XM Malaysia: My last day

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14th of January, 2004 was my last day at XM Malaysia. I have had a
great time here, met lots of interesting people and most importantly
learnt a lot about the working world here. This is my first job (well,
first job that’s related to my degree and legit) and it has indeed
provided me with valuable experience and lessons that would be very
helpful in my career. I highly recommend anyone who’s just entering the
workforce to join the wonderful people at XM – the corporate culture is
great, the people are great and you will gain an appreciation for
deadlines and timelines here. πŸ˜‰

Unfortunately, due to personal reasons, I decided to move to another
city and thus submitted my resignation letter with a heavy heart. I’m
not just saying that, XM is really a great place to work in, and the
high workload teaches discipline. There is also frequent dinners,
parties, events and even an annual company trip. I hear the destination
is somewhere in Phuket this year…I would have loved to go had I been
able to, but the trip is slated in late February/March.

One of the shortlisted destinations was Koh Samui and I would have
kicked myself had that been the final destination. But then I wouldn’t
be able to go anyway, even if I were still at XM. My gf placed a
restraining order in regards to that particular island (and Koh
Phangan) after I used the name of this popular tourist destination and
certain psychoactive fungi in the same sentence…places like Amsterdam
(obviously) and Japan (research chems) is also on the “Entry only under
her supervision” list for related reasons. Strangely, I am free to
wander crystal clear Jalan Alor, but I digress…

I’m going to miss the frequent company wide events and all the
people I’ve come to know in my time at XM Malaysia. Congratulations for
the recent pitch win, and all the best in everything! The photos for
the pitch was one of the things I did that I will remember fondly – it
was great to see the storylines turned into photo scenes and then
compiled and made into a cohesive strip. It was an enjoyable experience
to work in Creative for a change. Every single person at XM has left an
impact in my time here and I enjoyed getting to know every single one
of you. Take care everyone and thanks for everything!

Management

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Ng Jit Hoong – General Manager a.k.a. The Boss. I was surprised when
I first knew that he was the GM since he appeared younger than most
people holding a similar position. I like the way he manages the
company – it promotes employee loyalty. Unlike most managers, he knows
how to have fun and that makes XM a great place to work in.

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Yusnita – She was the one that called me for an interview when I was
in Sibu and I kept caling her Nita coz that was what I heard on the
phone, but it turns out to be Yusnita and everyone calls her Yus, so I
had to switch. πŸ™‚ It was my first interview and I found her very
friendly and approachable, which made me felt more comfortable. Ever
since I lost my Palm stylus with an integrated pen, I either go to Yus
or Rozana for something which produces ink.

Account Management

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Taryn – I remember working on a project till late once and she
kindly offered me a ride home. We were talking about all sorts of
things when clubbing came up and she presented her views about drugs,
which wasn’t exactly similar to mine. πŸ™‚ She’s one of the few people I
feel comfortable talking to though. Thanks for having the faith to
select me as the pitch photographer, I really appreciate that!

Project Management

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Prem! Great guy who manages some of the projects I work on and he’s
one of the most patient people I know (though I would let him have his
morning coffee before talking to him). I met him at Chili’s in Bangsar Shopping Center (bsc)
[sixthseal.com] early on and was surprised that he recognized me and
stopped me. He was drinking with his friends while I was having dinner
with my friends to celebrate my first paycheck. I didn’t even recognize
him at first due to pre-loading at home before the dinner and thus the
Intoxication Factor was fairly high and Prem noticed that. Friendly and
easy to talk to, you just gotta love him (in a completely heterosexual
way of course). Which reminds me, IMHO “brb” is much safer than “gimme
a sec” to type in Yahoo! Messenger due to the proximity of the ‘c’ and
‘x’ key, especially with the high key density of notebooks. It may save
considerable consternation on the recipient’s part. πŸ˜‰

Technical

This is my department.

