Reflection on Life

I had a business meeting in Genting Highland last Friday. It was a joint operation committee meeting between the company and one of the IPPs. At the same time, I was fortunate to be able to rent the company's holiday condominium at Awana Country Club for a two-night stay. It is a 3-bedroom condo facing the Awana Golf Club and equipped with two Jacuzzis which never got used anyway by us.


The meeting was held in a very friendly atmoshpere albeit at times, the IPP voiced up their disappointment on some issues related to the commercial agreement which in their opinion, is a kinda double whammy for them to follow. However, my boss being the chairman of this committee, quickly pointed up that this particular meeting was meant for discussion on technical matters related to the day to day operation of the system and any matters on commercial arrangement should be discussed in a separate forum. The IPP knew this but as they said it, they would like this 'commercial / technical' matters be known to all JOC members so that they are aware of it. In fact, I also did not know about this particular issue until this meeting.

When I attended the PROGEM course in Kuantan, we were reminded of the famous Lord Denning Judgement on the role of utilities. I am apprehensive that if we are always to choose the arbitration method to solve our differences, we could get trapped in a situation where the judgement will no longer tip on our favour. I hope this is not going to happen and hopefully some sort of peaceful solution can be reached. After all, Sun Tzu says that the biggest victory is actually when you don't have to fight a single battle.


The meeting date also coincided with my birthday. I am one year older now and getting closer and closer to the inevitable. Being raised in a low income family where my late father was the only bread winner, celebrating birthday was never heard of in my family when I was little. Even until now, I am not very enthusiastic of celebrating my own birthday but I think my other half is very upbeat in celebrating the birthdays of our children and she always reminded me of these important dates! About a week ago, we celebrated the birthday of my other half and I gave her a 3G Nokia Phone as a gift. My other half keeps asking me what kind of birthday gift that I like to have but until today I am not able to conjure up anything!!! I guess, I am more of the giver type than an acceptor :-))


During our stay at the company's condo. I had the opportunity to watch a DVD entitled "The Irrevocable Truth" which stars Al-Gore, the former VC of USA. This is actually a very good documentary on global warming issues. Al Gore being the narrator of this documentary, lucidly explain in layman's term the effect of global warming and how we as humans, can collectively help to prevent such calamity should this phenomena is left unchecked.


Before watching this video, I know very little on issues surrounding the global warming and never really bothered to think beyond what the impact it could bring upon us. As Mark Twain said it, ' it is not the thing that we don't know that gets us into trouble but the the thing we know that ain't so'. In fact, the unusual weather pattern that we are experiencing at the moment could be attributed to this phenomena. I strongly recommend that each of us watch this video to get a quick lesson on global warming although some critics in the US said that the video is a launch pad for Al Gore to get into the race for the Democrat Party Presidential candidate. Whatever it is, the video is worth the time watching...

Perhaps, the trip to Genting Highland will never be completed without the visit to the theme park. Yes, that was what we did on Saturday. I could see all my children relished this moment and I think given an option, they would probably want to stay for another day or so. But all good things must come to an end and we ended the theme park adventure at almost Maghreb time much to the joy and laughter of all of us.


On the serious note, I also got a call from my boss telling me the passing of Danial's sister on the same day. I was a bit shock but not totally as I already knew the condition of Dan's sister having had a conversation with him about few weeks ago. Sometimes, we may feel that we have lot of problems in our lives but what Danial has endured for the past few months makes our problem so insignificant, to some extend. I hope he will be patient enough and redha on what Allah has planned for him and we can only pray for the soul of his sister to be blessed by Allah always...Amin