A good weekend-plus

Last weekend rocked. My colleagues and I went for a trip to Penang! Despite the fact that we know there will obviously be crazy traffic jams and very little time to spend there, we went.

7 of us in 2 cars. Here are my 6 other travel mates.

A sense of nostalgia hit me when we went throught the tunnel in Ipoh and saw all those beautiful limestone mountains. It has been such a long time...

The first thing we did when we reached Tambun was eat. We had seafood.

eek! That was our first dinner!

And then somehow I never got to feel hungry until our last food intake which was cendol before we left the next day. Look at the Fried Oyster in the middle!!! We had that at Gurney Drive. Murni must be so upset she couldn't come along. That was my favourite dish from the whole trip.

I tried to take photos of the Penang Bridge but everything was so dark and shaky... let's just think of them as artistic shots.

The next day we went to Shangri-La's two properties at Ferringhi. Finally! A beach!

Sun, sand, coconut three, rocks, sea. This was a fave picture spot.

We all could do with more chill time.

We also went to the Chi Spa. Philip, Ardhan and I decided to take lots of photos. This one was supposedly copying a love triangle advert. The landscape was really pretty and any lousy shot seemed still acceptable.


This is one of the funny ones. Mr. Tony didn't know he had to strike a pose.

Philip was everywhere.

The journey home took us twice the normal duration. 8 hours. All we see were cars, cars and more cars.

We tried our best to entertain Shiow Ling so that she won't be sleepy. It seems we did a great job. Philip even went a few steps too far with Ardhan but I shall not elaborate. It wasn't too roomy for us to sleep in the Myvi anyways so we sang, told stories, gossiped, and cam-whore some more.

The next day, we had to go back to work. Everyone was like moody and blur and hanging on to their cups of coffee. Murni was the only fresh face.

Anyhow, Philip boy came to the office and gave me a birthday present! So sweet!


So we now have a new friend in the office. The rest were also very sweet because they threw me a lunch party the next day. Domino's never tasted so yummy. :D The cake? It was ordered from our own pastry kitchen. It was super rich and super chocolatey and I liked it. Even with my name spelt wrong. Thank goodness I have made my love for chocolates clear from the start. ;)

The next day, we mere trainees were granted permission to have our hair styled by Peek-a-boo. They come once every two weeks and it is to ensure our staff are always well-groomed and well taken care of. They are very nice and skillful.

I got a trim. Burn had his crazy thick Amazonian hair "managed". Ardhan had his third haircut. The first time he did it on the sly and got an earful from our training manager. The second time was when our training manager asked him,"Can you do something about your hair?!" To which he replied, "Can I have Peek-a-boo cut my hair today?" Somehow our training manager just sayang him too much. Murni did some temporary curls because she is keeping her hair long for her coming wedding. She didn't like it and upon her request, I could only post this photo (below) if I cropped it.

There. Fresher faces. Ready to "delight the customers" and "go the extra mile for service". Erm, not that we are frontliners. Boooo.. ;)

sing a song today

Day before yesterday, everyone in the HR department went for a karaoke session. There were 10 of us in total (inclusive of us 4 trainees of course). The rules were simple: everyone had to sing at least 5 songs. With the exception of Bin and Shiow Ling who were the Karaoke King and Queen (5 wouldn't be enough). So everyone else had their own little sneaky plans on how to avoid the 5 songs. You know, pretend to go to the toilet when the song is coming up. Fake a bad, bad mood. Just refuse (applicable only for Boss). Choose an easy song and pull everyone else to sing along. Sing a duet. Take more food and just say they are there for the food(Sanny has been planning this the whole day).


We went after work and somehow I guess 5 songs were not enough. Singing is such a good a remedy for a long day. Everyone was just letting go. It was nice to see a different person from what we normally see. All those sneaky plans? Erm, what sneaky plans? Even Sanny sang a few numbers. Boss was showing off his vocal prowess. I mean, he sings it like it is. Bin was showing off his Jay Chou songs. Shiow Ling and Jennifer were hitting the Canto ones. Ms. Presee was doing the oldies. Philip was the one with all those happy songs(because he didn't just spend 8.5 hours at work). Ardhan was doing very well with Peterpan's because he pronounced it like it is. Murni was really emotional with Ruth Sahanaya. I sang almost everything. Like if you need back up, I'm there. Whitney? Sure. Mariah? Sure. I even printed Han Yu Pin Yin lyrics of Shan Hu Hai by Jay Chou and Lara because Bin requested a duet. Sure.

