Just Connected!

Just a week disconnected, I feel like I am really out of this world. I wanted to do some CBTs (Computer-based Trainings) online, but unable to do so. I wanted to chat with my friends via messenger, but unable to do so. After deep considerations, I decided to subscribe the cheapest package of Izzi – wireless broadband provider, the coverage is only Klang Valley. Unlike the usual line connection, wireless is rather unstable. But, I didn’t face problems such as connect and disconnect. The speed is fluctuating and sometimes, it’s a bit slow for downloads.

After moving here for almost a week, I finally get use to the life here. For dinner, sometimes I go tapao or eat out with my housemate.

After my official 1 week training, I was thrown to do projects, departmental training and doing CBTs. Compared to other teams; my team is covering a wide scope. I have being reading a lot, yes, a lot! At times I feel like my eyes are going to pop out and my brain is definitely very exhausted. Not to mention, meetings. Yes, my team has a lot of meetings. But not time wasting meetings, they’re all very challenging.

The relationship between the newbies here are quite good. Vicky always deliver me a bottle of drink (can get all you want from the fridge), hoping to have a chat with me. But, she's always frighten by the scary atmosphere near my cubicle. The Anil/Kit combination is really funny. They 2 always tease each other. Playboy Faiz is always flowery with his words. Many more fun people in there.

Below are some of the photos taken recently:

Chulan Tower, my office is at one of the floors.

Newly open, not nice shabu-shabu shop at 1U. Nice setting though, but taste wise...

New Room

Hi girls and guys,

I have moved! Last weekends was a busy one - moving and cleaning. Currently I am considering several broadband packages to be installed, still not connected for the time being :( I have 3 housemates - 1 I haven't seen him so far. Parking lot - argh... another headache~

Last Post Before Moving

This is my last post before I move to my new place at Tropicana @ Damansara. Currently there's no internet access there. It will take some time from applying to installing the broadband (I haven't apply yet). Below is a picture taken from my office yesterday morning, a beautiful view of KLCC. I wonder how it looks like at night.

Weekend of Xploration

Last weekend, I went to Banting alone to visit my grandaunt (supposed to visit her with my bro). The whole trip took slightly more than an hour. I was not very sure on the way there, just follow the signboards along the way. Approximately 30 minutes for PJ-Cyberjaya and another 30 minutes for Cyberjaya-Banting. It always nice driving in Cyberjaya, because there's hardly any cars on the road.

Banting is a small town, near to Port Dickson. But, the things there are cheap. Plastic chair, in PJ selling at RM23; Banting, only RM16.80. Plastic rubbish bin, PJ selling at RM4.80; Banting, only RM2! One of the other reason why I like going to Banting is because of the fresh and cheap local fruits. It resembles a bit of Lorong Kulit.

Of course, I visited my bro on the way back to PJ. He only accompanied me for lunch at Dengkil as he's busy preparing for the coming final exams.

Happy Mother's Day to mummy! Hope she likes our special photo :D

1st Week of Work

Finally, my training have reached to an end. From the 3rd day onwards, I will be car pooling with my new colleague, Kit who's staying around the area. I no longer need to walk around KL with the heavy bag ^^ My energy has again regained.

This week is quite relaxing. The training starts at 9am but we're there before 8am to enjoy the free beverages and cookies at the rest place. The seniors normally bring some fried noodles or nasi lemak to the office for breakfast. Nowadays, I walk to lunch with my colleagues instead of driving. I normally hang out with 2 other girls and around 3-5 guys for lunch. So far, my lunch spots are Cosway, UOA and Pavilion food court. Sometimes I sure miss my ex-colleagues, we used to drive out for lunch. I just noticed that I can have a nice view of KLCC from my office. I hope that it looks nice at night.

Next week, we'll begin on a more detailed training based on our job scope. I wonder how it will turned out to be...

Onboard - Orientation

I'll cut short on everything since I am short of time.

New job - tiring. Why is it so tiring? Because I need to carry a laptop around! 20 new employees boarded yesterday, most of them support EMEA (which is a new team). All of us are given a Dell laptop with our logins setup. They have planned a full schedule for the week. 1st day is rather "relaxing" as the managers are busy. I get to go home a bit early.

