Wow, wow, wow! It has been almost 3 years since my last blog post on my weightloss journey (P.S: I still haven't lose any major weight). Well, I did managed to lose about 10kg but have been putting it back on because I was lazy and lost the motivation to continue my workout regime. Good news is I joined a gym (not sure why this is a good news since I am paying for a gym, instead of using the "free" one in my condo). Bad news is I don't go as frequently as I wish to, trying to fix this though.

Anyway, since it has been such a long time since my last update, I thought it would be great to just update what has been going on with my life, in summary form:

2021

I left my job at P*C in January 2022, not sure why I had left (the benefits were incredibly good). Most likely due the fact that I was not really happy with (1) the entire GMS department was sold as a separate business to an investment firm (we were moving way from P*C), I had a lot of doubts when this was announced - mostly on whether the process, scope of work, and benefits would change. Well, management promised nothing would change and benefits would retain but I found out after I left (this year in fact) that they removed all the benefits. Fun fact: I regretted leaving the company (again, because of the benefits) but after hearing what had happened, I don't have that regret anymore. (2) Everyone that I know, and relied on, was leaving or had left. When you lose your closest work buddies, you would somehow just lose the motivation to continue working at the company.

2022

I left P*C and guess what? I rejoined DTT. I know, I know... I am an idiot. Of all the immigration firms that I could join, why DTT? Beats me, I have no idea either. It was going great at the start, but once my director left, all hell breaks loose. Long story short; I was there for only six months; I got too burnt out, I resigned with no new job in line and I bought myself out - I paid one month in lieu of my notice period. That was how tired, and burnt out I felt at that time. So for the entire month of July, while job hunting, I was just lazing around, "enjoying" my unemployment. It was basically a short break for me to just regain my senses.

I was lucky to have found an opportunity with IP; I joined the company as their HR Ops Senior Exec that August. Why lucky, you might wonder? Simply because it was my first in-house HR role and a huge step away from my usual immigration role. Yes, I still did the usual visa applications for the expats in the company BUT I was also doing other HR related matters (including payroll!) which was a huge step for me, career wise. However (there is always a however), this company had many things that irked or raised a red flag for me; (1) the company is too financially unstable - when I joined, they just did a huge retrenchment. Less than 3 months later, another retrenchment and to put a cherry on top, 2 months later, another "small" retrenchment in which my reporting manager was affected. At one point, I was slightly afraid that I would be one of the persons who will be retrenched, and my only consolation was, HR is always the last to go. And then BOOM! Next thing I heard was my manager got retrenched. (2) The management run the organization as if they are running extracurricular clubs in high school. I was a a President/Managing Director in a club back in high school, and it felt exactly the same as how it was back then and at this company. And to make matters worse, the only person who knew how to keep the company operations in line, was asked to leave (because again, insufficient funds). (3) How could someone stay in a company where there is no yearly increment and bonus? I mean, seriously and is not like the benefits were super great either. Anyway, I am deviating quite a bit here, I shall continue with my life update.

Let's back track a bit, I traveled abroad for the first time since the pandemic to Phuket for CNY in January, because my sister relocated to BKK for work and we decided to meet in Phuket to celebrate CNY together. It was an enjoyable and relaxing trip. My parents then flew to BKK with my sister and spent one month there with her. While I came back to KL with my brother, wishing I could also spend a month in BKK with them. But I had just started my new job, and couldn't work remotely. My sister resigned from her role and came back to KL 2 months later.

The second time I traveled abroad since pandemic and this time alone was to SG to attend a friend's wedding in September. I went on a Friday and was supposed to fly back to KL on Sunday but on Saturday night, found out that my grandpa was not doing very well (he underwent a very minor surgery, which later on, turned medically wrong due to the incompetence of the hospital - this is also another story which I will not dwell further). I informed my siblings that night that I will book a separate flight to Kuching directly from SG to see him and asked them to do the same. On Sunday morning, at around 5am, my mum messaged that my grandpa passed away. That same morning, I went to the airport (it was raining heavily in SG) and flew to Kuching to attend his memorial/prayer service and funeral. My dad stayed there for the whole week, and I followed suit. Simply because, I didn't want my dad to travel back to KL alone (my mum and my siblings flew back together).