The real hilarious one was when My Humps, which was randomly picked, came up, nobody wanted to sing and so Philip and I just went ahead with it. It rocked. We even had to do an encore performance and agree that it would be our song when we go karaoke again. It was fun. Although we secretly know that we might have sounded like William Hung. We were quite hungover the next day and somehow got through the Merdeka Celebrations with full on "semangat patriotik". Anything for Malaysia. Surprisingly, nobody called in sick. Not even Ardhan. Impressive indeed.

Overheard during the celebrations...
Ardhan : I'm not Malaysian wei.
Me: It's OK. You need to get a job here, right?
Ardhan : Tanggal 31! BULAN LAPAN LIMA PULUH TUJUH!!


Overheard during Merdeka lunch...
Boss: SO, when are we going for karaoke again?


Overheard at the office...
Shiow Ling: My humps... my humps

August

Being a Malaysian (or Singaporean or Indonesian for this matter), the month of August somehow feels more exciting and festive than other months. There are just so many activities planned out for the whole month to celebrate our independence. I can't wait to go watch the ongoing International Fireworks Competition at Putrajaya which I heard was one of the more brilliant ideas to promote tourism. I mean, seriously, it is actually cool. I wonder who thought of this idea. Please stand up!

Anyways, so far, August have been quite fun.


Things we do to make our office look less boring (I mean besides all those other props and photos that we have accumulated for the past few months):

No points for guessing who created this. "My goodness!" says our training manager.

Patriotism in the office:

-Malaysiaku Gemilang!-

Little Philip's last day:

That's Philip in the middle. This could easily be a poster picture for those anti-bully campaigns for high schools. Don't worry. It is totally posed. Yes, as usual.

We 'brought' Philip to Skybar. Just to experience a little 'night life'.

"Just for you, little boy."

Erm, though it is not a club, it is still a bar right, Philip?
Anyways, did I mention that he is 16? Not 17 as I have been lamenting about. 16! Shit.


Space dedicated to Philip (for sending me back! hehe!)


It was all good, clean fun as my parents would put it. Philip was really happy. He warned us about him turning 'wild' and 'scratching people'. We got worried. But eventually, nobody could get into a worried stage. Other than our colleagues who kept on telling us not to go home too late.

Murni was really happy too. She kept on feeding me with little drops of alcohol to "help me overcome my allergy". I like to see her drunk because that's the first time I see her without any stress. We should do this more often.

Burn was really happy too. He was doing lip things and was giving away kisses and talking and laughing and laughing and talking. We should do this more often.

I was, erm, still sober. OK, I was also happy. I got a free mocktail! :) Hurrah! (?)

Then it was FHM 2007!

Not For Him Magazine. Food Hotel Malaysia 2007 and Culinaire Malaysia 2007! Hello, food samplings!

I was too busy eating. These are some of the few things which I took photo of to pretend like we were interested in the function of the equipments and appliances. "This is so cool. I can totally see it in our hotel already. Better than the one presented yesterday. We'll look at their quotations first though."

We finished with Gelato. But not before we had this salad with Japanese salad dressing which was awesome. So yummy. I could see myself eating salad everyday after I find it in Isetan. Will recommend later. It was "orgasmic" in Burn's words.

After effects of FHM. Yummers.

come rain come shine

It is confirmed. My dissertation has been submitted. I can finally breathe now...

Just don't expect me to be too responsive for the next few days...

Yvonne @ work - yet again

These days, all I do is basically work and my dissertation. What else can one expect? Today was a little cooler than other days. Someone had a special mission.

I was given the chance to be a "sort of" guinea pig...

-me nails at 3.00pm-


-choices, choices-

"Which one would you like? Can't decide? I can bring a few bottles so we can test them out until you find one that you like!"

Oh, really?


-got a little scary here...-

Looks like my dentist's tray.


-an older photo of the place d'indulgence-

Since when did manicure include lying on a very comfortable bed with lotsa luxurious towels and lavender aroma theraphy oil and candles everywhere?


-the ons therapist-


-voila! shaped, buffed, polished and moisturized-

Mission accomplished at 4.30pm.

I also learned a thing or two about the various gadgets, tools and products used by the therapist. Anyways, it was good. Good good. Wonder if they need someone to test out the massage range...

