For the next three days I have to attend a technical course on Instrument Installation and Maintenance in Kuala Terengganu. Everytime I tell my Principal Engineer I still have this course (and two more) to attend before I can be considered for a promotion, I do it with a wry smile. He thinks these courses are a joke, I tell him I don't know what three days can teach me that three years at site can't. But it's still compulsory for me to go, and I'm not complaining of the break it's given me off my current project.
I'm typing this from the KLIA Departure Hall, which I found out from Hubby has free wireless internet. My flight isn't till 4.30 pm, so I have a good 15-20 minutes before I have to make dash for it. I'd already checked in at KL CAT, so when I got here at 3.00 pm all I had to do was have lunch at McDonald's. A Filet-O-Fish, Mcnuggets and milkshake set me back RM17.20! Scandalous!!
I had planned to leave the office earlier, but those demmed CTR's held me back. That's the problem with doing a good job as an underling in the first place - when something needs changing or fixing, your superiors just refuse to do it themselves! And it's not so difficult to do. A Cost-Time-Resource sheet isn't exactly Rocket Science.
Anyway, there's a bloke sitting across from me who looks suspiciously like Zahid from AF2 (remember him? His moment of glory may have been shortlived, swallowed by the force that's Tsumawi). I can't be too sure cos he's got his sunnies on (only celebrities trying to evade the public wear sunnies in shady spots like the KLIA Post office). There's another bloke with him (no sunnies this one) and they're both wearing these matching white sneakers with cartoon graffiti all over. I was so tempted to go over and ask for his autograph so I can give it to one of the girls back at the office who is a self-confessed Zahid fan, but I guess I'll respect his attempt at privacy and pretend not to notice the bright loud t-shirt. Oh, he's just walked off, so that's it then.
I'm not quite sure how I'm going to get to the training site from my hotel tomorrow. The lst time I attended a course there was like 5 years ago, and then they provided a bus that actually picked us up from the hotel. I'd have to call up the course coordinator to ask him. I'd need the site address too if I have to make my own travel arrangements.
I'm really sleepy right now. My brain is not quite functioning. Zahid's back (?)
This post is going to read like rubbish.
Monday 26 September 2005
Friday 23 September 2005
Api! Api!
Can you imagine what it is like to walk down 31 flights in a narrow, low ventilation stairwell?
Well, neither can I. Fortunately enough, since I'm about 3 months pregnant, I'm a 'special case' and was allowed to take the service lift, accompanied by one of the floor safety officers, straight to the ground floor in this morning's fire drill. The rest of the office had to go all the way down to level 42 before taking the express lift to the main lobby.
But it didn't end there. Our mustering area was in front of the mosque, a good 10 minutes' walk through the park (and at 9.30 in the morning on a sunny day, that was not very pleasant). Since I took the faster route down, my colleagues, including the guy with the placard designating our floor hadn't arrived yet. My companion and I were wandering quite aimlessly in the general vicinity near the mosque for a few more minutes before the rest of the crew showed up.
There was almost a carnival feel in the atmosphere. Picture two of the tallest office buildings in the world spewing forth all its human contents onto the surrounding grounds. There were ambulances and Rescue 991 vehicles stationed near the mosque, in the event that a few of the stairclimbers turned out to be 'special cases' too.
And they were certainly kept busy. We saw a lady rushed by on a stretcher, and a few on wheelchairs. Sirens blared once in a while. Bottles of mineral water were being distributed - or rather, grabbed before they could be properly distributed as per the marking on the box. A group of women nearby started screaming and shrieking - one of the resident lizards in the park decided to gatecrash their party.
It was about 11 o'clock before the masses started moving back in the direction of the towers. By then a few of us were feeling quite hungry (I swear I can tell the time by my stomach) and decided to go for a quick snack. Masitah, our project secretary, hadn't even had breakfast yet so she was dying for a morsel of food. We decided to make a stop at the second floor food court in Suria KLCC and have nasi ayam.
Masitah, as it turns out, looks so much younger than her years. Very slim and stylish, her eldest daughter is already attending university. She was telling me how my lead engineer was trying to make a pass at her, playing the chivalrous knight by holding her arm on the way down when she very obviously did not need his help and even told him so. We had a good laugh about how he even managed to make new acquaintances at the interim floor while waiting for the lift. Gosh, I really shouldn't be gossipping on a Friday afternoon, but juicy stories about expatriate colleagues (any colleague, for that matter) are always irresistable.
Hmmm... I know I've already had an early lunch, but I know I'll get hungry again by 2.00 pm. So maybe I'll stick around for a couple more minutes, do my prayers, then work up an appetite at the Isetan sale.