Some highlights:
1. First time working in KL, I took around 1.25 hour to go to work in the morning.
2. The laptop is heavy, the training booklet which is as thick as a textbook is also very heavy.
3. The managers are very friendly and "active", especially my boss.
4. There's only 3 members in my team with the same shift, including me(it seems!). Other teams have many.
5. It's truely a multinational company, a good mixture.
6. Free beverages and some light food (cookies, oats etc).
7. Free seating, no permanent cubicle. There's 2 LCDs at each cube.
8. There's proper training and briefing on things such as the company's intranet, insurance coverage etc.

Going up and down the staircase, walking around with a laptop at the back for more than 1 hour is definately no joke!

Belated Pictures

Here's some pictures taken since my arrival in KL.

Dim Sum shop at SS2. I still prefer Penang's dim sum.

Mushroom Noodle at Uncle Lim's @ Ikano. Taste not bad, but how come all yellow noodles?!

Bak Kuh Teh near Sunway, quite nice

Transformers @ Cineleisure

8th Day in KL - Gatherings

Today, there's no room viewing. I woke up late and had chicken rice for my breakfast/lunch. My brother and his girlfriend came for a visit at 1pm (normally he's not that punctual). We went out for lunch together at Living Food @ Uptown. I just took a glass of tea while they 2 ordered a bowl of hor fun each. According to them, the taste is just normal. Then, we did some shopping at 1U. The whole day I felt like a walking zombie @.@

I called up WSS for dinner and also made some visits to 7-11 (for room renting notice). I managed to get to SS25 alone! Yay~ We had dinner at a rather big foodcourt/ kopithiam at Taman Megah. The wanton mee is okay, may make more visits there. The normal price for a small plate of noodle in PJ is RM3.80. We visited 3 7-11 shops after that and nearly bump into an accident. Phew~ Certain portions of the road, the street lights are broken and suddenly the road from 3 lanes become 2 lanes. WSS was complaining about it and then he suddenly recalled that I am not familiar with this area. He quickly pulled my sterling when I was about to hit a divider (when 3 lanes become 2 lanes). I tried to be extremely careful when using the same road to go home.

Countdown: 1 more day to go before I start on my new job.

7th Day in KL - Outings & Drama

It's Friday and no room viewings for today. I heated up the noodles from yesterday and took some for breakfast. CC was on leave so he helped me out with the directions to KL (need a 3rd opinion on how to get to town). Approximately 17km using Sprint highway. Not bad.

My brother who is supposed to come in the afternoon "fong fei kei". So, I ended up staying at home watching drama series, "The 7th Day". This HK drama seems to be adopting some of the sad elements of Korean drama series. The pace is rather slow but there's some humour in it. Even though the ending is a bit melancholy, but it doesn't leave you crying till the end. There's some moral to it, a good wrap up. Many of my friends who had watched it felt disappointed but I feel that it's not that bad, still worth watching.

I met up Chris for dinner at around 6.30pm. But, he was approximately 30 minutes late due to the traffic jam. That is the first time I have seen him in KL, also the first time since Chinese New Year. He brought me to Damansara Perdana for dinner and we headed to the Curve after that for a short tea at Gloria Jean's. It was my first visit to the coffee shop. There's no customers when we arrived. I ordered a cup of chocolate with marshmallow. The taste, not bad. But the waiter seemed to have problem understanding customers' requests.

I reached home at around 10+pm and determined to complete the remaining episodes of "The 7th Day" in one go! I completed all of them at almost 4am! It's been a long time since I did this kind of "marathon". But, not that bad to do this once in a while. I sure feel satisfy~

6th Day in KL - Tired

After so many days of room hunting, I really feel tired. Chris told me that it's like that, once settle down it will be okay. Please, grand me a nice place to stay soon~

In the morning, I checked out the notice boards at 7-11, SS21 before test driving to my office. I feel that my sense of direction is okay, but I am unable to recognize any particular route from A to Z. I will surely miss out something the roads that I should be taking. From my experience driving there, I can say that 3 times I go there, 3 different route. Today's is more to a combination of the routes that I took before. This time, the journey is the longest, around 45 minutes for 26km.

