Friends

A person whom one knows, likes, and trusts.
A person whom one knows; an acquaintance.

A person with whom one is allied in a struggle or cause;
A comrade.

A person who supports, sympathizes with,
A person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard.
A person whom you enjoy being with

Going back in history, the time when human first walk on the face of earth. The time when Adam and Eve is created. We can see the distinct characteristic of human. Even than, human are always in a group. We hunt in a pack, we eat in a group, we socialize and we enjoy each other companion. But in the group, there bounds to be one or two person that meets the above criteria. Also known as - FRIENDS. This are the few people in life that bring happiness and to our life. Sadly, sometime things do turn sour and we have our bad times. Throughout our life, friends come and go. Only a few remains and are always there to give you a lending hand, give you the motivation and support needed. We could also refer them as true friends or best friends.
They come into your lives in the most unique and exciting way. Over time, going through hard times, times in need, sadness, trouble and happiness we gain better understanding of their personality. Hence creating a bond between individuals called friendship. The strength of this bond slowly develops as the day pass.
Indeed it is a very unique process.....

To the little special friend of mine, be yourself because that makes you unique. Because that personality of yours do shine and trust me, it does shine. That personality of yours make people enjoy being around you, enjoy your companion and enjoy your laughter. Never dwell in the past but look forward into the future. Once again, continue to be yourself...

Im glad to regard you as - true friends.

My Bad

I found this particular song that is rather interesting. So here it is..

《认错》 Vae

歌词：
那天午后 我站在你家门口
你咬咬嘴唇还是说出了分手
我的挽留和眼泪全都没有用
或许我应该自食这苦果
你的迁就 我一直领悟不够
以为爱已强大的不要理由
心开始颤抖 明白了你的难受
但你的表情已经冷漠
全是我的错
现在认错有没有用
你说你已经不再爱我
我带你回忆曾经快乐的时空
你只是劝我别再执着
全是我的错
现在认错有没有用
你说你喜欢如今的生活
你带我回忆爱里互相的折磨
还告诉了我 别再来认错 认结果

Sick in body

No one likes to be sick! But when you have a weak body like me, falling sick is unavoidable. For as long as i lived, i have always been prone of falling ill. Always the same symptoms will occur and it feels like the end of the world for me. On average, the body of mine will fall sick 4-6 times a year. Every time it will be fever + sore throat / flue / muscle aching / stomach pain.. is either one of this combination but fever is a confirmed symptom that i will have.

Back in Malaysia when i fall sick i would be taken care by my parents and my ever caring girlfriend. Never have i experience falling sick and have to take care of myself! Well, i just experience this when staying in the UK. Only GOD knows the pain im going through. Sometimes i feel so hot that i was sweating like a pig, the other time i feel so cold like im in a freezer. With this 2 extreme weather in my body coming on and off, it was like a battle field but only in my body. I was tired all the time, body aching and mentally torturing. All my strength left me and i have to prepare my own meals. Set alarm on my phone to wake up and take my medicine. The whole time i felt so lonely and miserable. It was the time i missed home, the time i wished that someone would take care of me.

Now, part of being sick is taking medicines. Taking medicines was horrible! I ran out of fever and had to trouble my housemate to get extra medicine for me. I have been eating medicines like popping candies in my mouth. Every four hourly I would have to take 2 panadols to control my fever from going berserk. So in a day its 24 hours, and every 4 hourly i have to take 2 pills which is 12 panadol in 24 hours. I was sick for 1 whole week. So the amount of panadol i took totaled up to be a wopping 84 tablets!! It was CRAZY when i think of it. The panadol intake instructions clearly says not to take more than 8 tablets per day, but in effort to keep my fever down i have no choice but to keep popping panadols in. Im suprised im not admitted to the hospital for panadol over dosage. Thank god i was healed on the 7th day and had some headache for 3 more days. I dont know what prompt the fever to just dissapear because on the 6th day i was still in a very bad shape. Probably is because i told my parents about my condition on the 6th day and they did pray for me. Thank god for that.

Because i was sick and went to see the Uni doctor, i was granted a medical leave for 2 weeks which i can use it to extend all my assignment for another 2 weeks extra. Its kind of a blessing in disguise. If it wasnt for my sickness i would be rushing all my assignments now and have no time to even write this blog. Guess it was God`s plan for me to fall sick and buy me extra time to finsih off my assignments. lolx. Now enough of blogging, its time to sleep. Tomorrow its a brand new day to continue my battle against the evil forces of assignments.

