The beginning of an era..

I (we) thought everything will be alright once the time has come for her to resume her job...apparently, it's another devastating news as if we were being betrayed....sigh

I felt like being betrayed again after all the hard work and sacrifices...6 weeks of unpaid leave...1 week prior to that then come another 1 week afterwards... 8 weeks and there seems to be no ending to this....

Sometimes I just couldn't accept why people to be lackadaisical of their other side of life when it effects people around you...I met her and her new hubby 2 weeks ago just to catch up things with her and she was certain if she...she will do it in a good way possible....but unfortunately the news came in a way that I wouldn't have expected....at least make some good of all the chances and understanding given by the management during these past 2 months....still I couldn't put the blame on her against her decision..it just that made me thinking why 'colleagues' are so self-centred...it's her right but couldn't it be far more better if she comes and discuss for resolution instead of making it as an excuse for that decision...a total pity towards the Manager who had tried to make things work out for her over the past 6 weeks or so....still she has to come to fulfill the t&c of a month notice although I have a gutsy felling that she might end up paying for a quick exit...

After almost 2 months working along side with the Manager, all seems to work pretty easy and managable (with pretty good response from HQ) The developer will resume her work after 2 months absence from maternity leave and new colleagues will be joining in next couple of days...after few years operation, the branch is looking towards to another beginning, start from scratch...training, monitoring and improving...to me, it's just another deja vu....

All the best....

"All the best.." The most favoured wish I've received from colleagues and friends....

It's not going to be an easy environment yet it might be a good opportunity to enhance my credibility and capability...

I've packed all the necessary stuff...

I've made a double check that nothing "necessary" will be left behind or forgotten...

It's a week of intensive learning period in my career...so it is very important to ensure I'm fully ready to face the possibility...I would not want the Management to think that the trip is a waste once I got back to Penang..

I've had couple of surprises happened in Penang office since earlier this month...well, some of it was expected though...one of our developer has tendered his resignation letter and it was "timely"...due to lack of responsibility...and it was a good decision from him by accepting a job employment offer with government sector in KL...where he might not need to worry about performance review etc (sorry but it's a fact that most "Malaysia Boleh" can only "Malaysia Boleh" in government sector....) It's been more than a year and nothing seemed to motivate the developer from avoiding to make silly mistakes...

I'll reach (if no delay) London on 19th March at 10pm UK time; 20th March 6am MY time...staying at The Old Red Lion Hotel in room 6.

I've received my work schedule which stated that I will accompany our Trainer Manager to visit one of our customers in East London on 25th and 27th March (a day visit) and will be in the office on other days..

20th - 22nd March were scheduled free time for me...which I've already received some joke-kind-of-invitation for an outing at nearby bar during weekends...let's see how the joke-kind-of-invitation goes when I come to the office on 20th to collect the company's car...haha..

It's 10 past 2am now..I shouldn't be awake at this time when I should have been resting...

In the end.."All the best Wel.." - trying to motivate myself...haha...

Soul behind the faces...

These were several pictures taken during the recent visitation by our CEO on the 14th Jan 2009....I was going to post them yesterday but I've forgotten to copy them over to a memory stick yesterday night...

This was taken by me..gatal tangan nampak Tina's kamira di atas meja...I was speaking to him when I took this picture..wahaha...the clock was already 11:50am..presentation was about to start in 5 minutes...

This was also taken by me.......Bani was trying to help him setting up his laptop with the LCD Projector...

A small chat between me and the CEO...haha...kesian CEO inda kana layan..haha..I was busy looking at my to do list ba ni..sorry ah boss..he's a very nice CEO...the kind of person you would not hesitate to ask question although your question might sound stupid..haha...

Haha..then saya layan juga lawak jenaka dia..haha...the room on the right (behind me) is the Manager's room and the one on the left is the Server Room a.k.a my part-time room where I usually spend my time using both PCs inside to do my task...

I was just about to start my 1st round..they were on their 2nd round..huhu..food was nice and delicious but...Revolving Restaurant, Bayview City Hotel is a lot more better....plenty of choice plus the scenic view of Georgetown city...

What was I looking? well there's another restaurant on the 1st floor...I was checking up the atmosphere...surrounding la...

Me (Kadam), Bani (Developer), Azman (New Support) and Ian (New Support)

Team picture..Azman, CEO, Ian, Khatijah who is currently 3 months pregnant (Developer), Tina (Support), Bani and me...huhu..I couldn't hide the tiredness I had that day...

There you go...notice that we have a small office and team? That's why the Company is looking for another bigger office unit as there's a big budget plan for the company to expand further more...with the current office, I don't think it would fit 2 Senior Developers and another 2 Support Staffs in the coming future...

