Life-changing 2013

Happy New Year 2014!

Last year 2013, I didn't have time to recap the moments of the entire year. I was so caught up with events in December that I kinda forgot all about blogging.

In short, 2013 was one of the greatest years in my life (well, I said that every end of the year, don't I?). Hmmpph. But really, 2013 was not only great but was life-changing. I have gotten my long awaited double promotion, and long-awaited chance to be married. Sounds desperate, but I am not desperate. I do work hard for it. Stuffs sometimes just happen and it goes in your favour. God's will.

Highlights:
1. I was being proposed to by one of the most amazing guy on earth (ok lah, exaggerate a bit here), but I love him; my family and relatives adores him; we share the same passion. etc. And with that, came a diamond ring. If you know me well, naturally I don't really care how many carats it was, but the 2-weeks secret proposal effort did make me cry, and that was all that matters. Read it all here.

2. Malaysia General Election clogged up almost all conversations in the office, coffeeshops, homes, etc. during first quarter of the year. Read my thoughts and experiences in one of the most dramatic and 'dirtiest' GE of all times.

3. My birthday was also my ROM. There was I, signing my name off. Sounds morbid but it was actually my mum and dad's dream to see me married off, as many would have said: Ivy might never get married cause her character is....(insert masculine adjective(s) here).... Of course, the myth was debunked.

4. We signed up for a wedding photography package and made Cameron Highlands our outdoor location shoot. Thanks to Jacky from Bridal Collection and some luck with the cooling weather and sunset, we've got ourselves some breathtaking photographs. At the same time, we really had lots of fun doing the whole shoot, and it was sooo cooling. No sweat, literally! Read the experiences and my current take of weddings here.

5. Fong has gotten a new double-storey link house for us to begin our lives together, and so we worked hard, day and night to personalized our pad. With much money thrown in, I think we are both happy to get ourselves a place in Klang Valley, where many young people could only dream of - a landed property. A lot of sweat poured in into doing our own painting, fixing of own cabinets, knobs, hinges, with no help of an ID. From there, I found that Fong does make full use of his PE in civil engineering - such a great handyman and has much knowledge in renovation, he could be a salaried Renovator himself. Plus, I remembered going IKEA 5 times in one month.

6. Just like every year ...*ZzzzZzZzZ*....I had to prepare for my naik-pangkat assessment. This year, I did it! Promotion! Smiling from cheek-to-cheek when my payslip arrived just the other month.

7. I went to Beijing twice for meetings and another for a business attachment. Me being me, I make sure I explore the city like a tourist, but on the other hand, going to many roads less traveled. I try to absorb in as much as I could about the country, while maintaining my own cultural integrity, also making every trip a time for self-discovery and a learning process. From there, I never had the same thought about China ever again. Funny, but I love China, and my colleagues were jokingly asking me to 'balik China' again as I was bragging about my VIP treatments in Beijing, oh well....so much better compared to my treatment as a chinese in my own country.

Photos of my 1.5 months business attachment will soon be posted on my PICASA. Here are some sneak peeks:

8.  My appraisal/performance this year scored me another promotion and consequently, a long-awaited salary upgrade that brings to my face, a larger smile. That makes it a double-promotion this year alone! I worked my ass out this year (harder!) and finally, finally...phew...got noticed.

9. Achieved the best full marathon time ever with at 5hrs 24 mins in the SCKLM. And I could proudly say that I ran this race alone. I gave myself a pat in the back before retiring from races for the rest of this year 'til my wedding in March 2014.

10. I have gotten myself a beautiful sister-in-law (Ipoh girl mahh), as my elder brother tiba-tiba preceded me in getting married. I said "tiba-tiba" because it was Fong and I who announced our marriage first, but their wedding was done earlier than ours. I am so happy for them both and wish them both the best as husband and wife. At the same time, our family moved into our new bungalow in Tambun. My parents were so proud this year alone; it shows in their faces every time I go back to Ipoh.

