I sent a text to my cousin's wife, J, asking for Christmas gift ideas for her husband, kids and my aunt and uncle because my cousin P has not been helpful at all.
Then she asked me if I was going over to St Albans during the weekend, to which I replied that I would only be around tonight. I'm staying overnight at aunt's place and my friend will pick me up tomorrow morning and we're off to Birmingham to pick another friend before heading to Leeds for a friend's baptism on Sunday.
Then her next text came...
J: P asks what his name is.
Me: Who's name?! What's he talking about?
J: P says if you're going to Leeds, it must be to meet a boy. Since your brother's not around, he has to vet him.
Me: Tell P I'm sorry. His dreams of bullying is still far off. Your brother must have traumatised him!
J: LOL (laugh out loud). P says it's an English tradition!
Me: Bollocks is an English word as well?!
Apparently J's brother has always been protective of her, and when he met P the first time, he tried giving him a hard time. P being an only child, has his hopes pinned on me to give him the only opportunity to do the same to some poor guy out there!
Friday, November 30, 2007
Bollocks!
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Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Finger-pointing, no good
I just found out that a transaction I closed before leaving my ex-company had some glitches. And when you have 3 different parties involved with the transaction, you can imagine nobody would want to take the fall for it and some finger-pointing exercise started.
And guess who is the easiest to point to?
The person who cannot defend herself!
Well, not that it should matter since I'm out of the company and out of the country. And truth be told, when some other colleagues left before I did, we joked about pointing fingers towards them as well, for anything that went wrong.
But thank God for a chap with enough character and integrity, who stood up and admitted that the fault was not to be put on me, when everyone else was happy to let me take the blame (except my ex-employers of course). And with an even bigger character and integrity, also told me about it.
I extended my employment in hell for another month to avoid this kind of situations and clean up my own mess, so it mildly annoys me to have something crop up beyond my control to mend. But in this case, I'm glad it isn't my fault.
I had a chat with my Team Leader yesterday, and interestingly enough, he made a comment that my strength and my weakness is both my perfectionist attitude! I never really saw myself as a perfectionist before, although I suddenly suspect I could be the only one who never did. My strength is that I take great pride in my work, and I want to make sure I do everything very well, but the problem is also because of that, if I am not fully confident of my knowledge of a certain area I held back in plunging in a deeper engaging level with the customer, that could make a difference in my work.
At any rate, BIG THANKS to R for not letting me take the blame even when it was much easier to do!
I'm a person who tends to remember things, so will definitely make sure I return the favour. As for the dudes who wanted me to take the blame... if I ever go back to Malaysia and work...
And guess who is the easiest to point to?
The person who cannot defend herself!
Well, not that it should matter since I'm out of the company and out of the country. And truth be told, when some other colleagues left before I did, we joked about pointing fingers towards them as well, for anything that went wrong.
But thank God for a chap with enough character and integrity, who stood up and admitted that the fault was not to be put on me, when everyone else was happy to let me take the blame (except my ex-employers of course). And with an even bigger character and integrity, also told me about it.
I extended my employment in hell for another month to avoid this kind of situations and clean up my own mess, so it mildly annoys me to have something crop up beyond my control to mend. But in this case, I'm glad it isn't my fault.
I had a chat with my Team Leader yesterday, and interestingly enough, he made a comment that my strength and my weakness is both my perfectionist attitude! I never really saw myself as a perfectionist before, although I suddenly suspect I could be the only one who never did. My strength is that I take great pride in my work, and I want to make sure I do everything very well, but the problem is also because of that, if I am not fully confident of my knowledge of a certain area I held back in plunging in a deeper engaging level with the customer, that could make a difference in my work.
At any rate, BIG THANKS to R for not letting me take the blame even when it was much easier to do!
I'm a person who tends to remember things, so will definitely make sure I return the favour. As for the dudes who wanted me to take the blame... if I ever go back to Malaysia and work...
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Monday already?!
