31 July 2013

This fasting month I'm happy to report that I lost a few kilos and my ass shrunk.

Life is good. At least so much better than last year. The school term (3rd term) ended a few weeks ago with all the kids and teachers leaving the school, going for a summer holiday somewhere nice presumably. If you can afford to send your kids here, you'd definitely can afford a holiday anywhere you want. Although the rest of us non-teaching staff had to come to work as usual this school holidays, at least we get to come work half an hour later and leave half an hour earlier. That means we only work from 8:00 am to 3:30 pm which is not long at all. Despite the school holiday, most of the staff including my colleagues and I have tons of work lined up for us every day. There's PC and IT peripherals to store and deploy. Windows and Mac to format and re-image. Simply said, there's no slacking around for us. Each and every minute of our working hours is truly put to good use.

That said, other than the end of the semester, the month of July also signals the end of financial year for the school. And you know very well what that means, bonuses for everybody. It is safe to say that everyone who works here gets their fair share of bonus, small or big depends on how well you do on your appraisal and work performance. Me, I only worked for 6 months here but I still get my share of bonus albeit prorated since I am still new. A little bonus is definitely better than no bonus at all and it's been a long time since I last got my bonus from any company. At least I get to renew my car's insurance and road tax this year. Last year my wife had to take out a staff loan to renew the insurance. Last year when I was doing odd jobs without any real work. This year it's pay back time. Although not much, this year my wife get to go shopping for some new clothes instead.

In slightly over a week's time we'll be celebrating Hari Raya (Eid) in Pasir Mas. I started my Raya holidays the day before Raya but my wife didn't get to leave work until the very last day. Usually we leave for home a few days earlier to avoid the annual exodus. This time around we're not so lucky. Chances are we might only get home to Pasir Mas on the morning of Hari Raya. We'll see how it goes. A week to go and I'm actually excited to go back for Raya this time. Can't wait for the 7th of July to come. No mood to go to work already. You can almost smell the ketupat and fire crackers in the air. These are the good times.

19 July 2013

Remember the time when I was hit by a car from behind by a car on my bike? No? Well that's because I haven't told you yet. I was riding my bike to work as usual that Friday morning and while I was slowing down at the traffic light before TPM, a car was going to fast and I guess didn't manage to brake and hit my bike. Fortunately for me I wasn't thrown off the bike or get killed or anything. In fact I just lunged forward a few meters forward from the impact while still sitting on the bike, engine still running and all. The cowardly car drive just speed off leaving me inspecting my damages. Which is again thankfully not much. Only broke my exhaust which I was still able to ride to work and back.

The replacement exhaust cost me a dear RM85. That's nothing compared to my life of course. It was quite hard finding a replacement exhaust for my Krisstar and the one available had a price tag of R150 and above. Somehow I found a workshop near home who managed to modify a regular Kriss exhaust to be fitted to my bike. Now my bike sounds like a 500 cc Virago. I guess I was given the chance to celebrate Raya at least one more time this year. Had the car been slightly faster you wouldn't be reading this today. This goes to show also no matter how careful or slow you drive, there's always an inconsiderate dickhead out there waiting to hit you from behind.

10 July 2013

It's that time of the year again where faithful Muslims all over the world began their 30 days fasting ritual. It is also my first time fasting at my new workplace. Work goes on as usual. Just because I'm fasting doesn't mean I can slack off all day. In fact my dear boss ordered us to transport 25 bulky MacBooks from the other end of the school to the office sometime this afternoon. Not that I'm complaining or anything. Working hours remains as usual from 7:30 am to 4:00 pm, 1 hour shorter on term breaks. Since we already leave work early compared to other people, there's no concrete reason to let us go any sooner.

I remember around this time last year I was working part time in a hotel at downtown KL doing PC maintenance work for 3 days straight. Although it was a hard & dirty work, the pay was worth it because I could settle at least a month of my car instalment. Those were the hard times. It couldn't be much different this year. I had a decent job and make enough to put food on the table for breakfast and dinner.

For sahur earlier we had a simple spicy chicken meal and for the first iftar of the month, we ordered some roasted chicken from Ayamas. I couldn't be more grateful. Thank you Allah.