Getting there... I guess...

Although I have been working for Infineon for almost a month, I didn't mention much about my work...

Still remember my first day that I was so nervous and excited. Before I stepped out of the dorm, I had taken so long trying to mix match my suits, shirt, tie and leather shoes. Changing from red, green, brown, purple till finally settle with blue grey stripes tie with white shirt. Then had my almost hardened bread with Nutella… Then, checked through my bag again and again to make sure I had all the necessary documents… every minute, every second seem so tense at that time. All I had in my mind was "Good impression on the first day is a must!" While, it turned out to be a mistake... Everyone in the company was wearing casual. Yes indeed, vvvvery CASUALLLL! In a sudden, I could feel myself frozen, like a chill thousand-year-old ice cube or probably another well dressed peacock surrounded by humans looking over the cage. Shit! Shit! Shit! Later when I went lunch with my colleague, I could hardly not notice the look from the people in the restaurant. It was totally... Sigh... However, my colleagues have been great in helping me settle down in the company and that was the comfort for the day. *I could hear someone laughing from the other end of the planet*

Two days since, I met up with the department manager, Thomas, who has been friendly. He gave me an introduction of the company and the core research function of the Graz R&D Centre as well as some basics of the products which the department is developing. Then, he sent me two 100-page-more data sheet and a reference to read. At that moment, I felt myself hanging in the middle of nowhere. I had yet to know what I am going to do for the next 7 months, just have to wait.

Day4, read data sheet...
Day 5, read data sheet...
Day 6, read data sheet...
... ... ... ... Day 14, read data sheet...

Shit! I felt so unproductive! Getting paid to sit in front of the computer doing nothing for 8.5 hour every day... Wait a moment, let me correct it. Getting paid to read the same data sheet for 8.5 hours for the past 14 days was really bad. Finally, I was assigned to a new product development team on day 15. Just when I was going to cheer 3 times out loud... There was a technical fault in my user account and I had to wait for another week to access the files and programs. So, another unmotivated aimless week passed by with myself being paid. Grrrrreeeeaaat… It might seem cool to get paid doing nothing, but I can tell you that really sucks! At least, I got paid… Almost a week now, I am slowly getting into the picture, but there are still long long long way to go. My job role is something that I am not familiar with... Testing and verification through programming... To worsen that, it is a language that I have never heard or used before, NextGen, kind of similar to Visual Basic.Net. The test run program took me 3 days and I am about to finish soon. I am glad I am about to finish it, however the sad part is that it took only half a day for my mentor to finish when he was a trainee…

I might sound pessimistic here, but my enthusiastic brain constantly whisper to me that it is just the process and things will get better. At this moment, I remember Susan Sontag said once, “So bad it is good!” Alright back to work now… *Look around and make sure no one is looking, switch to the blog website to publish…*

Braun de Praun

Struggled to open my eyes, I moved my body to the other side to reach the mini clock on my bed side. Without glasses, I could hardly read the time... It was 12:00pm noon I guess and I went back to my comfy bed. Five minutes later, I jumped off my bed! Shit! I was gonna be late! I had someone for lunch in 30 minutes time. Quickly I got myself cleaned and of course, styled my hair and ran out. Nothing surprise and I was indeed really late. Luckily, we were still able to get two seats in Braun de Praun. Apparantly, it is quite a famous Austrian restaurant. Hmmm~~ I sensed good food.

Walking in the reataurant, it wasn't as packed as expected. From what I heard, it is hard to get a table without prior reservation. Regardless, we were showed our way to the side hall. The restaurant did not have fancy deco, but rather traditional interior with laminated wooden wall and flooring with matched lamps, linens, utensils... It was reasonable comfortable and spacey. The waiter then left us after leaving down the menu. Flipping through the menu, my god! There were more than 150 dishes (entree, main and dessert)! Listening closely to the description, many dishes on the menu sounded interesting and yummy. Thus, we decided to ask for recommendations and waived toward the waiter to get his attention... 1 minute gone, 3 minutes gone, 5 minutes gone, 8 minutes gone... Finally, he saw us. Although I was not really happy with the wait, the waiter was really a great help in advising. He gave us unbiased opinion and would constantly remind us if we ordered too many.

