Chillax Weekend

It's a super long weekend over here in Malaysia; Hari Raya + National Day holidays.  Everyone were already in holiday mood last Friday.  One just need to apply leave for 29/8 & 2/9/11 and will get a 9 days long stretch of holiday!  But, believe it or not, your's truly is back in office today and it is eerily quiet here with just skeleton staff clicking away on their keyboards in their respective cubicles.  If not for the carpet flooring, definitely can hear a pin drop! 

The husband and I still did managed some sun, sea, sand plus good food over the weekend.  Just one of those chillax getaway with a good book and suntan oil.  I think I can still catch a whiff of seabreeze/suntan oil in my hair.  Or probably it's just my imagination!

Happy holiday people! And Selamat Hari Raya to all my muslim friends.

Imagining our LIFETIME

Imagine this…

1900

When we thought about 1900, the first thing that came to our mind would be.. “Wow.. that’s like a long long time ago!”. Classic. Ancient. History. Women in puffy long skirt carrying tiny lace umbrellas, curvy moustache men in hats.

In the same era, the Wright Brothers also successfully flew their flimsy craft for 59 seconds, covering 852 feet, Thomas Edison invented light bulb and Mark Twain wrote “The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn.”

2000

One hundred years later in 2000, this is OUR time.  We are advance, modern and high fashion. Life revolves around work, family and friends and all things deemed important which include mankind greatest invention, computers, and after that, Facebook of course.

The Wright Brothers may have invented a flying craft; who we studied in school but couldn’t give two cents about, it is Tony Fernandez that we kowtow to. If not for him, everybody still can’t fly now! Flying on a plane became as routine as milking a cow in 1900s!

Light bulb? Who uses light bulb anymore? It is the LEDs era now. And same goes for Mark Twain. Classic? Err… I mean no offense, but let’s swap for a JK Rowlings or Stephanie Meyer anytime. :p

2070

We are either in our 70s, 80s or 90s. We are no longer the hot young thing we used to be. No amount of collagen/placenta/botox would un-sag our sagged/wrinkled skin.

We might not even remember what we did yesterday let alone remembering the colourful life we once live. Most of us would have already gone on senile if not dead.

2100

It's just a little difference in the numbers.  2000 & 2100.  But we will no longer be in existence except for that few bits and pieces of bones left in some coffin (which I am not even sure will last that long) buried somewhere. Dust to dust.

Imagine all these... then process it.  Ya I know... what's the point right to all we have now? 

Working is making me busier...

... and the busy-ness is not from work but the other distractions/entertainments that come with the work.  I am not sure if this is just my luck or working in Standard Chartered is memang (really) like this one.  I officially join the company on 9th May and to date, I've worked 3 months 10 days and within this short span of time, I've participate in 4 company's events.  

(1) The Standard Chartered KL Marathon - 5km fun run - 26/6/11

(2) Family Day at Sunway Lagoon - 24/7/11

I had so much fun here though I don't know many colleagues then.  What the heck, as long as I get to play, everyone is a friend. :p

Participated in 3 telematches and our team (which was form adhocly) won twice.  First & second place.  A total of RM150 cash voucher per person. :)  

We came out first in 'form the longest line'.  It was hilarious seeing the other team trying their best to stretch for that additional inch which was totally useless cause our line were already longer by 1 person's length.

Here we are, happily posing for a group photo after receiving our prize money. :)  Hehehehe...

(3) Our SME Offsite Meeting at Swiss Garden Spa & Resort, Kuantan - 29/7/11

Which I just covered on my last entry.  You & I know, though it was a short offsite work related event, it was still a happening one.

(4) A Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Event which was held just this past Friday (19/8) at Pantai Cahaya, Port Dickson, to clean up the beach. - 19/8/11

It was mandatory for each employee to complete at least 2 days of CSR per year and I decided to start my first for this particular event organised by our HR department.  

Seriously, the beach was so freaking clean that there weren't much stuff to clean up.  We just tried our best to dig up as much rubbish as possible - ciggy butt, bottle caps, tiny bits of papers... grass... twigs... anything...

Light meals were also provided for us at the event.  After all the cleaning works, we took a breather by the beach for some kodak moment. :)

So for those of you who visited PD this weekend, in case you are wondering why are the beach & park so clean, it was our hardwork ok :)  And so, please please do remember, "DO NOT LITTER" and help us keep the place clean so anyone who visited Pantai Cahaya will have a great time there! :)

My First Offsite Meeting @ Work!

