Switched Roles

“Honey, the leaking faucet has been fixed and the tap has also been repaired. How’s decorating the Christmas Tree coming along?”

Guess who did what. My new colleague asked if we cross-dressed at home. Even if we did, I’d never tell him, would I?

Disagreeable

“Oh! You stay in Sea Park? I used to stay there and I love the place! It has so much good food!”

“Not really.”

“Erm… where do you work then? Phileo Damansaras? Oh, those offices are quite nice with their modern buildings…”

“But there’s always a traffic jam in and out.”

“Oh… what is it that you do then? Training? I’ve got a friend who’s a trainer and she loves being paid for talking!”

“It’s just a job.”

Sigh… I couldn’t seem to find the right buttons to push. Either that or this person was the most disagreeable person I’ve met this year.

What Kind of Chocolates…

In my friend’s office, there’s this manager who has “engrish” syndromes. She would spell “lip gross” and email it out happily to the rest of the entire office colleagues.

Anyways, what usually happens in this office is that whenever they buy food to be shared by the whole office, it would be placed in the pantry and an announcement will be made via email in the subject heading. Now, usually it would be a simple line such as “Curry puffs in the pantry” and everyone will understand.

So this manager comes back from her holiday and had bought chocolates for everyone. And the title of her email? “Chocolates in the panty”.

Extra Hands

One thing that I’m really glad about my cell group is that everyone is always willing to give a hand. If there are chairs that needs to be arranged, all will chip in. If there’s cleaning up to be done, everyone helps to clear up.

No one acts more superior than the rest and this is one thing that makes a team a great one. It is not easy to find such a group in the world out there, even when I was in uni. Some would merely watch while the rest of us would toil over arranging the chairs etc and as soon as the person in charge steps in, he/she would immediately push in the last chair and look as though they were part of the hard work.

At work, I’ve only managed to find that one team when I was in Comms. As mentioned before, I have many fond memories of when our work became an enjoyable experience because of each other.

Anyways, I was just thinking about it because we had a Christmas party last weekend. On my part, it was a disaster which I will not mention here but will forever haunt my memories and make me want to bury my head in the sand. Everyone else did beautifully and really, heading this team of dedicated folks really is a pleasure. There’s no need for me to check on whether this or that is done.

None of my CG members read my blog but I’d like to appreciate them and thank God for them.

Choosy

4 years ago, I had set my eyes upon the then new Nokia 3210. It was THE phone for me and so I waited patiently for the prices to drop so that I could afford it. It was only after it nearly went out of circulation then only did I finally purchase it.

I still lovingly hold on to this old phone although the phone industry is thriving with new and improved handphones that only stop short of becoming your kitchen sink. Nokia, once the market leader, is now facing stiff competition from the likes of Sony Ericsson. One of the main reasons why the Ericsson is doing so well is because they are the cheaper option and their designs are better than Nokia.

Anyways, before I start doing a business analysis of the brands (12 days here and my language is changing), I must confess my 3210 has lately started to feel challenged. At lunch, everyone places their handphones on the lunch table and my poor 3210 is too shy to make it’s appearance in a world where phones are changed as often as wardrobes. Heck, even the cleaners and the foreign labourers who frequent the bank downstairs have newer and better phones than me.

The problem is this, I’d like a Sony Ericsson but I’d rather still have a Nokia for it’s familiar functions. Also, with a Nokia, KS and I can share chargers whenever we go away for the weekend. But the Nokia phones are expensive and well, I don’t like their new designs. Plus the fact that I haven’t figured out if I want a camera function on my phone or not makes it all more complicated. Heck, just reading what I wrote also sounds confusing.

Never mind, I’ll start saving up and hopefully by next year, would have figured out some solution when I have the cash to buy the darn thing. In the meantime, my faithful 3210 (or not so faithful on weekends when it chooses to blank it’s screen, yup, only on weekends) will remain hidden on my lap at lunches.

B-A-N-A-N-A

This term, banana, is usually used as a degrading reference to a Chinese who is unable to speak the language but understands English (yellow skin but white inside). However, I’ve chosen to use it to refer to myself albeit with a slight fondness whenever someone casts me a shocked glance when I tell them I can’t speak Cantonese, my own mother tongue.

All my almost 7 working years here in KL have not made me much better at the language despite the being the majority language.

However, I believe that is all about to change. Just like in Alor Star where I grew up, I never bothered picking up Hokkien even though I was in a school filled with quite a fair bit of Chinese students. Instead, for the first year or so in secondary school, I mixed with Indians and Malays which enabled me to speak in my second language, Malay. After that, my closest group of friends were Chinese who spoke Hokkien to no end. My first Hokkien word was ka tow, which means scissors, to ka (cut) and tow (and throw). As I now mingle with a bunch of people who speak only Cantonese, I guess in no time, I would have to pick it up by force!

