Year of the Rabbit

Gong xi fatt chai!! It is the year of the rabbit! My late grandmother was born in the year of the rabbit! I tell friends that those born in the year of the rabbit will most likely be very kind, caring and gentle, because that is exactly how I remember my grandmother. She was completely selfless and always putting other people's interests and needs first before her own. A trait I should learn myself...

And so... I started my new job last month. Unfortunately, I cannot say that things have been working out as well as I hoped for. On my 2nd week, they changed my reporting manager, and instead of a really friendly bloke, I now have a queen bitch as my boss. The only upside about her is that she spends 95% of her days in meetings, which means I do not have to see her as much.

I still do not regret leaving my old job. But maybe more a case of I should have picked something else. The money is much better here but then again, money is not the primary factor for me. I really need a job that I enjoy...

Grumpy has been quite supportive to me over the past couple of weeks, helping me get through this new change. How will I ever manage without him?

Oh yes, it was also recently our one year anniversary! How did we celebrate it? We didn't! We had a fight the night before, which is just so typical! I told Grumpy to cancel the dinner reservations he made, yes thats me, such a drama queen. We kissed and made up on the day itself, which was good. But instead of a fancy dinner, we just stayed home, and I cooked us a nice meal for dinner.

One of our closest friends are getting married next week. We have all been busy with their bucks and hens night last weekend. Everyone is so excited about their wedding..! It really is such a nice feeling to see your close friends marry the person they love!

A trip to Perth

Grumpy suggested we make a trip to Perth to visit his friends who were flying over from Malaysia. I thought it was a good idea as well and jumped at the opportunity to visit my friend Michelle whom I haven't seen in about 8 years.

Also, I was looking forward to this trip, which was in December because right after our honeymoon in January, we have been travelling around to places solo, which is not always fun! So it was nice to be able to board a flight and travel to a new place together as a couple!

I normally take charge of all the boring stuff in our relationship, such as booking flights, organising hotels, etc. But because I was in KL for work at that time, Grumpy made the effort to book and pay for the flights on his own. I was quite pleased.

Until I found out that we were not sitting together in the plane because he tried to save a couple of dollars by not securing our seats earlier. So we were seated in the same row, but separated by the aisle. It was a 4 hour flight!

We were so sleepy because we slept at around 2.30am after the U2 concert, and the taxi came to pick us up to go to the airport at around 5.30am that same morning.

The first day at Perth, we just relaxed and visited some breweries at Swan Valley. It was nice to be able to meet Michelle's two gorg doggies, Momo and Coco.

Day two, we decided to go to Rottnest Island. Rotto is 19km away from Freemantle. Its actually not that far, but because there are speed limits along the Swan river, the journey takes about 1.5 hours from the jetty in Perth.

Check out the water and how clear it is.

Cars are not allowed in the island. So the only way to get around in the island is by cycling. Cycling proved to be quite challenging due to the various inclines. I enjoyed it though, hours of sweating in RPM class has finally paid off.

Unfortunately, my other 3 island buddies struggled and were found walking (and swearing) most of the time, while pushing the bike instead. FAIL!

One thing that Perth is famous for, among the Asian community (in my opinion), is the Corica Apple Strudel. These apple strudels are made by an Italian pastry shop and you need to be booked at least a day in advance to get hold of the strudels, which I did not do. Thankfully, we were round the corner, I gave them a call, and they said they had some in stock for me to take home to Melbourne.

A mugshot of Grumpy with the strudels. Haha

The final day in Perth, our lovely hostess decided to take us to Freemantle, or what the locals call Freo, which also serves as a busy port.

We had fish and chips by the pier. If there was one thing both Grumpy and I loved about the food in Perth, it would be the delicious mussels. You can get mussels anywhere, and it was so fresh and bursting with flavour! The mussels were not big, but instead much smaller size than the ones we get in Melbourne. And that's what I like about them.

Also, back home, one of our usual hang out spots is Little Creatures at Brunswick Street. And because we were in Freo, the 'real' home of Little Creatures, it was no surprise that we stop by to have a few beers and just relax.

A big thank you to Michelle for letting us stay at her house, and driving us back and forth to so many places in the quest of yummy food! We had such a lovely time in Perth!

