I set my mobile phone alarm clock to 7a.m. but was awaken by JL when she woke up. I did not get out of bed until 6.55a.m. A couple of minutes after that, my colleague NE called me and told me to get up to see the mountain. I told her I was already up and was brushing my teeth before going out to view the mountain.
Looking at the majestic mountain is something I would never get tired of doing.
The mountain was only visible for 40mins between 6.30 - 7.10a.m. Those who woke up late missed the whole thing.
An Indian couple with two kids whom I befriended and come from Negeri Sembilan stayed at the Kinabalu Wing and had the surprise of their life when they saw the majestic mountain right in front of them when they woke up this morning.
A couple of months ago when the bosses suggested the office staff to go to Federal Territory (F.T.) Labuan on the Hari Raya weekend, only one colleague and I were keen on the idea. And therefore the idea was totally scrapped. After that, they decided to go to Celyn Resort Kinabalu in Kundasang.
I preferred we went to F.T. Labuan as compared to Celyn Resort Kinabalu. The reason is that I had only been up to Kundasang during the National Day long weekend for the church retreat. I have not been to F.T. Labuan for more than 30 years.
Nevertheless, I am thankful that we were able to spend overnight at a cooler place than KK.
For those of us who work on Saturday, we still went to work. There were five people who drove with one car coming from Kota Belud to Kundasang.
All of us could not go into one single shop in Tamparuli for lunch because altogether there were 18 adults and 7 children. Therefore we split up into four groups. Our group went into a corner coffee shop called Mui Hong. My colleagues and I had sweet and sour fish, Sabah veges with eggs and bittergourd with chicken. Though the service was quite slow, the food was worth waiting for.
We arrived at Celyn Resort Kinabalu around 3.30p.m. I was already hungry by then but had to wait until 7p.m. for dinner. The resort was fully booked and therefore we could not upgrade our rooms from the Valley Wing to the Kinabalu Wing.
Steep Road Leading up to the Resort
Lots of Flowers
Reception and Restaurant Building
Lookout to the Valley
Property under Construction
Valley Wing
Kinabalu Wing
Our Accomodation
Kids Playing with the 'Gongs'
I shared the room with colleague JL. Before we rested in the evening before dinner, we sat around and chatted. The weather suddenly changed to a bit cold for only ten minutes. That was when we all decided to go back to our own room.
Everyone was so hungry by the time the b-b-q buffet dinner was served. We had red wine brought up by the boss to accompany our dinner.
The menu consisted of the following.
1. Salad – I skipped
2. Chicken and Cream Corn Soup - tasty
3. Potato Wedges – had about 10
4. Fried Rice – first round finished, had to wait for second round
8. Lamb Chops – the best dish for the night but I only had three
9. Beef Satays – Delicious but only had one dipped into an extremely hot and spicy peanut sauce
10. Chicken Satays – Had two but did not have any taste at all
11. Corn Cobs – I skipped. Did not look appetizing at all
12. Hot Dog Skewer – Tasted ok
13. Mixed Sliced Fruits - I skipped
After dinner some of my colleagues went to the karaoke room and started to sing. We discovered that two of them are fantastic singers. The rest of us chatted until 10p.m. before going to our room to shower and then to sleep. Some of them who were in the karaoke room saw that most of us had left and started dancing. We managed to take a peek and realised that some of them must be drunk due to the red wine from the way they were dancing.
My colleague JL was tossing, turning and waking up the whole night and therefore I kept on waking up as well. But I still could sleep for a few hours. The weather was not cold at all even in the middle of the night.
I wanted to carry the baby girl but she would not let me. My colleague TI told me she does not even allow her grandparents to carry her, only her parents and siblings. So my wish was definitely out of the question.
The little 5 y.o. fella on the left is always running around and packed with energy. He called me 'cheh cheh' instead of aunty and I became his best friend during the trip. Whatever he was doing, he had never failed to check on what I was doing. He has observation skill to the extent that he was looking at my finger nails and commented that I have short ones. He then proceeded to show me his. He would also hold my hand and play with my fingers. His dad KK also commented on how he kept on sticking to me like super glue.
I am extremely happy tonight. I finally had the chance to chat through Facebook with one of my favourite high school teachers whom I have not seen for more than twenty years.
Today Contractor Wong (CW) (the one who usually gives me ‘angpow’ (red packet)) during Chinese New Year) came to the office to collect some documents. I conveyed to him the following incident which happened last Monday.
One of his staff LWC called to query me regarding a Certificate I issued to them for a project their company had completed recently. He was saying that there should be another document accompanying the Certificate. I told him as far as I knew, the Certificate was sufficient. But he insisted that I had missed out on something and asked whether I had received by fax some documents issued by another consultant under us for another project. He wanted me to follow the same format as those particular documents.
I was puzzled on hearing such a thing because on no premise the sub consultant had any right to issue such a document since we were the Prime Consultant. Anyway I gave LWC the benefit of the doubt when he proposed to fax to me. When I viewed the documents (with my company letterhead) as the fax was coming through, I did not know how to react. I could not express myself because we were having staff meeting in the same room at that time. The fax was documents which I had issued to them for another project.
