Positive Potential

WEDNESDAY, MAY 28, 2008

Over the last week, i had been moody and unhappy for many reasons. When i decided to let it go and focus on present while i am in the present, i realized this is life. Sometime up and sometimes down. However, we should enjoy what we have and don't be too upset about what already happened and what has not yet happened. Take what you experienced as a lesson and focus on what you are doing for the present and future, do not concern much about the future.

When i look at my present i can see positive things i have which makes me more happy and less sad. I have a warm family, i have friends, good friends and closed friends though sometimes i still feel lonely. I'm not rich but i have a good job which i like and i can earn enough to support myself. I don't have money to continue my study but i can try to improve my academic skills and apply for scholarships hope to be awarded for one of those.

Today i had a meeting with our important managers and some managers and staff from our associated company. During and after the meeting i can sense the positive potential opportunities for our companies and me. I feel i am getting more into a real business environment, administration and management.

Nevertheless, i'm having a tough time which i have to challenge with many tasks and responsibilities while having little time. Everyone is too busy with big and urgent projects so that only me have to make everything ready for our new office and new company. For office i have to design the building, lighting, showroom... for new company i have to plan for the business and marketing as well as sales. I think i'll go crazy soon. I like to be busy though when it's stressful i'm dying for a vacation.

In this pictures are the products we sell. They are the high technology materials and high quality made by the well known and reputable international company.


Seeing this photo it reminds me of my first step of my improvement, effort and development.

My first time that i was sent to abroad for training by the company.


The question is, should i focus on my career alone or on education alone? At the moment i'm putting my effort on both career and education. I think i can give up neither of them. Career is for my family business and my future, education is for my self-development and future. I dropped my gym and take TOEFL iBT course, expecting to get a band score of 110 while the scholarship requires 100. I'm so excited for having a class. I like studying.
Why i am talking about future again? Shouldn't i concern about present rather than future? Yes! i am doing for my present, however, this present will result in the future.

Rainbow on last day of my gym

SUNDAY, MAY 25, 2008

Today is the last day i went to my gym, because i will have TOEFL preparation course next two weeks. In this two weeks time i have no idea what to do after work. Home early and read....
It had been a good day, yet not a good time. I stayed up until 2AM last night and woke up at 9AM this morning. I went to my gym at 2:30 and did a lot of exercises and swam. It was a bit rain this afternoon and surprisingly there was a rainbow appeared right in front of my gym. It was beautiful!
The rainbow was just right in front of me. I could not help to take photos of it.

One side of the rainbow was exactly on the boat.

Not happy... try to be happy!

MONDAY, MAY 19, 2008

Recently, I feel light and can't stop thinking of everything. I might know the reason or might not. I feel incomplete and always try to smile in front of people, as i always do. Nobody usually knows when i'm sad. People say i'm a happy boy.

I always try to entertain myself. Now i came up with writing this note about my good weekend.
On Saturday i got an excuse to leave my work at 4PM. Then i went to T&Coffee Olympic with Jerry and I told Daniel to come there instead of seeing me at my office as we agreed.
After drop Jerry home, Daniel and I went to gym for an hour then we went to have dinner at Garden Centre Café. We had Mexican food. What Daniel had was what my mom cooks sometimes. At the same time, I remembered Victoria's Mexican food... then was the first day i got to know her and her lovely family.

What i found it was funny, the signs on the restroom doors.
The funny sign on the WC doors.

This pictures below taken by Jerry at my office. I'm studying how to set up and operate a home intelligent system devices that we are installing for Institute Paster de Cambodge.
Testing the Remote Control of Home Intelligent System

It works! Yay! But still there's a long way to go. Note yet successful.

100% Hip Hop

THURSDAY, MAY 15, 2008

It became a habit that Mark and I have dinner together every Thursday. We try different restaurants and different food. We went for Indian food, Khmer Creative, and this Thursday we went for Malaysian but the place didn't look encouraging enough so we went to Vietnamese near there.

The food was good and similar to Chinese food. After that i went to Chaktomuk theater to see the 100% Hip Hop that performed by three groups. Two were Cambodian groups and the last was French.

It was impressive and i'm so proud of my people. We have many of our great traditional dances, and we also can perform well the Hip Hop which is the recent popular western dance.

I liked the second group a lot. They danced for about 15 minutes and every second they caught every single audience's attention and impression.

I will give more information about the performances and the dancers under each photos below.

Nadork the Cambodian group was on the first performance. Danced about 10 minutes in Monkey style Hip Hop. This group is quite famous and they have performed for many occasions, that included Cambodiana Beach Party in March 2008.

Second Cambodian group which i hate myself for could not remember their group name. I like this group very much. In their performance, they showed many interesting styles and every member was so great.


