Greetings from Helsinki, Finland!

After a massive shopping trip at Bangkok, I’ve made my way back to our sunny city with almost excessive baggage and absolutely penniless (in terms of Baht currency, of course).

Once back at work, tons of emails and preparing for my work trip to Helsinki, Finland have kept me so busy that I haven’t managed to blog about my Bangkok trip in richer details.

It has been only less than a week, and I had to go off to Helsinki again. Although it’s supposed to be the beginning of summertime here, it’s still at an extremely chilly 5 deg cels. i’m freezing my toes off as we speak.

i’ve been here for almost 2 days now but haven’t managed to do any sightseeing…my days are occupied with seminars (afterall, this is a work trip) but i’m hoping to get some free time during my trip to look around and get the feel of this city.

it’s almost 2AM in this part of the world now and i really should hit the bed before i start dozing off in my seminars tomorrow, or technically, today.

more later!

sweet dreams to me, and good morning to you.

p/s: and i’m missing you dearly. really wish that you were here too.

trying my damnest

honestly, i’m trying my damnest/hardest at holding it all together without letting anything slip.

i’m being pulled from all directions…and the line is as taut as it can get.

i’m going to snap soon…and we’ve already had a preview today.

how long more can i last?

let’s wait and see.

the alleged public relations day

note: this is a back-dated post.

a fun take on what’s pr about

themediaslut has declared 9 april to be the day to highlight and celebrate the work that pr professionals do.

there’s no particular cause or reason behind this movement. it’s just a fun thing to do.

let’s see how long or how many people will it take to get this off the ground - if ever.

i’m plugging this purely because i’m in the said field as well and since more than 95% of my friends do not know what being in public relations entails, it will be a good opportunity to educate the general public on what the pr profession is really about.

i said, if this ever takes off, okay?

meanwhile, happy public relations day to all!

happy birthday to me - another 365 days older

another 365 days have passed and i’m one year older again.

it’s my birthday and i’m stuck at the kl international airport waiting for my flight home - exhausted and incredibly sleepy.

what a lousy way to spend this special day - not sleeping enough, worrying and working my ass off.

damn it.

anyway, happy birthday to me.

more updates on this eventful work trip when i’m back home - the internet connection is horrible here.

p/s: thank you for all the birthday wishes, i’m really touched that you remembered!

from bimbo to tech junkie

it came as no surprise to me when people tell me that their initial impressions of me, especially after meeting me for the first 2 minutes, were somewhat of a bimbo.

even after so long, i can’t decide if this should be a compliment or an insult.

but i wouldn’t blame them. looking at it from someone else’s point of view, if i were to meet me for the first time, i might have just arrived at the same inital conclusion.

possible thought-process during an initial meeting:

face warpaint a.k.a make-up - check.

perfume - check.

looks like she might be a little vain (little is subjective, okay) - check.

clueless with serious IT stuff (like fixing own PC) - check.

conclusion - bimbotic woman. check.

plus, the fact that i’m in public relations doesn’t really help the case because it seems like most people generally misunderstand the nature of this industry. public relations, as far as these people are concerned, is an industry full of glitz and glamour, exciting events and happening parties.

yes, i wouldn’t deny that people in the public relations industry do have some opportunities to be part of such merry-making events, but the enormous amount of hard work, effort and sweat that pr professionals put in towards their work often slip by - unnoticed.

with such misconceptions, it is small wonder that some will label me as bimbotic during the inital meeting.

however, things have taken a slight change recently. although i am still in the same industry, the nature of my clients’ industries have altered substantially.

from dealing with lifestyle and consumer to enterprise technology clients, i have to say that the transition isn’t easy at all. i had to grapple with new concepts, applications and jargons which were totally foreign to me. i had imagined that the learning process will be long and painful.

but surprise, surprise…i think i might actually have formed an interest for this aspect somewhere along the learning path. i actually found some of these stuff amazing, and get this, interesting!

even i, myself, am pretty shocked at this realisation.

what happened?

from a complete technology idiot to this. who would have thought?

oh gawd, i’m a tech-geek wannabe.

but the make-up, perfume and slight vain-ness still stay. heh.

nothing like a job well done!

we had a press conference today for the taiwan tourism board and in the way of work, i’ve had the opportunity to work with some taiwan celebrities such as jolin tsai and director wu nian zhen.

due to the superstar-status and nature of these celebrities cum spokespeople, this press conference proved to be more challenging than the usual ones.

i don’t know how much i can talk about it here…since the event has just happened.

but all i can say is, nothing beats the feeling of a job well done.

yay!

