The other day, along with 3,000 over other staffs, I attended the farewell cocktail for one of our management officials. What he said that night offered a glimpse into the life of a high profile, high ranking officials. Albeit the perks and benefits, it ain't as glory and easy as it seemed.

We often think that the higher one goes, the easier his / her life would be. But for the first time, that night, we were told about the tough decisions that he had to make in the earlier years of business where profits were literally non-existent. How he had to cut projects when there were insufficient funds. How he had to speak to numerous bankers for loan extension. How his family had to cancel numerous holidays to cater to his schedule etc etc.

Behind the mask of a highly confident and highly decisive front, he's a man torn between huge responsibilities at work and at home. Listening to him, one can't help but wonder how he balance his life at work and at home annnnnnnd be so successful at both.

Although I have only presented once to him... I will always remember him as a highly intelligent man with extremely good business sense and yes decisive!

So... what is the moral of the story to me?

There are... and always will be ups and downs in life and it's perfectly ok to feel scared, pressured and unsure... Just remember to be persistent, confident and focused to be able to sail through. Remember... every dog has its day.

Note: Today is a greeeeaaaaattttttt day cos... "ka-ching"... hehehehe...

Sometimes, it's best not to mix personal and business together. I have always steered clear of that as I was just burnt way too many times. Recently it happened again. Everything seemed so fine and dandy and we were getting along fine... but that was until I got to know the other side of this person.

What I saw, shocked me to the core that I had to question my own judgment on people. My wise colleague told me this: "It is often a thin line between work and pleasure. People often wear a few set of masks to hide their true personality. And once that border is crossed, you may find yourself totally liking / disliking the person"

And I must say, I agree wholeheartedly with her statement. What I saw made me realized that I have been naive in thinking that I know this person simply because we've been working together for a while now. Sigh... Call me weird, call me whatever but I have my own code of conduct that I try to abide to... One is supposed to feel comfortable being with friends and not disgusted or agitated!

Nevertheless, it was a great lesson learnt and I vow never again to mix personal and business relationships together no matter how tempting and deceiving it could be.

P.S. The above were merely the disturbed thoughts in my mind that I wish to unload... Not that I was romantically linked to anyone else apart from my boyfriend... :)

If there's 1 thing I like about Alan is how he would remember little little things in our conversations... Bout a month ago, I saw a nice Coach bag and told him that I've gotten my priorities wrong all along... Instead of spending on a new phone every 6 months, I should instead be spending the money on bagsssssss... At that time, his answer was like a straight slap to the face... where he nonchalantly replied... "Spend so much on a bag worth it meh... mad one!"

But guess what?

He took me to KLCC today and bought me a Coach bag for my birthday. I was so ecstatically happy I tell you!!! Hehehehehe...

Since I was there hor... I also got a little wristlet:

But when I showed the bag to my mom, she laughed and said "Another bag?" and I went like "Where got!" but then she reminded me of the collection of Guess bags that I already have:

Not to mention the other bags safely stored in my room:

• Evening bags x 3
• Backpacks x 2
• Hand-carry Luggage x 2
• Luggage x 2
• Giant bag (for laptop) x 1
• Drawstrings bags x 1
• Sling pouches x 2
• Yoga bag x 1

My god! I've got like nearly 20 over bags in my room!!! Maybe my mother has a point afterall! But ahem... So? She has the same number of shoes if not more! Hehehehehehe...

I'm officially one year older. My birthday was on 25 of July and it fell on a day where everyone in the company was asked to wear a greeeen t-shirt in celebration of coming "Merdeka".


This year, Alan sent me a dozen of pink roses. This was kinda unusual cos he'd usually complain bout the ridiculous amount people pay for just flowers... and embarassing cos I had to gather the bouquet from reception and get stares from people in the lift and my colleagues made it even worst when they saw me... "Wahhhhhh... flowerssssss....", "Oooooooo... from who ar?", "Awwwww... so sweet..." - Honestly, they were just being "mengada" cos I was already blushing...

Then of course, I was called to attend this sudden "meeting"... Hehehehe...

