Last week during Sunday service at my church, our pastor gave his usual good message, this time about refraining from talking bad things about others. I'm hopelessly bad at remembering the details of any message, but I do remember him saying that we should not 'DEvalue' people or 'Evalue' people (I dunno where he came up with that word, but basically means something like judging people by the wrong things they have done, which leads to thinking that we are better than them) but we should 'SEE value' in people. And I understood what he was saying, that no matter what wrong things people have done, we still need to show them love instead of judging them or thinking we are better than them. But understanding that and actually living that out are two completely different things, as I have found out since I started working.
Most of the time, including at work, I am nowhere near a shining example of a Christian, and when it comes to annoying, pain-in-the-rear-end colleagues, it makes it even all the more difficult. Last time it was my supervisor who gave me and everyone else problems, but now he's gone overseas. Lately we've taken in two new female instructors who have been doing a great job so far. They know how to work independantly and take the initiative to help out whenever they can. But we're still stuck with this other female colleague, whom I took the liberty of nicknaming Miss Problematic coz' of she 'seems' to have one problem after another. First, she told us her mother is wheelchair bound and her father is diabetic, so she has to go home right on the dot at 6pm so she can care for them. A week after she started working, her grandma supposedly passed away, so she had to take a lot of leave. Then she to work crying one day coz' her boyfriend left to Taiwan to work so she broke up with him, and also because she has just found out her friend was diagnosed with Huntington's Disease. Then she later on told me she herself has Huntington's Disease (which is kind of suspicious coz' after the day she found out about her friend's conditions, she claimed she was online in the office to read up on the disease. Why would she do that if she already had the disease herself?), and told another colleague that she has a hole in the heart (and she smokes like a chimney, btw). Then she said she cannot eat spicy food, but she ate spicy food while we were out for dinner once, and the next day she claimed she had pain in her appendix or something after that, so she had to go for operation. Recently she claimed one of her friends passed away too, so she was crying in office again. And all the time a problem comes up, she ups and takes leave, leaving the rest of us having to take over her work. And even when she IS around, she's always busy sms-ing people in the office or taking smoking breaks. Plus she's careless and lazy with whatever little work she actually does do. In summary, she has given us problems since day one, and my colleagues and I are quite fed up with her and all her sob stories, half of which we suspect to be untrue. Not to mention that we suspect that she has stolen stuff from the office and even our wallets.
With a person like that around, it's pretty hard not to lament about our issues with her to other colleagues. I tried to give her the benefit of the doubt at first, but after hearing problem after problem after problem from her, and putting up with her taking so much leave and leaving the rest of us in the lurch, I've reached my limit too. And when the new colleagues came in, I couldn't help but warn them about her suspected money-picking behavior. And yet, even though the stuff about her being lazyand problematic is true, I do think that talking about her behind her back isn't the right thing to do. But it's difficult to just sit back and tolerate such behavior. And I wonder, is it really wrong for me to tell others that we suspect her of stealing, even though we haven't proved it yet? I mean, if we're right and she does steal, we would be preventing our new colleagues from losing stuff to her. But if we're wrong, then we give them a super bad impression of her. If I were to do 'the right thing' and not tell anyone else about her behaviour, and instead I allow them to find out her character for themselves, that might potentially make it easier for Ms Problematic to steal from them. So what is the 'Godly way' in this situation, I wonder?
Not that I can really do anything about it now, coz' I have already warned by new colleagues about her. But it is something to think about, for the future. Gossip does go around my office quite a bit, and much as I know I shouldn't get involved in it, in my superbly small company, it is hard not to. And I'm not proud to say that usually I don't really stop to think about 'What would Jesus do?' in each situation, but I just react based on how I feel about the situation. And usually I end up being resentful of the people whom I think has done me wrong.
My pastor preached that we need to learn to 'see value' in people. To not just see the wrong things they have done, but to see them for the good they could potentially become in Jesus Christ. And though I've tried and prayed many times that I would learn to love and show that kind of grace to others.... I have always fallen short. I guess it is only human to think badly of people like my annoying colleague.... Right now it would be much easier to strangle her than show her love. At the moment, I am just tolerating her until she stops working with us (which is end of this month, which is just a few more days. Woo hoo!). After that, my inclination to make sure she never ever steps foot in our office again. But if I were to do what I think God would want to do, I wouldn't just be 'tolerating' her, but I'd really give her the benefit of the doubt and try to help her through her problems. Whether her problems are real or not shouldn't be my concern, but rather, if she says she's having problems, I should be there for her. But right now, I really just want nothing to do with her, and now whenever another supposed 'problem' of hers comes up, I really couldn't care less. I just continue with my work.
Well, no one ever said doing the Godly thing would be easy. I've failed like a gazillion times and I've sort of reached a point where I don't even bother to try and change myself coz' I don't wanna feel bad about it. But somehow or another, something keeps making me want to try to change again. Even though I know I will fail again, I still need to try. Maybe one day I will finally learn to see value in everyone, even the people who I think are completely gone case.
