Tales of Experiences

As the Marketing Executive and I were in my mentor's room on Friday evening for a discussion on the upcoming promotions, I realised that.....how much I've progressed and went through; done the things/ tasks that the exec is doing now. Been there, done that.

All the minor, tedious operational work that I once had to do, now is being executed by someone else. I guess it is just the normal process of someone's working experience and to progress further. I totally agree that someone will gain more better experience if that person had gone through hard times ( = shitty times ) to get something done. The skills of managing and handling difficult situations , negotiations with PIA (pain in the a#s) people , and getting the process right to get a thing done will be picked up and learnt; which is totally benefitial at the end of the day.

Sometimes, we do grumble and get pissed off if something is not going our way or when we just couldn't get something sorted out. But then, think again, it is the process of achieving it, will let us grow and progress; and makes us wiser.

To me - hard times = gaining experience the tough way. Nothing comes easily, anyway.

.........Pants on Fire

Does it mean that when someone tells a white lie which doesn't cause major damages, it is ok? Does it mean that when someone lies straight to your face, it is ok? Does it mean that when someone lies in front of you but doesn't do anything bad behind your back, it is ok? Does it mean that when someone lies in front of you will not lie behind your back? Is this a consolation?

Juggle juggled, my personal time

Remember how I was juggling my time between work and spending time with Leroy last weekend? Here is a photo of me at Patent House - Toni & Guy Salon with my team member. Two of them were there to assist and support in the preparation of 14 models, and I was there to support my team. I felt that even though I don't have any hairdressing skills, but my presence might let them know that I care for them.

A Photo

It's really great to see this frame on his table.

The Show is Over

Yup, I was really busy for the past 3 days and it is finally over! A project which I once took take 9 months to complete in 2008, now I only had about 1.5 months to make it a success. This time round, it is 1/4 scale of 2008's event, but it's still an event. What more that I had to prepare myself mentally to give a few minutes introduction of the hair trends in front of 250 pax????

Anyway, I will blog about it after I get the photos from the photographer. Here is a sneak preview of me after giving my speech and the event.

I finally got the chance to take a photo with the board.

This is my partner in crime in organising any events. We plan and always go through the agony of planning and making decisions before presenting to boss; but the so far all of the events went well. This is my last project with her as she is leaving the company end of this month. Yes! We made yesterday's event a success - just like 3 years ago. I was really surprised that she hugged me tight when the guests started to leave the ballroom. She hugged me so tight that I almost couldn't breathe. Hahahaha.....We both laughed in happiness and joy! All the pain we went through, but the joy of seeing it a succeed is priceless.

Later at night, I was Whatsapp-ing with my boss. I was telling her how I had to entertain and PR with the guest artists after the event at Hard Rock Cafe, KL and some other office matters. It is really encouraging and feeling recognised for the work done by receiving a message of "Well Done today". That puts a smile on me :D

Short Sunday Review

It was a packed day today.

Woke up pretty early (for a Sunday) and headed downtown to check out the prep session at Patent House. Tuesday is my event and today we had the guest artists started work on the models' hair. I was there for 2 hours and then left for a lunch appointment.

It was a nice, simple lunch. By the time I finished lunch and getting the stuff for my event, it was already close to 4pm. Look Leroy up and spent time with him. I followed him to Mid Valley for his work and boy, I was glad that I did help him out there. We had dinner together there. I wanted to spend as much time as possible with him because I won't be free to meet up with him for the next 3 days. :P Packed with work and my event, that's why.

I am so looking forward for this hectic week to be over and enjoy the coming weekend; with him.

Good night, everyone. It's time for bed to have a good rest. I hope you had a nice weekend too!

Rainy Saturday

Oooh.....it's raining outside; it's so heavy now.

It's really a good opportunity to just crawl back to bed and pull the sheets to cover over my head, but I couldn't. I was woken up by phone calls this morning (Thanks to my suppliers) and now I am so AWAKE. Yup - on a Saturday morning!

