The overlong journey

When I look at his flight itinerary, I felt like I want to cry for him. Ever since MAS has stopped its direct flight to New York, there are of course more options available out there. But none has direct flight. At first, he was booked under Taiwan’s Eva Airline, which makes transit first at Singapore and then at Taipei. The price was really quite good. It’s even affordable for me which comes to under RM5k for return tickets. Unfortunately, it was fully booked for those dates of his schedule and they had been put on wait list for a few weeks. Lastly, they are booked through MAS flight to London for transit to Virgin Atlantic to New York. The price is now double, I guess. The worst of all is he will stop by in London for at least 4 hours before he flies off to New York. Imagine all his waiting time and flying time. I really pity him. He said his buttock is ’screaming’ already. Hehe!

His flight from KL to London is on 10:45 a.m. on Saturday and arriving in London on 4:15p.m. (UK time, I guess). This flight takes 13 hours and 30 mins, so I guess he will be arriving in London around midnight my time on Saturday. His flight to New York is on 8:10 p.m. (UK time) and arriving in New York on 11:25 p.m. (US time) still Saturday. This flight takes another 8 hours and 15 mins. If I calculate correct, he will be arriving in New York around 12 p.m. Sunday in KL. I think by the time he can check out from the airport and transfer to his hotel, it will be around 2 a.m. in the morning. Sigh! At least he has one Sunday to rest before starting work on Monday.

In preparation for his journey this round, we didn’t buy a lot but we are more prepared this time. Now he’s an expert in finding comfort during his flight. Haha! We just bought a big backpack yesterday during our shopping in Midvalley. It’s from Tearproof and it’s blue. Hehe! The purpose of it is to put his office laptop, of course, plus his own Sony Vaio P (he said he will use that for our daily communication), his Sony Alpha and all his lens and accessories. Then I want him to put some extra clothes and all his important stuff in this backpack. We have also bought a pair of mitten (or is it called glove, not sure), a pair of socks, extra luggage locks and an inflatable neck pillow. We have also exchanged some US dollars.

It might look small but there’s a lot of compartments inside and out.

The salesgirl actually recommended him the leather gloves but he said they look like serial killer. Haha!

It was the most enjoyable outing last night. Felt like dating before marriage. Haha! He treated me to nice Vietnamese dinner. He actually wanted to watch 2012 too but good seats all sold out. Sigh! But at least we were still happy that we have accomplished almost everything in preparation for his journey.

 

Another busy week ahead…

Ever since I finished my last final exam, I have been kept busy with the TV and novels and outings. I have finished 2 novels in 3 days last week, though I haven’t actually started any new drama yet. I went back to hometown last weekend with my darling. As usual, it was a rush one. Went on Saturday and back here on Sunday.

Although I said I’m pretty much busy with so much, you see I have more time to update blog. Haha! It’s so much fun to write when one is not occupied with study. The brain seems to be having so much free space ever since the end of semester. Hehe! Just imagine a computer memory. When you are preparing for exam, you load so much into the memory and hope it will not crash because of overloading. During the exam, you take every bit of the memory for building your answers. Once finish, you unload or delete the memory and reload with new topic into the memory for the next exam. Sorry that I can’t use better metaphor cause I have been treating my brain as if a computer system but of course it’s not as fast as the latest technology. After all, I’m the old technology which was born 2o over years ago. Haha! Anyway, I was saying that when you have nothing much to input into the memory, you just feel so empty and you will start trying to find something to do to fill the emptiness. Writing is one of my way. It definitely helps the memory to keep working. Hehe!

Actually, I have more to update. Our third anniversary is around the corner. Nothing fancy nor great celebration. It will be just a normal day. However, I always like to recap the past year of our marriage during such anniversary. I haven’t written anything yet but I will soon. For now, I expect a busy week ahead as I have 3 wedding dinners to attend this weekend. Sigh! Meanwhile, I have updated some nice meow meow photos in my darling’s blog. Feel free to see…just click on the photo:

This is just a sample of the result of his ‘expensive’ toy…Hehe!

 

Big Apple, again?

I can’t believe I would have to write about this again. Who would have thought that during this ‘economic crisis’, the company would still send staff to the west, the Big Apple a.k.a. New York. If you remember, my darling have been to New York the first time in October last year.  At that time, everyone thought that an opportunity to travel to US was once in a lifetime thing and everyone was glad to make that trip. No one really expects that the same opportunity will come knocking twice, though I’m not sure everyone is still glad to make this trip now. Why? It’s year end…it’s damn freaking cold.

