It's Raining Babies

It’s Raining Babies

It's Raining Men! Hallelujah!
It's Raining Men! Amen!
It's Raining Men! Hallelujah!
It's Raining Men! Amen! OW!

- It's Raining Men, Geri Halliwell -

This weekend had been a rather hectic one, and the theme of the weekend certainly evolved around the subject of babies. Both my wife and I began the weekend by making our routine monthly check-up to the gynae on Saturday morning. The pregnancy has now come to its 32nd week, and after this last visit, the routine check-up will be more frequent at once every two weeks.

I think it was the first time that I ever made an appointment with the gynae on a Saturday and the queue to see her was breathlessly long. Our appointment was scheduled at 9.30am, and when I arrived at the allotted time, there must have been like half a dozen couples already there in the waiting room. Dang… and the doctor sort of practices first comes first serve despite the so called appointment that we made. By the time it came to our turn to see her, we had waited for almost 2 hours. That famous Malay phrase ‘penantian itu satu penyiksaan’ could not have felt more true.

I was met with 2 surprises on my visit to the gynae this time. I found out that a friend-colleague of mine was also seeing the same doctor. It was her second routine check-up, and her fetus is now 13 weeks old. It seems that every one of my friends at my age or near my age is having babies these days. I’ve been getting news about this friend or that friend, either informing me of the good news of their conception, or news about the safe delivery of their new born. And on that note, I just received the belated news that my good friend and blog guru Sarini safely gave birth to a baby girl on the 16th June 2005. Congratulations Sarini! May this be the first of many for the both of you. :-)

Oh yeah, and the other surprise was seeing the comedian Azli of the Senario gang in the same place that day. Apparently his wife was due for labour on that day itself. He must have brought his whole clan with him as the place was crowded with his relatives and friends.

Anyway, had another glimpse of our baby when the doctor performed the scan on wifey. I always look forward to this moment when we go for her routine check-up. It gives me the chance to catch a glimpse of our baby, and what the little wonder is doing in mummy’s tummy. I remember seeing the baby on the scan machine for the first time on our first visit to the gynae, and I got excited more than I thought I would. I guess I was still grappling with the reality of my wife being pregnant then, after just being married for just over 2 months (and still grappling with the reality of being a husband), and the experience felt rather surreal. I wasn’t quite sure how to react to the whole pregnancy idea until that day when I saw the fetus, only about 16 weeks old, flailing her arms around in my wife’s tummy. From that day onwards, I got connected to the little one. It was like she was saying hello to me. And she certainly had me at hello...

The baby weighed at 1.864kg, and that’s slightly under the ideal weight of 2kg as the doctor advised us at this stage of the pregnancy. Hmm... I guess I must have not been stuffing wifey enough.. hehe. No worries, said the doctor. I still have enough time to do that. Wife has gained about 13kg so far, and I think she’s getting a bit worried about the weight gain. Hehe... don’t worry dear. You’re still as lovely as the person I married in September last year, if not lovelier.

Anyhow, the rest of our weekend was spent attending toddlers’ birthday parties. As I’ve mentioned in my post on Friday, we had a birthday party to celebrate the birthdays of my nephew and niece, who turned 3, and my younger brother Didi, on Saturday. It occurred to me again that I would soon belong to the bapak budak group. The place was littered with toddlers and babies that you could have been forgiven for thinking they had all fallen from the skies. Man I feel old... And then today, another birthday party, this time another niece’s of mine 1st birthday. It was a good place to exchange notes however, and conversations were naturally engaged about my own upcoming baby and my preparations for the baby’s arrival.

It’s raining babies I tell you. And soon enough, there will be one coming this way, Insya-Allah.

TGIF!

TGIF!

Before I knew it, it's Friday again. And thank goodness for that. The week flew pretty fast for me, though I did hope that it could have flown by faster. Hehe... was away from the office on Monday and Tuesday attending a budgeting workshop, and lucky when i came into the office on Wednesday, I was not awaited by another mountain of work as I had feared.

