A lazy afternoon at work

It's working time now, and I have not been "working" since this morning.
Gosh...the saying "It's easier said than done' has never been so true. I have constantly
reminded myself that things will get better if I have faith in it. Yes, I know I should persevere and every ups will be met with downs before going up again. This vicious cycle will never end but the down cycle seems harder than I thought. Bad news is a norm at times like these and the seed you sow will have slow or retarded growth regardless of how much water or sunshine you gave.
When is this going to end? Should I see this as a blessing in disguise? Where's the "blessing"? I need to find it!!

Enough of complains, I am striving to overturn the curse of me being branded a NATO (No, Action Talk Only).
I have my plans set and I have my will, I will weather the storm. More patience and Zen, that's what I really need now.
Right, back to work now...Focus..focuss....Hocus...Pocus...Puffffff...

When enough is really enough ...

At the time I'm writing this, I've already being home for at least a week.
This one week is nothing but pure bliss to me. I didn't think taking holidays is all that important until this time. Well, yeah of course you'll be "home" everyday, you may argue.
But what I'm trying to say is this.

Just imagine that ...

1. I don't have to wake up at 8 am in the morning, get dressed, and drives groggily to work.
2. I don't have to worry about tasks that needs to be completed.
3. I don't fret about unfinished tasks or projects.
4. I don't have to face the music for tasks not done properly (or think of excuses to save my a**).
5. I don't have to have close encounters with the great"taichi master" that I may loathe or meet people that are a fickle and hypocrites.
6. I don't have to feel frustrated for a good job done with lack of recognition.
7. I don't have to feel depressed when bad news or announcement looms or became a reality.
8. I don't have to read emails and respond to them.
9. I don't have to worry about lunch time and what to eat.
10. And finally, I don't have to spend my 12 hours on it.

All the points aforementioned pretty sums up to the dreaded four-letter-word of W-O-R-K.
And by the tone of the writing, you'll notice that it is very discouraging and filled with negativity.

Let's take a step back and trace how all this happened...

You seee...For the past 6 months, I have not have any proper rest as I have been slogging and slogging like no tomorrow at work trying to get my tasks done. And I may have thought that I'm a superwoman of some kind, and I'm doing this without any break. Zero. No break at all until ....well the Chinese New Year, but guess what? I' was STILL WORKING and supporting my counterpart on Chinese New Year as well. So that doesn't count as a proper holiday as well.

And being so overwhelmed with work plus all the stress, frustration and sometimes tense situation has got the better of me and so I've turned into a grouchy tiger waiting to pounce and chomp someone's head off at any moment. I was a live ticking time bomb about to explode.This definitely triggers the chain of event that follows:

Needless to say, I need to mention that I'm easily irritated by things or scenario that changes all the time. No firm answer, that's it. I hate it!
I wonder why is it so hard for someone to make a decision and be firm about it.
A "confirmation" is liken to a "maybe". And someone's "yes" is actually a "no" and vice versa.

Just imagine this (I know its not the greatest example..but...who cares).

Scenario:
You felt the urge to pee. And you walk to the toilet and there in front of you lies the urinal.

1. Do you actually think before you pee? Should you pee or not?
2. Do you change your mind then decided not to pee?

Come on, for most people , the answer would be NO and you'll just pee.,right?..but for some strange reasons, there are people that turned back and walk away. But why???
Why can't you just stick with the damn decision??

Also, why do some people will not admit any mistakes despite being starkly WRONG?
Does uttering the word "SORRY" takes so much effort?

And and, can you just do whatever you like, selfishly without thinking of how other's might feel?
Like changing a certain stuff/processes to suit you needs and then causing grief to the so rightful owner of the stuff/processes you've changed? Gosh..please have some common sense. The least you can do is just ASK.

All these peculiar events could not have happened at a better time. And that's how they drove me up the wall. So on a very fine day, all hell broke lose and that's when I showed my stripes (a.ka harimau menunjukkan belang). Crouching tiger have at long last appear from her hidings in the bush, ready to unleash her mighty power. I wasn't happy to be frank and that's when I snapped and cursed and throw hurtful remarks. Nothing could stop me.

