I almost feel bad for not blogging.

Just so you know, it's not that I've been sitting here on my thumb.  I am actually quite in a bit of a stress zone working on two whole albums; one for Faizal Tahir and one for Ning Baizura.  Two very different kinds of albums and two very different singers.  I am insanely grateful that they are both fantastic vocalists!

Also, I am working on three songs for the Siti Nurhaliza and Krisdayanti duet album.  This one, I am almost afraid because I've never worked with Krisdayanti before and the fact that she is a huge star makes me nervous to the point that I want to pee in my pants.

All in all, I am excited and amazed that I get to do this.  Praise God!  Alhamdullilah.  Hallelujah.

The good news is that the studio address isn't blacklisted by McDonald's for delivery.

The not-so-good news is Faizal was hungry during our recording session today and I caved in out of desperation and ordered McDonald's. Just so you know, I just had one nugget. It will never happen again.

The McDonald's embargo is still on.

I was recording Shila last night on October 7. She was hungry and needed food.

So we ordered McDonald's at the studio. We placed the order around 11 pm. After 45 mins, we made calls and finally, the order arrives at 12.30 am!

To cut a long story short, I told the delivery guy that I was going to take the food and I was not going to pay for it. If they wanted payment, I told him to get his manager to come see me at the studio the next day.

This is NOT an anti-McDonald's movement. I love McDonald's! I just want a delivery time commitment.

Do they seriously expect me to pay for the food after such poor service?

And what was their excuse? Understaffed. Why is that my problem? The least they could have done was to call me to tell me that the order will be late.

I am sure I am not the only one who gets this bad service. No matter how late our order arrives, we quietly pay for it and then complain about to the person next to us who doesn't really want to listen to it.

So, today, I am making a stand for the little people.

McDonald's! Make a delivery time commitment. If Domino's can do it, so can you!

Until then, I am not going to order from, or eat at McDonald's anymore. (Cheers of joy from my mother, wife, and doctor!) And worse for you, I am going to spread the word. Ask anyone who knows me, when I am on a mission....

A delivery time commitment! How about it? It will only make you a better company!

And while I am on it, I would also like to fight for ventilation of the french fries. No one like soggy fries!

By the way, in case you're wondering why the sudden interest in vegetable gardening? It's because of this.In my efforts to compost, this papaya plant grew out of the papaya seeds I was trying to compost. How cool is that?

It begins now. I am all set for my vegetable garden. As it turns out, I have to get a whole load of stuff before I can even start plant. It's not just throwing the seeds onto dirt and watching it grow. I've spent over RM100 so far. And I am thinking, I can actually buy a lot of broccoli with RM100. So we will see. I will report future developments.

All of a sudden, last night, I felt a panic attack. I realised that it was already the middle of September. And I have less than 2 months to produce two very important albums on top of the several other singles I have to do as well. I am grateful and tru....

Wait...

I am not sure but I think I know what a heart attack feels like.

I mentioned that one can tell something about the philosophy of the company based on how they managed their car park. Let me explain.

Way back when...about ten years ago when I was still in the book business, I visited many of our clients in the Bayan Lepas Free Trade Zone in Penang. They range from huge multinationals from the US, Europe, Japan, and Malaysia.

There are differences in building design, work flow, protocol, and simple things like how efficient or capable the receptionist is. But one thing that struck me was the parking.

For most European companies, the parking bays closest to the lobby entrance was usually reserved for visiting guests. Yes! Reserved for the visiting guests and customers! What a concept.

For most Asian companies, those lots are usually reserved for the CEO or VIP. Even when you go drive into multi-storey parking lots, the more accessible floors are reserved for their employees. Customers or visitors usually have to go way up or way down for parking.

I was reminded of this today when I visited the Digi offices. They get your car number before the meeting and my number car is registered with their security. I drive up and they know who I am and I park up front near the lobby entrance. It was so efficient that I almost wanted to cry.

So impresses me that such companies actually mean it when they say that their customers come first.

This is the new song for Siti I was telling you about. It's freaking me out because it's a last minute decision for it to be the first single. I am not completely totally comfortable with it because I did not spend as much time as I normally would with a song AFTER I record the vocals. I am very happy and proud of this song but somehow, deep deep deep deep deeeeeeeeeeeeeep down inside, I know that if I had had more time, it would sound different. Not necessarily better, just different.

I am very surprised and glad that Siti recorded this song because I didn't think her camp would record it, let alone make it a single. It's the same kind of surprise that a rock-ish song could be a patriotic song. But life is like that.

So I hope this song works for Siti and it becomes a big hit for her. Otherwise, she might hate me and never ask me for songs ever again.

Kupercaya Ada Cinta - Siti Nurhaliza

Whatever it is, I will never do a song like this again. It's just technically way too much trouble.