The Feline Territory

Inspired by the Hot Orange Gen2, the Hot Orange Company was recently established and will be coming with me to New York City.

I have 7 yummy girls who grew up with me at the majestic uni of UIA and until today, we are as closest as ever…… contacting and commenting each other like as if we still stay, in the same hostel.

Era, Nad, Radin, Yom, Raihan. Not forgetting Lily and Nawar who we meet once in a while and miss them like crazy. And Mass, our hot new recruit

Dear girls……….

Radin, congratulations on your "thinggy" (is it still taboo, or is it ok if i really say the word?), hope you have gotten out of your confusion? haha

I have u girls to thank for all the support you’ve given me for this life that i lead. This trip that i’m making…… i owe it to Aziz Bakar for being the benevolent sponsor and i owe it to you girls for letting me believe that long-distance does have its joy…. 

Gosh, I am actually getting on that plane tomorow…….. i will actually get to see him in just 2 days! I will get to see where he lives, the places he hangs out, the world that has been his.

I am actually gonna go see Harvard! I’ve only see it in movies and the Gilmore Girls! I am actually gonna stay in Harvard for few nights in a hostel room of my own!! (I think i will bring my soft toys- the lamb and scented candles along for homely effect)

Nad, I’m gonna go to the Real Times Square and Sephora!!!

Radin, after packing, i realized that i have gotten your PINK fever- i have pink hairclips, pink makeup case, pink towel, slippers and more!!! Yikes!!! Got the epidemic!!!

Yom, I’m actually really going to The New York Stock Exchange …. the Wall Street… the Finanacial District………. can u actually imagine that? Its the real taste of money……..

Gosh, i wish u girls could come with me……….

OK, its time to boost my motivation. I am pushing aside all my tiredness at work and my sadness of being far away from beloved boyfriend.

I am going to New York City and have a blast shopping and attending all the summer concerts at Central Park. I am going to Harvard in Boston to attend a Graduation Ceremony and act as if I’m also smart and nerdy. I am going to Disneyworld at Orlando, Florida and ride that freaking roller-coster.

I will be spending most of my 3 weeks in New York City, and due to that, I am now doing my homework of watching all the episodes of Sex and The City just to get a glimpse of the glitterati atmosphere.

Who cares if I have been boyfriend-less for many months? And will still be boyfriend-less for the many months to come?

At least I get to do what I have always longed to do now: Have my real Great Escape.

I think i deserve this- big time!

I don’t like being in a long distance relationship and neither does Aziz Bakar. Long distance makes you rethink about the whole relationship matter rather so philosophically that suddenly you feel like letting go or even….. meet someone new who probably just lives around the corner.

But, some would go the extra mile to try and make things work out. I decided to take a 17 days annual leave from work while Aziz decided to send me a ticket to come and visit him.

Theres pros and cons about this. The pros would be that I get to see him, even attend his Harvard graduation and we would get to meet, face to face. The cons would be spending a lot of money for a 3-week escape, and at the end of it, we would have to endure another goodbye.

There is nothing worst in this world than a long distance relationship.

But i guess, the worst thing worst than this is not even trying to make things happen, right?

Aziz will start his new job after graduation in New York come July, and I’m here, enthusiastically living my new career shift and just hanging in KL. Its the streets of Manhattan for him, and the good old Kuala Lumpur for me.

He asked me what would make me happiest, and I said, to have you in KL.

I asked him what would make him happiest, and he said, to come back to KL.

But those who really succeed prefers to endure a certain period of struggle before they taste the harvest, therefore we decided to do just that. I will be here and live my moment of youth with my job and my friends and my family, my cats, and most interestingly, my colorful single life. He will remain where he is, because above all, duty comes before love………

Perhaps a trip to meet him would compensate for this distance that we are painfully struggling to survive? Maybe.

The best thing about working for a national car factory is when the motorshow season arrives. Proton’s disco-like car show atmosphere at KLIMS, PWTC totally rock everybody’s adrenaline when they come and visit.

This has been the most tiring 5 days of my career with this exhausting car company!! I think i have finally developed the leg muscles i long yearn for… ugh… Working for such an event is very very cool……. but working , and standing, interacting with the public and walking long distance…. ain’t cool…. especially if you do a complete 5-day marathon.

Of course, a new jobscope literally comes with a new desk.

A new parking lot.

A new boss.

A new secreatary.

A whole new feeling of excitement and complete rebirth.

But what I don’t have, is a new handbag and matching shoes.

Well, blame that on my bad financial management for the month of April and May. (splurged on the Gen2 and ended up with almost zilch in bank account!)

As much as I am looking forward to this month’s payslip, I am sooo also looking forward to this new change in my working arena. Different expectations and different faces and different advantages.