I enjoyed my last weekend. On Friday evening, I went with Anya, a friend from church, to have dinner with her boyfriend and her boyfriend's church friends. It was such good fun, having dinner, chatting and laughing. The kind of laughing that comes from the bottom of the stomach. Felt like her boyfriend was trying to pass the Girlfriend-Test, where he has to woo her friends to convince them that he's the one for her. He certainly wooed me. But I think it was his friends that were part of the wooing process as well. Everyone was funny, sociable and genuinely sincere in their friendships.
On Saturday, I had grand plans of waking up early, jog and go grocery shopping. As usual, my grand plans turned to me waking up late, hanging around the flat doing nothing, before I rushed out to buy fruits and then rushed to church to meet a friend so we could go back to his house to set up his laptop and Internet for me. Hopefully, the Internet in my flat will be fixed tomorrow.
When we finally got the technical bits sorted out I had my first cross-country Bible study with Sarah! For something that was thought of last minute with very little work put into preparation, it went better than I feared, especially since the excitement in doing it and the effort was mutual, and not one person trying to pull the (mule - as Bro Ong would probably attest to about me in the last few years) other person along.
I think part of the idea of doing a cross-country BS also came about because I remembered Bro Ong mentioning he did the same for someone in Hong Kong, and they did it over the phone! At least Sarah and I had Skype. Now that's commitment for you.
Between the two of us we had a lot more questions than answers. But BS is meant to be that to an extent isn't it? What more I think the book of Job that we worked on probably was not meant to give answers, but just a reminder that God is far beyond our understanding, but it is the attitude of trust and faithfulness that God appreciates.
I always enjoy my weekends, and Mondays... Mondays just make me feel so annoyed. But then Tuesday comes and I'm encouraged because it means the week is underway and it'll soon lead to another weekend!
On Saturday, I had grand plans of waking up early, jog and go grocery shopping. As usual, my grand plans turned to me waking up late, hanging around the flat doing nothing, before I rushed out to buy fruits and then rushed to church to meet a friend so we could go back to his house to set up his laptop and Internet for me. Hopefully, the Internet in my flat will be fixed tomorrow.
When we finally got the technical bits sorted out I had my first cross-country Bible study with Sarah! For something that was thought of last minute with very little work put into preparation, it went better than I feared, especially since the excitement in doing it and the effort was mutual, and not one person trying to pull the (mule - as Bro Ong would probably attest to about me in the last few years) other person along.
I think part of the idea of doing a cross-country BS also came about because I remembered Bro Ong mentioning he did the same for someone in Hong Kong, and they did it over the phone! At least Sarah and I had Skype. Now that's commitment for you.
Between the two of us we had a lot more questions than answers. But BS is meant to be that to an extent isn't it? What more I think the book of Job that we worked on probably was not meant to give answers, but just a reminder that God is far beyond our understanding, but it is the attitude of trust and faithfulness that God appreciates.
I always enjoy my weekends, and Mondays... Mondays just make me feel so annoyed. But then Tuesday comes and I'm encouraged because it means the week is underway and it'll soon lead to another weekend!
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
The Golden Question
Inspired by Charis' post, and reminded last night by The Most Frequently Asked Question, The Golden Question, The One Question To Rule All that I am constantly being asked in UK...
"Are you from China?"
And it's always the cashiers that ask me this question. I guess it's the safest question to ask a stranger.
The first few times I was asked I would always smile pleasantly and tell them I'm from Malaysia and we would chat a little about our respective countries before I hurried along my way.
After that I've gotten so exasperated with the question when I was asked, "Which country are you from?" I raised my hand before he could continue and demanded, "Please don't say China or Japan."
To which the poor guy looked stumped.
Then last night, as I was at Tesco getting groceries, the cashier yet again looked at me and asked The Golden Question.
Through clenched teeth, "No, I'm not from China. Everyone asks me that though. I'm from Malaysia. Malaysia has pretty girls too you know."
To which he burst out laughing very loudly. At the very least, I left Tesco with a new planned activity for my daily commutes - to think of new sarcastic responses for each time somebody asks me The Golden Question.
"Are you from China?"
