False news

For somebody who claims to be educated and quite smart in a way, I'm sure quite stupid when it comes down to this:- the paranoia enveloping Penang.

Why didn't I think of checking the Internet for correct news? Why didn't I check to verify if the news are true? Why am I so stupid enough to let other people's paranoia get into my nerves? Why didn't I just trust my intuition for once instead of letting other's dictate what I do? Why am I so darn stupid?!

The news about a second tsunami happening is false after all. Why, why, why for the sake of my life didn't I think of verifying the news in the Internet? Oh wait, right! I don't have access to it. But is it an excuse not to think of it as a source? N-O-P-E!! Nope, nope, nope! I could have asked my friends that have Internet access to check it out for me! I'm just stupid enough to forget about it!!!!!!

Yes, the paranoia surrounding everybody now is understandable, because of the lost lives of the innocents. But I really find those jokers or pranksters who created those false sms to be f**king b*****ds who have nothing better to do but create havoc in people's lives. Ohhhhhh...I so hate myself for not trusting my instinct!

Paranoia

I am so angry at myself right now. I feel that I've abused my status as the boss' niece today and because of that, I had inadvertently made somebody displeased with the whole situation. I am now currently at home and guess what the time is now? Yup, it's only 5 plus in the evening, when I should still be at work cause work only finishes at 6! Because of paranoia going on in the whole of Penang, I'm now back at home, venting all out right now.

Because of yesterday's tsunami that had landed in Penang and caused the death toll to reach 38, a lot of Penangites are now in a state of paranoia. Early this morning, I've been receiving sms-es warning people not to use the Penang bridge between 7-8pm for fear of a 2nd tsunami happening as a result of the aftershock earthquake that caused disaster everywhere in Asia yesterday. I was pretty sceptic about the whole news because if there's an issued warning on the usage of the bridge, why isn't there a warning on the usage of the ferry? Wouldn't people taking the ferry be at higher risk than those using the bridge if there's gonna be another 10 metre high wave coming towards Penang island? Despite my own sceptism and my own intuition telling me that the news are false, I let my Mum's and my bf's paranoia get the better of me.

My bf's been calling the whole day, telling me about the news and updating me about it. Yet, I still feel apprehensive. I kept asking him to verify the news by watching Astro or listening to the radio but he prefers to listen to what his relatives has to say. Yes, I know they care about me, that they all worry about me. But I can't help feeling that sometimes, they jump into conclusions before getting the whole truth. They kept saying they heard it from Astro, but when I question them from which channel in Astro did they heard the news from, they said they don't know. I think it's just word by mouth that got everybody here in Penang so paranoid about the whole thing.

Because of my Mum's insistence for me to go home soon (news was that the Penang bridge would be closing soon from 4-5 pm til the next morning), I asked for my superior's permission to go home early. Unfortunately, he said the news were false and did not allow me to go home early. I was in a state of blurness then because I didn't know what to do. A part of me tells me that the news are false too, yet a part of me tells me that I should appease my Mum. In the end, I thought of a brilliant idea (which turns out to be not so brilliant after all) and called Aunty Sandy to asked if she's home so that she can verify the news for me through Astro. Unfortunately, Aunty Sandy's not at home and so I told her the whole story. She said she'll call my Uncle Andrew and asked him if I could go home early (I'm currently working in Uncle Andrew's company). Few minutes later, she called back to say that Uncle Andrew's partner said that I could go home early and asked to speak to my superior so that she can tell him herself to allow me to go home. After taking that call from me, my superior's face showed that he was not happy about the whole thing but he does not have any choice because I'm the boss' niece and the boss' wife said that I could go home early. I felt so bad because part of believes that the news are not true too. My colleagues all encouraged me to go home early, because according to them, prevention is better than cure. In this case, the news might be true after all. In the end, I left the office early, despite the unhappy face that my superior showed me.

When I reached the junction turning into the bridge, I got really mad! There, up on the board in green, is the message, "Jambatan dibuka seperti biasa". In English, it means that the bridge is open as usual. There's no closure whatsoever!! I really felt like turning back to the office right there and then but a phone conversation with my bf made me continued my way back home. I was really angry at myself for not trusting my instinct! In fact, I'm still angry at myself now. If the news really do turn out to be false, I'll be too embarrassed to face my superior tomorrow. Argh!!!!!!!!!

