You know you are addicted to TV when you get depressed over the fact that Miss Teen USA will be shown on a channel that you do not have. Urgh. Cross channel advertising should not be allowed because it makes you think that you will get to watch it, and then you plan your weekend around the TV and find out it is the wrong channel. Bah.

I have officially watched more TV in the past 3 weeks and more football matches (3) than I have ever had in any 3 weeks of my entire life. The only good part is that now I know a lot more about cooking and travelling and rich living (thanks to Travel & Living) and am very updated on current news, sports or general (thanks to CNN, Bloomberg and ESPN) and have practically watched 30 episodes of Lilo & Stitch (thanks to Disney). Also for the first time in my life yesterday, I was torn between 6 channels ! TV1 was showing the breakup talk between Mawi and Ina, TV3 was showing Siti Nurhaliza's wedding, AXN was showing Numb3rs/House/Nip/Tuck, Travel and Living was showcasing food in Malaysia, ESPN was replaying golf and the Chelsea match, and Disney was showing Land Before Time 6 : Return of Saurus Rock. Madly switching between channels ensued for more than 3 hours, even though I have already watched LBT6 and the Chelsea match, that I actually knew the Malaysian hotels where they were showcasing, and that I could recatch all shows on AXN twice more before the weekend. Addict. I need to go cold turkey when I return home.

Speaking of home, only a week to go !!!! I cannot wait and there are actually loads of stuff that I have to do when I return home. First of all, there are things like getting a haircut and some new clothes for the GA training, and at least one national costume, not to mention a 12 hour learning module to finish in a week for the same training. Then I have to send JCBear off to UK, get prepared for the PD trip, as well as practice 2 songs to perform at the same trip. And I only get back in the afternoon from PD, but I need to check in by 4 pm for the training. Stress. But highly enjoyable. I think stress is sort of a drug for me now. I need to go go go go go go and do a hundred things at once. I feel alive, that I am doing something.

There has been a lot of birthdays around this time as well I think. SharBear and JessBear, MsCit, SailorJap, MsLee, MrJan, and NiqBear and WoobyBear gonna celebrate theirs soon too. Happy birthday to you all.

As a reflection of how boring life is at the moment, you can see the lack of quality in my posts thus far. 7 days to go !!!

The boots are still looking at me every day. Should I ? Should I not ? Or should I just save the money....

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Randomly….. My employer must be feeling very rich, on the same day as it announced its best fiscal results for a half ever, it also notified us that it has recruited 18 GAs, or as we are now known as, IGs. While we do not cost a bomb, we do not come cheap either. 18 is a big batch and now I must work harder than ever to stand out.

So funny, some of us ran off at 11.30 to this hawker stall to eat some fish noodles. We had to go really early because they run out of fish very fast.......not just any normal fish but apparently called 7 star fish.......quite yummy. By 12.30......the whole place was really full.....apparently this couple have very good business...they decide what days to turn up and what days they are too busy to open shop (headache). And in the morning.. they open at 8 am.. and closes by 10 because they have sold out all their fish. They are quite rich..and have a lot of property here. A very amazing story indeed.

There is now a guy here from Hong Kong. He is about late forties and is very excitable. He speaks extremely fast and says things five times. For example, you can tell him an idea you have and he will say "Oh, good good good good good." Very funny and nice to have around because he seems to speed up the whole office. In fact, the population here has doubled and since the office is small, there is quite a party feel to this place. And it feels great to listen to someone from Hong Kong speak. So nice to the ears. He speaks nothing like FredBear or SoBear and yet, it is very similar………I am trying to imagine FredBear speaking like this. Very funny effect, since this guy is actually a big manager, so has a lot of ideas to implement. He speaks almost 200 words a minute !!!! After a few hours, I realizes he reminds me of JeffBear !!!! He talks and half-smiles at the same time….aha… this reminds me of Bowling Tuesdays. I should have just bowled the whole year instead of just doing the last half of the season. It would have been interesting to hang out more with JeffBear and NickBear more….

