December Photos

It may be a bit late to upload the photos now, here you go:

http://s10.photobucket.com/albums/a146/dellachew06/2006/

Enjoy!

Happy New Year '07!

Everyone,

Happy Belated New Year! Sorry for not updating my blog for such a long time. I am getting lazy to online after getting back from work on Monday-Friday. I hope that everyone is doing fine. Let's clap clap our hands 2 times and make a wish...

*wish*

*wish*

*wish*

May your wish come true.

December Events

Christmas and New Year is around the corner. Yet, I haven’t made my birthday wish. I ate a lot for this festive season; hopefully I am not gaining weight due to the overflow of food.

The dinner at Amandari, a Malay cuisine restaurant, with Sam Burg, who is one of my bosses, turned out to be great. I like the long curtains which are the main decorations there; it is simple, but nice. The set meal was rather expensive, around RM500 for an 8 course meal. Luckily I am not paying for it. There were a lot of gigantic squid dishes. They use the same ingredient (squid) but different ways of cooking it. We had curry squid, barbeque squid etc. Even though I like squids, but I do not want to have a squid party. So much squid at the same time makes me freak out!

I joined one of the fitness classes with my colleague, Queena. It is a weekly class held at the company’s fitness center with a payment. The instructor, who is in his twenties, sure is good in shaking. The class is fun, even though I am not good at dancing.

The Toastmaster speechcraft session at TK Mah’s house was a blast. The house is very spacious, with wonderful decorations and good food prepared by Mrs Mah. Mrs Mah is a good cook. She prepared a “western food buffet” for us. There were spaghetti, tomato soup, barbeque chickens, fried noodles, muffins, garlic bread, cheese cake and soya longan jelly.

The “department” Christmas celebration was held in Evergreen Hotel this year. The theme is “Jingle Dell”. The department is bigger than I thought it to be. There were many unfamiliar faces and of course, those whom I know. The ballroom was rather small and the buffet is not very delicious, but not too bad. But, we did enjoy ourselves with the games and programs, especially the santa/ santarina session. Yu Ming was our santa and he was weirdly decorated by us using red papers, cotton and a piece of brown paper. All the teams come out with their santa/ santarina and we sure were creative. With the same materials, we had come out with a lot of designs.

The Toastmaster’s Christmas celebration was held a few days after that in PSDC. We had buffet for dinner. Most of guys dressed in white shirt and black pants, with a red color tie/ santa hat. I think we should make the door gifts as santa hats next time, everyone looks so… cute in them. It was another enjoyable session, though it was not as crazy as Jingle Dell’s.

Thoughts About Work

Here are some of the quotations that I like, by my friends:
- The present does not matter, but it’s the person who gives the present that matters.
- We need courage in our life for making every single step

After working, I realize several things:
- We earn enough money to spend, but we often do not have enough money to give to our parents.
- Even if there is no work for the day, we still feel tired after getting home from work.
- By following the rules strictly, we will not be able to achieve our goals. Think of the box!
- Distance is not an issue. Even though I have friends working in the same company, we only see each other for a chat during gatherings. The company is too big and we often do not have the time to catch up with each other.
- People often give up a good job opportunity because of transport and location. As the saying goes, “no pain no gain”. Short term suffering is better than losing a good opportunity. I will definitely go for it, unless there are some other factors that I may need to consider at that time (eg: parents’ health).
- Many people let problems to make their life tough, instead of solving them. Problems are meant to be solved. If no actions are taken, a problem will forever remain as a problem.
- We were striving hard to get a “nice certificate” during our studies. But these certificates are merely the key to get for an interview. There are much more skills that we need to learn other than the facts from the books, and these skills have proved to be much more useful in the future.
- The worst part of a wedding is the wedding dinner. If you invite guests A, then you must invite guest B as they both know you. Then, if you invite guest B, then you must invite guest C. In the end, you will need to invite many people. However, can you afford to invite so many people? If yes, go ahead. If no, you will have a headache selecting the people to invite. Wedding is no longer economical. The wedding photos itself need more than RM3K.
- As we earn more money, we have less time to spend them.
- We like Friday and hate Monday.

