Sharon Lai's Birthday Celebration at Upperstar, Damai Plaza 12 April 2008

Straight after work at 1p.m., I drove to Damai Plaza. There were so many drivers searching for a parking bay. After one round of searching, I drove and parked the car at the carpark behind Tong Hing Supermarket.

I was the last one to arrive for Sharon Lai’s birthday lunch celebration at Upperstar, Damai Plaza. Some people had already started eating. Altogether there were 25 adults including Sharon and Rev. Lee and 5 children.

Since I had Wong Yong Vui & Steve Tai’s wedding banquet to attend last night, I did not want to eat something too filling. I had a small plate of ‘nasi lemak’ only for RM2.90.

Shelley Chew, a fantastic cake maker baked Sharon’s birthday cake. The total weight of the cake should be more than two kgs. It was yummy and just right for my taste, not too sweet.

Some of us took turns to recite bible verses to bless Sharon. We also all shared in buying her a chain with a cross pendant.








The Tai Family


Isaac Tai

Work 12 April 2008

For three consecutive weeks, I have been neglecting my filing work. There are so many documents to be put into their respective files. Yesterday from 8a.m. – 1p.m., I spent five hours straight in filing and I did not manage to finish doing it yet. *sigh*

As I get older and as the company’s business is growing, my colleagues and I find that we have more and more work to do. We are not complaining and we are thankful of the work to keep us busy all the time. But sometimes there is so much to do until we really do not know where to start. It is during this kind of hour that I pray to God to guide me and to lead me. Everything seems to be urgent and due the day before. Therefore, everybody is going through tremendous work pressure. No wonder the white hair on my head is a never ending story.

Back Up Files

Two days ago when I was switching on my work pc, my colleagues and I smelt a bad burning smell coming out from it. I quickly switched the pc off and restarted it again. After that I quickly use my personal pen drive to back up all my files.

Up until last year, for nine years I have been backing up all accounting files but I never back up my admin files. Suddenly the harddisk drive failed on me twice within a couple of months. The good thing was that I had printed out a hard copy of most of my admin work.

From then onwards, I make sure I back up all my files at least once a week. But sometimes busyness and forgetfulness can prevent me from doing so.

I requested the pc technician to come and check for me. He said it might be one pc component got burnt but that component did not affect the running of the pc as a whole and that I could continue using it until something happens.

Form BE

Once again a reminder to everyone that your Form BE ie. Return Form of an Individual (Resident Who Does Not Carry on Business) for Year of Assessment 2007 will be due at the end of this month.

Tonight I am disciplined enough to sit down and sorted out all the relevant documents pertaining to this matter. I have also finished filling in the form. I am so proud of myself. I do not have to think about it for another year. Hehe! Yeah!

This time round I have to pay additional tax of more than double of what I paid last year. Money comes in, money goes out. Is that what makes the world go round? Haha Of course not.

Senior still Need to be Spoon Fed

The boss was in the office for almost two hours this morning. My colleague ‘dog’ (let me called him EJ from now onwards. I feel rather bad calling him ‘dog’) did not show the boss the work he had finished.

After the boss left the office, he called me on my office mobile phone and told me to check on EJ’s work. After hanging up, I asked EJ whether he had finished the work. He said yes. I asked him why he did not show the boss earlier on. That moron had the courtesy to tell me boss did not ask him. Upon hearing that, I cannot control myself any longer. I reprimanded him for not taking the initiative to show the boss first. Afterall for as long as I have been working in the company, the boss has been reminding everyone to show him whatever work he/she has done and not to just sit on it. I also asked him how is the boss supposed to remember everything everyone is doing when he has been extremely busy lately. EJ kept quiet.

This is the kind of attitude the boss and I have to face each single weekday. People cannot just be proactive but still need to be spoon fed. And this guy is supposed to be a senior. What sort of baloney is that!

Last week after the junior left on 24 hours’ notice, the Senior Design Engineer reprimanded EY for pushing the bulk of his work to the junior. Yesterday another colleague also revealed something shameful he had done. For too long everyone has been keeping their thoughts about him to ourselves but when we could not stand it anymore, everything came out consecutively. Serves him right.

