Thursday, September 29, 2005

Wonderful Weekend Getaway

This is my 4th try.

I've written lengthy entry on my weekend getaway but everytime i tried to publish it, some sort of error will popped and wiped off my entry.

I am annoyed, yes.

So instead of lengthy entry, i'll just summarize it.

Friday
Checked in quite late. Had lovely supper. Food was superb.

Saturday
Early morning. Breakfast in Kg Baru. Bought books at Sg Wang. Kids went swimming for a few hours. They went to the Kids Club after that. Had snacks for tea in the room. Nap for a while. Dinner and ice-cream at Swenson's. Started with my project paper at 11pm. Managed to stay awake until 2am. Almost.

Sunday
Not so early morning. Breakfast in the hotel. Great food. Adik wanted to stay longer. Went to Ampang Point. Home by 3pm.

There we go. That's brief enough right?

Enjoy your day! Jangan lupa bacik yassin tonight.

Friday, September 23, 2005

Oral B

Heard an advertisement for Oral B toothpaste this morning. Goes something like this:

*Alarm clock goes off. The husband wakes up, yawning*

Wife: Where are you going?
Husband: I have an appointment.
Wife: Sex in the morning??

There i was, trying to concentrate on my driving and thinking about the advertisement all at once. It was 5 minutes later that i realized, the SEX was actually SIX. Heheh... silly me.

Am looking forward to the weekend getaway. Full 3 days and 2 nights of pure leisure and yummylicious food. I know i'll enjoy it - I'll be with my babies.

Have a good weekend people!

Thursday, September 22, 2005

Happy birthday to my dear daughter!

Kakak is five today.

Monday, September 19, 2005

Wonderful Weekend

Had to see the Directors early Saturday morning. There goes my appointment to see Dr. Aziz and my plan to send Matrix to the workshop.

Discussion ended at half past one. Melissa and I fought for our lives - literally. Could tell that the particular 'director' (whom will be referred to as GKD @ Gila Kuasa Director from now on)was pissed at us. Why? Coz we managed to feed her answers rather than kept our mouths shut.

Right after the discussion, GKD stopped by our cubicles and bitched about the Dutchman. She's one crazy person, i tell u. I've never met anyone like her - someone with a split personality. She had just shot us with killer questions and one moment later, wanted to become our best buddy and start gossiping. Yuck!

Was off to Chevrolet showroom an hour later. Nope. Didn't find anything that we liked.

Spent a few hours at Carrefour for provisions and party stuff for the kids birthday party (at the nursery) next week. There won't be any grand party at the house for them this year. We're saving the dosh for our next vacation abroad.

Sunday was well spent cleaning and the sort. Had a nice dinner at Nando's, upon Adik's request. It's his birthday - so he get to choose the place.

Tomorrow's the school birthday party. Hope they'll enjoy the cake and goodies.

Have lots of documents to prepare. Just hope i'll manage to finish them all in time.

Finally found the right candidate! A competent and experienced PS user. Can't believe my luck!!

Sunday, September 18, 2005

Happy Birthday Adik

Happy Birthday to my dearest son who turned four today!

Friday, September 16, 2005

A New Experience

Exactly 10 hours ago, i was still in the office - listening to a lengthy lecture from the Director of PMO. The team had to immediately start working on the project papers to cater for all the changes highlighted by the Director. If only she'd told us earlier. We could have avoided all the fuss.

Adding to that, Deli's antique car refused to start. That's it. We're definitely getting a new car. Soon. Is tomorrow soon enough?

Have started on Hong Kong project on Monday. I'm still doing the project paper for Malaysia though. It's double project for me. It's gonna be hectic, i know. I wanted to do this and i have to find ways to balance them all - the 2 projects and my personal life. I know I can do this. Insya Allah.

The hunt for my assistant started 2 days ago. It was tiring! I wish the candidates would just answer the question and be done with it instead of giving lengthy explanation that made me forget about the question i asked. It doesn't help either when HR and 'certain' people keept pressuring me to just pick and hire a candidate. I'll give it till Monday. I will decide after meeting the last candidate on that day.

The client actually gave positive feedback on the questionnaire i submitted earlier this week. Am so relieved! Have completed my readings on the statutory. I'm posting questions to our statutory compliance team for better understanding. Hope i get all the info i need before talking to the client.

Looking forward to the weekends. Adik will be four on Sunday!

Sunday, September 11, 2005

Blessings

I believed when God decides on our fate, He has his own ways of balancing between triumph and pain. It’s happening every single day of our lives. We just need to stop for a while and try to appreciate them. Even for the pain that was sent upon our way.

A BIG thing happened in the office last Thursday.

The Dutchman panicked.

I was caught off guard.

Director of Project Management wanted to see me.

We talked for 10 minutes.

There’s nothing but smiles and good news for all.

Yup. I got it. After giving it much thought and weighing the pro and cons (besides that fact that I really wanted it), it’s finally mine, though not a hundred percent just yet. It will be once I get the official letter.

It’s starting on Monday so I had to do a bit of studying. Need to prepare some documentations as well to be sent out soon.