In December, celebrated Christmas in Kuching, my sister had her second wedding dinner in Hilton (because the first one was during the lockdown and none of my dad's relatives could join).

2023

The year started nicely with Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery - this has become one of my comfort film. Celebrated CNY in Kuching and went to Busan/Seoul with my mum! I wished I could have enjoyed my trip more if it weren't for the stupid food poisoning that I had. Next time, don't worry whether you are eating or spending too much on a trip. You are on holiday, just enjoy whatever you can. It was still a good trip for me.

After coming back from Korea, I had this sudden urge to travel to HK. Initially, I was going to travel alone but I just casually asked my sister if she wanted to join, and she wanted to join (lol). You see, before the pandemic, HK was one of my favourite cities to travel to because I can speak the language, the food was good and things were not that expensive. But boy oh boy, A LOT of things have changed after the pandemic. Things became really expensive in HK; either because our MYR is depreciating like mad, or prices increased immensely in HK. I would say it's both. And the food.... the only time I truly enjoyed what I ate was at HK Disneyland, Sushiro, the Sourdough Egg Tart from Bakehouse and the mango mochi (mind you, the last two were just street snacks). I tried Ichiran for the first time, while it is nice, but it is not something that I would go for everytime I am there. Like it's forgettable. Unlike the Jumbo Shrimp sushi at Sushiro..... I still dream about it sometimes.

I think 2023 is the year for me to get back to travelling more because in September, I went to Danang/Hoi An with a friend. I've gotta say, Danang is such a chill and relaxing place compared to the bigger cities i.e. HCMC. My favourite moment was sitting on the bean bag at the beach, sipping on my pint of beer, and just taking in the surrounding. It was such a nice moment and feeling. At the same time, this was when my skin started f*cking up. You see, I relatively had clear skin for the past 2 years after suffering from acne almost my whole life and out of nowhere, my skin decided to just say "Yup, that's enough, let's go back to the way it was". I don't wish to dwell on this further either because I am truly at a loss, sad, like really sad, but I am on a healing journey so let's see how it goes in the next few months. Maybe a separate post on this later when I find the right words to express it.

Left my job at IP, I was already planning to leave at some point after my 1 year mark with the company. When a recruiter reached out to me about an opportunity, I just took it. Honestly, I didn't think that I would get the job but I did.

2024

Started my new job at my new company and one month in, I am starting to have mixed feelings. Maybe it's too early to say, maybe I have to give it a couple more months to get things going, maybe because I am new to the process and system. There are a lot of maybes' here. I risked a lot by taking this job, I hope it is not a wrong move.

So yes, that is it. That's my life update. I will try to blog more (my upcoming trip to Bali, Seoul again, and other things when I feel like expressing my feelings).

Can I be ¶A e s t h e t i c ¶ too?

Saturday, June 12, 2021 • 10:21 PM • 0 comments

I have been pretty obsessed with TikTok recently. 

Initially, I was telling myself that I will be that person who will not succumb to having a TikTok account.

Heck, was I wrong.

In the first place, I created an account because I wanted to follow accounts who specifically films fridge, and laundry refills and organisation videos. Slowly, I found myself to be addicted to other videos which obviously has nothing to do with reorganising but nonetheless, fun to watch as well.

The negative side is that my 'FYP' is filled with local accounts showing off their shopee haul and making their study/work table more aesthetic. Why is it "negative" you ask? It is simply because I started spending more money than usual on stuffs that I probably do not need but I still buy them anyway because they looked cute in pictures and I have already started envisioning how it will look like on my work table and room.