Since I started working 3 months plus ago, things has finally begin to slow down a little. It was really mad crazy busy that past few months having to organize few events concurrently, at the same time, juggling daily usual businesses, on top of that, daily dance practise towards the end of July was not helping at all. But all in all, thank God all had simmered down and things began to slow a little and I get to catch a breather after clearing all rubbish that had piled up high on my desk during that few maddening week close to that offsite thingy that I had organized. In fact, now that I am finally able to smell the roses, I am sort of bored. Hahahahahaha.....

3 weekends ago, was at Kuantan for our company’s offsite meeting which was held in the Swiss Garden Spa & Resort. I was there not to participate in the meetings, but to coordinate and ensure that the 2d/1n event goes on smoothly without any hiccups. Though tiring, it was a great experience coordinating everything right down to its details - which resort to go to, detailed itineraries, team building & tele-match games, meals, transportations, who to go on which bus, who to bunk in with who, vegan and non-vegan, various awards and prizes and etc.

Though I have a choice of not required to attend the back-to-back meetings which will most probably bored the hell out of me, I was too busy running around arm wrestling the hotelier to submit to my whims than to enjoy the sun, sea, sand & beach while sipping on colourful mocktails. Really, prior to the trip, I had that vision. I was so looking forward to that. It was really, just a vision afterall. Lols... It will be a real luxury if I get to do all that. Hahaha... Other than coordinating with the hoteliers, I still need to coordinate my brain for events of the night – Retro Nite!

With helps of some colleagues, and the sporting-ness of all the other colleagues, the entire 2d/1n event including our themed Retro Nite dinner turned out rather well and we had so much fun laughing out heads off checking out each other’s costume. Seriously, never in my wildest dream they would dress up to the theme. And I thought my wig a little extreme.

I almost didn’t wear it. Alina was so adamant that I should and I threatened her that if she doesn’t go down with her crazy hair too, she gonna so get it from me... lols... (we went down separately cause I was rushing). Until a colleague came up to the room in crazy hair as well, I was convinced that I would. He said... “Don’t worry, you are not the only one with white wig!” hahaha.... 

Believe it or not, the moment I stepped into the ballroom, I felt right at home.  :) I was so thankful I wore it. Without the wig, I would be SOOO....under-dressed. Hahaha.....

It was such a fun night filled with silly games, free flow of beers, retro music blaring, fashion shows of our funky retro fashion sense, prizes & awards presentation,

Working life is turning out not too bad afterall. :)


p/s: I told Alina this that night..."Babe, working together not too bad after all eh?  We get to go on girlie holidays under the company expense!"  hehehehehehe...!

Just something to share.  This happened like 3 weeks ago.  I walked into Coach and asked the friendly salesperson this... "I am looking for something around RM300 (US$100 approx).".  His demeanour immediately changed from being 'warm friendly' to 'cool friendly'.  I guess the value is too little to garner his interest.  Hahahahaha...

And so I ransacked thru the pile of items which were price tagged at RM300 each, picked out about 10 items and placed them on the table to decide which one I wanted.  At this point, I could feel him a little impatient.  He must be thinking... so picky for just RM300.  hahahaha......

Then I shortlisted 4 items and told him this... "I need 3 pieces of each design...".  He was caught off guard by the quantity.  His demeanour immediately changed back to 'warm friendly' after that. 

Sigh... such attitude.  Coach is just an average brand to begin with. *shake head*

3 days after I was born many years ago, the husband too was born (note usage of 'many years ago' instead of the actual number of years.. hahahaha).  By then I had already learnt how to drink milk and he was just crawling out of... erm... his mom?  Lols.... :)  Now that we are at it, it just dawn on me if I had decided to pop into the world a day or two later and he a day or two earlier, we might very well be sharing the same birthday!  Boy!  Lucky me.  Otherwise my birthday would not be special anymore! :p

And so we had a low key celebration last Monday at Laziz (one of the husband favourite restaurant), a little middle eastern cuisine restaurant in Solaris which we had coincidentally be thinking of going that very day.

We had a mixed grilled platter of some exotic name which basically are just chicken, mutton & beef kebab, briyani rice, stewed mutton plus some naan.  It was a satifying dinner.  One of the reason why the husband love it there was because the kebabs are simply yummy.  Juicy and succulent even after grilling.  

