working life

It has been already 3 weeks since I started work at my new place and I'm liking it so far. Somehow, I have a feeling that I may work long here.

UOB was my first real job and I recalled telling a good friend of mine just few weeks after I started work that maybe we should seek greener pastures after 2 years. I ended up almost 7 years there.

I came to realized that the grass is almost not greener on the other side, especially after so many years with the same company. The company culture has became part of us and we are part of the culture.
Work became so familiar, predictable and comfortable and I could close my eyes and still knows how to navigate the computer system. Sometimes, I already knew what the client wants even before they complete their sentence.
My colleague at UOB once commended me on my working speed and my multi-tasking ability. I thought, that's me....very serious at work and hardly take time off, except when nature calls.

Then I left to join an investment bank. Things started out ok, but soon after things turned bad to worst. At my working speed, I can't even get half of my work done here. I blame it on the system. It's just too overly inefficient. Too overwhelming. So, after much thought and consideration I have to go. This is just not the right place for me. My boss almost beg me not to leave and talked me into reconsidering, asked me what can she do to make me stay. There are times when I felt bad to leave them when they are at their busiest, but some things just can't wait.

So, now here I am back to commercial bank and is pleased with my new place so far. Apart of the lack of food choice (i mean, REALLY lack), all is good. The only lunch place one can eat over here is at the cafeteria, if not one has to drive out, stuck in a jam and pay for parking to get food. There is no restaurant/eating place within walking distance. Oh, how I hope the branch (where I'm suppose to be) is completed soon, so that I can move in to my rightfully place.

*pray hard*

Drama Queen

I just could not believe that someone would actually SMSed those words to another person. If that 3 words were to be directed to me, I would take it as a threat and would consider taking actions against her. bitch ! I can only pity the person who received that text.
Nobody is perfect, and people do make mistake at work, or life...so does she !
Nobody, including your colleague deserve this type of treatment....come on!

My daytime life is getting more and more drama each day...Many time I wonder where I got all these patience from?

Hope to get out of these drama as soon as I can before I loose it.

Hope to blog more, soon.

My "so-so" Taiwan Trip

Ever since I started my new job in KL, it seemed to me that I have less and less of my already pitiful 'me time' at home.
Aside from the longer LRT ride, getting up earlier and slightly longer working hours, I'm doing good (fingers crossed).

So, .....

Taipei 101

I have finally decided to post a short entry on my latest trip to Taiwan.

I decided to join 2 of friends for a trip to Taiwan since I'm gonna have a month break before joining the new company.

Taiwan was never my choice of holiday destination, I don't really know why.
Taiwan to me is loads of street food, street shopping, temples, pagodas, and more temples.....not my top places to go when traveling.
Maybe...yes, maybe being a Banana person, being educated at sekolah kebangsaan and brought up by Banana parents and surrounded by Banana friends....I must say that I don't find the country appealing, at all.

So does China and Korea. I also don't know why.
I used to felt the same for Bangkok, but my view changed after I visited the country couple of years ago.

So, I thought maybe Taiwan would not be that bad la after all.

Thanks to Janet Hsieh in her "Fun Taiwan" I finally made my decision.

So I packed my bags and off I go.

Our plane tickets showed our seating....40 D E F & G.

When we boarded the plane, guess what ?!

We were given the best economic class seat......next to the emergency exit !!! and we didn't ask for it. I thought these seats were reserved for the senior citizen.
Plenty of leg room and I secretly thought how nice if we were given seats like this for trip to Europe of maybe USA !

A good start to my trip, I thought.

Watched 1 1/2 movie before the plan landed at Taipei.

Boarded the coach and our tour guide took us for our dinner at some popular night market.
From then on, to me most of my trip mostly went downhill.
The famous Taiwan crispy chicken, extremely long queue to get one turned out to be very salty with plenty of MSG and the chicken....mostly covered in flour and skin.

bad bad bad....

Our tour leader and tour guide started to talk in Mandarin. I sat and looked outside the window while waiting for them to switch to English.

Then I realised, they only talk in Mandarin and I'm going to be super duper blur the entire 1 week of my stay in Taiwan.

Oh boy am I gonna have a great trip !

Nevermind, if the tour guide could speak English when every single one (except) me in the entire group can at least understand mandarin.

I lost count of the many factories the tour brought us to...Ling Zhi factory, Jade & Marble factory, Pearl factory, another shop selling those fengshui bottomless tiger, etc etc etc.....crap crap crap.