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Rozana – She’s one of the people in tech that I’m closer with. She
sits beside me (right) but unfortunately has to use the BUZZ!!!
function despite the physical proximity due to the admittedly
excessively loud headphones volume setting I like, which renders me all
but oblivious to ambient sound, unless I take it off. It does not help
that the music I listen to help me concentrate is feng tau music (the
cheesy Ah Beng kind). Rozana likes shopping and I like to say “Just put
“QC OK” enough laa…” – a phrase said in jest which I picked up from
the other tech guys. I imagine hanging out with her bf would be a lot
of fun, never got that chance. πŸ˜‰ I’ll love to be your wedding
photographer if I’m in KL at that time.

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Wai Hing – Senior programmer who interviewed me when I came in. He
probably knows more about me than anyone else in XM and is a good
friend from the beginning. I had thought that my dismal attempts at
tackling the ASP problem in the interview meant I had blown it, but
thankfully it didn’t. I remember him saying that if he had known about
my blog during the interview, I would probably not have been hired due
to veritas’s all too controversial content. πŸ™‚ I used
HuaiBin.Poh@sixthseal.com as my resume address, I reckon if I had put
me@sixthseal.com I would not have had the chance to work in this great
company. He’s the only person to have ever stepped into my place,
though several people have fetched me home before. This is a level
headed and great guy who manages to be a friend and a superior at the
same time. I would consider him a good friend though I must state that
there are more tactful ways of saying “There must be something wrong
with your code”. πŸ˜‰
It was funny though, the first time went:
Me: Hmm…there’s something wrong with qForms.
WH: There’s nothing wrong with qForms. There must be something wrong with your code.
Still makes me laugh up to today. Heh.
Thanks for all the advice and heads-up mate!

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Loh – An email from him means you’ve got work to do. I found him
unapproachable when I first came in, but he’s a really nice guy after I
got to know him. The only person I know who can stay awake for days on
just Marlboros. Patient (most of the time ;)) and doesn’t mind
explaining a procedure several times, something which would personally
drive me crazy if I had to do that. Easy to talk to and I’ve learnt a
lot about career decisions from him. Trustworthy and discreet, I’m sure
he’s seen me drink coffee in an unorthodox way (to use a euphemism)
especially during late nights when mental clarity and concentration is
required, but never mentioned it although I’m sure his position
regarding the use of certain cognitive enhancing substances is very
different from mine. He has a good attitude towards work too, doesn’t
mind doing grunt work or staying back late. He has covered for me a
number of times, thanks for that! He reminds me of a “brother” (hia ti
in Hokkien, no blood relation) I know from way back in NZ and then
Kuching who you can trust to cover your back (literally, not in the
workplace context). Someone you can trust to get things done and always
willing to help out.

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Azli – The quality manager that can spot errors that won’t register
to mere mortals. I fear his extensive bug tracker returns. I once made
a mistake that involved mass mailing out a HTML email from an important
client several weeks before it was due – with a wrong table tag! It was
a big client so the email went out to tens of thousands of people.
Nelson, Ivan, Wai Hing and Azli had to stay back and help me do damage
control by living the site promoted in the email. Azli was due to balik
kampung that night, but he stayed back without a single complaint. I’ve
always felt guilty about that incident since he had to call back home
and tell his family he’ll be late. Thanks Azli!
Strangely, I’ve never been asked to do the email blast again. πŸ˜‰

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Soffian – Our IT Manager, he’s the network administrator and
troubleshooter. The first time I asked if I could install my own copy
of software, he promptly admonished me and said (I love this phrase)
he’ll have to “Balik kampung, goyang perahu”. πŸ™‚ XM has a strict policy
of using only licensed software and every copy is tracked so I was
stuck with Dreamweaver 2 and switched to EditPlus (the multipurpose
editor I use at home and when I was in uni) instead. I once asked him
if there are any extra licenses for Photoshop and he asked me why I
wanted graphics manipulation software. I couldn’t very well say I was
planning to use my lunch hour to update my blog so I mumbled something
incoherent and he was kind enough to find a copy of Photoshop 5 that no
one was using and thanks to him, there was a period when sixthseal.com
was updated during lunch hour, until word came down that I shouldn’t be
updating in office hours.

