Last day of work…

…for the year 2007 la! I’m not changing jobs yet! Hehe…

I’ll be away from work beginning from tomorrow up til 1st January 2008. La la la la la…Ms GracieQ will only be back in the office on 2nd January 2008.

Will be going down to Singapore tomorrow for Christmas and will be meeting Julie there! OMG! I can’t wait to see my baby! This is her first overseas trip (that girl has been in Ozland her entire 23 years without going anywhere) and I’m so glad she choose to come to Singapore and Malaysia for her first overseas trip. Especially when she’s here just to see me!

We’ll both be going to Penang on Boxing Day and come back down to KL on the 30th so that we can countdown in KL together. Considering that I’ve studied in KL for 5 whole years before I went to Perth, I’ve never celebrated Christmas or New Year’s eve in KL before. Both celebrations were celebrated either in Penang or Singapore. Hmmm…anyway, it’ll be my first celebration in KL and it’s gonna be so cool to have my baby with me. And no, we’re not lesbos or bisexuals. We just love calling each other, “baby”.

Since I’ll be away for so long, I doubt I’ll be able to come online much to bloghop or even surf the net. Hence, I’m gonna use this time to wish everybody, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! 

Be good, all of you. God bless everybody!

Another bad day

Today is one bad day out of a succession of bad days to come.  The day was filled with meetings and decisions had to be made.

Bullshit and crap were carried out around the meeting table. Lots of beating around the bush which I personally detest at times, especially when it comes from self-praising people who likes to have their ego stroked. Meetings could have been over and done with in an hour’s time tops, but noooooooooo. Lots of syiok sendiri comments were made and meetings took longer than usual.

So much to be done, so little time to complete them. I’ve been told that I need to manage my time better. Well, to the hell with it all! I’ve been trying to juggle as much as I could, I’m learning to do things more effectively, I’m really trying my best here! Everybody has their bad days and there’s no harm in wanting to whine a little about work, no? I understand the need to shut me up if I’m constantly whining about work, if I do it every second of every day but when I whine, rant or rave for an hour after a bad day, or after SEVERAL bad days in fact, just let me do it! Don’t tell me that all I have to do is manage my time better because that’s not what I want to hear! I don’t want no sympathy from anybody. I just need an outlet.

And you know what else adds up to the bad day? Annoying people. People who doesn’t know how to take no for an answer. People who keeps bothering you day and night like a persistent pest that refuse to give up.

Argh!

It’s really a bad day for me today. I’ve been smoking more than usual today and I’m really close to literally chain smoking a whole big pack of cigarettes. All it takes now to change it from a bad day to a hell of a fucking bad day, is for someone to rub me up the wrong way or for some bad event to happen. I’m just another step or two from exploding and unloading my anger now.

Quarter life crisis (or something like that)

When a big handful of your friends are getting married left, right and centre, one can’t help but feel the need to tie the knot soon too, even if there’s no life partner in sight at the moment.

The year 2007 has seen at least 3 schoolmates of mine tying the knot with their men. The brides are all my age and now, one of them is at least 2-3 months pregnant! Imagine being a mother at the age of 25! *shudders* I can’t imagine being a mother at such a young age! I’m still very much a big kid in many ways (although many of my friends beg to differ). I still want to enjoy life, I cherish my freedom and I very much like going traveling without having the need to lug bags of diaper, milk powder and change of clothes with a baby on tow!

Different people have different priorities in life. I guess most people who grew up with a similar background like myself – a family where the women are usually forced to take charge of their lives because it’s hopeless to depend on their husbands – would want to get certain things in their life secured first before thinking of settling down with ONE person for the rest of their lives. I’m quite focused on my career right now. There’s so much to learn, so many people to meet, so many things to do. And I’m slowly building up my social life again. It’s nothing much to shout about right now. I’m not on anyone’s dial list when they have parties but at least, there are still the few handful people who thought of me when there’s something fun and hip going on.

Although I know what I want in life at this moment, it still gets a bit lonely at times. Especially during moments when everybody around you are talking about their partners – be it their husbands or boyfriends. Of course, the pressure to do the norm – the whole getting married, getting 1.5 children and living in a house with white picket fences – just keeps mounting when you start receiving more and more wedding invitations from friends which is in the same age group that you are.

It’s silly of me to worry about getting married at the moment. But come on people, haven’t you ever experienced quarter life crisis? I think that aptly describes my situation right now. Quarter life crisis. I have what I want now, yet I’m not getting enough in certain areas. This may sound corny but…I have so much love to give and I want to be loved too. To give and receive. To feel butterflies in my stomach. To smile and giggle for no absolute reason except for the fact that I’m thinking about a special someone.

