Day 1, 17-Apr'04: Reached Jerteh by bus from Penang (left the island 9:20PM last night) at about 5:30-ish AM. From the bus station, the sleepy trio got onto a taxi to Kuala Besut... and boy was that a ride!

The taxi-dude drove as though he was in an F1-car... and his speedometer wasn't even working. Along the way we passed a police check point... but the cop was sitted in a chair was obviously in lala-land.

Still way early at 6AM... we sat and wasted some time in a coffee shop near the office of our "travel service". It's called Cocohut Travel by the way... and no... they aren't overrun by coconuts all around the place. XP

At about 8AM - we started our 30 mins boat ride to Pulau Perhentian Besar after doing all the necessary registrations. Arriving on the island, my pals and I put our luggage under the care of the chalet management coz we don't get to check in til noon... and headed for the sea!! Woo-Hoo!!

Clear, cool waters... we dipped into the water for a while... then we suddenly realized that it'd be better to get snorkels from the chalet ppl first. That was the beginning of it all... first reef area in front of the chalets... hmm... nice... 2nd spot... even better!

HelloOoo Nemo! Okay... so I saw a bright fluorescent orange clown fish playing among the anemone... mwuaaaahhh!!! I happily swam around some more until I saw a jellyfish somewhere in the water... arrgh!!! I'm too chicken to stick around... bubbye!!!

Meals were included into our holiday package... and our first meal there was a real shock. One huge and scrumptious fried fish, a dish that looked like kung-pao squid, large plate of vege & a huge serving of tom yam soup... enough to feed 5 ppl but there are only 3 of us!! Gosh... that's a lot of food

After lunch... and a short rest... the REAL snorkelling trips began. 1st drop point somewhere off Perhentian... the reef was the most beautiful among all the others that they took us to. A close look at the corals sometimes reveal a camouflaged fish... most often - the stonefish that pretty much matches the coloring of a type of hard coral.

I started to have a headache after getting out of the water and into the boat to leave for our next destination.

2nd drop point (also off Perhentian)... we went looking for turtles. Decided to hit the water again despite my headache... and yup! I had a good look at the turtle - big fella but it's a shy one...

3rd drop point... decided that I better skip it... accumulative effect from lack of rest + going under the heat of the sun is not a good thing. Siew Hooi said that there were more anemone and plenty of clown fish there... and btw... by now... we noticed that no matter where you go... you can always spot sea cucumber (many different species of them too).

Back at the chalet... it was some rest before dinner... and again... huge servings. Night time, we did some star-gazing while lazing on the beach enjoying the breeze. By now, we were quite buddy with our "tour guide" and a few people who are our partners in crime during this trip. In short, we are in the same activities group.

Day 2, 18-Apr'04: Mmmm-mmMMmm! Another day of blue skies, clear sapphire blue waters across the horizon. Along with Lyne, Siew Hooi and the group we've been joined with... it's off to a trip around the Redang group of islands.

A few minutes after we left Perhentian Besar, our boatman received a call to turn back. Seems our guide forgot to take our packed lunches into the boat... patah balik!!!

We had good laugh about that as we journeyed to our 1st snorkelling stop. Dunno where it was except our guide, Andy, told us the place was called Teluk... to which I replied "Teluk what?!". Great view though.

Next, Redang's longest beach... Pasir Panjang... place with white sandy beaches, part coral graveyard nearer to the beach and regenerating/surviving reef further off the beach.

Sea life here is diverse... and the fish are very used to people... mush out some water soaked stale bread and they come around you like a swarm of bees. We also get to see a few small groups of coral sharks here. Yup! The same kind that Richard Hatch caught in one of the Survivor episodes.

Swimming further out, I managed to see a fish that looks like a brown-yellow giant version of the whatever-horn fish that was so popular... my guess is - it could be about 4 to 5 feet long from head to tail.

Final snorkelling stop for the day - Redang Marine park. But before we hit the water again... it's time to grab some lunch. It was probably one of the best nasi kandar meal I had outside Penang.

We each had rice with squid, cabbage, a kind of roast chicken, and some sambal... on picnic tables and benches under the shade of some beach front trees. Yes... that includes coconut trees. ;P

After washing our hands at the facilities that were built on the island, we swam to have a look at the sunken ship first. Corals have grown on and around the structure... and fishes have made it their home too. We then swam within the perimeter heading to the jetty and saw this really big school of white pomfret somewhere further out.

Taking my head out from facing underwater for a while... I heard Siew Hooi saying "Mmm... yummy!" - I couldn't help but laugh as I myself imagined having a nice, sweet, and juicy bawal putih for dinner. Not long after that, I spotted what looked like a fish that was about 10 t0 15 feet in length somewhere about 50 or so feet below the surface... wow...

However, the corals around here were different. They were more dull and it was not hard to see that there were plenty of spots of dead corals here and there. I also remember following a garoupa that had glowing spots on it for a while before it ducked into the corals to hide from view.

The area where I was at that time kinda freaked me out though. The coral reef couldn't have been more than 3 inches below me and I didn't want to get myself scratched all over. I swam as fast as I could back to the beach in a sort of panic while trying to keep myself as high on the surface as possible. Getting to the beach felt really good after that.

Before leaving the marine park, we took some pictures to remember the amazing view around the place. Siew Hooi and I concluded that Lyne was a really bad influence. You see... our friend Lyne hung on the tree with her hands and feet clinging to a tree branch (we took a photo of that), and some others in the group started doing the same a bit later.

It was amazing the the branch didn't break when one of the heavier folk got on the branch ala orang utan. Bless them all for not getting hurt.

On the way back, we dropped by Pulau Lang Tengah. Our guide just left us there to enjoy the beach. There's not much to do there actually since the waters off the beach were very shallow and quite rocky. All there was to do there was to relax and enjoy the view... :)

Later, as we were getting back to our chalet, our guide took us to a cold water spring on the other side of Perhentian Besar. Splashing ice cold water over our heads never felt so good. It sure took out the feeling of having a "burning" head and body after a whole day of snorkelling.

Finally back on solid ground, we took turns to have shower before heading to the restaurant to have a fantastic lazing and snacking bout. We ordered a chocolate banana pancake... while Lyne ordered her standard Milo + 1 glass of warm water, Siew Hooi ordered a fantastic mango smoothie, while I got myself a banana smoothie.

The smoothies were Sinfully delicious! They used real fruit to make those... there's no such thing as using carton packed juices here (like what our normal food outlets would do). We vowed that we will have to come for a smoothie again before we leave the island the next day.

Having finished our snack - we grabbed some magazines to read while hanging out on the beach... lazing on the deckchairs. Shortly after that, we heard a few ppl from the other group asking for someone (anyone in our trio) to fill in an empty spot for a game of "chor-tai-tee" on the porch of their chalet.

SH & Lyne didn't really know the game but I knew how to play it... so they shoo-ed me off to join our holiday friends for the game of cards. We played for quite a few rounds before going back to join the group hanging out at the beach while we all waited for our designated dinner time. That was when we couldn't resist ourselves from gossipping about the black sheep in our holiday group.

We talked about this notorious couple that was always last to get on the boat or join in for any meal... probably because they were oblivious about everything else while being in a world of their own. They don't even make it a point to apologize for each time they made us wait for them.

Everyone got so used to it that we roll our eyes whenever we notice the missing headcount... coz it's always the same 2 that are missing.

Then there were the episodes where the two couples in the group... where the guy willingly carries the girlfriend if she happens to complain that she is tired and doesn't want to continue to walk/swim. Oh gosh! Textbook helpless damsels in distress... we never thought we'd see a page of history coming to life.

Finally, it was dinner time. On our table... a big plate of fried mee hoon... while the main attraction was BBQ-ed squids, fishes, and succulent crabs. Yummy! Yummmmmmmyyyyy!!!

Halfway through dinner - the pompous guy (one-half of the couple who's always late) asked us if it was our first time at Perhentian and if we liked our chalet. SH told him that it was a first for Lyne and herself and yes we liked what we have paid for... and that this wasn't my first trip there as I've been to Redang before.

He then asked me if I liked Redang or Perhentian better... and when I said Perhentian... he continued to ask if I endured my stay in Redang because there were guys who were better looking than him in the group I was with. Not wanting to stroke his overgrown ego - I replied, "Hell yeah!". SH and Lyne couldn't be more proud of their "lil' sister" (that's what they playfully called me throughout the trip).

Later... as life would be on the island - we armed ourself with mosquitoe repellent before settling ourselves back onto the deckchairs along the beach. We chatted about a great many things and was later joined by Ah Huat from the other group. This dude apparently resembles one of our colleague's sons. Our guide also joined us for a while.

We later noticed lights flashing from the waters but it didn't quite register what was it about until we heard a shout from a boatman... he said "Please inform the owner of the place. We ran out of fuel!"

Not long after that... I think some kind of rescue mission happened. A small boat went out to pass some fuel to the stranded passing boat that was just drifting towards wherever the current was taking it to.

That was quite an eventful observation before we all decided to call it a night.

Day 3, 19-Apr'04: After breakfast, we all followed our guide for a bout of jungle trekking. Someone asked if it they should wear shoes before we started the hiking trip... and Andy replied, "Piece of cake. No shoes needed". But truth be told... never trust a native of the island... he's used to being barefoot. Pity the poor suckers who believed Andy and went barefoot.

Our first target was to get to the other side of the island. Lyne and I seem to be ahead of the group most of the time... to which someone trailing behind commented that the 2 of us must be experienced hikers. Hah... erm... yeah... maybe.

Soon as Lyne saw that we've probably reached "the other side" - she exclaimed that out loud. Andy who was a bit behind us quickly shouted back, "Wait, wait, wait!" before darting ahead of us. Lyne and I soon realized that he wanted the appearance that he was first to arrive at our destination... and started to laugh at Andy. He's one nutty chap (and a nice one too).

The other side had a really nice, long, wide and white sandy beach... with hammocks hung between coconut trees; and a roofed hut to shade us from the sun. We rested and rehydrated ourselves before taking another trail to go back to our chalet.

The trail back was a much easier one... except for the part where there was a drop that we had to take before crossing a small, passing stream. Two guys were overzealous and fell down but luckily they were not hurt bar a few scratches.

We soon reached a 5-star chalet resort and walked through it's compound. Up on one of the trees in that area was a family of white-faced black-furred monkeys. Real peaceful creatures who really wouldn't understand our fascination with them as we (this included some gwai-lows who are residents of that resort) stared and looked up at them.