Hope the rain stops soon. It had been gloomy, wet and cold for the past few days.....Brrr.....


Looking forward to this evening's outing with Leroy! :)

Amazingly Amusing

I just couldn't stop shaking my head; laughing at it.


"If you want to have privacy, then do not have it published."

Shift for the Day

I am sitting at my assigned cubicle upstairs, at the Marketing Department today. My team will be all out, so I will be left alone.


It's great to sit at my cubicle again. It had been awhile since I last sat here to work.

Winning

"Winning is not everything; if by losing can make another happy, why not?"

A WIP Night Out

Last month, both Leroy and I met up at this outlet in Bangsar after work. We were there on a Friday night.

My goodness, I knew this place was under renovation many months back, but I didn't expect it to be renovated this way. I remembered there was a wall segregating the bar area with the dining's. We sat outside and enjoyed the passerbys and crowd. The weather that night was kind to us. It was cooling. The lights surrounding brighten up the restaurant - pub were just pretty! Everyone was just happily enjoying their happy juice. We were doing the same too! I guess it was a FRIDAY, that's why.

The food is actually quite nice and the portion is huge! I couldn't finish my food that night. We had a great time and adjourned home to spend some quiet time together after dinner.

Our Snack

When we are in a relationship, it takes time to discover each other; to understand each other better. It definitely takes time and it depends on how close the couple is. The more spending time and doing things together, the more it will be disclosed and discovered.

Same for me.

I realised that both Leroy and I share one snack in common when we were in a petrol station. He went to the ATM while I was browsing through the shelves. I saw this snack ( I call it Junk food) and I remembered how I used to like this when I was in primary school back then. Later, he joined me and he picked up 2 packets of it.

I exclaimed in surprise! That was when I found out that we share a common childhood snack. It is really exciting to find out more about each other!

It's ALL Gone

I've finally decided to let it all go -all of my locks. I am lazy to diffuse my hair every morning; everytime when I am going out. So, I've requested my colleague to give me a hair cut. I just want to keep my hair simple and straight for awhile.

So, the first step was to straighten my hair. It was all curly from the previous perm. After 'relaxing' my hair, he started to cut it. I told him the length I wanted and also we took into consideration of the damaged parts on my hair, and........ta da...!!! This is it.

I look young with this hairstyle, compared to long curly hair. With curls, I looked more matured. =) It's M.A.T.U.R.E.D ok, not O.L.D!

I guess it's time for a change. Let me count....1...2....3...4...5..I think it had been 5 years that I had long, curly hair. It is definitely time to change!

The Comparisons in Life

Compare or not to Compare?

As a sane human, we tend to always compare with many things or situations or people in our life.

In work life - we will tend to compare ourselves with our friends or acquaintances that why they are not as busy or why dont' they have to work late? The company benefits that they receive or other companies are offering, why is it not as good as mine? The list just goes on and on..... For friends wise, one might wonder why the circle of friends that he or she has is well to do or just people with a plain background? For relationships, will one compare the current with the previous?

Life is simple. Life is all about passing through a stage and move on. Once you are happy and contented, keep the momentum going and maintain it. We never need to do so much of comparisons and make ourselves miserable and ended up questioning why our life is as such?

Always remember this: When and once a decision is made, it is always for the BETTER.

Bitten by Conscience

It's lunch time now and I am enjoying my packed lunch in my room.

The guilty feeling started to eat into me since last night. I had a great, relaxing weekend. I didn't do any of my work; except for replying some of my boss's emails. I just didn't have any mood or motivation to work on a weekend. I am practicing Work-Life- Balance and I've been doing it since I started this job.

Last night, after going out with a few friends and Guardian Angel, I went home and stared at my laptop. My event is next week and there are still some stuff not confirmed and executed. I have a major launch coming up in 6 months time too! There is just so much planning to do. So, I forced myself to open up the file in my lappie and started working on them. I just couldn't pass through my conscience.