Our 7 hours bus journey down to Kaoshiung at the edge of the cliff was breathtaking. Till now, I'm not sure why our coach was so bumpy...maybe we sat at the back or is it the road? All I know is after the 7 hours I felt like my intestine and stomach got dislocated elsewhere.

Shopping for clothes was a blast to me. Bought loads of clothes at dirt cheap price....average about Taiwan 250 (about RM25). My friend bought a 3/4 jeans at only Taiwan 250 !
Cheap aside, I thought anyone could even find any clothing items here....I could find unimaginable selection of fashion here, from the conventional, boring type to the tasteful yet sweet to the downright quirky type....and everything else in between.
But at the price, I won't complain on the material used and their quality.

I give this trip a 2 (on a scale of 1 to 10) .

Since everything from the sign board to my tour is in Mandarin I can only talk about Taiwan from the scenes and sight that I saw and the food I tasted.

Face Mask is a must buy cos it is super cheap here. Similar face mask sold at triple the price at Guardian/Watson. The rest are some of the food junks I bought, most of it I did not open up to eat until now.

Penang Hill & Road Trip with BFFs

Our initial plan for a day trip to Haatyai and Langkawi were scrapped.
The other plan to hike to Muka Head (Pantai Keracut) was also scrapped due to Cheng Beng season. Don't want to have the encounter with the 3rd kind la.

Instead, we decided to hike up Penang Hill on Sunday, 4/4.

We started our hike inside Botanical Garden and used the steps trail. I has been many donkey years since my last pg hill hike.
I looked up at the endless dirt steps and took a deep breath as I was about to climbed the first step to begin my journey. I secretly thought to myself, what have I got myself into?
I aimed to gain 5 kg this month and I am nowhere close to my target and now this?
Maybe 5 kg lighter after this....

Thanks to Cheryl who brought a bunch of bananas and some muesli bars to snack at the top.

Finally, we made it to no. 84 and coffee is served !! Oh, at No. 46, we had cool Pandan water, super refreshing.
They said that the coffee here taste better and I have got no change to taste it until NOW. It must be the natural spring water from the mountain they used to make the coffee. The coffee tasted SO GOOD here and it's FREE.

We thanked the coffee uncle for his delicious coffee on our way down. Uncle replied in hokkien, please donate if it's nice. We did already dropped a couple of dollars each to the
"coffee foundation" and may the best coffee remain.

Kopi-O face.

Kopi-O cheers !

*****************************


The next day after breakfast, me and cheryl decided to head down to Langkawi.
It's gonna be a day trip. If we miss the last ferry, then we could just get a motel for the night and return the next day. Adventure....

Just do it !

This is one of my breakfast in the morning besides a plate of char koay teow.
Roti Taiwan. A thick slice of bangali roti spread with 1 inche of butter, peanut butter and coated with ground peanuts.
Sinfully rich. I like it !

So we started our journey at about 12 pm and reached Kuala Kedah Ferry Terminal at precisely
1.37 pm. As we were walking towards the terminal, I joked "imagine the ferry just left when we reached to terminal, hahaha...."

Cheryl wasn't too amused....think positive, practice 'The Secret' remember ?"

Well, THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED when we reached the ticketing counter. We MISSED the ferry by 7 minutes !! and the next one is at 3pm !

Aiya, I thought that if we drove extra 2 km p/hr faster, maybe we could reach on time lor.....

PLAN B.....actually, we don't have plan B. We asked the parking guy what is nice here and
got a blank look in return.

Stupid question.

What is interesting in Kedah or Perlis besides padi fields ? After much thought, the parking guy told us that there's a famous laksa just down the road and suggested we visit Gunung Keriang.

So here we are, at the famous laksa place cam-whoring with a plate of hard boiled eggs. It's a hot and scorching sunny day in the middle of nowhere waiting for our laksa Kedah.

Laksa finally arrived. It was good but not great la. The soup is rather mild for my standard. Maybe I'm used to our Penang Assam Laksa, very intense flavour.

Close-up look at my Laksa Kedah. Looks appetizing, eh ?
So we continue our journey to Gunung Keriang and saw the the Padi Museum signboard on the way. Actually, Gunung Keriang and the museum is just nearby.
The Padi Museum is smack in the middle of hectares and more hectares of padi fields. It's in the middle of nowhere.

Inside the museum. An anatomy of our humble rice grain. Nice !

