Sunday, August 31, 2003

My latest cure for insomnia: watching football!!

zzzzzzz........


Happy Merdeka Day!

// much later edit (was too sleepy earlier to blog anything coherant)//
I don't know what it is about me and football. 15 minutes into the Man U vs SouthHam game and I cannot distinguish either team. 20 minutes later I'm fighting a losing battle trying not to fall asleep in front of Greg's brothers and dad who are glued to the telly screen. During half time I instantly wake up and try to convince Greg that it's not that football isn't interesting but neither team is scoring and how much fun can it be to see the ball pass backwards and forwards without really going anywhere? Second half of the game and I'm fast asleep, until Greg wakes me up and tells me to go do something else. I come back just in time to see SouthHam take a corner kick and score. Greg cringes in horror and I wonder if I just am a bad omen to football.

Thursday, August 28, 2003

Gone for the weekend... maybe might bump into Jilly along Orchard Road... haha! Watch out, Jilly!

Yes, I'll remember to bring your shoes, Charm!

It's fun mucking up a language. Especially if it's your national language. Today we were given kelas tambahan (extra classes) in Bahasa Pasar (colloquail Malay) by our great guru: Zul!

Ever noticed how the typical Chinese speaks Malay? We have a natural tendency to speak in Bahasa Baku (erm... the purest form of Malay... I can't translate it!) or as Zul puts it "You ingat you baca buku teks BM ke?" (You think you're reading a BM text book ar?). "BagaimaNA puLA..." he continues with a train of words ending with 'A' mocking Li Ling. So Li Ling conterattacks : "So, kalau puLA cakap puLE, haNYA cakap haNYE.... jadi makan cakap maken ye?". It's not long more before Li Ling comes up with more questions for Cikgu Zul: "Eh, proton WiRA atau proton WiREH? Kenapa bukan WiREH? Kan belakang tu huruf 'A'?" Poor flabbergasted Zul finally comes up with an answer "Nama khas tak boleh lah...", but Li Ling isn't easily beaten: "Tapi boLA tak cakap boLE... bukannye mereka main BoLe Sepek ke?". Zul ignores her by correcting another mistake "Orang Melayu tak kata mereka lah. Kita kata diorang. Kalau 'you all' kita kata korang". Li Ling's getting slightly confused by now so she asks, "So, kita jadi kitrang ke?". Zul smacks his forehead,"No, no! Kita orang jadi kita orang lah... bukan kitrang!!" but its too late... the bug has caught on and we start shortening all sort of words "makan jadi man lah..." Zul tries to steer us away from the craziness by teaching us Bahasa Terengganu ("kalau 'an' kena tambah 'g' kat belakang, jadi makan diorang kata makang") and Bahasa Kedah Utara ("... air diorang kata ayer... macam kena picit hidung baru boleh cakap").

I think the engineering office and cafeteria has never heard this much wild laughter before!

Wednesday, August 27, 2003

Somedays I really wonder if I'm just part of an elaborate joke. Dear Lord, You must have a really good sense of humour judging by the shocks You put me through everyday, Amen!

Early this morning I unassumingly walked right into a lunch treat given by my boss for all the engineers who had toiled for weeks on the Low K project. I cannot for the love of apple strudels remember what I contributed to the project, however I wasn't going to pass up a free lunch at Sheraton hotel just because I was vaguely (ok, extremely) doubtful that I had lifted a finger for the Low K project at all!

I was on my way to the cafeteria to tell Li Ling and Kavi about my third office lunch treat since I started working here when I got side tracked by one of the young fresh grads working as a permanent staff in the supply management department... and got asked out to lunch on saturday! "Erm, sorry... I won't be free this Saturday. Really busy trying to grow up first, you know?"
OK, I didn't really say that... just in my head, but when someone more than 5 years my senior is asking me out to lunch I hear warning bells, alarm bells, ambulance sirens and my mother nagging me (actually I hear that all the time!) from all angles. Creepy!