After a few episodes of Numb3rs, I do not think it is as good as I first thought. It is basically like CSI but not as exciting. And sometimes, they hardly uses any maths at all. I guess I thought it was good since the first episode was about counting cards in Poker and Blackjack at a casino. Then the next episode, they only used Maths to calculate ice melting. Not as calculatingly cool as it was meant to be. So it is not as good. On the other hand, CSI is getting more exciting and I find I like CSI New York better than CSI Miami. Favourite show is still House and I find that Nip/Tuck is not as nice as it is hyped to be about. Fear Factor is quite stupid as is 30 seconds to Fame. America's Funniest Home Videos is also an IQ decreasing show. So far, the best shows to watch are House, Project Runway, Jamie Oliver, Joey and The Suite Life. Oh and One in A Million.

The supermarket ran out of sausages. In my current situation that was a disaster !! What was I going to eat? But I realize now as I am typing this that I could have just gone into Giant instead of the convenience store underneath the office. So since there were no sausages, I bought a Magnum. Yum. Yes I realize that it is an Ice-cream and therefore detrimental to dieting..but no sausages………………..

Ahhaa.aa….the HK guy is so funny. I just like to hear him talk. His accent is soooo nice. Seriously, I hope my future girlfriend can speak Canto with a HK accent. It is sooooooooooooooooooo cute. He is still talking away. He refers to himself as Michael and not I. Hahahhahahah.

I realize this post is pretty long but that is because I am releasing a few days worth at a time. You do not know how hard it is to get a computer nowadays during school holidays. The place where I work is the only shopping/recreation/working/everything centre. There are no other complexes as big or air conditioned..which is pretty sad. And therefore EVERYONE comes here. So it becomes really full. Imagine if MidValley, Pyramid, 1U, Curve, Jusco, Klang Parade, SungeiWang all closed down and KLCC became the only shopping centre around in the Klang Valley. It would be chaos. And so it is here.

Anyway remember the direct selling thing that I was conned into going...I forgot to say that the speaker actually farted in his speech. Accidentally just as he was bending over. Eww.

Had another big seafood dinner yesterday, Yum but craving for some variety...Japanese food or maybe Vietnamese. You realise that you get to taste a lot of different things in Australia. And get spoilt when you come back to Malaysia and there are not enough food places to eat from and/or costs too much.

Only about 10 days to go !!! I cannot wait to go back to KL. Though I am seriously getting used to the quite routine life here. If you are seriously lazy about changes to life and do not need any pace in your life at all, I recommend you come here since things here hardly change even after 10 years.

There is the amazing pair of cuffed, belted and zipped boots that I pass everyday to work. It is pleading with me to take it home. I am still considering. I love it ! Or at least I think I do right now....

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You know it has been a weird weekend when :

1. You wake up naked with an unknown but finished bar of chocolate beside you. You have no recollection when it got there and no idea what it did to you.

2. You visit a marine museum where half of the fish on display are made of plastic.

3. You spend 2 hours walking in the hot sun with no destination. And it starts raining.

4. You cannot type anything without people looking at you.

5. You get conned to attend a health food direct selling meeting and forced to stay for 2 hours.

6. You get solicited by ugly people.

7. You watch 3 hours of baseball.

Ugh. Talk about a weird weekend. And I really walked a lot this weekend. And walked to both sides around my hotel. So I did explore, just that there was not much to do in the first place.

I am now super bored at very critical level and am only halfway through my imprisonment on this island. Arghhh help. On the bright side, studies are going really well, and I have already finished Chapter 14. I cannot concentrate with 20 kids below 15 playing games. Oh.... school holidays have started. No wonder....

I HATE SCHOOL HOLIDAYS !!!!!!

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It pains me very much to see how some of my friends are suffering. It makes me feel slightly guilty that while I am whining about being stuck on a desert island, they are suffering from worse things.

Take JCBear for example. He has been going through the worst heartache of his life for the last 6 months. Yes, I knew it was present. But I had no idea until 2 days ago that it was a chronic case ! 6 months is very long to be pining over someone and he told me once that he envied me. He said he envied me for having lots of friends while he only had a few close ones. He told me that he was unable to form a lot of relationships and therefore he put all his emotions into this particular relationship. Hence the long mourning period. I must say that I was quite surprised as I hardly thought that he would have these problems. Unfortunately on hindsight, he was exactly the right type. Conventional, artistic soul, shy and reserved. Just the right type to crawl under the sheets after a failed relationship and wanting to go to a country far far away to escape the feelings. I do want to help but is this meddling ? Should I just bring him out for ! some sports/activities to cheer him up ? That would be nice except that I am far away in Labuan. Oh well.