I went back to read my past posts about his journey to US and all the preparations needed. It was a hell of time for me and him. Now, when he told me there’s possibility of him going again for a transition training, I was quite relax. There’s not so much to do this time, as his visa has been approved for 10 years the first time he applied. He already got his winter clothes since his last trip. I probably need to get him better gloves and a few thicker shirts, as he’s going for 2 weeks this time and it will be freezing colder than last time. Sigh! His flight is finally confirmed. He’s travelling on 28 Nov 09 and will only be back on 11 Dec 09. However, I was still pretty relax even though it’s about another 2 weeks before he flies off. The good thing this time is he’s not going alone. He will be travelling with 2 other colleagues. Hopefully he won’t be too bored or too lonely with his long flight this time.

Now, when I start writing this, I feel a bit anxious again. The reality dawned on me. He will be away from me for freaking 2 weeks. For the second time in my life. Sigh! I will be all alone in the house, driving to work, eating dinner at my in-law’s. Not to forget about our 13-hour time difference. I already miss him just by thinking about it. I want to cry…But I’m a big girl and I can’t cry over this normal occurrence of life. I’m his wife and I have a list of wifey duties to do with his absence. Yes, he already has a list of things to do for me. No kidding! I have been ‘ordered’ to follow the list to bits. This includes paying bills, give pocket money to his parents and many other things.

Looking at another positive angle. I have 2 weeks of freedom. Anyone want to go dating with me? Strictly girls outing only. Hahahaha!

 

I’ve been following…

…Supernatural Season 5, of course. Oh my! My favorite show is back with more actions. Lucifer is on the loose and the apocalypse is here.

It began in September and it’s still ongoing with one episode a week airing in CWTV. I have been following it closely every week, just after CW aired it, I have the downloaded version a couple days later. Hehe! Thank to my darling’s colleague who is so dedicated in following the show and downloaded every episode for me. Haha! If you didn’t already know, I’m a big fan of Supernatural. I have every episode for Season 1 to 4 and they are my precious collection. Don’t ask me why I love the show so much, I just do whenever there are demons, ghosts and super power elements. Haha! My darling thinks I’m a bit sadist and my colleagues already nicknamed me ‘Jennifer the Lucifer’. I kind of like the name. Hehe!

To be honest, I have been following every episode since the beginning without fail, even though during my busiest study weeks and exams. Haha! I just can’t wait to see the next episode. That’s how much I love the show.

I also have been following CSI the latest Season 10. Downloaded every episode after it aired in US. CSI is getting better and better. The graphic is so cool with the starting episode 1, it was amazing. With Laurence Fishburne as the new leading role since the middle of Season 9, it’s quite refreshing to see the new ‘Grissom-less’ CSI with new people and stories, though I heard Grissom will be back soon. We already saw Sarah back in first episode of this new season. So, I guess more to see soon.

Heard this new show one day from a colleagues who was following the show from TV. It’s called Lie To Me. Not sure if anyone has seen it. The show seems very interesting so I went to google it and found the whole Season 1 for download. Completed watching just yesterday. Now I’m looking for Season 2. This show is really not bad at all. Very interesting to learn this microexpressions and know right away who is lying. I would love to try it on my darling and see whether he cheats on me. But then, he also watched the show with me, I’m sure he has already learnt a few tricks to cover up. Haha!

Oh my, it seems like all I talked about today are shows I like. I still have one more to share but I have only watched the first episode of the first season. It was recommended from the same colleague of my darling who downloaded Supernatural for me. The show’s name is Fringe. Weird name if you ask me however from the first episode, it was quite cool. There’s always something out there just unknown to us all. Ohhhh….scary….hehehe!

 

Celebration

I’m extremely happy today. It’s my last final paper, the advanced network. I hope I did good, praying hard. Hehe! So to celebrate the beginning of my semester holiday, I went dating with my darling to KLCC and Wangsa Walk. All we did were shopping (not me though) and eat, eat, eat. I’m sure enjoying myself very much before I start work tomorrow. Hehe! I’m also ready to start my drama marathon and my precious novels. Can’t wait. Hu hu!

My semester is over. My postgrad story will take a break. Soon I will come back with more stories. Probably after my drama and a good sleep. Haha!

 

‘A’ surprise

The finals started yesterday. Not very happy with how I felt I did for the Information System Planning paper but as my darling keeps on telling me, past is past. Let it go.Sigh! Okay, I’m letting it be and pray that my result won’t be too bad. Praying hard to have at least a B for that paper. Please!!!!