Tuesday, August 26, 2003

Comical situations can arise while hunting for a car in Sunway Pyramid's carpark:

"Li Ling, are you sure this is the right floor?"
"Yeah... I remember seeing Bumcity when we entered!"
"Why don't you just press your remote and see which car beeps?"
"My remote doesn't work"
"Ok... what's your car number?"
"Er... I don't remember..."
"WHAT? How can you not know your own car number????"
"Oh! Yeah... I think it's 3151"
"Li Ling... that's MY car number"
"Oh yeah hor..."
"Is it that car over there?"
"No... my car isn't white"
*whispers* "How can she be sure when she doesn't even remember her car number?"
"Oh... I think my number is 6833"
"Maybe it's the next floor"
**3 trainees hurriedly clamber up another flight of stairs, already 15 minutes late after lunch**
"This is the third floor we're checking... it'd better be right"
"Eh, here! I found my car... see I told you it's 6833!"
"Yay... lets go!"
"Oi... wait... this is not my car..."
"But it IS 6833... oh yeah, it's not your car... my bag isn't inside"
"Here-lah... your car is over here!"
"Wow! What are the chances of finding two cars with the numbers 6833 in the same parking lot?"
"Have we got the right car this time?"

Monday, August 25, 2003

**REQUESTS**

Does anyone have a Windows XP Professional installation software that I can borrow? (beg? steal?). Please?

Saturday, August 23, 2003

The Imperial College Union Malaysian Society Fresher's Reception is a mouthful to say and was held at Equatorial Hotel today. (Do all Equatorial Hotels sit right on the Equator? Or is it just false advertising?)
I have this great fear of being alone at social functions and creating horrifying social faux pas without my loyal (but few) friends to quickly cover up for me and whisper to everyone "Oh, you know, that's Charl... she's slightly mental but nice when you get to know her... if you dare". I am relieved to say that I did not make any horrifying social faux pas today. The only *blush* moment occured when I was standing at the podium during the round of introductions and said the magic words: "... and I'm from Raffles Junior College, Singapore". All of a sudden there was a stir and a mumur of "ooos" and "ohs" passing through the room, and from that moment hence forth I am now 'the one from RJ'.
Meeting new people who are going to be a part of your life for the next 4 years is a make or break situation. In those few hours you've already summed up who you can relate to and who you cannot stand to be in the same room with. I DO hope my first impressions today are right. They usually aren't.

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I've finally figured out that straight, sleek, tame hair is just not me. After receiving the four-way-style-to-go (straightener and crimper) from Vidal Sassoon, my hair is now a big mass of waves and little curls. Greg would be so proud. (TLY! I know what you're going to say so you don't need to say it!!)

Friday, August 22, 2003

I'll be arriving in Singapore on the 29th of August at approximately 1230 hours. I will be leaving Singapore on the 1st of September at 1300 hours. In other words I'll be spending Merdeka day (National day) in our closest rival country. I applaud my own patroitism.

Thursday, August 21, 2003

Yesterday... (after telling Grace my Econs results)

Grace: HAHAHA honey, this means... that you're really an arts student at heart.
Me: no! no! no! i'm a science student... i really am! *sniffle*
Grace: *pat pat* there there.... it's all right, you can come out of the closet now you know

-----------------

Am currently browsing through my Freshers' Handbook. It says I'm allowed to study a humanities subject as a credit-bearing component of my degree programme at Imperial. I'm now stuck in a rut. There's an amazing range of musical activities... but I'm not very confident of my music skills anymore. My piano no longer sings... it sulks! - its own way of punishing me for not practising over the past 2 years.
There's a visual arts programme which includes artist-in-residence projects... Yay! That means all year round displays from visiting and residential artists. Yippee!
And then there's the Humanities Programme. I want to take modern literature and drama as one elective, but someone has got to help me decide between philosophy, art and nature and creative writing. Help?
And best of all I can take evening classes in a foreign language. Will probably give French a go again. Maybe brush up on my Mandarin too (going all the way to London to learn Mandarin must be the daftest thing anyone can possibly do... but doing daft things is fast becoming a trademark of mine).
So much to think about before I leave... a penny for my thoughts, anyone?

