My Sneaky Birthday Celebration...

Hhhrrumph...Apparently there was more than meets the eye to a simple dinner at a nice restaurant and a movie later. =) I can't honestly remember when I've been more overwhelmed by all the attention lavished upon me.

I'm deeply touched that everyone put in such a big effort to make the day special for me. Thanks guys and gals! I appreciate everything you all did.

It was a particular tiring day as I had a meeting in Putrajaya that morning so I drove all the way down there for the meeting and just managed to get back to the office by lunch time. After that, I went traipsing all around Bangsar before settling at an overly packed banana leaf restaurant for a most fulfilling lunch.

The typical Friday jam added an additional 15 minutes to an otherwise quick drive home after work. At this point, I was really weary and was just looking forward to a simple dinner with Wan Lee and perhaps a good chick flick comedy to end the day. Or so I thought...

Dinner seemed to proceed according to my expectations albeit the food portion was overly huge and we could not finish the extremely large lasagna portion as much as we wanted to. In actual fact, the lasagna is really a very deceiving dish as it looked really small when it first arrived and I was considering ordering something else besides the appetizer.

However, the lasagna proved to be uber-filling as it was loaded with layers of cheese; *does hand motion* eggs; *continues hand motion* beef; *repeats hand motion yet again* with lots and lots of tomato paste. (Note: Hand motions are part of a private joke ;D)

After dinner, while I was thinking of how to kill time until the movie was supposed to start, I was unwittingly led to this... *grin* Awww..you guys...Thanks so much!

Gee..I can't seem to wipe the silly grin from my face =)

I "heart" the huge Cappucino Cheesecake!

Thanks for taking time to celebrate with me. =D

Thanks for bearing with the last minute changes that I caused. Oops.. =P

Thanks for the surprise 'present' ;D

Most of all, my deepest gratitude to my Dearest Wan Lee for
taking all the effort to plan my whole birthday celebration.

I love you, babe! *Hugs*

PS: Pics are all courtesy of Jase as I was so surprised I forgot to take any pics of my own ;P

Another Year Another Wrinkle...

It is once again the reminder that I am yet another year older. As I look back at the past year, it has been a most tumultuous year indeed. So many life changing events occuring one after another, I could barely catch my breath.

I personally have never been one to really look forward to my birthday. It seems strange to think that people actually need a reason to be nice to you or give you presents. We should treat everyone well all year around and not wait for a special occasion to give presents. If it was up to me, there would be no birthday celebrations at all.

I also dislike the notion of other people going to alot of trouble on my account. It doesnt seem worth it to me and I rather it not be celebrated in the traditional sense. It would be great to spend extra time with my loved ones instead.

I look forward to the year ahead and can only pray that it brings me and my loved ones much joy & happiness and of course "World Peace" =)

The Atheist Professor...

Does evil exist?

The university professor challenged his students with this question. Did God create everything that exists? A student bravely replied, "Yes, he did!"

"God created everything? The professor asked.

"Yes sir", the student replied.

The professor answered, "If God created everything, then God created evil since evil exists, and according to the principal that our works define who we are then God is evil". The student became quiet before such an answer. The professor was quite pleased with himself and boasted to the students that he had proven once more that the Christian faith was a myth.

Another student raised his hand and said, "Can I ask you a question professor?"

"Of course", replied the professor.

The student stood up and asked, "Professor, does cold exist?"

"What kind of question is this? Of course it exists. Have you never been cold?" The students snickered at the young man's question.

The young man replied, "In fact sir, cold does not exist. According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is in reality the absence of heat. Every body or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (-460 degrees F) is the total absence of heat; all matter becomes inert and incapable of reaction at that temperature. Cold does not exist. We have created this word to describe how we feel if we have no heat."

The student continued, "Professor, does darkness exist?"

The professor responded, "Of course it does."

The student replied, "Once again you are wrong sir, darkness does not exist either. Darkness is in reality the absence of light. Light we can study, but not darkness. In fact we can use Newton's prism to break white light into many colors and study the various wavelengths of each color. You cannot measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break into a world of darkness and illuminate it. How can you know how dark a certain space is? You measure the amount of light present. Isn't this correct? Darkness is a term used by man to describe what happens when there is no light present."

Finally the young man asked the professor, "Sir, does evil exist?"

Now uncertain, the professor responded, "Of course as I have already said. We see it every day. It is in the daily example of man's inhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing else but evil."

To this the student replied, "Evil does not exist sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is not like faith, or love that exist just as does light and heat. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God's love present in his heart. It's like the cold that comes when there is no heat or the darkness that comes when there is no light."