Thank You Boss!

At last...all went well so far...interview was good as well as the appraisal....I was the last person being interrogated and interviewed...and it went smooth for almost 2 hours...I couldn't complaint as we had lot of stuffs to discuss..office..support team..development team..strengths and weaknesses...I'm happy enough to get what I have expected for my contribution and hard work..thanks to myself for the hard works that I have put into my career....of course there still plenty of rooms for improvement and looking forward for another appraisal somewhere in March 2009....I seemed to be motivated after being told that the Management has a very high expectation from me...especially after the huge contribution I made during the User Acceptance Test somewhere in March - May 2008 meant for the Oz's customers..I was the Project Manager in setting up the Test Instruction Plan System (TIPS) for the whole Oz's customers....although I was not the one who really setting up the entire database..still I was the one who wrote all the Test Instruction Plan of our software for users in Oz...it may sounds easy but writing almost hundreds of test plans about our software features and functionality... from A to Z might gives you a definite headache....thanks to my colleagues who contributed in testing and validate those hundreds of test plans....I'm a workaholic, to be honest..during this period, I stayed in the office up to 5am just to catch up trying to get things done as quickly as possible although I came in for UK shift at 3pm.....went home at 6pm although I came in at 7am for Oz shift...I was told today that the whole system was charged for ASD$27, 000!!!! I was shocked and the Tech Director was thinking of applying the same service to our UK's customers......we had it running internally since years ago but it never been updated up to the most recent product we have recently deployed...he already informed me that my skill would be in demand during that time....I was happy enough to hear that I am so valuable to the company but thinking of the experience I had with the Oz's...this could be another big project for me..where we have more than 400 companies around UK and most of them are using the software 200% different or over than the Oz which consist of 8 companies.....

I could still remember..during setting up the whole TIPS database..I was the only (in Malaysia) that has the privilege rights to access and modify including the TD himself and another senior developer in the UK....none of my colleagues in Malaysia (including the Manager) had the access rights to access nor modify....until the project was 100% completed then they were given the rights....

The Management hasn't decided yet who will be the lucky candidates for the post of Software Application Developer (2x) and Software Support Specialist (2x)..whoever that persons would be...welcome abroad and wish you a good future in this small company...

Last night..we had a company dinner at our neighbour, Hotel Northam..it was decent but still..lucky enough to taste an expensive and exclusive foods that you can't taste everyday..I'm a poor guy bah not for some people who can afford to eat in a luxury restaurant almost everyday...the dinner was meant to be informal so most of the stories we had were totally not related to works....more into knowing each others..not me la sebab I already senior....I and the Manager are the current survivor of the Penang branch since it was opened 3 years ago...we're still young kan and we're already began to expand....for the record, the company is about to enter its 14 years in business....

The Penang Manager informed me that he might be flying back to UK later at the end of this month..that was the plan made by the Management and once again..I will be the one to train our new colleagues (Developers and Support)..if that happens then I will be re-scheduled to work in Oz shift until the whole training process is completed....2-4 weeks perhaps...Deep inside me saying..please no..I don't want to take that responsibility but another me were saying..come on Wel...with your charm and good looking face..you can do it! Wahaha...silap sudah ni tau..to be honest..I really wish the Manager himself to train them and I will be the one who will help to sharpen their knowledge...the Manager is the most suitable person to train them because he has lots of experience dealing with customers first handed, he was also a trainer in the UK and Oz..so he has plenty of knowledge of how most customers would apply our software in their works requirements...Of course if I were required to train them..I have the obligation to just go ahead with the order.."Yeah..sure, I'd be happy to train them..[smiling]" That was my quick response to a quick question given by the Manager if it is OK to me to train them...

I'm quite happy that this year (again) I managed to get the expected salary I had expected and targeted since entering year 2008....I had it coming last year as well...Thank God and may more great things to happen in future time...

*Extra budget to buy DVDs and beers???

Another day another experience..

In relation to my previous post "I'm having a bad day!!"...I'm quite grateful that I can always rely on my DVDs collection..whenever I feel sad or down..I'd watch any of my DVDs collection...last night I was so serious+pissed..why so serious?...It was due to 'letupan gunung berapi'..which occurred once or twice a year...maybe la...I didn't really count la..he..he..as expected, I came in to the office today...logged in and checked my emails...I received several emails from my manager..advising and thanking me...well last night I called him (the developer), explained to him about his current leave application and the manager's situation then advised him to send an email to my manager explaining in details his situation..which I he did..how did I know? well, one of the email from my manager, he was thanking me of this quick move....he was speechless and didn't know how to help his staff as well as saving his as* in front of the Tech Director....I was just trying to help him and that was... least I could do at that situation...his advise includes...to apply leave 2 weeks earlier than actual dates..well that's the T&C for us actually but..for some reason this guy thought he could just apply 3 hours-became-half day leave the next day on the day before...due to that, I applied 12 days leave in total..I'm still looking any specific dates in Nov and Oct as I still have 9 days...the longest leave I applied today was during Christmas season..it was 2 weeks commencing on 22nd Dec up until 2nd Jan 2009...well it was almost the same period I applied last year...the only different was...last year I only worked for a week in Dec 2007 and the rest was honey moon... I randomly selected these 12 dates from the calendar thinking that something might happen or come up on these lucky pick-dates...so I really hope they do.....and I haven't got any plan for these 12 days...still thinking and looking...perhaps I'll be in Sabah during the Christmas season..