And it's always the cashiers that ask me this question. I guess it's the safest question to ask a stranger.
The first few times I was asked I would always smile pleasantly and tell them I'm from Malaysia and we would chat a little about our respective countries before I hurried along my way.
After that I've gotten so exasperated with the question when I was asked, "Which country are you from?" I raised my hand before he could continue and demanded, "Please don't say China or Japan."
To which the poor guy looked stumped.
Then last night, as I was at Tesco getting groceries, the cashier yet again looked at me and asked The Golden Question.
Through clenched teeth, "No, I'm not from China. Everyone asks me that though. I'm from Malaysia. Malaysia has pretty girls too you know."
To which he burst out laughing very loudly. At the very least, I left Tesco with a new planned activity for my daily commutes - to think of new sarcastic responses for each time somebody asks me The Golden Question.
i think because in Newcastle everyone assumes everyone else is from China. In London, you get A LOT MORE foreigners. Like A LOT. half of the londoners are europeans i think!
He he, I get a similar question every time I go backpacking! They always guess Japan, Korea or Singapore...since a Malaysian girl seldom travels alone.
Enjoyable weekend and you?
Weather has been absolutely rubbish. It gets dark by 4pm, and it's been cold (last Friday morning the temperature dipped to -4 degrees!) and the grass has been frosted over, it's been drizzling and it's been windy. Combine all together you get rubbish.
Combine that with no Internet broadband or TV in the flat, you get misery.
But at least for me, Saturday was a nice slow day which I spent jogging, cooking (yes! apparently my roast chicken was good so claimed my lovely Italian flatmate) and watching DVDs. It's my first quiet day for a long while, so I was glad for the respite.
Went out with a friend at night for coffee and regretted my second cup of cappuccino as I lay in bed at 4am desperately wanting to fall asleep.
Went to church with half my brains numb, had lunch with the pastor and wife and stuffed myself silly with her roast lamb. Went back and took a luxurious long bath and had to rush back out for the evening service. I wanted so badly to go to sleep by then, but remembered I left my glasses at the pastor's flat so had to go back to church.
I've been getting to know a lot more people in church which is quite nice. I didn't realise how much headway I've been getting in building relationships within church until yesterday, when I had to literally force myself to focus on the conversations and maintain a rapt and interested posture rather one slouched over the chair half sleeping. And though all I wanted to do was the latter, I found I could not have 1 minute without someone chatting with me.
But overall, it was a very good weekend spent and right chuffed about it. :)
Combine that with no Internet broadband or TV in the flat, you get misery.
But at least for me, Saturday was a nice slow day which I spent jogging, cooking (yes! apparently my roast chicken was good so claimed my lovely Italian flatmate) and watching DVDs. It's my first quiet day for a long while, so I was glad for the respite.
Went out with a friend at night for coffee and regretted my second cup of cappuccino as I lay in bed at 4am desperately wanting to fall asleep.
Went to church with half my brains numb, had lunch with the pastor and wife and stuffed myself silly with her roast lamb. Went back and took a luxurious long bath and had to rush back out for the evening service. I wanted so badly to go to sleep by then, but remembered I left my glasses at the pastor's flat so had to go back to church.
I've been getting to know a lot more people in church which is quite nice. I didn't realise how much headway I've been getting in building relationships within church until yesterday, when I had to literally force myself to focus on the conversations and maintain a rapt and interested posture rather one slouched over the chair half sleeping. And though all I wanted to do was the latter, I found I could not have 1 minute without someone chatting with me.
But overall, it was a very good weekend spent and right chuffed about it. :)
Friday, November 16, 2007
Lean and mean
Not been updating much because the broadband in my new flat has not been fixed. So have not had much time to do much.
Other than being busy with work, I've been getting more and more settled with my church as well, which I'm very pleased about!
It's been great. I'm particularly glad on how a couple from church has been giving me enough attention that says they like having me around. I bumped into my church pastor a couple of days ago and he invited me for lunch with him and his wife and I found that just a little scary though! It's because I haven't really gotten to know them much at all, and the sudden attention makes me feel as if I did something wrong, or like a student caught by the teacher for whispering or something. Makes me want to duck under a pew or something.
