Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Happy New Year 2009~~

Just started working yesterday and now going to have holiday again! Company just announce shut down this Friday so I'll have a long weekend ahead. Happy new year everybody!
☆╭┐┌╮☆°.﹒
╭┘└┘└╮∴°☆°
└┐..┌┘───╮∴°
╭┴──┤HAPPY ├╮
│o o│牛YEAR │●°
╰┬──╯ │ ∴°﹒
☆ | / /∴☆

Hubby and I plan to go for seafood dinner tonight :) I want big crabs and prawns, I wan I wan :P

Monday, December 29, 2008

House Make Over?


Photos courtesy from www.games.co.id

We visited my eldest sister's house in Butterworth on the 2nd day of Christmas. Yes, if you follow my blog all this while you'll know my eldest sister & I have a very big gap on our age and she is also my 婶婶. Her family just moved into a new house. She spends a lot on the house renovation. I really like her house design. The interior design is much more modern than my house in Penang island. Although we have the similar type of house, but renovation makes a huge difference.

I guess my sister spends at least RM80k on the renovation. The plaster ceiling, the galvanized auto gate, the beautiful grand lighting, new furniture, and the super deluxe kitchen. Wow! Really envy. Of course money is the main factor. 4 years back when hubby & I moved into our current house, we spend just very little on the renovation. We are fortunate to have FIL paid off the house. We just add the skirting to down stair flooring, get the house painted, and our bedroom furniture. The rest are all dedicated by FIL. He bought us the sofa, the dining table, the kitchen cabinet, the fridge and the guest rooms' furniture. My parents dedicated some electrical products, and MIL bought me some cooking utensils. Hubby & I just started working at that time, so we were really tight in cash. Sounds so pity hor? :( Only a year later we spent about RM10k to building up the gate and the tiling the car porch.

After we visited our sister's new home, discussed with FIL that we wanted the house opposite to ours (we shared to bought it over recently). It would be easier for us to renovate an empty house rather than our current occupy house. Basically there's no objection from FIL. It's up to our decision. But after thinking of the renovation cost that would incure, we are kind of giving up. We doubt we have the capability with the limited cash we have. If we will to move over to that house, we will have to renovate the car porch, the gate, the kitchen, the upstair's grill, some furniture and electical products...So many things. How can we afford it?

So, hubby and I sitting down to make some calculations, we are now thinking of just to upgrade our current house. I still have the very basic kitchen till now. The space is big, but I have limited place to prepare my meal. Sigh...I think it's time for us to make over the kitchen. I don't think I need the super expensive granite table top for the kitchen like my sis's, just the normal tiles will do. We really have to minimize the cost. Besides, I want to make over my master bedroom's bathroom and also get the empty space at the back build up become laundry area. Also, I want a better quality main door. Our current door looks terribly old and ugly.

Which plan sounds more reasonable? I'll get advice from my parents. :)

Saturday, December 27, 2008

New Pet Adopted on Christmas Eve

On X'mas eve, my nephew called me up and asked if I still keep the milk bottle of Tiger. He said he just adopted a one month plus puppy. *Wink wink :) I love dogs, so I started to be a "busy body". Thinking of bringing my Tiger over there to meet the new puppy.

Immediately, I packed the things, grabbed my camera and went over to my brother's shop with hubby. I wanted to meet the puppy as soon as possible, as I can't stop imagine how's the puppy looked like. Hehe......I love puppies!


See, there it was there lying lazily on the table. It just finished licking some fresh milk, and looked so sleepy. Aha, like Tiger, it's a male dog. It's a mixed breed of Rottweiler and a mutt. It has big bone and chubbby body. I estimated the weight at about 3 kilos, cuz I used to carry my 4-months old Tiger who is merely 1 kilo. Wow, that's the different between small and large breed.


I didn't bring along Tiger this round. I just wonder how will Tiger act when "he" meet up this big puppy. My nephew hasn't give it a name yet. I "sms" him suggested to call it Rocky. Decision is on him.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Dear my friends and readers, I would like to wish you all Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! May the new year bring us lots of good happenings! :)






Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way...wish all of us have a healthy and pleasant 2009!
New year is approaching, any one of you plan anything for the upcoming year yet?
Hubby and I went shopping these days for new clothes...in Parkson Sungai Petani, Gurney Plaza, Queensbay Mall....new year, new dress a must, hehehe..
My sister is moving into her new house tomorrow, so I'll be visiting her new home this Friday.
Stay tuned... and once again Merry X'mas and Happy New Year!