And on Friday, my colleagues and I went karaoke... it was partly birthday, partly farewell for my Indonesian colleague who'll be returning to Indonesia...

But best of all? Alan bought me a COACH bag... Hooooooohoooooooo!!!

The thing about treasure hunt is that, there will usually be very little time for lunch. So most of the other participants will "ta-pau" food like KFC or burgers to be eaten in the car.

But our team hor, is a bit special.
On Day 1, we happily slot in time to "yumcha" at mamak stall somemore...
But of course, we had to rush like mad back to the finish line that day.


So you'd think that after that, we'd be smarter on Day 2 right?
No lor...
On Day 2 hor, we TER-found this place with excellent prawn mee!
The prawn mee was dry with thick chilli-sauce-like broth - served with prawns, chicken & LAT!

Then on the last day, someone told us bout good seafood somewhere (can't remember where), so we went...

• The first item was frog-legs (tin-kai)... When it came, the auntie poured a bottle of Brands Chicken essence onto it... damn yummy - though my other colleague said, the bottle of Brands could be for show only since it came opened!
• Then we had 2 different types of crabs - the black pepper one and the sweet & sour type. Not too bad la, though the experienced crab-eater in the team said that they were slightly overcooked...

• Then there was the oyster (o-jien)... The eggs were all raw when it was served... and was stirred with a spoon before we started digging in...
• Final item was a vege (kai-lan) which was rather badly cooked cos the 'kai-lan' was OLDDDDD... and was rather bland:

All in all, not much to complaint about la... The treasure hunt was definitely a fun trip! :)

The theme of the Treasure Hunt was: "Pirates of the Car-ibbean" which took us from KL to Melaka to Desaru. We traveled a total of 480KM in 2 days... 200KM for leg 1, and 280KM for leg 2.


At flagged off point, we were all given a set of tulips. Tulips are like maps. Basically we just follow the dots and arrows (as per example below) before tripping (resetting the distance counter) and traveling the distance required. The example below shows that Q4's answer is located in between the dot point for a distance of 0.65KM. Everyday, we have to follow 100 over tulips to complete the hunt.


So everyday, we had to complete Part 1: Comprising of 25 - 30 questions, Part II: Treasures Hunting and Part III: Physical Challenge.

• Part 1: Clues / Questions that were divided into several categories:

(1) Related to "Pirates of the Caribbean" without keyword(s)
Take this question for instance: "Charge to Will's dad". None of us remembered the details of the movie (which has 3 parts somemore) so when someone in the car mentioned that Will's dad could be "Bob", we went round searching for anything and everything with "Bob".

In the end, we couldn't find any and started calling other cars... It was only then we realized that we got the name wrong! Will's dad was BILL!!! So anyway, the answer was Pasaraya Billion. Why? Cos: (1) Charge = Ion (2) Will's dad = Bill (3) Charge comes after dad = BILL+ION - 'cheem' leh...

(2) Related to "Pirates of the Caribbean" with keyword(s)
Question: "Desperate enough Jack added Voodoo until leaders sensed it had taken place" - The word "leaders" here is a keyword that means 1... So we combined all the first alphabet of the words to form: D-E-J-A-V-U. The answer was: Restaurant Dejavu :)

(3) Not related to "Pirates of the Caribbean" without keyword(s)
Question: "The South American Black Pearl" - the guys figured this one out... Brazil being in South America and that "Pele" was a well-known footballer... and therefore the answer was: Kedai Gunting Pele

(4) Not related to "Pirates of the Caribbean" with keyword(s)
Question: "Lazy exclamation if you recall. Food and drink they have it all" - The word "recall" here is a keyword which meant that whatever the answer to this question, it could be read "terbalik". We translated the word "lazy" to "malas" and started hunting for everything with "salam" when we found the answer: Restaurant Al-salam (which means that the lazy exclamation answer was malas-la)

• Part 2: Treasures that we had to look for in between the start and finish leg which must be submitted intact at the Finish Station:

The clue sounds like this: If you recall the flash every time a soul leaves earth, The shade of brew I want will come to birth, Sea net untangled should really help you out, And you can come back with it having no doubt.

