Happy birthday to me!

So, am 1 year older... one year closer to the big 30. I don't mind growing older chronologically, bcoz you are only as old as you feel. But hhhmm, it does make you reflect upon your life.

Yesterday was more eventful and blog-worthy. My homegroup gang went house to house, pai lin. They even came halfway across the world to my house! And they celebrated my birthday! :)
We started out in Andy's house where we were completely stuffed with food!! He has always been the most generous person in d group.

At Andy's place


An abundance of food!


Yum yum!


Our generous host, da big guy with da big heart!


Andy's Puppies!!!!

In the afternoon, we went to Yuet Ngoh and my place.

At night we went over to Eric and Selan's place for some more food.

Steamboat! How was it?


Our gracious host says "good!!"


Then it was birthday celebrations for Eric and me. They bought us chocolate brownies! Yum yum!!

Today itself was nothing much though...
- I am back to work today with lots to do.
- bf's not around.
- my family is having a steamboat dinner gathering... but the occasion is CNY.

Thankfully,
- my bestfriend came all the way to see me and pass me my birthday present! A very pretty one too.
- my boss and colleague bought me lunch.
- was gonna send my laptop which went dead on me few days ago for fixing when it suddenly came back to life!
- Ps Ronnie and Ps Lisa sent me a lovely card this year for d first time!

Only about 1 hour left of my birthday... I'm very thankful to have so many wonderful caring friends and family around me this time of the year. I'm not sensitive about age and have never been worried about growing older but birthdays do make you think alot about your life...
what have I achieved in life so far???
has my personal life progressed???
has my career progressed???
has my spiritual life progressed???
have I progressed at all since my last birthday???
where do I go from here???
as Carrie Underwood would sing... Jesus, Take The Wheel!!

Gong Xi Fa Chai!

Here's wishing everyone a Happy Happy Chinese New Year!!

Gong Xi Gong Xi Gong Xi Ni!

Life Overflowing

Just got back from a pre-Valentine's Day dinner with bf. We celebrated in advance as he is working tomorrow nite for the V Day theme classes.

Remember our little moment of glamour at the recording studio?

Well, the fruit of our labour is out!!

the Life Overflowing CD

And over-ripe already actually. It was out since Christmas but I keep forgetting to publicize it. The CD is actually produced by one of our church members, Susan Yuen but a few of us were featured in the CD as guest singers... and we guests were pretty good I must say!! Ahem! Get a copy and you can be the judge. You can get all Simon Cowell-esque on us ;)

All the songs in there are original compositions.

da songlist

"I shall sing" is my proud solo!! "You are my rock" is bf's solo!

If anyone is interested to purchase it, please do let me know. It's only RM35 and all the proceeds go to the needy and the poor. If anyone just wants to preview what the songs sound like, please do let me know and I'll be happy to lend you my copy!

Funk with my heart!

Last Saturday, instead of attending class at FF IOI near my place... I rushed all the way back to my favourite club, FF Axis to attend the 1.15pm Bodyjam. I was almost late for the class and bumped into Ann Jet in da locker. She was rushing to attend da Line Dance Funk class.

Eh? Line Dance??? No!!! Bodyjam cancelled?? Argh! I didn't wanna attend one of those aunty-filled line dance class with country music.

But I went anyway since I was already there and since Ann Jet was accompanying me 2 da class.

I kinda lost my work-out mood and was expecting not to sweat one drop that day. But.. when da music came on, voila! It was "Man-Eater" by Nelly Furtado. And da moves? Grooveh!! Da next song was "SOS" by Rihanna!! One of my favs which was in both

and

Da moves for "SOS" was even groovier!!

And da workout?? Was fabulous!! I worked up so much sweat and I bet a whole lotta endorphins too!! You can bet I'll be back for more!!

The grasshopper

Once upon a time, in a land far far away, there lived a pretty pink grasshopper in a jar.


She could jump very high and reach the sky "weeeeeeee!"


Then one day, someone put a lid on her jar.


She jumped as usual but she hit her head "Ouch!"


So next time she learns her lesson and jumps a bit lower.


Then she got so used to it, even when someone opens the jar lid... she still jumps the same height.


So d = capability - reality. d is the potential height wasted.


So little miss grasshopper will never realize her full potential jump-height. Why did someone put a lid there? Poor miss grasshopper...

Under the microscope

Do you know how it feels like when you are put under the microscope?

My mini boss is not the one who’s putting my under the microscope… her boss is. I thought head honchos of an organization would look at the big picture and have more important things to think about than the remeh-temeh details of our work.

The reason I left a huge organization to join an itty bitty one is because I like being empowered. I like working independently, that’s why I’m in sales/marketing. In my previous company, we are told exactly what to do, how to do it, when to do it and how often we have to do it. Your job is your job… you can’t go beyond that. There are other people to do that for you. All you need to do is:
“See 8 customers a day, go out at 10am, write reports after reports on each and every teeny weeny detail…etc”
You know what that makes people feel? Belittled, not trusted, inferior and stupid.

I consider myself a very responsible person, very high integrity, very committed and smart. Don’t these people trust my capabilities to get the results required? Then why did they hire me if they don’t? Why not just use robots that will follow their instructions down to the T?

When I got this job, it was great! It was a lot of hard work, because in small organizations, it is one-leg-kick!! Marketing, sales, communications, PR, web-designer, writer, editor… wow! It’s an all-in-one job. Independence and empowerment!! And my mini boss is great! She gives me the perfect balance between guidance/monitoring and independence/empowerment. How perfect is that? It’s so rare to find a job you like plus a boss you like. All was going so well.

Then there comes this new big boss. Of course changes are expected. There have been good changes and bad changes. What’s the change that upsets me so much? It’s the being-put-under-the-microscope thing. Now it’s back to:
“See 8 customers a day, go out at 10am, write reports after reports on each and every teeny weeny detail…etc”
You know what that makes me feel? Belittled, not trusted, inferior and stupid.

So what if the incentives has been increased? Besides sales, is all my other work invisible? All disregarded and left unnoticed, unappreciated? Have I not earned their trust?

What does it feel like? Although there’s no change in designation, there's shrinking responsibilities and am tied on a shorted leash. It feels like a big fat slap-in-the-face demotion!! Already my two colleagues from the neighbouring country doing the exact same job as me, who joined the organization at about the same time as me, were promoted to Assistant Managers. What about me? Not only am I still a small fry anchovy, I’ve been degraded into a microscopic amoeba under the electron microscope.

BOO HOO HOOOOOO!!!


Me!

Even amoebas like me can cry. I’m depressed… I need endorphins! I need lots of it! I need comfort food, I need more gym classes, I need more tlc frm bf!! Sob sob!