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Reflections on 2006 and the future (plus a little gossip)
It's ten days into the new year already, and I still have yet to do my customary reflection of the previous year. Well, not that I ever made it customary, but last year was a pretty important year for me. First and foremost, it was my first year out in the great big working world, and for the first half of the year I was a lab demonstrator. Now I have the dubious honour of being able to tell people that I'm a Mad Scientist. Trust me, it doesn't get any less weird. Just today I was going around to various colleges and universities to post up some job vacancies notices for my company, and I went to Monash where I met some of the student services people that I know. And of course they had to ask what I'm doing now, and when I explained my job to them, they had that kinda look on their face that said they are thinking something that they're too polite to say out loud. Haha, not that I really care what they think anyway. I enjoy what I do, even though my office has had it's fair share of problems. When I first came in, I had to deal with my supervisor breathing down my neck all the time, til finally I had a nice long discussion with him telling him to cut it out (in a nicer way, of course), then he lightened up. Then I had to deal with another colleague who's the office gossip and tells every little detail about what other colleagues say that he doesn't like.... the 'other colleagues' mainly being our supervisor. Then I had to, and still have to, deal with a recent addition to the company who claims she has all sorts of family problems and she keeps falling sick and taking leave. And she's quite careless and lazy in doing things. And her science background is poor so she can't even teach properly. And we suspect that she has stolen office money, but we can't prove it. And the only reason she's still around is coz' we're short of people and are trying to get new blood in, but our company seems to be plagued with job applications from people who love to 'fung fei kei' or FFK us. The first FFK fella that Jehovah's witness who refused to come to work after only one week, and had the nerve to divert office phone calls to MY phone coz' he didn't want to talk to us. We thought that was bad. But that wasn't the worst. At least he worked for us for a few days and he still had the decency to come back to the office to return our keys and hand in his resignation letter. On the first day of work in the new year, we had a new girl come into office. Apparently, she's doing her masters degree, and so she could only work on Mondays to Wednesdays but not other days. But my boss was ok with that too, so we took her in, and she came in to work for the first day on a Wednesday. I was on mc that day so I didn't get to meet her, and I didn't see her the rest of the week either coz' she wasn't going to work on those days. Monday came around, and though she was supposed to come to work, she didn't turn up. My colleague tried to call her but she didn't answer. It was only that afternoon when we got a message from our boss that the girl's FIANCE sent an sms to our boss saying that she didn't want to work for us anymore. Reason being that our job involved us meeting clients, and she didn't want to do that. Like, HUH? We didn't hear anything from that girl herself, and she didn't even come to office to return our stuff. She posted it all back to us. Good grief...a person doing her masters but not even professional enough to talk to us herself and explain why she wants to quit. *Sigh* No doubt the FFK crown goes to her. I can't imagine anyone doing worse than that. Anyway, for the past month of so, our supervisor was also becoming a pain in the rear again towards everyone... I think it was because he was about to quit the job and he wanted to boss everyone around as much as he could before he left. And he stopped working at the end of last year, so now the office is left with only 3 instructors, which is me, the office gossip (who fortunately, can really do his work well, so I don't mind the gossip so much) and Miss Problematic. And we have quite a number of classes starting soon, so we need new RELIABLE blood in our office soon....so in case anyone reading this is unemployed and interested in becoming a Mad Scientist, do gimme a holler. :) Don't worry, not everyone in my office is a source of headaches. Our accountant is a very nice fellow who is very good at avoiding the gossip and just happily doing his work. And our boss is probably the nicest boss on the planet. He's very friendly and never scolds any of us for anything, but instead he praises us for our good work done. And he's hardly ever around the office coz' he runs other businesses (so no boss breathing down our necks) but when he IS around, he pays for our lunches when we go out to eat. How cool is that, eh? Your boss sure kenot beat my boss wan. Pth!
Anyway, wasn't I supposed to do some reflecting on my past year? Hmm... I really tend to veer off topic a lot on my blogs these days. Must be another sign of getting old. Kakaka! Well, all in all, I've gained some good experience working at Mad Science. In addition to learning lots of funky science experiments, I've also had to develop some PR skills when dealing with customers and teachers of the schools where we have our classes. At schools where we want to start new classes, I had to learn how to negotiate deals with them. And I also had to do quite a bit of designing of flyers and posters to promote our events. And of course, there's the administrative stuff to do. So really, in this job, I have to be a teacher, performer, graphic designer, admin person and customer service person all rolled into one. Thank God we have our accountant to handle the finances... I don't think I could be that as well. :P It's a challenge, but being someone who likes to do a lot of different things instead of doing the same thing all the time... I enjoy the challenge. And now that our annoying supervisor has left, I have more responsibilities, including trying to get in new instructors. So now I even have to look through job applications and interview potential candidates. Not bad for someone who's only been in the company for half a year. :P And now I understand why bosses usually only glance through resumes. Looking through CV's is a bit of a pain. Though sometimes I get a good laugh out of them when they write interesting things about themselves or their English is horrendous. One guy described himself as 'exceedingly gentlemanly'. Ah ha.
Geez, I've gone and veered off topic again. So enough about my work....last year was only important for me coz' it was the year I met my sweetheart Gerald! As of right now, it would be about nine or ten months since we officially got together. And it hasn't been the most smooth sailing of relationships, but then again, what relationship is completely smooth sailing? I'm just glad we've managed to work out our issues and we're still all lovey dovey with each other.
It's kinda hard though, being far apart from each other... and now at this point in my life, I wondering what's the next step for me, in terms of my work and my relationship. My parents think I should move on from this job soon to better prospects (and of course, bigger bucks), and they encourage me to try and get a scholarship to continue my studies. And though I probably could get a scholarship, I just don't think I'm all that interested in continuing my studies. And though I know I can get better job offers elsewhere, right now, I'm still needed at Mad Science, at least until we get more permanent people and have trained them up. But if I do decide to move on eventually, I would much rather work overseas like maybe in Singapore or Australia. So maybe I would continue my studies so I have more opportunities to work overseas. I mean, Malaysia is nice in some ways, but it still has a long way to go. And when we have certain nutcases waving around crooked swords in parliament claiming that they're willing to bath in blood to protect the rights of their race, well, one really has to wonder if they wanna stay in a country with a leadership who can say such things. Of course, there are other things that make me wanna hightail to another country if I can help it, not to mention my parents definitely wouldn't mind me working overseas and making bigger bucks... but then there's also my bf who is really happy right where he is in Malacca. And I know he wants me to be there with him too, which I do... but I can't really picture myself spending the rest of my life there. Maybe coz' it's such a old town and I'd feel funny going from a big bustling KL to little ol' Malacca. Not to say I definitely won't go there one day...of course I want to be closer to him. But right now I really not sure what the future holds for me, nor what I should do, except continue working until my company gets some really good people in and then I can cabut in peace. Unless my boss gives me really good pay raise and perks, then I might be here for the long haul too. Haha! Oh, decisions, decisions... I hate making them. Well, we'll see what 2007 holds for me.
