My Monsters Inc.

Today's a good day to start with. I hope it'll stay that way till I go to bed tonight. It's very rare to have such a good Monday.

Anyways, kakak is sitting for her mid term this week. She did her revision the whole of Sunday without a single word of complaint. I was totally impressed! Normally, she wouldn't last half an hour without voicing her need to take a break every few minutes.

Talking about that, adik is no different. Went to collect his report card on Saturday. He scored 90 and above for all his papers except Science and Agama. Looks like we need to hide all his robots, space ships, gundam and the sort and make him befriend nature instead. He needs to know how a frog looks like or any other animal for that matter!

He needs to have more exercise in his tulisan jawi. His tulisan jawi looked like a bunch of cacings! Adeh.

Nonetheless, I was quite impressed with him. Especially when he has a very short attention span. He can't sit still for a good one minute. His teacher confirmed this - said that he is a bit dreamy in class. I think I know what he dreams of most of the times - his gundam and robots!

Oh before I forget - while getting ready for an outing on Saturday, I heard adik asked Deli if he could buy hair gel for him. He's probably trying to don the hairdo of his heroes in those Japanese cartoons. Bad, bad tv influence!

Kakak on the other hand is whining for a mobile phone and a handbag. I asked her why she needed a phone and her answer was - she likes to hear the ring tones and songs. I asked her why she needed a hand bag and she said, so she can put her mobile phone in her handbag along with her Hello Kitty purse.

So I told her she could have my mp3 player to listen to her songs and I won't buy her any handbag coz there won't be a mobile phone to put in!

So honey, do you still want more kids?

A Bit of This and That

Weekend was great.

Attended a 50th anniversary party for an uncle of Deli’s. Food was great and everyone seemed to have fun with the karaoke machine. Of course, the sky went cloudier and cloudier with each song. Hahahah. I wish Deli and I would be able to celebrate our 50th anniversary. It’d be so cool.

Went to Ikea after that to get my long-awaited glass cabinet to house my Hard Rock Café shot glasses and the sort. It was damn heavy, I tell ya! But It was worth the effort. I’ll post a pict of the new display later. My O2 camera can’t really produce decent photos. That reminds me, I should get a new phone. Sony Ericsson 880 would be just right for me. Yummy!

By the by, I’m going off for a short vacation next month. Can’t mention the location coz it’s a surprise for Deli (especially) and the kids (not that it matter to them). Can’t wait. Our last family vacation was 2 years ago. Dem. That was long. Anyways, flight tickets are booked and so is the hotel. All I need to do now is to carefully hide the documents and contain my excitement. I don’t know if I can stand the 3-weeks wait! Adeh. Can I start packing now? Hahahah.

Other news aside, I am happy to announce that there will be an addition to our family member in November. My sister is 3 months pregnant and I’m praying that she’ll have a boy this time. I don’t know why but I’m just so happy to hear the news. I swear I’m gonna spoil that baby with cutesy wardrobe and everything else along that line!

Okay. Back to reality. One Exception Report to prepare, one URS to be signed off and a million other things to do! Back to work now.

A birthday surprise

I hope I still have a job tomorrow.

My boss had a huge fight with his boss yesterday. He was totally upset and from what he told me, he has the right to be. Why bother fighting a losing battle. He’s done everything he can and if it doesn’t work out then leaving may be the best resort.

I can understand his situation. It happened to me in VS. So I just kept my mouth shut when his close friend advised him to stay and try to work things out.

To me personally, it all depends on you. If you know you have done everything you could to make things better, then maybe there’s nothing much that you can do anymore. Maybe it’s best that you leave. Be selfish because it's your life.

Anyways, if he leaves, I will need to sit and lay my game plan. It’s either I leave the division or I leave the company. God has created more than enough for all his humble servants to live on and survive.

My boss celebrated his birthday on Monday. We had a small party and everyone was stuffed with noodles, pizza and cake. Took loads of picts and best of all, he was surprised. Cool!

The blurriness is intentional. Heheh.

Silent Scream

Where do i begin. Today's such a bad day for me.

After 6 days of pure bliss (minus the red pontianak eyes) and not having to think about anything other than myself and of course the brood, I was rudely awaken by bitter reality. Cecewah..

