Yes. My coins deposit yesterday has cleared, with the total of RM418.03. Not bad. But before I start using this money buying unneccessary stuff, it’s a lot better to use this money to settle my debt.

It’s not the courts payment that you think. There’s this one installment purchase that I made from Courts Mammoth for my bedroom set. So with haste, I got to go to Courts Mammoth today, and get this purchased settled.

Aaaahhhh.. One debt out, and one asset acquired.

Well. There is this one more debt from Courts Mammoth that I need to clear (on top of my credit cards debt). Just a little bit more actually.

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There’s a saying that goes Sikit sikit lama lama jadi bukit. I don’t the the equivalent english proverb for this (anyone know?).

I have started keeping loose change for my daily expenses in a container for quite sometimes. As of 20th April 2005, this is how much coins that I have collected.

And as of today, I’ve collected even more, and I think it’s time for me to bank this in. Being ambitious, decided to count how much I have collected. First, I sort the coins into denomination, and start counting the 50 sen and 20 sen coins.

Sigh. This is tiring. There are plenty more to go for 10, 5 and 1 sen coins. I guess lets the machine in the bank does the counting.

I have banked in the coins today, and for coins deposit, there will be 1 day float. So I guess tomorrow only I can know how much coins I have.

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Yes. Finally I have found a buy for my 4th generation (with photo) 60GB iPod. I really sell this at a very good bargain. Scratch free iPod (as from the first day I bought it, I put it right away into the casing), the casing itself (worth RM100ish if to buy a new one), iTrip (again, worth RM100ish) and boxes that are still in month condition – all of that for RM550.

I just can’t wait to get myself a new iPod – the 80GB fifth generation one (with video). It happened that there is a promotion at that time, where I get free charger and Sonic Gear speaker.

Sometimes, things just doesn’t make sense. I got my 60GB iPod for about RM1900++ last time. But this new one, 80GB (20GB more that previous one), and with extra function – video, it costs less that what I paid for 60GB last time. This one is selling at RM1499. I guess the packaging cuts the cost quite a lot. Smaller box, and iTunes is no longer provided in the CD, but you have to download yourself from Apple website. That cuts the cost significantly I guess.

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My 300GB Maxtor harddisk is at the critical level now. About 5GB free space left. It’s time for me to do spring cleaning, burning some files to DVD.

Most of the stuffs in that harddisk come from P2P sources – torrent, eMule, Ares, Limewire – to name a few. Sometimes, I just simply download things, and just left the file untouched and unexplored in the harddisk.

So, I found this one very interesting file, which I don’t really remember when I download it. It’s Sailor Moon – Super Dance Lesson.

There is 1 song that that is very catchy, and I kinda like it at my first time of hearing it. Here’s is the song, “Here We Go!”

You want to sing along? Sure! Here’s the lyric for the song.

Yume miteta
I had a dream
Kiseki ga kuru no wo matteta
Where I was waiting for a miracle
Isshun no kisu kimagure na no?
Was that sudden kiss just a fluke?
Ne “gomen” nante zuruiyo
Hey, it’s not fair to stop and say “Sorry”

Mada suki na koto
I still can’t tell you
Watashi kara wa kiridasanai
What I want to tell you
Mata narande sora wo miyou
So I’ll stand beside you gazing at the sky again
Chansu nara ima da yo!
If I’m waiting for a chance, now’s it!

Tsunaida yubi tashikameteru
Our interwined fingers will tell me
Mou hitori de sayonara kimenai de
I should stop deciding it’s over all by myself

Here we go!
Atarashii futari nara mae yori umaku iku ne
With a new “us”, I’m sure we’ll do better
Kyou wo shinjiru chikara de
With the power to believe in today
Unmei kaetekou
We’ll change our destiny

Here we go!
“Daisuki” tte ienakute kokoro ni shimaikonda
Unable to say “I love you!” I retreated into my heart
Tooku hanareta mita
And stayed far away from you
Yuuhi no kazu dake
But I want all sunsets,
Anata ni agetai
To give them all to you
I love you

I know that your feet start to tap to the beat. If you want to dance along, don’t worry. The lesson is provided here.

Swing, jump, land, jump, jump
Cross, stomp, cross, stomp, cross, stomp
Pa, kem, pa, kem, pa, kem, pa, kem, pa
Soto, naka, soto, naka, soto, naka, soto, naka
Big circle, I love you
Bang

You’re good at it already? Now, lets try with music.

Practice hard until you do okay! And guess what, dance really is the mark of a true guardian. So, if you are good enough already, let’s transform into guardians!

