Never buy things on impulse...

I am sure most of us have heard of this sound advice. More often, it is the men who utter these words to their spouses than the other way round. But a few days ago, the tables were turned on yours truly. After all these years, I would have thought that I am now smart enough in deciding on things that I need to buy. Apparently, I do still make dumb decisions sometimes.

So what was the object of my unwise purchase? The humble ironing board.

A few weeks ago, the missus asked me to buy an ironing board. To the uninitiated, the seemingly simple ironing board actually comes in a few variants carrying differing price tags. I first surveyed the item at Jusco and was surprised that they sell the top-range ones at prices above RM80. My next stop was at Giant. The ones sold there are probably the mid-range ones selling at around RM50. I deferred from buying, thinking that I should look some more at some other stores.

Then one day, I was shopping for groceries at the new My Mydin Mart and spotted a board with a dirt cheap price tag of only RM19.90. The board was the last one left and was wrapped in clear plastic so I didn't check it's quality. Anyway, how much different can one ironing board be from another... or so I thought. I simply grabbed it and paid for it along with my groceries.

When I reach home, the thing was put to one side and left in its wrapping for a few more days until the wife wanted to use it. I tore open the plastic wrap to set the board up. Immediately I realised that it is of very poor quality. The clip for the adjustable legs on the underside of the board is flimsy and the legs are uneven. I had to insert a folded cardboard under one of the legs to reduce the wobbling. Even the metal side rack where we place the iron is made from thin wire frame.

I was already grumbling loudly to myself but the missus was smiling happily because she knew she can't be blamed for this one.

She proceeded to do some ironing but had to be extra careful because of the shaky setup. On completing the task, as if on cue, the board collapsed.... causing the hot iron to fall on the floor with a loud clang. Luckily the missus was not hurt. Lucky for us too that the iron was not damaged. I checked the board for the cause of the collapse. It seems that the part of the leg that attaches to the clip somehow slipped out. I continued to grumble... and wife added fuel to the fire by quoting that well-known Malay proverb, alah membeli, menang memakai.

I decided there and then that I will buy a new and better ironing board. So what's going to happen to the one that I have now? I have already re-wrapped the thing in cling plastic and plan to put it the garbage house downstairs. Hopefully one of the cleaner ladies will salvage it and put it to good use... and not hurt herself in the process.

So remember guys... do not buy things on impulse.

The GUiT feeling... and running AMoT...

Author and blogger Sdra Wan A Hulaimi or better known as Awang Goneng is in town to promote his latest book, `A Map of Trengganu'. When I first saw the event notice on blogger Kak Teh's FB wall about the book signing at MPH Mid Valley, I thought I must try grab the chance to meet the writer in person. After all, he is based in London and who knows when he'll be coming over again. Furthermore, the man has previously popped over to this humble blog of mine and dropped a comment or two.

It was actually a working day for me that Saturday 30th April 2011. I thought of leaving the project site early after briefing my staff on work that needs to be done for the day but could only manage to free myself past lunchtime. It was already 3.30pm when I left the workplace at Sg Besi. According to the notice, the book signing is fixed for one hour only, ending at 4pm. I could probably drive and reach Mid Valley in time if the traffic is light (which it seldom is) but finding a parking space at that shopping mall on weekends will take me ages. Suddenly it occurred to me that there is a KTM Komuter train line nearby that goes directly to Mid Valley. A quick change of plans saw me parking my car at Bandar Tasik Selatan station (RM3 per entry charge), pay a single ringgit ticket for one-way trip and riding a trouble-free train journey. A total cost of only RM5 both ways that solves a lot of headache.

Even so, I only alighted at the Mid Valley station at ten past four and I thought I had missed my chance of meeting Awang Goneng in person. I made a brisk walk among the weekend shopping crowd to get to MPH, which took up another 5 minutes, hoping the author would still be there. I needn't have worried. On reaching the bookstore, there was still a long line of fans queueing up for the writer's autograph.

I picked a copy of the author's book and quickly joined the queue. When my turn came, I introduced myself as Oldstock. Pak Awang was a bit surprised because he said that he didn't think I looked that old. He noted my sweaty palms as I handed him the book for signing. I explained that I was rushing from the train station because I thought I was late. He then said that if I had missed the MPH event, I can catch him again at Borders next week.

I have already read Pak Awang's first book `Growing Up in Trengganu' which I bought a few years ago. But I decided to buy another copy that day just so I can have it signed by the author. I now have both GUiT and AMoT personally autographed by Awang Goneng. Something to treasure for years to come.

