Offline for more than 24 Hours

Last night after I came home from work, I was online for a while before I had my dinner. During dinnertime, my niece and mum told me there was something wrong with our telephone line. We cannot hear the voice of the caller when he/she is calling. After that the phone line went totally dead which meant that I cannot be online the whole night last night and therefore I slept early.

This morning first thing after I arrived at work, I lodged in a complaint at Telekom. All throughout today, I called home to see whether the phone line had been fixed but all I could hear is the ringing sound but no one answered the phone, which meant the Telekom technician has not fixed the phone line yet.

When I arrived home from work today and cell group tonight, I also checked but there was still no dialing tone.

I thought I will update my blog tonight in Microsoft Word first and upload the updates before I start work in the office tomorrow. I was surprised when I saw the green light blinking (indicating that the external modem is working) when I switched on the pc just now. I quickly used my mobile phone to call the house number and true enough, the phone line is working once again. Yippee!

The Power of Delegation

I thanked my assistant yesterday, the UMS student who is helping me since last month until end of this month. I told her she came at the right time because there is so much work to do and even if I work from 7a.m. until 7p.m., I still would not be able to finish the work.

I also told her during any of her future holidays when she wants more work experience and extra pocket money, she should come back and help. I will welcome her with open arms.

She has the working mentality like me. We both do not like to be idling around. Each time she has finished her assignment, she would ask me for more. I am ashamed to say she has better working attitudes than half of my colleagues. She’s willing to learn and can learn things very fast.

I like to train a person like her. She does not answer back and take her duties in her own stride. When she does not know something, she is not afraid to ask.

I believe in the power of delegation. I like to teach people who are willing to learn. I do not feel threaten if someone knows what I know.

I remember during my first job at the audit firm when I was transferred back to Sandakan to audit a big timber logging company, there was this audit manager in the Sandakan office whom I think was a total MCP. He felt so threatened by my presence and made my working life so miserable. He even had the guts to cut out job vacancies in the newspapers and encouraged me to apply for them. I am not making this up. I got the hint from all that and told myself I could not stay in that company any longer and I also did not bother to tell my bosses in Kota Kinabalu what this manager had been up to.

Being a Kid

Two days ago the lady boss brought her youngest son CG an 8 y.o. to the office in the afternoon while the boss was attending a meeting outside.

CG was playing computer games on his dad’s computer when nature call beckoned. He ran out from his dad’s room and on his way to the toilet, he told me he had to do his small business. I told him he had to use the toilet at the next door office and that what when he answered me ‘nevermind’. He went back to his dad's room and continued playing the pc games. Wow, he could stop his nature call just like that. I was impressed.

But ten minutes later he came out urgently and told me he could not hold it anymore. haha

Things kids do …

Favourite Food

Had these for breakfast 'Har Kau'


and 1/6 of one of these for supper. Steamed Prawn Roll (before they become prawn crackers)

What do they have in common?

Both are homemade and made from prawns.

I better check my cholesterol level soon.

Drain Construction

These are photos taken this morning on the drain construction near my office after not much rain last night.





Just imagine it after a heavy downpour.

I pity companies which are situated across the road.

Further Update

Today colleague NE had this statement on her MSN ‘hidung tinggi. Orang kaya jahat dan kedekut’. (Literally translated from Malay: High nose (ie. stuck up). Rich people bad and stingy)). Ok so if the bosses do not fulfill your request, do you have to say that about them? Afterall they have been very generous to lend you $ in the past and it is their prerogative to or not to lend you now and not your RIGHT to demand.

This evening before lady boss went home, she signed some cheques and told me to write out a cheque for NE. Eventhough she also agreed with me that NE should not buy the house, nevertheless she still agreed to lend her the $. I thought that will probably shut NE’s mouth up a bit but instead she put this statement on her MSN ‘bosan tengok orang sombong’ (Literally translated from Malay: Fed up looking at arrogant person/people) I wonder who is she referring to? Bosses? Or me? Or someone else?

Lady boss also passed me NE’s file while telling me to write out the cheque. The RM1K for now is only for the booking fee. She obtained 90% loan from the bank. In two years’ time she will have to start to repay slightly over RM1K per month for the bank loan and the total amount of loan plus interest is a bit short of RM208K!

Would you like to be in her shoes?

Go figure yourself and I rest my case.