Happiness is always short lived. This morning I stepped into the office with a big smile on my face. Now I'm slowly counting down the minutes till 5:30pm (19 more to go) while hiding in my office cubicle trying to remain as invisible as possible. Meanwhile (I suspect) some rather angry operators some 700 metres away in the production line are looking high and low for me.

Sigh...

I really didn't mean to break the wedge on the ball shear machine. I am very very aware (I was reminded at least 3 times last week) that it costs USD 200 to replace the damn little wedge (which measures less than a cm in height and less than 5 mm in width). And I really did not cause the die to crack on purpose thus chipping the wedge which now cannot be used anymore thus rendering the entire machine unusable. *sniffle*

However, when I mentioned this to my engineer supervisors, I merely received a shrug of shoulders and anecdotes on the many times *they* had spoilt the machine, (and not just on one occasion). The engineers' nonchalence is not helping to soothe the operators' anger though... they are still grumbling at me for the broken link in the production process...

Wednesday, August 20, 2003

I got this in the mail today:

Statement of Results
Candidate Name: CHARLOTTE YEOW SHU CHEN

GCE AS & A Level
Syllabus: 9708
Syllabus Title: Economics
Qualification: Advanced Level
Result: A(a)

*Big Grin*

Dammit Charm, I owe you a treat now!

Monday, August 18, 2003

They say that if you have an infinite number of monkeys typing at an infinite number of keyboards for an infinite period of time, you will get the collected works of Shakespeare.

If you want the source code to Microsoft Windows, you need to add more monkeys.

The office is so very quiet on Monday mornings... so quiet that the sound of my sneakers shuffling on the carpet as I stoll in, 5 minutes late, is unusually and embarassingly defeaning. You can just about see little grey clouds hanging over everyone's head with the words "Blardy ******* Monday!" flashing in dim neon lights with a few missing bulbs. I'm very careful to tread lightly around the cubicles of my supervisors on Mondays (not to mention around my supervisors themselves). No one wants to be the victim of Monday massacres.

-------------------------------

I like singing... when nobody is listening. I sing in the bath, I sing with my radio blasting so no one can hear me and I even sing when I'm working in the factory line (the machines are so noisy you'd have to shout before someone even notices you're trying to catch their attention and besides, singing helps me to pass the time while doing mechanical tasks). Lately I've taken to singing in the car when I'm driving (alone!!). I've noticed that this elicits weird stares from other drivers (but why the heck are they looking into my car in the first place? Traffic lights are not stop-and-check-what-the-driver-next-to-you-is-doing zones!).
Seeing that drivers next to me are always checking me out, I decided to check out what other drivers were doing. Here's what I've noticed: The majority of middle-aged, working-class drivers who are alone in their cars usually stare blankly out of their windscreens, eerily resembling zombies. I dare say they hardly blink. They look as if their minds have gotten up and wandered off, leaving their soul-less shells to drive their cars on auto pilot (go straight, if read red light : stop, else if read green light: go, else if read police: slow down, check that seat belt is on and road tax has been paid).
Now if there is more than one person in the car, the driver is noticeably more alive. Two women drivers are always giggling and more often than not, their eyes are not on the road (I have personally seen this for myself when Jun Ling actually turned around to talk to the few of us seated in the back seat while driving. I appreciate the fact that we are still alive). If it's two guys however, it's just plain dangerous. Guys tend to become aggressive in packs. They honk at me, they overtake me at fatal speeds and they edge their flashy cars right up next to mine and give me dirty looks when I'm taking too long at a junction (I can just about hear them cursing "woman driver!"). I nonchalently retaliate by edging my car ahead of theirs and taking my time to infuriate them more... which my mother says is going to get me pounded to pulp one day. If they are not the type who are bitching to each other about the lousy woman driver in front... then they are flicking their hair and adjusting their shades and if they are in their twenties, they give their best shots at looking debonair-ish... or if they are in their forties they sport the air of datuks or tan sris (this helps if they are driving the latest BMWs and are trying to bump my little Waja out of the way).
One last leetle teensy fact I've noticed that is possibly of no importance to anybody is that, I've never caught anyone singing! I'm not going to start a support group, but honestly don't you think singing would just brighten up everyone's day... even if you're stuck in a traffic jam on the LDP that moves an inch every 10 minutes. Then, perhaps everyone will stop staring at me bopping my head while singing along to Hitz.fm in my car.

