watch out december, here i come..

my leave is approved. the paperwork is done. hr is processing it. now comes the waiting part. for the day of departure, my flight tickets and my re-entry visa. waiting for the tickets and visa is the most annoying part of the whole process. the relevant departments can take their own sweet time to do it whereby its just a one day task. a little bit more efficiency people!

my leave is cut short anyways by martin. i wanted to return on the 16th of Jan. he wanted me back earlier as i'm quitting anyways and hoping to leave by Feb (in time for CNY, i hope). so now, i'm going to be back in the office on the 12th instead of the 18th. basically, i dun't really mind as jo will be back at work on the 2nd of Jan. and plus they will be paying me for any leftover annual leaves which i have. win win situation anyways.

well.. soon there will be varieties of food again, when i'm back home. for now, just have to suffer those fast food / indian food which we eat everyday.

back in the hole

well.. time seems to pass by faster when you're on holiday. I have been back home and now i am back here at the hole. yeah, from now on this place would be referred to as the hole. looking back at it, i have been in the hole for 20 months and in another 4 months time i would be heading home, it definitely was an experience to work in the hole. this trip home, i have took back some of the unused items i have here (mainly clothes). for my next trip home in December, i planning to bring back the PS2 and other gadgets which i wouldn't miss for my last month here.

this trip home is tiring but in the end managed to do all the stuff which was planned for. meal tasting, dinner deco, florist, invitation cards. the only thing left is the guest list. i am sorry that i wouldn't be able to invite quite a number of friends due to the limitation of tables. hopefully we can always do lunch / dinner to make it up. till the next time i see you all, its great to catch up with you. till the next time i see you all, take care!

holiday in sight

its another 5 more days before i get on the plane and go home. although there are some very important deadlines to meet (10 over new destinations to be launched simultaneously being the most pressing matter), but there is nothing much i can do. this trip home for me would be quite hectic too with all the preparations that need to be done.

things to be done:

1. meal tasting for the dinner
2. appointment with florist
3. appointment with vicky (planner)
4. hand in registration form

at the moment, this is all i could think of but i'm sure there are more things which i will remember. but one thing i do know is that i'm going to enjoy all the food that i can. :)

Selamat Berpuasa!

RAMADAN KAREEM! Fasting season is here again. and this will be my second time which i go thru RAMADAN here in RIYADH. first one wasn't so bad cause i had partners in crime for lunch and all. this year round, there is only me alone here. no eating during office hours, there is only water and coffee. and i have to stay in the pantry to sip on those.

well the first week has passed, and that will be another 3 weeks to go. which makes it another 2 weeks plus before i'm heading home for Balik Kampung celebration! Be prepared ....

weekend @ bahrain (part 1)

its was planned ahead by fK for the 'real' farewell party for PG. by the definition of real, i meant a farewell with booze/liquor and plenty of it. Basically it was non-stop for 2 nights straight of pure drinking.

we left from the office around 2.30pm and i was with Fk in his car, Marty & Claus in one, PG in a car with Mel & family. journey from Riyadh to Bahrain was basically a 4 hour drive to Dammam @ speed limit (till now, i'm still not sure of the speed limit on those so called highway through the desert.),and another hour to cross over to Bahrain we made it into Bahrain slightly below 3 hours. Yups, Fk was driving at a constant speed of 220kmph. And the car was freaking steady and stable, as if we were just cruising at 100kmph. and i almost went deaf with Fk blasting his huge sound system all the way..

once we crossed into Bahrain, we headed straight to the hotel and check-in to our rooms. Crown Plaza is one of the 5 stars hotels around Manama and Fk managed to hooked us up with some dirt cheap rates for it (considering its still summer holidays). settled our stuff in the room and we wasted no time and head to the hotel pub. the first thing we ordered was a pitcher of beer, Amstel draft beer. we finished up one pitcher before we even ordered our dinner. the live band started around 9.30pm (it seems like very pub/bar has a live band performing). as usual, Filipino band which consist of 3 gals and 3 guys. started to belt out variety of songs from different groups and they do sound good.
Marty & Claus reach around 10pm and joined us at the bar. that was when we started the mixture of drinks. beer, whiskey, vodka. we hardly notice the deafening "music" from the band and continued are drinking session. PG joined us around 11pm and there goes another round of drinks. this continued till around 1am which by that time, Fk is wasted and managed to find his way back to the room himself. we continued another round and by 2am we had to leave (because thats the closing time all entertainment outlets in hotels)........ 2b continued...

New term. CyberSlacking

feeling bored? a good read to kill time, but make sure you dun't let your boss catch u reading this.

Bling Bling Market

on thrusday night, we (me, ann, zan, muiz & nurul) went to the jewelery market because ann wanted to get a pendant as one of her "hantaran". the market is basically like any other market. shops lots all over. something like our wet/dry markets which your parents go and do their grocery shopping on the weekend. instead of stalls, replace those with shops. and every single shop sells jewelery. the area of the whole market is roughly like 1U's open air carpark.

we reach there in good time and started walking in to every single shops. certain shops are having their summer sale with discount up to 70%. as we went in the first shop, the feeling is like walking into a goldmine. the concept of jewelery shop here is totally different compared to back home. the have jewelery package/set that comes complete with ring, ear-rings, necklace & pendants.

one major difference is that the sell second hand jewelery. and all of it looks brand new. Ann got a pendant with LOTS of diamond @ a price of RM 2700. its a second hand pendant with a original price of roughly around RM8000 according to the sales person. one thing is, you will never know whether its real diamonds or fake, which makes it a bit dodgy for my liking. one thing is for sure, you will never find such a place in Malaysia as this would be a target for all robberies!