"Pin-drop" ponderings...

It's like "pin-drop" silent lately... at work, anyways. Not much work (not much that requires rushing anyways), not many demands from people (seems like a lot are out of office this week as well) and generally been very quiet (perhaps everyone (outside, i.e. customers) is busy with clearing their own stuff before Chinese New Year?) So, it's the re-emerging of the blogger in me, hehe... Provided that there are stuff to talk about lar. Here's some anyways:

The Ikea Incident
This happened to me at Ikea last week - went there on Friday with my colleague for lunch. Craving for Swedish meatballs, hehe. So anyhoo, as those of you who are familiar with the drinks system at Ikea - there are two types of cups available for the free flow of drinks (either carbonated or coffee/tea). The first cup, the glass goblet-like cup, is for the carbonated drinks only as it "cannot" withstand high temperatures - priced at RM1.50. The second, the ceramic(?) mug, is able to withstand the heat of hot coffee/tea - priced at RM3.00 and people who "purchase this cup" will get the convenience of safely consuming either hot or cold drinks in their cup. Okay, I think the foundation has been laid... Now for the feature "presentation":

I got the RM3.00 cup, which meant that I could have either hot or cold drinks. And, not wanting to start with the delicious coffee before I had anything to eat, proceeded to fill my cup with a carbonated drink. As the bubbly gush of sweet, sticky (if you spilt it!) drink filled my cup, I got a "oi, you can't take cold drink in that cup - only meant for hot drink!" from the fella (most likely foreign and new to Ikea) who was refilling the coffee beans in the coffee machine (ooh, they've got a new coffee machine by the way!)... grrr... >.<

The Lack of Live Messenger
Windows Live Messenger, or previously commonly known as MSN Messenger, had always worked perfectly well in my office. Hence, on days like these I can at least catch up with some people - most times, I'm swamped with work and my status is set to "Busy" (to the point that Irene Lai will "ask permission" to chat, haha! - no need lar... so pai seh liddat ler!). Sadly, from Monday (28th Jan), although I am able to sign into Messenger, I am unable to send or receive messages. To the misery of some other "Mesengger-kaki's" at the office and myself, it continued on in this trend the next day...

Then a glimmer of hope came on Tuesday (29th Jan), after lunch - Irene Lai messaged me and I received it!! Since then, it was back to normal. What joy for all of us!! Messenger worked just fine for the rest of the day. =)

The joy didn't last long, as yesterday (30th Jan) the inability to send or receive messages via Messenger set in again... and the trend has continued on till now. Withdrawal symptoms, such as increased stress levels and a gloomy outlook, seemed to have set in for the Messenger regulars, who have since (in attempt to retain their sound mind) either resorted to continuing their moping and lamentating, or to Web Messenger (which seems to be working just fine). Thankfully, I also have a blog to keep myself occupied, no? *winks* Haven't resorted to using Web Messenger... yet. I still harbour hope that it's just some problem at the "Messenger service provider", which should be resolved... soon?! =S I do hope it's not my office firewall-ing (the horror!!) Messenger, sigh. Here's hoping Messenger works properly again!!

Noob. Stupid. Idiot. Me.

** Warning & Disclaimer : Flustered & Highly Flammable/Combustible **

Been so wrapped up trying to get so many things done, pleasing as many people as possible, within as little time as possible. Been so stressed and distracted being overly occupied that I am making stupid, noob mistakes - mistakes that maybe even a noob wouldn't usually make... haihz... So frustrated! (What to do when the person you're most frustrated with is yourself?!)

Recently, I've been trying to apply for credit cards from a couple of banks. So, a call "from the bank" should be quite common and expected, right? However, it began to get a bit fishy when the caller who claimed to be from the bank is asking for information - "confirmation of information" to be exact... Being very distracted and unattentive, I've already entertained a few calls and dutifully provided the information requested for without even thinking twice... (I trust people too easily... haihz)

I really hope the calls were genuinely from the bank... So busy and frustrated already - don't want to have to deal with possible frauds, etc... haihz...

