Chapter 2

Gosh... Hard to believe, but I've been working for 2 weeks now. Sounds short, but it's actually an achievement in my personal records. Achievement meaning, finally I am putting my education to good use and found a job that actually fits my resume.

First week of work was mostly on orientation, the culture of the company, safety rules and regulations and uniform testing. Our uniform is a blouse, with narrow vertical stripes of blue grey and red paired with a pair of navy blue pants/skirt.

Had my badge done too, no longer need that lousy laminated card to get into the premises now hahahha.

Now I'm trying to get used to sleeping before midnight and waking up at 6 something in the morning. Been doing that for 2 weeks straight. The last time that actually happened was during my Form 6 days.

My department, Product Engineering is at PM4, just on top of the factory's canteen. And my group- Interface is made up of four people. My supervisor, a senior engineer, me and a technician. They are all great people. Especially my senior. I've only been singing praises of her ever since I got to meet her, and I really admire her. She knows her stuff and she has taught me loads. Stuff not only related to the job, but as an employee in the company.

She taught me how to work smart, introduces me to others and most importantly (lol) invites me out for breakfast, lunch, and sometimes tea. She's kewl.

I'm really lucky to be able to meet such a person in my group. I have heard of backstabbing and people taking credit of stuff that you do, but this senior of mine, she's not like that, she values teamwork and watching each others' back.

LUCKY!

Still learning about my job. Surprisingly, all those subjects that I have been studying in USM are not really utilised here at all. Maybe only some very basic and fundamental knowledge. But other than that, I have to start from scratch.

My work involves final testing of the package. Ensure that everything is up to mark before they're shipped to the customers.

Most friends of mine are still out there going for interviews and hunting for jobs. I can't help it but I just have to declare one more time that I'm super lucky. I shall live up to expectations and work my hardest to fulfill the job's requirements and also my group's.

But still... counting down to the next holiday.... :D

Hol's out!

Wrapping up my 1 week and a half holiday... now waiting to board my flight from Johor back to Penang. Took a cab from Singapore at 3pm and reached the airport bloody early, at 4 plus whereas my flight is at 7.20pm. A more stupid thing is that to actually get online here, I need to pay like RM5 for an hour. How 'cut throat' is that?

Drive back up was pretty boring, nothing happened. I was definitely disappointed that my break had to come to an end. I missed those skyscrapers, the systematic life of a Singaporean, the food, the convenience, the order, the service....

Now that I'm back, I can't help but to compare the two countries. Just after the customs, where the officers are all young and fit and looked reasonably strict, then suddenly after the bridge, I am greeted with pot-bellied officers, female officers who actually wore HEELS on duty. Then the rubbish strewn all over the road, people jaywalking with motorcycle riders helmet-less. Yeah, back to the land of nobody's business.

Vivo, Flyer and Betty Crocker

It's been a week. Been to loads of places, gotta thanks my great cousin and her husband for bearing me and letting me stay with them.

'Cui kueh'

Beetroot and carrot juice , and avocado juice

It's Vivo City! :)

In Vivo City, there's a place called Daiso where the shop sells EVERYTHING from toothbrush to food to baskets to pans. ALL at SGD2.


Then we had BBQ and steamboat (much like the ones in Penang)


Somewhere in Toa Payoh

Roast pork and duck

Spinach with egg and kichi

Deep fried chicken

Chilli Tofu

Dinner at Singapore Flyer's Popeyes
Coleslaw, mashed taters, fried chicken and bread with jam
World's tallest wheel.

Crazy entrance fee.
The capsule/pod.


Ghost!





The following photos do not do justice to the food! Bad camera settings :(

Chocolate Moist Cake!

Cake and pork ribs baking in the oven.

Salad
Oh, the divinity!!! (it looks much more juicier than this)

My happy meal *sniff

The weird-shaped and lopsided cake

It's a sinful pleasure......

Ikea Tampines

Short post. More pics. Cooked fish curry for cousin & hubby (hers).

Quick snap to remind you what I look like.

Instant curry

Cousin's place. Notice a lot of Buddha statues. It's cool.

Dinner. There's another egg & meat custard but forgot to take pic.

Ta-da! My first self-made ever fish curry.


For my new room :)

End of Chapter 1

At last.

Finally.


I no longer have any commitments to USM.

I no longer have to rush for assignments, projects, club duties, or meetings.

I am no longer bonded to Lifeguard Corps.

