Scratt Mania

My department caught a bug..No, no no..Not H1N1..

It all started with this.

One early morning, we saw this.

Gasp! We're surrounded by Scratttttts! They're everywhere!

Next think we knew, they started the "Internet Age"

One by one, they attacked our lappies!

Sometimes, they try to sneak into our lappies in disguised!

When we tried calling for help, they managed to stop us in time! :(

Then, in our lappies, they started to replicate themselves!

Replicating....replicating..

More and more....

And more...........!!!



What are they doing here?

What are they looking for?????????????

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They found it, they found it!

(-.-)

Revelation time

Well well..I guess it's time that I should let the cat out of the bag.
I was refering to this.

Most of you might have already guessed it (especially dear CF, yeah smart boy!).

So, after 5 years, 1 month working in this company, I have alas decided to move on. Yes, I have resigned and today indeed is my last working day.

Looking back, I, myself could not believe that I've made the decision. Most people were shocked when they heard about this too. One thing for sure, I think I am crazy enough to do this as I just cannot accept the fact that I'm too comfortable at work! haha.... Another way to put it, I'm already in my "comfort zone". Somehow, I felt I was too young to be in this position, and I should actually try taking on more challenges in life rather than to rot stay put in just one company till my retirement. So I took a leap of faith, and yes I did it...! :)

Now, come Monday, I shall face a new life, one with so much uncertainties and risks...sound scary huh? I guess I'm a risk-taker. I'm anxious to know if I could survive in the "world" outside my current company walls. There's no turning back now!

Anyway, one thing for sure, I'll definitely miss all my fellow colleagues :(.
That's one thing that I'll cherish alot apart from the nice and relaxing working environment. *sigh* What have I got myself into?

As I left the company today, my mind was overwhelmed with thoughts.
...Have my work benefited any one?
...Have I learned what I wanted to learn?
....Have I passed down/transitioned my tasks well?
....Will I regret it?
....Will I miss this place?

Hmm...I guess all that's left are plain memories now...I do hope that what I left was a legacy rather than a nightmare. One thing for sure, I know that I've tried my very best.
And I know that no one is irreplaceable. Now it's time to move forward, take the path less travelled and live with it.

Goodbye MBO!
Goodbye my colleagues!
I'll miss you all!

My gang

One of them is my boss, take a wild guess :)

Colleagues in my group

The MBO Dream Team , keep shining!

Rescue Mission

I have 4 pots of plants that I was nurturing late last year. It used to be healty and happy and green. Like this.

But sadly, two of them died a tragic death...One of them lost all its "hairs" (topmost) while the other one was looked famished and dried up (third from top) . :(

Although two of em' died, I wasn't giving up.

I am trying again.

So, I "stole" a money plant and a "god-knows what name?" plant from my apartment landscaping initiative ( abit only ok) and will try to plant them..Of course I will try to keep them alive this time.

They seemed to be doing well so far...please don't die!!! *fingers crossed*

The potties sunbathing by the balcony.

New additions are the first and last one from the right.

A long delayed Birthday present :D

...This was what supposed to be my birthday present for the year 2007.
I did not "claim" in until recently (a reason which I will reveal in my future postings). Long delayed right? :)
So here's what have I got? (thanks to darling again :))

It is this.

Still in the box.

Hehehe.....what else?...It's a lappie of course!!!!!!!!!!.

A lappie that was ordered and delivered straight from the factory...Obvious enough it is from DELL. I can't believe how easy it is to purchase the lappie online, fuss free and all done with a simple click of a mouse.Well ok..not exactly just one click,as you still would have to browse through the specs and perform some customizations of course...
Ok to cut a long story short..here it is..
Presenting my....................BLUE DELL STUDIO!!!

Still in the box

Hopefully I'll make full use of this :D

First time boot up!

Old Town White Coffee--The origin

I still remembered my last trip to Ipoh. That was around May when I went for a short trip to Malacca and KL with BS. On our way home, we decided to stop by Ipoh to try out the famous Old Town "white coffee". You know, that super famous Old Town trademark with its kopitiam (restaurant with old charm) sprouting out at every nooks and corners in Malaysia these days.
However, we're looking for the original "Old Town" in Ipoh, where these white coffee craze first started. A catch was that we do not know the place (streetname) nor the name of the place(a coffeshop).

After calling and checking the location with Ipoh friends we tried to scour round and round Ipoh looking for that famous place. As we do not know where we're heading, we went round and round in circles. Frustration got to us eventually and after few more hours searching, we gave up. Somehow, Ipoh folks don't know the street name of "Old Town" kopitiam.. and even with my handphone GPS, we cannot find the place :(....sigh

This time around however, I make sure I do my homework beforehand. I was determined to find the place by hook or by crook!. As I will be heading to Ipoh again for a wedding this month, I wanted to try finding this coffeeshop again! Thankfully, a few bloggers mentioned about this place and blog about its delicious food and drinks served. This time, equipped with a better GPS (mobile GPS) from a kind friend, CW (thanks mate!!! :)), we're ready to roll!