Most of all, I am thankful. Despite the fact that the ‘other’ Director was not happy with the arrangement. I will prove that I am capable of performing the job. I will, insya Allah.

On a lighter note, we had a wonderful weekend. Spent Saturday in Great Eastern Mall for Deli’s spanking new glasses. Kakak and Adik got themselves 2 vcds each. Had tea at Strudels. Kakak absolutely loved their chocolate éclairs. Me? I got to pay for all the purchases.

Was off to Mid Valley Mega Mall soon after. Was looking for a laptop bag but couldn’t find any to my liking. I had M’s UCB pink bag as the benchmark and boy, it’s d*mn hard to even find anything at par with that!

For today – spring cleaning, laundry and the sort.

Will go some place nice for dinner. I feel bad that I had to spend so much time in the office since I started this job. I’m trying hard to make it up to the babies, in terms of quality time. We love good food so hunting for great eatery is one of the way to spend time. Just the four of us.

Talked to Deli last night, about our jobs. We both have jobs with high demand of time and attention. Spending more than the normal office hours was inevitable. Our jobs differ in so many ways but have one thing in common. We felt appreciated. People value our knowledge and self-worth and that itself, worth so much more than a pile of cash (though having more of it would be great).

Sometimes people never stop and appreciate what they have. At least not frequent enough. Sometimes the job doesn’t offer much in terms of monetary but rewards you even more in terms of self respect and knowledge.

I guess you will never know how it feels until you have experienced it yourself.

Stop. Count your blessings. Others might not be as lucky as you are.

Sunday, September 04, 2005

No can do!

Life is about balance. It definitely is. When God decided to make you glow with joy yesterday, He’d also decided on unpleasant incidents due you way at any time.

It has nothing to do with the good news in the previous entry, thank God!

The unpleasant was unveiled yesterday, late in the evening. Amoi did give the heads-up while walking back to the office from lunch. I didn’t want to believe it at first but was prepared for the worst, just in case.

Had a terribly long conference call to Singapore – nearly three and a half hours conversation with a lot of open issues and pending matters. By the last half hour, I was too tired to concentrate. As soon as the call was over, the Dutchman called me. He tried to brief me on the ‘unpleasant thingy’ but was interrupted several times coz people kept coming back to the meeting room and he seemed to want to discuss the matter privately. He didn’t get to finish telling me about it but it’s exactly the thing that Amoi told me earlier.

I have made up my mind. I am not negotiating.

You can’t have all the good things in life. I agree. But I won’t settle for less. Not because I’m arrogant or anything like that. It has never been a problem for me before but not this time. This time around, I am standing my ground. I will not budge.

So. Miss Director of HRS, I am no longer interested in the offer. I want nothing to do with the project. Not anymore. Good luck in finding the ‘right’ person. I’m not going to participate in this stupid game of yours. It’s your loss, not mine. I’m not going to pretend nothing happened and be super friendly with you. I abhor hypocrites and I don’t intend to be one.

Maybe that’s why I have been delaying the intention of buying a laptop. I might not need it at all.

Meanwhile, I am going to enjoy my weekend with my three beautiful babies.

Thursday, September 01, 2005

A Little Tale

My oh my! It really has been a while.

A lot had happened but I better not dwell on details. Some things are best kept untold.

I could backtrack to as far as last Friday. Anything beyond that was completely vague. No, no. I’m becoming old and forgetful. Work has gotten the best of me lately. Too much to do and too little time. That’s what they always say. I couldn’t agree more.

I have decided to make a change.

From now on, I have decided to really put my heart and soul on my writing. My previous ones were okay (according to me) but something was definitely missing. Couldn’t actually pinpoint what it was but the entries were becoming too predictable and plainer by the day. I didn’t enjoy it as much as when I started this blog. Some things are gonna change. Starting from this entry.


Friday, August 26

Had a good lunch at Planet Hollywood. I’ve never set foot at this place before. It’s quite okay and not as what I imagined it to be. I have never had a meal in any PH before. I have been to quite a number of PH – Washington DC, New York City and a few more. The furthest that I’ve ventured to was their gift shop. That’s just about it. I have never had the urge to actually go in there. Talking about PH, I remembered when I was at PH in DC. I just had my pict taken in front of the entrance when a couple suddenly opened the door from the inside and stopped before us. The pretty lady asked if we’re taking a pict with her companion – a tall, not-so-bad-looking guy with dark glasses. We said no, obviously coz we didn’t even know who they were. They went off, laughing away. We were a bit taken aback by that. We even thought they were crazy. Well, we thought they were until a friend of ours, with mouth half-opened, said ‘Kurt Russel and Goldie Hawn!’

Yep. We declined Goldie Hawn’s offer. It would make a good wall hanging, otherwise.



Saturday, August 27

Reached the office at 10am. Had a session with my supervisor, Giggsy and Amoi. We had to finalize our findings for Singapore’s project paper. We had expected to get Malaysia’s paper from the client today but they’ve not even started to review it. This is not looking good. We can’t afford to have more delays. The Dutchman is not gonna be too happy about this. He’s in Indonesia, by the way. Celebrating his fiancé’s birthday. We made him felt guilty for not attending the Saturday session that he actually gave us 200 bucks for lunch. The session ended just a bit after 2pm.

