decisions

I just came back from my hometown, Kluang. It was nice to spend time with mom, dad and my sis eventhough it was just for 2 days. Or was it one day plus? Anyways, my mom kept on commenting on how much weight I have lost and kept on telling me to eat this and that and eat more fruits and drink more water and sleep early and so on and finally she asked me to keep my hair long. I was, like, "Huh? Why?"


I like short hair now! So fuss free! I don't really know why but she very much preferred me with long hair. Now, I have scheduled to have my hair trimmed this Wednesday. Should I or shouldn't I?
Hmmm...

people come and go...

People come and go all the time. It can be difficult to say goodbye sometimes but then it is all part and parcel of friendships. Today was Burn's last day in the hotel. He has finished his training and we will not see him anymore. He has been my "new bestfriend" for a few months now and has been fixing all my pc probs and pc questions. Now, who am I suppose to turn to when my computer goes crazy?! As hard as it can be, we have to let go and say goodbye. With heavy hearts, we decided to be happy for him that he is going back to college life (plus some envy too).


Well, we decided to go have a nice dinner together-gether. Before we did that, we did some cam-whoring which is something we shamelessly do all the time.

First shot: we decided to take a photo on our office's new sofa
Seated on the right is Ming Hai, our new toy boy.. erm, one of our new interns. :p

And then we decided to use flash and I accidentally snapped while setting the timer... how much more candid can they get?

Then we did a "proper" one. Everyone was supposed to be "proper". We said, "serious one". Then Ming Hai (who hasn't blend in yet) thought it was to be unsmiling and unfriendly.


Then we took another "proper" one because the previous one had this white patch at the bottom of the picture due to the reflection of the flash on the table (which I have already cropped away). So we promptly took a stack of Punch Cards and used it as a stand to avoid the flash. We didn't tell Ming Hai to smile yet and he continued to be... well, serious.

We then wanted to be "funny". Again, accidentally took the photo while setting the timer. I prefer these accidental photos more. :D


Murni was doing a full body thingie. Shiow Ling was probably doing the Ultraman. Burn was doing an insecure baby boy thing. I was.. erm... running towards the sofa. Ming Hai was very obviously trying to be 5566.

Bye-bye, Burn. Hello, Ming Hai.

sms

Have you ever sent an SMS to a person and then think for a few seconds and then open up the message that you have sent to check if the words came out right? I have a habit of doing that sometimes especially when I feel like I have not been really paying attention to what I was writing.

I learned how to do this from the first time I got a mobile phone which was in Form 4 or 5. I got a Nokia 3310 which is legendarily hardy and extremely user-friendly. All you need were the 'Cancel', 'Left', 'Right' and a central main button to work all its functions. I could type my message while watching TV and at the same time think about something not related to what I was watching. I could even be replying a message halfway through my sleep and then not remember about it. Sometimes people call me when I'm asleep and I would reply like I was really thinking but then I won't remember what I said when I wake up the next morning. Therefore, sometimes I too wish our conversations on the phone could be recorded each time so that I could listen to it again to see if I said anything... I was not supposed to say. It's like how I read my sent messages.

I don't just read it from where I have written the message under "Write New" after I send it. I close it and then go to "Sent" and read it as how the receiver will get to read. Why do I do that? Hmm. Beats me. But I do have a habit of replying messages while multitasking and sometimes the message might not sound or feel like how I meant it to be.

For example, if I wanted to say that I can't go out for dinner or something, I might have typed (while snacking and answering calls or writing my 'to do' list):

"Sorry, can't go out tonight. See ya some other time!"

But if I were to be really focusing on the message, it might have been typed as(maybe while only snacking):

"Sorry, I don't think I can make it tonight. Hope to see you some other time though. You have fun! :)"



And if we are not pre-occupied, we might be pressed for time. I've been replying messages when I'm busy too but I always try to type it as I feel it. One of the worst example was

"K" (in case you were wondering, it means OK)

Of course I don't do this. This is way too... erm... disconnected.

Erm, how hard is it to type an 'O'? Or and an exclamation mark?

Anyways, I normally type OK as:

"Okie dokie!"

Sometimes it would be:

"Okie dokie! :)"

Sometimes if I am feeling really happy, it would be:

"Okie dokie darling! :)!"

If I were to type to my boss, it would be:

"Certainly! :)"

When I'm not too keen:

"OK!"


There are also times when I have received messages which have had too much attention from the sender and all those flowery words and more-than-one SMS just to say one thing. For example:


"OK, no problem, I'll surely get it done for you because you have been so nice to me. Think nothing of it. What goes around comes around. Maybe one day you can get to help me too..."

OK, maybe it is not just saying ONE thing but seriously, get on with it. I'll prefer:

"OK, no problem. Anything for you.:)"

Wah. Now that's a message which will actually influence me to help the sender when there is a need for it. It will actually encourage me to reply too.

You'll definitely know that I'm not interested in replying a message when I don't even bother to use a fullstop. For example:

"Yeah ok see you soon whatever"

Erm, minus the whatever. Hehe. I'm not that rude.