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Thee Heng – The leng chai of tech department. He knows a lot, not
only about programming, but about entertainment as well. The person to
ask if you want to know what a song that’s playing is called. He has an
unorthodox desktop layout that seems confusing, but surprisingly he
works fast from it. Thee Heng is also prone to sudden outbursts of
song, a trait I like because…er, I’m susceptible to this as well. πŸ˜‰
He’s another member of the “Weekend Club” together with Wai Hing, Azli
and sometimes Loh.

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Janet – This photo was taken last Friday (all the others were taken
today – notice the different color shirt) because she’s on her annual
leave for Chinese New Year. Friday was when the people in my department
knew about me leaving because it’s a bit strange to be taking photos
when she’ll only be gone for a couple of weeks, so I said I won’t be
here when she comes back. I believe she’s the only one who’s seen me
take photos and eat two Trebor 24-7 mints before heading to Warp to
meet my friends. It was a Friday night and I just finished my
outstanding work at around 11 pm and I figured I might as well take
photos since there was no one else before heading down, since at least
lighting conditions is somewhat controllable here.

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Chang – A fellow LRT commuter, though her line is the opposite of
mine. She taught me basic math…I didn’t think the monthly tickets
were necessary until she pointed out that I had not included the return
trip into the equation. I’ve bought monthly tickets ever since. She
will be leaving XM soon too – on Friday, two days later than me. I
believe there are still valid openings for positions in XM Malaysia
though, since the interviews are still ongoing, so sign up if you’re
interested. It’s a great place to work in.

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Wang – My compatriot. He came in at the same time as I did
(technically one day later, but anyway) and is usually one of the early
arrivals in tech after Loh. I actually saw him during my first
interview, and remembered him when he came in for work. πŸ™‚ He sits
beside me and we were both stuck reading a ColdFusion 5 book on the
first day because the workstations were still being set up. My eyes
glazed over that first day from holding a thick book and slogging
through it. I should have read the other one on the table called Code
Security – I read that during the blackout yesterday and it was much
more interesting. He probably suspects coffee is not my performance
booster of choice as well since he sits besides me.

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Huai Bin – er…this is me. That’s my digicam bag in the foreground
which only contains the Nikon 5700, a spare battery, a USB cord and 2
extra CF cards. I seem to be holding something in my hand, shall we
zoom in a little?

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It seems to be a blister pack of something.

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Xanax – 1 mg alprazolam tablets! =D Some people keep Panadol beside their desks, I keep Xanax.
Fast relief is just an arms reach away! πŸ˜‰
Thou shall not use profanity when something goes wrong.
Thou shall not get into heated discussions with either your coworkers or project managers.
Thou shall definitely not resort to violence or react in any way deemed unnecessarily aggressive or appear agitated in any way.
Take one (or two, or three, or four, or five) for rapid relief from stress, frustration and violent ideations.
Xanax – the choice of working professionals when your personal bullshit threshold is reached.
Alprazolam has been used successfully in uncooperative, agitated and
angry people, turning them into docile, contented and agreeable human
resources within minutes.

Accept no substitutes! πŸ˜‰

Creative

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Mandy Chan – She’s probably the person I talk to the most in Creative.

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Kelvin Gan – My gf says he looks like a paikia. I told her he lives
in Setapak, the Springvale of KL (for Melbourne visitors) or the
Foochow Road of KL (for Sibu visitors). πŸ˜‰

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Yunus – He told me it was the first time XM had a blackout and to
take a photo yesterday but I didn’t because I thought it was isolated
to XM and didn’t want to create any negative publicity.