*goes off to scream*

Work

First day at work was really, really boring. I was suppose to go into the office at 9.30am, thus I left home around 8.10am for fear of a traffic jam at the Penang bridge. Surprisingly, traffic was smooth going and before I knew it, I've already reached Penang around 8.40am. Remembering the conversation I had the day before with my uncle, I knew that there wouldn't be anybody in the office until 9.00am. Not knowing where to go, I drove straight to my uncle's house which was nearby and we went for breakfast together at Chef&Brew (p.s. there's a Chef&Brew outlet in Alamanda Putrajaya too). SO, instead of turning up at the office at 9.30am, my uncle, his senior finance manager (who joined us for breakfast too) and I only went into the office after 10.00am. =P Not very good impression I admit, and it sort of shows the staff there that I have good relations with the boss (which was kinda true considering that I'm the boss' niece). But still...oh well!

Anyway, I was filling in forms and had to wait for a Mr Ong to take me to Public Bank to open an account there cause there's where the company's gonna deposit my salary. When I finally got back to the office for some serious stuff, it was already near to noon. Mr Leong, the senior finance manager, put me under a girl to learn my way through the computer and accounts because she's leaving soon and I'll have to take over her job. I sense some dread in Mr Leong though and I don't blame him or any of the staff either. Imagine putting the company's accounts in the hands of somebody who know nothing about accounts! *sigh* The rest of the day were spent looking at how stuff are done in the office and getting to know my senior. =)

Thank goodness I finally have something to do today. Even though it was only data entry, and salary summary report, it was better than nothing like yesterday. However, doing data entry and the summary report was rather boring. The summary report had to be done using Microsoft Excel and frankly, I'm not much of an Excel user and had to learn things slowly. I didn't like asking Mr Ong questions how to go about doing it cause he showed me a couple of times, even though he wasn't really good at explaining to me. And I rather learn things myself by going about trying to get things done. If there were any mistakes done, I could always undo them. I know, I know, wrong of me to do so, but I could sense some frustration in Mr Ong cause I've already asked him to solve some problems far too often. =P

Halfway through the report, I was asked by Mr Leong to help some of the technicians to write a letter to a company asking for permits. And I'm glad to say that I did write a pretty good letter for them. hehe...at least I'm putting my skills and techniques I've learned in the semester to good use. I didn't get a Distinction in Writing for Professional Purposes without talent you know..haha...boy, do I sound smug there! Frankly, I'm just happy to help them out. It was more my thing.

Well, the day ended pretty ok albeit a little tiring. Facing the computer the whole entire day is no mean feat, no matter how much I like to face the computer when going online. Hopefully, tomorrow I'll be given more work to do, then, at least I wouldn't feel guilty of not doing anything.

I'm working soon!!

Yup! That's right! I'll be starting work from tomorrow onwards, well, technically, today onwards. And I can't wait to go into the office. Knowing that I wouldn't be wasting my time lazing around at home helps a lot. Plus the knowledge that I'll be getting $$$ is a HUGE encouragement. LoL.

I'll be working in my uncle's company in the accounts department. It's exciting because I'll be getting useful experience since I'm majoring in PR. So, I'm really, really excited, yet at the same time, I'm nervous cause I don't know the people working there, and a thousand questions are in my mind now, I wonder if they're nice, if they would treat me differently when they found out that I'm the boss' niece, if they're gonna be bossy, etc...I know people get the jitters when they start work in a new environment but working in my uncle's company is gonna give me some pressure. I have to make sure that I'm in my best behaviour, that I'm hardworking and a willing learner so that I don't give off a bad reflection towards my uncle and our family. *sigh* It's gonna be difficult, but I'll try my best.

I really should be sleeping now. But I can't! I'm tired, I admit, but my body's system just simply refuse to sleep. And I have to wake up early tomorrow morning cause I'll be driving over to the island! And speaking of driving, I dread the jam that I'll be facing when I'm crossing the bridge. =( Hopefully, there wouldn't be a massive jam like usual since it's gonna be my first day at work and all. *fingers crossed*

Malaysian Babe?