At the same time, I wondered if I envied him. After all, I have always wanted to be able to pour ALL my feelings into one relationship. After all, I find it really hard at the moment to have special feelings for any one person over another. I mean, yes of course I have many friends and yes I am able to prioritise my time spent with them, but I am unable to focus on a certain girl and think that yes, this is someone that I have been waiting and searching for. But of course, maybe the search is still on. And I also envy him that he as a small bunch of very close friends, though I do enjoy what I have right now. It seems that I should review all my friendships and focus on giving breadth to these relationships while not losing track of the width to get as many contacts as possible. The key is to maintain and deepen platinum and potential relationships while keeping up high effort to gain new relationships. Now I sound like a public relations firm. But it really turns out to be quite important as I find that some friends seem to be extra luggage that have been left at the store room and should remain there, while at the same time, I am unearthing precious gems from the mud in my laundry room. The regulars at the lounge are still there, but maybe deserve a rearrangement. And some other randoms are just zipping around, searching for their place within my universe.

Dear JCBear, hope you cheer up soon. As heartbroken as you must be, you have to move past it and not mull over it too much.

I trekked around Labuan again today, and after an hour in the sun, popped into this other really dodgy internet cafe. Seems like 90% of the shops here are billiard joints, pubs/karaoke lounges seafood stalls and convenience stores. So there is really nothing to do here. The cineplex is only showing one movie which is the ultimate stupidity Dragon Tiger Gate so I cannot even waste time watching movies. The only thing I have planned so far is to return to the Disney Channel at 6.30 for the Suite Life of Zack and Cody and then High School Musical again. Boredom. I suppose I could always study more...

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First off, I would like to offer my condolences to RoxBear and family. Will remember you all in prayers.

I find that I am getting used to the life here. The never ending boiling of water, the food, the work and the people. In other words, I am slowing down. That is bad, cause I do not really intend to stay here long at all because it is so slow. But the cars are amazingly cheap as I learnt that a Rav4 costs RM80,000 here !!!

I am pretty sick of the seafood here as have been gorging on seafood for past 2 nights and all paid for. It is pretty great except that as I am not exactly a big lover of seafood, (I just enjoy it..) having it in large amounts in 2 days is not exactly great.

I find that it will be quite impossible for me to lose weight or get a tan at this rate. I might lose some weight owing to the fact I am still skipping my lunches...but then you never know. Studies are going really well though, as now I have loads of time to study. Or rather am forced to study.

The twin typhoons raging in the South China Sea has landed their tails on us, so it has been very rainy and windy this past few days. It is scary to think that there might be a tsunami but then I do not think that I am that unlucky. I realised however that I am very lucky as hardly a day goes by without someone calling me for at least 20 minutes. This helps the time pass faster and I am very grateful to everyone who has called so far. Unfortunately I would like to remind you that only a week and a half has passed, and I have 3 full weeks left ! So keep them coming.

I have FOUND the cineplez so I do get too bored now, I might go catch a few movies. Lifesaver.
I also realise how horrible it must be to a vegetarian when you eat meat in front of them. As we had a few visitors in various stages of veganism, ranging from no beef, to only chicken, to no everything including eggs. So all this food comes, and we end up eating meat and some of them were so uncomfortable with the smells and sights especially when the waitress was cutting up the meat. I felt so guilty for eating meat !!!!

I am still watching a lot of TV and even I could not believe it when I watched something for the 3rd time ! Scary but that is how bored you can become. I should buy another book to read.

AND I AM TIRED OF FIGHTING TO USE COMPUTERS WITH SCHOOLKIDS PLAYING GAMES.

I will be blogging less.

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Yesterday I woke up, had my shower and breakfast and trekked around the town. It took me all of one hour. And then I was back where I started. I wanted to rant a bit, but all the computers available in town were being used for Word classes. I was shocked. And angry since I had to climb 3 flights of stairs to reach the Cybercafe. It was an adult class....So I walked back to the place I worked and behold, all the computers were being used by kids playing games. Crap.

As I walked around town, I was looking and everything and really, there are no nice things to take anyway. The only funny thing was that there is a place called Labuan Teleport. Since it was far, I did not walk there. But I wonder what I would have found if I did walk there. Would it be a place to teleport to somewhere else ? The shops were mostly food and the cybercafe I found was on the 3rd floor of the dodgy building. There were 3 karaoke places but they were all 'adult' ones. When I decided to walk the library, I found out that it closed on Saturdays. WTH man.....