Today, I finally feel that KL kopitiam/hawker food is not that bad. Ern brought me to a teow cheow kopithiam, the soup noodle there is quite nice. But, not cheap. In Penang, it may cost around RM10. But in KL, definately impossible. We're very tired, so we went home after that.

5pm went for a room viewing at SS21. Around 7pm, an uncle from the church fetched Ern and I for dinner. It was a nice one and it's relatively cheap for KL price. Uncle ordered 6 huge sized noodles and 9 cups of chinese tea, it only cost RM53. (p/s: I do not remember how to get there, but its in PJ old town, a deserted area)

At night, I need CC's help again for house viewing at SS17 and Suria Damansara.

Room1: House okay, room okay, toilet not okay. It's a connecting toilet and will be sharing with a guy as well.
Room2: Nice place, clean house, got parking somemore. But, the road to the condo is very deserted, deep inside, hardly any cars or people passed by. I will definitely lost my way there, if I am going there alone.
Room3: Clean house, room ok, but seems to have parking problem as there's many cars at that road.

Looks like I still need to go for room viewing~

5th Day in KL - Room Hunt!

Today it's movie day, meaning cheaper movie tickets. I went to Cineleisure for the first time to watch 2 movies - Iron Man and Forbidden Kingdom.

Forbidden Kingdom - storyline so-so but I like the fighting scenes between Jet Li and Jackie Chan.
Iron Man - wasn't expecting much but it's better than I thought! The Mandarin translation of the title is really funny... haha...

Shortly after the movie, I grabbed 1 piece of cookie and headed to Bayu Puteri for room viewing. Walau, traffic jam along the way. Then I headed to Palm Spring, again traffic jam. Then, to Pelangi Utama, which is also in Sunway Damansara. I spent around 3 hours for 3 rooms, mainly on the roads. I reached back at PJ around 10+pm, feeling very exhausted. Ern was not at home yet. I immediately went online to seek advise from a friends on the rental etc. There're many different advises. Argh... hard decisions.

Ern, "landlady's" youngest son brought home so leftover chicken, so that's my dinner/supper. He was unable to give me advise as he seldom drives to town.

Tomorrow I'll test drive from Palm Spring to my office with Ern. Let's see how many km~

4th Day in KL - Lost

Today, I attempted my 2nd drive down to KL with Travis and I was quite lost. The route down town via the Federal Expressway seems to be a very long way (at least I feel so). On the way back, this time we 2 feel lost. But, we managed to get back to Damansara. We attempted to watch movie but no suitable slots. Thus, we explored the Sunway Damansara area, trying to find this place called Palm Spring. Again, we're lost, from there we ended up in Tropicana 0.0 With a bit shock, we decided to head back. So, end of the story for today's exploration.

At night, again I contacted CC for help because I do not know how to get to SS2 and Palm Spring for room viewing. As he was busy, the room viewing ended up quite late.

Room1: Quite spooky and scary, no one pick up the call.
Room2: Friend's friend's place, many things in the house, room relatively big for the rental.
Room3: Nice environment, I like the bright lights at the corridor, the house a bit dusty though. Expensive carpark. KIV.

After all the viewing, wah... already slightly over 12am. Time flies~

p/s: Parking rental in condo sure is expensive. Range from RM90-120

3rd Day in KL – Xplore

Other than sitting at home and online, today I have 2 major accomplishments – drive down to my working place from PJ and visited SS2’s night market.

#1
I drove down to town at around 1.45pm with my cousin’s guidance (thanks!). It took me around 30 minutes to reach for an 11km journey. Not bad. The traffic is quite okay, with slight traffic jams at certain areas. Tomorrow I am going to try again.

#2
Yes, 1st pasar malam visit in PJ! Thanks to CC who brought me there. It feels weird to hear people speaking in Cantonese in pasar malam. Maybe I am too used to Hokkien. I am a bit disappointed with the food stalls. Starting to miss my grand’s chai kueh… :( The takoyaki’s mini octopus was a bit small. The yee mee, still okay. I notice a few things: the tactics of selling DVDs and its packaging are different, anime DVDs have more customers than normal DVDs, not many stalls specializing on selling bread, don’t have nice dim sum stalls, got more mini octopus sticks here (taste unknown), many shoes, clothes and fruits stalls.

