Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Bitter-Sweet Everything

School's starting next week and the kakak needed a haircut. Took her to the Kwik-Cut at AEON AU2 and she's all set in less than 10 mins. Super!

Before the snipping.

The snipped strands.

The new look.

After the haircut, we headed to GE Mall for dinner. Kakak was craving for japanese food while adik and I wanted to have something local.
A bit of drama here and there before we decided that today, first time in history, we will not dine together while being at the same place, at the same time. Kakak and Deli decided to have japanese food at Kiku Zakura (she fondly calls it Sakura) while adik and I headed to a kopitiam next door. Yup, the eateries are next to each other. So much for the drama.

Kakak finished a bowl of soba plus a couple of gross looking fish and cuttlefish. She's really good with the chopsticks - unlike mummy.

Ended the trip with coffee and couldn't believe our luck because Starbucks offered buy-1-free-1 drinks. Am not sure if it's for all drinks because we ordered toffee nuts for all. We decided to be greedy and ordered venti for all 4 drinks.

As a result, the kids were pretty high on caffeine and they were still awake when the clock striked 2am.

It's 3.30am and I am still awake. I tried reading a book but the book turned out to be a page-turner - s0 I'm still wide awake. I tried blogging - still no change.

I have to wake up in 3 (or 4) hours for work. Darn.

I blame you, evil, evil caffeine!

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Lily Digs David

I was on YouTube earlier today, looking for songs to add to my playlist.
As usual, I had the air-cond on while surfing in my room and as usual, the furballs would litter my bed, napping or simply lounging while the cool air rippled their coats.


I searched for David Archuleta's songs and watched 'A Little Too Not Over You' when Lily stood up and slumped in front of my laptop. Oh sorry, on my laptop.




I initially thought he (yes - Lily's a boy) was looking for a bit of warmth, you know - from the cool air-cond. Took a closer look and saw that he was wide awake, staring at the eye-candy himself!



When I played 'Crush' Lily inched a little bit closer to the monitor. Seriously!
Oh-ho! Lily's apparently into David Archuleta!

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Food for The Soul

Deli's been craving to eat at Johnny's steamboat for at least a week now. We stopped by the new outlet at AEON AU2 a few times but couldn't stand the long queue.

So today, we went to our favorite outlet at Alpha Angle. Walah - no queue. Just the way we like it. We feasted on, literally. Adik even helped himself to continous helpings - which was a great deal for a picky eater like him.

The kids had a great time spending (mom and dad's) money at the arcade centre. They even leashed out hidden talents - I presumed inherited from their father. I know, talk is cheap. Here's the proof.

Stopped by Guardian for a few things when we came across this:

I told the kids that one has to be bogel (naked) to take this drink. Both laughed and took it as a joke - which was quite impressive, given the fact that Deli couldn't keep a straight face. While queuing to pay for my purchases, adik casually asked if one can still have his pants on to take the Fybogel. Well of course I said no. Why would I spoil his day? Hahaha.

To be a kid and believe in almost anything an adult says. Such naivety.

A concept almost nonexistent among adults.


'Sometimes NO doesn't mean forever. It simply means not right now.'
- The wise words of Jason Mraz -

Friday, December 26, 2008

Merry Projects

Given a choice, I would rather stay at home with Deli and the kids.

Sadly, I couldn't.

Simply because I didn't have the pleasure of making such decision.

Today's an important day not only to the project team but to the bosses as well - though more than half of them were on their jolly holidays. Bladihel.

Anxiety literaly drove me to work today. I just had to start the day with the much needed energy booster. Or nerve-calming draught. Whichever.

A venti latte with yummylicious biscotti

The office was awfully quiet when I got in. Fine by me. It probably worked to my advantage. Had to sort a couple of documents for Collection project sign-off. We're deploying on Saturday and the papers are mighty important for the exercise. No sign-off, no deployment. Period.

Workflow project on the other hand, was deployed to production on Christmas day and I need to make sure everything is a-okay before reporting a bunch of stuff to the bosses.

To add to the known butterflies-flying-haphazardly-in-the-stomach, both projects' fate were scheduled to be decided upon, before noon, by the compliance officers. Their decision will pretty much determine the success of both projects or if the CEO gets to keep her glittery points. Every audit project carries a certain amount of points on the CEO's dashboard. Points will be deducted for every failed/unclosed audit item. So yeah - no pressure there. Really. I'm gonna sit by the corner for a while.

I was on the last page of the important papers when Pea (Collection's PM) slammed the receiver and half-screamed my name - which rarely happen because she is such a doll and would never scream at anyone. Plus she's new - she has to earn the screaming rights. Heheh.

So. Pea was screaming because:

1. The manager who was supposed to sign the paper was on half day leave and was already home when she called.

2. One of the testers was on mc and the other was on long leave. Their sign-offs were crucial.

3. We were not invited to the evaluation session with the compliance officer

Well, not so much of the last item but the first 2 were pretty shocking. It could jeopardize the deployment for Collection project and we couldn't afford another slip-up. Bad enough that the timeline was dragged because of some major issue.

Pea couldn't get a hold of the users who were in the evaluation session, so i tried calling the compliance officer personally.

Lo and behold - all audit issues were closed!! For both projects!! Yeaheyy!!!!!!!

I felt like jumping with joy but decided not to, for the fear of causing tremors.

Texted the bosses of the outcome. That's gonna cost me - some of them are on vacation overseas.

Eh, would it cost more to text? Ah, what the heck. Who cares. I'm just happy. Ecstatic. Thrilled.


Rewarded myself with these babies

So dear readers, these 2 projects were the reason why I was so caught-up with work. I will write more frequently from now on. Provided that my boss won't assign more audit projects to me anytime soon! I have loads of picts and stories to tell and will do it soon.

Do allow me to take some time to breathe. I'd probably take some time off in Jan. My boss offered me a vacation in the Lion City. I might just take him up on that.


The best reward - the smiles of these people, knowing that there won't be late nights for me (and sometimes them) and lesser dinner at Boston or Subway.. heheh

Thursday, December 04, 2008

Buried Deep in Work

Have been spending a lot of time in the office lately. The 2 Mortgage projects are running UAT at the same time (09/12 - 22/12) with moi coordinating the exercise. I am dragging Jay (my new staff) to every possible meeting so that I can have him help around with the exercise. Plus, it's a good experience for him.

He did a good job with the presentation the other day. Given the short notice, I think it was not too shabby. Had to pitch in here and there but otherwise, he's okay. I need to expose him to as much processes and procedures as I can before letting him fly solo.

Then again, even with an extra hand, I need to put a lot of effort in finalizing the test script. The endless meetings and briefings didn't exactly help to speed up the process. Urgh!

I was stuck in the meeting room for almost 6 hours today with back to back meetings. By the end of it all, I was too exhausted to literally breathe or do anything else. Plus the rest of the department started leaving the office and I for one, don't really fancy being in there alone.

Tomorrow is another long day to endure but plans to catch Bolt and shop will hopefully spark some enthusiasm and energy to live the day.

We're gonna be off to pick up the kids on Saturday. We'll head to A'Famosa on the same day to join Deli's family for a little fun under the sun. Or rain. Depending on the outcome of tomorrow's meetings (yes - countless of them), I might have to haul my laptop and try my hardest to get the test script finalized for Tuesday's UAT.

I am tired but this is what I love doing.

Some picts to share with you guys..

Lily's new hiding place

Ah.. My favourite chocolate. Formerly called Twirl with purple packaging. The fine print says The crumbliest and flakiest milk chocolate - no joke!