Happy Belated CNY

You know that when I'm forced to wish you Happy Chinese New Year 5 (or 6?) days late, I have been pretty darned busy. Sorry about that. I actually have some photos to share but the stuff is all sitting in my phone. My phone's socialising with its charger and I'm not going anywhere near that little radioactive bomb for the next 2 hours. Looks like I'll have to post those photos next time.

Anyway I hope you got yourself enough Ang Pows to make visiting the ATM unnecessary for the next few months. For me, this year is the first year I actually distributed Ang Pows during CNY.

... No I'm not married yet. I just gave my parents Ang Pows because I'm working and that's my statutory duty. And no, I'm not going to give you an Ang Pow. I can show you the Standard Chartered Bank Ang Pows I used (they're pretty classy), but no, no Ang Pow with Kaching$$$ inside for you.

If I started distributing Ang Pows like that, the God of Prosperity would be out of a job.

Anyway CNY is about more than Ang Pows. It's about family reunions and ketchup-ing with your close/distant relatives and friends. It's also about having lots of good meals and growing sideways.

I definitely did grow sideways. Need work out. LOL

Pulau Payar

I'm not going to bore you guys about details of the audit peak. Not when some of you probably can't relate to audit and all of you are in CNY mood. I'm going to write about something more fun, like snorkeling!

I recently visited Pulau Payar to see the sea life there. I've never been snorkeling before and swallowed half the sea before I got the hang of it, but it was worth the trouble. Unfortunately I don't own a camera that can survive underwater, so I can't share what I saw on the seabed. It was really cool. There were fishes of all colours of the rainbow, sea urchins, coral reefs, sea anemones and even reef sharks. No reef sharks don't bite, and they're actually quite shy.

I swam for 5 hours and got myself 5 hours' worth of sunburn. I can't remember when was the last time I swam this much. Probably have never done so. It was 2 weeks' worth of exercise packed into a day.

This is Pulau Payar.

And this is where you hop off into the water.

You can see fishes even without jumping into the ocean.

The sea was actually greenish. phytoplankton I suppose.

We were not allowed to swim beyond the buoys. It was pretty safe. Sea wasn't very deep.

Nahhh. Fish.

I took this photo (and the one above) when somebody threw breadcrumbs into the sea.

If you know nuts about snorkeling and intend to try, I recommend this place. It feels relatively safe since the water is only a few meters deep. In addition there are always so many people around I guess it's unlikely you'll ever drown. Just don't swim away to some obscure corner alone. Also, you'll be given a life vest that will keep you afloat always, which is great for inexperienced swimmers like me.

Ohhh, and remember your sunblock. I'm making a mental note on that so I don't get barbecued in the future.

Happy New Year!

I said I would save this greeting for the new year post, so here it is. HAPPY NEW YEAR my dear readers! Hope you enjoyed yourself last night at some countdown or new year party with family and friends. I know this is the time to talk about new years' resolutions, but I'm not a resolutions type of person. They're a bit too rigid for me and I prefer to make my stuff up as I go. In short, I wing it.

But there are two things I promise myself I will do this year.

1) It will be a tough year ahead but I promise myself I will freaking learn my way to success. What doesn't kill me makes me stronger. What makes me stronger makes me invincible. To be invincible, I must first learn to be stronger by not letting things kill me. Makes sense, right? Wait... ah yes it does make sense. Sorry, blanked out a moment there.

2) I am now officially earning, but I will make sure money does not change me. I can change money, but I will not allow money to change me. No ifs, no buts, non-negotiable. I have seen enough cases where people have changed for the worse since working. I refuse to be one of those people.

Now that I've gotten that out of the way, I also wish that 2014 will be a year I can have fun in. Let it not all be about hardcore work. Life's too short.

May 2014 also be a fruitful and fun year for you!

Drawing to a Close

Merry Christmas everyone. I'll save the Happy New Year for the next post. I hope you are happy with what you have achieved in 2013. I certainly am. No doubts about that.

For me 2013 is special in the sense that I graduated in this year, returned to Penang and landed myself a first job. Quite a drastic change in lifestyle from the college/university life that I have been accustomed to. Besides that I've started pushing towards my next big milestone. My CPA qualification. Hopefully to be attained smoothly in 3 years' time.

Looking back, I would really love to see the clear blue skies of Perth again. I enjoyed studying there. i guess you could tell from my previous posts. I plan to go back someday on a holiday. Just to re-explore the city and relive some of my best memories. Will definitely be some time before I go back there though. Now's the time to save up. Not spend.

I foresee 2014 will be an interesting year for me. Through my trusty gypsy crystal ball I see myself progressing through my first year as part of the workforce, learning to achieve the ultimate balance between career, family, friends, personal interests, and keeping the galaxy safe from alien invaders.

No, my day job does not include fighting aliens. Although sometimes I wish it does.

X'mas in KL Malls

I've been travelling up and down between Penang and KL recently. For training and for actual work. Surprisingly during my 3 trips down south I somehow found the time to explore the capital with my colleagues. I took some photos of the different Christmas decorations I encountered in the various malls in and around KL. Thought it was a good idea to post them here.

First we have the Bangsar Mall, which my colleagues tell me is a haunt for the rich. So I guess I was probably the poorest joker there. Lol.

Management went to great heights to decorate the place. I went to great heights to take that photo. Literally. There were shops below the chairs and shoppers were walking below the dining table. The table was about a storey high.

Another angle.

Look at those apples!

We were pretty much dwarfed by the deco.

1 Utama's deco was not as impressive as the previous mall, but boleh tahan. I observed the progress each day as workers built the deco. To get to where I was working I had to walk through the mall every day.

Prezzies!

Hot air balloon themed.

Another mall with nice X'mas deco is Midvalley Megamall. I stayed at Cititel Midvalley when attending training at PwC HQ, so I had ample chances to hang around this mall. In fact I had most of my dinners here.

Castle! With X'mas trees and snowflakes.

I don't know what that white hanging stuff is supposed to be. My guess is snowflakes or something similar.

Another angle.

 This huge tree was also found in Midvalley Megamall.

Finally, The Gardens, which was right beside Megamall. The deco there was relatively simple. I spent less time there because I was not into branded goods.

Simple but nice. The X'mas tree had red paper roses on it.

 They had these hanging rose vines-reindeer antler things. Quite nice.

Okay, I'm done. Hopefully the next time I write won't be a month later, as in this post which only came a month after the previous one.

What I've Been Up To

This photo aptly sums up my experiences in the past 2 weeks.

PwC, my 1st job, and ASR for Assurance. The fancy name for audit.

My bro pointed out ASR could also mean 'Lee Ewe Juan - All Stupid Rookie'. Hopefully that is not true.

A large part of the previous 2 weeks was spent learning jargon,trying not to look confused and fumbling my way through the company's systems and procedures. Not the first time I've been through that though. It's called the New Joiner Syndrome. And it's common. Fortunately many colleagues and seniors were ready to help me out so I did not cause any disasters.

I also had the chance to visit KL for the first time after a family trip 12 years ago. Went there for the 1st Experience Orientation thingie, which proved to be quite fun, despite the schedule being very hectic. The best part was probably meeting new friends from all over Malaysia and hanging out with my colleagues/batchmates. It's easy to be friends when you know in a few weeks time, you will all share the same worn out looks and have similar dark circles around your eyes.

I will be going to KL soon again for my first engagement. This time for 2 weeks. Let's hope I'm up to the challenge!