Update!

Dissertation passing up date has been postponed for a week! Hallelujah!

Anyways, I felt the need to blog about something. Here is a short update in a nutshell:


Murni's still on diet and we take the stairs with her.
I'm still in deep shit because my questionnaires are not back yet.
Burn is my new bestfriend. We have an informal contract of 10 years. During this friendship, he shall take care of all my IT problems. :)
No comments about Ardhan and Philip. :P

OK, back to work. :)

World Without Yvonne

What would the world be without Yvonne?


On Friday, at the office, I saved Ardhan from this total blur , "sweat dripping", "kan cheong" moment with the computer (I thought I was bad enough) and he was so thankful. Then I asked, rather loudly, "What would the world be without Yvonne?! Hahaha!" without expecting any reply and probably expecting some eyes rolling behind my back.


A very quick and soft respond came, "It would be very quiet."


I was like *blink blink*... *laugh*... "I wasn't really asking but... so you are saying I'm very noisy?!"


"Erm yes... a little..."


This came from a rather low profile, quiet, 30+ guy, Mr.Kenneth, who has been chilling with us for the past 5 days doing his cross-cultural training. I guess these 5 days have changed him. His office is in no way like this. It is very quiet and all that. He has come to the right place. Things were rather wacky in our office. It is like what Murni would describe as "Kapal Pecah". An Indonesian way of describing a place that looks like a tornado has just past through. It is really funny imagining our office as a ship that is attacked by a giant octopus and everybody is running around in formal attire with files and papers and computers and crazy hair and accusing each other (without regards to gender here) of keeping that Hot Guy's Resume (Philip,we know it was you). Mr. Kenneth has been inspired to implement this "wacky culture" into his office come Monday.


Anyways, I asked around somemore. "In your own words, what would the world be without Yvonne?" The replies were:


Ardhan: Kiamat (end of the world)

Sanny: Very dull, you know, less colourful, less lively, quiet... (At this point, Philip who was following me around while I asked said, "eh, why are you all so nice to her ar?!")

Philip: Nothing la. No difference. Right, Murni? (because I have been bullying him)

Murni: Boring

Shiow Ling: I'll think about it first (because she thought it was a trick question because everyone was now listening intently)

Ms. Presee: Boring.

Burn @ IT office: It would be a little bit more boring.

Shiow Ling: Boring la...


So, my existence does have an impact in this world. Not bad... :)


Anyways, Mr. Kenneth e-mailed us. He has learned to use the word "chillax" and one of his messages was , "Shiow Ling, I hope the interns don't drive you up the wall."

Lastly, he said, "Have fun cleaning up the storeroom!"


No wonder he left on Friday. He knew what was coming for Saturday. Cis. Anyhow, it was quite fun. Partly because the storeroom was a venue for more gossips... ooh...

-omg-



-Safety First-

Also, an update: 2 more weeks till dissertation submission!

I have only just distributed my questionnaire yesterday. I know. Crazy. Impossible. Stupid. But I still have faith. Now all I need to do is learn how to use SPSS and actually get to install it into my pc!! It seems it is not Vista compatible. I want my XP back! I also hope I get back my questionnaires on Monday. I distributed to more than 15 sections. I tried my best with their managers.

"Mr. ____! Good morning! Wah, very handsome today. Look so fresh. Really! What did you eat this morning? Ic ic. Good ah. Anyways, I need your help. You have 45 SAs right?...Erm, yes, all of them."

"When can I get it back?"
"End of next week la"
"Erm, can earlier? Very fast one! They only need 3 minutes to fill in everything! Serious!"
"Thursday?"
"Erm, what about Monday?"
"Wah, cannot la!"
"Can la. Try la, sir. Can one. If they are off today, you can give them on Sunday. Then Monday kao tim la."
"I try la."
"Can ya. Try ya. Can one. No problem. I'm sure you can do it."
"yayayaya."


Wait, till they find out I need to interview them too. Hohoho. I'm still in deep shit.

skive? what skive?

An assignment was handed out today... but it somehow went out of topic during the execution. Heehee! As usual...

Title: "Caught in Melancholy"

Title: "Are you sure?"

Title: "Emptiness"


Title: "Hanging Gardens 2"


And here comes the best( or worst...)
Title: -_-

Introducing Philip (the one on the left) who is 17 and is currently crashing in with us at our department. Fortunately, he is as much a cam-whore and "off-centred" trainee as us! Haha.

