KL work trip (Part 2)

This time round, I am so glad I made the effort to meet up with some old friends.

I met up with one of my closest friends in secondary school, Little Miss Kampung. She spent a few years of her life growing up in America and (I think) she completed Form 3,4 and 5 in Malaysia. She is such a funny character. She never wore a headscarf in school, but it was a decision she made in the recent years. Despite that, she is still the same person to me, and we spent hours talking about all those years we spent chatting our secondary school life away and getting caught by our teachers. We had dinner at Alamanda shopping centre. We ate at this steamboat restaurant, and I never thought I would say this, but it was quite good! Malay steamboat!

I also met up with some other friends from secondary school for dinner. We talked a lot about love, life and family. With one of the girls... when we were 14 years old, she lived in a small house in Subang, with her mum, dad, grandmother, aunt and three younger sisters. 14 years later, she still lives in the same house, with her mum, dad, grandmother, aunt and three younger sisters! OMG That is amazing!

Here is the new team which I had the pleasure to train in the KL office. Before I left from Melbourne, I looked at the name list and yeah.. whatever. It was only when they were all seated before me, I realised that we hired 9 girls and only 1 guy. In this picture, there are two BE's from the Melbourne office, both staying in KL until January 2011.

It was an interesting mix of people. Two were existing employees from other departments, two were fresh grads (one from Monash uni, another one studied in Canada for 5 years), the others were experienced, majority from our main Cyberjaya competitor, HSBC. One girl worked in Dublin for about 6 years, another one studied in Dublin Business School for a few years as well.

The girl hidden at the back, I have been telling my mum and friends that I have a real princess working in my team! Haha, okay she is not really a princess, but she is from the Kelantan (one of the Malaysian states) royal family, who was forced to marry a guy 11 years her senior, at the tender age of 19. Her husband was also from the royal family too. She gave birth to a son a year later, and then shortly after that, her husband passed away (due to cancer). OMG. My face changed and I said "Sorry to hear about that". She told me she is fine, because she did not really love him and that her little boy is now 5 years of age.

Along with the two BE's from Melbourne, we took the free shuttle from Shangri-la Putrajaya to Shangri-la KL one night. From Shangri-la KL on Jalan Sultan Ismail, we walked all the way to Jalan Alor. I was the self-appointed tour guide, and I have never been to Jalan Alor before in my life. LOL we got lost, of course... walking... but we finally made it there, after stopping random strangers numerous times, asking for directions.

We tried lok lok.

Of course I let my Aussie colleagues taste a durian! I paid Rm20 for this baby durian, which came with 4 little pieces. My parents never fail to remind me that I got cheated. Robbed blind by this durian man! FAIL!

Regardless of the expensive durian, I enjoyed my Jalan Alor experience very much! It was great!

One my last day in KL office, I was planning on taking the team out to lunch, and treat them to a nice meal. Instead, they tricked me and brought me downstairs to the cafeteria, where they were waiting for me with heaps of yummy food such as satay, noodles, cookies, fruits and even a delicious cake!

Such a lovely gesture from them. I felt bad because they paid for everything with their own money... oh dear. However, it made my entire KL trip feel like such a positive experience.

I thought that the lunch was more than enough, and then later, they presented me with a basket of fresh flowers and a framed picture to bring back to the Melbourne office. Speechless!

Finally, before checking out from the hotel, I was able to snap a photo of our 'Bas Pekerja'. It really did feel like one! Each morning, all of us staying at the hotel, would hop on the van. The driver would then drop us off, one by one, at the different offices in Cyberjaya. IBM, DHL, HP, Shell, BMW, HSBC, etc. At the end of the day, the van will pick us up again and take us back to the hotel. So much better than taking a crappy disgusting taxi.

Okay, bedtime. Good night!

Life as a panda

I thought I would share with you this video. It is absolutely hilarious!!

Aren't we all this Panda at some point of our lives?