We had to break the question in several parts for the correct answer:
i. The keyword here is "recall" - again which meant we must read the answer 'terbalik'
ii. The REAL clue lies in this sentence: "Sea net untangled " - if you jumble up "sea net", it forms the word "NESTEA"
iii. The flavour that we were looking for was in the word "flash" cos "flash" is green in colour

The answer was therefore, NESTEA - Green Tea Flavour

• Part 3: A physical challenge that we need to complete upon handing in our answer sheets and treasures for the day:

Day 1: 1 person to swim / walk a short distance in the pool where the other person is waiting at the opposite direction. The 2nd person (upon completing his swim / walk across the pool) will unlock a chest to reveal stones that he has to re-arrange to form the word: Davy's Heart

Day 2: A set of 10 pictures were pasted on the wall and we were to categorize them into 3 parts of the movie

Did the Psycho Sonic won anything?
Hehehehe... OF COURSE we did... I won the lucky draw prize on day 1 - RM50 Petronas Voucher and my other colleague won the lucky draw prize on day 2 - 2 VIP tickets to watch any movie at TGV. Hehehehe... better than nothing la right... We were all first timers ma... :)

I went for my first treasure hunt last week and it was a great experience! But since we were all first timers... the outcomes were pretty hilarious.

The requirement for our team was pretty simple. Everyone must be a smoker... Cos imagine driving around like lunatics eight hours a day without cigarettes... that would be damn miserable you know!!! So anyway, we were rather happy with the setup... and we called ourselves... "Super Sonic" on day 1 cos we initially intended to be laid back and to just go with the flow. But eventually, the psycho-ness got the better of us all and we named ourselves "Psycho Sonic"!


The funny thing bout our group is that, when one person in the car smokes, everyone else smokes cos the air cond will be turned off... At one point we were all smoking like chimneys when one of the team members said: "Guys... I think we're smoking waaaay too much..." (but everyone ignored him)... Then he said: "We've been smoking like every 10min and there's 420 minutes more to go you know...!" (at this point we all realized that he has a point and thus we didn't smoke anymore for the next hour or so)... Hehehehe...

We were team no. 60 out of 68 teams and the Treasure Hunt takes us from KL to Malacca to Desaru... At flagged off, we were supposed to drive from Subang to Sungai Besi Toll (the one near Mint Hotel) before the map / tulips begin... But the problem was... none of us knew how to get to Sungai Besi toll and we had to rely on "Linda" - the GPS... The most frustrating thing was the fact that "Linda" will blurt out "Please slow down" (in an annoying tone) everytime we drive past the speed limit and all of us would automatically shout "Shut Up". But in the end, Linda proved to be a useful device cos tho we skipped the toll, we somehow managed to exit at where we were supposed to (where the map starts)... hehehe...



We had to like drive at least 8 full hours a day, so we took turns driving... It was all fine during the hunt cos we were expected to drive slowly and not speed (it was afterall not a race ma...) But the problem was... on the way back, "Linda" took us to the trunk roads instead of highways. Since I am city girl, I found it super difficult and challenging. Plus the car wasn't mine and it was a 1.3A so I didn't have the confidence to overtake any cars. Everyone else was sleeping like a pig and honestly, I have no recollection of what happened or how it happened. But when the guys got up, they just burst out laughing when they saw 6 lorries ahead of me (but ahem I was keeping a far distance from them and running at a decent speed)... KNN!

Paiseh to say hor... today I had my first experience in interviewing a candidate who is supposed to be reporting to me... To be honest, I think I was more nervous than he was in the entire interview. Plus my boss was also there... and he all he did was to tell me this... minutes before the interview: "You interview him ok... your toy boy"... O_o

Lucky thing I've worked with him before thus I was quite comfortable with the fact that he'd be the best candidate (for now) so I pushed hard for him... Hehehe...

But it's kinda hard to be a supervisor...
Sure, I've mentored newbies before but this was entirely a new thing...

