Ramblings of seaqueen

Understanding and Remembering

2009-08-26T19:31:00.000-07:00

Many a times I've made countless of mistakes be it in taking up a new employment or even to picking the right shoes and even as an adult sometimes I don't learn from the mistakes. Sometimes arrogance take the lead and sometimes forgetfulness tends to rear it's head too.

There are times when I sit back and I think back to the mistakes that I made and at this age of mine I slowly begin to understand that a lot of situations that we go through, mistakes that we unintentionally make are all part of a learning curve that God wants us to go through. My daily prayers consist of asking for patience and God doesn't deliver it on a silver platter. I know that the Bible always tells us that God works in mysterious ways, that whatever we ask for, He always imparts lessons to us before that. Sad to say, I always overlook the lesson part until it's over.

Even simple matters like buying shoes. I've always had a proclivity for beautiful and crazily high heels. Luckily I never buy them cos I know I'll never wear them. One reason being I don't think I can balance that well and second because I think I'll kill myself rather than wear something so uncomfortable but look sexy in it. In the past month, I've bought 3 pairs of shoes. Each time when I try them on, they're perfect but after taking them home and wearing them for a couple of hours, my feet starts to blister and I know I've made the wrong choice. Why I keep choosing the wrong shoes I still can't understand. It always feels so comfortable when I try them on, walking a bit around the boutique to get the feel but I guess, some shoes are just not meant for me. Be it, flats, ballerina look alike shoes or even open toe shoes. That's just shoes.

Not counting other major decisions in life that I've got to make that sometimes I wish would be easily made. Part of being an adult that I totally abhor at times.

Having the time to make decisions and to think back, I realised that I need a stronger understanding and also remembering factor in my life especially on lessons learnt. That way, I won't make the same faux pas again the next time.

What is your price?

2009-08-21T00:17:00.000-07:00

I had a very funny dialogue session with a friend a couple of days ago. We were talking shop, bullshitting about nothing then he suddenly asked me, "What is your price?" I never thought it would mean anything, but he meant it in another way. As in, if someone would have offered me a price for a night with a man what would it be? I've never thought I'd ever resort to that. NO! Make it I'll never resort to that. Even I'd have to beg on the roadside I don't think I'll ever spend a night with an unknown man. He continued and said that some friends of his actually have a price, as high as RM100K a night.

I later asked another friend, a girl this time. She was surprised but she was bright enough comparatively to me, that she was offended. Hahaha!!! I told her I didn't meant it in a bad way but I was asked this question by a guy friend and I was curious. Would anyone actually need $ that badly they'd do it? Isn't that the same as prostitution? Then the ball got rolling.

We were discussing how in the world could a woman be that desperate enough to prostitute herself. But my friend, let's call her E. E said, maybe it's not considered prostitution for her. Maybe it's just sex. Hello?! Sex with money paid out. Isn't that prostitution?! E said, "What if it's a one time off, since the $ would be a big amount maybe it wouldn't be" "Then what is that?" I asked her. Can't be a kept woman cos a kept woman would need to service her man when and wherever he wants. There's no way a kept woman can say no to her man, since he pays for everything. Her manicure, pedicure, her facials, her car, her condo, her Gucci shoes, LV bags.

"So what about just for the thrill sake then?" E asked? Hmmm. A good option. How many well educated woman, with a high-flying careers or maybe a career, don't need to be high-flying career, will agree to have sex for $ and for the sake of thrill? That sounds more reasonable maybe. That made me ponder, how many women out there will actually do that? A show of hands please?

Bewitched

2009-08-14T00:04:00.000-07:00

Lately I've had this urge to watch Bewitched. Not the new version starring Nicole Kidman but starring Elizabeth Montgomery.

Surprisingly enough a lot of my friends have not heard of this sitcom. It was aired on Malaysian tv in the early 80s. I wonder what was shown here or was it that, no one actually remembered it or didn't even watch it back then.

Bewitched is actually about this witch played by Elizabeth Montgomery married to a mortal, played by Dick York and later on replaced by another actor. I vaguely remembered that I loved this sitcom when I was young and somehow after downloading it lately and watching it all over again, I realised that even back then, they actually showed male machoness to a whole mighty new level, especially in this show. Either I didn't realised it or I was never exposed to it last time, nor now even.

The whole sitcom talks about how Samantha the witch tries her best to adapt to a mortal life and give up witchcraft just because her husband Darrin dislikes to be different. He expects her to bow to his every wish. Funny enough he takes all kind of crap from his boss, Larry, who from time to time, barges into Darrin's private life, self-invites himself to their house for dinner, imposes all kinds of inconvenience to Darrin and Samantha. The show also stars Endora, who is Samantha's mother, apparently a witch as well who stirs up hell for Darrin. Actually the pranks that she plays on him gives him a good lesson but he never seems to learn from it. Shows how men can be really pig-headed at times. Hahahah!!!

All in all, after watching so many seasons of Bewitched, it has dawned on me that male egoistic and machoness has never actually gone away. I might say it has been repressed tremendously which is totally fantastic as I bet, nowadays women would be totally put off with all that ego. But one thing stays I guess, a boss that always impedes on our own personal time.

So here's to Bewitched. A totally fantastic entertaining movie, minus all the egoism inside of course. Hahahah!!

Would you?

2009-08-12T18:48:00.000-07:00

On an early Monday morning I got an sms around 3am and my heart skipped a beat when I heard it. After the fear of hearing the phone ring and getting bad news a couple of months back, the fear still continues to grip me. But thank God, it's just an sms mentioning that my grooming school principal's birthday is on Monday and there will be a surprise party for him and all students are asked to join. I guess, some people do really don't need to sleep much and still can work more than 10 hours a day. (Referring to my other grooming teacher)

Anyway, as usual, the day goes by and my husband fetched me to the party which was held in SS15, Subang. He was as always so thoughtful and kind enough to stay on at Station 1 cafe to have his own dinner and do his own things while his wife was enjoying herself at the party. Where can a woman find such a husband eh?

The party went fine and before I knew it, it was 10pm and I knew after a long hard day hubby's getting tired and would like to go home. So I excused myself, gave my principal a hug and left to find my husband at Station 1 cafe. He packed up his notebook and left the cafe. I thought I'd bring him over to wish my principal a Happy Birthday as well since he does know my principal.

Funny enough when we got back, while showering my husband suddenly let out a yell. I thought that he dropped his facial soap into the toilet bowl or something like that. Incidentally, it has happened before so I'm not surprised. I found out that he forgot to pay his bill before he left Station 1 cafe. Talk about being old and forgetful. I bet someday I'll be that too, old, forgetful and forget to pay my bills. Everyone's human after all and human do make mistakes right?

Well, the next evening, we went to the cafe to pay the bill and the manager was pleasantly surprised that we came back to do so. I guess he never expected anyone to actually come all the way back to pay the bill, moreover it's the next day.

I wonder how many people would actually do that. Would you?

When I die...

2009-08-12T04:04:00.001-07:00

As I mentioned in my previous entry, I've experienced so much in such a few months. During one of my breakfast with my siblings my brother brought up a question, kind of like ironic seeing that we just only buried my dad the day before. His question was what would we like done when we die?

The reason the question came up was because it was all of a sudden and we weren't prepared to what we should do, what should be done first as we're a Christian family but a majority of my dad's side aren't coverts, meaning they still either are free-thinkers or follow Buddhism. So, there's a lot of what I'll called silent disagreement on how my father should be respected and how the last rites should be done.

Therefore, I write this with hope that one day when I die I'd like:

1) To be buried back in my hometown, Kuching Sarawak. (Though I may not know where I'll be, maybe halfway around the world when I die and will bring problems to my dearest ones in bringing my body back)

2) I'd like flowers with peaceful and soothing Christian songs played during the whole time, from preparation till burial. No chanting, no incense burning.

3) I'd like to have a Christian burial ceremony. I'd like to see peace between everybody and no trying to find which way's the best way to pay respects to me.

4) I'd like everyone to smile and not cry for I believe that I would have lived a wonderful and fulfilled life by then.

Death will always be unpredictable and something that will always bring tears but at least my fears are aligned to such that I know where I'm going and I'm prepared.

My dad

2009-08-10T23:44:00.000-07:00

It has been months since I last updated this page. So many things has happened since then. For one, I lost my dad in an accident. Thanks to an 18 year old student who decides to be irresponsible for that day, I lost my dad, just like that. I have waited too long to write this as I didn't want the tears to flow but I guess I can't run away from the fact and it will always keep flowing whenever I think of dad.

The day that I heard the news was about 7am on 23rd May 2009. The whole night I've been tossing and turning, having this uneasy feeling but I couldn't quite put a finger to it. When the phone rang, the dread started to set in but the news caught me so off-guard that I couldn't cry when I heard it. All that I could hear was my mum sobbing incoherently saying that my dad was involved in an accident. I thought that he was seriously injured and I could still make it in time to go back to see him get well.

As I dialed my sister and brother's number, I was praying hard like I've never prayed before in my whole life that my dad would be ok. But the worse has yet to come. I later got a call from my uncle that my dad had passed away. The cruelty of it was I can't say goodbye to him personally. I can't tell him I love him. I can't hug him. He was gone just like that.

The journey home is really vague, but I just can only recall seeing my dad's body in the morgue when I went to identified him as I was the first one back before my other siblings. The memory will forever be etched in my mind. He looks as if he's just sleeping peacefully there. But the doctor said that his bones in his legs were all broken and he moved it for me to see, saying also that my dad was flunged pretty far after the car hit him. There was a huge gash on his thigh as well, also a fracture behind his skull. Now I totally understand why in certain scenarios, some relatives will try their best to deter you from entering the morgue as till today I still can picture it all over again.

The whole thing passed so fast that before we knew it, it was time for the burial. When we were to say our last goodbyes to our dad, the feeling was indescribable. Sad is just a word. Heart-wrenching is also just another word. Anger, pain, regret? Nothing can describe my feeling at that time and nothing will ever be able to.

After the rites has been done, we all went back to a house that's full of memories, happy ones, funny ones, memorable ones and every night I struggle to close my eyes to sleep as I don't want a day to pass by. I want to go back in time, where I don't have to feel all this pain and I don't need to have that vision of my dad lying there but I can't do anything about it.

I've been told that sometimes Christians question God, especially in times like this, as to why do bad things happen to good people? Why Christians suffer? I wanted to ask God to but somehow I never did and never have that intention.

The only blame I put is on the driver and the government of Sarawak. You'd ask why? I'll tell you why. Every morning my parents would go for their morning walk around my area before walking to the market. There used to be a pedestrian bridge there but was torn down to accommodate a new flyover. The government actually installed a traffic light with pedestrian crossing help but the light changes so fast, even I had to run across to make it in time. So I question how does the authority expects older people to run across with their age? What pisses me off more than anything was when some journalist actually made a coverage on this matter as my father wasn't the first victim killed at that junction and post a question to the previous BN assemblyman that stayed near my place, a Mr Alfred. He has the nerve to put the blame on the driver solely on him and his comment on the torn down pedestrian bridge was because no one uses it. What nerve!!! I will admit that the driver is to be blamed but what about the government? Would my father be alive now if the light doesn't change that fast? Will my father be alive right now if the pedestrian bridge wasn't torn down? That I'll never know anymore.

The only assurance I can get is I know that I'll meet my dad one day in Heaven. That's the only way that my tears would stop flowing.

Never trust

2009-04-08T04:16:00.001-07:00

Whistling a happy tune in her heart, Haley has a new spring in her step as she gets ready for work. “I wonder why am I so happy to go to work? I must be going mad” thought Haley.

It has been months since Haley felt this sort of happiness. She has wonderful colleagues. Though most of them are a little quiet for her liking but they are a great bunch. Lunch is always full of laughter, especially when Simon’s around. He makes the room alive with laughter, re-enacting funny moments and making jokes. Almost everyday Haley and most of her colleagues eat lunch together. It feels like a small family during lunch hour.

As the weeks passed by, Haley is beginning to think that this might be the company that actually has the potential. Potential to appreciate their staff, the potential to not have any office political nonsense but she was in for a huge shock of her life. The sinister creep of a quiet monster goes unseen. All unaware except for one, Denise. She has been the victim of this unrelentless mental and emotional torture and abuse.

Haley and her best friend Annie has started noticing the verbal abuse but left it unsaid. Hoping that it was just a phase that the tyrant lady (TL) is going through. But as time passes on, the presence of this TL is beginning to make an impact in the office. Small snide remarks are being made by her. “Stupid! Useless!” Those are the words coming out from the mouth of this TL.

Still Haley and Annie tried to ignore it until one day Denise couldn’t take it and to everyone’s surprise she resigned. Denise had mentioned some of the abuse she has taken from the TL to Haley but from the outlook, she looks so docile and kind. Denise has warned Haley before this, “Be careful Haley. She’s not as what you expect her to be.”

Haley being Haley, never judges a person by just another person’s comment. She believes that everyone is innocent until proven guilty. Thanks to watching too much CSI movies over the years. But Haley’s nightmare is just about to begin.

In February, Haley was seconded to another project and is to work with the TL. She was quite excited as this was something new and she was looking forward to it. Everything was fine till one day, the TL called Haley in for a meeting. “Haley, I think you should be more proactive, speak out more. You’re too quiet. You have talent and I can see that but you need to build that up”, said the TL. Haley kept quiet, looking at the TL. Making silent notes to herself to buck up on her work. Unfortunately for Haley, that was the first mistake she did. Keeping quiet was her biggest mistake ever, especially in front of the TL.

As another month passed by, there have been many meetings on the project that Haley was working on. She has seen a more sinister side of the TL, without her knowing it. The TL has gone power crazy. Hunger for power was shown in her eyes. As her eyes glint evilly, the TL has started a political warfare in the office. Soon, the project director decided to take a leave of absence from the project, stating personal reasons. No one quite understood why this was happening, especially when the project was at its crucial point. But Haley began to understand what was happening but kept it to herself.

One fine day, as Haley was making amendments for God knows probably the 10th time on the format of the document, she was surprised to see the TL walking into the room. The TL was always adamant that she cannot be seen in the client’s place as this project was under a totally different company.

The story goes back to the year of 2008. The TL and her husband decided to form a company called Nexus. Nexus is supposed to be a consulting company that specializes in bank consultation. On the other hand TL’s husband has an existing company by the name of Ingrid Systems. Ingrid Systems has been in the market for a couple of years and specializes in banking systems and solutions. As there has been always a fair fight to get banks as their clients, many IT companies would have to submit a tender before the project would be awarded to them.

However for the case of Ingrid Systems and Nexus, Ingrid Systems has been trying hard to win a local bank’s IT project. Both husband and wife team decided that in order to win this particular bank’s IT project, they would need to use a back way in, that was to go in to the bank as another consulting company and try to appease the customer and influence them to use Ingrid Systems. That was why Nexus was formed. But Haley and her team members were warned to not say anything about Ingrid Systems. She and her team was not supposed to have heard or know about Ingrid Systems at all.

Haley looked confusingly at the TL, wondering why she was at the client’s place when she adamantly insisted that she cannot be there as she was known to be the wife of the owner of Ingrid Systems. “This cannot be good. She must be here to make more changes” thought Haley. True to her word, the TL was asking her and her other 2 colleagues to again make changes to the format of the document.

This time the TL insisted that everyone followed the format for the Table of Contents instead of using the old one. Haley then remembered what the TL mentioned to her in the previous meeting, voiced out that maybe she can help compile everything after everyone has made their content changes and re-do the Table of Contents last as she knew that her other 2 colleagues were not too computer savvy.

The TL stared at her without blinking an eye. She commented, “It’s not hard. Anyone can do it. Why is it so difficult to change?” Haley kept quiet. It was not her style to go against her superior unless it was really necessary. The TL stared down at Haley, and then moved nearer to her. “Haley, please open the document that I’ve sent to you earlier” said the TL. “What do you think of this font for the header? Do you think it looks alright? Or should we use a bigger font?” asked the TL. “Anything will do” said Haley. She didn’t think that the font size would make any difference. What is important to her is the content of the document.

Haley did not see the TL’s eyes narrowed in anger towards her but her colleague Coleman saw it. After the TL left, Coleman said, “You shouldn’t have said anything will do. She didn’t like that”. “What? I didn’t have any views on the fonts. I think the content is what’s important. We’ve been changing the format for God knows how many times. First it’s the Project Director who changed it then the TL changed it behind his back. Back and forth for at least 6 times already. How many times do they want to change it?!” raged Haley. She has reached her boiling point. She knew that it was not Coleman’s fault and she told him, “I’m not angry at you. It’s just that I find all these petty things like font size, table of contents are unnecessary to be looked into until the final stage”.

Haley was starting to get really pissed off with the TL. She blew her top when the TL called her on Friday, raising her voice asking Haley, “Did you see your document before you sent it to me? Did you print it out?!” Haley was shocked by her tone of voice. She thought to herself “Oh no, what mistake did I do? I’ve read through all of it. I didn’t find anything missing” “No, I did not print it out. Is anything wrong with the document?” Haley asked the TL. “Of course there is! The font’s too small. You used Arial and size 11. How can you expect anyone to read such a small font?! Next time print out before you send it to me!” screamed the TL. “How many times I tell you that first impression makes all the difference! If you sent something like this to the client what would they think?! Do you need me to repeat all these again and again?” screamed the TL? “No. You don’t need to repeat” cut in Haley. The TL was shocked that Haley had the nerve to answer her back. The TL put down her phone. Haley was seething. Angry to the point that she would have hurled the phone into the glass door right there and then.

From that day onwards, the TL stared to make Haley’s life a living hell. The TL started finding small faults of Haley and making it a big issue. She started going around the office asking Haley’s colleague about Haley’s leave application, making it sound as if Haley was lying to her about her leave. When Haley found out, she was furious. “Who does she think she is? She’s not even the owner of the company. She’s just Ingrid System’s boss’s wife. How dare she?!” screamed Haley. She was venting out all her frustration to Denise and Annie. They sympathized but she knew they couldn’t do anything. She just felt so angry and helpless.

Haley knew it wouldn’t be too soon that there was another issue created by this TL. She now knew how bitter this woman was. Go against her even on a small matter and she’ll unleash all her power to make anyone’s life miserable. The TL was unforgiving. To think that previously she was so nice to Haley, telling her stories of when she was young, how rich she was, how she actually bought her first semi-detached house when she was only 29, how she knew all these big shots and they helped her a lot because she’s such a nice person and she always remembers her friends. “Bull shit! All just crap!” thought Haley.

