Gym

I started going to the gym. I had so much fun on my 1st day. We did morning workout. Then the 2nd time was at night. I was a little put off by the number of people that went to the gym at night. 

The 3rd was better. I hope the 4th time gets better too.

Wedding on May the 3rd

I was back in Sabah last week from May the 1st to May the 5th 2014 to attend cousin Connie's Wedding Dinner at Perkasa Hotel on May the 3rd 2014. I haven’t been back since early this year for Chinese New Year. Since I did not planned any adventures for the first half of the year, this was a good opportunity for me to go home and visit my hometown.

Wouldn't it be cool if they had their wedding on May the 4th 2014. I guess they are not a big fan of Star Wars :p.

We arrived on time at 6.30pm. It was a first for me, considering Ranau people has the tendency to be 30minutes late to everything. And as i stood outside waiting for my big brother and his family to park the car, the cold wind is more than welcoming. Aping (my only younger brother) barely made it. He came in behind the wedding couple wearing what appeared to be a coat. He looked like a wedding singer. He sat on our table next to PapaRoach, all eyes on him. And he was always so comical that we couldn’t help but laughed at him for being so formal with pops. He pat pops on the shoulder and shook his hand and asked ‘ Pa macam?” .. an equivalent to “ How’s it Going?”.. That warrants a laugh from around the table. At the same day, he flew from Bangkok to KL, from KL to KK and took a 2 and a half hour car ride with his friend Esmet to the wedding in Kundasang. I used to planned / think of everything for him. Until one day I realised that he does not need me to do that anymore. I kind of wish that he was born a girl so that I can have a sister and I can do things for her.

This May 2014, Ranau town for the 1st time that i can remember experienced a hot spell. It was free sauna every day and every night. We didn't get the fresh and chilly morning/ night air like we used to. It was a complete contrast to the unusually cold weather that we had early of the year (during Chinese New Year).
I was told by Cousin Carol that the dinner will only start at 7.45pm. This gave us ample time to mingle and catch up with the rest of the family whom i hardly see anymore. I was looking around wondering where they were since i saw a few of them arrived earlier. Cousin Induk was with her new family and i was kind of thinking that she might not want to be disturbed with the baby and all. But as i walked up to her, it was like I never left. We talked and she suggested that we exit to the door next to her table to the backyard for some air.

Lo and behold, the majority of the cousins, nieces and nephews were already out there standing around/ chasing the kids around the green. We are all enjoying the cold mountain air. It was a nice little reprieve from the hot weather in town. Induk has Idan (her husband) to carry baby Ozil around. He was such a Daddy’s boy. One of the cutest babies i have ever seen. Cousin Karen's kid is super cute too. Well i haven't really met the boy face to face. But I've seen pictures and videos. Trust me when i said a baby is cute because if they are not, i wouldn't say a thing. The niece and nephews were running around like they have never seen nicely cut green grass before. I saw worried faces of parents/ cousins keeping their eyes on the running kids. Some even ran along with them. Well that's my brother Wai with his son Yau Yau while his wife catches her breath and was talking to us :). Wai was running along his son with one hand on the hood of his yellow jacket trying to catch him in case his foot catches on to something. They yellow hood which was too big for yau yau was a gift from Wai’s friends when he/ she went to Australia. Such a nice gesture.

I don’t know if I have succeeded in trying to explain what it feels to be surrounded by the people that you have known your whole life and the people that has just recently came into your life and are there to stay. It was a simple wedding on a mountain side where the night sky was clear, the stars were shining, the mountain air was fresh and loved ones were around.

There were dancing and singing by a few regular Ranau’s wedding singer. SIL Brenda also commented that Ranau Got Talent. It was a perfect night. An almost perfect night only marred by innocent children’s fighting the outsider who was just trying to fit in with the tight knit group. I feel for my nephew (Eden) because it was me all over again.

Anyway, I was glad that I was back and I am looking forward to going back again this July for Hari Raya 2014.

Positive Mindset

Never thought that little brother has a better perspective of life than me.

His advice is, do not complained about your work because you won't make it better by doing so. (But at least i feel better emotionally).

His annual leave is more than me now.

He is 25 years old (i was 27years old) and he already traveled to London without having to fork out any money for his transport and accommodation. That kid is truly blessed. And he didn't even have to take any unpaid/ paid leaves for his 16 days trip!

He told me he work round the clock all day. He has his full time job and his part time job to do.

I am happy that he has people with the right and positive mindset around him.
 

Dreaming Again

Well i have got to start somewhere.
There is only 5 days left till the end of 2014, and i am craving for an adventure.

I know that i have just came back from Bangkok, but it felt more like a babysitting job. I didn't mind traveling with my mom. But i have to worry about a lot of things when traveling with the moms/ aunties/ cousins. I'll give you a few examples, i worried about if they can walk so much, if they would agree to fork out RM200 for a hotel tour package (transportation to Floating market-include motorboat ride, Kwaei River Bridge war Museum, lunch & Tiger Temple) , if any of the Thailand deities would want to communicate with them (yes, this did happened when we travel to Hanoi, Vietnam), worried if they would stray and got separated with the group, worried if they have enough money to enjoy the shopping, worried about finding a kosher restaurant, etc..do you see what i mean..? How can i have my own fun? When i did walked off on my own,after waiting for hours for them to shop just in one shop, i worried about if my mom will have enough money from overspending. And i just sat down on a bench hoping to see any one of them passed by so i can rejoin them. An old lady talked to me in Thai, i just smile and nod. Until she asked me a question, then i told her i'm sorry that i don't understand her. Then she switch to english and we got to talking. I found out that she is a rich lady who owned a resort at South of Thailand, she owned a boat and bungalow on top of a hill. She was with her daughter shopping at Platinum Mall.