Well, neither can I. Fortunately enough, since I'm about 3 months pregnant, I'm a 'special case' and was allowed to take the service lift, accompanied by one of the floor safety officers, straight to the ground floor in this morning's fire drill. The rest of the office had to go all the way down to level 42 before taking the express lift to the main lobby.
But it didn't end there. Our mustering area was in front of the mosque, a good 10 minutes' walk through the park (and at 9.30 in the morning on a sunny day, that was not very pleasant). Since I took the faster route down, my colleagues, including the guy with the placard designating our floor hadn't arrived yet. My companion and I were wandering quite aimlessly in the general vicinity near the mosque for a few more minutes before the rest of the crew showed up.
There was almost a carnival feel in the atmosphere. Picture two of the tallest office buildings in the world spewing forth all its human contents onto the surrounding grounds. There were ambulances and Rescue 991 vehicles stationed near the mosque, in the event that a few of the stairclimbers turned out to be 'special cases' too.
And they were certainly kept busy. We saw a lady rushed by on a stretcher, and a few on wheelchairs. Sirens blared once in a while. Bottles of mineral water were being distributed - or rather, grabbed before they could be properly distributed as per the marking on the box. A group of women nearby started screaming and shrieking - one of the resident lizards in the park decided to gatecrash their party.
It was about 11 o'clock before the masses started moving back in the direction of the towers. By then a few of us were feeling quite hungry (I swear I can tell the time by my stomach) and decided to go for a quick snack. Masitah, our project secretary, hadn't even had breakfast yet so she was dying for a morsel of food. We decided to make a stop at the second floor food court in Suria KLCC and have nasi ayam.
Masitah, as it turns out, looks so much younger than her years. Very slim and stylish, her eldest daughter is already attending university. She was telling me how my lead engineer was trying to make a pass at her, playing the chivalrous knight by holding her arm on the way down when she very obviously did not need his help and even told him so. We had a good laugh about how he even managed to make new acquaintances at the interim floor while waiting for the lift. Gosh, I really shouldn't be gossipping on a Friday afternoon, but juicy stories about expatriate colleagues (any colleague, for that matter) are always irresistable.
Hmmm... I know I've already had an early lunch, but I know I'll get hungry again by 2.00 pm. So maybe I'll stick around for a couple more minutes, do my prayers, then work up an appetite at the Isetan sale.
Wednesday 14 September 2005
Movin' On Up
I'm up in the clouds.
There are four different parties involved in this new project - the Client, the PMC, my company and our Consortium partner from the UK. We've rented office space up on the 73rd floor of Tower 2. It takes me about 2 1/2 minutes to get up here, and involves two separate lifts. Even at the transit level 42 I'm already higher up than most of the surrounding buildings, so being up on level 73 gives me quite a good view of the Klang valley. It's also the first floor where the outer beams start tapering to form the pinnacle 15 storeys above.
Everything in this office is spanking new, albeit on loan for two years. The cubicle dividers are bright yellow (priming us to work for Shell in the future, as one of my colleagues observed), the desks a pleasing beech colour with ergonomic semicircular cutouts (so much better on the eyes than my old grey table downstairs) and everyone's got those LCD monitors with sleek black-and-silver CPU's.
We've been getting 'visitors' from the old office who wish to check out the new surroundings on quite a regular basis. And we've been swapping CD's and mp3 files to listen on the headsets that come with the PC's. The headsets have nifty little microphones attached as well, so maybe one day we'll have a Karaoke competition, or our very own version of Malaysian Idol.
AFUNDI Dian, anyone?
There are four different parties involved in this new project - the Client, the PMC, my company and our Consortium partner from the UK. We've rented office space up on the 73rd floor of Tower 2. It takes me about 2 1/2 minutes to get up here, and involves two separate lifts. Even at the transit level 42 I'm already higher up than most of the surrounding buildings, so being up on level 73 gives me quite a good view of the Klang valley. It's also the first floor where the outer beams start tapering to form the pinnacle 15 storeys above.
Everything in this office is spanking new, albeit on loan for two years. The cubicle dividers are bright yellow (priming us to work for Shell in the future, as one of my colleagues observed), the desks a pleasing beech colour with ergonomic semicircular cutouts (so much better on the eyes than my old grey table downstairs) and everyone's got those LCD monitors with sleek black-and-silver CPU's.
We've been getting 'visitors' from the old office who wish to check out the new surroundings on quite a regular basis. And we've been swapping CD's and mp3 files to listen on the headsets that come with the PC's. The headsets have nifty little microphones attached as well, so maybe one day we'll have a Karaoke competition, or our very own version of Malaysian Idol.
AFUNDI Dian, anyone?