KL work trip (part 1)

Upon my arrival in the airport in KL, I was so excited. It was the first time ever there was a limousine service waiting in the airport for me... organised by work. I secretly had my camera in hand, waiting to take a picture of the Indian man holding a sign with my name on it. When I stepped out the gates, much to my disappointment, my name was no where to be seen. Bastards. I knew this was going to happen. I made a phone call to the limousine company, and 20 minutes later, a guy approached me "Excuse me miss, are you Miss Ng?" ABOUT TIME! Anyway, the important thing was that at least a car turned up, and the driver carried all my bags and brought me back to my house in Subang Jaya. My parents were extremely happy to see me.

My 2nd day in KL, I meet up with my friends Mr Happy and his fiance. Both from Melbourne as well. Haha. It was a coincidence that they were in KL (on holidays) the same time as myself. I see them nearly every weekend in Melbourne! We went to Petaling Street in search of authentic chinese food! I love Petaling Street at night, the vibrant colours, the crowd, the heat, the desperate traders...

I cannot say that the food was all that great. It was quite overpriced and the taste was pretty average. But I still enjoyed the entire experience... I was such a tourist!

The Air Mata Kucing drink was an exception. It was very nice!

I told my friends I was not planning on going home until I took a picture with the Chinatown arch. They did not even know if it exists, but I was convinced we have it in Malaysia. There is one in Melbourne, one in Sydney, I have seen one in London. Surely we have one in Malaysia! And voila! We found it!

It was also Moon Cake festival, hence all the colourful lanterns.

After our Petaling Street night out, I went home, took a shower and was ready to go to bed. Then it dawned on me. SHIT I HAVE TO WORK TOMORROW.

During the weekdays for two weeks, I stayed at the Shangri-la hotel in Putrajaya. Here are some pictures of the hotel. It was a nice hotel, staff was friendly and the room was very comfortable.

A walk-in

The bathroom opens up, overlooking the bed.

I loved the bathroom. It was huge. Could easily fit a family of six. LOL

It was a very quiet hotel. Majority of hotel guests were people on business trips. Hardly anyone goes out to the hotel restaurants for dinner, opting for room service instead.

Its bedtime for me now. Will blog more tomorrow. Nite!

Home country

It has quite crazy over the past few weeks. I celebrated my birthday about four weeks ago! Yay Happy Birthday to me! Being 28 years old... is only 2 more years to reaching the big 3-0. Oh jeyyyysusss... I must admit my birthday celebration this year was pretty awesome. Will post up some pictures later.

After my birthday was over, Grumpy and I took on a little mini project at our home. We changed the carpets in our living room to floating timber, much to my dog's dismay. Pictures to follow soon. We are very pleased with the results.

And then, it was the week leading up to my trip back to KL for work. I had a very busy week at work, with more than a dozen meeting invites to attend, and heaps of preparation to do. We were briefed over and over.. and as I am the first person to kick start this project, meeting the new recruits we hired in KL for the first time, there were very high levels of expectation of me. So much pressure!

And... then I finally made it to KL. So here I am! Back in my home country for work.

How was it been so far? Its okay. Can't say its fantabulous, but its okay. Work is quite tiring. My mission this time is training 10 new starters about the main application system used in our department, and how we use it in Australia. I talk a lot about the Aussie business, Aussie blah blah blah blah blah but I am at heart a Malaysian :)

The KL office is growing at a very fast pace. The office is so sophisticated and my favourite part is the kitchen, as it comes with free drinks. Heaps of soft drinks. Hot drinks come from a machine, each floor has a few machines, fridges stacked with all kinds of drinks. Its great! I told Grumpy that there were no real tea bags or coffee in sight, no real sugar, nothing. It all comes from a machine! Voila!

I had the opportunity to meet a lot of senior people in the company, which does not mean much to me at all. However, I met one senior boss, head of something in the entire Asia Pacific region, and he is OMG-SO-GOOD-LOOKING! How can such a senior executive be that cute?! Plus, he's French, which makes it all so sexy. LOL Why is it that all the French people that I work with in Australia are unattractive? Maybe except for one, but he's left...

So during the weekdays (like today) I stay in the hotel. There is free shuttle to our office from our hotel. Then on the weekends, I go back and stay with my parents. Its nice to be with my family. I spent time with my grandfather (who is not well), my aunties, uncles, cousins, friends, in-laws etc.