My Birthday

December 6 is my birthday, it is also Huwi Yin’s birthday. Birthday means that I have grown older. Does that mean that I am wiser now? I think it’s still the same. This year I didn’t get to eat any birthday cakes. Does that mean that I unable to make wishes and thus, my wishes won’t come true? I had dinners on the 5th and on my birthday. I feel that I am starting to hate food… I don’t want to eat anymore… Since it is a festive season, it is impossible to reduce “food load”. I received some presents from my friends and colleagues. Special thanks to Christine, Kim Sheng, Khim Foong, Kelly, Hui Shan, Khai, Pei Ling, Siew Ean, Yen Ching, Cheah Jing, Lay Leng, Yean Hong, Cheah Chee, Huey Sze, Queena, Jin and those names not mentioned. After living on Mother Earth for more than 22 years, I have many pleasant and unpleasant memories. There are so many things that I can recall now. When I reach the age of 30, there will be even more! Wonder if my internal memory will get overloaded by then.

December~

December is here! It is the month that I am looking forward the most throughout the year due to several reasons. December is a holiday season and sales is available everywhere, one of the best seasons to shop other than the Shopping carnival around September. As Christmas is approaching, there are beautiful decorations in all the major shopping complex. I am always looking forward to see those cute artificial snowmen and well decorated Christmas trees. They always make me feel excited even though I have being seeing them every year around this season.

December 1, Friday – I rushed to the PC fair at PISA immediately after my work. A heavy traffic jam was expected to occur as there were many events occurring during the weekends. This includes the opening of the new shopping complex, Queensbay Mall. It was raining heavily as soon as I departed from my company. The traffic jam is not as bad as I thought. I met several high school friends there, working as part-time workers for the fair. It is their semester break now. In addition, I managed to get some goodies. It was a satisfying purchase. I spent around RM130 for a webcam, card reader, headset and 25 pieces of DVD+R. I was having a nice time playing with my new 1.3 Megapixel webcam on that night. The video is clear and there is not much lagging from my side.

December 3, Sunday - Last Sunday I took my Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) Level 2. I met some ex-classmates there, Lee Wei and (I cannot remember her name). They were attempting the Level 4 exam. The exam didn’t go well, especially Paper 2, the listening test. There maybe something wrong with the CD as there is a serious vibration for many questions in Part I. Perhaps they are trying to test our listening skills in various situations as well? Overall, I feel that I am going to fail for another time this year, even though I am able to answer more questions this time. God please bless me… After my exam, I went to the steamboat shop at Sg. Dua for a primary school gathering. It was a sudden gathering. Lay Fen message me the night before thru MSN messenger and I was a bit surprise. A total of 12 people attended the gathering. It is good to meet so many people again, after such a long time. Some I haven’t see them for around 10 years. They sure have change (appearance). We finished dining at around 10pm. It feels so weird after the exam, with nothing much to do. It is like losing a direction.

November Events

Festive season is around the corner. It is also a season of food, food and more food. A week ago, I completed my second pot of clay flowers, Hyacinth Heaven. It is a plant that grows during the winter, a perfect tree for this season. The office now is filled with Christmas trees, snowman, penguins and other Christmas decorations. Holiday mood is in the air. I still remember last year, around this period of time, Christoph showed me snowing scene outside of his room using his videocam. The scenery out there is very bright. The whole are was covered up by snow. I felt like as if I had just seen Heaven.

As year end is approaching, there are many dinners. November 22, Wednesday - There was a dinner organized by an extended team as an appreciation of the support we provide throughout the year. It was a luxurious dinner at Prawn Village, a restaurant very near to my company. My favorite dish of the night is cheese and prawns. The first runner up would be the fish dish. The fish slices were “smooth” and delicious.

November 24, Friday - I attended the Waseda Brass Concert jointly organized by Japan Embassy and University Science Malaysia (USM) in Dewan Budaya, USM. Admission was free. The hall was almost full. I was not particularly interested in brass. Since the concert was free and I have not attended any concerts for more than a year, I decided to give it a try. It was raining heavily on that night and traffic jam was extremely heavy around the island, as a lot of places were slightly flooded and many people were rushing to go home on this last day of work for the week. I almost gave up attending concert, but luckily I didn’t. It was a wonderful concert and changed my perceptions towards brass. With only brass instruments, it is possible to perform very wonderful music. My favorite member would be the conductor. Besides being the youngest member of the band, he is a very spirited and funny conductor. I felt like dancing while watching him conducting the band.

November 26, Sunday – I went to Gurney Plaza with Queena. The main event of the day was watching the movie “Step Up”. It was a very inspiring and wonderful movie. It was all dancing, classical + modern. The opening of the movie is well down, showing the contrast between ballet and modern dance. It is movie worth watching! In addition, the soundtrack is nice. Before the movie, I had lunch at Food Loaf. We called it as the “high-class food court”. It is like a food court, there are many types of delicacies to choose from – Italian, Japanese, Korean, Western and local cuisines, everything under one hub. The atmosphere is very nice. The view from the glass is very nice. The price there is of KL standard and the servings are a lot. The waiters and waitresses there are very friendly. I am satisfied with my Manhantten Market Platter, with a big piece of fish and chips, mashed potatoes, 3 fried prawns, BBQ squids and some salad. It is a place worth visiting once in a while (unless you are rich enough to visit there for meals everyday).

