Dinner at Home

Jeff arrived back right on time for dinner. Actually his flight was delayed. Otherwise he would have reached home earlier.

Aunty Shirley (mum's eldest sister) and Chloe's dad joined us for dinner.

Pure Bliss

Today there were only one colleague and I working. There was not a single phone call, no noise and no distraction. I did not switch on the radio. I treasure these kind of moments.

Hopefully the same scenario would be repeated next week as many companies would be having the whole week off.

At 1p.m. the colleague left and I ordered lunch from the nearby coffee shop. When one of the staff delivered the food to me and saw that I was alone, she asked whether I was scared. I told her I was not scared and there was nothing to be scared of.

Salary or Bonus?

Today I managed to finish preparing the salary for January 2009.

Included in the salary was an extra amount of RM500 for those who did not take sick/medical leave at all in 2008.

Bonus would only be given out by end of this month. Some people were not happy because there was no bonus. And this people are not the same race as me.

CNY Leave

Our company printer called me today and in the course of our conversation asked me how long I would be off for CNY. I told him I would be following the gazetted public holidays. He was so surprised and uttered out, ‘So, you are not Chinese?’ So I told him I am not a pure Chinese.

I do not like to take leave and stay home to do nothing. I rather be at work. Moreover I have a lot of backlogs to catch up on next week while most of the other companies are on leave the whole week.

Does not taking leave during CNY make me not a Chinese?

Red Packets Time

CNY 2009 will be in five days’ time.

Two days ago I received my first two red packets. One was given by my paternal step-grandmother (my late paternal grandfather’s second wife) and another one given by her daughter-in-law. They passed the red packets via my brother who was in Sandakan recently.

Today I received the third red packet. Contractor Wong CZ has been giving me for the past years. I thought with the economic downturn, the amount given would be less but I was in for a surprise.

Hopefully the grand total of these three red packets would be enough to cover our family reunion dinner this Sunday night and I do not need to fork out extra money from my own pocket. This year is my turn to treat the whole family.

Contradictions

Recently I posted about all employees who are contributing to the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) have the liberty to choose to contribute either 8% or 11% of the monthly salary from end of this month onwards for two years. The Government thinks that by putting more money in the people’s pocket, they would spend the money and boost the economy.

But from end of this month onwards as well, all employees are paying more monthly income tax as compared to last year.

So on one hand the Government wants the people to have more money to spend but on the other hand the Government wants people to pay higher tax.

Does it make sense or not?

Does the Government know what they are doing?

The mind boggles …

Coughing

I have been coughing since last week.

The coughing started when the boss used an extremely strong scent in his room.

Previously when he had done the same thing last year, I had already told the lady boss to tell him I cannot stand the smell due to my asthma background. I would keep on coughing non-stop. I think he must have forgotten.

When it happened again last Thursday, I started coughing non-stop until now. I have been taking cough mixture and lozenges but yet the cough is still lingering on.

Worst still is that the virus has spread to some colleagues and today so many of them are coughing as well.

Sigh …

Dinner at Home

Braised Pork

Cabbage with Beef and Tomatoes

'Hai Nan' Chicken

Veges

Honesty

Today I received a phone call from Pizza Hut re. the cash payment I made two days ago for the pizzas the boss ordered online. Payment was made using credit card and I was not being informed by the lady boss. The staff from Pizza Hut said she will ask the same delivery boy to give me back the money once he clocked in at work at 5p.m.

Talking about honesty, I can still remember two incidents in my life, among others, how people had been honest to me.

1. During my first year of high school in Sydney, I dropped my wallet on the train on the way home from school. Besides having cash in the wallet, there were things like travel pass (with the pass all students were allowed to travel on trains and school buses for free when wearing uniform and half price when not wearing one), school pass, etc.

I thought that would be the end of my wallet but a few days after that, a good Samaritan who had found my wallet on the train posted back using his/her own money the wallet to my house address. There was not a single thing missing from my wallet. I could not thank the good Samaritan because he/she did not write his/her address on the envelope.

2. A few years back I received a phone call from an officer working in Standard Chartered Bank. I had banked in more money for my credit card payment than I had written on the bank-in envelope. The officer could have just pocketed the money and no one would have known. Instead he told me he would write the correct amount on the envelope for me.

At least there are still honest people around eventhough they are getting rarer and rarer.

Pies and Sushis

These are the two pies the lady boss gave me on Friday but I did not eat them until Sunday.

I had the chicken and mushroom pie for breakfast.

Chicken and Mushroom Pie

Part of Chicken and Mushroom Pie

Generally the chicken and mushroom pie tasted ok except too salty.

I had the chicken and veges pie for lunch.

Chicken and Veges Pie

Part of Chicken and Veges Pie

Generally the chicken and veges pie tasted ok, not too salty.

I made these at night.