Forever

My family was doing some throwbacks the other day in the chat group, and it involved a lot of my cute childhood pictures along with some nostalgic photos of my family members (like my aunt's/uncle's wedding, the Euro trip my family took together, my mum's graduation ceremony where daddy's parents attended, daddy sending mummy off at the airport and yadaa3). 

However what struck me most was the Euro trip my family (including with my cousins/uncles/aunts) took.

As you can tell, I was no more than 5 years old during this trip but I realised it was during this trip that the idea of studying abroad was instilled in my head. 

I distinctly remember that I was so amazed with like the Disneyland castle (it was my first time seeing the castle in real life, kalau tak it was always from the movies' opening sequence), the snow, and the weather. I told my parents that I wanna live here (Europe) or at least come here a lot more. Of course 5 years old me had no idea about currency exchange and what not back then, all I cared about was having Disneyland nearby, hehe. 

During this trip was when Mummy and Daddy told me that in order for me to come here more often, I had to study really hard and get good grades. Then I can study abroad and get good jobs, and bring my own family to Europe. 

Something so simple yet it stuck with me forever. 

My parents has given me the good basics in life and I just hope when the time comes I will be able to raise my kids with all the values they've instilled in me and take them and my parents to Europe with my own money.

Dear God, have mercy on my parents as how they did in looking after me when I was small.

Ramlal & Pogo

Being the working adults that we are.. 

Hold on. I just had to let that phrase sink in, working adults. Wow. 

Okay, back to the story. 

Being the working adults that we both are, Zawir & I hardly get to spend our weekdays together anymore. Honestly I do not blame anyone for this because quite honestly I like to do nothing more than just not kick back and rest after a whole day of working. And I understand how knackered Zawir must feel considering that I was there in his shoes a year ago too when I just started work.. In fact I think I was worse! I'd only speak to him for about 10 minutes before falling asleep on Skype/Viber. I'd wake up and he'd (sometimes) still be on Skype and I'd have to rush to get ready for work.. Okaylah, actually Zawir does the same thing with me now too except now he does his work before sleeping and I'd accompany him on Skype (yes we still Skype).

When the weekend comes we do make an effort to see each other, even if its just a "working date". 

Last week we both had a bunch of stuff to do and I know my workload was nothing compared to his so I brought my colouring book and coloured while waiting for him to finish his work. 

This weekend however seems pretty more chilled for the both of us, so we decided to have dinner on Friday night. 

During our (late) dinner,

Me: Weren't we supposed to watch a movie tonight?

Him: No, I just said, "what movie". I didn't say yes.. 

Me: No lah, I'm very sure you said okay and then asked what movie do I want to watch.

Him: Nooooo.. I'm very sure I didn't say yes. I said "tengok lah camner"

Me: *checks phone* HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! We both didn't ask what movie, but you did say yes!

We're both so tired that we just make up the conversations we want to have in our heads, lol.

And also this weekend it has been two days where we both wore colour-coordinated outfits unplanned. 

Me: Eh why you copy my colour!?

Him: Excuse me, I picked you up so I had to put on clothes first.. So you copied me!

#need.to.fill.in.clingy.quota. #wearebothclingyfyi #hestartedthewholeSkypeeverynightthing #iswearonmyhandbagsididntmakethisup

Oh and guess what movie we ended up watching this weekend? 

Dilwale. 

Fourth time for me, second time for him. Hehe!

But before you think the crazy obsessive SRK fan in me dragged his sorry bottoms to the movies, I didn't! His aunt asked and he asked if I wanted to join them so I'm like "HELL. YEAH!". Sorry honey, if there's one man (outside of my family) that I love more than I love you, it's probably SRK.

My Ramlal! 

ESTJ

One of my boss told me, "Try not to bring your work personality home". 

Which I think is true, because with the line of work I'm in now, I would drive people nuts by always asking them things like "Can you do it?" "By when?" "Any risks?" "Mitigation plan?" "Any issues?" "Delayed by how long?" and what not.. #projectmanagementtalk

 I also had a manager who would ask us to take personality tests and a client who gave us a booklet on our personalities. The same client also told me that most personality tests would give you different outcome as you grow and go through different phases of your life or thrown into a different environment (like changing between project teams), however whatever that was in the booklet I got, that should be the fundamentals of who I am and wouldn't change much even if it's 10 years from now and I have 3 kids juggling two different jobs.. 

And I agree! 

I've been taking the Myers Briggs' tests since I was in uni (cause Raema would send us some quizes to find out which fictional character are we most like and it's normally based on the MB test personality type), and I swear I've been bouncing from being an introvert and extrovert a lot more often now that I am working.. The other two alphabets for my MB tests results also changes often with lots of different combination but one thing that remains is that I am always a "J" a.k.a. "Judging".

Recently I discovered this test where it gives you a percentage breakdown of say, how much of an introvert/extrovert are you. So I am always borderline introvert (I) - extrovert (E), observant (S) - intuitive (N) and thinking (T) - feeling (F) but I am very judging (J) person like more than 70% judging and less than 30% perceptive (P)...

"Wow Aisya, you're very judgemental!" - Zayana

I AM!

"Judging individuals are decisive, thorough and highly organized. They value clarity, predictability and closure, preferring structure and planning to spontaneity" - from 16Personalities.com

I find this explanation a perfect description of my "work personality".
I need people to give me a firm and direct answer, I need to know the plan and what other potential things that may disrupt the plan which then I need a back up plan and a back up of the back up plan, I like the known predictable stuff and I hate not knowing what's going on.. Not only does my work trains me to be more managerial type but I naturally have a habit of preferring order.