The turning point came when the TL accused Haley’s colleague of lying for her. Haley couldn’t believe that the TL would stoop so low as to accuse her colleagues of lying. Haley has always tried to find her own ways to get things done. As she was based at her client’s place, there was no internet access. The only access she can get is via the modem that was being used by her project manager. She decided to try out the website www.wirelesskl.com and lo and behold she managed to get free internet access, though a poor one. She was happily using the free wireless one day when the TL called Coleman and her project manager. “How come she can go online?! Why is she using the modem? !That’s for work! It should be used constantly by the project manager! Where is he? I want to talk to him?” thundered the TL. Coleman was a small size man but pretty daring. “She’s not using the modem. The modem’s plugged in to the project manager’s notebook. I can see it before my eyes. It’s true” said Coleman.

Haley was staring at Coleman. Knowing that it must be the TL that called him. His brow furrowed and he looked stressed. “What did she want? What accusations now is she hurling at me Coleman?” asked Haley. Coleman sighed. “I think she’s really trying to do you out. She’s saying that she doesn’t believe what I say. She’s saying that you’re using the modem as she found out that you’re chatting with Annie over the internet” said Coleman. “How dare she accuse you and me like that?! I was just asking Annie over the internet what time should we go back for the company meeting. That bitch!” said Haley. “She’s going to call our project manager and ask him the same thing” said Coleman.

Haley couldn’t believe her ears. She was trying hard to understand. What was actually going through the TL’s mind. “Why is she doing this? What did I do to deserve this? She’s going to the extend of making not only my life miserable but other’s as well.” thought Haley. “I have to put a stop to this. I can’t let the rest suffer just because of one crazy woman” thought Haley to herself.

Price reduction saga

2008-10-30T20:03:00.000-07:00

Today's news online that was in my mind was on the price reduction of petrol. So far, we're still behind times compared to other Asian countries who has already slashed petrol prices for God knows how many more times more than us.

In one way I'm glad for the reduction in petrol price. At least the savings from there can help cover the monthly toll expenses. Also there has been talks by the ministry on trying to reduce food outlet's prices. Seriously speaking I'm not that convinced that businesses are willing to reduce the prices. Most would just turn a blind eye to the reduce petrol prices. I mean, a few cents for each item added up is worth a lot to businesses and they will think that it is just a small amount that consumers will just have to bear with it. Which is what we are all doing at the moment. So, what makes the ministry think that the businesses will reduce the pricing? Will they go to the extent to each restaurant in the whole country to check? Probably at random. How much control will they have? What about other businesses? Not only food. What about other things like clothes, books, household items, etc? Will the price reduce? No chance in that I bet.

I guess, these questions I've been asking myself thousands of times and I'm sure many out there are asking as well. I'd rather take my own action in ways to cut down , rather than rely on our incapable government.

Happy Deepavali

2008-10-26T05:41:00.000-07:00

To all my readers who celebrates Deepavali, A very Happy Deepavali to you.

Goals in life

2008-10-22T19:28:00.001-07:00

An interesting article caught my attention as I was reading this morning. The article talks about goals, setting goals and achieving them. It makes me ponder whether I've been doing the right thing.

All my life, I've been brought up to think that to be successful in life, I'm supposed to set goals, mostly realistic enough and achieve them or at least try to achieve most of them. But today's article open my mind further. It sorts of contradicts what I've been traditionally taught.

This was a topic brought up by an author called Stephen Shapiro whose book is called Goal-Free Living. In this article, the Stephen Shapiro is quoted to ask us to throw our to-do-list out the window. At first, I thought, why in the world would I do that. But reading further on, it makes sense, some of it.

First, Stephan Shapiro asked a good question, "Whose goal is it anyway?" He says, most goals aren't created by people themselves but is driven by society and family pressure. True enough but that's what we have in this world right? Society and family do play a part in our lives. So of course, our goals tend to evolve around them.

Secondly, he again said that when we're focusing on our goals, we're putting blinders on. Now this one I agree maybe 80%. I quote from the article written by Dawn Raffel, "You lose peripheral vision and miss out on all the breath opportunities around you" Yes, we lose some, we win some. When we put our effort in achieving that one goal, we lose sight on other things that might be equally important for example, that career we're banking on, while we totally neglect our other half or family. Can't be greedy right? What about multi-tasking? Can't you apply that to achieving goals as well? I don't know. You tell me. But it does makes sense to a certain extent I guess.

Third, Stephen Shapiro says that with busy achieving goals, we're always living for the future and people end up saying I'll be happy when (fill in the blanks). Ok. This one I agree. This is almost equivalent to being greedy in a way. Questions? I'm presuming that what he means is, we forget to live in the now and always want something further, something more, as in I want this or I must be at this level so that I'll be happy. But when we get it are we happy? Or do we want more?

We can't live without goals, nor can we live with having too many goals can we. Or can't we?
Moderation is the word here in my understanding while Shapiro says, to have the right goals, you must be able to relate to them the right way.

So what goals do you have for the now and the future?

5 rules

2008-10-21T23:54:00.000-07:00

Have been reading this book for a little pick-me-up and I came across 5 advices that changed lives and I find it's worth sharing about.

1. Break the rules (only where it's not against the law).
2. Live like there's no tomorrow.
3. Never compromise.
4. Trust your gut reactions.
5. Think before you shriek.

Straight to point but great for making a person happier in life.

To...

2008-10-20T18:43:00.000-07:00

As the pain becomes unbearable, she sits and tries to calms herself, willing the tears to flow, to let the pain unleash itself so that she can get closure but the tears just wouldn't come. "Funny" she thought. She has always been emotional, but this is the first, not being able to let go, to scream to cry. Why is that so?

Haley walked aimlessly around the house, not knowing what can be done since it's gotten too late to do anything about the problem. As she sits staring into space, she was startled by the beep on her phone. As she read the message, her heart constrict in pain knowing how true the message rings clear and precise.

To know the power is within yourself and the decision to change has been a wake up call for Haley. She knows that the only way she can overcome her pain is to take a step forward and admit the mistakes she has made for the past years. All these while she always thought that she's been right to stand up and make a point, standing up to what she knows is right, following her upbringing but all that's been said and done seems to have backfired and she wallows in self pity.

"I can't let my past keep coming to haunt me" thought Haley. "I've got to make a promise to myself. I've got to keep going strong. He needs me. I need myself, I mean I got to keep sane" she whispered to herself. Haley decided that it's time to change. To take matters into her hands. No point sitting here to wait.

Finding courage and strength, Haley makes a pact with herself, from tomorrow onwards, "I'm going to make an effort, to be happy. To not take things for granted and be grateful for what I have. To let the past be past. To put things in God's hands." To put others first before herself. To not be lazy. To pray on her worries. To always put her best foot forward and keep trudging forward. To take everyday as it comes. To learn something new everyday. To make a change in her life.

Life's blow and having hope

2008-10-19T17:41:00.000-07:00

Have you ever been in the situation that makes you want to go around in circles screaming your head off. Ok. Probably it's a tad bit dramatic. But the bit about going around in circles does happen, especially when you're totally at lost in what you want in life. This feeling totally sucks.

When you're reached a certain barrier in life, it makes you stop and wonder, what am I in this world for? What do I want in life? I've reached that point in life and I'm still trying to find those answers. Asking, praying to God has not reaped answers yet. Maybe I'm not having enough faith in Him, maybe I've been not putting God first in my life above everything else.

You try out different jobs, from all those wonderful jobs that are supposedly to give you the best salary in the industry, with perks that most people would die for to end up being a consultant and still you can't find happiness in your work. Why is that? When you've worked 6 years after finishing college, trying to find satisfaction from your work, you finally realised that there is no way in life that you'll actually get the job of your dreams and you can definitely forget about getting satisfaction from work. Sounds sad.

I can't let this ruin my life, I mean sitting here, moaning about it, throwing tantarums. Just gotta find something that works, something that brings in the dough as well. Best thing of all, not giving up. I hope this works. I mean what's life without hope right? Keeping fingers crossed and praying hard.

How much more stupid can you get?

2008-10-16T19:49:00.000-07:00

I stopped blogging for the past few months as I couldn't find one topic worth blogging about, nothing about the political situation in this country deserve a space in my blog and there isn't anything much interesting going on in my life at the moment but something caught my attention this morning and I thought what better topic can I get than this to start blogging again.

I've been reading the papers online every morning and the topic "POLICEMEN BEAT A RETREAT" caught my attention. Now thinking, this it totally a good topic to blog about, ever since I've been away from blogging for so many months.

My initial comprehension of this particular subject was, "Has there been some sort of riot that the policemen had actually retreated?" I mean that would be a total shame to the country and of course the police force but boy am I in for a bigger surprise.

After reading this particular piece in the news, it came to light that a police beat base in Chow Kit area has been shut down. The reason for the closure, get ready for this (Drum roll please...) I quote from the papers mind you, "Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar said the beat base was located in a dirty area where police faced the possibility of being exposed to contagious diseases." I was like huh? !! How much more stupid can one get? I mean is that a sufficient enough reason to close a base? Then read on, it say as quoated, "The presence of criminals also posed a threat to the safety of police officers."

And I thought that I was going bonkers reading too much online. I misjudged a politicians in this country. The longer you're in politics, the more ludicrous your reasons get. A safety threat? What kind of bloody reason is that? Does this mean that our safety is at stake here? To the extent that a police beat has to be closed down as criminals posed a threat to the police officers? Shouldn't it be the other way round or have I been in deep slumber all this while to actually missed out this important turns of events?

I guess I'm having a good laugh with my friends about this statement made by our beloved home minister but I shudder to think what will happen if he continues to exert his brain juice in running the ministry.

Malaysia's customer service

2008-06-30T17:43:00.001-07:00

As Joelle was sitting down, looking at the menu, she was still contemplating whether to order the famous Hainanese chicken chop or the mee siam which looks equally delicious on the menu. But an after thought went through her mind, she then decided to pick the Hainanese chicken chop and their famous toast bun.

She looked at her watch and it showed 8.21pm. Hoping that time would go slower so that the food will arrive and she'll be able to enjoy it before moving on to her favourite outlet, Ikea. As the seconds hand of the clock slowly ticks by, it now showed 8.40pm and her food has yet to arrive.

Surprisingly though, the next two tables that were previously unoccupied now had other customers and to her dismay, their food seems to appear before them instead of hers. Now fuming away, she decides to eye the waiter that took her order, but he was adamant not to look at her eyes. The cloud of "fire" around her head, looks as if it's about to burst into flames, she called out to the outlet manager demanding for her food. As the other customers who came after her were happily gobbling away their food, Joelle practically had steam coming out of ears as she was trying to keep her composure cool while questioning where did her food go as she was the first to arrive.

After profuse apologising by the outlet manager, her food promptly arrive in less than 3 minutes. Now this is what's call efficient service, thinks Joelle. But before tucking into the plate of chicken chop, she made sure there was no "extra" ingredients added. Knowing how cruel the F&B industry can be even with prompt service after a little seething is done by the customer, a thorough check wouldn't hurt she thought. F&B's unspoken rule of revenge is either to spit in the "fussy customer's" food or to actually maybe toss it on the floor before rearranging it in a nice presentation for the customer.

I sometimes experience the same situation. Sometimes my temper gets the better of me and I tend to last out unmercifully at the waiters or most of the time the outlet managers for such poor service. Food delay can be expected but to the extent that they completely decided to ignore your order while someone who came much later gets their food, this is a total no-no. Malaysian F&B etiquette still need vast improvements.

Little bit of life

2008-06-18T19:50:00.000-07:00

For the past few weeks I've been getting daily emails pertaining Petronas, be it an email complimenting their good effort and trying to put a good word for Petronas or even an email that totally gives no crap to Petronas.

I've been getting tired and bored with all these emails. It's always the same. Fighting against or for Petronas. What's the whole point? After all it belongs to the government and I find that it does not make any difference if we were all to forward emails to boycott and not pump Petronas petrol. Does this mean that everyone will actually follow and that the government will decide to lower down the petrol prices? Come on. Grow up. The fact is, nothing can be done with this country's government. Time to give up on them. I've given up on them already.

I mean, how much can we fight them? But I won't join them either. I'll just get on with my life as long as they don't disrupt mine bad enough for me to want to leave this country. I might as well use the energy and time to do something more useful either for the environment or spend time with my family, rather than waste it fighting the government, Petronas or to have anything to do with them.

Enjoy life. Happiness only comes when you make time to enjoy life. Stop and smell the flowers. Enjoy the company of family and friends. Easier said than done? Maybe ,but I guess a small step at one time helps to take other grievances away.

A little incident

2008-06-15T17:59:00.000-07:00

After my fall on Monday, my little puppy Duchess decided that she'll get her bum to be seen by a vet, hypothetically that is.

She made up her mind to give her tail a little nibble on Thursday night after her required jab on Wednesday. What came from the nibble was a patch of fur gone from her tail and a red and swollen tip. It actually looks like there was some sort of growth but thank God it wasn't.

Made a frantic call to our friend who is a vet and he asks us to apply calamine lotion, which will help soothe the itch. It did stop the redness but the swelling was still there and we couldn't really apply the lotion properly the next day as the fur was clumped up.

Decided to bring her to the grooming school that I'm now training at to get my teacher to help trim the fur on her tail. No tools yet since I'm still on a theory based learning stage at the moment. She did a great job of it. But embarrassing part of it was, she decided to cham cha and give a little extra "something" to my teacher for helping her trim her tail and also a dose of antiseptic spray on the tail. Which basically means that pee and poop on the grooming table. Probably thinks that, "Fine. Make me suffer I'll give you more work to do". She's a fiesty and dominant little puppy. Translated into "spoilt puppy" my teacher said. Hahaha! We had to get the e-collar for her so that she doesn't turn around and bite her tail and aggravate it further. She practically hates the collar. When she came back, she gave us this mournful look.

Well, time to MAKE time to train her better. She's much better today like her mistress. Getting used to the e-collar and being her usual naughty self again. Hopefully there won't be anymore incidences like this.

Big bruise

2008-06-11T05:09:00.000-07:00

A bruise is "an injury appearing as an area of discoloured skin on the body, caused by a blow rupturing underlying blood vessels." Quoted from AskOxford.com

Don't think that it is something that actually came through my mind when I got this big bruise from falling down the stairs.

Was going down the stairs on Monday morning but fate decided I was to slip and fall down the last two steps of the stairs. Cruel thing was I wasn't sure whether I was pregnant or not but what choice did I have. The edge of the stairs hit my hip and I'm still praying hard that there's no hairline crack even after being given confirmation of a clean bill of health other than major muscle injury by the A&E doctor as well as the radiologist based on the X-Ray.

So, have spent the last 2 days including today in bed, trying my best not to walk around much other than going to the toilet as per doctor's instruction. I think lying in bed has caused my other side of my back to ache as well. Shows that I'm no longer as young as I thought I am. Without much sleep at night due to trying to find the most comfortable position, I'm getting grumpier by the minute. To think that I'm going back to work tomorrow, doesn't look that good. Seeing that I can't sit for long.

Hoping that God actually gives me some rest tonite.

Petronas to go bust by 2018??

2008-06-05T19:27:00.000-07:00

Now this is a very interesting topic that caught my attention when I read The Star online.

I’m not sure whether should I find this a topic a laugh or should I be embarrassed. But feeling both can be ironic. I feel that, with this news splashed over the papers, can make the whole country a laughing stock. Imagine that a huge multi-national company dealing in oil can actually go bust or is predicted to go bust. What more when the government has some sort of share in it? Does this mean that the government has been ignoring the company? Or does it mean that, they have been managing it poorly? Wouldn’t it be their responsibility to make sure that they hire the appropriate person with the capability to run the organization as it should be?

In the news, it is said that the CEO, Tan Sri Hassan Marican warned that many national petroleum companies in the world have ceased to exist or were in financial trouble today because all their profits were taken away from them. So far, there have been a couple of companies like BP merging to become BHP or Mobil with Esso to become ExxonMobil. But is there any other oil company in the world willing to take the big risk of doing mergers with Petronas? I for one wouldn’t. Imagine having to merge and paying the blardy government billions and billions in taxes. What is to be seen in the future for Petronas, will definitely be a huge impact towards the citizen of Malaysia.

Is that why the citizens of this country has been made to suffer just because of their incompetence? Makes me totally want to puke with all these “pitiful” stories to get people’s sympathy. Aww!! You poor poor company. Paying so much taxes till you’re almost going bust. Do you need any help? Need us to pay more taxes to subsidize your holidays overseas?! Dream on!

Up Up and Away

2008-06-05T00:32:00.000-07:00

Up Up and Away can be related to smoke or to the recent price hike of petrol which also means that our money in our purses and wallets are definitely going up in smoke. So up up and away it goes.

I've yet to find the energy or that so-called "passion" to be totally infuriated with the government as I used to be when they initially kept increasing petrol price. But after this round, I think I have gotten immune to it. I don't get angry with the CCB (don't ask me what that stands for cos it's illegal to post it here) government but more of get really disappointed with them. Gone were the days that I'll rant, object, whine about this whole price hike. I'm just praying hard to God that, even with the increase of price from A-Z due to the petrol hike, I'm only asking for not an increase of crimes. As I foresee that will bound to happen when people get desperate.

After experiencing the massive jam and even not being able to get my turn at the petrol pump, I'm beginning to think like Zewt, that the grass will be much greener on the other side. Getting the drift here??

Which basically means that my current project that I'm actually thinking of starting might not kick off after all. Have to discuss in more detail with hubby on this.

So what's your take on this?

P.S (Pix taken from Yahoo Image)

Worn out

2008-05-27T17:52:00.000-07:00

Things have just started to heat up in my life. With classes 3 days a night during weekdays after work and having to use up most of my brain cells during the day at work, and not counting in the fact that I've been trying to get enough discipline to get up much earlier than normal, not to fit in a routine exercise but to actually feed my pup and play with her a bit before my daily morning routine. Then coming back after class to again, spend sometime with my pup before retiring to bed. It's a bit overwhelming.

I'm starting to question, whether I'm up to this, but I've made a pact with myself, I have to push myself to this extent in order to reap the rewards later on. What kind of rewards?? That is for another entry much later when it has materialized.

I have to keep telling myself that I can do this. It's only for a few months. After this project ends, I'm done. I can go on with my life at a more leisurely pace, albeit missing a big chunk of financial independence of course but in compensation to that, there will be the splendor of doing something I have passion in. ;)

So, I'm depending solely on the Almighty God to help me get through these few months, and give me the strength I need to do it.

A small addition to the family.

2008-05-25T20:40:00.000-07:00

It's been months since I last update my blog. One is due to the current project I'm handling and another is due to a small addition to the family lately. She's named Duchess.