Glad to be Home

I had seven and a half hours of sleep last night. This morning when I woke up, I still had some phlegm inside my nose. But I definitely feel better today as compared to the last two days.

Today as I was about to reach the office, I had a shock when I saw water overflowing from the drain to the road.

Construction workers have been carrying out work to enlarge the drain so as there wont be flashfloods during heavy downpout but this construction work is like taking forever to finish (just like our office renovation).

One thing good about not going out for lunch is that I can usually have a nap of about half an hour before I start work again at 2p.m. During my snooze time, even the boss could not disturb me. Sometimes when he put documents on my desk and as a result I would move, he would apologise profusely for waking me up. But I detest people who know that I am having my lunchbreak at that time and yet still dropped by the office to see me. If they are not in a hurry, I will not give them face and tell them to wait or come back later at 2p.m. Afterall if I had gone out for lunch, they still had to come later to see me.

Today I snoozed for half an hour before starting work again at 2p.m. I did not particularly care eventhough the boss was in and the lights above me were switched on. I had no more phelgm after that half hour snooze. Yippee!

There was a heavy downpour the whole afternoon which meant that the road near the office was totally flooded and total abandonment by any common sense person would definitely be the correct step to take.

So I had to use the long way, meaning the highway to come home. There were some cars stranded on the highway. These drivers must have been using their vehicles during the peak of rainfall and therefore the cars could not move anymore. Of course there were major traffic congestions in all directions and I was so glad to be home within 15mins.

And to come home to ‘bakuteh’ for dinner on a rainy night like this, what else can I ask for? Absolutely nothing! I am totally contented.

Newlyweds

This is the photo taken by my colleague NE two days ago of the newlyweds. Don’t they look like brother and sister?

I was glad I did not go because it was raining cats and dogs all the way to Kota Belud. Visibility was so bad until experienced drivers had to take about half an hour more than usual to arrive there.

And NE left quite late in the pouring rain and ended up having a flu as well.

Why Do People Go Into Unnecessary Debt?

1. Instance No. 1

Colleague No. 1 is a daughter of a rich contractor and lives in a big bungalow. She comes to work only to pass time and to get away from her domineering mother. She went with her mother to Taiwan and PRC for holiday a couple of years back.

Colleague No. 2 is a daughter of civil servants. She decided to take out a personal loan to go to Canada for holiday. She told Colleague No. 3 ‘If Colleague No. 1 can do it, so can I’. But she forgot that Colleague No. 1 has a rich father to back her up whereas she herself has none.

2. Instance No. 2

It is not a matter of which credit card/s you do have but which one/s you do not have for Colleague No. 4.

Everytime salespersons representing different credit card companies come to our office, Colleague No. 4 would be the first one to jump to the opportunity of getting a new credit card. She is using the new credit card to pay back the amount owing for the previous credit card and this has become a vicious cycle for her.

3. Instance No. 3

For these past 9.5 years, I have been helping colleague No. 3 NE in giving her advances from her salary everytime before month end. Eventhough I am holding the petty cash for the company, most of the time I have to fork out advances from my own pocket to help her. Usually she would pay me back each time she received her salary at the beginning of the month. But the thing is she would start asking for advances again a few days after pay day. She not only owes me money, she also owes the company money.

At first when I heard that she was buying a terrace house for approx. RM168K (after 30% discount for being a 'Bumiputra' and an additional RM2K discount because the housing estate is our company project), I thought that a foreign friend of hers is using her name to buy the house in order to get the discount.

But then she asked me to photocopy her salary slip to put in her application to the Employee’s Provident Fund to withdraw money towards financing the house loan.

I am guessing that the combined salary of hers and her husband should not be more than RM4.5K per month. But she always tells me her hubby hardly helps her with the household expenses and he is forever drunk when coming home late at night, meaning he usually spends all his hard earned money on booze.

During the long weekend just past, she messaged me and asked whether I can lend her RM1K. She had asked the lady boss for the same thing before the long weekend but so far she has not received any answer yet.

(Last year before she went for an operation, I lend her the same amount of money she is asking now, for her operation and up until now, she managed to clear half of this debt)

I replied her by saying that I can lend her the RM1K provided that the lady boss will agree to lend her the money, meaning I would get my money back instantly instead of waiting a couple of years down the road. I also told her I am saving money myself for something and therefore can no longer help her as I have been doing. Otherwise she will think that I am at her disposable everytime she asks as if I am a walking bank, who btw am not charging any interest whatsoever.

