Nice Pyramid. Sunway Pyramid.

During one of my lunch break recently, I had the chance to have a quick walk around Sunway Pyramid. Again, despite this still being November, the Xmas decorations at the mall was already in full swing. One of the corner foyer - Sunway Pyramid has four such foyers, located at the edges of the square-shaped mall - was packed to the brim with decorations.

It was a mini grotto, complete with a stage for Santa of course and snowman, with fake snow of course. Very nice. It looked like the Xmas decorations this time around would be grander than both Chinese New Year and Hari Raya. Signs of the economy recovering maybe.

The list of activities were not yet out, but I could imagine there would be carol-singing and Santa making appearances. As we would be spending a week in December at Sunway during the school break, we may be able to explore this a bit more, or even venture towards iCity in Shah Alam. Apparently they have an outdoor snow show thee next month. Looking forward to that.

Take a Bow

As customary, the last few days at school would be prize-giving and party. As for both Idlan and Irfan, the party came first. The prize-giving happened on the very last day of school, last Friday morning.

It started off with the speechesIrfan at the front rowIdlan was practically jumping up and down as his name was readCareful not to drop those certs ....I managed to drop by before starting my clinic. As Irfan has another year in kindy, he was not on stage. There were no prizes for them. It was Idlan who got a few and was gleaming and grinning on stage as his name was read. Irfan was looking on at the front row, clapping as his brother bowed on stage. I was sure he was planning for his prizes in a couple of years time.

Steve Jobs Done

After a weekend where I only managed a couple of chapters, I decided to cheat. I bought the audio version of the book from Audible and listen to it commuting to work. I then managed to finish the book within a couple of weeks. The whole audiobook was about 24 hours long from start to finish, over three chapters.

How did I find the book? To say that it was a real biography would be premature as Jobs is a private man and his life story were only told in tidbits. There was nothing to compare this book to and that made it difficult to just take all been written as fact. It was difficult to ascertain if the stories were narratives or told in the author's perspective. maybe in the next five or so years, we would learn a bit more. And this book would be a great reference to a more definitive read.

This was more a collection of anecdotes of the great man's life. There were many interesting stories in there, giving an interesting perspective to the enigma that was Steve Jobs. He was clearly not an easy man to cope with. A very difficult father and husband, but no doubt he is a legend. He transformed Apple into a tech leader. Twice.

There were also accusation in the online community about why Isaacson was picked as the writer in the first place? Was it because he is from the outside? Was it so that he would be able to see past the technical aspects of Apple creations and understood the flaws? Was he just merely a conduit to more Jobs propaganda? This just all add up to an interesting chemistry.

I would definitely recommend the book not just to all Apple fanboys or girls, but to anybody interested in tech. There were many to be learned about the tech industry here. How everybody were interconnected. And how much Jobs was an inspiration to the current crop of tech greats, as well as the old familiar faces like Bill Gates. They had a mutual respect to each other and it was great to read about how close they become towards the end.

Next read, Gary Neville autobiography. Unfortunately, there was no audiobook for that particular story.

Happy Birthday Old Boy

It was a hectic afternoon yesterday with stops in the ward, followed by a visit to my friend's birthday barbecue and picking up my sister at the airport on her return from Disneyland Hong Kong.

The birthday boy was Syahril, my roommate from Sheffield. Currently, he is a Neurosurgeon in UKM Medical Center. He was away in England on his last birthday and today, he invited us over for his barbecue. But since I was heading to airports straight after, I had to come alone.

No. He did not have wagyu beef for the barbecue. But the dessert was expertly prepared by his wife. A couple of items - cream caramel and Oreo cheesecake. Heaven!

A Talk with a Difference

I was invited to attend a lecture last Friday evening. it was organised by one of the Pharmaceutical company and it was a talk with a difference. The speaker was from France. And he was speaking from France. It was the first time which I attended a talk via Skype and it worked a treat. Not only that money was saved from having to fly the speaker over, it would also save everybody time.

The talk was held at KL Hilton and luckily, the hotel broadband system worked well. There were no delay, despite the audio and video of the speaker was transmitted in real time. Even more impressive, the slides were also controlled by the speaker, and it was also down the pipeline from there.

At the end, we also had the chance to ask him question, although due to a lack of a webcam - the organiser should have really used a Mac, the speaker was not able to see us. He heard us alright however.

The evening started with case presentations from three Senior Haematologists. Great cases, although it lacked balance since all three were from the private sector. In terms of geography, it was spot on however. The speakers were from Penang, Kuching and Kuala Lumpur. The French speaker were not hooked up to listen to those presentations however, as it would have interesting to hear his take on things.

So, who finished the snack?The talk came with a dinner. It was a Western affair. A three course meal, served on the table. As I arrived late, I was not able to enjoy much of the food. The talks got my attention however, and by the time I reached home, I was starving.

Kudos to the organiser for coming up with such arrangement. Personally, this was more economical in terms of time and money. Maybe they should try "Go To Meeting" next time around.