This was an obviously more upmarket and more commercial stretch along Perhentian as we spotted some souvenir shops around the place. As the stretch of beach ended... we thought that all we had to do was to climb a few more steps across the hilly terrain and we'd back to our chalet.

Boy were we wrong!! The guide told us to go ahead and follow where the big black water pipe goes as he waited for stragglers in the group. (You guessed it... the infamous couple are missing again!)

So... we found ourselves were hiking along the jungle trail again (without a guide in front)... and starting to feel rather tired... SH and I cheerfully chanted out thoughts of ice cold 100 plus, delicious smoothies and a juicy burger to spur us home to the chalets.

15 minutes later... we were finally back at our chalets. Phew! Just in time for our check out too (noon). Luckily for SH, Lyne & myself... we could afford to rest and have a shower since we found out that there'd be no one who'd be checking into our unit. BLISSS!! However our neighbours weren't so lucky...

They had to move out soon as they reached back from the jungle trekking... so what they could do was move their stuff out and then they dropped by our place to take a shower... it was an alternative that better than nothing at all :)

After checking out - we ordered out lunch... Yup! We had our burgers... and SH had to have her mango smoothie again... while this time round, I tried the watermelon one. The taste of it reminded me of ais kacang. Ais kacang!!!

We had intended to leave on the 4pm boat ride out from Perhentian but the owner told us that 2pm would be a better time as the sea would be rough later in the evening. And so, we docked our bags and ourselves into the boat... put on our life jackets and said goodbye to Perhentian.

Back on land in Kuala Besut, we bought some keropok and arranged for a cab to Jerteh where we spent the entire afternoon until 10:30pm at night. We tried some of the local food there... the weirder the dish sounded or unfamiliar to us, the more likely we were to order it for our meal. One of it was "sup perut". It was good and no I didn't get diarrhoea the next day!

Before we went to wait for our bus, we managed to find a shop that operates much like a factory outlet store. Lyne and SH bought some shorts while I found a nice piece of sarong batik for my mum.

After that... we just waited for ages for our bus to come. It was late by about 30-45 mins. This time, our seats were wider and we dozed of soundly soon after since we've had a pretty tiring day. The only time we woke up was at the last rest stop that the buses made because we had to hop off the bus for a short while to warm up a little.

5:30am the next day, 20-Apr'04 - we were finally back at the point where we began our journey to the East Coast. The 3 of us decided to have an early breakfast of roti canai at the nearby mamak store. *yawn*

Then we headed for Lyne's car. It was part of the plan that we got someone to leave her car there the night before... so that Lyne can drop the other 2 of us home without having to bother others to wake up at an ungodly hour to pick us up.

Arriving home... I quickly unpacked what I could and made sure that I continue to stay awake since I had planned to dart into office to download my emails before everyone else got into office. After that was done, I had to drop my grandpa off to his office in town.

With that finally over and done with... it's time to hit the haystack and not wake up until whenever. ZZZzzz...

Well... I don't think it's much of a choice but more of an obligation that I had to make. I had to claim my half-day paid time off this afternoon. Dad feels strongly that we should follow my granduncle's funeral procession.

I didn't think that it would be too wise of an idea to let my dad drive today anyhow. He had, after all, just fell and hit his head over the weekend and earned himself 2 stitches on the head.

It was a crazy day for me... having to go into office by 7am for the 2nd day in a row... I know I'll be drained out at the end of today. But then again... going in to work at 7am also means that I can execute leaving for my 1/2 day off much earlier in the day.

When I arrived with my parents at my uncle's house for his father's funeral - he knew that he didn't have to find anyone else to babysit his 7-year old daughter cause she usually locates me easily like a homing missile.

The day was long and it was hot... but still we had to go through all the rituals. By the time we finally arrived home from whatever we had to do... I felt like a dead fish and lugged myself to bed. It was a long day indeed.

Today I'm observing Good Friday... courtesy of following the Singapore holiday calendar... wahahahaha!!!

Had managed to pop by the IRD with my colleague Cindy... just to confirm that we are not taxable yet... alritey!!!

...and best of all... being able to just hang out for a lengthy, chatty breakfast session without worrying that we had something to work on... coz we are on holiday on a Friday... JOY!!! JOY!!! JOY!!!

I'm so pissed that a certain group of people can be so brainless. Just because I'm not handling any accounts... it doesn't mean that I will forget the whole process and procedure... in fact... I have to know it and understand it all the time because it's part of what I do.

Sure... those idiots escalated the issue all the way to top management... except that they don't realize that they just threw a spanner into the clockwork. Now the system support model will be disrupted. It will be destabilized once more after finally finding and maintaining a solid ground for the past month.

Baka!! Baka!! Baka!! Whomsoever be the BPA(s) that brought this issue up should just try to be in my shoes... I don't want to find out the name(s) of the person who created and support the issue... coz I will not be able to stop myself from wanting to strangle them with my bare hands... grrrr!!!

It's a small world after all...

When you least think of it... something happens that reminds you that the world is not so big after all. For instance when I read about a recent murder of a discotheque manager, I went, "Hey! I know who he is!! That's the fag that coordinated a show for one of the grad balls that I had taken part in as an organizing committee member"

Then it seems to me that the world is even smaller than I think it is... when one of my ex-colleague and her sister talked about the murder and said that they knew this guy quite well... and that her sister cried when she heard the news coz they were friends. My ex-colleague, on the other hand, mentioned that she wasn't too fond of the guy.

But there was one thin that we all agree about. The way the late Nigel Samson talks can offend people. He's agressive and over-confident to the point that sometimes you just wanna give him a tight slap... yet we know he means well... he's good at what he does... and definitely the alpha-perfectionist. Even so... no one deserves a fate like his... such a terrible way to die...

This weekend was basically all about the Ching Ming festival... in other words... the Chinese version of All Souls' Day. Actually... we are doing this early by more or less a week since my dad will not be in Penang for the next 2 weeks.

And so... Saturday was the day that I was rustled up way early in the morning by my dad for our trip up to Balik Pulau to do some prayers at the grave of my great-grandparents.

Today... was more prayers at home... although... I did steal some time in between the usual proceedings to bake a Peach Cheesecake... ;)

Oh yeah! My favourite little cousin came visiting too... and gosh... I still got coaxed to do some impromptu drawings for her... and I've still not succeeded to come out with perfectly dry clothes on me after I give her a bath. *rolls eyes*

Later at night, Bowie came to have her share of the cheesecake with her beau. She also finally managed to see all the photos that I had wanted to share with her. According to her, I look alike a certain colleague of mine. Man... she's the 2nd person to tell me that

But I'm not so sure about it myself... somehow I just don't really think we look that alike... hmm... maybe I should just test the reaction of a few other ppl

Since the last time I wrote something here... I've watched The Missing, did my duty by going to vote in the 11th Malaysian Election, and have watched a pretty good race via the telly... namely our very own Malaysian Sepang F1 GP race

The movie? A pretty good vs. evil story... and it also emphasizes on the importance of family ties thread on some level. Also loved Cate Blanchett & Tommy Lee Jones in their roles.

The elections? I'd say it went pretty well... though my brother and I did notice that we were probably the only ones in the early 20-ies queuing up at our polling center to do the deed. Most of our friends popularly ask just this one question... "Hey! Where can I get registered?"

Like ... DUH-UH?!! All you have to do is walk into the Post Office... go up to the counter... tell them you wanna register for the electorate role... present your IC... and you are done in maybe... 5-10 mins (provided that the connection to the EC network is not down).

Basically, this just reflects the "tidak apa" attitude among most of the unregistered eligible voters in my age group. Where's your pride people?! Your single vote can logically sway the result of the poll - and thus leading to the selection of your state and parliament representatives by a simple majority.

The race? It was great compared to the race in Albert Park, Melbourne. It started with spots of rain at certain parts of the track... tricky business manoeuvring between the wet and dry areas. Plenty of interesting overtaking bouts by drivers in the top and mid-field... so it was not boring at all.

A job well done by the guys who made it to the podium... Michael Schumacher (who has skills and a superb car package), Juan Pablo Montoya (who kept his head and didn't over-push his car this time), and Jenson Button (who finally won a podium placing since he first stepped into F1 racing in year 2000)

F1 cometh once again...
The New F1 season has finally opened with the race on Sunday just passed. I can just say that the results has been nothing surprising so far. Same old faces for 1st-2nd... *yawn* but it was great to see Alonso making it to 3rd place. This guy is really someone to watch out for in the future after Michael Schumacher's days in F1.

Pity that Raikkonen had his engine blown out pretty early in the race... oh well... and it also seems the early 1st pitstop for Montoya didn't quite pan out to give him an advantage... pity... pity... seems Ferrari had one upped on everyone again with their superb car package.

Visitors at work...part 1
First - there is the furry kind. Found what looked like a small puddle of suspected mouse urine on my desk. Quickly armed myself with a bottle of glass cleaner; sprayed my whole desk after temporarily moving papers on my desk elsewhere; and wiped off the glass cleaner. No sign of furry visitor for the next few days...

(In Gollum-speak) "Good... gooood... they must hatessss the smellsss of the glass cleaner... yesssss... yessss... they hatesss it"

Visitors at work...part 2
The entire BPE team stationed in Asia was onsite in Penang for the whole week. Finally get to see them face to face. All in all... it was 3 from Singapore and 3 from Japan... the other 2 are actually stationed in Penang. They are really nice... but I'm not so sure about the one who didn't really seem to be in the mood to mix around. Hmm... nevermind our miss high-and-mighty. The others were pretty great company and we got to know them a little better too.

I also found out that not only is my yahoo-ing buddy, Thanadet, a humorous character (ok... whoever worked with him knew this)... he is an absolute riot simply because he is much like a kid at times (my new discovery)... he also seems to have an odd fascination about my braces... coz when he sees me... he looks at me all weird and especially when I talk... he's trying to spot the placement of the braces... (p/s: I think I'm gonna get that same treatment from kalamari when I meet him sometime in the near future o.O)

Last Tuesday... it was "School of Rock". This one is a really fun and entertaining watch. Borderline to slapstick comedy but it was a good one nonetheless. Yesterday... it was "Mona Lisa Smile". Sadly, I didn't find the storyline all that cohesive. But to quote Chin - it's a good chick flick.

Bless them cinema theatre "wars" - Tuesday is officially movie day with tickets as cheap as RM5.

