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.

Don't be surprised if I am not updating for the next few days... I will be on off for a break starting this Thursday before coming in again into Agilent for my new job on Monday. Tomorrow will be my last day at this current post. Lots to clear out and files to backup. ;)

Let's see.... last Sat, my mum & I had a marathon viewing of the whole season 2 of Cardcaptor Sakura and the movie of that. Bummer. So cute!!! As off 2am today, I've finished 1/2 of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Boy... my eyes sure have not been resting much over the weekend... books & DVDs... books & DVDs... books & DVDs...