I worked on my lappy till 3am and decided to call it a night. I just continued it when I woke up this morning at 6am.

A Full-filling lunch and a 'repent session'

I was rushing down town on Wednesday morning for hotels viewing and also I was invited to go along with my mentor to a Northern Indian Cuisine PR Lunch event. Boy, the both of us were stuffed!

Royal India, was the restaurant that we went to at The Intermark. There were only about 15-20 invited guests in total. The restaurant's setting is simple and the size of it is not too huge. Quite a nice ambience venue for a small group of lunch / dinner entertaining clients. Food was superb but service was quite slow. The waiter and waiteress weren't just paying 101% attention to serve us.

After the filling lunch, both my mentor and myself had to carry our tummy and dragged our feet from one hotel to another. We are going to have an event next month, so we need to view for a suitable venue.

We managed to complete our visits and viewing by 5pm. So, as agreed with Mrs Giggs, we met up at the gym for a sweat out session. It had been a reaaaaalllllyyyyyyy loooooooooooong time sine both of us hit the gym. We did some steps at the machine and chatted before we moved on for our favourite gym class - Body Pump.

Boy, I had to reduce the weights as it had been so long since I lifted weights. I didn't want to hurt myself so much. But, the outcome was - I still suffered from the pain - whole of my body parts. Gees, see if I would still want to skip gym?!

After the 'repent session' (a good one at the gym), I met up with Guardian Angel for dinner. I was rather tired that night when I reached home......

A Sign Of..?

What does this mean?

Love this thing or it will make you romantic?

A Comment that Caught me Off Guard

For the first time, I had an 'argument' with one of my team members in my room today. He totally didn't respect me and challenged me asking the reason why do I want to always use back an old way of doing things. This and the way he conveyed his thoughts of me totally gave me a shock. But, I kept my coolness. I know he is young and creative and dare to dream, but at times we have to pull ourselves back to reality and also to consider the important elements/ objectives as well. I have my reasons; because I've experienced it and I know the outcome of doing it such way.

He has lack of experience in this area but I did welcome his opinions. But he wasn't really open to listen to my rationale. (He insisted his way, but I have the authority to overwrite it.) I didn't raise my voice or being rude when I explained to him my rationale. No point fighting and slamming the table when we can settle it in a proper manner.

A few people have been talking to me off late and telling me not to set my expectations too high on the team. They advised me that I need to be patient and take time nurturing them; build a foundation to get them being able to communicate with me. And most importantly, don't stress them up! Hmm.....How I wish someone will tell my boss that?!

Hint: someone has to work hard to earn others' respect. It doesn't just fall on your lap.

In Pain and Sweetness in 1 Weekend

Saturday flew passed pretty fast as I was resting and sleeping most of the time at home. It was only in the evening that Guardian Angel picked me up for dinner. He took me for porridge, knowing that I couldn't eat anything else but bland food. My stomach wasn't any better despite taking the charcoal pills and 2 other for cramps.

We went to Stevie's house after dinner for rounds of mahjong. My stomach was still "stirring up a storm" and I had to visit his toilet couple of times. When I came down stairs the second time, I saw a cup of nit whiskey. Guardian Angel asked me to drink it to kill germs. At first, I was quite skeptical about it. Will it really heal my upset stomach? So, being desperate to feel better, I took sips of it till it was gone. Wow, it was surely burning my throat!

We ended the night quite early as I was in pain.

Sunday came. Ehh..? My stomach was ok. It was fine and no more 'storm'. I ran some errands for the whole afternoon. I totally didn't look at my work, except for some emails - which were just "for my info".