She's now 2 months and 4 days old, has a big appetite and is very very inquisitive. She explores everything, poos and pees according to her whims and fancies. So it's been a real hectic time running after her and cleaning up the house each times she decides to let go.

I'm not talking about my baby, though indirectly she is. Just a four-legged baby and a furry one too. I'm talking about my Welsh Pembroke Corgie. A gift from my hubby. :)

So, do enjoy her pictures. Will update from time to time when I'm not going mad trying totoilet-train Duchess.

New project

2008-05-04T04:03:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been ages since I've updated my blog. I'll be on a project for a couple of months. Too secretive?? There is a reason for that. Will be updating once every thing's up and running smoothly.

So, hang in there and have a little patience. :)

Pissing

2008-04-11T20:52:00.000-07:00

A normal routine on Saturday would be to eat breakfast out instead of our normal "healthy" breakfast of oats and bread.

A real good sleep was needed after a grueling week and a hearty breakfast always follows to start a good weekend. Today was no different. So when we got to the coffee shop which happens to be a different one from where we would normally hang out, we ordered our favourite Kuching kolo mee. We just so happened to chance upon the dish there.

As we were having our meal, my husband got a shock when he saw this little boy, not that little but still in primary school, probably either in the age range of 8-9 years of age, running through the coffee shop in his underwear. Of course he was wearing a t-shirt, not half naked. The best part was, he was rushing out of the coffee shop to piss right in front of the entrance of the coffee shop, where tables and chairs were place and there were customers sitting right there. In BROAD DAYLIGHT!!! Now can you beat that? To makes things better, his mother was just at the stall nearby packing food and when she saw him doing that, she did not reprimand him, nor apologise for his behaviour but instead took out a tissue from her purse and helped him "dry up"!!!

I did not know that civilization in Kuala Lumpur was not up to par with the other cities around the world. The scenario seems more to suit a war torn country, where the children run around in probably without shoes or even shirts but not in metropolitan KL.

Sorry no pictures taken. I was too shock to do anything other than I almost puke into my bowl of noodles when I saw it happening in front of my eyes.

So, tell me, what would you do if you were there?? Just watch in shock like me or otherwise?

First of all firsts

2008-04-09T01:31:00.000-07:00

First day at work seems daunting but colleagues were very open and friendly which makes things less intimidating. It’s a first of all things to be actually working as a free lance consultant and can be rewarding where you actually dictate your own time as long as the work is done on schedule. Also another first of “camping” out at clients’ office during the project tenure. So, it’s another new discovery. Best of all I’m allowed to have free flow of internet access which I swear to myself I will not abuse my rights. Surprisingly I’ve managed to stay away from all my usual url haunts for the past few days.

One thing for sure that kept me away was because the amount of reading I had to do to catch up with the project as well as trying to finish up my part before the first dateline which I’m proud to say I’ve done my part so far. The only tasked that has yet to be actually done is getting screen shots of the system where I’m still waiting for after the UAT has been done. (Please excuse all the jargons)

Anyway, I’ve decided to update what has been happening so far here since I’ve been going MIA for a few days or weeks at time.

So nothing major to give account on so far. So have a great remaining week ahead. J

Boycott!!

2008-04-02T06:12:00.000-07:00

“Dutch instructions on parking meters to be replaced: MPSJ” This is a title that bore right into my mind when I just glanced through it.

Get real people!!! Wake up!!! This thing has been happening for centuries. Life isn’t fair. When is life ever fair? How many times has this issue happen over and over again? Just because some idiotic person has decided to come out with a film on religion may it be something bad or good, some other even more idiotic fellow decides to stand up for their religion rights and put a stop to it by going all the way. One good example is shown right here in Malaysian waters. I mean for goodness sake!!! Before this, there was no issues of using foreign products and now right after the film is made companies in Malaysia like Mydin or MPSJ for that to say are downright boycotting Dutch products, instructions etc.

What about other religions?? Do they think that no one has made any caricature or jokes or even printed T-shirts of other Gods anywhere and make a fool out of it? It has happened. But I don’t see other religions banning products, writing in the papers about it all those. Rather they believe in praying or just being silent about it. Don’t believe, try looking at the pictures below? Or is it because our own country do not care about other religions other than what they think as the main one?

Really sick and tired of all these religious war. Why can’t for once people let all these religious things be a private thing and not a full blown war??!!! Damn!

Hail Storm in Malaysia

2008-04-02T06:06:00.000-07:00

Quoted from " http://www.tornadochaser.net/hail.html" How does large hail form or why does hail form?
Updrafts within thunderstorms push rain high into the cloud where very cold air freezes it. Once frozen it starts to fall but gets caught in another strong updraft where it gathers more moisture on its way back up making it larger. If the updrafts are strong enough they will continue this process for long periods of time allowing the hail to accumulate more moisture and more moisture. In a severe thunderstorm downdrafts may act like a wedge and increase the intensity of the updraft. Updrafts can get so strong they even intrude into the stable stratosphere. When updrafts are this strong it becomes possible to suspend large hail for long periods of time further adding moisture to the hail, sometimes building it to incredible sizes. Updraft winds can be from 100 to 120 miles per hour when producing baseball and larger size hail.

To actually watch this happened in Malaysia’s climate and before my eyes was something I would never expect let alone believe but that was what happened when I was on my way back from my husband’s hometown, Seremban yesterday afternoon.

The journey, started as normal. The jam was terrible starting from town due to the strong wind and torrential rain pelting down heavily. As we passed the trees along the way, they all look threateningly about to come crashing down on top of us. That was how heavy and strong the rain and wind was. While we were almost reaching the toll we suddenly heard thunderous sounds of “things” dropping on the roof car. Then as we watched closely, we saw that it was small ice cubes. It was not as big as those that we can find in our freezers, more of like how ice-blended ice cubes looks like.

We were all amazed, more like stunned that we actually saw hail storm happening in Malaysia, in a climate like ours but when it started coming down really heavily, and started to chip the wind screen, I suggested we detoured and go find cover before our wind screen really cracked. So we ended up going to Jusco’s parking for shelter while we waited out the storm. Luckily it only went on for a couple of minutes but as much as it was an eye-opener and pretty exciting to a certain extent, the potential of what could really happen if a huge hail storm occurs actually came to my mind and it was quite a grim picture.

So, I’m still thinking of how in the world can a mini hail storm occur in our Malaysian climate and from what I hear this is not a first time, but still a first in front of my eyes. I wonder when actual winter will occur then?? Any chance you think?

New life

2008-03-26T19:14:00.000-07:00

How does it feel to bring a new life into this world? I've been "hmming and haaing" over this question ever since I've gotten married.

Ever since I've gotten married my husband and I have talked about having kids soon but I'm not sure whether I'm up to it. Whether I'll be a great mum? Whether we're financially ready? Whether I'm brave enough to go through labour pains? So many questions to ponder yet somewhere inside my brain back there I have this inkling that I do want to have one but am scared of all the unanswered questions.

Having more exposure to the latest technology and making use of it like the internet and not forgetting my favourite channel in Astro, Travel and Living Health channel, I've been researching a lot of my questions on the net as well as finding out some answers on the tele. I'm not sure whether I'm ready after reading and finding out more answers but I guess I'm beginning to toy with the idea of having kids isn't that scary after all.

So keeping fingers cross that everything will be fine and less scary when the inevitable happens. So new life, new career in the line soon. God has been merciful and I'm hoping He will take my hand and lead me all the way. :)

Unanswered questions

2008-03-22T03:50:00.001-07:00

Lately a lot has been going through my mind.

After the country's election, I wonder how the new politicians will be able to prove themselves, to able to prove that they're much better than the old government, whether the older government will find dirty tactics and ways to bring down the new government. After a few days I stopped reading the papers too. All I find inside are depressing news of how the old government are acting, being sour grapes. Even the new government aren't working among themselves. Power crazy maybe? Who knows? But it's a depressing news.

I felt exhilaration for a couple of days when I decided to throw caution against the wind and resigned without a job. This is the first for me, and it feels great. I thought that I would worry about how I will be able to find ways and means to pay for my commitments but surprisingly I did not have any niggling feeling at all. It came about when my manageress decided to be her normal self and act like the demented ever-barking dog she is. Not in the terms of barking orders but more of barking because she's not please about any single thing. In one word, I've had my patience worn thin when I'm being rebuked by someone for no particular reason. Thank God I wasn't the only one who wasn't in her good books. At least it didn't made things as miserable as it was but I really pitied all the uncles in my organization who have been pressured by her endlessly. One of these days I'm just worried a blood pressure in their body will burst and a stroke will occur. Unsurprisingly this has happened to numerous other parties but I guess management has turn a blind eye to it.

Yesterday was Good Friday and as I attended mass I was nearly brought to tears when I think back of how the Son of God has suffered intentionally for our sins, my sins. It has never gotten to me this deep. The vision of the movie, Passion of the Christ came into my mind when the sermon was given.

So, not literally being weepy but been thinking more and more of things happening around me, in my life. Some good and some bad. Nothing unusual about that I'd admit. Just feel a little hopeless at times how things come about. Maybe I should spent more quiet time with God and maybe a little practicing of what I've read in The Secret might help eh? I wonder how well it works?

Is it worth it?

2008-03-03T04:09:00.000-08:00

After a long break during the Chinese New Year, I came back with new vigour and determination to work my ass off. I started to get the ball rolling for both projects. I’ve been busy travelling, visiting branches and it’s been a real eye-opener. What I meant in terms of an eye-opener meaning how things are run in this organisation. My job is to ease the burdens of these branches by being the eyes and ears as well as the voice to the management but I’ve been failing miserably in this aspect. With constant figures and feedbacks from the branches and having presented them to the management, they seem to be in denial how badly things are at the branches. Rather than figuring out how to lend a hand, the management prefer to find more faults with the branches which cause more anger and resentment among the employees at branches. Now I understand why my predecessors left the organisation and why I’m stuck in my current position now.

At times, a sense of helplessness overcomes me and I just feel moody whole day long, and it doesn’t help with the new dragon lady acting exactly like a dragon, forever breathing fire and snarling away. It makes me appreciate my previous boss, even if he lacks certain leadership skills.

Tell me, how do you actually succeed in being a better employee when you’re being screamed at for taking initiative to do things better and having your self confidence and effort being ripped apart when you try to get advice from a dragon lady? I’m lost for words as to how do I actually describe the scenario here. Even with constant stream of words of wisdom and encouragement from the Bible, I’m still at a loss here. I’ve never felt so helpless, useless and demotivated in my life. It makes me wonder whether getting pounded by verbal abuse everyday is worth every penny earned?

The past weeks incidents has got me thinking whether what I’ve earned so far in this organisation, will it be a waste to just throw it all away for the sake of my own health and happiness?

It’s time to sit back, pray, evaluate and find out what are my main priorities in life.

Gong Xi Fa Cai

2008-02-02T04:31:00.000-08:00

Yes. The year of the Rat is looming over us and it's coming in 5 more days. I always look forward to Chinese New Year every year as it's the time when my brother and sister used to come back from overseas during the uni breaks and we would all have great fun. Well, now it's different where now I look forward to go back to spend time with my parents and my siblings as well during CNY ever since I started studying and working in KL.

2008's CNY has been a pretty quiet one. Not much of festivities around. I don't feel there's much celebration in the air, probably due to the increase of price in everything, that everyone's watching what they spend this year.

Oh well, I still find it's a good time to catch up with friends and relatives. This year is no different. I usually go out with a bunch of friends in KL for a round of Yee Sang before going back home for CNY but since most of the gang are already not around, this year's lou sang is only with a small group, 3 of us to be exact. The remaining of the gang will be meeting up after CNY which will be great fun. We decided to go to Din Tai Fung which is located in The Gardens. Why we chose this location was by chance. I actually wanted to go there to check out the decorations for Mid Valley this year but it was disappointing. Not as what I expected it to be. I find Pavilion's decoration much better this year.

Anyway, we of course had our Yee Sang. Salmon Yee Sang to be exact. I was pleasantly surprised to find the service at Din Tai Fung pretty good. As they added the plum sauce, oil, and other ingredients, the waitress actually made several CNY wishes. I'm impressed with that.

We ordered a separate dish for ourselves, a-la carte as there weren't a lot of us, and we decided to keep things simple, so we had preserved mustard and pork la mien which tasted really fresh but the soup still had great taste, prawn and pork dumpling la mien which is also a remarkable dish. I decided to go against the norm and ordered a seafood udon. The prawns were really fresh and most succulent. Yummy! Since this is just like a pre-CNY dinner, not much photos of food here. Will upload more after we've had our proper yearly CNY dinner after we're all back from our hols. But do enjoy the pictures that I took at each of the malls that I managed to go. :)

So, a Happy and Prosperous Chinese New Year to you all!!! Enjoy your holidays. See you guys when I get back.

Painting the town "red"

2008-01-24T04:14:00.000-08:00

Having an extra holiday in between the week has always been welcomed news. Of course like most people whenever there’s a holiday I try to get some house chores done or to laze around but this round my husband and I had to do some entertaining of relatives that came from outstation. So we hit the malls for some CNY shopping. It was no as crowded as I expected it to be. We could easily find a parking whenever we went to a different mall, other than the normal jam at Bukit Bintang. We managed to scour 2 malls within 4 hours and we did manage to find pretty good deals.

Of course any outing will include good food. But we did not get it at the mall; we decided to go and get food at the pasar malam near my area. Sorry, but no pictures here as we were ravenous when we got back so we started digging in before any pictures could be taken. After we finished eating we suddenly smelt kerosene in the air. At first we thought that it came from behind of the house as some houses were doing some renovation but the smell actually came from the front. We went out to check out where the smell was wafting in from and we saw that some brainless ah long (useless human being who are rich enough to lend people $ but use uncivilised ways to get the $ back from the borrower) decided to embarrass my next door neighbour by throwing red paint, not knowing that this particular neighbour of hours has a skin thicker than any rhino or elephant in the world. They have gotten this kind of treatment at least 3 to 4 times so we ignored it as we’re not the typical nosey Malaysian. Anyway, we went back to clear up the table after eating and when it was time to send our relatives off, we were about to get into the car when we realised that the paint also splashed on our car!!!!!! Then only we saw another plastic bag with paint in our compound as well.

The whole situation made me see red immediately, not because of the red paint but because I was fuming. Out of no reason, we had to suffer due to some incompetent idiot. I mean, good Lord. If you’re really an ah long, might as well go up to the house and throw the paint directly not go pass in a motorbike and throw 2 plastic bags of paint. Really, one word for these guys, F**KING NO BALLS!!!! Well, of course other than fuming the whole night, we had to do something before the paint really set in so my husband had to quickly go out and get turpentine to get the paint off. Luckily the paint of the car did not come off with the red paint. We took at least 4 hours to get the paint off the car and wash the compound and sad to say, not even a word of sorry from the bloody next door neighbour.

The best part of the story is, when we called 999, the operator that picked up asked us to call the police station nearest to us and make the report. So after calling the police station and explaining the situation, the police had the nerve to actually tell us to go to the station and make the report. So much for Cekap dan Mesra slogan by the police force. It’s a useless slogan. Might as well change it to Lambat dan Pengecut. So, I wonder how the government expect the public to trust the police to protect and help us if they can’t even solve such simple things. At least have the decency to come over and look, take some pictures and take down our statement rather asking us to go over to the station. But then again, as usual putting hopes in these people is like putting hope in a pile of shit! Useless! Sigh!

Petrol future for 2008

2008-01-22T05:30:00.000-08:00

This article below got me thinking. Based on what I received earlier of the day to boycott all means of pumping petrol on 24^th of January 2008, this article was sent to me by a friend working in Shell. Some of you might say that it is a way to make his stand in showing his commitment to the company but some of you might also say it has a true ringing to it as well.

We all know that oil and all the resources will one day finish and it’s up to the government of the country to actually find ways and means to find substitutes for the fuel via solar, wind or hydroelectricity and etc. What has our government of Malaysia been doing I wonder? Any comments on this??

From:	Jeroen van der Veer, Chief Executive
To:	All Shell employees
Date:	22 January 2008

Subject:	Shell Energy Scenarios

Dear Colleagues

In this letter, I'd like to share reflections about how we see the energy future, and our preferred route to meeting the world's energy needs. Industry, governments and energy users - that is, all of us - will face the twin challenge of more energy and less CO₂.

This letter is based on a text I've written for publication in several newspapers in the coming weeks. You can use it in your communications externally. There will be more information about energy scenarios in the months ahead.

By the year 2100, the world's energy system will be radically different from today's. Renewable energy like solar, wind, hydroelectricity and biofuels will make up a large share of the energy mix, and nuclear energy too will have a place.

Mankind will have found ways of dealing with air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. New technologies will have reduced the amount of energy needed to power buildings and vehicles.

Indeed, the distant future looks bright, but getting there will be an adventure. At Shell, we think the world will take one of two possible routes. The first, a scenario we call Scramble, resembles a race through a mountainous desert. Like an off-road rally, it promises excitement and fierce competition. However, the unintended consequence of "more haste" will often be "less speed" and many will crash along the way.

The alternative scenario, called Blueprints, has some false starts and develops like a cautious ride on a road that is still under construction. Whether we arrive safely at our destination depends on the discipline of the drivers and the ingenuity of all those involved in the construction effort. Technical innovation provides for excitement.

Regardless of which route we choose, the world's current predicament limits our maneuvering room. We are experiencing a step-change in the growth rate of energy demand due to population growth and economic development, and Shell estimates that after 2015 supplies of easy-to-access oil and gas will no longer keep up with demand.

As a result, society has no choice but to add other sources of energy - renewables, yes, but also more nuclear power and unconventional fossil fuels such as oil sands. Using more energy inevitably means emitting more CO₂ at a time when climate change has become a critical global issue.

In the Scramble scenario, nations rush to secure energy resources for themselves, fearing that energy security is a zero-sum game, with clear winners and losers. The use of local coal and homegrown biofuels increases fast.

Taking the path of least resistance, policymakers pay little attention to curbing energy consumption - until supplies run short. Likewise, despite much rhetoric, greenhouse gas emissions are not seriously addressed until major shocks trigger political reactions. Since these responses are overdue, they are severe and lead to energy price spikes and volatility.

The other route to the future is less painful, even if the start is more disorderly. This Blueprints scenario sees numerous coalitions emerging to take on the challenges of economic development, energy security and environmental pollution through cross-border cooperation.

Much innovation occurs at the local level, as major cities develop links with industry to reduce local emissions. National governments introduce efficiency standards, taxes and other policy instruments to improve the environmental performance of buildings, vehicles and transport fuels.

