Farewell to Mr Moey

It was the eve of May, Labour Day. A fitting date for our farewell dinner in honour of one of Vishay Semiconductor Malaysia's "founding fathers" - Mr Moey Sam Fook.

Mr Moey had been with Vishay since 2002, heading the Finance / Costing departments (which I always manage to mix up, sometimes even today), literally keeping a watchful eye on every penny that goes in and out of Vishay's pocket.

Besides his "real job", Mr Moey has also proven himself as a natural orator and radiates confidence, as anyone who has attended events with Mr Moey as the faciliator / host / MC can agree. With a small but diverse team of individuals in VSM, it was no easy task keeping the people all working together as a team, and feeling great while doing so. Call it the soft skill or art as you may, team building sessions conducted by Mr Moey were far more effective that the typical generic offerings of the garden-variety consultant (with the possible exception of Dr Lawrence Walter Ng, perhaps).

In my years working with Mr Moey, I've had the opportunity to come to know him as a friend and fatherly figure. In the recent years, I thank him for introducing me to great "spiritual software" that is the work of Don Miguel Ruiz - The Four Agreements.

The most memorable piece of advice that I got from Mr Moey was "If you believe that something is yours, just reach out and grab it!". Which has since brought me far in my life, inspired to go all out and work for what I truly believed I deserved. Thanks a count-less many times for this - Mr Moey!

So today, though I was late to arrive (as those who are close to me can already guess, due to work - why else?), my thoughtful friend reserved some tasty dishes for me so that I did not have to dine on only the standard servings of rice and noodles.

It was nice to see everyone get together for this occasion outside of working time - a true depiction of the closeness or "kam cheng"-ness of our circle of friends. Set for the occasion, I had my trusty DSLR with me to capture some memorable photos.

As our event drew to a close, we all bid our fond farewells and best wishes to Mr Moey as he enters a new and well-deserved phase of life called "semi-retirement", going back to his family somewhere in the region of Subang Jaya. I bid good night to a dear friend, with hopes for a happy and healthy life ahead!


Photos:

An evening with friends @ Restoran Ayoob, Batu Berendam

There are those who shun work, as working life has it's rough edges and nerve-wrecking moments. Especially for those who work in a semiconductor manufacturing facility running 24-hours round the clock.

Outside of the factory walls, after office hours are over, I'm fortunate to have a close circle of friends, who have instilled in their hearts at least one of the four of Don Miguel Ruiz's famous Four Agreements - don't take things personally.

To be honest, I was not very sure where exactly that was, so luckily I happened to look left when I was trying to look right - and just managed to make the left turn off the main road. Good thing no cars or motorcycles were near me - otherwise I'd have to drive onwards and U-turn somewhere in front.

I was "highly engaged" at office today, so just lost track of time, resulting in my arrival some ten minutes after the official starting time of 8.00 pm *sharp*. It was still relatively early, so there was a lot of available parking spaces. My friends were already there - joining together four separate tables to accommodate everyone.

Kam and Florence were there with their two sons at the far end of the table, with Kua, Amelia, Lim KS and Chong Wee Kiong seated along the opposite length of the table. On "my side" were Tan SH and wife, and Lo Chea Thin as well. Our group of friends go back a long way to a time when Infineon was Siemens, when there was still the OJV department. Still keeping in touch although some have already left Vishay for Sunpower, Texas Instruments (formerly knows as National Semiconductor) and Infineon.

It's not possible to have a single group discussion with such a large crowd, so there were several "chat rooms" discussion different topics (different languages too). So, it's somewhat like channel surfing where I occasionally switch to a different group and join in the discussion. I find it's a good mental exercise to be able to do this seamlessly.... :)

Kam and Florence were the first to leave, not a surprise as they had their two sons with them. We had some some more friends joining too (arriving later than me, so I wasn't the last). Jenny See, Heng and Chong FC with his wife Sim BL kept the headcount balanced after Kam and family left.

I found out that Chong FC was going on a trip to ascend Gunung Kinabalu next month - unfortunately he did not tell me earlier, as I'm still keen on going there. Have yet to see for myself what lies beyond Laban Rata - failed the last time, just like the attempt before....

