New Absorbers for my Superb

I really cannot stand it anymore. My car become quite bouncy when the rear absorbers were gone. It feels like riding a boat and all weight will have to transfer to the springs. If I travel long distance, I think I will get 'car sick'!

Initially I was thinking to change the rear absorbers only. The dealer quoted me Rm500+ for the rear absorber. Mind you it is without 's', that is one piece of absorber not 'a pair'. Changing all 4 will cost me more than two thousand! Shit, that is a lot of money!

No wonder people said maintaining a continental car is costly. Thanks to the local dealer, because they don't sell that much of volume, the parts will cost higher and also because the parts is coming from Germany. I quoted another shop and I got back with the price of RM400, Koge brand.


I have no choicebut to call another spare part shop at KL which I got it from local car forum. Guess what?! They quoted me RM300 for the front absorbers and RM280 for the rear absorbers!! That is almost half of the price! And the good thing is, the absorbers are OEM parts from Germany, not anything from Thailand or local made; what I am getting is the well-known Blistein brand, that explain why the price is higher. I paid Rm120 for labor to get all 4 absorbers replaced. Now my car runs great and the OEM parts fits well and doesn't give any funny noise at all.

Total damage is RM1280 for 4 absorbers replacement(parts and labor), I think it is not that bad for a big car with German spare parts. My boss told me I can get the original Audi parts from Singapore around that price. Well, somehow I am happy with this OEM parts, highly recommended. Blistein brand is also a OEM brand for other makes like Benz and BMW. Of course, the sport suspension will cost much higher, what I am paying is the standard shocks absorber, which still do the job nicely.
The front absorbers, which the mechanic spend most of his time dismantling the arm.

Although the rubber doesn't fit perfectly like the original absorbers, but it doesn't causes any noise or irregular feeling.

The rear absorbers, which is thinner. That explain what it is cheaper.

Inside a Lego box set

You know? I never owned a Lego set throughout my life, to me it is a toy for rich family. It is really not cheap. My father never bought us any Lego set when I was a kid. The first time I saw Lego is at my neighbor and cousin's house.

So when my friend bought her limited edition Lego set, I said I would like to take some photos. This is because I have no idea at all what is inside the box. Ok, so if you were like me, you might want to check out the photos.
Exterior of the box - Lego set (Ferrari theme).

There were difference individually wrapped lego pieces, also some stickers

The instruction

The 'sample picture'

'Part numbers'
Sometimes I wonder if I spend my childhood playing Lego, will I become more patient and ended up becoming an engineer? My brother play wood blocks and he become a Civil Engineer. I buy and resell my toys, my lunch boxes, cards so I ended up studying business...

Anyway, I think I prefer to play one of these. The pic was taken at Bangkok shopping mall. Two questions popped up from my mind:

1. Firstly, how the hell they manage to drive or transport these two Lambo into the showroom?

2. If I ever owned these, where the hell I can drive in Bangkok when the streets jammed like hell! Err.. perhaps after midnight?

Definition of 'Customer' by Mahatma Gandhi

I really like this quote whenever I saw it in the clinic near my house:
It says:
"A Customer is the most important visitor on our premises.
He is not dependent on us.
We are dependent on him.
He is not an interruption on our work.
He is the purpose of it.
He is not an outsider on our business.
He is part of it.
We are not doing him a favour by serving him.
He is doing us a favour by giving us an opportunity to do so."
- Mahatma Gandhi

The Game Room in Office

There is one meeting room in my office wing was being decorated with colorful curtains. One day, I saw a crew of workers carrying a 50 inch flat screen TV into the room, I thought they want to upgrade the TV in the room. Later on, I found out that company is actually planning to convert one of the meeting rooms into a 'Game Room'.

Now the big screen TV is in place, the next thing the admin dpt is going to do is to put up some PS3 or Wii gaming console. The purpose of this room is to 'de-stress' yourself if you need a break, I heard they even thought of putting up a Karaoke system (I think impossible because the sound proofing is not good enough). Wah! Not bad huh? But if you ask me, I prefer a massage room so I can take a nap sometimes while some masseur can massage my back just like Google office. A half an hour session will be good, I am not greedy. I am sure the employee will be more productive if they can get half an hour break inside the massage room, preferably with some aroma therapy to relax our mind.