When that happened, this is it...I know it's time that I needed a break. A long break. A long hiatus.AWAY from WORK....that's it.


So here I am now, writing this blog on my favourite spot on my comfy couch sipping my favourite milk tea.

As the saying goes "Every cloud has a silver lining" and this has never been so true to me.
I felt that I have lost control of my life and now it's time for redemption. Not that I've done anything wrong, but with the time that I have now, I'll redefine my goals and this time ensure that my work life should revolve around me, and not the other way round! I need to set my priorities right, and work will never be the first priority again.

Quoting what Suze Orman always preach, "People first, then money, then things".
I'll live by this rule now.

Don't worry, once I'm fully recharged, I'm back not with a vengeance, but the same ol' tamed ellwye (imagine puss-in boots in Shrek.. lol ;)) taking charge of her life and beyond!

Have a good day. :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

This year's Valentine's Day seemed to be the most memorable one for me. I guess it's because BS and I did actually do something together this year on this special day, well, almost as we had a simple Valentine's dinner on the eve. I tried to reminisce my previous Valentine's celebration but somehow I couldn't think of any! Hahaha!

Over the past four years we've been together, both of us were so overwhelmed with our work that we tend not to celebrate anything about "Us" on the exact date! Valentine's day celebration were usually postphoned or celebrated earlier, the same goes for our Birthdays. In fact, we have not even celebrated our Anniversary before! As for gifts, yes, we do give each other gifts but again, that was usually some practical gifts rather than those "cutesy hearty stuffs like soft toys or flowers!".

Ok, I am not trying to complain about how unromantic BS is but I got to admit it myself that I am not a fan of having a big bouquet of flowers with 99 roses signifying his love to me etc etc...

I am a practical person myself and yes, I have received flowers from him before and I felt that once is enough. To me, flowers will wither and die, and I always wonder what was so special about flowers to girls in particular. To me, that was just a plant's reproductive system! No offence to those who loves flowers though. Personally, I would rather receive something more of practical use like kitchen utensils or even home improvement tools!. This year, as if it was fated, my poor handphone met with an "accident". More stories on that at my previous post. As I was mourning for the loss of my poor handphone, BS has agreed to get me a new handphone. So that's officially my Valentine's gift! Thanks hunny !!! :)

As for dinner, we went to a Vietnamnese restaurant at E-gate called Ms.Saigon.

I have been craving for Vietnamnese restaurant for sometime already and I'm really glad to have found one that's not too far away from where we were staying. BS just hates driving to town!

I ordered a weird sounding name dish which I can't even remember. The dish consists of brown rice with 3 sticks of kebab-like seaweed rolls with chicken and crab meat as fillings. The dish was not bad and has a distinct flavor. BS on the other hand ordered limegrass chicken rice set. The dish was a bit dry without much gravy but the chicken was tender and just nice when eaten.

Our favourite dish were the Vietnamnese special spring rolls! It was too yummy!

I'll let the pictures do the talking!

The dish I ordered

Limegrass Chicken Dish

Vietnamnese Spring Roll

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!! :)

My new baby - G705

Last Wednesday, on a routine visit to the office toilet, just as I was about to remove my pants and bend down, I heard a "plop". Eee...you may be thinking that I was up to some "big business" right? Haha..well, re-read the previous sentence, please. I want to reiterate the word "just as I was about to" to you, this means that I haven't lar...

Back to the "plop", when I turned and looked into the toilet hole, gosh...my heart sanked.

My poor handphone has dropped into the toilet!!! Arrrgh...my favourite Sony Erricson handphone of 3 years has drowned. The next step I knew was that I actually stucked my hand into the toilet hole (it was a squat toilet btw) to retrieve my handphone. No glove, nothing...Gross enough? :D

When I picked it up, my faithful handphone was still alive, so I switched it off and washed it. After that, with a friend's help, he opened up my handphone case (shame on me, I still don't know how to open the cover..*lol*) and that's when I left my handphone battery and the set to dry for a day. Having suffered without my "lifeline' for a day, I promptly turned it on the next day. Boy, lil' faithful was still alive!!! Ok, of course it's not perfect now (and has never been). It was definitely a lil'more cranky now than before having suffered a bad concussion after I dropped it. The mobile OS also tend tend to reboot by itself a few times a day..Oh well, I think I can still live with that for now.