But yeah, this couple, Andrew and Nicky have been lovely! They invited me for dinner at their home last Saturday and for Bible study on Tuesday. My mother has no reasons to be worried about me not eating properly, or worse, eating my own cooking! (hehe) because the church loves to share meals and I'm a lot more worried about overeating now! I've found myself accepting more and more desserts than I ever allowed myself to have in the last four years!!
The good thing about being in UK is compared to the Westerners or Africans, I'm pretty petite. Hehe... and there aren't many Chinese girls around here, and the few who are, are a little more rounder than me! Hehe...
In the words of KC_Chong (bless his foul mouth), I am the most lean and mean "dim sum" around then.
-_-
Other than being busy with work, I've been getting more and more settled with my church as well, which I'm very pleased about!
It's been great. I'm particularly glad on how a couple from church has been giving me enough attention that says they like having me around. I bumped into my church pastor a couple of days ago and he invited me for lunch with him and his wife and I found that just a little scary though! It's because I haven't really gotten to know them much at all, and the sudden attention makes me feel as if I did something wrong, or like a student caught by the teacher for whispering or something. Makes me want to duck under a pew or something.
But yeah, this couple, Andrew and Nicky have been lovely! They invited me for dinner at their home last Saturday and for Bible study on Tuesday. My mother has no reasons to be worried about me not eating properly, or worse, eating my own cooking! (hehe) because the church loves to share meals and I'm a lot more worried about overeating now! I've found myself accepting more and more desserts than I ever allowed myself to have in the last four years!!
The good thing about being in UK is compared to the Westerners or Africans, I'm pretty petite. Hehe... and there aren't many Chinese girls around here, and the few who are, are a little more rounder than me! Hehe...
In the words of KC_Chong (bless his foul mouth), I am the most lean and mean "dim sum" around then.
-_-
You're also young, so your metabolism rate is still high. Enjoy it while it lasts ;) And enjoy all the attention from the white men. Just don't do anything naughtee, okie!
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
These laws are NOT meant to be broken!
These are reasons why the English people are reserved and dignified. Maybe they should start implementing laws like this to rein in the slightly unruly (think KL motorists, Mat Rempits and the likes) Malaysian citizens.
The UK's top 10 most ridiculous British laws were listed as:
1. It is illegal to die in the Houses of Parliament (27%)
2. It is an act of treason to place a postage stamp bearing the British king or queen's image upside-down (7%)
3. It is illegal for a woman to be topless in Liverpool except as a clerk in a tropical fish store (6%)
4. Eating mince pies on Christmas Day is banned (5%)
5. If someone knocks on your door in Scotland and requires the use of your toilet, you are required to let them enter (4%)
6. In the UK a pregnant woman can legally relieve herself anywhere she wants, including in a policeman's helmet (4%)
7. The head of any dead whale found on the British coast automatically becomes the property of the King, and the tail of the Queen (3.5%)
8. It is illegal not to tell the tax man anything you do not want him to know, but legal not to tell him information you do not mind him knowing (3%)
9. It is illegal to enter the Houses of Parliament wearing a suit of armour (3%)
10. It is legal to murder a Scotsman within the ancient city walls of York, but only if he is carrying a bow and arrow (2%)
Monday, November 05, 2007
Monday morning... nnnggghhh
My Team Leader had a quick chat with me today about my work performance. There were some areas of concern, and he wanted to put up a training plan to help me do better in my job.
Why that's good news is because it means they see me as a resource that they value to put in a long-term investment! When you're working in a free market with labour laws that not necessarily protects your ass from getting the boot, there's a certain gnawing worry about performing all the time. It makes me think about how things are in Malaysia, and how it really isn't as competitive as it can be because of the protectionist attitude they have adopted, basically, since the country was formed.
Also moved on Saturday morning. Love everything about my new flat!