I do not have to worry about whether my thesis is good enough for my lecturer or whether I live up to his expectations.



Yippee!!

Anyway, now in the airport, waiting for flight AK127 to Singapore, where I'll be spending the next week and a half at my cousin's place. Initially planned to take up scuba diving course over there cos her husband, Ian is the one who offered to teach me.

Manatau. Si kUi. Ian told me once that if I feel like taking up scuba, I can always go to him cos he will teach me for free. That was about 2 years ago lar.

Then this year's Chinese New Year, I asked him again, in a kesi-kesi sort of way, cos I still thought that, maybe, the offer is still available. But then he said it will cost me around 600-700. RM. SO I thought, ok, that seems fine, still way cheaper than the ones they're offering in Malaysia, which is around RM1300 per person for about 3 days/3 nights.

Recently, again, I asked him how much it's going to be and this time he told me to go the website and check for the price!!! Si kui x 100. So I checked, and it's around SGD560 which is roughly about RM1280+. I was like $*^%*&^*$&(&(#.

In the end, I just decided to go there and have fun, but postpone my scuba classes to some other time when I can earn that much money instead of spending them all when I still very much need cash.

Min Chi Chi, my cousin (that's Min sis to you) very early requested for me to buy 2 packs of bhe pe sor biscuits from Him Heang and also 2 packets of mee goreng from a mamak stall somewhere in Air Hitam.


Job Offer
I received not one, but two job offers! I never thought that I am that marketable lol. But then again, maybe the companies are just desperate for workers and couldn't care less. I will be starting work on the 12th and it's going to be Fairchild :) I'm happy with my decision and I hope it will be a start of many more great things to come.

University Achievements

I have certainly come a long way since my high school days, where me and my fellow gang would create so-called havoc and every decision we make is based on majority. Then, our favourite pastime would be window shopping and gossiping.


Now, I can finally look back with a sense of achievement.Feels like I'm tooting my own horn, but it's my blog anyway.

I have:

-Been able to live on my own, independently.

-Discovered a new hobby - cooking.

-Completed all 4 levels of lifesaving
Best of all... is being able to pass Award of Merit, the toughest, in my opinion of the four levels. Best time was 57secs.

-Taken part in DHL Lifesaving competition while my freestyle was still very much cacat-ish, but managed, along with the rest of the team to sweep 3 Gold and 1 Bronze medal.

-Became an instructor myself, just as my own instructor was.

-Organised Aquatic Night with the committee and was the Director.

-Also organised Interaction Day in Sungai Sedim, Kedah, for a 2D 1N stay, which admitedly was not easy.

-For all the competitions joined and organising, was invited to Malam Anugerah Sukan and received 2 certs: Anugerah Perkhidmatan Cemerlang and also Sijil Separuh Warna.

-Exco in Lifeguard Corps for two year, which has taught me lots of stuff, things that you don't learn reading or studying.

-Completed my final year project, which also was not easy, using WIEN2k - Linux.

-Made a lot of good friends, shared special moments that are really sweet to recall.
My lifeguard friends:
Evan: loud, cynic, paranoid, funny with lots of things to say, thick lips.
Soon Jiun: lots of opinions, loves to talk.
Kenneth: big eater, big mouth, lucky person, everything seems to fall into place for him.
Chin Teng: happy-go-lucky, tidak apa attitude, wants people to be happy.
Hong En: dark, funny, baja hitam.

My coursemates:
Sin Yee: the bubbly girl who loves fruits.
Kim: loves dogs like me, soft spoken, but can show garang also!
Ee May: petite, eats no vegetables.
Chun Yee: smart, breaks into a dance suddenly, tongue twisters.
Esmond: St. Esmond, great actor, big smile.
Dawson: BIG laugh, big belly, easy to talk to, great advice.

- Of course, how can I forget to add that I also got myself involved in a relationship with a university-mate? :) well.. if you call that an achievement.

- Will edit once I can think of something more to add.

Elated~!

Soon, I will be joining the working forces!

Very excited and raring to go. Hope this goes for a long time.... the enthusiasm I mean.

Pressure Sets In

Again, another period of exam wave. The same feelings of panic, procrastination, bleary-eyed, dreariness all mixed into one ball and stuff down my throat.

And again, I make decisions, say words that I know I will regret once I come to my senses. But somehow, they slipped out, and the damage is done.

