Thursday, March 23, 2006

Familiarisation trip to Miri

SUNDAY, 19 Mar 2006

The darn #*@% alarm clock rang at 4.30am (pagi-pagi buta!). 3 hours sleep, far from sufficient, especially after my hectic schedule the previous day. But what to do? No choice, had to drag my butts out of the warm covers or I'll miss the cab, or miss the flight!

The flight was delayed for about 30 minutes. After we took off, I fell into slumber for about 1hr 15 minutes. We had a smooth flight, but a slightly bumpy landing thereafter.

Luckily, it was at the end of the school holidays that day. So the hotel had ample empty rooms to allow us to check-in early at 10.30am. After taking some time off to rest, we decided to venture out to the hotel's surrounding areas to see what a usual day in the town of Miri would be like.

The town's setting reminded me so much of Ipoh or Melaka town, with the little shops selling everything from clothes, sundry goods, shoes, medicinal stuff to pharmaceuticals to convenience goods in the Watson's store. One very obvious thing was that the town was almost spotless. The roads and shops are all very clean, dusted and well-arranged! A pleasant sight and contrast to the usual dirty, congested roads and shops in Petaling Street or Masjid India or Petaling Jaya.

For the rest of the day, a friend of mine currently working in Miri, brought my friend and I around Miri town to see the sights and get a feel of life in Miri. She also brought us out for lunch and later in the evening, had seafood dinner with some of her other friends. (Pretty interesting bunch of people, I must say)


MONDAY, 20 Mar 2006

My friend had to be in for her interview by 8am. So we had to wake up by 6.30am, had breakfast and get ready to catch the cab by 7.15am. We were on time, naturally early, as there was hardly any traffic jams! Great!

While my friend was busy with her interview session, I was busy in the HR department with my documents and immigration forms. Two of my previous interviewers happened to step into the room I was in, and they were genuinely happy to see me there, welcoming me aboard with such zest.

Subsequently, I requested to meet my future boss, KK, whom I will be reporting to (but have not met till then!). As my ex-boss, Andy, had previously put it, indeed KK was "quite a character" and "very different" from Andy. KK is loud, vocal and "rough", while Andy is soft-spoken and gentle but firm.

Their similarities? For now, both of them have high expectations of me! Gosh, that's really scary, but it's a challenge for me, as KK voiced out his expectations of me to move on/transfer to another job function in 2-3 years time...max!

I had a fruitful time there, with KK telling me about the company's setup, the team mates, the work, and of course, his expectations of me. Well, at least I now know what I am getting myself into...a challenge I look forward to commence. I was also introduced to his 18 staff in 3 separate teams of different functionality, and I was introduced as the "Astro girl" (my current nickname, don't ask me why "astro"). I will be leading one of his teams with 6 staff.

Later, I was given a short tour of the office, and then, Audrey and Alwin, two of KK's staff, took my friend and I out for breakfast in little Lutong town nearby. The people are nice, warm and hospitable. I like that :)

Once we checked out of our hotel later in the day, we visited The Boulevard, the newest and "largest" shopping complex in Miri. It's only equivalent to half the size of the old wing of One Utama, but hey, it IS a shopping complex, and I DID manage to buy myself a pretty nice handbag to replace the handbag I brought (which had broken apart by Monday).

Ah, the best part of this all? I managed to get reimbursed for my flight tickets in full (yippee!), so this trip was completely paid for, since all taxi fares and room costs were borne by my friend's interview cost...I just hopped on her wagon :) Well, KK did say that the company could have arranged a familiarisation trip for me if I had told him I wanted one, but well, this one went extremely fine anyway.

I felt as though I was already starting work there really soon, but you know, I haven't even set an official date to commence work with them, and neither have I tendered my resignation here! Go figure!

2 comments:

Biow said...

sounds like a good start.. very excited for u.. :D

Phoenix Heart said...

Dunno about good, but the high expectations have been listed out for me!

Wish me luck, Biow!