I promptly reset the time and date and reuse my lil' fighter again at night especially the alarm clock mode. The very next day when I woke up, I got a shock of my life when I realised the time was already 8.30 am! Dang!...it occured to me that my handphone alarm was not working! When I looked at it, the time has reset back to the default state. In my heart I knew that it was time to say goodbye to lil' handphone.

Time for a change..yippy!

I have been diligently surveying around for the last couple of days for handphone that met my specs. I knew I wanted a phone with at least a 3.2 megapixels camera, preferably a 3G phone, would love to have one with GPS and also wifi-enabled. Also I am picky about brandnames too, I would just buy either a Nokia or Sony Erricson phone. The specs in N-series Nokia looked great, but the size of it put me off because I am looking for a small handphone. Having scoured around, I narrowed my decision to two models ...I was having a dilemma to choose between Nokia E66 vs Sony Erricson G705.. Both met my specs, in fact I took a fancy of Nokia E66 initially but again the size of it lead me to consider G705 as well. You see Nokia E66 is larger than G705 and one important criteria for me is to have a small phone that I can easily slot into my pockets.

A hard decision to made, but ultimately, G705 is the winner, because of its user-friendliness and small size. As for E66, I strongly recommend it to guys rather than girls. Somehow, G705 looked more feminine to me while E66 looked more masculine! haha...

So here it is .... presenting SE G705 .....

My new baby (picture courtesy of www.mobile88.com.my)

Kong Hei Fatt Choy!

Happy Chinese "Niu" Year!!!!!!!!!!!

Simple CNY decoration at home this year, yes,lazy me ..hehehe..

At the time I am writing this, it is already the 8th day of Chinese New Year!!!! Gosh! How time flies!!

Every year, I'll actually help my mom and sis to bake our signature CNY cookies, butter cookies or pineapple jam tart. However now that my sis is already married with a baby in tow she will not be home until the 5th day of CNY. As for me, due to work commitments, I can only get home a day before the reunion dinner. So no CNY cookies this year :(..

The very thing that I absolutely look forward to each year is the sumptious "chai" or vegetarian dish that my mom cooked! It tasted heavenly I tell you although the dish consisted of mostly vegetarian varieties in the likes of mushrooms,black fungus, "Fatt" choy, cabbage and etc.

Too bad I don't have any picture to show, hate my camera batteries, its deader than ever :(.

At work, before I went home for the CNY holidays, a few of my colleagues and I went to Double Good Restaurant at Bukit Jambul for a chinese new year feast. We even had the chance to toss "abalone yee sang"! Yummy! In view of the current economic situation, hopefully, what we wished for would come true!! Also, thanks to our "American" colleague, CW for giving us a treat on that expensive luncheon!

Abalone yee sang

Back home, it is good to be able to see all my childhood friends and not to mention my adorable nephew!!! How I missed him!! :)

Kong Hei..Kong Hei... :)

Mischievous lil' E Shane. *heart melt*

I'll be off until the 9th day of CNY after the "Thni Kong" a.ka. Jade Emperor's Birthday celebration. After that, things will be back to normal mundane working life..Nooooooooooooooooo!!!

.....Now that I have another two days of honeymoon period, I better cherish it!!


Alrity, Happy Chinese New Year everyone!! :)

Being a local tourist for the day

This weekend, I had a yum char (tea-drinking) session with a couple of close colleagues (In case you're wondering, BS was ex-colleagues too). In fact we're all from the same department previously. One of them was my current boss,YS and the other one was my ex-sifu (master) from my previous department, HY.

