been there?

Many at times, we just need a little more awareness ..

RTHK breastfeeding awareness campaign

http://programme.rthk.hk/rthk/tv/programme.php?name=tv%2Fwomanwithdreams5&d=2016-05-21&p=7174&e=357925&m=episode#

The absence of presence or is it the presence of absence

I have to admit ...

I'm sometimes having this syndrome @ work 

the syndrome of 'the absence of presence or is it the presence of absence'

(Let's hope my bosses doesn't stumble upon this post)

I'm not sure if you do experience it as well?

In chinese we call it 心不在现

Sometimes I find myself thinking about the other 1001 things I need to do / achieve personally instead of what needs to be done at work.

I do feel guilty but it can't be help.

You can say I'm selfish but I'm just human.

At the end of the day, I just need to ensure I get my work done & deliver accordingly.

Come to think of it, no wonder I'm never on the ''to-be-promoted' list.

I just don't have that 'oomph' 

one (wo)man's rubbish is another (wo)man's treasure

I've a secret place that I peek into at work everyday.
That place is no other than the place people dispose off their unwanted items such as cardboxes, papers to be recycled, old newspapers, old files & folders ... basically anything deemed no longer useful to its initial owner.

But I've found dozens and dozens of goodies here : 
(especially towards spring clean time and festive seasons)

1. ABBA folders 

2. Training materials & brochures (in which I learnt great deals of extra knowledge)

3. pretty mooncake boxes, unique metal tea boxes, plastic & rattan baskets

4. stylish document bags / briefcase (which are still new, believe to be sample stock)

5. office accessories / decor (like gold coated chinese hororscope animal figurine, photo frame, vase...)

6. pretty notebooks / diaries (used a few pages only)

7. colourful stickers (for children play)

8. metal document tray

9. air humidifier (which is still working very fine and I googled the brand, voila...definately not a thing to belong to that dump area)

I've got volunteer 'informers' who help me 'look see look see'. 

I don't mind being the 垃圾婆 (rubbish ahma)

Why not? it's disposed stuffs and I'm recycling. 

the space I miss most

I recently transferred to another department,

I was surprised that the space I miss most was NOT my workstation

instead I miss this space the most.

This is the ONE and ONLY so call 'lactation room' we have in the building.

It is slightly bigger than the size of a regular bathroom.

It can fit up to 4 person (tried & tested)

This was where at one point of time, during my second child time, 

4 mothers cramped inside together to do their motherly duties.

and the best part was this space does not have any power socket (since it is a small partitioned space between the pantry and office room).

and we have to use extension wire (the turn to roll type) to connect power point to this space and extension plug to accommodate 4 electric breast pump.

It was not on purpose that all 4 of us from the same department pump together, our boss didn't like it anyway.

It was all because this is the ONLY lactation room we have in the building and everyone is waiting for their turn to use. So we figured it is better for all 4 of us to occupy the room at one go rather than wait for one another.

Our number twiddle from 4 to 3 to 2 to 1.

And then back to 2 when I had to slot in to other people time (I was on different floor) which make it hard for me to 'book' the room.

And then I had the room all to myself thereafter. 

I remember making myself comfortable in there, momentarily throwing away all my work stress and concentrated on my motherly duties while listening to Ai FM.

The people on that floor has been so used to seeing me around that they notice that I'm missing when I'm on leave. 

They too have been very kind to reserve a electrical point for me to connect from pantry to the room. The other are used for microwave oven and some other electrical appliances.

I miss the birds who likes to walk and chip near the window.

I miss the eavesdropping of people talking in the pantry (either phone call or chit chat)..I know this is not good.

I miss the privacy at least this room provide

Cause at the new place (the building) ...

they have an even SMALLER and ONLY lactation room (half the size).

Even equipped with 1 small table, 2 chairs, 1 power point, and some magazines, 

it feels devoid as it is fully booked throughout the day (a few slots by the same person - kiasu), and no one is willing to share pumping session,

so much so that I've upgraded myself to 'workstation pumper' with 'very the thick skin'.

(a sure very notorious way to gain popularity)

if you are thinking what about vacant meeting room / store room?

meeting room - fully booked most of the time and is all glass from ceiling to floor.

store / document room - too small, too packed and too risky if anything goes missing from inside.

surau - not a suitable place and ONLY 1 small partitioned surau for the whole building also.

So,

This is my OPEN PLEA to organisation especially BIG ones 

At least have the courtesy to RESPECT the RIGHTS of mothers to breastfeed their children. 

We don't do it on purpose to escape from work (we have better ways and excuses than breast pumping).