We were there for some time - it was not very hot that day, and the volume of the TV was not so high as to impede our conversations. Something that I strongly emphasize when choosing a place to sit down with friends. By the end of the session, I had consumed 1 roti kosong, 1 roti telur, 1 cheese naan, 1 kopi-o kosong, 1 teh-o and 1 teh tarik. All for the price of RM8.70. Expensive or cheap, you decide....

Coincidentally, patronizing Ayoob too was a senior colleague (former big boss) who I refer to as "Uncle Terry" (our friend know who I'm talking about). Also saw Yeo EK there too. The world is really small - at least when everyone is still in Melaka. After my friends decided to call it a night and head for home, I hopped over to the next table for "second round" of catching up on times since we all went our separate ways.

Time moves quickly in the company of old friends, so it wasn't until someone realized it was already midnight that we finally decided to call it a night (for me, the second time).

Today's gathering was a good one, as usual, as it was always good to see friends together outside of work (though sometimes in large companies, this doesn't always happen). Apart from Heng, Kua and Chong FC trying to figure out how to check whether it was high tide or low tide (all set for going fishing next), none of us were glued to our phone / tablet. Chea Thin did share a video clip of some of our other friends dancing to a "quite famous Korean song". It's the one like riding a horse, so you can probably guess what song I'm talking about...!

I'm always happy to meet up with my friends and not only keep in contact in cyberspace. Hope we can keep ourselves together as we have done throughout these years - from single and young to family and... still young (just not as young as before)! :)

75,000 km PM service for my Honda Civic FD2

It's been roughly 10 months or ~5000 traveled kilometers since my car was in for preventive maintenance. Not that I'm saving cost or anything like that, but this is really due to the low amount of mileage I'm clocking on my Honda Civic FD2.

Having a routine job = boring life is one of the secrets behind the really low rate of odometer advancement. Obviously, I'm not in the sales line, otherwise I'd probably be in just the opposite predicament. Even with the occasional drive down to the capital city of Kuala Lumpur, there's just not enough distance between my home, work place and frequented venues to rack up the kilometers. Not that I'm complaining. Besides the funny feeling of not having serviced my car for as long as I can remember, it does help to keep the monthly expenses low, which is always a good thing in times where everything goes up except one's salary....

Well, back to the subject matter. As usual, I made a service appointment earlier that week by phone to the GS Tay Honda Service Center at Muar, which, adhering to the legal speed limits, is roughly 45 minutes away from my home. Always good to do so, as it may significantly reduce your waiting time.

Upon my arrival in the morning earlier today, I found that there was practically no space to park my car in the area surrounding the service center, as there were many cars with the red triangle numbers on them, in queue for service. Hmm, I thought to myself, it was going to be a long wait here today.

I finally stopped my car by the road side near by and walked to the service reception. Was greeted by the friendly staff who then took my keys and proceeded to log in the necessary documentation while I waited in the next building. The customer waiting lounge was packed with fellow Honda owners, so I stood around briefly before I was approached by the staff, who needed some help to locate my car (it was really THAT crowded today). Good thing about the staff here - whether there was no other people around or when they were overloaded with customers, they were always friendly and helpful. Having observed how their techs go about servicing cars, they are also very competent and not sloppy at their jobs. For these reasons, I have no qualms about driving all the way here to service my FD2, as I'm confident my car is in good hands over here.

There was no place to sit at the customer waiting lounge, so I just got myself a cup of coffee and sat down at one of the unoccupied tables in the showroom area. Right next to the table was a bright red CRZ on display. I peeked inside at the gear lever to see if if were the manual or auto. I was interested to try out the gearshifts and feeling of the clutch, had this been a manual - unfortunately, it was an auto, so it dropped out of my attention faster than school from a schoolboy's mind after the bell rings....

45 minutes after my arrival, I saw my FD2 being driven into the service bay. Roughly 1 hour later, I was back in the driver's seat on my way home. That included confirming a change of windshield wipers and paying for the entire service.

The oil that goes into my engine is the standard issue oil from Honda, albeit the fully synthetic variant - never had any issue with using this so far. 4.x liters, so the balance engine oil was returned to me to keep for my next service (hope that there's no expiry date on this).

At the rate of which I'm using my car, my next preventive maintenance service would likely be some time in 2014. Which is quite long, as my feeling is that besides mileage, one should not go too long without doing some checking and servicing on your car, irrespective of how far it has traveled  Imagine if I were to service my car after every 10,000 km instead of 5,000 km.... :)