Hillock - The Continental Cuisine

Well, Hillock ain't exactly a very "canggih" name for a restaurant serving continental French cuisine.

So, in French, it's called Lafite. The French restaurant in Shangrila Hotel.

I was given a farewell dinner treat last night by my previous manager, Eugene, together with another staff of mine (who also used to work for him). When we walked into the hotel, I was expecting to go towards Lemon Garden, the very yummy (but quite pricy also) buffet cafe there.

I was quite taken aback when he walked towards Lafite! Gosh, it was going to cost him a "bomb".

Arriving at the entrance, the waiter showed us to our table which was set in a dimly lit, romantic background. The restaurant was set to give the illussion that it is round in shape.

I almost fell off my chair when I saw the prices on the food menu. Only the appetizers and starters had double digit prices. Most of the other mains had 3-digits prices!

So "hak hei", didnt know what to order. So we both used Eugene's choice of the main as the ceiling benchmark, and went for items priced cheaper than his.

We ordered 3 mains (the salmon, scallops and cod fish) and shared amongst us so we could taste all of it. Eugene also called 2 portions of lobster salad and 1 portion of escargot for appetizers, and a bottle of Chateau wine to wash it all down with.

The food was heavenly, especially the scallop and cod fish, cooked to perfection.

It was also my first time eating lobster! (so "kesian", isn't it?) And the escargot....mmm, so yummy!

All in all, it was a memorable dinner experience for me, and the most expensive one ever too...I think the total bill easily came up to more than RM1k for the three of us!

Upset! (update)

My boss finally spoke to me yesterday, after 2 whole weeks of silence, and two reluctant stretch of his lips (with a "humph" sound) when I attempted two "Hi!"-s and flashed him my irresistably contagious (or so I thought) smile during that period...my effort to warm-up the terribly cold situation but in vain.

On Monday night, he sent me a mail asking me to see him on Tuesday morning, telling me that he was going off to Manila on another business trip on Wednesday, therefore he wouldn't be able to say goodbye on Friday, my last day here.

This time, reality has sunk in, and he knew he had to accept my decision and be a big boy about.

Behind closed doors, after I ran through with him the handover notes I had prepared earlier, he again repeated that he was disappointed with me and that I probably already know that (how not to know, when he's telling me like the 3rd time AND also repeating it to my staff). However, he seemed sincere when wishing me all the best, and even gave me some "tips" about what I should do or bring along when I relocated.

I told him that I would be going over-the-sea (heh heh). Nevertheless, it is a foreign land to me, with people of a slightly different culture.

In any case, I am glad that my boss finally simmered down, and has come to terms with my decision to move on.

He, on the other hand, is still trying to find his sense of direction (in this group of companies or elsewhere), an effort I sincerely wish all the best to him.

Cats' Poo-poo

Dear Aunt Agony,

Does anyone hate the smell of cats' poo as much as I do?

I can't stand it! They poo at any part of the ground that has sand or earth!

They poo at the little portion of ground in front of my house. They poo at both sides of my garden patch near my porch.

In the process, they leave their footprints all over my newly built and newly painted garden wall as well.

NOW I know exactly what my mom felt when she got their poo all over her garden back home. NOW I understand why she always scare and chase them away when she finds them sleeping underneath the car in our house porch.

Aaargh! The stench that reached my nose last night the moment I opened my car door, after I parked into my porch, it's horrendous! The evening rain that soaked the poo further made the stench worse.

I plan to either plant some grass or place large, rounded pebbles in my garden patch...but I'm afraid the poo will look even more disgustingly obvious if I did that.

So, do you have any brilliant idea how I can keep the cats from poo-ing in my garden? Please help.

Yours desperately,
PH

How Important is it to Try & Mend the Bridge?

After the upsetting episode with my boss last Tuesday with regards to his initial refusal to agree to my early release request, he is still not on speaking terms with me today, although he has subsequently changed his mind and agreed to release me after I kicked up a fuss.

Perhaps it is that I kicked up a fuss and insisted that I needed that 1 month's notice period and nothing longer (and that I had clarified with my HR Manager about my rights to exercise the option of paying off the company salary in lieu of notice), that had caused him to refuse speaking to me....I had "dropped his water face" ("jatuhkan air muka"-meaning damaged his ego).

You see, I kind of lost all my respect for him the moment he was utterly rude to me by making the remark that "it was my problem and not his" that I wouldn't have enough time to sort my things out if I didn't get release within 1 month's time. Yes, astonishingly rude, I had thought.

He even had the cheek to add that it was my problem also because I didn't check with him first on the best date to start on the other side!

Yes, we had mutual respect when it came to our professional relationship, but it never occured to me that it had extended to my personal life, that I had to check with him on the commencement date to start my job elsewhere. I went on the grounds that as long as I gave "reasonable" notice period of 1 month, there should not be any issue.

