Jitra, North Malaysia, Part 1

Senior colleague emailed me early February. Told me i was going to Jitra for work. Okay, even though i had no idea where that is

The road to KLIA, 6 something am, the boyfriend drove me. The beauty of taking Australian professional papers is that dont have classes on weekdays or weekends (except for focus session), so i am eligible for outstation business trips! =D The ACCA people lose out.

I look more like a kid than a 23year old woman going on a biz trip. Travelled by Malaysian Airlines 8am flight cuz budget Fireflyz depart KL at 9.30am

The plane was less than half full, each passenger travelling alone had three seats to her/himself =) Slept all the way, woke up a bit to see verdent green paddy fields, and went back to sleep =P My kind senior picked me up from the airport (she's an Alor Setar girl so she went back earlier to spend some time with family. She drove her mom's car). Worked.

Thats my room! StarCity Hotel. Damn comfortable, called it home for 4 nights. With the TV as my only companion. I made myself at home by unpacking

The 'kitchen' with my instant noodles, 3 in 1 coffee and of course, a bottle of USANA vitamins =) I never go a day without my Essentials and Biomega, with the kind of hours i work, its a must

My 'dressing' table, facial and skin care products strewn all over it. Loreal, Sense, Oxy, Red Earth, Vaseline to hang onto whatever youth i have

Audit client beared all expenses. Mr YS is the Senior Manager, he'll join the team for review on Thurs night and the whole of Friday. He's a good boss. He's a Japanese man who has lived in Malaysia for 8years, already as Malaysian as can be but works insane hours just like a true Japanese

My luggages, tiga biji ! Hehehe, get to know me, i NEVER travel light. What girl travels light for that matter??

Brought my own hangers! Hahaha, and i realized that throughout my almost 1.96years of working, i have never ironed my shirts till this trip! God, am i spoilt in Malaysia, thats gonna change soon, dreads!

Monday night i watched some reality Nanny series, Tues - Kyle XY, Wed - Phua Chu Kang season and series finale and a travel show featuring Brazil, Thurs... i didnt turn on the tv. Its quite routine. Dinner, bath, tv, online. At 10pm i'd continue working till about 2am daily =(

Camwhored when i got so bored =) 4 pillows all to myself! Smooth skin on Monday night. Picture NOT photoshopped in any way, colour not adjusted, only resized from 769kb to 66kb and added label, click to enlarge =P By the end of the week, there were so many bumps on my forehead, i had to use Oxy 10 instead of 5

View from my room. Clueless me asked my senior, whats that. Hahah, Alor Setar Tower she informed me, a landmark for the little city. I wanted to go up, go visit!

I stepped out wanting to make my way there one evening, but it was getting dark, i decided not to go, all alone. Picture from ground floor. Just fell back into my daily routine. Wednesday night i camwhored again!

Bored and indifferent, my reflection behind my laptop, Excel on the screen

Played the super stressed role, pulling hair included. A photographer friend i met 'through' MDG told me about composing shots- its about deciding what goes into a picture, what to be included and what to be left out of the frame, he told me that composing takes a lot of time. I love whats captured in this frame, even if my pic turned out blur and sengek (slanted), another thing those photographers cannot tolertate, from their comments on pictures in Facebook

A smile to cheer myself up =) Realized that the mirror is SUPER FREAKING clear !!! Why cant all mirrors be this clear?

My night shift desk. Other than working late into the night (12hours a day in total but only getting paid for 8hours), i HATE HATE HATE carrying my whole 'office' on my back, everything in one backpack, stationary, files, the pc, the charger... Its heavy and burdensome. I always stare at other ladies walking to work with just a single handbag in envy

Chinese New Year Visiting

Thanks to MY who planned the high school visitng session

House number 2 (Ampang) on the agenda. With her plus 1 and my plus 1

Our convoy started off with 4 cars in the morning

3 out of 4 cars. And my skinny friends captured in my shot

Its not like they dont eat, we had a lovely Chinese lunch of 5 dishes and rice, no leftovers =) As usual, anti-food-blog = no food pix. Moved on to house number 3 (Sri Petaling)

Blogger linked on my sidebar, Grace and her dear J joined us for a bit in MY's place

Havent seen Grace since the first time i met her in Melbourne. We catch up through MSN, the blogosphere and Facebook. I always cant make it for the gatherings she invites me too.

Next stop, PL's refreshingly airconditioned house, its like an oasis in a desert in the scorching Chinese New Year heat

Our group shrank with LC having to leave. E was the only male left, hahaha

My driver for the day. Poor dear, when picking me up from my house, he reversed into my aunt's 11 yr old Kancil. Thank god she doesnt seem to care much, and thank you Papa for fixing her broken number plate for her, while we carried on with our day

Also in Sri Petaling, house number 5, PY's house

By then it was about 6 and they had dinner appointments with family so they skipped my house. Maybe next week or something? We'll see.

E and i moved on to visiting university friends, so its house number 6 (Kinrara) for us. Damn beautiful lor, i loved the fish pond in the garden with the dense rain forest covered mountains in the background. It rained, it was a little mistly and so so beautiful, sorry this blogger failed u, i wasnt thick-skinned enough to snap a pic...