Moon Prism Power!
Jupiter Power!
Luna Prism Power!
Make Up!

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It’s my final day here, and it’s time for me to buy final things for my trips here – souvenirs. Got this from Bulgaria as token for being here.

So in the morning, I still got several hours before my 2:30m flight to Frankfurt. It’s nice the there are several souvenir shops at around Serdika metro station. This is the one that I went to.

And a few of things that I got for souvenirs to my close friends. Well, I couldn’t afford to get one for everyone.

Now I’m ready to check out. And it’s kinda nice that Jordan will be fetching me to airport once again. But this will be another long journey, where I have to transit at Frankfurt for 6 hours, before my flight to Singapore, then another flight from Singapore to KLIA.

Upon arrival at KLIA, I need to check which carousel that the bags from my flight will be sent to, but something blocking the display. After a closer look, it happenned to be that the computer that is used to display this has been infected by Brontok virus. Hahaha..

After 7 days I didn’t see and eat any rice, I’m having one tonight. Mmmm yummy. How I miss rice.

Well, no matter how much you hate your own country, and no matter how much you keep complaining about your own country, you will surely miss it when you are away from it for a while.

There’s no other place that you will feel like home and no other place that can offer the same kinf of food that you usually eat. Oh my beloved Malaysia & Kuala Lumpur.

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Final day of the training, also should be final day that I’m having this kind of lunch.

And here is the photo of the team this time. There is something wrong with my camera again, where there is someone in the middle that cannot be captured.

Frankly, I don’t remember the name of most of the people. It’s kinda hard to pronounce and remember ;) But the key persons are

• The left most guy (wearing stripes shirt) is Jordan Gaydarov, Synovate Bulgaria DP Centre Operation Manager, or in other words, the boss of the place that we at now. Basically, his the one that fetch me from the airport (which I mistakenly think that he is the driver sent by my company in this blog entry)
• The lady in pink at the back is Andrea McPheron, Scripting Support Manager from Synovate Chicago. She’s the one that gives the training for the 5 days training sessions here
• Lastly, the right most person, wearing dark blue shirt is David Minarcik, Applications Director from Synovate Chicago too. He is giving support to Andrea during the training.

I feel so glad that the training is over, with the fact that I can go back to Malaysia, and got to eat rice that I miss, but at the same time, I kinda feel sad to leave this place too. Well, I started to know people here already, and I just beginning to know the area here, and there is still so much placed to explore, but you have to leave already.

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The morning session is started with the presentation from Michael Reuscher (Vice President – New Product Integration) from Synovate Chicago office about his vision about Workbench. Been hearing his name a lot, and now got a change to meet him in person. It is just another typical director kind of presentation, where something big is being presented, and who suffers the most – the workers like us trying to implement that.

Well, been served with typical Bulgarian lunch again – chocolate muffin, mixed vegetable salad and bread with grilled fish.

It’s the fifth day already that I didn’t eat rice. You can’t imagine how I miss “nasi lemak”, “nasi goreng”, “nasi campur” a lot now, and how I miss spicy food.

Anyway, I’ve been noticing something here. All of the toilets that I’ve been, to lock the door, they actually put the key (and not the latch that we usually see).

I wonder if they do this in Malaysia, the key will be gone in no time ;)

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Third day of training, now we moved to a different topic, which is TOM (Table Object Model). Again, it is something that I can understand easily. Alhamdulillah.

As for lunch, again, we’ve been served what Bulgarian typically eat for lunch – vegetable salad with cheese, tuna baguette and pineapple tart.

Upon my arrival 3 days ago, I did ask the receptionist whether there is internet connection available in this hotel. They ask whether I have my own laptop or not. I say yes. And they said, the hotel provide free wireless internet, but you have to use it in the lobby area. I then ask is internet connection available in the room? They said no. You have to be here.

It’s nice internet is free, but bringing my laptop to the lobby area? I end up using free wireless internet that I got from nearby building, which the signal is quite weak, and the connection is intermittent.

And today, it happened that I make an accidently discovery. My oen fall down under the table, and I went down there and move over the dustbin to take the pen, where I discovered that there is LAN port available there. Curiously, I go and get my LAN cable, and eagerly connect my laptop. Walla. There is internet connection.

Sigh. And what that lady was saying 3 days ago? I did ask whether there is internet connection in the room, but she said, I have to come down to the lobby for free wireless internet.

So I’m in heaven, having a stable internet connection in my hotel room. Goodbye to the intermittent wireless internet connection.

Talking about the internet speed here, I’m so ashamed that Malaysia can’t actually provide this kind of internet speed. Oh no, actually Telekom Malaysia should be ashamed of themselve for not being able to provide us with this kind of internet speed.