Last Friday morning at 7.50am, as I was driving to work, I received a call from the SAP Project Manager, Chu. Apparently, he had received news of my resignation, and had called to wish me all the best, and to tell me that he appreciated my support and consistency in carrying out a job well done during the 6-months SAP implementation project last year.

Chu is a man of patience, and one who can always see the positive aspect of things, no matter what the situation. He makes a skillful project manager, always able to look after that tender ego of everyone, and then to pull everyone onto neutral grounds for less heated discussions to come to a mutual agreement.

He advised me to try and mend the bridge with my boss, to put behind me whatever words had been exchanged by my boss.

Indeed, I had never experienced such childish reaction from my previous bosses before, and the words he said to me was uncalled for and plain rude. But Chu had a point...my boss had total faith in me to let me lead the project team almost single-handedly, and then he rewarded me with a promotion. This promotion was one which I had indicated to him I expected, or I will not take up the offer to lead the new team set-up to run the SAP system.

Now, my boss probably feels the "world" will think that his key staff had betrayed him, after all that he has done for me. Although he himself has resigned and is tentatively leaving in June this year, my earlier departure had made him look bad.

Even though my boss had thrown careless remarks a few times, asking me to look for a job elsewhere (for whatever unexplainable reasons), Chu thought that that was a small flaw in my boss. He may say things he does not mean because he has a temperamental character.

Both my future boss and Chu, the SAP Project Manager, feels that I should put my feelings of hurt behind, and try to patch things up with my boss before I leave.

I might try to ask him out to lunch some time next week, but I don't know yet for sure if I will do it.

I always thought it most important NOT to burn the bridge when you leave a company, as the corporate world is a small place. But when you are faced with a temperamental boss like mine, even if I tried to mend things between us, he might just end up taking the pie and splatting it right into my face!

So, how important is it to try and mend the burnt bridge? THIS particular burnt bridge.

You tell me...

An Insightful Weekend

Now is the Ching Ming period, where families pay their respects in memory of their loved ones who had passed away.

Last weekend was no different for me. My family and I went up to Ipoh, with an uncle (Uncle Albert) who had coincidentally, made a trip down to KL from Melbourne just last week.

We stayed at my aunt's place, Uncle Albert's sister-in-law whose husband (Uncle Albert's brother) had passed away about 15 months ago. We had a lovely time, as everyone was joking and relaxing, and talking about old times.

My "Khoo Ma", i.e. my father's cousin sister, had had a mild stroke about 2 months ago, and since then, she has been recuperating in her sister's house in Teluk Intan. On the day we arrived in Ipoh, she was scheduled to return to her house in Pasir Pinji accompanied by her sisters and a newly hired maid. So we all spent the afternoon there, cheering up the place with chatter and laughter, and went on to have dinner together (a RM600 dinner spent by Uncle Albert).

Uncle Albert is a self-made multi millionaire. He studied for his Accounting degree in Australia, by virtue of my dad's sponsorship back in the old days. After graduating and working in Malaysia for 3-4 years, he migrated to Australia with his wife and his firstborn child. This was about 25 years ago, and he has never looked back since.

He started work in WP as an accountant, and worked his way up the corporate ladder quickly. In the process, he was exposed to numerous areas such as Treasury and Corporate Planning. After 15 years in the company, he opted for an early retirement at the age of 47 years old, because he did not want to relocate to Perth from Melbourne, a place he had grown to be familiar and comfortable with. By then, he was already the top 5 highest rank personnel in the WP group of companies.

They granted him a golden handshake, of which he slowly invested in properties he used as assets to generate income for his growing business in providing luxury serviced apartments.

Today, his net worth easily comes close to an estimated AUD10 million or more.

Having an uncle as a classic example of someone who had "made it", I asked him what he thought about my decision to make my big move over to Miri, leaving my family, friends and house behind to start over a new life. Many well-intentioned friends have voiced out their concerns and questioned my sudden decision to make such a big change to my life. So much so that sometimes, second thoughts seem to be trying to penetrate my already-made-up mind.

I was delighted to see and hear Uncle Albert's response to my announcement to him about my move to Miri. He was genuinely excited for me, and thought that this is such a great opportunity for me to make a change in my life, a change for a better, more exciting future!

He didn't see this as me having to leave everything behind. Instead, he saw this as me just re-arranging my current plans to fit my new environment. I will not be losing the friends and family I already have, but instead, I will be making new friends and my family will come over to visit me (as well as me going back home).

My house is an investment, as it is, whether or not I live in it. Even if I don't rent it out now, I've got a friend who was going to help me take care of it. Perhaps 4-5 years later, if the time is right and I so decide, I could sell it off with an almost certain capital gains return, as it is a landed freehold property.

If I later decide to rent the property out and a few years later, find myself returning here to work again, but the tenants did not take care of my house as much as I would have liked them to, Uncle Albert argues that by that time, I would be able to afford either to renovate the property again into a nicer, better condition than it is now, or do minimal repair works, then sell it off. Again, landed freehold properties' value are much more certain to appreciate with an almost constant demand for 2nd hand properties in a good, mature area.