When I called up LWC, I asked LWC’s colleague JC who answered the phone why she faxed the documents I had issued to them. She said she was asking LWC the same thing and he just told her to follow his order. When LWC came on the line, I told him I cannot issue his company the same sort of documents because the two projects were two different scenarios. He did not believe me and said that he would check with his boss. But he never call me back after that.
Well, this morning when his (LWC) boss (CW) heard about the incident, he told me to stop having the smirk on my face. He said he has no idea what has happened to his staff lately. They have been acting rather strange and besides themselves. He is ‘losing face’ because of them. I told him to keep an eye on them.
Today a decade ago I joined my present company. Although I am not one who likes to change job often, at the time I had no idea I would stay for this long. In 2001 I thought I would move to Hong Kong but that plan fell through.
Although a decade is quite a long time, but since I am always busy at work, I feel that I have only been working for like five years.
I thank God for putting me in such a place for I know that if I can survive in this company, I can survive anywhere. The tremendous amount of stress some of my colleagues and I are in cannot be fathomed. If we are late even for one second, some unreasonable clients or other consultants would shout at us. But some people do understand when we explain ourself.
For instance this morning a client showed up at 10.15a.m. and told me I had to get ready all the documents for him within fifteen minutes. The authorities (situated some 45km away) told him that the documents had to be submitted by noon today. I told him I needed half an hour but he said I cannot take longer than fifteen minutes. I suggested to him to leave me alone to get things done while he can go and have a drink. I tried my best and got things done within forty minutes. One of my colleagues knew the urgency of this matter but had kept her mouth shut. I think rushing out the work this morning has shortened my life. If I have heart problem, I think I would have a heart attack. That is the kind of work culture I am in. No doubt this can be avoided if someone has the courtesy to just open the mouth and communicate. Ya, communication is usually non-existent between different departments and the boss has to be the ‘postman’.
My boss has his moments but through everything he is still an alright guy by the normal standard. I have met other bosses who cannot stop swearing left and right; and like to scold their employees as if they do not worth anything. In fact I like working for him because he likes to teach and empower other people. I have learnt a lot from him.
As for my colleagues, they can be divided into two camps. One camp is so hardworking until nothing can stop them, even if the electricity supply stops coming. Another camp is the exact opposite. They prefer everything on the silver platter and they would be most happy if the boss gives them the least amount of work to do. They can just sit on their chair and let time passes by without doing anything. Basically they want to get paid for doing nothing. And they think that it is their right for the bosses to fulfill their every whim and fancy.
The problem with this second group of people is that they adopt the ‘I do not care attitude. You die you die. It has got nothing to do with me’. They do not have responsibility for what they do.
One thing I discover is I cannot force my own work culture on other people. And because of the position I am in, more often than not, I am consider a villain. Now I understand when friends told me no matter what I do, I would step on someone’s toe and that I can never be too close to any of my colleagues. They will never appreciate me for all the good things I have done for them but for the one time that I have not succumb to their whim or fancy, they will remember me for that for the rest of their life.
In the course of this duration one thing that is happening persistently is some colleagues are forever living beyond their means. Sometimes I feel that I work so hard but they are spending my money indirectly. Why do I say that? Well, they borrow money but they have a million excuses not to return back. I am praying hard that at the end of the year when we receive our bonus these people would finally do the right thing.
I try to be prudent nowadays by bringing food from home. By doing that I could save some money for other things. But I do like to indulge in food once in a while so the money saved sort of even things out and I am not spending more.
A lot of people asked me whether I I would get rewarded for being a faithful employee. Well, first of all the bosses do not even remember or more likely do not take into consideration how long each employee has been working for them. Secondly, I have colleagues who have been working in the company longer than me and they did not receive anything as well. So, no. I did not get anything.
Will I stay for another decade? I have no idea. Only God knows.
This morning before we had our staff meeting, the boss asked me how everyone's annual leave is faring. I told him only one person is on the red. He asked me in particular whether I would be taking time off at the end of the year.
I told him to declare 26 & 27 December as holidays and he agreed. Needless to say I was ecstatic. I can have my holiday with peace without any phone calls or sms to bother me. Yeah!
On 5 June petrol price went up from RM1.92 to RM2.70/litre.
On 22 August petrol price dropped from RM2.70 to RM2.55/litre.
On 25 September petrol price dropped a further 10 sen to RM2.45/litre.
On 14 October petrol price dropped a further 15 sen to RM2.30/litre.
On 1 November petrol price dropped a further 15 sen to RM2.15/litre.
Today petrol price dropped a further 15 sen to RM2.00/litre.
The problem now is prices of everything else still have not gone down at all except roti canai and teh tarik. Maybe this only applies to Peninsula Malaysia because I do not take both of these much at all.
I believe life itself is a gift from God and in having a relationship with Him.
I am on this earth for a purpose. I do not seek to change the world but to touch the world of one more person if I could, as long as there is breath in me; and to be a blessing to others.
A food lover who totally agrees with the chinese saying 'to be able to eat is prosperity'.
For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favour and honour; no good thing does He withhold from those whose walk is blameless. Psalm 84:11
The Sun Coming Out
The Sun Coming Out
View of the Mountain from Kinabalu Wing
View of the Mountain from Kinabalu Wing
View of the Mountain from Kinabalu Wing
View of the Mountain from Kinabalu Wing
View of the Mountain from Kinabalu Wing