For the 2nd Sunday in a row... I had a shopping walkabout thing at Gurney with Bowie. It's great to be somewhat back to having a normal life out of work and work alone. Must crawl back into having a social life...

Btw, I think I forgot to mention that I've had 3 teeth pulled out and I'm gonna be wearing braces soon. It's gonna hurt for a while... am sure of that... provided that all the horror stories I heard were not exaggerated... but I hope I can brave the pain and eat normally ASAP.

Woke up this morning feeling weird... then I recalled my dream.

For some reason, I was in a white room with no furniture. A "chun" babe with flawless complexion, beautiful facial features, and long black wavy hair... wearing a deep rose pink top and tight black shorts was lying on her side... with a laptop computer in front of her.

Then I heard myself asking "Hi Thanadet, I've got a question regarding (something-something-something)". She answered me in a calm voice and was very helpful indeed. Very cool.

So now I sit back and think... and it finally hit me that I called the uber-babe Thanadet. That's one of my colleague's name... but it's a he! Not a she.

*LOL* Omigosh! I'm gonna have a great time teasing my colleague... he did after all wrongly typed "saya sarah" instead of "saya marah" during one of our chats just some days ago. Will finally get to do the transvestite joke on him (with the added twist) since I let him go at that time because I was busy handling my horrendous pile of work.

Update: My colleague had a really good laugh when I told him this story... and thinks that I should not be so stressed... oh well.... o.O

Essentially - the past work week had been hell. Simple as that. So much to do... and so little rest... and quite the occasional stupid question or issue to attend to (easily throws everything out of da'flow)... almost everyday... something went wrong. Friday must be additionally jinx by the curse of Friday the 13th. Ouch!

Ok... saving grace on Friday for me was to have some fun and light-hearted chats/conversations with fun-loving colleagues... although office was quite lacking the Valentine atmosphere... not decked up in any sign of the lovey-dovey-romancey day... we thought "hey! virtual flowers will do... it's the thought that counts... and also - real flowers are too exorbitant at this time of the year..." *lol*

Anyway, I've managed to watch "The Last Samurai" (starring Tom Cruise) - last Saturday evening. The story is a pretty good one... and a period drama it definitely was. The movie was made in the style that was very much along the lines of "Braveheart".

About D-Valentine's Day? It's just another for me... and I for once amazingly have the accurate hunch that something will go awfully wrong with my car. One of the radiator host went totally bust... meaning that even if we put water into the radiator... it will flow out from one other end of the system almost immediately.... Fuh! What a day!

Weekend was a blur - had to go in for work on Saturday morning... then in the evening - it was to Calvin's housewarming at Simpang Ampat til about 10-ish at night. Sunday morning was Dim Sum time... my treat... and lunch (dad's idea) was with family and guest at some restaurant - our official Yee Sang meal for CNY. Evening... steamboat dinner. In short, Sunday was "eat til you drop day" ;P

Oh there's more... Monday (2-Feb) being a replacement for Hari Raya Haji which had fallen on Sunday... was not much of a holiday for me... had to go in to work in the morning due to a project phasing in. Ah well... what can I say about that? It's quite a normal life when working for an MNC's back office operations. Luckily... I can claim back my holiday on some other time... hehehe...

Gosh... with all that's happened so far... I really do need a longer break... non-stop moving about over the last 10 days... phew!

Tonight is when I have to stay up for the prayers to the Jade Emperor (Tih Kong). *Yawn*

Just when I thought it would be just another boring night...

A big white she-dog came all the way into our living room when no one was keeping watch at the open gate and open door grill for about a minute. Boy... it was hard work trying to shoo her out!!

Most hilariously, when we finally managed to corner the dog... my bro tried to prod her towards the door using a pole. That didn't get her to move one bit. She just stared dumbfoundedly at my bro.

Finally, I tooked her out by carrying her by her fore-legs. Taking her out side to the porch was not a good idea as she quickly found a corner and hid there for quite a while. It was some time before I managed to catch her and dragged her out... wow! phew...

Next... you would have thought that "Hey! Fireworks are illegal!!" but at about every 30 degree angle that I turn - I can see wonderful displays of fireworks over the horizon. POM!! POM!!! POM!! .

..oh well... noisy as it was - I went to sleep right after everything for the prayers was over and done with.

Wait.... I'm not done yet!!! You know this tradition we have to burn a pile of joss-paper? Well, apprently... gramps bought a really huge stack for us to pile this year and it started to drizzle.

My bro, mum and I were giddily laughing and giggling about the fact that we have only finished opening less than half the stack when the drizzle began to get heavier. That's when we decided to just toss everything as quickly as we can instead of gently pulling one by one out of the stack... and soon enough we had one great bonfire... ah... all done... ok.... time to sleep.... ZzZzzZZzzzz.....

CNY has thus far been a fun one. Cook, bake, eat, sleep, go visiting, eat some more, taking cat naps... and collect ang paus.

This time round... I only managed to make coffee shortcake (my trademark melt in ur mouth cookies), chocolate mud cheesecake (using bitter chocolate), and some fruit jelly. Didn't have time to make a larger variety but didn't have to worry about that coz my aunt made loads of stuff and gave some to us. Love her pineapple tarts!

Panic episodes included a time when my lack of sleep nearly resulted in cheesecake disaster. Made a mistake in the cheese mixture... but fortunately - a little compensation of some other ingredient helped to produce a perfectly sinful cake.

My favourite little cousin had come over to my house for a day too - just when dad decided to do his famous chicken pie to feed an army of relatives and friends. Luckily, while we were busy helping dad prepare the ingredients, she had found entertainment in playing with some leftover pastry dough when she wasn't in the mood to help a little here and there. She's probably one of the easiest kid to baby sit.

One other thing - my brother and I concluded that my uncle's Shih Tzu has not grown any wiser since it was a puppy dog 6 years ago... dumb dog... cute dog... :)

BTW, went back to work today and had a ball of a time. I chucked aside the 80-90 over unread emails aside and attended only to those that my colleagues actually called to ask me to follow up.

This is not much of an adviseable thing to do but definitely the easiest way to manage what to do when coming back to a barrage of unattended issues sitting in the form of the dreaded work emails.

Besides, I didn't have much time to pore over every single thing as every Blue, Blue Monday... I have to prepare some report... damn! The preparation of it is just one tedious process man.

In the afternoon... got caught in two 1-hour meetings... gosh! By the time all that was over - there was hardly any time left to do anything... I ended up happily calling it a day when our online system decided to take a break too.

And before I forget... GONG XI FA CAI! May the Year of the Monkey bring you countless joy, harmony & prosperity.

Oh gosh! SO much more to do for Chinese New Year!! Was on leave last Friday... the day I had one last round of clothes shopping... and the day I baked my first major batch of cookies. Started making the dough in the afternoon and only finished baking the last tray and packing up all the fresh cookies by something like nearly 2am.

Also had some last minute arrangement for Bernard to send some cookies I managed to pack for my other Singaporean colleagues. Luckily, I had Jocelyn somewhat helping me out with the cookie thing while I went out to make the delivery. She had come over to do some major CD burning.

On Sunday... finished my last big batch of cookies inclusive of packing by about 3am... simply because no one else in my house was of much help in the whole cookie business... I was on my own, kiddo.

Anyhow, I had a pretty lazy Saturday... the day I had to get a tooth extracted in preparation for my orthodontic treatment. After CNY - I have to remove 2 more. For the rest of the day... I was just really tired... not to mention, half my mouth was numb with anaesthetic - so rest day it was! *mpphhhbt*

Finally did grocery shopping for my cookie baking on last Saturday... *grins*... but I won't be baking til this coming Friday... when I'm off from work.... hahaha!!! I look forward to my long weekend!!!

Anyhow, it's freaky that my weekly horoscope had partly come true. A colleague just told me that he had a crush on me... err... hmm... and my neighbour had been joking that the guy liked me for the past month or so...

Though unfortunately, I had to give him the "Let's be friends" routine... don't quite feel like it'd be fair to the dude for just keeping mum and keeping his hopes up unnecessarily. ;P

I hapf ze fruu. Ma nosh is schtuck. *achoo*

...and I happily stayed up til 2am last night hanging out at Sega's (Gurney) with friends who happen to be studying in US, UK & the land of Oz. It was fun and at least I get to see them before they go back to wherever.

Anyway - for the whole of today, I have no idea what has gotten into me. I forgot to switch off my car lights (it was on half beam) - so I've got a flat battery now... Thank God for our security guards who were patrolling the office car park and my colleague who let me use her car's battery to get my car started up... all at about 9-ish pm.

Better yet... I didn't quite know what I was supposed to be doing for 1/3 of the time I was in office. I just sat and stared at pages of things... and they just didn't quite register in my mind... or maybe the lightbulb in my head was getting worn out just like my car battery.... That's a creepy thought... yikes!

...oh! And of course, I'll be late to work tomorrow since I'll have to get my car battery fixed... Just hope that all hell does not break loose in the office during the early hours of the day... I'm supposed to be backing up my counterpart who'll be on leave for the next 2 days. Bless us all!!!

Well... today being Friday and I'm back at work for one lousy day - it seems like everything has a mind of its own... argh! Where do I start? My table is just full of papers!!

Ok... forget that. Back on a lighter note, I found out that many of my friends and colleagues just stayed home watching TV while some few others plain slept through 2003 to 2004. So maybe New Year's celebration has become a cliche for us this year. Hmm... quite a thought that is.

Happy New Year! Hope this one will be a good one for everyone... bar the Chinese supertitions, as this year has a 4 in it. How was my New Year's eve? Well... I ended up spending it having dinner at my granduncle's place. Didn't know what the occasion was until I arrived there - his wife's birthday it seems.

Past 10-ish pm - I was at home and watching "Fools Rush In" on TV. Watched it before but am still amused that Matthew Perry will always be Chandler as long as he plays the bumbling joker roles.

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.

Today I didn't want to wake up for work. But today, I still had to drag myself to go to work. Oh heck! What'a another day of work while still much in holiday mood?

My colleagues and I have already purposely went out for a longer lunch on Monday... the day we worked in half darkness... since the facilities folks were doing maintenance checks and we were on generators.

We felt more like sleeping than working anyway... what with the aircon and bare lighting in the office. But that was Monday. And today is the 2nd day of Raya... and I'm not goofing off with friends coz... why is that? Oh yeah... I have to work... *type,type,type...*

SELAMAT HARI RAYA!!! to all who celebrate the festive occasion....

and Happy Holidays for those just enjoying some time off from pure mundane routine...

