18 December 2014

It was that time of the year again for my company’s annual dinner. Actually we rotate between an all expense-paid trip to a resort or theme park somewhere and an annual dinner. Last year we went to Pangkor so this year it’s an annual dinner.

This year’s theme was Stars of Bollywood night. Since I didn’t want to spend a hundred ringgit for an Indian dress that I would only wear once, I borrowed one from an Indian friend instead. The venue was the fancy Shangri La hotel in downtown KL. Upon arrival we get to collect our lucky dip which I got a lousy Pyrex bowl. The food was okay I guess, an array of Indian and western fusion buffet. There were performances and dance while we dine.

The highlight of the night is none other than the lucky draw of course. Some of the prizes include an LED TV, a couple of Android and Apple smartphones and also a return trip to somewhere in India. I don’t know if I’ve told you this before but I’m like the unluckiest person in the world when it comes to lucky draws. I never win anything (good). And that evening wasn’t any different. The luckiest guy in my department got himself a lousy steamer, that’s about it. I don’t know whether to be suspicious or I’m just jealous but somebody in admin got a smartphone for her lucky dip and also got herself a nice lucky draw present as well. Either she’s really, really lucky or she made her own luck (if you know what I mean). Hmm, very suspicious indeed.

I guess it is only natural to be jealous in a lucky draw especially when you won nothing. There’s only so much presents they or the suppliers can sponsor and there’s bound to be disappointments. Still I hate that empty, disappointing feeling and I wish my company would do a CIMB and give everybody a decent lucky draw present during their annual dinner. Yes my wife’s company actually give everybody a nice little electrical appliance apart from the expensive grand prizes during their annual dinner. Strangely enough that was the first and last company trip/annual dinner that her company had ever organized. Maybe the ran out of budget after that #LOL.

12 December 2014

When my wife started following me hiking, we went up the popular Broga hill trail in Semenyih. Back then she was not very fit and was out of breath even only at the foot of the hill. We had to stop a few times so that she could rest and catch her breath before going up again.

That was then, a dozen mountains later my wife is not a hiking noob anymore. Any mountain I do, she can do it as well. We even climbed the difficult Gunung Nuang together last time without any fuss. So when I went up Tabur East again this weekend, I thought my wife is more than ready to try this moderately challenging hill. Yes the climb was steep, there were sharp rocks everywhere and she didn’t go as fast as I did but she managed to complete it without any problem. Definitely a much better improvement than that first time in Broga. Seriously, I think now there’s no mountain high enough that she can’t climb. So proud of you babe, that’s my girl!

9 December 2014

For three days I went to an ACSP (Apple Certified Support Professional) training in Wangsa Maju. It was fully sponsored by my company who's serious about getting their IT staff skilled and certified. Wangsa Walk Mall is about 45 minutes away from my house including the morning traffic rush. Actually since I leave home around 9:00 AM, the traffic has considerably eased so there's not too much traffic to go through. Plus did I mention I was riding my bike?

If you've been to Wangsa Walk Mall before you may encounter an Apple authorised reseller store on the 1st floor called Futureworld. It's painted black inside and you can't miss it cause it's located directly in front of an escalator. There's a small training room inside where I learned some basic to intermediate Apple Mac OS X lessons in there. I found out we paid top dollars for the training, a few thousand ringgit per head. Still the training center didn't have the courtesy to supply us with any breakfast or lunch or even drinking water for the entire 3 days training sessions. Totally unacceptable. In my entire working career this is the first time I go to a training session and didn't get served anything. Much cheapskate.

So my colleague and I had to fork out our own money to pay for lunch and sometimes breakfast and tea the entire time. Aside from Subway, most of the eateries inside the mall is way too expensive or over our budget. Lucky for us there's a few reasonably priced restaurants outside the mall. We had lunch at Restoran Pucuk Di Cita just opposite the mall.

The training session itself was pretty okay I guess. We finished the 400 page text book in 3 days each time going home around 5:00 PM. The trainer sped trough his condensed slides hence why we finished so fast. Besides, we were already familiar with half of what was taught. So the only thing left now is for us to sit for the tricky ACSP exam some time next month. The pass rate is not really high at 20% so we really got to study hard before the test. And the only time I get to do that is at work. Let's hope my boss give us some time out to study or something.