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L-R: Suzanne, Jae Sern, Huai Bin, Sherry. This is the best decorated
corner of the Creative department. It’s amazing. Suzanne is the web
designer. Jae Sern is the popular guy who everyone knows from what I
see in the previous postings on the blog (my favorite comment from him
is “erm..which ex girlfriend might u be refering to, booboo?:D”).
Classic. πŸ™‚ Sherry has the job I want. :p

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L-R: Rashidin, Huai Bin, Felicia, Vijay. Rashidin is the Art
Director. Felicia spent most of her time in the states and was one of
the first few people who knew about castitas.com when it was launched.
VJ is a great guy and leader of Geng69 (the XM sports team I’m in) with
the unfortunate tendency to call me soya bean. πŸ˜‰

This post only has the people I managed to take photos of yesterday.
I wanted to take photos of everyone but there wasn’t enough time. My
apologies for not covering everyone that has worked alongside me for
the last few months. I would like to extend my thanks to:

Nelson
Our Technical Director with visionary plans. He puts the tech department first and he defends his team. I respect him for that.

Chia = A really friendly and nice guy
We’ll keep in touch, I’ll be coming over to KL once in a while, and we can meet up then. [Edit: My apologies, didn’t know the circumstances. Hope everything goes well!]

Hon Kit
Thanks for the fast and hassle free processing of the paperwork!

E-Ling
I enjoyed working with you on the pitch.

Winnie
I heard you were the one that found my blog. πŸ™‚

Becky
Thanks for your help in the mass mailing error.

Catharine
I thoroughly enjoyed working on the well scripted pitch…especially The Silent Uploader. πŸ˜‰

Shen
You look like someone I would enjoy hanging out with, too bad we never got the chance.

May
Micracles do happen, eh? I like how you always manage to smile even under crushing deadlines and pressure.

Ganesh
You’ve been very patient with me on the IP-VPN project. Thanks for that!

Ivan
I appreciate your concern and I will definitely stick to my guns. I will get in touch in six months.

Mounty
My apologies, I didn’t have time to get to know you better.

TK
Thanks for your help in the pitch, I couldn’t have thought up good scenes by myself.

Shirley
I didn’t see you yesterday, would have loved to take a photo with you.

Zammil
Sorry! I totally forgot to take a photo with you, I thought I had covered Creative already.

Goodbye everyone and take care. I have enjoyed my time here and learned much.

Other XM Malaysia posts:

The offer from XM Malaysia

My first day at XM

Prelude to XM Bowling Competition

XM Annual Bowling 2003

Jae Sern’s birthday

First paycheck!

The Foosball finals

Janet, Wai Hing, VJ, TK birthday

The Taj Deepavali Dinner

Jemay, Prem and Rashidin’s birthday

Jit and Suzanne’s birthday

XM blackout and resignation announcement

Jit and Suzanne’s birthday (XM Malaysia) 2003

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Jit is the one in the white shirt. Prem is puzzling over the candles. πŸ˜‰

Here are the photos from Jit and Suzanne’s birthday at the office on Monday.

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Jit and Suzanne blowing out the candles.

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Suzanne cutting the cake.

Well, it’s Thursday night now, and there has been a distinct lack of
updates, as you may or may not have noticed. πŸ™‚ Anyway, I’m not dead,
killed or in jail so that means I’m either depressed (my quarterly
serotonin depletion) or something has happened. A little bit of both,
I’ll say. Monday night was crazy, my gf went back to Sibu on Tuesday
morning for more than a month and my “Warning! Serotonin levels low!”
indicators went off last Sunday and was beeping all through the Hari
Raya holidays.

Thus, I slept. I figured that was the best way to counter depression
(damned sea dwelling mammal…*shakes fist*) – always works for me. I
can count the hours I was awake during Raya holidays on the digits of
one finger. With a little chemical assistance (legally prescribed,
thank you very much), my waking hours were greatly reduced to ride the
depression wave and I’m pretty much okay now, and I project serotonin
levels will be back to normal by tomorrow. πŸ™‚ sixthseal.com will be
updated as usual from now on. My apologies about the Quarterly
Serotonin Induced Hiatus (QSIH).