Despite my busy trip, I do admit, I miss home.. I miss Melbourne! :(

I miss my hubbykins, I miss my puppy, I miss home! Is it weird? I'm back home yet I miss my other home! Why is this always the case? When I'm in Melbourne, I moan about how boring life is and how much I want to do something a wee bit more exciting. And when I actually get the opportunity, I can't wait to go back to my normal life with routine etc...

Mt Buller Snow Trip

Oh dear I have been having way too much shitburgers lately. Everyday I find myself surrounded by idiots. On the phone, on email, in the train, at a restaurant, you name it. No its not that time of the month. Its just... *sigh* shitburgers!

Anyway, to cheer myself up, I will blog about my recent trip to the snow with friends!

We planned this trip a few weeks ago. One of the our friends, his parents has a time share arrangement for accommodation at Mansfield. Mansfield is about 1.5 hours from Mt Buller. So we booked two villa units for a very reasonable price between the 8 of us. The week leading up to the trip, I was busy during my lunch break looking for things to buy for the trip. I ended up with a new pair of ski pants (hell yeah!), new beanie, new goggles, new snow boots, new ski socks, and... yeah that should be it.

Most of us finished work earlier than normal on Friday afternoon. We left Melbourne at approximately 7pm. The drive was quite pleasant, but of course, with daylight saving, it was dark. We arrived at our villa unit around 10pm. We settled in quickly, the place was quite old but very clean, cosy and most importantly, warm! We agreed to wake up at around 5-ish in the morning the next day, for a 6am start. While majority of us did not think it was realistic, let me tell you, we did it! Well, not exactly at 6am, but we were ready to go at 6.30am the next morning. Not bad for a group of 8, don't you think?

Initially, we agreed to drive two cars up to Mt Buller from Mansfield. So we drove in to Mansfield town centre to hire wheel chains for both cars. Depending on the weather, cars are legally required to hire the wheel chains to drive on snow and icy roads. While filling out the paperwork, we find out that the wheel chains could not fit my car. Therefore, at 6.55am, everyone agreed to take the bus from the town centre to Mt Buller. Mind you, the bus was scheduled to depart at 7am. We ran for our lives to get on to the bus in time. If we missed it, we would have to wait an extra hour. Good news is that we made it on time. Phew!

Grumpy and myself in the bus. Bright and early.

The journey up to Mt Buller, we could already see snow. Everyone was so excited.

After over an hour, we arrived right at the top of the central area in Mt Buller. It was soooo cold. We zipped up our jackets, put on our scarves, beanies, googles, all good to go!

After about ten minutes of settling down in Mt buller, we organised our ski hire. This process took forever. Especially with a group of 8, we spent over an hour just sorting out our skis, boots, poles and snowboards. Some of us were getting impatient and very hot, staying indoors with 4 layers of clothes = so not cool :(

Anyway, finally when everyone finished sorting out their skis and snowboards, we joined the queue for the chair lifts.

I always say to him "Are you exciteeeeeddddd?" And he'll go.. "I'm alright..."

Everyone knows that the crowd in Mt Buller is the worst among the 3 most popular snow locations (Buller, Hotham and Falls Creek). Buller is the closest to Melbourne though.

The last time I skiied was 6 years ago. I can hardly remember how to ski from my previous experience. Two minutes after we hop off the chair lifts at the top, I find myself very afraid of the slopes. So I joined Dopey's other half to a complimentary two-hour ski lesson. I found the lesson very helpful. The ski instructor was extremely cute too. He had blue eyes. *faints*

Finally after the lesson and some lunch, I was ready to take on the slopes. While there was hardly any sun that Saturday, it was constantly snowing. Excellent for skiing. The snow was so nice and fluffy, it did not hurt much if you fell. The last thing you want is for it to be icy, because falling down would mean a lot of bruising!

Grumpy looks funny here. Hehehe don't you think it looks like I have my arms wrapped around some random stranger?

The last chair lift was at 5pm. We returned our skis and headed to a pub for some drinks. The bus took us home around 7.30pm. We were exhausted. Finally at 9pm, we started preparing dinner. Mr Happy organised steam boat and it was sooooo delicious. I guess after a long and tiring day, any hot food would have tasted better than usual!

I must say, my arms were extremely sore that night. From my wrist to my elbow. It was so sore that the pain was excruciating! Grumpy thinks I must have gripped the ski poles a bit too hard.