Last but not least, I would like thank Yushu for wonderful pictures of Korea, especially the fireworks one ^^

Thought of the Month

It’s been around 3 weeks since I last blogged. I am not very busy but getting lazy to update my blog. Many things happened since then and I have being doing some thinking. There are a number of farewells to attend to, including my ex-director and extended team member, Jessie Lim.

Several pregnant ladies around me are going to give birth soon or had already given birth. They shared some of their experience with me, such as their back pain when they try to stretch out when tired, their legs becomes swollen, their babies kicking them in their tummy, food that they cannot eat when they are pregnant, change in their eating habits while pregnant and things to take care of after giving birth. Pregnant can actually be so troublesome. I never think of that at all. The most I could think of is only morning sickness and food to take care of.

On the other hand, I am hearing news on people who passed away due to cancer. Cancer has become so common nowadays. I wonder if my friends or relatives will be leaving me suddenly.

After working, I begin to cherish my school days and the precious moments that I once had with my friends. There are many things that we had always taken for granted and only appreciate it when we lose it. I really miss some of the moments that I had during my university life. Working life can never be the same as university life, no matter how I think of it. I always wish that I could further my studies again so that I can enjoy the life being a student again. However, this doesn’t mean that I will be taking a course that I have no interest in. Perhaps, sometimes, memories are meant to be treasured. That’s what that makes them valuable. We must learn to move forward and enjoy the future, as how we cherish our memories.

I seem to be meeting people who remind me of some other people I know. Not because of their looks, but the way they talk and expressing themselves. It makes me feel warm because I feel like I have known them before that.

There are times that I feel that my “battery” is running low. After recharging, I feel full of energy again and move forward. Even for rechargeable batteries, they will be spoilt one day. But, I hope that all my dreams are fulfilled before it is not rechargeable anymore.

Deeparaya

When Deepavali + Hari Raya, it becomes Deeparaya. Deepavali fell on October 21 whereas Hari Raya fell on October 24 and 25 this year. I wasn’t really celebrating the festival but did visit a friend’s house. Most of my friends who are from other states rushed back to their hometowns. The atmosphere was in the air. I wonder how the celebration is over in Korea. Is there any party? Suddenly I miss the “bah kuh teh”, with a minimum amount of pork and a lot of potatoes. I did not miss the taste, but the fun when cooking the dish. It is like a tradition to have “bah kuh teh” whenever we are celebrating something over in Korea. This tradition seems to remain even after I leave.

The haze here is on and off. The situation is not so terrible in Penang due to the frequent down pour. It does not affect our view sight at least. Some people were still barbecuing despite the hazy weather. Some buses, motorcycles and trucks are emitting black smoke and I wonder why they are still on the streets, polluting the environment. The authority should really take some actions to improve on the current situation. At least, they should educate the public on their responsibilities to keep the environment free from more pollutants.

I watched “The Prestige” on the first day of Hari Raya with my brother in Prangin Mall.

The synopsis from Golden Screen Cinema is:
In 1878 two young stage magicians clash in a darkened saloon during the course of a fraudulent seance. From this moment on, their lives become webs of deceit and exposure, secrets and revelations, as they feud to outwit and destroy one another. Their rivalry takes them both to the peak of their careers, but with terrible consequences.

There is a lot of suspense in the movie and a lot of flashbacks. Even though it is a bit confusing mixing flashbacks and current happenings together, we managed to get the whole picture of the storyline. The story is somewhat unique, about the life of 2 magicians, the sacrifices that they made for their careers and the ending is unexpected. This is a non-action movie. I cannot tell for sure if the ending is a good one. But, the morale of the story is, it is better to forgive than to revenge.

