internet! yay!

I really can't believe I have survived 2 weeks without my laptop! It felt like Lent all over again! but only this time, I'm actually sacrificing something (Yep, didn't do much for Lent this year. Last year was about chocolates. I know riiight.. but I guess I'm just not at the stage to sacrifice juicy meat for forty days, *faints just thinking about it*).

Anyway, my baby laptop has decided to go into a coma and of course it has been on life support for the past one month. I've just been in denial of its medical situation, decided to let it fight off the problem with its own brute strength. Finally, its heart beat stopped and so was reluctantly sent to the "revival" station.

The past 2 weeks of absence was the hardest ever in my history with my laptop. Of course, I worry about... wait, I just realised I didn't name my laptop. I named by car Bee. :).. yeah anyway, was pretty worried about my laptop's safety and more importantly...

my songs and photos are in there!!! its like my whole life in chapters stored in there. I was worried. Had sweaty palms sometimes just thinking about it. And of course, it also died on me during a time when I needed to do my major monthly e-bankings, bill payments, Tax filing. Aiyo.

And I try to while my time away by keeping myself busy... and then I realized that the only thing I do when I'm not working, or e-banking or e-filing, is done on my laptop. *cue drama!

O_O

So I did what most social outcasts did... I read endlessly... it was hard because I'm so not up-to-date with the world!

Like, why did X from Front Office break up with Y? Why, Yvonne? Why? Well, I don't know! argh. How can I not know! hmm.. I could see the disappointment in my Senior Sales Manager's face. "How come you don't know?"

and so... when that didn't work out (I mean, I can't be reading Waiter's Rant, Time Traveller's Wife and Dear John back to back for 2 weeks in a row), I tried texting people more, tried going out for dinners more. But it is just not the same.

I also wanted to practice some Yoga and then I realize I play my Yoga CD on my laptop because the recorded volume's pretty low and needed to be amplified on speakers. grr.

I also got mild OCD. I cleaned up everything that I see. Everything seemed to need a scrub, a rub, some polishing, some wiping. I felt like a grown up woman for once! The maternal instinct to keep things neat and tidy! Or maybe I was just bored.

And when my fingers decided to sound the alarm of abuse, I stopped cleaning and, hold your breath(!), took out my abandoned notebook and my fave pen and started writing a book!

But of course, it stopped at page 5.

So "ma kwai fun", Cantonese for "freaking troublesome", to write and when you think maybe "munch" is more interesting a word than, say, "eat" or "chew" or "snack", as in, "As I munched on that unsalted bag of chips, I suddenly remembered that I was supposed to ta pao fried bananas for my mom and her mahjong kakis". So should I use Munch, Ate, Chew, or Snacked?

Erm, anyways, so when you think you might prefer to use "munch" you have to either use white outs or draw a line across the unwanted word to axe it. So messy!!!

I miss you Microsoft Word!

So when I got my laptop back on my lap this afternoon, after driving 300KM back to Johor for it, I was almost thinking of dramatically shedding some tears of joy. Just to emphasize to my parents how much my laptop meant to me because they didn't agree to send it back to me in KL. -_-

I missed you. Don't ever die on me again, OK? Next time you do that, I'll just go queue for an iPad.

innocent brutal honesty

I love people who tells me the truth.

I love honesty.

I definitely love people who are transparent.


Now that I have made that clear. Anyways, the world will be a beautiful and awesome place with everyone being honest and kind and wanting no more than just joy and bliss for everyone around them. What a happy place to be.

*no, I'm not on some Happy Pills.


But there is a little something called Brutal Honesty.

These are people we should learn to love because they tell it like it is. I am still learning to open my heart wide enough to accept these sharp, killing words with a smile and warm embrace. I truly am still learning the art.

Today, I received Brutal Honesty in its purest form.

It just so happened that I was feeling fine and dandy and on top of the world after having an awesome lunch with awesome drinks and awesome clients to meet.

I was feeling so awesome I was smiling to myself. Like, what a beautiful day, right?

Then I met 2 colleagues who caringly told me:

"Oh Yvonne, Yvonne, you have become fat, I can see." (direct translation)


I held my heart (well, left side of my chest) and feigned a fainting face. Like, seriously!

