Headhunter

Just got a call from headhunter for Shipping Manager position. Should I or should I not?

What now?

Okay, here I am trying to juggle a few tasks at one go. Well, not the first time, though...

Priorities, priorities! Set my priorities right, that's it! I think I have a serious problem with that.

So, what do I do first now? Prepare the listening text for my students (my least favourite task...) or search for some good classroom materials for my afternoon class later? Or even better, write a post in my blog now... hehehehe....

As I surf the net for ideas, I got information overload. One thing led to another and before long, I'm lost - once again....

Was trying to look for a great article for the listening test and ended up reading up Twitter. And since I haven't installed one in my blog yet, thought I could do a quick one. "Mana tau" I ended up wasting my half hour figuring out (still) how to fix it. And that took me a whole big process of reading, understanding and following the instructions. As you can see that there's still no twitter widget uploaded here, you can guess the outcome of my effort.... zero.

Why did I end up babbling here when I'm supposed to focus on my listening test preparation. Blame it on distractions!

Purpose in life

This must be the best year ever in my life! I'm able to focus on my family-building, particularly. Also, I'm enjoying my new working life, qetting acquainted once more with my old school buddies and many others through Facebook and indulging into new hobbies like cooking, baking and recycling. All at one go! My house, my home has never been much a better place to live than now!

I never thought that letting go that once prized job could open up so many new opportunities to me... But it was not easy to let go. It took me about a year to discern and finally took that leap of faith. I'll never forget that one very important person who made me realised the need to walk the talk. That is, to put important things in my life FIRST. It's always been easy to announce to the world that 'my family comes first' but it's always been a struggle to many families or parents like me to really put that into action. If we do indeed give it a real serious thought, it's not that difficult to see that it's almost contradicting to believe that our family comes first when most of the time we're engaged in office or other activities around the clock.

Really, God has been good. Now I understand the purpose of God placing those not-so-comfortable situations in my life 1-2 years ago. Yes, it is good!

My papa's 61st birthday celebration May this year.

Bz mommy's back!

Phew...! Just came back to my office from a 2-day workshop. Tiring... but am happy that we achieved the objectives.

Hmmm, not too sure how many times I'm going to say this...but I'm surprised that this blog has been left un-updated for more than a month now! Yeah, yeah... I gotta discipline myself in my time management so that all tasks get done. With new responsibilities, priorities have changed once again... Can't help it but if it's gotta be done that way, then that's the way it is gonna be....

What am I mumbling about? Probably just need an avenue to clear out all the thoughts lingering in my head right now...

As expected, I have missed out updating so many latest happenings in my and Leia's lives. Thanks to my long silence but will try to catch up. I promise.

Leia has been growing up very fast. She's in her baby talk phase right now - "go ga tha di dum tha...", "ma cha si di na...". Incomprehensible but it's been fun reacting to her verbalisation. *Is there such word??* Also, she's now trying very hard to build sentences in her conversation with us. For example, " Papa wake up" (when she's been asked by yours truly to wake up her lazy daddy from his slumber...), "Mommy keep" (when she wants me to keep her books for her after reading), "Kakak (sister in Malay) makan".... Oh yes, she's learning Malay language too with her "kakak" (our new maid). Yup, you see it right... we've got a maid too!!! It's another long story to share... Will do it in another post, I promise. Oh god, it's the second promise I made within the same post!!

But one thing good for sure, I can now cook almost everyday for the family. Thanks to kakak's ever ready assistance.

Talking about that, I better think of what to cook for tonight now...!

Memories...

So... you noticed I have started adding photos in my post?

Hahaha... managed to add another photo editing software called GIMP on this old desktop. Thanks to hubby! This works just fine with lots of features. Truly recommended.

As promised earlier, I'm sharing here some photos taken on my last day in Ceva.

Farewell lunch at KFC with my Penang CS team (except for the Security man sitting at the centre)

My two lovely CS

My whiteboard in my office?

A view from my office

As I searched and edited above photos, I can't help but to also look through all those old office photos taken with my Malaysia team - Penang, KL and Johor. Here are some of them...

My birthday celebration in the office in 2007. Notice the birthday gift my team gave me? :)

Lunch get-together for Penang and Johor CS teams in Bayan Baru, Penang

Penang and KL CS teams in company annual dinner last year

The one and only POM-POM team in company inter-department bowling competition

Organised the industry first Blood Donation and Organ Pledge Campaign when I was 6 months pregnant

It's the RIGHT choice!

My last working day in Ceva Freight had finally come...! and gone....

Despite telling myself to pack up my stuff many days ago, I finally took the time to do it this morning. Well, I have no choice, haven't I? Nothing much to pack - just 3 medium size carton boxes. Mostly my training files, docs and books. And food... I snapped a few pictures of my room. Just as remembrance. Was thinking of sharing them here. But can't do it now. My old desktop with different photo editing software - Nero Photosnap is giving me problems!! It doesn't help that I'm a non-IT savvy person!

My team organised a farewell lunch for me at KFC in Giant Hypermarket, Bayan Baru. Near to my office and easy parking. As usual, I had great fun by simply watching their funny antics and listening to their jokes. Oh, I wish I can share here those photos that we took there now! But nevermind... will do so once I fixed this photo editing issue. The current photo sizes are too huge to be uploaded. Sigh... Patient...

Another incident on D-day worth mentioning. I was one of the few staff in the country that encountered server access issue the whole day today! Just great! I had not completed clearing up my emails and this had to happen just on the day I'm leaving the company! At that moment of discovery, I thought I could hear a soft whisper in my ear, "Served you right... You should have known that this is the consequence of doing things at the last minute..." When will I ever learn??!! So, no choice. I was forced to have 2 PCs right in front of my face to perform multi-tasking. My laptop to work on offline stuff and an old desktop to work online.