Guess what?
This time, we could easily find the elusive "Old Town Kopitiam" which was located at Jalan Timah. I was surprised how close the place was to the old bus station at Ipoh (Medan Kidd). I used to frequent the place alot when I was heading home from uni during my studies at UTP! Funny, I have never been to the coffeshop despite having stayed at Tronoh (45 minutes from Ipoh) for 5 freaking years!

The name of the shop was called Nam Heong. And it was right opposite the so-called "only flat in Ipoh". Oh yeah, you hardly see any high-rise flats or apartments in this land abundant Ipoh.
Once we're there, we need to wait for a seat as the shop was really small, barely fits 10 tables.
And the place was packed as usual. Apart from coffee, they serve tea too (my favourite!) as well as some pastries (like egg tarts, taro balls and other dimsum varieties). There's other stalls selling Penang favourites like char keow teow and Hokkien Mee. Of course we'll give those a pass, but we did try the pastries, the coffee and tea and of course the famous Ipoh Prawn Noodle (It's something like keow teow soup).

The verdict:
Boy, their white coffee was really aromatic, thick and tasted just heavenly!
I love the tea too!! And best of all, their egg tarts!!!!!!! Wow..that's the best I've ever tasted so far and I really recommend it!

Here's some snapshots I took with my cameraphone...

The trusty "GPS" loaned from CW :)

The flats in front of the shop

The corner coffeeshop, Nam Heong

Wit and gf,PN enjoying their meal

KH looking happy, just finished his satisying meal


My prawn noodle

My tea!!

The sinfully aromatic ORIGINAL OLD TOWN white coffee

Delicious egg tart!!!!! *drooolll*

Wedding bells are ringing!

Wedding bells are ringing again and again!!!
Wow..This year must be a year of weddings for me.I have 7 wedding invitations to date and out of them, 2 were that of my colleagues, 4 of them came from my university mates while 1 will be that of my schoolmate.

Recently, I attended a wedding of a dear friend, my X-roomie at university. After 8 years of courtship, Ivan & TseYi are tying the know at last. As the wedding the dinner was held at Ipoh,
thank you so much to my darling,BS for being the "paksarela" driver for me that day.

Although this trip was short and tiring but I was glad I had a sweet reunion with some of my university mates that I have not met for many years now! :) Oh, we even met a lecturer of ours,Mr. Yeap. Oh wait , he should be Dr.Yeap now...!

Here's some pictures of the wedding event.
It's great to be able to meet up and catch up with my university mates as well! :)

Yummmmmmmm....senggggggggg.........

Like a big family shot huh..

At the center, the resplendant looking couple..Ivan&TY

Looking drunk...SP,ST and myself

All of us ....

Ironic?

How ironic....The appliances at my home started to show signs of faults & wear and tear when the warranty period ended at exactly 1 year! Yes, I've been living in my "new apartment" for one year now...

It's funny in the sense that these appliances are manufactured to last for just one year before it should be returned back to the factory again. I can't imagine how these appliances are sent for regulatory and stress testing to ensure its mere one year functionality!

To prove my case, I have this stove which I bought from a reputable Japanese brand.
It was by no means cheap, but seeing that it was highly recommended by most dealers, we have decided to purchase it.

Guess what? After one sweet year,while I was happily cooking in the kitchen with my wok,
I heard a loud explosion and my wok "flew" up a few inches from the burner!
I was lucky to be alive...

So now it's time to send my poor stove back to the manufacturer for service and repair.. :(

And thanks again for giving me the creeps in my own kitchen, my wonderful stove....
I shall cherish my life more. -.-

Property Craze in Penang

As of late, a few of my friends were interested in finding a place to call home. Surprisingly most of their haunts were concentrated around the place I stayed.

So this kepo helpful gal will always tag along during the house hunting session to serve as a "second-opinion" observer for them! Hey, to be fair, I was invited alright..
Frankly, I don't mind doing this at all.To me, it would be nice to be able to check out how other house owners decorate their nest. It may be a good place for me to get some inspiration perhaps? :)
Having visited a few properties to date, some of the home interiors were really nice (probably cost a lot too) while some of them were not very well kept, not something that I would want to emulate.

Penang property prices has been skyrocketing like crazy within these few years...It's just ridiculous at times when u think about it..For a decent apartment around 1000 sq ft, the market rate in Penang right now its about RM270k and above! Don't you think that is just too expensive? Imagine as a fresh grad with a starting pay of RM2500 and after two years decided to purchase an apartment. How much would you need to save to be able to afford one? If you could save up like RM1000 per month for 12 months, that would just be RM12000/year.So you would need at least 3 years or more to just be able to afford the downpayment! (this is assuming the person do not have any savings prior to that, or any inheritence or help from family)..Then how about the miscellanous fees like legal fees, stamp duty etc etc? This could easily come out to another 1-2% of the house price....
Gosh...what is wrong with the system here?Who's driving up the prices? investors? or is Penang really running out of land? As a property owner, that may be a good thing of course. But for purchaser, welll, I can just wish them luck!

For some reason, I'm kind of interested in checking out properties although I'm not buying them.I probably got hooked when I started hunting for an apartment myself two years ago..
If only i have some spare cash now, I'll join in the bandwagon too to earn a few quick bucks! *wink*