The first quarter of the year is usually rather kind for us in accounts, and with the realignment of duties here, I can afford to not get my hands dirty on everything here. Since I will be in charge of reporting only beginning this month, I won't have to worry about the closing process, theoretically speaking. My notorious senior-colleague will be in charge of that beginning this month. When I asked her what her plan was in preparing for this month's closing, she said she'd just follow through from what she did in previous months, which weren't much. And almost immediately she insisted that I hand over everything that I did for previous month ends' closing to her this month. Oookkaayyy... I just hope this month's closing will not be a disaster. Either that, or I would have to do her work for her again.

By the way, today is my younger brother Didi's birthday. Happy 25th birthday bro! And conveniently, he shares his birthday with a niece and nephew of mind, who will be having their 3rd birthday celebration tomorrow. And the good thing about sharing your birthday with young children, especially young children whose parents hold birthday parties for them, is that your birthday gets celebrated too. With a cake, birthday presents and all. Lucky guy. Though i have to admit that my parents did make it a point to buy me a cake for my birthday last year. Very kind and sweet of them, perhaps since it was going to be my last birthday as a bachelor.

Oh well, have a good day ahead all. Aren't we all glad it's Friday? :-)

Letting The Cat Out Of The Bag...

Letting The Cat Out Of The Bag...

I have an announcement to make. I have been keeping the news for quite a while now, biding my time for the right moment to spill it. Not that I want to make a big deal out of it either. The big news is? Both my wife and I are expecting a baby come this August.

So finally I've said it.

Don't get me wrong. I'm as excited as the guy who finally got his full driving licence after driving with a probationary 'P' sticker for 2 years when I first got the news. And just like that guy who finally managed to move on from the ridicule of having that red hot 'P' stuck on the front and back of his car, I would have loved to inform the whole world about this piece of news of joy for me and my wife. But somehow, I just didn't feel right talking about it, especially when the pregnancy was still at its early stages.

For one, I've heard some of the elders said that it is not wise to talk about it so much, or make too big a deal out of it, especially when the pregnancy is still at its early stages. Maybe they felt it sounds a bit boastful or too early to sound the gong and tell the whole world about it, at least not until the pregnancy has come to its last trimester. I guess there is some validity to the argument. It has a 'don't count your chicks before they hatch' ring to it. And even as my wife's come to her last trimester, I've never stopped praying to The Almighty for the good health and being of my beloved wife and baby until the day of the delivery comes. Amiin.

But of course as time progresses it becomes increasingly difficult not to talk about it, or the anticipation of the little one's arrival. Inevitably, I would feel compelled to talk about the preparation for parenthood and a lot of other stories relating to pregnancy and babies. And after doing our first preliminary shopping for baby stuffs today, I felt perhaps it was finally time for me to come out clean about it.

Getting ourselves started on the shopping felt a bit weird. None of us had done this before, obviously, so we weren't quite sure of the essential things to get first. I have been getting some tips from friends who are parents themselves on what to get, and the advices are pretty much the same: ration your purchases ie buy little by little, to go easy on the wallet. The main things to get first would be the essentials, things you would need urgently after the baby's born. So with that in mind, and not to mention that I'm desperately waiting for the next pay day, we bought some diapers, towel, baby wipes, and 2 pairs of baby outfits. Nothing much to get any baby jumping up and down to get excited about, really. The next round of shopping shall take place in 2 weeks, and it promises to be a more exciting outing than the first one. Am thinking of looking around for a baby cot and a small cupboard for the baby's stuffs.

And speaking about cats, my pet cat Neo died yesterday after being run down by a car. Poor cat. You would always be remembered for having foot fetish and play with our feet whenever we do our laundry. And despite the name we gave you, we know now you were never meant to fulfil any prophecy. Nevertheless Neo, you will be missed.

Roger and out.

A Reflection

A Reflection

I just got back from a good half hour of jogging. Boy it makes me feel good. Have not had any decent exercise since I began enslaving myself to my ACCA revision a couple of weeks ago. Despite having much more work to do at the office, I decided to put all the work aside and had the much needed exercise.