Help!!

Inhale... Exhale... Repeat.

What a day... an exceptionally long, tiring day... time really flew by and the workday ended very exhaustingly... thank God for the strength to endure it and now, it's over...

Today turned out to be the last day to close-off the submissions for the meeting, which will be held tomorrow. I had started the day off thinking, "I'd wrap up everything today so that I will be able to attend the talk/seminar/meeting (I'm not even that sure what exactly it is, lolz!) that my boss wanted me to sit in tomorrow morning - after all, the submission will close tomorrow". So much for that. Surprisingly, I wasn't the only one who thought the submissions would only close tomorrow - so did my immediate boss!! Well, we were both thoroughly surprised and hence, I had to rush work like crazy today... We finally "negotiated" with Fifi (thanks, girl!) to close the submissions by 3pm so that we could put as many applications through to be tabled at tomorrow's meeting.

Praise God, I managed to get quite a lot of work done - also thanks to all my MSN buddies who heeded the message to "strictly DND until after 3pm" *grinz*! I also managed to get the GL for my parents' visit to the doctor tomorrow. =)

So, a very busy day indeed... Didn't even realize it was time for lunch until the punchclock "sang" and after lunch time flew again till it was time to go home... A really, really busy day, where at any slight chance of a break required a gentle self-reminder to "inhale... exhale... repeat." *winks*

Sickie wanna rest at home...

Yup... feeling sick liao, haihz.

Yesterday, my workload was like some sort of twisted ironic joke ler. Started the day off having nothing much to do - good lor, then I can read up in preparation for Bible Quiz this Friday, as well as work on the SAN blog... Was just thinking, "What a nice break for a change..." (Was swamped with work for the past few weeks, so a break was much welcomed)

One of our department's admin girls came over and asked if I could "CTC" (certified true copy) some documents. Since I was free, I thought why not and welcomed some work to keep me occupied. "Surprise" #1 - the stack was more than an inch thick and I have to sign each and every page! Then later on, just before lunch, I received a thick stack of documents, which were license applications I had to evaluate - a stack that measured up to a couple of inches thick! ("Surprise" #2) Moments later, "Surprise" #3 came along... another stack of document to CTC - about 1.5-2 inches thick, and again, each and every page required my signature... *faintz*

By the end of the day, I had completed signing the first stack of CTC documents and cleared up the applications (counted a total of 25!) before I left for the day. Unfortunately, the houseman I requested to help me to get a company's contact number faxed the document that I had prepared but not planned to send out yet... haihz. This led to me having to entertain the "uncle" that called and tried to weasel/intimidate/bargain for me to approve his application although he was missing some key documents. Called me 2-3 times, and in the end, I passed the last call he made directly to my immediate boss - who told him the same thing (no license if insufficient insufficient documents), haha!

So, today - so far I've completed CTC-ing the remaining documents from yesterday as well as clear up some follow up cases... Unfortunately, the sniffles that started this morning seems to not want to clear itself, haihz... Now I'm feeling feverish and weak liao... Head feels heavy...

Sickie wanna go home... haihz.

28 Days Later... [The Update]

It's been a while since my last blog post... Been busy - the reason for the endless mountain of work? Please refer to The Prelude.

Anyways, I've been swimming (you could also say 'drowning', but that would just be a bit too morbid, doncha think?) in work since I got back into the office - thank God that I'm still alive, though, hehe! Plenty of work to keep me occupied so I haven't been able to post or say much via MSN either.

Thankfully, things are starting to be more under controlled now and the office has been quiet for a couple of days (which means I have time and space to settle my work). Probably will be quiet for till the end of the week - slightly more than half my department are away in Singapore for a seminar, another two more are away for training till Thursday, one more went off to Penang yesterday for some workshop. Today's attendance: my direct boss (who's covering for Head of Department), another officer and yours truly... If you think that is few, you should've seen yesterday - my direct boss (who went out for inspection, so does that count?) and me! - this leaves me the 'highest ranking' staff in my dept (the rest are admin staff) and the 'right' to be "boss for the day"...