For all you know, we all have mother / wife / daughters ... someone will surely benefit enormously from this 'room' 

Well, again as always, I'm still very grateful for being able to at least benefited from the 'room'. 

And again as usual, I'll continue voicing this need at every opportunity until someone HEAR us. 

I'm not sure if something will happen if someone stumble upon this post, but 

LET IT GO, LET IT GO!

Can't hold it back any more

View from outside (left side is the pantry)

View of inside 

View from inside 

upside down

I've just gone back to work for 2 days (today 3rd day) 
and I'm feeling upside down.
I'll be so tired by the time 10pm (or even before that) that I dozed off only to realise at wee hour in the morning that I've not wash the bottles, prepare tomorrow breakfast and lunch, pack things for tomorrow use... and a dozen of 101 things ...ironing, folding laundry (and yet you wonder I still got time to write this post? LOL)

I need to change my habits ... I don't know how long will I last if I continue like this.
(this being said as my workload at work is still not maximise)
maybe sometimes we couldn't really have it all ... and there's a price to pay.

ps. and I realised sitting @ work without much physical activities and sunshine is not really that healthy. Not even mention about looking at the computer screen many at times.

well, enough rant, life still have to go on... just that there's still various rooms for improvement.
and many many thanks to a bunch of close buddies who keeps me going thru watsapp (everytime I feel like giving up) thank thank you so much =D

Seriously, I need a break

Life @ work has been hectic and taxing for me for the past few months... 
so much so that it has spill over effect over my life @ home.

I've a feeling that I'm running and running non-stop with no finishing line in sight.
I want to stop and rest but I couldn't. 
I want to just slow down but I wasn't allowed to.

I think the only time I really will get to rest is when the time comes (you know, the bucket kicking time).

I'm really really tired ... 
Seriously, I need a break or I might just break.

it has been a long week

Working for full day yesterday (on a Saturday), I felt very tired. 
I'm getting old these days. 
But despite the exhaustion I'm glad I managed to slot in some personal 'achievement'
I managed to tidy up my office space (some 50%) 
I managed to finish up to 50% of the book (My favourite wife) I'm currently reading
I managed to eat something that's heavenly ... Sago with santan & gula melaka


So despite the gruel of working on a Saturday, I managed to turn it into a more pleasant one...
So it's true that they say : Every cloud has a silver lining. 
It's just that sometimes we have to look harder.

pics from google images

从零开始, 从头开始

Tomorrow, I'll be starting again right from the beginning ..
1st thing 1st, I'll need to adjust my biological time table back to normal.
Although I didn't manage to complete all that I intended to do during the holidays..
I'm glad and thankful that I did reached a few milestones. 
So from here onwards, I'm walking towards a new kilometre.
hope everything work out just fine. 

career & family

Just the day before, I 'chickened out' from a bigger role career wise. 
That is after I wasted a few days of my maternity leave thinking and rethinking over and over over it.
Oh...and I pretty much gave myself a few too many 'lame' justifications for 'chickening out' 
and I totally understand the implications of my action 'chickening out'
Among the lame excuses, the timing is out...I've just take on a bigger role personal wise and come clashing with it is a bigger role career wise.
Strange though...I still felt relieved. 
Perhaps I don't have the 'fire' in me anymore, it's slowly distinguishing.


Why can't I choose both and balance them out? 
Just like how I can't multitask ... I couldn't focus on one without sacrificing another. 
There's this thing that I haven't learn to tackle.
From past experiences, I usually end up neither here nor there. Worse come to worse, I flopped both.


Yes, I'm aware that nothing comes easily without sacrifice...
which is perhaps why I choose to sacrifice for those things that are to me, more important.


sorry for the lame post ...
Wishing everyone a merry merry christmas & a happy happy new year =)

有故事的锁匙

Last friday, my day took 180 degree turn in just a matter of few hours.

8.30am - reached office only to find that the key to access my breastfeeding room is not hanging where it's supposed to be.

8.45am - still searching frantically every possible nook & cranny, asking people around if they had seen it?

9.00am - found out that the key which I'm holding might be the one & only key the whole office has to the room(which use to house another 8 person team last time).
Had asked the big boss secretary who use to keep spare key, another department head who's supposed to have spare key and even the previous team which has been realigning to another division and shifted.

9.15am - asked another taller colleague to help me look inside the room through the glass panel. Guess what, he saw something positively a key on the table inside the room. SH**
By then, I've almost ask all guy colleague whether they know how to open this kind of wooden door knob with card (like what they always do in movies).