So I walked back to my room just as housekeeping opened my door, and had a nice time just talking to her and making sure she cleaned everything, and changed my batteries, vacuumed properly and provided more paper. Then I parked myself in front of the TV at my desk, and did my usual, study with TV. I did quite alright, I think and have finished Chapter 11 and will finish Chapter 12 today. Hopefully, I may be able to finish all 18 Chapters by the time I go back to KL.

But I found that Astro thinks people catch up on TV during the weekend cause there were many many reruns. I watched Project Runway Season 2 Finale twice, an episode of House for the 3rd time, an episode of Numb3rs for the second time and a lot of other crap. I want Amazing Race !!!! I wish I had a radio here at least. Other than watching TV and studying, and working, the thing I am doing most is singing. Oh well. And I survived the whole of Saturday by having some sausages...and crackers......hmm. Need veggies, as am currently wholly dependent on breakfast for my veggies/fruits as have no knife in room, no cooking facilities and am too lazy to go to the market. Actually have just realised live opposite Giant....will get some food there.

Anyway, after staying up late to watch Queer Eye and a documentary on the rich and famous gambling at Las Vegas....I woke up at 9. I hurriedly showered, breakfasted and came to the cafe. I was the first one here too..luckily cause by now the whole place is filled with people. Life is tough. Seems like internet is a scarce commodity.

So I suppose I will go back to the hotel after some fruit shopping and then study/tv/sleep. After all, I have to work tomorrow. Shit. 3 MORE WEEKS. Maybe I will get numb before then, so it will not be so bad.

DO NOT COME TO LABUAN !!!


Oh and thanks MichyBear for sending me the pictures !

At least I have a picture to post cause there is seriously nothing to post of Labuan.

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Things I have learnt so far in Labuan :
1. Rain is evil (especially when you are trying to watch something on Astro).
2. The best cartoons on Disney channel are on during work hours.
3. It is possible to watch more than one movie at a time.
4. The Phoenix Channel sucks.
5. AXN has better shows than ESPN.
6. Watching Travel and Living programmes can sometimes put you to sleep.
7. There are two runs of Amazing Race a day.
8. Tutenstein and Raven are stupid but they are addictive.
9. Less advertisements means that you have no time to study in between.
10.Astro advertisements are more interesting.
11.XFresh is a radio channel.
12.House is better than Numb3rs which is better than Desperate Housewives which is better than CSI:Miami which is better than Joey.
13.When rain threatens, pray hard that there is something good to watch on Vision4.
14.30 Seconds to Fame downgrades your IQ.
15.Vince Chong singing songs from High School Musical is disturbing.
16.Saturdays is the best day to watch cartoons the Disney channel.
17.HBO movies have BM subs.
18.The TV is not so scary when it is turned on, then you cannot have monsters crawling out. 19.The TV (Screeny) is the only one I can depend on in times of loneliness and need.
20.I would probably die without TV here.

So technically, it saved my life. I have learnt so much more from the TV than I have before ! Who says watching TV is bad ? TV is a source of great knowledge and everyone knows that knowledge is Power right ?] Watching TV should be made compulsory for children to increase their general knowledge !

Things I have learnt so far in Labuan not related to TV :
1. It often rains very hard especially from July to October as it is the typhoon season. Though we are not in the direct paths, we get the rain.
2. It is small, but not small enough to walk everywhere.
3. It is still possible to have traffic jams during peak hours.
4. The main attractions are a chimney, a bird park, some islands, a memorial park and the place where I work.
5. It gets brighter earlier in the morning and gets darker faster in the evenings.
6. No idea why but Hilary Duff's "only one" is repeating itself in my head.
7. It is great fun to sing in the hotel room since people can hear you outside but they do not know who you are.
8. People here are used to colder temperatures than in KL, hence the freezing aircons everywhere.
9. Some places accept Brunei Dollars.
10.Some people I have met in the market were planning to eat frozen roti canai with Vodka shots for dinner.
11.Museum is free entry.
12.Ferry from here to KK is extremely seasick-inducing.
13.Canned salmon is not as nice as tuna.
14.The best food served for breakfast is Turkey Bacon and Waffles.
15.The worst food served for breakfast is Oily Corned Beef and Fried Potato Wedges.
16.Bread here does not taste as good.
17.Yellow is a favourite colour of people here.
18.Good food can be pretty scarce.
19.The sea causes the island to often be foggy and misty in the morning.
20.You can sleep forever here.

