Holidays and Working

大家好！

It has been one week plus since I came back home for holidays. Same as the previous academic year-end holidays, I've basically stayed at home most of the time so far at the beginning. I have yet to find a solid plan to spend my holidays up till now but things will change as we enter June. I will get to this later. In the meantime, let me do a review of how the beginning of my holiday went so far, if you're interested in my life anyway.

The most significant thing that happened so far is the passing away of my dog, Ah Wong, last Monday. I was woken by my eldest brother in the early morning and he broke the news to me. It was the second time that my university's academic year end holidays was accompanied by the passing away of my dog. It sure feels sad for my family that Ah Wong passed away. We're still not used to the absence of morning bark or the sight of Ah Wong at the front gate waiting eagerly for its dinner. I was caught a couple of times going to the front gate wanting to embrace Ah Wong but it was not there anymore. Some night, I would feel emotional remembering Ah Wong. It has been part of the family for 9 years. The memory of Ah Wong wagging its tail excitedly when I came back home this holidays is probably the most memorable thing that I will remember for this holidays. May your soul rest in peace, Ah Wong.

If not for a string of sporting events to watch, I would probably feel very rotten at home now. These sporting events really lighten up my sort-of-uneventful holidays so far. The first sporting event that I'm going to talk about, you guess it, would be the Thomas Cup. I admit I'm personally very disappointed that our national badminton men's squad failed to seize a second golden opportunity to win the Thomas Cup when China was knocked out of the competition again, this time by Korea. Squandering a 2-0 lead against Denmark (the eventual winner) in the semi-final and losing 2-3, that image of Dato Lee Chong Wei on the giant screen looking at the elusive Thomas Cup really was painful to watch for all of us Malaysians.

While trying to get over the disappointment and slight anger on Malaysia's Thomas Cup exit, there is still something worth celebrating, which is my favourite football club, Manchester United, winning the FA Cup. I watched the FA Cup final between MU and Crystal Palace with Jeff. Even though it was really boring football in the beginning 70 mins, the excitement of watching MU equalising and then netting the winner to win the FA Cup really made up for the uninspiring football and watching the match till late night. To cap the amazing football week, Liverpool lost the Europa League (sorry, I'm a MU fans) and it felt good to troll Liverpool fans while MU was able to end the season with a trophy.

Glory glory Man United!!! =D

Moving on, I also managed to have a couple of catching up session with friends. Met Jeff three times for yum cha, watching FA Cup and playing basketball. That basketball session with Jeff was an enjoyable one as I played well and showed no sign of long layoff. Play basketball once so far since I was back and I hope more frequent basketball sessions follow. Besides, I also met up with Khai Hong, my best friend in university and I treated him for a lunch in 不见不散. Lastly, I met up with two of my XJ friends, Yan Chun and Xin Yen. We had a 5 hours 吹水 session at Wong Kok One Shamelin. Meeting XJ friends makes my feel more anticipated to meet my Procrastination gang, Poi Yi and Yi Yin. It feels amazing to have these two friends with whom I can go at any length in talking any topics with them, especially the dirty talks. xD

Alright. Earlier I have mentioned that I will have a solid plan to spend my holidays when June comes. This is because I went for a job interview for the position of temporary clerk with Tokyo Marine Insurance Malaysia Berhad on Monday and I was offered the job. I was really eager on this job initially because it is my first opportunity to work in a corporate company but was put off a bit when the pay offered is rather low to my expectation. However, a little research on the salary report on JobStreet, I found out that the pay offered is the average market rate for an admin clerk position for junior executive level. Well, I guess I expect too much from a temporary clerk & data entry job, though I would argue that I expect a corporate company to pay around the same rate as my previous employer (a Sdn Bhd company).

I think I will just skip the interview part. I will update again on my holidays and working life in future posts.

Signing off,

重成

Ah Wong

Another dog of mine passed away. It's no doubt saddening for me because Ah Wong is the first dog I ever had in my life and it had been with me since 2007. 

For 9 years I had have the luxury of its greeting everytime I came home. Ah Wong had live a long life spanning more than 10 years. I'm just glad that I am able to come back and see Ah Wong one last time before it moves on. 

May your soul rest in peace.

Ah Wong
(Birthdate unknown) - 16 May 2016

JB Trip

Hello dear readers! I'm back to blogging after a near one semester hiatus. I must say the just-concluded semester is the hardest one in my university life yet, with difficult modules to study and my ECA works. I pray for the results and wish for the best.

Anyway, same like the last academic year end holidays, I stayed in Kiasuland for an extra week before going back to homeland. The reason being I took my own sweet time packing my belongings to be moved to others' room for storage. Nah, I'm just kidding. The main reason I extended my stay is I went on a one and a half day trip to JB with my OG (Cerberus) friends on Tuesday and Wednesday. It was my first time visiting JB and a short getaway before going back to M'sia is a good way to start the holidays for myself.

On the first day, Ceng Yew, Ee Wei and I went across the causeway together and waited for Pei Wen to pick us up at JB City Square. Then, we went to her house for a break and put our belongings. Wen Ling joined us there and we went to our first location, Atlas Coffee Embassy to have our brunch.

This is what I ordered. Look tasty, ain't it? xD

Next, we went to Loud Speaker (大嘴叭) Karaoke @ Mount Austin to sing K. It was my first karaoke session for close to a year. I have updated my song library since then and so I was able to sing enjoyably a lot more this time. =D

Group photo after karaoke session

From left to right: Ee Wei, me, Ceng Yew, Wen Ling & Pei Wen

Then, we went to Palladium Cafe @ Eco Spring Show Village. The cafe's design is similar to the one that appeared in one of Jay Chou's songs, 手写的从前. We took photo with the cafe shop before we went in and ordered stuffs. I ordered a beaker of espresso ice-cream, yes they use a laboratory beaker for the espresso ice-cream. I was really amused by that because I never expect the thing I ordered to turn up like that. Haha =D

Candid photo in front of the cafe and my beaker of espresso ice cream

Forgive my messy hair =X

Night view of Palladium Cafe

For dinner, we went to Dul Dul Korean BBQ Chicken. I had a very fulfilling dinner there because besides the black garlic chicken burger (the meat tasted like McSpicy Chicken) that I ordered, I also helped the two ladies to clean up their food.

The second day began with Wen Ling's mother fetching us to Toast Box to have our breakfast. I ordered chicken nasi lemak and egg mayo bread. It was a really fulfilling breakfast for me because I hardly ever have breakfast when I'm in NTU during the semester. It was really nice as well that Wen Ling's mother treated us for this one. 

After that, we went to Austin Heights Theme Park to play skating. It's not really ice (it's plastic) that we were skating on but I have my first try on skating. I was a little surprised that it did not take me long before I was able to skate amateurishly on my own. I remember the first time I played roller skating it took some time and butt pain and still I wasn't able to roll well. Aside from the skating, it was a little unfortunate we din get to try other adventure parks due to lack of time. Nevertheless, I made a mental note to come back here to try it the next time I come to JB.

Group photo after skating

After skating, we concluded this JB trip with another karaoke session at Loud Speaker (大嘴叭) Karaoke @ Mount Austin. Haha yes, we had karaoke session for two consecutive days. So much so for someone like me who's okok with going to karaoke. Lastly, we went back to Pei Wen's house to collect our bags before going back to Singapore.

To conclude this post, thank you to Pei Wen and Wen Ling for the hospitality during our short getaway to JB. My holidays began just the way I want it and hopefully I will have more enjoyable things to write about for this holidays for the next 3 months. 

That's all for this time. C ya! 

Signing off,

TC