The professor sat down.

The young man's name — Albert Einstein.

Am I A Hyprocrite???

For as long as I can remember, I've had a problem with people around me saying they ought to do something and then conveniently forget about it. I guess I don't understand the reason why they express their intention or desire only to do nothing to achieve it.

Perhaps it's only to make themselves feel better that they have taken the first step in reaching their goals? Or maybe its due to lack of preseverance in carrying out the tasks that they initially set out to perform.

It has come to a point where I'm beginning to get confused myself. Due to me still living under my parent's roof, I am constantly bombarded by 'advice' from my parents ranging from "You should study more if you want to pass your MBA with flying colours" to "You really need to lose some weight, you're at least 5 kgs overweight".

At times, I am unable to separate what I want and what is expected of me. I seem to be trapped in a whirlwind of expectations projected upon me by my loved ones and friends. I genuinely hope what I'm going through is not a pre-mature mid-life crisis. =)

Getting back to the topic, I have long believed that I am able to maintain a high level of discipline in my life. Hence, if i want to achieve a particular goal, I am fully capable of succeeding in that task regardless of the trials or tribulations that obstruct me.

So where do I draw the line? How do I differentiate between the tasks that I myself want to achieve and the things that are expected of me? As I constantly tell myself that if I genuinely want to achieve something, I will go all out to get it, does that mean that when I don't feel like putting in the effort and sweat to carry out those tasks, I sub-consciously move them to the latter category?

Does that make me a hypocrite?

Obligatory filler photo of Seatle 2005

Assignments!!!

I seriously beginning to feel like I'm been warped to my student days. The days where I dread every single assignment and procrastinate like crazy to get started on it. =(

Its only my 4th MBA module! How will I ever survive the remaining 8? Well, at least the I breezed through the assignments for the past 3 modules. Who would have thought that Law would require so much research for such an apparently simple straight forward assignment?

*End Rant*

Lunch At KLCC...

UPDATE: No wonder there was a huge crowd at KLCC, apparently there is a sale at ISETAN today and I had no time to check it out =(

~~@~~

One of the few perks of working in the vicinity of KL Sentral the ease of accessibility. Today, we started to take full advantage of this accessibility to head down to Suria KLCC for lunch. This was under the assumption that there would be less people there due to the Friday prayers. Boy were we wrong...

The Putra ride proved to be convenient and hassle free. Buying a return ticket was a breeze and we soon arrived at the KLCC Putra LRT station 10 minutes after leaving our office. It was here that we soon realised our mistake...

All the eating places at KLCC were packed! Every eatery from Mdm Kwan to McDonalds were bursting with people rushing to get a bite to eat before returning to their busy lives. After walking around the entire shopping centre and failing miserably to locate a semi-empty eating place, we decided to settle with eating at the food court.

Call it an eye-opening experience as I have never seen as many people fighting for tables like the KLCC food court. Everytime, I spotted an empty table, I would rush over only to have someone reach the table before me quickly sitting down to mark that table as their territory! What next? People placing flags to mark their homeland?

Anyway, after walking around for a good 10 minutes, my lunch group and I finally managed to get a table where I was left to secure it from hostile takeovers while the rest of them went to obtain sustenance. I pleaded one of my colleagues to get some food for me as I was on the verge on fainting already.

He soon came back with a set of naan with tandoori chicken costing RM10!!! Wow, talking about having expensive food at a food court. But oh well, it is the most 'high class' shopping centre in Malaysia. One should not expect less from KLCC =)

PS: KLCC photograph stolen from the Internet

Moving Office...

Time really flies... Almost a week and a half has passed since my last entry. Well, can't really blame me as I've been super busy preparing for my move to new office. Its been a week of packing all the office documents, arranging for movers to pick up the furniture as well as a thousand other things that needs to be done.

We went through a crazy time of getting rid of all the excess furniture in the office that would not fit into the new office. Office desks were going at RM5 each, Pantry table at RM20, Massive conference table at RM25 and even the 2HP air-conditioning units at RM200 each!!!

Its unfortunate that I could not use any of the furniture or else I would have participated in the jumbo sale to pick up a few cheap items. =)

Now approaching the first week in the new office, I must say it will take a while to get use to after having spent almost 4 years in the old office. The new office has a more central location, after all being located at Plaza Sentral (No Pun Intended, yeah right ;D)

Distance wise, its so much nearer than the 80km I use to commute everyday. Not only that, since my new office in along my dad's route to work, I just follow his car to work everyday. Saves me tons of moolah in terms of petrol and toll! Yippie! *dances around in glee*

I can't really say the same for the rest of my colleagues though. Parking here is rather expensive compared to Cyberjaya so most of them that still choose to drive to work will incur extra expenses for parking besides the increase in distance for them. I just hope we dont lose any staff over this. That would be terribly unfortunate.