U2

It was quite long ago when I found out U2 was coming to Australia. My boss Belgian Chocolates told me about it, and he, like a typical fan, bought their tickets as soon as it went on sale online. A few months later, he got posted to Kuala Lumpur unexpectedly for two months. He refused to go initially, with an excuse that he already bought tickets to U2. Its U2 man, come on! His boss finally arrived at a compromise, whereby he goes to KL for that two months, and our company will fly him back to Melbourne for a night or two, just so that he can attend this concert. Sometimes it really amuses me how blatantly they spend money like that.

Out of the blue, two days before the first U2 concert, Grumpy rings me up at work and says to me "Do you want to go to U2?" I mean, I'm not really a fan. He tells me he has two free tickets from work and that they were really good tickets. Hell YEAH I want to go to U2's concert! Only thing is that the concert is on the night before our flights to Perth the next morning. Ah well we will manage. The tickets cost $300 each. I rang Belgian Chocolates in KL to tell him about it, and he says to me "I hate you right now" muahahahahahaha

We were so flat out with work that evening. We were still in the office past 6.30pm, and finally we made a quick dash out the office, and met up straight at Etihad stadium. We did not even have time to grab some dinner before the concert. Usually the main act only appears at 9pm, but because Jay-Z was opening for U2, we wanted to make sure we did not miss the opening performance!

Dopey was so jealous we got free tickets. He insists that he was more of a U2 fan than I was, he kept saying to me "You don't even know any of their songs!!!" That is sooo NOT true! Of course I know some of U2's big hits! I must admit, usually before any concert, I will listen to the CD religiously so that I know every song that the singer/group performs. But because this was quite last minute, I did not have enough time to do my homework!

I was told that U2's concerts are one of the most expensive concerts to produce... hence the expensive price tag.

Bono at the start of the concert.

This is one of my favourite shots of him, under the spotlight! He really is an amazing singer, so brilliant and passionate! He has been named by Time magazine as one of the most influential people in the world. I loved loved loved his Irish accent of course..

The U2 360 degrees concert Space Station. 60,000 people turned up for their first show in Melbourne that night.

The Space Station lit up in many different colours through out the night, it was very entertaining! I have been to many other concerts before but this was really very special!

U2 has plenty of hit singles! The older crowd would prefer The Joshua Tree album.. or Achtung Baby? Grumpy was quite surprised because even he knew many of the songs they performed that night. My favourite song they performed that night (for me personally anyways) is 'Elevation'! So here's a video I recorded..

Elevation - U2 360 deg concert at Etihad Stadium from Jules Ng on Vimeo.

I had such an awesome time that night. The show was brilliant and I will definitely go for another U2 concert again...!

2010 in review and on to 2011

I was meant to post this a few days earlier, but I have been so busy! I still want to list down the highlights of 2010 for myself.. it has been such an eventful year for me, I am so grateful for being blessed with all the love and amazing support network around me (family, friends and even at work).

The most significant event for me in 2010 is that Grumpy and myself finally tied the knot! We had such a beautiful wedding shared with our closest family and friends. People made the effort to travel from abroad (and interstate) to celebrate with us on our wedding day. The day was perfect, I could not ask for more. We went for a honeymoon a few days after our wedding and had such a wonderful trip.

The other eventful moments of the year:

- I went camping! haha Who ever said I was high maintenance?

- My much loved car was damaged in the hail storm and written off. BOO!

- Went back to Malaysia for my grandfather's 90th. It was also some sort of a family reunion as it has been more than 10 years where all of us grandchildren were actually back in KL at the same time. Shortly after, my grandfather suffered a bad stroke that has taken away much of his memory and things has changed significantly since, but he is such a trooper and I admire him so much because of it.

- Worn a wig for the first time at my BFF's birthday party in Sydney.

- Went skiing with friends this year... after a long period of time, and I loved it!

- I saw Tiesto, Lady Gaga, U2 and Jay-Z. Each of them, a different genre, but all of them were absolutely brilliant.

- We did our first real DIY home renovation project! We changed the floors in our living room from carpet to floating timber, all by ourselves! I have not had a chance to blog about it yet, but I will at some point post some photos here.