As usual, Guardian Angel and I met up for dinner. I wanted to have steamboat and he took me for it. I was thinking that we were just going nearby, but later he told me he wanted to have chicken wings. So, killing 2 birds with 1 stone, he drove to Menjalara. Yay! It had been really quite awhile where we travelled quite a bit for meals and to that place. On the way there, I told him not to order any chicken wings for me as it is oily. He replied me: "Who was going to order for you?" I burst out laughing and teased him that he should have just comforted me by saying : "Dear, I won't order your share because it is not good for your stomach. You just recovered...". In total, I gave him 2 options of words of comfort. And the third, he came up with "you won't have any to eat. I am not including your share". We both laughed. So mean, right?! :P

We hung out at a friend's place last night. On the way sending me home, the both of us were enjoying the songs from the MP3. Suddenly, he took my hand and held it tight. I looked at him and smiled in my heart.

Half...Half

I think it had been quite a while that things got so serious that I had to take 1/2 day medical leave.

It all started on Thursday night. After the movie and dinner with Guardian Angel, I didn't feel too good. My stomach had a discomfort feeling and I was feeling cold.

Anyway, I didn't feel any better yesterday morning. My stomach was painful and had constant contraction. I visited the toilet several times as well. Phew...! At about 11ish, we went to Empire Hotel. We met up with the sales manager there to check out the meeting rooms. We are planning to have a seminar there next month. After visiting the meeting rooms, the sales manager also recommended us Kitchen Art Brasserie. The place can be used as a launch event for a small crowd. The food is actually not too bad....and the price is reasonably cheap.

The sales manager was kind enough to buy us buffet lunch there. Ok, so I kinda had food tasting with a weak stomach. I visited the nice toilet in between my meals. Boy, what a waste. My stomach was stirring up a 'storm' in a way.

After Empire Hotel, we went to pick up some other stationary that we needed before heading back to the office. By the time I was done packing up and informing my team, it was 3plus. I left to see a doctor. There were a few possible reasons that I had stomach discomfort. It could be a tribute from having meals at irregular timing, indigestion or not-so-clean- food.

I took medicine and went to sleep. I felt really weak and tired. Gabby was sleeping at my feet area. We both slept till 7ish before I went out looking for porridge dinner. I needed to abstain from oily and dairy food. Sigh, it was quite hard to accept that I had to spend a Friday night at home. So, it was a half filled stomach on a half day off day.

Guardian Angel was supposed to visit his sick girl friend, but I told him that we will meet up the next day. I was tired and was going to knock off...again.

365th day

0303 - It was the day one year ago I first met Guardian Angel; an interesting invite that led to the first dinner I had with him. This year, we met up for the Oscar nominated movie - 127 hours.

How time flies and it is amazing to know that we have been dating for a year. ONE year of togetherness, ONE year of happiness and joy, ONE year of exploring each other. Felt like it was just yesterday that I knew him.

I look forward for more to come. I look forward to more birthdays, anniversaries and festive seasons together.

Expectation too high and Stupidity?

It was rather a frustrating day for me today. We had our monthly sales meeting. We had to present the upcoming event to the sales team.

I got the project leader to present the updates and before I passed her the projector cable, I asked her what was she going to show on screen. She answered me rudely and there wasn't any respect at all! Hello..!!! I didn't ask in a harsh way (if you know me, I never speak harshly to my colleagues or team members). What the F*cK!! What more I am her manager!?! Don't I have the right to check before hand?

2nd incident happened just right before we left office. I was the 3rd last person to leave for the day. I informed her that we need to apply for our guest artists' Performance Visa and she answered back loudly: "Who do?" Arghhhh, I was really boiling at the moment. Did she just expect me to do it? I just can't comprehend why can't she just complete the project in a proper manner even though she has resigned? I respect her as a senior; experienced person, but someone can just have no sense of responsibility; stewardship and ownership!

So what you have resigned?! I don't care. I just want the job to be completed and executed with excellence. If you don't have the time to do it, brief the marketing assistant, the marketing assistant will be able to help.

Am I expecting too much or am I just being reasonable here? Be fair to others, be fair to me. Should I be more nasty and not requesting them to do the work in a nice tone, polite manner? Should I just order them to do the job?! I feel like being nice is just plain stupidity and being stepped all over. Did I do wrong?