BuzzLife

Yes, it’s me Yeknee aka BuzzLife. I have been hibernating in the dark for more than a year and a drop of golden sun woke me up with a loud buzz.. Thanks to the wake up call, I am now back with a vengeance.

BuzzLife has moved to a bigger and more luxurious home at Yeknee’s DAILY BUZZ. Stay tuned.

Happy New Year 2008, folks!

Dear readers,

Thank you so much for keeping BuzzLife company all this while. I am currently facing a great challenge in my life and have to concentrate fully on my family who is my pillar strength plus some other priorities. With that I would like to sign out for the last time, vowing to return back one day, stronger and wiser….

Yours truly,

Yek Nee
Signing out for the last time..

Recently, a young, fresh graduate who joined the company a month ago resigned without giving any notice. She was with the R & D Dept. Reason? She needs her life back! Why? She was working more than 60 hrs a week although the contract of employment required her to work 45 hrs per week with a simple clause saying, "to work extra hours if required". This means additional 3 hours per day!

My former university mate who works as an accountant for a giant multinational once told me not to disturb her last week of every month till the 1st week of the following month. Month-end closing, need to submit financial report to parent company in USA. What disturbing me was the fact that she would stay back till 11.oopm just to finish her report, including weekends. I am not only worry for her health but her safety as well.

My present workplace not so long ago introduced the so-called executive excess hour allowance for management staff to reduce the high turnover of manpower due to work overstress. Although money does matter when one has to work stretched hours, but as what the fresh graduate said, money can’t buy life! I would rather appreciate that the management would look into how to keep the working hour of all employees at 45 hours per week or even flexi-working hours. For eg, is the long hour attributed by shortage of manpower, or because of ridiculous deadline, or the before-5-pm assignment or just simply because of too-much-work.

That said, a phone call to my counterpart in Australia would be greeted with an answering machine for any calls made after 5.00pm local time. On the contrary, any phone call to my counterpart in Japan would always be answered even if you call after 9.00 p.m local time. While overtime might be an alien word in the European or Oceania countries, I must say that it is the Asian culture to work long hours.

Well, that leaves me wondering, are the money that we are getting for this kind of working hours worth it? The long working hours not only deprive us of our health, but also the quality time with our family. There are people whom I knew personally, who had a high-ranking position, collapsed in the office due to heart related problem and eventually passed away. The company easily found a replacement while their families could never have their papa back. 

Ask ourselves, do we want to live this kind of pathetic lifestyle until our retirement? Do we want our children to grow up with papa and mama who are so near yet so far? Are our working and family life well balanced? Think about it wisely. You have a choice and decision is all yours!

Are you and your partner compatible? Most likely, only a fortune teller or a feng shui master can tell you. Haha.. those days, our parents used to check for birthdates, blah, blah to find whether the guys my sisters and I were going out with is the "ONE"…

Here, we have a Dr. Love, whom at a mouse click, will tell you whether you would have a successful relationship with someone you are seeing or even someone you have married! Just type your name and your other half’s name (or any names you deemd suitable) at Love Calculator dot com. Simple as that.

Although the Love Calculator claims that accuracy has been proven, I am skeptical and doubtful about the result. Haa… a quick check, hubby and I are only 25% compatible! And surprisingly an old flame and I are 79% compatible. Err.. how come he (my ex) and I didn’t have a happy ending.. ha!

Disclaimer : Try at your own risk. This blogger is not responsible for any result derived from the calculations.

Yet another new chapter in Big J’s life.. He’s graduating from pre-school and will start Primary 1 in a different town in Jan 2007. Sadly, his best buddies will go to different schools next year.

The three Mousketeers.. from left.. Shien Hang who will be attending Khe Beng Primary School, Big J who will be attending Chung Hua Primary School, and Yu Shue is attending Lik Hung Primary School.

Our promising young Ice Skater, Rhiannon who has won several medals in international ice skating competitions at the tender age of 5.

A talented 6 year-old Natasya, who conducted the graduation choir.