As much as I look forward to settling down at my new nest, I kinda miss the old nest, not the junk-yard like office I used to have, but I miss my bestmate Mass. Yup, Mass and our caffeneited hours. Wish she would come and join me at this trendy new bulding where life is rather peaceful without the nosy clerks and the pasar borong scenario in HR. Yup, Mass would really like it here at this desk of mine, overlooking the Kesas highway… from down there, the highway looks like some deathrow with cement lorries ready to kill any bikey in his way, but from my desk…. it is completely serene…. and being the awful city girl that I am, it has never hit me one day that a "hi-way" would ever look so serene! But it does! From my desk, it does…

Well, Mass, I wish you would really consider joining me here…. the place is great and the jobscope would be a boost add up bonus to your resume. And our boss wears Dockers instead of Gucci, so you can tell how pretty laid back he is instead of all the snotti-ness and pretentious air all Gucci wearers’ are… hehe. One day when I buy my own Gucci, I will parade it all around the block just to try and blend in with the high anf mighty… haha.

Well, perhaps I don’t need Gucci-Prada to make me feel uplifted…. a brand new job will do…. not forgetting a phonecall from dearest sweetheart who never fails to say "Thank You" whenever I say Good Luck for his next endeavour…. and of course, in case I do wanna pretend to be all snooty one day just to make myself feel better (y’know, on one of those low-self esteem days), I will always have my made in Beijing Louis Vuitton bag. Nobody can tell the difference, says my dad who delightfully purchased it for me during one of his Backpacking Escapade to The People’s Republic of China. Now, I have fake Louis Vuitton wallet and fake key holder and fake passport holder. In all, I do try extra hard to boost my self esteem… haha.

A lot has changed in just hours. I have new colleagues. New washrooms to visit. A new pantry. New comfy chair. New PC. New stationeries.

A whole new feeling all wrapped up in utter sheepishness and its almost like I’m all smittened, that its almost romantic.

But one thing hasn’t changed though. He is still very much far and away. Yup, I almost forgot about that, its almost a sin. He is still very much far and away. And wen that doesn’t change, then a lot of me…. actually is still very much the same.

I am the most annoyying real life figure you will ever meet. I’m so annoyying that it annoys me that I can’t even spell the word right. Is it with double "n" or a double "y"?

Well, what’s anoyying about today was that I was again, slammed onto my face about the very fact about how anoyying i have been.

Yup, and only Aziz Bakar can do that to me.

Only him can say that and get away with it.

If you think you had an arse for a bf, wait till you hear what mine had to say about me:

You are soooooo anoyying. Exxxxagerating. Pretentious drama queen. Sooooo whiny. Full of complaints. No confidence. Get a gripppp. Think positive.

Oh, Lord! And to think I went all the way to Jalan Chan Sow Lin at the ghetto of Puduraya factory area just to go to that goddamn comic factory to buy his 50 episodes of Pedang Setiawan and 70 episodes of Raja Rimba. And they are Mbalay comics, for God’s sake, haven’t anyone heard of the Archie’s anymore? What kind of a backward nerd am i virtually dating?

And he said i was a pain in the morning because I would call him at all the wrong hours, when its 10pm in Malaysia and 10am in Boston- especially the days when he woke up early just to watch his favourite cartoon. Again, what kind of a juvenile am i virtually dating?

And even if he said all those things about me, that I’m whiny and all drama queen…. I’m only whiny to him because I couldn’t find another punchback who’s good enough to bring me back to reality and say- life’s like that. Plus, what are boyfriends for if you can’t dump all your toxics onto him? Plus, I am years younger than him, I should have the advantage of being the little kid. Plus, he loved me, and he has always said that I was pretty and the prettiest short gal he’s ever met, so he would have to love me anyway because short girls are not pretty, they are just cute…. and irresistable. Plus, in front of others and the rest of the public, I had to keep my composure and calm to layout a dignified personality. With him, all the compressed stress is getting out of the can.

And, I am not a pretentious drama queen like he said i was. Well, ok, maybe i do get a little emotional over my car, especially when my blind neighbour left a 10cent scar on the bumper, but hey…. my car is my only property besides my cat, of course i would get berserk. That is sooooo not drama queen of me, that’s what all rightfully aware property owners would feel- they get protective.

But in truth, I can be so anoyying.

Who wants to be a punching bag all his life?

And for God’s sake, its a 10cent dent on the car, who the hell notice?!

And so what if he wanted those comics? Even if they may so sound so Mat Rempik, he did also got me those Aldo shoes and those MAC lipglosses and that furry ribbon for my cat… and not forgetting the bunny-rabbit hairband that i wanted in pink. If he doesn’t feel a thing when he got me those girly-junk, i shouldn’t feel a thing when i got him those pointless comics.

And i can be, anoyying sometimes. Because i so do complain, all the time, and i’m doing it again now, if not to him, but to the readers of my blog. And that’s really mean of me, and anoyying of me, and i shouldn’t have. Because at the end of everyday, Aziz Bakar would always be the one to say sorry even if I was the one who acted like a child or a bitch… running loose.

But then again, it does feel good to spill it all on a blog

P/s: Mat Rempik comics???? Oh My God…….. (what the heck was i thinking??)

This Monday, I will have a complete career makeover as I make my move into the Branding & Marketing Strategy Dept. at Proton.