Well not everything is negative. One thing positive is that it gave me motivation to finally clean out my desk. To be honest, I am not an organised person per se. I would clean my desk every now and then, but it would just end up being super messy again. My English teacher back in high school who also had messy desk in the teacher's room used to say, if you have a messy desk, it means you are a successful person. I guess those words were just stuck in my mind like a glue because ever since then, I ALWAYS have a messy desk. Even when I went abroad to study (both at Cardiff and Nottingham), my desk and room was always messy. When I came back to Malaysia, my desk somehow became even messier (maybe it's just me....). 

After watching multiple videos on TikTok, I had this sudden motivation to deep clean my desk so on Friday, 11 June 2021 which happened to be a *FlexFriday at work. With nothing to do in mind, and work was not an option, I decided to clean my desk. Which was what I did for the next 24 hours.

Lo and behold, my desk; before and after. Actually, it's still work in progress because I am waiting for the shelf rack to arrive for me to complete my project.

BEFORE

AFTER

I took only half of the table because the other side is still a bit of a mess.

Once I received my packages from shopee, I'll film the whole desk when it's complete and looks a e s t h e t i c.

Christmas 2019 Part 1 : Bulgaria

Saturday, January 4, 2020 • 9:45 PM • 0 comments

It's the most wonderful time of the year!
Our Christmas trip destination last year was to Budapest and Bratislava. I was particularly excited for the trip because (1) I have been wanting to visit to Budapest and (2) I got a new phone.
Feast your eyes my new iPhone 11 in purple.

Never thought I would go back to using Apple phones but I am really liking it so far! I still occasionally misses my S10 though.
Anyway, our flight to Sofia, Bulgaria was on 21.12.19 - 2am flight. We checked in and arrived at the airport on 20.12.19 but while dropping off our luggages, I noticed that our flight was delayed to 3.10am. We were worried about this delay because we had another flight to catch when we arrived at Doha. Our connecting time was only 1 hour and 40 minutes. With this delay, the connecting time became shorter but we were quite sure that we would still be able to make it.
We made it to our gate and the plane had arrived but for some reason, we did not board the plane until 3.30am. No justification was provided and at this point, my sister and I were very sure that we will miss our connecting flight. We departed Malaysia at 4am (that was a whooping 2 HOURS delay) - as soon as we touched down in Doha - we had about 30 mins to make it to our next flight. The moment we walked into the terminal, we saw various ground staffs holding placards for other connecting flights and one of it was for Sofia. We were waiting for other possible passengers flying the same route (there was another family of 8 and a Bulgarian). After everyone had gathered, the ground staff told us that we did make it to our connecting flight, and the system had automatically re-routed us to the next available flight which was the next morning. She explained that we can either opt to wait for that flight (they would provide us hotel rooms to stay in) or we can choose a different route to fly to Sofia.
All of us walked over to the transfer desk to check what other flights were available for the day. There was one other possible route : Doha - Warsaw - Sofia. My sister and I went for it because we really just want to get to Sofia. We took the flight and truth to be told, I enjoyed the flight very much. It was so much better than our KL - Doha flight. We arrived at Warsaw - Chopin International Airport in which we were quite disappointed with the layout of the airport. There was not much happenings at all. Anyway, we finally made it to Sofia in the evening 5pm local time. By then, my sister and I were both extremely exhausted with 20 hours of travelling time and practically no proper sleep for the past 36 hours. We crossed through 4 different time zones in technically a day and we were just so sick and tired. The worst part? My sister's luggage did not arrive. It was very weird since my luggage arrived with me. However, it was not as bad as the other family. They had 8 luggages altogether and 6 did not arrive and they were already going to leave Sofia the next day.
Thankfully, our flight to Bratislava was on 23.12.19 so we had a one day gap to be fully rested and for the luggage to be found and returned to us.
Conclusion : Both my sister and I have been frequent travellers of Qatar but after this flight experience, I think I would start looking at other airlines for my future travels.