As calls for harmonization increase, policies converge across the globe. Cap-and-trade mechanisms that put a cost on industrial CO₂ emissions gain international acceptance. Rising CO₂ prices accelerate innovation, spawning breakthroughs. A growing number of cars are powered by electricity and hydrogen, while industrial facilities are fitted with technology to capture CO₂ and store it underground.

Against the backdrop of these two equally plausible scenarios, we will only know in a few years whether December's Bali declaration on climate change was just rhetoric or the beginning of a global effort to counter it. Much will depend on how attitudes evolve in Beijing , Brussels , New Delhi and Washington .

Shell traditionally uses its scenarios to prepare for the future without expressing a preference for one over another. But, faced with the need to manage climate risk for our investors and our grandchildren, we believe the Blueprints outcomes provide the best balance between economy, energy and environment.

For a second opinion, we appealed to climate change calculations made at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. These calculations indicate that a Blueprints world with CO₂ capture and storage results in the least amount of climate change, provided emissions of other major manmade greenhouse gases are similarly reduced.

The sobering reality is that the Blueprints scenario will only come to pass if policymakers agree a global approach to emissions trading and actively promote energy efficiency and new technology in four sectors: heat and power generation, industry, mobility and buildings. It will be hard work and there is little time.

For instance, Blueprints assumes CO₂ is captured at 90% of all coal- and gas-fired power plants in developed countries in 2050, plus at least 50% of those in non-OECD countries. Today, there are none. Since CO₂ capture and storage adds cost and brings no revenues, government support is needed to make it happen quickly on a scale large enough to affect global emissions. At the very least, companies should earn carbon credits for the CO₂ they capture and store.

Blueprints will not be easy. But it offers the world the best chance of reaching a sustainable energy future unscathed, so we should explore this route with the same ingenuity and persistence that put humans on the moon and created the digital age.

The world faces a long voyage before it reaches a low-carbon energy system. Companies can suggest possible routes to get there, but governments are in the driving seat. And governments will determine whether we should prepare for a bitter competition or a true team effort.

That is the article, and how I see our challenges and opportunities. I look forward to hearing how you see the situation (please be concise).

Regards

Jeroen van der Veer
Chief Executive

A second chance

2008-01-16T20:17:00.000-08:00

As I read the paper this morning a title in the paper caught my attention. It says, “A second chance for strays - Dogs rounded up by MPSJ to be offered for adoption".

Firstly, I applaud and salute the MPSJ for doing this. They are the first council in Malaysia that I hear actually show a positive attitude towards strays. And furthermore, the MPSJ president is Datuk Adnan Md Ikhsan. In the section, quoted from the Star, "According to MPSJ president Datuk Adnan Md Ikhsan, stray dogs rounded up by the council would first be put up for adoption before they are put down. He added that the MPSJ did not want euthanasia to be the only option in countering the problem. "We would prefer that the dogs are given second chance by those willing to take them into their homes as pets or as guard dogs for their farms, " said Adnan. Bravo!! I really respect him for doing this. He is the first council head and a Malay as well who actually don't want to see dogs being put to death for no reason. At least he's giving them a second chance unlike other councils, all they know is to kill that's all.

Honestly I have nothing about Malays not liking dogs as I know it's something to do with their religion but at least have the courtesy like Datuk Adnan to give the animals a second chance. I really hope that other councils would learn from him to take this action. Dogs, cats, guinea pigs, hamsters, iguanas are all pets. They should not suffer just because they are strays where maybe some irresponsible owners out there couldn't control or teach their pets, they rather choose the easy way of letting them go astray, hoping that the pets can find food in the rubbish bin.

I know that all the pet shops nowadays offer beautiful dogs and cats for sale. Those are breeder dogs, and boy do they cost a lot. So, it is a wise decision for Datuk Adnan to let the dogs be adopted. They make better pets even compared to some expensive breed. Anyway, hasn't there been many medical articles talking about how keeping a pet actually reduces the chances of a person getting a heart attack?

Again, I salute and pay my highest respect to the MPSJ for being the first to initiate this adoption campaign. Good job!

Rollercoster emotions

2008-01-13T18:19:00.000-08:00

"Ring!Ring!" I always dread hearing the phone ring in the middle of the night. Have always had this phobia that something not good has happened for someone to actually call in the middle of the night.

But I did not get such a phone call. I got a sms from my sister on Saturday morning, informing that my eldest aunty was comatose in the hospital from a stroke. Not a very good start of the weekend and to have to hear my mum sobbing over the phone, incomprehensible words from her makes things worse. Even when my grandmother passed away when I was young, my mum wasn't crying uncontrollably like now. So it came as a shock with the news of my aunty and my mum on the phone in that state made me have this dreaded feeling of doom overwhelm me.

I've never been brought up in a family that showed much affection other than the relative pat on the head saying I'm a good girl. No huggings or kissings on the cheek. None. But I do hug my family members each time I leave for KL, some tradition my brother started way back when he was in his university days. So when I heard my mum cried on the phone I felt like a helpless fish on land, I didn't know what to say to console her and I felt like crying. I felt like a useless shit practically. I know that words to console her won't make any difference but deep down I know it will still give her some comfort. A weird and sad thing was, it's easier for me to say it to friends rather than to my family. I wonder why. But after 1 day of pondering how to say it out, I decided to call my mum to console her this morning. Wasn't too bad as I expected it to be, nor was it as awkward as I thought it would be. Probably due to the fact that my tummy was queasy enough from all the diarrhea that I didn't feel any butterflies in my stomach while I was waiting for my mum to pick up the phone.

So, getting that over and done with, now the only thing bugging me is the condition of my aunt. Came as a shock as she looks well when she attended my wedding last month. I guess again, God is trying to tell me that human life is really very unpredictable and to cherish what valuable time we have with our loved ones. Not spending time to find fault with each other or to spend time idling away, doing irrelevant things. I always felt like if anything happens to me, I'm ready to leave this world myself but I'm not ready for people around me to leave. I don't think I'll ever be ready.

Now the only thing I'm concentrating on is to pray hard to God that He is there to comfort everyone of us while He heals her slowly.

Scam of 2008

2008-01-09T06:48:00.001-08:00

Have anyone of you been cheated by easy money to come by? I've been lucky enough thanks to Him above and to many forward emails from friends warning about how unfortunate people get scammed through all these easy lottery winnings via the internet or even through calls that tells you to just follow certain instructions to claim the winning pot!

I just received another email. This round it's not the title that caught my attention but the sender's name that caught my attention. It states that it's from "Microsoft Lottery Board UK" and the title is the usual Congratulations. You Won. Being a normal busybody with nothing much to do tonight I decided to open the email but still assuring and alerting myself that it is another scam. Lo and behold, it states that I'm one of the 10 lucky winners that won the lump sum of 1,000,000.00 GBP! Woo hoo!! Yea. As if. That is basically like God dropping a ton of gold or a bag full of $$ into your lap without you doing anything, not even praying and having faith that He will give it to you man!

Funny thing about this email it does not ask you for your account details or any personal identification details. Just your name, contact address, phone number, country, state and city. I mean that sounds pretty harmless right. But knowing how those cunning people work, who probably will create another total different identity using your details. I actually had a good mind to just create some sort of details using the name of the person who sent it to me. Some guy name David Jones Brown and his own contact number. I wonder if I did that, will they know that people out there are aware of their scams or they just simply couldn't care less and just use the details. Seriously how many poor souls will fall for this and how many more scams are created every minute? If only these scammers put their brains to good use, I bet they would easily become small millionaires even. Don't even need to be those successful and famous millionaires but still a millionaire. But instead they prefer to use their brains to bamboozle people.

So for you guys out there, please be careful and don't join the ever growing statistics of being duped by these charlatans.

New Year, New Life

2008-01-03T18:23:00.000-08:00

Being back in KL seems like a faraway possibility ever since I stepped into Cat City which was my beloved home for Christmas 2007. But that day has come and passed. I flew back to KL on New Years day with trepidation thinking whether now things would be different after I’ve signed on the dotted line and gotten the ceremony over and done with but God has been kind and merciful where my then boyfriend and now husband has been loving, patient and understanding as before and even more so now. Yes, I’ve now joined the bandwagon of the married couples out there and have received plenty of wishes from friends around the world on that special day and I would like to personally thank all of them for taking time to remember and wish me and my husband on our special day.

Many questions do flow into conversation as to how married life is like? I wish that I can say it is amazing, with rainbows in the sky everyday, mushy love notes left lying around the house for each other to discover and breakfast in bed but those can only happen during the honeymoon period and in movies. Not when you get back to work the next day after coming back. That’s reality but I have nothing to complain or to be unhappy about. All I can say, it is the same as before, only that now I have an extra person to care and love as well as someone to care and love me back. The rest of the issues about toilet seats being left up, or wet towels lying on the floor etc; we’ve not had that sort of problems. We do have our own small petty issues but we’re learning to compromise and love each other as we are.

The next question as to how was the wedding dinner? All I can say is, with reliable and trustworthy friends and relatives, things will go smoothly. Of course there maybe small hiccups here and there but what event will ever go smoothly without flaws? We all had tremendous fun. All the yam sengs and drinking sessions after the dinner, it definitely was an unforgettable night.

So, Thank You again to all you guys who helped make my day!!!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

2007-12-21T04:32:00.000-08:00

Well, Christmas is round the corner, though you don't see snow flakes gently falling down and sleigh bells ringing, you'll still hear the Christmas carols on the airwaves, in shopping malls.

This year has been a great year. There has been ups and downs but which life of ours will be perfect eh? So here's wishing all of you a wonderful Merry Christmas and a fantastic New Year in 2008.

P.S. I'll be out of touch for quite a bit but will be back with more stories after the New Year. :)

INCOMPETENT JABATAN PENDAFTARAN NEGARA MALAYSIA

2007-12-19T01:05:00.000-08:00

What was supposed to be my happiest day of my life is marred with episodesof ugly and repulsive scenes due to the lack of judgement and incompetent staff atJabatan Pendaftaran Negara (JPN) at Putrajaya.

My fiancée and I arrived at JPN with the rest of our family members at 8.10am and took a number to register for our marriage. When it was our turn to be served, we were asked to provide the Identification Card (IC) of our respective witnesses but upon checking, the officer questioned me about my witness which happens to be my father. He asked whether my father is around, and I pointed out my father to the officer. Never would I imagine them telling me this. They can actually tell me that in their system my father is deceased!!!! I mean how good can this get?? We’ve heard of plenty of other sorts of stories where people actually registered to vote but they are classified as deceased. We’re facing the same problem now!! The officer in charged, told us to go up to the next level to get the problem rectified. Thank you very much. No help there and I am not surprised. I would be more surprised if they offered to help get it changed. I think I would have fainted or strike a jackpot should they offer to help!

We went up to the 2^rd level to see the officer at the counter and explained the problem. Another “excuse” was given. He told us that we need to proceed to the 3^rdlevel and look for ANOTHER OFFICER. We had to wait for the officer in charge because the person is busy. Busy yakking and laughing on the phone is more like it. We waited for a whole 10 minutes before we decided; we might as well not lose anymore precious time and change to another witness.

We came back down and use my mum’s IC to be presented for witness instead. We were now served by a different officer. A lady officer this time. After keying in and changing the details, lo and behold, she now tells me that in the system, there is something wrong with MY NAME now!! Seriously, I have no idea how these people do their job!! First they make a mistake of putting the wrong information in my dad’s IC chip. Now it’s my name that is wrong??!! How come you did not tell me the last round you guys verified my IC when I submitted my form in June 20007 you brainless IDIOTS!!!!!

All in all, none of the officers bothered to say a single sorry or actually try to offer to rectify the problem; instead they asked us to settle the problem ourselves. Typical government officer standard attitude!!!! And yet to think that we’re going forward into the future, it’s more like we’re going backwards into the olden days. So what’s the point of spending billions and billions of Ringgit on all that architecture in Putrajaya when your people are still incompetent and still do their job so carelessly??!! Why not use the money to spend in training up the people and upgrading the system instead??!! And yet to think that the government are questioning why more and more youngsters are going overseas to work and not coming back. Think people! Think! With what is left of your brains!!!

Popping pills

2007-12-05T02:21:00.000-08:00

When u get up in the morning, you're hoping to get through the day without much ado. I've always been looked forward to the weekend but for the past 2 weeks I find myself dreading to see the weekend round the corner. Probably due to the fact that I have to spend the weekend rushing here and there rather than have a relaxing weekend. Also due to the fact that for the past 2 weekends I have been getting the flu bug as well as having sore throat. But after hasty actions of almost drowning myself with bottles of water as well as lozenges, all symptoms of sore throat and flu seem to miraculously disappear when Monday arrives.

So, after 2 weeks of playing hide and seek with the viruses and bugs, I've decided I need to take some sort of action to actually get rid of it once and for all. Time to get my ass to the clinic. As usual the norm for the doctor nowadays is to prescribe antibiotics. I've always tried to stay away or ignore the prescription for antibiotics, meaning I'll take the rest of the medication but not that but I think I'll have to be a good girl for once and pop the pill. Can't afford to get sick for the coming weeks ahead.

So, here's to popping pills and plenty of water. I'll be close friends with the toilet these couple of days. So, forgive me if I don't have anything new to update ya?

Life Experiences

2007-11-30T18:09:00.000-08:00

When conundrum hits you like an oncoming truck in the middle of the night you’re flung far away from reality till all you want to do is just lay dead. Let the pain slowly become darkness that overwhelms you and all is over. If only it were that simple, life wouldn’t be a slow and sometimes painful learning curve.

Each day we wake up to a different new day. As we work methodically throughout the day, we always have a hope of getting somewhere or doing something that makes the day worthwhile. It can be life simple pleasures of having a home cooked meal to a sudden surprise of finding mysterious presents that we’ve been longing for. A day can also start with pleasant surprises or we find them as we go along. A little rain or cloudy weather might cheer someone up while sunshine and the feel of the warmth brings a smile to another person’s face. But when a normal routine day ends with a debacle and catches you with surprise, do you take it with stride and let it be another learning point in life or do you let it take over your life? These are questions that plague every individual at times. Part of you wishes to just take it in, learn from it and let go while the other part of you wants to just let it consume your life. At times little grievances like these can actually open your eyes and wake you from your slumber of peaceful and quiet life. You learn that anything is possible and nothing can shield you from the possibilities in life, whether good or bad.
Life continue to surprise us and we mature along the way.

New pair of eyes

2007-11-27T02:40:00.000-08:00

New pair of eyes. That is what I initially thought what it would be when I place the contact lens into my eyes. Ok. I’ll admit that I’m vain enough to get one pair but only for the one month period. I contemplated whether I should go half blind to my wedding dinner next month but in the end, I decided I’d better not. The thought of knocking into chairs or even walking into a pillar does not seem a very happy moment, though classic in the years to come so, I got the lenses yesterday.

I’ve been vainer during my college days, trying out contact lenses then, but I just couldn’t stand the alien feeling of something in my eyes. Each time I blink I get irritated by the feeling that I had to practically sit on my hands from tearing my eyes out. It was that bad for me, the discomfort, and the red, dry eyes. All for the sake of being pretty or whatever that was during that time. But thank God as I matured, I decided, I’d rather take comfort above anything. No amount of persuasion from friends or when my fiancée got his years back did sway me from my decision, not until last night.

So basically, this morning, I took a longer time getting prepared for work. Normally it’s just the usual 1,2,3 step for facial after brushing my teeth, running a comb through my hair and I’m out. These days, I even got lazier or more of I’m not even bothered to put on any make up. Don’t ask me why but somehow I’m in no mood for making up. It’s a painstaking process and I’ve never had a knack for that. So, since it was a first time for contact, I decided to make the effort to put on slight bit of make up.

As I’m typing away this entry, I’m furiously blinking my eyes hoping to God that the uncle sitting opposite me doesn’t think that I’m coming on to him. It is still a tad bit uncomfortable but not as what it used to feel like. Probably technology has evolved and made the lenses more bearable, either that or I’m trying to convince myself that it really isn’t when it actually is. Oh, I just don’t know. It’s just 3 weeks away, so I’ll just grin and bear with it till it’s over.

Tired, grumpy, losing faith, you name it, I have it.

2007-11-23T06:16:00.000-08:00

This is basically what I've felt for the past week I've been absent from the blogging scene. Terribly sorry to my dear friends who read this page frequently. I feel that, there's no point for me to write something just for the sake of doing it.

Why those feelings you might ask, well I guess many of you have been catching up on all the political hoo hah in the national papers about the different election parties, all fighting for this and that, doing all sorts of things that only one word can describe, plain childish, cowardly acts. Going to the extent of using the police force just because they can. You get the drift. I won't elaborate further. I don't feel I need to give further "advertisement" space for them in my blog. Firstly they don't deserve it and secondly I do not want to teach them to be smart. What for? Let them continue being stupid if they want. At least I can laugh at them for being stupid. Isn't that great and mean at the same time. Makes me feel so much better. So that's where I'm losing faith, in the government itself. There I said it.

Tired and grumpy is more of because I'm losing sleep worrying about the last minute wedding details and also about what I have to do for work. It's a real challenge in my work place especially when you have bloody stubborn people that practically won't move an inch, what more to say a small millimetre. So, when things get stuck at the mule's section, (bear in mind that this uncle has been there for dinasour years so I can pardon him for that small detail) but what pisses me off the most, is when he begins to take sides especially sides that does not belong to the organisation. Take for example, he works in company A and we engage company C to help us in certain projects. The mule practically just opens his mouth and agrees with anything company C says. HELLO??!! I thought you were working for company A??!!! Anyway, everything has a chain reaction. So when the mule doesn't moves his ass, most of the things gets stuck so sleepless nights are in for me.

Hence the title you name it, I have it. So much for the massages. Well, at least that's the bright part of the week for me, something to look forward to, to help me de-stress. Have a great weekend!!!

Of stress and small little luxuries

2007-11-08T04:05:00.000-08:00

Such wonderful bliss. Absoutely paradise to have someone paying so much attention to you. I'm talking about my massage. Recently I went for a complimentary massage at one of those spa centres and they happened to have a promotion on their packages. Ok, I'm not those rich tai tai out there who go for their monthly facials or manicure and pedicure or such but a massage don't really qualifies me for a high maintenance girl, nor a rich tai tai right? I guess it's a norm for nowadays working girls to actually have these kind of luxuries compared to our mother's time. You don't hear them talking about going for massages or manicures per say. Well, then again, during their time, where do you actually see them working their asses off at the office till 10pm or 11pm most the days huh? Back to the topic of small little luxuries.

