My two boys are napping. I've had the last two hours all to myself, and I'm supposed to be completing some work I brought home from the office - but I have a feeling it's going to be late on Sunday evening before it actually gets done.
THIS is why I should never bring work home. There are too many distractions around me - the book I've been trying to read, the VCD I've meant to watch, and the TV programmes that usually fill up other people's weekends. But I really, really have to finish this piece of work that's due Monday morning, and this is the best time to do it.
Well, go do it then.
Fine, I will.
Saturday 26 February 2005
Wednesday 16 February 2005
Acting some more...
I had to go on stage today. Haven't done that for ages. I thought I could escape acting as I'd already prepared the script and all, but no...
We are participating in a regional Quality-sharing forum in March. One of the events lined up is a series of sketches by the various units and subsidiaries of the parent Company. The sketches are supposed to display quality practices relating to work.
This event is usually a competition, and the winner of the regional sessions would slog it out at the biennial group-wide forum to emerge as THE winner. But this year, the organising committee decided to change it into a 'SHARING' forum. It will just be a showcase, not a competition anymore. When we were first informed of this change, it did put a slight damper on the team's spirits. After all, when we won the competition at our unit's own Quality Day, we all started dreaming of winning the BIG one and maybe get a mention by the President himself (company punya, not Bush). That would look good in anyone's yearly appraisal.
Today we had to go through an assessment by the organising committee. Again, we thought that it was a screening to select only four out of the seven entries in total. It turned out to be a sort of rehearsal cum coaching session, just to make sure the sketches are acceptable enough to be presented (we don't want to go around offending other people, do we?) and also for the committee to decide on the presentation schedule. (Apparently 3 will be presented during a formal dinner, while the other 4 will be during the forum itself).
We decided to put up our best anyway. The committee rep said it had to be a live performance, this assessment, so despite our busy schedule we still put in rehearsals during our lunch breaks. Nevermind that two of our cast had to go outstation at the last minute, and I had to replace one of them with only two practice sessions. Nevermind that two other units, who couldn't make it to the assessment, only sent in videos of their sketches.
In the end, I think we put up a commendable performance, and our efforts to get stand-ins for the missing cast members put us in a good stead with the assessing committee. So much so that the committee leader actually sought our opinion as to which sketch to present during the dinner.
One of the teams did the whole presentation on video. I thought it was very well done. The editing and shots were superb, so much so that it invoked envious remarks from some other groups who snidely claimed it must have taken tens of thousands of precious RM to make, when it only cost 50 bucks! Just goes to show there's a lot of hidden talent within the Group. Maybe we should start producing our corporate advertisements inhouse...
We are participating in a regional Quality-sharing forum in March. One of the events lined up is a series of sketches by the various units and subsidiaries of the parent Company. The sketches are supposed to display quality practices relating to work.
This event is usually a competition, and the winner of the regional sessions would slog it out at the biennial group-wide forum to emerge as THE winner. But this year, the organising committee decided to change it into a 'SHARING' forum. It will just be a showcase, not a competition anymore. When we were first informed of this change, it did put a slight damper on the team's spirits. After all, when we won the competition at our unit's own Quality Day, we all started dreaming of winning the BIG one and maybe get a mention by the President himself (company punya, not Bush). That would look good in anyone's yearly appraisal.
Today we had to go through an assessment by the organising committee. Again, we thought that it was a screening to select only four out of the seven entries in total. It turned out to be a sort of rehearsal cum coaching session, just to make sure the sketches are acceptable enough to be presented (we don't want to go around offending other people, do we?) and also for the committee to decide on the presentation schedule. (Apparently 3 will be presented during a formal dinner, while the other 4 will be during the forum itself).
We decided to put up our best anyway. The committee rep said it had to be a live performance, this assessment, so despite our busy schedule we still put in rehearsals during our lunch breaks. Nevermind that two of our cast had to go outstation at the last minute, and I had to replace one of them with only two practice sessions. Nevermind that two other units, who couldn't make it to the assessment, only sent in videos of their sketches.