We headed up to the spiral staircase, excited to see what is up there. Looks like we are inside Gunung Keriang.

At the top, we did not expect to see a MASSIVE 360 degree mural. It's one of the largest in the country. The spiral staircase ends in the middle of the gallery and the scene as if you are standing on top of Gunung Keriang unfolds around you.
Super Happy.
Apart from the mural at Pudu jail painted by the inmates, I have never seen mural this huge before.

Feels good to be on top of the world...looks real or not ?

This is how I would look like if I'm a padi farmer.

My last day

31 March 2010 was my last working day at the Bank.

I recalled vividly on 14th May 2003, I packed my bags and left home for the very first time to work. Accompanied by mum and dad, we stayed with 2nd aunt in Klang.
Due to the short notice, if it's not for 2nd aunt and a good friend of mine who offered me a place to overnight during my 1st interview, I wouldn't have landed here.

And stayed on for the next 7 years (6 years and 9.5 months to be exact).

2nd aunt was generous enough to offer me the entire apartment to stay and her driver to drive me to work on my first day. I couldn't thanked her enough.
And because her apartment is just walking distance to her main house, I would go back there to have dinner with her and the rest of the family.

And they said, the rest is history.

I have grown so much with the Bank, but change is inevitable.

It is time for me to move on.

Felt a tinge of sadness, as I shut down my PC for the very last time and walked towards the exit door. I glanced back for one last look at the place I spent 10 hours a day for the past 7 years, took a deep breath and as I pulled the door lever to exit.

A little bit of chinese drama is intended over here.

Glad that a colleague of mine brought his camera and we took some photos on my last day for nostalgic reason.



Michelle was my good 'neighbour' in our 'semi-D house for about 2 years. We migrated to another sitting position 2 months ago. Used to joke that she was my next door neighbour, then become neighbourhood neighbour and finally become different 'town' when I shifted to different floor.

This is no longer our workstation, but we just sat there and pretend like the good ol' times when we were once neighbours. I know the workstation is messy cos it's not my place anymore. My actual place can be worse don most days of the month.


My good friends at the office. I will miss you all.

Happy Chinese New Year to all my friends and Family.

I refuse to stop blogging, even though I have contemplated to do so lately.
The sense of obligation to complete an entry finally creeps in to me.

This would be my first post for 2010 and the year of the Metal Tiger.

Last year, I celebrated my cny inside the plane to Rome for my honeymoon.
This year, my first CNY with family after marriage...spent 2 nights at home.

Short and sweet. Wouldn't mind this at all, since I can't go anywhere without the crazy madness holiday traffic. I found out that going to the other side of the island (Batu Ferringhi) was as crazy as going downtown.

Since Ingolf was closed for cny (didn't know german also celebrate cny), we headed for The Ship at Ferringhi only to be caught in a crawling traffic 2 minutes after heading down.
So we made a U-turn and headed to an unknown restaurant serving western food along bagan jermal (next to Subaidah) . Food was below par, if not sucks !

But then again, all my loved ones are with me for a simple dinner that night and that is
ALL THAT MATTER to me !!!!

who cares if the food sucks big time....
.
.
.
.
The Bank's Annual Sales Convention was held at Equatorial Penang a week before CNY.


We had a marching session at Han Chiang's stadium and this sure reminds me of school days.

Waited almost 2 hours for the VIPs to arrive and this is not very fun at all when you had to arrive at the hotel at 11pm, slept at 2 am and wake up call at 5am !!

The bus driver missed a turn, got lost and could not find his way to EQ that night.
I was summoned to help the driver find his way back, naturally.

It has been almost 10 years since I last went to the Hotel and it's already dark. With my lousy sense of direction, I could not figure out where we were for the first 10 minutes.
So I lead the bus to a 1 round merry-go-round and back to square one.

Damn ! This is very embarrassing.

The bus driver gave a sigh of dissapointment.....

It's not that easy when you are giving direction inside to a Bas Persiaran driver, ok.
Under a lot of pressure as each turn you say, has to be correct.
If it is wrong, the bus can't just made a U-turn like a kancil.

So we arrived late that night...dirty, tired, sleepy and a bit hungry.

But appreciate that the organizers made a room service of friend rice to all our rooms that night.

Enough of traveling for now.....2 trips to pg in 2 weeks with a total of 20 hours traveling time.

It's till cny....so GONG XI FA CAI ya'll !!!