Ah, choices choices....

Life is all about choices.... of course, it would be good if you have those choices available to you.... like which job you'd like to accept, which mode of transport you can take, which holiday destination you can go to.....

In my case, at the moment, I'm thinking communication.... I'm thinking, Nokia E72 or the Iphone... well, in the case of the Iphone, entertainment too!!! helluva difference in the finances required though.... will have to give it more thought.... and continue to sleep on it haha....

How's it been...

Its been awhile since my last entry, and no wonder... th things that I have on my plate right now.... work-wise i mean.... and there has been loads of weddings to attend, and not to mention my recent dancing activities covering tango, salsa and bachata.... not forgetting I do have relationships with family, girlfriend and friends to manage....its the attempt at keeping an adequate work-life balance that's making life very tiring....

If I were to have somehow scraped the time to put in regular posts into this blog in the past few months, the blog title should be changed to "Rants of Fafa", such is my current state of mind....

2009 has flown past, another 20 days to go.... it doesnt matter anymore, what time it is, what day it is, what month or year I'm in anymore.... as long as I get all the reports, audit plans, proposals, etc all out on time....

I'm taking a break between Christmas and New Year, hopefully the break will help me recover from all the recent traumas.... That break cant come soon enough!!

Its Merdeka!!

Has it really been that long since I last put in an entry here?

Many things have happened since my last entry, namely the Standard Chartered Run, which went reasonably well... Though I would like to improve on my time in running the 10km, but then again, completing it was an achievement in itself as I had never run 10km in my life until that fateful day....

Oh, and the tango performance went well, a lot of people had nice things to say.... Good to know all the stress was worth it, and that all went how it was supposed to... And.... I may even do it again haha...

SL has gone off to Australia for a holiday, she's been gone for a week, not a day goes by when I'm not on the phone with her, waiting for her return to me, which will happen in another 2 weeks.... it is true, how absence makes the heart grows fonder, but I already knew that even before she left....

Fasting month has started, and it's all going well... have started reading the Quran, and I do hope to finish at least 20 chapters, finishing it all this month would be a tall order, as I only started it a few days ago... but you never know.... if i reach 25, that would be a heck of an achievement, why, it would be exceeding expectations!! hmm....been listening to my bosses too often there...

No special celebration for Merdeka, just some personal pondering on what this day means, what happened 52 years ago.... and how lucky I am to be a Malaysian, living in Malaysia.... and how I wish we would all realise what a good thing we have.... but also not forgetting how much more we need to do in order to progress even further as a nation...

Happy Merdeka y'all!!

All that hard work!!

I'm doing something I've never thought I would do... then again, i said the same thing about salsa and tango.... I signed up for the Standard Chartered Marathon... Of course i'm not doing the full marathon, but am starting with th 10km run.... The target is to at least register a time, where the cut off time has been set at 90 minutes....

For a guy who couldnt last a minute running, this is a big thing.... yes, i play futsal and all, but its very different when you're running around chasing a ball, there is a moving target.... now i find myself having to motivate myself to just keep on pushing....

And I'm quite surprised that I'm now able to run for 40 minutes, covering 6km.... impressive considering there are no balls in sight!! This is due to the work I've put in the last couple of months....

And then disaster struck.... the run is on this Sunday, and I came down with food poisoning on Monday... I'm feeling very weak, I havent trained since Sunday, and I dont think I'm in any shape to run the 10 km.....

I'm going to give it a shot anyway, walk if I have to, but I'm going to complete 10km.... But i'm giving a serious thought to signing up for the Siemens 10 km run in mid July.... We'll see how it goes on Sunday before I plot my next move.....

The Grand Ol' Lady

Hehe, its been awhile since I got my baby back.... as in my Accord, after a near 4 month absence, who underwent a rehabilitation back in JB.... I call her the Grand Ol' Lady because she turns 25 this year, a quarter of a century old, but she still runs beautifully....

While I had no problems driving the Wira or the Merc, my favourite is still the Accord, I have a soft spot for her.... Being the only manual car in the house is another attraction, as I find automatic transmission cars boring to drive....

The mechanics here couldnt figure out what was wrong with her, despite what the AAM fella told me when she broke down on me earlier this year.... My uncle had done wonders with her, she's so much more powerful, hehe, she feels like a much younger woman now :)

A changed carburetor and distributor has added the missing 'oomph' and she powers ahead whenever I push her..... hehe, my uncle has said that he doesnt see any reason why the car cant serve me for the next 10 years.... And I dont disagree either!!!

Whooooosshhh!!!

Sigh, what a year 2009 has turned out to be. I was just commenting to my friends during our new years eve dinner, how quickly 2008 passed us by. The first 3 months of 2009 had tip-toed past me without me realising it, and I suddenly find myself in the month of April. It doesn’t help that I commute to JB on a weekly basis, which seems to make time pass by even quicker.

I suppose this could be aggravated by the fact that I look forward to returning to KL, but only to find the weekend fly by and before I know it, I’m back at the airport in the wee hours of the morning waiting for my flight to JB.

Gosh this is tiring. And depressing. Depressing because my life is flashing by, and I don’t really get to enjoy it. Even the things that brings me joy takes its toll on me, as I sacrifice my lazy Saturday and Sunday afternoons to attend the tango and salsa classes.

Or perhaps its down to lousy time management. Perhaps I should make an assessment of the time spent on my daily activities, and if I can identify the unnecessary and non-value adding activities, I would find more time for myself.

Oh, how I have let my work get the better of me, approaching the problem the way a consultant would. Yet, that doesn’t solve the problem of how time flies by and me not enjoying life.

Perhaps the best thing to do in slowing down the pace of my life would be to quit my job. But with jobs being hard to find at the moment, I doubt I’d do that. I guess for now, I’ll just try to enjoy as much as I can, until the day I finally embark on a new adventure in my professional career.

On the move again....

I've been so used to being based in KL.... for work I mean.... the last time I had to travel was to Bangladesh, and if my memory serves me right, I returned in August 2007, before my a bit over a year posting to Shell began.... and I must say, I had become pretty set in my ways, and had started salsa seriously again, not to mention having another go at tango....

I was informed sometime last week that I was being seconded to another department, for a national project.... oh no, I thought, that's not good, because if I'm not wrong, the team is based mainly in JB..... And my worse fears were confirmed on Thursday afternoon....

I am to be seconded to this project until June, and the team commutes on a weekly basis to JB.... At least I come back for the weekends, but its exhausting to be wake up so early that I have to leave the house at 5.30am, and arrive in JB, at a time when on a usual day, I'm just finishing my breakfast before walking out of my house to go to the office!!

I was thinking of having dinner with my grandmother at least once a week.... after getting here, I'm now told that we work late every day, and have a late dinner, which is why everyone is getting fatter..... I'll save that topic for another day.....

I'm missing everything there is to miss about home, my family, my girlfriend, my bed..... haha, though I suppose its a matter of getting used to.... I dealt with it pretty well all those years before August 2007 after all.....

I guess I'm going to be even better acquainted with JB, since I'm going to be here for quite awhile, perhaps I'll go and see what Danga Bay has to offer..... hehe, but one thing is for sure, I know I'm going to love the food here!!!