I'm never one to easily succumb to sweet talking especially those salesmen that walk up to your table when you're having a bowl or curry laksa at the hawker or something like that. Neither am I one to give in to a sales person who calls out to you to sign up for a bank credit card when you go shopping at the hypermarts. So most of my closest friends that either does MLM or insurance or have anything to sell to me knows I'm a hard nut to crack. I'll only agree to actually buy or sign up for something when I've actually made up my mind on it. No amount of convincing or even free gifts will actually tempt me, which I might say I'm really proud. Ok, I might do it to help a friend but that's for a one time basis.

Back to the promotion package I signed up this week, I thought it's high time I learn to enjoy what I've earned and also to let it be a means of releasing stress. In my earlier blog entry, I was talking about how we've always worked so hard to actually find we have no time to enjoy time with loved ones much less to have ME quality time. So that's why I thought it's a good reward for myself after all these years of work.

It's been a great week so far. Something to look forward to for the coming weeks.

$$$$$

2007-11-06T00:18:00.000-08:00

What would you do if you saw a whole vault of $$?? Would you run screaming into it and start rolling on the floor with the money or would you be one of those with are like the goldfish mouth wide open with amazed till you're loss for words??

Ok. I'll probably can't say I'll go for the first. I thought I would be the latter but in the end it was neither. I had the opportunity to actually check out a place with all these $$ on the table though I did not go screaming like a mad lady, nor did I open my mouth looking like a goldfish. I actually hated the place. It was bloody dusty, it doesn't smell of the usual new $$ smell we get in ang paus or from the ATM. It's a very orderly place but really, it wasn't a pleasant place to be in. Not counting the various cameras watching your every move but I just couldn't stand the smell. Now I know I'm not that crazy about $$ as I think I would be.. Hahahah!!

So, I won't elaborate much here cos I'm not allowed to say where I've been, nor what the place looks like but one thing for sure, it sure was an eye opener.

A leader or a jester

2007-10-31T05:49:00.000-07:00

A book on one of the ministers of this country was recently published. I have nothing against it at all, none whatsoever. I even applaud the writer who actually took the time and effort in managing to get the book published. But it got me thinking, why of all people did she choose him?? If you are not a Malaysian reading this, you must be wondering who am I talking about. This book is about the life and achievements of the leader of MIC. That is all I can say. I will not elaborate on who this person is but I am shocked that she actually find him worth writing about.

I’ve seen many a leaders out there, whether be it a minister or a commoner that are much more worthy to be written about. Why do I loathe this guy?? For many reasons. I believe he has his good qualities, I believe that he has done many wonderful things for his own community but almost each and every year, he has some particular reason to increase the toll charges. I wonder how many times will he or whoever it is that cites the reason that they have yet to cover back the $$ spent on building the highways. That’s an old excuse. Come up with something much better will ya? Yes, I do see the highways get “upgraded”, have new layers of tar on them, swept clean of rubbish by the conscientious highway sweepers, the grass and the flowers along the highway, being kept in order. But, do these “purveyors” that supply the workers for all these arduous task hike up the price, hence we bear the brunt of it? If yes, do say so and we’ll understand. But for the past couple of years, there’s always a toll increase thanks to this particular gomen and I’m not that ecstatic about it. I’ve no idea whether it is his call for the increase of the toll but each time he opens his mouth, something comes up.

He also recently commented on the fact that he wants to ban those bigger bikes on the highway? What in the world?! Because of what? Tell me? What did they do to him, I’ve no freaking idea but sometimes it feels like his brain doesn’t really register what he’s trying to say and it all comes out wrong. And we have him for a minister as well. How great is that?

Sometimes I do understand why some of my blogger friends have the wish to leave this country. When I see people like these that we have to call our leaders, they make me want to leave the country too.

Wake up before it's too late!

2007-10-30T05:25:00.000-07:00

How many of you have actually taken into consideration your health as a whole? Do you just simply eat what you feel like eating, satisfying those cravings for potato chips or even a greasy burger and wash it down with a light coke (just to make yourself less guilty for bingeing)? Or maybe after the enormous meal that you’ve enjoyed over the weekend do you go to the gym and sweat it out, just to burn the calories or because you really want to or even maybe because you think that since I’ve paid for it, might as well utilise it?

I’m guilty for all of the above from time to time. Today, we got shocking news that a sales officer at one of the branch passed away due to a heart attack and he was only 36 year old. But I guess, it can’t be that surprising since we’ve all seen the email circulated around where this employee that died at the desk without the colleagues knowing it. Also, I happened to receive an email on Great Philosophy of Life from a colleague, talking about how much we slave and toil, all that hard work just so that we can have a better future, or so that our future generation can have a better future. But we always forget to look at the present.

The future is always before our eyes. We forget to live for today, to enjoy what is before us, to experience the elation of friends and people we care about around us. We work so hard and in the end, we lose a lot of things along the way. We neglect our friends and you might wonder how. How many of you get a call from your friends sometimes, asking you out for a drink maybe during the weekday, but you turn them down, citing being too tired after work, or you had to work late? What about your family? How many of you as parents, manage to spend time with your children before they go to bed? You work till 9 or 10, and by the time you get home, your children will be in bed or just about to go to bed. What about your parents or your siblings? Let us take a simple daily life scenario. Do you have time to have proper dinner with them or do you tell them ok I’ll heat up the food once I get back. But when you do get back you heat up the food, maybe watch a little television without saying a word to them and then go to bed due to sheer exhaustion from work. Is this all worth it? Are you seriously happy with all that or you just take it in stride because it’s how the rest do it since generations before us because they drill this into you and me and they tell you that, without any hard work, you won’t get a good life.

All this, it’s like a wake up call for me, one after another. I do not think that it’s coincidences but it’s a message or a caution from God, wanting me to be aware before it’s too late.

That time of the year

2007-10-27T01:43:00.000-07:00

It just that time of the year again where I've got to get my teeth checked. I used to dread going to the dentist, it's not the fear of the high pitch sound of the drilling but more of fearing that the dentist is going to announce that he's going to have to do an extraction.

When I was younger my mum made me wear braces and I was known as terminator in school, not because I'm a machine but due to the braces in my teeth. Only God knows why the name came up. I had no problem with all these name callings, probably cos I had a free spirit and I'm not really bothered of what people thought about me. Back to the topic of visiting the dentist, when I had to get my braces done, no one told me that I had to have some of my teeth extracted, and perfectly fine teeth, not those rotten, decaying ones and not those baby teeth. Perfectly cute, ivory looking teeth mind you. I practically had 4 teeth extracted out!! Just to have my braces put in. But luckily that's all the pain that I had to endure. I didn't go through any sort of pulling pain or whatsoever related to braces wearing, that some might tell me over and over again. So, I'm at loss why some feel the pain. Probably different people have different threshold of pain. But definitely having braces that time was a nuisance. Getting vegetables stuck in between your braces is not one pretty sight. Therefore chewing gums are definitely out of the question then. Maybe that's why until now I don't have a penchant for chewing gums or even bubble gums.

So when I went for my scaling and checks I was pleasantly surprised that I had a pretty good experience with the Dr. Not only was he a pleasant and easy to talk to, he was pretty gentle while doing it. So no pain or any discomfort and I came out with sparkling white teeth. Ok, not sparkling but it felt like it was. Hahahah!!! One thing I noted during my visit was while he was doing the scaling, the nurse actually put on headphones for me and instead of listening to the high pitch sound, I was almost lulled to sleep with the music. So, a total remarkable experience, for a dental visit.

A country's loss

2007-10-24T07:03:00.000-07:00

A great loss to the country. I think this is the appropriate topic that should be splashed out on all the front papers today. Ok. I mean different papers have different topics to catch one’s attention but as long as the intention’s the same, it’s still fine.

Lim Goh Tong has been the legendary name that has brushed our lips countless of times. Any Malaysian, young or old would have spoken his name, let along knowing who he is. He can be well known among Malaysians with the name Uncle Lim. I believe we all know him that way. And he is definitely one true Malaysian that I truly respect, fully. Ok, it says in the paper he came from China so he’s not an actual Malaysian born fellow but putting that aside, he shows true colours of being a Malaysian. It was stated in the Star papers by his Deputy Chairman, that he conducted his board meetings in a smattering of Bahasa Malaysia even though he wasn’t educated in Malay. That’s a real respect for the people and the country. A salute to him.

It has been said he’s a philanthropist as well. I know many of you would say, what is the big deal being a philanthropist when he’s one of the listed billionaires in the Forbes richest category? Yes, it is no big deal that many famous people out there do charity as well. But I believe that coming from a poor family, it’s much easier for him to understand the poverty stricken life and from hand to mouth lives that people lead out there to make him want to give back what he has been blessed with. How many of you out there can actually say that if you were to win the lottery, will give it to charity first? I bet most would say I would pay my debts, buy my dream car and house first before thinking of actually donating to charity. I’m not saying that I know Uncle Lim that well but I somehow believe that he gives from his heart with the intention to.

He has countless of achievements to speak of and it wouldn’t do him justice for me to speak of it here as I would not know the full story but one thing I do know for sure is that he has been a tremendous influence to the country.

My deepest condolence to his family and relatives and to ourselves as well for his passing is a great loss to us whether we realise it or not.

But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary;...they shall walk, and not faint. Isaiah 40:31

Guess this

2007-10-23T06:16:00.000-07:00

Ok guys. This blog is going to be a simple one but an interesting picture is seen here. Can you take a wild guess what it is? I took it during my visit over the weekend. Pretty interesting.

P.S. No prizes if you guess correctly. Heheheh!! But just for the fun sake. Enjoy.

Money vs Sympathy

2007-10-19T05:01:00.000-07:00

Spanish mosque design for institute. This is the topic that I glanced at in the Star paper this morning. Again it never ceases to amaze me how our Malaysians are spending their money. I’m not objecting to the building of the institute nor am I condoning it but at least have a little compassion towards the other poor people out there. I mean if you have the means of building such a magnificent building why not build something less flashy and expensive and use the remaining money to do charity.

Each morning I open up the papers I’ll see people of Malaysia asking, seeking for medical help, in terms of a lung, or a heart transplant or even $ for operation. Why can’t these money be used to be donated to them rather than spending RM50 million on one institute? I thought we are supposed to be a caring society? Or is that just a saying to make ourselves feel better. I’m happy to see during the tsunami a few years back, most Malaysians actually worked together to help these poor souls whether in Malaysia or even in Indonesia or India that side. So why do we have to wait till a disaster strike only then we show our caring side? Why can’t we do it before anything bad happens?

It’s something to think about. A sad little Friday to see news like these where money is just squandered away and a few pages away you see people asking for help because of sickness.

Weekend

2007-10-15T19:33:00.000-07:00

A long weekend has just passed and the bones have got to get cranking but usually to no avail. Let alone cranking it up to get up in the morning for work. It's called lazy bones.

I wonder where did the origins of the term lazy bones came from? Anyone knows about this? But this is definitely the feeling for each human being after a long weekend, especially when many have gone back home for the holidays or outstation. This Raya is the first I had spent staying in KL. No joining the mad rush of the raya jam to go anywhere for a holiday. It's a first and I've enjoyed most of the time lazing away, going for leisurely walks, doing the house chores at my own pace, rather than rushing through it over the weekend. Somehow the urgency did not materialise at all. Of course I took the chance to check out the new comers in town. Which new comers you say? Read on and you'll know what I'm talking about.

I guess most of you guys have somehow visited the spanking new Pavillion or The Gardens that was recently opened in September. I again, decided not to join the mad rush to see what was all the fuss about for these 2 until the Raya weekend. I assumed that most KL folks would have either gone home for the holiday or gone for a little hiatus somewhere so I decided to go take a look at both places.

Golly! The Gardens's really impressive. All branded outlets, lining the mall, squeaky, shiny floors, the smell of fresh paint and glue. It's an eye-opener. For one, the number of new boutiques are staggering. Some I've not heard of (probably cos I don't get to see other parts of the world where these brands reside), but one sad thing was most of the shops were closed since I went on Saturday which was the first day of Raya. This basically means that I get to have another excuse to check out this place again with my fiancee again one of these days. One thing I find odd was the toilet. There were signs of the toilet but all it did was to point you to a series of lifts. At first I thought that I had mis-read the signs wrongly so I went up another floor but it was the same thing. Then managed to tracked down a security guard who explained to us that the toilet's entrance IS actually nearby the lifts just that it's still under construction therefore the only way in was via the side door. No plus points there. Robinsons's housed here at The Gardens and it's real classy, black glass acting as a mirror, so many brands to choose from inside Robinsons alone, not counting the boutiques outside, and their home section, Wow is all I can say. Countless to choose from. Overall, shopping at the Gardens actually made me feel that I was shopping in S'pore instead. The vibe, the crowd, the boutiques all made it feel that way. One word for it all, Impressive!

Pavillion. This one needs a little guidance in terms of getting to the right floor from the car park. We had to try at least 3 buttons before we actually arrived at the exact floor where there were shops. The past few opened up to more car parks but there wasn't any indication for that as well. So no extra points for that. But when I arrived, one thing I noticed was the air-conditioning. One word. COLD! Many of the shops were branded but at least at different levels they sort of had different type of stores to cater for different income range community. The food court there was pretty impressive. Again it reminded me of the Takashimaya food court concept where all the food was located at the lowest GF and there were so many to choose from. This I gotta give them credit. At least we just had to walk one floor and see it all rather than having some restaurants together with other shops as well. Imagine you're hungry enough to eat a horse while walking you suddenly de-toured to another shop just because your friend saw something captivating in that shop. No such chance here at the Pavillion. At least your ultimate aim to find food won't be thwarted by something other than food. This place needs getting used to, as there's many levels for one, as well as different parts to each floor. So if you're in for a shopping spree cum hide n seek with your partner this is a good place to go to.

These 2 places are a rare gem for the KLites for now. So, happy shopping and happy exploring.

** No pix uploaded. Dun ask me why. Ask blogspot on this. Sigh.

Selamat Hari Raya

2007-10-11T06:41:00.000-07:00

This is going to be my shortest blog of all. To my other readers out there who celebrate Hari Raya, Selamat Hari Raya in advance and Maaf Zahir Batin.

I'm not too sure whether I'll be coming online during the weekend so I'd like to wish you guys in advance. :)

To the rest, have a great holiday and happy weekend.

Of movies and puking

2007-10-10T08:05:00.000-07:00

Have any of you seen this movie yet?? I’ve not seen the previous 2 but got free tickets to watch this movie, sponsored by Volkswagen Malaysia . I’m no big fan of Matt Damon. I mean he can act of course but not a fan of such kind of action movies where one too many times all these villains try their best to kill this guy but he just seem not able to die. Talk about a cat having 9 lives, the main hero of the movie has more than 9 lives.

Overall the movie had a pretty good story line. Simple enough to understand for a person who’s never watched the previous 2 sequels before this, let alone being so tired that I can simply doze off anytime. This shows that it has a pretty good rating in terms of how the whole things goes but when it comes to how the movie was shot, my goodness, it’s a total catastrophe. Not a single time was there for the camera to have a still shot, meaning that even when there wasn’t scenes of fleeing the scene from the villains or nerve-racking driving scenes, the person who was shooting the movie still had a possibility of shaking the camera. Haven’t they heard of a tripod at least?? I mean there were good cars in the scene, from a Toureg to a Golf both from Volkswagen so at least have some sense to shoot the movie properly.

By the time I came out of the movie, I felt worse than a sick pregnant lady (not that I’ve felt those symptoms before) but I’ve never felt like puking for 2 hours straight. So half of the time I was watching the movie through slits of my eyes cos I can’t stand to watch the shaking even though the actions were superb. Sigh. To go through the sheer torture of watching a good movie made into a debacle of a movie just because it was free was not worth the pain and effort.

Would you have gone through all that??

What a weekend

2007-10-08T04:58:00.000-07:00

Sunday. Sunday. Sunday. My least favourite day of the week and you’ll definitely know why. To wake up for Sunday morning church is not a chore but to wake up for an early Sunday rally organized by the office is definitely a total waste of my time.

Sundays is about time to rest, to spend time with your loved ones and friends as well. Talk about being up to par with the youngsters who partied their night away on a Saturday nite, gone were those days for me. But I have to take it in stride, waking up in the wee hours of the morning to get ready for a rally. Ok, I’ll admit not wee hours but still, waking up at 7am on a Sunday is torturous.

I’ve had less sleep in my college days, I can still function without sleep for 2 or 3 days in a row, but the caffeine level in my body would be above the limit if there is one for it. I would land myself in jail far more times than I know it. But, ever since I’ve join the modern slavery forces, my fitness level as well as my functioning body and brain has deteriorated tremendously. The question as to why this happens still eludes me. Is it because of the job scope that’s weighing me down or I just don’t get the motivation from it. I won’t say that I’m a fan of exams or assignments at college to have the motivation but it just seems different from the hey days of college. Even with the arduous task of last minute assignments to do, or last minute cramming for exams did not land me in fatigue as I now am constantly in. Probably age has been catching up as well.

So, there goes my weekend. Given to the organisation. Hopefully the bonus will be equally “demanding” as they have been on us.

Another long week ahead. Happy working everyone.

P.S No pix today cos there's some problem with blogger today I think.

What a life

2007-10-05T00:19:00.000-07:00

I wonder why when you reach a certain age, you spend more than when you are younger or older.

I've just utilise a quarter of my card limist within 2 days. Firstly was for my kitchen gadgets; hob, hood and oven. The next was a handphone. No this was not a splurge. Fiancee's hp decided to die on him last week and after much cajoling, he went it to the service centre but it could not be "resuscitated". He has yet to bring the hp back so that we can do a "burial". You must think I'm nuts but this was the 1st generation 3G hp that arrived on Malaysian shores and it has served us well for the past 3 years or more.

So back to the topic, spending more at a certain age range. Yes, I do believe that when we were younger, we had no commitments, less worry as well as less money to use but heck we had a pretty enjoyable life during secondary and college days didn't we?? I sure did. But once you reach a certain age, even when your salary doesn't go up the ranking as fast as you want it to, you still can't run away from the normal events in life. Marriage, getting your own pad, having kids or friends having kids, friends getting married, etc. It all comes with the age range.

Once you have passed that, you slowly spend less on these events, then when you reach your 50s or 60s when maybe it's your own kids turn to go through what we went through ourselves. That will be the time to take the $$ out of the FDs, or sell your bonds or unit trusts, etc. Either to help your son on the dowry or childern having grandkids you know the drill. So the whole cycle starts over again.