Also when KY came to office this morning, EY also had the guts to tell KY that the pizzas he bought the other day were not sufficient. I did not hear KY’s respond but if it was me, I would have given him a piece of my mind and told him to get his own if he so wants to eat more.

Recently the boss has also been chasing another colleague NE for her work. She managed to finish it and we had extended the amendments to the client yesterday. When NE told another colleague AC that she had completed her part and therefore AC has to continue on doing her part, AC scolded NE for doing her work so fast. AC said that NE should take her sweet time. Can you believe this is the kind of attitude people have? They rather sit down there doing nothing and get paid for it. Truly unbelieavable.

Back to Basic Black

I used to love to wear black from top to bottom – blouse or shirt, pants or skirt, socks or stockings and shoes including high heels when I was in Down Under. I have not done that for almost fifteen years.


Photo taken on 23 July 1988 (almost 10 years ago)
in a friend's room in North Wollongong, NSW, Down Under

Five months ago when I was in Kuala Lumpur, I bought a black colour blouse and a black colour t-shirt. Last month when I was there again, I bought another three black colour blouses. The first one has white stripes, the second one has gold stripes while the third one is completely black. I only managed to wash some of the clothes recently and the maid ironed them for me.

Today I wore the one completely black with black pants to work. Only the belt is brown colour. I also wore black colour shoes.

No bonus :(

Today the office boy TI asked me whether I forgot to pass his bonus to the boss to give it to TI. I did not want to be the villain in this situation but I told TI that not everyone received the bonus this time round, which was the truth.

The problem with some of my colleagues is that they like to blab this kinda things out ie. bonus or increment. They cannot keep it to themselves.

In fact the first person to receive the bonus was the Senior Design Engineer PT. So I asked another colleague KK who sits in the same room as PT whether he mentioned anything after receiving his bonus. KK said PT did not utter a single word. This is the type of person I think my boss appreciates.

One colleague even told the rest of her gang she received two months bonus. If that is how she counts then on her next pay I can just write in her cheque the figure of only a third of what her real pay is. This person likes to tell white lies all the time. She does not know that people can countercheck with each other to see whether what she was saying is truth or lie. Not that she cares. She can tell lies without blinking her eyes. I suspect she was the one who blurted out to TI re. the bonus.

After hearing what I said, TI went to get his EA Form and showed me his bonus amount. Ya, as if I do not know, whereas I was the one who prepared it. The boss must have told him that there is still a balance in the bonus amount to be given. But I had to explain to him that the balance would only be given out at the end of May. Then he left me with a dejected look on his face. Poor guy.

Because someone cannot keep her mouth shut, another person is not happy. *sigh*

Lizard Lurking Around

Last night as I was lying in bed about to go to dreamland, I saw a lizard on the ceiling at a position exactly on top of my face. I think it must be trying to catch a mosquito. I was so scared it would drop directly on me.

I was about to switch off the bed light when I heard a sound of something dropped. Yes, the lizard dropped and thank God at that time it was not directly above me. Otherwise I think I would become hysterical.

The drop did not deter the lizard from giving up in catching the mosquito. Once again, I saw it lurking around on the ceiling and I gave it a chance to go around my room twice before I switched off the light.

Happy Half Century

Yesterday my colleague KY who advised me to exercise asked me another question recently. He asked me whether I like to eat pizza. So I told him yes.

The reason he asked me the question was because when another collegue treated us ‘goreng pisang’ (fried bananas) last week, I did not take any. The reason was also because I was coughing. (Btw, I am still coughing right now). In fact I like savoury food more than sweet food. If I go for buffet spread, I can miss out on dessert totally.

Yesterday when my colleague Nanie Enggam and I were on the way back from our lunch, I told her that KY asked me whether I like to eat pizza. Nanie told me I should have told him “Yes I like to eat pizza. Where is the pizza? I wanna eat now!” Haha

So today I wrote her a note when KY was passing by our desks. “Spinxie speaking to KY: ‘I am hungry right now. Can I have the pizza?” Nanie laughed and told me I should tell KY directly. Of course I would never do that.

