Life After Study

Yesterday evening, I woke up to the sound of raindrops and the sight of bluish hue with my ultra powerful fan blowing directly at me. I felt as if I was on some mountain top. The smell of rain, oh yes did I ever tell you that I love the smell of rain? The smell of rain always sets me in the mood for waxing nostalgic. It's extremely therapeutic, especially to me when coupled with the sound of raindrops, because it calms me down. It's like an invisible curtain separating you from the helter-skelter of the world. Strangely, it makes me feel safe. I reached for my comforter and snuggled, wishing that time would freeze at that very moment forever.

The past few weeks has been very taxing. I can't exactly pinpoint the cause as it is a combination or various events, mostly work related. As most of you (my close friends) know, I completed my internship more than a week ago. I thought now should be the time of my life. Time to enjoy freedom but I guess my conscience is not letting me go the easy way which should be a good thing but the irony is that the thought of getting things right is sucking the happiness out of my life. The more I think of my future, the more messed up I realized my life is. Sometimes I wish I have someone that can sit me down and tell me what's right and what's wrong. Someone to give me a piece of his mind or even a much more possessive parents? Don't get me wrong, I'm thankful to have parents that gives me the freedom to do whatever I want but there are just times when you really need a guide in life and that's when the freedom starts to feel more like loneliness.

So I've been offered a job, sort of. Nothing is confirmed until I've been interviewed by the human resource. In the meantime I've found another position in the same place but different department which I might be more interested in and I've submitted my resume to the person in charge. Now the question is that am I right to hand in my resume to another person after accepting an offer by someone when nothing is confirmed yet? My initial thought was that it was my future and I need to think about myself first but then I thought it was also wrong of me to change my mind so fast. For me, both of the departments are of my interest is just that one might offer a better benefit than the other. It's now up to them to decide but I think I should give a call to check on the situation.

Putting that behind, I've tons of unfinished business before I can officially declare the start of my one month holiday. First I need to re-edit my dissertation before I send it for printing to be compiled into a book, then I need to completely reorganize my room to give me a fresh start and last but not least to draw a financial plan for my future. Money not enough mah...

The Lasallian Legacy

Us Xaverians are a bunch of loyal, unique, crazy in a good way, brilliant in someway type of people. All thanks to the beautiful heritage of our school. Being called a Xaverian is a pride that I'll carry throughout my life and I believe the same goes for my fellow brothers and sisters as well. Even the name we identified ourselves with is uber cool. So cool I could almost hear myself saying, I'm Xaverian, I'm here to conquer the world! As I spent my teenage years within the walls of St. Xavier, I've discovered the many hidden treasures that this school possess waiting to be unearth by every little mischievous student. One of the most precious ones that I've found would be sincere friendship. There's so much to say but I believe a single entry in this blog can't justify the immense feeling that I have for my school. Therefore, this entry would be dedicated solely to the people who have made proper education possible in this side of the world, the ones that have been selflessly offering themselves for a purpose much bigger than their personal glory and to one of the last of Lasallian's living heritage, Brother Paul Ho...

I giggled like a little schoolgirl watching Bro. Paul being interviewed in the first two videos lol... The last video however carries an important message which is for us to continue safeguarding whatever that's left to preserve our school's rich heritage. For that, a big thank you to St Francis Xavier and the Lasallian brothers especially you Brother Paul. Farewell.

The Happiest Day Of The Year

Well, that's according to what I heard from FLY.FM. A mathematician supposedly came up with an equation which indicated that today was the most blissful day of 2009. Personally, I would say that today was full of joy, better than yesterday but hopefully not as good as tomorrow :) We celebrated "family day" today. It was an annual function that Hilton organized to foster tighter relations amongst the team member or whatever lah... The point is, I had fun! I managed to skip work because of this event. One thing though, it wasn't really as happening as I thought it would be. After a while, the event headed towards a monotonous mood. There wasn't many people attending when compared the ratio of the workers in the hotel. So where the heck did the fun came from you asked? After participating in a few activities, me and some of the other trainees decided to have our very own little excursions. Oh shoot! I forgot to mentioned the venue. It's held in the Lake Garden at KL. I would highly recommend this place for urbanites who are looking for some peacefully time away from the city, although technically it's situated in the city which means that you are fooling yourself if you are there to get away from the city. Get it? You do? I don't. 

The entrance...

Jogger's path...

Some waterfall landscape...

Okay... continue on. First I suggested that we visit the deer farm since it was just a stone throw away from the place of the event hence our journey began... 

They somehow looked like dogs to me lol, just that their ears are much more pointy

Such a dreamy gaze...

Whoops.. camho alert! So cute can? Pouting it's non-existent lips

After our obsessions with deer was over, we walked around , had some ice cream then walked back to our event site. That's when we saw the tram. It only cost us RM 0.50 cents for a short ride. So cheap, we went for a second round lol... There was still some time to kill after our second ride so we decided to be more adventurous and try something new... we rented a 'sampan'. However, before we could even get into it, we were "advised" by the caretaker to use the peddle boat instead. Oh well, at least I got to peddle away some unwanted thigh fats. 

