Karneval Fatt Chai

Very delayed posting...

So enter the year of the Golden Pig, the last time it was a Golden Pig was some 60years ago! New beginnings? We shall see... And how was Chinese New Year in Bonn? It definitely was a Carneval Season...simply because its smack on one of the regions most celebrated event of the year...Karneval (with a 'K')!

The Karneval Season begun with most of us celebrating Single Awareness Day @ Valentine's Day at an eat all you can pizza hut, following that was a series of celebrations which I would aptly call Karneval Fatt Chai! Karneval is celebrated usually before Lent, and is especially famous in Koln! Parades, costume balls and lots of revelry goes hand in hand with heaps of alcohol being drunk! It is sooo huge that our company had a huge company party on Karneval Thursday, 15th of Feb and nearly 1000 employees were partying in the Tower's basement! Everyone made an effort to dress up...and yours truly only had a Chinese samfu to wear! I wasnt bothered enough to play dress up, although being Capt Jack Sparrow was definitely a brilliant idea...till i saw some exactly like him came along! Damn, he looked exactly like him...even the swagger! The Karneval event lasts all the way till the following Monday, which was an official off day for us! Sadly I had the fever on that day...so i had to give the biggest event of Karneval a miss...the Karneval Parade!
Malaysian and Brazilian



(from top): Portuguese speaking dudes! Watch where you grabbing! Frightened by a drag!


(from top):Me and French maid! Me and my fav Serbians! Shook shalt not sin!

Chinese Zorro (Zollo)!


"So Kong, how do i get to the Empire State Building?"
Random Karneval revellers


Me and Cowgirl..."yee ha!"

Me and Serbian Pioneers
Malaysians in Karneval as Zebra crossings!
Malaysians with Mario and Luigi!

Me and Poca-hot-ass!
Salute to the legs!

But as it is, Chinese New Year was on Sunday! Knowing Eric will be coming, and also one of my New Year's resolution to bridge the Chinese community with the trainees...we organized a Chinese New Year Lunch on the first day of the Golden Pig year! It was a fantastic do as since everyone was soooo tired celebrating Karneval, the best way to compliment the feeling was to cook them authentic Chinese food!

Surprising that the main dishes were made by...MALAYSIAN Chinese! Even the Chinese were shocked at our culinary skills...among the dishes made were sweet sour chicken, spring rolls, bak kut teh, chicken curry, heaps of vege dishes...these were made by Eric, Shooks and me! Then there was rice, vege and fried tofu done by the rest of the Chinese! We even had ang pau packets, courtesy from Shook, to decorate the place! And guess what was the theme of the day...everyone had to wear RED!

This was definitely a nice moment for me, Shook and Eric, all of us for the FIRST TIME ever, not having the traditional Chinese New Year eve dinner with our families. So it was a great turn of events for us, as we re here celebrating Chinese New Year Lunch with our own families away from home, the trainee community! It was fun to also having us share the usual traditions of our celebrations, each one of us explaining one tradition to another...also what each food meant, who made it, how good it was...etc! Truly a memorable occasion for us...and me!

Red is the theme for the day!
Brazilian Vietnamese!

Introducing the sumptious food!

Thank God its Flyyyday!!!

Mini Tarts:
1) To all October Babies...HAPPY BIRTDHAY!
And specially to Al...HAPPY QUARTER of a CENTURY!!
Heaps of kisses...!

2) Been following the developments back home. Good to see Dr Mahathir using the blogosphere to spread his message! Sayyy...how ironic?! And my hero of the moment...Dr Lim Teck Ghee, check out his interview on http://www.sun2surf.com/article.cfm?id=15882
Memorable quotes...

"Finding another job and leaving the country for me - like for many Malaysians presently abroad - is really the last option. We cherish our country, we are in for the long haul and want to contribute to a better society"

"There is a saying that 'truth and roses have thorns about them.' We must be prepared to be scratched and bloodied to arrive at the truth"

"You know how we like others to consider our country as a successful experiment in multi-racial living. I fear we are like the emperor walking around with no clothes, well, maybe with few clothes. For we are in reality really, really a deeply polarised country with cracks developing everywhere we look, and the situation is getting worse."



There are some cultural differences here that are similar to back home...or of similarities in people or way of life. For instance how some Germans (but mostly the immigrants from Turkey and North Africa) are similar to some Chinese in the sense that they take pride in the oral discharge of internal liquids, not to mention the acoustic accompanying of lungs + stomach air pressure!

But what i would like to highlight in this entry is the professional culture towards FRIDAYs in Germany! We all love Fridays...dont we! We even thank God for it!

For those not in the know, in Malaysia EVERYONE is used to the fact that Friday is nearly the same as working half day! As the majority of the population takes the necessary 3 hour lunch break (lunch,find parking,prayers,hang out,wait for other cars to leave as they re blocking yours,smoking, leaving the car park etc) on top of their morning coffee break and evening tea breaks, its definitely a free and easy day! Knowing full well that of course the nations productivity level still maintains as non malay companies or individuals are working their asses off...after all it is a normal working day to them nevertheless.

So its not unusual to see the city half dead by 4pm onwards, or theres less traffic...and offices empty or half full (being optimistic here) on Friday evenings. After several of this corporate cultures from my working experiences in KL, none ever had the "Friday is half day" mentality...for us its business as usual!

Well, imagine my surprise when this "Friday is half day mentality" is very much alive and well here!! The Tower's inhabitants are ALL gone by 3pm...lunch time you ll see half filled cafeterias, by 2pm if you walk at any of the floors you wont be surprised by eerily dead silence but just the deafening sound of your foot steps and your farts echo! Its as if God created Fridays so that we re able to take it easy after 4 HARDWORKING DAYS...then Saturday to party and Sunday to recupperate for the following week!

One of the many example of the Friday is half day mentality happened today, and its a classic! I was mailing a manager explaining i couldnt call her, hence the mail and its content. Her reply...and i quote, "Thanks for your feedback. It's Friday - sorry for not being reachable."

RESPEK! And heres my reply....
"... Cheers, and have a productive Friday!"

Well, as they say..."When in Rome, do what the Romans do!"
Oh by the way...i hate the fact that i couldnt get things done as many managers are "unreachable" during this day!

Enjoy the weekend!