Just look at my torrent download speed below. The download transfer rate is at whooping 987.2 kB/s. Actually, it goes higher than this (the highest that I got is about 1.3 MB/s, But for the sake of showing big number, I took a screenshot when the speed is 987.2 kB/s.

Let us look at the statistic, shall we? This is Malaysia’s Internet Usage Stat that I’ve taken from here.

11,016,000 users as of September 2006, with 38.9% penetration rate.

Malaysia Internet Usage Stats

Internet Usage Statistics:
11,016,000 Internet users as of Sept/2006, 38.9% of the population, according to C.I.Almanac.

Internet Usage and Population Growth:

And here is the one for Bulgaria that I get from here. 2,200,000 users as of September 2005 (September 2006 maybe double than this) with only 28.7% penetration rate.

Internet Usage Statistics:
2,200,000 Internet users as of Sept/05, 28.7% of the population, according to ITU.

Internet Usage and Population Statistics:

From the stat, Malaysia has more users, and Malaysia also has higher penetration rate. But why Bulgaria can provide such a very good service when they still haven’t got much demand for broadband internet, and at the penetration rate that is still a bit low? Telekom must be making a fortune looking at the number of subsribers. But where have all the money go? Why there is not upgrade for our infrastructure? Well, maybe all the CEOs and ministers that are behind this telecomunication and internet thingy feeding on the money.

And just recently, TMnet has blocked all P2P connections. If you are into torrent, you may have probably noticed it. And again, the customer to blame for not having fair usage of internet. But how can we got the blame where the Streamyx users are increasing, but the infrastructure and bandwidth that TM have is still the same as when they started? And why having 512kbps, 1.0 Mbps and 2.0 Mbps is the internet is just good for browsing internet? I won’t go for 2.0Mbps is I only can browse internet. 512kbps is more that enought for that.

Come on TM. Wake up!

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As yesterday, I woke up at 5am (local time), which is 10am Malaysia time – the usual time that I wake up in Malaysia. I guess I’m still experiencing jetlag.

Anyway, it is such a beautiful day today. Clear sky, the temperature this morning is 11 degrees celcius, which is very nice.

As for training today, it starts getting to more serious task. But Alhamdulillah, I can take it well. Even though it’s quite heavy for some people, but I see everybody is coping it well.

And this is my lunch today. Muffin, vegetable salad with tuna and egg tart. Since when I eat vegetable? Well, there’s no choice for halal food here. This is the best I can get.

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Let start my blog entry today with a little Bulgarian language lesson. Can you guess how to pronounce the following word?

“Sipanka”? Well. That is close already. It is actually pronounced “Serdika”. This is the station where I take the metro from hotel to office. Think of metro as our “komuter”, only that it is always on time, and very frequent, and no tehnical difficulties as what komuter station in Malaysia always announced during peak hour. Or think it as “komuter” operating with LRT standard (on time, fast and very frequent).

Ok. Next one. Now guess how to pronounced this word.

Hhhmm. Let me see. Well, if my spelling is right, it should sounds close to “canbhua”? Eekkk.. Wrong.

The word is actually pronounced as “slivnitza”. How on earth the spelling that looks like canbhua is pronounced with totally different letters inside. Slivnitza is the station where I stop to get to the Bulgaria office.

As you can see, there is not much stop that metro has. According to the story, there is not much need for an underground in Sofia until recently, and there is also strong opposition about digging holes underground since there are lots of historical remain in the ground of Bulgaria – that remains burried.

So as for the ticket, it is just this normal bus-like paper ticket, where you don’t need to slot in the turnstile, or got it scanned as how our Touch N Go is.

Upon disembarking the metro at the Slivnitza station, about 200 metres from the station, there is this new building, of what they called IT building, which house the DP Centre for Synovate Bulgaria.

This area is quite new according to the people here, where there’s not much buildings around yet, and some are still under construction.

Finally, here I am at DP Centre of Synovate Bulgaria. The main Synovate office was somewhere else (Han Asparuh street), which I hope there will a chance for me to visit there one day. And according to Jordan, they just moved here on 1st of May, and he apologized for the place not being in organized condition. Well. This is more than fine to me.

I’ve been to Synovate Hong Kong, Synovate Singapore and Synovate London, and each country has its own unique way of how the cubicle looks like. So here is how cubicles look here.

Well, it’s incomplete for me not to take any panoramic photo. So here is one, taken from the window of the office here.

Well, the training today was good, got to know the colleagues here, got to know the trainers that fly all the way down from USA.

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