I pray that this year 2014 would be another memorable one for me. This will be the year of my wedding, and I have great hopes for my career to be a Certified Chemist (just in case you didn't know, I am a biologist working my ass off as a chemist). This is also the year where our government will be imposing the GST and has had many items increase in prices including electricity, water (ice!), food, toll, etc....in response to the bad results they obtain in GE(?). Some sort of revenge, eh?  Meh, I am not surprised that our federal government is retaliating. Hah! Happy BN (Barang Naik) year of 2014.

God bless and lots of hugs to my loyal readers.

The Road less traveled - Oilfields off Tianjin

A stop to Dagang town, off Tianjin was part of the China business trip we made in September '13.

The oil township of Dagang is quite a sight. The town is self-sustained by oil-industry and almost everyone who resides in Dagang has some job/career based on O&G (that's Oil and Gas for you FOBs, not the Obst&Gynae). To make comparison, Dagang is like Miri but the former is smaller. In Malaysia, we only have off-shore oil reservoirs, hence I was amazed by Dagang's vast land dedicated to countless on-shore injection pumps. From horizon to horizon, you can only see injection pumps working, pounding on the wells to extract crude.

One thing that caught my eye was the wind power. The wind in China is strong, and that is why they capitalize on this energy and technology. Even as I am now in Beijing composing this blogpost, the cold wind from the north is strong. And this is only the beginning of winter.

Look how they transport the blades of the fan for maintenance. I initially thought it was some Sci-fi UFO parts found and openly taken to a military base.

We stayed at the hotel in Dagang owned by the oilfield company itself. Likely, they own every building in this area, and make this town self-sustained in terms of food, lodging, job provision, entertainment and leisure.

We were served with a banquet day and night. It seems that the food in Beijing is generally bland, and if they's not bland, they are either too sour or salty or sweet. It's always at the end of the spectrum, rarely in between. Though we were provided with a range of food from eggplant to scallops, only some looks typical Malaysian. Malaysian Chinese food is influenced by southern China cooking while up here in the north, it's different. Rice is seldom served. Carbohydrates are obtained mostly with noodles or corn. I might never get used to the taste here. Anyway, China is so huge and therefore from one province to another, the food preparation and types varies drastically.

A banquet is still an understatement. Probably this is how the Chinese people treat their guests - freshly cooked food that doesn't stop coming from the kitchen to the table, alcohol that keeps refilling itself (think Hogswart) and yum-sengs that seemed to be like an never-ending wedding toast. The dining hall is brightly lighted and the table was huge as if for King Arthur's knights to commune.

Damn....I hate the yum seng time. They make everyone speak, so there I was, speaking Mandarin, carefully.

Our Chinese partners made us all give a toast, in Mandarin or English. My bosses gave me that shot, giving me the you-are-chinese-so-say-something-on-behalf-of-us-lahh (or was it: don't-jatuh-our-air-muka ?) eyes, so I was kinda compelled to toast in Mandarin. I spoke about 'fate' that we are here today, and thank you for being a great guest in my first every visit to China (all in Mandarin). Voila! I didn't know where that came from! (my own mouth, of course).

Scallops with chili toppings

Sotong

A mutant of prawn and crayfish

Omelette with chives

Duck tongue - quite interesting texture there!

Attempting a Word-of-the-year: Selfie

When China and Malaysia meet, it's always because of the brilliantly Made-in-China goods, if not, for badminton. During the banquet, our China counterparts kept talking about badminton and the one-sided battle between Lee Chong Wei and their beloved Lin Dan. I remembered the Chinese guy said (in Mandarin), that if he could, he would love to bet his money on Chong Wei in beating Lin Dan because both had the same skills set, but what the former lack is 'heart' or mental-strength. Enough of talking, we did the 'walking'. We were all given badminton rackets each and started flexing our muscle....against the formidable Chinese.

Hah! The surprising moment is that Malaysian (led by an avid badminton player himself - my boss) beat the Chinese in 2 games. The Chinese are younger, but my boss practices and plays badminton almost every alternate day although he's like almost 50 years old. He probably lacks the stamina, but had the upper hand in terms of skills. 

