my new "pet"...

hehe, that's what i told bossboss, when she came over to comment on the latest addition to my already cluttered work station.

it's this little container of water plant, given me by my colleague. its scientific name is centella asiatica, but is more commonly known by its local name, "pegaga". if you still don't know what plant this is, it's the plant used to make "cincau", or grass jelly!

it seems that this plant is under the "herb" category and has a lot of medicinal properties... but that's not the reason i'm keeping it. to read more about the medicinal properties of the pegaga, click here. for me, i like it because i've always liked water plants, and this particular kind is so easy to survive. they'll practically grow anywhere, even next to the drain in your backyard! so that makes it a very low maintenance "pet" for me! hehehe...

but eeks! it's turning yellow!

seems like it needs lots of sunlight, so my little bunch of pegaga is taking on a rather unhealthy colour. definitely not a good office plant - unless you have an office with a window that has sunlight streaming through!

but there's still hope yet!

look! more little pegagas popping up! told 'ja it's a hardy plant... so to save the rest of the still green ones from turning yellow, i've decided to bring them home, to sit on the coffee table in the middle of the living room where it'll get plenty of morning sun!

and i've even given it a sweet lil new home! :)

read also:
1. masak-masak watering can...
2. of crazy weathers and house plants...

total randomness...

some months ago, i had to do some photo-shooting coordination at one of the properties in pd for a few days. as someone who mostly works from an office desk, i'm not used to trotting around in high heels for 3 full days. so after the assignment, i can really feel the effects on my knees. it was PAINFUL!

so other than wearing a knee brace for a few days, i decided that i need to get out of my heels as much as possible, even when i'm sitting down. since then, i've been schlepping around the office in my bright pink woodstock bedroom slippers from my fluffy collection, that always get second glances from guests to our office! :D

i think i bought them from watsons...

they're so comfortable that after my knees are fine, i continued to wear them in the office. even when bossboss commented on it in a slightly sarcastic tone, i just shrugged it off and happily continued tramping around the office in them.

but it's gotten very worn out now... the whole layer of the bottom pvc has nearly all worn off.

time to go shopping!

hehe... actually there's no point to make in this post lar. it's just a random post (see the title!) to put up, so that's that! (^.^)

a freshie's survival guide in the world of bitchy co-workers...

recently, my seemingly innocent junior was embroiled in a catfight among some of our lady colleagues here, which involved gossips and tattletales.

in my efforts to stay positive and rise above all the poisonous vibes, i've been distancing myself from the drama and try not to get involved. i pretended not to see the tears, the exchange of knowing looks, the tension in the air and the underlying sarcasm in all the facebook statuses these past few days... it's business as usual for me, and i try to be as cheery and as upbeat as possible!

but i'd really like to have a serious talk with my junior. sloppy work and tardy work submission notwithstanding, i'd really like to restore the harmony in the work environment and make sure the same things don't happen again. so i've come up with this "guide", which i hope i'll be able to share with her soon. just hope she don't share it with the more senior colleagues she's currently very close with, lest they accuse me of trying to brainwash her and robbing the allegiance she currently has with them (hence getting myself involved!)

a freshie's survival guide in the world of bitchy co-workers

1. accept the fact that we're not perfect. and that people WILL talk.

we're all humans and no human is perfect. there will always be something about us that other people can't stand, and likewise, something about other people that we can't stand. so when we can't take anymore crap about someone, it's natural that we'll voice it out. some call it complaining, some call it gossiping, bad-mouthing, bitching, ranting, etc. whatever the name is, it's still "voicing out our dissatisfaction about the other person".

and one thing we can put our faith on, as sure as the sun that rises from the east, is that people will talk. but one thing most of us can't accept is when the topic is about us. the reason we can't stand it is because we can't accept the fact that we're imperfect. we can't accept our flaws. we can't accept the fact that we HAVE flaws at all. so we'll never understand why people would talk about such a perfect person as ourselves!

it is only by accepting that we're all imperfect creatures that we'll start to accept other people's criticism towards us. we may not agree with some of the things said about us, but hey, not everyone's perfect. maybe their perception towards us is wrong and totally off the mark, but that's just part of their own imperfection. we can't be making everyone's imperfection our business. what a tedious and pressured life that would be!

and we need to accept the fact that we can't control what other people say. we can only control our reaction towards it. it's entirely our choice how we want it to effect us. let it gets to us and spoil our whole day? get angry and lash out at other people in turn? retaliate by saying something mean? shrug it off? laugh it off? rise above and not let it effect us? those are the things we can control.

food for thought: all faiths that believe in a god say that god is perfect. and STILL, god gets bitched about everyday! so what makes us, mere humans, so special that people can't find a single thing about us to bitch?