Meanwhile... I only have 1-day off since I'm following the Singaporean calendar... and well... that's the only pain of being placed to support Singapore in the Customer Service side of things.

Other than that... I had a blast for my something like 36 hours of time away from work (including sleeping time). Finally managed to watch 4 movies out of my pile of DVDs that I haven't had time to watch over the past few mths!

(1) Spirited Away: Mighty weird story (but heck... it's a Japanese anime, no?) but I sure enjoyed watching this one... where the supposedly most evil one turns out to be the good one...

(2) The Majestic: I really loved this one. If you believe Jim Carrey is only good for slapstick comedy - think again! He did some serious acting for this one. Jase!!! I'll lend you this one if you haven't already watched this one!!! It's even better than...

(3) How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days: Well... watching this after having watch #2 was like watching something a little lower classed. It's a fun movie no doubt but #2 had a better story behind it.

(4) Catch Me If You Can: Its about this Frank W. Abagnale dude - a legend in bank fraud history. The things this guy does all before his 19th birthday... without modern day PCs and the convenience of the www.... whoa! Not bad for a guy to be able to change from being an elusive fugitive who siphons money from banks early in his life to become a person who legitimately earns millions by becoming a check security designer for major banks later in his life. Whoa.....

Ok... so I conclude that my Singaporean mentor is not all too bright after all. In fact, he could be the easiest person for anyone to bamboozle if you ever need to find a target.

Lifetime Award for the Dumbest SMS interaction for year 2003.... has to be for this:

"Hey! You went home early today?" - the mentor

So yeah... I did go home before 6pm for once and that's a good thing... and people do notice when I go home before they do... coz usually I leave after most of them have gone home... so how much dumber can that question be to lil' old me?!

"Erm... that's my evil twin" - I decided that this reply would be one that is sarcastic enough

"You mean... You are still IN THE OFFICE?" - the mentor

Gosh! How dumb can this dude be?! I shall not reply... I shall not reply... and may some light shed on my mentor's somewhat dim-witted mind

Don't get me wrong but he does seem to have the capability to ask everyone dumb questions that can irritate the hell out of our minds... even when we are busy at work... via yahoo messenger. How do I know all this? Gossip with my colleagues lar... when sudah the terlalu stress.

You are Form 1, Goddess: The Creator.

"And The Goddess planted the acorn of life. She cried a single tear and shed a single drop of blood upon the earth where she buried it. From her blood and tear, the acorn grew into the world."

Some examples of the Goddess Form are Gaia (Greek), Jehova (Christian), and Brahma (Indian). The Goddess is associated with the concept of creation, the number 1, and the element of earth. Her sign is the dawn sun.

As a member of Form 1, you are a charismatic individual and people are drawn to you. Although sometimes you may seem emotionally distant, you are deeply in tune with other people's feelings and have tremendous empathy. Sometimes you have a tendency to neglect your own self. Goddesses are the best friends to have because they're always willing to help.

Which Mythological Form Are You?
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12th day since I last blogged... and nothing much has really changed. Ho-humm

Have watch Matrix: Revolutions with Jase 2 Saturday evenings ago. Still gotta love the effects although the movie is as confusing as ever... don't mind the tons of loopholes in the movie that screams... "Oooh... we'll make a sequel in years time! Just you wait!!"

Aside from the steamboat dinner my colleagues and I decided to carry on with last Tuesday despite the rain, life on weekdays is pretty mundane. I'm still working an average of 12 hours 5-days a week... and I carry work home on a CD every weekend. Life sure is mundane and pretty stagnant. I need to get out more. I need to see more sun.

Ooh... before I forget... outcast bitch of the office didn't leave on Tuesday as we'd much been looking fwd to... her last day was prolonged to Friday by some twist of events. Her courtesy farewell do was just really weird... no one had much to say to her... no one said they'd miss her... and some of us were just keeping ourselves from telling her, "Good riddance to bad rubbish"

As for how I spent my weekend - Sat evening was spent at Shen's BBQ. It was fun altho' I did stay away from the booze by keeping myself bbq-ing at the grill... hehehe... I didn't wanna get pissed that night coz I was already having an irritating headache.

Sunday was all about catching up on lost sleep, watching cartoons, ironing my 2 weeks worth of laundry, preparing some decorations for my team's official "Go-Live" party in about... 16 hours, and finishing whatever work I took home from the office on Friday.

Last note... am looking forward to LOTR: Return of the King... the new wallpapers are as darling as expected!!

Oh look... I'm starting to go home late again... 9:30 pm?!!! Crazy...

Oh gLeEEeeEeee! My manager had happily announced in a memo to the team that those of us who stayed til very late on Friday can go home early provided we have no work to do... and so... the happy campers of my team slowly trickled out of the office starting from 2pm... and I only went out shortly before 4pm... but what the heck?! I'm still leaving way earlier than I normally would...

Did I mention that one outcast colleague will not be eligible for this little bonus? No?! Ok... so she was the only bitch who left at 5pm sharp while everyone else in the team stayed back to help team mates with huge workloads to clear their pile. Oh justice is served!!

Btw... we won't miss her when she leaves on the 11th... it's no loss at all to the team coz she wasn't a team player in the first place and has been a pain in the neck although most of us gave her a benefit of a doubt on her personality... good luck to her next employer man!! Amen!!

During the weekend - I joined my colleagues, Michelle and Jeffrey (this guy is my Singaporean mentor), on an impulse trip to KL. Muahahahaha... Ok! So I had a pretty great time.

We left Penang late Saturday morning and stopped at Ipoh's Jusco for lunch. Then we headed to my dad's house in USJ to drop off our bags prior to a rendezvous with some other colleagues from S'pore in KLCC - had to battle some down nasty rain to get there

...and later a scrumptious dinner at Modestos in Bangsar... then it was off to some clubbing. We ended up in Beach Club after seeing ppl being true to the concept of the Barfly at the Bar (12 SI)... barflies all!!! I kid you not...

On Sunday... we more or less woke up between 10-ish and 11-ish. But my big surprise was that my brother actually woke up at 11! Usually he wouldn't be alive to the world until 2-3pm... maybe 4pm at times... and the reason that he woke up was "Kim Possible". Hahaha... so that explains why we can reach him over the phone by 12 noon on Sundays!!!

Prior to going back to Penang - Mich, Jeff, & I spent some time walking around Sunway Pyramid. It was a nice stroll... and it's still one of the malls that I love. Can never seem to leave without ending up buying something from there...

Before heading home - we decided to go for a seafood dinner at Batu Kawan / Tambun. The food was absolutely wonderful... aside from the fact that we have to constantly swat those big fat flies away who are just looking for a chance to get to our food... nyah nyah... nasty flies. BUzZzz off!!

29... 30... 31 Oct... 3-days in a row I worked from 8am til more or less up til 12 midnight as it was our year-end closing. Free dinner provided on 30 & 31 ~ I won't complaint coz I had a really great time with my team mates and our manager during our "Community" dinner.

Besides... we essentially had a fantastic Halloween... Although I must admit being initially disappointed for being unable to join my friends for a Halloween party.

As busy as my colleagues and I were over the week, I must say that it's pretty amazing how we even managed to squeeze a bit of time thru-out the whole week to produce some pretty decent last-minute custom-made Halloween deco and to put it up during the nite of Hallow's Eve. Hmm... musta been all those de-stressing breaks we take... hehehe...

5pm on Halloween - the freaking system was down and out. People were tensed. We NeeeEEeeed the system... but we can't do a bloody thing... so we did the only thing we could - take a goof-break. Apparently something always happens to our system every 31-Oct... sPooOooOOky...

But before you knew it - it was back to work... just 30 mins later... yeah... so it would have been mundane, senseless toil yet again at work again - but the whole office suddenly became alive!

Hmm... what's up? What's up? It seems like we have "uninvited" guest. 2 Chinese Ghost!! One totally decked in black, the other all white... hahaha... OMG!!! Those 2 are part of our team of Singaporean colleagues...

Wait! A look around entailed us to discover that there's more - Our dept. manager is in a cape with a "Scream" mask... my direct manager had put on a "paper bag" with a monster's face drawn on it, one of the supervisors was a fairy, and another was an angel... and all of them went around the office handing us goodies!!! Meanwhile, some ppl in my team (including me) put on our "crooked witch hats".

By now... no one was working. Everyone was taking whatever candy that came our way, everyone was taking pictures with our costumed managers and colleagues. We were just plain having fun in the midst of a tensed period in the office. Woo-HoOOoOOo!!

Infinitium's version of Happy Birthday...

Happy Birthday to you... Happy Birthday to You... Happy Birthday to You-u... I~~~ REMEMBERED THIS~~~ YEAR!!!!!

That really cracked me up. Thanks for the good laugh man!!!

Exhaustion from work.

3 Thursday's ago, my supervisor told me to pick up some reporting thinghy from the BPA. The next day I found out it was his last day. I also found out that he hasn't been collecting data as he should have done for his remaining days at work.

This daily reporting thinghy is purely the shits. Gotta pull data at 4pm daily. Gotta prepare numbers and compile a report by 10 am the next day... and weekly report... die also must try to produce by 11 am on Monday. It's not easy to have to handle incoming transactions that should ideally be completed within the day while also trying to finish this reporting shit.

Thank God they are discontinuing the need for the report and giving me something else to do soon.

Love my new phone. Btw, mine's in Volcanic Red. Now I just gotta explore the software CD for the phone-Computer interaction.

And most importantly for today -- IT IS THE FIRST TIME in eons since I got back early from work... and am back early just because I'm suppose to visit a granduncle in the hospital.

*sigh* He's in coma. I don't know the full story yet. Depressing thought indeed.

Also... am again containing potential sore throat. Lack sleep. Panicked 2 mornings ago when I woke up with terrible pain at my right abdominals. Luckily it was something other than the worse thing that first popped into my mind.

Yup. Wasn't appendicitis. Some muscle spasm/cramp. Maybe because it was too cold the night before... coupled with my having suffered diarrhoea since the evening before.

My 3310's screen has said goodbye / No call ID, No SMS, No message of any kind I can read / Life is tough without a gadget I once could live without.

Ok... so that pretty much happened last Wednesday. By Friday, Chin2 & I had plans to go phone-hunting on Sunday after watching the earliest show of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Bonus trivia... movies before noon coz only RM5 per head. Woo-HooOooo!!!