HY have always been an inspirational figure of sort to me. He is known to be as quick as lightning, not in terms of how he run but how he type on his keyboard!! He could type at such an astonishing speed it'll send professional typist to shame. Not only in his typing speed, but the speed of how he could accomplish his task! This have always impresses me. Try to give him a task and I can assure you that he can complete it within an hour/ two the latest! The word "procrastination" is never in his vocabulary. I wonder how he manage that? Really must hats' off to you, Sifu HY!

...Ok ok...so that will be another of my resolution this year,READ: No more procrastination!! (in fact this is my resolution every year ...*paiseh ar*)...


...Anyway, back to our yum-char session, he has agreed to bring us around in his old, new car, a cool Honda Jazz he just bought lately.Myself, BS and YS all are supposed to meet up with him at his apartment at Jalan York. The first destination was to go to an old, dirty-looking but delicious kopitiam by the name of Tai Tong at Kimberley Street. NOTE: This is an old kopitiam not the "Tai-thong" restaurant! ...Too bad I did not snap any photos, hunger must have got to me , I gobbled up everything before I could snap any photos....


From what HY told us, Kimberley Street area is a "Cantonese area", meaning that the Cantonese immigrants from China first settled here or started their business on this street in the early days. So when you're at this street, most of the shop owners and patrons speaks in Cantonese instead of the typical Penang Hokkien. It felt weird I should say but being a Cantonese myself, it felt like home instead :). We ordered some egg tarts, buns wrapped in curry chicken ,Siew pau and the shop's signature dish, the fried crispy egg noodle with big prawns, all downed with a brewing pot of chinese tea. Sorry, I don't know what's the real name of all the dishes but I think you can use your imagination? :D


All in all, the food tasted really good, and the atmosphere of the kopitiam with its old creaking tables and chairs, senior folks manning the shop, tiled walls and floors gave a sense of old charm to it. I really love old kopitiams like this and really hope that it will not vanish through the test of time.

Kimberley Street is also a street famous for Chinese Tradional shops that trades and sells chinese herbs, delicacies and authentic chinese cooking ingredients (like lap cheong (chinese pork sausages and waxed duck). With just another week to go before the Chinese New Year, the street is packed with shoppers doing their last minute shopping. We managed to take a quick stroll along the street checking out the myriad of items and sometime quirky food products on sale!


Next stop, HY suggested that we go to the Quan Yin (Goddess of Mercy) temple at Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling (a.ka. Pitt Street). This is the first time I was there having stayed in Penang for the past four years. With the coming CNY, I took this opportunity to perform some prayers and blessings ritual. The temple looks majestic from the outside with its prominent red roof but having battered with the environment and smoke from the incenses and jossticks over the years, the interior have somewhat being inundated with ashes. Yea, I did contribute to it too in some way but I have chosen to light up a single lotus candle over buying a bunch of jossticks, a small contribution towards saving the environment also mar ... :D. One interesting part of the temple I observed was in the central part of the temple which has an open roof structure. This allows the sunlight to shine through,which helps brighten up the otherwise dark and stuffy area and also a quick way to let the smoke out. Smart design I would say.

Quan Yin temple (picture courtesy of WWW)

As we still have some time left before my next appointment at 3pm later, we head off all the way to Batu Ferringhi. We planned to visit the Tropical Spice Garden. I have been to this place a few years back when the place just started and this time the place looked more "jungly" and wild than my previous visits. The entrance fees cost RM14 per person, a little steep for a Malaysian tourist I would say since we have the abundance of jungle anywhere. Howlar to promote cuti-cuti Malaysia like that if the tourist attractions do not give any incentives/discounts for local tourists? Maybe they should consider changing our Visit Malaysia tagline to "Malaysia, Truly Kiam Siap and Kiasu" instead...*shakehead*

The entrance (picture courtesy of the link above)

This time around, I don't quite enjoy the visit as the place looked rather unkempt and most of the observation point that was supposed to look majestic (overlooking to the sea) seemed to be shrouded by overgrown plants and parasits. The ponds were now overgrown with green algae and it was not a pleasing sight indeed. Few years back, the water was crystal clear and you could see small fishes swimming around. To add salt to injury, the insects and mosquitoes seemed to love me that day and I've been generously donating my blood to them! One stark differences between my last visit and now is that the place have grown considerably bigger in size and now they have included a jungle trekking trail (45 minutes walk) as well. We however have decided to skip that since we're not well-attired (in flip-flops) for that challenge! Anyway, the trails are lined up with a variety of plants used to make spices and it is quite fun identifying the plants, smell the leaves and guess what it is used for. An educational experience I would say, and it's good to get close to nature occasionally as we're always sitting in front of out laptops according to HY! lol...