At midday, true enough KY came back to the office with three Pizza Hut pizzas and two bottles of Pepsi. Nanie and I just stared at each other. We did not speak a word about the note I passed to her so there was no way KY knew what I was thinking. It was just pure coincidence. And one of my wishes that came true right before my very eyes! Hehe

When the boss saw KY holding the pizzas, he announced to everyone that there were pizzas to eat. On hearing this, the ‘dog’ (the one who recently said that he had been working like a dog) who is a very thick face person quickly went to the kitchen. On the way there when he saw only three pizzas, he had the audacity to utter ‘Where got enough?’. Luckily my boss heard what he said and told him that he was a bit too much.

My boss and some colleagues asked KY whether today is his birthday. He did not answer them and said ‘Oh, just want to make a happy occasion, that’s all’.

My boss suggested that we should each take turns to treat each other once a week. If he ever says that again, I will definitely nominate the ‘dog’ first. You see, this ‘dog’ has been in the company for more than ten years but he has never treated anyone to anything. He can even ask a colleague to buy lunch for him but when the food was placed in front of him, he had the guts to tell the person he did not have money and told the person to take home the take away chicken rice for dinner!

In fact in our books, this ‘dog’ has always been too much ie. too much eating (esp. when there are free food available) and wasting time plus passing the bulk of his work to the colleague who just resigned last month on 24 hours’ notice. He is supposed to be a senior but he is so slow in his work.

So today we gave him a new nickname ‘Works like a tortoise but eats like a tiger’. (In this case the phrase ‘slow but steady will definitely not win the race’)

There are two dozens pieces altogether in three pizzas shared among 12 people. We calculated as follows.

1. 3 people only ate 2 pieces each ie. 3 x 2 = 6
2. 2 people only ate 1.5 pieces each ie. 2 x 1.5 = 3
3. 1 person only ate 1 piece ie. 1 x 1 = 1.

The total of that was 10 pieces eaten by 6 people. The balance of 14 pieces were shared among another 6 people of which half were females.

We think that the ‘dog’ must have eaten at least 4 pieces. That is the kind of person he is. He is so damn selfish and never think of others. When it comes to food, he can gobble up anything you put in front of him at the speed of light but when it comes to work, he can just shirk his responsibility to someone else! Everyone else still had to have lunch after eating the pizza/s but he was the only one who skipped lunch.

He is so damn lazy until I suspect he must be the one who put the spoon he used to stir his hot drink into my cup filled with hot water (to get rid of the Milo stain) yesterday since I did not have time to wash it until 5.30p.m. If I can catch the culprit doing it, I will definitely shove the spoon down his throat!

When I had time to check on everyone’s birthday this afternoon, only then I found out that today is indeed KY’s birthday. He turns 50. Happy half century KY.

Extremely Hot Weather

The weather has been extremely hot these two days. I have been wearing very thin cotton blouses to work but yet I can sweat in a 16 degrees Celsius room! I thank God I did not have migraine in spite of the hot weather.

Oh ya, talking about migraine. Yesterday two of my collegues who are based in different project sites asked me whether I like to go fishing. I told them I do not even like the sun and that I can easily get migraine. Therefore, I do not like to go fishing at all esp. under the very hot sun.

(I digress - I like fishing but I used to do it during winter in Down Under. Ya, my friends and I used to be so crazy. We can go fishing in the middle of the night under freezing condition and enjoyed ourselves. Really missed those times).

One of my colleagues then told me his wife has been having migraine for a decade. But when she started to go jogging six months ago, the migraine disappeared with her exercise. So he advised me to exercise as well. Then the other colleague chipped in by saying that since I live only four kilometers away, I should walk to work instead of drive. I told them I walked from home to office once before and it took me slightly over half an hour. But there is no way I would do that again.

I think I should go back to the gym one day and start exercising on the treadmill again.

(I digress again - Besides migraine I also have astigmatism (Cantonese ‘san kong’). I think I started having astigmatism when I was born. My mum told me I like to squint my eyes since I was small and that I never like the sun.

I have been wearing sunglasses for two and a half decade. Now I mainly wear spectacles when I am driving. I do not like to drive at night because the lights from incoming cars can cause my eyes to be painful).