Ok, get this people! I was browsing through my Friendster just now and received a message from somebody or some group. Below is the message that the sent me:

Dear G,
Hi, we would love to let all the gorgeous
malaysian ladies out there to know that the club
management team had taken the club to a higher
level and as we already launched the Club
OFFICIALLY at http://www.MalaysianBabes.net
and has the forum service running so that we are
able to serve the babes better =)

If you are interested in joining us or continue your
membership with MalaysianBabes Club, please
sign up NOW at http://www.MalaysianBabes.net
and get yourself actively involved, start by
introducing yourself to the rest at the New
Members Forum. At the same time, pls dun forget
to have fun over there with the rest of the babes =)
The babes there are nice, fun, lovely and most
importantly, they are the friendliest ppl on earth =)

All you need to do is to be sure to stay with us and
also be an active forum member as we will
provide more and more services in the near future
=) See you There !

Cheers,
Club Administrator

-------------------------------------------------------------------
You are getting this message only once because
we appreciate you, love you, treasure you as a
home-grown malaysian gorgeous lady =) and
want you to be part of us. don't send a friend
request because only active members will be
approved to be in the friends list. thanks !


That's so weird! I mean, I've never seen myself as a babe, in fact, I don't even think I'm qualified to be a babe! My friends are babes, not me! I'm not babe material! I...I...I don't know what to say or what to do...

Ok...I've checked out the site. It's nothing, just a forum for gurls to debate and talk about things. Phew! Thank God for that. I thought it's some sort of website for guys to oogle at babes. Hehe...anyway, I won't be joining the site. It's not really my thing. =D

It's good to be back...

...in Penang. I've been back for a couple of days now and it's nothing but pure pleasure to be back home at the place where I grew up in. However, it's not good to be sick. I hate being sick! Come to think of it, who likes to be sick right?

It all started before I even got back to Penang. In fact, it started a day or two after Aaron's birthday. At first, I thought it was my throat that was badly swollen and took as much water as possible and lozenges to help cure it but after Ai Ling's birthday, my situation just got worse and I finally went to the doc's no matter how much I hated it.

The doc said that it wasn't my throat that was swollen but in fact, it was actually my tonsils that were infected and swollen. Thus, the affect it had on my ears and nose. I had a hard time listening to what my friends said because it sounded softer and my nose was so blocked up at times that I had to wake up in the middle of the night and sit upright for a couple of minutes to ensure that I could breathe properly again before going back to bed. It doesn't help that I was having mild insomnia. After checking my throat for a couple of minutes, the doc finally prescribed some antibiotiks and more lozenges for me. I counted the amount of pills the doc gave me for the course of over 3-4 days. I had to take 30 capsules of antibiotics and 20 tablets of lozenges. Crazy right?! I had to freaking take 8 capsules of antibiotics!!

Well, it was really torture to take so much antibiotics a day. But at least I'm better now. TOnsils are all back to normal. The only thing that isn't normal is my voice. And my cough. Darn! *sigh* I hope I get better soon enough cause I'll be starting work next Monday and I'll be travelling a lot. What I don't need is to be sick then. >_<

Aaron's Birthday

As promised, I said I'll write something about Aaron's birthday after it happened on the third, so here I am, writing one. First off, we were suppose to have dinner with him with a couple of his friends and our own group of friends at Monte's in Bangsar Shopping Complex at 7.30pm but Sam, Ai Ling and I ended up being very, very late for the dinner because Sam and I had to fetch Ai Ling from USJ. Even though USJ's a really nice area to live in, it's getting in and out of the whole area that really gets one full of headache because of the massive jams on the highway during peak hours that can last for several hours especially when it's raining. Because Sam and I went to fetch her somewhere during peak hour, we got caught in the jam and the 3 of us ended up turning for the dinner fashionably late at 9 plus. =P

Anyway, we reached Monte's to find that 7 people were waiting for us to show up including Aaron himself. The 7 that were there were, of course Aaron himself, Ee Lyn, Serhan, Carven, Prema, James and one of Ee Lyn's friend whose name I didn't catch. The 3 of us were feeling very, very embarrassed with ourselves for being late already. It didn't help that we got teased by everybody at the table. There were empty seats beside Serhan and Carven and being the blur person that I am, I didn't notice that I'd end up sitting beside Serhan because I was still talking to Aaron until Ee Lyn gave me the eye signal to change places with Ai Ling. See, Ee Lyn and Aaron's trying to play matchmakers here and try to matchmake Serhan and Ai Ling together. I only snapped out of the conversation with Aaron after I saw the eye signal and quickly searched for a plan in my head.

Me: Ling!! I want to sit beside Carven, so can I change places with you eh?