Over the weekend I was mulling over whether to get a Nokia 6610, SE T68i or to go for the SE T610... so many things to consider... but eventually... I set my heart to one and felt the pain of having to spend so much cash in such a short time after getting my replacement home PC...

And all I have to say now is... it was well-worth it. Let's just hope I don't so something totally brainless to my new phone like what I did to my 3310. *crossed-fingers*

F I S H

Yup, that's right! Fish! My office has lots of it. Paper fishes and cardboard ones... they are everywhere!

1.5 weeks to D-day, Friday, Oct 3 - a group of unsuspecting employees where pulled into an organizing committee. Gosh! That's not a lot of time for us to help pull things together. Everyone is busy with month end closings... At the same time - each team in the dept had to think of what's a good fish deco to make for the competition. Best fish wins a prize for the team.

1.5 days to D-day... the project chieftess came by and told me... "Hey, I need you to play only parts of so-and-so songs". I broke the news to my partner in crime, James. We sorta-panicked... we lacked the proper tools.

And so we found ourselves stealing whatever time we could to pull bits of small wonders into place for D-day with what limitations we had... of course this included a search over the net for freeware or shareware to aid us. We ended up with only one useful tool. All others were essentially crap to us.

D-day finally arrives. Chaos! I spent more time than I would prefer in reacquainting myself to sound editting via Flash 5.0. James forgot to prepare music for one whole section in the itinerary... The food arrived late.

Later, halfway into FISH - the chieftess asked if we could edit some song like an hour before a scheduled item. We tech fellas nearly fainted... but luckily we managed to make it clear that it would have been impossible to get things done with such short notice.

Considering that our playful boss really dressed up like a pirate and that we all got to see our project chieftess boogie-ing her bootie during one of the games... this event lacking good organization... with no proper rehearsal for the events sequencing and the like... the event was successfully fun! Not bad at all... not bad at all :)

Last Thurs (25 Sep), mum has gone off to KL to follow my dad off for a trip to East Malaysia. The house is all mine and there shall be no mum to nag me for until the end of next week. Friday (26 Sep) - Gosh... landslide of work to deal with and had to sit through a meeting. Bleh... tiring day.

Saturday night... went to Prangin Mall with Jocelyn coz she wanted to buy some stuff from the Thai Fair before they their last day there. Then... we hung about Starbucks for a drink and some scrumptious cake.

Sunday... woke up late and thought "Damn... cannot bathe. No water!"

Then a curious gesture to check if the taps were really dry prooved to give me a pleasant surprise... My house STILL HAS WATER!!! Muahahaha! I can wash my clothes and mop the house and... do all the other mundane stuff... including having a nice cool bath.

F1 Race. US GP, Minneapolis. Rainy day with surprising results... bad day for Williams as Ralf Schumacher spins off while Montoya suffering from a spate of ill-judgement and really bad luck. Meanwhile, the Sauber team has much to rejoice for earning 10 points in this race with Frentzen in 3rd and Heidfeld finishing in 5th. A much deserved break for this team indeed.

The whole of last week was much a blur. For one... there was much to do prior to Gramp's birthday celebration on last Saturday. If there was one word to describe the whole of Saturday - it's "Non-stop". There were relatives coming and going from my house from mid-morning to til the afternoon. There were little kids running everywhere... some of them are just darn cute. *EEeeeeEEeeEEEEe... geramnyer*

At night, it was dinner out at the restaurant and well... again... playing usher and host... and I don't even remember at least 35% of the guests' names or family titles (who are they in the first place?!) and how they are connected to us. hehehe... all in all... was so poofed over the weekend.

Now back at work once more on the 2nd day of the week, it's been busy. Had to take up my colleague's workload yesterday since she was sick and on MC. Again.... damn... bzler... so... forgive the lack of updates.

Arrrrgggh!! It's Monday!

Ok... now that that's over with, let me recap on a few things that have happened since my last blog entry.

Work's the same... except I dunno why I had a sudden landslide coming in on last Friday. Didn't go home til 8pm... and sent some work to my "Yahoo! Briefcase" although I wasn't sure whether I'll have access to a PC at home over the weekend. Luckily, Mal brought my PC back on Saturday afternoon.

Got a haircut on Saturday afternoon prior to going out for a wedding dinner and didn't have much time to get ready after that. I'll go get my hair highlighted sometime during this week if I get home early enough.

Darn it... Italian F1 GP at Monza didn't go the way I hoped it would... but anyways... non-biased view --- It's a good sign for Ferrari that they could still win after a poor showing for the last 5 (or 6?) races... and that Montoya is still close in the race for the driver championship by keeping 2nd place. *Yay!*

5 Aug, Fri: Bowie & I went out to shop for stuff that was on bargains at Super Komtar... and I ended up spending like RM120 for 4 pairs of it. Pretty good buys I'd say.

On the other hand, my home PC is currently under scrutiny at Mal's - troubleshooting in progress as we try to pinpoint which piece of hardware is the cause of system instability... It could very well be because of the motherboard which can only mean... *gasp!*... I might as well look into getting a new PC.

6 Aug, Sat: Went to Komtar again after dinner. This time round - my dad and I went to look for the clear plastic wrappers at Popular Bookstore while mum had her fun looking through the same bargains I was looking at the day before.

Oh yeah... borrowed a laser pointer set to the Jumbuck too... that's the least I can do since I sure as hell am not sure where in the shopping complexes to buy one other than from the pasar malam's around the island.

7 Aug, Sun: Well... smrphhh... I slept for most of the day. In the afternoon - my mum and I went round to Gurney Plaza to pick out something as my treat to her for her birthday. She ended up purchasing a perfume package. Oh yeah, she also accidentally sprayed some perfume she was testing on me, before the purchase, into my eyes. Ow!

8 Aug, Mon: Wha...? Oh it's dark, it's raining... it's... gosh! Monday! Get out of bed you lazy pig! (but it's nice and cold... lemme sleep 5 mins more...)

The road is full of water... luckily there's less traffic on the road during the time I usually am on the way to work... I love school holidays!!! Apparently I escaped being stuck in a jam because *gasp!* ...Well whaddya know? An accident happened lar.

28 Aug, Thu: Met up at the sup kambing place to hang out with Shakila & Peky at about 10pm... and as expected, Dominic performed the concorde on us.

29 Aug, Fri: What did I do on Friday? Hmm... stayed home and hugged my pillow while watching TV and contemplating what else I have to do before I format my PC and upgrade from win98 to either win2k or winXP. Which one shall I pick? Heads - w2k; Tails - XP.

30 Aug, Fri (Eve of Merdeka!!): Traffic around Komtar was already horrendous by noon. Ack! Where did all these people come from?! My mood turned sour for the fact that I have 3 places to stop for errands and its been raining constantly too.

I dunno lar, I feel that I just can't quite tolerate standstill traffic and having to listen to my grandfather making unhelpful (duh! fact) suggestions at the same time - especially when it also involves a suggestion for an additional unnecessary errand plus use of an alternative route that, to my knowledge, will also be jammed...

Decided to follow my parents to dinner at the City Bayview revolving restaurant. The buffet was really good *burp! excuse me* At 10pm, I went out to hitch a ride with my colleague Christabel to go to Soho with her and some others. Parking was a whopping RM5!! That's expensive by Penang standards.

So Christabel, her bf and Jeffrey (our Singaporean visitor) went on to Soho and... gosh golly!! It was packed already. Then suddenly I saw Hooi Keong dancing like a man crazed... and on the other side of the joint - Erhps and Pam. Kewl. Later, Irene came in to join us. The music was ok at first but after the midnight countdown... it started to suck... big time.

31 Aug, Sun (MERDEKA!!!): The day started with glimpses of a 10 minute fireworks show from outside of Soho... and the countdown in Soho itself was late by about 4 mins... it's about time they calibrated their clocks :/

It's very anti-climatic to have a countdown after seeing the fireworks fying in colourful splendour in the night sky. We hung round until about 2am. By then, we have seen 4 girls who can't dance to entertain a crowd dance on the bar... Some of the things they did up there were just plain distasteful. No class at all. The girls dancing on the barstools next to us were way better in dancing.

Next it was a stop at the kedai mamak (sup kambing), home, sleep, and awake again at 9+am. Prayers again. Ack! Ok... I don't fancy all this ancestral prayer stuff but ok lar... I'm in a pretty ok mood today. My 2 grandaunts came over and we also had a surprise visitor in the form of my late grandmother's best friend. Sweet!

The house never sounded more lively - especially since one of my grandaunts is pretty deaf. It's quite a challenge when we all try to communicate with her. She'll smile and look like she understood and then suddenly - she'll ask us a question about something we might have just previously mentioned. It's kinda cute and funny actually.

Later in the afternoon, we went to stock up on Baskins. Even later in the afternoon, my brother and I scooted off to Prangin Mall to shop for some CDs and DVDs. I like what I found!! Just can't wait to find time to watch them.

1 Sep, Mon: Ooh! It's Monday and it's a holiday!! O yeah... I had a hiking appointment with Shane, Ah Siah & Bowie. We went up a trail from the Youth Park to some stop on the hill. It had a pretty good view of the town from there... the day was cloudy so it was nice. No worries about sunburn.

Anyhow, there was something interesting about what we saw. There was a small gap among the clouds that gave the sea a great big blob of sunlight... the like reflected off the sea's surface sorta looked like a footprint of some sci-fi alien aircraft. ;P

Anyhow, it started to drizzle lightly and we decided to hike our way down before it pours. When we got down - it stopped drizzling so we all went round the park to check out the newly installed facilities... including the new Xstreme sports arena. It's really huge! Too bad we didn't see any stunt skateboarders or rollerbladers there.

After exercise, pump up the calories! That seemed to be the case since Siah wanted to go to McDs... luckily we all got our Big Breakfast sets a good 10mins before the great Malaysian blackout. Hehehe...

Well whaddya know? First it's North America; then London; and guess who joins in the fray for a major blackout... Our very own TNB. Kiasu, I say *chuckles* *just kidding*

It seemed like some areas also had their water supply and telephone lines (those on digital transmission) cut off during the blackout. This prooves that too much technology may not always be good. Luckily, power came back 4 hours later. Hurray! ...and the first thing we did - was to switch on the TV... XP

The beginning of a new era in F1 racing

Hungaroring F1 GP, Budapest, Hungary: Fernando Alonso made F1 history yesterday to become the youngest F1 winner. This also means that it is the first win for Renault after their return to the world of F1 racing... the first win in 20 years! Alonso heading a podium with Raikkonen (McLaren Mercedes) in 2nd and Montoya (Williams BMW) in 3rd, consists solely of a new generation of F1 drivers marking the beginning of a new era.