• When he asked bout his salary, we couldn't tell him upfront cos our beloved HR will have to offer him a package
• When he asked bout his job scope, I had to explain what I do in 5 mins without confusing the hell out of him
• Then I had to ask up front if he's game for loads of craps... and loads of work...
• And now, I will have to spend the next few days drafting out his roles & responsibilities, his KPIs and how I need to set up briefing sessions to quickly do a "knowledge transfer"

Sigh... Looking back, I suffered under my previous seniors as they were all too selfish in imparting their knowledge:

• Like how all my works were submitted to them to be presented to management (which of course I wasn't invited to attend)
• Like how my analysis were sent to them (under the pretext that my supervisor needs to VET thru first to ensure accuracy) where only later I found out that my work were cut and pasted to be sent out to management
• Like how my supervisor will claim that he did all the work right in front of the bosses (as if I was transparent)

But I endured 'em all in the name of "continuous learning" and though I had to learn via the school of hard knocks, I am happy to say that I finally had a boss who thinks ok of me now. Thus this time round, given a chance, I think I should aim to be a good supervisor... :)

P.S. "Toy boy" not because I'm gonna "play" with him but becos he'll be the youngest in the team... and I'm 5 fucking years older than he is...

Characters

• Draco Malfoy: A devious boy who is from a wealthy, pure blood, wizardry family, his father is Lucius, who was a follower of Voldemort. He and Harry are arch enemies. He lives in the Slytherin House. He can always be found with his two side kicks Crabbe and Goyle
• Harry Potter: Also known in the wizard world as 'the boy who lived'. He is the only survivor of Lord Voldemort's reign of darkness. Surprisingly, he even managed to destroy the dark wizard at the young age of one or at least that is what most wizards think. Unfortunately, his parents, James and Lily Potter weren't as fortunate and Harry was orphaned. He went to live with his muggle relatives the Dursleys,(Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, and Dudley). They made his life miserable. At age 11 he was called to attend Hogwarts Academy of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Hagrid came to get him, and begin his life as a wizard. The books chronicle his time there
• Hermione Granger: A muggle born young witch who becomes close friends with Harry Potter and Ron Weasly. She is an excellent student and often finds answers to Harry's questions by looking them up in a book. Her parents are dentists and have no magical blood in them what-so-ever. This leads to name calling, Draco Malfoy calls her a mudblood, and one of the main controversies in the book ~ prejudice against those who aren't of pure wizardry blood
• Rubeus Hagrid: Hagrid for short, is the groundskeeper at Hogwarts Academy of Witchcraft and Wizardry. After some time, and a clearing of his name, he becomes the Hogwarts's Care of Magical Creatures teacher. Hagrid is part giant and is obsessed with dangerous creatures. He names a three headed giant dog "Fluffy". Hagrid first meets Harry when Dumbledore sends him to get the one year old after his parents have been killed. He then collects him from the Dursleys when Harry turns 11, so that he can start his schooling
• Professor Albus Dumbledore: Current headmaster at the Hogwarts Academy of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It is said he is the greatest headmaster Hogwarts has ever seen, perhaps even the greatest wizard. He always seems to know what is going on at the school and in Harry's life
• Professor Minerva McGonagall: Teaches Transfiguration and is the head of the Gryffindor House. She is an animagus and can change into the form of a cat
• Ron Weasley: Is, hands down, Harry Potter's best friend. They are in the same year and in the same house at Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. They met on the platform waiting for the Express to Hogwarts and Ron realized who Harry was on the ride in. Although the two have spats now and then, each boy will always be there for the other. Ron is from a wizard family who doesn't have much money. Mrs. Weasley is very motherly to Harry. Ron's brothers and sisters are also studying in Hogwarts Academy of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The entire Weasly family has red hair
• Sirius Black: Godfather to Harry potter and close friend of his parents, James and Lily Potter. Sirius is an animagus who sometimes assumes the form of a black dog named Padfoot