This kid was so funny. He spoke French a lot to a foreigner sit next to me who doesn't speak only English. The kid talked none stop and play a lot to the guy, but the guy could only laugh at him. The kid call him Papa, and he hid then popped up said "Oh la la" all the time (like hide and seek game). The English man wondered what were the boy talking about.... and i could understand some only according to my poor French language. However, the boy was a good kid, he stopped playing when the show started. And he played again during the break.


Now enjoy the video.

Mother's Day 2008

SUNDAY, MAY 11, 2008

I used to try to make a pancake a couple months ago, and i was supervised by Tara (She knows how to make good cakes).
This Sunday is Mother's day, and i made pancakes for the whole family including our house helpers, there were ten people.

I'm glad that my pancakes didn't turn out bad. They were nice! I used ice cream, sugar and lemon for topping.






It was inconvenient for preparing for me, because I rarely work in our kitchen. Thus, i don't know where i can find what i need.

My pancakes didn't look nice and they came in different shapes. Moreover, the color on each looked like a map.

One piece topping was sugar and lemon, tasted interesting. Another piece topping was blueberry ice cream, tasted sweet (I don't like too sweet).

My mom was shy when i did this and my sister took this picture.

My nieces Marie and Martine wanted to eat the cakes, they promised me since Saturday to be good for a whole day. They could not do as good as they promised. Kid is still a kid.

Neighbor's House was on Fire

SUNDAY, MAY 11, 2008

This morning i got an emergency call from Gina (who was my lecturer at UC and became my closed friend) in a bit early morning while i was still sleeping. I didn't open my eyes but tried to grab my phone and answered the call. She alerted our friend Rath's house was on fire. I then quick got up and put my cloth on, and drove off without have my teeth brushed.

On the half way there were some policemen blocked the read, but i gave them a sign that that was my house. Then the policemen allowed me to go through.
However, there was another block from the fire about 50 meters. This time i couldn't get through so i parked my car there and run to place. When i arrived there i felt much relieved because i saw there were 10 fire trucks there and the flame had been put off. I could only see the big smoke plus my friend's house was fine. The fire was on the second floor on the left and her house was on the ground floor.

I met her and her family there, with some of our friends Gina, Chantha and Sokly. Everything was under control and everyone was fine. We then started to talk and laugh........ my friend was brave that she was not too nervous and drove her car away from the dangerous place. What was funny, she was still in her sleeping robe.






The fire was on Norodom Blvd in front PUC.

Chili Ice Cream... Weird!!!

WEDNESDAY, MAY 07, 2008

I already met Daniel’s girlfriend Brandy on the night at Ryan’s post birthday, but we didn’t talk much as I met many of our friends there. Many people many conversations. It was good that Daniel asked me to have lunch with him and Brandy so that we could talk more and got to know more about each other. We had our lunch at Java Café where was a western style and expensive. Nevertheless, I’ve been there three times already. First, at the night they launched new menu and it was free. Then was the first time I hang out with Daniel after met each other at our gym after a few days. That night, it was also I first met Ryan. Second time I went to Java was when Daniel and I went there for a cup of coffee and Daniel picked up his Christmas Cookies.

On the same day in the evening, I went to dinner with Mark at a NGO’s restaurant names Rom Deng – Khmer Creative Cuisine. The food was great, service was good, atmosphere was nice but the value was expensive.

The food we had was delicious but the dessert I had was weird…. Yeah it was that was why I ordered it because I want to know more about it than its name on the menu.

It was Coconut Gelato with Pineapple and Chili Sorbet. What? Ice cream but chili? It was not spicy though, it was sweetless and sour. I didn’t like it a lot, anyway.

Forgot to mention about the price. This crazy ice cream was 4$. I would rather eat Swensen's Ice Cream which would be only 2.50$. Anyway, it's a NGO's restaurant i'm fine with that.... hope all the income they get will go for their charity purposes.

Rainy Season

TUESDAY, MAY 06, 2008

It's funny. We left the all cars' doors opened to dry up from the inside because last night there was a flood everywhere and it was so much water.
I was stuck in the middle of a crowded and flood road. I could not move and my gas was running out. The flood and gas could kill my car engine any minute. Fortunately i made it to a gas station and got home safely.

I will remember not to leave the gas empty again plus whenever there's a flood and crowded on the road, i would rather stay in the office until at least 7PM then i'll go home.

Cambodain Way & Western Way

MONDAY, MAY 05, 2008

It was Ryan’s post birthday. In Cambodian way, if you are invited to the birthday party or dinner you don’t have to pay for the dinner but you should have a present for the birthday. In western way, your friends will pay everything for you on your birthday but they may not have a present for you. However, as for me, I would be happy enough just to have some friends remember my birthday and send me a text. I used to be so upset on my birthday last few years ago; because none of my friends remembered it was my birthday. I kept staring at my phone I put on table if I would get a text, but none. I felt I was not import to anyone at all, especially my best friend who I always had something for him on his birthday. Well… actually he never celebrated any event (but he never forgot his girlfriend’s birthday though).