On the other hand, is Michael Schumacher's luck running out? It has seemed that way for the past 2 races. What's even more upsetting for the Ferrari bandwagon has to be the fact that Schumacher was lapped by Alonso who maintained an amazing lead in Budapest.

And what about the tyre war? Michelin has been giving Bridgestone a run for their money. The cars on Michelins have been dominating the races since the last half of the 2003 season.

Lastly, a big hooray is in order for the Williams team. They've managed to spruce up their whole package in time to catch up for the driver's race title - where the top three consisting of Michael Schumacher, Juan Pablo Montoya, & Kimi Raikkonen - are just 1 point ahead of one another in that sequence... and of course, not to forget, Williams is now leading the constructor's championship!

19 Aug, Tue: It's way too cold in the office... I'm freezing... *shiver* No appetite to finish lunch. By 1+pm, I have a fever in reaction to extreme cold. 30 mins later, my supervisor tells me to go home. It took me one hour before I left the office. That one hour was used to leave my cubicle and to stand around the sun filled region of our teabreak area. I only left the office at 2:30pm - just after feeling warmer and fit to drive home and make a visit to the clinic.

20 Aug, Wed: One thing about medication - it really makes you sleepy. So... no one will seem surprised if I'm resting on my desk for a while. Anyway, during our team communication (briefing session) - I was leaning my head on the side of a cubicle for a rest everytime I felt like dozing off for a few minutes. :p

17 Aug, Sun: Morning - went for a swim at the club and couldn't give a damn whether it was drizzling or not. It drizzles. It stops. It drizzles again. I only got out of the pool when the drizzling got slightly heavier... arhhhh.

But the stupidest thing of the day... make it the stupidest thing I've done this year so far... is what I'm about to write below. Ok, so here goes!

After dropping my dad off where he's to catch his bus back to KL, I drove home. I drove over something in my driveway and I thought... maybe it's something with the tire. I reversed. I rolled over something. I moved forward again. I rolled over something again.

I opened my door and saw my handphone on the ground. Holy mother of God! I just rolled over my handphone, THRICE! Shit! Shit! Shit! I thought I had left my phone safely at home on top of the TV shelf. But no... it seems that my short term memory is as good as Dory's.

But as far as product torture test goes... I can tell you that my Nokia 3310's original casing passes the torture test. No cracks and not a single scratch. There you go! Support original casings... only if you have a damned good plastic cover to give it extra protection too.

I can't say the same for the LCD screen though. Half of it is still visible while the other half is as good as gone. Only one of my keys is not functioning and that's because the rubber extension for that key has been shortened because it was squished. So now I need extra effort to be able to press zeroes.

Otherwise? Well... the phone still works fine. I can make calls. I just can't make out SMS-es nor write any of those. It's not good to have a failing short term memory. Help!!!

16 Aug, Sat: After dropping my grandpa at work, and going home for breakfast with mum; I dropped by my office to check if I was scatterbrained enough to have not finished my 250ml of Dutch Lady milk, last evening.

Reaching the office door, I fumbled with the doors lock combination. I don't really know how it works but by some miracle, I managed to open it. I ran for my cubicle.

First thing I noticed to my extreme relieve; I have actually finished the milk and the empty box is lying safely in my trash can. The danger of having spoilt milk spewed via the straw onto my table was totally non-existent. I then decided to take some notes home to go over during this weekend.

Going back out of the office and locking back the doors, I tried to figure out what I did to open the door. Then Poh Lin who was inside the office came by and opened the door for me.

Sheepishly, I quickly asked her how does the lock thinghy actually work because I surely would not want to look like someone trying to break into the office the next time I have to open that darned door. She kindly told me how it opens and thank God for that, I think I'm now knowledgeable enough to handle that lock.

At 5:30-ish, I went off to get my dad from Kampungku. Luckily I reached in time to pick him up before the drizzle began. It rained rather heavily again for about an hour. Shortly after I arrived home with my dad, Sharimalan called to say that he's in Penang and asked for us to meet up. Cool!

Ok... so I recruited my colleague Irene (whom I recently found out was actually also my collegemate and Shari's friend too... again... SMALL WORLD!) - for tonight's outing. At 10pm I picked up Irene and headed to Tari Cafe. There, we met up with Shari with Sally & Daws where Shari imminently told us that we are shifting to Ali's at Argyll Road.

Finally settled and regrouped at the new venue, we caught up with one another. One thing we noticed immediately... Shari had shrunk! He had loss his fats and looks fit now... and not as "selekeh" as he once was.

The other thing was he looked a bit tired and he was more subdued. We all miss him though. He'll always be our personification of bubbly (well that's how he really is like when his engine is in full performance mode anyway).

Very sweet of him to bring souvenirs for us too... except it's souvenirs from Sarawak instead of Russia though. He got those while he was doing his 4 days of practical at one of those district hospitals in Sarawak. Aside from that, it seems that the rest of his first few weeks back in Malaysia went into attending practical training in Jitra Hospital.

15 Aug, Fri: It's a wet, wet day. It drizzled shortly in between torrential bouts of rain for most of the day. And tonight will probably be the last time I will see my young friend, Chris Ng, before he goes to Wisconsin to continue his studies.

At the office, the day was pretty relaxing. Not much to actually shout about (and that's a good thing too). Don't wanna think about what's in store on Monday. When I left the office, it was just starting to drizzle again.

15 mins into the traffic jam, visibility swiftly dwindled to about 10m. My planned pitstop at home to collect my camera became a rainstop. Waited for a good 40 mins or so before driving myself up to Island Plaza in Tanjung Bungah.

Reaching my destination, I headed to KFC for dinner with Alan, Chrissy-boy, Mei Sze, & Evonne. It's always nice to watch Chris & Mei Sze battle on anything and everything... Sometimes, Mei Sze will battle herself on certain things... it's quite amusing! Really! That girl is just quite uncontrollable. One time she exclaimed so loudly that the whole of KFC was silent for a few seconds! Even the fussy baby at the table behind us became quiet.

Later on, we moved to Starbucks. It so happened that our friend Victor was working the night shift there too. And so we continued to bergila-gila there. Shakila and Marie joined us a little later. Chris then started to be melancholic and told us that he gets hit by pangs of loneliness in the nights for the pass two weeks.

We told him its the "leaving blues"... and we know he hates to leave behind the close friendship that has developed between everyone in our group. Marie then gave Chris her contact in US in case he needed a friend while he adjust himself in his new home for the next few years. She is after all still studying there and is going back there on Sunday.

We, of course, snapped photos. I later convinced Chris and the gang to come by my house so that I can give Chris a "farewell for now" gift that I forgot to take out with me earlier... and also because I can't see him off when he leaves via Penang Airport on this coming Tuesday afternoon.

Slightly after midnight, Shakila left with Marie. The rest of us left Island Plaza only after Victor cleaned and closed the shop for the night. Later, back at my house, the gang hung out at my porch while I darted in to get my token gift for Chris. The curious group wanted to know note I've left on his gift and he offered to read it out loud.

Luckily the note was not sappy but had more of a friendly banter-ish tone to it. At 20 mins to 3am, we all traded goodbyes. With Chris, that included a farewell hug and wishes for his safe journey.

Half yellow half red
The angsana blooms merry
Unlike all others

Half bright hardly bright
Off to work and later back
Still ever darkness

Joyous light I see
If chance says be off early
Hip, hip, hip, Hurray!

Okay! So I dreamt about a weird tree with a wide canopy... the whole tree was covered in flowers - a bright yellow on the top slanted half, and a scarlet red on the bottom half. Very cheerful colours I must say.

The rest is just well... mundane stuff. I do believe that every chance I get to be home early, I'll run for the exit! Otherwise, I hardly ever see the sun on a weekday - Moving out early before the sun lights the sky into a clear blue; and getting home when the sun is already hidden behind the hills and the sky a dusky sepia... or perhaps its already dark.

So... I must say that I'm happy to be able to see the sun when I walk around the office car park in the evening. And of course... thank God that I've been going back earlier for the past week! I don't wanna know when I'll have to miss seeing the evening sun again.

Btw, my mentor from Singapore has arrived on Tuesday. He's been very helpful in attending to the tirade of questions from all of his mentees (4 including me... and the occasional person whose mentor isn't on site...). His colleague who mentors another 3 in our sub-team arrived on Thursday... she's a cute little Filipina with beautiful straight long hair. We'll be playing tour guide to them tomorrow afternoon.

Meanwhile, I finally managed to get myself to do my banking today; restocked on my engine oil; get new wipers; and in the afternoon - went to Carrefour with my parents to do our grocery shopping. I must say that the amount of milk and paper products we bought (various tissue paper... get the idea?) makes us look like we are stocking up an underground safe-haven. You know... like stocking up to live in the aftermath of a major disaster?

I just have one thing to add for now... yahoo!!! Montoya won the Hockenheim F1-GP.

1 Aug, Fri: Today I have 6 hrs of class, a 2 hr lunch break, and a communication session at the auditorium for about 45 mins. At night, I joined Jocelyn, Hei Li and a few of their friends at Coffee Bean... and after that... Joce, Hei Li, and I decided to go hang out at the sup kambing place for to get a drink and a snack.

30 Jul, Wed: Hmm... odd... Why is there a small traffic holdup on the fastlane leading to my office? It's only 7:10 a.m. or so. Then I saw it... a furball. Closer still... what the?! An owl?!! o.O What's it doing on the road next to the road divider?

31 Jul, Thu: Today is day 3 of our live support for data entry. I must say that the order that was given to me by my mentor was much harder than than the other 2 orders he gave me in the last 2 days. Better still, today we actually have a deadline to submit the order. Argh!!!

My order came in about 30 mins before lunch time... so there's nothing much I could do about it other than study the faxed documents. I went out for lunch with my old colleagues at Suat Lee's house in honor of Say Hua's birthday celebration (in advance). There, we met her handsome young man... a very cheerful toddler. After that, it was back to toil at my desk at exactly 1:40 p.m.

Shortly thereafter, in the midst of figuring out a confusing statement in an email from my mentor in Singapore... a few from the Taiwan team told me that their Acrobat can't read Chinese... and that we needed the CD to update the program so that it can interpret the Chinese characters properly. Erm... ok... so I ended up updating the PCs of 2 people.