Had a good lunch at To Dine For – a weird name for such fancy restaurant. Good food, good ambience and good service. Worth every penny spent. Took loads of picts to show off to the Dutchman. Amoi gave me a lift to KLCC. Deli and the kids were in Shah Alam so I had to wait for them to pick me up.

Wondered off to Times bookstore and bought books for everyone. I bought 2 books – Down Came The Rain by Brooke Shields and The Husband by the author who wrote The Other Woman’s Shoes. Couldn’t recall the name and am too lazy to go to my room and look at the book cover right now. I particularly enjoyed reading Brooke Shields’ book. It’s about postnatal depression – how she handled the torment, her feelings and her recovery. I had experienced the baby blues when I just had Adik. I felt alone, ignored and alienated. Lucky me, it lasted for less than a week and I had support from Deli. He kept me sane and level headed all the way.

I’m trying to read The Husband but it just lacks the appeal. I don’t know how or why. It just did. Maybe coz it’s too surreal.

Went to Mothercare for Adik’s underpants. He’s actually started to do without diapers. Deli and I brought him to the bathroom every few hours. He’s doing okay so far. Am so proud of him. It’s amazing how hard it was to get boys underpants – decent ones. Most of the ones I found were either in yucky colors or looked almost like second hands. I know, I know. They’re just underpants. Doesn’t hurt to have nice ones though. I want Adik’s first ones to be pleasant. Maybe he’ll remember his first underpants for the rest of his life. Maybe he won’t. But if he does, I would want it to be something less embarrassing. Good thing that Mothercare has cotton boxers too. Adik liked it more compared to the underpants. Maybe he liked the pictures better.

Went to Tower Record for Craig David’s latest CD. Saw a huge crowd in there and Arnieza was performing a song. Jeff-something from 98 Degrees was there too for the launch of his new solo album. The song he sang that day was quite nice. I bet it’s gonna be a hit soon. I always have this strong feeling about songs that would later on be hits. Most of the times, my choices are not that far off. By the way, Craig David’s CD is not a major let down compared to his previous one. Have not heard the whole album yet. Maybe it’ll get better towards the end.

Watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at Galaxy Ampang. Entertaining but not good enough to glue Adik to his seat. He kept fidgeting and said the movie was too long about a million times. Kakak on the other hand, enjoyed it. I think she did.


Sunday, August 28

A day well spent at home. Did a bit of laundry, cleaning and goofing around.

Went to Alpha Angle and bought Osim’s iSqueeze - the ultimate massage machine for your heels and calves. Osim gave us $100 cash voucher and Deli automatically looked at the iPamper. He got that as well.

We promised the kids that we’d bring them to Ikea. They loved Ikea’s play land. Too bad that Ikea restricted the stay for a max of 1 hour per kid. Well, better than nothing I suppose. Bought a few items from Ikea before venturing Ikano. Had early dinner at Fasta Pasta (did I get the name right?). Not that bad. Kakak loved the curly pasta. The vanilla ice cream is just heavenly!

Paid off the rest of our debts with Courts Mammoth. Finally.

Had a good night sleep after a session on iSqueeze and a treat from Deli with iPamper. Slept like a log. Ops. Slept like a baby. It sounds nicer. 


Last Monday and Tuesday were filled with meetings and more meetings. Not to mention the conference calls. Sometimes I got real sick of the tiny room where we had the calls. It made me dizzy and hungry at times. Lucky me, Giggsy and Amoi are entertainers by nature. Candies were abundance. I’m not surprised if we’re all diagnosed with diabetes after the project is over. We’re becoming candy-addicts!


Spent Merdeka Day at home. Had a quiet dinner at DePalma Ampang. Both Kakak and Adik loved their colorful Nasi Lemak.


I’m in a good mood today despite the abdominal pain caused by the evil menses. Sometimes I wonder if it was the cysts again. Other times, I wonder if I had Growth in there like Tok Mak used to have. It’s really painful at times. Once I almost passed out while queuing to buy the sanitary pads. Almost. Growth is sometimes passed down. Tok Mak had it and I had cysts a few year back. They are like cousins, growth and cysts. Plain scary.

Despite all that, yes, I’m in a good mood today.

Suffice to say that my patience has finally paid off. I know they will notice me someday. I am not like I used to be in the previous company. I am more vocal, more comfortable with my colleagues and always wanted to prove myself.

I have finally proved that I am not just a good soldier. Being a leader is not everything. Not exactly the most important thing in life. Being a good team player is a greater deal. I proved that I was and still am a good team member. And because of that, I am acknowledged. I am respected because of my ideas, co-operation and for being my true self. I don’t have to become a different person to gain respect.

Today’s the day. I have proved Bossy Boss wrong. I am everything he said I would not and will never be. I never expected the day to come so soon but it did. I am thankful indeed. For every single thing that had happened. Good and bad.

Today’s the day that I win my battle. My little battle.