I had a great game myself, pairing up with my bosses. Before coming to Beijing this November (I still am here in Beijing!), I have been practicing badminton with my lovely colleagues in PERMATA every Wednesday and glad to have had my skills brushed and rustiness reduced. At least I wasn't intimidated of my Chinese opponent, as I have joined badminton tourneys before. Though a friendly match, the matches were still 'sengit'. Indeed we all really had a lot of fun and I can see that Chinese are most delighted to meet their formidable foe from Malaysia as well. I love badminton even more after this trip in September.

If there's one word to describe this short trip, it is the word: Memorable. And as far as 'memorable' goes, I think this is one photo that I can't get out of my head for a long time because, I it was RED, OVERSIZED & RIDICULOUSLY CUTE:

Ivy-out!

Beijing, Sept 2013

Who would've thought that I would be going to China. I mean, think about it: China was never part of my bucket list and would never thought to have a chance of going there in 100 years due to the following reasons:

1. I am super-bad in Mandarin and super-bad is an understatement (at least, I take praise that my Cantonese has improved tremendously).
2. I studied all my life in a Sekolah Kebangsaan and speak English at home, therefore has no inkling of China history and nothing from China or that part of Asia has ever interests me (only a peek of its history through 'over-dramatized' TVB drama/movies, and that's Hong Kong, btw). I am highly influenced by Western culture, and
3. The horror stories of the unfriendliness of the people, toilet hygiene, and also elements of 'fakeness' everywhere.

Let me reiterate that if you don't experience the country/city yourself by stepping foot there, don't go having a bad impressions of the country from here-say. Any country/city has its pros and cons but somehow, Beijing..really impresses me a lot for a first timer in China. That's why, perhaps, being well-traveled is important.

I told my boss I'll opt out of the project in the US because of my looming wedding and they already dedicate another staff to be there. I was one of the staff going together with my 4 big bosses to Beijing....just because I looked Chinese! Errr....and my boss actually thought I could speak Mandarin. Hehehe...Boss kena tipu: don't know that I am a banana! Never judge me by its cover. LOL!

The city:

City of Beijing on a weekday

City of Beijing is very modern but here and there you'll see a mix of old chinese gothic roofed-buildings. I was first impressed with the type of cars driven here - predominantly Volkswagen, Merz and Nissan Teana. No Kancil-small cars. I may have a early impression being in Singapore minus the traffic jam. The traffic is bad relatively but at a similar capacity with KL. I heard it could be worse. To me, town planning in Klang Valley is lousy compared to Beijing though the latter has existed for thousands of years. There were bicycles but it's getting rarer according to the hoteliers there. I am amazed by Beijing's cleanliness in general, and I was lucky there wasn't smog problems when I was there. The subways are hyper-packed with human on rush hour (well, which country isn't on rush hour?), but the subway is really well-connected throughout the city. I'd rather walk (if you know me, I would have ran) the whole Beijing than take public transport, but I am here for business, not leisure.

From my window

Kerry Hotel, Beijing:
I cannot be happier to describe the 5-star hotel we are staying in Beijing. Amazingly, amazingly amazingly unexpectedly AMAZING! Of course you'll get amazing because I paid RM1200.00 per night for non-resort hotel. Boss say nvm, claim back mar :-P. Imagine, my CEO told me that there are much nicer hotels than Kerry but they particularly like the facilities here. Whadaya mean "BETTER HOTELS OUT THERE?!?!?!!" I mean, what could be better than Kerry Hotel, ah? I feel so suaku!

Kerry Hotel, Shangri La, Beijing

From the outside, it's like a normal building, but voila...inside the hotel is a different story. I don't know where to start to describe it's amazing interior and services:

Kerry Hotel is owned by Kerry Holdings, Shangri La brand....by our own Robert Kuok! Ahem, he sponsored my whole Ph.D degree. Thank you, thank you. There are many Shangri-Las around, and Kerry Hotel is one of them. Service at Premier Lounge is top notch with free food and (alcoholic) drinks anytime of the day. We spend a lot of time there for breakfast, lunch and hi-tea. Swimming pool is set indoor, next to the gym and is Olympic size...with heater weiii! The gym is very huge with full equipment range and is opened 24 hours. Dressing room is also 24 hours with amazing dressing tables, sauna and jacuzzi.

Best indoor swimming pool ever. 2 pools some more.