Hmmm... all of the "rojak" (mixture) feelings I had today, it was the feeling of happiness and sense of freedom that over-shadowed the rest. Towards the last 1 hour of my career in this company, I felt as if I was floating in the air. Wide smile on my face... I felt liberated!

There's no doubt - I have made the RIGHT choice!

Countdown

Countdown begins...! Next Thursday - 27th Nov will be my last working day. How do I feel? Mixed feelings actually. Excited, can't wait, anxious, "gabra", worried, happy.....

Hmmm... I have yet to pack my things. It has been the usual day-to-day work till now. Meeting customers, replying emails, managing service KPIs (key performance index), solving issues, staff counselling, etc... etc. I have done my official hand-over. So, I guess it's just time to clear up the final pieces and pack my stuff.

I looked around my office room. What will I leave behind? What sort of impact have I made to the company and my team? It's been more than 2 years since I joined this company. My third official company after my graduation. I served the longest in my second company - Maersk Line. It was more than 5 years. If it was not for our decision to settle down in my hometown after our wedding, I would have probably still working in Maersk.

My hubby found it absurd to feel sentimental about a company - an abstract with buildings, equipments and people. But I choose to defer in opinion. It is like my second home with real people living in it. Those fond and not-so fond memories that we accumulated in our years of service. How can we just erase them and not have any feeling towards it?

I have the tendency to call everything and everyone that I associate with the word, "my" or "our". My "Maersk", our "Ceva", my "Karen", our "Heng".... Crazy you may call me but that's how strong a bond I can build for something/ relationship over time...

Relocation

Today is the "first" day of Leia staying with her "koh poh" (maternal aunty) once again during the daytime while I'm at work.

Her "ah ma" (grandma) was released from this task officially yesterday evening. Great relief as it was really taxing on my mom who has been caring for her for the last 3 months when aunty was in Australia. You see , my mom is not a full-time home-maker. She runs her own business at night with my father. So you can imagine how many hours of sleep my mom had each day... With her hypertension soaring high, thank God that aunty is back!

So yesterday evening, we moved Leia's "second home" - again.

All readily packed by "ah ma"


"Leia, let's go now"

"Papa, can I help?"

The cot is set up!

A close-up shot taken by my 11-year old cousin - his first-time

The distance between my aunty's house and our house and working places are quite far. During peak hours, ie: before and after office hours, it could take me an average of minimum 1 hour to get to her place from my office. Oh, I certainly don't enjoy getting caught in bumper-to-bumper jam everyday. Unnecessary stress...! The good news is... it will be over soon! To be exact, 27th November will be the last day! Phew....!

My job resignation announcement

The letter of acceptance finally came from HR about 3.30 this afternoon. That was coming to 3 weeks when I first tendered my resignation. That also means that I will have to serve for another 5 weeks... My official last day is 1st Dec 2008.

With that, I called my Penang customer service team into my room to make a personal announcement to them. It was supposed to be a 5 minutes talk but it lasted almost an hour. Personally, it was a very emotional announcement. I almost couldn't control my tears when I explained them the reasons. But they understand... Yes, family certainly comes first.

Tomorrow morning, I will have to make the same announcement to my KL and Johor teams.

Where is the light at the end of the tunnel?

My decision to resign from my present job is certainly not well-received by my family members, close relatives and certain friends. To them - it was a very dumb move considering the fact that I'm taking home quite a big paycheck every month and recession is showing its strong sign...what a timing, right? I know they are concern of my financial welfare but is that the only thing that really matters?

Believe me, it was a very hard decision to make. It took me months of serious discerning before I took the plunge. But we must do it for only the right purposes. For me - as a mother and wife, the purpose is very clear. It breaks my heart every single time I can't take my daughter home from my baby-sitter's place at night on the weekdays. Sometimes, even the weekends are not spared. I'm either away traveling for business or work till late night. An exhausted woman can't play good roles as a mother and wife...

Nevertheless, with my hubby's support, I took the brave step and threw in the towel. And you know what, God really understands the anxieties and fears corporate women like us feel when our career hit rockbottom.

I'm amazed by the turn of events in my life right now. I can only believe that God asks me to continue to surrender to Him and allow Him to guide me to the right direction. The better plan has yet to arrive, perhaps?

As the saying goes, "one door closes, many doors open".

Have faith!

Would like to share with you this very good speech by CEO of Apple - Steve Jobs in Stanford University Graduation Day. reflect on his experiences

I finally get my hands on my first blog "career"!

Yes, I have finally made time to create this blog - an important task which I've been putting on hold for so long...

As a first-time parent, I nevertheless have faced and am still facing the untested ups and downs of parenting. The nerve-wrecking experience when my Baby Leia was found down with jaundice - just 1 day after she has been brought home from the hospital. Then the hospital nurses announced that she contracted oral thrush the next few days. Then, constipation followed... inconsolable crying... latenight sleep, challenging breastfeeding experiences... bla...bla...bla... I really wished then that I have very strong support around me to go through those difficult times.

Now that Leia is a bit older (she's 10 months now) , her behaviours become more predictable and understandable. Well, it takes a lot of patience and hands-on experience. And I'm glad I have been able to do that despite my demanding corporate job...thanks to my supportive hubby - a very hands-on dad too.

So, here I am now. Putting up a mom's blog with the intention to share, discuss and learn from other mothers the tips of parenting. It is a also a good mean of communication with all my loved ones, relatives and friends to keeping them updated on the happenings in the Heah's family, especially Leia's progress.

I look forward to having an active interaction here with all of you who takes the time to read and follow my blog :)