- I was able to spend a bit more time with my parents. I realise that I normally only get to see them for about two weeks in the one year. But in 2010, I was able to see them for about 7-8 weeks, all split up in different trips, but it was good! I think that they really appreciate me being home more often and I am glad that I was able to be there with them.

- I went to Perth with Grumpy, and while I was there, I got offered a new job with a different company.

- I still cannot believe this was the year I resigned from a job after being so comfortable there for many years. Working with this company, I have grown so much as a person both professionally and personally. This was the company that brought me to Dublin to have the time of my life, and has also given me opportunity to be part of many significant projects. Lets not forget the company that sent me back to KL twice, staying in a 5 star hotel and eating all my favourite food back home on company expense. This was the company where I made so many friends, had the chance to discover new cultures, different languages... I will definitely miss it! And so they say.. life goes on...

2011 I hope to....

- Enjoy my new job. I know I will never have the same experiences or work environment as before, but I most certainly hope that things will work out and I will continue to learn new things and take up new challenges.

- Continue with our mini home renovation project. Next up, is the carpets. We need to change new carpets in all the bedrooms. And there are little things in the house that I keep wanting to do but have not had the chance to make it happen as yet. Laziness is a big part of it, but can I blame it on financial constraints as well?

- We will be going to Japan in a few months. Really looking forward to this.

- Eat healthy, continue to exercise, read more books, and I know this sounds weird, but I really don't mind keeping a low profile this year...

- Be kind, be considerate, be loving and caring, compassionate person to all my loved ones especially to my husband and my parents.

So there we go, lets welcome the New Year with as much hope, faith and love as before! I wish all of you great happiness, good health and much love, laughter and joy!

Just Stop

This is exactly how I felt like today...

And I will explain why..

So on Tuesday, my bosses were asking me what I want, what I really really want... And nobody mentioned numbers, so I told Belgian Chocolates that is was very hard for me to think it through if I do not even know how much they wanted to pay me to stay. "Yeah I know" that was his response. So I waited..

Every few hours, he would send funny emails persuading me to stay. As an example, we started off with some emails, purely work. Then we got side tracked and started talking about silly things like my workmates choice of jewellery.

Then he went "And btw who am I gonna talk fashion with...???"

I replied "Tahiti party boy (the newest member in our team who is French speaking and they get along very well)" Then I added "Problem solved".

He responded "Salary raise, next client or even Lux based project you work on, problem solved you stay"

Hahahahaha nice try indeed!

That was on Tuesday. He rings me late in the evening asking me to wait. He is making phone calls all around, trying to get the counter offer through to me with real numbers.

So I wait.

On Wednesday, still no news except that some bosses agree and want me to stay. I said to him "I really cannot wait anymore, don't waste your time, serious, I am ready to move forward now with the other company"

He is persuasive and insists I give him another day. I said I was going to hand in my physical contracts first thing Thursday morning. He has until Thursday morning to give me a number!

On Thursday morning itself, the phone rings and he informs me that he has the 'go' from two bosses in Lux. Then he said he's contacted our Australian head of HR, who is actually Canadian, and is already making her journey back to Canada for Christmas. She still replies on her Blackberry while in transit. Right... still no numbers. And its already 10am.

He asks me to give him until end of the day because of the time differences between everyone. I told him he was twisting my arm, and he said "I would never do that! I won't twist one arm, I twist both arms!"

At around 11am, the Canadian email came through, next step was the approval of her boss, who is the global head of the HR in the Asia Pac region, and he is French but sits in Singapore...

Far out man.

Finally at lunch time, he gives me a number. He says it is a significant jump in bands, etc etc. Sad to say, it was still below the amount that I was currently being offered in the new company.

Hence the picture of the raccoon above sums up how I have been feeling all week. Resignation on Monday, took them four days to decide whether or not its worth to keep me, and then to disappoint me with that crap!

Counter Offer

I woke up this morning and whipped up my resignation letter in less than five minutes. I got Little Miss-Whats-For-Lunch to send me her previous one, she resigned in July. I changed the dates and the names and I thought I would feel a bit sad, but I felt fine.

