No car today... and so - well, today kena tumpang kereta with Ai Cheng to go home. Luckily for the both of us, we didn't intend to get stuck in the office past 6pm.

Pei Ling had messaged me earlier about an impromptu dinner with our usual college group at Secret Recipe, Belissa Row. Cool. We also made bets that MunY will not attend (as per his usual absence in most gatherings). Ok... so we were wrong this time. My dear friend came after all... and proved us sceptics all wrong :)

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to all! Happy! Happy! Happy!

Managed to go home at 5:15pm from work yesterday. Woohoo!! Never done that in a long, long while. Also... managed to hand deliver some last minute Christmas cards that I made... hahaha...

Jolly greetings to all!

In the afternoon, went to Rohana's Hari Raya open house and met up with many of my ex-colleagues there. The food was great and the company I was was wonderful.

Later in the evening, I had a reunion dinner with my high-school classmates tonight at Soul's Gourmet - Basement of Crown Jewel Hotel. For RM 25: We had soup, main course, and endless supply of Haagen Daaz ice cream. :)

After dinner - we had actually intended to hang out at the beach but it was raining somewhat... and so, all of us decided to go for coffee at Coffee Bean , Belissa Row. Nice to see all my old friends again - especially those who just completed their studies overseas.

Overall, it's been a really good day for me. I feel refreshed and my soul feels revived after going through much strain from work to the point of just feeling empty.

Would love to go home early today but... everyone in the Dept has to move to our new cubicles. Yup! Major re-layout in our seating plans. Got home in time to freshen up before it was time to go for...

Lord of the Rings: Return of the King! In BM - it was translated as "Ketua Sidang Perhimpunan: Kepulangan Raja"... hahaha... ketua sidang perhimpunan? What the...??

Ok... how was the movie? Well... battle scenes were good if you are looking for action... not to mention there was a "Legolas glory scene" for Legolas fans out there... but as a person who has read the book - I'd say this movie was a bit disappointing.

A lot of things were brought in without much explaination. People who hadn't read the book or studied details in the first 2 movies will not be able to catch on some of the things brought up in the later part of the movie.

Seafood dinner with my colleagues at Teluk Kumbar!!! Baked crabs with special chilli sauce.... Yummy!

Back to work and it feels like I'm still in a holiday mood. Lazy...

Have been off since last Wednesday... the day I finally did my banking; my wardrobe spring-cleaning; and the one evening I had dinner with most of my team (Irene, Chris, Cindy, Mich, Jo) + the whole team from Singapore. Dinner was great. It was at this place near my house where the dishes are just superb.

For the next 4 days, I was in KL/PJ doing lots of mall-hopping, shopping & window-shopping. Trust me that I've blown a whole month's salary this time... inclusive of having gone to watch the Saturday matinee show of Riverdance in Stadium Putra with Chin. The show is not too bad.

The best part was the scene where there was a showdown between Irish tap and American tap - a true comedy piece at heart. The worse part was the scene that had Celtic music while the dancer was doing a flamenco piece - it didn't quite mesh together although I know what they were trying to say (lots of background on the dance in the programme book)

Ah well... time to go to sleep now. Good night and sweet dreams to all.

How would I describe how I am these days within 5-words? "I am so stressed-out!"

There's no better way to say it. I've admittedly cried 2 times in 3 days. First one happened a few days back while I was giving feedback to my Dept Mgr about the sentiments in the entire functional team I’m in.

Let’s just say that I had to tell the DM, vis-à-vis, the really demeaning comments that some of my colleagues were receiving from someone who should be more sensitive to those under her care.

Let’s also say that I’m truly frustrated by a few colleagues who are not being understanding towards what I have been assigned to do. The list is never-ending.

The more I had to say, the more I couldn’t contain myself from bursting into tears. My DM acknowledged how stressed most of us are feeling. However, he asked me why I didn’t bring up these issues earlier - since I am one of the employees who knew him prior to getting into this job I’m in now.

All I had to say was that I know the rest of them wouldn’t be able to address the core problem the way I’m telling it to him now. It kills me to know that my colleagues have generalized the real problem that they are going through in the only avenue open for them to air their grievances.

I know I can’t save the world but the only way I can help improve the situation is to voice out. Nothing will happen for better or for worse if everyone kept quiet while each of them are (to some extend) boiling underneath the surface. Let’s see how things go from here. God! If only the rest understood the company culture... but I’ll have to excuse them for being newbies.

After the DM had left my cube - one of the caring trainers from Singapore came by to ask why I was crying and tried to console me. I just couldn’t talk. I made some of my responses in pen on paper. I can never seem to compose myself if I had to talk while still recovering from a good cry.

Episode two happened today, when my dad started his 2-minute pep-talk on - "Don’t be stupid! Why do you have to work until so late? Work only within the hours that you are compensated for. American MNCs will motivate you when they have to and let you go when they don’t need you!"

Tell me now - which company doesn’t practice that nowadays?! All of them do that!! Besides, I’d rather clear my work pile within the same bloody-day than to let it snowball into Mount Fuji or Mount Everest for that matter. Worse yet - dad had to mention all these when I was driving. He didn’t even know tears were streaming down from my eyes.

So, it seems that watching Haunted Mansion as entertainment this evening with dad as a means for me to take my mind off my job was a total waste. As you probably noticed by now, I’m still sensitive if anyone mentions something depressing about work.