"Finally, a person who loves self protrait more than we do!"
*note that he's the one holding the camera. Wow.

Murni, Ardhan and I are all playing big sisters and brother to him but apparently we were not doing a good job.

1) "New trainee?! Yay! Come, come! Assignment for you!"
2) "Oi, 5pm already. Let's go home lar!"
3) "Sorry? No,man, we don't buy sorry here."
4) "Very good la you. What's your name again?" (this is, of course, in pretence of being the boss)


ahem.

Anyways, Philip, if you are reading this (and you'd better be), so sorry about your Tamagotchi and about being stuck with us. Haha! Be strong! We love you!

On a Saturday

I love Saturdays. Somehow everything just feels better on a Saturday. The trains are emptier. The sunshine is brighter and has a certain warmth (but is it not warm because the trains are empty and so the air conditioning works perfectly well). Our perfumes stay on longer. We dress more casually. And only 4 hours to spend at the office, tying up the loose ends, etc...

Today was a beautiful Saturday.

-The 600m walk seems shorter with Daniel Wu around-

It helps that the first "person" to greet us on our way to work was Daniel Wu. Although I'm sure Seiko could have chosen way better pictures, he looks good anyways.

-A closer look for you-

Oh, how he smoulders. And if you squint a little, you can see little seawater droplets on his body because he is supposed to be living the active lifestyle on his expensive yatch and somehow he chooses Seiko watches... or something like that.

-My teatime staple-

Next, I will be greeted by the aroma of Rotiboy, the Mexican bun that caught Malaysians' hearts a few years back and still has that magic. I only eat this after work because having it for breakfast is just too... oily.

-I get my fave fruit juices here-

Somehow I feel that drinking juices from Juiceworks gives me all the goodness of fruits even though I can clearly see that they only put, like, a small slice of watermelon, a small slice of pineapple and some sorbet into the blender. It is OK. I can accept this. I shall continue to live in my fruity fantasy.

-There goes Beyonce-

And then I will be greeted by Beyonce holding the phone that I want. Seriously, I think my phone has some problems already. I can't pinpoint the problem but I can feel something brewing inside. Really. It is like this sixth sense. I think I need a new phone. I want this phone. It is very small. It has a touch pad. It is very small. It is black. It is very small. I want.

Is this marketing tool working or what?

-My Takeshi-

And then I concluded that Biotherm has emerged as the champion amongst the various advertising campaigns by choosing Takeshi Kenishiro as their new face. Ah. He just brightens up my day, everyday. I hope their promotion will last for another week at least.

-He does it better than Daniel-

I started liking Takeshi in Love 2000, a Japanese series, 7 years ago and I still do now. What can I do to get a chance to meet him? Sigh. There is also this LCD screen which shows Takeshi working on set for the photo shoot and advertisements. So good looking. How does he still look so good at his age? Because he chose to use Biotherm.

-One of the kebanggaan negara-

I'll then chill a little outside Suria with my friends hoping for the buggy to arrive to whisk us to the hotel and save us having to walk the following 400 metres.

-So near yet so far-
Buggy~ Where are you?~

-Our best friend-

And not long after, it arrived. Excellent service. Excellent drivers. Excellent view. Excellent morning breeze.

-Don't know what to do with these pictures-

(For the record: we only do this with permission and when we have completed our tasks. Also, it is always the 3 of us only because the others are so camera-shy)

A nice day at work past as usual and soon, it was lunch time! We chose to try out the shop which everyone was talking about. Named Red House, it is a small ancient with old-world charm building painted red, hidden somewhere beside the hotel. It is a really nice and cooling place with one big tree giving shade and a little extra oxygen and 'natural' ambience. The dining concept is laidback outdoor. OK lah. But when my Tom Yum Fried Rice arrived, I changed from "OK lah" to "nice, nice, nice". After I took my first spoonful of my yummy choice, I forgot to take a picture of my friends' dishes which were equally as nice and appealing.

-yummers-

This has got to be the best lunch I have had in weeks. Great effort on the presentation as well. And the frieds egg was just the way I like my fried eggs. Crispy on the sides and the yolk was just nice. Not too runny. Grammy style fried eggs. And ooh, the lime was a fantastic flavour enhancer. Makes the food at Suria look so, so inferior. Yay! We found a good lunch spot!