Saturday, August 16, 2003

Observations made while shopping for jeans
1. It is possible to find decent looking jeans for less than RM 50 *glee*
2. It is delusional to think that you can fit into a size 26 *wail*
3. It is not sinful to buy 4 pairs of jeans in one day *living in denial*

5 hours of shopping has produced 4 pairs of jeans, 2 denim skirts, a sweater, 2 pairs of earrings and a new found determination to fit into size 27 jeans by Christmas. Note to self: Avoid all potatoes in London... even if they hold you at gun point.

Friday, August 15, 2003

Everyone's talking about leaving, about leading new lives, about chasing new dreams.
Me? I already left.... 2 years and 8 months ago.

I left home without realising it. When you're not yet 18 and you're packing your precious things (a rosary for my bedside, colour pencils for my desk, a photo of my cousin and myself staring cheekily out of 5 year old faces) to be moved temporarily to a new room in a place you don't know yet, you don't realise that they'll never be returned to their old dusty spots in your home again... they'll always be in and out of suitcases, in different rooms and different places, and in 2 months time... different countries. They'll never come home.

And neither will I... I am home, yet I'm not home. This is not the same place that I left behind one cold January morning. This is not the room within which I built my cosy sanctuary, entertained my dreams or hid from the world. The walls have forgotten me. The floor feels cold and polite. I'm merely a guest... biding my time till I leave again. I don't really belong here anymore.

Then where do I belong?


Thursday, August 14, 2003

Today is my little sister's birthday. I woke her up this morning at the unearthly hour of 7am and said "Happy Birthday Bambino!" for which she grunted and tried to hit me in the face before rolling over and drifting back to sleep.
Maybe it's the surly teen in her surfacing through. She turns 13 today.

In other news:
An NUS proffesor (vice dean of the engineering faculty) was slashed to death yesterday... and it was only the second week of term! He was a Malaysian (they mostly are...) what a loss to both our countries.

Wednesday, August 13, 2003

*MARS WATCH*

If you are still awake tonight, go take a look at the moon. See the little red dot next to it? That's Mars! Dazzling isn't it? Even the full moon can't outshine it. Keep a watch on Mars from now till the 27th. Trust me, you don't want to miss this!

Tuesday, August 12, 2003

Monday night was the 15th day of the 7th month of the Chinese Calender. During the 7th month, I always try to make it home before sunset because I am *gasp* extremely superstitious. Say what you like about having a strong hold on my Christian beliefs and science-based explanations. I will not take any chances at crossing paths with visitors on a one month holiday from the underworld. So I'm sorry for all yum chas and night outings I'll have to postpone until the 7th month is well and truly over.

On a cheerier (is that word valid?) note... NEW PICS! Go take a look. Don't scrutinise my face. The pimples are simply devastating!

Monday, August 11, 2003

courtesy of Graffiti (c) 2003 UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, Inc.

"A theory is a hunch with a college education"

Hah! Now I can glare at my most despised Quantum Theory with disdain!! *glare*

Talk about failed objectives. Yesterday I made a resolution to walk into Mid Valley and come out with a pair of jeans.
Yesterday I walked into Mid Valley, got stuck in the lingerie section of Jaya Jusco for half an hour, browsed through Lewre shoes, raided entire Metro Jaya (which in my opinion is the best place to get some peaceful yet extensive shopping done), made a quick dash into Quicksilver, detoured to Salabianca, MNG and finally Urban & Co. (the clothes on sale were the same ones on sale 2 months ago, ditto for Sommerset Bay... so what's the deal about the Mega Sales? Is it some goverment herd-mentality experiment scheme?).
Came home sans jeans.
Am now considering losing some fat before even thinking of buying jeans!

At the rate Motorola is making me fast-walk around the plant, I might lose that fat sooner than I think! This morning alone I must have walked a total of 3km while searching for an operator who was searching for me. In this age of modern telecommunication, you can't imagine how difficult it is to contact someone who's in the same building as you!