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You will not believe it. After 3 days of super cold air going around my room as a result of myself trying to make believe that I was in freezing Melbourne, wearing a few layers of clothes and pretending that it is snowing so that I can ski too, I think I have a cold. Running through the rain yesterday night did not help. Yes it is raining again now, which is why I am stuck at the dodgy cybercafe instead of my igloo.

I am watching so much TV now, I really believe that I have got addicted to TV. After my shower, I was trying really hard to study but ended up watching Disney's High School Musical, Joey, Desperate Housewives, Amazing Race and some stupid cartoons. So much TV ok..... I am certain that it will be my best friend. I have decided to call him Screeny. I did try to gym and then swim as well yesterday but the gym was tiny and the only treadmill was broken. I was also alone, so could switch on the radio and dance like a mad person.....Since it was a building by itself and it was raining hard, I did not think anyone would see me.... Later went for a swim but then, again, it was myself and could not do laps since it was a round pool, so gave up after a while. That is when I discovered that RAIN STOPS ASTRO. I was so frustrated. It is seriously the first time that my life has been affected by rain stopping Astro. Shucks. Luckily the rain calmed down after my hot bath.

At night, it was so freezing cold, that I was like a worm all cuddled up. Which was a problem. I dreamt that I was running this hugely long marathon and along the way I met all the people that I have ever met in my life. That is why I woke up today feeling very very tired. And thirsty. And that was why, I went back to bed and only managed to go down to breakfast at 8. So I missed Spongebob. But managed to watch Donald on Disney. And Spot the Mickey. And TutenStein. Rushed off to work in 10 minutes. If only I could do this at home ! Going to work in 10 minutes I mean.

At this rate, tan is impossible. There is hardly any sun around. Not only is it raining often, the actual time of Labuan being earlier than KL and yet tuned to KL means that when I finish work at 6, it is actually later than that and therefore darker. Eww. At work, I have been dozing off millions of time, due to a combination of dream-marathon, rain, coldness of the office (almost as cold as my Melbourne room) and the pace. People here work like snails on crutches !! Sometimes I want to scream in frustration. Skipped lunch again today and went around the whole shopping complex. Found a lot of clothes to buy !!!! I am trying very hard now to control myself. I have decided that I will not start buying until I decide how many I am allowed. They ARE pretty cheap, and looks good too. Unfortunately there are like 300 which I would buy so I need to be very selective.

Ok that was scary. All the lights blinked. I will post this before I lose it.

Until next time, wait for the AMAZING INCREDIBLY SLOW ADVENTURES IN LABUAN LAND.

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OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG. Before you go around thinking that these are bimbotic OMGS because someone found something pink and shiny let me tell you that these are horror OMGS.

The flight was alright, what can you expect ? While I was at the airport I realised that I was not flying TO Melbourne. Shucks. Anyway, the flight was OK except that there was this huge bunch, about 20 teenagers who were on a holiday trip. So they were making a lot of noise all through the flight. I wanted to just tell them to shut up and respect the people who woke up at 6 to board the flight and had to go in to work later in the afternoon and therefore needed to sleep on the flight. But someone told them off first and it did not help. It was also bad that the plane was so small, I was a bit shocked. But tired as I was, I managed to fall asleep before being woken up to nasi lemak for breakfast. Urg. Took some food and went back to sleep. I was DEAD TIRED.

The airport was smaller than my school and I was happy that my luggage was not destroyed as I noticed a lot of bags with locks snapped or handles broken. So dangerous man. The taxi to the hotel was fine, but the journey was unbelievably short ! The hotel was fine. Nice big room, Shower and tub, TV, massages (lol) nice carpet, big pool, gym and breakfast. But, there are no buts actually. I like the room. And the hotel. Only that it is not exactly those big hotels in the city that makes you feel glamorous. It is obvious people only come here to sleep and eat, as it is just opposite the place where I work. It is very obvious as these 3 towers are the ONLY high rises on the whole island. But I just like living in hotels, so I was not too disappointed.

