantastic! Times like these are a representation of the famed ThreeSixty quote during job interviews for staff; "Events isn't a career, its a LIFEstyle!" Basically it means "you don't get a high pay but you sacrifice your social LIFE, sex LIFE, and party LIFE..."

Events... A lifestyle.

week 1 of 5.

This entry is being penned with my eyes half open and my head bobbing front and back, missing the monitor by a mere inch or so. Weekend numero uno of 5, and already we've taken a beating for hiccups that were in certain ways beyond our control. Sleep deprivation, nicotine overdose, excessive problem solving, and a few minor heart attacks sums up the last few days...and its only week-1 of 5. sigh. The workload is bad, but the worse part of this week is Emily flying off to Austray-ya on saturday. The whole week was spent burning the midnight oil that i hardly had any time to spend with my girlfriend on her last week here in Malaysia (though, she will be back in a few months!). So much so that she had to tag along with me to see a client, and potter about the office as i tried in vain to finish my work just to spend a little time with me. (she's sweet...*missing you already dear)
EmilyT is off to further her studies (on scholarship!, hoorah! am very proud of you) at the University of Melbourne, gaining higher education in the city famed for having 4-seasons in one day... urgh!.

and so it begins...

An entry from the desk of my deluxe suite at Northam All Suites Penang. My home cum office for the last four days. A day of work, a wedding, and purportedly a weekend of R&R turned out to be four days of non-stop phone conversations, numerous hours in front of the computer, and going through enough figures to make a (boring) accountant envious!

To my comrades in arms, as the battle begins... what have we done? We have opened the gates of hell, unleashed a fury unbeknown to us, somewhat an experience of a lifetime, a challenge of sort. Survive this, and nothing else can compare.
Spiritual intervention is a necessity, say your prayers every night, sin not, and keep the faith...

To the ThreeSixty Family, bid farewell to your loved ones and social lives, and greet 72-hour sleepless days with open arms. Good luck and may god help us.

5-weeks, 17 shows. an all new record.

He got bitten!

A 'bug'...distinctive yet unrecognizable, brings about serious life changing symptoms, nearly invisible, and costs alot of money to treat. A 'bug' that is very selective with its victims, a 'bug'.... that has finally sank its teeth into the tender skin of Mr. Gavin Liew.... "The Boost Bug". Once bitten, nothing else will suffice.

Business partner & good friend Gavin is now a proud owner of a sinister looking 2 litre turbocharged AWD car, albeit an automatic, it is still an all round sexy boosted Mitsubishi Evolution 7............. point 5.

Welcome to world of boost Mr.Gavin!

What a sexy rump!

The sinister view you get from your rear view mirror

Resident motor-head, Jwan Heah takes Gav's new EVO on a spin

is the grass greener?

"Ten thirty tomorrow ah!! don't forget!..." Shrieked Justin as he departed home from MY office. After having postponed my Australian migration assessment for the fifth time, i managed to get Justin to come along with me for my sixth appointment. Having tucked in some breakfast, it was off to the 35th floor of Menara StanChart, to the sparse office of Global Migration Solutions Sdn Bhd, to meet with a charmingly nice fellow named Lovestrand....(yes! it is his name..)
Justin with his "Professional Certification" i.e. Colourless Plain Accountants (CPA) breezed through the assessment with ease, with the migration officer being very confident of him attaining his Permanent Residence visa and obtaining a job in a matter of days on arrival in the land down under. Boring as they may be, accountants are currently hot in the employment market, which means he won't be joining me in the social welfare line anytime soon. Back to the topic, we'll discuss boring accountants in another post some other time, it could go on forever... *yawn.
Now, event managers on the other hand aren't on the employer's "hot wanted" list at the moment.. as most corporations have yet to place high value on the benefits of experiential marketing, idiots. Thankfully i have an aunt residing in Aussieland who'd be glad to act as a sponsor for my PR Visa application. She could always do with another pair of hands around the house. Problem solved.

So.. Permanent Residence Visa application aside, Is the grass really greener on the other side? and would you be able to uproot so easily after being planted for the last 28 years?

Here are some of the pros & cons i came up with... feel free to contribute to the list.

Australia <> Pros:

• Political stability
• Lovely weather (except for Melbourne which has 4-seasons in one day!)
• Cheap cars
• Medicare
• Generally most people are friendly (everyone's your mate!!)
• Great public transport system
• Gorgeous beaches
• Lovely parks
• Cleanliness
  
• Lower crime rate? (questionable though)
• Champion of the underdogs
  

Australia <> Cons:

• Crazy High tax-rate
• Extremely expensive to get someone to fix anything for you
• Home to the most number of venomous snakes and spiders.
• Frequent droughts
• Racists pigs do exist and racial discrimination is more conspicuous (in certain quarters)
• No mamaks and hawker centres
  
• You can't bribe a cop, means more fines and loss of license is a common occurrence
• Most friends and family in Malaysia
  
• Medicine is expensive (consultation is free..)

Malaysia <> Pros:

• Generally good weather
• Fantastic and cheap food
  
• Its where i grew up...
  
• Friends & family
  
• Its a developing country, means opportunities aplenty
  
• i can talk my way out of a fine
  
• Doesn't cost an arm and a leg to fix a leaking faucet
  

Malaysia <> Cons:

• Laughable political situation (at the moment that is...)
  
• Racism to a certain extent
  
• Crime is on the rise
  
• Cars are expensive
  
• Almost everything and everywhere is dirty
  
• Salary to inflation ratio is pathetic
• Status is everything society
  
• Mat rempits

To go or not to go, that is the question.