Saturday, August 09, 2003

Malaysia's Mega Carnival Sales are overrated. Seriously!

Nothing that's on sale is really worth buying. All the good stuff is not even displayed. And when you think about it... what's the point in spending more than a hundred bucks before a 25% discount becomes effective??

I still spent 5 hours shopping at KLCC though. Don't ask!

Friday, August 08, 2003

The Motorola Trainee's Week: Continued

Wednesday
"It's the middle of the week! It's the middle of the week!"
Kavi is only restrained from dancing around the line by the constrictions of the smock
"What's he got to be so happy about?"
"Soo San's on leave..."
"He's not the only one with a supervisor who's on leave. Vivien and Fong strolled in at 9 this morning!!!"
Kavi returns with a downcast look and a megazine of substrates
"She's not on leave after all" *mutters* "BIG project she said... very important, Kavi... a major responsibility she said... and what am I doing now? Wire peel and Wire pull tests! 30 test per unit! 20 units per megazine!" *breaks down and cries on the wire pull machine*
Li Ling shrugs "At least you're not searching for foreign matter on the dies"
"Weren't you all ready to confront Soo San on giving you mind-numbing operator type jobs?"
"Have YOU ever SEEN her? I've been her trainee for a month and I've never seen her SMILE!"
*mutters* "and I bet she eats little children for breakfast too"

Thursday
"We've been in the cafeteria for an hour!"
"Who cares? Your supervisor won't miss you"
"But break is only 20 minutes"
"Oh really..."
Fong returns from his 4th trip to the food line
"Haiyah, it takes 10 minutes to walk from office to cafeteria and 10 minutes to walk back. Lidat, 20 minutes gone already!"
"Oh my gosh!! There's foreign matter in my guava!!"
"Relax Li Ling... relax! Foreign matter only occurs on dies ok... only on the dies..."
"psst... they're really killing her spirit aren't they?"

Friday
Trainees are walking with little springs attached to their shoes
Everyone is working with a noticeable increase in efficiency... no one is puking because of the scopes
"9 more hours to the weekend! Can you feel it? Can you just feel it?"
"I don't care! Today I'm leaving at 5:30 sharp! I don't care if the ovens don't work! I am Going Home!"
"What if Dom needs you to stay?"
"He's a grown man... he can take care of himself!"
"Lets go for a 2 hour lunch break"
"But we already had a 2 hour lunch break yesterday... AND its not very discrete when 5 trainees leave the office together!"
"Why are you walking that way? The exit is here..."
"And so is my boss's office! I'm trying to avoid her! Duh!"
"Wow! It's 5:15 already? Hey! Where's everybody????"
Pin drop silence plays in the background...

** disclaimer **
All names mentioned are real, most situations and conversations are not (except for the part about the clocks standing still for eternity)...
Erm... and if anyone mentioned above chances upon my blog... I think all you trainees are great, and I wouldn't survive here without you guys and hey! I know I didn't exactly put in the whole truth, but I didn't really want to scare any future Motorola trainees. =)

Thursday, August 07, 2003

The Motorola Trainee's Week: From Bungee Jumping Into Hell and Back Again...

Monday
A blood curdling scream fills the air.
"It's the damned ovens! They're using it for production! I'll never get to use them! My precious ovens! ... my precious..."
"psst.... Li Ling's having Monday Daymares"
"AND nightmares... the ovens haunt her after sunset"

Kavi proudly produces his MC and medication
"Monday symptoms? AGAIN??"
"Hey! I it takes alot of effort to work for my MC ok?"
The hands of the office clock obstinately remain stationary (stationery? I can never get this right!)
"Huh?" wail "It's only 10:30?"
After an eternity
"What? It's only 10:35??"
"Save us the suspense, Charlotte"

Tuesday
"Is it Wednesday today?"
"Don't get our hopes up, Charlotte, it's only Tuesday"
"Damn!"
"Where were you during break?"
"I didn't get one! At 9:30 my supervisor said 'Lets go!' and instead of heading to the cafeteria, we went to the line! She tricked me! She did!"
"It's just not your day"
"WHEN is it MY day?"
"Never... and if I were you I wouldn't eat that second piece of chicken... haven't you got to use the scopes later?"
"Oh NO! I'm going to puke in the line if they make me use the scopes!"
"Well, that's the spirit! Contaminate the line and we'll all get half the day off!! Yay!"
Images of trainees doing a jig while I puke in the line runs through my head...

