Lantern Festival 3rd October 2009

All's well that ends well. It started out as a small scale event but it ended up as a bigger event. It rained but it did not dampen the spirit of all the team members. Everyone chipped in from the start to the end. The team had originally arrange everything inside the commnity hall and later moved it to the field and when it stater to drizzle, team work came into play and a neigbour helped out with his pick up truck and took most of the load. We had our very own 3 wheels vehicle ferry most of the items like the PA system, the table and chairs while the rest of us carreid the food inside once again. Food was the main item only surpassed by par excellent entertainment from the Taichi and dance presentations and dance along sessions. We had mini competitions, youngest to the oldest, tallest to the broadest, chopstick peanuts competition, guess the sweets in the jar contest etc. Everyone had fun and food. There were fantastics singers and dancers providing live entertainment too. The children lit up their lanterns and soon they were the mainattraction in the night. Taman Lone Pine came alive with tardition and harmony. The police were also here to join in the merry making. Wow what a successful nite. My hats off to the organizing committe and our very great suppporter from the Taici and Dance group. The best part was food was aplenty and we had to coax our previous supporters, the Break Dance kids to come help us finish the food and we had lots more to pack home. The beauty of it everyone helped to clean up nd restore the community hall back to its original arrangement and cleanliness. Here is to Community Living. Our next event on the cards might be New Year 2010 Celebrations.

Inconsiderate Neighbors or Guards Not Working

All of us who live in this world of flats, apartments and Condominiums have a few things in common. Among them are inconsiderate neighbors or guards who put on a show (wayang kulit). Today at 8.20pm I witness a poor lady who was talking a long time to the new Indian guard. After I watched for a while and the guard realized that I was watching, he followed the lady to a parking spot. There I saw the problem; a car had parked indiscriminately and blocked the other parking lot beside it. The poor lady asked, can someone find out whose car is it and ask the driver to park the car properly. The guard shook his head and as usual answered he did not know. I asked the guard how did the car come in and he replied that all cars that had stickers could come in. I then asked him how does car PFP 1133 Waja comes in every night and stays overnight. The guard answered, the driver drops his children and goes out. I told the guard, the Waja PHP 1133 cars comes in and never goes out and the guards never takes his driving license at all because he acts like a gangster. This is the kind of inconsiderate neighbors that we have here. I can only thank God that the neighbors from hell are few and apart. By the way this resident (PHP 1133) owes quite a lot of maintenance fee and still barges in and our guards are helpless and hopeless and useless from the Manager of Guidance Security to the supervisor to the guards in charge. But I can only urge all residents to stick together and report as they see fit so that we are all brought up to date on what is happening in Taman Lone Pine.

Do All Guards Sleep in the Daytime too?

It was 3.50pm when I was walking to the community hall, the moment I reached there I could see one of the guards slumped over the table. I walked back down toward the guardhouse and the supervisor in charge tried to wake the sleeping guard up. He woke up and went back to sleep again. I asked him if he is supposed to be asleep while on duty. The supervisor replied that the guard was sick and he tried to call his headquarters to get a replacement but could not get through to anyone at all. At 4.30pm suddenly there was no guards at all in the guardhouse. I quickly called our vice chairman who immediately contacted the headquarters supervisor. The HQ supervisor arrived half an hour later complaining to us he does not know what to do as he had so many problems with his guards coverage. I told him, sorry, not our problem, we have an agreement and we expect service and responsibilities for good money paid. The HQ supervisor then had no choice but to become the guard on duty until replacement guards arrived two and a half hours later.
Can you imagine how the life of committee members are like? The other day a resident was complaining so much to our vice chairman and when we invited him to come over and help us by joining the PPTLP committee, he sang a different tune, I am busy, I have no time, I have other commitments etc. It is easy to criticize when you are not doing much. When you are doing, you will realize that you do not have much time to talk a lot.
I asked the complaining resident, what he would think happen if we all gave up and let things rot. Let the government take over because no one in the Taman Lone Pine cares. He immediately agreed that this was not a good option. I rest my case.

Do All Guards Sleep At Night

When we hired the new Security Guard company we thought things would change for the better. I am sadly disappointed. The PPTLP Team put in so much effort and so many chances and warnings were given and yet the Security company still gives us rotten guards every once so often. I can imagine how the residents might be thinking. It is not easy doing Pro Bono work that does not reward you but brings you more distress but if we do not do who will and I know things will definely get worse if let unchecked. So we must not give up ever until ...