I have to admit, I've been pretty disappointed with myself this week. With my bosses and most people away from the office since Monday, I had planned to do some catching up with work and get myself ahead. Work had piled up rather consistently, and I have to say that I've been lagging at least a week or two. But with the absence of people in the office, and hence resulting a lack of activities, I had become a bit relaxed and before I know it, people will be coming back to the office tomorrow. Suddenly I feel like the rabbit that loses its lead to the turtle in a race... blimey.

And then there's that notorious colleague of mine. No, no... this is not another bitching exercise. Like I've said, I'm not really used to the practice of bitching about another person, and personally I can't keep any ill feeling towards someone without getting myself distracted from getting on with my life. Whenever I do have this kind of sentiment towards someone, things will start going wrong for me, and I will not be at my best. I will start making more mistakes, losing my sharpness at work, not to mention losing my temper more easily, and suddenly I realise that I'm not that much better of a person either compared to the person I'm complaining about.

Hence I've realised, as I often have in similar cases in the past, I would need to look deeper inside at my own weaknesses, and remind myself that I'm not without the many faults I hate others for either. And perhaps I should be more forgiving to this person. By saying this I'm not going to let the wrong things she's doing to just go on happening. When pointing at other people's mistakes, people rarely realise the fine line between correcting the person and ostracising them. And I feel perhaps I've been doing the latter rather more aggresively than I've ever had. I should therefore put this behind me and deal this better like a man.

Now you see the wonders a half hour jog could do to a man's senses.

Nobody Likes A Whiner

Nobody Likes A Whiner

Lately, I’ve been very pi**ed off with a particular colleague of mine. She’s not really a colleague mind you, but someone in a position more senior than mine. And my function serves, or used to serve, as a supplemnt to her position. With foresight, I feel it’s kinda weird that my department are taking someone from outside to do a job that I have more experience and know-how to do, with I having carried out the supporting role for the job for the last 4 years. But then you don’t question the management’s decision, and I put that down to the possible reason that the management must have thought I was either incapable or unprepared to do the job myself. I’ve always felt I had much more to learn, and perhaps there’s some wisdom in the management’s choice that my limited knowledge could understand. But then, I digress…

My animosity towards this senior of mine has been cumulating ever since her first few months here. It all started fine enough when she joined my department in November 2004, with all the credentials she has to show. She is a certified financial analyst and with some other accounting qualification at hand, and with the prospect of having a qualified professional to work alongside with, I was relishing it. And to be honest, I was feeling a bit intimidated too. Surely, she would bring with her some ideas a person of her qualification would usually do.

The first few months were understandably a transitional period, and expectedly of course, I would have to carry the extra burden that comes with teaching my senior the trades about the job she’s supposed to perform. Honestly, it was a rather humbling experience at first, with her commenting that the current system is so inefficient that so much time and manpower could be saved with some extra initiatives she intends to carry out. Heck, I was even put down by her when we had a financial performance reconciliation meeting with a line department, when she chided me in front of the member from the line department that MY inefficiency was causing unnecessary stress in reconciliation work, and then further made promise to the person that beginning the next month, when she takes full rein of the job, such unnecessary tasks would not happen again. So I was made to look incompetent. Fine. I thought to myself, let’s see how she’d do it.

All these while my discrepancies with the respective line department had been in the region of RM10k, which could be defined as immaterial. My senior was proposing a zero difference, which in reporting for a trading company like this, is extraordinary. So she prepared the financial report for that line department the next month. And the difference was? RM 20 million!

Her first reaction to that huge difference? 'Izwan, check what’s wrong with my numbers. I can’t seem to point where the difference comes from'. You’re talking about RM20 million here makcik, not 20 sen. It’s like not being able to find the Twin Towers when you’re in KL. And so I redid the report that she prepared. And beginning that month itself, she told me to carry on with the reporting as she began to dislike the person from that line department that we had a meeting with the previous month. She said ‘he’s too pushy, asking too many questions about the report’. Well if my accounts you prepared showed a RM20 million difference, I would ask a million of questions too!