In the end, I think we put up a commendable performance, and our efforts to get stand-ins for the missing cast members put us in a good stead with the assessing committee. So much so that the committee leader actually sought our opinion as to which sketch to present during the dinner.
One of the teams did the whole presentation on video. I thought it was very well done. The editing and shots were superb, so much so that it invoked envious remarks from some other groups who snidely claimed it must have taken tens of thousands of precious RM to make, when it only cost 50 bucks! Just goes to show there's a lot of hidden talent within the Group. Maybe we should start producing our corporate advertisements inhouse...
Thursday 10 February 2005
Two days to go
I've been in Kerteh for 10 days now. We traveled on the 1st of February (that was another public holiday for Federal Territories) on the new Karak-Kuantan highway, but I didn't see much of it because I dozed off. And I've been working every day since the 2nd of February, supervising and inspecting some tie-in and modification work at a Gas Terminal in Kerteh.
For the uninitiated, that means putting on hard hats and one-piece coveralls (mine is a bright neon yellow, because the blue flame-resistant Nomex type was too large for me), walking about in heavy safety boots (also at least 1/2 size too big, but fortunately high-cut so they don't slip off my feet) and cycling around the plant under the hot sun with sweaty construction workers wolf-whistling at you. And before anyone starts picturing tall, hunky men with glistening muscles - NO, they don't look like that in Malaysia. Picture a bunch of thin, dark-skinned Kelantanese or Terengganu men (with a few Filipinos sprinkled here and there for the 'masyarakat majmuk' factor) in dirty, ill-ftting coveralls and that's more like it.
Yesterday being a public holiday (today and tomorrow as well), I'm not quite in the mood for working. I'm supposed to do 12-hour shifts from 7.00 a.m. to 7.00 p.m. everyday, but yesterday I decided to come in at 8.00 a.m. instead. Breakfast at the resort where I'm staying starts at 7.00, so that was my first stop. Bad decision - I should have just given it a miss and bought breakfast at one of the roadside stalls for a more wholesome meal.
Nothing really happens at site till 8.00 a.m. anyway. And by the time I sauntered in an hour later, there was very little progress beyond where we had left off the day before.
But today I decided to be good and punctual. I'm going to be the first person in the plant, so I can start shouting to the workers about being slow. Show them who's the boss. As I walked past the canteen, fully decked in safety gear and pulling my bike along on the gravelly path (I don't want to ride my bike there and fall flat in front of everyone), one of the other Inspectors called out to me.
Dian, tak boleh masuk site lagi lah. Tengah buat RT. Pukul 9 baru siap. (Dian, you cannot enter the site yet. There's an RT going on till 9 o'clock)
Duhhh.
So much for showing who's the boss.
For the uninitiated, that means putting on hard hats and one-piece coveralls (mine is a bright neon yellow, because the blue flame-resistant Nomex type was too large for me), walking about in heavy safety boots (also at least 1/2 size too big, but fortunately high-cut so they don't slip off my feet) and cycling around the plant under the hot sun with sweaty construction workers wolf-whistling at you. And before anyone starts picturing tall, hunky men with glistening muscles - NO, they don't look like that in Malaysia. Picture a bunch of thin, dark-skinned Kelantanese or Terengganu men (with a few Filipinos sprinkled here and there for the 'masyarakat majmuk' factor) in dirty, ill-ftting coveralls and that's more like it.
Yesterday being a public holiday (today and tomorrow as well), I'm not quite in the mood for working. I'm supposed to do 12-hour shifts from 7.00 a.m. to 7.00 p.m. everyday, but yesterday I decided to come in at 8.00 a.m. instead. Breakfast at the resort where I'm staying starts at 7.00, so that was my first stop. Bad decision - I should have just given it a miss and bought breakfast at one of the roadside stalls for a more wholesome meal.
Nothing really happens at site till 8.00 a.m. anyway. And by the time I sauntered in an hour later, there was very little progress beyond where we had left off the day before.
But today I decided to be good and punctual. I'm going to be the first person in the plant, so I can start shouting to the workers about being slow. Show them who's the boss. As I walked past the canteen, fully decked in safety gear and pulling my bike along on the gravelly path (I don't want to ride my bike there and fall flat in front of everyone), one of the other Inspectors called out to me.