2. it's ok to gossip, just don't repeat what others say!

admit it. we all gossip. it's one way for us to release all the built-up tension. we let go of some of the stress by ranting. 

case in point:

A: OMG, i really can't stand X! she's so bla bla bla...

B: yeah, and she always likes to bla bla bla...

(continues)

after ranting, everyone feels a bit better and everyone goes back to work. at the end of the day, everyone is happy, everyone is still good friends.

but one thing we should never ever do is to repeat what other people said. even if B is close to A, it doesn't mean B should repeat what X said about A just because A showed some dissatisfaction towards X at that particular moment.

if this were to happen:

A: OMG, i really can't stand X! she's so bla bla bla...

B: and you know what X said about you?

A will be even more pissed with X and that may lead to a full-fledged war between A and X, and B would be the person who brought it about. and let me tell you this, only the most vile bitch would wish for any discord amongst her colleagues in the office.

and not only will there be tension in the work place, it will also have some consequences on B herself. first, she's smearing mud on her own name. if A is smart, she will now be wary of how untrustworthy B really is. B is repeating to A things said about her because B is good friends with A now. but things may change. B may start being chummy-chummy with C or D or E or even X in the near future, and then repeat to them things said about them in turn! so A will start to be very careful with what she said about other people in front of B.

secondly, B is only attracting all the unnecessary drama to herself. eg:

A: OMG, i really can't stand X! she's so bla bla bla...

B: and you know what X said about you?

A: what??? she has the cheek to say that?

(then A goes to confront X)

A: eh, why you said that about me?

X: no, i did not!

A: don't lie anymore. B told me everything!

originally, this is just about A's slight dissatisfaction about X. nothing to do with B at all. but now, the whole thing gets blown up, and the issue became B's issue as well. X is now angry with B and A won't trust B anymore.

3. if there's nothing to hide, why hide?

we hide things because we don't want people to know about it. if we say something, but our actions show something else, isn't it proof enough that we're trying to (but unsuccessfully) hide something? so we can't really blame people if they think we're lying and refuse to accept our explanation, because you know, lies don't really get us anywhere. no matter how good actors we may think we are, there will always be someone who sees through us. at the end of the day, truth always prevails. enough said...

another annual dinner & dance '10 in port dickson, but at a different location...

approximately 1 week after being a drenched pirate, we went back to pd again, but this time we were blasted back to the past. another of our property in pd had their annual dinner & dance, and their theme was the 60s & 70s.

so from a commodore, i became an audrey hepburn wannabe, complete with beehive hair! according to one of the bosses, i got the look down very accurately! and was also very amazed that i knew the words for most of the songs they played that night... songs from HIS generation!

here's a clearer view of my outfit... N helped me pick out the dress and all the accessories. at first we thought a knee-length platform boots would complete the look, but then i don't think i should be spending so much... so in the end, i just went in black tights.

table deco was a fake vinyl record and peace signs...

they even had a disco ball, tho' quite a small one...

one of the games played were limbo rock!

nominations for best dressed... best dressed female was the "lady gaga"

lookalike in red hair, 2nd from the left, and best dressed male was the guy at the far right.

the "dance" part of the dinner and dance... here's me caught on camera,

doing the go-go dance! didn't know i had it in me, to be honest!:P

read also:

1. annual dinner and dance '10 in port dickson...

2. long overdue post: annual dinner & dance '09 in melaka...
3. long overdue post: annual dinner & dance '09 in pd...

annual dinner and dance '10 in port dickson...

last month, the property in pd had their annual dinner again. this year, the theme was "pirates"... at first, i didn't know what to wear and was thinking of just going in normal clothes, coz i'm just an invitee after all. but then my colleague brought us to this mall where we chanced upon a costume rental shop...