Anyway, wasn't I supposed to do some reflecting on my past year? Hmm... I really tend to veer off topic a lot on my blogs these days. Must be another sign of getting old. Kakaka! Well, all in all, I've gained some good experience working at Mad Science. In addition to learning lots of funky science experiments, I've also had to develop some PR skills when dealing with customers and teachers of the schools where we have our classes. At schools where we want to start new classes, I had to learn how to negotiate deals with them. And I also had to do quite a bit of designing of flyers and posters to promote our events. And of course, there's the administrative stuff to do. So really, in this job, I have to be a teacher, performer, graphic designer, admin person and customer service person all rolled into one. Thank God we have our accountant to handle the finances... I don't think I could be that as well. :P It's a challenge, but being someone who likes to do a lot of different things instead of doing the same thing all the time... I enjoy the challenge. And now that our annoying supervisor has left, I have more responsibilities, including trying to get in new instructors. So now I even have to look through job applications and interview potential candidates. Not bad for someone who's only been in the company for half a year. :P And now I understand why bosses usually only glance through resumes. Looking through CV's is a bit of a pain. Though sometimes I get a good laugh out of them when they write interesting things about themselves or their English is horrendous. One guy described himself as 'exceedingly gentlemanly'. Ah ha.
Geez, I've gone and veered off topic again. So enough about my work....last year was only important for me coz' it was the year I met my sweetheart Gerald! As of right now, it would be about nine or ten months since we officially got together. And it hasn't been the most smooth sailing of relationships, but then again, what relationship is completely smooth sailing? I'm just glad we've managed to work out our issues and we're still all lovey dovey with each other.
It's kinda hard though, being far apart from each other... and now at this point in my life, I wondering what's the next step for me, in terms of my work and my relationship. My parents think I should move on from this job soon to better prospects (and of course, bigger bucks), and they encourage me to try and get a scholarship to continue my studies. And though I probably could get a scholarship, I just don't think I'm all that interested in continuing my studies. And though I know I can get better job offers elsewhere, right now, I'm still needed at Mad Science, at least until we get more permanent people and have trained them up. But if I do decide to move on eventually, I would much rather work overseas like maybe in Singapore or Australia. So maybe I would continue my studies so I have more opportunities to work overseas. I mean, Malaysia is nice in some ways, but it still has a long way to go. And when we have certain nutcases waving around crooked swords in parliament claiming that they're willing to bath in blood to protect the rights of their race, well, one really has to wonder if they wanna stay in a country with a leadership who can say such things. Of course, there are other things that make me wanna hightail to another country if I can help it, not to mention my parents definitely wouldn't mind me working overseas and making bigger bucks... but then there's also my bf who is really happy right where he is in Malacca. And I know he wants me to be there with him too, which I do... but I can't really picture myself spending the rest of my life there. Maybe coz' it's such a old town and I'd feel funny going from a big bustling KL to little ol' Malacca. Not to say I definitely won't go there one day...of course I want to be closer to him. But right now I really not sure what the future holds for me, nor what I should do, except continue working until my company gets some really good people in and then I can cabut in peace. Unless my boss gives me really good pay raise and perks, then I might be here for the long haul too. Haha! Oh, decisions, decisions... I hate making them. Well, we'll see what 2007 holds for me.
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
My lovely long New Year holiday!
Oh blimey, it's a whole new year already! Dang, they seem to be coming round faster each time, these new years. Well, at least with new year celebrations, I don't have to worry about what presents I should buy for all my family and friends. Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas and all, but the Christmas shopping part really gives me a headache. Thinking of the perfect present to buy people always sucks up my brain power. And walking around a shopping complex looking for the perfect present sucks up my energy. And making sure the price is within my budget sucks up even more brain power, lest it sucks up my finances. So all in all, buying presents is a very energy, time and resource-sucking process. Now isn't that sucky? :P
Ok, lame jokes aside, I did enjoy a good Christmas eve dinner party at my church, and I just came back from a very well-deserved long holiday in Tambun with my colleagues, and then in Malacca and Singapore with Gerald. My colleagues and I had a company trip to Tambun's waterpark on the 26th and 27th of December, which wasn't all that great coz' the waterpark wasn't half as good as Sunway Lagoon. We did enjoy going around Ipoh and stuffing our faces with the good food like chicken rice, fried kuey teow and meehoon, and dim sum. And we also went to watch The Curse of the Golden Flower, which really was not a good movie to me. Watching a gazillion people die tragically isn't exactly my idea of good entertainment.
Then I went to Malacca on the 28th of December, and stayed at Gerald's place for couple of nights before the two of us scooted off to Singapore on the 31st for our new year celebrations, where we stayed at his brother and sister-in-law's place. We visited the National Science Centre on our first day there, then the Singapore Zoo on the next day. Both of which I visited last year too, when I was at Singapore with my buddy Kooi Im... but visiting them with my boyfriend is, of course, a different experience. :) And of course, we took a ton of pics as well, which I shall share later on (if I don't procrastinate too long!).
We spent the night of the 31st enjoying a great home-cooked dinner at Gerald's brother's place, together with his neighbours and some of their friends. They called it a barbecue... which for me just means bringing out the slabs of meat and some sausages, throwing them on the grill and that's about the best food we get. I experienced quite a different version with them, coz' in addition to the 'normal' barbequed food like chicken and sausages, we also got some really high class stuff like oysters, mussels, scallops, pasta and some other fancy foods which I'm not even sure what they're called. And they also brought out God-knows how many different types of alcohol, and different glasses for each type of drink. I'm pretty sure I've never drank from so many different types of glasses during one meal in my entire life. Just look at this!
The big glass on the right is for red wine (I drank two glasses of that), the one next to it is for white wine (drank one glass of that), the middle one is for juice (3 glasses), the second one from the left, I can't even remember what it was for, but I drank it anyway, and the smallest one is for Snapps, which was to be drank all one shot and supposedly helped to burn away the pasta we ate. Well, I had two rounds of that. And even after drinking all that, amazingly I still wasn't drunk. Now a lot of people tell me that I might think I'm not drunk when I actually am, but I seriously think I wasn't drunk at all. Up until someone brought out the champagne and filled it into the second glass from the right. After a couple of glass of that, that's when I started to see the world spinning a bit. But I could still walk properly and I didn't throw up, which was good. Cheers, mate!