Started off with greetings from Mr & Mrs. Swan

Passed by Mr. Hobbit's humble abode

 Alas, the fortress of desolate

All in all, I must say that the lake garden is very well maintained. Kudos to those who are in charged. It does not only provides a place to retreat for the public, it also generates economic benefits from renting it's facilities. N0w that's sustainability. At least I got to chill out after a traumatizing day before where I spent over nine hundred ringgit to service my car and buy a new adaptor.

Noticed that I managed to get online several times when my adaptor was faulty? Well, I pushed the limit and that's what happened.

Power Failure

No, the world is not getting dark. It's my laptop adaptor. Stupid faulty wires! I got slightly more than half an hour before my life support gets cut off. So I'll just update you guys briefly on my life since the last entry. Time is passing real fast. So damn fast that I just realized that I have only 3 more weeks to go before I officially complete my internship. I still haven't type a single word for my report and I've yet to give out most of the evaluation forms to the respective managers in the various departments that I've trained at. Come to think of it, I've yet to do a lot of necessary things such as tidying my room, wash my dirty laundries, scout for jobs a.k.a. future plans but most importantly, I've yet to come out with a plan for my self-proclaimed 1 month holiday! Anyway, NCH managed to drop by KL during the weekend and we caught up with Alan as well. This time around, we did something spontaneous after a few rounds of crazy suggestions on what to do because we have kind of, or at least I've, gotten bored at shopping malls at the moment. Initially we met at Mid Valley, ate at Manhattan and then had some "light snacks". To cut the story short, we then proceeded to Food Garden and that's where we decided to pay a visit to the "royal chamber" in Serdang, after my plan on going to Cameron, Genting and Malacca was deemed "siao" by the friends. Oh God, 16 minutes left. Continue on, nothing is ever complete without food (knowing me, knowing you uh huh...) so we went scouting for hawker food. The meal was decent but made great with even greater company. Then we drop the "royal highness" before proceeding on our journey back without a proper road guide. I guess luck was by my side, again. That's about it. Goodbye my friends. Goodbye world. 

I Scream For Ice Cream

Dad came down to KL on Saturday after a long break. As usual, he'll tend to his own business while I go to work. Then at night we'll probably have some short "pillow talk" before I advance to dreamland. So on the night of his arrival, he hinted that we should go try out "the japanese restaurant that I mentioned earlier when I was back in Penang", which is Tenji. without much delay, I whipped out my lappie and proceed to click on the Google Earth icon. What? I don't have a GPS okay... So this would be the more economical solution for someone who has no sense of direction. For those of you who are trying to use Google Earth to navigate your way around town, be warned! If you are a person with no sense of direction then you should at least have a high sense of intuition or you'll end up some where in Jinjang. I have none of the above, I just got lucky. What you see on the screen could differ tremendously when it comes to the real thing especially with those pesky clouds that appears at random spots in the map causing some "blind spots".

We decided to make a move on Monday despite me telling my dad that we could potentially end up in Ipoh haha.. Nevertheless, I conquered Mont Kiara! or rather just Solaris Mont Kiara. 

The food was okay I guess, I was more impressed with their selection of beverages which included free flow Sweet Thai imported coconuts (I had 6 or 7 of them), juices, sodas, various assortment of tea and coffee. The dessert counter was oh la la... but I was already filled to the brim. Didn't bother to take a lot of pictures as my hands were busy transporting food to my mouth hehe... 

One of the "highlights" was the fresh oysters which has a sign besides it that says 'beware of food poisoning'. Oh what a convenient. So if a customer really got food poisoning and report it to the authority, are they gonna use the classic 'I told you so' as a defense. Duh! Besides that, they have cod fish, crab, lamb, beef.... basically, it's like a farm. Period. I think I'm game for another visit like real soon. *hint hint* Reason is because they are having a promotion for weekdays lunch session where they only charge RM 39.90++ !!! Promotion last until end of June ONLY ya...  Adding to that, they also serve free flow Haagen Dazs which I didn't get to eat much because there was only a little left as I was reluctant to get some earlier due to the fact that I already had a pint of BR on the 31st...

My favorite combo of sinful indulgence, C n' PB with Old Fashion Butter Pecan.

Goodness, I'm becoming a slut for ice cream...

Where To Go? How Do I Get There?

Today is one of those days where my subconsciousness takes the lead in decision making. I'm doing things so spontaneously only to question myself later on how the heck did I came to that reaction. Anyway, after nearly 5 months into my internship, I only found out that one of the team members in my working place is living right across my condo. Blur right? Upon finding out, I spontaneously offered him a ride home. During the journey, I queried him on his career and what he thinks about his future developments. He seems to know where he's heading to and more importantly how to get there. When it comes to my turn to answer those questions, I couldn't really give a clear cut answer. I guessed that kind of freaked me out a little since time is slowly trickling away. I'm afraid I'll not be able to figure it out before the sand fills up the bottom part of the hourglass. To be fair to myself, I pretty much know what I really want when it comes too following my heart. Perhaps I should to take the leap. Perhaps it's about time for me to sit down and draw a masterplan that will connect all the missing dots to my dreams. Perhaps I need to have a little more faith in  myself. Perhaps i should do all of the above... Time to put my focus on planning my journey ahead if I do not wanna get lost along the way.