Things went pretty much downhill from then. She wasn’t taking charge of things that she’s supposed to. And what annoys me the most is that, she would do some shoddy work with reports in a split second without even verifying the correctness of the numbers, and then hand them to me to verify and confirm. And that’s pretty much the pattern up until now that I end up doing most of the reports, and most of the time correcting the mess that she made.

I blew my top recently though. I had to go on leave for my exams, and I left her some tasks which were urgent for submission while I was away. When I came back to the office, I was horrified to find out that nothing yet was done. When I confronted her, she claimed our non-exec staffs did not get back to her and informed her what to do, so she did nothing. ‘You waited for instructions from your non-exec staffs? Shouldn’t you be instructing them what to do?’, I fired back. She was adamant the particular non-exec staff was making her life difficult however. Ok la, fine I said…

So I told her to help me do it now, since I had loads of other things I left her to do that were still undone to do. She went on to do what I asked her to do, and again submitted to me haywired numbers. When I confronted her again with this, she said she couldn’t do it any further, as she was already busy with some other tasks at that time, failing to note that sitting next to her cubicle, I couldn’t help noticing her computer screen would always either show the website of some online music, or opened forward e-mail attachments. And on that same ‘busy’ evening of hers, she left the office at 5pm to go for squash practice.

Grrrrrr!!!

And today, as I’m working my a** off to complete the task that she claims she’s too busy to help me with, she’s been out of the office all morning sightseeing at a nearby convention that I would have to skip since I’m NOT TOO BUSY doing my job.

Arrgghhhh!!

My point is, I’m tired of whining about her everyday, and I really hate to whine and bitch about her. It doesn’t feel right, and maybe I should bring the matter up to my boss for his further action on the matter. Another colleague of mine made a comment that I looked busy all the time, and when I responded sarcastically it’s because I’m carrying a deadweight in the office, she countered back by saying ‘that’s what you say. Others might see it differently.’ I take that as a hint that perhaps I’ve whined about the matter too much, and maybe I should put a stop to it. I admit, nobody likes a whiner. Now it’s either I do something about it, or shut up about the matter altogether. And I intend to make this colleague-from-hell of mine to be more accountable for her responsibilities here, some way or another. You just watch…

I know, I know. I shall stop the whining. *Sigh*

Not Another Manic Monday

Not Another Manic Monday

It's just another manic Monday
I wish it was Sunday
'Cause that's my funday
An I-don't-have-to-run day
It's just another manic Monday

- Manic Monday, Bangles -

It doesn't really feel like a Monday morning today. Most probably due to almost 90% of the office people being away today, on duty for this annual convention that the company I work for organise. I've been wanting to volunteer for the conference since the day I started work here, but there has always been something to stop me from being available to participate. The first year was due to some misunderstanding between myself and the organising committee, and my name got left out at the finalisation of names of participants. Ever since then, my non-participation have been largely due to busy work schedule and I feel even the boss has reservations about me participating. Oh well, I guess I won't mind. It should ensure me a relatively peaceful few days in the office, until the convention ends in 3 days.

Spent the weekend lazing around and not doing much. It felt like a sinful luxury, what after the weeks of exertions preparing for my ACCA exams. The highlight of the weekend was probably attending my cousin's wedding in Subang Jaya. My, listening to the sound of kompangs and seeing the bride and groom walk up the aisle brings back sweet memories of my own wedding all over again. Like I told wifey, it feels only like yesterday when we were just married. Hehe...

The wedding was ok. It is unfortunate however, that some bad feelings were generated from the whole affair. I guess since I belong to the 2nd generation in the family, I might not have felt the pang so much that have come out from the controversies that had arisen. I do not want to speak ill of anyone, and I think it's suffice to say that some matters relating to family affairs could have been done better. I'm not telling people how the whole function should have been conducted, but when one side of the family felt they were being deliberatly marginalised in favour of the other, you can't help feeling unwanted. And then setting up rules like no children under the age of 8 should be brought to the hotel function. That basically ruled out almost 60% of my relatives, and in the end many others just chose to stay away altogether. It is a bit sad that such a sacred event like a wedding becomes a cause for ill-feeling, especially within a family. Many lessons can be gained from here.