Back to Penang tomorrow, to resume book poring and facts memorisation. Good luck to me in my first paper *forced smile*.

Before that, I just need to let something else out.



SIGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH



Feels slightly better.

Bronze Cross Exam

22nd March 2008 - Was another hot day, but proud to say that all my (and Chin Teng's) students - Albert, Kar Keong, Wei Wah, Edwin, Xiao Bai, Guat Hoe and Sae Woon - passes.


Thanks for giving me this great experience of teaching such a blur and funny group of people.

Malam Anugerah Sukan

26th March, 2008 at g-Hotel. Evan claimed that the event will be so boring that basically we're only supposed to sit and wait for the night to end. Oh well, it may be so some of the time, but it's my first time to g-Hotel! Have always heard of the simplistic, cool interior of the place, and couldn't wait to get there.

Reached there late (again) cos of u la tinyen, circa 8.20pm but it's not that bad as the big-shots are not there yet, with the vice-chancellor being the biggest shot. Was there with Chin Teng, he had to drive TY's car as I was wearing heels, couldn't manage the clutches with those pointy things.

Malam Anugerah does not have a theme (boring fact #1), but dress code is formal, and er, bersopan. Guys can wear batik or whatever shirt that looks presentable lah. Even with us arriving so late, we had to wait some more, hence the loads of volunteer models and unwilling photographers.

L-R: Tze Yang, Chin Teng, Evan, SooBee, KevinLing, PoKoon, LyeSiong, SoonCien & bottom: SoonJiun.

Yippee! I'm famous! :P but then so dumbo wan.... I had two pictures in the booklet, one for Anugerah Perkhidmatan and another for half colour cert. The other picture printed my name as Ong Su Yim. Cau Cieh's was worse; Khor Lau Lieh, muahaha!

Then with the girls...

I wore a black top which my sister forgot to bring back to US and my mom's batik-ish sarung. Love it when I don't have to fork out a bundle of cash to look good :)

My expectations were high for the food~ but damn! Soooo disappointing. We had an eight-course meal (sounds auspicious) with sub-standard imitations.

Two hot and 1 cold?.... Sien.... Even at Chinese restaurants, they serve at least 5 different types okie....

A bit too ovious what's hot and what's cold. There was this salad thingy, with honeydew cubes and ham, kung po chicken or somewhat and some deep fried shrimps. 

Next up.... we had this very measley shark's fin soup look-alike. -__- sweet corn and crab meat (!)

Boneless chicken with black pepper sauce. yuppee. The sauce was not bad lar, but one thing is that, the servers are like, not properly trained. They are not even able to scoop food professionally. And the food portion! My god... I think all those 8 courses will only fill an eighth of Kenneth's massive stomach. From the first course, those at my table are already making arrangements for supper.

The fish tastes kinda yucky. I can actually smell the fishyness even through all that thick flour and deep fried and sauce. The fish meat is even pinkish. Sigh.

Next course was this broccoli braised lo han style, whatever that means but I did not take a pic of these: me, popo and evan went for a quick toilet break. So I replace the boring vegetable with an even more exciting picture ... ;)

During the broccoli course right... That was also when they started calling out names of captains to take certs. Just as Evan was about to bite into a broc, I warned him, eat la, later pieces of the veg gets stuck to your teeth then you'd go up and give a big smile at the VC and you'll look real cool. That vainer then pushed his broc aside.

Then then hor, the server had given Po Koon this really huge broccoli, then we started teasing her to just eat la, can practise mar. lolz

Does this look like fried prawns in golden garlic? And what's with the bombastic description? Of course garlic is gold... what other colour can they come in? 

Yong Chow fried rice, whatever that is.

Longan jelly dessert, too sweet! 

I had not yet taken the pics of me taking the certs up on stage, they're with Po Koon, but this is as close as it can get la I suppose.

Soo Bee was also one of the nominees for Olahragawati. There were six nominees, 5 Chinese and 1 Malay girl. Well, you can guess la who took the award. Hmmph. But no matter, cos the award of all awards is the Purple Cert, which 3 got. 

I think this pic really look nice cos it totally focuses on the 3 winners, Yuen Hoong (karate-do), Soo Bee and Tze Yang. This award totally beats the olahra-whatever-ti.

Lobby:

With Chern Chung and Abe 

After the Anugerah night, it sort of gives you a sad feeling. All your hard work and contributions are recognised... in a piece of paper.