Hectic week

I was very busy last week. There were 2 assignments due on the same day. I had started doing the assignments few weeks before, try to avoid last-minute work, still unable to finish it earlier. It's an assignment in the form of term paper, plus, I'm now a PhD student. Thus, I required myself to at least do something up to standard. But, it's not easy to write a good term paper, especially when I do not have such experience. So, in the end, I only manage to do an average work and submit it just-in-time. Really just-in-time, because I printed it out and submit directly, you can still feel the heat of the paper. Some more, I honestly told my lecturer about this. Haha...

I thought I can relax myself for few days. Too early to be happy, just a day before I submit the assignments, my supervisor  gave me a 'mission impossible'. She asked me to prepare a proposal and apply for the research university grant scheme. She told me this on Tuesday, and the application due date is next Monday; means I only have 4-5 days to prepare it. What can I do? Anyhow also have to come out with something. I simply think of an idea, furnished with some facts, then passed to her. I guessed, she must be thinking that "gosh, what is this rubbish?" Finally, she told me what topic we're going to do, ask me to refer and follow previous studies and prepare the proposal. Haha... this is easier; copy, edit and paste is my strength.

Finally, submit the application form and documents required on time. Phew! That night, I finally can sleep well and have a good dream! Actually, I also don't know whether I have a good dream or not, because, I'm fainted! 

安身之“位”

本来，我们这班研究生像一群无家可归的可怜人，只能委身于电脑室里，完全没有属于自己的位子，也没有一丁点的隐私可言。还被其他学生以匿名信投诉我们在里面高谈阔论，吃喝玩乐！我想投诉人恰好看到我们谈天的时候，却没看到大部分时间我们都是默默的埋头苦干（读），就武断的认为那就是我们每时每刻都在做的事情！真是。。。无言。。。唉

基于这个投诉，加上管理层觉得有必要监督我们这班领大学研究生助学金的工作及出席率（盖因常没看到我们，哈哈！），终于，在一个丢空的办公室里，让我们每人拥有一个属于自己的工作空间。美中不足的是，并没有提供每人一架电脑，只好，每天携带自己的笔记型电脑去。

由于那个办公室丢空了好一阵子，设备不怎好，冷气年久失修，吹出的是热风，窗帘也缺了一大片，下午西晒，相当闷热。结果，我们一开始并不喜欢这个办公室，没人进去利用办公。后来，由于越来越多外国学生进去电脑室，我觉得不怎么舒服。既然已经拥有个人工作空间，为何不好好利用呢？于是，我就开始出现在新办公室里，其他人看到了，陆陆续续地也跟着去了。

如今，冷气维修了，我们也习惯了新的空间，大家每天都自动报到！所以说，如果想要员工尽心尽力地工作，那就一定要制造一个舒服的工作环境，一个可以给员工归宿感的空间，自然而然，不须威逼利诱，员工都会自动自发了。

HOSPIS Treasure Hunt 2012

I had told him for N times that I wish I could have chance to participate in motorcar treasure hunt. But we always missed it. Finally, I got this chance. We used to make donation to HOSPIS on regular basis, but not on fixed schedule. Thus, we missed its annual treasure hunt activity last year. Luckily, this year, we saw the event promotion when we made our donation in last month. Without hesitation, filled up the form, made the payment and wait for the event date with excitement.

As the event date is around the corner, we then realized that the treasure hunt date is fall on 28th April 2012.  Well, I guess you guys know what's going on in the city on this day. Oh No! I don't want to be stuck in the jam or in the crowds, or even been caught while finding my way to search for the answers! We felt kind of relief when we knew that we're going to flag off latest 7:30am, and heading to the south as finish point would be Equatorial Hotel, Malacca. BUT, it is still a bit too early to say we're out of the jam. Why? Because there will be yellow crowd 'welcoming' us at Dataran Pahlawan (next to Equatorial Hotel). Haiz... What we can do? Just be cool and stay focus in the game + PRAY HARD...

 Get ready with the team number sticker put on both side of the car. To our surprise, we're no. 7 in the queue to flag off. 

 Flag off point: Tesco Extra Cheras.

FOC breakfast and coffee to ensure we've energy to enjoy the game. Haha... Final briefing before departure. 'People mountain people sea' huh? There're 61 teams took part in this hunt.

A pit stop at the gold sponsor premise. See the board in front? We totally forget that we did took this photo and this cost us 10 marks as we missed the word challenge finding the hidden word in a crossword puzzle.       

We decided to go straight to finish point earlier after gone through the complete route of the hunt, and gave up continue to crack our head thinking for the answers. Reason 1: there is penalty for late check in. Since we only able to answer a few questions, we don't to waste more points. Reason 2: we're only 2 in a team, we're quite exhausted, both physically and mentally after hunting non-stop on the road for 200++km in 7 hours. Reason 3: we're inexperienced in the hunt, really don't know how to crack the clues. So, we submitted our answers once the counter is opened, and take our time sit comfortably at lobby and see those hunters rushed back to hand-in theirs treasures and answers.

We had a dinner + prize awarding ceremony that night in the hotel ballroom. 

We bought 5 lucky draw tickets, hoping that we can win a coffee maker. We're not greedy, we only want the coffee maker, and not the 2x4D3N Star Cruise trip. So, please make our dream come true! Well, at last, we're too generous to donate that RM50 and not ask for return.

Prizes for lucky draws and treasure hunt winners. Those on the floor, are consolation prizes for 23rd and so on. We're considered not too bad, ranked 50th as 1st time hunter. A very good and memorable experience!