9.30am - no choice but to tell my immediate supervisor of the big silly blunder I made and that the whole office doesn't seem to have a spare key.
She suggested I check with another colleague if still don't have to get big boss secretary to call our regular locksmith.

9.35am - the ironic thing is, I was told why call locksmith when there are plans to tear down the partition the very next day (Saturday).
But I was also told that the renovation workers may need to remove the furniture / items inside 1st today before tearing down the partition tomorrow.
I thought since I was responsible for the 'locking of the key inside the locked room' mystery, I'll have to bear the cost of 'locksmithing' but the secretary say 'let the bank pay lah'

9.40 - I gather from the secretary that "someone" should have the spare key. Someone who had earlier just told me she doesn't have one.
I gather my courage and thicken my face to go ask 'her-another deparment head' about spare key again. At last she gave me a bunch of 30 over keys and said "You can try this whole bunch but as far as I remember we couldn't find the key to open that door last time".
I remembered praying in my heart.

9.45 - tried with another colleague, we are very lucky. Managed to open the door with the 2nd attempt from the bunch of 30 over keys. I dashed in to grab the 有故事的锁匙.
I felt very relieved.

This incident has taught me 4 things :
1. Always make duplicate keys especially if you found that the key is the only one key the whole office has.
2. How big a problem is depend on how you look at it. A problem that can be solved may not be a problem afterall.
3. Always stay calm, things may eventually turn out well. 万事都有解决方案.
4. In life we lost some and gain some... continue reading to find out why I say so..

That day, I declined going for lunch with another colleague because I thought I need to spend time looking for the key/ waiting for the locksmith to come/ finish up my work since I spend the whole morning like a crazy women looking for golden key.

However, life is really like a box of chocolate. You never know what you'll get ..
After lunch time, another department head actually come to my place and gave me a big paper bag filled with 'children books'. Apparently she was doing spring cleaning and wanted to throw the books away but suddenly thought of me (out of so many other colleagues with young children in my department).

At that point of time, I felt very thankful ... head from other department actually thought of giving her now grown-childrens' books to me. Those books are good books & are still in good condition.

I started my day miserably but I ended my day happily ... happy that not only I found the key, not only that I received a bag of goodies but also because incident that happened that day is an 'eye opener' to me.

I love my life despite the ups and downs.

ps : when I came back to office last Monday, guess what ... my 'sillyness' story has gone down together with the partition wall. That wall that initially covered me while I was performing 'motherly duties' and later kept me from reaching my 有故事的锁匙 has now come down .. along with it bringing a story .. a story worth remembering in this blog =)

Hari ini dalam sejarah

Remember my post sometime back about 90 is the new 60?

Well, today is when history changes.
90 is indeed the new 60 now (or rather when the clock struck 12 yesterday night)

Life is indeed full of suprises ...
Life can indeed be very good to us ...
As long as we never give up hope on life ...

I'm writing these post with very much gratitude and gratefulness to anyone (just anyone) that has made this happened.

the day I'm afraid of has come

Like it or not ...
the day that I'm afraid of had come.

The temporary breastfeeding room - or so I called it, had been scheduled to be dismantled last weekend to allow more space for expanding team.

My 1st initial reaction was 'Why now?' and 'Why so short notice?'
but when I sit down to think further ... I'm actually consider lucky to earn 13 months extra ...
Imagine my other colleague who has just shared the room for 5 days only to receive this kind of shocking news.

Seeing this obstacle right in front of me, I emailed another 2 colleague - a new mother who has just started work after maternity & breastfeeding and another soon-to-be-mother of 2nd child next year.
I couldn't believe I was actually forming an alliance to 'fight' for our causes and rights.
I've wanted to include all other female colleagues as well but reserved them as back up plan if initial negotiation does not go as plan.

So early the next morning, we sort of 'march' into our immediate boss 'cubicle' to voice our concern. She is smart to see a common 'denomitor' among these mothers and immediately knew she can't escape this time. Or maybe I've been openly voicing my concern ever since yesterday evening when I've got the news.
I didn't even seem to mind being labeled as 'mastermind' ...
All I wanted was just for our rights to be recognised and we to be given basic access to our rights.

Moreover I think this is the best time to negotiate for a small little room for breastfeeding mothers since they are doing renovation.
It's time to ask now or never .... not so easy after people have renovated.
I strongly feel it's ok if we plant the 'tree' now so that many more mothers are able to sit in the 'shade' for many years to come (considering the demographic of my division).