*bleh*

I’m writing all over the place again. That is so typically me, aint it?

I’m happy for my friends who have tied the knot. I’m happy for my friends who are getting hitched next year. I’m happy for my friends who are in great and positive relationships. I’m generally happy with my own life right now. But I’m waiting for my knight in shining armor to come sweep me off my feet any day. In fact, I’ll even settle for a knight in a not-so-shining armor, as long as he’s my knight.

A Birthday Surprise for Mum

Ever since I started working permanently, time has been flying past without my realising it. I’ve been so consumed with work that I haven’t been meeting my friends as much as I’d like to. I think about work all the time and lately, I’ve been feeling so stressed out about meeting deadlines at work, I even started having nightmares about it!

Nevertheless, despite the heavy workload, I’ve managed to put aside time to plan a small birthday celebration for Mum. Ever since I could remember, I’ve always managed to celebrate Mum’s birthday with her, whether earlier, on the actual day itself or slightly later. Last year however, was the first year ever that I wasn’t around to celebrate her special day with her. All I could do was call from Perth to wish her a very happy birthday with promises that I’ll make it up to her one day. It was a promise that I managed to deliver this year. Yes, yes, I know it’s a pretty late delivery but the most important thing is that I DID deliver the promise, right?

Anyways, I managed to rope Aunt Sandy in to “conspire” with me on the surprise. After confirming with Aunt Sandy that she’ll be able to pick me up from the airport when I fly back on November 30th (Mum’s actual birthday), I instructed her to “date” Mum and tell her that she’ll be buying Mum dinner. And boy, oh boy, it was just so hard getting Mum to go along with the dinner plan. She kept telling Aunt Sandy that there’s no need to celebrate her birthday, and that it’s alright to have just one dinner for double celebration on 27th (it was Grandma’s birthday then). Thank goodness Aunt Sandy managed to convince her that the dinner on the 30th was necessary.

So, on the morning of the 30th, I called Mum to wish her happy birthday and put on whole big show about how sorry I am for not going back at all to celebrate her birthday with her. I gave all sorts of excuses – work being the main reason that I could not take leave to spend time with her. According to a friend, I sounded so convincing over the phone even he was fooled by me, much less Mum! I was called a “very good liar” but I prefer to be known as a good and convincing enough actress to pull the stunt off.

I flew back to Penang that afternoon via Air Asia and picked up her cake with Aunt Sandy before going to Grandma’s house, which was the meeting point for all of us. Both Mum and Grandma had no idea that I was back in Penang that day and the surprise nearly didn’t worked out when Adrian, my 4 year old cousin decided that he wanted to call Grandma and talked to her on the phone. Grandma asked him who was with him and he wanted to say that I was around. I quickly waved my hands around indicating to him not to mention my name and bless that small boy, he didn’t mention my name at all. I think he was confused as to why he wasn’t allow to mention my name to anybody at that time. Despite his confusion, he did well in helping me conceal the surprise. Aunt Sandy explained to him that we’re gonna give Grandma and Mum a surprise. Again, I don’t think he understands what “surprise” means.

Grandma was very surprise to see me when I appeared at the gate of her house. She didn’t show much emotions and I don’t blame her for that because she’s used to her children showing up without notice. When I heard Mum arrived, I quickly hid myself near the back of the house. Mum entered the house and started talking to Grandma with her back facing me. I slowly eased myself to full view and waited patiently for her to turn around, all the while contemplating if I should shout “Surprise!” from behind her. I decided against it and continued waiting for her to turn around. When Mum finally stopped talking and turned around to look for Adrian, she saw me and did a double take.

“What are you doing here? I thought you’re in KL?! Oh my goodness! I can’t believe this!”

I said “Surprise!” and walked over to give Mum a hug. I could see that she was very happy that I was home. In fact, she nearly burst out crying because I could see her eyes starting to get all red and watery. I was really glad that I decided to go ahead with the surprise plans.

Mum was grinning the whole night long, even when I took the whole family out to a Japanese buffet dinner that cost a bomb. The dinner that night may have caused a large dent in my savings but it’s definitely worth it, just so that Mum will be happy. In her own words, “You coming home is the best birthday present ever. Thank you”

I spent as much time as I could with Mum in the 48 hours that I was back in Penang. I’m really glad I did and I’m glad I went back because without truly realising it, I missed her a lot. After all, she’s the only immediate family member I have.