Me and my abysmal acronyms…;)

Jemay, Prem and Rashidin’s birthday @ XM Malaysia

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Cheesecake from Hotel Equatorial.

Today is TGIF, the monthly meeting at XM Malaysia. I will not be
talking about that though because its work related. However, I’ll like
to extend my apologies to Jarrod Chua for not remembering his name. We
have this “name the person” thing and I know everyone’s name from
Technical, Creative, Project Management, Account Management and Jit,
Bob and Yusnita but unfortunately not the Finance Administration
people. Oops. Anyway, there was also a celebration for Jemay, Prem and
Rashidin and here are the photos from that:

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The candles on the cake being lighted.

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Rashidin blowing out the candles. To his right is Jemay and Prem is on his left.

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Prem cutting the cake.

Apparently, I’m the resident photographer of XM Malaysia now. πŸ˜‰

The Taj @ Crown Princess Deepavali Buffet

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The Taj.

This is the write up of the annual XM Malaysia Deepavali dinner at
The Taj @ Crown Princess. There are heaps of photos in this post, which
would probably hurt me more than the US$ 60 I just paid for excess
bandwidth, but hey, it’s Deepavali tomorrow. πŸ™‚ Anyway, XM Malaysia and
Zenith Media booked the entire restaurant for the annual get together.

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This is one of the many fringe benefits we get at XM. Free beer
anyone? πŸ˜‰ Anyway, the tables were half taken by Zenith and half by XM.
Our table had mostly tech people, plus quite a few Project Managers and
two from Creative, IIRC. Caveat: I don’t remember all that well when
I’m on this particular GABA agonist my doctor prescribed (Shh! People
who know shouldn’t comment about it. :p) and when there’s free beer
involved since the two potentiates each other, resulting in an early
loss of inhibition. πŸ˜‰

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Anyway, about the food at The Taj, it was okay, but not great. Don’t
get me wrong, it’s good…just not as good as their desserts! They have
really great desserts and sweets. I like this particular brown chunky
thing that I don’t remember the name of, but readers from Melbourne,
you can find it opposite the Clayton station exit (from the City). It’s
two shops down from that discount bottleshop where I usually buy my
beer. The shop specializes in North Indian sweets.

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Well back to the event, like I said, I don’t remember much, but
there was this speech where 3 new people from XM and 3 new people from
Zenith Media gave a speech describing their first weeks and the best
one gets RM 500 and the one which the judges deemed was the worst has
to sing a song. Oh right, I just remembered something VERY
EMBARRASSING…I blame the venue for not labeling the toilets properly.
:p

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Anyway, about halfway through the event, I felt the urge to answer
the call of nature, as one tends to get after drinking beer – which not
only is a liquid, but a diuretic as well. I walked to the toilets –
there was one male and one female, both side by side. I went into the
male one, saw a toilet for the disabled to my right and went straight
in and relieved myself.

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Well, the urination process took longer than usual, considering I
had a full bladder and suddenly…there was this feeling that something
wasn’t right. I stood there, aiming my member and trying to think about
what it was that felt unusual. It’s…voices. Female voices. “Why are
there female voices in a male toilet?”, I wondered. I zipped my pants,
forgot to flush and opened the door to…

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A group of females standing right outside the door! I stared blankly
at them. I think both parties said “What are you doing in the guys
toilet?” and “What are you doing in the girls toilet?” at the same
time. There was about 6-8 of them and I knew all of them. How
embarrassing…that damned toilet sign, it looked like a male one! Chih
Ning wanted to grab my digicam and take a photo of me in the girls
toilet but good thing I made a quick exit, escaping the laughter behind
me. πŸ˜‰

I think I didn’t even wash my hands in my hurry to get out…

I strongly suggest better signs to distinguish the male and female
toilets to avoid situations like this. I’ve lived at on campus since
2000 while in uni and the toilets and bathrooms are co-ed so I wasn’t
too bothered about it, but this is Malaysia. It’s a good thing that all
the people in the female toilet at that time were from either XM or
Zenith Media. If there were any strangers, I wouldn’t know what the
outcome would be from that mistake. πŸ™‚

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The Taj. Fine North Indian Cruisine.

