Sleepy Drive

Driving home from work these few days had been a tiring affair. I could hardly keep my eyes open, and the snail-paced traffic made it worse to stay awake. So much that I "kissed" a car last evening.

It all happened very fast. I did not realize that I dozed off behind the wheel until I heard a crash sound. We both stopped at the side of the road and saw that my Kelisa was still ok, except that a small part of the car plate number got chipped off, whereas his Perdana was dented along the boot handle. I apologized to him and his friend and told them I was too sleepy. We didn't know how much it would cost to repair his car, but I offered to pay and even showed them that I only had a couple of 10 bux notes in my wallet.

He was really nice, though. He said that he would get it repaired himself, and told me to keep my money even though I insisted to pay coz it was really my fault. His friend said not to cry and told me to be careful the next time.

Whoever you are, thank you so much for letting me off. I'm really sorry for being so careless. Perhaps housechores and work have been overwhelming these few days, especially with the rabbits around, but that's not a good excuse to be careless on the road. I will be more alert the next time. I am so sorry for that.

Resignation Day

After deciding to take the next step in my career and got myself into a dilemma between two different job offers, I had finally tendered my resignation today.

It finally happened. Knowing that I'm at a risk of losing my annual increment and my second half of the bonus, I had to do it today. It's funny, I had consulted the HR Manager on my termination date in the morning, typed out the letter, and knocked on Dexter's door to speak to him, only to be told to "come back later, after lunch". *Gah*

I managed to speak to him after lunch. He asked to reconsider, but I declined. It was a short conversation as I would need to speak to NR tomorrow about my resignation since he's on leave today. As I stepped out of Dexter's room, I felt so heartbroken.... I felt like crying... I just couldn't believe that it happened.. That I'm leaving an easygoing working environment to join the rat race in the city centre... That I'm leaving my lovely bunch of colleagues whom I'd grown to cherish every single moment with them throughout the past 6+ years...

Serving notice is until 19th March, but with my accumulated annual leave days, my last day of employment with my current firm will be either 16th or 23rd February, depending on whether I'd wanna come back to work during the CNY week or just take unpaid leave instead.

So that's it... One more month till the end of my journey with my current firm, and a new journey begins.... Gosh... I feel so upset...

The Two Doors

While on a job hunt recently, I was given two doors to choose from. I was certain when I made my decision - signed the acceptance letter on one (Firm A), and wrote a "Regret to inform you that I will have to reject your offer" to other one (Firm B). I was already mentally prepared for the training away from home, long hours and heavy traffic. I was prepared to take the next step.

Came Monday, I received a phone call from the GM of Firm B, asking me where am I going to and that he wanted to meet me to talk things over coz he thought there could be miscommunication between his staff (the one who interviewed me) and me, and he was so impressed about my rejection letter that he was certain he must have me in his firm. Have you heard of Google ah??

Inspector and I met him after work (yes, I had to bring him along, just in case if he turned out to be a pervert. Hehe..) and we listened to him, his vision on the company and all sorts. He was nice enough to come meet us, fetched us to the office to pick up my offer letter, and dropped us back to our car. He sounded pretty ambitious and made it seem that there's plenty of opportunities offered - "I have offices in 40 countries, where you want to go, you let me know", "Up to you which project you want to take. If you have questions, there's 100 staff for you to ask from". He also guaranteed that it is all fun working there at flexible hours. And he kept saying that I'm foolish for joining the other firm, wasting my career growth and all.

He had persuaded me to sign the letter there and then, but I insisted to bring it home to think over it. I placed both the offer letters (i.e. the duplicate copy I had signed for Firm A and the unsigned copy for Firm B) side by side. After hearing what the GM had to say, I'd have to say I'm pretty much tempted to switch to his company, reasons being :-

* It's nearer to where I'm living, so distance and travelling will not be a problem whereas if Firm A, I'll have to brave through the horrendous traffic jam in the city centre everyday.
* I'll go in with a higher ranking position compared to Firm A, hence the opportunity to lead a team.
* The culture there is family-oriented way whereas in Firm A, it's like being in Apprentice or Survivor.
* No bond contract unlike Firm A.

But on the other hand for Firm A,

* It is an international MNC, whereas Firm B is a local MNC.
* It has more employee benefits.
* Provides proper overseas training, everything paid for.
* Wider scope of knowledge to be learnt.
* Challenges and struggles to overcome (coz I've been having an easy life in my current company. How would I know how is it like in the real world if I do not go through these?).

I'm really fickle-minded. If I decline Firm A, I worry that I might have to pay some form of compensation to them for signing the offer and then decline it. Besides, how can I be so sure that what the GM said are not just empty promises? If I accept either one, I'll lose the opportunity of working with the other one. How la?