I am still filling full even though it’s already 11+pm.

2nd Day in KL - The Lock

Only the 2nd day in KL, I was already facing problem with the lock. Due to some technical problem, I was unable to unlock the padlock and open the gate. My relatives fetched my parents and I for breakfast/lunch in the morning and my parents to the bas station after that. I tried to unlock the padlock again soon after a short rest, but nothing workout well.

Luckily, a friend who stays near my place was free. He came over to help me out on the door, and thank god, it's open! Since both of us are free and I wanted to do some area survey, he offered to drive me around. Our short trip unexpectedly turn out to be a bit longer. I even get some of my groceries and dinner done. After talking for a few hours, 2 of us were extremely exhausted that we sat there quietly on the journey back.

My bad day turned out to be a better one, thanks to my long lost friend :)

1st Day in KL

I departed to KL at around 10am. The roads were surprisingly congested. Many cars were heading to Penang and there's a slight jam before the bridge, near the toll. My car, was loaded with a lot of things (as expected, I am thinking to bring even more).

We reached Ipoh at around 12pm, just in time to have salted chicken for lunch! Yummy yummy... it is much more nicer when it's fresh from the oven~ I was thinking of visiting a friend who is recently hospitalized in Ipoh, but due to my slight flu, I think I better avoid visiting her.

Reached my mum's friend's place at around 5+pm. Surprisingly the place is very easy to find from the highway, else I might get lost. After loading my luggages, we headed to my relative's place in Kepong (luckily I still remember the way there). She treated us to a very nice dinner (fish, fish~).

Tomorrow - will start on my journey to explore the area after I send my parents to the bas station.

Poor Banking Experience

Recently, I visited several banks and had been suffering from poor customer experience (not satisfy). I went to PB to pay my income tax and have doubts on what to fill in for some of the fills. Thus, I asked the Teller. The Teller answered me reluctantly, with a gloomy face. 2 days later, I went to another bank with my mum. There's no customers when we reached at around 4pm. My mum went to press the Queue no. The guard shouted from afar "isi borang dulu!" (fill in the form first!). With a little dissatisfaction, my mum filled in the forms first. Then, my mum and I proceed to one of the counters. Again, the Teller showed us a gloomy face when answering our queries. We headed back, with no transactions completed.

Can't the Tellers show us at least, some smile? There's not many customers when I visited and I am sure that they are not tense due to overwork. Customer experience - where does it goes?

Farewell

These few weeks, I have been attending a lot of farewells. Looks like I'm going to miss a bunch of people in Penang *sob sob*

Penang Japanese Language Society

SCM Team

ESG girls!
DnS Team
The 4 Cubes

Extended Team
Q1 B'day Celebration & Farewell
My Farewell Present
The Ballroom Dancing Gang!

Dinner @ Mizi

*Moving*

Dear friends,

It has been quite some time since I last blogged. Hem hem... a few announcements to make, some of you may have know:

1. I have resigned from Dell
2. I will be moving on to a new job in KL
3. I will be staying in PJ, just found a room.

It was a tough decision and I had a tough time finding a room to stay. Finally~ everything is on track.

Some FAQs:

1. Why KL?
Because better opportunity.

2. Competitor?
No.

3. Which company?
Let you all know later, when I settle down in my new company.

4. What job?
Will be doing pre-sales support.

5. Same field?
Yes.

6. When are you leaving Penang?
April 26, Saturday.

Trip to KL Feb/Mar ‘08

My recent visit to KL this weekend was a fruitful one. I was able to meet up with many of my old friends – my ex-roommate, ex-coursemates and some of the Malaysia 6. I haven’t seen some of them for up to more than 2 years already. It’s a great gathering; the feel was still the same as good old times.

The yummy beef noodle at Petaling Street

My favourite at Genki Sushi

Me and my ex-roommate
Gathering at Coffee Bean, Midvalley

Jun and I

WSS and Pak Yong

Dinner at OUG, special treat by WSS

Lam Mee at Old Town, Cyberjaya, big portion!

