In Memory of Pei Sze

It's been one year- to be exact. Often during my quiet times, I would think and wonder about you. I would picture you as your usual bubbly self- recall the meaningful words you've shared with me...and your journey and courage in fighting for your life and happiness.

There's no words strong even to express how lucky I am to have such a wonderful, pleasant and true friend like you. We all missed you dearly.....

Cute Doll Biscuits

One's a Ram, and the other's a Doggie! D bought it from Ipoh yesterday...on his way back from Penang, reaallyyy cute eh?

Girls Day Out

It was a beautiful Saturday morning. Woke up early, did my laundry then drove over to Kel's place to meet up with the girls. Kel arranged a Spa Session and lunch (@ RM38 per person) for the 6 of us at Rustic Nirvana. A bargain we couldn't resist :P All 3 of us (Kel, WL, Me) hopped into YM's spacious Avanza (woman, thanks for driving us down) and head to Jln Imbi. We were greeted with ginger tea, egg tarts and seremban siew pow (the tarts were yummmie). The session started off with the beauty talk, presented by the founder herself. Rather interesting (but long- an hour plus)- didn't realise that chicken curry spices with veg oil makes good body scrub! The spa was faaabulousss (although we had to put on a poker face each time the consultant asked how was thee massaaggeee...) It started off with 10 minutes dip in warm jacuzzi (can't remember what it's called- follows the jap steam bath concept). Then the chopstick massageee which was nice but hurts when she keeps adding pressure on those spots that I told her was REALLY painful. After the massage, I was placed in a black bag with a bunch of jamu herbs- to detox my body. Was nice and warm- I think i dozed off a little......All in all, was reaaally relaxing.....

We signed up the package and shared among ourselves. Managed to bargain for more free mask packs and a free rose quarts facial...

It was so relaxing that I doze off when I got home.....

I found the website, here's the details if anyone wishes to try out the treatments:

Go for the first trial: RM99 for the full spa session (jacuzzi bath, massage- any style of your choice and jamu detoxification wrap) and a Rose Quarts Facial.

Rustic Nirvana Jalan Imbi173 – 175A Jalan Imbi

55100 Kuala Lumpur(Beside Sakura Cafe & Cuisine)

Tel: 03-2141 9193Operating Hours:Monday - Friday : 11am to 8.30pm

Saturday & Public Holidays : 10.30 am to 7.30 pm

Closed on Sundays

Website: http://www.rusticnirvana.com/

Girls Nite Out

We planned this a week ago- to celebrate the end of our MBA (we assumed we pass our dissertation :P). SL and PW are my closest friends in this programme, have to admit I've not maximised the opportunity to 'network' with more ppl, still not too late to join the MBA alumni, I guess. We decided to binge that night, so met up in Hartamas. PW and I was there early, so went shopping at the small boutiques. Bought two dress, one from MINE and the other from Chyna Dolls. The dress from MINE was 1/3 the price of the shirt dress I saw at Raoul (which I liked very much)- I was lucky to fit in the last piece. The lady was nice enough to throw in an additional 5% discount! Hee....PW said it makes me look like a stepford wife :P Yes, it's something different from what I normally wear to work haha. It was 8pm when we finally decided to eat and the jap restaurant we wanted to go to (can't remember the name) was packed! So was Soul Out. Walked around, then decided to jump into PW's car to drive to Saffron.
I was trilled - northern indian food is one of my favourites! We ordered my fav spinach dish, chicken, mutton, alfo veg to eat with our briyani and their special naan. V nice- although it left me with a pretty hot tummy. The mango lassi was not too good, probably cause they were made from sour mangoes :( nvm, all in all was a delicious meal. The girls are planning to take me to Bukit Gasing- yippie. Yes, I've not been there before...err...heee....

Just read SL's sms- we forgot to use her camera!!! Sorry guys, no pictures this time round.
PW: Good luck with the Penang Marathon!! Go go go GIRL!

Silly Me

After close to 1 year of blogging...only today I realised that my blog does not allow readers to leave comments without signing in! Dop! I called WC today to tell him my excitement- bumped into L, an a level's friend and that is when he mentioned...

AL: Hello Leng Chai! Guess what? I bumped into L today...
WC: Wah issit...
AL: Ya lerr, small world, gosh she lost lots of weight...
WC: Uhuh. Oh ya, why do I need to login to leave comments in your blog?
AL: ISSIT??? No wonder I don't get any comments laaa....I thought no one was reading...
WC: HAHA...ya, so u been blogging in your little world....thought I wanted to leave a nice note...
AL: OKOK I MUST REMOVE IT TODAY

and I did a few seconds ago...
my apologies for my ignorance towards blogging technology...heee

Anyways, I bump into L in my office today. The marketing fellas helped me set up numerous appointments with premiums suppliers, which one of them was L! I went like, oiisss I know you!! Ok not too professional haha. For those wondering why all the sudden I'm looking at gifts, well, recently my job scope has expanded to cover marketing aspects of campaigns- in addition to what I currently do which is observing data patterns to pin point which type of customer buys what products etc (don't yawn, yes I'm a data nerd)....in short it means I have to do other dept's work, no fair :P I have to admit, it's fun choosing gifts (who doesn't like shopping?).