Was back in the office to find my mailbox badly congested with emails. My project team members (yup, 2 of them) were extremely thoughtful and sent me 2 emails amounting to 10mb worth of duplicate documents! Goodness! Does uploading the document to project team site mean anything anymore? Damnation!

Had lunch with the Dutchman at an Indonesian restaurant and the food wasn't to my liking. They just lack the spice, salt and TASTE. One of these days, we should go to Malindo. Eh, is that place still open for business?

Anyways, we walked all the way to Starbucks at Standard Chartered building to find that it's no longer there! Gone. Kapish.

So we walked all the way to The Weld for coffee and made our way back to the office. That was one long walk, i tell ya. Not to mention that it was scorching hot! I swear i've lost like a pound, judging by the amount of sweat i had to gracefully wipe away. Adding to that, i was wearing black!

My boss was on half day leave today so i took the opportunity to skip the boring and unnecessary department meeting and went to see the Dutchman instead. We talked about the scope change in our project and the discussion went on for 4 freaking hours! I felt like a complete loser during two of those hours. There are so much to learn and be good at. If it's not because of the passion to learn and improve myself, i would have submitted 'the' letter.

We talked about career development and the sort. I just don't see a future in this company. Fortunately, i was not the only one with that point of view. The Dutchman is seriously thinking about quitting himself. Sigh.

Anyways, it didn't stop there. Earlier last month, 3 of my project team members asked if i wanna join them at their table for I*G annual dinner and i gladly said yes. I was a bit surprised when the 2 (out of 3) decided to join the IT leng loi's and wonder if i'd still be interested to be at their table coz they have one last spot to fill. I didn't really gave an answer coz i was in a discussion then. When i was about to leave the office, the 3rd team member called and asked if i wanna join her and the Dutchman at their table. I never knew making arrangement to attend annual dinner would be this hard. I politely said that i'll let her know on Monday. Sigh.

Left the office a little after 7pm. The road was badly congested coz some moron decided to have people working on potholes at 7pm, closed 1 of the 2 lanes, on a Friday evening! I was stuck at that particular area for more than half an hour! Damnation!

When i got home, kakak told me that her school bus had some problem and she had to wait for an extra hour to be picked up by a school van, had to sit on some sort of a heater and her bums were burning from the heat, but enjoyed the experience nonetheless.

I couldn't believe all these happened in less than 24 hours!

By the way, someone called and asked about Chiam Tow Loong. Hahahah.

Here are some picts of him. Pardon the quality. I don't have a scanner so i had to use digital camera to capture images from the actual photographs.

Mr Chiam, the eye candy.
Sekali ada orang kenal dia. Malu gua! Hahahha

So VF, stop pestering me for his picts!

Sugar and spice, and everything in between

Changed my banner last week. It's an old pict of Baby Cat. Back when he's still innocent and less noisy.

Anyways, Tok Mak arrived at Puduraya station with Hani last Thursday. Deli arrived from Hong Kong a few hours later and decided to have everyone for dinner at GE Mall. All went well and everyone was stuffed with scrumptious food and piled themselves to my mpv to find that it refused to start. Deli tried and tried to get it started but to no avail. He had to take a cab to our house which was thankfully, a few minutes drive away, to get his car and hopefully, do some magic to mine. Chu Boy and wife took a cab back to their pad. We sent the rest to my place and the two of us headed back to GE Mall to try and jump-start my car.

It didn't work. We had to leave it in GE Mall basement and have a tow truck bring the car to the workshop later on.

Apparently, there was a problem with the battery. It was swollen for no apparent reason and since it's still under warranty, we got a new one and my car is as good as new. Yey!

Still, it was such an experience. Imagine if my car refused to start while we were in the airport. Or if it stopped on my way to KLIA. Urgh. I shudder at the thought. I might just cry on the spot. Not to mention that i have 3 noisy kids with me then! Thank God, it didn't happen that way. Alhamdulillah.

So, Tok Mak left for BP on Saturday. Deli had to work so i chauffeured them to Puduraya.

We had dinner at Prince Hotel and I noticed that my right eye itched and became red for no apparent reason. Adik had conjunctivitis a few days ago and it's no surprise if I'm catching it as well. The next morning, my eyelids were glued and the knight in shining armor came and rescue me. Well done, honey! hahaha..