I know, I know what you must be thinking now: "Wah, get to be boss - good mah..." On the contrary!! Being boss is good... Playing boss is NOT. Someone from the admin department tried to twist my arm into making a decision regarding some renovations that supposedly is confirmed and finalised for the department. I wasn't updated with the latest plans or decisions regarding this renovation matter - the last I heard was we were waiting on upper level management to decide whether or not the renovations can be done --> how does the ding dong expect me to make any decision with the excuse "since I'm the boss for the day and the contractor is already here to discuss"? Gah!! In case you're wondering... Of course I didn't make any decisions and told him to come back another time when at least my direct boss (whom I hope knows what is happening) is around... duh.

Anyway, on a brighter note... I've also been working on my homelife group's blog... Finally got it kick-started (after quite some delay)!! Praise God, it's finally up and running! If you wanna take a peek there, you're welcomed to. =) Just click here to be redirected!

Motorcyclists - #1 Road Hazards??

My opinion... absolutely!! (To be fair, most of 'em lah... maybe a few rare ones who are not too bad)

- They weave in and out of traffic like nobody's business.
- They ride against traffic.
- They think they're so all that. As if lah they are so big liddat. Ish!
- They may be the cause of an accident but are labelled "innocent until proven guilty".
- They ride in the middle of mainstream traffic although taxpayers' money have gone into constructing motorcycle lanes.
- (Many many more reasons, I'm sure, but if I keep going on, this post will be pages and pages long!)

You must be wondering what's up with all this ranting. Well, first, a ding dong of a motorcyclist (have probational license only) fell down and skidded into the back of my car, as I was entering a slip road, last month. So far, I've paid for my own damages and not claimed a single sen from him (or his insurance). To top it off, that day, I even took the trouble to send him to the clinic and then my dad helped to send him to the hospital for x-ray. Missed attending my friend's wedding because of this whole fiasco. Two weeks later, he's calling me to ask me to pay for his medical bill (which, my insurance company advised against since I'm innocent and being kindhearted to help him out will only cause me to be assumed as the guilty party) or else he'll see me in court. The cheek of him!! Grrr!! Any one has any idea how to countersue (if he attempts to bring up a case) or sue this guy for my damages as well as mental stress? Please let me know.

Today, on the way to work, a reckless motorcyclist almost caused an accident!! Traffic in the morning, as usual, is pretty heavy. A motorcyclist was riding in the middle of traffic, between my car (right lane) and another car (left lane). Not only that, he was hogging the 'path' so other motorcycles couldn't overtake him unless they manouvered into either lane, which a few did... into my side of the road!! So, I was subjected to be an unwilling participant in a "game" of dodge with those crazy people. Later, I got a chance to overtake this silly motorcyclist and noticed that his helmet was on rather loosely although it seemed buckled, but traffic slowed a bit further on, so he caught up. Overtook me. Then, the most unbelievable thing happened right in front of my eyes: The motorcyclist raised his hand, stroked his helmet (like you stroke you hair... perhaps he forgot he had a helmet on??) and his helmet just FELL OFF!!! Right into the middle of my lane. Thank God I managed to slow down so that I don't crash into the helmet. The helmet bounced past the front of my car to the side of the road (right lane) and I drove past it. Not sure if the car behind me saw the bouncing helmet, but really thank God the car was not that close behind me and didn't crash into me when I slowed down to avoid the helmet. The motorcyclist (I dunno if he was sleep-riding the whole time cos he looked really blur) still looked as blur as ever and finally pulled over to the left side of the road, with a looked that could be 'captionized' as "wha...??? hmm... where'd my helmet go?". Siao-ness!!

So now I ask you - what do you think? Motorcyclists - #1 Road Hazards???

People say 'shit happens'... but what to do when it feels like diarrhea?

I think the title speaks for itself.

It's been a long week. A long month. A long time. Too many complications. Too many things to think about, to consider.

The bright side? Hopefully, a light at the end of the dark tunnel!