Why why why why why

At work, I often have to deal with customer issues. And it's interesting to see how customers from different customers react to issues differently. For European and North American countries, they just want the problem fixed as soon as possible. For The Chinese, they will squeeze you for a better deal next time.

And for the Japanese... If you have to handle a critical issue from them, good luck to you. They are very particular about quality and if they find an issue, they will make you to apply the "5 whys" in order to find why the issue happened. Because if you ask yourself why to every answer given, you'll be able to find the real root cause of the problem in order to fix it.

My sister got fascinated by that theory. So I gave her an example.

Me: Why did your car break down?
Sister: Because the tires got punctured.
Me: Why did the tires puncture?
Sister: Because I didn't pump air into my tires.
Me: Why didn't you pump air into your tires?
Sister: Because I was lazy.
Me: So root cause of your car breaking down is because you are lazy.

My sister played it back with me.

Sister: Why did you marry YH?
Hubby: oh, I want to hear this.
Me: Because I've been with him for so many years.
Sister: Why have you been with him for so many years? How can you stand him?
Me: Because he makes me laugh.
Sister: Why does he make you laugh?
Me: Because... Because.... He's like a monkey.
Sister: Why is he like a monkey?
Before I could reply, she burst out in hysterical laughter
Sister: Because he is a result to Darwin's evolution. So you married YH because he's a Darwin evolution from a monkey.

I guess it does make sense... I think. :)

The Shoe Story

Every now and then the hubby calls me just before I leave for work. "Eh, are you still at home? I forgot to bring my badge, can you bring it over to me?" Or it's his watch, or it's something else he forgot to bring to work. Once I had to cancel my morning meeting because he went to work having to give a presentation during a meeting and he forgot to bring his laptop. And it's me to the rescue again, despite the fact that I have my own meetings that I have to rush to.

Two weeks ago, he called me the in the morning again, just before I was about to leave for work.

Hubby: Eh Mindy ah, are you still at home?

Me: Ya, what did you forgot to bring this time?

Hubby: Can you go to the shoe rack? And bring me my leather shoe.

Me: Huh? You want me to bring you your shoes? What's wrong with the one you're wearing?

Hubby: I wore the brown one and the black one

Me: *confused*, Huh? What do you mean?

I walked over to the shoe rack, saw one side of the brown Croc shoe and one side of the block leather shoe.

Me: You..... hahahahaha... wore.... hahahahha.... one side..... hahahahah..... of each shoe..... hahahahaha..... to work??????

Hubby: Ya.... quickly come over and bring me my shoe. Or not I don't dare to leave my cubicle.

Me: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Hubby: Quickly come ah okay,I'm in a meeting now. Bye.

Me: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I had to cancel my morning meeting again to deliver one side of my husband's shoes to him. But this time it was worth it. I was practically crying from laughing too much the whole journey to work.

And just when I finally managed to calm myself from laughing, I saw the hubby running out of his office, wearing his brown croc shoe and black leather shoe. Hysterical laughter started again.

I love my hubby. After all the years, he is still so entertaining.

:)

I'm no fake okay

The hubby recently told me that there's a stall near his mum's stall that sells fake branded handbags. He asked me whether I wanted one. I told him that I rather carry a cheaper Vinci or Charles and Keith bag rather than carry a fake branded bag. I'm not brand conscious. As long as it looks nice and it's not a fake, I'll be happy with it. And I always only have one handbag which I use until it's torn and tattered before buying a new one.

I went into the Coach shop in Gurney for the first time, curious to how much a bag would cost, so that I had something to compare to when I go to the Coach shops in U.S. next month. I'm already getting orders from others to bring back Coach bags and I just can't understand why women are so in love with Coach. I looked at the prices, almost RM2K for a bag, ridiculous!! The small bags cost RM725, my sister bought me one in U.S. last year for around RM100.

Anyway, yesterday morning the hubby pissed me off in the morning and then he left to help his mum at the stall. I went back to sleep and woke up to a over-excited jetlagged sister barging into my room who just came back from at a 36 hour journey from Chicago. She bought me this nice denim Cotton On shorts for guess how much..... USD2~~~~ * squealing and jumping in excitement over the bargain*

While I was sitting in her room watching her unpack all the goodies she brought back from U.S., the hubby came home. Soon after, the excitement died down and I was on the sofa watching T.V. The hubby suddenly passed me a plastic bag with a bag inside and said, "Nah I bought this for you".

I opened it and there was a Coach bag inside and I was like, "Huh???". The hubby never buys me anything, and suddenly he buys me this fake Coach bag from the stall next to his mum's? He asked whether I liked it, said he bought it for RM55 after bargaining from RM80 and asked whether it was worth it. At that very moment, many thoughts were running in my head.

 "Crap, he bought me a fake bag"
"How can he buy me a fake bag after I told him I don't like to carry fake goods? Why doesn't he listen to me?"
"It's probably because he felt guilty for making angry this morning"
"Awww... he looks so proud of himself for buying a handbag for me"
"Nevermind, smile and pretend you like it. Then chuck into the cupboard once he forgets about it"

Through my fake smile I said, "Yesss.... very worth it". Pretended to pose in front of the mirror with the bag to make him feel proud that despite being a male, he still has the ability to pick a bag which his wife would like.

Then I started getting fascinated with how much effort the manufacturer put in to make the bag real. "Wah, they actually bother to put in a manual on how to look after the bag" and then I left the manual on the sofa. "Not bad ah, they actually can fake the leather smell so well".

I went into my room to take out the small Coach bag my sister bought me last year which I never used and started comparing the two bags. The style of the stitching was identical, and I was impressed. But then I looked into the bag and saw loose threads and was thinking, "Ha, they make the outside look so real, but inside it doesn't look so real".

After a while I suddenly notice the hubby and sister looking like that were going to burst from laughter. The hubby asked me, "What if I told you the bag was real?". I said, "If the bag is real, I'll kick your *toot* for spending so much money." I saw both of them crack up in laughter and I suddenly got confused.

I challenged him back, "If the bag is real, it will come with a Coach paper bag. You gave it to me in some market plastic bag."  The hubby went into my sister's room and came out with a Coach plastic bag. I, thinking that Coach plastic bag was from my sister's previous U.S. trip last year, was still convinced that he was lying. I turned to my sister and saw that, she had a strange look on her face.

I suddenly put two and two together. The hubby asked my sister to buy a Coach bag from U.S. for me and they had planned this over the last few weeks when my sister was still in U.S.

Suddenly there was light shinning on the bag in my hands and it started sparkling in beauty. And I went to the mirror and started posing with the bag for real. I quickly went back to the sofa where I left the manual and put it back into my bag. Eh... the manual is also authentic Coach okay, no longer just a normal piece of card.

The hubby and sister spent the next half an hour laughing over the stupid comments I made. When I said, "they can fake the leather smell so well", my sister had to rush to the balcony so that I couldn't see her laughing.

The hubby said it was so funny that it was worth the money he spent on the bag. He said, it proved his theory that woman, including his wife who just a while ago boosted that she is not brand conscious, still in fact go for branded stuff.

It's okay, I'll let them make fun of me. I just had a stupid grin the whole day because my hubby bought a real Coach bag for me.

:)

Good food, gorgeous view

The weekend