I'm feeling good today..I watched the Korean Drama Series of Full House again last night up until 1am..then when I woke up at 5:45 am later...I felt OK and not moody at all....from the moment she (the married developer) came and ready to start her work..I worked with her trying to figure out another alternative solution to resolve an issue we were having with one of her customised report..I came up with a good suggestion..well it wasn't that great actually but it was more likely a logic kind of thing... I asked her to explain to me how the report works from the moment it reads, transfers then outputs data on report onto the white board.....if anybody who's familiar with Crystal Report software you may already knew what is this all about....the problem was, she created 7 sub-reports with conditional formulas to each recurrence pattern of data and she made the sub-reports to read, transfers and outputs data onto the main design report...that's OK but the process within the sub-reports was causing the report to load longer than it was supposed to..so I suggested to her to change flow of the report...how? simple actually....remove all that sub-reports then create a global conditional formula onto the report page footer.....suppress the formula (hide) and that was it...each fields on the main design report then collect their respective formulated data using that hidden formula...and amazingly it worked great...load faster..no more performance issue..when it comes to massive data..loading a report wouldn't be as fast as you might think..although 1 or more filters were applied..sometimes it would take couple of minutes...depending on machine spec's and how massive the data is...

At around 1:45pm...he came in and he looked OK to me..I then advised to avoid and not to forget about their responsibility then shared with them the current impression I received (through my manager) relating to their performance....told them to be more sensible and focus..I then re-assigned the customised invoice report that was given to him yesterday (not 100% OK)..gave and explained him all the faults I found...his sql script needing amendment as it causes an error whilst producing invoices....I told him this can be done within less than an hour and thankfully he did great...fixed the report in 20 minutes..unfortunately not the script...as I had already made the amendment on the script and QA'd OK earlier in the morning....I then released my QA'd script as well as the newly fixed report for another QA in UK without letting him know that I've released them.....sorry but I'd usually do this and it is another way to know how far and how brilliant some people are with their work.....

That was basically what I did today in the office...almost routine but not exactly routine huh...well, yesterday incident already been put behind..and today is another new chapter in my life..why would I want to torture my head and life for something that had already happened?...we need to keep on growing, keep on learning, keep on moving, keep on rolling in order to find that something in life that really makes you happy and worth to remember when you were 50 years old, watching your snobbish grandchildrens..who doesn't really care about you because you're no fun no more.....well I wouldn't hope for that though...I might not have the energy but I still got the blues..still have the 'beiolman' mind..he..he...bawa main lastik...kesian oh tu kan..budak-budak sekarang pun inda tahu suda apa tu lastik...and lastly..thanks to my dear bloggers and my friends who have been wonderful to me....all your supportive comments, your based-on-true-experience stories...cheers! untuk mereka yang bergelar ahli kelab tin/botol hijau kegemaran ramai...

For the good cause...

Thursday I was rescheduled to work for a half day shift…I left the office at around 9:30 pm where I was supposed to leave at 8:00 pm….due to some request I then stayed in for another 1 hours plus…well I wouldn’t leave the office if there’s still unsolved task...

Friday morning…8:26 am, I received a text from one of our developer who is married saying that she’s sorry that she has to bring her daughter to the office today….obviously I can’t reply “No, you can’t” to her after she mentioned that something happened early in the morning...I wondered what had happened but rather than troubling her...I ignored the text message and continued my sleep… then at around 9am something I received another text message...it was from my mum saying my dad was sick last night and she had to send him to a hospital right away…he’s 63 to be exact and he has high blood pressure and a lung problem….he complained a chest pain last night and my mum then sent him to a nearby hospital (Ranau)…he was given some medicine...thank god he is OK...his annual health review is on 29^th July then another one is on 27^th August….nothing could I do other than sending some money to pay the expenses….pokai lagi but this is our responsibility as a child…I don’t mind to fork out some of my pocket money or my saving if it would do good to some people especially my parents…I love them…but my mum said, she would hope that I could contribute some for his second review as he is going to be reviewed in one of the private hospital in Kota Kinabalu….replied to her that I will and I will reserve some fund for that…

Today, in-conjunction of a conference call between UK-Malaysia-Oz at 3:00 pm local time (5pm in Oz and 8am in UK)….I was rescheduled to work half day Oz and half day UK…in case there were things needing clarification/guidance from me...there was one actually…a customer said there’s a glitch in our software...I then accessed to their server and found out it was due to human error…the software works great it just that someone had setting up things wrongly…took all details and forwarded to my Technical Director…I came in to work at 12:00 noon and left the office at 9:30 pm...again it should have been 8pm..

