Last Week in a Nutshell

Monday - Feb 12th
On medical leave due to my coughs and flu. Fetch the kids from school and they kept me company the whole day.


Tuesday - Feb 13th
Back to work with a lot to do. First thing first, we had to do some retest for BDM project. Unfortunately, it took us longer than expected. I thought we could finish everything in a couple of hours but we ended up spending the whole day doing 3 rounds of test due to technical problems! I was concerned that we still have this sort of problems when we're 2 weeks away from going live.

Had an ad-hoc meeting to discuss this and we all decided to have another round of test on Wed.


Wednesday - Feb 14th
Today is actually the planned go-live date but due to issues regarding DC migration, we had to postpone it.

Started the test early and we had one of the IT girl to tag along with the testers to keep a close eye on anything and everything. We were done by 5pm and I had no choice but to close an eye and nod my head in agreement to conclude UAT.

Then comes the preparation for Project Board Meeting. The Dutchman helped to prepare the slides while i get my hands dirty on some documents to be signed during the event. Stayed back till almost 10pm with him and Syam. Went back feeling all tired and sicker than ever.


Thursday - Feb 15th
Today's D-Day. Project Board Meeting was scheduled at 10am and i have not seen the slides for the presentation. The Dutchman ran us through the slides 20 mins before the meeting and i didn't have the time to properly think about the things i wanna say to the Project Board. Oh well. What will be, will be.

Yep. What will be, will be. The meeting was fine albeit the endless questions from the Board. 2 out of 3 documents were approved and signed on. Presentation went well. Project Board were happy and i didn't faint or cough like a mad person. Yey!

Had lunch with the project team courtesy of the Project BE. We had dim sum buffet at Istana Hotel and of course, yee sang for the coming Chinese New Year celebration. After all the hard work i've put on this project for the last couple of days, i would say this treat is well-deserved. Everyone left the restaurant feeling full and content.

Syam feasting on dessert. Little did he know that he'll need to slave till late to finish my test script. Hahah!

Another late night for the 3 of us. The Dutchman walked me to my car and bid goodbye while Syam went to dinner with his friends.

I went home tired and nothing close to better.


Friday - Feb 16th
Quiet morning - ICW meeting was canceled and that gave me more time to work on the test script. Spent the whole morning with Syam, trying to get the test script updated and ready to be signed by 2.30pm.

By the way, a wisdom tooth decided to make an appearance and caused me nothing but throbbing pain. By lunch time, i could not even eat like a normal person. To make it worse, the school called and the damsel in distress had missed her ride - again!!

So off i went to fetch her and this time around, launched my bullets on her for missing her ride! I had less than an hour to brave through Friday-lunchtime-traffic and still make it in time for my 2.30pm meeting. I was 10 mins late and as expected, i was among the few people to be there almost-on-time. We had a good discussion about implementation and the rest of the meeting was more of a happy chatting rather than business talk. This is what you get when you have a meeting prior to a long break.

Anyway, i'd like to wish you all a Happy Lunar New Year and to those not celebrating, enjoy the long break.

Gong Xi Fa Chai!

Someone missed her ride home

Date: Feb 9, 2007
Time: 12.40 pm
Venue: My cube, the orange building

Boss: Have you had lunch?
Me: Nope.
Boss: Let's eat. We'll go to the nearest mamak stall.
Me: Okay. Gimme a sec.

Half a minute after that, the phone vibrated and rang. Michael Buble's voice was as yummy as ever. Deli was on the line.

Deli: Kakak missed her school bus. Her teacher just called. Can you go and fetch her?
Me: Huh? She missed her bus? How did that happen? Is she okay?
Deli: She's fine. She's at the canteen.
Me: Okay. I'll call you once I've picked her up.


Me: Sorry Boss, i'll have to cancel. My daughter missed her bus and i have to fetch her from school.
Boss: Okay.


Venue: School canteen
Time: 1.15pm

Kakak: Hi mummy!
Me: Kakak, what happened? How did you missed your ride?
Kakak: (in a very soft, pity-me-it's-not-my-fault voice) I was thirsty so i went to the canteen to get something to drink.
Me: What happened to your Ribena?
Kakak: Earlier on, i saw a kitten and he looked sad. I gave him my Ribena and some fried rice during lunch and he finished off the rest of my Ribena. He's such a cute kitty, mummy.
Me: -speechless-
Kakak: Mummy, i'm starving. Can we go and have lunch?
Me: Yeah, okay.

I tell ya, she's really good at this. Sneaky girl. Using an innocent kitten as a cover-up. How can i nag at her about feeding a stray kitten when I know i'd do the same? Sigh.

Apparently the bus left when she was busy getting some drinks at the canteen. When she got to the assembly point, her friends told her that her bus has left. The brave girl didn't panic or cry - considering this is hre first incident and she's only 7 for crying out loud!

She went to the school office and told the staff that she missed her bus and gave them Deli's crumpled business card from her bag. They called Deli and told him the whole story.

We are proud and amazed that she could stay calm and know what to do in such situation. Most importantly, we're thankful that she's okay. Somehow i have a feeling that there will be more of these episodes. I just do.

The damsel in distress.

Go home!

That was exactly what my boss said to me today, at 2.50pm.

I have been sick for a couple of days but the worse part of it was that i had and still have, bad coughs. Bad, deep, congested with thick phlegm coughs.

I was minding my work when i suddenly had an itchy and bad urge to cough. So i went to the wash room and sent my whole lunch down the toilet.

When i got back to my place, he was standing there with his arms on his waist and said, 'Go home!'

I said i will go at quitting time, which was like 2.5 hours away. Besides, i have tonnes to do for my almost-half-a-million-quid project.

Instead, he said 'Pack your things and leave. I want you out of the office in 10 minutes. I will take care of things!'

But of course, i refused - saying that i will go at 5.30 and no later.

He said 'go', i said 'no', he said 'go now', i said 'but..' and it went on and on until finally i surrendered, pack my things and left the office at 3.15pm.

He didn't know that i had saved docs that i need to work on in my thumb drive. I'll still be working from home and be able to complete the things that i have planned to finish today. Haha!

Got home, took my meds, start working on the docs and soon enough, i was dozing in front of the pc.

The meds did what they were supposed to do.

Switched off the pc, took a pillow and slept till 7pm.

Guess i need the rest after all.