To cut the long story short, our immediate boss (a lady) who initially suggested a meeting room has brought up our concerns to big boss who later suggested the pantry.
They refuse to cater for our need to have a little room ( I do not know for whatever reason).
Personally I prefer the meeting room than the pantry. I feel that it is unfair that the pantry is being locked at certain times of the day because 'someone is obviously doing something at somepoint of the day' ....
I do not know and do not care what are their intentions ... to slowly and gradually kill off our breastfeeding intention by making it more inconvenience and difficult for us.
Sorry for being selfish but to me, if you are unable to use the pantry especially during lunch time because I'm 'IN' there ... I'm sorry but a much better way, tell boss.
May be after much feedback, we mothers will be treated better ...
We just hope that bosses and management understand that besides our formal duties, we also have other equally important 'motherly duties'.












Anyhow, I'm still very thankful for the 13 months that they had given to me.
And for the months to come ... for at least they have still given us the 'green light' to use the pantry.

Sorry for the rather feminist ranting ...
But I'm proud myself and my other 2 mothers colleagues ... we fought for our rights although the outcome may not as we wanted.
This journey is just starting, I'll be back ... fighting for our rights.

One thing I discovered .... how courageous mothers can be for their children ... my respect to all mothers.

Are you sick?

Do you believe if I say we all have at least a little of illness?
This illness is known as 职业病 ...

I've made some real life observations and these are my limited findings, if you have some examples, feel free to share too =)

Case 1 : (updated)

Boiling water in a electric kettle (with measurement indicator like those they have in hotel)

The characters :
1. A doctor (Anaesthetician to be exact, the doctor who give you anaesthetic a.k.a painkiller)
2. a money minded worker / mother
3. a person with background in physic, chemistry & electrical stuff

When the 3 of them boil water, you can easily tell which kettle of water was boiled by who. How?

(a) 1 kettle will have water lesser than the 'Full - Max' indicator. - person 3 (he says lesser water to heat, use lesser electricity & faster wo)

(b) 1 kettle will have water exactly at the 'Full - Max' indicator. - person 1 (as an anaesthetician, it is crucial to ensure that the dose of painkiller given to patient is exactly as stated / calculated)

(c) 1 kettle will have water more than the 'Full - Max' indicator. - person 2 ( like money, the more the better and no need to boil so many times)

btw, the 'Full - Max' indicator is at 1.8L for this particular kettle.

Would you like to take a guess at the answer before I reveal it in the next post? hehe

Case 2 :
If a friend post on FB "36.8 degrees celcius ... lying on bed now..

The characters :

1. A business man / woman or a salesperson

2. A doctor

3. An English teacher

4. A person dealing with air-cond system

5. A person with wild imagination (this one I purposely add one =p keke

6. A sport enthusiastic

(a) The 1st thing that comes to this person mind is the spelling of degree Celsius (°C) - an extra 's' on degree

(b) The 1st thing that comes to this person mind is " emm......that's not fever........it's normal...."

(c) The 1st thing that comes to this person mind is start converting the degree to whichever other measurement metrics or start guessing the humidity or even thinking of the temperature of the room and how to cool it down if necessary.

(d) The 1st thing that comes to this person mind is 'temperature's not raised, never mention heart racing, somemore just say lying on the bed ... so most likely not refering to action + excitement 'on the bed'.

(e) The 1st thing that comes to this person mind is 'must be cooling down after some sport, now temperature back to normal and resting on bed sweet bed'...perhaps with some arching muscles?

(f) The 1st thing that comes to this person mind is "he / she must be lying down on the bed thinking about a pay rise of 36.8% OR about the profit can make if sold of the share/investment today OR the sales increment needed to sustain the same income. This person may accidentally overlook the 'degree Celsius (°C)' and replace it with % or ratio.

Would you like to take a guess 1st as well? =p

ps. please, no offends to anyone / any occupation ... just a little fun observation. Any resemblance to real life cases is merely coincidence. (hehe, actually case 1 is very real. case 2 is 3/4 real..lol)

yes, I'm a little (maybe a many) crazy for writing this post at this hour but I could sleep after waking up.

if you are the boss, what will you think?

Yesterday some 'unforeseen' thing happened.
It made me want to dig a hole in the ground & put my head in there.. haha

My daily routine include pumping milk in the office in the morning before I even start work.
Yesterday was no exception. Except that yesterday in a hurry (as I was a little late) I've button my work shirt one-side-up.
If you are wondering how it look like, try imagine buttoning the 2nd button to 1st hole and thereafter. You will have a sidelooped collar & a shirt with 1 end shorter than the other end.
"Nothing too embarassing ... just go ladies & button it back" I hear you said. Yup, that was what I did when it happened a few weeks back.