Pak Awang signing a copy for Oldstock

Kak Teh aka Mrs Awang Goneng

My current reading material

Thank you Pak Awang for this signed copy

Billy and Kate get hitched

Pic borrowed from The Telegraph

So William of Windsor and Catherine of Middleton tied the knot yesterday huh? I am totally out of the loop in this matter. Didn't catch it on the telly nor read about it in the online news pages... until a few minutes ago.

Anyway, the just concluded royal wedding in London reminded of the time when William's parents got married in July of 1981... really doesn't feel like that long a time ago. I was into my second year of life in the UK as a student. Charles was getting married to Diana although most people know his heart was somewhere else. Diana was the darling of the press and all the other loyal British subjects. It was the wedding of the century... I did not watch yesterday's event so I can't comment if the son's wedding is as grand as his parents.

Princess Diana performed her role splendidly during her initial years of being the next possible queen of England. She did a lot of charity work and handled publicity quite well. When news got out that she was pregnant, the whole nation was excited. As she neared the time of giving birth and scan results indicate a boy, bookmakers were taking bets on what the name of the new prince would be. `Henry', `Richard' and `William' quickly became the leading favourites, being names of past English kings. Just as an aside, the bookies in UK are willing to accept your wager on almost anything, not just the normal sports events. They even have a respectable name for the bookies taking bets on horse-racing... turf accountants, they are called. No doubt these guys make more money than the chartered accountants who are hired to prepare company accounts.

Ok, back to the first son of Diana... I remember very well on how I got to know which name was chosen. I was walking back from the supermarket and saw it written on the evening newspaper billboard. A simple blurb saying, `Prince Billy!'

And now, 28 years has passed us by. Diana has left us for good quite some time back. Kate Middleton, a common English lass, has married her prince charming.... probably a fairy tale dream she never realised would ever come true. Hopefully, the new Duke and Duchess of Cambridge reach the part of `... and they lived happily ever after', perhaps erasing the sad memories of what happened to the Prince and Princess of Wales.

Another sign of growing old

I prepare to go to work this morning. I start my car and waited a while for the engine to warm up. A call came in my mobile phone. I answered the call and spoke for a few minutes.

On completing the call, I put my car in gear and drove off. The engine felt heavy and sluggish. Laa... meragam lagi kereta aku ni. I just had the car serviced last week. Be prepared to spend more money, I thought.

I reach my workplace. I park the car and was about to pull the handbrake. Ooops! The handbrake is already in the up position. I have been driving with the handbrake on all this while. Aduh....

Lost in translation

I recently switched to using Google Chrome as my default online browser a few weeks ago after having used Firefox for a number of years. I initially tried Chrome for a while but switched back to Firefox because I hated re-learning new steps. But then a friend mentioned that Chrome is faster so I tried it again... and indeed it is so.

I then noticed that a pop-up dialog box keep coming up whenever the browser detects that the page I am viewing is not in English. Apparently Google has included an auto-translator function. I didn't find the pop-up particularly bothersome and it never crossed my mind to give it a try... until a few days ago, when I wrote the previous story of the tembusu tree in Malay.

Out of curiosity, I clicked the `translate' button, just to see how good Google's translation skill is... and I had a good laugh! Sorry, no intention of mocking Google's effort but reading the whole post again in translated English gives the impression that it was written by someone who did not finish grade school. I'd be very ashamed of myself if it had been my actual work.

Having been involved in real-life translating work myself, I can confirm that translating written text from one language to another is not easy by any means. To be able to produce a good result, you need to be in top command of both languages, meaning not only having knowledge of the rules of grammar but of context as well. This is where present-day software is not yet able to match the human brain.

To give you an example, the following is a sentence, in Bahasa Melayu from the previous post :
Anak-anak murid kelas tuisyen ini seramai 6 orang, 4 lelaki dan 2 perempuan.

The auto-translator's version is :
Children's tuition for pupils of this group of 6 people, 4 men and 2 women.

Ignoring even the wrong sentence structure, the proper translation for `lelaki' and `perempuan' is `boys' and `girls' respectively.

So, for readers of this blog who do not understand Malay but wish to know what I wrote about, go ahead and use the auto-translator but please allow a (very) wide berth in discrepancy.

Having said that, the auto-translator is not entirely useless. I find it convenient to get the meanings of words not written in the Roman script, say for example Japanese or Russian. In this respect, I cannot fault Google for giving it a try. Perhaps one day there would be a brilliant software engineer who is able to incorporate context, style, inference and nuances in translator applications.