Creatures

• Aragog: A giant spider who lives in the forbidden forest. He is the creature that Hagrid raises when he is a student at Hogwarts. Hagrid gets expelled for having Aragog and opening the Chamber of Secrets, or so it was thought. His wife's name is Mosag and together, they have quite a few offspring that tried to eat Harry and Ron
• Boggart: A shape-shifting monster. It will take the form of whatever it thinks will frighten those near it the most
• Centaur: A half man half horse creature that lives in the forbidden forest. They read the stars and predict the future and are very serious in nature
• Dementors: Hooded dark arts creatures who used to follow Voldemort. They currently are the guards for Azkaban. They have the ability to suck all good thoughts out of those around them. Their kiss is a fate worst than death as it will steal your soul
• Hedwig: Harry Potter's pet owl. He was purchased by Hagrid at their first visit to Diagon Alley in the first book. Owls are used to deliver messages in the wizarding world
• Hippogriff: Large winged creature that is half horse and half eagle-like bird. Hagrid introduces them to his Mystical Creatures class
• Troll: A very tall creature with a really bad temper. They are foul smelling, small brained and extremely ugly. They live in the mountains away from the Hogwarts Academy of Witchcraft and Wizardry
• Unicorn: A creature that lives in the Forbidden Forest. It is so white that newly laid snow looks gray next to it. It's blood has mystical qualities

Charms / Spells / Curses

• Accio: A summoning charm which enables a wizard to call anything to themselves, even if it is far away
• Alohomora: Causes doors to unlock
• Expelliarmus: A disarming spell and is used to knock the weapon out of the opponent's hand
• Lumos: A spell that lights up the caster's wand. It causes a wizard's wand to act like a flashlight
• Reducio: This makes an object smaller. It's the opposite of Engorgio, and will turn something back to it's normal size if the Engorgio spell was used
• Reparo: Undoes any damage that was done to an object
• Riddikulus: A defence charm against the Boggart and turns it into something the caster thinks is silly
• Stupefy: Makes the receiver goes unconscious
• Unforgivable Curses: There are three Unforgivable Curses that witches and wizards must not use. They are the Cruciatus Curse (Crucio) - causes intolerable pain that slowly drives its victim insane, the Imperius Curse (Imperio) - causes the victim to be completely under the control of the wizard that caste the spelland the Killing Curse (Avada Kedavra) - causes the instant death that cannot be traced to any other source
• Wingardium Leviosa: A levitation spell. It is used to make other objects levitate

Places of Attractions

• Azkaban: The wizard prison which is guarded by the Dementors. Many of Voltemort's followers who were caught by aurors were imprisoned there. It is close to impossible to escape as the longer you stay the more insane you get
• Diagon Alley: An alley in London that is hidden from muggles. It has wizard stores for things like books, pets, wands and more
• Forbidden Forest: A forest that surrounds Hogworts Academy of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It is the home of many mythical and dangerous creatures. Students are warned not to go in, although some find that they may have to serve detention there
• Gringotts: Wizard bank located in Diagon Alley and run by goblins. All of the vaults are below London. It is rumored that they use dragons to guard the vaults
• Hogsmeade: A small village near Hogwarts that you can only visit after third year with a permission slip signed by your guardian. Shops include Honeydukes and Zonko's Joke Shop and it is also the home of the 'haunted' Shrieking Shack
• Hogwarts Academy of Witchcraft and Wizardry: A place where witches and wizards go when the reach the age of 11 years old to learn how to become witches and wizards. It was created by four founders and each founder had a house: Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw
• Hogwarts Express: The train that takes Hogwarts students to and from the school. It leaves from London on platform nine and three quarters and takes most of the day to arrive at Hogwarts
• Zonko: A wizard joke shop in Hogsmeade

That's all for now, cheers.

Source: Parenting Teen

I was going thru my archives when I found this post on the "unspoken rules" of courtship from the book I read back in 2005 called "He's Just Not That Into You". Well, like it or not, the book screamed out the message that as women, we shouldn't settle for anything lesser than what we expect to have. After all, one should go into a relationship if it makes them feel happier and more fulfilled. NOT if it puts them in misery.

The book also clearly describes classic single-woman scenario: you really like this guy, but he's giving mixed messages. You start making excuses (on his behalf) and decided he's confused, afraid of commitment, blah blah blah. Then continue with the waiting game... only to find out much later that maybe he's just not that into you (after loads of misery that is).