Oh well...

The morning's still young, and apart from the rain outside, the signs are today is not going to be like another manic Monday. And in such rarities, I don't have to wish it was Sunday. :-)

Have a good week ahead people!

Merdeka! Merdeka!

Merdeka! Merdeka!


The late Tunku after passing his ACCA exams...

Do not adjust your wristwatches or even your calendar. It is not yet the 31st August and yet another celebration of Malaysia's independence day. It is however a celebration of independence of sort for me, as I've finally finished the last of my 2 ACCA papers this last Wednesday. Well, I can't really say that everything is done and over with yet as I still have 8 more papers to sit for, assuming I pass the 2 papers I sat for this time. Classes for the December examination should begin sometime in July. Nevertheless, I'm going to bask in this moment of temporary freedom while it lasts. Ahhhh....

So how did it go? Well, I'm happy to say that I think it went okay. My exam answers weren't exactly award-winning material, but I think I've done enough to realistically hope for a pass. Yep, a pass is all I need. Gone are the days when I used to come home from an exam going through my class notes and textbooks checking whether I've given the right answers in the exam, and then estimating what score I would probably be getting. And in those days, anything less than 90% was considered as a disappointment. These days, even the passing mark of 50% is considered such a sacred number that I would happily accept it if someone had told me before the exam that's the score I would be getting. Boy, how time has changed.

Doing my studies part time has opened my eyes to a few things which I used to take for granted. One of them is how much time a full time student has in his hands to prepare for the exams, compared to us part timers. Having to do it part time, I've had to plan my revision time properly, and squeeze it through my busy work and social schedule. And it is even more difficult than I make it sound. Like I've mentioned before, it is the last thing that you fancy, to open your 300 over pages textbook, together with your yellow-colored highlighted class notes, after you've just had a long day at the office. And in my case, when I say long days at the office, I literally mean it. I can count with the fingers on my right hand of the number of days I've actually left the office before 6pm in a year.

As much as I dread it, that's exactly what I've forced myself to do this last couple of weeks. Been staying till past midnight on some ocassions worming my textbooks and highlighting lines on my class notes. It requires quite a considerable amount of mental strength to get myself doing all that.

Come to think of it, the revision doesn't feel so bad after you've survived the first hour of it. And even more so, it could sometime prove difficult to switch off your head when going to bed later in the night. It is the next morning when the real test sets in, when you have to wake up. And knowing you'd have to go through the same routine all over again.

Until of course, the end of the exams. Which is why I'm rejoicing this moment so much, temporary though it might be.

Before walking into the exams hall, you can see all sorts of emotions visible on the faces of the candidates. There were the confident ones, those with the relaxed eyebrows and slight smile, a reflection of quiet confidence. These kinds of people are ready for anything you throw them, and therefore are peace in mind. And then there are those who spot questions, and have that slightly wary look about them. The forehead is slightly stretched, as the eyebrows are dragged to the centre of their faces by the tension. "If they start asking about question A rather than question B, I'm gonna be dead meat" is the favourite theme in these people's minds.

And then there are those who are totally unprepared for it. This group can be divided into 2 though: 1. The first is the one with the deceptive smile, one which makes you think they're prepared. The smile in fact is just a sign of calm resignation, knowing that all the worries in the world would not help to serve the cause in the next few hours of the exams; 2. The second is the remorseful type, and you will see they have that sorry "I promise to myself I would not get myself in this situation again in the future" look. This 2nd type is more optimistic however, and they're the ones who first come up with the phrase "it might not be as bad as you think". They believe in miracles, and however dismal their performance in the exam might be, still hopeful for the improbable.

My exams result will come out in August. And I am counting on it to be a month of multiple celebrations for me. Amiin.