We ate dinner while watching the election. Everyone voiced out their political opinions. Among the 8 of us, only one person was an Australian citizen. So all I can say is none of their opinions mattered except for one! LOL

The next morning, I wake up and my arms so much better. Yay, I have my arms back! The sun was shining in Mansfield, here are some pictures.

View from our villa unit. So fresh and relaxing!

Our bedroom. There was an electric blanket to keep us nice and warm while asleep. I loved it!

The last day of our trip. We started the day with breakfast prepared by Dopey. We drove about 35kms from Mansfield to visit the Jamieson brewery.

We did beer tasting and shared some lunch. Then it was time to make our journey back to Melbourne. On the way home, we stopped by at De Bortoli vineyard and bought a few bottles of wine. Grumpy said he was stocking up for summer. Yes sure, spring comes first, my darling.

So there you go, I actually made it for a snow trip this winter after many years. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Everyone had a blast.

Cy-ber-jai-yahhhh

This week, I have been caught up with work. My boss Belgian Truffles is back in his home country Belgium, so I am enjoying some peace and quiet at work. He talks too much most of the time, and lately because of the various things that are going on in the office, I get so easily annoyed with him. This week is also Little Miss-Whats-for-Lunch's last week with the company. She resigned and scored herself a much better job with a consulting firm on St Kilda Road. I am sad, of course, sad to lose my close friend in the office. But on the other hand, I am happy that she has found something that is much more challenging and rewarding.

On Tuesday, our office announced the company's smart sourcing plans. And so, everyone had to view at least 20 slides of rubbish in a powerpoint presentation, before they arrived at the last few which said that 26 people in the Melbourne office will soon lose their jobs because their roles will be moved to KL. While I am not affected at the moment, my team is convinced that our roles will disappear too in the future.

Anyways, this week I have also received more emails from HR about my business trip back to KL in September. That makes things a bit more concrete now and so I guess this is something I look forward to. A free trip back home is an opportunity not to be missed! Our office is in Cyberjaya. Many Aussie colleagues have been asking me how to pronounce it.

Cy-ber-jai-yahhhhh

Yesterday, my cousin invited Dopey and myself to her baby boy's full moon. Her baby is absolutely gorgeous and such a good baby. While I do not get along with this cousin at all, I put all our differences aside and celebrated with the rest of the family, the birth of her healthy son. This baby is another half-ling, half Malaysian half Kiwi. We still cannot tell if he looks more chinese or more Caucasian..? Soooo cute! He was sound asleep in my arms, and everyone else's while we passed him around like a parcel! haha

Langues de Chat cookies

In the recent weeks, I find myself spending more and more time in the kitchen (on weekends), experimenting new recipes - both cooking and baking. I am popular at work for being lazy in the kitchen, due to the fact that I get my dinners delivered to the office. In actual fact, I do not mind cooking at all. Its just that I am quite slow in the kitchen, and if you asked me to cook you dinner on a weekday.... well, after finishing work late, hopping on the train, walking home from the station, then going to the gym.. after all of that, dinner would be ready only at 10pm.

I usually reserve a few hours on a Saturday or a Sunday, in the kitchen, making something new, something that I am craving for! :)

I also find it very therapeutic... spending this time in the kitchen by myself, trying out new things while listening to music on MTV.

If I am not alone at home, Grumpy will normally help me in the kitchen, especially with the washing up. Everyone knows that Grumpy is a very good cook, but I am becoming a bit more experienced now. We work well together in the kitchen, I must admit. If he was cooking up a feast, I would be in between reading recipes out to him and holding on to measuring cups, etc.

Last Saturday afternoon, I made 'Langues de Chat'. A French style cookie, which means Cats Tongue. Its very easy to make. I found this recipe on my Epicurious app on the iPhone, but there are still some elements which I would like to modify to make this the most perfect tasting Langues de Chat cookies. Grumpy said it was delicious, which is a good start.

It is a very thin, crisp cookie. Once you start eating them, it is very hard to stop. The recipe said it makes 2 and a half dozen cookies. When Grumpy got home from golf, he would have been lucky if there were more than a dozen left. I ate them all. Before I even finished baking all the batches. LOL