Why that's good news is because it means they see me as a resource that they value to put in a long-term investment! When you're working in a free market with labour laws that not necessarily protects your ass from getting the boot, there's a certain gnawing worry about performing all the time. It makes me think about how things are in Malaysia, and how it really isn't as competitive as it can be because of the protectionist attitude they have adopted, basically, since the country was formed.
Also moved on Saturday morning. Love everything about my new flat!
Saturday, November 03, 2007
Busy, I joke not
I'm not joking when I say I'm busy during weekdays, and even busier on weekends. I finish work in 5 minutes, so thought I would squeeze in a blog before I dash off.
I need to run back to St Albans because a friend who lives down the street from my aunt's place has invited me for tea and games. It might be the last time seeing her since I don't expect I would travel back to St Albans that much, so I'm spending a few hours with her before I start packing everything to move early tomorrow morning.
Something the back of my head is warning me I am again underestimating myself - my energy levels and time. I have a funny feeling I'll be dashing around early tomorrow when my cousin-in-law comes to pick me up at 8am. But then the other half of my brain is thinking, what's the worry? Just pack the mess in my cupboard into my luggage, if it doesn't fit, pack everything else into the other bag, and if that's still not enough, dump everything in the boot of the car and then spill everything into my new room!
Anyway, tomorrow's The Day! Finally moving into my flat. I don't own it, but this is the first time when I can say it's mine. Not my parent's home, not my aunt's home, not the student accommodations which my mom funded. It's mine. And I'm terribly excited!
After moving everything tomorrow, I'm planning a massive cleaning exercise to make sure the room is proper clean. Ee Von and Sarah should know what I mean.
After cleaning, will have to drop by Waitrose to shop for some more stuff for the room and fridge. Then in the evening, will be dropping by 52 to introduce my lovely flatmates to church friends, and I think they're having a bonfire thingy for Guy Fawkes thingy. Hopefully will be able to go for a run in the evening... getting chubby! :(
On Sunday, Han's coming!! He has been working in Dubai in the last few months and he's visiting his sis, who lives really quite close by to where I (will be) live(ing). He'll join me to go to church in the morning, then we'll have pot luck lunch in church and after that he is going to follow Emma and I to go shopping a bit more for the flat (which means, luggage bearer). Then I'm planning to bring him to have the best duck in London. No idea where that is. Must remember to find the directions.
Busy, but very happy! :)
I need to run back to St Albans because a friend who lives down the street from my aunt's place has invited me for tea and games. It might be the last time seeing her since I don't expect I would travel back to St Albans that much, so I'm spending a few hours with her before I start packing everything to move early tomorrow morning.
Something the back of my head is warning me I am again underestimating myself - my energy levels and time. I have a funny feeling I'll be dashing around early tomorrow when my cousin-in-law comes to pick me up at 8am. But then the other half of my brain is thinking, what's the worry? Just pack the mess in my cupboard into my luggage, if it doesn't fit, pack everything else into the other bag, and if that's still not enough, dump everything in the boot of the car and then spill everything into my new room!
Anyway, tomorrow's The Day! Finally moving into my flat. I don't own it, but this is the first time when I can say it's mine. Not my parent's home, not my aunt's home, not the student accommodations which my mom funded. It's mine. And I'm terribly excited!
After moving everything tomorrow, I'm planning a massive cleaning exercise to make sure the room is proper clean. Ee Von and Sarah should know what I mean.
After cleaning, will have to drop by Waitrose to shop for some more stuff for the room and fridge. Then in the evening, will be dropping by 52 to introduce my lovely flatmates to church friends, and I think they're having a bonfire thingy for Guy Fawkes thingy. Hopefully will be able to go for a run in the evening... getting chubby! :(
On Sunday, Han's coming!! He has been working in Dubai in the last few months and he's visiting his sis, who lives really quite close by to where I (will be) live(ing). He'll join me to go to church in the morning, then we'll have pot luck lunch in church and after that he is going to follow Emma and I to go shopping a bit more for the flat (which means, luggage bearer). Then I'm planning to bring him to have the best duck in London. No idea where that is. Must remember to find the directions.
Busy, but very happy! :)