Big City Here I Come

So the Good Friday weekend is fast approaching and we've decided to treat ourselves to an extended weekend trip to KL. We're gonna eat Sang Har Meen (I hope) and BBQ chicken wings, lemon meringue pie and everything else that we cannot find in Miri (a tall order).

Meanwhile in my usual fashion I have put together a list of stuff I wanna get:-

1) 3-tiered cake stand. I suddenly have the urge to serve high tea - you know, scones and clotted cream, dainty sandwiches, kuih-muih and the like.

Eerrm..not much else. Amazing. Maybe it's because of the planned blowout in Bangkok in June.

Well, one never knows. I always find something (or many things) to buy in KL.

-

Bye, bye Oreo..and God Bless

AK's best friend in Subang, Oreo has sadly left us and passed on. According to his owner, he was 17 years old.

He used to come and look for AK every time AK was at home and demanded as much attention as he could. Even though he was sprayed with water, shooed away, he always came back and got what he wanted - a pet or two, or twenty from AK. He'd fall asleep, curled like a ball in AK's driveway just waiting for him to come home.

Then, for the past week, he didn't turn up. And that's when we found out that he had left this world. We can rest in the fact that he lived a cosy, happy little life in this SS18 row of houses, ambling along and looking for friends like AK as he wanted.

It was actually thanks to Oreo that AK persuaded me to adopt Baby, and what a joy that turned out to be. There is not a day that goes by that I am not grateful that we did. So thank you, Oreo.

You will be missed.

Hope the angels are making as big a fuss of you as AK did :)

Pouring in the City

It's raining cats and dogs in the Capital of Malaysia.

I do so wanna get to Mercato for another packet of pulasan.

Dinner was a Westin hot dog with two 6" sausages - smoked beef and jumbo veal, with melted fontina on a brioche bun, with beef pastrami on the side and a bowlful of fat chips.

Still hungry after that and an apple and 3 pulasans.

Hungry hungry hungry hungry.

Choices at hand:

1) White lotus mooncake bought yesterday that I intended to take back to Miri and enjoy during my solitary Saturday mornings
2) A packet of Famous Amos no-nut chocolate chip cookies - but believe it or not, don't feel like eating chocolate right now
3) Cereal bar from the hotel minibar


Obviously I have nothing better to do.

Wish this bloody rain would just bloody stop.

*anti-rain dance*

Milestones

I've been doing a fair bit of brooding these days, mostly due to work stuff.

This has gotta change. I have been finding it difficult to identify my worth in this place. I don't kid myself - work is where I spend 80% of my life - one HAS to find something worthy and fulfilling about it or one's entire life becomes a futile exercise of meaningless repetitions.

Thus, in an effort to find the positive in what Iam doing, I will write down the changes that this person has undergone since coming to this middle-of-nowhere town - in no apparent order:

- Lost almost 10 kg since I came to Miri end of 2005

- Visited Europe for the first time

- Flew business class

- Found someone who has stood by me in some of my worst moments, and has brought out the deepest fears/thoughts in me

- Bought my first piece of property

- Invested in the stock market

- Adopted a cat who has grown to become the light of our lives

- Experienced life away from civilization, and whaddayouknow, found a home away from home

- Learnt to cook

- Karaoke'd for the 1st time in my life

- Lived with 300 plus guys for 2 weeks at a time for almost a year

- Realized, for the 1st time, and NOT dreading it - that I'm turning into my mother in many, many ways ;)

Photos are from Bukit Tabur, a hill near Taman Melawati, Kuala Lumpur. An old friend from uni introduced me. Thanks, CS!

Some of the most amazing views I have seen in the capital of our country, no?

This Has To Stop (???)

I haven't exercised for an entire month now and am feeling the effects.

My shoulder aches more and my tummy is now straining against my pants and I really hate that feeling. Yeesh.

Too much dining on the company credit card and taxi rides. Not enough movement all in all :(

Stupid hypothyroid.