And I thought by doing that, they will pull back their words with a smile and laugh it off and start talking about donating to charity. But NO! it is not meant to be...! Instead they earnestly looked at me with the expression that says something to the effect of "why are you treating this as a joke? we're serious, darling."


My life just came to a halt for 1/10 of a second when I realise that they were not in anyway trying to spoil my day. It is just plain old innocent brutal honesty which slipped past the Mincing Department. It came Whole. Cold and hard handed over with warm hands.


Of course I did not feel like a major super star after that. I just felt like I needed a jog.


See why we need more of these? I felt like a jog after what seemed like years of deprive. I need more brutal honesty in my life.

fun in the sun and going 360!

"whooppiieeeee!!", went Yvonne.


Thursday was a fun day in the sun! Third installment of my hotel's staff outing, my colleagues went berserk with glee. The remaining 122 of us swarmed into Sunway Lagoon Surf Beach to play a telematch and then after lunch, it was free and easy time.

We hardly ever have time for gatherings and the telematch was a superb way to bond and foster team spirits!

This game was super funny. They were asked to turn 10 times around the stick and then run back to their camp. Almost everyone ran SIDEWAYS! Some ran to other teams and after recovering from the spin, ran back to their own teams embarassed. hahaha... man... and I recorded everything. Will upload later on.

Then it was free and easy. One of the rides I went on was the Tomahawk!

Well, no photos, only videos but it is a ride that turns 360 degrees and pauses momentarily while the passengers were upside down.

I could feel each and every strand of my hair being pulled by gravity when I was upside down. Strange but I don't really feel as terrified as I have been 5 years ago. I didn't leave and took the ride again right after, accompanying my colleague. Again, just laughing and waving at the camera... haha...


I don't really know what was the feeling but I expected some chills and thrills but I was practically... numb. Weird. 2 things went to my mind:

1) Maybe I'm getting older so I'm not so scared anymore.
2) Maybe because I was kinda ill with runny nose and coughing and recurring diarrhea.
3) Maybe the fear of death is not there!


OK, time for alarm and reflect.

dramas

Was in training the past 2 days and my mind wasn't in "fighter" mode so I decided to watch some dramas. Good choice!


I just found this Japanese drama called Love 2000 which I watched 7 years ago and I conclude


I still love Takeshi Kenishiro! :D



I have also just watched 4 episodes of Grey's Anatomy Season 4 (I planned to watch only 2 epi but I got a phone call halfway through and got pissed off and decided to watch another 2. Excuses.) and I conclude


I love McDreamy!



I was as usual clicking away blindly and found this song called 747 by Kent and I conclude


I like it. :D

...though I don't really get it.

I did some research on the song and it was somehow named 747 because
1) the song is 7 minutes and 47 seconds long (ooh)
2) it might have something to do with the boeing planes (?)
3) if your add up the numerical names of the band members (a=1, b=2), it will come up to 747 (oooh)

Beats me. Sounds nice for now :)

safety first

One ordinary afternoon at work, one colleague, let's call him Bob, decided to take the lift to the 33rd floor. While waiting for the lift, he decided to hold the fire retardent door ajar because the lift landing area has just been repainted and he didn't like the smell. So he hoped that by leaving the door open, there will be some ventilation.


Then I walked in.


"Why are you holding the door?" I asked.
"The smell. It is smelly here," was Bob's reply.

"As an appointed member of the Safety Committee, I demand that you close that door now!" I squeaked.

"Erm, OK. I could do that," Bob replied trying not to laugh.



Sometimes I think I take my job too seriously.


But most of the time, I think I don't take my job seriously enough.


"teeheehee! Fierce not? But seriously, we should always keep the doors closed. Otherwise, we will defeat the purpose of its existence," I explained further.



REWIND to a few months back.

One ordinary afternoon at work (can't remember what I was doing), my boss walked into the office hurriedly and while doing many other things, he called me into his office.

"Yvonne ah!" he called as usual.
"Yah!" I replied as usual. "What's up?" I asked as I would sometimes.
"You are now appointed as a representative of our department in the Safety Committee!" he said while replying to numerous e-mails (I suppose).
"Erm... cool! What do I do??"
"Well, you will be involved in the Committee on our behalf and attend meetings and assist in ensuring the safety of everyone," he replied.
"Cool. I'll do just that."