Dressing table 

24 hours extensive gym.

Bed is King size and super soft with a choice of any type of pillow. Then, there's the bathroom and toilet, ahhh....where do I begin? Fully automated toilet bowl and drys your ass some more at various drying capacities, pressure and position. Too much details, opps. I main tekan-tekan a remote control, a TV-screen pops up on my freakin' mirror. EVERYTHING in the room is Loccitane. Kiasu as I admit I am, I grabbed a whole lot of stuff from the bathroom into my luggage. Hello, I paid RM1200 for this place? (Protruding kiasu-ness).

Ini baru standard room....Wonder what the suite looks like?

Pressure. I went the max and something you don't wanna try.

There's a coffee maker for 3 different type of espresso beans. Everything in the refrigerator is free, including the alcoholic drinks. Then there's fruits servings everyday: one of the fruits include the HUGE FRESH winter dates (mind you, not dried) that tasted like pears. Mooncake in Beijing is different skin from mooncakes from Malaysia too.

Coffee maker and a variety of espresso

Fresh winter dates and mooncake. Mooncake festival was just around the corner

The Business Lounge in hotel is like butler service, and once again jakun like me tried to absorbed all in. Free flow of alcoholic beverages. We've got like food prepare by a Malaysian chef just for us, as they know we needed to double check on the handling of meals (no pork). Coffee is like 'EVERYDAY'. The hotel lent me an iPad for my use in Beijing. Woh...I cannot believe that either.

Trips elsewhere in Beijing
First time in Beijing, my colleague and I together wants to see the famous Forbidden City. But for some reason, it was 'forbidden' for visitors to enter that day. I mean, it hasn't been closed for thousands of years, and when Ivy Chai arrives in Beijing, they were closed for business. WHAT ARE THE FREAKIN' CHANCES?!!!!? I was so angry, I hated Beijing for a while. But let me tell you, the vicinity of the exterior walls (including Tiananmen) was itself an amazing sight. You don't need to go inside the walls to know how amazing the Chinese Civilization was and is. It was immense: Willow trees, rivers of green, cool breeze, amazing architecture, the beautiful parks made me imagined the extend of its interior even more. What an eye-opener. But I must blame my freakin' luck that the Forbidden city was forbidden to me. I will be back.

Shit! When I am here, you close door!

Tiananmen

River surrounding the exterior of the palace

I heart willow trees. The parks here are so serene, though in the city

Having not much time, we went around Beijing area by foot, but Beijing is quite a maze. We got lost. I was pretty confident about my new-found language skills until I ask about the subway in Mandarin to a young Chinese couple, but who stared at me in absurdity and to the disgrace of my chinesey slang. They replied in English. Phew!


The Banquet:
There was this vintage old antique restaurant (blazing amazing from the external) where lunch started with an assortment of nuts, tea-time. Main course lobster, stewed lamb, la-mien, etc. It was not some regular luncheon. It was a banquet!! What can I say...I had the time of my life in Beijing. We took time off to do some shopping, but which I bought nothing. The weather in September was just right - not too cold, not too warm.

Accomplished:
1. Spoke complete sentences in Mandarin, and even gave a short speech in Mandarin (a yum seng toast) in one of the best dining experience in my life. No, I wasn't drunk.
2. Drank good coffee everyday when I thought China is good only for its tea.
3. Ate yummy and super-cheap siew-long-pao. RM4 for 3 pieces. Come to think of it, Din Tai Fung ones suck!

Did not accomplish (and will be back with a vengeance):
1. Peking duck. Duck was a big no-no to my colleagues, and I doubt I can finish a whole roast duck myself. And they don't sell by plate.
2. Imperial palace/Gu Gong - the Forbidden City was closed for an event when I was there. I blame it on my luck. I am going again soon, and they may closed it again due to a terrorist attack at Tiananmen recently.

HAVE TO SAY: I ENJOYED and HEART BEIJING!

At the Gold Club Lounge at Beijing Airport...heading back to KL.

Next post: TIANJIN - luxurious food (I am getting bored of luxury :-P), yum sengs, badminton Malaysia vs. China, and lots of oil. All next!