Ok, back to the game room, my friend has challenged me back when I told her this. She asked me do you dare to go there and spend 30-60 min playing games in the room during office hours? Hahahah, to be honest, I don't feel easy if I go there, probably when it comes to retrenchment, probably HR will start to see who spend most of the time inside the game room during office hour. Hahahha, since you are so 'stress' everyday, or perhaps so 'FREE', then why the company need you? So I think it is safer if you stay put in your cubicle and pretend busy. Hahhaha

"Two is better than one" - Boys like Girls

Here is another good song for sharing - Boys like Girls + Taylor Swift's Two is better than one.

Click the link to listen to the song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E231TF4CzU0 .... wait a minute, where is Taylor? One is better than two? :)

Lyrics:
I remember what you wore on the first day.
You came into my life And I thought hey You know this could be something.
Cause everything you do And words you say .
You know that it all takes my breath away And I am left with nothing.

So maybe its true. That I cant live without you.
Maybe two is better than one.
There's so much time To figure out the rest of my life.
And you've already got me coming undone,
I'm thinking two is better than one.

I remember every look upon your face.
The way you roll your eyes The way you taste You make it hard for breathing.
Cause when i close my eyes and drift away.
I think of you and everything's okay
I'm finally now believing
Then maybe its true That I can't live without you;
Maybe two is better than one.

There's so much time, to figure out the rest of my life, and you've already got me coming undone.
I'm thinking two is better than one(oh yeah)

I remember what you wore on the first day.
You came into my life and i thought hey, maybe it's true, That I cant live without you.
Maybe two is better than one.

There's so much timeTo figure out the rest of my lifeAnd you've already got me coming undoneAnd I'm thinkingThat I cant live without youCause maybe two is better than one.
But there's so much time to figure out the rest of my life.
But I've figured out when all is said and done.
Two is better than one. (x2)

Bottles

What do you see in this picture? Which bottle are you taking now? :)

My personal review on 04' Volvo S40 2.4L

Just to share my experience with this 04' Volvo S40 2.4L, this is my first time sitting on the latest S40, I won't say I am a professional driver, but I did tested more than 50 cars in my life, may be I should list them out when I got a chance. The car is not even 54k km for a 5-6 years car, so you can say it is very under utilized.

First of all I would like to thank my friend JP, who gave this opportunity to me to test out her sister's car. Though she said she want to thank me for helping her on driving the car up to Cameron hill; but I told her, you are 'most welcomed', in return, I should thank her for trusting me that I will take good care of the car like my own, which I did. :)

When she handed her car key to me, my first impression is the key looks like a toy key because it is very light (see attached photo), it doesn't comes with a key chain so I have to check my pocket, make sure it is deep enough and I won't drop the key which might easily cost me a thousand ringgit easily.

Before I become the driver of this baby, I purposely sit at the back, because I want to experience the feel being a passenger. I can tell you, I feel a bit cold sitting at the back, don't know why, the cooling is quite okay when you are sitting at the back. It is a different story when you are the driver. You can feel the hot sunlight and I was told that the glasses were not tinted at all as the glass itself already have some UV ray filters. The suspension set up of this car is between sporty and comfort. To me, I feel it is quite okay being a passenger, much better than a 2008 325i sport.

Ok, now let's talk about the ride of this S40. The car is loaded with 4 passengers. 20 litres of water and luggages when I took over the driver seat. For a 2.4L engine, I would say the pickup is adequate yet I won't say it is powerful. Sometimes I wonder why this model of S40 don't want to throw in the 2.0T engine? The gearbox comes with a 5 speed automatic if I am not mistaken, one thing I am not sure if this model is the normal '2.4' model or '2.4i' model, the difference is the 2.4L comes with additional 30hp. This is because when going uphill, I can feel that I am trying hard to catch up my friend's Honda Jazz 1.5L and Toyota Alphard, the only advantage I can gain a bit is when it comes to zig-zag-road. Pick up wise, I don't think the car is as light as the two cars in front of me.