Then JO came around saying that this is happening because I didn't install it properly. Right... whatever... then for the sake of curiosity... I tested the PC where, as far as I know, Acrobat was installed by JO himself. Hah! It needed updating too. I must say my blood was beginning to boil. Next, I asked JO what should have being selected upon initial installation... and he replied that we should activate both options for the language. Aha!! So it wasn't my fault... he only told me to activate one option the other day. Better still, that was what he demonstrated.

I blew my top. Firstly, it was his fault for misinforming me prior to my going about to do the installation for the remainder of my team yesterday. Secondly... he said it was my mistake before recalling that it was him who demonstrated the wrong thing for me to follow... and he quickly offered to do the damage control. Ahh... that's more like it. Hrmph! Don't mess with me when I'm stressed.

Back at staring at my order, I quickly made a checklist of what I should enter into the system... made some clarifications with my mentor regarding a few issues and wa-lah! I officially finished it 15 mins before the deadline of 4 p.m. After that task was all done, relieve clouded over me and I was back to being cheerful and all.

Later in the evening, I went out for a delicious seafood dinner with 3 colleagues and 3 of our trainers in Batu Maung. We had a Thai appetizer, 2 dishes of crabs, a steamed fish, a dish of prawns, a dish of shellfish, a plate of vegie, some satay, and a dish of fried maggi noodles. The best part of all, we found out that a cute-sy and hunky trainer of ours is afraid of ghost. We had so much fun just telling local ghost stories to spook him out... after all... it is also the Hungry Ghost month in the Chinese calendar :)

Luckily I booked my tickets for the 5:20pm "Tomb Raider 2: Cradle of Life" at Prangin's MegaPav a day earlier. It was sold out when Jase and I went to collect our tickets about 1 hour before the show. Oh yeah... then to kill time, we went to get some DVDs. I finally got myself a copy of The Hours, The Majestic, Catch Me If You Can, and Roberto Benigni's Pinocchio.

Next, I popped by Popular bookstore to get some stationeries but the selection of items there were pretty bleah... so... I didn't get anything from there. Looks like I'll have to go look elsewhere for the stuff I need.

Going back to the cinema, I spotted Pinky. I quickly looked out for Jase and grabbed him to let him reacquaint himself with Pinky. It was quite funny. He couldn't quite recognise her while she pranced cheekily and grinning to test his reaction... until I said it was her. Hehehe...

Ok... now! About the movie... it's definitely way better than the first Tomb Raider. More drama and the storyline is not so plastic. Ditto.

26 Jul, Sat: Today it finally hit me that the reason Pinky was back in Penang since Thursday was because today is KDU's graduation day. Oh man, I'm so blur!! Luckily I remembered in time to wish her a timely Happy Graduation day.

Later in the evening, we all met at Cravan Cafe in Pulau Tikus. It wasn't easy getting there because of that Long Buffet thinghy was being held along Gurney Drive. Traffic was hell. But forget about that because at least we all had the chance to meet up and had fun catching up and talking crap and such. Head counts for this gathering included Shakila, Chrissy-boy, Pinky, Mei Sze, Kant, Alan, Apple, Rusdi, etc.

25 Jul, Fri (Part 2): It feels good to be in the company of friends. Tonight, my college groupies and I had an ad hoc gathering at the airport's Nandos. We stayed there until they hinted it's time for us to buzz off... and we moved out to talk. Yup, we stood outside at the arrivals' corridor and chatted... and of course, we stood at where it would be least obstructive to the people who're moving in and out of the airport with luggage. :)

25 Jul, Fri: Yesterday, someone found their network drive missing and I had a debate with JO about the network drive mapping method used. He was piffed that the more unreliable Win2k's drive mapping was used instead of doing it via our proprietary software to connect those drives at logon.... to the point of wondering why I had let it be done that way. But here's the problem - I didn't do the communication to my team - the core trainers did that... and they are none too savvy about IT issues.

So today, I happily reported that a few others are beginning to find net-drives missing to JO and he simply asked what I wanna do about it. Well... so I asked nicely if he'd help with damage control only for the joker to tell me that it's not a request but an order. Ok... fine... let me rephrase myself... and I made it an order for JO to help with damage control on Monday.

This is really a small matter but the less IT savvy may not think so... and it is easier for us to organize a round of damage control than to be interrupted in future each time someone reports a missing drive or so. Easier to track what we've done too of course, no?

I must say... the Silverstone F1 GP was the liveliest race of the year! Plenty of superb overtaking took place throughout the race, one loony dude in a kilt running onto the track (and pulled off the tracks by concerned race marshalls... good thing he didn't get killed by the machines of superb speed), and 2 safety car sessions (one due to a a part of David Coulthard's head rest falling onto the track). The result of the top 8 was one that wasn't all that predictable due to the many wayward circumstances of the race itself... the top 3 being in the order of Barrichello (a win after a long spell of lesser fortune), Montoya & Raikkonen. Kudos Barrichello for a job well done!

Anyhow, today must be the first of days to come where I'll actually be working in the office until 8-ish PM or more... yes! My new job is demanding but I'm not saying that I'm not having fun coz I know when to de-stress while on-the-job. Tired but kinda happy... ah well! :) Need to browse through some notes before I hit the sack tonight... Arrr... whoops! Need to eat!!! Dinner... here I come!

Let's see... I've finally finished a 10-day course and a 12-day course on Wednesday just past and capped it off with an assessment paper first thing on Thursday morning. By mid-morning, we were shifting our computers from the training rooms to our office desk that was situated one conjioned building away.

Unlike other people, I didn't have to put my computer on a trolley ride. I just have to collect my CPU from the table that was mine before they rearranged the original sitting plan. Anyhow... here's a little of what happened in office... and before that - let me introduce to you 2 blokes whose jobs are to ensure that our web process and infrastructures are smooth-running. Enter JO and Zaf.

For the time being, they've been recruited by the management to help everyone setup their computers and such. They also know that I'm well capable of setting up my PC's hardware and software... and cherishes in making cheeky comments to me with some level of regard to that.

So well... to continue the story... as I was sorting out my PC cables - JO came to my new (temporary) desk and started to b.s. --- "Aiya... you don't need help. You can set up all this and probably better than us in setting up the whole unit" --- and at the same time he was helping me to plug in some cables. HaAaa... ok... wassup... I thought. "Btw, all of you people should belanja us", said JO. Zaf in the cubicle opposite chipped in, "Yeah, and you people must not treat us as a whole group. Must be one by one of you :)" ... and so it went on and on... mostly JO bs-ing while Zaf eavesdrop for a chuckle. And yeah... I ended up whacking JO's right arm to shut him up.

The remainder of Thursday was for us to set up our all important webtools and links. Friday was another day of briefing and refresher course. Oh yeah... and the whole team went out for lunch with our trainers and managers at Batu Maung that day. Come evening, I was blur... and while back at the office... so was JO when I saw him... he was babbling... must say that was quite funny though... hehehe...

But then at later at night, at home, I finally found out why I was so blur... I had indigestion coupled with a sinus problem acting up at the same time. I was trying to keep my nose tract clear for breathing while at the same time not quite sure what was happening in my stomach... I thought I needed to get rid of some phlegm or what not... just that it was worse... I needed to puke out my dinner... bleh! I just hate the feeling of a raw throat after puking, so I tried to drink some water... that wasn't much help coz it just made me puke again.

After sleeping it off into Saturday morning, I felt better. Then it was a trip to the dentist where I think the dentist repaired an old filling that came out on its own months ago. After lunch, I dropped my dad off for his appointment and went to get some stuff from Giant. It started to rain heavily so I thought... "Hey! I'll stick around in here until the rain slows down a little"... and ended up buying another TY Beanie in addition to the groceries. On my way home, I noticed that most Penang roads had at least 2-3 inches of water. Yup... we're flooded again for a few hours.

At night, I watched the F1 Silverstone GP Qualifying 2 session and then later a kid-movie on NTV7 called "Rookie of the Year". It was good for a laugh... and so predictable... yet it's what we all know to be a feel good movie.

Picking up where I left off in Blogger World!

Grandpa was finally discharged 2 Thursdays ago. He's doing well now though we aren't leaving him on his own to sort out his "smarties". But then again, he's a stubborn old man. He'd tried to read the minute daily prescription print and we'd argue with him that he's misinterpreting it. Example: His painkiller prescription says 1 pill 3 times daily - he had at a time of 2 tried to read the fine print and argued it should be 3 pills once daily. And so we concluded that his logic synapses ain't as sharp as before too. 3 painkillers in one taking will OD any living person... it's poisonous when taken that way.

Last weekend, Vij and I tried to synchronize our time to go watch "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" on Sat... it didn't happen on Sat and I tried to ask if she could make it on Sunday. At first she said she can't... but thankfully she buzzed me on Sat night to let me know that Sun afternoon would be fine. And so... it just happened that we got stuck in a traffic jam, didn't book tickets, and arrived 5 minutes before the 3-ish show to notice that the tickets for that are SOLD OUT... and deciding to watch the 5:35 instead. After we bought our tickets, we wasted time by just walking around the place and window shopped for stuff and checked out pricing for a boombox and a VCD player. She's planning to buy them soon enough.

Finally back at the cinema and having sat through the whole movie, I've decided that CA:FT is definitely what my brother classified it as - a guy-flick... the sibling to chick-flicks. The storyline is nothing to scream about but the action sequences can leave your mouth gaping. Btw, would you say that this is more of a Cameron Diaz flick? She does get a lot of scenes compared to the other 2.

Alrite... so after having such a splendid weekend so far, there's still a little more to make it better. The France F1 Grand Prix ended up with a Williams one-two with Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya finishing in that order followed amazingly by Michael Schumacher who made the best out of an otherwise terrible weekend for Ferrari twice in succession. My brother and I have also noticed that Coulthard is beginning to sound as whiny as Barrichello - both desperate to proove their worth after a considerably long and dry spell. Is it the end for Coulthard with McLaren and Barrichello with Ferrari? One can only speculate thus far until the truth is revealed.

Did I mention that I don't have an assessment on Monday? Ok! That was why studying has not been mentioned... yet. It's on Tuesday morning instead and of course I'll be studying the night before that. Amen.