Time for a detox this weekend.

Yahah...and next week the sinning starts all over again.

Mornings - buffet breakfast (nasi lemak, prawn sambal, and to offset dinner, all-bran cereal with soy milk

Lunch - shiok malay rice with lots of curry and sambal or at the Chinese Restaurant nearby - giant river prawns, scallops stir fried with vegetables, szechuan soup, fried rice.

Dinner Day 1 - Pork Chops and Bratwurst plus stolen crispy pork skin from AK's pork knuckle at Mr. Ho's fine foods
Dinner Day 2 - Japanese food - unagi, unagi omelette, butter braised mushrooms, chicken tonkatsu and grilled mushrooms
Dinner Day 3 - Room service - fried rice with giganto prawns, chicken and beef satay, tumeric chicken wings
Dinner Day 4 - Arabian buffet - rice and lamb pilaf, grilled beef, lamb meatballs, plus chilled seafood (mussels and scallops) plus chocolate fondue for dessert!

And it's been like this for the past 2 weeks. My body is seriously feeling the effects of too much good food and too little exercise.

Think I'll survive on Assam laksa and fruit on my next visits.

Yeah right.

Solo in KL

Am alone in KL, alone in the office. I've been eating dinner 2 nights in a row at the same Little Penang restaurant, eating the same Penang Prawn Noodles, my nose buried in Newsweek (compliments of the Nikko hotel). I fall asleep to CNN rhetorics, and wake up to have breakfast at the most hospitably staffed, but rather pathetically spread Nikko lounge breakfast buffet. You know I mean pathetic when I've been eating Weetabix 2 days in a row and actually enjoying it.

Flying solo is not all bad at all, truthfully. Plenty of time at night to waltz around KLCC with all my thoughts swirling in my head, plenty of time to let those thoughts swirl in my head, for me to taste them, touch their beginnings, run my mind through them like, fine toothed or wide toothed, taste their undertones, swill them as I want left, right, turn them upside down, swallow or discard. All while (mostly) window shopping and, in between the tasting of the thoughts, hating the fact that it's not that I can't really afford the stuff I want, it's my damned "good judgement". Aargh, the inner tug of war between the frivolous, vain, it-looks-too-good-on-me-to-pass-it-up me and the other more ominous voice of reason. What is there to be gained from these "investments"? Think of the house, think of the house. Think Rich Dad Poor Dad, make your money work for you. Yeesh, no fun at all. No denying that a good outfit can make my day, though. One just feels greater when one manages to turn some heads, no?

Had a super mind-matter intensive meeting yesterday with a really (in my opinion, anyways) brilliant engineer. Now, I've failed a Menda test before, and my university results are so-so, but really, I seldom have go into things or learn stuff that makes my mind bend over backwards like it did yesterday. Engineering is not something to tough, right? That's why we get paid so little, right?

But yesterday I came away from the 8 hour long meeting with a pounding headache that a super kau espresso (what is this la - since when are there watery espressos anyways - they'd be Americanos, no?) did nothing to cure.

It was a refreshing experience, one that left me with a pounding headache and very much too weak to do some serious shopping, oops, dinner-hunting in KL.

Wow, wish I could work with him.

Ranting 1

The letter of appointment is not having the effect it was supposed to. Despite the salary jump (well, to be honest, it wasn't much - it isn't the time yet). Nothing great really, just a natural transition, I guess.

I have been anticipating, visualizing this move for the past year. My entire energy was focused on this very role - because I know I can do it better (I don't care if this sounds perasan - damnit, I know I can). What happenned to good intentions? Asking for something where one knows one can make a difference in?

The blundering oldie who sits in the very position I want fell asleep during the workshop. This just infuriates me all the more. Seriously, and he's doing a wonderful job "managing assurance"? (Quoted) Whatever in the deepest hole in hell that is. Or perhaps I'm just too working-level (aka bodoh) to understand.