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Busy Friday

Last Friday was really a busy day for me. Once I reached the office, my lady boss approached me immediately. I was late for 15 minutes, hehe she must be in a hurry looking for me. Know what? She instructed me that I don't need to do any single job on that day, from 8.00am to 5pm. Hah? What happened?! Phew...luckily it was not a bad news to me. I was told to learn other products from the other Senior Engineer. His name was in the VSS list, but he didn't submit his application form even though he was called to HR Director's office. So, my boss need to back up a contingency plan in case he'll be asked to leave the company on 22nd Dec, which is tomorrow.

My boss already told me before this on her re-org plan. Basically I know I'll need to take up additional 2 to 3 products after this VSS. This is pre-planned, to make my time fully occupied. I guess it's not only me, but the whole company will be restructured in order to continue the operations.

Learning to compile the weekly and monthly reports itself already took me few hours. Then I started to practice on the data retrieval. There are roughly 8 reports required to send to customers. I have not learnt the manufacturing process yet, so I just jot down the queries in the Access database and get myself familiar on the data compilation process. If not hands on, very soon, I'll forget all the steps. :(

I foresee tomorrow will be another sad day. We'll be seeing a lots of colleagues leaving the company. Some of them hold heavy commitments. After the retrenchment, they will have even bigger burden to bear. I just hope they will able to go through the difficulties, and be strong.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

The VSS Updates

Photo adapted from www.allposters.com

Over the week the VSS is open for all. Today 5pm is the deadline. VSS is supposed to be Voluntary Separation Scheme. However, the fact is always the other way round. Department heads already got their respective name list upon the announcement. Yes, sounds cruel indeed, but this is the actual practice especially during this recession period. The management is forced to sacrifice some of the head counts in order to save the company. Otherwise the whole organization will be in ruin. So, in other words, VSS means retrenchment.

To be honest, the VSS response is pretty bad. All the employees are concerned over the compensation rate and also the future work opportunity. Looking at the condition, management started taking actions since last Friday. Those shortlisted were called to their Director's office for discussion. They are "encouraged" to apply for the VSS. Ok, I use "encourage" so that it sounds respectful rather than "forced". Of course, some are extremely sad, They have been contributing for this company over the 10 years, but this is the result they get. Sigh… :(

How do I feel after observing all these? I'm very sad indeed. I've been having migrain for these 2 days thinking all about this. I got to lie down and relax for about 30 minutes once I reach home before I can do anything. Although I'm safe this round, but who knows few months down the road, there'll be another VSS? Factory working life is very dangerous at this moment. Thank God! We'll still get our contractual bonus on 18th Dec. This is the only good news to us!

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Uber Amazing Award



Thanks to Something About Us for this award. :)

Here are the rules:

*start copy here*

Uber (synonym to Super) Amazing Blog Award is a blog award given to sites who: inspires you, makes you smile and laugh, or maybe gives amazing information, a great read, has an amazing design, and any other reasons you can think of that makes them uber amazing!The rules of this award are: Put the logo on your blog or post, nominate at least 5 blogs (can be more) that for you are Uber Amazing, let them know that they have received this Uber Amazing award by commenting on their blog, share the love and link to this post and to the person you received your award from.

*end copy here*

Hmm...let me share this award with:

1. Kadus Mama
2. Nana
3. New Kid On The Blog
4. Liang Mui
5. Wai Wai

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Forgetful Him & Me



This Nokia USB cable was the culprit that caused us to search for high and low. I need the cable to download some photos for my Nokia N82. Sigh...

I told hubby that I put the cable on the study room's table, but he failed to find it. Then I searched in my office's drawer, still couldn't manage to find it. So frustrated! I told hubby that it must be him who cleaned the table and misplaced the cable, but he denied. He searched among the free gifts, but the cable was not there. He argued that it must be me who left the cable in the office and someone steal it. So, again, I felt angry and warned him better get me a new one. I know, my hot temper is my flaw, but still I can't control myself from getting angry when I'm in trouble. My blood maintained at the boiling point. Arghhhh........

Last night, I gave myself the very last chance to figure out where the cable is. You know what? I used less that 3 minutes to find it out from the bunch of free gifts! Of course he kept quiet la, and I continued to bla bla bla.......Everytime ask you to find something sure cannot find one la, bla bla bla.......

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

No Mood

This morning I got a very nice email from my lady boss, praising me in front of Director. The mail mentioned that I did a very good job on yesterday's third party audit. So, oklah, I was happily went off to join the team on a US conference call. So sweet, I felt so happy as boss appreciate my hard work. Normal, right? But now, my mood shrunk after the GM's announcement on VSS. My mood swings like a roller coaster. Ups and downs just in few hours time.

Most of us have the same question in our mind. "Will it be me?" All of us start calculating the amount. Not really an attractive figure. :( Formula is fixed. We really can't do much. Whatever will come, it will still happen.