We chanced upon Laziz sometime ago when they did a promotion on Groupon; one of those online vouchers thingy.  Bought it out of curiosity and wanting to find new places to dine with the husband as we hardly spend much quality together since I started working plus all those mad dance trainings.  These are the only occasion where we would actually make an effort to dress up for.  :)

From Laziz, we head over to Dr Cafe for coffee and a super yummy oreo cheese cake before calling it a day.  Though sort of ordinary, it was pleasant and nice. A simple birthday celebration doing ordinary simple things, for someone simply beautiful.  :)

Simple Birthdays - The Best.

Birthday come, birthday go.  Just like any other day.  Yet it still gets pretty hyped up the day before it.  And yet, if you ask me what I did last birthday or the one before that, I can tell you this... "I don't know and I can't remember exactly".  Hehehehe...  It has become such a normal day these days especially at this era where we basically can get everything we wanted (not necessarily have to be rich), everyday is a BIRTHDAY!  :)  Unlike years ago where one would only get to eat an egg or a special piece of meat come his or her birthday (that's according to my grandparents la...).  

My birthday celebration started on the eve, 4/8/11 with the husband giving present no.1.  Talking about the present, it was hillarious.  We met up at Pavillion early last week after work and he was all grinning from ear to ear having gotten me a birthday present.  When I tried to squeeze hints out of him he just said this... "Not letting out a single thing!".  Lols... Or how I would teased him when we strolled past a certain shop... "You breathing so hard.  You got it from here?  This shop?"  Heheheheheh.....

He even went to the extend of hiding his car keys cause he kept those presents in there.  Oh yeah, there were two.  He was quite smug about it when he gave me the first present on the eve of my birthday and went... "...present no.2, tomorrow."  I laughed my head off when I unwrapped present no.1 and found both the warranty catalogue for present no. 1 & 2 in the box.  Hahahahaha.... He was cursing and cursing at the shop... still he made me waited till the next day before giving them to me despite of me already know what I am getting.  Hahaha... It was so funny...

I told him... "Just imagine if a wife received one present with two catalogues/receipt for two items in it..."  all hell will certainly broke loose man!  Super duper hot soup....!"

In case you are wondering, well, he gotten me a Swarosky pendant and a pair of earrings.  It has been sort of a custom.  I was digging out all my Swarosky collections and found that I've quite a number of them.  Nice.  *like*

Having not-a-real-job for the past four years also meant that I don't really have much colleagues.  Colleagues usually revolves around my ex-boss of more than 10 years, his sis-in-law who used to share an office with us and also who I've grown very fond of and my GM who is pretty closed to us.  And birthday are usually just a nice lunch with them.  That simple.

This time round, it was different.  Birthday wishes just kept pouring in the moment I strolled into the office.  Actually, before that even.  On facebook that is.  That's why I shared this caption on FB the other day... "I suddenly ♥ Facebook very much. It made me feel so..... LOVED! Thank you for all the lovely birthday wishes my friends.... ". Seriously, irregardless of everything, it makes me feel all mushy and warm inside.  *thanks  people if you are reading this*!  Oh, I must add here, BIG COW actually posted birthday wishes for me every avenue she gets!  On my blog, FB, mobile & etc (did I missed out anything Big Cow?)... hehehehe.... BIG THANK YOU TO YOU!!

Ok, ok, back to the colleagues thingy.  They even gotten me a birthday cake and sang me a birthday song!  I thought it was really nice.  It has been quite awhile since I've anything like that.  *super like*.  A colleague of mine posted the above picture on FB with a caption that says... "So happy...".  I went like.. "Of course la... got cake to cut le...!" hehehehe... And it didn't stop there.  We all left office at 4:30 (instead of 4:45 for Friday) and head down to Snowflakes for some dessert courtesy from the boss man himself.... :)

I am into owl these days.  Always like owl but never really into it until recently and Alina was observant enough to get me these - an owl brooch and necklace.  They were so pretty.  :) Thanks babe!   *love*  

Alina & I decided to join another group of colleagues for some Friday Happy Hours after Snowflakes.  The crowd was good, we had fun.  Unfortunately I didn't stay long enough to blow the candle off the cake.  The cake look absolutely divine...hehehe.. yeah, DIVINE.  lols....

That evening, we supposed to head down to Hakka Republic over at Menara Hap Seng.  Even had reservation done.  But the mood felt more Brussel than Hakka Republic.  :p   The husband and I both enjoyed our beer as we nibbled at some pork belly, sausages & etc.  Can't remember exactly what we talked about but we had a great time tokkok-ing & sing song-ing before Florence & Mambo came to join us later the night.  All in all, it was good and we had fun.