Well, in addition to celebrating the arrival of a new year, we were also celebrating the birthday of one of the guest's sons. This Swiss guy named Dennis was there with his Chinese wife and 3 sons, and so we all celebrated the birthday together. So here's pic of Dennis at the end of the table, with his wife on the right and 3 kids on the left. The guy on the left is my boyfriend's brother's neighbour (who also cooked many of the yummy dishes for us) and the lady on the right is my boyfriend's brother wife. Yes, I know it's confusing. Don't hurt yourself.
And here's a pic of the 3 boys. Cute little buggers, aren't they?
Now I usually wouldn't bother to put up pics of people I barely know, except that one of the sons had a very interesting ability, which you can see in the next pic...
The little fella has a magnetic nose! He can actually put a spoon on his nose and it will just hang there without dropping off! It works with a big spoon too...
Man, I bet that kid could get on an episode of Ripley's Believe It or Not. Haha! Anyway, it turns out the mother could do it too, so we know where he got it from. Some of the other guests tried to do it, including me. The spoon sticked on my nose for a while, I think it was coz' of the oil on my nose and not coz' of magnetism. LOL! Anyway, I didn't manage to get any nice group pics with all the guests (which now I wish I did), but here's a pic of me with my bf's brother's dogs, Kimmie (left) and Tuesday. Kimmie's a Shih Tzu and Tuesday is a Maltese mix.
And here's a pic of my bf's brother's neighbour's dog, Hesky, which is a silky terrier. He also has another dog called Mango, another Maltese, which I didn't manage to take a picture of. It's kinda cute coz' my bf's brother and his neighbours have no kids, but both have two dogs, so their dogs are like their 'kids' and the kids get to play with each other every now and then. Haha!
Anyway, we ate our merry fill until it was time to countdown to the new year, after which we celebrated with (what else?) more wine and drinking, before we all decided to call it a night. And early the next day, on the 1st day of the new year, Gerald and I went back to Malacca, and then I came back to Subang on the 2nd. Was supposed to go to work today, but on the way back from Malacca yesterday, I think I had some nasty food poisoning and I felt like throwing up several times on the way back. Fortunately I didn't throw up on the bus or on the KTM back to Subang. And though I thought of taking the bus from the KTM station back to my apartment, I was asked my dad to come pick me up instead. Which is good, coz' I ended up puking in my car. Well, not good for my car, but certainly would've been better than puking in a public place like a bus! Of course, I had to clean up my car when I reached home, and my dog as well coz' my dad brought her along when he picked me up, and the poor blighter was sitting on my lap when my tummy decided to purge itself. So anyway, I visited the doc after that and he said that the floods down south might have contaminated the water there, so I probably drank some contaminated water. Yippee. So I took medical leave for today, which means I get another day off. So that means I've been off from work from the 24th of Dec to the 3rd of Jan, a total of 11 days! Whew! I don't think I'll get a long break like that again anytime soon. *Sigh* but unfortunately it's back to work for me tomorrow. All good things must come to an end. But anyway, Happy New Year, people!
Ok, lame jokes aside, I did enjoy a good Christmas eve dinner party at my church, and I just came back from a very well-deserved long holiday in Tambun with my colleagues, and then in Malacca and Singapore with Gerald. My colleagues and I had a company trip to Tambun's waterpark on the 26th and 27th of December, which wasn't all that great coz' the waterpark wasn't half as good as Sunway Lagoon. We did enjoy going around Ipoh and stuffing our faces with the good food like chicken rice, fried kuey teow and meehoon, and dim sum. And we also went to watch The Curse of the Golden Flower, which really was not a good movie to me. Watching a gazillion people die tragically isn't exactly my idea of good entertainment.
Then I went to Malacca on the 28th of December, and stayed at Gerald's place for couple of nights before the two of us scooted off to Singapore on the 31st for our new year celebrations, where we stayed at his brother and sister-in-law's place. We visited the National Science Centre on our first day there, then the Singapore Zoo on the next day. Both of which I visited last year too, when I was at Singapore with my buddy Kooi Im... but visiting them with my boyfriend is, of course, a different experience. :) And of course, we took a ton of pics as well, which I shall share later on (if I don't procrastinate too long!).
We spent the night of the 31st enjoying a great home-cooked dinner at Gerald's brother's place, together with his neighbours and some of their friends. They called it a barbecue... which for me just means bringing out the slabs of meat and some sausages, throwing them on the grill and that's about the best food we get. I experienced quite a different version with them, coz' in addition to the 'normal' barbequed food like chicken and sausages, we also got some really high class stuff like oysters, mussels, scallops, pasta and some other fancy foods which I'm not even sure what they're called. And they also brought out God-knows how many different types of alcohol, and different glasses for each type of drink. I'm pretty sure I've never drank from so many different types of glasses during one meal in my entire life. Just look at this!
The big glass on the right is for red wine (I drank two glasses of that), the one next to it is for white wine (drank one glass of that), the middle one is for juice (3 glasses), the second one from the left, I can't even remember what it was for, but I drank it anyway, and the smallest one is for Snapps, which was to be drank all one shot and supposedly helped to burn away the pasta we ate. Well, I had two rounds of that. And even after drinking all that, amazingly I still wasn't drunk. Now a lot of people tell me that I might think I'm not drunk when I actually am, but I seriously think I wasn't drunk at all. Up until someone brought out the champagne and filled it into the second glass from the right. After a couple of glass of that, that's when I started to see the world spinning a bit. But I could still walk properly and I didn't throw up, which was good. Cheers, mate!
Well, in addition to celebrating the arrival of a new year, we were also celebrating the birthday of one of the guest's sons. This Swiss guy named Dennis was there with his Chinese wife and 3 sons, and so we all celebrated the birthday together. So here's pic of Dennis at the end of the table, with his wife on the right and 3 kids on the left. The guy on the left is my boyfriend's brother's neighbour (who also cooked many of the yummy dishes for us) and the lady on the right is my boyfriend's brother wife. Yes, I know it's confusing. Don't hurt yourself.