While I was sort of mourning for this paper, I went to check for my midterm result for Database paper. My first attempt was a disaster. For the first time ever in my higher learning experience, I got a C minus. Sob sob! Luckily, the lecturer felt that we all deserved a second chance and I worked hard for it by redoing the questions and some past test. On that day of test, I was quite panicked seeing the questions that were not really what I expected. However, I thought with my effort I should be able to get at least a B and I was praying hard for it. When I checked my result yesterday, I was shocked to see an A. Hu hu! Me? An A? From C-? I looked at it for a few more seconds while my darling was counting how many among my course-mates got A. Haha! I really can’t believe I finally got A for this database, though it’s only 20% from the total, but to me it’s an achievement. As I always said to my other group members, I’m just not so strong in database, programming and anything that deals with logic. Even one of my group members is surprised to see how much I have improved. Hehe!

As for network paper, I know I’m much stronger than the rest of my group members and I worked very hard to help them. There are 3 parts of  assessment for this paper that contribute 60%. I’m pretty sure I scored high for the first 15% which was subnet test. The lab test was 20% which was a nightmare to our group for one whole day. Then the final part was the packet tracer test that worthed 25%. This test is very interesting and I always enjoy practicing with it. The best part is we can immediately see the result which total in 100%. The lecturer has given us sample of the previous test and I had been practicing with it a few times yet I only managed 96%. On that day for the test, when I saw the test paper that tells us what to configure in the packet tracer, I was a bit shocked to see how different this test with the one we practiced. Nevertheless, I really tried hard to configure one by one and at the end I was stuck at 95%. The test took longer than I expected and I had even promised to my darling that I would be back early after the test. Of course I didn’t manage to go off early and used up all the time to finish the test. The lecturer was willing to give everyone another 15 minutes extension but I didn’t take it and finally gave up and submitted the paper with my 95% score.

The next few days, I heard others talking about their score. I was pretty sure someone must have scored 100% and I even asked around to see whom because I really want to know where I did wrong. My search was fruitless as most of those I know got lesser. When I finally see our marks that carry 60%, I was shocked to see the full mark for that packet tracer test is 95%. Can you believe it? That means I got full 25% and I’m the only one (more surprise!). Hu hu! Imagine how happy I am. For the rest of the assessments, I can’t see the marks but the total for the 60%, I managed another A.  Thank God for that! My other group members got A too and they are so happy. One of them even said that if we don’t go for the final we will still pass the paper. Haha! Of course, we will go for the final. We want our As and it’s nearly in our grasp. Haha!

This is of course not the end of the story. I have a lot more to work on to secure my final As. And I won’t forget to count my blessings and thank my darling for support. He even took leave to accompany me to study at home. He’s so much like my personal supervisor who always check on me and remind me to study, study and study (just imagine him with a cane). Hehe!

Okay, that’s all for now…it’s time to study again…

 

Blackout

It was the worst morning last Saturday. My darling had promised a small duty which needed him to work from 8a.m. to 10 a.m. on the Saturday. It’s a collaboration work between a few groups in his company. Something to deal with changes to some servers in his company. As normal, he would use his VPN to work from home. So, he woke up quite early that morning as he likes to be prepared while I slept cozily. However, the worst thing happened. Our housing area was blackout around 8:30 a.m. I suddenly woke up at the same time and said ‘Shit!’. Yes, even sleeping, in the back of my mind, I knew the consequence of no electricity at home. Of course, we got panicked for awhile and he started calling another colleague to let the other groups know that he didn’t just ‘disappear’ but was just having blackout. He quickly packed up his things and went straight to his father’s house nearby which only took him 10 minutes. After he left, I went back to nap and became a roasted ‘monkey’ at home. Okay lah…it was not that hot at home, lucky for me. Hehe! But I suffered a lot without electricity. I couldn’t do much except sleep and read novel. My life without my TV, radio and computer is a boring life indeed.

Anyway, we are considered lucky in the midst of unlucky incident cause we live just nearby to his parents’ house. At least we have alternative when comes to many things such as no water or electricity or broadband at our own home. But what’s the odd, right, that this happened during critical time. However, bad things do happen, so be prepared.

When he finally finished his work and came home to fetch me out, the electricity came back. Sigh!