Two people knew I was going to break the news today, Little Miss-Whats-For-Lunch and Sydney Boy. Little Miss-Whats-ForLunch said she wished she was a fly on the wall (when I was going to have this conversation with Belgian Chocolates). I told Sydney Boy what she said, and he replied "We all want to be a fly on the wall!!!!! Can you call him via conference call and we will all dial in?" We all cracked up laughing, I swear.

As Belgian Chocolates is currently in KL, I waited until the team finished our daily catch up with him, then I requested for him to stay on the line, as I wanted to speak to him alone. The other three guys in my team were giving me funny faces, and Belgian Chocolates even said "Oh no, is it something bad?" in front of the team, I assured them "NOOOO!!" hehehe

Immediately as the team left the room, I was straight to the point "I'm handing in my resignation effective today, my last day will be on January 7th". My boss did not believe a word I said, and he thought I was joking. Seriously, why would I want to fool around with something like this?

The next hour was quite difficult. Tears were rolling down my cheeks, and he was so sad. He said he felt betrayed. The problem with him is that he cannot separate the two worlds - work and personal. He said he was going to give me a promotion, blah blah blah. I assured him that he was not the reason I am leaving, but it was more the role. I am ready for a new challenge, learn new things, be part of a new business, etc. I even assured him I was not going to be very far away, just two floors below. Haha (you would think I would get another job far far away from 101 Collins?!)

Finally we hung up, and in less than 10 minutes, I was off to lunch with Little Miss-Whats-For-Lunch. As we sat down, she immediately received an email from Belgian Chocolates, and he was telling her how upset he was.

He did not ring me for the rest of the day. Instead he spent his time talking to Little Miss-Whats-For-Lunch and another team mate.

Finally at about 9pm, as I stepped out the shower, there were two missed calls from him. I called him back. He said that he just got off the phone with our bosses in Luxembourg, and they would like me to stay. I kept saying to him "Oh gawddd" and he said to me "Yes... Oh Tuhan!" (the few words he learnt from watching Malaysian telly). They said to him "Ask her what she wants, and we will be able to work something out". They said they will give me a promotion... There will be more money and a change of title, but essentially doing the same thing again. Do I want to stay? If I do, I reckon I would be shitting myself in a few months time..

What should I do?

Job Offer

So... as we are approaching Christmas... I am feeling a bit overwhelmed.

I have had a hectic couple of weeks so far. I find myself rushing for appointments and running errands, it is exhausting! But highlights include an awesome U2 concert, a holiday to Perth and a new job offer! Also, I have had both my camera's ruined by others. First, my very reliable Canon digital compact which Grumpy dipped into sea at Rottnest Island, WA. Second was my Canon SLR... which my dog pulled from the dining table and it came crashing down on the floor. OMG I am THIS close to strangling both of them!

The dog has been extremely upset with me since I returned from KL as I have changed his sleeping arrangements. I have stopped him from coming up to our bed since my hay fever this year has been really bad. I know he loves sleeping on a comfy (and expensive) Sealy Posturepedic, but I just cannot have the 'transporter of all germs' snoozing on our bed anymore. And so to retaliate, he has been up to no good when left alone at home.

I have heaps of pictures to share, I uploaded all of them in to my new 27 inch iMac, and it crashed on me two days ago. It was only a month old.... yes one month! WHAT on earth is going on here?!

The most significant event would be the job offer I will soon accept.. this is with an Australian company, which I used to work for a few years ago. I am happy that I finally got a job offer after many months of job hunting. It was not easy! The hardest part for me will be tomorrow....

That is when I will announce it to my boss, Belgian Chocolates. He is not here in person at the moment, as he was seconded to the KL office for two months. So I will have to do it over the phone, which... in my opinion, works to my advantage. Oh god I hope it does! You see, he is such an emotional person. He is, after all, European! There were pros and cons working with him. The best part is that he lets me be my own boss. I loved it! With my work, he lets me drive and run my own show most of the time. I know he trusts me, and he thinks very highly of me, so it will be sad for me to leave this job with a boss like him. But I am so ready for a new challenge! A new year, a new job, new environment, new people...!

Will write more tomorrow. Good night!