Then I checked in to work.There are currently 6 people working. The youngest is 45, the oldest is actually retired. I was not too shocked as I was prewarned but I was still stunned. Imagine if you had to carry anything heavy or bend over to pick up something ? But of course, they are very nice, kinda like parents of your friends. Oh well, just make do. Then I found out that I did not have access to the internet or a phone or even a desk for that matter. Arghh. Sigh. I felt like dying without internet. But I get to share the manager's room with him while everyone else is outside. Lol. See, even the manager must share a desk. Later that night, we had dinner in the town centre. Erm, everything was closed though it was only about 7 pm. Whoa.

By the time I went back to the hotel, the gym was closed, and I was too full to swim. Took out my book and almost fell asleep. Instead I watched reruns of Numb3rs and House instead. I also watched some dumb cartoons. I swear, that is the most amount of TV I have watched in a day this year. At least the bed and pillows were comfortable. Maybe I got used to strange rooms in IH, cause I fell asleep without much trouble. Of course I also rearranged all the furniture in the room, to suit my taste and convenience. As usual. I like it much better now. When I woke up, I turned on the TV. Watched some CNN, some cartoons, and decided to go down for breakfast after debating whether or not to swim. After breakfast came up and watched Amazing Race before I went to work at 9am. YES IT IS THAT LAID BACK. It takes me all of five minutes to reach the office from where I stay. I can already tell that the TV will be my best friend the next month. Also that I will probably save quite a bit of money like this. My appetite is totally gone !! I guess since everything moves slower here, my stomach is probably working half speed to digest.

This morning it rained. Heavily. It was so heavy that from the windows you can only see whiteness. You do not get that in the city since there are so many buildings that they block the rain. But in this lone high rise with nothing to block the rain, it felt like a snow storm. Work here is also very slow. A lot of processing that could probably be automated and done in quarter the time it needs now. The frustration of smiling all through the morning and saying yes while listening to grandfather stories !!!

Right now, I am giving up my lunch to type this in a very dodgy cybercafe which has CHEAPEST rates at RM4 an hour. You have to go through an arcade to get here. So so dodgy.

Wish I was skiing somewhere instead. The computers here smell. So do the people.

Do not even start to ask for pictures. I am still in a state of shock.

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Flying off in 10 hours time, I am seriously trying to think if I have missed out on packing something that I will need or want during my one month stint ?

Maybe some brains. As I have discussed with CKBear, YapBear and CharBear independently, I am in turmoil.

Do I want what I think I want and can I get what I think I can get ?

Complicated ? Definitely.

Should life be more simple sometimes ? Yes.

Let me think about it more. In fact this month long break *sortof is exactly what I need I hope.

I need to impress the boss, study hard, get a tan, and lots of exercise.

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Sigh. The planned karaoke session yesterday did not work out. Oh well, had a pretty fun time just talking at Starbucks and then a dinner at Hard Rock Cafe. There is something very comforting just being able to hang out with some friends with whom you can tell your troubles too and laugh and relax. Food at Hard Rock was quite good ! I was just craving for a burger, and since we were not going to RedBox to get the burgers there (which are VERY good) I ordered this Hickory BBQ Beef Burger. Yummy. I think I just like to chew meat. MrJan understood what I meant perfectly. Haha. He might be worse than me. He left some meat while he went to the toilet so that he could eat it when he came back so that he would not forget the taste. Haha. After dinner, we shared a whole bar of chocolate together. Just five of us. Wonderful. The experience was wonderful I mean, though the chocolate was good too. On the walk back to office, we seemed to have got into a sugar high cause everyone was very airy-fairy. Just as I was bidding farewell to these guys, (since I would not be seeing them for a month) I had a phone call. Guess who ?

Thanks CKBear for listening to me talk for 90 minutes. Haha. I swear. Thanks a lot. We had very good time just bitching and talking and discussing and reporting and whatever else. To find a quiet place to talk, I was actually on the 3rd floor of the Prince hotel where they had the function rooms which were empty. Just me and some guy with a vacuum cleaner, sucking up the dust. It was especially good for me, as just the night before, was quite disappointed as all three guys I called, (YapBear, RyanBear and NickBear) were all busy doing one thing or another and we seriously have not gone out for some chatting for a long time and with me going away, I thought it would be nice to chat. Yea so they were all busy but is that not to be expected ? Since they had their own lives too and had to study/work/play. I guess what was really disappointing as well was that they did not remember my birthday even when I called. Blush*.. Yea, I get pretty disappointed when my birthdays are not remembered since I take so much trouble to remember people's birthdays. We actually celebrated YapBear's birthday on my initiative and I wished NickBear (He was busy with his girlfriend so we did not celebrate). So there you go. Yes you ! You better remember my birthday !! Thanks CKBear for your as yet unreceived gift. Seems like I will not be receiving for a long time though, I am leaving on Monday. Should thank KenBear as well right ?