I don't really use those SMS short forms(what do we call it?). Basically, the SMS short forms are ways to save time. For me, if I were to actually think about all the short forms, I'm actually making an extra effort and am concentrating. For example:

"c u l8er. w8 4 me @ d Ntrance. ttyl."


I will have to also say it out loud to see if it makes sense. Effort, I'll say.


There are also times when I feel the need to use more words, especially when I am asking for help. Haha. I once sent a message like this:

"Base on our friendship of 2 months plus, I need to ask for a favour. Do you think you can assist me with something which I think will probably be peanuts to you since you are an expert in what you do?"

Or something like that. Can't really remember. But I got a positive reply. Cool! So I didn't just waste my time typing. Luckily I use T9.


Wah, so much to say about such an ordinary thing. I do prefer calls but of course SMS is still the most cost-effective and still gets the message across. That is if we actually pay attention while we SMS. I once sent a message complaining about this girl A to girl A. Because I was doing other stuff and since her name was somewhere there in my head, I naturally selected her name and pressed "Send". Dangerous, I tell you. Don't ever do that. Nuh-uh. Oh yeah, that's also one of the problem with Nokia 3310. It is too easy to send a message that I didn't even have enough time to realize what I was doing and stop it in time. My current Sony Ericsson is alright. Not too easy but not tough either. Maybe I should switch to Samsung. My dad's Samsung is such a mystery. But phones being so high-tech nowadays, I guess we really do need to know what we are pressing or clicking to get the functions working, so yeah, should be quite safe. And yeah, I want a new phone. :(

raya mood

Today I joined Hajar in her quest to buy 'baju raya' in One Utama. Although I have just had a rather long shopping trip to Midvalley the day before, I figured that a woman can never shop too much. I told myself that I won't buy anything. Well, we set off very early at about 10.40am to sort of be the first to get to the goodies. Haha! Talk about being kiasu. Anyways, I was feeling really hungry and so Hajar recommended we try Carl's Jr. burgers. I first heard of Carl's Jr. when they had a rather raunchy advertisement starring Paris Hilton in some swimming suit doing a car wash and eating their burger. And it was well-received when its first outlet in Singapore was launched (or so I read in 8days magazine). Well, one thing's for sure - they have achived publicity.

Anyways, OK. Let's have a freaking big burger for brunch!

How big is big?! Their promo cards are as below:

Definitely.

As we were waiting for the burger to arrive, we exchanged stories about work. It is interesting that finally there is someone who knows what I'm talking about because Hajar is in Human Resources too. :) The burgers arrived promptly and the fries were hot from the stove and so I was really satisfied.

Me and my Western Bacon Something Something burger.

Hajar with her 'SuperStar with Cheese'

As you can see, it is about 3/4 of the size of our faces. I guess they have kept to their promo promise. I actually finished mine! Plus some fries! Can't believe? Ask Hajar. OMG, I can eat. It has been proven.

After the meal, we went walking around and around looking for shoes, clothes, etc etc. There were sales everywhere! Except for items that we want, of course. Not as many people as I have expected; with the occasional kid running into your knees. Or popping balloons. Or spilling ice-cream. Adorable but that's a safety hazard! I mean the ice-cream on the floor, not the kid. But nonetheless, it was quite hectic.

We watched Resident Evil too. A movie I had no intentions whatsoever to watch. I didn't even have the intention to know what it was about. I thought it was some show about aliens. Then Hajar told me it was a horror movie. OK. So I sat through the whole movie prepared to feel horrified. Well, those 'undeads' are absolutely horrible and so irritating! You kill and you kill and they keep on coming. Not too bad but would have prefered something like Lust, Caution instead. I think I should watch this movie! So much hype going on about it! Hmm.

Anyways, we continued our search for Hajar's dream dress. Just as things were getting a little too tiring, we saw these people crowd around these yellow people. The DiGi yellow man!! I have always wanted to take a photo with them! SO cute! There were two of them and one was skinny while the other was more 'well-rounded'. I refused to take a photo with the skinny one and had to wait till those kids leave the other one before I could take a photo. Obviously, the round-er one is more popular. It was a bit 'malufying' (embarassing) to be chasing kids away so I asked Hajar to go first. Haha! The yellow man actually already have a fixed pose and fixed smile. I also realize that the yellow men had 4 fingers only! hehe. (I was figuring out why he didn't do the 'V' or peace sign)

Oops, caught me there. Yes, I did buy some things.

By the way, I'm a Maxis user! Oh-oh... Are they going to lose me as their customer now? Because DiGi has a cute mascot? We'll wait and see.

I'm still pretty much depending on my parents for money for this month and so I called my dad to inform him that I have been shopping yesterday and today... with the card. Told him not to be surprised with the amount and stuff.

I thought my dad would sort of give me a long lecture about life and how hard money is earned and stuff and saving for the future. I was prepared. But he said:

"It's OK. I was telling your mom, whatever you spend, as long as you are the one paying for it, go ahead."