Talking bout misery, there are many forms of misery that men can bring women. Here's a classic few that most women will tell you they've been through (as quoted in the book):

• He said he'll call... but he didn't
• He said he'll ask you out the next time... but he didn't

The golden rule here is that if he's really interested, he'll call you no matter what. Afterall, what could possibly go wrong if he stops and chat for 1 minute?? Excuses are plain excuses and are signs that he's just not that into you. Accept the fact and move on for you deserve someone better!

Signs that he's just not interested if he produces any one of the following "reasoning":

• Phone with your number on it got stolen/misplaced/eaten by dog (that's why he didn't call)
• Busy working / moving house / spending time with family etc (that's why he didn't get a chance to ask you out)
• Temp amnesia (that's why he couldn't remember you nor the previous conversation you had)

So don't even be tempted to make excuses such as the following (on his behalf) when you find yourself staring longingly at your phone / mailbox / fax:

• He's afraid to get hurt again
• Maybe he doesn't want to ruin the friendship
• Maybe he's intimidated by me
• He just got out of a difficult relationship

I know, I know... it's easier said than done! If you suddenly stumble upon a man who meets all your criteria, who wouldn't want to think up excuses if he doesn't call nor ask you out??!! Well, though it's a cold hard world out there, most men (according to the book) would rather not be the one to break the bad news. So ultimately, it is up to you to decide if you want to continue the waiting game in misery or learn how to read signs that he's just not that interested in you and move on.

Somehow, I like to think that women were created from men's ribs so that they could find the owner of the rib they belong to (corny eh?). But hey, that's why there are marriages in the first place. The ultimate meeting and joining of 2 minds in hearts and souls and everything else... till eternity. Thus, I am hopeful that the day will come for everyone to find their soulmate and the person they are destined to be with!

A definite must-read for single ones out there (even hooked up ones could learn a thing or two from the book). Check it out at your local bookstores. Happy reading!

Authors: Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo

I watched the premier of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on Tuesday.

And since I've read all the books, this post took forever to complete as each part was linked to the part before and it was just impossible to just focus on book 5...

But since I'm too lazy now... I'd write more about Harry Potter later...

So in conclusion, the movie was ok la... no major complaints...

Update:

On Story Line

• It was kinda true to the book but conversations were cut short and somehow, the entire movie seemed a bit too condensed for my liking.

On Actors and Actresses

• Harry, Hermione and Ron have all grown up into adults... good looking and pretty too... But unfortunately for Harry, he was the shortest amongst all... Heck, even Neville is taller than him...
• In the book, I imagined Luna as the equivalent of Ms Trelawney with big specs and "blur sotong" look but she turned out like Malfoy's sister instead and I must say, she's kinda pretty with her "white" hair...
• Fred and George... In this movie, they looked pretty much like Mr. Weasley. Wonder if they're really father and sons in real life... hehehe...

Verdict

• Think I'd go and get the DVDs for part 1 to 4 to be able to appreciate the movie better...

Woahhh... time surely passes very quickly.

This is post no. 101. Hooohooo...

On a separate note:
I need a HOLIDAY !!!

The last holiday was nearly 6 months ago!!! I.MUST.GO on a holiday before I lose my sanity!

My eyesight is getting from bad to worse... I can't even view font size 8 on my laptop now without squinting my eyes. The options are pretty straight forward:

• Option 1: Go for enhancement surgery - which means going thru the whole "torture" of letting my eyeballs burn under the same laser!
• Option 2: Start wearing glasses or contact lens...

But both options pose some form of problems...

• Option 1: I will have to go thru another 6 months of continuous check ups... Day 1, Day 7, Day 14, Month 1, Month 2 until they are satisfied with my condition. In the meantime suffer dry eyes and be on eye drops for monthsss... Aaannnd at the end of it... no promises that my eyesight will be perfect
• Option 2: I opted for Lasik bout 6 months back because I didn't want to wear spectacles and my eyes couldn't take contact lenses no more... It kept tearing at best and at worst, my eyes will be reddish in colour

So you see... it's not so straightforward afterall... Sigh... Such a dilemma...