Later in that ordinary afternoon, I decided to add some excitement into my life by being excited about this ordinary post...

"Presee, I'm a member of the Safety Committee! I represent HR."
"Good. Our safety shall be in your hands now. Now, where is that document..."



The excitement died after a few weeks but I still try my best to ensure the safety of my colleagues...


"Who left that trolley in the corridor?! It's a safety hazard OK!"


FAST FORWARD to a few months later

One ordinary afternoon, I was printing the organization chart of the Safety Committee and Ms. Ruth, the English Language trainer, happened to be around.

"Ms. Ruth, did you know I am a member of the Safety Committee?" I asked just trying to add spice to my otherwise ordinary day.
"Oh, really? That's great! I'm sure you are doing a good job," she replied encouragingly as she normally would.
"Really? You think so?" I asked, fishing for reassurance.
"Yes. I think you pay enough attention to details and I think you are right to be part of the committee," she replied.
"Hehe! Cool!"


She made my day, just like that. What an ordinary post. I was going to blog about the many ways to cut up a mango, complete with pictures and step-by-step explanations BUT I finished the mangoes before I could think of how many ways I actually know.


Btw, I know about 5 methods. Will get to it soon. :D

In The Name Of Wisdom

It is Sunday night and am waiting for the weekly series Ghost on 8TV. I must say I am actually liking this show! A pretty good story but most probably used in numerous Singaporean dramas (both Chinese and English) a decade ago. Filming style is pretty refreshing too. I don't know all the jargons here but somehow it is new. A good step forward! They didn't forget to make it really Malaysian. Manglish, the -lahs, datins etc, all included. Only thing is, they can't decide when Zack Imran(Nazrudin Rahman), the titular role, can or cannot touch things. Sometimes he can go through doors and can't seem to pick up a glass of water but sometimes he could. Anyways, it's on!

*note - loved the opening soundtrack too!


Advert time. Alamak. My wisdom teeth are coming out. Two are already poking their noses out and another two are making their presence felt. So itchy-butted me went to see the dentist. I have this very naive thought of removing all four because they are sometimes painful and I just feel like getting them over and done with.

I'm lucky I had a conversation with my housemate first or the dentist will be having an absolutely fun day laughing at me. "Good morning dentist! Oh, today I want to remove all my wisdom teeth!"

It seems that a wisdom tooth needs surgery to be removed and one would need X-ray first too. Wow. And then I thought, why not remove the one next to the wisdom tooth? To this, my housemate said, "Maybe".

So I went to the dentist hoping to get some sort of solution to this irritation. I waited 20 minutes for my turn (thank God my dad made an appointment for me) but I was only granted 2 minutes on the precious dental chair.

"Ah, let me see. Oh, so this one and this one coming out. Not a problem, not a problem. If you wanna remove, need surgery. But if it is not too painful, let it grow out."

Oh. Just like that? And then he asked me if I have allergies and prescribed some antibiotics and pain killers.

"Oh, just like that? Can you clean out my teeth? Maybe do some scaling?"

"No lah. Let me see. Not necessary lah."


I stepped out of the clinic feeling like I have just wasted my 22 minutes. And on top of that, I have to take antibiotics.


My dad dutifully asked, "So how was it?"

"The dentist tak layan me at all!"


Then he made some excuses for the dentist (his old friend) and told me at least we can have fried battered calamari later.

my first blood donation

Hari ini dalam sejarah(peribadi) : On the 15th of November 2007, Yvonne donated her blood for the first time.

The day before the blood drive, I thought of all the excuses possible for me to not be able to donate blood. According to the guideline, one cannot donate blood if:

-one weighs less than 45 kg
-one has had less than 5 hours sleep the night before
-one is homosexual
-one has multiple sexual partners
-one has HIV+/ AIDS

OK. I think I can only admit to #1 and #2. Anyways, seeing the determination and willingness in my boss and colleague, Bin, I decided to just go for it. So I slept early the night before.

*Silently hoping that I would turn out to be 45kg or less tomorrow . -_-.

-Bin reading the fine prints-

Anyways, so Bin and I went first. It is also the first time for him and he seems to be more nervous than me. Me? I was still hoping that I would be 45kg or less. Anyways, he came up with excuses like, "I feel a bit weak. How come ah? I think I feel a headache". "Please lah!"