...so i became a commodore that night. the event was held at the beach, which explains my "kaki ayam" (malay for "chicken feet", which means "barefoot"). here, i'm with a colleague from the malacca property, who came as a red indian/cowgirl. not sure how the wild wild west is related to the maritime plunderers, but at least she came in costume...

here's me trying to chop off the head of the emcee of that night...

almost everyone came in costumes. the simpler ones are like my boss here, just putting on a pirate hat.
here i'm trying to extort my boss for a pay raise with my plastic sword, which of course didn't work! :(

my junior and i were the frilliest gals that night! no reward for guessing that we got our costumes from the same shop...

the gals from the kl sales office. they're preparing for their departmental performance
and my junior got roped into it coz they were short of performers...

one thing about my company is, everyone is very sporting. even those higher up on the management ladder
are always ready to let their hair down and will have no qualms at dressing up as crooks and such for the sheer fun of it!

if you remember one of the post i put up previously about a big bad wolf, well this is him! really looked the part, huh?
but the effort he put into his costume is really commendable. i couldn't recognise him at first!
and haha, see the man in black t-shirt behind him... rubber boots! :D

table deco... coconut trees made up of oranges, apples and ferns.

close up of table deco... pirates lantern.

in the opening gambit, a "pirate ship" (just a motorboat in disguise lar) came in from the sea...

some pirates came to shore bearing their loots... and a raw lamb on a stake!

some play acting, part of the opening gambit... not really sure what was happening actually, coz i was
sort of running all over the place taking photos, getting drinks and stealing fruits from the buffet table! :P

our GM was the "ketua lanun" (malay for "chief pirate") that night...

it would have been a fun night, had it not rained! yes, it was a disaster, coz we did not have a plan B. the first time it rained, it was still quite early and we've not even started eating! we were told that we'll take a short break and to go get some shelter. so a few of my colleagues and i converged into one of my colleague's chalet and dried ourselves (and our rented costumes!) using the in-room hairdryer. 

after about 1/2 hour, the rain sort of stopped for a bit. so we all trooped back down to the beach to continue our party, even though everything was wet. our tables and cushioned chairs (which soaked our behinds when we sat down), the sand, even the eating utensils! then while we were eating halfway, it started to drizzle again. sensing another downpour, we quickly gobbled up our food (with drops of rain falling into our plates, drinks, soup, fruits etc) and got ready our umbrellas that we had the sense to bring down from our chalets...

the 2nd round of rainfall was heavier. this time round, the emcee announced that we'll take another break and then continue the party in one of the ballrooms. but since we've eaten, i just went back to my own chalet, dried my costumes for the 2nd time, took a bath and called it a night.

read also:
1. long overdue post: annual dinner & dance '09 in melaka...
2. long overdue post: annual dinner & dance '09 in pd...

long overdue post: annual dinner & dance '09 in melaka...

the second annual dinner and dance i was invited to was in melaka. this happened in nov last year and their theme was "china town". so the whole night felt like chinese new year had come early! :D

opening gambit by all the heads of department... a 24 seasons drums performance. it was pretty impressive, especially when we found out that they've been taking time out to go to MMU (where they found some students there to teach them) 3 times per week after work for 2 hours practice sessions...

the GM making his entrance as a tai-ko in the old shanghai "the bund" style...

my attire that night... couldn't find any suitable chinese-style clothes, so i dug out this
long forgotten blouse i used to wear a long time ago, coz it has some chinese buttons on it.
but amongst the other guests, i look more like the chinese amah! :(
oh, and the little green umbrella was part of the deco that we "stole" from the wall
(and which i brought home, but only because the purchaser guy told me i could!) :P

table deco, with place-cards! of course, they did not put my name as 

www.magicinrhapsody.blogspot.com lar... and no, the beer wasn't part of the deco!

some of the departmental performances. luckily i was just an invitee, so i wasn't required to perform! 

but that also means i wasn't entitled for any lucky draws, coz those were meant for their staff.

performance from another department... i think F&B.
all the guys dressed up as girls and had us all laughing our heads off.

chinese vampires that broke into a dance...

chinese orchestra from MMU, invited as guest performers 

while the judges sum up the marks for the departmental performance.

fooling around with some of the girls... notice the fan i'm holding? that's from the nilai memorial park!
and below the chinese words is the toll free number! and i didn't even know who that fan belonged to...

nearing the end of the dinner, it's time for dancing... but we prefer to play around with their props.
the guy with his beer gut showing and trying to imitate a trishaw puller is actually
the director of operations of another property!

all in all, it was a fun night... even though we the invitees will never win the best-dressed prize (or any other prizes for that matter), it was still fun to dress up in themes...

read also:
1. long overdue post: annual dinner & dance '09 in pd...

long overdue post: annual dinner & dance '09 in pd...

this post is long overdue... actually i never thought of putting up a post on this, but then i was invited to more annual dinners (that's the beauty of working directly under a group! you get invited to all the individual properties' annual dinners... :D) and decided i'd better blog about it before i lost track of which theme was for which property.

the first annual dinner & dance i was invited to was in port dickson, in jan last year, and their theme was "red carpet". a bit common lar... anyway, here are some photos to share, taken by a professional photographer that they hired for the event. only 3 photos because i forgot to bring my camera.