I was a little rude today to one of my developer…he was given a task to develop a customized report 2 weeks ago and the due date is on 25^th July…that was yesterday…it is my job to ensure our developers to complete they task in the time scale given…but it is not my job to teach them how to do this and that….he had received all the requirements as requested by customer and all the explanation had been given straight away when I allocated the task to him…I was pissed last week whilst I was working for day shift (Oz shift) and he wasted 2 days due to injury….his ankle was swollen after a football match…what am I supposed to do?! He went to see a doctor and was given 2 days medical leave…if that didn’t occur he might have extra 2 days to ask for my guidance or any vague requirements…most of the requirements have been fulfilled except one…this whole week alone he tried...I don’t know hard or what…but he failed to deliver…before he left the office at 6pm today...I asked him to write a formal email to me to explain his reason of failure…told him that this is needed as I would forward the email to my manager as well as our Technical Director in UK...he did what I asked for but not really as what I would expected…he only explained the fault on the report and nothing more.....well to be honest with you...as a team leader I should have covered up our weaknesses, I’ve spent around RM300 since last month providing them 2 books which were ordered via internet…I went to couple of the book shops around major shopping complexes for these books but to no avail…I was hoping that they can benefit from these books and there would be no more excuses for failure in future time…again, I was a little disappointed with his attitude these couple of days...probably he has some personal problem that I didn’t know of…he is due to get married this coming 10^th August and obviously that is bugging his mind all this time...making sure the ceremony would go as planned…I can’t really get involve into that and the best thing I could only do is giving him a lesson that any task given must be completed as requested…books and guidance have been provided (he has problem in communication...he’s the typical type of Malay that doesn’t really know how to communicate in English (sorry for any Malay readers)...and I wonder how he got this job where English is a major requirement….)I’ve been trying to compromise with him….but this must be done…hopefully he wouldn’t take this too personal…if he does then he’s not mature enough to get married…..not enough with that...I was really pissed due to the baby presence in the office….I can’t concentrate on my job due the baby’s noisy screaming…crying and shouting…I wanted to warn the mum (the developer) but I just couldn’t…she told me that early in the morning...the baby fell down….although the baby didn’t cry but it was weird that the baby was so quiet and weak...she was worried then decided not to send to a kindergarten where she would usually do…unfortunately due to that…she and I can’t function well…she had to take care of the baby….accompanied the baby...played with the baby when the baby was crying……since my job still requires me to consult our customers via phone….I had to ignore several calls…. Unfortunately (wrong timing la ni..), my manager (in UK) was monitoring the calls that went to our office and found out couple of calls were not answered…he then called me and asked why I didn’t answer the phone….I told him that I was with the other developer trying to help him…and at some of the time...I can’t really answer the phone when the baby was crying in her mum’s arm…the ending of the conversation was not really good….I tell you…I knew this guy for almost 3 years...and he is a jerk when it comes to this matter…I think she (the developer) understood my situation and said sorry to me….she’s mature enough to stay in the office until 9pm to finish her task….he husband came in to the office to fetch the baby and said sorry to me at around 5pm that evening…..couple of hours later...my manager sent an email expressing his compliment after he overheard several of the staffs in the UK office gave out their compliment towards me that they received some good feedback from our customer saying my consultation to their problems were good and friendly….well, I’m currently the resident expert in Malaysia…I shall perform up to my standard…before leaving the office...I spoke to my Technical Director and we decided to allocate the task to our new developer in UK as a test hoping that he could crack the report and provide the final fixed report…

At home…I had a drink session with my housemate...Mr. Jew and Mr. Jab...just a couple of bottles and a small chat….we just finished 1 hour ago and now I want to get a rest….mentioned to Mr. Jew that I’m planning to have a small drink and karaoke session tomorrow...I missed singing….I can’t remember when was the last time I sang a song….if things go as planned then we might have a crate of beer...some chicken wings for a small BBQ as well as karaoke…..where’s all my karaoke CDs??!!!! May you all have a good weekend and do not drink in drive…..