November update

I haven't updated my blog for a long time. Whenever I had the inspiration to write, I passed on that energy to writing up my professional reports instead. I've been extremely busy in the three weeks leading up to this week since I last updated the blog. Just this morning at 2am, after so many weekends, I finished writing an experience report and fifteen development objectives of how I have become a competent engineer. All this accomplished in between the workload from the office. Now the reports would be reviewed by a delegated engineer in the company. Once finalised, the reports would be formally submitted to the Institution of Civil Engineer for a career appraisal. This means I have to satisfy the ICE that I'm ready and "matured" to be a Chartered Engineer before I could make a formal submission. It's more difficult than I expected.

It wasn't easy consolidating 7 years of work experience into a few pages of report. I've written too much for an experience report. At 25 pages, I still think I haven't finished writing but there has been pressure to compress everything into 2000 words. That's effectively 5 pages!

But many things have happened in between. I celebrated my birthday with a few close friends. Less is more. Thanks to Irene who planned her trip around to coincide with my birthday. I am also grateful to those who came for dinner and the musical. And thank you everyone who called, texted, emailed and left messages in my facebook on my birthday.

One and a half duck for five of us

Second time seeing Les Miserables

Before that was a visit by Nik Rahini et al, who stopped over and took a break here from her European tour. We caught up over dinner and a play called Stomp which was absolutely brilliant. Thanks for organising that, Nik!

Dinner with Nik et al

I was involved in a bid submission for work in the O which literally sapped me off my energy, mood and everything that the world is made of. I was working late hours for the past three weeks. Malaysians wouldn't believe I had to work late hours here and return to work before 8am the next day. This continued for two weeks. I am really knackered. The last time I did any meaningful exercise was three weeks ago and that was when I ran 5km on the treadmill.

But in the midst of all these madness, I made a trip to Budapest with Irene over a weekend. It was planned months ahead. I was hesitating to go because of the workload but was glad I went as it was a good antidote to the stress I was living with in the office. The following weekend we went to Oxford.

In London, I told myself that I wouldn't need to care about my visitors as long as they can speak English. The truth is, I do worry once in a while; if they would be cheated, know where to visit, how to get there, how to save some money, have enough cash to spend and what and where to go for dinner? Because I also want to share some tips about London since I'm a lot "smarter" going about doing things in this country than in the past 3.5 years.

Pots of lontong and trays of satay by Noris

Hari Raya Haji at Noris'

Hari Raya Haji was in November too. Noris hosted a dinner for us and some friends at his place. It all felt like a real Hari Raya because we had rendang, lontong, ketupat, satay and lots of desserts. The guests were dressed up for the occasion too. Most of them in traditional Malay costumes. Thank you Noris for making us feel so much at home!

I did some Christmas shopping for Irene to bring home to my family. I'm glad I am not the type who would buy on impulse. That is why I still haven't finished buying presents for everyone. But that's fine, I give presents to people whenever I go home, even without Christmas! So if you didn't get a present from me this time, it's because you've got one in my recent trip back!
And if you haven't received a present from me the last time and this, that's because you haven't been a good person the whole year and Santa knows!;)