Langkawi! That's were I have been vegetating for the past few days. Isolated on an island far far away, with the greens, the sun, sea and sand - disconnected from the everyday life. This place brings back fond memories and is also the place where it all started. A year ago on the same month, I came here on my first day of work with this company. It was an exciting experience for me.Now after a year, we're back to have more fun! Unlike previous year, we are given more time for ourselves. There will be no rehearsals for singing and dancing *Phewh! The YMCS (Why MCS?) gig can really give newbies a traumatic experience*. We are only required to attend a half-day meeting and we are free for the rest of the trip. Yeah! Total relaxation!
I was initially planning to travel light - just pack some clothes and go, but on the eve of the trip, I got a call informing me that I will need to do a Vista and Office 2007 demo on the first day. It was part of the Vista and Office 2007 Quiz Challenge competition that I had casually participated a few weeks back. So what to do? Lug my notebook along lor.
With such a short notice, I really had no idea what to demo. I was thinking of Office SharePoint Server or maybe InfoPath but then I only have 10 minutes to present. To avoid all the hassle of switching OSes in the presentation, I just settled with demonstrating some new styling features in the Office 2007 clients.As for Vista, I didn't want to do the standard feature demo and so, I cooked up something more exciting (but more risky). It was because of these demo preparations that I didn't had the time to enter some pre-trip entries to my blog.
We are flying with AirAsia again, but this year they are operating from the new Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT). Our tour agent has arranged a shuttle service to take us there but I have decided to go there on my own since it doesn't make sense for me to rush down to the city centre at peak hour. My house is already half-way to the airport, so, I might as well take a cab instead.
The taxi-fare cost RM47. Come to think of it, that's even more expensive than the airfare! It was advertised in the newapapers that AirAsia were offering airfares to Langkawi at RM0.99 (promotional price). *Crazy or what?!*Woke up early in the morning, did some last minute packing and before I know it, the cab was already here. I didn't even have time to take some photographs before I leave. Sigh! There goes my documentary.
When I reached the airport, the cab driver asked me for RM53 and I told him that I was was told the fare was RM47. He then replied, "RM47 tu KLIA." I didn't have loose change and he is willing to settle for RM50. Did I kena ripped-off or what?
After loitering around in the airport, I got an SMS from mom, "So, how's the LCCT? Is it lousy?". I took a look around and the first impression I got was that it reminds me of the old Terminal 3 in Subang airport but with some touch-ups. There were lots of people and very limited chairs. There is a McD there and a few food outlets. You definitely can't compare it with an International airport.
I continue to lepak around with my colleagues until it is time to board the plane. The boarding process was a bit cumbersome. My advice is to always have your NRIC ready (like your passport) cos you are required to show it gazillion times. Also, do handle the boarding pass with care. It feels very fragile and can be easily damaged.At the boarding gate, we saw this cute little Boeing 737 that we will be flying in. It's amazing how airplanes had evolved. Everyone started to queue up to board the plane and there was a long queue at the tail entrance.
Then one of my colleagues asked, "Why everyone is boarding from the tail when there is another entrance in front?". We paused for a while and gave it a thought, "Yahor! Low cost carriers got no first class wan hor." So, we boarded from the front.
I must say that it is damn bloody warm in the airplane and the air-conditioning is useless. I was fanning myself for the entire journey. The seats were modified to have 6 per row instead of 4 and we were all cramped up like sardines. *I missed the 777* Anyway, can't complain.We landed after an hour and was transported to the hotel by coach. As you can see, Tanjung Rhu is located at the North of the island and it took us about half-an-hour to get there. It also started to rain while we were travelling.
When we reached the hotel in the afternoon, I was told that my room wasn't ready, so, I went straight to lunch at The Sands restaurant. There were so many new colleagues that I have not met before, so many interns. I felt like a semi-stranger. *Did I just join this company again or what?* Most of the tables were fully taken but I found one which is a two seater. I sat there in solitude until Dr. Wong came to join me.
Then, I got a call from Kim, my colleague, to remind me that I need to dry-run my demo. I quickly went back to the reception and was happy to know that my room is ready. This time, I got a room on the 3rd floor. *Wah-Sai* Have to climb up flights of stairs - no breathe liow. I quickly settled down and changed into something more comfy before I sat there to toy with my demo.
It was at the company meeting that me and another colleague, a senior consultant, will do a demo shoot-out. *Pang* *Pang* *Pang* My colleague was asked to start first and he did a great job in demonstrating some of the basic features of Vista (just as I expected! *Snort* *Snort*) and Office 2007. I was kinda worried when some of his Office demos were overlapping with mine.
When it was my turn, I went up to the stage and booted-up my Vista, then I switched to the projector and *BaNG*, the projector went into 8-bit display. Everyone was boo-ing already. *Die lah like this.* So, we asked the audience to take a break while we fix the technical problems. *I very worried liow*. When the audience returned, everything was back to normal. *Phewh*
I began my demo by showing how to use conditional formatting in Excel 2007, then followed by Smart Art in PowerPoint 2007 and ended with Style Sets and Themes in Word 2007. Then I proceeded with my Vista demo. Calmly, I clear my throat, held on to my desktop microphone and said "Start Listening".
My computer went *Bing!* and Windows Speech Recognition was activated. By now, can see some awed faces already. I went on to open up Wordpad, Notepad and Office Word, and start switching between them using voice commands. *Audiences' eyes big-big already* I proceeded to do the entire demo using voice commands, despite my cough and _still_ sexy voice.
The demo was very well received although not perfect. I had mentioned upfront that it will be a natural usage demonstration and is not meant to be perfect, where mistakes will be corrected on the fly. I was a bit worried though in my dictation demo when I said, "Dear mum" and it came out "Your mum". *Vista wanna get me killed izzit by sending regards to people's mother?* But luckily, it behave when I scolded the fella with the "Correct That" and "Delete That" commands. *HeHe*
The dictation for "How are you doing back in KL?" and "I'm enjoying myself here in Langkawi" both came out successfully. People were amazed how it could recognized KL and Langkawi. *They donno what I fed my computer with that night - HeHe* Like all Vista demos, Flip3D is a must and I ended the presentation by doing Flip3D using speech recognition. *Mun Lei Sei Mei* The crowd really went wild.
With such an awesome demo, I was voice-voted as the winner of the competition and the grand prize I won was a ...
WoOHoO! Happy siow already!!!
to be continued...
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