This 1 month, past few weeks has been really exhausting. So I really wanna apologise in advance for not updating my blog as often as I would like to. I'll admit to being what Zewt mentioned, a modern slave. I'm guilty as charged. Anyway, nowadays life's not getting better even with a change in job. No $, no time for myself or my friends, going broke all for the sake of having a happier, better life. Sometimes I wonder is it worth it??!!

Monday Blues

2007-10-01T08:56:00.000-07:00

It’s a cold Monday morning and the feeling of Monday blues is not I would wish for anyone to feel. It’s sheer torture.

Firstly, dragging yourself up on a rainy Monday morning is such and arduous task altogether, adding to that the slow motion of getting prepared for work and getting caught in a jam does not bring tears to my eyes but a sense of gloom on a Monday morning. Thank God I did not turn up late for work.

Even my email seems to be slow in starting up this morning. Another sign of Monday Blues perhaps?? I slaved over the weekend to precipitate the project paper I was supposed to submit for some branch improvement thingy but as usual, Monday will be full or surprises. The other project manager did not show up so no getting on with the rest of the project. If I would have known I would have chosen to enjoy my weekend and not end up looking and feeling like an old, grumpy and haggard witch. Damn! Could have finished it up this morning instead.

So now at 11.30 in the AM, I’m writing the draft for this entry instead. Talk about ironic. Sigh.

I hate Mondays; Monday Blues!

Paying peanuts to get monkey manners on board Air Asia

2007-09-28T05:38:00.000-07:00

Phew. This has been the longest hiatus I've taken. It's not for a long break, holidaying somewhere but more of because of too many projects at hand and work piling up.

Now I'm back and I'm sorry to say that I've to start with a criticism on our local budget airline. Which one you say?? Of course the famous one, the red and white CI colour.

One of the few things I'm used to is to be greeted courteously whenevr I board the plane, whether be it Mas or S'pore Airlines, Cathay whatever airlines. But I did not hear any of these words when I board the flight of AK6335 on the night of 18/09/07.

I took a flight out to the East Coast to attend my fiancee's sister's wedding and it was really a totally unpleasant experience. No greeting, or probably it was too soft I couldn't hear what they muttered, but I can still live with that but boy was the flight attendants unprofessional. None of them bothered to smile, what more the Head Flight Attendant had the nerve to scowl at my fiancee's uncle when he enquired about something.

I wonder whether is this a norm for them, to not smile?

Too bad for her, my fiancee's sister saw the scowl and being stressed out enough for a bride-to-be with so many last minute details to look into, she lost her cool and demanded the Head Flight Attendant to apologise to her uncle.

Well, surpise, surprise, the typical Malaysian attitude kicked in (what else other than the "tidak apa" attitude). The Head Flight Attendant couldn't care less what she was asked to do, instead she had the nerve to nod her head then walk past her uncle prentending all the conversation never took place. No, "I'm sorry sir if I was rude to you". She instead hid beind the storage area where all the food is kept till the captain announced that it was time to land, did she only came out. She walked to my fiancee's uncle with a sheaf of papers, telling him, if he would like to make a formal complaint, he would do so by filling up the forms. WHAT THE F***ING HELL HAPPEN TO PROPER COURTESY??!!".

Not saying sorry but instead being cocky. This is Air Asia style!

So I'm still thinking, does paying peanuts means you get monkeys to serve you? I believe monkeys' will have better manners than her don't you think so?

This would be the 1st and the last time I'm ever taking Air Asia even if they offer free tickets to Paris. Damn!

Bus companies made liable

2007-09-17T04:58:00.001-07:00

This was the topic that caught my attention and must I say IT'S ABOUT TIME!!!

It's stated in The Star paper that, Kurnia Insurance has decided to make the bus firms out there be partly liable for certain damages if certain conditions are not fulfilled. I find this very reasonable as it's about time these bus firms take responsibility on their part.

Think about it for a moment, customers pay a certain amount of $$ for a bus ride, they of course expect get proper comfort and of course to arrive at the destination in one piece, not one arm flung into the ravine while one leg on the highway. (Sorry, if it's too descriptive). So is it so difficult to ask for the bus firms to bear a little responsibility for the welfare of their passengers? I mean how much is RM5,000 of damages for death or injuries compared to a whole bus load of "you know what"?? I'm thinking that RM5,000 is considered pretty measly amount, taking into the fact that, 1 individual can be insured up to more than 1 million. Alright, I mean that's a personal thing, but RM5,000?? Can you actually put an amount on a life of a person??

It is also a good implication for the bus firms to get their act correctly. They'll have to think twice, NO, more than twice in actually hiring proper bus drivers, not any Tom, Dick or Harry just to fill the position, not taking into account whether the individual is wanted by the police even.

So, I'm hoping that other insurance companies will not take advantage of this issue and use it as a business opportunity in offering these bus firms their insurance coverage instead if Kurnia decides to go on with their plan.

** Won't be updating my blog after this for the whole week as I'll be outstation (no access to the internet).

Monkey Business

2007-09-15T03:41:00.000-07:00

Weekend's here so let's do some monkeying around. Just kidding.

I met up with a friend for tea today at Cheras and I happen to chance upon 2 monkeys. Yes. You did not read it wrongly. I actually saw 2 monkeys swinging on a tree. Exact location would be in front of a mamak, same row as Kaki Corner in Cheras.

How often do you actually see a real monkey so close up within the vicinity of an urban development?? It's actually pretty heartbreaking to see these monkeys living in a tree, literally 1 tree where what's left around it are stretches of highways, shops and further development.

So, before we all think of further developing our nation, maybe we should learn to nurture what is left of our rainforest, the natural habitat of wonderous creatures you and I might see but not our future generation.

Thankful

2007-09-13T06:44:00.000-07:00

Each day I wake up, I'm thankful I'm alive

As I walk down 18 floors, I try not to complain because I'm thankful I have legs

As I play the piano, I'm thankful I have hands to play and ears to hear the music

As I shop for Christmas presents, I'm thankful to have people I care and love about to buy presents for

As I listen to my parents nag me, I'm thankful for having such loving parents

As forwarded emails flood my mailbox, I'm thankful that I have friends that care enough to forward me emails

As I complain about my work, I'm thankful I have a job

As I write this, I'm thankful that I was given the opportunity to attend school to get an education

As I write this, I'm thankful that God gives me nudge from every now and then to remind me to rely on Him and not to try to run my own life without Him

As I write this, I'm trying to remind myself again and again not to take things for granted.

Drafting of letters

2007-09-12T05:58:00.000-07:00

Re: Complain on itemised charges.

Dear Sir / Madam,

With regards to the matter above, I would like to make an official complaint. I've been charged for all these items (not appropriate to mention here) in my bills for the past 7 years and I've made verbal complaints after verbal complaints but to no avail. In the terms and conditions fineprint, it clearly states that I would only get charged the first time I signed up for the service. I'm very disappointed with the service provided and how this matter is handled.

Attached herewith are the itemised billing for the past years as proof, starting from May 2000 till August 2007.

I expect a written reply on this matter ASAP. If I do not get a reply within 5 working days, I will proceed to cancel my service with you.

Thank you.

You guys must be wondering, what the heck is this lady doing, writing a complaint letter for this blog. Nope I'm not complaining about any service in particular but just happened to have a friend that asked me to draft a complaint letter. Let's call this friend of mine, Shawn. I was kinda stumped on what to blog about today, then as I was chatting with Shawn on messenger, he asked me to do him a favour, to draft a complaint letter for this service he's paying for monthly. This letter's just a draft for him as I still haven't gotten the clear picture on what the whole billing's supposed to be like and I've been asked to exercise some discretion on this matter as some big organisation is involved. Therefore, I can't comment more on this .

This is not the first time I'm asked to write a formal letter for friends, family members, etc. I still haven't perfected this skill of writing formal letters either to government bodies, or organisations, etc but I'm brushing up on it. It is quite an interesting thing to do. I wonder if this is my calling??

Tick tock, tick tock

2007-09-11T07:47:00.001-07:00

Time ticking away. It's been passing me by. And I'm still trying to find enough time to do so many things, to accomplish them within 24 hours. How do I find time to squeeze everything into 24 hours??!!

Mornings are a blur for me, rushing to get ready for work, at work it's rushing for project datelines, after work I'm still trying to rush through traffic to go for an appointment with friends or to rush back probably for a spot of exercise, then rush back to blog, read blogs, check my mail. Forever rushing. It's been more hectic lately, more responsibilities, less time for personal things. I've been spending my honeymoon week at work last week to actually think whether I want to do this for the rest of my life, to keep rushing against time. Even my blogging has taken a toll. I'm not updating it as often as I want to, not able to read that many blogs, not able to spend time with my family members.

I'm contemplating to maybe start something on my own, but I'm also wondering, whether it'll actually squeeze more of my time instead of giving me more time. It's time to think about all these at this point in my life, which probably meaning taking a pay cut but the upside of it, I would be able to spend time with my parents, friends, people I care about, able to do things that are meaningful.

Such difficult questions and it's even more difficult to get answers to these questions.

Cartoon

2007-09-08T18:45:00.000-07:00

Typical Sunday would be a laid back one. Spending quiet time with God is a definite. I've been frequenting 1Utama for the past months so I've decided to take a break from all those window shopping. Yes. I'm a girl but I don't literally shop just because there's a sale.

Today's no different. As I sit here and think of what should I blog about today, since it's a Sunday and I've totally used up my brain juice for the week, I'm stumped. My fiancee's watching tv, in particular the cartoon channel. I'm actually quite amazed that he still finds the latest cartoons interesting to watch. I've no idea whether he's watching it for the animation, storyline or just because there's nothing else to watch on the channels. I've always love cartoon. There were classic ones like Little Mermaid, Cinderella, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

But nowadays cartoons like Danny Phantom, Ed, Edd n Eddy or The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, just doesn't jive. Probably I'm too old fashion about cartoons. My version of cartoons would need people, animals "drawn" properly with a proper story line, it can be comical, filled with all those "aw" moments but it definitely has to be something that we all can relate to somehow or the other. Not something like the Untalkative Bunny. I mean, what's with the horrific looking bunny acting dumb? I wonder what they're trying to potray to the childern watching it? Look "adorable" but dumb at the same time? No offense here. I've got high respect for all the animation producers, the artist and effort they put into all these drawings to make them come alive but at least the story should potray something useful or something for the kids to learn.

I'm lost for words. But hey, if that's what the new generation is into now, I'll just have to go with the flow and hopefully I don't end up being less intelligent than what I am now.

Have a great Sunday and a smashing week ahead.

Radio Shows

2007-09-06T19:04:00.000-07:00

Morning norm for me is to listen to Fly FM Big Bang Breakfast Show. It's not that my taste for music has changed but more of like which DJ's hosting the show.

Back in the college years, Hitz FM had the craziest morning crew, Lil Kev and Fly Guy. Boy were they hilariou. Even before that when there was no Astor yet, I listened to Radio 4, Yasmin and Patrick. So you can all guess as much what's my age now. Hahaha! I love all that sarcasm, the "freedom of speech" when Patrick just "taruh" or what proper English sayas as to criticise. I mean he wasn't bothered about people's feelings or anything at all. Just went straight to the spot. Anyway, I'm going off track here. Back to the topic.

When I was in college, Hitz FM were pretty good but all good things will surely come to an end one day. Both Lil Kev and Fly Guy decided it's time to explore further horizons. So, with nothing to entertain me I switched to Mix FM breakfast show with Shazmin & Richard. They weren't as crazy as Lil Kev & Fly Guy but their constant head butts on topics kinda make the show interesting. I especially love the "Battle of the sexes" game on the show, where a guy and a girl calls in ahd whoever answers all the questions thrown to them correctly wins. And both Shaz and Richard would definitely help their own gender group and made bets on it and I remember Richard lost one of the many bets and had to cook roast lamb as a penalty.

Well, after both Richard and Shazmin decided to break their "duet" bond for the breakfast show, I was stuck again in choosing which channel I would listen to. I tried staying on to listen to the new trio of the breakfast show in Mix FM but somehow lack the "oomph".

In the end, I decided to try FlyFM and I got hooked. I was kinda skeptical at first, since I've always thought it's just another Hitz FM station wannabe since the songs they air is not dissimilar to Hitz. I mean let's look at Mix, it's a mixture of all types from the latest songs to the oldies, chinese songs to korean songs, etc. While Lite FM or what it was used to be known as Light & Easy, potray more relaxing to oldies songs.

But with listening to Big Bang Breakfast Show, I'm quite pleasantly surprised with it. It took a while to get use to but both Phat Phabes and Ben are really so comical. They really can make a person laugh till they cry mind you. But the best part of the show would be the Fix It for me. It's where listeners actually email Ben & Phat Phabes their problems and they try their very best to solve it or what they call Fix It. It can range from small petty problems to full blown problems that might include certain authorities.

Well, everything evolves and I guess my taste for radio station channels evolves as well and I'm contented with what I have and I'm fortunate enough to listen to all the past radio stations.

So what do you listen to?

First day disaster

2007-09-03T07:07:00.000-07:00

This is how it actually feels like on my first day of work in a new organisation; a totall disaster.

When I first arrived, I was greeted by one colleague from another department. As a new comer and I don't know where I was supposed to sit, I went straight to the pantry where I met this colleague. There was introduction of course. I mean I'm still friendly even though I can be what people presumed to be stand-offish if they don't know me well.

As usual, introduction of name, previous attachment, was the main topic of discussion. When it got to who I was supposed to report to, I got a shock of my life, the AVP (Assistant Vice President) that interviewed me left the organisation. I thought, ok. That's kinda normal, people come and go. I can still accept that.

As usual, when a new comer arrives, a senior will bring the new comer around to know the rest of the team and neigbouring departments so today was no different. I did my rounds, saying hi, shaking hands, you know the drill. After that comes the serious part, job scope or so I thought. As I was briefed by one of the regional manager, on the on-going projects that I was supposed to take over, I was told of more bad news. I mean how much bad news can a gal take for one day, let alone one morning? Get a load of this for a first day, the regional manager himself told me that he's resigned only after 6 months serving the organisation. Another project manager in our team has also resigned as well. Which means both are serving their notice now. It felt like a bad dream and boy was it de-motivating. It was not a good feeling to start a day with. How do you feel if on your first day most of your team members tell you that they're actually serving their notice and left because of certain issues. They cited reasons such as workload issues where the main bosses have the tendency to say yes to practically everything which ended up them having them to do everything from branch to hr even, red tape issues, being forced to do other department's task, etc. I believe that each and every organisation would face these kind of issues.

But DAMN. The feeling was like having a huge wave pound your head over and over again, while you're trying to re-surface for air but keep getting dragged down under water by the current. Feels like something what the cantonese call "seong che" which basically means being cheated.

Now I'm trying to figure out whether I've made the correct choice in accepting this job while turning down another offer. Only God will be able to help me through this rough patch. Sigh.

Celebration, Food and Laughter

2007-08-29T01:21:00.001-07:00

Yesterday nite has been one fantastic night. Managed to celebrate a very good friend's birthday yesterday at Penang Village in USJ. You must be wondering, out of so many food reviews on places to eat by "Joe who's constantly craving" why did I choose Penang Village. I actually wanted to try the new restaurant he just recently introduced at Mid Valley but we made the reservations much earlier and also due to the fact the birthday gal was a Penang food fanatic. So a friend actually suggested this place.

We had a superb night. Food and laughter with great company, what more can a girl ask for. We really did enjoy ourselves, non-stop laughing, I mean literally, we couldn't stop laughing at every single thing. ( I think the people at the outlet probably think we just escaped out from Tj. Rambutan asylum or something like that).

After satisfying our hunger we went to Baskin Robbins for cake and candle-blowing. Where else can you go? Not the normal Secret Recipe of course. We had to find something different. Why the clown cake? Cos we're a bunch of clowns. Hahahahah!!! No, really, we totally have so much fun, "clowning" around, hence the Tj. Rambutan asylum description earlier.

Anyway, Happy Birthday Andrena. It's been great knowing you all these years!!!!!

Food galore below.

(Hae Bee Butter squids)

I'll admit overall the food was up to par. I especially love the Hae Bee buttered squids. Yummy. So creamy and the smell of the Hae Bee as you sink your teeth into it, it's totally out of this world.

(Char Kuey Teow)

My Char Kuey Teow was delightful. Just the right taste, not too oily, and huge prawns. I have always thought that in KL, Mdm Kwan and Little Penang Cafe do really good Char Kuey Teow but this restaurant's got the kick.

(Otak-Otak)

The otak-otak was really first class. You can actually see succulent fish meat inside it, unlike some, where you can only taste a bit of fish taste and not see a single fish inside it. So thumbs up for this.

(Kam Heong Tofu)

Another extraordinary dish was the kam heong tofu. This is the first I've ever tried such a dish. Usually it's kam heong prawns or chickens but tofu, not bad. The tofu, I'm not too sure whether they used actualy tofu and fried it or they used tofu "pok" (I've no idea what it's called in English) but the taste was exquisite. Something totally different and I'll definitely call for it the next time I'm there.

The only slack was the asam laksa and the red bean cendol. The asam laksa had a too strong fishy taste, not sour and spicy enough. So, didn't really like it. The cendol was a total disaster. I'm not sure whether they put too much ice-shavings inside but there was not gula melaka taste at all.

All things considered, I'll give the food an 8 out or 10.

Thank you

2007-08-27T02:38:00.000-07:00

Hallelujah! (This is actually an email I received from a colleague, congratulating me on my last day today, stating just that, in BOLD RED!)

No! No! I'm not filled with the Holy Spirit while I write this (though I wouldn't mind). Today is my last day as a slave in the "legal loan shark" company. It has been a long wait. 3 whole months and the feeling is not entirely pure bliss.

I'll admit that I have had pretty good colleagues here, real sporty and outgoing as well as crazy times we've all had when out of office or during office events. We've had our fair share of arguments on projects, disagreements on how things are done but in the end, it's been the friendship, the bonding session over a bowl of char siew rice that makes everything worthwhile. I'm definitely going to miss the yam cha sessions after work. All in all, it's a bittersweet moment as I left today.

It's finally hit home after I got back that it's finally happened. I supposed that I should be doing "the dance" to celebrate my freedom but I'm beginning to miss them already.

So, today's entry, is a tribute to the guys from "you-know-what-bank".

Joyous experiences I've encountered,

Memories etched in my heart,

Kindness that touched me,

Brings deep meaning to life,

Reminiscenes of bittersweet memories,

Still brings a smile to my face,

Friendships that I've gained,

Will be cherished forever.