That aside, at present, I'm working at Senses. Senses is a semi fine dining restaurant in Hilton, a brainchild of master chef Cheong Liew. Today was my first day so naturally time passes really fast although I'm working on a split shift. One thing that I like about this work place is the people. They are definitely not stingy when it comes to imparting knowledge to the trainees. Too bad I'll only be in this department for a week... shucks! Without further a due, let me introduce to you Senses in a thousand words...

The interior...

Feast to the eye....

Interesting usage of coconut shavings, cookie crumbs and chocolate shavings to portray an earthy element.

A masterpiece in the making... This dish will be completed by a piece of molten chocolate cake placed in the middle... and yes... those flowers are edible as I'm still alive hehe..

That's about it from me. Catch up with ya as soon as I can. Till then, I'll officially be on diet for as long as I need to lose the 2 kgs I gained while I was in Penang. Ciao.

5 Star Bus

I'm back in KL. Have been sleeping the whole afternoon as I didn't get much snooze time in the bus. The journey was bumpier than usual, which explains why I kept waking up every few minutes. Other than that, it took the bus 3 and a half hours to reach it's destination. Now for those who travel from KL to Penang by bus regularly, you would notice that the travel period is insanely short. Reason being the bus driver was under the delusion that he was transporting a busload of pregnant ladies about to due towards Sg. Buloh Hospital. However, he overshot and decided to drop "the pregnant ladies" in One Utama in hopes that the bliss of shopping would make them forget about giving birth. Enough of lame sarcasm, I requested dad to purchase my return tickets from a bus company called "5 Star" because I found out that the busses from that particular company does drop-offs at 1U aside from Puduraya. This is convenient to me as my condo is just another 5 minutes bus ride away from the mall. Having said that, I think I got ripoff for about RM 5 from that bus company. A regular ticket cost RM 35 for a single journey from PG to KL vice versa but my dad paid RM 40 for that ticket! According to to the person selling the tickets, the extra cost was for those who are getting off at 1U. Okay, that's a little pricey for the difference in distance between 1U and Puduraya but I'm willing to overlook that handicap since they are not forcing us to buy the tickets from them right? NO! Not when I found out that they are actually required to stop at 1U anyway so it's not really an extra service and the most ridiculous thing has to be that the stop at 1U is actually before the stop at Puduraya meaning we are paying extra for a shorter distance? Might as well purchase a ticket to Puduraya and walk off the bus when it reaches 1U without getting charged extra. What are they gonna do? Tie me to my seat until I reach Puduraya? Those dumb fucks must have been looking forward to earning some extra cash using cheap tactics like this. Anyway, thank god for the safe journey!

Gosh... 3 days of holidays seems a little short eh? My lovely island is still the same as ever with the exception of some new structures here and there. Somehow, I don't wish for some rapid development to take place in Penang anytime soon. I don't think we are ready for it, yet. Will discuss about it some other time, if I'm hardworking :P  I managed to catch up with my good pals over delicious food and also celebrate me mum's 25th birthday hehe... Guess this short break should be enough to get me through my last month of internship. In the mean time, I got to kick my lazy ass and start to clean up my jungle of a room. Gotta go, just spotted a spide.. giant tarantula.

Decisions

I'm scared. Not because I might not be able to handle whatever the future holds, but rather at the uncertainty. I have so many things I want to do yet they seemed improbable. In less than 2 more months I'm officially on my own. I'm still deciding whether to continue being in the hotel industry or go for something else related to my qualifications. I'm trying to keep my options open. I'm trying to figure out what I should do, the perfect job that will give me the experience that I need to achieve my dreams. If I were to work in a hotel, I wish there is a special position that allows me to move around different departments doing everything there is, exactly like what I'm doing now but with more empowerment. Sigh... which way now?

Emoness aside, I'm currently performing my internship at Caffe Cino, an outlet that specializes in coffee making! I was posted there for 3 weeks but just when I completed my first week, which is today, I was asked to be transferred back to my previous restaurant for one more week. Just my luck. Well, at least I managed to cram all my training on coffee making into the first week. Wheee.... now I'm a "separuh masak" barista... *berangan*.  Latte anyone? Anyhow... since I'm going back to Sudu, my previous restaurant, might as well entice you guys with some pictures that I shamelessly rip off from some stranger's website muahahaha...

The entrance...

...foyer's ceiling, "horoscopic" motive..

Main dinning area...

...somewhere near the entrance la

Bread and CHEESE.... forever tempting me.... 

...fresh seafood and more!

On another note, I know I've been talking for ages on my new blog outlook but I've been having second thoughts since I set the new template in another different add (due to some reasons that I'm lazy to type out). This means that I'll have to say goodbye to hold-that-thought... I remain indecisive.