everyone dressed to the nines that day...

just to show how the back of my dress looked like! smokin' hot or what? and no, i wasn't drunk (yet!) :P

i think i looked pretty nice in here, even though i'm not the one in focus...

bangkok in a nutshell...

i know i promised to put up a proper post on my recent trip to bangkok... but things have been really crazy in the office! 4 days away and my work has piled up higher than gunung kinabalu! that's why i'm a bit lemah (malay for "weak") to do up a proper one. so you guys will just have to live with this... for those of you who are my friends in facebook, hop on over there for more photos!

lodging

i had this idea that we should all stay in an apartment. this way will be more fun than staying in separate hotel rooms... but for once, google failed me! so my cousin asked a thai acquaintance that she met for 10 minutes in US to recommend a nice apartment that we can stay in. so she gave us the url to evergreen place.

from their website, they looked ok lar... but when we saw the front of building from the main road, it looked quite dilapidated and sleazy that i was worried that the members of my group will start complaining. then our driver went past the "main entrance" of the building and turned a corner (to our shouts of, "it's here! here! STOP!"), we saw that the service apartment's main entrance is actually in the side street. turned out, the front of the building that we saw from the main road was like a shop front that they lease out to other operators.

the service apartment itself turned out quite nice. clean and spacious... again, for more photos (especially of the interiors of the apartment) go to my facebook!

main entrance...

lobby area...

another side of the lobby...

transportation

my cousin's hubby used to work with a company that has a branch in bangkok. so they're always hiring the service of this guy, shonn, who provides transportation around bangkok and its surrounding area. his price is quite reasonable, even though my cousin's hubby told us to bargain with him some more! but we did not, coz he's a very nice chap, who not only chauffeured us around, but also accompanied us shopping, helping us in the translation and bargaining as well as carry our shopping bags! his most frequently uttered phrases are, "ok lah", "can lah", "i think so lah"... coz most of his customers are malaysians and singaporeans.

the van we traveled in for the 4 days we were there... very spacious inside!

the notorious bangkok jam!

food

oh, the food there!!! even the roadside food stalls are enough to make our mouths water. our driver was very amused when all of us pressed our noses to the windows, peering out and going "wah!", "woo!", "wow!", "oohh!" at all the delicious looking food from the roadside food stalls in the many side streets that he likes to take as detour to avoid the jams.

while there, i think we never stopped eating! we're always buying food from the food stalls, which are everywhere! grilled meat in satay sticks, grilled chicken wings (for the dirt cheap price of only RM0.50/stick!), grilled cuttlefish, mango salad and all sorts of dunno what kind of other salads (coz all of us can't read thai), fried oyster, fruits, grilled sausages, more fruits, all sorts of kuih, grilled tiger prawns in to-die-for sauce, coconut water, etc etc... so even tho' the main meal portions are relatively small, we did not go hungry, coz we're eating all the time! hehe...

i'm always hearing about how sweet and fresh the fruits are in thailand... 

and now i believe it! gosh, their fruits are really out of this world. and cheap too!

the bestest tom-yam i've ever tasted! no more photo of food 

from our dinner, coz we were all famished and i was too busy eating!

siam house... all of us unanimously voted this restaurant as serving the best food in our 4 days there. it's just a minute's walk away from our apartment. but too bad, they will be closing down at the end of this month to make way for a new apartment building... :(

we were passing by a night market and excitedly called out to our driver to stop. i think we bought from most of the food stalls there, coz everything looked absolutely delish! but then we had nowhere to go to have our food! it was about 5pm and we were scheduled to go watch the cabaret show at 7pm, so it doesn't make sense to go back to our apartment and then come out again. after cracking his head, our driver decided to bring us to his mom's little roadside drink stall in a little side street... hehe...

their tea is in a weird orangey colour...

some noodles we had at the morning market in jawalak. 

something like "hee-kiaw" mee, but not as nice... and the portion was very small!

sightseeing

my cousin and i reckoned that we should slot in some form of sightseeing to the trip, instead of it being just shopping and makan trip. so i pre-booked our tickets for safari world and marine world from MATTA Fair. so that's where we went on our 2nd day...

unfortunately, we didn't really see the whole place, coz we were rushing from one show to the next. if it were up to me, i'd have skipped a few of the shows and just walk about the place more. and my cousin thought we shouldn't spend the whole day there, coz she wants to continue her shopping *rolls eyes*.

the marine shows were ok. i really enjoyed them... this is the sea lion show...