And why, why on the face of the earth are we afraid of working on the ground, of getting our hands dirty? Since when did hard work and actually knowing what you're doing , and doing what you're saying become faux pas? Has my 2 years offshore really coarsened me that much??

I truly believe, from the bottom of my heart, that I can make a difference. Because I have been there. Done that. Recently. And really, it doesn't really take a genius to figure that - the guy was snoring at the meeting. Breathe. Breathe.

Wake up, people!!!! We're living in a competitive world, and yesterday's (or today's?) ways ain't gonna cut it anymore. Why aren't we encouraging our people to really know and understand what we're doing, instead of (inject tight, pointed sarcasm here) of "managing" (I really hate this word now)? Why go to the very ends of the earth and pay people 5 digit salaries for talking their way to the top? What happenned to putting your money where your mouth is? To actions speak louder than words? To walking the walk?

What happened to building one's foundation, to focusing on the core of the business, on what brings in the moolah? Now we're spending time and $$ on coming up with complicated processes and slideshows. Who's actually working?

Doesn't anyone do that anymore?

Oh, and did I mention that I am pissed off? It has taken my mood off the nice stay in KL here (Am at the Grand Milennium, so much better than Mariott, btw).

Some re-negotitation is in order, I guess. But am currently running away from confrontation (and reality) for the time being, jetting down for this meeting (and getting even more pissed off) and will be going home on Saturday for CNY. Hope this is not a sign of things to come.

And am trying so hard to repeat the mantra - Happiness is a Choice. Thus I am in control of my mood, and not vice versa. Happiness is a Choice. Happiness is a Choice.

Oh well, no one said it was easy.




Totally unrelated obligatory photo.

Our co. staff union dinner - Citrawarna Malaysia

Two in KL, One with the Guys

!!!!!!


Welcome Weekend!


Flew down to KL for work this week.

JW Mariott, the hotel I once dreamt of having my wedding at, is seriously overrated. Half an hour to check in, and despite being 40% more expensive than the usual (better) hotels we bunk at, breakfast it not included. When we did have breakfast (pay-lah), it was one of the most miserable buffets I'd ever seen. Yeesh, two thumbs down. Yeoh Tiong Lay, please spend a night or two at Nikko or Milennium, or even Mariott Miri, and learn something. Maybe this kind of service was acceptable, say ten years ago. This day, there's just no excuse. First Malaysian company to be listed in the Tokyo stock exchange? Well, it ain't showin' at the Mariott KL. Pooh!

Bought my first pair of jeans in 6 years, from Zara. Everything I want in a pair - dark, light-absorbing (read: slimming) denim, in a comfy stretch yet not too tight. :) Love the clothes there - great basics, really nice quality. And MNG is getting so commonplace these days. Phwah, damn aksyen.



Pavillion KL, all decked up for the Chinese New Year.

Thursday night - back to Miri. Fridat Night - F23 Dinner!

I belonged. I actually had fun at a dinner function. No surprises, it was with my offshore crew and their families.

I had this warm, cosy feeling that stayed in me the whole night, despite the lack of sleep the night before and the crazy driving to and from the hotel. The whole night was one fun cocktail of karaoke, teasing and egging each other to take up the microphone. Some needed a bit more motivation (e.g. a glass of wine or two) to take to the stage. These are not rough-and-tough offshore guys, they're husbands, fathers, friends, and crooners. Laughter, hearty eating (not one of those polite one-bite-then-put-down-fork dinners, this one), cracking jokes on the karaoke mike that got even the hotel servers smiling.

Oh, and One More Thing:-

AK read this to me out loud last night. Hilarious but so painfully true.

Why I'm Grateful for the $$$

Views from my hotel room, where I spent the last ten nights....

In the day..


And the night.....

XMas is in the air in KL. Everywhere is beautiful and there are carolling choirs, a harp player and jazz band belting out XMas tunes of yonder year.

It's beautiful.

