Reached the Limit

Feb 182010

A wise man will re-evaluate his choices once he reached his limit.

(1) It was about time that I reached my treadmill limit – a limit of speed that I could not breach on my first attempt, after a series of steady increase that have seen me running from the speed of 6.0 km/hour to 9.2 km/hour in less then a month. It was a monumental leap of speed that I have gained, but it will about to be a tough challenge ahead.

Today, I attempted the non-stop 30 minutes treadmill run at 9.4 km/hour. It was fine for the first 10 minutes, with me managed to perform my additional 1 km/hour burst for a minute. It was into the 20th minutes that I felt the strain. I had to slow the speed down to 8.5 km/hour. Merely 5 minutes after that, I had to cut short my planned duration due to signs of me reaching my limit.

Not only I had to cut short the exercise, and had to skip the customary weight lifting and machine-assisted exercises as well due to a level of fatigue that I had not felt for quite some time. It was not helping much that I felt a bit dizzy while I was at work, plus the mounting pressure that accumulated from office works and office politics.

(2) It was about time that I realised how dangerous it is for my savings account to reach it’s lowest limit, especially when it is linked to my major credit cards. Due to heafty imposition of service charges by the solicitors and evaluators for my housing loan, I was left with less than RM 400 in my bank account. It could not be helped that my major debtors are tight with cash as well.

Today, I had to help settle the Sports and Recreational Club (SRC) booking for badminton courts for this Saturday’s mini carnival. Somehow or another, I had to settle the payment fast – and luckily I had asked the facility manager if they accept payments in the form of online bank transfer. With an additional RM 300 deposited into my account by the SRC’s presiden

This Final Time You Leave Your Post

Feb 092010

Today is the last day that Tan Sri Hassan Merican is the CEO and acting Chairman of PETRONAS.

Like everything that’s great, it will come to an end eventually. His 21 years in PETRONAS, with 15 years as the CEO, has been great for PETRONAS. The company changed from a local champion into a multinational group of companies, operating in 34 countries (last personal count) and growing. His contributions to the company are too many for me to list it here; but suffice to say that the PETRONAS Twin Tower – proudly standing at the heart of Kuala Lumpur – is a testimony of all the sums of the achievements that the company has gone through.

Many of us in the company are sad with his departure. There’s abundance of praise and good words of him that were uttered in the corridor, in smoking breaks, during meetings and discussions, etc. Even in my division, we have came up with a token of goodwill for him to remember us – given that we are of the few HCUs that reported directly to him.

Initially I was asked by a manager in my division to write a poem for this sad occasion, so that it will be included in the division’s farewell card. I was sceptical that I could even came with an idea to kick start this assignment. Well, I can’t just ask for the goddess of creativity to bestow her magic on me by request.

Somehow, with my copy-and-paste and alteration skills, I have somehow came up with a poem for his departure, based on an existing poem on the net. No originality here, I admitted it to the manager when I gave this poem to him. But then due to some unforeseen circumstances (that I rather not elaborate since I’m a party to this incident) he has decided not to use this poem.

Oh well, I could have just print it out and send it to TSP (as we all fondly called Tan Sri) as a farewell note – they opened a box at level 70 for staff to do so. But I must admit that I’m not that up to the beat on this. so I guess I just post this poem here, for all to read – and hope that it will be a good farewell to him.

This final time you leave your post
GIA staff here would like to boast:
We’ve wished you the best
happy life, relaxing with your wife
and family;
While we continue here, in our daily work
engrossed, for the country.

Looking into the future
From the tallest twin tower
of PETRONAS in the international arena
we can’t stop but remember
since 1989 that you have been here
and that made all the difference.

And with that
Let us together toast
You
Our dear friend and boss.

Post-edit: I went down to the farewell walk that was unofficially coordinated by the Corporate Affairs people (I guess), where many staff were standing on the sides of his path as he slowly came down from his office to his car. Many got to shake his hands (including yours truly!), some were openly weeping, while others were thanking him for all that he has done for the company.

It will be a new day for PETRONAS tomorrow, but we will never forget TSP’s contribution and foundation that he has laid down well for the company.

There is no Cure for Dengue

Feb 082010

Dengue fever is a disease caused by one of a number of viruses that are carried by mosquitoes. These mosquitoes then transmit the virus to humans. There is no treatment available to shorten the course of dengue fever.

I came back from visiting my officemate at Ampang Puteri hospital this afternoon. He was admitted to the hospital after what was thought as a mild fever turned into severe symptoms – high temperature, whole body ache, and uncontrollable body shaking, among others. With his blood pallets count dropped considerably for the past few days, the signs are clearly indicating that he might be ill with dengue.

It is scary to think that a small mosquito could have caused such a dangerous virus infection. It could not be helped that our equatorial weather with it’s abundance of rain is the perfect setup for mosquito breeding ground. Lots of other factors contributed further to the increase of dengue cases in Malaysia. While we cannot completely eradicate the problem, we could pro-actively take actions that could limit the spread of the disease, by ensuring that there are no mosquito breeding grounds near our vicinity, for example.

I do hope he will get well soon. It is sad to see a very cheerful person that I’ve known to be on the hospital bed, in agony and pain from the sickness that he never asked for.

Hands Full

Jun 282009

I could not have imagine that internal auditing work is taxing.

I barely have time to write my thougts out. It was work, work, work… with no end in sight. Not to mention the excessive socio-politic landmine that we had to wade through.

However, that is what I was paid for. I can’t complain about it. Looking forward to the curtain close this 30th June.

1 Hour

May 202009

The value of 1 hour in my working life.

1 hour of lunch break every day, and it was enough to munch all the lovely foods into that hungry stomach. Plus a walk-in-the-freaking-hot-sun for lunch at Wisma Central, or a musical-chair game at level 2 or level 4, or a hole-in-one-in-the-pocket at any of the fancy restaurants.

1 hour of the fastest travel return from my slum home to the workplace. One trip in the early morning, and one in the evening (or night, depending on luck). Cost effective with the use of monthly pass, but a bit troublesome when that fancy touch as you go gard is used. Using cash is a receipt for insanity.

Today, I learned a new 1 hour value: a 1 hour flight trip from Subang to Kerteh at 6.30 am, and another 1 hour return at 6.20 pm. It is now possible to live in the glory of KL and yet attend some meeting at the other side of the peninsula. And be back for a good night sleep.

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