Entree, Ungarische Gulyassuppe mit Gebäck. A Styria style Hungarian traditional meat soup. The funny thing about this soup was that the cook roasted the soup... It might sound weird, but yes the soup was literally roasted. The soup has a very strong and dense flavour, come with fine shreded beef and poatatoes. It tasted like non spicy type tomato curry soup. The texture of the soup was as thick as gravy and it could be overwhelming drinking the soup by its own. However, served with local black wheat bread and pumpkin seed bread, it was quite nice. Somehow remind me of having bread dipped with leftover curry gravy. Not as unique as I had anticipated.

Ungarische Gulyassuppe mit Gebäck

Main, Steirischer Bauernschmaus. Very typical traditional Austrian dish. It was served in the form of platter with smoked pork, grilled pork, sausages surrounding the ham pickles mix and Knödel in the middle. The Knödel is a foundation of German cooking and is often served like rice in Chinese cuisine. It is round in shape and it is commonly made of potato or semmel with herbs. Tasting the sausage at first, I found nothing special and I went on to the pickles. The pickle was quite fresh and was not too sour, have it with the ham was nice. It was the best pickle I had it in Austria so far. While the grilled pork together with the gravy was nice and the meat was tender at just right, but if you would pay more attention, can still feel the slight stink proky smell. Then I tried the smoked pork. Chewing it in my mouth, I could taste the salty and smoky, would be nice with the black wheat bread. For Knödel, I will pass my comments. I did not enjoy the main as much.

Steirischer Bauernschmaus

The serving was relatively large. I could already feel myself full upon finishing the soup and the main was even bigger. For the size and taste, I think the price was very reasonable. Whether I will come back again, I will say probably not in a hurry. However, what do I know, I only been here once...

Me bill for the meal,

Entree ............................................ EURO$4.20

Main ................... EURO$13.00

Total .............................................. EURO$17.20

Two words, "So so..."

Ebensee

During the last weekend, I was invited to Ebensee. Wanting to dig out more about the place where I was going, Wikipedia came in handy and here is what it says,

"A dark point in its history was the placement of a Nazi concentration camp (codename "Zement"), part of the Mauthausen KZ network, in Ebensee. Thousands worked to their deaths to construct giant tunnels in the surrounding mountains. These tunnels were designed for moving Penemünde's rocket research into bomb-proof surroundings. The camp was liberated in May 1945 by American troops…”
Link: Ebensee Article.

… Great… Nazi… Nonetheless, I packed my bags and went.

To my surprise, Ebensee was a really nice place, quite, peaceful and comfortable. Located nearby the border of Upper Austria and Styria, the town was surrounded by three beautiful lakes, Traunsee, Langbathsee and Offensee. None of this reminded me of its past. Walked along the small town, hiked up the hills to the chapel and strolling around Traunsee was great. The tiredness from work and drinking were wiped off and I felt revitalised! Just like Red Bull give me wings~~~ It was such a nice place to stay and retirement for sure. In fact, most of the residents are retired and I can’t recall coming across any young people, other than my friends and me. The funny thing was that I felt myself more like a tourist attraction rather than the town. Often I could notice people smiled and looked at me, some even said something when passing. Not too sure what they meant, I hoped something good. Probably, they have never seen a Chinese in real life before… While just when I was concluding that thought… there was a Chinese restaurant not far from us. They are some Chinese residents here after all. That reaffirm my theory, “Chinese is like cockroach, you find them everywhere!” in a good sense. Although it sounds disgusting, I found it true and…

Panoramic view of Ebensee

Walking district in Ebensee

Me sitting in front of Traunsee

Abandoned chapel up the hill of Ebensee

In the town centre, there was a 5-metre-tall wooden pole with leaves, bottle of wine and grain tied on the top. Mai Baum, a common sign in the rural towns. Centuries ago when residents in the region began to believe the existence of witches, local residents set up a wooden pole, hoping to protect their stocks. They believe that when witches fly pass the town, she will stop by the wooden pole and start counting the numbers of leaves. By the time she finished, she will have already forgotten the reason she come for and leave the stocks will therefore remain unharmed. Nowadays, the tradition is kept more for symbolic and festive purpose. A big local celebration is held for each time the pole been chopped down.

Mai Baum

One thing that really struck me here in Ebensee, was how well the people are able to live along with nature. The rivers that flowed through the town were literally crystal clear and clean that I hardly seen anymore. Looking at the old photos at Warung Saga, the river flows through Johor Bahru city was once like that back decades ago. However now, Sungai Segget is as dirty and stinks as you can imagine. I can still remember the muddy coloured river filled with rubbish, the smell of decayed food disgusted me every time I walked by, rats and flies visible from eye sight… When I was a kid, I thought everywhere was pretty much the same. At times, I would throw some stuff into the river as well. Think of it now, I feel so shame of myself… Recently, pathways and mini gardens were build above the river to give the city a new look and get rid of the odour. Comparing the ‘cover up’ back home and here in Ebensee, there are definitely more for us to learn…

The river taht pass through Ebensee

Beer! Beer! Beer!