And here's a pic of the 3 boys. Cute little buggers, aren't they?
Now I usually wouldn't bother to put up pics of people I barely know, except that one of the sons had a very interesting ability, which you can see in the next pic...
The little fella has a magnetic nose! He can actually put a spoon on his nose and it will just hang there without dropping off! It works with a big spoon too...
Man, I bet that kid could get on an episode of Ripley's Believe It or Not. Haha! Anyway, it turns out the mother could do it too, so we know where he got it from. Some of the other guests tried to do it, including me. The spoon sticked on my nose for a while, I think it was coz' of the oil on my nose and not coz' of magnetism. LOL! Anyway, I didn't manage to get any nice group pics with all the guests (which now I wish I did), but here's a pic of me with my bf's brother's dogs, Kimmie (left) and Tuesday. Kimmie's a Shih Tzu and Tuesday is a Maltese mix.
And here's a pic of my bf's brother's neighbour's dog, Hesky, which is a silky terrier. He also has another dog called Mango, another Maltese, which I didn't manage to take a picture of. It's kinda cute coz' my bf's brother and his neighbours have no kids, but both have two dogs, so their dogs are like their 'kids' and the kids get to play with each other every now and then. Haha!
Anyway, we ate our merry fill until it was time to countdown to the new year, after which we celebrated with (what else?) more wine and drinking, before we all decided to call it a night. And early the next day, on the 1st day of the new year, Gerald and I went back to Malacca, and then I came back to Subang on the 2nd. Was supposed to go to work today, but on the way back from Malacca yesterday, I think I had some nasty food poisoning and I felt like throwing up several times on the way back. Fortunately I didn't throw up on the bus or on the KTM back to Subang. And though I thought of taking the bus from the KTM station back to my apartment, I was asked my dad to come pick me up instead. Which is good, coz' I ended up puking in my car. Well, not good for my car, but certainly would've been better than puking in a public place like a bus! Of course, I had to clean up my car when I reached home, and my dog as well coz' my dad brought her along when he picked me up, and the poor blighter was sitting on my lap when my tummy decided to purge itself. So anyway, I visited the doc after that and he said that the floods down south might have contaminated the water there, so I probably drank some contaminated water. Yippee. So I took medical leave for today, which means I get another day off. So that means I've been off from work from the 24th of Dec to the 3rd of Jan, a total of 11 days! Whew! I don't think I'll get a long break like that again anytime soon. *Sigh* but unfortunately it's back to work for me tomorrow. All good things must come to an end. But anyway, Happy New Year, people!
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Merry Christmas!!
Good grief, is it Christmas again already? Man, where does the time go... in a few days it's gonna be a whole new year.... and for the first time, I actually have a boyfriend to celebrate it with. :D Just so you know, Gerald and I are going to Singapore for new year's celebration. Should be fun...just hope that we won't get stuck forever in Johor coz' of all the floods. :( Well, I suppose I shouldn't be the one complaining if we do... lotsa poor Johoreans are struggling coz' the flood has ruined their homes. Man, the weather these days is insane. Must be coz' of all the global warming... Hope the floods clear up soon and the people there will be able to cope....
Anyway, before my topic starts straying into the black abyss of nothingness, sorry that I've been missing in action for the past couple of weeks. As you would all know by now if you've reading my blog (or noticing the lack of blog entries), I have been superbly busy coz' of school holiday camps...but the last camp was on Friday, after which I was literally jumping for joy! No more having to wake up at unearthly hours, working til late, carrying heave stuff all over the place and babysitting people's kids for half the day. *Whew!* I mean, I like kids... but when I have to deal with certain..... 'interesting characters' for six hours in one day, and then have to see those same 'interesting characters' at one or two more other camps... it kind of gets very da exasperating. Among some examples of interesting characters are:
- A brother and sister who will ask the instructor every single question they can think of once every 10 seconds. And they just don't stop talking. And when they ask questions and we try to explain it them, they say they don't understand, so we have to explain again.
- A kid who complained about the how green everything was, coz' we were outdoors in the Malaysian Agriculture Park, and facing a very green paddy field. He even complained that the plasticine we gave him was green. Truly a city kid, that one.
- A 6 year girl who laughs so loud that people could hear her from a mile away. And when we are taking a tour of the camp venue, she would just run off on her own, and ignore anyone calling her name. Not a good thing when having a camp at Sunway Lagoon!!! But coz' she was so cute and friendly, we all loved her anyway. And this one stuck to me quite a bit too...which was nice, but also a bit exasperating coz' every now and then she would jump up and hug me so hard, I could barely breathe... :P
And those are just some of the very many 'interesting characters' I had to deal with in the past month. Among other things, the new agong's children also joined us for two of the camps. The new agong has four kids, Tunku Nadhirah (aged 10), DYTM Tunku Muhd. Ismail (aged 8, and the next sultan of Terengganu), Tunku Muaaz (aged 6) and Tunku Zahra (aged 5).
They were really quiet and well-behaved on the first camp... and even though we were informed to address the eldest boy as 'Tuanku' and the others as 'Tunku', in the end, we realised they preferred to be called by their own names. And the younger ones were really cute. In the second camp they joined, which was at the National zoo, there was one activity where the kids got to eat some jelly worms and other sweets. The younger boy, Tunky Muaaz, liked the jelly worms so much, he grabbed all them, and after that he became so hyperactive, their caretakers were a bit peeved with us. :P The kids also had to have bodyguards and a few caretakers follow them wherever they went too. Once when Tunku Muaaz cut his hand slightly at the zoo, all his caretakers were crowding around him just to put a band-aid on him. I didn't even know what all the fuss was about til' my colleague told me later. The kid even had to make the oh-so-important decision of which cartoon band-aid he wanted on his hand. Deary me... now that's what I call pampering.