And there was this whole deal about not liking someone enough to like them all the time. You understand ? Basically, you like this person to really like them sometimes but at other times you can just as easily forget about them. So obviously, you have not really cared for them enough for them to be part of your life right ? So is it a good thing to ask them to be part of your life when you are not ready for it ? I just cannot understand girls. Or guys. Or even myself. Life is very complicated. And sometimes I am more than willing to just let everything go and just enjoy life. Not to say that I am not enjoying life but maybe not enjoying it to the fullest because of all the nitty gritty that happens. It is just like the RM's job. I would probably love the job if not for all the nitty gritty that occurs every day and makes life so much more complicated than it should be.

Anyway, I really have to get ready to go to Labuan. I have not packed at all currently, and am going out for lunch and then after dinner. Hmm. But I guess I could pack in a day and then probably forget my phone charger or something equally important. An annoyance but not really a catastrophe. Study Study Study. That will probably take my mind off everything. Heard that they have Pizza Hut and KFC but not McDonald's. But it is alright in the fact that I can probably live the simple life with cup noodles and the like right ? This will help my diet a lot. Since I know someone who is gung-ho on joining MarieFrance, I need a head start in the weight loss competition ! Haha. Yes. Diet, Work and Study. What could be better ? Now have visions of self running along a beach, hair streaming behind and coming up to a big house. When have rested will be studying like a good boy with a nice pot of tea and everything will be easy. And when the weekend is over and I am back in the office, will be able to tell managers that "Leave it to me and I will help". Haha.........

And yes of course will update on what happens in Labuan.

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So basically the last four days I have been studying.Very hard. Not for my CFA exams though. In fact I was studying all the operating processes that occur in CRC as next Monday I will be flying over to Labuan for a month's of hard labour in the sun on an island.Sounds fun ?

It is not really. I had so much things to learn and am filled with a lot of new found respect for the work that CRC does. Sometimes I blush at the thought of how I treated them when I was in CR, but then again now I know better. So you see, with experience and knowledge, you do become a better person !!
Things about Labuan.

1. It may be small but not small enough for you to walk everywhere.
2. There is not much to do there if you do not go diving.
3. You can visit states of Sabah and Sarawak as well as take some time off in Brunei, but I have to study.
4. Every other staff flies back to KK in the weekend, so I will be all alone.
5. That is about all.

Anyway, I am getting more excited about going there anyway !! Yay.

Although I did say I was busy studying processes at work the last four days, I also managed to find time to squeeze in time to re-read all the Globes from last semester again. Interesting. But I have so to say that back in my day, we had a lot more to read, and less of just skimming through. There is just not enough quality in the articles nowadays.

I am bored. And cold. This new floor is colder and dryer.

I wonder what I would have to pack ?

Had a nice lunch with 4 other GAs. There will be 7 of us, but right now there are only 5. We are all sooooooooooooo different. I hope however that after a while, we will thaw out and be great friends just like the year before. I really envy their close friendship. But as I was discussing this with MrTeong, having so many GAs in a year sort of makes my job harder. And easier. On one hand, you have to work so much harder to show that you are special and better and more wonderful. On the other hand, you might have more friends. But no matter what, I have decided not to be complacent but continue to work as hard as I can to be a Force to be Reckoned With. I mean just because I have passed some of the exams and have a bit more experience at the bank does not mean that I can rest on my laurels and take it easy. I have the momentum at the moment and I need to carry it through. I truly believe that I have the edge over all except 2 of the GAs at the moment so it is completely up to me to strive and fight for my future.

Labuan Resolutions.

Get a tan if possible.
Explore chances to dive.
Study CFA.
Work very very hard to be recognized as Power to be Reckoned With.
Diet. Lose another 5 kg.
Explore Labuan.

I hope the crowd at SCB Labuan will be easy to charm. After all, they are within my target audience. Lol. Older crowd with an average age of 49. I was told.

So one more day to say Goodbye to MSC. And say hello to Labuan Offshore Banking.

I wonder what do Offshore Bankers wear ?

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