And Little J with his favorite pose.

The boys are all geared up for their Dragon Boat performance.

Congratulations to all the P1M and P2M students of Tadika Yume on your graduation.

I bought this south bound Transnasional bus ticket for my cousin sister who is doing a Law degree in Multimedia University in Malacca. And I found this additional charges interesting.

Skim Lindungan Mesra Selalu (literally translated in English as "Always Protection Friendly Scheme) which is MYR0.10. Although the amount is small, the first impression I have it’s a protection money. Or could it be a sales tax (but how come only 0.9% ler?). Scratching my head.

Twice in a week experience, flights delay! Last Saturday, my maid’s flight AK953 from Jakarta was delayed for 3 hours. Today, my cousin sister’s flight AK5265 from Sibu, originally ETD at 8:35 pm was delayed to 9:55pm. As I type this entry, an SMS came in saying, "My plane leaves at 10:20pm, this time it is confirmed." 

The infamous budget airlines Air Asia has yet again lived up to her reputation of being the "King" of delay or even flight cancellations. Tony dear, just because you have made it possible for almost everyone to fly now, you shouldn’t take it for granted that just because passengers pay less, they have to endure to the discomfort of flights being delayed and it happens too frequent that it has caught the attention of Transport Minister. Read here. Only that nothing has improved thus far.

Oh yes, cut cost as you may need to, just don’t spoil the airlines’ reputation by not training your crew members’ the basic social skills or manners. I personally have experienced numerous rude remark from your cabin crews. Remark such as, "you cannot talk and stand here, go back to your seat, switch off your handphone now, don’t use your lap tops." I wonder why they are never trained to use the word "please".  One incident is good enough to leave a bad stain.. oh.. low cost carrier, low class cost service…

"You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want." Zig Ziglar quoted.

I tried to help. But wasn’t appreciated. I tried to help again. But I was told off. When I finally tried one last chance to help, I was back stabbed. Sigh.. how nice if all human thinks, acts, behaves alike. Then the world will be so peaceful…. Lesson learnt, do not be distracted by criticism. The only taste of success some people have is when they take a bite out of you….

One can easily insert an emotion, a smiley face in the email or IMs. Somehow, I prefer to type and make "face characters" to express my feelings and they reflect more personal touch..

Which of the following "face characters" do you use the most?

1. ( ^ _  ^ )  smiling, happy

2. ( ^ 0 ^ ) /  greeting

3. m(_ _)m  thank you

4. ( ^ _ ^; )  cold sweat

5. (* ^ _ ^ *)  blushing

6. \ ( ^ 0 ^ ) /  cheers

7. ( > _ < )  crying

This month has been a hectic month for me, both physically and mentally. Saropah, my excellent domestic helper is taking her one-month breakaway in Jakarta. The twice-a-week helper whom I engaged earlier had last minute withdrawn from our agreement, with a very good reason, too many "projects" and her priority will be her long-term customers. (She considers us her temporary customers lah).

So, here I am, juggling between a demanding hubby (ahem..), 2 active heroes, a high-flying career, a promising business, a built-up area of 2200 sq ft home and a blog which is losing readership because of scarce updates.

In fact, I am quite surprised by my energy judging from the fact that I haven’t done any housework since Saropah joined the family. That was 6 years ago! Thanks to the anti-oxidants and chelated mineral which had been my loyal companion since Jan this year.

Today, she is due to be back on board Air Asia Flight no. AK953, ETA 4.00pm. My only concern was whether she will reach Jakarta Airport on time judging for the fact that her hometown Brebes is hundreds of miles away and the requirement from some pegawai that she has to pay 1.5 million rupiah as levy to exit the country although she has the surat pelepasan cuti. (Will blog about how corrupted the pegawai there in the next entry).

I was crossing my fingers real hard as we drove to LCCT to pick her up. It was raining so heavily that we can’t go anything faster than 60kph. As a result, we reached LCCT at 4.30pm, half an hour behind schedule. A check at the Information board, we knew that the plane has not landed but no mention of delay or whatsoever.