Anyway, back to dinner, here are the photos of the annual XM Malaysia/Zenith Media Deepavali get together!

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Zenith Media table. I only know Chih Ning (the one in white). She’s the one that gives out paychecks. πŸ˜‰

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Candid shot of the people opposite me.

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This is the other side.

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This is my side.

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This is Jemay. He put me in a very uncomfortable position once during a TGIF meeting when my blog was brought up by him. πŸ˜‰

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L-R: Jit, Janet, E-Ling

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Miscellaneous shots

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More miscellaneous shots

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Yet more miscellaneous shots

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Tamater Ka Shorba
Tomato Soup with Indian Herbs

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Nan
Indian bread baked in clay oven

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Matar Pulao

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Dal Tarka
Yellow lentils tempered and seasoned with exotic spices

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Palak Paneer
Spicy spinach with Indian cheese

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Gobhi Kelandi
Cauliflower with yoghurt and spices

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Goshi Kurma

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Fish Tikka

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Tandoori Murgh
Tender Chicken marinated with freshly ground Mint, Coriander & Spices

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Kingfisher Beer! It tastes more like cider than beer…

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Kingfisher beer is made in India!

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My plate of food.

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My dessert plate.

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Us techies.

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L-R: Chia (blue), Anthony (white), Mandy (grey), Felicia (black), Loh (light blue), Huai Bin (me) (black)

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Happy Deepavali!

Janet, Wai Hing, VJ, TK Birthday @ XM Malaysia

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“Happy Birthday to Janet Lee Wai Hing VJ. TK.” is the inscription on the cake.

The Secret Recipe cake pictured above was presented at 4:30 pm just
now at the office to celebrate the birthdays of XM Malaysia family
members Janet Lee, Wai Hing, Vijay and Tek Khoon. In true XM style,
everyone gathered around the lounge.

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L-R: Wai Hing, TK, VJ, Janet.

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This is Janet blowing the candles out.

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Secret Recipe chocolate cake (with some kind of nut that I couldn’t identify) plus ice cream. Mmm…

Anyway, if anyone doesn’t know yet, all the photos I take in XM is
in Simon -> Drop -> (event name) in full resolution,
non-watermarked and without a text overlay.

XM Malaysia Foosball Finals 2003

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L-R: May, Shirley, Anthony, Suzanne, TK, Loh, Azli

Here are the photos of the foosball championship finals at the
office yesterday evening. XM Malaysia has a foosball table in the rec
room and it was decided in the last TGIF meeting that there would be a
competition with several events like foosball, pool etc. I’m in Geng 69
(the company is divided into six teams) but I wasn’t going to play
foosball – I volunteered for pool coz I think I’m pretty handy with a
cue, unless my skillz has atrophied significantly, which could very
well be true if the last time I played snooker with my friends is any
indication.

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Here’s the score list. The finals yesterday was Team Tofu vs
Screaming Chihuahuas in the winners bracket and Geng 69 vs Junkies in
the losers bracket.

Final result:

Winners bracket

Team ToFu vs Screaming Chihuahuas (female doubles)

Tofu

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May
Shirley

Chihuahuas

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Catharine
Sherry

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Chihuahuas win!

Win: Screaming Chihuahuas

Team ToFu vs Screaming Chihuahuas (male doubles)

Tofu

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Azli
Tek Khoon

Chihuahuas

Jae Sern
Soffian

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Azli with the ball.

Win: Tofu

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Tofu #1

Losers bracket

Geng 69 (Ranggi Fellows) vs Junkies (female doubles)

Geng 69

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Mandy
Joanne

Junkies

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Felicia
Winnie

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Mandy Chan and Joanne with team captain VJ.