**although i’ve some pictures of the event, i’m not too sure if i’m allowed to post them up yet. we’ll see how it goes.

and now, back to work. bah!

A long overdue adios

i know i haven’t been updating for some time now…as i’ve been trying to cope with some changes in my life.

within the last two months, i’ve made a pretty major decision regarding an aspect of my life. subsequently, with that decision, i had to cope with a different set of challenges, a new environment and unfamiliar faces. i’ve never been one that’s good at coping with changes, hence, this snapped up a major portion of my energy…

it wasn’t easy to make that decision… and it definitely hasn’t been a bed of roses trying to ease myself within a new habitat but nobody ever said that change was easy.

although the road is still fraught with challenges, i do not regret my decision. life’s too short for that, ain’t it?

the initial start to coping with any changes is often extremely difficult and so it has been - for me as well. on one of those days, i received a short message from a friend.

the message read:

smooth roads never make good drivers

smooth seas never make good sailors

clear skies never make good pilots

a problem free life never makes a strong person

so be strong enough to accept the challenges in life.

don’t ask life, “why me?”

instead say, “try me.”

maybe it was the circumstances surrounding me…i found that message particularly encouraging and i hope that, by sharing it with you, you might find some meaning in it as well.

on a lighter note, i’ve finally bought my own camera (cammie, it shall be henceforth be called)!! it’s a pretty hot pink z5…and i absolutely, absolutely love it, especially the colour! (ya ya, call me bimbotic.)

now you can expect…alot more cam whoring!

once i’ve downloaded all my pictures from my cammie to my computer, that is. and i promise, it won’t be long! heh.

Birthday Galore

It has been a wind-whirl of activities for me, especially last weekend. Although I’ve been on leave from Wednesday to Friday last week, it seemed as though work has never really left my mind. I even went back to office on Friday to check, clear and reply my work email.

I’ve been working for at least 13 hours everyday this week. I think I’m becoming a nerd! Yay! Let’s see how long I can hold out for, while maintaining this crazy shitload of work.

Anyway, I’ve spent last Friday and Saturday wasting away my lungs and liver again. Sleeping at 6am in the morning for two nights consectively really isn’t alot of fun when you’re aging. Oh yar, and we celebrated JL’s birthday on Saturday night too!

Birthdays are evil business. On almost everyone’s birthday, I’ve seen them plied with so much alcohol…(think martell/ chivas/ beer/ mixed/ submarines etc) that they’ve to be carried home most of the time. Seems it’s almost like a tradition.

I just realised that alot of my friends’ birthdays occur during February and March and this, most certainly, spells trouble for my wallet. But then again, these are really special occasions that come around the corner once a year.

Besides work and play, I’ve been rather caught up in buying furniture for my bedroom as well. I was rather excited about it initally, but the excitement gradually wore off with my pre-occupation with my work. I suppose I’ll have to find it real sooon again…so that I can get myself to pack the room and welcome my new furniture which will be delivered this coming Saturday!

With so much on my mind, I guess I must make some notes and to-do lists to remind myself of what I’ve intended to do.

Blog to-dos:

1. Review film on The Protege (as a reminder on the show - to myself)
2. Introduce pictures/ visuals on the blog?
3. Resolutions for 2007

Note to self: Must remember to do…

Christmas Surprise #1

i don’t know what to say.

today, a courier man came to my office, bearing a parcel with my name on it.

after i signed for the package, i examined the parcel…scrutinising, in particular, the sender’s name.

the name wasn’t familiar…

i opened the parcel cautiously… and to my surprise, it was a novel and a perfume. clipped on the front cover of the novel was a scribbled note.

as i read the note, it suddenly dawned on me who the sender was.

i have gotten to know him in february this year, through a friend. shortly after the initial meeting, we’ve only met up for one more time.

and if i didn’t recall wrongly, i did not give him my business card…which does not explain how he got my office address.

how?

and most importantly,

why?

i must say i’m a little shocked.

work stress work stress work stress work stress

arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. It has been a awful week at work for the past 3 days. everything that can went wrong, went wrong.

and i’m losing sleep at night. for some reason, i can’t seem to sleep peacefully. i’ll toss and turn, take a long time to fall asleep and wake up for no apparent reason in the middle of the night.

god, help me!