Part of me said : Sure, dad. Cool! See ya this weekend!
Another part of me said : Huh... Must pay back... *whine*

Then a tiny part of me said : Of course la, 22 years old already wei.

I also mentioned : "Cut from my allowance la"

But that comment was somehow ignored or my dad didn't hear it and the subject was changed. Hmm. Hmmmmm.... Eeek!

its a cycle!

So another week has passed. I spent the whole week in orientation and training on our hotel's culture. How about my work then? Oh, not to worry because we got new trainees! Three of our sweet juniors from Taylor's decided to gain some experience in HR and what better time than now (when we are so busy).


I texted Murni a few days before she came back to work.

Me: Murni, u coming in on Monday? I've got training for whole week.
Murni: Yes, did u miss me?
Me: Of course! And I need your help to follow up on some stuffs.
Murni: Haha! OK dek...
Me: Oh ya, one more thing. Jon will join and be your toy boy for the whole month, don't worry!
Murni: Haha! You are naughty girl la.

(Don't tell Jon about this.)


Anyways, the supposed toy boy got snitched by the Front Office department and was replaced by other juniors by the name of Joyce, Fahad and Ming Hai. Only one week and they are already making us laugh. Very efficient and what I especially like is they are not introverts. They ask even more than us when we were training. They complain without blinking and they criticise well too. All funny in their own way.

And what Murni loved best was that Joyce and Ming Hai could speak Hokkien so the three of them plus Bin truly felt at home when they chit-chat. I wish I could too. It is like a mini club where you secretly swear at people without people knowing. Haha! Though this is not what it is, it sounded like it.

Joyce is a very cute petite girl who is professionally trained to sing in a famous school somewhere in Singapore. She studied in Aussie too. This is her second degree. We are just waiting for the next trip to Red Box for some big time serious karaoke!

Ming Hai is basically very driven by basic instincts such as hunger and fatigue. And probably something more. In these types of situation, when you hear him talk(maybe swear) in Hokkien, I bet you will laugh even without knowing what it means.

Fahad, is the most cool and calm person of them three. He is also doing second degree (did computer science and decided to switch) but keeps quiet most of the time. Most of the time he doesn't understand what we are talking about because sometimes, we Malaysians don't use proper English. For example:

Ming Hai: You want to go back at 5.30 sharp? You 'wait long long' la.
Fahad: What do you mean 'wait long long'?

(direct translation of a chinese term meaning to wait forever in, you guessed it, Hokkien)

And then we will proceed to explain, each giving our own interpretation, confusing him further. Shiow Ling too shared a story... (She called using another person's phone)

SL: Fahad! Shiow Ling here.
Fahad: Sorry, Shiow Ling is not at her desk. Would you like to leave a message?
SL: No! Shiow Ling here!
Fahad: But she just stepped out.
SL: No! Fahad! This is Shiow Ling speaking!
Fahad: Oh. Shiow Ling?

Maybe we talk too fast. Anyways, he is Muslim and he is fasting this month and poor thing, to fast in a place where people munch all day long.

Me: Hey! Who's Smarties? I eat ya! (Already eating actually)
Presee: I don't know but give me some. (Already pouring some for her actually)
Ming Hai: Fahad sitting beside you la. He is fasting you know. You are so bad.
Me: Hey, he has got will power also, OK. If he can resist this temptation, he gets more blessings. Isn't it?
Fahad: Haha, yes.
Ming Hai: But you get more sins.

-_-


And they blend in really well with our mini "trainee culture". The one where Murni, Ardhan, Philip and I had. The one where we sort of think that "informal relationships" helps sometimes. Like how we will send a guy to ask a girl something or a girl to go ask a guy something.

Ming Hai: Hey I got these few promotional cards from SkyBar.
Murni: Wah... so many. Yvonne last time you went to get info, did you get these cards?
Me: No.... :( they only verbally gave me the info. I had to jot down somemore.
Murni: Wah... who did you ask ah? Did you open button?
Yvonne: Ya lo. Maybe I should wear more frills here around the chest here.
Murni: Ya. Must be orange-orange and with tight sweater. See, so tight. tsk tsk tsk.
Yvonne: tsk tsk tsk.

And then Ming Hai proceeded to explain for the umpteenth time why he chose to wear a bright orange shirt with tiny frill detail at the chest and a tight black sweater over it. Apparently, the shirt (from British India) was too orange and he didn't feel comfy so he used the sweater to tune it down. Erm, OK.


I'm so looking forward to go back to work on Monday because of them. :)

quick one

Dear friends,


We were featured!

at partyout.com

We were at Laundry on a Saturday. Don't really know why they call it Urban Politics. Anyways, I thought I could get a clear picture of everyone together (they came with big cameras and big flashes)...

but that's about as big as the pic gets...

Another one with more people...
"one more! one more!"

Dhany, Ivan, Ardhan and Tonny must be so proud they were not shy that night...
"majalah, majalah!"
(I'm thinking it is linked to this magazine called Juice)

It was a really nice night out and I shall remember all of you! :)


OK, back to work. hehe...