Anyway, even after all the camps, my work wasn't completely done, coz' yesterday was my church's Christmas eve dinner party, where I performed the High School musical dance with a bunch of kids, and I also emcee-ed...which is something I've never done before, and I don't think I was too good, so I think that might be my last time emcee-ing for anything. I'm much more comfortable doing a performance which I've rehearsed many times and know exactly what I need to do, instead of emcee-ing and trying to think of something interesting to say off the top of my head, other than superbly lame Christmas jokes. :P But people told me I did well, so I'll take that. I'm not quite sure how my dance went, coz' since I was dancing too, I couldn't exactly see how my kids behind me were doing. But from what I know, the older ones did well, but the youngers ones were pretty blur. Ah well, it's to be expected. As long as everyone enjoyed it, which they did, which is great. And given the dance is actually quite complicated, I'm proud that the kids managed to pull it off... And I'm certainly glad that I don't have to watch and rewind the High School musical vcd over and over again in order to get the dance moves down anymore. XÞ
Anyway, tomorrow will be busy AGAIN, but this time not for work. I'm going on a company trip with my colleagues to Tambun water park... it's a treat from our boss coz' we all worked so hard for the past couple of months coz' of all the camps. And we get two days of unrecorded leave too. Yay! And then when we return on Wednesday, I'll be going off to Malacca on Thursday to meet Gerald, hang out there for a couple of days then head off to Singapore for new year's eve. Bleh. I think I need a holiday from my holiday.
Anyway, Merry Christmas to everyone, and I probably won't get to say it later, so have a Happy New Year too! God bless!
Anyway, before my topic starts straying into the black abyss of nothingness, sorry that I've been missing in action for the past couple of weeks. As you would all know by now if you've reading my blog (or noticing the lack of blog entries), I have been superbly busy coz' of school holiday camps...but the last camp was on Friday, after which I was literally jumping for joy! No more having to wake up at unearthly hours, working til late, carrying heave stuff all over the place and babysitting people's kids for half the day. *Whew!* I mean, I like kids... but when I have to deal with certain..... 'interesting characters' for six hours in one day, and then have to see those same 'interesting characters' at one or two more other camps... it kind of gets very da exasperating. Among some examples of interesting characters are:
- A brother and sister who will ask the instructor every single question they can think of once every 10 seconds. And they just don't stop talking. And when they ask questions and we try to explain it them, they say they don't understand, so we have to explain again.
- A kid who complained about the how green everything was, coz' we were outdoors in the Malaysian Agriculture Park, and facing a very green paddy field. He even complained that the plasticine we gave him was green. Truly a city kid, that one.
- A 6 year girl who laughs so loud that people could hear her from a mile away. And when we are taking a tour of the camp venue, she would just run off on her own, and ignore anyone calling her name. Not a good thing when having a camp at Sunway Lagoon!!! But coz' she was so cute and friendly, we all loved her anyway. And this one stuck to me quite a bit too...which was nice, but also a bit exasperating coz' every now and then she would jump up and hug me so hard, I could barely breathe... :P
And those are just some of the very many 'interesting characters' I had to deal with in the past month. Among other things, the new agong's children also joined us for two of the camps. The new agong has four kids, Tunku Nadhirah (aged 10), DYTM Tunku Muhd. Ismail (aged 8, and the next sultan of Terengganu), Tunku Muaaz (aged 6) and Tunku Zahra (aged 5).
They were really quiet and well-behaved on the first camp... and even though we were informed to address the eldest boy as 'Tuanku' and the others as 'Tunku', in the end, we realised they preferred to be called by their own names. And the younger ones were really cute. In the second camp they joined, which was at the National zoo, there was one activity where the kids got to eat some jelly worms and other sweets. The younger boy, Tunky Muaaz, liked the jelly worms so much, he grabbed all them, and after that he became so hyperactive, their caretakers were a bit peeved with us. :P The kids also had to have bodyguards and a few caretakers follow them wherever they went too. Once when Tunku Muaaz cut his hand slightly at the zoo, all his caretakers were crowding around him just to put a band-aid on him. I didn't even know what all the fuss was about til' my colleague told me later. The kid even had to make the oh-so-important decision of which cartoon band-aid he wanted on his hand. Deary me... now that's what I call pampering.
Anyway, even after all the camps, my work wasn't completely done, coz' yesterday was my church's Christmas eve dinner party, where I performed the High School musical dance with a bunch of kids, and I also emcee-ed...which is something I've never done before, and I don't think I was too good, so I think that might be my last time emcee-ing for anything. I'm much more comfortable doing a performance which I've rehearsed many times and know exactly what I need to do, instead of emcee-ing and trying to think of something interesting to say off the top of my head, other than superbly lame Christmas jokes. :P But people told me I did well, so I'll take that. I'm not quite sure how my dance went, coz' since I was dancing too, I couldn't exactly see how my kids behind me were doing. But from what I know, the older ones did well, but the youngers ones were pretty blur. Ah well, it's to be expected. As long as everyone enjoyed it, which they did, which is great. And given the dance is actually quite complicated, I'm proud that the kids managed to pull it off... And I'm certainly glad that I don't have to watch and rewind the High School musical vcd over and over again in order to get the dance moves down anymore. XÞ
Anyway, tomorrow will be busy AGAIN, but this time not for work. I'm going on a company trip with my colleagues to Tambun water park... it's a treat from our boss coz' we all worked so hard for the past couple of months coz' of all the camps. And we get two days of unrecorded leave too. Yay! And then when we return on Wednesday, I'll be going off to Malacca on Thursday to meet Gerald, hang out there for a couple of days then head off to Singapore for new year's eve. Bleh. I think I need a holiday from my holiday.
Anyway, Merry Christmas to everyone, and I probably won't get to say it later, so have a Happy New Year too! God bless!
Monday, December 04, 2006
A good day, a bad day and my first time changing a tyre!