The new office is rather small being only 1800 sq ft compared to the 3200 sq fit of the Cyberjaya office. That being said, there are no longer separate rooms for the management staff and everybody now works in a common office space even the CEO!

Food variety here is much better although it seems to be more expensive due to the availability of fast food joints as well as other high class restaurants and cafes. Perhaps I can divert some of my petrol and toll budget towards my food expenses :P

Well, thats all for now folks.

Updates..Or Rather Lack Of Them...

Gee, I seem to have less and less motivation to update my blog lately. Hopefully, it's just a phase that will pass soon.. =P

Had a most eventful week with my long awaited promotion finally arriving. w00ts! And with it comes the decision to stay on in this job or continue in my endeavour to look for a better job. I know that in the short run, I may not be able to draw the same salary that I'm receiving over here but the future prospects of another job might be more signficant. More pondering in the books...

Friday was spent juggling between work and rushing off to attend the start of another brand new MBA module, this time its Law!!! Cripes! *Imagines self in long black robe and a lawyer's wig pacing intently around the court room* =)

Actually, the scope of law only covers Contract Law so no courtroom action is necessary. Oh well.. the module seems rather interesting, lots of food for thought indeed. Looks like this will be one of the more memory intensive modules in the MBA programme.

As the classes extended well into the weekend, which translates into no weekend! I didn't even manage to get my hair-cut which is at least 2 weeks overdue!!! Must remind myself to get it done this weekend together with some clothes shopping!!! Need more clothes!

There, that should serve as a reminder for me not to forget this weekend's to do list. Looking back at this post, I seem to be showing my bimbo writing style on this occasion. Hehe..

Random Pic Of The Day

TITG Beats The Traffic Boredom...

Due to my far away workplace, I have spend at least 1 and a 1/2 hours everyday on the road commuting to and fro work. (Note: Office is finally moving next week, w00ts!)

It can be terribly boring spending so much time on the road. But then again there are all sorts of drivers on the road that can actually keep you entertained. My personal favourite is the "Youngster Who's In A Rush To Zoom To His Doom", you know the type. Those young typically male drivers who speed around in modified versions of the local Protons.

Normally, I just have a good laugh at these young farts who look like they are still in college as they recklessly overtake me and the rest of the KL traffic but occasionally I like to join in the fun as well...

Now, the road that I commute on normally has a high level of traffic especially during peak hours. So when I encounter a very irritating version of the above mentioned driver (those you tailgate and constantly flash their headlamps at you demanding you move aside) , I meekly move aside for them to past.

However, I make it my personal objective (within safety limits, of course) to get back ahead of that reckless speedy gonzales but not by sheer speed but instead using my knowledge of the road traffic patterns an 'creative' driving.

Some of them zoom ahead of me only to get stuck on a busy lane whilst me knowing that particular lane would be busy would have already switched lanes earlier and finally would still get infront of the aforementioned speed demon.

I can't describe the immense sense of satisfaction when I actually get to overtake these drivers. In all honesty, it doesnt happen that often as:-

a) Safety is my paramount concern and I'm not about to risk my life to satisfy my ego

b) The driver I'm trying to overtake is more knowledgeable than me on the road traffic patterns

Nevertheless, it can sometimes provide a very welcome distraction from the routine LOOOoooOOng commute on the road.

Rip Van TITG...

Wow, talk about suffering from massive lack of sleep... Was feeling under the weather yesterday so I went home after forcing myself to attend a super important meeting in the morning.

Think I've been struck by a massive bout of heatiness probably triggered by consuming copious amounts of fried stuff and the piece de resistance would be the durian feast in the wee hours of Monday morning topped up with only sleeping an average of 4-5 hours since last Saturday.

My body finally decided to give up on me...Here's a summary of my slumber activities...

Reached home yesterday at 11:30am...

Immediately crashed on the bed till 5.30pm...

Woke up to have a porridge dinner and watched the Cantonese serials till 8.00pm...

Went back to bed at 8.00pm till 11:00pm...

Awoke in a daze and lumbered over to turn on the air-conditioning as the mosquitoes were busy feasting on my blood...

Responded to the siren call of my comfy bed from 11:00pm till I was rudely awakened by my alarm clock at 7:00am the following day...

Thats almost 17 hours of sleep!!!

So why do I still feel so tired? =(