Some black jack (i lost) and then they started a poker table

After losing RM 10, AN and gf W decided it was time to go visit someone else. I asked for a pic =)

The rest of us continued on with Texas Holdem Poker, its been ages since i played with actual cards and i havent played online at all this year! I was quite a big loser but it was all good fun. Called it a night at 11pm

I asked for a picture and since it was just us left, we used the timer

Informed everyone that there was 5 shots and asked them to pose

Hahah, first time doing the 5 shots thing with all guys, this is what i get! Funny!

Such a long tiring day. 13 hours of house hopping, my god! I took out my contact lens before the poker game! No idea how people can wear contacts for hours on end, wear contacts to work. How? I cant take it!

Also i have no idea how others find time to do eye make up. I sorta rolled out of bed and barely had time to apply foundation to cover my dark circles. Drew eyebrows a bit and applied lipstick in the car

Lucky for me my sweet sweet E doesnt really fancy much make up, and i look alright without, right right right? For someone with single eyelids my pix are ok, i convince myself

A single rose from my darling E, simple surprise that made a smile flash across my face after working late on Friday night. Simple belated Valentine dinner in Milwaukee, Balakong. Was so late, the usually full restaurant was half empty

For my Singapore trip and Pangkor trip, visit my Mommy's blog here ! See ugly pictures of me and see pictures of me as a child in her blog

Dell bell fell

My father bought me a simple Dell laptop 3 years ago, didnt like the way it looked but it functioned well, served me well for 3 years and counting! Since its been THREE years already, i decided to give it a new look!

After, and below, Before

Plain plain Dell

Decided to Skin it rather than Bling it


So so happy!

I love colours! It makes me happy looking at it

Like I did three years ago, camwhoring with the same old laptop. U know, i've never reformatted it. E lectures me for that. Do u guys reformat ur laptops frequently?

On another note... After 3 post graduate professional exam papers in a row, back to back (some of them overlapping) in 2009, i decided to go against Asian kiasu culture and stop speeding through education, i decided to take a break from it all.

I didn't enroll for the Term 1, 2010 paper. Deliberately missed the enrolment on 5 January, knowing that it would set me back, my batchmates at work will get qualified sooner than i will

Suddenly, last Sunday night, checked my mail to find this beautifully written email from ICAA telling me they noted that i am eligible to enrol but have not done so. They were gonna reopen the enrolment for a few days and that no late penalty will be charged!

Funny how i saw that email only 30minutes before the new due date! Hahaha, quick chat with my parents and i am back in the kiasu way of life

Arrived in less than 5 days after "swiping" my credit card online. How i wish my 3kg air flown DHL parcel contained clothes and shoes instead! =

Without Fail

Its punishingly hot around Chinese New Year

Doesnt matter if the festival is in January or February, without fail, the weather follows suit in Malaysia. Probably in line with the Chinese calender?

Happy Chinese New Year

May the Year of the Tiger be ferociously fantastic for ya in terms of love, work, wealth, health and everything else, from the sweaty and sticky Sue Lin of baybeetea.com

Sunrise in Sihanoukville

Just a short distance away from Lucky Gusethouse was the beach

Thats our guesthouse.

In Cambodia its one hour behind Malaysia. So if its 8am in KL its only 7 there

I love blue skies.

This little boy was the one who set up the beach chairs and umbrellas, kinda pitiful to have to work at such a young age

We chose this spot by the beach.

Mandatory self portrait

A shot of my bestfriend reading

She read the Lonely Planet while i took tonnes of pictures

She wanted to eat by the beach, but i was doubftul over eating food prepared there... I gave the little boy some of my spare change cuz we sat there but didnt order anything, its something i learnt from my parents

We went back to the strip of shops for breakfast instead, back to this place

In daylight. I dont know why i keep taking shots of Ecstatic Pizza and none of Happy Herb...

Part of out 5 frame timer shot pictures. Yes, we really did a lot of it! =)

Ordering our breakfast on Day 3, my bestfriend practiced her Khmer with the waitress

She had this little "Book of Phrases" where she writes down whatever she learns. I caught a few simple stuff: "Okun shrang" means thank you very much, "kat lui" is calling for the bill. Sook ban means happy. I cant remember what okay is...

=(I cant spell it out right, dont kill me okay, rushing this post, i am supposed to summarise 200 pages of board meeting minutes for work. I painstakingly photocopied all those damn minutes, cost me RM130, had to pay first and will only be reimbursed at the end of February)=

Ah those happy times. Many more to come? I am really dreading working into the night.

Warning!

Violation of anti food blog rules up ahead:

I ordered Cambodia noodles for breakfast, with pork! Haha, USD3 if i remembered correctly

Us again! I'll be seeing her in late March! =) There will be change in my life soon =)

I'll get to see more blue skies! =)

Hopefully i'll have time to take more photos too

Two of us in Sa's tut-tut, or tuk tuk as spelled in a newspaper article on Cambodia...