Thanks guys for making it such a fantastic working experience.

Damn Streamyx

2007-08-23T07:30:00.000-07:00

Damn Streamyx. The connection was so slow yesterday; I can’t even login to blogspot, let alone update a new entry yesterday. I wonder whether I can upload this tonight since I usually type out my blog somewhere before I actually post it up. I’m hoping that the new broadband connection that’s “supposed” to be coming in to Malaysian waters will be much better than Streamyx. I’m talking about WiMAX.

If I remembered correctly, there were 4 major companies who gotten the bid and they are Asiaspace Dotcom, Redtone-CNX Broadband, Bizsurf (a unit of YTL Corp) and Packet One Networks, but (I’m gloating here) that TM didn’t get it. I mean, come on, give others the chance. Just because you dominate the entire country in telecommunications doesn’t mean you’re the best. Proven already many times, one of it was yesterday. I will give them leeway, as in there will always be a chance where the connection might go haywire once in a while, but the frequency of it happening at least once a month or even more is starting to irritate me. That shows that something is seriously wrong there. So I’m still waiting here. Starting to have cobwebs growing out of my hair. But still no sign of WiMAX yet.

Let’s speculate a little, one reason WiMAX is taking so long to get started is probably because after the deal has been signed, there still needs to be the construction of the IT platform, location picking bla bla bla. I’ve no idea in these matters. Or another reason could be because certain “authorities” decides that, no way we’re letting all these big-ass companies take over the broadband industry. What’s going to happen to our “baby Streamyx” if they’re better than us? Then, start improving your service, dim-witted people!! You’ve gotten so much $$, you can build a whole kingdom of infrastructure! Think about that for a second! It’s all possible, if only you would spend the time and $$ in R&D, rather than idling away!!!

Sigh. I better not go on. You know how it’s like. We are free to actually voice out our opinions but only opinions that are soothing to “their” ears, if you know what I mean. I won’t elaborate further.

I'm not surprised

2007-08-23T07:15:00.000-07:00

KL lure for Middle Eastern tourists. This is the title of an article in TheStar online metro section today. There has been more and more Middle East (ME) tourist here in KL and I personally sometimes think that I’ve just stepped into an Arabic Land . That’s how I feel each time I go out for lunch at Bukit Bintang (BB) area. There seems to be more of ME tourist from the month of June till August. That’s what the hotels here call it, the Middle East season. I’ve not gotten the chance to actually find out why they all flock to Malaysia during these few months, other than I know it must be some school holiday and probably because Malaysia is claimed to be an islamic country by many politicians here.

It’s funny how all these shops started mushrooming in BB area, are putting emphasis on the ME feel. I mean we’ve seen a steady stream of tourist from all over the world, bus loads of tourists from China and Taiwan but how come there aren’t any shops opening with the entire Chinese feel to it? I’ve gone shopping at KLCC too many times and it is hard not to notice the armful of designer shopping bags, on the arms of ME tourists. I’m beginning to think that the businesses out there are targeting the ME tourists because they’re not that conscious of their spending but just keep on spending and spending, hence more shops to target their $$ instead. I’m not that surprised if this is one of the reasons behind the mushrooming of increasingly popular ME stores. Well, I’m not complaining, as long as there’s no riot, or any bombings. They’re supporting the economy. I’m totally fine with that.

Another thing that surprises me though is when these ME women are all dressed to cover up; their children are totally the opposite. They’re dressed in skimpy outfits, spaghetti strap tops, or clothes that are too short that they show their belly buttons. What’s with that? I mean, is that how you do it? Just because they can’t wear these outfits, they dress their kids in all these clothes. I mean no disrespect. I’m just curious as to why they do so that’s all. All these cultures really fascinate me but at the same time I find them really weird. I can’t seem to understand the concept. A little help here maybe from anyone who understand??

Still it feels a little weird to be surrounded in all black hooded women. Scares the shit out of me, especially when you’re walking at night and then some hooded figure suddenly stands beside you, I mean waiting for the traffic light to cross the road. What were you thinking??

Being a responsible parent

2007-08-20T04:55:00.000-07:00

I’d love to start this entry with loads of swear and vulgar words as that’s how I feel now, KKNCCB, %*@@##!!!. Pissed to the core. Recently I have been splurging quite a bit, not only for myself but for those close to me. My fiancée’s sister’s (let’s just call her Samantha) desktop just “died” on her. Since I love her so much, I decided to buy her a notebook. No, I’m not some rich datin where I can afford to give everyone a new notebook but since she hasn’t been that lucky in getting a new computer, I became Santa Claus for a day. Got her a new Acer notebook, with minimal features, just enough for her to surf the internet to do research, sufficient for her to do her assignments and of course not forgetting her much adored DVD-rom. She’s an avid fan of all TVB series. I mean, come on, every student surely needs time to unwind with their favourite pastime, and hers happens to be watching TVB series. J

Well, she brought back the notebook back to her hometown last weekend, and being the kind-hearted soul she was, she consented to allow her cousin’s son to play some games inside her notebook. But being a child with another younger sister, you know how kids play rough. They fought over playing the notebook and somehow they managed to cause a hairline crack on the screen. I know, you’ll be swearing up and down. When Samantha called me, I thought that it was a small crack. That night, she brought over the notebook and my GOD!! It was not hairline crack. There are 2 bloody big cracks all the way from bottom to the top. And here’s the ultimate, she said the kid’s mother, Catherine won’t be paying for the repairs. She blames Samantha for the crack, saying that she shouldn’t have let her kids play with the notebook in the first place. Yes I know, it may sound quite true to a certain extent, Samantha shouldn’t have let the kids play with the notebook, but come on, I mean, let’s say, you go out to the shopping complex, your kid accidentally break something, doesn’t it state clearly that, “Once broken, considered sold” which basically means you need to pay for it. Or another scenario, let’s say you borrow your friend’s car to drive and you got into an accident, shouldn’t you pay for it?

I don’t know. I’m really pissed off at the same time wondering whether I should demand a payment for the repairs. I’ve checked with Acer as well as the computer shop and they already said there’s no way that a warranty claim can be done for a crack notebook screen, even though we’ve just only bought it for a month. But Catherine is adamant to claim for warranty. Her reasoning being that we are supposed to tell Acer that the notebook is faulty, poor quality. By the time she said that, I really felt like banging her head to the wall. I mean how stupid can you get man! At least for an educated person, think of a more valid reason. Poor quality. Good Lord! Of course being a hot tempered person I am, the argument got really heated so I said irregardless of what happens she has to find a way to fix it. I don’t care whether you cheat someone of a new computer, steal or even go to the extent of bribing the relevant parties, I want it fixed. There’s still no conclusion at the moment.

To be continued….

Marriage Shock

2007-08-17T18:56:00.000-07:00

Wedding bells ringing, exchanging of rings, the beloved groom and bride all dressed in white, holding hands, being blessed by the minister and a 1985 Rolls Royce Silver Spirit waiting to take the blissful couple to their honeymoon destination.

Doesn’t this paint a quaint picture, makes you feel all lovey dovey? You can forget all that. I mean you can have it all happen but not before you go through all the hassle of preparation, the ceremonies, all the shopping for gowns, finding the right attire for the groom, last minute co-ordinations for the dinner, the list is endless.

I was discussing with a couple of friends about wedding preparation as we’re all still young and innocent (puke! puke!), still in our early twenties where one by one, we’re slowly jumping on the marriage bandwagon. Of course the stories range from where to find the best make-up artist, to where to find the most glamorous gowns for dinner and the topic stopped at relatives involved in the marriage preparation. Boy oh boy do the stories get juicy. Get a load of this.

One of my girlfriend mentioned that she, as usual is planning the normal marriage tea ceremony and dinner. But she found out a couple of months before her wedding that her husband-to-be’s relatives aren’t what you exactly call accommodating relatives. The first “horror” story she told us was, her husband’s relatives have bought her gold for the tea ceremony. Tea ceremony is where you serve tea to those who are older than you and in return they either give you an ang pau (red packet with money) or gold. I don’t exactly know the reasoning for this ceremony other than it is a way to show respect but I just know that’s how it’s done. Now comes the grand finale; (Drum rolls) the relatives decided NOT to give any ang pau for the dinner because they’ve bought her gold!! How good can this story get man! We were in total shock! I mean, how can you call someone a relative, and yet be so stingy??!! I always thought that during wedding dinners, it’s the relatives that actually help out by giving more in terms of ang pau so that the couple can use it to cover for the dinner, in case there happen to be RM5 ang pau given. Oh, did I mention that she was told the gold bought for her was shared between 5 families of relatives. I was totally dumbfounded. All I’ve got to say is, I feel really sorry for her. I know as a friend I need to help her so as a close friend, at least RM500 from me and my fiancée when I attend her wedding dinner. Don’t you worry my friend, I’ll try to help you as much as I can.

As a friend, even as a colleague if I go to attend a wedding dinner, I’ll give at least RM80-RM100 (for one attendee only), depending on how well I know the couple and also where the dinner is held. I mean, come on people, you know how expensive all things are, at least have the courtesy of giving a decent ang pau for the dinner?

What about you? How much are you willing to give for a wedding dinner?

To work or not to work

2007-08-17T06:26:00.000-07:00

I have been reading an article on Oprah.com. Yes. I’m a sucker for her programmes. I find their topics are worth listening or more of reading about.

The topic of discussion was whether should a mother stay at home after giving birth or should she go back to work after her maternity leave. I believe in the society nowadays, there are quite a number of hard-core career-minded women out there who have really made their mark in the working world. Look at all those successful women, such as Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister for Britain from 1979-1990 or maybe someone nearer to home like Bridget Lai, CEO of Alliance Bank. I can’t comment whether they’ve been doting mothers or not but which women wouldn’t be loving towards their own children. Point being, all women’s maternal instincts will kick in when they get to a certain age.

It has been a topic of discussion between me and my fiancée before. I have no idea what kind of mother would I be, probably on the strict side since I do have the tendency to have an impatient nature in me. So when the topic was discussed on Oprah, it made me think whether is it a wise choice to stop working entirely and throw myself into the livelihood of being a mother or still continue working? My mum used to work when we were young and she managed to bring us up just fine. More than fine I say. All my siblings have terrific careers with well-known multi-national companies. We have never had any deprived childhood, it was wonderful. My mum was always there when we needed someone to fuss over us, though I’ll admit she tend to be a bit strict since she’s a teacher.

I’d love to mirror my mum. Being able to work while taking care of the family, but I feel it’s more of a wishful thinking. I know with the working hours that I keep, it’s going to be pretty challenging to actually build my career while being a fantastic mother. There’ll always be the guilt of not spending enough time with your child, worrying that you’ll be missing out significant moments like when they utter their first word or when they take their first step. The “trend” nowadays for working mothers are either to send your child to daycare or get your in-laws or own parents to take care of your child when you go to work or maybe trust the care to the maid. I know one thing for sure I will never give that responsibility to the maid. Too many accounts on maid abuse on children. Nor would I want my in-laws or my parents taking care of my child. I’m not being daft but I think the roles of grandparents are more to spoil their grandchildren once in a while, and not be a full time nanny. They’ve done their job as a parent and now it’s our turn. No harm in getting them to come and play with their grandchild once a while, supervise or give their opinions on child-rearing but it’s really tiring and tedious thing for them to chase after a toddler that probably has the energy of 10 adults combined together. It might give them a little exercise but it will definitely take a toll on their health. Think about their stress level which can lead to high blood pressure, all the running around and excitement won’t do their joints any good either.

I do sometimes dream of having a rich husband where I wouldn’t need to worry about $$ and stop working. But then, being what Cantonese call “fan chin” meaning, even knowing how lucky you are, you’ll still go and create a complexity I’ll still complain being a “tai-tai” (rich wife with worries only on what colour to choose for manicures, what dress to wear for my afternoon tea meet-up; kidding!). I’ll think how wonderful it is to work and have your own $$ without depending on your husband, being able to dress up in that power-suit and walk into the office, you know the drill. All in all, I’m not sure whether I’ll ever be able to find the perfect blend to be a career woman while being a devoted mum. Until I find the perfect permutation, I’ll just have to make an effort when the time comes.

Like what the famous psychologist, Dr Robin Smith mentioned, “the goal isn’t to have it all because we can’t have it all, but to be attuned with yourself and your children”. I guess I’ll have to be attuned then.

A woman

2007-08-16T07:27:00.000-07:00

This was a poem written by an Unknown and I want to share it with you.

God said :
When I created woman, she needed to be special.
I created her shoulders strong enough to bear the weight of the world…
And soft enough to be comfortable
I gave her the strength to give life,
The kind that accepts the rejection that often comes from children
I gave her the strength to allow her to go on when everybody else give up.
The kind that takes care of her family, despite illness and fatigue
I gave her the sensitivity to love her children unconditionally
Even when they have hurt her deeply
I gave her the strength to endure her husband in his faults
And to stay at his side without weakening
And finally, I gave her tears to shed whenever she needs them to be shed
The beauty of a woman resides in her eyes.
It is the door to her heart ;
the door where Love resides
And it is often through her tears that you see her heart go by

The words really brought an awakening, touched me deep inside. It has given me hope to be a better daughter, a more understanding friend, a more thoughtful sister, a loving wife and a doting mother in the years to come. Now I understand why God made women different from a man, why women are able to multi-task while carrying the burdens on her shoulders, why a succesful man always have a pillar of strength of a wife, why even though how much heartache a child causes his mother, she still loves him unconditionally, why she can be a good listener to a friend in need even when she has had a demanding week.

God made each one of us special in His eyes and let us not forget that but continue to bring out the best in us, in no matter what we do or wherever we go.

Goodrich Wallpapers

2007-08-15T16:10:00.000-07:00

During the whole of last week there was a home deco road show at 1Utama. Manage to go and catch a glimpse at what’s the “in-thing” for house designs nowadays. There are all sorts of designs for the entire house, furniture, other bigger designer brands but mainly outlets in 1Utama that participated in this road show.

(Flamboyance 003)**

One thing that caught my attention was the use of wallpaper for most of the designs for bedroom to living room. Goodrich Global actually sponsored their wallpapers for the living room and bedroom at the road show. (No, the company isn’t paying me to help them do any write-up on their products, but I wouldn’t mind if they do. ). That is one of the “in-thing” now for ID (interior design). I’ve got no eye for details, let alone anything to do with art; hence I’m not that up-to-date with all the latest gadgets to lifestyle designs for the house but the wallpapers somehow seem to catch my attention, especially the bedroom design. (Sorry, no photos taken cos my hp was almost out of battery that day). So, gone are the days when wallpapers were only flower motif. Now they’ve really got really flamboyant styles. Some I just couldn’t accept (probably cos I’m still an old-fashion aunty to a certain extent). But for the most part, they do have a variety of choices that do please the eye.

How many of you will actually use wallpapers for your house? I’ve hmmed and ahhed and calculated whether it’s worth the $ to actually use wallpapers for the house since it is quite costly to paint the house nowadays let alone using wallpaper. The choices for wallpapers are considerably extensive. Bounds of leather books containing so many samples to choose from. Oh, did I mention also, they allow customization too?? Talk about state of the art. If so happen you do have a particular picture that you want to be made into wallpaper, just let them know. The number of selections just for house walls alone is overwhelming enough. What more can you say for the rest of the house? I think, I’ll get those wallpapers only for my bedroom. (I’ll put up pix of it when the wallpapers are up)

(Wallpower Unlimited 051)**

Ok, people. If you want to have a peek you can always drop by their website at http://www.goodrichglobal.com/.

**Pictures, courtesy of Goodrich Global.

So late...

2007-08-14T09:36:00.000-07:00

I’m so late to office today. Had this niggling feeling about being late and even though I’ve already told my manager I’ll be late I still have that contrite feeling inside me. I’ve always had this fear of being late in no matter what I do or where I go and I end up literally snapping at anyone who gets in my way. And it kinda ruin the rest of my day, till I somehow manage to get that I’m-so-guilty-cos-I’m-late feeling out of my system, which I never do. It’s always been the way that I’ve brought up, that it’s not good to make someone wait for you, let alone being late, a definite no-no. Also the feeling of being so harassed because you’re rushing to do everything and rushing will never do anyone good, whether you’re rushing on the road or rushing to do something, it always comes out with some sort of unpleasant result.

Does this sound familiar to you guys or most of you couldn’t care less if you’re late to office or to an appointment. I do wonder how some people can actually stroll into an office casually, without that harassed looking look, being all cool even though they are late. Tell me. How do you do it?! Well, I’ll admit the feeling of being late does bring an air of “superiority” to some, as most bosses come in late to office.

A colleague mentioned that some managers have a different mind set, where it’s alright to come in to office late since we’re “expected” to stay late while there are some exceptional managers who think it’s better to come in to office early and leave on time. Which kind of manager would you prefer to work with? Manager A, who condones coming in late or Manager B, who sticks to the rules to coming in on time? I guess as much that there will be a mixture of responses in picking which manager they prefer, especially those who love sleeping in a bit more would prefer Manager A while those who want to go back on time especially those with small children would rather prefer to have Manager B. But when I think of the jam that’s seems to have gotten worse year by year, I’d like to work with Manager A, probably for a while till I start my own family. So complicated, so many options. If only life could be easier.

Life's too short for the wrong job

2007-08-13T04:48:00.000-07:00

This was the title of the email in my mail box when I opened it this morning. What a motivation for an early, dreary Monday morning. It really did catch me at that particular moment when I received another email talking about how good my life is compared with all these sorrowful pictures of people suffering, not in terms of where they don’t have arms or legs but more of the condition of their livelihood. I’ll let the pictures speak for itself today.

After seeing these pictures, do I feel that I'm really blessed.

“Many of us persist in believing that happiness will be just over the next hill. But happiness is not a destination; it is a journey. Don’t brood over what would make you happy tomorrow. Instead be grateful for today” quoted by Janet Congo.

Of Hauntings and break-ins

2007-08-09T09:11:00.000-07:00

Hauntings and break-ins. These are the 2 major things that happened to the place I call home here in KL.

No, I wasn’t haunted by an apparition or something like that but there was this entity residing in the house many years back before I stayed in the house. I moved into the house not knowing that we would have this unfelt presence with us. I didn’t feel the usual hair-raising sensation that most people would feel if something wasn’t right. No one even bothered to mention that “this being” was actually staying with us. I think any idiot would be smart enough not to say a word on this. It’s a taboo subject, let alone to tell the new tenant renting the room that the house is haunted.