Florence gotten me a present and her colleague does the wrapping for her using whatever they can salvaged from their office.  She wanted them to wrap it with flyers from Watson and they just couldn't do it (I would have love that really... lols).  Not bad ya the wrapping?  So what did she gotten me?  Actually she already RSVP dinner reservation for both the husband and I.  The present is just for fun.  She simply said it reminded her of us.  :p

Her hint was... "try thinking what the husband always complains about you?" and my answer to that was.. "no, he never complains about me and he loves me very much..!".  Hahahahah.... You see, I realized later that the point here is good.  We forgot each other's shortcoming and only remembers the good ones. :p  One point to "Good Relationship"!

Yeah, she gotten me an Iphone sound amplifier.  Lols... Cause the husband always complains that I never answer the phone cause I can't hear it ring.  Hehehehe... It works ok... :) It really does make the ringing tones louder.  Thanks babe! :)

So, birthday come, birthday goes.  It was just another day.  Now that we are older and wiser and have less expectation, simple birthday gestures suddenly became  so nice and treasured.  For all of you out there, once again, thanks for remembering me. :)  I feel loved.

Happy Birthday To Me!

Today is my birthday. Yay! Happy Birthday To Me! :p But I already celebrated my birthday almost 3 weeks ago. Hahaha... strange hor... but no choice. Due to all of our tight calendar, that was like the only date my that particular bunch of friends is free (The Deliquenos). Besides, we were celebrating not just me alone, but other two too. Supposed to be four of us, but unfortunately the other one can’t make it. That’s why. 

As like any other get together of ours, it turned out really good. It was a long anticipated event reason being, there was a theme to it and the date has been changed and postponed a thousand times before we finally concluded a day where majority of us can make it. :p So basically, we (the girls), already gotten all our themed dresses ready and was just sitting around waiting for the date to be finalised. Hahaha.... girls would always be girls. 

Unlike the previous year where we went to Seremban for BBQ crabs and followed by a drinking session back at home, this year, we decided to head over Elcerdo (http://www.elcerdokl.com/). A quaint little place along Changkat Raja Chulan specializing in pork dishes from around the world. Please be warned that the price were rather exorbitant. For the 6 of us, the bill came to about RM700+ I think. We had half a piglet (smaller than Sunshine even), a cold meat platter (hams), a paella, a sausage platter plus a mug of beer for each of us.  Though expensive, I thought the experience were sort of worth it!  

We get to chop the piglet with plates and then smashing the plates in a tub!  Weird, but sort of fun and thereupedic too. :) Yeah, thereupedic.  Good way of destressing.... *thinking of all those plates in our kitchen*..

The theme for our birthday party was 'The 70's' and I think we, the girls, really dressed to the theme!  The guys merely scrapped by.  It was funny when everyone was staring and pointing at us as we were walking into Elcerdo.  Lols.... They must be wondering which era does this bunch of people come from?!

The August babies.... gone mad.  Seriously, we were having so much fun by ourselves there.  Just the six of us.  WK, the superman, was imitating HK's gangster of the 70's, strutting around in his shades... it was hillarious.  At ElCerdo, they even sang us birthday songs that goes like this.... "happy birthday to you, oink oink..... ".... as if singing to pigs.  Lols.... 

As usual, a night with The Deliquenos will not be complete without some salsa-ing.  From ElCerdo, we adjourned to Modesto to dance the night away.  At the carpark, we gone mad again....

Cam whoring ala 70's style.  Hahahaha.... I tell you, i laughed so much that night.  Seriously crazy bunch of fellas.  Or probably it was just 3 of us that was crazy.  But then again, even with just 3 crazy fellas, it was enough to fill the evening with merriness.  :)

So, it is my birthday today.  I am at a junction of life now where I felt things are falling into place perfectly. I've no particular anticipation for this special day as I am already contented the way everything is. The husband already given me present number no.1, (he said there were two presents, YIPPEE!!!).  I've no particular wishes either, except, to continue being happy as I am now and living life at it's best come what may. :)  

 

P/s:  Ppssttt....! Oh yeah, from the cash vouchers I gotten from the bank's family day telematch games + appreciation for organising the offsite event + retro queen + some cash from the husband, I topped it up a little and gotten myself a simple nice everyday bag from Anya Hindmarch.  *grinning from ear to ear with happiness*