And today when Mummy asked search for flight options for my parents' potential holiday, after giving her various options of how she can get to Santorini, what's the pricing like and which would be the cheapest combo...

Dang that typo mistake (if you can spot it, yay you!) is annoying me....

Mummy: Are you sure it's that cheap? For two?
Me: Well it's cheap, but it's gonna give me a headache making the bookings for you guys.. So maybe after I charge you my service charge it wouldn't be that cheap anymore.. Hehehe :p


I don't bring home my work personality, I'm born with it #blessingandacurse

Shallow & Spoiled

This post is going to make me sound so spoilt and bratty, but I'm just gonna put it out there and be honest about how I took a lot of things for granted. 

...

It's surreal to think just two years ago, I was still a student. And I still say it's the best days of my life! Student life, especially abroad, is awesome guys! Minus the constant homesick, actually, with the constant homesickness, it's an experience of a lifetime and I am truly blessed that my parents were able to support my education (I am very against people who are blessed enough to afford their own education and still take scholarships... Dishonour on your cow!) AND that University of Sheffield accepted me with my shortcomings. 

If you scroll back to my student days, I mostly share about my crazy online shopping addiction. And believe me, it was crazy! I have an ASOS account order history to prove it... 

Source: Google

Today, I was #feelingspendy and decided to scroll through ASOS searching for work clothes. I am now in a phase where I'd rather splurge on work clothes than weekend clothes cause let's face it, I go out with work clothes way more often than my casual clothes #thesadtruth. I also have gained a little (okay lahhhh a lot!) of weight and I don't think I can blame it on the steroids anymore. I blame on how expensive the healthier options are in Malaysia!! Like if I want salmon, I'd have to fork out RM30, whereas last time I got 4 slices of salmon for like RM40 (granted £ was cheaper back then, but still!)

Anyways, after quite a few hours of browsing, I found a bunch of things I absolutely loved. I had about like 10ish items in my basket, and then I scrolled down to the total side and got the shock of my life!!!!! 3 DIGITS IN UK POUNDS!! O.O

There is no way I can afford spending that much on work clothes, so I spent quite sometime debating with myself which I really need (because I neeeeeed some new pants guys!) and which I don't. After narrowing it down, I managed to reduced it to double digits.. Boleh lah tuh!

Now comes the painful part, paying. Haih. 

I am very sure I (read: my parents) spent hundred and hundred of ££ while I was studying, I even spent some ridiculous amount (and poor Zayana had to join me) to get FashionValet to deliver to me while I was in UK (solely because I was impatient and couldn't wait til I balik Malaysia... Astaghfirullahalazim). Haih. 

Now I think back I feel sad of how shallow and spoiled I was back then. My poor parents worked hard for their money and here I was ignorantly spending it away.. Sorry Mummy, Daddy :( 

These days with everything being so expensive in Malaysia, my wish is that I am able to afford the kind of luxuries my parents were to give me and more, so that I can not only share it with my family but also extend it to those who need it. 

Also, Dear God, please let my kids be kids yang reti berjimat sikit. Ameeeeeen!

---

On a side note of things, I have this one pair of pants from ASOS that I bought back in 2014 and it is my favourite pair of work pants ever!

I have been searching high and low for the pants so that I can repurchase it and have back-up of it. After almost 2 years, I finally found the white and camel version of it and I couldn't be more ecstatic about it because it was on SALE!!!!!! (You bet I got them both)

The black pair is no where to be found but I stand by my shopaholic beliefs: If it's meant for you, it'll be there when you want to purchase it and good things come to those who waits!

Day 5 out of 366

It is Day 5 of the year and second official working day of 2016.

Source: Google (Lion In The Wild)

Status report? 

I have (so far) been able to keep to my one short "paragraph" (who am I kidding, I bullet points my entry even in my diary) per day entry as planned. I suddenly had a brilliant idea of getting one of those diaries that have like space for entries of the same day but from different year, like this 5 Year Diary. It's quite cool isn't it to be able to reflect on your "development/progress/growth" over a psna of a few years.  Plus for someone who is like obsessed with finding things that are similar in my life (according to Zayana lah, according to me I just find patterns in things because that's my personality type), I think this would give me great satisfaction if I randomly finds a day that's common/repeated, especially unintentionally! Maybe if I stay committed to this diary, I shall invest in the 5 Years diary.. 

Work is picking up its pace and I find myself glued to my bed by the time I get back (sometimes I get too sleepy to even stay awake up til dinner time). It also does not help that Zawir is currently going through his classroom training meaning I get less of his attention, meaning my chatty self has no one to talk to! So Zayana shall suffer (hi Zayana! You've been warned). I have this thing where like I have a human interaction quota (I didn't make this up okay! It's part of my personality, it's one of my "needs") and if I don't fulfil it, I'll feel incomplete (according to my personality test, it'll trigger my "stress"). So you see, if I penat-penat also I choose to talk to you, you are my human interaction quota filler of the day! Feel proud! 

Of course sometimes it just means that I'll share dozens of funny Instagram videos with you, but if you try to actually hold a proper conversation with me, my attention span won't be able to take it so I may end up talking about people then about food and share back Instagram videos with you or just reply sepatah-sepatah jer.. I am very difficult, I know. Hehe.

Like now, I'm sleepy (which means there're probably dozens of spelling/grammatical errors here) but I'm still awake with my half opened eyes typing this post.. I don't even know why... 

Good night!

#peoplequotametfortheday