I believe "if there's a will, there's always a way". So, I won't die in hunger as long as I'm willing to work. If I can't work here anymore, I'll need to work elsewhere. Perhaps, it's a good time for me to explore a new path for myself. Who knows?

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

A Simple Netbook ~ Acer Aspire One

Asus Eee PC 900

If you read from here, you'll know hubby sold off my old notebook Compaq Presario V3000 and got me a new "netbook" Asus Eee PC 900. Well, I didn't try it out until I read his product review. So, last Thursday night, I gave it a try to surf net (to check the speed), blogging (to practise typing using the keypad) and also to perform some simple tasks like downloading photos & editing photos. Well, I was quite disappointed with the performance. The speed is terribly as slow as a tortoise. Just wonder why Asus comes out with this lousy "netbook" but still get its pretty good response in Taiwan market.

I was in anger why hubby bought this lousy netbook for me. In fact my old laptop is much more better than this. I throw him the mission to do whatever he could to get me either one laptop or an upgraded "netbook". If not, I'll just grab over his current laptop Acer Aspire 2920. Sense how angry I was?

The next day, hubby went to the PC fair at PISA and pay the retailer a visit. The retail manager verified the purchase item vs the receipt, and confirmed the item hubby got was in fact another model (older one). How dare the sales person simply provide a model while Acer Eee PC 900 was out of stock? This is not fair to customer, right? However, hubby acted smart in the PC fair. He grabbed the opportunity to negotiate with the manager to exchange another model, by using some tactics like teasing some other customers not to buy the wrong model. So, he succeeded! Kudos to my dear! He came back with Acer Aspire One. Hurray! Besides, the manager gave hubby roughly 8 items as FREE gifts, hmm... to shut up hubby's mouth kua... haha... At least he acknowledge his staff made the mistake. Okay, not bad, at least we got 8GB thumb drive x2, laptop locker x2, ear phone x2, laptop cooling pad, screen protector and LCD cleaning set. What a fruitful purchase!

Acer Aspire One

Compared to Eee PC 900, this is a more powerful model. Of course the speed is faster. Lesson learn: As a customer, we got to feedback in case you find anything wrong with the product. Or else, you'll just get the unnecessary inconveniences as long as the item purchased is being used.

Monday, December 8, 2008

The Killing Process

Moomookun and I have been chatting through IM over the past 2 weeks. We shared whatever info we got regarding the future of the company. Also, we have been watching full-length drama from the management. The story is damn slow and boring.

Just imagine, 2 persons in a same company but different division have been so free for few weeks without any important task to do. I'm sure the rest are also quite free for the time being. Everybody has been under very low morale to work. We have been waiting for the announcement. The fastest the better. Dragging will not solve the problem. It'll just wasting time and money. Whatever decision it will be, I'm going to take it.

The waiting process is killing me. Sigh...

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

What Kind Of Soup Are You?


I'm the Chicken Noodle Soup, haha...

Ok, I just hopped back from Blogthings, and took the soup test. Visit here if you find it's interesting.

"You are a traditional and conservative person. You value the past, and change frightens you.

You are very loyal, especially to your family. You prefer a low-key life, with lots of time spent at home.

You like soup because it's easy, quick, and cheap. You tend to have a favorite soup you stick to. Why change a good thing? "


I like cooking, including boiling soup for hours. :) That's the point this test captured my attention. Hmm...overall, the result is quite accurate. I'm kind of conservative and loyal person. I prefer to stay at home rather than going out. Quite passive hor? Also, I'm the timid type of person, afraid of changes. However, I manage to overcome most of the changes. I change myself to fit for different situation. Like now, not much job to do at work, so I tuned myself to be able work and blog at the same time, haha....ok, just kidding!

Back to the topic of "soup". I used to cook several types of soup like black bean soup, ABC soup, lotus root soup, watercress soup, the mixed soup, chicken soup, peanut soup, herba soup, mushroom soup, vegetarian soup, vegetable with fish balls soup, bla bla bla....And I stick to the list all these while, cuz I found that they are easy to cook, and yet nutritious to take. :)

Monday, December 1, 2008

Colorful Apples



Time flies...Now reach the end of year 2008. December, a month full of Christmast events. Everybody's is in holiday mood. Everything looks so colorful. Even the apples. Since we are small, we are taught on red and green apple. There's nothing special about these, but what about yellow apple? Yellow apple sounds unique to me. I never know there are yellow apple in this world until I spotted some in a hypermarket last week.

All of these apples are imported from US. The red and green apples origin from US, while the yellow apples origin from France. But now all these apples are brought to cultivate in the same farm in US. I googled from the net and found several types of yellow apple recipes. It can be eaten raw, widely used in several types of cold and hot dishes.

Not only love is colorful, but now apples also become colorful. :)