** shall finish this later... after I get inspiration from watching Li Ling wrestle the operators for the ovens... **

Wednesday, August 06, 2003

After 4 weeks of working as a trainee engineer I've decided that the best job for me is to be a data entry clerk. It's simple, it requires no creativity whatsoever and... I find keying in numericals rather therapeutic.

Working life is pushing me to the brink!

--------------------------------

I almost came close to believing that the significance of some friendships are inversely related to time. Years ago we could talk about anything under the sun. We shared problems and gave advice and shared hopes and secrets... then gradually the conversations began to lull, the meetings less frequent, the things we talked about became more trivial - along the lines of "so whats up?" "nothing much, u?" "i'm ok" "ok, that's good"... but last night I discovered some friendships are like sinusoidal waves... with crests and troughs (this is a very crappy analogy but it was the first one that came to mind... I DO NOT miss SHM!). Just when you think some friendships have reached rock bottom, you hear an excited voice on the other end... waiting to tell you the good news, the things that have been on their minds, the advice they need to hear, or just asking for a listening ear and shoulder to cry on. *Grin* want me to draw a friendship graph for you?

You needed a friend last night, I just needed to feel needed.

Monday, August 04, 2003

Am suffering from weekend hangover... thus resulting in Monday blues. I can never function properly on Mondays. I wake up wondering where the hell I am and what is that stupid ringing sound coming from my clock?? I then end up at the office thinking what a miracle it is that I didn't crash my car on the way and try to clear the fuzziness in my head with a cup of too-sweet milo. I can't take coffee... it does weird things to my entire system... which already goes bonkus on Mondays. The labs are too cold, the work is too monotonous, the powerscopes make me nauseous, the lamps are making me dizzy...

The trip down to Singapore was my great getaway from everything in KL. Odacia was fun. Meeting with batch mates, seniors, juniors, the ancient ones... you can't help feeling as if you never left RJ at all! It feels good to know that there are some things that are still constant even when everything around you is changing. Greg will still be showing off at the rock wall. Xinyi will still leave her things around for us to hide. Batch XVII girls will still find it difficult to get all five of us together for a girl photo. Certain people will still be making ngai zai jokes. Sarah will still be loud and on. Leroy will still be more energetic than the 9 batches after his. Batch XVII will still be trying to prove their worth on the floorball court (albeit we ARE getting old and out of touch, and I nearly died after only 2 minutes!).

Discovered that clubbing isn't my cup of tea, or coffee, hot chocolate... or even milo. Loud, wild, brazen scenes just aren't my thing... as Greg, Anu and Sugi rightly predicted. There really isn't any point in dressing up for it when nothing but white shows up under UV lights. I don't get house music at all... and well, there were reasons why my ballet teacher asked me to drop ballet, so dancing... or rather bopping to the beat... is just not for me either. Alcohol had absolutely no effect on me... felt as sober as when I woke up that morning... but that's probably because I didn't drink enough. Verdict? Clubbing is over-rated! I'll stick to my quiet little cafes, with my simple hot cocoa with gallons of whipped cream and tiramisu cakes! mmmmm....

Had more fun meeting up with the Charm, Sherene, Baa and Venki... who all had seriously interesting stories to tell. *ahem* Strange things are happening at NUS!

Some holidays feel so packed and yet too short... you never do get to do everything you want to do... If I could, I'd want to walk down every path on memory lane, just in case I never return again... but wishful thinking is a terrible fault of mine. I'll be back soon, I hope!

Friday, August 01, 2003

Going down to Singapore tomorrow. Will be back on Sunday. Need a break. Miss Odac. Too. Tired. To.

Utter...

Another...

Word.