The next stop we head to Swatow lane (beside New World park) for some ice-kacang (milk tea as usual for me) and then we took our lunch at an Organic shop (sorry forgot the name) along one of the restored old shophouses at Nagore Road. The shop sells only organic and vegetarian products. As I was still feeling stuffed from my heavy breakfast, I only ordered a bowl of red-bean soup. HY ordered a dish called "liu-cha". According to him, that dish was a Hakka dish, a very healthy dish in fact. Brown rice with a variety of nuts and vegetables with a bowl of greenish-looking soup (a mix of at least 15 types of vegetables). YS on the other hand ordered a vegetarian burger while BS ordered the vegetarian Miso noodle. All I can say is that the food served here are very very healthy. Delicious or not? Err, I think delicious food is not always healthy and vice-versa right?

Coincidentally, we parked right beside the Continental bakery, a very famous bakery in Penang.

This is the main entrance, normal looking but very famous! (Picture courtesy of the link above)

It was my first time there as well and of course I couldn't resist the aroma of freshly baked buns,cakes and pastries. Did I buy anything? Well most definitely! My pick was just a simple loaf of banana cake costing RM6.20 each, expensive hor?Hope it tastes as good! I always wonder why healthy food must be that expensive one? *sigh*

After few rounds of chit-chatting session, it was time to head home and off to my next destination of the day. I was to be part of a sampling program for a foreign university and USM research collaborative effort. Simply put, I would become a "lab rat" for an Economic research by a foreign university! lol!... I shall not delve so much on this but basically that will be one of my "part-time" job to supplement my 10% drop of income per month,muahahaha!! (Just joking! :D)

Adios..and thanks so much to Sifu HY for a fun day out!!

A year wiser

As the year 2008 whizzed by making way for the dawn of the new year, it was never the 1st day that would bring any significance to my life but rather the 8th day of the new year that is more profound. So why you may ask?

Well...because that's the time when I got a year older wiser, got it ? :)
In case you're still blurr blurr, it's my Birthday lar!

So how did I celebrate it this year?

On my family front, my parents had initially planned to bring me to a Thai restaurant for a simple dinner but I have counter proposed to have it at my favourite local hawker's delight instead. Aside from cost-saving reasons, ever since I got back from my business trip in UK, I have dreaded eating any restaurant food and the thought of eating any good and expensive food actually turned me off. Imagine eating out everyday in restaurants for 2 weeks in a row? Well for me personally, this is too much for me as I have always prefered home-cooked food or hawkers' fare to restaurant meals.

At work, I was very surprised when a whole bunch of my colleagues actually bought a cake for 3 of us, early Birthday candidates and threw us a small celebration at the pantry during tea break. It was really sweet of them!! :) ....

SA,TM and myself cutting the cake!

Two days after, a close uni friend of mine,TY have proposed to have a potluck gathering at my apartment. As I have not met some of my uni friends for a long time, I am so grateful of them to actually attend the gathering. There were 13 of us all!!

Yet again it was another surprise for me when they took out a cake for me towards the end of the party. It was really thoughtful of them!

Thanks a bunch mates!!

Can you guess how old I am? :D

Wowww........What a great year to start-off!

Although I'm still enjoying life, the current bad economic situation should not be taken lightly as we know a real bad recession is looming. I really do hope that things will get better gradually as the months passed. Thus one of the things that is high on resolution list is to be as frugal as possible!!

Lastly, again... I would like to thanks all my friends,colleagues,family as well as my dearest, BS for the Birthday surprises and not to mention the constant support and great friendship & camaraderie from all of you!

THANKS EVERYONE!! :)