My Off Day.....

I took a day off today, mainly to go for my medical check-up at the public hospital. I didn't manage to wake up as early as I wanted to be, hence I ended up reaching hospital at 8 am (you should see the amount of people queued up for treatment already..sigh). I got myself registered and paid for the fee, we (my partner and I) went off to grab some breakfast. I had a plate of fried noodle and a pack of Nasi Lemak (yummy!). Ever since I started on the medication, I have been craving for lots of stuff. One of it would be those small pack, wrap with banana leaf in a shape of pyramid type of Nasi Lemak.

Ahhh.....I had it and it was so satisfying....

Call me crazy but I brought along my office notebook, hoping to finish off some outstanding stuff that I could not finished yesterday. I start eating my breakfast while waiting for my email to download. Guess what, my company are still use Lotus Notes.. WTH right?. Who else uses that anymore?!?! Gosh.....they need to get some "fresh blood" to run their IT department coz those ancient dinosaurs needs to seriously retire and take their "old school" mentality out with them. They labeled themselves as one of Multi-National Company (MNC) in the market but here they are, proud of their Win XP, Lotus Notes and manual processes like filling up forms, getting physical signature from head of unit, GM and etc in a print-out form. Damn right you are part of MNC *roll my eye*. People are moving towards latest technology - Windows 7/8, Microsoft Suite, Cloud application, paperless & environmental friendly processes to run the company....and here you are, printing leave form, claim voucher, salary slip and etc. Oh well, enough complaining about their technology and mentality, every time I talked about it, it just make my blood boil. Not that I can do anything about it....so why bother.

Anyways, as I was downloading my mail, I saw a couple of urgent request pops into my mailbox. Apparently some US folk sorta messed up some stuff yesterday and those Aussies were affected. Deep down, I was telling myself, DARN, there goes my holiday. Well, I was right.  Pop...pop...pop.... one by one came in - escalation email, one team copying another team, blaming one another. More and more people from all related functional group were making a big hoo-haa out of this. As expected, my boss called me up and asked if I'm able to step in for a while, just to ensure that our part is covered so that they will not find any reason to pin this down on us. In order not to have a dreadful Monday, I said yes and I start replying emails and working on my part.

By the time I finished doing what I need to do, it was about time we need to head back to the waiting area. So off we go, back to the waiting area and waited patiently for my turn. One thing that annoyed me was, the way how the nurses in public hospital treats the public. They have no sense of urgency, not customer oriented AT ALL, rude, arrogant or even ignorance to the people's needs. Not the best combination out there but in reality, that is what we get in public hospital. What a Shame!

The worker there are slow, hot tempered, no hesitation to raise their voice, very commanding and treating all of us like dirt. Come on b*tches, if it's so difficult for you to do this job, just QUIT. You don't have to let it out on those poor, weak and elderly patients. Just because they asked you twice or trying to clarify things with you, that doesn't give you the right to shout at them and be rude to them. Even when they asked them nicely, they will respond back to them in a very annoying and agitated manner. Humbug.... how I wish their kids will throw them into old folks home when their golden year comes or they get ran over by some bus or lorry.

Well, we waited for 6 donkey hours just to see the doctor for less than 30 mins.  Cool isn't it? The level of service we get here is indeed 'superb'. This is how I spent my off day - spending a quarter of my time working and 2 quarters of my off day waiting and looking at rude nurses mistreating their patients.

Finally, I got home around 3 pm after lunch and straight away, I popped in Diablo disk into my laptop's CD-ROM and let it start installing. I know I will get bored with it after 2 days but, oh well, it's better than having to pay for monthly subscription if I play World of Warcraft.

As I'm typing this post, the CD is still running and the installation process is now at 60%. I think I'm gonna take a short nap for now and start my journey into the underworld when I wake up later.

Till then... happy weekend people. I hope mine will be a good one.... cheerssss....

My First Baby-Step....

I wonder what got into me, this is my second posting within the same day and it has been my third within the same week. Suddenly I feel like I have so much to share, not to say I have a wide audience to this blog. but anyways....who care... small group of audience is STILL audience....

Ta-Da.....
My first attempt to bake "Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies". Looks OK isn't it.
Well, try comparing this to the burnt one and you will agree with me that this batch looks the best. L-O-L

Over the weekend, this was my little project, despite feel so sick for a couple of days. I pulled myself out of the bed, get out from the house and grab some ingredients and start baking. I have to say that baking may look easy (try google-ing Nigella Lawson and see how she bake cookies, darn...that woman make it look so easy like stirring a 3 in 1 Milo drink, OK!) but when you actually do it, it is definitely not THAT easy.