Internal Marketing

What is Internal Marketing (IM)? This has been question has been in my head for quite some time now. I know very well the term called Marketing, but internal marketing?! Now allow me to explain my understanding on this particular term.

Marketing is explained as identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer needs. Why on earth should we satisfy customer needs? Simply because in return, the customer will pay the organization for meeting their needs and than the organization is able to generate sales which becomes profit. Marketing has evolved through times and i could write a report on the evaluation of marketing itself. But that is out of the topic. So, with the understanding of marketing. Here comes internal marketing. In an organization, managers are always finding new innovative ways to market its products. After developing an appropriate strategy, it is than passed down to the employees to be carried out and implement it to the market. Therefore, the contact point between the organization and customers falls on the employees. Now just imagine if the employee is to communicate wrong information to the customers or had a bad day and end up arguing with the customer, or is not satisfied with the organization and decided to tarnish the organization brand image by offending customers or even expose the company marketing strategies to its competitors. The organization will suffer badly or may even collapse if relationship between employees and the organization is not well established. Therefore, internal marketing is an important element that should not be overlooked in an organization.

Internal Marketing is defined by Berry (1980) as the means of applying the philosophy and practice of marketing to people who serve external customers so that the best possible people can be employed and retained and they will do the best possible work. Keeping customer satisfied and happy is extremely important, but keeping employees satisfied is also equally important. Therefore internal marketing are strategies that should be taken to keep employees happy and satisfied for the company to prosper and achieve new heights. Employees are now the primary builders of a profitable company. The quality of an organisation’s employees directly influences its ability to gain and sustain competitive advantage. In an uncertain economic climate, talented employees are a critical corporate resource.

In regards to importance of internal marketing, some companies does not practice such beliefs. Take for example one of the worlds most successful retailers - Wal Mart. With a staggering of 1.2 million employees in America alone, it is USA largest private employer. Wal Mart has been generating profits up to $9.1 billion in a year and is regarded as the the world`s most admired company. Although with such a huge success, Wal Mart faces critisim regarding its human resource practices. It is reported that employees are often pressured into working unpaid overtime, and faced actions for alledged sexual discrimination towards female employees. Wal Mart has been accused of practising unethical labor practices such as low pay, infringement of workers` right, poor work safety and etc. But Wal Mart needless to say denies all this allegations. Now think about it, if all this allegations are true. It is obvious that Wal Mart does not practice internal marketing which place employee relations at the heart of good services marketing management. Evenso, the company is still enjoying outstanding profitability and growth. So the theory of internal marketing is questioned. What do you think?

Badminton fever - All England 2009

Been a badminton fan since i was young. I still remember the days where i would beg my dad to go and play badminton with me in the garden. A sport that was in my blood since a young age. My dad told me that when i was a a little boy ( i dont even remeber this) he took me to the stadium in Malaysia and watched badminton tournaments. Since than, i played badminton throughout the years enjoyed watching badminton tournaments. Although im not a very good badminton player but i still enjoy playing it.

In year 2009, i was in the UK pursuing my degree when the All-England 2009 super series took place in Birmingham. I guess you could call it faith or coincidence, i went and watch the quater finals. My heart was feeled with pride and joy as i would be cheering for the Malaysian badminton team. So i bought the tickets to the game, booked a train ticket to Birmingham and had a hearty lunch before the tournament. Lady luck was on my side as i was eating in the same restaurant with the Malaysian and Indonesian national badminton team. Now let me elaborate the atmostphere in the restaurant. I ordered my meals, my heart was beating at 200 beats per minute, i can feel the andrelin rushing through my veins, my heart was shouting with joy, i was shaking with excitement and the best part was trying my very best to act all cool about it. With the Malaysian number 1 and world number 1 player seating less than 6 meters away from me i almost ran over and hugged him to see if it was really Lee Chong Wei.

Summoning all my courage, i went over with some of my friends and asked to take a few picture with the Malaysian team. They kindly obliged and i was overwhelmed. The story does not end here, we took pictures too with China National player Lin Dan and his girlfriend which we bumped on the road. Throughout the day in Birmingham, we bumped into alot of badminton stars.