Other than that... nothing interesting has happened other than the fact that I'm still sitting through 8 hours worth of training 5/7 days of this past week... and Shakila's back from UK... Jayson & Ethan are back from Aussie... and that I'll be enjoying Monday as a welcomed replacement holiday for the company since today is a state holiday for the Penang Gov's b'day... and that I'm contented that I've finally taken my brother and dad to Kapitan to have the Tandoori Chicken & naan bread. Best Tandoori in Penang!! *burp!*

Today is officially the most stress-free training session in the past 2 weeks for my colleagues and I... simply because we've covered everything for the first set of training... and that it was officially free time for 1/2 a day until the next one began in the afternoon... blisSSsssSss...

p/s: During tea break, I couldn't help noticing that one of the trainer's had an adorable wallpaper of Squirt projected onto a white screen in his class... so cute... and so as history would have it... it triggered me to surf around for Finding Nemo wallpapers and such... NemoOoooOOoo... neEEeeMoOoooo...

On the F1 front...

I’m really happy that the Williams team won the European Race in Nurburgring... and it was even better since there was that Montoya and Michael Schumacher racing incident to spice it up.

However, it was kinda sad to see Kimi Raikkonen’s car blowing up though. Kimi was having such a good run in the lead then too. But then that’s F1 as it is... and you know something yet again? In racing - one man’s meat is another’s poison... i.e. in the case of how Heidfeld and his Sauber earned a point as a result of Trulli having to retire his Renault from the race. Next stop this coming weekend - Magny-Cours, France!

Little Lizzy...

My brother was right. It's better when you don't know what happened... especially when I found out that I trampled on and killed a baby lizard as I was walking barefooted to the kitchen in semi-darkness on Sunday night.

GROSS!!! Gross, gross, gross...! It was better when I thought it was just a wad of discarded cello-tape... Switching on the light out of curiosity reveal the lizard and a tiny leaping tail.

I think I was hardly home last Saturday. Morning - after dragging my brother out of bed and bribing him with homemade breakfast... we dropped by the hospital to give the newspaper to grandpa before moving to the bank where I had to collect my passbook and get my new ATM card. This is very important if I want to get my pay... and even more so coz this is the only Saturday in June when the banks are open.

Noon - get mum and dad from the airport. Afternoon - dropped dad off for his appointment at the club in Tanjung Tokong; went down town to a few errands including collecting my spectacles from the optician; did grocery shopping with my brother and mum; before going back to the club to pick dad up.

Evening - had a scrumptious 8-course dinner at May Garden with the SC group. I bet that I would’ve joined them for some coffee and more chitchat if I didn’t feel tired and felt that I should be home to do something about studying for the test I’m having on Monday. Crap... that little fact sure kills the fun in weekends.

When you do not wake up for dinner for the three times someone tries to wake you - you are dead tired. Did not wake up til 6:15am today..... went back to sleep..... 6:30am..... dozed off again..... yeEeeArggGHhhh!!! 7am?!!

What went on the past week? Well... aside from being M.I.A. from blogging --- i'm still undergoing training; grandpa had been admitted into the hospital for a minor surgery to remove haemorrhoids last Friday; I've managed to collect Gill & Pearl from McD (hehe... I love lighting Pearl up in the dark)... in addition to... erm... yeah! Marlin and Squirt.

Oh well, I'll still be M.I.A. for most part of say.... the next 5 weeks or so? Yeah... that's about it. I'm still sleepy. Training class will begin in about 10 mins... I think...

My work computer was finally setup on Thursday the 12th. That's good in a way. I just find myself doing more walking more since I am mainly in the office. Lots of errands to run since almost everyone else is stuck in training. Later in the evening we had a small tea-time celebration for Angela's birthday.

My manager mentioned that he'd be glad once the trainings are done and people start getting back into the office so that he can finally delegate work out. Meanwhile, he and all the core team members are highly stressed and over worked. He seems pretty amused that I'm gonna flip through the 5 graphic-filled books (that weigh a ton to carry) I've borrowed from Angela, to scrounge for our department's intranet communication website.

Later that night, I joined Chris Ng and the lot at the Pulau Tikus' Cravan Cafe. I didn't really notice the time and ended up leaving only at about 1:30a.m. Crazy.

Friday night - I've finally gone to watch Finding Nemo & I absolutely adore it! ...and I just really love watching Dory (Ellen DeGeneres rocks!) - definitely the most hilarious full-lengthed cartoon I've watched in some time. I wouldn't have thought about that if Kok Keong didn't mention that right after the movie.

Back to work today! Monday was a replacement holiday... wasted much of my morning trying to get some ATM cards changed into the new ones only to be told at the banks that it's out of stock.

Sunday? Hmm... went for lunch to celebrate Shane's birthday with my college friends. Saturday? Attended a birthday party for a baby cousin. :)

About work so far? Still not doing any serious work but having to go through a lot of e-studies. My eyes are tired just going through the never-ending e-pages. I'll hopefully get a PC for real by tomorrow or else... no website for the department nia lor... and yet they want it deployed A.S.A.P. Nyahahaha... delays for website deployment is sOooooOOoo not my fault.

p/s: I'm currently using a computer from the training room. ;)

It's been back-to-back training sessions. Today is Day 2 of a 3-day session. At 4pm on Friday (tomorrow), I'll be having a 1-hr open book objective test, online.

On a different note, my colleagues and I finally got our employee badges, today, after frantically hounding the badge lady for the past 2 days. Let's just say it should have been completed nearly 2 days earlier... and she shouldn't have used a really lousy excuse... and making conflicting statements to us vs what she committed to our superiors.

Tue, 3 Jun: The Lobby Exhibition Display

I dropped by my old dept to check some mails and do a little housekeeping. After all, the trainer of the day gave us a long lunch break. On my way back to the auditorium, some 5 mins away, I noticed that Kelvin was at his desk and on the phone.

Right... Time to wash my hands off a small matter and I have only 10 mins before training resumes. Being late back for training is not a good idea when the trainer is bent to make latecomers sing, up on the auditorium stage.

And thus I find myself walking up to his desk and standing behind him for a few secs before waving my hands on one side of his face. Needed to get his attention coz I don't have time to wait around. Nice of him to ask the person on the other end of the line to hold for a while.

Me: Hi, Kelvin :)
Kelvin: Hi :)
Me: About the s/w u borrowed; when u'r ready to return it, could you pls pass it to either Suat Lee or Lyne? I've changed dept.
Kelvin: (Nods) Sure. U r in PCS?
Me: Ya, that's why I'm wearing this (points to temp. tag I'm wearing until my actual badge is ready) ... *pause* ... Btw, the posters in the lobby... is that u on one of them? (it's almost a life-sized print)
Kelvin: Yes *grins*
Me: Hmm... no wonder I thought it was familiar!
Kelvin: *Laughs-uproariously-in-obvious-amusement*
Me: I gotta go. Bye~ *walks-briskly-away-rushing-back-to-training*
Kelvin: *continues-laughing-as-he-heads-back-to-his-phone-call*

It's amazing that a simple statement like that can evoke such amusement in another person. But just maybe... the way we say stuff like that that makes it worth a laugh. Especially one from a cute engineer ;)

Wed, 28 May: A day of doing final backups and passing over anything that's worth to note about my soon-to-be ex-job to the replacement. Also gave Mariam a consultation on how to choose a computer/notebook based on her needs and budget... not everyone needs the highest end computer.

Later at night, I went to browse around Gurney Plaza to stock up my presents for birthdays and etc. Running out of ideas... I stocked up in some MPH vouchers. Sze Lin came by my house after her class (she's teaching it) upon my request... and I passed her her belated present (made into an adorable little parcel) and also one for her to pass to Ying Lai whom she'll be meeting in KL over the next few days.

Thu, 29 May: Woke up early as usual and chauffeured gramps to his office. Only difference is I don't have to take myself to work today. So... I took my time to go by some breakfast stuff (for tea break too) home for mum, the weekly cleaning lady and myself.

I later went out to have lunch with Rain. It was a nice and cosy little joint called Bamboo Tea Point (or something like that). Too bad Celine & Daws couldn't join in since they had a meeting to attend at that time. And.. oh yeah... I gave Daws an early birthday card and gift of MPH vouchers prior to lunch.

Fri, 30 May: Had yet another relaxing day! That's the life! ...and TV in the morning is much to my liking - cartoons all the way since it is after all the school holidays.

Sat, 31 May: Morning was quite a rush... had to go to my... let's see... by relational logic... oh! My god-brother's wedding at church. I must say that my parents and I were a bit late. It didn't seem like a wedding ceremony at first since when we dropped in... it seemed like yet another sermon from the speaker/pastor.

After what seemed like a millennium (and some cherubic tiny tots have been happily spending some time loitering round and round a block of chairs much to their mothers chagrin of whom they were trying to follow the ceremony without having to run after the kids) my god-bro and his wife recited their vows.

From there we went to get gramps from his workplace before moving over to the wedding's lunch venue. The pace of the course servings was slow... slow enough for digestion of each one. Total = 10 courses... longest course meal I've had at a wedding in a long while!

We went home after lunch where dad cleared off final details for his tax submission. Then it was off to submit them before 5pm. With that done, dad wanted to go to MPH (Gurney Plaza) so... that's my 2nd visit there in less than a week. He didn't find what he was looking for but he eyed something that could be useful to gramps. I ended up buying a book though. Next, we were off to stock up on Baskins... and I bumped into my old schoolmate, Su Ling, there.

Sun, 1 Jun: Hmm... dad tried looking for his book at the other MPH in Gurney Tower... but luckless again. He wanted to buy what he saw at the other MPH for gramps but its not here so... ding! My 3rd visit to MPH G.Plaza in 5-days. This time I ended up with CLEO magazine (it wasn't yet in stock yesterday though).

And at night... I found out much to my delight that Juan Pablo Montoya won the Monte Carlo F1 GP in Monaco! Other interesting news bits are like (a) Jenson Button who was ordered to sit out for this race had still badly wanted to race; and (b) Williams is delighted to win a Monaco race after 20 years. Had to tape it tho' coz I had to send my dad to the airport. Will watch it later. Gotta sleep early tonight.

Mon, 2 Jun: Much about a stressless day and nothing to do with computers. Let's see... first day of work... wasted time waiting to get all necessary papers filled and file for registration with the HR people... along with like 30 other people. And... an afternoon spend on introductions by the Agilent people... one couldn't ask for more on a working day - no essential work done in a working day. Icing? Nice to meet a whole new bunch of people too.