At 5.15 pm, we went to check at the Information counter and were told that the flight was diverted to Penang due to heavy rain. When I asked for the ETA of the flight, the friendly chap at the information counter kindly told me that they have no information! And he kindly gave me the Air Asia flight operation room hotline to call, 03-86604320. I was expecting to hear a computerized voice but surprisingly I was greeted with a sweet voice. The lady gave me the same answer, no information yet. Errr.. is this what we called Low Class Cost service?

We waited until 6.45pm and another phone call to 03-86604320, I received the same reply. Sorry ma’am, no information yet. We continued to wait patiently at the International Arrival hall exit. 15 minutes later, a familiar voice called me as I was busy keeping an eye on my 2 Js. It was Saropah with an exhausting but smiley face. I am still wondering why the same reply.. no information yet whereby actually the aircraft has left Penang for KUL? Hmm… low cost carrier….

I received a pleasant surprise in my email box 2 hours ago with the subject titled Hello from Toronto.

It was an ex-colleague. She has a MBA degree, holding a managerial position in a giant multi-national before she was laid off due to the company relocated to a neighboring country. Her hubby is a R & D manager for a giant multi-national, who resigned out of frustration of the stressful job. They have a 4 year old child.

They left Malaysia for Canada for good, to seek for greener pastures two months ago. They have sold all their assets in Malaysia, gotten the PR status even before they live in Canada. (Canadian government only required "First Landing" for pre-approved immigrants).

In the email, she said that they are coping well with the cold weather, their son has started school and likes it very much.. No mention of their career prospects though. It is of course very likely that money is much better in Toronto, otherwise who is crazy enough to give up a 5-figure monthly income and settle down thousands of miles away from home.

That reminds me of a childhood friend who once headed to an unknown territory to seek for greener pastures. She’s a medical specialist married to a fellow medical specialist and they have 3 young children. Both husband and wife work for a private hospital in London, earning an income which they could never get if they come back for their medical practices in Malaysia public hospitals. (Malaysia government required all medical doctors to do a housemanship in public hospital for a minimum period of not less than 12 months). Read this link).

10 years ago, they left home sweet home to pursue their specialist degree in UK. They got married and settle down in London. They flew 2 Malaysian retired ladies all the way to London to babysit their 3 kids because the salary of a nanny in London could be equilvalent to your own salary (That’s what she told me)! The 2 retired ladies are on social visit pass and have to come back to Malaysia every 6 months.

A week ago, I received an off line message from her, "Yek Nee, we are coming back to Malaysia for good. We’ll stop over in KL, can we meet up?"

Why? I wonder.. She was earning a great income and I thought that she has settled there for good. Isn’t the grass on the other side greener?

One and only one reason, the children. Who is going to take care of the children now that the 2 nannies are so homesick that they don’t want to work anymore? Home (Malaysia) is where you can get immediate help in case of emergency. Money at home (Malaysia) may not be better, at least we have subsidized petrol and food items, and price control over other stuff.

Me? Home (Malaysia) is the sweetest. The only 2 reasons should I decide to leave home sweet home is to seek for clear blue skies whole year round and to be able to drink the water directly and confidently from the tap.

Janet.. may you achieve your aspiring dreams and hopes in Toronto.. and Vivien, welcome home..

First, it was crawling like a turtle, then suddenly it was totally inaccessible! I had problem to access to Streamyx for the last 48 hours. It is public holiday and I can’t get any technician to troubleshoot for me. My IT consultant aka my genie brother is not reachable until Saturday..

Meanwhile I just have to bear with the pain-in-the-neck dial up. At least I am thankful that I still keep the back up, otherwise I wouldn’t know what I would do with my internet withdrawal syndrome should I have totally no access to internet..

To all my muslim friends and Saropah, my maid who is on holiday now in her kampung Brebes, Selamat Hari Raya AidilFitri..