From being a Human Resource Executive (yup, I had to deal with people all my hours at work), I decided that a career shift into the hard-core customer research/market survey/product planning is the way to go.

Honestly, I am still testing the waters. Human Resource gave me the ultimate experience of meeting a lot people who are trying their best to juggle between a large group of employees who are always dissatisfied, versus a management who are always so demanding and a bunch of colleagues who are either following orders, or quietly dwelling in utter unhappiness at their workplace.

Above all these, I realized that there a lot of talented Malaysians out there. Very few world class talents, many average Joes, and many enthusiastic fresh grads. What we need really, is many more psychotic ones like Mahathir, Ananda Krishnan and Tony Fernandez to really put Malaysia on the map of the world.

But, just like how everything in life is a phase, I decided that being at HR is also a phase. When I initially joined HR at Proton, I decided that I will only spend two years in this car factory. I just needed a good kick-start into the corporate world, then decide what I really want to do for real.

Well, I have gottten that kick-start, but I have not decided what I would do for real yet.

I wanted to get into the many banks to taste their benefits and the rat race that smells of money. But, something made me stay.

The hardship.

Today, as the company that I work for decline in its market shares and as the employees tries harder to make it happen for us, I decided to stay. I decided to stay during the hard times not because I had nowhere to go, not because I am loyal, not because I’m tired of choosing another path in life….. but because I want to be among the people who wil try to clean up the mess of yesteryear.

Last night, I cleaned my desk at HR after a long day at work full of department meetings, resume scanning, and meeting the lawyers for legal cases…. Flashbacks of my first day at work passes me by and I laughed alone as I thought about the times when I had such a hard time even trying to learn how to use the photocopy machine…. the times when my boss shouted at me for my mistakes.. or her mistakes… the times when I felt like shouting back but never ever did…the times when I had to stay back till 4am to completre the annual report, when I had to spend hours scanning resumes and hours interviewing people…. being present in Board meeting with a buch of Directors and how I was so nervous about the report that I drafted…. the times when I was so bored with my job because it was getting mundane… the times when I had to face a bunch of factory workers and make them sit for IQ test while also letting them stare at my ass, the times when I had to spend all day driving for hours and work like a dog from day till night…. the times when I just felt like doing nothing at work but hangout with good buddy Mass and drink mugs of coffee at the pantry. Those were hard times and not-so hard times. But above all, I would want to go through all that again at my new department.

Because being young, fresh and still 25, I think I’m still allowed to learn so much for those who are willing to teach, and still allowed to make mistakes along the way, and still work for long hours without a care in the world except for two white cats at home…… and if given the chance, I would do all that… over and over again.

I’m excited to move into Marketing.

If last week, I was working to recruit the best talents for Proton, next week, I will be planning the best product to meet the customer’s needs.

Starting Monday, I will be among those people who will try and satisfy the wants of future Proton owners.

Last week, I was connecting with the future Proton employees.

Next week, I hope to be connecting with the future Proton buyers.

In all, its a great feeling to be rejuvenated this way. Its great to be the one person who can be excited about her job and future career when there are still other people out there who are very unhappy about what they do.

I am happy, and thankful, to be given the chance to make a change and learn something new.

I am really glad, and in fact, I would give myself a Toast, and some cheers, because I finally got the chance to re-brand myself.

This is my cousin’s newborn gal. Everybody loves babies and so do i. What scares me though, is that i feel more affectionately towards cats…. and baby goodies rather than baby itself.

Nad and me often have this open discussion where we are afraid to have children too soon. Although we are both not married yet, both of us are planning to kawin lari next month. That might put babies in the pictue…. isk.isk.

I don’t mind settling down a little early, if i get a hubby who i can train well, but having babies would mean developing the mother in me. Dont think i’m too hyped up for that yet. My boyfriend and i argue everyday and he says i am a 12 year old trapped in a 25 year old’s body.

Truth be told, i still want to be that 12 year old trapped in a 25 year old’s body. Especially when Aziz does his typical thing of taking care of everything. Its not about being pampered, but its about letting go and in a way, kinda like getting another parent. The best part is, you also get to win arguments a lot.

Babies and me, just don’t click yet.

But, my cousin’s newborn is the cutest thing in the world… and as much as i want a cuddly one of my own, i think i would settle for a fulfilling career first, and of course, an obedient husband.

Ok people, don’t be shocked….. but those who has gone for a round of karaoke with me would know that even how English speaking I may be, I will win hands down at karaoke-ing Malay songs. These are the ones I really really love and can sing by heart:

1. Asyik- Amelina

2. Lamunan Terhenti- Aris Ariwatan

3. Pahit akan manis akhirnya- Ukays

4. Tragedi Oktober- Awie

5. Ukiran Jiwa - Awie

6. Sekuntum Mawar Merah- Hattan

7. Andainya aku pergi- Alleycats

8. Warisan Wanita Terakhir- Teacher’s Pet

9. Bonda- M. Nasir

10. Nurkasih- Slam

11. Sebenarnya- Man Bai

12. Suci dalam debu- Iklim

So there! Top 12 songs!