Team Building at Traders Hotel

Finally, the annual team building is here. This year, we had seafood buffet in Traders Hotel, which is formerly known as Shangri-La Hotel. This buffet cost more than RM90 per person and was sponsored by the company. There are around 40 people in our department. We occupied a small area in the restaurant so that it will be easier for the games section later. The seats were decided by drawing lots. I was sharing the same table with Lay Leng, Ewe Chong, Ismah, Jacqueline and Chai. There were a few sections, such as the dessert corner with cakes, custard and ice-cream, sushi, fruits, barbeque food, “lok lok”, normal dishes and salad. Everyone was excited on the guessing game. Someone will read out the description of a person and the person with the paper of that person’s name must say out the name. Else, there will be a penalty of eating wasabi. The dinner met its objective to bring everyone together. Here are some of the photos taken during the dinner:

Photos

Quarter 3 Birthday Lunch Photos

Here are some of the photos taken during the Q3 Birthday Lunch at Cherry Blossom Thai Food Restaurant on October 9, 2006 (Monday). There are around 11 dishes, including the dessert. Too lazy to upload all of them. Thus, here are some of the selected yummies of the restaurant. Enjoy!:

Photos

Lantern Fest Photos

Here are some of the photos taken during the lantern fest in Penang:

http://s10.photobucket.com/albums/a146/dellachew06/LanternFest/

Pig Mooncake!

Mooncakes can be quite dull with the same old design and shape. However, this little pig mooncake is irresistable! Check out the pictures below, courtesy of Lay Leng sis:

http://s10.photobucket.com/albums/a146/dellachew06/PigMooncake/

September Weekends

September 23, Saturday – It was Japanese Film Festival. Kelly managed to get 2 free movie tickets for the film, “Heaven’s Bookstore” at Gurney Plaza. The movie is quite interesting. I like the piano pieces in the movie. It’s wonderful. I feel like as if I am attending a real concert.

September 30, Saturday – I had dinner with Kelly, Hui Shan, Khai and Xiao Chan in the seafood shop at Paya Terubong. Khai likes the barbeque fish there. He even plans to pay a second visit there next week. The steam fish here is not so nice though. Then, we went to the lantern festival in PISA, in the open air. There’s a lot of people and nice lanterns. The fountains were on. It’s a really great view. There’s stage performance was great. We managed to see the “change face” show. It was amazing. We couldn’t even notice when she changed the mask.

My Colleagues’ Birthday

Cheah Chee and Chuen Kar’s birthday is next to each other. We had a joined celebration with the transactional team last week. Chuen Kar is also an ex-MMU student, a telecommunication student in Cyberjaya campus. For Cheah Chee’s birthday, we had lunch at Ichiyo, which is near BJ Complex. As for CK’s birthday which was on a Friday, we had dinner at E-gate’s Sushi King.

Here are some of the photos taken:
http://s10.photobucket.com/albums/a146/dellachew06/Colleagues/

Busy Week!

This week is a very busy week as it is month end again. Whenever month end is approaching, all of us will be extremely busy. Our eyes will be glued to the screen and hands on the mouse, continuously clicking. Endless request keep on flowing into our mailbox. OT is not something unusual during this period of the month. I am basically working from day to night for these few days. My highest record now is going back at 11pm. Once in a blue moon, I will receive some lunch box from somebody or food from other team as a token of appreciation for our hard work. Even though the food doesn’t cost much, but at least, they are able to fill our empty stomachs while on OT. Thank you very much!

Today I attended a 2 hours training in the data center. It was my first IT related training. It’s great to see the real product (servers) that I am maintaining (data) for my daily tasks. I love those black racks with doors for servers. It looks cool. There’s a few tables and chairs in the room as well. It must be nice working in this room, with so much space and privacy. But, maybe it will be too quiet as well. I like the glass board in the room. It looks really stylish! Finally weekend is approaching again! Back to the good old days :)

Cameron Highland Photos

Here are some of the photos of my short trip to Cameron Highlands:

http://s10.photobucket.com/albums/a146/dellachew06/Cameron/

Enjoy!

Honey and Clover 2 Review

Honey and Clover season 2 has come to an end last week. Contrast to the every crazy comedy for the first season, the second season focuses more on moral, values and philosophies. The ever crazy Morita Shinobu shows his serious part of character. His thoughts for his brother are greater than what we imagine, from the illustrations of the first season. They also give a very good explanation on why Morita is always trying to earn money thru part-time jobs. I would say that it’s a good storyline. Hagumi’s comfortable life faces a dilemma when she was about to graduate, wondering where she will be heading in her life. Her desire to draw comes to a stop. While she is at her crossroads of life, unexpected things unfold. Seeing little Hagu-chan in the hospital makes me feel really upset. Yet, she has a strong spirit to stand up again. During these hardships, she had made a firm decision. She wanted to draw again as she loves drawing more than anything. The story did not end like any other anime, with a lovey-dovey nor a cry-to-tears ending. But, it is a meaningful ending. It shows us that love is not the only thing in our life, we have ambitions and things that we want to achieve. Loving someone and not getting our love returned is not something to be upset about. We learn something in this process. How things turn out to be, depends on how we perceive it.