Only got to know about this entity when a couple of my housemates were sharing stories that made me realized they were actually talking about “this being” in the house I’m staying. I didn’t freak out, why till this day I don’t know. Probably was because firstly I will never believe until I see with my own eyes (not that I want to) and 2, “it” has never bothered me before. They told me that the usual “disturbance” was when they were at the sitting room; they thought they saw a shadow passed by the corner of their eye.

One hair-raising story was when one of my housemate, Kit was doing her work late one night at home with a friend and they were listening to a cd. It stopped for quite a while and they did not realize it till the cd suddenly started playing. Only thing was, it kept repeating this particular song, over and over again. She thought that the cd was faulty, so she stopped it but in less than a minute, it started playing by itself again. This time they really freaked out, stopped working, switched off everything and ran up to the room to bed. I’m not too sure whether she actually slept or pretended to sleep but she assured me that “it” did not came in the middle of the night to stare at her sleep.

I think “the being” decided to be kwai for a while. It decided not to alarm any of the occupants in the house for a few weeks till one night, while another housemate was sleeping, he felt someone prodding him on the side. He thought it was his girlfriend, so he just mumbled, “Stop disturbing me and go next door to find someone else to disturb.” Apparently “the being” really listened to him and went to my other housemate’s room and observe him sleeping. Even though he was sleeping, my housemate has this niggling feeling that he was being stared at (beats me how he felt it) but he suddenly woke up to see, a small kid and a lady watching him sleep. When he yelled out, they disappeared. (I think I would have pissed in my pants. Damn!) Now, is that hair-raising or what? But I really thank God that “it” never bothered me throughout my stay in this house.

Straight after that incident, they decided they had enough and came back the next few days armed with “fu”, “chinese datuk” (whatever that is cos I’ve got no idea on all these rituals, prayers and chants) and they weren’t bothered anymore to this day. The only thing I can be thankful for is being fully protected by God and by reading His word I’m real blessed that’s all I can say. This has strengthen my faith in Him to protect me as He has countless of times.

Recently there was a break-in at my house. It happened last Friday. Nothing much was stolen other than my housemate’s keys and a notebook. I’m still thanking God that this baby wasn’t stolen, if not there’s no way I can blog about this now. This thief must have been “camping” nearby to know the time we keep and where my housemate usually place his keys. Yes.Yes. I know. You’re stunned that our keys are practically lying out in the open. It’s not totally in the open, it so happens my housemate’s “smart” enough to leave his keys on his table next to the window. I’ve no idea whether the window was open or not when the key was stolen. So being a moron, obtuse git he is, did not realize something was amiss when his house keys were missing. He thought that one of my other housemates must have taken his keys by mistake. But HELLO!??!! Everyone’s supposed to be at work. No one’s home other than you guys??!!! I really wanted to say that but I think I’ll keep my cool. So when he came back with my other housemate Kit, she suddenly realized that her notebook’s gone. It’s been stolen. Yea of course it’s been stolen. What do you think??!!! It walked off by itself??!! Only then, did they realize that the back door was wide open. The thief had the “brilliant” idea of using the stolen keys to leave using the back door, leaving the padlock behind for us!!!

I can never know how dim-witted someone can be but these people really deserve to win an award. (“And the greatest imperceptive award goes to…drum roll please”). The first time round, when the keys were missing, was before they were went out. This practically means they went out, left the house “vulnerable” and open to the thief without knowing it. Ok ok. I’ll stop blaming them since nothing else was stolen. We’ve changed all the locks and of course made a police report. It’s been a hard lesson to learn for them and everyone else.

All in all, I’ve learnt that we cannot control all the circumstances in our lives but we can control how we respond to them, whether it makes us a bitter person or a better person.

What d'ya think??

2007-08-08T05:48:00.000-07:00

I think after reading this headline, many out there are ready to kill me! How in the world should I put this so that I don’t offend anyone?

I’ve been thinking, yea there are good points as well as bad points in having the petrol stations closing at 10pm. One thing for sure, there would be less people using stolen cards to pump petrol cos lets face it, all these stolen credit cards somehow are used late in the night. Don’t ask me why but probably because they think it’s safer in the dark and not easily caught?

Another point why it might be good for the stations to close earlier is, we can actually tell our employers that it’s going to be real difficult to work late since petrol station close at 10pm. Then again, you might say, the employers can’t be that stupid, they’ll say it’s a lame excuse, just pump during the day if you know your petrol tank is almost empty. So this means that everyone will be scrambling to the nearest petrol station before work. Unless our employers allow us to go out for longer lunches just to pump petrol or either we start work late since petrol stations opening hours are from 7am-10pm. I mean there has to be a compromise here people. It can’t be a win-win situation for everyone. Someone will surely have to give in and I wonder who that will be?

What else can be a good reason for the change in hours? Maybe like what they say, less robbery at the petrol stations which means they’ll target other places now. Maybe the robbers will target mamaks or our houses?! Damn! Not that good is it? Does this mean that since the “petrol associaton” intend to close the petrol stations earlier the police will have more man-power to patrol housing areas? I’m not too sure whether they do regular patrols for petrol stations as I don’t own one.

Also, why do they want the customers to bear the 1% for using credit card? Aren’t they making enough $$ already from the increase in petrol price, what more with the items they sell in their petrol station cum convenient store? Oh, I forgot, every human being always has this greed in them, whatever we have will never be enough. Should we judge them? Should we be blaming them for wanting the consumers to bear that 1%? Is it because the banks have increased the merchant rental? Seriously I’m really at a loss here. It seems that the consumers are always losing out in this vicious cycle, where every business out there wants a piece of the cake.

What d’ya think people? Tell me! Tell me!

Carl's Jr at 1Utama

2007-08-06T06:21:00.000-07:00

Burgers, French fries, Mustard, Onions and Pickles. Yummy!!!! That’s what it was when I sank my teeth into a Carl’s Junior Burger! It’s finally opened!!

As I do my usual weekend shopping at 1Utama, I chance across this outlet, still under renovation with Carl’s Jr on the outside. I didn’t think much about it until my fiancée mentioned that it’s one of the famous burger outlets in the US . That got my attention. Anything to do with fast food or chips, I’m game for it. Though it would be a gamble to keep feeding myself with all these scrumptious food and neglect the fact that I might not be able to squeeze myself into my wedding dress end of this year, it has always been well worth the bite.

So, when it finally opened I so happen to be at 1Utama again (it’s meant to be, God just wants me to enjoy my love for food) I made a bee line to Carl’s Jr. for lunch never mind the fact that I had a late breakfast. When I got there, it was already doing brisk business. I couldn’t bear the anticipation, and when it came to my turn to order I didn’t go berserk but I was loss for words with so many choices. Wondering whether I should try their Chilli Cheeseburger or the Guacamole Bacon burger or SOOOOOO many other burgers? In the end I decided that my love for bacon supersedes my other choices. I settled for Western Bacon Cheeseburger and my fiancée ordered the Guacamole Bacon burger.

(the Western Bacon Cheeseburger. I'll admit the pix doesn't do it justice cos I took this with my hp camera)

It was love at first bite!! The taste of the bbq sauce just brings out the taste of the charbroiled burger and the bacon, DELICIOUS. Together with mustard sauce, the burger’s to die for. The size is just huge. Let’s just hope that they maintain the size, rather than growing smaller as they progress like some burgers that came to Malaysian shores. But one downside was, the bacon was chicken not pork. That’s the sad part of it. I’ve also managed to try my fiancée’s Guacamole Bacon Burger and the texture and the taste of the guacamole taste like the authentic version, not a copied recipe. It’s a funny combination to have with burger but it was surprisingly good.

Then the fries, pretty good. I’m impressed. I always thought that McD still rule in the fries department but Carl’s Jr. just won my vote on their fries.

In terms of price, it can be a bit pricey for fast food but with the serving size, I’d like to think it’s well worth your $ spent. It’s not as if you’re gonna eat it everyday.

So there you go guys, go give it a try. It’s well worth it.

Travel and Living - The way to live.

2007-08-05T06:37:00.000-07:00

Rajasthan, Udaipur. Having a meal with the Maharaja, more of like having the meal being cooked by the Maharaja. How good can life get?

No, I'm not talking about myself. I'm talking about Anthony Bourdain. Just watched No Reservations where this famous cook is travelling in Rajasthan (no idea where this is, since my Geography sucks). He got the chance to actually eat a meal cooked by a Maharaja. I think that only happens once in a lifetime, on television that is.

Sometimes I feel that they, the "television cook cum travellers" have the time of their life. Travelling the world, seeing the different cultures, trying exotic foods. That's what you call living life to the fullest, or is it? I do tend to daydream at times, thinking how it will be like if I'm in their shoes, when it suddenly came to mind how I get tongue-tied and camera-shy when I get in front of a real camera.

Oh well, there isn't much to be jealous of, since we always seem to think that the grass is greener on the other side, how their lives are better than ours. It's time to remind myself that the grass can be greener on my own side as long as I tend to it, water it and let God work his wonders.

By Force???

2007-08-02T06:54:00.000-07:00

Hmm….How do I put this topic in a more subtle way. I’m still irresolute in how to word it without giving away too much information.

I was corresponding with a friend from work through email. (no, it doesn’t mean I don’t need to work and no it does not mean I’m using company resources). It just so happen she was asking me about my opinion in buying a certain property. She also mentioned something about credit cards. And the topic came to a point where we were debating whether to apply for company credit card or not. (yes we both work for “legal money lenders”) But do we really need it? I mean yea, sure it is free, and we won’t need to pay for the annual fee as long as we’re employees of the company. Other than that, what else? Oh yea, forgot to mentioned that it is a gold credit card. What’s the big deal? What more nowadays with platinum or even titanium cards out in the market? It’s all just another scheme to make you spend more. So, the big question is would you grab that card if it’s given to you free?

There have been companies out there who “force” coerces their employees to apply for the credit card. Reasoning being that, it would do the company good by portraying a better image. But what if the employees do not want the card? They don’t find the need for an extra card (cos the benefit sucks). Well, of course there will be a way around that. How, you ask? “Employees are only allowed to use company credit card for company expenses. Any other credit card used for company expenses will not be acknowledged as an official claim” How does that sound to you?

Just apply. Since it’s free and no harm done you say? Alright! Alright! What happens then if you go outstation for a company trip and that one company credit card decides to fail on you? Does this mean you can’t claim for the expenses because you don’t use the card? Anything is possible eh? It’s the voters say on this. We’ll see what happens in a few months.

Attack of the Trojans

2007-07-31T03:48:00.000-07:00

ATTACK!!!!!!!!! Or more like INVADE!!!!!!!!!! That’s what it will sound like if I understood all those programming languages. This basically means that my computer got invaded by viruses, Trojan to be exact. Boy do I hate these viruses. If I so happen to meet the actual person who created this virus, I will SKIN THIS PERSON ALIVE!!!

I just started my blog last week. The first comment I got (which made me so pleased), came up with 1 pop-window. Then more than a dozen windows started popping up. Lo and behold the virus got hold of my computer and I literally panicked. Scream at my fiancée for help which he said it’s a virus though with a note of sweat (he’s had a bad experience with all these darn viruses). Thank God for Kapersky Anti-Virus, it’s contained but still can’t be erased. So, I could still blog but the feeling of being “invaded” and the possibility of losing all my wedding pictures made me bring the notebook to the “clinic”.

Each time I mentioned the word “ Bryan ” which was the guy whom I bought my notebook from, the notebook seems to “understand” that I’ll be bringing it for a thorough check and it immediately let me continue with peace, without the occasional “warning”. I’m not sure whether it’s such a coincidence that each time his name was mentioned the notebook goes all “timid” and sort of submissive. Damn! I thought I’m starting to go crazy! Maybe I’m just trying to ignore the fact that there is something seriously wrong with the notebook but can’t seem to accept that fact, since I just bought it not long ago. So after procrastinating for a couple of days, I decided, it’s time to bring it for a check. After prodding and poking, Bryan confirmed that there is Trojan virus and another God-knows what virus. Totally can’t be cleaned out. So he had to install another anti-virus software.

So now I’m praying hard that I won’t get another attack, which I know no way it will end like that, like a fairy tale with a happy ending. Just hoping that with extra protection, it can deter those viruses long enough while I blog in peace.

Weekend bliss

2007-07-29T04:02:00.000-07:00

Good food, shopping and good company makes a wonderful weekend. Have just splurged on a dress for my wedding dinner. Though it has made a dent in my bank account but it doesn't stop me from indulging in food.

Was at BSCII on Saturday and since there has been a write-up on this particular restaurant name Banquet we decided to tried it. The ambience was very English like, the whole concept is all white-washed paint, rattan-liked chairs, marble-liked tables (since I've no eye for diffrentiating how real marble look likes, hence the word marble-liked), of course there's the high-society crowd there as well. But enough about that. It's the food that I'm aiming to talk about.

We ordered, spaghetti olio with red snapper, chicken casserole with wine and fettuccine with asparagus, beef bacon and courgettes. The portion was small and presentation was minimal. For dessert we ordered a chocolate tart and hot chocolate cake to share. Those 2 are to die for. Totally sinful. As we dig into the chcolate cake all the chocolate sauce ooze out and the sight is astounding. Really mouth watering. In overall I'd give the food a 6 out of 10 while the ambience an 8 out of 10. So after a full stomach, the ending of the day would be to enjoy it with a tweak to the brains.

(Top: Chicken casserole with wine, Below: Hot chocolate cake)

I've been having the time of my life. No I am not a compulsive gambler but the thrill of the sound of tiles knocking into each other, the anticipation to see whether the next tile is actually the one you're waiting for. Total bliss for me that is. I'm talking about mahjong. Not mahjong solitaire that you play on the computer but the actual mahjong, with all the papers, chips and table on hand.

You'll probably think I'm an old aunty addicted to mahjong. Well officially I am an aunt but I'm no old gal I tell you. Some might think it's a stressful game where you'd need to think of strategy but it actually keeps the stress of work lowered somehow. Why?? Because I don't play with $$. There are no $$ or any kind of denomination involved on the table.

Though I must admit with laughter and wine mixed with mahjong, things tend to get a little way off. Topic of conversation can go from serious to really ridiculous subjects ranging from topics on wedding preparation to brazillian waxing. This was one way to keep us awake as well since we played late into the nite. It's been a great way to relax this weekend after a taxing week. Let's hope that this "high" keeps me on my toes for the coming week ahead.

The Society Today

2007-07-27T04:15:00.000-07:00

The latest news it seems, are about the next generation out there. Kids being canned because they don’t read out loud in class to a teenager being freed even after killing his teacher’s daughter reasoning being he’s a juvenile. What is the society coming to?

Do we blame parents for not knowing how to discipline their children or do we actually blame the society out there, the influence of television or peers? Sometimes it is much easier to put the blame on someone else when children misbehave. Watching too much television, an excellent scapegoat, peers, also another excellent scapegoat. It’s been known in the years back then, “to spare the rod, is to spoil the children”. But in the current society, it seems to have revolutionize to “to spare the rod, is to show love to the children”. Hence the rationale of being unable to decide makes adults also succumb to peer pressure, irregardless of their age.

Talking about peers, I’ve been surprised more of flabbergasted to see adults in their early 30s been influenced by their peers. I always thought that it only happens to kids or teenagers, they being still naïve or easily persuaded. Do you for one, lets say, take up a certain sport just because you have friends raving about how unbelievable it is or maybe you’ve seen a group of friends who engage a certain service and you too decide to use it too? I suppose it can be plain laziness of going around looking for other alternatives since friends have critically acclaimed about it. Or, it can also be not knowing where to research for other alternatives.

This topic will always be a favourite, cropping up once a while when there’s an issue with the society.

Going the extra mile

2007-07-26T06:39:00.000-07:00

Angeline is a priority customer and she just got a call from her “certified $$ lender” inviting her to a talk but she politely declines as she’s busy on the given date. Henry who just called Angeline knows having an extra customer in the list would make a difference but who knows she turned him down. What does Henry do now? Tell his boss that most of the customers that he calls are either not interested or are busy on that date. But knowing his boss’s eccentric thinking, it would do him no good in telling him either so-called “reasons”. Why not, you ask? It’s the truth. But would his boss want to know the truth? Would YOU as a boss want to know the truth?

Sounds familiar? Sometimes you go the extra mile for your customers but they totally push you away. And if you don’t go the extra mile, you’re deemed to be a lousy sales personnel or customer service executive which basically spells out you’re a lousy employee in the eyes of your manager.

Again the question arises, do you tell your boss what has been transpired between you and the customer? You spend time with the customers on the phone, face to face more often than with your mother so doesn’t that count as knowing them better but NO, your boss thinks they are so much more superior to you; hence their ideas are “wonderful” and feasible. It doesn’t matter to them when customers have given their feedback. Goes in through one ear and out the other. What happen to “sharing” of ideas or “We’re always open to ideas or comments from our employees”? Or is it just a matter of comforting lies when you first step foot into the organization?
I do wonder at times how organizations win Best Employer of the Year award. What are they judge based on? Can anyone tell me how do these organizations win such an award?

How do you explain it?

2007-07-25T00:09:00.000-07:00

The irony of actually explaining things to someone who’s either plain ignorant or too high up in the air has made life completely miserable. What a way to start a new blog you’d might think. But it’s been plaguing me like a disease and I can’t seem to shake it off, however I seem to pray or rant about it. The initial plan or starting this blog would be to write about celebrating my release from this so called international organization but my temper seems shorter these days to actually contain my impatience of still stuck working here. Hence the need to find a way to release it, ie through this blog.

So what should I do? Continue to be a point of “machine gun” practice for my bosses’ tongues due to their lack of understanding how the company works even though they’ve been here for longer or should I just bow down to their obtuse request just to show how I’m as capable as what they expect me to be? Then again, the obtuse request might be a turning point to cut down turn-around-time for certain procedures to accommodate customers request since customers are always correct and we’re dying for their business. All these questions but the answers vary from different circumstances.

Ever since my blogger friend mentioned about “signing on the dotted line” to sell my life away to the industry, I’ve been questioning whether is it ever worth it to work my ass off like every “responsible” employee. Why the “ “ is used you might ask? Well I might as well ask then, since when any of you out there has actually felt complied to work overtime with a cheerful heart or should I say without reluctance? Most would probably say I’ve been given the task, so of course I would need to do my best. If not I would be deemed as lazy or much less (those out there might shudder at the thought) as a mediocre worker. So would you actually follow your managers’ obtuse request or rather to follow the tedious procedures that has been set by the organization?

Anyway, working life never seems to be a bed of roses whether you’re working for yourself or for some organization. Just the reality of it hits you in the face once a while just to remind you that 4 or 5 figure you’re earning isn’t easy to come by.