Friday was a pretty fun day for me, coz' I taught another Mad Science camp at Taman Pertanian Malaysia (Malaysian Agricultrue Park), and there were only had 7 kids. After having to deal with 50-odd 4 to 6 year olds at the IBM camp just a few days before, trust me, a camp with only 7 kids was like a walk in the park for me. The most tiring thing about it was just shifting the equipment here and there, and the rest of the day was pretty fun for me and the kids coz' they were all well-behaved. The only problem was that one of the kid's tooth decided to pop out that day while we were having an activity where they got to eat some jelly worms and his little tooth got stuck on one. And one of the other kids had a bad tummy ache and had to poop several times, once on the way back in my colleague's car too (she had to go detox her car seat after that. Poor her!). And during one of the games where the we all had to chase each other, my two other colleagues who were there helping me out were almost ready to collapse coz' they never exercise, and chasing the kids around for a few minutes was too much for them! But other than that, it was a fun day... everything went well and the kids enjoyed it. We went to visit this Four Seasons house at TPM too, which is a building that simulates the same season that it is during ther time in the US. So right now, it simulates winter time, and when we went in there, we got to play with snow and freeze our tooshies off for a few minutes. It was seriously superbly cold in there, and I didn't have any extra clothes, so I wore my Mad Science lab coat in there. The other people in there must thought I was really mad! The really good thing was that it didn't rain the whole day until right after we all packed up and left, coz' our camp venue was this open air sheltered place, and I was a bit worried about what whether or not it would rain. Fortunately, it didn't. Whew!
After that camp was done though, it was back to the grind coz' the next day (which was yesterday), I and another colleague had to do a birthday party event for some 7 year old Japanese kid who had about 30 kids at her party and we didn't have the time to prepare for it before the camp. So we had to stay at office until 8pm to prepare for it, and even then we still didn't finish preparing everything, so yesterday I had to prepare some more stuff before we left for the party. And then, on the way there, I realised that I forgot something important and had to go back to office to get it. And coz' of that, we were late. Then, as there were only two of us doing the party event (all my other 4 colleagues were on leave yesterday for various reasons, so there was no one else to help us) and there were 30 kids, we were there longer than we expected. Two people trying to make slime, super science ball and cotton candy for 30 kids is no fun, I tell you that. And we also had to do some party games, where the 1st game was a major disaster coz' we had to get the kids to blow up some balloons, but the balloons kept popping. And then later, when we doing the cotton candy, smoke started coming out of the machine, which got me worried coz' I didn't know if that meant the machine's wires were frying. But fortunately, it still worked, so I just kept going. I really pray and hope that the cotton candy machine still works!
And if all that wasn't bad enough, after getting back from the party, I had another problem to deal with... my car had a flat tyre! I think it was flat since the day before coz' as I was driving home, my car kept going left when I let go of the steering wheel. At the time, I thought it was because my steering wheel was out of alignment, but on Saturday morning, on the way to work, I suspected something really wrong, so I got out of my car to check and sure enough, my front left tyre was flat. And since I had to rush to work for the party, the only thing I could do was drive to the nearest petrol station, pump it up with air and get to work first. So after the party was over, I had to figure out what to do with my flat tyre. My other colleague also had to rush off to pick up her relatives from the airport, so I had no colleagues to help me. It was a Saturday afternoon, so there was practically no one else around. So there I was, alone in my not-so-well-lit office parking basement, half dead after the party, and wondering if I could actually change a tyre on my own coz' I'd never done it myself before. If ever there was time I wished I could crawl up in a hole somewhere and disappear, that would've been it. :Þ
So anyway, I thought it can't be that hard. I learned this in driving school. So I rummage through my car boot (which has quite a bit of junk, which I must clean out one of these days...) and haul out the spare tyre, jack and other tools which I have no idea what their names are. Then I sat on the spare tyre while I looked at my jack and read the instructions to make sure I didn't screw anything up. And then I had the tiring task of turning the jack to lift up my car. I used one of those tools which I have no idea what the name is (I'll just call it the Jack Turning Thingy) to turn the jack, but I didn't know how to use it properly. So everytime I turned it, the long end would hit the floor, so I had to pull in through and push the other end round again. So it took a while just to get my car jacked up.
Then, I tried to unscrew the bolts using that other tool which I have no idea what it's name is (I'll just call it the Bolt Unscrewing Thingy). I tried to turn the first bolt one way. It didn't budge. I tried to turn it the other way. Still didn't budge. Then I remembered that the way to unscrew the bolts was to step hard onto the Bolt Unscrewing Thingy til the bolt came loose. But I also realised that if I tried to take the bolts off while the tyre was off the ground, I would probably break the tyre off my car! So I had to use the Jack Turning Thingy again lower the jack down so the tyre would be on the ground!! Argh!
Anyway, once I was done expending what little energy I had left on lowering the tyre again with the Jack Turning Thingy, I tried to unscrew the bolts again by stepping on the Bolt Unscrewing Thingy. And I didn't even know which direction to unscrew them. I certainly didn't want to make them any tighter! So it took me a few tries til I finally got the direction right, and got all the bolts off. Even carrying the tyre out was a pain. Do you know how dang heavy this chunk of rubber is? Well, the rim probably adds a lot to the weight. Anyway, I did manage to change the tyres, screw the bolts back on, lower the jack and throw everything back into my boot.
Then I drove back to Subang and got my car checked at the mechanic my dad usually sends the car too. That was also my first time sending my car to the workshop on my own, but at least the boss there recognises me coz' I'd been there with my dad before. The problem was that he can't speak English, so I had to explain in my half-past-six Cantonese that my tyre needed to be checked and fixed, if necessary. Turns out that there was a gigantic-O hole in my tyre, so it was beyond fixing. So the boss suggested that they change my spare tyre over to the rim, and I buy a second-hand spare tyre coz' new ones cost quite a bit. The new spare tyre would only cost RM50, so I thought that was ok to me. He says he didn't charge me worksmanship fee, which I dunno whether is true or not, but I hope it is. The really good thing is that nothing was wrong with my tyre rim, which I think it a miracle considering I was driving at normal speed on a flat tyre the day before. Buying a new rim costs a bomb, so I REALLY thank God that it was ok! So while, the guys are helping to change the tyre for me, the boss told me that my tyres have another 5000 km left in them, after which I have to replace all of them (which means more money...bleh...). He also told me that the Kelisa tyres can run for between 65000 to 70000 km.