One of my weaknesses is language, I must admit. If I don’t use it, words get rusty and I forget how to form complete sentences. For example, I tried talking Malay yesterday and my sentences were abominable! I couldn’t even find the right vocabulary, substituting it in English instead. My Chinese teacher gave up on me when I tried taking up Mandarin classes when I was in primary school. I proudly hold a cert to verify me conversant in Japanese but of course, you can imagine how little of the language I still hold in my brain.

The irony is that I live in Malaysia where it is common for people to talk in at least 4 languages/dialects. Shame on me!

Observations

There is a frequent blaring of horns as the vehicles downstairs get stuck in the myriad of roads that winds around this old part of KL. This is a big difference from being in a kampung-like environment where by the silence outside is punctuated by chirping birds and an occasional thumping from the factory.

It’s slightly distracting, although there’s absolutely nothing for me to be distracted from at this point. I’ve been reading manuals and haven’t been successfully keeping my eyes open. I tribute my dark circles under my eyes as my unfit sleeping patterns. Waking up at least 3 times every working night, I would hurried check my clock to see how many more hours it would be before I would need to get up.

I had even dreamt that I had gone back to my old company on Monday. Everything was the same, no one said or looked at me strangely for having sent a mass goodbye mail and yet appearing again at work after three days. I only realized my mistake of going to the wrong office at the end of the day and had gone hysterical when KS mournfully mentioned I would be fired for not turning up at my new workplace for the whole day on my third day of work.

Anyways, back to my surroundings, there are plenty of old pre-war shops surrounding the vicinity. They are many dry food wholesalers and I think I’m going to go nuts visiting them. Brings back good ol’ memories of when Mum used to buy packs of a dozen Twisties and other junk food. I love going into these wholesale shops, squeezing my way through the narrow shelves decked to the brim with goods. Hmm… it’s similar to the sundry shops but a slightly larger version of it.

As for food, everything is walking distance. I’m generally not fussy about food (KS, wipe that disbelieving look on your face), well except when it comes to green veggies, and there are plenty of food varieties available here. Tucked in strange nooks and corners, there are shops that have existed for generations. The secret recipes have been successfully handed down and are delighting the many stomachs around here.

Another of our offices across the street has the train running right beside their windows almost every 5 minutes. Those working there shrug it off as part and parcel of their working environment. I must say I’m glad that I only hear the horns at jam hours.

Oh, another thing that I’ve observed for the last two days is that some girls who work around this area wear skirts that make my jaws drop. Their slits on their skirts are incredibly high! Whether their hemline reaches their knee or skirts below their bum, their side slits reach up almost to the waist! Ok, I’m exaggerating but it’s high enough to cause eyes to pop. Too bad I don’t have legs like that to show off…

U2 Tickets Sold Out!

Within the hour the tickets were put up for sale in Australia, all U2 concert tickets were sold out AND placed on ebay for the highest bidder. Every single concert from Adelaide to Sydney, 70,000 tickets gone in 60 minutes!

My sister-in-law couldn’t even get into the website to help book for us the tickets. So, looks like our trip to Sydney next year will not be happening. :(

Malaysia’s Most Beautiful

I’ve been wanting to talk about this new reality show here and even from the clips alone, one can see that the 14 girls brought together to be judged as Malaysia’s Most Beautiful is really done in bad taste. In line with most of the reality shows out there, they bitch against each other and although the producers claim the show is supposed to find beauty within and not so much on the external, the girls are showing off their best “assets”.

Don’t get me wrong, nothing wrong with showing their best assets just that it’s disgusting if they are beautiful on the outside and horrible on the inside and claim they are Malaysia’s Most Beautiful.

Jan was discussing this with me the other day saying that the real test would be to get the girls to compete in cooking Malay, Chinese and Indian food. Then, judge them as a tour guide to any state in the country to two tourists each. They must know what that state is famous for, introduce them the places of interest and where good food can be found. The final test would be to make them walk in a park whereby there will be an overturned rubbish bin and to see if any of them would be civic minded enough to pick up the rubbish. Or help a blind guy cross the road.

One has to encapsulate Malaysia’s best in order to be named Malaysia’s Most Beautiful. Not some backstabbing bitching session to see who gets ousted. Shame on Revlon and Marie France for sponsoring such a programme. I’m never buying Revlon again.

Lucky Rat

Again we caught a rat and this time, KS had agreed for me to kill it and dispose of it. My normal method of rat killing is to leave the fella out in the sun to kill it within two hours.

However, this rat got a lucky break as the sun wasn't it's usual glaring self. By the time it past 2pm, I gave up and gave the green light to KS to release it at the posh residency across the highway, which he did in glee.

Even if I had the option of throwing it out of the window of a high storey building, I wouldn't have because it's been proven to be most excruciating to watch if it doesn't die instantly. Thanks for reporting on your experiment, Karen. I also wonder what the jeep owner would have thought upon returning to his/her vehicle and to spot the dead rat on the roof.