on the way to the next show venue, we passed by this space filled with these colourful birds, where you can buy some bird seeds and coax them to feed from your hands... but i found out that we can actually just stretch out our empty hands and trick them into thinking that we have some seeds there! hehehe...

while waiting for the cowboy show to start...

i would've loved to skip this, but since everyone else 

were so enthusiastic, so no choice, have to follow the crowd.

our tickets came with buffet lunch. i think this was nicely done, as most ppl will spend a full day here, and instead of cracking our heads on what to eat, our lunch are provided for... very convenient esp for large tour groups...

the show i've been looking forward to... dolphin show! gosh, i just LOVE dolphins! this is my 3rd live dolphin show, the first being the pink dolphins in sentosa island and 2nd at ocean world, hk...

then the beluga whales made their appearance! and i fell in love with them instantly! they're so big, yet so graceful... my first time seeing a real live beluga whale.

then it's off to the safari part of the park. here, all the animals roam free in a large open space and we just drove our cars through the park to look at them. of course, we were advised not to get out from our vehicles lar, coz not only were there docile animals like zebras, camels, deers and storks etc...

...there were also meat eaters like tigers, lions and rhinos etc...

a cute 'lil lost deer...

only in thailand... saw this next to one of the night markets. a mobile seamstress! how cool is that?

of course, no trips to thailand is complete without seeing their cabaret shows starred by cross-genders that thailand is so famous for... but since there were kids in our group, we went for a relatively 'mild' one...

we also found time to go to the dusit palace complex to see the vimanmek palace, built by the 5th thai king (current is the 9th). the whole structure is in teak and was built without any nails in them. no pic of the vimanmek palace, as cameras were prohibited there. this pic is from one of the outdoor museums in the dusit complex, showing the royal carriages thru the times...

we also dropped by this small temple of the 4-faced buddha, which was just next to their world trade centre... but as we have our own believes, we only stood around taking photos and be an onlooker, for the sake of learning and expanding our horizons...

some "puja" thing going on there. a family friend told me later that when someone has had their wishes granted and they come back to pay these dancers to dance... sort of like an act of gratitude to the buddha lar...

shopping

this is one of our main objective in bangkok! :P

apparently, this chinese shop in jawalak is very famous for their "kao sai" (hokkien for "dog shit"), a sort of blackish dried meat that takes on the colour and shape of "kao sai"! but it's said to be delicious, which was why my cousin asked our driver to bring us here... i dunno, i didn't try it, so can't attest to that.

morning market in jawalak...

all sorts of stuff sold there...

wholesaler mall in pathunam...

salesperson: "if you buy many-many, i give you cheap-cheap"

key word here is "many-many"...

open stalls in the maze of side streets of pathunam. also catering to wholesale buyers.

more upmarket shopping at bangkok world trade centre...

chatuchak weekend market... this place is really crazy! huge and selling all sorts of stuff under the sun. i think 1 day will not be enough to cover the whole complex. and they're opening up another new section opposite the main road!

to save time, my cousin and i split up with the rest of the 

"slow shoppers" and went off in search of good deals of on our own.

security

in the weeks leading up to our trip, we've been watching the news closely to monitor the political situation there. with all the big hoo-haa about the red shirts' demand for the thai government to dissolve parliament, we were all worried that things will get really ugly and our safety compromised.

but as it turned out, all the action were confined to certain parts of the city, outside the parliament building (shown in this photo) and the few streets around the area, and it was a relatively peaceful demonstration...

we even had our driver drive us thru the red shirts' camp for us to see for ourselves the real situation there...

nothing much going on. everyone were just going about their daily routine, cooking, washing, sleeping... only thing was it were all done outdoors on the street. according to our driver, most of the people demonstrating there don't really know about the cause they're fighting about. they're there because they get paid 60 baht per day... "if you ask them why they like the red shirts, they dunno. if you ask them why they don't like the yellow shirts, they also dunno"

still, security were pretty tight. lots of army personnel and policemen can be seen around the city...

however, on our last day there, the red shirts were going to march into the city. on our way to the airport, truck loads of army were all on standby, in anticipation of chaos. even when we got quite near to the airport, there were lots of army trucks and firetrucks stationed along the road. we were quite lucky that we got out early. a friend of my cousin's was one hour behind us in going to the airport and she was stuck in a massive jam!

so that's all for my bangkok trip. i MIGHT go back there again one day... but will try to include in a trip the death railway in kanchanaburi and maybe to some of the neighbouring provinces like pattaya, ayuthaya etc...