Finally, it was time to go for the tournaments and it was really fun to shout and cheer for your home country players in a foreign land. I did shout, i did clap.. so much so i had a bad sore throat after the games and was down with fever for a week. A pity i couldnt go for the finals as my assignments are pilling up and it was rather expensive to go for 2 tournaments. But i did went online and watch the final cheering for Malaysian team back in cheltenham infront of my 14" lcd screen. Being a Malaysian~ I will always always support my national badminton team. I am particular proud of this nation. A nation filled with various races, living in harmony. A nation that i grew up in. A nation filled with yummy food.
Malaysia boleh~

The beginning of a new chapter of my life- Part 2

After 13 hours of flight from Malaysia, the plane touched down safely in the United Kingdom. As I check out from the world busiest airport London Heathrow airport, it was fascinating as I have only see this scene in the TV and magazines. Finding my way to the Uni was quite a hassle partly because we were told by our agent back in Malaysia that they would be someone to pick us up from the airport and escort us directly to the Uni. Well, that "someone" did eventually turn up 15 minutes late and told us to go to the busstop to get a ticket to the uni ourself. Thank god I was not alone or else i guess i would have freaked out. Upon arriving at the Uni, we were assigned to out designated rooms. The life of my Uni life in UK has just began. I was both excited and confused. Excited because i still cant believe it im in the UK stuyding and there are so many things i would like to see. Confused because the education system in the UK is totally different from Malaysia which left me dazed and theres alot of catch up to do.

The beginning of a new chapter of my life- Part 1

I dont know about you guys but ever since young I always envied foreigners, the so called "guai lou" in Malaysia. Now you may ask why? I always thought their body feautures are attractive and will always pull my flat nose back than hoping it will grow as long as theirs (i know this sounds silly but this are the few silly things i have done when i was young).
Now as i grew up, I learned to appreciate myself more and started to accept my looks and eventually stopped pulling my flat nose. This time, I envied another aspect of the foreigners. I always wanted to experience the 4 seasons -summer, autumn, spring and winter. Spending 20 years in a tropical country, i have no idea what it feels like. My greatest desire was to experience winter - a white Christmas. That has been always my desire, my dream.
This dream of mine was beginning to be a reality when I was still studying my diploma in Malaysia and my father encourage me to go overseas to study. I begin surveying for a good university online, doing the preparations and above all persuading my beloved girlfriend to let me go overseas and study. Time flies when you are busy and boy this is so true, before i know it i was about to make the biggest decision of my life - to study abroad in UK or continuing studying at Malaysia at a local Uni. I am well aware that my decision will change the rest of my life and there is no turning back. Weighing and considering both options carefully, i decided to study abroad. Making this decision may not sound a big deal but it was a real challenge for me.

Being hit badly by the economic crisis in the late 90`s, my family have still yet to fully recover from the impact. Hence, pursuing my studies in the UK means extra financial burden on my family. Therefore i took up some loan from the government hoping to ease my parents burden. I began preparing my luggage, Visa`s, finance, passports, documents, etc and sometimes did loose my patients with my ever non-stop nagging parents. Even so, thank god my parents are very supportive and gave me encouragement and advices before going to the UK.

Another challenge that I would have to face was myself. Going abroad means leaving my family, my friends, my relatives and my girlfriend (who finds it hard to accept me going overseas to study) behind and knowing the fact I wont be seeing them in the near future. To pursue my degree in the UK will just take less than a year, but i decided to stay on in the UK to gain some work experience before going back to Malaysia. But behind this little challenge of time without my girlfriend lies another bigger challenge- my family made a decision to migrate! But that is another story. Therefore i was facing a really challenging time and praying to god that everything will work out fine for me.

So, there you have it. The 2 major problem that I would have to consider before coming to the UK. Of course there are much more problems that i faced but if i do go into detail, i might as well publish a 500 pages long case study entitled - Making Hard Decisions. Without me knowing, my days in Malaysia was coming to an end. I tried all i could to spend as much time as possible with my girlfriend and friends which held a party for me bidding me Bon Voyage and wishing well wishes. This were the memories that i will treasure for the rest of my life. With this separation, than only did i know, how much they play a role in my life. How much i often take them for granted and wished i could spend more time with them, especially my beloved girlfriend. Making me even harder to say goodbye.

I find myself standing at the airport, before the checkin point. Hugging my friends and family trying my very best to hold back my tears as i bid farewell.
Deep down i know, the beginning of a amazing journey is just about the begin........................