Dian, tak boleh masuk site lagi lah. Tengah buat RT. Pukul 9 baru siap. (Dian, you cannot enter the site yet. There's an RT going on till 9 o'clock)
Duhhh.
So much for showing who's the boss.
Wednesday 9 February 2005
It's Chinese New Year...
... and I'm working. Today is the first of three public holidays in a row, and while everyone else is spending the long 5-day weekend holidaying with their family and friends, we, dedicated project engineers, are sweating and toiling away in a gas plant in Kerteh.
The good thing is, my husband and mother are here to join me, baby and maid for the rest of my stay here. So I'm going off now (treating myself to an early lunch break) to claim some long overdue hugs and kisses from hubby dearest!
The good thing is, my husband and mother are here to join me, baby and maid for the rest of my stay here. So I'm going off now (treating myself to an early lunch break) to claim some long overdue hugs and kisses from hubby dearest!
Tuesday 8 February 2005
My blog had a visitor!
My blog had a visitor! But this visitor, being a very private person, decided to email me his comments instead of writing them directly on the blog.
One of his 'suggestions' was to make my blog more subject specific to attract a wider readership.
I suppose I'd better clarify my intentions of starting this blog in the first place.
As the blog title suggests, my blog is on nothing specific - just stuff. It's just a space for me to jot down my thoughts when I feel like it - and when I have time to get away from work or other responsibilities. I'm still trying to explore the possibilities of having a public space on the web where I can share private thoughts, and how much of these private thoughts do I really want to share with the public. Ultimately, it's a diary of sorts to me - something I can look back on to see how I have changed and grown (hopefully) as a person.
I could make the blog specific about being a mother of a very lovely 8-month old boy (I have to put up his picture soon for everyone to see), or what it's like being a lady engineer at a construction site, or comment on the political scene (of which I know very little - this is more my husband's cup of tea actually) , or do a film review (hmm... when was the last time I saw a really good movie at the cinema?) - but I choose not to. Why? Because I am all of these, and I think that should make my blog more interesting rather than exhibiting only one of my many dimensions.
One of his 'suggestions' was to make my blog more subject specific to attract a wider readership.
I suppose I'd better clarify my intentions of starting this blog in the first place.
As the blog title suggests, my blog is on nothing specific - just stuff. It's just a space for me to jot down my thoughts when I feel like it - and when I have time to get away from work or other responsibilities. I'm still trying to explore the possibilities of having a public space on the web where I can share private thoughts, and how much of these private thoughts do I really want to share with the public. Ultimately, it's a diary of sorts to me - something I can look back on to see how I have changed and grown (hopefully) as a person.
I could make the blog specific about being a mother of a very lovely 8-month old boy (I have to put up his picture soon for everyone to see), or what it's like being a lady engineer at a construction site, or comment on the political scene (of which I know very little - this is more my husband's cup of tea actually) , or do a film review (hmm... when was the last time I saw a really good movie at the cinema?) - but I choose not to. Why? Because I am all of these, and I think that should make my blog more interesting rather than exhibiting only one of my many dimensions.
Friday 4 February 2005
Don't mess with the lady engineer...
People tell me I am quite fierce at work. I've always imagined myself to be very demure (I hear myself snorting in disgust) but I suppose I put on a different mantle when I have to deal with work. To be more specific, it happens when I have to deal with contractors at work. I am more than happy to put pen to paper (or mouse to pad, finger to QWERTY keyboard more often than not) and allow my technical prowess to display itself in design, but dealing with the human element is way beyond my repertoire. I simply have very little patience with them, mostly because they are always able to mess up a job which I feel quite sure I can handle with one eye closed and one hand tied behind my back.
My husband is always a bit wary when I have to go to a construction site. He says I become rough and unladylike, my mannerisms are less refined. Hmmm, and I thought safety glasses, a hard hat and iron-toe boots made me look sexy...
My husband is always a bit wary when I have to go to a construction site. He says I become rough and unladylike, my mannerisms are less refined. Hmmm, and I thought safety glasses, a hard hat and iron-toe boots made me look sexy...