August/September Updates

1 month had passed by. Many things happened within this short period. I met with a Yan Min a week after my convocation. I haven’t see her since form 5. She was back in Malaysia for her internship. She still likes to talk as usual, which is a good sign. Some people change so much that you cannot recognize them anymore. I do not mean appearance here, but the bond and character.

For weekends, sometimes I hang out with Kelly and sometimes together with Berry, her housemate. This world is so small. Berry is Wei Chung’s girlfriend. I went to Cameron Highlands for a short trip 2 weeks ago. I am so glad to see so many flowers again. 24 stalks of roses for only RM5! You will never get that price elsewhere. I like the night market there. The best place to get cheap vegetables and flowers. There is a new local product which I find it rather tasty – the dry strawberries. It tasted better than fresh strawberries and definitely much cheaper.

During month end, my job becomes rather hectic. Many things have deadlines to be met. But, it is getting rather interesting. My team members are quite helpful. I like the canteen there, looks a bit like restaurant in a 5 star hotel. I like the toilets with endless toilet paper supplies. All in all, I like the environment.

My primary school teacher passed away recently at 44 years old due to cancer. I was shocked and depressed. I even thought of visiting her during this coming Chinese New Year. Life is short. Humans are so fragile. Then, I begin think of the ideal way of dying, dying at where and when.

Yushu is now back in Korea for his Masters. Hoo Mun is there for his Masters as well. Yushu is so bad. He purposely showed me photos my favourite food and snacks and places that I went before in Korea. Staying in Korea with limited budget was a pain at that time but now it has become wonderful memories. The poorly planned Jeju Island trip turned out to be the most memorable one. I do not like soju while I was in Korea. But, I miss it now!

My desire to go backpack is triggered by a talk on trip to Yunnan. Yunnan is located at the far South of China, sharing borders with several other countries. I like the uniqueness of the landscape, weather and culture there. I know I have a bad stamina. Yet, I have this desire to conquer those mountains in Yunnan, just to get a better view of those snow mountains. “I want to get there! I want to see the water vessels. The mist makes the whole place looks so mysterious, so ancient.”

Huwi Yin is here for her training this week. I brought her to Gurney Drive to enjoy some Penang’s popular delicacies at the hawker stalls. Then, we headed to Gurney Plaza for the Japanese Cultural Performance. We were there late and unable to enjoy the event. We spent most of our time in the gift shops, admiring the art of designing. It is so hard to find someone sharing the same birthday as you. I am really glad to meet Huwi Yin who shares so many interests as I. It was a nice night out. Senpai, come to Penang more often next time!

Last but last least, I would like to congratulate my friends for getting a job already; Kelly for getting a place in Tokyo University and Makoto for getting a place in Yokoshima University; Sau Heung, Foo Chuan and Ms Tee for winning in the Malaysia around for Imagine Cup; and thanks to Sau Heung for sharing his wonderful photos in India (and extra photos) with us!

Convocation!

Convocation is not just a ceremony, but an event to meet all your friends again. It is not something cheap. Robe rental, traveling expenses, accommodation fees, flowers etc can actually cost you a huge sum of money. In addition, there are several processes that you need to follow such as smartcard testing, robe collection and return etc.

It was so nice to meet my friends again during the rehearsal. Months is like years. We chatted as if we have not seen each other for years. The feeling is overwhelming. The campus was packed with people and we were like sardines in the tin, squeezing here and there to get our smart cards validate, collect our robes and invitation cards. If you want to see your friends easily during convocation, then you make a plan, telling your friends where to wait after the convocation. There will be a huge crowd, consisting of family members and friends, occupying whatever space there is near the hall.

The ceremony ended 1.5 hours later than the schedule. Everyone was hungry. Many people departed back shortly after the ceremony because they were too hungry. I was hungry too, but taking photos with my friends, perhaps for the last time, is more important.

Special thanks for the following people:
- Travis kor kor: Thanks for the sunflowers and the dog in the mug. The dog is currently sitting in the office already.
- Huwi Yin senpai: Thanks for the daisy and roses. I was about to buy that combination. Luckily I chose the all roses combo in the end.
- Sylvia: Thanks for the mug. Just nice for office use. All the best for the future! You will be fine.
- Jin: Thanks for the head rest. Will use it in the office.
- Bro: Thanks for holding the flowers for me.

Last but not least, I would like to say thanks to Gek Suan, Ee Ling, Ah Wei and many other people who attended my convocation. I am really touch! I miss you all very much now!