Moving In

I was on leave from Friday to Monday because I was moving into my new house. It's a condo actually, but a house nonetheless. Anyway, it was a physically and mentally tiring process. Waking up at 7am and straight at work until around 1am-2am. I was stressed out, I was tired beyond words. To everyone who tried calling me or sent me SMSes during those 4 days, I'm very sorry if I did not reply or answer your calls for I was very much engaged the whole time.

Anyway, I learnt several things. Firstly, don't do it alone. I was lucky that my mom and my brother was around to help out, and frankly even that is not enough. Get a crew of maybe 4 guys to help with the heavy stuff and maybe 2 ladies to help with the details. I'm serious. Next, it will cost you a bomb. My bank balance is almost zero, my card is maxed out. I've done a rough tally, and you'll need at least RM15k to make a house livable. Sure you can spend less if you want it to be sparse. I want to get it done in one go, so do anticipate that amount. The more the better, of course.

But at the end of the day, when I lay down on my bed, I know I can still smile through the daze of it all. I'm happy with how the house has turned out to be, and I'm happiest with my room. What's even sweeter is that I can lay awake and watch the lights of KL flicker, and I can stay awake to watch the skies change colour throughout the night. I sleep very well now, no doubt helped by the fatigue and the wonderful mattress. I woke up this morning greeted by a lovely shade of the sky. Life is great, non?

Twelve

Nizam pointed out over lunch that today marked the twelfth year we've known each other. Yes sir, 12 years ago today, 108 boys from all walks of life enrolled at a certain old school at a certain sleepy town in Perak. Over the course of the next few days the number would swell to include the Sabah & Sarawak boys (6 of them), Shukor (who registered late due to a freak accident) and Feylong (measles was it?). Then a few more boys would join us to make it altogether 124.

After 5 years, only 104 of the original 124 made it all the way to the last day. 20 lost their way somewhere in between.

To all my brothers of Remnants aka MCKK9600, it's been an honour knowing you guys.

By the way, the lunch I mentioned earlier is a rather recent routine that Nizam, Mulder and me started. Every Wednesday we will try to have lunch together (and annoy the heck out of people who recognize the maroon striped tie). Today, Nageb has joined our folds. Time to get Dod to start walking a bit farther and join us too. Ahh, lunches with the boys - just like those days again!

"we came hoping to get out, we left crying to stay"

Multiplication

Yes folks, this is a multiple post dumped into one.

Numero un.
I can't access blogspot.com anymore, the people in IT blocked it now *groan*. Hence I can't respond to your comments directly as before. So lemme try and answer 'em here, especially the ones regarding the last post.

Memang aku dah dimanjakan oleh aircon dalam kete, lrt and office. Tak kira lagi kalau pegi malls plak lepas keje. It's not so much the heat that was getting to me actually, it's the staleness of air, poning kopalo den.

Numero deux.
"nobody said it was easy,
no one ever said it's gonna be this hard,
oh take me back to the start..."

I'm under unbelievable load of stress now. Work, of course. But I would've managed since my commercialization plans are going quite well. However, some people suka ati mak bapak changed deadlines from one week to the same day. It was the Plan for 2008, and I had to set the targets for the whole damn department. In case you're wondering, no it's not supposed to be my job. It's a Senior Manager's task, my direct boss. He's on leave and has tasked me to do it. I can do it, no problem, but I had to refer to his boss aka my big boss The Director. The Director just came back from his leave, so he's busy clearing things on his plate. I've been trying to get 5 minutes with him since the dawn of man (overstatement, exaggeration, humour me lah!). So, just in case she decided to tell the MD that I'm not reverting back to her with The Plan in time, I sent out whatever that I have with a note stating The Director is busy (with something for the MD nonetheless) and will give her the whole nine yards when I feel like it The Director is less busy to talk to me, the humble little fry.

Also there are other things.

Numero trois.
I went to my house on Saturday to send some of my things over since my brother is around to help out. After we got everything into the spare room (doubling as store room for now), we laid down on the floor cooling ourselves under the fan. That's when it struck me for the first time.

My house now feels like a home.

No, I have not moved in yet as the damn contractors have not finished repairing the defects I pointed out. They are now 8 days past their SLA, and I am incensed. But I've been dropping by ever so often to check out on the work progress, to install lights/fans/blinds, to go for a swim etc. It always felt like just an empty unit. But that day, something changed. I did not want to leave, I might have found the home I've been looking for so long.

I Am Hot

...and uncomfortable.

I came in this morning expecting the usual breeze of cool air coming out from the lobby as I entered the building. Woops, for the first time there was none. I went up to my floor, sat down at my cubicle and started to feel the warmth.

Anyway, I can't sit down and ponder about it as I had a meeting at 9am and was rushing to gather my things together for it. Then I walked up two flight of stairs (because I try to do at least some exercise, yeah laugh it off) to the meeting room, all the while trying to tie my tie in the growing warmth. I waited inside the meeting room for 10 minutes, and not a soul showed up. So I decided not to waste any more time and skipped down the stairs to check on the usual suspects. Lo and behold they were all at their places doing their work. I asked Liani, and she said the Big Boss sent a notice yesterday to all the bosses saying the meeting is cancelled. Since my boss is away on leave, I was the only one out of the loop. Great.

Now I'm sweating. It's a warm Monday morning, no air-conditioning, had just gone up and down two flights of stairs and my tie is starting to feel like a noose. Promptly I took the tie off in one bold tug (boys, if you tie it correctly you can do it too!) and rolled my sleeves up. Backroom mode, people.

Started my work, and within an hour the PC went out thrice. Turned out there's a power supply problem. So the lifts were partly disabled, the aircon down completely and there's the problem with sudden blackouts which caused lotsa people losing their work.

So now it's after lunch, and the office feels much much warmer. It feels like being in koleq's library all over again (sure we had aircon then but it's only effective if you happen to sit right in front of it). There must've been a conspiracy to make this Monday as unwork-friendly as possible. I wish I'm lounging in the pool right now...