Genting Trip - 22 Dec '-06 to 25 Dec '06

Spent this year's Christmas in Genting again. This year, Genting is extremely cold. Maybe because it's year-end and monsoon season. We woke up at 5.30am to get ready and left the house at 6.15am. It was raining that morning but when I called the cab and went downstairs to wait for it's arrival, rained stopped! ;) The coach left golden Mile Complex at 7am sharp. Journey was ok, maybe we have got used to it after travelling to Genting so many times.

We arrived Genting at around 2.30pm. Supposed to deposit our luggages at Genting Highland Hotel and wait for my cousin Raymond, his baby Hazel (5 months old) and my aunt, Priscilla to arrive at 4pm. The 3 of them travelled via SQ to KL airport and limousine to Genting. We created a boo-boo cos we deposited our luggages at Genting Hotel instead. :P

There were 8 adults and 3 children, all squeezed into 2 hotel rooms.. 3 to a bed, 2 slept on the floor. First night there, my mum, cousin and my aunt went to gamble first cos I need to look after Rachel. I went down to gamble at around 12-ish am till ard 4-ish am. Took only RM $150 to gamble.. Limited funds, sigh.. Luckily won RM$600 but in the end lose another RM$300. Decided to call off for the day when there was still some winnings. My mum better still, went to Genting without changing any RM. Gave her RM$300 to spent there and she went to gamble, first night lost. Second night, she won RM$700+. Told her to pay for the X'mas Dinner which cost RM$250 per pax!

On the third day, my mum went to gamble again.. in form.. won another few hundreds.. She was so happy. Bought a pair of Seed jeans (RM$109), 1 Soda top (RM$39), 1 gold ring (RM$136)! Happily spending money there! As for me, I only gamble on first night and for another 1 hr or so on the second night. Too tired to gamble. In fact, spent of my time there sleeping and bringing Rachel for her rides and games.

Rachel enjoyed herself during the day except that night time she will miss home and Jonathan. On our first night there, she told me before she slept that she wanted to go home now and sleep! Told her, too late liao. No more buses to send us back home. Finally she was too tired and went to sleep.

On our second day there, I brought her to First World for her games, rides and went to the Child Care Centre that she likes. Of cos, when she was at the Child Care, I have to stay with her becos she's too young and small size. We stayed there for 1 hr. Initially she was a bit scared of the height of the playground. After 5 mins or so, she was ok cos I climbed up with her.

We had our Christmas Dinner at The Olive on our third day, 24 Dec '06. Small portion of food on big plate! First time eating Fresh Oysters. Tasted not bad. Ha..Ha.. Me and Rachel likes the desert most! Nice decorations and there's a scope of ice cream, with Christmas Minced Pie and Pudding. Rachel cant wait for the Dinner to be over. Well, kids cant sit down or stay still for too long! After Dinner, Rachel and me went back to hotel for our beauty sleep while the rest headed for Casino. Initially I wanted to go down after my mum went back to the room but was too tired to get up. :P

On our last day at Genting, not much time to do anything cos we have to catch the coach at 2.30pm. Luckily there was no jam at both causeways. Arrived in Singapore around 9.30pm. So far, the trip is nice and relaxing for me. :)

Counting Down...

Finally.. last 7 working days with my current company. So many things not cleared, filed, thrown and hand over. Still in the mist of employing a new capable, trainable secretary.. Please... Come in asap or NOW! So that I can do a proper handover job.

I had an Admin Asst for 2 and a half DAYS. Not a very good experience though. Guess maybe she and me really cant click on the very first day. So now got to advertise and start calling for new candidates for interview.

This coming Fri (22/12/06), I will be going to Genting for my Christmas Holidays with Rachel and my mum. Rachel's looking forward to this trip as she gets to wear her new clothes, Snow White Princess shoes and socks. Finally into the Princess category.. not so much of Barney. And for me, it's a break for me as this Dec is really a horribly busy month! Hopefully, will be able to win some money while I'm there.. :)

Heard from my aunt, Priscilla, that my cousin, Raymond, has booked for Christmas Dinner at Genting for all of us on 24 Dec '06. Price is ard S$100+ per pax - go Dutch! Aiyoh! Such an expensive dinner. :(

I'm Down with Fever :-(

Now, it's my turn to be down with Fever.. after Rachel. :-( Got the fever bug on Sat, took Panadol Cold Relief tablets and thought would be fine. Who knows, ganna very bad sore throat.. the kind that it's painful even when you swallow saliva..

Still gung-ho, continue to go to work on Monday. By lunch time, cannot tahan liao, took half day leave back to rest. Finally decided to see doctor last night. Given a course of antibiotics, cold tablets (1 for runny nose, 1 for stuffy nose), fever tablets and 1 bottle of cough syrup. Given MC for today, but no choice, no one to cover up for me especially now that I'm clearing my stuff, so got to go back to work.

Today, my boss just told me to remember to write out a cheque for my AWS this Fri! Hurray! And she will pay me my salary after Xmas. To me, no diff lah! At least, still get my AWS now that I have already tendered my resignation. :-)

My Resignation...

I tendered my Resignation Letter to my boss on Tuesday, 5 Dec '06. As expected, the letter gave her a big shock. I had expected that my last month here will be like Hell... but surprisingly so far so good. ;-P (Cross my fingers that this situation will remain till my last day - 4 Jan '07).

Ok, back to my resignation. When I handed my letter to my boss, she got a shock then and asked me what was that? Replied that it was my Resignation Letter and I'm leaving. She said: "You are the boss here what. How can you resigned? Moreover, you are very happy here!" Well.. I guess she had forgotten the no of times when both of us were screaming and shouting at each other here, banging the cupboards and tables.