A Fool and his Life will soon be Parted

Yesterday, we witness a near accident. A silly fella came in to the Community hall and started to remove the barbell weights from one side causing the other side to be unbalanced and one of the weigts fell off denting the floor. Then this idiot proceeded to put on a total of 40kh of weights on the barbell. He promtly began to start he pumped up and he started to bow under pressure of the weights and by the time I shouted for Eugene and Ah How to save him, he was already crushed by the barbell. Thank God nothing happened.In view of what has happened, I will be putting up this notice near the equipment. Please give your comments so that I can improve on a later version of the notice in future.
ATTENTION TO ALL USERS OF GYM USERS
1.Usage of all gym equipment is solely at your own risk. The Management Corporation will be in no way liable for any mishap. At the moment, there is no charge for usage.
2. Users are responsible to practice consideration and safety precautions when using gym equipment.
3. All first time users are required to sign into the Community Hall / Gym Users Logbook / Disclaimer of Management Liability & Undertaking Form.
4. All users are to report any damage before and after usage of facilities. The Management reserves the right to demand for compensation as per the Undertaking Form.
5. Dangerous equipment such as free weights (Dumbbells, Barbells, Curved Bar and Bench Press) must be used under supervision of a trained partner.ATTENTION TO ALL USERS OF GYM USERS
a) No free weights users should use the equipment unless they have been given training. This is to ensure the non experienced user does not get injured due to ignorance.
b) Users are not encouraged to use excessive weights especially when they are alone.
c) Users are not allowed to drop the weights unto the cement floor. This will damage the floor and might injure someone.
d) Users must arrange the weight back to its original arrangements after using them.
e) BLACKISTED USERS WILL BE BARRED FROM USING THE FREE WEIGHTS IF THEY DO NOT FOLLOW PROCEDURES.
By Order of Perbadanan Pengurusan Taman Lone Pine Recreation Committee July 2009

It's so sad.......

I had the most unpleasant commitee meeting as far as i can recollect, seriosuly i dont and i wont blame anybody in that meeting to get angry or even furious with the committee, as everyone was entitled to one's opinion and the right to voice one's stand.

The only thing that i depise the most, is when somebody was trying to turn the common issue into personal attack, with i think is most unbecoming and totally unacceptable.

Unfortunately, on that particular meeting last night, i was singled out and bombarded with some unpleasant comments at me, simply because i embrace the different faith unlike the majority. I could have stood my ground, i could have retaliated but i knew it would be a total waste of time for me to do it.

At that point, i was just thinking, why cant the dissented party just accept the committee's decision that their project cannot be put through, simply because it was infringing some local housing rules, that's it and it was the committee's decision to overrule them and not because one stupid or smart alec of differenct faith trying to be funny.

I felt disturbed and deeply saddened by one particular comment that indicated that i was the trouble maker, or the hindrance to their project as some miscommunication earlier that giving them the signal it was ok to go for it.

I am seriously thinking if it worthwhile to continue to be part of the committee in contrubuting in whatever way i could for the betterment of the place we call home?

I believe the most lethal weapon that can really kill a person is the words uttered, and i dont wish to be the victim of such device.

The Ice Melts

Lst night I had a good sleep after a few nights of late nights and bugging the Taman Lone Pine Security guards. Our gate crasher, Mr. N finally came and had a talk with us. He owns a unit at our Taman and he rents 2 units of shoplots. Theoratically he should have 5 access cards to enter and park at 5 parking lots. It since, our "devil"oper has cheated him out of 2 parking lots. Sad to say, that is his problem. Anyway, to cut a long story short, a compromise was reached, the Management Commitee representatives Mr. William and yours truly, agreed that he should write in to request for a longer time to drop off his materials instead of the standard 20 mintes.

Can you imagine, the residents and committee were clashing with Mr. N for the past 6 years over this when it could have been resolved by a single meeting. AHEM, of course this is subject to both parties holding up to their end of the bargain.

Now, our focus is to get the security and other service providers to come into line. Watch out for my next blog where I aim to fill you in on all the horror stories of security guards, their supervisor and the guys managing the company.