As of now, although part of my body has already entered Firm A door, the rest of me are still in front of both doors, cautiously trying to decide. A or B? Left door, or the right one?

Which one to take?

Arghhhhhhhhhhhh... Please give me some signs... Puhleeeeeeeeezeeeeeee!!!!!!!!

Hoppy Bunnies

A short introduction to the newest additions in the family..

Thumper (male - front) and Baby Ivy (female - back)

They're both 5 months old, given away by an aunt's friend. All we needed to do upon collecting them were to bring them to a vet for grooming. 10 bux each to trim the nails, and another 15 bux each to trim the fur. And all they ever do are to eat, shit and sleep. But it's fun to see them hopping around whenever we let them out from the cage. *Grin*

Mighty Dan: Why can't you get a dog like normal people?

Tee hee hee... We likey!

Identifying People By Their Nicks

Last weekend while attending Virgin Boy's Victorian setting wedding dinner, I saw so many familiar faces.

I had come to know these people from the IRC days during my college year in 1997. Back then, IRC was a hobby, a trend, an obsession. If you weren't in the IRC, you weren't IN. But if it wasn't for IRC, I wouldn't be able to meet so many people. In fact, if it wasn't for #taylors, I wouldn't have had the privilege to forge so many friendships that are still lasting till this very day (Virgin Boy included).

Almost 10 years since then, there we were at the wedding dinner, recognizing each other, remembering that somehow somewhere he/she was just so familiar, maaaaaaaaaaaybe from IRC. Almost like a mini gathering. And so we said Hi but we just could not place names with their faces.

A : Hey, do you remember me?
B : Hi! Errr.. I don't quite remember your name. (looking sheepishly)
A : I'm A.
B : Errrrr.... (help!!)
A : My nick was so-and-so.
B : Oooohhhhh!!! Now I remember you!!! How are you??

Just when I was wishing and hoping that no one would remember my embarassing nick, this guy whom I knew through #taylors too (but I just did not say Hi coz I thought he wouldn't remember me) spotted me and said aloud across the tables, "Eh... You are BP right???" And he turned to the person sitting beside him, "She's BP, right???" I almost wanted to die there and then. I so wanted to rip the nickname label off myself, burn it to pieces and give myself a new nickname. The problem is, it can never happen. Our nicknames were our identities in the virtual world donkey years ago. They were indeed a part of ourselves. No matter how much we want to change that, another 10 years down the road, we'd still remember each other by the nicknames.

It's the same here on the blogging world. Readers will remember me as Patchee. Bloggers who turned into friends would probably remember me as that too. But I guess I'm fine with that. At least I'm not embarassed with this nick. Tee hee hee..

Welcoming The Year 2007

New Year's Eve was a day of last minutes. At about mid afternoon while driving home after attending a cousin's birthday lunch at Poh Poh's place, Inspector spilled the news that we were having a pot luck with a few of his friends at our place that night itself. I was like, "Whaaaaat?? Tonight???? Who's coming??" and wished that if only he had told me earlier, I would be able to invite a few of my close friends too.

We were to prepare a pot of chicken curry. So at the last minute, we did a detour to the nearest supermarket to buy the ingredients (not those ready-made packets, mind you), junk food and some drinks. As soon as we reached home, we immediately did a bit of spring cleaning. Then I launched into cutting the chicken meat and potatoes into smaller pieces; blended the garlic, onion and ginger; mixed the meat curry powder and chilli powder together and started cooking, while Inspector boiled cream of mushroom soup and reheated some beef rendang which we had tapau-ed from Poh Poh's. We washed up the plates, bowls, utensils and all. Footitie and Freckles brought spaghetti and garlic bread. Mighty Dan came over and prepared cocktail from sparkling juice, oranges and shandy as experiment. And the funny thing was that JT brought raw mee hoon instead of the already fried one. So that was a very last minute thing when Mighty Dan volunteered to fry the mee hoon for us. Hehe.. At least JT brought other stuffs like ice, a deck of cards and a bottle of Chivas Regal, so he was immediately forgiven. *lol*

Home-made food and drinks. Yummy!

By 9pm, all 6 of us were already attacking the food and agreed that the cocktail wasn't too bad after all. Then we gathered at the living room, watching Star Wars on Astro while playing Rummy and the guyz toasting on Chivas. The clock struck midnight, we all paused whatever we were doing, greeted each other "Happy New Year!!" and then resumed our activities.

To the new year.. Cheers!

That was how we celebrated NY's Eve. We no longer have the urge to go out and get mad with the rest of the world, but we were happy enough to have celebrated the occasion just among ourselves. And I sure was very glad that Inspector had planned a mini pot luck dinner even though it was a last minute thing. *Grin*

Hope you all had a great one too. A wonderful new year to everyone! *Hugz*