Hope to bump into more old friends, sure puts a wide smile on my face :))

Phone Etiquette

I work at a Bank. Recently, we been receiving mystery calls from the audit department- yes, to check how 'politely' we answer phone calls. For starters, we do not receive direct calls from Bank Customers- we do Data Mining. Our calls are mostly from departments we support, basically ppl who knows us pretty well and would cut us at 'hello'. They are cool with my standard, 'Good Morning, Ai Leen speaking'. Now, I have to do this:

1) Pick up within 3 rings...(which is standard)

2) Then say...

Good Morning/ Afternoon

CAD

Ai Leen's speaking

How may I help you?

(We have to keep the script near us for reference)

So far, I can only manage 'Good Morning, CAD errr'.....(then I hear giggles- ish)..I'm so bad at this.

Holidays

My parents will be flying off to their annual holiday destination tomorrow. This time is Russia and Scandinavia *jealous-nya*. I'm too old to receive sponsorship and I can't fit in their luggage, so this poor lil girl has to stay home. Yes, and Work. My collegue will be on her mandate leave(compulsory for banks- 6 days straight, and loving it) starting tomorrow-going to Singapore for the SALE! *jealous- nya nya nya!* I really need a break from working too hard (not to forget the traumatic presentation) :P After much day dreaming, here's the top 5 places I wish I'm at right now:

1) Charles Bridge (absorbing the surrounding scenery and watching ppl sketch)

2) Central Park on a Sunday Morning (scouting for squirrels and making friends with other ppl's doggies)

3) Lying on the deck chair (under shade) and reading a good chitlit

4) Looking for a romantic restaurant along the cliffs of Santorini- and finding that restaurant so I can binge on mousaka and greek salad

5) At home, lazing on the coach and surfing Astro :P

Ok, anywhere but work.

Early in the Morning...

Since last week, I've been arriving early to work. As early as 7:00- 7:30 am. The feeling is great, even Mr. Smiley (my silent work companion) agrees with me. I've been wanting to change my lifestyle, to sleep early and rise early to watch the sun rise (yes, 6am). Now that I no longer have evening classes, I'm able to doze off by 10-11:30 pm! Good eh?

The benefits of coming in to work early:
1) It's quiet- gives u a piece of mind. You can read the papers, sip some tea before starting work.
2) NO TRAFFIC- yes, I work at Jln Tun Razak, my usual 1.3 hrs drive to work has cut down to 30 mins (the max)
3) Lower petrol consumption
4) Best parking space

Let me show u:
7:15- Arrived at work
7:17- Boot up my notebook
7:20- Watered my money plant and my neighbouring collegue's plants- with the remaining water in my kettle (It's ok to do that right?)
7:30- Went to the Loo
7:40- Fill up my kettle at the pantry, washed my cup (No queues, since I'm realllyy early heee)
7:50- Set my kettle to boil. Blog
8:00- Ahhh...nice steaming cup of Green Tea

In the past, I used to come in late (9:00-9:30am- my office hr starts at 8:45am), rush to my seat, quickly boot up notebook, boss asking this and that, rush to pantry, rush back to desk cause forgot my cup...you get what I mean la...

Have a great week people!

Traumatised

It all ended today. I've completed presenting my dissertation late this afternoon, it was HELL.I thought I would enjoy this moment, since it's the last thing I need to do to get my certificate, but NO, the whole thing had to be sooooo UNORGANISED -very IRRESPONSIBLE of UM.

Let me tell you what happened. I arrived 30 minutes earlier, to find my friend presenting to a class of PHD students (her supervisor was on MC) who later bombared her with anal questions which left her feeling like a helpless chick, surrounded by a pack of wolves. I gave my supervisor a call to confirm if she's around and she said, ya she'll be coming. Fine. When it was my turn, she was no where to be found. Wasted 30 minutes waiting for the frontdesk to call her, then I got fed up and gave her a ring on my mobile. She said she can't make it, she thought it was tomorrow and asked if I could reschedule it. HELLO, I'm not the organiser and no way am I going to sort out this mess, since I didn't start it. Haihz, can't really blame her- the darn Uni (mind my language) only sent out the schedule last Friday afternoon, and I was shock to find out that my slot is TODAY (after previously confirming with the office that the slots will only start Tuesday onwards). After much seeking, I got a replacement Supervisor, who is this Professor (who I didn't catch his name) and he gave me such a hard time during the whole presentation! Stopping me in between slides, asking me in depth question on some statistical thingy which of cause I do not know- lucky I have the 2nd examiner helping me to answer along the way (which he was not surpose too, lucky I shared the slides with him before hand so he sort of know what is going on). My other friends who were surpose to present after me were shaking in their pants, some rolling their eyes! Yes, its THAT BAD. The misery ended beyond my allocated 20 minutes (I think it took 40 minutes, felt like forever) and it was too late to go Putrajaya to apply for ROM. It was truely dissappointing :(

updates (12/06 Tues)- My supervisor called me today to apologise. She explained that lately she been busy and disorganised, hence forgotten. OK. Apparantly, her other student who was surpose to present after me, was scared off by the remarks of the stand in professor, she decided to escape n reschedule to another day. DARN. Wish I had that luxury!! She had to rub it in by saying that this professor is famous for giving PHD students a hard time (pity me, I'm only doing my MBA...). Was reassured that he has a sharp tongue but may be generous with his grading (the word is 'may', no guarantee). She better give me high marks to cover up this mess :P

Handy "Baby"

My sis bought Colin a toddler's table and chair set from Ikea, last Sunday. Here are some pictures of Colin helping Ah Gong and Daddy assemble his chair using an alan key. Full concentration :P Hehe...even tried to fix one of his toy...