Entry Five

Sautern, I am glad to say, is composed of some very talented youths. I am however probably the exception to this. I am the newest recruit and this is my first post on behalf of this nascent venture, and I am to be Ju Ping's temp when he's off to fulfil his obligation as a Malaysian.

As Ju Ping blogged about in the previous post, I was a part of last week's meeting in Gurney. Today however, the guys decided to conduct our meeting in a traditional coffee shop in Balik Pulau (owing to the fact that Chong Yang and Ju Ping live around that region, making it more convenient). The place was certainly a 180 from the swanky confines of Starbucks (and no WiFi too), nevertheless what it lacks in style and packaging, it more than makes up in charm and quaintness. We literally went over mountain and dale to get to Balik Pulau, and as Tommy commented, we will probably go through more strange routes in the future to accomplish our goals. I figure this figuratively describes what we are trying to accomplish here.

Since we had no WiFi access there, our discussions were basically updates on Sautern (they were mostly filling me in). Possible and imagined problems were also brought to the table and thrashed out. Tommy also gave us some examples of some scenarios and we managed to extract some ideas about what not to do. Some suggestions about the website were worked out with Chong Yang.

The business end over, we went over to Ju Ping's house for a short visit. First appearances doesn't do his abode justice. Upon closer inspection, it revealed a few experiment Ju Ping is working on. Seems like our friend here is quite the mad scientist qith plants. He also showed us his staff collection and gave us a staff twirling demonstration that sent us scrambling for cover. As if a staff is not intimidating enough, he even has a big bad dog, and a black one at that. Ok, it wasn't bad, just big and black, and surprisingly approachable.

As I said though, it was a short visit, and pretty soon Tommy was ferrying me and Chong Yang all the way to the other side of the island in the trusty Myvi (the guy doesn't even mind the oil price increase). My day with the founders of Sautern officially ended with me being dropped off at my place.