-My blood was tested-

Whatever. When the time came, we both filled in the forms and went for the tests first. It turned out that my blood type was B! Cool. So now I know. I was so excited watching them test my blood. The nurse politely smiled and explained but I think she thinks I have been living in the jungle for the past 22 years of my life.

Anyways, first test was the weight. I was 46kg! Shit.

Second test was the amount of iron in my blood. They will take a drop of blood and drop it into some solution and if that drop of blood sinks, it means that I have enough iron to donate. I passed this too! Shit.

Next, it was to proceed to the doctor to test my blood pressure. The doctor said, "Wow. So you actually passed the first stage. Let's see if your blood pressure pass too."

I asked her, "What normally happens when people like me donate?"

It seems people like me normally experience dizziness, feel weak or just plain faint. And probably cry during the donation because of fear. -_-.

-Trying to keep cool when the doctor said that my blood pressure passed too-

Huh! This was my last hope as an excuse to escape this scary experience. OK. I think I should just shut up and go ahead. I asked the doctor, "Are you sure?" before deciding that I should really just shut up and go ahead.

For the record, I wasn't forced into this. I wanted to do it for the experience but of course the little voice in my head went "siao ah?!"

Anyways, so there I was. Very excited. Bin was also excited but scared. So there goes. They made sure my name was correct and asked me to hold some cheap plastic cut off pipe. I thought I was going to get a red squishy rubber ball! OK. Maybe low on budget. Anyways, my veins were very easy to find so it proceeded without incident. You could locate my veins without even slapping my arm like how they slapped Bin's arm.

I was laughing all the way and instructing Jon, my trainee who was afraid of blood, to take photos for me to blog with.

"Jon, I want side view, ya! Can see the packet of blood not?"

Anyways, halfway through, Bin's blood stopped moving and so the nurses poked him again. It was very unfortunate for him because he ended up with some blue-blacks. Anyways, I kept on laughing at him and at the whole experince and that probably made my blood flow out faster and also fortunately made me forget that this was scary. The doctor even came over to look see. "Wah, you're still OK! Haven't fainted?"

Finally after about less than 15 minutes, 350ml of blood was out of my system.

"Whoa."

I thought 350ml would be like a can of coke. This was like crazy big packet. Like blood from my whole arm was inside. Surprisingly I did not feel weak or dizzy or faint or cry.

I was making so much noise calling Jon to come over and take photo of me with my packet of blood. The nurse kept if aside and when Jon came, he passed the blood to him. Jon was like, "wtf!" (No he didn't say it but I think he thought like that)

Then they said they have prepared some food for me. A cup of hot Milo, a packet of chocolate biscuits, a Red Bean bun and a packet of Yeo's soya milk. I thought I had to finish everything so I did. I forced everything down even though I didn't like Red Bean buns. I had Nasi Lemak for breakfast wei. I later found out that I could actually choose which one I wanted to eat. Oh.

Anyways, they also gave me a little red book to keep track of everytime I donate blood. I thought "Wah. They have so much confidence in me?" because the book has space up till # 112. Haha. Erm, I don't think I can fill it up in this lifetime.

The more you donate, the more benefits you will get when you visit the hospitals. You get upgraded to better wards and you get free outpatient treatments. Some could get free Hepatitis B jabs and so on. Wow.

Donate today and think about the lives you will save! It is not painful and it doesn't leave any scars. Cool stuff.

I told my dad excitedly through SMS that I donated my blood.

He replied, "I have been donating for years."

Show off!

KTM blooooz

The other day I was, as usual, stuck inside the crowded KTM trying my best to hold onto a pole shared by many so that I won't accidentally fall onto any of the not-so-good looking guys around me. Anyways, I saw a pregnant lady standing in front of the occupied row of seats. I mean, she's pregnant! She should be the one seated! I was infuriated! Why didn't those 3 people in front of her give up their seats for her?! I searched for an answer. These people! Can you believe it?! They were sleeping! Or were they pretending to sleep? This kind of situation is dangerous for the lady and her unborn child. Why didn't the people around her try to wake those 3 people up? If they won't do it, I will! I tried to squeeze nearer. Then, just then, the said pregnant lady turned to face the door so her right side was facing me and somehow gave me a clearer picture of her current stage in pregnancy. It was then, just then, I realize that I should stop my quest for justice.