I am branding Pontianak Harum Sundal Malam's red eyes to this very day.

This is not what i have planned for the long break. I have countless sessions of retail therapy planned and movies to catch. To add to my misery, the bank had some technical glitch and our salary were credited 3 days later than usual. Dang.

I'm still trying to persuade Deli to let me out of the house. Wish me luck!

The Tagging Game

I've never been tagged before so this is very new to me. Thanks to miss Safina, my brains had to work extra hard today. Heheh.

So here goes..

Layer One: On the Outside

Name:
Have always been known as ARN to almost everyone i know. Except my colleagues. They call me by my full name which is not gonna be revealed in here. I'm keeping this to myself (hahah.. as if).

Birthdate:
January 2, 1975 - yes, I am younger than that person and will always be young at heart.

Current status :
Married to a charming guy (according to him) with 2 hyper active kids dearly known as Monsters Inc.

Eye color:
Brown. Couldn't really say if it's dark or not. Some did ask if i wear contact lenses. I freaked at the idea of poking a finger anywhere near my eyes. So no, I don't and won't get contact lenses. And no, i still can't figure out if I have dark brown eyes or any other shade of brown. Is this a trick question? Hahah.

Hair color:
Black and some auburn highlights that Deli helped me brand, a couple of months back. No white streaks so far. Told ya i'm still young (at heart). Heheh.

Righty or Lefty:
Righty. I can do a whole lot of other stuff with my left hand though. Does that count?


Layer Two: On the Inside

My heritage:
Both parents hailed from BP

My fears:
Losing the people i love dearly. Crippling faith. Not being thankful for everything i do and don't have.

My Weaknesses:
I'm a slow thinker. A very bad liar.

My perfect pizza:
I like it with lots of mushroom, cheese and broccoli. Such a weird taste, i admit.


Layer Three: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

My thoughts first thing when I wake up:
I need a few more minutes. zzzzzzzzz....

My bedtime:
Midnight for weekdays and slightly later during the weekends.

My most missed memory:
College days. I should have traveled more and got married in the States. Hahah.


Layer Four: My Picks

Pepsi or Coke:
Pepsi. Have not read any email saying that Pepsi could clean a toilet bowl.

Mc Donald's or Burger King:
Mc Donald's ice cream and Burger King's burgers and fries.

Single or Group dates:
Single please! More than 2 is a crowd.

Adidas or Nike:
Adidas coz i can't Just Do It with Nike's price tags.

Tea or Nestea:
Tea, definitely.

Chocolate or Vanilla:
Vanilla

Capuccino or Coffee:
Coffee


Layer Five: Do I

Smoke: Once. A rokok daun i took from my late grandfather's yellow tobacco container.

Curse: Quite often lately. Favorite word - damnation!

Take a shower: Everyday

Have a crush: My first crush was a Chinese boy by the name of Chiam. Such an eye-candy.

Think I've been in love:
I think i was in love with a boy from JB, right after i finished high school.
Then there was a guy in Tasmania whom i still keep in touch with to this very day.
Finally, the charming guy whom i marry and is now in Hong Kong, enjoying himself with work and scouring the malls. See you Thursday!!!

Go to school:
When i had to.

Want to get married:
Maybe i should go for a romantic getaway where no kids are allowed! Hahah. Eh, wrong answer!!

Believe in myself:
I have to be but sometimes it's good to have some word of comfort from family and friends.

Think I'm a health freak:
That reminds me - i need to call my trainer. It's been more than a month since i last see him. Erkk!!


Layer Six: In the past month

Drank alcohol:
Never had to desire to.

Gone to the mall:
Every other weekend. Retail therapy is the best medicine!

Been on Stage:
Not lately. Am allergic to limelight. Hahah.

Eaten sushi:
Not a fan of sushi.

Dyed your hair:
Deli colored my hair auburn twice last year. Way to go, honey! Hahah.


Layer Seven: Have I ever

Played a stripping game:
Think it's a good time to start.

Changed who I am to fit in:
Nah. If you don't like me, please steer clear.