11:00pm at night, I was finally in Graz! Leaving all my luggages at the dorm, Johannes and I decided to go for a drink. After a freaking long flight, I was craving for a chilly cold drink. We walked along the University area and in less than 10 minutes we arrived at Posaune. Then, he asked me whether I would like to have a beer. At that very instance, I felt like shit... beer... nightmare... However, not wanting to be a social moron only after an hour in Graz, I said yes unheartedly and got myself a glass of Murauer. To my surprise, I found myself enjoying it so much. Yap, very much! I had my first ever sip of Styria beer and I am loving it. Only later that I found out, it was the best beer in the province. I was lucky!

Murauer

Probably because I drink so much, not many people know that I actually hated beer so much! My first can of beer was Carlsberg. I had it when I was 14. On the night that I slept over Caleb's place... Why I still remember it? Simply because I hated the drink so much, the taste was bitter and awfull! I tried it because it was quite a cool thing to do... Yap, when you were 14, you tends to act foolish and serves me right that I got a kickarse headache and allergic the next day. I couldn't understand back then why my other classmates like it so much.

For many years, I did not have another one till my arrival at Melbourne. There I experienced the worst beer, Victoria Bitter. It tasted like shit! Just didn't understand why they are still in the market. For that encounter, I had refused another beer until one day. Yes! D day! Me and the girls went pub hopping on a Friday night and I found Little Creature Pale Ale. Thanks to Louisa, I see a glimse of light and hope in the future of beer! The lychee after taste was fantastic! Then there were Asahi and Kirin. However, I was still not really into beer and will rather pay more for spirits or cocktails. That was 5 weeks ago back in Australia.

While now, things have changed dramatically in Austria. For the coming days, there were Gosser, Puntigamer, Rudolf, Edelweiss, Wiselberg. First six days for first six different beers and the list is gonna get longer and longer... Just yesterday, I had my first Upper Austria beer, Piefer and now I am finishing off this, on my way to the Pub for another drink. Undoubtedly, Austrian beer is something that cannot be missed! Prost!

Lao Pa’s Day

“Shit, I am late! I am already 30 minutes behind my work…” I muttered and fastened up my pace, with my mobile against my ear.

Listening patiently to the mobile, “Doo… Doo... Doo... Doo… Doo… Doo… Doo…”
Dad finally picked up, “Hello, who is on the phone?”
Looking at the time on my ipod mini nervously and I said, “Happy Birthday Dad!!!”
All I can remember after then was what dad said, “Work hard and put more effort…”

Here… I was… Already late for work and feeling nostalgic! Anyway, “Love you Dad and take care~~~” Quickly, I minimised the window when my colleague passed by and felt lucky that he didn’t noticed what I was doing. Alright, back to work now…

JB's public security is FUCKED UP!!!

Just when I was about to sleep, mum called. She had informed VISA that I will be paying my ticket to Mauritius. Thus, I can pay by credit card in the next few days... Through the conversation, mum mentioned something about her mobile being robbed. Later, I found out from dad that both of them and aunty Penny were robbed few days back! That day, they drove to Permas Jaya to pay for the flooring. Once, my dad stepped in the shop, few guys came in with pistols and blades. They yelled and warned everyone in the shop to hand in their possessions. Although my parents and aunt lost quite a lot... like roughly RM$10,000, the lucky thing was that they weren't hurt. I think the flooring company lost... bah... shit lot.

I cursed you all! You bloody mashed shit robbers!! You will all be skinned and burnt to death with thousands of blades cut through your body!!! You will all die after 365 days of suffering, wih your coarpse exposed to the wild and rotted!!!! I sincerely pray for my sin of condemnation...

For the past few years, the public security in JB has dropped enormously. No kidding! When I was back in Malaysia, I often overheard about people talking about recent scandals, robberies, murders, rapes... If one pay attention to the newspaper, there will always be sections DEDICATED to such incidents. Sadly, this is only a tip of the iceberg. Many of them were not revealed to the public and my family case was one of them. Many times, I tried to convince myself that it is only minor and the country is still secure in general. Slowly, I became numb to the news. In my mind then, "Was just another case..." The recent incident happened to my family alarmed me and something is seriously wrong here. Although it has not reached the stage of riot, it is definitely fucked up!