Reasons that I gave her for leaving were : Higher Salary, Change of environment and different job scope. She counter-offer me saying that she will pay whatever amount my new office is paying me. I told her that money , yes is important to me, but it's not the main issue why I leave. Moreover, my pay had been freezed for the past 3 years! If that's the main reason, I would have left long ago.. no need to wait till now. Her eyes wide opened then.. nothing to counter-offer me as I kept emphasizing to her that I want a change of environment and different job scope.

My boss told 3 of my advisers about my Resignation. She wanted to find out how they felt about me leaving, and since I'm very close to them, she wanted them to persuade me to stay on here. She told them that when she received my letter, she was devastated, lost and confused. Felt her right hand dropped to the ground! When she left the office, out front seems nothing happened.. Cool.. yet inside, legs wobbling, body shivering. Drove round and round feeling so lost and confused, in the end, ended up in Church, prayed and then cry and cry.. Quite drama-mama..

As for my advisers, they were in fact happy for me that I have found a job! They told her that if I have a better opportunity and prospect outside, she should be happy for me and to give me all her blessings! She has got to learn to let go. She told one of them to talk to me and found out where I'm going, what I'll be doing and most importantly who recommended me! She had the idea that one of my ex-advisers recommended me. Feedback that she got from that adviser is : A close girlfriend, the one who helped her out during her financial difficulty, got business contact and told me to go and take a look and to find out my current market value. Office located in Jurong, but got a branch office in Bugis. Job scope.. PA but no need to do filing! Wow! Job was offered to me in Oct/Nov and I had serious thoughts about the job, weighing the pros and cons before I made the final decision. My adviser told her to let me go and give me her blessings.

As for my work here, so much things to clear. Advertised for new girl and hopefully she comes in asap so that I can pass her all my filings.. and to handover all the things before I leave. Even if I leave before the new girl comes, I will come back when I'm free for half a day (mostly Sat) to teach her. Better leave sui sui! :-)

Fever Bugs

Ha..ha.. ganna complaint from my good friend that I have not been updating my blog :-P Rachel was down with high fever since 25 Nov '06. Her teacher called my mum up asking her to bring Rachel home as she was running a high fever. I rushed back home immediately after work, but found her to be climbing up and down the sofa.. not feeling sick at all. But during the night her fever shot up to 39.9 Degree Celsius.. Got to keep sponging Rachel to keep her fever down and in the end, over the weekends, didn't get to sleep much.

Next day first thing in the morning, rushed down to see doctor. Given a course of Antibiotics and Paracetamol. Not much use to Rachel as her fever was still on and off. Finally, bo bian, brought her to see the Chinses Sinseh. Diagnosed that Rachel was down with "Mo Dan". Given a bottle of chinese medicine and some herbs to boil for Rachel to drink. My God! Giving her the chinese medicine was like having a war in my house! My mum got to hold her hands and legs down, me got to hold the syringe and force open her mouth, and Jonathan telling Rachel the medicine very nice. Eat medicine first and play later with her. Luckily for once, he of some help but not all though. :-) As for the herbal drink, initally Rachel refused to drink, but then her mummy here told her that it's a special type of green tea which I brought back from office specially for her. My mum added Honey to the drink. And in a while, she drank 1 cup of the herbal tea. Phew.. Even Jonathan believe the white lie, asked to drink also. My mum gladly gave him..

Fever was still on that night but not that high. And by Thursday (29 Nov'06), fever was gone completely. Thank God! I always get worried whenever Rachel has got fever, due to her Febrile Seizure in March this year. An incident which scares the life out of me. She will only outgrow this condition when she reaches the age 6.. 3 more years to go..

Rachel's 1st School Performance

Rachel had her first school performance on 18 Nov 2006 (Sat). For one week before the performance, she practiced singing and the dance actions everyday at home. But, on the actual it was completely a different thing!

Rachel was dressed up as a butterfly for a sing and dance performance. When she first appeared on stage with 5 other friends, she found me, Jonathan and Grandma among the audiences, called out "Gor Gor" from the stage, everyone laughed at her innocent action. Bet she got a shock of her life then to realise that she was actually on stage and such a big group of audience.

After that, she got a bit of stage fright and started fidgeting around, scratching her face, neck, pulling her hair and rubbing her eyes. Shortly after, the few of them went backstage, but my dear Rachel was still standing there looking at us. Her teacher got to go onstage to guide her back. While returning to backstage, she turned and waved at us. Another innocent action from Rachel.. ha..ha..

When her playgroup class came onstage to perform the sing and dance, my dear Rachel just stand there stoned. I guess she was too tired then, around 4pm and she woke up early at 8.30am that day. Must be a long day for her. Everyone was dancing and singing, Rachel just stand there, just like before scratching her face, neck, pulling her hair.. ;-) She just continue these actions whenever she went onstage.. Sigh..

Finally, when it was the Grand Finale, everyone went on stage to sing their school anthem. Rachel was beginning to fall asleep. But the moment the confettis were popped and balloons were let go, she began to wake up. Running round the stage, grabbing balloons! Back to the naughty Rachel only when the whole performance ended.. :-)

Birthday Celebrations Pictures

Busy Week...

Ha..ha.. It's been a long long time since my last posting.. have been very very busy... especially now working part-time at night. Mon - drinking, Tues and Wed working. Thurs - birthday party to attend and Fri - gathering dinner to meet Eve, Harng Min and her boyfriend. Saturday and Sunday.. fully occupied by my Princess Rachel. What a hectic week! :-(

The name... Peko & Rachel

When I created this Blog, the name Peko came into my mind. It's my favourite Character and the other name of course is Rachel. Every one in my family, from my mum to Jonathan to Rachel and to some of my friends know that I'm a Peko fan. ;-P