She wasn't pregnant!

Aiyaa...


I think she was even offended by my intention to help her.


Hmm......

KTM Lesson 101: Do not attempt to help a pregnant lady unless she is in a maternity dress.

Prison Break fans Hierachy

As the Tai-Tais all across Asia swoon over hot Korean singer/dancer/actor Rain in his latest drama (For his body, darling, for his body! Take off that shirt already! Stop it! Stop it! I'm menopausal!), so did my classmates and I over Wenworth Miller and the lot in Prison Break 2. Not to the Tai-Tai's extend though. OK, only I swooned over WM. The rest are guys.. but we'll never know...hmmm.




There are quite a few Prison Break fans in my class. I actually started to watch the first season with Jiawei and then later when school started, I found out Jonathan was also into it. As in, INTO it. Then there was Ken. Ah Ken says his English is not too good and we were encouraging him to watch more English shows to improve. What better way to start other than with Prison Break! So the suspend one. Slowly, some of my classmates also caught on to this. Ming Siew have finished the first season. Thomas have also just finished the first episode of the first season. Today, Jon reported that he just found out that Brian and Sook Kuan are also avid fans. Not forgetting our intl friends from Maldives, Nuha and Abdullah, and Brown from Korea. There are no gaps whatsoever in this fellowship.


Anyways, we were kept in heavy suspense since they decided to take a 2 months holiday break after episode 13 and we received news that it would be back on Monday! Cool! We have anticipated this moment for so long. You can already almost hear Jon say "I want Prison Break... I want Prison Break..." in your sleep.


You have to understand the hierarchy in this whole fan base thing in my class. Everyone plays a different role. Sitting at the top is, of course, Jon who masterminds everything and "motivates" people to like Prison Break to increase the fan base. He also initiates Logistics and Premiere Class Viewing which I will elaborate later.
Then there is Ah Ken who is the 'knight' who executes the task of getting the show in the shortest time possible and sharing it generously with all of us. His computer is never off and it is fast. FAST. He sometimes even volunteer to sleep after class so he can stay up to wait for the moment it is available. With Chinese subtitle somemore-ah.
Me? I am just the technophobe who will be explaining to non-fans why they should be fans. I think in a way I also help to motivate. "Hou tai, ar! Hou kan cheong, gar!" I would usually say in my half-past-six Cantonese. Or in Mandarin, "Hao kan! Wei se me bu yao kan?! Why,why, why?!"
The rest are just very motivating to one another. We do little things that matters for each of us like giving cheers when the shows starts and backing up our mastermind when the lecturer questions. There are no chickens among us. We are ONE.


On Monday afternoon, Ken decided to take a serious nap so that he can stay up to the next morning waiting for the great download. He was disappointed when it did not happen. He tried it again the next day and this morning, voila!, in his huge external hard disk is the gem of the day. He has sacrificed a lot for us and the rewards for his sacrifice is to make Jon uneasy to wait any longer to watch it. I'm so not exaggerating.


They decided to have it played in class on the LCD. It was 5 minutes till the first class starts. They decided not to care. When I returned from my PR activities in the other class, the classroom was already a cinema. Jon said with regret,"Yvonne, look." "Why never call me?! Alex, your head blocking. Lower a bit, please! Aiya, never mind. I sit in front!". Vicki did us a big favour of turning off the lights to see better.


Then the lecturer came in.... He immediately backed out and closed the door! He thought he had entered a wrong class. He is new, you see. OK lah, we called him back and turned it off. Other seasoned lecturers usually just say something like, "Wah, you guys have turned this into a cinema ah!" or "Practicing your events skills?" or "Why do you want to learn how to break out of prison?!" To which there will be an emotional reply, "To save your brother."... and then there was a pause to comprehend the emotions. But the new lecturer was pretty upset. He probably felt like we were rebelling against him! We were out of control! We were brats! There's no more hope!


Later, he got a hang of it and decided to make fun of us with Organizational Behaviour under the Elton Mayo and Hawthorne Electric experiment which was done waaaaay back in 1924 to 1933. "Just like you guys, you were comfortable in a group and decided to watch a movie in class together! This is also an OB." He also decided to announce an assessment to scare us a little. Aiyo...