Still remember some cabinet members making a comment about public secuity few months ago, "Don't over report! It will give the tourists a wrong impression and damage our tourism industry..." I have no choice but to give him boos out loud, "SHAME! SHAME! SHAME! SHAME ON YOU!!" all in caps. Rather than making such useless comments, why not fix the problem! Where is the police??!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can't you see we need some help???!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What does Oscar Wilde have to say about men, women, love and life?

"Nowadays all the married man live like bachelors and all the bachelors live like married men."

"One should never trust a woman who tells one her real age. A woman who would tell one that, would tell one anythings."

"One should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry."

"We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell"

Häuserl im Wald

I have often heard many things about Austrian and their love for schnitzel. However only after trying it twice, I was quite certain that it was not really my thing, at least at that moment... For the coming days, I started to wonder was that it, Schnitzel? Then a friend introduced Häuserl im Wald to me, a well-known local Austrian restaurant. As the name sounds in German, it is situated in the woods of Mariatrost, along the hills. Yap, the Mariatrost where you will find Basilica Mariatrost, one of the few famous Roman Catholic parish and pilgrimage church in Austria. Getting there can be quite easy as few trams from the Inner Graz will stop at the foothill. An easy stroll along the woods will get you there in no time.

Häuserl im Wald

Welcome to the hut in the woods

Indoor

Once pushed the door and set foot into the restaurant, I could smell the taste of the food. Side eyeing at the food being served along the way to our table, it only made my stomach groaned more severely. It was so tempting! The atmosphere was great. It was clean, bright, comfortable and traditional in deco. Furthermore, there was a choice between sitting in the restaurant or by the garden. If only it was not drizzling, the garden seat would be excellent, especially during summer. In no time, I settled down and flipped through the menu. As luck would have it, the menu was in German. I had to struggle roughly 20 minutes to get it translated and dropped my order. When I thought another 15 or more minutes till the food be served, it was already on my table a while after the order.

Entrée, Bärlauchschaumsuppe mit Sahnehaube, Shrimps. A peppermint-green-like creamy soup with shrimps, some shreds of breads and some herbs, the soup was cooked using the stem of wild garlic and home made stock. The taste is light but tasty, creamy but not oily. It is unique and I have not tried something similar before.

Filetsteak „Ivan Rebroff“im Pfefferrahmsauce, Pommes Frites, Wodka, Obers, Kaviar

Main, Filetsteak „Ivan Rebroff“im Pfefferrahmsauce, Pommes Frites, Wodka, Obers, Kaviar. The medium cooked filetsteak was grilled using the “Ivan Rebroff”method and served with Black Pepper Sauce, Potato Fries, Vodka, Cream and Caviar. The filetsteak was tender. With a light creamy black pepper sauce, it was tasty but slightly salty due to the amount of salt used. I could still see the burnt salt on the filetsteak. However the salty taste was then neutralised, by adding some cream and local black caviar on the sliced beef. The taste was even elevated later once I had a sip of vodka before having the meat. It spiced it up! The way how everything blended to one taste was splendid! While I think the fries are unnecessary, I hardly had few, but is Austrian… They like potatoes.

Dessertvariation „Haüserl im Wald“

Dessert, Dessertvariation „Haüserl im Wald“. An in house special delight which runs a different theme every year and it seemed that the chefs have love for berries this year. The dessert platter consisted of Topfen, Schokomusche, Knödel and two slices Buffée, surrounded with seasonal fruits and homemade raspberry sauce in the middle. My favourite was the Buffée, a sorbet-like dessert. One was white-vanilla-like flavor coated with homemade raspberry sauce and another one was pink-berry-like flavor coated with crushed nuts. While others were so so…

The services were excellent. The waiter greeted me in mandarin surprisingly and made me felt so at home. He was welcoming and patience while explaining the dishes and making recommendations to my friend. Once finished the introduction, he slowly walked away and gave us sometime. So, my friend could translate to me. Besides, he was also keen in answering all the questions I had for the foods.

Me bill for the meal,
Entrée ………………. EURO$4.00
Main ………………………….. EURO$13.00
Dessert …………… EURO$5.00
Me tips ……………………. EURO$5.00
Total ………………………………… EURO$26.00

Two words “Wie toll!”