I proceeded to flash Ai Ling the sweetest, most innocent smile I could muster up but all she did was gave me her most sweetest, innocent smile instead and sat right down beside Carven. Bugger! I was so ready to kick myself for being so blur at that time. Anyway, with that aside, Sam, Ai Ling and I placed our orders and had to wait quite some time for our food while the rest of them had already finished their food and were chatting and joking. When our food finally arrived, the 3 of us digged into our food because we were already starving. We were actually enjoying our food a lot until James started thumping the table a couple of times and made our food literally jump on the plates. >_< It didn't help that after the 3 of us glared at him, he still continued thumping the table whenever there's a joke. We had to endured the thumping for a couple more times before he stopped and we could continued eating in peace. *throw hands up in air*

James is actually Aaron's friend from back then. Most of us only met him during the dinner at Monte's save for Aaron, Serhan, Ee Lyn and Ee Lyn's friend. The fact that he could be obnoxious and rude towards the rest of us is really a wonder to me. James paid the bill when it came. After that, he said that we would all pay him back back at Aaron's place later. I looked at him and nodded in agreement and all of a sudden,

James: Don't give me that kind of look! Don't think by smiling sweetly you wouldn't need to pay me back. I'm practically broke you know.

I was shocked and surprised to hear him said that to me because I wasn't thinking anything but paying him back later when we got back to Aaron's place. Oh my! Anyway, on our way to Aaron's place, Sam was complaining about James all the way there. All about how rude he was, and how obnoxious he was, etc. And I couldn't agree more with her.

Sam and I were the first ones to arrive back at Aaron's place, followed by Serhan and James. Since Aaron's not back yet, his brother, Nicholas had to let us in first. I was sitting down somewhere in the living room talking to Nicholas when James walked by behind my back and actually used his hand to pushed my head down really, really hard. I was so shocked that I actually went speechless! That James even had the nerve to laughed at me. Goodness, I wished that I could strangle him right there and then! When Ai Ling finally arrived with Carven and Prema, he threw a pillow at Ai Ling and it nearly hit her eye. Thank goodness it didn't because she was wearing contacts! There was even a time when Serhan and James were in the kitchen and I walked into it to throw some rubbish, and James sprinkle water into my face using his wet hands. The water went straight into my eyes and darn, it hurts a lot.

James: Oh, did the water went into your eyes?
Me: Well, what do you think?! Ye-ah!!
James: Oh, goody! Yay!

I gave him a ferocious glare and left the kitchen as quickly as possible before he think of something else to do to me. What a prick! He's loud, he's rude, he's obnoxious, he's just everything bad. Ai Ling, Sam and I didn't say anything because we were just being polite and after all, he's Aaron's friend and we didn't want to create tension then. We could even get the vibe that Aaron's dad do not really like James either.

Ok, James aside, the night was actually pretty fun. We were hanging around having drinks and all, watching Dodgeball and chatting at the same time. Somewhere around midnite or so, Aaron had to send Ee Lyn, Prema and Ee Lyn's friend home. So the rest of us continue drinking and talking until Ai Ling suggested we started playing Twister. Since there was 8 of us there, including Nicholas and Andrew(he came late), we played Twister in groups of 4 and Ai Ling, Sam, Serhan and Nicholas went for it first. It was hilarious looking at the 4 them getting all tangled up and all. When it finally came to my turn with Carven, James and Andrew, we were not laughing anymore. Because it was our turn to get all tangled up and being laughed at. Serhan kept protesting about how unfair it was that Carven and I did not have to get down on our hands but hey, he's the one spinning the board, not us. We're just plain lucky! Hehehe....*sniggers* Second round of Twister was worse because Carven and I actually had to get down on all fours and there came to a point where James' butt was just right behind my head. *shakes my head* It was not good at all, and not at all funny. It doesn't help that Ai Ling and Serhan were laughing their butts out and Nicholas kept coming to my side and asking me if I'm all right. Man, it was excruciating! Even until now, my body's still aching and screaming at me for putting them into such difficult positions. Heh!