He also told me a lot of other stuff, but I couldn't really understand what he was saying in Cantonese, so I just stood there and nodded my head every now and then. *grin*
Anyway, now my tyre problem is solved, and today, I finally had a good rest coz' after church, I came home and had a nice long nap in the afternoon. Tomorrow I have to wake up early AGAIN coz' of more school holiday camps. Dunno how much longer I can take of this, but the good news is that I complained to my boss about working such long hours, and my boss said he'll give us a few days break from work at the end of this month, and we won't have to claim for leave for it. Woo hoo! Thank God I have a nice boss! Anyway, it's time for more shut eye. Cheerio!
After that camp was done though, it was back to the grind coz' the next day (which was yesterday), I and another colleague had to do a birthday party event for some 7 year old Japanese kid who had about 30 kids at her party and we didn't have the time to prepare for it before the camp. So we had to stay at office until 8pm to prepare for it, and even then we still didn't finish preparing everything, so yesterday I had to prepare some more stuff before we left for the party. And then, on the way there, I realised that I forgot something important and had to go back to office to get it. And coz' of that, we were late. Then, as there were only two of us doing the party event (all my other 4 colleagues were on leave yesterday for various reasons, so there was no one else to help us) and there were 30 kids, we were there longer than we expected. Two people trying to make slime, super science ball and cotton candy for 30 kids is no fun, I tell you that. And we also had to do some party games, where the 1st game was a major disaster coz' we had to get the kids to blow up some balloons, but the balloons kept popping. And then later, when we doing the cotton candy, smoke started coming out of the machine, which got me worried coz' I didn't know if that meant the machine's wires were frying. But fortunately, it still worked, so I just kept going. I really pray and hope that the cotton candy machine still works!
And if all that wasn't bad enough, after getting back from the party, I had another problem to deal with... my car had a flat tyre! I think it was flat since the day before coz' as I was driving home, my car kept going left when I let go of the steering wheel. At the time, I thought it was because my steering wheel was out of alignment, but on Saturday morning, on the way to work, I suspected something really wrong, so I got out of my car to check and sure enough, my front left tyre was flat. And since I had to rush to work for the party, the only thing I could do was drive to the nearest petrol station, pump it up with air and get to work first. So after the party was over, I had to figure out what to do with my flat tyre. My other colleague also had to rush off to pick up her relatives from the airport, so I had no colleagues to help me. It was a Saturday afternoon, so there was practically no one else around. So there I was, alone in my not-so-well-lit office parking basement, half dead after the party, and wondering if I could actually change a tyre on my own coz' I'd never done it myself before. If ever there was time I wished I could crawl up in a hole somewhere and disappear, that would've been it. :Þ
So anyway, I thought it can't be that hard. I learned this in driving school. So I rummage through my car boot (which has quite a bit of junk, which I must clean out one of these days...) and haul out the spare tyre, jack and other tools which I have no idea what their names are. Then I sat on the spare tyre while I looked at my jack and read the instructions to make sure I didn't screw anything up. And then I had the tiring task of turning the jack to lift up my car. I used one of those tools which I have no idea what the name is (I'll just call it the Jack Turning Thingy) to turn the jack, but I didn't know how to use it properly. So everytime I turned it, the long end would hit the floor, so I had to pull in through and push the other end round again. So it took a while just to get my car jacked up.
Then, I tried to unscrew the bolts using that other tool which I have no idea what it's name is (I'll just call it the Bolt Unscrewing Thingy). I tried to turn the first bolt one way. It didn't budge. I tried to turn it the other way. Still didn't budge. Then I remembered that the way to unscrew the bolts was to step hard onto the Bolt Unscrewing Thingy til the bolt came loose. But I also realised that if I tried to take the bolts off while the tyre was off the ground, I would probably break the tyre off my car! So I had to use the Jack Turning Thingy again lower the jack down so the tyre would be on the ground!! Argh!
Anyway, once I was done expending what little energy I had left on lowering the tyre again with the Jack Turning Thingy, I tried to unscrew the bolts again by stepping on the Bolt Unscrewing Thingy. And I didn't even know which direction to unscrew them. I certainly didn't want to make them any tighter! So it took me a few tries til I finally got the direction right, and got all the bolts off. Even carrying the tyre out was a pain. Do you know how dang heavy this chunk of rubber is? Well, the rim probably adds a lot to the weight. Anyway, I did manage to change the tyres, screw the bolts back on, lower the jack and throw everything back into my boot.
Then I drove back to Subang and got my car checked at the mechanic my dad usually sends the car too. That was also my first time sending my car to the workshop on my own, but at least the boss there recognises me coz' I'd been there with my dad before. The problem was that he can't speak English, so I had to explain in my half-past-six Cantonese that my tyre needed to be checked and fixed, if necessary. Turns out that there was a gigantic-O hole in my tyre, so it was beyond fixing. So the boss suggested that they change my spare tyre over to the rim, and I buy a second-hand spare tyre coz' new ones cost quite a bit. The new spare tyre would only cost RM50, so I thought that was ok to me. He says he didn't charge me worksmanship fee, which I dunno whether is true or not, but I hope it is. The really good thing is that nothing was wrong with my tyre rim, which I think it a miracle considering I was driving at normal speed on a flat tyre the day before. Buying a new rim costs a bomb, so I REALLY thank God that it was ok! So while, the guys are helping to change the tyre for me, the boss told me that my tyres have another 5000 km left in them, after which I have to replace all of them (which means more money...bleh...). He also told me that the Kelisa tyres can run for between 65000 to 70000 km.
He also told me a lot of other stuff, but I couldn't really understand what he was saying in Cantonese, so I just stood there and nodded my head every now and then. *grin*
Anyway, now my tyre problem is solved, and today, I finally had a good rest coz' after church, I came home and had a nice long nap in the afternoon. Tomorrow I have to wake up early AGAIN coz' of more school holiday camps. Dunno how much longer I can take of this, but the good news is that I complained to my boss about working such long hours, and my boss said he'll give us a few days break from work at the end of this month, and we won't have to claim for leave for it. Woo hoo! Thank God I have a nice boss! Anyway, it's time for more shut eye. Cheerio!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)