what an ending

dec is not an easy month for me. there are lots of changes. it's a bit like empty nest syndrome, people you've been working with for 4 1/2 years suddenly goes missing. quite a lot of people who are staying are on leave which makes things worse.

lots of adjustments to be made, the new management is known for documentations and i can't do paperwork properly to save myself. there is now a distrust that have been sown among the remaining staff as the new management seems to know more than they should, news of how staffs that have been moved to the main office are treated is not good at all and the culture of heavy office politics no doubt will be brought over here as well.

guess i am not very sad that this year is coming to an end and i sure look forward to next year. i dread to look at my resolutions made beginning of the year as most of them i have missed. interesting that sin can also mean to miss the mark.

i'll be leaving this year with a clifthanger. i might have an opening at another place, had a chat with ppl from a top notch post house. everything seems so cool, except for the working hours. moving into the post world would mean official 9-6, five and a half day week but.... one never gets off at 6. it also situated in town so...that makes it doubly difficult to reach home early.

all is not lost, i'll be counting my blessings in the next 2 days and i'm sure i won't sound so gloomy after that.

to all,

have a Wonderful New Year,
full of hope and cheer
remember what you've learned this year
and make next year a better year

boxing day

the day you get boxed when you buy people silly gifts.

now that the Christmas cheer have died down a bit, things are starting to come back down to 'normal' speed.

it was a wonderful and simple Christmas for me and my family with church service in the morning followed by opening of presents after lunch. a visit to my mum's, a sumptuous dinner, and a good night sleep.

went for a friend's house warming and watched the sound of music on a 42 inch plasma screen. mrs chief casually said to me "watching this movie here i can see their facial expressions better." Hhhhmmmm... is that a hint ? am i glad the time of giving is over ;)

sad good byes

good bye and take care e-mails have been making it's round in the office these few days. staffs have been looking rather lethargic due to low moral. work during this period is surprisingly low and this does not help at all.

so, although lots of things have been going on, much of it's not blogged.....yet.
next week i shall get out of this low moral state and would start posting regularly again.

till then, have a Blessed Christmas.

snail mail is dead

well if it's not dead yet it'll soon be.
check out the respect it's getting now a days.





no need to use lock anymore just rubber band, and to think that as i was taking the photo someone actually came and posted some mails.












it's still nice to receive letters from friends. there's some thing about it that you just can't get from e-mails. it's very personal, does not make you feel like one of the 'crowd'. you know they've put in efforts to write to you. pos malaysia would do well to encourage ppl to write and send letters again.
when i was in uni, getting letters were the highlight of the day. i would sometimes go check for mails twice a day. i used to buy the 'prepaid' postcard form post office and squeeze in a whole letter using very very tiny handwritings.

my ex-girlfriend and i used to write to each other as well, even though we were working at the same company. sometimes words come out better when you're writing. plus it avoids the foot in mouth situations as well.

well, stamps are still at 30 cents.

the list is out

the list is out, or more accurately the letter of acceptant and rejection were collected by those who applied for VSS.

no one seems to be at work after that, they either were celebrating with their friends who got it/did not get it, or feeling down with their friend that got it/did not get it. confusing right. yeah, same here. i'm also confused.

one thing for sure, it's a new begining for everyone be it those who stay or those leaving.

miracle season ?

soon Christmas will be upon us again. as i was pondering what to blog lots of things came to mind and some of it i will blog later on.

so many look upon this as a season of love, gifts and good cheer. for many Christians this season if filled with lots of things to be done. most will be part of a performance or dinner organized by church, then there are all the shopping to be done as well at preparing the little ones for a new school year.

my company's vss result will be out today. we'll get to see who stays and who'll be leaving. i had the un-envious task of being in the 'selection committee' to put forth a list of people my dept would like to keep. so from today till end of the year i'm quite at a lost as to how to behave when i'm with them. knowing the list earlier (even though it's not the final one) had me behaving rather strangely and those closer to me have noticed it (didn't say it though).

there are a few good staff who's name does not make the list and they're dear to me. there are some which i'm neutral, wanted very much to leave but will not be able to do so.

God just drop in my heart asking me what miracle am i believing for this Christmas ?

it is indeed a season of miracles as many who have never given God a second thought will do so and would go to church when invited. hopefully they will hear of the greatest story of all and receive a gift.

Father

last Saturday after a long break i went for morning prayer again. i had actually gone coz there were things to be done after the prayer meet, so i thought i might as well go earlier for the prayer meet.

during the prayer meet God drop a thought in my heart.
since i'm now fatherless, He's now my father*. yes He has & will always by my Heavenly Father, but this thought really make it personal for me. if before my idea of Him is like the 'Father' who is up there watching over me, now He's close by.
i hope this make sense as it's quite difficult to put into words as especially without a dialogue with the reader.

God sort of confirm this as when interviewing one of my church members, he too spoke about lessons he had learned about God being his Father, as he grew up without a father figure.

how awesome is that. i sometimes miss my dad, especially at times like this where i need some advice when making major decisions. now i can go to my 'other' Father. it sure takes a load of my chest.





* this is not to say that God is/will not be close by if your earthly father is still around.

Aquaria KLCC

for zy's birthday we took him to aquaria klcc. we're to take a lrt down to kl but since there were no parking lots at kelana station, we drove into town. it was a brave thing to do as the asean submmit is on and it was a public holiday in selangor.
much to our surprise, the drive there was traffic jam free. guess the kl folks were at work and the selangor folks have not waken up from their hang-over party.

we parked at twin tower and had to walk a long way to kl convention center. before entering klcc, as part of the security measure during the asean submmit, we had to go through a metal detector. i went through it twice with the buzzer sounding off. the 1st time, i forgot to empty my pocket and 2nd time round took out my digital camera which was stripped to my belt. the cop there was looking very bored as most ppl passing through were families taking their children to aquaria.

aquaria have a good offer now, rm 90 for a family of 4, each additional kid is rm 15. it was a very nice 1 1/2 hour walk through the aquaria. lot of interesting stuffs to see, but as usual, very difficult to take in all the info due to the large crowd.

all in all it's a bit like the zoo thingy, a must visit if you have not been but i'm not sure if you want to do it again until after a year or two.... maybe longer.

dateline

well period for vss submission is over. i did not hand in mine even though i advised most of my staff to do so. there are some who have applied an really want to go but i'm afraid will be asked to stay. such is the irony of vss. although it's voluntary is not 100% so. guess those who have experience with vss would know.

the 'counselor' the hired to advice us say that that's the irony of vss, we seem to be rewarding those that have not perform with a lumps sum of cash but the good workers don't get 'rewarded'.

it seems like December will be a month of waiting for everyone who have submitted their vss. now they'll be looking to 15th dec where the names of those staying will be announced. and after that 23rd, last day for those leaving. a good Christmas gift for those who have plan b and are leaving. for them it's a win win situation but i'm sure not everyone be in that situation.

sometimes don't you wish you have the remote control in your hand ? my wife watches the korean dramas and fast forward all the 'boring' parts and plays only when she think it's a crucial scene. guess God has the remote in His hand but He not fast forwarding any scene.

snow.wolf.lake

winn also went for the show but i did not see her. i was late for the show as i had to stay back for some important meeting.

mrs chief and me sat at the rm 490 seats but even then we were still a good 80m away from the stage. no chance of seeing any of the stars up close, in-fact you're left wondering who is who ( i'm in the non fan category ).

i was very impress with the set and how it can be made to look different with lighting & minimum movement of other props.



sorry-lah use phone camera* only, but you get the point about the stage right.

* better than winn's camera phone !