Manolo

Manolo can be quite a cool chill out place to meet up for a couple of drinks. With a lazy and comfy environment, it offers a great range of drinks from sodas, mocktails, beers, cocktails, spirits to gins. Price wise, it was quite reasonable and the cocktails were nice. While if you are short of cash, you can order a glass of water and that is for free~~

Me bill for the day
Majito .............................. EURO$6.10
Manolo Special ................................. EURO$6.10
Strawberry Colada .................. EURO$6.10
Putigamer Panther............. EURO$2.60

Total .............................. EURO$20.90

Manolo

Saturday Offer Brochure

Free drinks on house!

Nai Wen and Me disgusting ourselves

Pei Xin (Left) and Jing Rong(Right)

Guo Quan (Middle), Yuan Hao (Right) and Me

Nai Wen (Left) and Xiao Hu (Right)

Kind of lover I am...

Just did the lover type test. Guess what... I a m a s u r p r i s i n g l o v e r !

The test tracked 3 variables How I compared to other people my age and gender:

	I scored higher than 76% on partner focus
	I scored higher than 37% on aggressiveness
	I scored higher than 83% on adventurousness

Link: The Lover Style Profile Test written by donathos on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

So, why am I single...

Mixnitz and Hochlantsch

After few glasses of local Styria white wine and only few hour sleep, waking up early on a beautiful Saturday can be quite tricky. Not too sure how many times I had to snooze the alarm. Somehow I managed to drag myself out of my comfy bed and packed some stuff, like my ipod, diary, digital camera and ya da ya da ya da. Most of them were proven later to be burdens. Especially the thick jacket that I wore was definitely a mistake! Arriving at Hauptbahnhof (Central Train Station) on time and seeing almost everyone wearing just track suit, I look like an alien… Again, wrong dress code!!!! Sigh…

Regardless the morning drama, we hopped on the train and arrived at Mixnitz as planned. From there, we would walk through the wild Bärnschützklamm (Gorge) to the summit of Hochlantsch, 1,720m above sea level.

River along the steep path

To arrive at the entrance of Bärnschützklamm, we had to hike along the steep hill and it could be quite challenging, due to the steepness of this path. It always gives people a wrong impression that they are already in Bärnschützklamm. I was among one of them. Sometimes, that part of hiking do make one thing whether to continue or not and is highly not recommended for mum and dad. It is definitely not for my parents. Having said that, the surrounding along the path was wonderful and it was only the beginning. Once entered Bärnschützklamm, steep hill was slowly replaced by steep mountain rocks and stones. We had to walk on the wooden staircase that was constructed against the huge mountain rocks, going zig zag vertically along the waterfalls. We walked slowly up the staircase and stopped to look around us. It was an experience, the air, the breeze, the wild, the sun…

Bärnschützklamm

Bärnschützklamm

Sometime later when the wooden path ended, we reached our first resting spot. There, we took a break. In the olden days, this was the place where the farmers herded the cows during the summer which I found quite hard to believe. How on earth would the cow managed to get here? Only with the narrow wooden path, I barely made it. They can fly… Right… Talking about the cows, there is a myth in this region. Few hundred years ago, one of the cows went missing. Rumor had it that the cow was seen fell off the cliff and died. However two months later, it was found alive under the cliff. To make it more bizarre, there was a picture of St. Maria beside the cow. The folks believe that it was a testament of God’s might. Since then, pilgrims from around the world will travel to this place. A church was later built at the location in the past century.

Chapel with the cow myth

Throughout the journey, the worst thing was that both of my knees went berserk and cramped at least three times. Arggghhhh!!!! I wasn’t able to walk with my legs being straight and I have to bend my knees to reduce the pain. It was the fault of those chilly coke and mineral water! Although it hurt, it only lasted 20 minutes each time... Finally, I managed to reach the peak of Hochlantsch. Hooray!!! It was definitely wise that we did not end the trip at the cottage. To walk the hell up here again, I will rather not if there is a choice. While at least the 360 degree view was great, but the only problem was… it was a bit foggy… Regardless, I was more surprised to see a 3 meter high cross on the peak. Apparently, it is a symbol indicating the peak and most of the mountains in Austria have something similar. Also I think it is partly due to the dominant Roman Catholic is this region as well.

Hochlantsch
Hochlantsch

Then, we walked our way back and found that the whole journey took 10 hour. It was a nice trip and by the time I set foot on my bed, I went in coma.

@!Zo$X@#4... Testing... Testing... 1... 2... 3...