Having heard all these from an expert in real estate, someone who had made his millions by buying properties, earning income from them, and then cashing out on the appreciating value, my doubts are no longer there.

He also ensures me that he KNOWS the company in Miri will be good to me (due to the close relationship of WP with it), and that I will not regret this move. If he had not been relocated to Perth, he affirms that he would have stayed on in WP and he is certain that he would be equally as financially sound and happy as he is today!

This has been a really insightful weekend for me, learning so much about my father's family history during the chatters of my relatives re-living the past, discovering my Uncle Albert's life account to success during our journey, and also receiving sound advice and encouragement about my decision to pursue a whole new life in an entirely unfamiliar land.

Simple Lessons Learnt in Life

When did u ever read and memorise the clauses in your employment contract, in preparation of the possibility that one day you might need to exercise it?

Hardly ever.

Lately, I have learnt that the clauses in your employment contract is so important, that if you were ever put in a spot during the course of your employment, your employment contract clauses supersedes the Employment Act, should there be any conflicting clauses.

In any case, the proper flow of documentation is always very important, even when you are tendering your resignation. I've learnt my lesson well this time, and the next time I sign an employment contract or write a resignation letter, I will approach it from a totally different perspective.

Life is a never-ending learning tool...you experience many things along the way, some pleasant and some not so pleasant. As long as we take along the lessons learnt, and make sure we don't make the same mistake twice, it's an enriching experience.

Important note :
By the way, i was just called into my boss' room...apparently, i "misunderstood" him, that he was actually agreeable to my asking for a mth's notice & setting off my leave...I spoke to my HR manager this morning abt it, so she went to talk to him.

Now he said I misunderstood him, ok whatever he says...I'm very sure that wasn't what he said yesterday as I can very well count, altho my Engrish is not as good as his! 4 and 5 weeks is not the same, but i'm not gonna argue with him abt that now!

Upset!

As I write this post, my blood is boiling and fumes are eminating from my ears!

My current boss just pissed me off, yet again. He informed me that he cannot grant me that 1 month's notice period, and instead is only granting me 6 weeks. Probably I can't set off my leave either!

I told him I need to go off earlier, so that I have enough time to sort out my own things before I relocate. He said "that's just too bad, not my problem"! Well, then I'll pay the company off for my notice in lieu, and he said that THAT wasn't an option either.

It's not? Says who? It's clearly stated in my letter of employment that I will have to serve 3 months' notice period, or repay the company the salary in-lieu of notice. So, I can pay off the whole 3 months' notice period and give 24-hour notice if I so wish!

What crap! I didn't say the above in so many words, but my displeasure was splashed all across my pretty (or not-so-pretty, then) face.

This company has caused me lots of grievances throughout my 2-year tenure. It is a blessing that I am finally leaving this crappy hole for a possible bright future (I hope), and yet, my boss cannot even be professional enough to take my departure in good faith.

It could be my imagination, but it seems as though he is displeased with me for being able to find a better job elsewhere, instead of being happy for me. It's like, he is angry with himself for not being able to find another job after he tendered his resignation last July '05, but he is taking it out on me.

My instincts tell me that he is doing this to me, because he is just being sour grapes to the whole circumstance...at my expense.

After fuming and ranting about all this, I have still not blown my top (publicly in office) yet. I still wish I will be able to leave in good faith, to leave quietly and on mutual terms.

It would be horrible to leave otherwise. In my entire career path, I had always left my jobs on good terms with my employers, and I hope this will not be any different.

A New Adventure Awaits

My anxiety of embarking on a whole new adventure, of starting over a whole new life, is becoming significantly stronger as the days go by.

My sleep at nights are not sound, my mind active with the list of things to do or buy for my current house, so that I can quickly settle in these next three weeks, before I begin to pack for my inevitable relocation to Miri in early May.

I was hopeful for my friend, who had gone there for an interview just two weeks ago, to make it there with me. Together with a friend, we could conquer any new challenges the new job and new life presented us. Sadly, just this morning, I received the upsetting news from my friend via email that she had failed the interview.

What happened?

I had thought that she would have fared well, as she had thought the interview went fairly smoothly. Perhaps she was not meant for this job after all, as I always believe that things will work out the way it is meant to happen. Your own karma will lead you to the unfolding of your eventual future. Cause and effect.

This morning, she does not want to take my call, nor is she replying to my email, as I wish to get more information of when she knew of the result of her interview, and whether she know which part it is that they felt she didn't fit. She wrote in her email that perhaps it is a blessing in disguise for her that she failed the interview, as she is hesitant to leave her family behind. However, she was really excited when she was there for the interview...

Perhaps, it is also my own karma that has determined that I try this challenge on my own two feet.

In any case, I hope that I will be able to fit in there easily, and find many, many new good friends and colleagues there, with a good boss to top it of. The most important, I hope that my mom will be able to adjust to this new arrangement fairly quickly and easily. That, to me, means half the battle is won.

Wish me luck, k? ;)