The best bit of the night was watching Ai Ling, Sam, Serhan and Nicholas played Twister for nearly an hour. The positions were all so funny! Nicholas and Serhan started out at opposite ends of each other, but ended up being next to each other to the point of us taking their pics because it was just so provoking and frankly, anybody looking at their pictures would have thought that they were having a quickie with their clothes on! LoL. As time passes by, Nicholas then Ai Ling dropped out of the gave and Serhan and Sam were left to it. Both were determined not to lose and give up so both continued playing. There were several times when James spinned the board but purposely gave his own coordination so that the both of them would get tangled even more. There were times when Serhan was all over Sam and vice versa. Looking at their positions at different angles was really hilarious because there were times when one would think that they were making out. In a weird sort of way! Anyway, the game finally ended because Sam had to take a call from her mum. If not for the interruption, I think the game would go on the whole night long.

Truth be told, last night was the first time I actually played Twister but boy did I had fun! Hehe...the gang and I should get out more often and have this kind of crazy games. Unfortunately, Chip and Carven are leaving for Perth in February and we wouldn't be seeing them until February 2006 when we'll be going there then. Now, I'm wondering if there's anything weird or crazy that would happen during Ai Ling's birthday this Tuesday...

Aaron's Pre-Birthday Dinner

I'm suppose to be studying for my Malaysian Studies finals right now considering that the exam's tomorrow but I can't concentrate because I just got to write all this down while it's still fresh in mind before I forgot or became too lazy to type it all down.

Aaron's birthday is actually on the 3rd of December but his parents decided to have a pre-birthday dinner for him with family and friends. So all his uncles and aunts from his mother's family came with a couple of his friends including yours truly. Unfortunately, from college, it was only Ai Ling, Andrew and I that could make it. And halfway through the dinner, Andrew got to leave early because he has a jamming session going on later. Therefore, at our table, there's only Ai Ling and I, with Aaron and his gf, Ee Lyn, his brother, Nicholas and another friend of Aaron's, Serhan. Including Andrew when he's still around, there's only 7 of us at the table. But it's all right cause it's not really Aaron's birthday yet, just a pre-birthday celebration with us and his family.

His uncles rocks man. They're even way crazier than my own uncles. Whatever that they do, they do it when they're still sober, while I can only witness that sort of craziness in my family when all my uncles get drunk during the Chinese New Year dinner. The meal went on quite smoothly and the craziness did not really appear til towards the end of the dinner actually. One of Aaron's uncle was busy making jokes in Mandarin even though he's not really good at it. The end result of trying to translate something directly from Cantonese to Mandarin became a perverted version when it reaches our ears. Since only Ai Ling and I could understand Mandarin well enough, only both of us got the exact joke at our table. *laughs*

Later on, after the birthday cake came out, Aaron got creamed by his uncles and Nicholas. It was really, really hilarious and Ai Ling and I laughed our heads off while sitting at our own little corner. Ee Lyn was busy taking photos so that everybody who's not there would have a good laugh as well. After Aaron got creamed, practically every male in the family got creamed. It went so bad to the point where their shirts and hands were full of the chocolate icing. It was so funny, looking at grown men running around to avoid getting creamed by their brothers or nephews. Poor Aaron even had to run out of the room into the main dining hall in the restaurant to avoid gettting creamed further. Things went a tad too far when Aaron's 2nd and 4th uncle kissed each other in front of us. My, my, the vision of them kissing is still etched in my head. And boy was it an eye opener! 2 grown men kissing each other. It doesn't help that they are brothers and both are straight. O_O! After much fooling around, after much creaming around, the night was finally over. Ai Ling, Ee Lyn, Serhan and I adjourned together with Aaron to his place so that he could wash up before sending all of us back.

Back at Aaron's place, all of us including Nicholas minus Aaron sat down and continue watching Dodgeball which the rest was watching before we left for dinner. After the movie ended, I got around to helping Nicholas with his ear piercing which hasn't completely heal yet. I was helping him out, cleaning the pierce hole and helping him put on a small hoop earring (which actually belongs to me but I gave it to him anyway) while dishing out advice to him on how to care for it. And I'm glad to say that he looks pretty good with my hoop earring. *grins* After everything was done, both of us actually sat down and talked about him and his gf, to which he gave a summary of the current problem that his gf is facing right now which directly affects him too. I was actually surprise that he told me a little more details than I expected but I guess maybe cause he's just comfortable talking to me. Poor Nicholas, he may be quite a flirt with us girls but he's a good bf. I sure hope everything works out well for him and his gf. And I really hope that his gf's mother would open up and accept him as her daughter's bf. Oh well, life goes on...

Right, I better get back to studying. Enough of the night already. I'll try to come back in a couple of days time to talk about Aaron's birthday after it happens.