Singapore

Went to Singapore last Monday evening and back to PJ this afternoon. Though it was a short trip there, but it was a meaningful trip as the last time I went there was 5 years ago. Still remembered that when I first got my passport, the first stamp that I had on my passport was Singapore stamp. I renewed my passport as it is going to expire in next month and the first stamp I had on my new passport is Singapore as well.

The reason I was there is to attend a workshop sponsored by Microsoft. The purpose of this workshop is to introduce MSSQL database to the SAP market. Though MSSQL database has been in the market for quite some time, but it is not as well-known as Oracle. That's why they had this workshop to compare between Oracle and MSSQL. The overall of the workshop is good as I got to know more about MSSQL database and the best part was the trainer was actually quite good looking, though he has a small tummy *wink**wink*....hehehe.

I stayed at the YWCA Fort Canning Lodge. It's not a 5-stars hotel or whatsoever. You must be wondering what's the difference between YWCA and YMCA. The difference is YWCA is for women and YMCA is for men. That's what I have been told but when I was there, there are men staying in YWCA also. Hmm...then why do they have YMCA and YWCA? Anyway, it doesn't really a big matter.

The night view from my room.

Another night view from my room

The day view from my room (look at the road, there isn't any car. It was around 8 something in the morning when I took this picture. How I wish Malaysia's traffic is as good as in Singapore. At least I don't have to get up early to avoid the traffic jam)

Another view from my room. The "high" rise buildings at the back are located in the CBD of Singapore and I attended the workshop at one of these buildings.

Went to Orchard Road on Tuesday and Wednesday night for shopping and meeting friends. It was great to meet Jen, whom I got to know when I was studying in Australia. It has been almost one and a half year I had not meet her. She didn't change much but I guess I've changed quite a lot as she couldn't recognise me at first. Anyway, had dinner with her at a restaurant named Pasta Mania and yum char at Coffee Club (not very sure about the name) after dinner.

Jen-the-Singaporen, thanks for the dinner and the companion when I was in Singapore.

Went for shopping as well and I bought hmm...quite a lot of clothes I think in these 2 days. Bought 3 pieces of t-shirt for LKC and 1 piece for myself from Esprit. Bought another 3 pieces of t-shirt from Baleno. Oh yeah, bought 8 mini-packs of facial masks from Sasa. Hahaha...so happy shopping at Singapore though the exchange rate is quite high now. The price actually looks quite cheap before conversion. That's why something it was very tempting when you see something nice and the price looks cheap. But after conversion, it is actually almost the same price or maybe even more expensive than in Malaysia.

The famous Orchard Road

Birthday party

I was supposed to write this post on last few days but I never got the chance to blog about it until today. Celebrated my birthday with a bunch of my friends (okay...okay...I know it was a bit too early to celebrate my birthday, I was celebrating with another 2 friends whose birthday was on 20th April and 23rd April respectively). To make things easier for everyone and to save our money, we decided to have a joint-party at Shogun Japanese Buffet in 1-Utama. The food was so-so there if compared to Jogoya in Star Hill, but we did enjoyed ourselves there. Here are the photos for the dinner.

Me, Fei Pin, Sharon and Chun Nee (aka Sai Lap Kuan Tuen)

The "family" photo

After the buffet dinner, we went to The Place at Damansara Perdana to have some drinks. Look at the cute duckies. The duckies represent the 4 of us (Sai Lap Kuan Tuen). Thanks to Chun Nee and Cheng Ghee for the cute duckies.

L-R: Sia Lian, Fei Pin, Chun Nee and Lisan

We are holding our own duckie.

Guess this is my only tangible birthday present for this year...*sob**sob*

WHY!!??

Finally I've got the chance to go "oversea" for a training after seeing so many people had left and came back from overseas training. Well, my training is not really considered as an oversea training as it will only be conducted in Singapore. So, I would probably say, I'm going to "over-the-sea" training, where I still have to cross the "sea" that separated the mainland of Malaysia and Singapore. I should be happy for having such a "great" chance. But I ain't happy. Why is that so? If I were given another chance, I will never choose to go. But honestly speaking, I was not given a chance to choose. I was just being informed that I have to go for the training.

This is not the training that I requested at the beginning of the year. The one that I requested has not been approved and the one that I never expected is always there for me. Why? Why? Why? The only reason that I could find is, it's because the boss has to pay for the training that I requested. That's why it is still pending till now. Those that I attended so far are F.O.C because the partners like IBM are giving out the training in no cost. That's why I was sent for these trainings. Why is the boss is so calculative? If you never give us the chance to go to the training, how can we learn when there isn't any expert in the office who can at least guide us? I know there are many things whereby we can do someself-study, but what will happen if our foundation is not strong enough? Sigh, honestly speaking...I'm a bit of disappointed with the management lately. I was assigned in doing the installation for a new project and another colleague of mine was assigned to take care of the SC project on the last meeting. I was happy with that as I have never done that kind of installation before, so it would be a very good chance for me to learn something new. Though we had the arrangement during the meeting, but things just don't go as what is planned. I was sent to do the SC project and my colleague was sent to do the new project now. Why did we have the arrangement in the first place? What is the purpose of the arrangement when no one is following it? Alright, I'm not angry for doing this SC project as it actually gives me an apportunity to deal with the customers as I'm alone here. Whatever things go wrong, the customers will come and look for me. Whatever things need to be done, they will come and ask for my opinion. It actually helps to build up my confidence level when dealing with the customer.