Back When i was in Korea..  (yes Korea), a lady also talked to me in Japanese while we were on the elevator. She might be asking me a question because she looked like she's waiting for me to answer. So i said 'Er...Wakarimasen, :), coupled with some hand gestures'... She just smiled and said something else.

Anyway, I think i need to develop a strategy next time we go on a trip together. A strategy that would enable everyone and myself to have fun and enjoy our family trip together.

The highlight of the Bangkok trip was petting and taking pictures with big tigers at the Tiger sanctuary/ Tiger Temple. We were told to change to long pants to go to the tiger temple. The legs will be too tempting/ too juicy for the tigers i guess.

I think it is compulsory to hold the keeper's hand while you are in the tiger enclosure. My guy was cute, so i don't mind. It felt like holding hands with your boyfriend. He will take you where to crouch (which is always behind the sleeping/ resting tiger) and another guy will take your picture. The guy took some really nice photo. It took a really long time for all 6 of us to be done with the pictures. All this while mom, the aunties and cousin Uya (Gloria) were waiting for us at a hut near the entrance.

Our hotel 'Citin Pratunam', has a complimentary Tuk-tuk which we can take to anywhere nearby. We took it to the train station (BTS). We did not have any problem of finding food. It was a night market at Pratunam Market. The only problem we have is buying too much food and can't finished it. So wasteful. Also the hotel only provided 1  :)key card per room. This is troublesome, when one person wanted to stay in and the other one wanted to go out because you need the keycard to go up the elevator. Otherwise, the elevator won't budge.

P/S: No pic attached with this post. Just go to my FB photo album if you haven't already.

Somersby- there's a new animal in town

We got another T-Shirt from my boss while he was on his holidays.

I sometimes thought that, i was still in the picture (like getting t-shirt) because i am very close to both my senior and junior and there is no way that they could hide anything from me.

Job title- is it important?

My senior has been promoted to Engineering Design Manager. My junior has been promoted to Deputy Engineering Design Manager. Where does that leaves me..? I am still a Project Engineer. 

I was a little taken aback by their sudden promotion, especially my junior. How can she be promoted when she used to always be late for work and took sudden half days leave? She has made a great effort to change though and it shows. I really have nothing against her. I do agreed that she has strong theory. It was always apparent that my boss favours them. I said that i didn't care, but sometimes he made it too obvious and i did get a little jealous.

I sometimes think that part of it was because i don't try hard to suck up to him. I don't do small talk and i don't have a warm personality. What do you expect from a Capricorn who is socially awkward and raised a loner. 

At first, i do not really care about the title. But today, it hit me hard how important a title was when i went to lead a tender interview with my other junior (replacing my boss who is outstation). They asked me, am i the next in line after my boss? And i said 'no, we also have a Tendering Manager'. Then they asked, 'then after that it's you?' I said 'no'. 'Don't you have another Director?' I said, 'We do have another Director.' They asked'And he couldn't make it to this interview?' 'Yes.' 'Don't you have a Project Manager?' 'We do, but our Project Manager does not usually attend tender interview. He is mainly in charge of Site matters.' 'Are you a QS?' 'No, I am a Project Engineer.' 'A what?' 'A Project Engineer', i repeated. They took a second look at my card and nodded.

I do think that it is better to just be a Project Engineer and are able to answer all of their questions. While stil have an excuse for not being able to answer some of their questions. Not that i wasn't able to today. 

My heart beats at a weird pace while writting this post. It Felt constricted. 

My senior has actually told me that i used to really show my emotion whenever i do not agree with my boss' instruction. And i have also improved a lot in controlling them. She even used me as an example in dealing with my boss. My solution, keep my mouth shut. My boss also always compared my senior with my junior telling my senior to take my junior as an example in how to deal with people.

I noticed that everytime when my boss is comparing attitude or personal traits of his employees, he would always take others as example and never me. Never. 

I don't think he knew me very well. He still thought that i am a Dayak.*face palm.

When i told him that i have planned my Chinese New Year Holiday for 2014 without following the company's approved date. He said, 'waa.. Might as well don't come back.' *sigh. I ask him, 'are you sure?' And he just laughed it off  And didn't answer me. My senior told me not to put it to heart. 

Why is he creating all these office hierarchy? To create competition? 

When i first joined my company, i always thought that he hated me. 

I love that my senior giving me all these motivational talk. And my junior has her own problem in dealing with office politics. 

But It won't matter what your title is, as long as he knows who is pulling their own weight.

I still need a bossom for a pillow..:(

Love this! My first lappy.

My new handme-down lappy. Yay! Thanks G. Just so you know, I did most of my online reading on this baby.