It was Ryan’s post birthday because on his birthday last week he was not well so we delayed it until this week. The arrangement was to meet and eat fast food at Lucky Burger around 6PM, and then followed by bowling at Park Way at 6:30PM. Finally, Dark Chocolate Cheese Cake at Tara and Tricia’s house.

I already planned to have Korean food with Jerry, so I didn’t for Lucky Burger. After work I went to Han Kook Kwan where is a Korean restaurant at Tol Tom Pong with Jerry, his wife and her sister. The food was quite expensive but I like it because there were a lot of vegetables and healthy food. Jerry doesn’t like Korean food because it doesn’t taste right to him and he doesn’t like vegetable though he really should eat them more.

Korean food always starts up with many of these vegetable dishes.

Seeing Jerry's face, i can tell he doesn't like Korean food because he doesn't like vegetable.

Ryan’s following up for bowling was delayed half an hour so I left the restaurant after 7:00PM and headed to Park Way. I hadn’t play bowling for a pretty long time, but I still wasn’t bad. I made high scores and didn’t embarrass myself. At the end when we were about to leave, my matches Steve, Tricia and I made fun and fool around. We rolled with our left hands and both hands and both hands but turned back to the target.

After the bowling we went to Tara and Tricia’s house and ate the Cheese Cake made by Tara. She knows how to bake cakes and they are good. She baked Cheese Cake on Daniel’s birthday and this time she baked Chocolate Cheese Cake on Ryan’s birthday which was nice. I wish I had a girlfriend and she was as nice as Tara :-D

2:30AM, a Big Dinner, Night Club and KTV

SATURDAY, MAY 03, 2008

I have never been out until 2:30AM before. It was exciting and a lot of fun, though it was not my type and there was something upsets me.

On Monday, my brother in law’s brother Touch and his wife Py will flight back to France. Thus, on Saturday evening we had a family dinner at Kiwi where is my favorite middle class restaurant.
I had a fun time there and enjoyed the delicious food. Since going to the gym I try to eat a lot healthy food, and now I realized my stomach has been bigger and I have to eat more than before just for a meal to fill my stomach.

Since I applied for a scholarship to study at University of Hawaii, I have been inspired a lot. In my head there is always Hawaii. At the dinner I ordered a nonalcoholic cocktail which was “Hawaiian Island”. It was just a fruit shack of pineapple and milk.

After the dinner we went to Golden Town for dance and karaoke. In the night club I saw there were so many pretty girls sitting behind the entrance waiting to serve men come for drink and dance. As I was there with family, those girls didn’t approach me but they keep looking at me and smiled. Some of them couldn’t take an eye off me and peeking sometimes while I was sitting in our table.

I like it when I can see many pretty girls like that, but this is not my type and I feel sad when I see girls work at that kind of place. If they were not poor and/or could effort to get a better education, they would not have to work as beer-girls, karaoke girls and night club girls. I wonder how those men could enjoy having fun with those girls. Some men are thoughtful and respectful, but some just want to have fun and treat those girls as toys.

In the restroom, there was a man standing nearby the tissue paper and handing people the paper with a very low bow. We are supposed to give him tip actually. I hope he could earn enough to support his family.

Anyway, I was there with my family and I enjoyed the music and I danced a lot. I was happy that in the club they played all kind of music including Khmer Dances that we have at a traditional party or event. There were many people at all ages. Interestingly, everyone danced even those at late 40 years old.

I am happy to see my country and my people are happy and enjoy their lives. The economy is getting better and people can effort to have fun. However, the gap between poor and rich is still far away.

After the dance, we continued to sing karaoke up stair. It was the best place among the other places i have been. They have all of the songs that we wanted to sing. It was my longest KTV time i ever had. We sang until 2:30AM as the club closed at that time. I think we might had been still there if the club closes later.
I did enjoy the KTV though i am bad at singing. Not only i don't know many songs, my voice is also bad. Every time i go to KTV i don't sing a lot.

Mount Everest Indian Restaurant

THURSDAY, MAY 1, 2008

It wasn't my first time to go to an Indian restaurant, but this time was much better than the previous time.

Mark and I went to Mount Everest where is along Sihanouk Blvd. It was funny that the owner of the restaurant welcomed us by putting his hands together the same way like Cambodian, but with his head moving left and right twice that Indian always do so. The decoration in the house was nice and not too bright. The food i got was Tomato Ka Shorba which was a bowl soup. For drink i got Mixed Fruit Lassi which was mango the main fruit and mixed with some others.

When i was in Singapore i happened to had my breakfast at an Indian café and it was awful. I thought i would not like Indian food anymore...... but now i think Indian food isn't that bad. I just went to the wrong place in Singapore.

I was surprised when i looked at my watch when we left the restaurant. It was almost 8PM and we arrived there at 5:30PM. We were there for two and half hours. It was too long for a dinner! But i didn't think we annoy anybody nor the manager at the restaurant as there were not many people and if we had left, it would became too quiet for a restaurant :-D