Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Little Things in Life

Took these photos today. Same target but using different functions.



Was listening to this CD - The Best of Andrea Bocelli Vivere the whole day at work today. Enjoyed the music very much.

Nightmare

Yesterday just before I woke up I had a nightmare.

I was window shopping in a place with old shoplots which I do not recognise. I think I have not been there before and I do not know whether it actually exists in real life.

I realised there were not many people walking around the shoplots. Suddenly I had the urge to answer to nature call. There were a few wooden doors to go in, in a row which I presumed where toilets as there were no signs on any of the doors. I only saw one woman went inside one of them. But as I stepped my feet into one of them, I saw a man walking out from there. I quickly run to escape but the man was following me from behind. I was so scared as he came near me.

Immediately I woke up and thanked God that I was only dreaming.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Staff Meeting

This morning we had staff meeting as soon as the bosses arrived at work at 8.30a.m.

The first thing the boss said as soon as all of us sat down was that two projects have been postponed because the government has no money. Then he said, ‘we will review your salary’. After that his mobile phone rang and he had to answer the call. Because of the first statement he said and followed by the second statement, I think all of us were thinking that we will have a cut in our salary.

The thing that was running through my mind at that time was ‘well, it won’t be the first time. (My colleagues all had a cut in their salary just before I joined the company nine and half years ago) Since then, it never happened again. But with the fuel hike, it was certainly not good news. But at least still have a job though.'

After the boss finished his conversation, everyone became so attentive in what he had to say about the salary review. He explained that since the fuel hike, everyone is feeling the pinch in their pocket and the bosses understand what we are going through at this time. And therefore they will increase everyone’s salary w.e.f. July 2008. Yippee! *phew *

We were extremely happy and relieved to hear that and most colleagues I asked after the staff meeting said that they also thought of a cut in our salary as well, not increase. Haha

Thank you boss for thinking about us once again.

Lunch

This is the Jawa food (curry chicken, beef rendang and mixed veges) I usually have for lunch if I am too lazy to go out (because of the hot sun or I have migraine) with the chilli and soup.


Used to cost RM3.50 for two meats and one veges dishes. Since the fuel hike last week, it has gone up by 50 sen to RM4.00.

Sunrise or Sunset?

I am still figuring out how to use different functions in my digital camera.

This is a photo I took today.


Do you think it was taken this morning or this evening?

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Dinner at Tg. Aru Beach Food Court

Tonight I had dinner with Lily Tan, Sophia Tsen and Choo Siow Chin at Tg. Aru Beach Food Court. Sophia Tsen drove all of us there while I parked the car at the shoplots outside Lily's house in Sunny Garden.

The chicken wings tasted absolutely yummy, very well marinated and cost RM1.50 each. The lamb satays were ok (I had tasted nicer ones elsewhere), and one thing we did not like was that the vendor put the 'ketupat' (rice) on the side and charged RM3 extra for that without asking whether we wanted them or not. The satays were 0.50sen each.



Choo did not comment much about the 'char keow teow', only that the portion was too big for her.



'Bakso' and 'Soto' are Jawa style beef noodles soup. Only difference is there are meatballs inside the 'Bakso'. Three of us enjoyed our noodles very much and I finished all the soup. Yummy.



‘Bakso’


‘Soto’

Sophia was really impressed with the RM4 OJ that she ordered. It was a big glass and the vendor did not skimp on the OJ at all. She shared with Choo.


Thank you Choo for treating us dinner.

Choo bought some guavas while I bought some cuttlefish before we went home.

Normal Cuttlefish
Cuttlefish with Sauce

Father’s Day

In this country Father’s Day is not as commercialised as Mother’s Day. If nobody tells me today is Father’s Day, I would not have a clue.

I lost my dad to colon cancer almost a decade ago. I had blogged about it previously.

Anyhow, time does heal the pain. I can remember the first few years after dad passed away, whenever Father’s Day was being celebrated in church, I still had tears running down my cheek when everyone was so happy celebrating this event.

Now it does not affect me as much anymore. But that does not mean that I do not miss dad. I may not think of him everyday but I still miss him even after ten years.

MSN

Two days ago my colleague NE was using MSN to chat with another colleague JL who is sitting in another room.

Lady boss wanted to check something on NE’s computer and saw that she’s chatting with JL. Lady boss reprimanded her not to do that anymore and told her to concentrate more on her work. Needless to say she was not pleased with that.

That is why for me I always put myself in ‘Appear Offline’ mode in MSN and ‘Invisible’ mode in Yahoo Messenger whenever I am at work. And I would usually only chat when the bosses are not in unless it was something urgent to do with work.

Fruits by Chloe Chong

Chloe painted this during art class at home yesterday.


Mum and I both like the apple.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

The Day I Met Someone who Has Almost the Same Name as Me

Today I had the pleasure of the company of all these lovely ladies for a buffet hi-tea at Café Boleh, Pan Pacific Sutera Hotel.



All of them were ex-classmates except me. They are older than me by almost a decade.

Irene Ng (in orange T-shirt) who was sitting next to me is my former guardian’s sister. She just arrived around noontime today from Sydney via Kuala Lumpur and is staying at Magellan Sutera Hotel.

Mimi Quek nee Yew who is standing behind us is also a member of Canaanland Celebration. She was the one who saw the photo I uploaded into Facebook taken with Irene’s family in Sydney yonks ago and told me Irene would be back to Sabah at this time.

I obtained Irene's email address from Mimi and emailed her a few weeks ago asking if she remembers me. The thing was I did not know that they have a friend (the one wearing pink collar T-shirt) with the same English name and surname as mine. Even one of our Chinese name is the same (and I did put my Chinese name in brackets in the email).

Irene had to try so hard to crack her brains before she could figure out who was this joker emailing her. She thought her friend was being silly for asking her all sort of stupid questions when in fact they have been keeping in touch with each other all along. And especially she is the one who is helping her to book her accomodation at Magellan Sutera Hotel. So we had a big laugh when Irene recalled the whole incident to us.

It is so nice to be in touch with Irene and her family again after almost a quarter of a century of lost touch. And today I am so happy to see and talk to her again.

I will also get to meet Irene’s brother Francis Ng (my former guardian) in a fortnight’s time when he and his whole family come to Kota Kinabalu en route to Sandakan from Europe before they go back to Melbourne next month. Another occasion to look forward to.

As for the food at Café Boleh, it has improved as compared to the last time I was there more than five years ago. I liked the lamb chops, mussels, raw salmon and sushi. The fruit pavlova (I took it to remind Irene of her sis-in-law’s creation of this dessert) was too sweet for me. The cheesecake was just right for my taste, not too sweet.

Irene and Mimi shared the same birthday on 8 June. The rest of the gang insisted that they should share in paying for the bill. I thought we were supposed to be the ones to treat the birthday gals. But Irene ended up treating all of us and thanked everyone for meeting her.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed myself eventhough I was the odd one out. We laughed so much and were the last ones to leave at around 5p.m.


Calamari, Beef Rendang and Chicken Curry

Lamb Chops, Prawns; Beef and Chicken Satays


Lamb Chops, Mutton Curry and Chinese Styled Roast Beef


Mussels, Raw Salmon, Sushi and Jellyfish Salad


More Mussels, Raw Salmon and Sushi


More Sushi, Fruit Pavlova and Cheesecake


View of Outside from Cafe Boleh


View of Outside from Cafe Boleh