I've been shopping like crazy, justified, as mum put it, by not going on holiday this year and receiving some nice increments/allowances at work. Just thinking of another walk to KLCC now makes me wanna gag. I refuse to think too much about the total sum, after all, it's all for work (haha)- next year I'll be in the office, and my old tomboy style (as put by my department secretary) has to go out the window. So no more DIY haircuts (hey I was going offshore!), ten dollar tops, drawstring pants, etc. Yeesh.

My life has seen some financially drastic changes since I first started working fresh out of uni. Back then I did work in KL, in an un-nameable company that thrived on deceit and pushing its customers to the brink. I earned RM500 plus comission, if it came in on time. I rented a tiny back room (read: maid's room) in a house in SS11 and took the LRT to work in the Golden Triangle, walking 20 minutes (1 way) to work every day. I remember praying that it wouldn't rain in PJ and KL from 7.15 am to 8 am, and 6 pm to 7 pm cos those were the times I walked to/from the LRT stations from home/my office in the Bukit Bintang area. Every penny counted. I bought my clothes from Carrefour, and my food supplies from the Pasar Malam (20 apples for 7 bucks!). And since I took the LRT at KLCC, this meant that every day I passed by some of the poshest shops in the country - Gucci, Tiffany's, Chopard, Hermes.....I remember staring at the window displays and asking myself the question - should I splurge and tapao nasi lemak for dinner today or open my can of baked beans (lowest price from Giant!) with an egg for dinner? No kidding.

I remember working my ass off at my first real job at a semiconductor factory in Penang. That was when I put down my downpayment (savings from my study loan) for my car.

Last month I finished paying the installments for my car, and put down a downpayment for a condo.

I guess I have a lot to be thankful for. I've been dining and travelling (by cab) on the company for the past 1 week. I ate at the restaurants on the top floor of KLCC, at the new super-posh Pavillion and at Bangsar Village.

I don't blink an eye at the RM10 cab fare from the KL office to KLCC (it takes all of 3 minutes to drive - damn cutthroat) whereas 5 years ago I was walking. No wonder I put on 5 kgs and have to fork out half a thousand for my own elliptical trainer at home in Miri.

There is much to be grateful for. I ain't shopping at Hermes or Gucci yet, but I did buy a new Samsonite cabin luggage and a gorgeous MNG trenchcoat - for my future travels to Europe.

Yes, I foresee travel in my near future. That is one thing to be grateful for.

They say money is not important. Hell yeah.

But I'm grateful for this job anyway. Because I know what it's like earning pittance in a the Capital of Malaysia, smack in the middle of the Golden Triangle, me with my Carrefour knit top in the sea of MNG and Zara, with sprinklings of Gucci and LV thrown in.

Because I know what it's like cringing at the thought of spending Rm50 for my monthly LRT Touch n' Go card, when I know people spend the same amount on a day's worth of parking.

So yeah, I'm grateful for my money, and in turn, grateful for my job.

BTW, I'm banking on my promotion next year to cover my spending....heheh.

Cats in Our Lives - Oreo in Subang

Oreo is AK's friend in Subang - he lives down the street from AK's house in Subang and goes by the name of Adik (his real name, given by the owners) but we didn't know that when we 1st met him - thus he will always be our Oreo.

He is one grumpy, crabby, chubby, FAT cat - he will demand to be loved just the right way - what he does is plops himself down at our feet so we have no choice but to stroke and pet him - but do it wrongly (e.g. rub his tummy) and out come the claws - AK was scratched 3 times already by this grumpy chubby one.

We really oughta hate him by now - but he is so fat, so cute and so full of character that it is practically impossible to do so. How can you hate this face?

Since he lives a couple of houses down, he occasionally squeezes himself through the grille of AK's front gate to hang around. I believe he wants to check if AK is around - after all, no one else in AK's household gives him the time of the day. Sometimes, when we are in Miri, AK's dad will call informing him that Oreo dropped by today, just to see if AK is in :)