One thing that really makes me angry is the M-A-N-A-G-E-M-E-N-T. Why aren't they keep their promise? Ok, I understood this is regarding the management of the resources. Since me and the other colleague are almost at the same level of capability and both of us were actually "free" when the boss was allocating the resouces, why couldn't they just follow as planned? Why? How I wish I'm a boss now. I don't mean I want to control the staff or anything, at least I won't be sitting here asking so many no-one-can-answer kind of questions.

Ok, I guess I complaint too much already. Stop babbling and get back to the reality. Wake up, Leow Lisan. You're not the boss, you'll never understand what the management wants. Just do your part and hopefully will be fine.

Little monster

My cheeky-ling, my cheeky-darling-cid-cey-ceow.

P/s: I know someone would be jealous after I post this blog. You know who you are...hehehe. But she's just too adorable. Can't resist to share the cheekyness of this little monster with my friends. So sorry about that :p

My weekend

Went back to Ipoh on last weekend...didn't plan to go back to Ipoh at first as I planned to go back on this coming weekend for a long weekend. My plan all spoilt on Friday, due to the "good" customer, Tanjong that I went alone on last Friday. I planned to leave Tanjong at 5pm and reach Ipoh by 7pm. At around 4pm, KC told me that I have to attend a meeting at 5pm to report to them the system's performance as their ESS system was going live on last Friday. That's the purpose why I was there on Friday. Just to stand by in case anything goes wrong after go-live. KC told me that I just have to report to the management that the R3 side of the system is running fine and smoothly. I thought...alright, that's a simple task. So at 5pm, we went to 29th floor to have the meeting with the project team. Instead of just reporting the R3 side is running fine and smoothly, they actually had another problem arose but I wasn't informed about that. I wasn't very sure it was inside my job scope or not. As we were having the meeting, the Functional people showed us the problem and it was quite obvious that it's not Basis problem. The linkage of the ESS system is incorrect. Instead of going to another page after clicking a button, the system shows all the html codes which doesn't make sense to me at all. The stupid IBM project manager kept on saying that "I see this problem as Basis problem. I think Business Formula people should look into this matter". This wasn't the first time he said this kind of statement. On the previous meeting, there was actually another problem with the system. He blamed that it was Basis problem as well. We looked stupid to them at first as we really had not idea on how to solve it. So we passed the problem to SAP to solve it. And now, SAP can't even resolve the problem. They named the problem as "Nervous Finger Problem". Anyway, that time I wasn't sure about my job scope, so I just said I'll try to solve it as KC guessed that it was due to the template problem. So after the meeting, we went back to 32nd floor, trying to do some comparisons here and there. Finally found out that it was really the template problems. Who did the changes to the template? IBM people. I didn't bother to stay there anymore. I left Tanjong at around 8.30pm. You see, my plan all spoilt already. I was supposed to reach Ipoh at 7pm, and I was still in KL at 8 something...sigh.

I wanted to give LKC a surprise as I didn't tell him about my trip back to Ipoh. In the afternoon, I told him that I have something to tell him and I could only tell him on the phone. And planned to tell him that my mum will be calling him at 7 something. So my plan was, when I reach Ipoh, I will use my mum's phone to call him about my arrival and of course he wouldn't expect I'm the one talking on the phone. My surprises all gone because of this "good" customer.

On Saturday afternoon, LKC and I went to a very old restaurant in Old Town to have our lunch. The restaurant name is called Kou Kei and they are famous with the Bei Pa Chicken, fried water cress with belanca and roasted pork and something other dishes. We ordered the famous bei pa chicken, fried water cress with belanca and roasted pork and as well as the fried lala. Too bad, I don't have the fried lala photo taken, I remembered I took the photo of it, but don't know why it's not in my phone. Anyway, the food is great there.

Had a great time with LKC and my family. Seeing Sidney (my niece) is growing bigger and bigger (physically and mentally) everyday is really...it's undescribable. The way she behaves, the way she acts, the way she "talks", the way she sits, the way she plays... is changing everyday. She's just too adorable. Look at her latest photos. She is just too cute...And on Saturday, went to East Ocean Restaurant with my uncles and aunties. Had a very great dinner as my dad ordered steamed "Soon Hok" fish, shark fin, roasted goose, steamed fresh prawn, salty egg crab, beancurd and vegie for our dinner. Very hardly got the chance to eat such "expensive" dinner on normal days except for CNY dinner or some special occasions or festivals.

Came back to KL on Sunday night. Left Simpang Pulai toll at 6.50pm and expected to reach Kota Damansara in less than 2 hours drive. Only god knows why, I was stucked in the traffic jam all the way from Sungkai to Rawang. I thought it was due to the heavy rain that caused the jam or maybe there were some accidents that we had to slow down. I didn't expect so many people actually went back to hometown for the Cheng Ming festival. The jam was liked the jam that we had during the CNY festival. Really unbelievable. Never thought Cheng Ming is such a big festival until last night. Look at the jam. So many cars on the highway. It took me 3 hours to reach Kota Damansara. So tiring.