Through-out the whole process, I was struggling all the way from measuring the right amount of ingredients to making sure the oven is heated up at the right temperature and last but not least, estimating the baking time. After 2-3 hours of messing up the kitchen, Phew...finally I manage to put 2 plates of cookies with 10 pieces on each plate. Why 2 plates? Let me tell you why. With the total of 20 pieces of cookie, I could only show 50% of  my masterpiece to the public. The remaining I have to either scrap off the burnt part or threw it away.
Check out the defected one...bummer!! Eating these will be like munching on charcoal...

Well, although it did not turn out to be what I wanted it to be, deep down I feel kinda proud with myself for pulling myself for what I did. I manage put some actions into my wish-list instead of complaining and whining about what I wish to do and I haven't gotten the chance to do it.

So will this be the last time I bake? NO way....I will continue to bake and next time, I'm aiming to hit 75% to 80% success rate.

Now, the problem is, I'm just wondering who is willing to be my lab rat to eat / "indulge" into my little "pride n joy" as I continue making them?

Oh well, I'll manage it..... somehow....

Visit to the clinic...

My eyes were red, swollen and watery with lots of discharge since Saturday. This weekend has been a very challenging weekend for me - running nose, sore throat, mild fever and lastly 'red eyes'.

When i woke up this morning, i noticed that all the symptom has subside, except for the eye. It was still watery with lots of yellowish discharge. That made me decide to work from home (not that I am complaining but I sure do miss my flexibility to work from virtually anywhere like how I used to in my previous company) for the day, just to avoid getting blamed for infecting my other narrow minded, conservative colleagues.

I start checking my email at 6.30 am (my job support Australia team, so my working hours has to follow their time zone) and by the time I cleared and complete those important stuff, it was about 9.45 am (time flies.....)

I took a quick shower, pack my stuff, search for my dumb, ridiculous 'Medical Book' from the company (ya, what era are they still in, I wonder) and off to the clinic. One thing that all clinic has in common are, their staff will greet you with a very 'sour' face. Just imagine this, you are sick, you are in pain and yet you are still being greeted by a 'soury and bitterful' face.... Bummer

30 mins has past and I'm still waiting for my turn. The clinic is not that crowded and I'm just curious what is taking them so long.....

Wonder how long is this gonna be ....
Sigh

New Inspiration.....

I met up with my ex-colleague a couple of days back for lunch. She seems all chirpy and bubbly after she left the company. She look so different from 3 weeks back, when she was still sitting next to me. Her signature look on a daily basis would be - gloomy face, lifeless expression on her face, messy hair and she has the look as though she might suddenly go berserk and jump off the building. Yes, it is that serious.

Her problem was her working relationship with her manager which resulted in a lot of conflicts and misunderstanding. Their character and personalities clashes with one another from all aspect - communication, trust, views and suggestion, personal preference and values, personality and the list goes on. What I can say is, it's purely a formula to disaster if they continue fighting and dragging each other down.

As a colleague, I was sad that she decided to leave. That means I will lose my lunch buddy but as a friend, I'm truly happy for her. I told her, it's the right decision to move on and experience the life that she deserve.

So, lunch with her was superb - enjoyed her bubbly presence, filled with jokes and laughter for that the entire hour. Ahh... I do miss those days when she was around in the office. In fact, she was one of my motivation to go to office.

So, in the past 2 weeks, I'm surprise with the amount of achievement that she has progressed. She started her own travel blog last week and guess what, in just a week, people are paying her money to put advertisement in her blog. Honestly, I was truly shocked and amazed with what she has achieved in just 2 weeks. Although it's not a big amount but it is INDEED the first step to everything. I told her how happy I was for her and she should be proud of what she has achieved so far. She told me one thing, which really hit me hard. She said - "I won't have done it without your support and advise. You helped me find my courage to make this step and for that, I'm grateful to have known you".

Wow...OMG.... *kembang nia I.....*

To be honest, I never see this coming and I was shocked. She did called me almost everyday to talk about the difficult sessions she had with her manager. At times, she almost burst into tears by just talking about it. What I did was just listen to her, try to encouraged her and motivates her. Of coz most sessions, we end up doing what we do best - bitching together her about her manager. I find that gives her a lot of comforts and satisfaction but I wasn't aware that it helps her to find her hidden courage.

Hmm.... in the past couple of days, I was not feeling so well. So I spent most of the time lying on the bed, watching "Desperate Housewives" and it sort of makes me think. If I can motivates and empower another person to fight for their dreams, why can't I do the same for myself. I know, it sounded kinda drama but it does flick some switches in my mind.

2 things I have always wanted to do but I did not act on it - pet and baking. I guess I'm gonna start exploring what I can do about pets and baking instead of whining, complaining and procrastinating about it. So, ladies and gentlemen.... wish me luck coz in the next couple of months, I'm gonna start getting my hands dirty on some of the things I hope to do.....

Stay tune......