Because indirectly I had said no to her this time round, she does not look happy when I arrived work this morning. She said the developer had been chasing her like a madman during the long weekend and she also complained to me that if the lady boss does not want to lend to her, she should say so, so that she can source the money from elsewhere. By the end of the day when the lady boss still did not say or do anything, she requested me to help her to photocopy her last three months salary slip so that she can go and apply for a personal loan of RM1K. Could you believe that?

If you do not have RM1K in your bank account, what makes you think you could afford a RM170K house, and not taking into account the interest payment you have to pay!

I am absolutely dumbfounded by her decision to buy the house.

After all that been said, I always believe in the Chinese phrase, ‘if you do not have such a big head, do not wear such a big hat!’

4. Instance No. 4

Not only have I been helping NE with advances, I am helping office boy TI as well. With the bonus received last week, I thought he would at least pay me back some money.

But he apologised and said he could not because his brother is buying a house and TI with another brother, meaning three of them altogether are trying to get money out from their Employee’s Provident Fund to finance the bank loan from HSBC.

Since the law firm is helping them to get the S&P Agreement done, they had to pay up the law firm when they slapped them the cash bill last week and therefore TI had spend most of his salary and bonus on the professional fee.

When I asked him why he should have to fork out the money for the professional fee when he is not going to stay in the house, he said his brother did not have enough money to pay for the fee. Ok, I can accept that. I cannot accept that but what can I do? Point a gun at TI and tell him to pay up or else I will the pull the trigger?

Today he asked me whether I can lend him RM200 to open a bank account at HSBC. He has a bank account in Maybank so I asked him why he cannot use that bank account. He said because the housing loan is from HSBC. I told him straight I could not do that anymore. Otherwise he will also think like NE, forever treating me like a walking bank. (Since he does not work during weekends, I had advised him to look for a part-time job in order to bring in more money. But he did not take heed of anything I had said so far. Each time he does not have enough money, he will ask the lady boss for company loan)

Ok, I am not being jealous or whatsoever here. I am not acting as if other people cannot own a property. I am just trying to point out that, if something involves me and in the end I feel like I am down in the dumps for not helping them, I gotta share my thoughts. Truly, I was down in the dumps after saying no to both of them but as the day progressed, I felt so much better.

Today’s Happenings

I had seven and a half hours of sleep last night. Have not fully recovered from flu and cough yet. The phlegm kept coming and once again I had a nose that looked like red nose reindeer during Canaanland Celebration.

Left home at 9.30a.m. as my team had to prepare the elements for Holy Communion Sunday today. I was almost done when Monica Leong, leader of the other team arrived to help me out. We always helped each other out and usually we were done before the rest of our team arrived.

Today Rev. Lee talked about ‘Partnership in the Gospel’. He is in contact with a pastor in Sichuan, PRC, the place where the earthquake struck recently. Rev. Lee told us to give generously as the funds collected will be used in setting up an orphanage for children who lost their families in the Sichuan earthquake.

After the celebration, Sharon Lai asked whether I wanted to grab a quick Japanese lunch at Recipe House, Damai. I told her I will take a raincheck since I needed more rest before back to work tomorrow. By then I was having migraine as well.

I went to Giant Likas Kosan to buy the following;

1. A carton of orange juice but the brand Marigold Peel Fresh was fully sold out so I bought mango juice instead.
2. Some titbits.
3. Ice-cream sticks – 4 red beans and 2 durian flavour.
4. Bought a loaf of bread, sausage roll, garlic bread and curry roll from Southern cake shop.

Dropped by Mayabank ATM at Nountun, Inanam to withdraw money not for myself but for my colleague NE (will blog about this when time permits in the coming week).

Stopped by Giant Kolombong Bata shop to get a pair of shoes. The discount period is on right now so bought a pair for RM20.00 after 50% discount. The problem with having a shoes size of 3 is that shoes size choose me instead of I choose shoes that I like. :(

Had Yeo’s curry chicken with bread for breakfast and the same thing with rice for lunch just to finish the whole can on the same day.

Slept for three and a half hours after taking a panadol and took another panadol after dinner.

Hopefully with an early night tonight, I can be fully recovered for work tomorrow.