Layer Eight: Age

I'm hoping to be married:
Forever to Deli


Layer Nine: What was I doing

1 min ago:
Thinking about the color of my eyes

1 hour ago:
Watched Desperate Housewives & Ugly Betty

4.5hours ago:
Stuck in bad traffic.

1 month ago:
Struggling with my half a million ringgit project

1 year ago:
Wishing that the project manager in VS was hit by a bulldozer


Layer Ten: Finish the Sentence

I love : my family
I feel : that i need a hug from that someone in HK!
I hate: being treated like an idiot
I hide: my combo of feelings most of the times. Except with Deli.
I need : a vacation real bad and i really need to go to bed. It's 1am for goodness sake!

Layer Eleven: Tag 5 people
Eh, who to tag? Can i think about it later? Hehe.

Okay. Off to bed now.

Falling Apart

I have a strong urge to throw something to the wall or kick something (or somebody) really hard.

It'll be way better if I could do both!

Work Really Sucks

I am inches away from giving up hope.

I have been quiet all this while. I have never complained for one bit. Well not anymore.

My boss does not get along too well with his boss – fine. Shit happens. It doesn’t mean that I have to be the one to pay and suffer as a result of their feud.

What happened on Friday and Monday was a clear insult to me as a subordinate and especially as an individual.

It’s absurd to hear from a VP that she has no clue on whatsoever that I was doing all these while when I have been sending her weekly reports. It’s even moronic that she has to instruct her manager to sit with me and my boss to draw the things that I do. We’ve used up 4 sheets of paper and there’s more to come. Let’s just see what will happen next.

It’s just ridiculous.

I have braved through a very steep learning curve and moved up in project positions within 3 months – from a nobody, to Functional Lead, a Business Project Manager soon after that and to Principal Project Manager to this very day. If I have been doing a lousy job, I would not have shifted to a higher position. Heck, I would have been demoted to just a team member or worse, be kicked out of the project!

I’m still here, aren’t I?

I have to right to brag because I have worked my a** to get to where I am today. The Business Executive of the project personally conveyed good words about my work to my boss. The COO calls me now and then to his room to talk about the project and values my opinion. Most importantly, I get things done and have been through thick and thin for this project.

If all those doesn’t mean a thing or if it even mean that I have less work than everyone else in her department, then tell me so.

Coz HR called me yesterday for a position in their department and the COO is looking for people to be in his project department.

Even if none of the two are materializing, I can always find work elsewhere.

Sucks.

Super Kids

Kudos to Kakak for being brave and not complaining for one bit when the dentist extracted 2 of her teeth last Saturday.

Not to forget, bravo to Adik for being a superhero and letting the dentist take a quick peek at his teeth.

Yey to me for having 2 wonderful kids whom are not afraid to see the dentist and have such obsession towards their toothbrushes and toothpaste!

Work is crap

I guess I can understand why the Dutchman said that I*G is not a good place for career advancement.

In fact, they suck at it.

Last week, my boss mentioned that the VP wanted me to take on risk management and on top of that, HCD requested for me to become their Project Manager for PS Project.

First thing first, what was the VP thinking - dumping me with risk management stuff? What’s with my boss agreeing with her on that?

It used to be a portfolio on its own and was managed by a dedicated Manager until she left late last year.

In a week’s time, I have to choose between:

current project portfolio & risk management or,
current project portfolio, risk management & HCD PS project

I have too many things playing in my mind at the moment.

Like, what’s happening to the plan of reporting straight to the CFO? If that’s gonna happen, then why am I doing risk management?

If I take on the risk management thingy, what am I suppose to do with it? I don’t have a mentor coz the so-called experienced person has left. If I’m to start from scratch, then it would take some time before I can be good at it. I can’t be advising people on risk management while I have zilch experience on the subject. How would people react, given that info in hand? It’s just ridiculous.

I was seriously thinking about HCD but history has proven that it’s not a very conducive department to be a part of.

At the moment, I’m stuck. If I wanna be doing what I know best, it would be at HCD. However, I’m starting to like project management no matter how taxing it could be most of the times. I just hate reporting to Strategic Planning and having to comply to their nonsense. It’s just crap.

I’m still stuck. I don’t know what to think or do.

I’m not crazy, I’m just a little unwell.. – from the song Unwell by Matchbox 20 -