But ... but this time, I landed myself in a 'smelly mud pool'.
I was sitting at my place when my big big boss came over to ask me something.
He continue talking while walking away, so in my attempt to confirm with him whether any action need to be taken at our end, I did the most 'wrong' thing, I stood up and walked towards him. He say no worry, he'll ask the other department to do.
The 'dumb' me then went back to my place and continue with work.

It was only about 15 minutes later, when I walked into the ladies and saw myself in the mirror, I laughed my gut out. No wonder my boss was looking at me strangely just now.
How in the world can I do such a 'crazy thing'?
There goes 'the undone' of all my past efforts for the whole year.

the question is 'How can you trust a staff who can't even button her own shirt properly manage a project?' ... A very valid question.

Now I have another question for myself ' How can a mother teach her children button shirt properly when she (who don't know have buttoned shirt how many thousand time) can create new 'style of buttoning'? haha..

ps. last time a friend of mine told me I'm like a '傻大姐' ... which I denied but now I can't help but agree fully with her....lol

among the 101 things waiting for me to do

I call it the 'never ending fold' cause there will be a new batch before I finish the previous batch.
So have to stop here to go 'open work'

seem familiar?

For those of you working on projects, does this seem VERY familiar to you? =p
found this while clearing my emails today

Due to the picture size, I'll retype what each picture represent..

1st row from left to right
1. How the customer explained it
2. How the project leader understood it
3. How the enginner designed it
4. How the programmer write it
5. How the sales executive describe it

2nd row from left to right
6. How the project was documented
7. What operation installed
8. How the customer was billed
9. How the helpdesk supported it
10. What the customer really need.

everytime

I realised that everytime when I have something bothering my mind
or when I've lots of thinking to do,
I'll start doing some 'stupid' things that does not require thinking like -colouring-, -folding stars-, -cross stitch-, -kneading-

Here I'm staring blankly at the mid year progess career dialogue form which I could not think of anything to write and start folding stars instead. It will be a one-to-one session tomorrow.
I do not know what are my strengths displayed, what are my areas for development and what are my training needs in the next 6 months. Is all these really important and really matters? Or are we doing this just for the sake of doing??

Yesterday...Today

Yesterday 21/7/10 would have been a turning point in my life if I had earlier didn't let go an opportunity to earn more. Had I made the move... I'll not be sitting at the LDC (Learning & Development Centre) today attending a 'Thinking Out of Box' training.
If I didn't let go earlier .... I'll not have attended this training
If had I not attending this training
... I'll not have learnt that my decision may be what's best for this point in time...
... I'll not have learnt that I shall never regret whatever I've chosen
... I'll not have learnt that I may have came out of a box but jumped into another box ... which is not a very wise thing to do.

I think life has made such an arrangements for me ... if I want to gain something, I'll have to let go something but if I had let go, life give me some gain.
I see through many 'realities of life' in this training
I see how we are becoming prisoners of pattern and norm.
I see how we blindly follow the herd.
I see what's important and what's not.
Hopefully I'll see more tomorrow... this training is empowering.

these few days

These few days have been an emotional roller coaster ride for me.
All kinds of emotions came to me every hour including in dreams.
Here I have all past, present & future all lump together and presented to me in a mesh of wires.
I dread these ... please get me out. I'm drowning.

I'm just a simple person but Life feels that I'm too simple a person thus Life complicates everything for me. I want to tell Life "please, I do not ask for much, just a simple life for this life"

I hope God hears my prayers.
I hope I have the strength to face it all ... to solve it all.

meanwhile I will always remember to 'be kind, for everyone is fighting a battle each day'

all done except testing 123

up this morning since 4am++ but till now has only managed to test 30% ... still waiting for instruction to proceed further.
meanwhile I've :
1. confirm some online purchase (not related to testing)
2. make payment via fund transfer (not related to testing)
3. go to 'loo' to settle big business
4. watched almost 3/4 of a korean drama series (Full House) ... yes, I'm watching it only NOW.
5. paid my water & electric bills
6. read a couple pages of magazine
7. folded a few pieces of clothes
8. boiled a kettle of water
9. updated my blog
10. ate a few biscuits.
11. been wondering why I've done so much except doing what I woke up for.

and if they don't let me fast fast continue :
1. my little boss is going to ask for food already
2. I'm due to prepare myself to attend EQ@work training for 2 days before Wesak Day ...alamak, I forgot to put out of office msg ah...sure ppl will be cursing me for not replying their emails...