Talk about handling, I think it is above average. My other friend who owns a Honda Civic 2.0L also think that the S40 beats his Civic when it comes to handling. The car is equipped with Michelin Pilot Preceda 2 tires. To me, I think it is a bit noisy, no doubt the grip is good though.

Safety wise of this car no doubt it is good for such a compact car, it gives you the solid continental car feel when you are sitting inside. The S40 comes with inflattable curtains, with the thick door hinges and solid structure, no doubt it is a car with 5 stars EuroNCAP crash test standard.

During my trip back to KL, I also sped the car at the speed of 120-140km/h. I feel that the car doesn't absorbs the minor bumps on highway as good as my 05' Skoda Superb. The meter hits 2600RPM at 120km/h where my car only shows 2400RPM at 120km/h. So I have a feeling that this petrol consumption of this car will be slightly higher. May be the Volvo engineer tend to switch more power to the torque. For a 2.4L 5 cylinders car, I think they should manage it better by making the engine rev lower at high speed.

One thing I found out that S40 have the same problem like most S40, S60 has, look at the plastic (see attached), the color seems to fade away after a few years. A mechanic used to tell me that the Volvo owner have to respray the plastic, after that, then only the car will look perfect. Another problem that my friend told me is the ceiling fabric tends to fall off from the car ceiling, so you will have to glue it back to its' original position. It did happend to my friend's father's 97' Volvo 850 too.

Other than these two quality issue, my friend told me there is no problem with the car. In fact, she told me that Volvo dealer service is very good! She told me she spent around Rm200 on regular maintenance with Semi Synthetic oil change, the most expensive bill is around RM1k+ due to she need to replace some faulty parts. Other than that it was okay. I guess the major service at 60k km is yet to come. One thing for sure is my friend maintain the car very well. I told her to inform me first before her sister let go on this car. Well, I will contact my colleagues, see if they are interest.

Here is the side view of the car, it looks compact, but interior is quite okay for 4 passengers including the driver.

The pic was taken after our arrival.

Okay, here comes the RM170k question... Will I buy this car if I have a budget of RM170k?

My answer is NO for the new S40, to be honest, I rather get the Mazda 6 2.5L which I feel it is bigger, good looking and also fun to drive. BUT, let say after 5 years later. The Mazda 6 is selling at the price of RM100k and the Volvo is selling at RM83k, then I will definitely buy the S40, provided both car are at same condition and mileage. Why pay more for if I can save up my Rm17k to fully recond my car into a tip top condition vehicle? Not to mentioned the safety I can get for a lower price...

Cameron 2010

Just came down from Cameron Highlands organized by my old school mates recently. Quite a fun tour, this time we are staying in a rented bungalow, really better than I expected!

We need to drove up the hill to the bungalow, it was built around 60s on top of a private owned land.

There were total 5 bedrooms in the house, all attached with private bathroom. The owner really run his house like hotel, toilet paper, hot water, extra bed, matress and even towels are prepared for you.

All rooms were fitted with queen size bed, if there is no ceiling fan, standing fan is provided in each room.

There is a long dining table on the 2nd floor. Both kitchens had all the forks and spoons, knife, cutting board, filter water, food cover, kettle, etc.. Really, I think the owner had prepared everything for you. You want BBQ, he provide the coal and BBQ forks for you.

Nice flowers were planted everywhere.

2nd floor, you can sit on top of the special area to enjoy the cold wind and chit chat.

The exterior of the house - Valley View. I was actually standing on the empty field where we had BBQ on the first night when I took this photo.
The kitchen on the first floor where we prepared our BBQ and breakfast.

The living room. Got astro that comes with HBO, karaoke (CD not provided), and even two mahjong tables are prepared for you!!

The best room on ground floor.

The middle one

The room that I slept for two nights. I would say this is the second best room. I got a 'King' and the other guy got an 'Ace'. So I can only pick my room after the Ace holder. :)

Our second night dinner - Steam boat!!