 

Speedy recovery

The past few weeks, we have been in and out of hospital often. In actual fact, we have been in and out of hospitals since early of this year. First, it was my grandma who went for surgery on her hip. Now, it’s my mum-in-law. Sigh!

She recently went for surgery on her spine. She had slipped disc condition that caused her numbness on her legs and back pain. She had been suffering quite awhile this year. My darling and I really pity her though we couldn’t help her much. Of course, he’s more worried for his mum and so is everyone in the family. He’s a good son after all.

Her surgery was originally scheduled in September but didn’t for what reason it was postponed to this month. She was hospitalized 2 weeks ago and was prepared for the surgery. But then they found her heartbeat irregular and pushed her out again. The surgery was delayed the second time. Sigh! More the pity. Imagine the emotional preparation she had to go through. Finally, she went for the surgery on Wednesday. Her surgery is a success according to the doctor but she seemed to suffer a bit from the overlong surgery. She has bruised lip and numbness still on her leg. Sigh! She also suffered from gas in her stomach that caused her to vomit. However, she looks a bit better these few days though her leg is still a bit numb, she said.

I just wish she can have a speedy recovery and go home next week. It’s always better resting at home where there are more people around her. We will continue to pray for her…

 

Just my luck

Finally, I can breathe for awhile before I start on second round of presentation and test.

My presentation and report submission for Information Systems Planning course last night have finally put down some burden from my shoulder. I’m happy that it is over. The outcome of our presentation was a surprise to me and my group members. The lecturer’s instruction on this assignment was originally unclear but what I understood was to do a case study on a Malaysian company to see how they align its business and IT. So, I have picked one of the faculty in UM and my team members had done the interview to gather data. Originally, the lecturer had talked about asking us to implement a balance scorecard framework in this assignment but at the end, she said we could do any framework as long as our literature review supports it. We didn’t get any journals on balance scorecard so we didn’t do it. We did something totally different but we knew what our aim was, so we consulted her one week before the presentation about our report.

Before the class yesterday, we saw most of the groups had done the balance scorecard. Only 2 groups (including us) done differently. We were beginning to worry that we were on the wrong direction, but we couldn’t care more as we had no more time. The presentation began around 6:20 p.m. with a brave first group who did the balance scorecard. Unfortunately, they missed important points and got criticized. So did the second group. My group was even more anxious and afraid at that time seeing how much the lecturer asked. We braved it and presented as the third group after a short break. I started off with the introduction and the company profile and my other 2 members continued after me. By the time my third members presenting the discussion and conclusion, it was already near 8 p.m. The lecturer became aware of the time and the number of groups still not yet presented. She didn’t ask any questions but just commented that we did correct on the analysis and discussion part though our presentation sequence was a bit off. She said we should have put the framework first before the company profile. Hu hu! We were the only group that she praised. We were so happy and all my other course mates were congratulating us. What a relief! I’m really grateful to one of my team members who did the great discussions. And I think it’s really our luck that got us through this difficult time. If not because of the timing, I think we would be asked a lot questions too.

The same happened to me and my group for the network lab test last week.  I spent nearly whole day in the lab trying to test my network configuration with my team members. I also made sure they understood the configuration as I heard from another team (who was the first team to do this test) that the lecturer asked a lot of questions and to everyone. If even one member couldn’t answer, marks would be deducted. Network is considered my okay subject so my team members are all looking up to me. I tried very hard to make everything working especially the routers and PCs. But unfortunately, my server was not working fully. That’s where we lost the bonus marks. We were given supposedly 3 hours to do the real device configuration with topology given on the spot. However, the lecturer said he would be rushing for a meeting and asked us to finish in 2.5 hours. We did with the server flaw and as he was in a rush, he only asked us 2 questions which we answered easily. The plus point was he didn’t really check our configuration from A-Z and I truly hope he didn’t realize that some other stuff was not working. Shhh!

Again I think it’s just luck that we survived that test. I heard from other groups that did after us were not doing that well and need to redo the test. I count my blessings and hope my luck will continue to be with me. Thank you all for your support too.

 

Save me, please

It’s the busiest period in my study life. With just barely 2 more weeks until my final exams, everything seems to be having the due dates now. I have to finish multiple assignments at the same time. Preparing for presentations around the same time too. At least my network lab test has been completed though I’m disappointed that it was not perfect and I couldn’t make everything worked, yet I spent nearly the whole day in the lab. Sigh!

Tonight I will be having a presentation and submission of one of the assignments. Please wish me luck. I totally need all my luck for the next few weeks. Sighhhhhhh!