Win: Junkies

Geng 69 (Ranggi Fellows) vs Junkies (male doubles)

Geng 69

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Two own goals and some skewering going on.

Wai Hing
Huai Bin (me)

Junkies

Loh
Thee Heng

Win: Geng 69

I actually made two own goals. Heh! I was sitting in for Chia who
was on annual leave and played offence with Loh on defence. This was
the match that would decide who gets the last place and I thought all
was lost due to those two own goals. However, my skillz (okay, luck :p)
prevailed at the end when both teams were at 4/5 goals…one goal would
mean the difference between winning and losing. I made my men dance and
scored the winning goal by…ok, luck lar. πŸ™‚ Geng 69 didn’t get the
last spot. :p Yay!

#1 = Team Tofu
#6 = Junkies

No work today

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I went into the office today and found all the lifts being upgraded,
with the exception of one…it took ages to arrive too, coz Kenanga
International has quite a number of floors. Anyway, I went up to find
the office devoid of people…and I did not have the key today. I had
the key the two weekeneds I came in but I figured I won’t need it today
coz I thought they’ll be people in. Anyway, all is not lost, I went to
Bukit Bintang and caught the Kempen Kerjaya PDRM thing, photos will be
up soon!

My first ever paycheck – RM 1,790.32

xmcheck.jpg

I was eating my lunch yesterday when Janet, Chang and Wang came over
and told me the paychecks were ready and so down we went to the 12th
floor to get them. Pictured above is my first every paycheck, for RM
1,790.32. =D

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Mutiara Hotel

That’s not what I earn per month though, my monthly salary is only
RM 1,500 (yes, please feel sorry for me). The amount was pro-rated from
last month. I went into XM Malaysia at the end of August. Anyway, I
figured my first paycheck is cause for a mini celebration so I went to
Hotel Mutiara.

mutiara.jpg

I was wondering why a lot of my coworkers were going off at 5 pm and
coming back with Mutiara Hotel bags until I was told about the 50% off
all cakes at Tiffins.

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Tiffins @ Mutiara

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Anyway, after getting the cakes, I bought a celebratory cigar at
this place in Hotel Mutiara (forgot the name). It was a walk in humidor
and I was tempted by the Cohiba cigars on display but unfortunately
could not afford one so I settled for a Montecristo Tubos (review
later, probably at castitas.com).

montecristo.jpg
Montecristo

I also got a bottle of sparkling wine (“California Champagne” – only
wines from Champagne, France can be called champagne) from the wine
shop at Isetan, KLCC. It’s Cook’s California Sparkling Wine, selected
for its price tag. :p Oh ya, Isetan has a sale so if you want to go
it’s open from 10 am to 10 pm tonight.

cookswine.jpg
Cook’s California Sparkling Wine

Jae Sern’s birthday @ XM Malaysia (2003)

Here are the photos of the XM Malaysia office gathering just now to
celebrate Jae Sern’s (from Creative) birthday. I couldn’t get shots of
everyone coz of the distributed congregation, so the photos mostly
feature the birthday boy. πŸ™‚

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Azli putting up the candles on the Secret Recipe chocolate cake.

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Happy birthday song. L-R: Shen (Project Manager), Jit (General Manager
aka the boss), May (Project Manager), Jae Sern (birthday boy).

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Jae Sern blowing out the candles.

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The cake cutting begins. I helped myself to a rather large slice too. πŸ˜‰

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Jae Sern smiling at the digicam. Jit is to the left and VJ is to the right.

I’m still at the office…I’ve got some stuff to do, sorry about not
having time to reply the comments. I want to get my work done with and
head home.

I am still at the office…

xmfrinite.jpg

It’s already 10:30 pm and I’m still at the office…can’t complain
though, the stuff I was working on just went live and dinner was
provided. This is the first time I don’t have to come back on Saturday
or Sunday (since all the work was completed) so it’s all good!

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