Me and Huwi Yin at KLIA Transit Station, Putrajaya

Waiting for my train to KLIA (not taking MAS, but AirAsia)

KLIA
I like this slogan

Level 2 - Passed!

I am happy to announce that, I have finally passed JLPT Level 2! *sob sob* After many attempts, finally... My heart was popping very fast when my teacher hanged over to me the envelop. I immediately looked for the tiny little paper, which is the result slip. After a while... Yes yes! I finally got it! It's like a dream come true!

2008 CNY

This year's CNY sure is a happening one: gatherings, "makan" etc. As the saying goes, a picture paint a thousand words. Below are some of the pics taken:

Deparment CNY celebration, team 168

God of Prosperity
Lion Head

Seafood at Hai Boey on the 7th Day

High School ex-Classmates Gathering

Primary School Gathering

The Road Not Taken

Those who's around my age would have known this poem, because it's in the school syllabus, by Robert Frost:

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there,
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost has taken the path not taken by many others and became a poet. Recently, I am at the crossroads too, deciding whether I should take the road which is more grassy. Every road leads to an unknown path, the future is not decided, unless we make our own decision and actions.

Chinese New Year Eve

Today is Chinese New Year Eve. I get to leave 1/2 day earlier for reunion dinner. Not many people come to work today, there's less traffic on the road but the atmosphere is there. As usual, there's police officers on standby near the Snake Temple. Luckily I didn't make an illegal U-turn.

After work, I spent most of the time cleaning. Th weather sure is very hot! It made me feel lazy and sweaty (no air-condition at home). My dad was busy washing cars; mum was doing housework; bro was occupying the PC and folding origami roses. Too bad, those roses are not for me. I did helped out too, by putting on the two "mousy" decos on the front door.

Recently I have being calling up my ex-classmates for gathering, but it seems that most of the phone numbers in the graduation magazine is no longer valid. I have being receiving voice messages that sounds like "The number that you have dialled is not in service. Nombor yang anda dial tiada dalam perkhidmatan kami." Gosh, these kind of numbers are increasing! Sooner or later, I may not be able to contact most of them via the graduation magazine. Many of them are unable to attend the gathering due to: -
(1) Not in Penang
(2) Family gathering

Hopefully I get more angpows this year, wahahaha! Wishing you all Happy Chinese Year!

Happy Chinese Year!

So fast, it's another year already. I still remember last year, around this time, I attended my relative's wedding, received JLPT results, received a fortune pocket, yummies from my colleagues etc. So many good things...

But, I hope that this year, all my wishes and resolutions can be fulfilled. Else, everything will be turned into nothing but a dream.

Do you remember any memorable dinner with your family and friends? Chinese New Year is always the time for gatherings, especially this year, when we can have 4 days holiday in a go. Make sure you make full use of it!

Short Trip to KL '08

Last weekend I made a short trip to KL and Cyberjaya. It's been around 3-4 months since I last been there. This time, it's to attend my close friend's wedding. I was shocked when Sylvia told me about her wedding. She's the first among my coursemates to get married. The wedding was held at night and at a multipurpose hall in Putrajaya. The stage is surprisingly grand. The hall was covered with wooden floors. Reminded me of a dancing studio.

During this short trip, I had met up with several friends: Travis, Ross, Huwi Yin, Sylvia and Jin. Huwi Yin is very nice to let this "free-loader" to stay in her room for 2 nights. I had met up some new friends, also get to know that "this world is very small". When she showed me the pictures taken with some Intel-ians, I noticed a few people whom I know through Toastmasters.

In addition, I had been to several places where I have always wanted to go - Ikea, The Curve, IOI Mall and Sepang F1 Circuit:-

Ikea - There's many nice furnitures at Ikea, even though I have heard from my friends so many times, it's my 1st time going there. Some of the furniture designs and ideas are really creative.

The Curve - A place with many luxurious restaurants.

IOI Mall - A place frequently visited by MMU Cyberjaya students. The nearest place to watch movie from Cyberjaya. But, the worst cinema that I had been to. Even though the movie ticket is cheaper by RM2, the seating is terrible and there's a smell in the cinema. Worst, I was seeing "rambutans" more than the movie screen.

