Monday....

While on the LRT, I was listening to 'All By Myself' by Celine Dion.

Then, I told myself that one of the things that I must do before I die is to watch Celine Dion live in concert.

Back from OBS :D

I recently came back from Outward Bound Malaysia Lumut. Yup, my employers sent us there for, according to them, 'development of personal leadership and building successful relationships and team synergy.' And they forgot to mention the dark tan and the numerous ant and mosquito bites as well.



Leaving the tan and bites aside, it was a really good experience for me. Of course, I had previously been to OBS a long time ago, but this time I was able to do most of the things they threw at us without much problems, unlike last time. (Yes, I was damn unfit a long time ago :P) Things had also changed in OBS; IMHO it had become more commercialised already. They had recently built new cement dorms with corporate sponsorship on each and every dorm, my employers included : /



But I think this was because it was a non-profit organisation, so every donation helps, lol. But I wasn't complaining; the living area was much more comfortable than the wooden dorms by the hills.


The weather was pretty nasty throughout; it was raining most of the time. It even rained while we were doing our orienteering event which made life really difficult cos we can't spot the checkpoints, so we got lost in the jungle. Luckily we found our way out a few hours later, so it wasn't really that bad. And nobody got bitten by leeches :D . The weather was worse while we were doing the whaler expedition. FYI, a whaler is a huge sampan that is powered by 8 people with oars, so rowing coordination is key.



But about a quarter way around Pangkor, the heavens poured its heart out and we had to be towed to the campsite. Many of us got seasick cos of choppy waves but we did mange to make it to the campsite within the 4 1/2 hours targeted :D So it was actually a blessing in disguise haha!! And sugar biscuits and Gardenia bread had never tasted that good before, especially when it was raining heavily and you can't cook anything!! :D

All in all, it was a pretty good experience for our group :P I did manage to achieve the targets that I had set for before the whole thing started, so I was pretty pleased with myself. Of course, I can never forget the group that had stuck with each other through thick and thin, making this a memorable outing for us and letting us get to know each other better. XD

A New Point in Life...

I start work on Thursday. :(

Did you know....

This is the Savage Garden that we all know about.



This is the Savage Garden that most of us don't know about.



Yes, Savage Garden was actually the name of a street behind the Tower of London. I came across it during one of my 'long morning walks' through the City, and was pretty amazed by it. Not the road, of course, but the huge Victorian buildings surrounding it and a park in the middle of it. Too bad I didn't get any pics of it, but I did get the street name of another 'interesting' name, to be revealed soon.... XD

P.S. I've read about the church by Byward Street, in the map above, saying that Samuel Pepys was actually on top of the pinnacle of this church during the Great Fire of London in 1666 and had documented the entire event from there. Interesting :P

First day at Office

Finally after all the wait!!

Today's my first day at my employer. Well, it was just a pre-briefing session; work officially starts after the Raya holidays. It was great to meet up with so many of the friends I met during the assessment center, it was more like a reunion rather than a introduce-yourself section!! Of course, I was a bit pai seh cos I never kept in touch with them since March, but I've lost their contacts whilst in London. This is another long, long story which I don't think I'll divulge to the world :P I also got to meet with new people that were gonna be my colleagues in the future. HR also told us that there was another briefing for another group this coming Friday, that a Harvard grad will be joining in. OMG!!!!

So while we were at it today, we also had to do a medical as well in a clinic opposite the office. OMG, the doctors and nurses were all so old that I think the total age of all of them added up is around 600, haha!!! And they performed, what I think, was probably the most extreme medical I have ever done!! The basic checkup ie blood pressure, urine and X-ray was done, but we also had to do a ECG and blood test as well. Basically what the electrocardiogram, ie. ECG for short, does is to test for your pulse to see if you are a normal human being or your heart feels like beating whenever it wants to beat...just kidding!!! But it's somewhere along the lines lah. They diagnosis involves sticking suction cups on your chest to test for your pulse and it left marks on it. Wahh, damn 7 ugly ler those marks haha!!! It looked like love marks!! (Note: friends told me that. I don't know how love marks look like. No, positively negative and ixnay on the knowledge of love marks :) )

By the time we went back to office, it was almost 1pm and raining heavily. We went to the cafeteria for lunch but everything was gone already and we didnt want to brave the rain, so we decided to continue with the briefing and finish it ASAP. Also, there were a few people that were fasting anyways, so might as well adjourn early since they also can't eat anything and just wasting time while we went and eat :P

Then we went through this whole stack of documents that we had to sign and all, and then HR discussed renumeration with us!! WE NOW HAVE A REVISION OF SALARY!!! Luckily the low initial salary didn't put me off this job,haha!! If you guys wanna know how much was the initial salary was, it was lower than an auditor in the Big 4, but now its higher than them :) and we also get a ton of benefits as well which wasn't fully disclosed in the briefing, but it was substantial. :)

Now onwards to the first day of work.

P.S. Off to Outward Bound Lumut soon...though it won't be as 'slaving' as the previous one. It seems that the most taxing one was rowing the wailer around Pangkor....hmm we'll see about that :P

Sirens!!!

One thing that is totally different in London than in KL is the noise. While KL is usually noised up by stupid mat rempits and ahbengs with their modified machines that comes with huge exhausts that you can put ur entire fist into, the one noise of London comes from this.



And this.



And this.



Anywhere you are in London, at any time, there will always be the sound of sirens blaring between time gaps of 5 minutes. While I find this commendable for treating every 999 call seriously and as an emergency, it also totally annoys me. If Oxford Street is not already busy enough with buses and the occasional cabs picking up and dropping up passengers, then comes the occasional squad car or ambulance, blaring their sirens and demanding everyones attention to move off the road. And they also drive on the opposite side of the road.

Statistics released early this year saying that squad cars are involved in 1 out of every 23 accidents in London. At the way they respond to emergencies, I;m just wondering who will be at the receiving end of the emergency call.