Sepang F1 Circuit - Place for Formula F1 (racing cars). There's hardly any living creature when we visited. The whole place is very huge. There were several cars practicing at that time, we can hear the "voo" sound.

Dim Sum @ Happy Garden - According to Jin, it's a place famous for Dim Sum near Kuchai Lama. The taste - quite similar to Penang's. Haha... really much more better than I expected.

******

The last few moments of my KL trip, a photo with my "room and transport manager" in LCCT. Thanks a lot for bringing me around.

Happy New Year!

This year's xmas and new year celebration sure is a grand one. "Grand" as in there's a lot of party -> food. Too much of something is not good. I am beginning to suffer from these luxurious foods.

Today, I get to go home earlier. I departed from my office at 3pm but there are a lot of cars on the streets, which is something very unusual in a hot and sunny Monday afternoon. There’s a rumour that the petrol's price is going to increase again. Thus, petrol stations are packed with even more cars than ever. Phew~

Cheah Chee's Big Day

December 23 is Cheah Chee's wedding. The ESG gang was invited to become "chee mui" (sisters) during her wedding day. Here we were, all dressed up in white, anxiously waiting to see the bride.

The bride waiting for the bridegroom's arrival. She's so beautiful.
Too bad we didnt took a photo of all the "chee mui" together. It would have being a very nice one.

My New *Handphone*

I bought a new phone recently, to be exact 1 week ago. Time to say goodbye to my >3 yrs Nokia. After 3 Nokia phones, I decided to get a SE instead. Based on some online recommendations, I decided to go for this camera phone, with a nice camera:

The pictures taken are actually much clearer than I thought, it's like camera quality with auto focus. Wahahaha... next time I can take more photos without bringing along my camera :)

Merry Christmas

"Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!" The festive season is approaching. This year, I made my own e-Card. The background is taken in a gift shop and with some touch up:

For this year's xmas party, I got some soft toys:

Birthday Celebration

This year, I celebrated my birthday on Dec 7, instead of the actual date. I was surprised when my team leader called us for a dinner that morning. She said that she had something to announce. "Announce", what would that be? Almost everyone was gone before the meeting, and I didn’t feel suspicious. I was waiting for them and Cheah Chee was ushing me to come faster. Without a second thought, I followed Astina to the meeting room.

To my surprise, they were there with a huge chocolate cake!

They also give me and my mentee, Steph a birthday card so that we can write to each other (Steph's b'day is a week later but she'll be on leave). *ting ting* the cute teddy bear cards!

At night, I had a celebration with my lunchmates at TGI Friday, Queensbay (Queena is missing in this picture).

The crew sang me a very nice and "energetic" birthday song. Hmm... singing must be the first requirement in getting a job here. They also made me standed up and shouted. So paiseh... luckily Steph is there to accompany me. I like this brown tiny piece of cake, it's very chocolatie.

Last but not least, I would like to say "Happy Birthday" to my beloved senior, Huwi Yin who share the same birthday as I, and thanks my dear friends and family members who remembered my birthday.

Life after JLPT

The long waited JLPT had finally over. Days before the exam, I was feeling very nervous. I really didn’t feel like re-taking this exam next year. Next year’s exam will fall on the day before my birthday. Thus, I must strike for this exam! This year, my not-so-cute junior, Patrick was taking the exam with me. Surprisingly, the talkative Patrick is rather quiet on that day. Perhaps he’s too nervous to say anything or too concentrate reading his notes. He told me that he’ll be leaving to Singapore for a 1 week vacation after the exam. Student life…… how wonderful!

Last year I was having a terrible time with the listening paper. Due to the room setting, there’s a lot of noise and I was hardly able to hear anything “meaningful”. This year, on the side, it was very clear and I can hear each and every word of it. However, it was too tough for me. Yet, another obstacle for me to score in my listening paper.

After the exam, I should have feel very relax. But, I did not feel so. Instead, I feel a bit down and a lot of negative thinking are lingering in my mind. Perhaps, I am not confident with my exam or too much worry. Haiz…