New Year Resolution

This year I'll make a very simple new year resolution as well...

1. Earn more money

I've created my own finance tracking spreadsheet in September or October. Through it I realised something. Should an employee wants to improve his/her finance status, the 'extra income' on top of the salary plays a very important part. As salary is fixed every month, the extra income portion actually determines the status of wealth of us.

also, as inflation rate is always higher than interest rates and our merit increment, that means if we only depends on the fixed salary we earn, we will become poorer every year. Actually this is an understatement... basically everybody know about this fact... the question is whether we're doing something about it?

For me, i'm thinking about it a lot... not that i'm greedy about money, it's just that there are so many wonderful things I want to make it happen while I'm alive... money is not everything, but without money, the limit of things we can do is just too low... I still keep all my dreams and I want to make them come true, one by one...

and I'm really enjoying the life journey that i'm taking right now at this moment...

Old is Gone, New is here

well well well, it's been another year gone by... 2009 has been a good year... lots of happening... learned lots of new things... experienced things that have never experienced before... and i'm growing as a person, at least in my knowledge...

remembered that last year this time, i went to Genting to welcome year 2009 with colleague and his brother... i made a new year resolution there at the staircase (or steps rather) at the front entrance of First World Hotel... we were waiting for the traffic to clear then... and the resolution i made was the simplest of all time which is to make more money... all previous years I had many resolutions, i would write them on a paper, but normally that particular paper would disappear only maybe few days after new year... and I would forget all the resolutions i've written down... 2009 i thought I keep it simple, just make more money... haha...

and you know what? keep it simple is so powerful... I have a single target, i was focus on the target... so when the opportunity came along, i changed my job to earn more money... and the rest of things in my life sort of fall into places naturally... I had only one resolutions, but I've accomplished many things this year... for example, i wrote more blogs than last year simply because of the new job nature and I have more time for myself, my life, friends and most importantly, my family...

if anyone would ask me if i wanted to change anything, i would say, nope... i'm happy with the way it is, and i'm happy at where i'm in the stage of my life now...

i'm in Labuan now... it's quite happening... thought of going for massage as the nagging neck pain is coming back, but not today... i need to rush back to write something here, just before the clock ticks to 12:00am 01 Jan 2010...

and Big Sis, get well soonest... I know you can... we're going to Hanoi, Vietnam in March ohhhh...

On the Move

Been travelling a lot lately. Returned to KL from offshore, rested for one day, the following day when to KSB for 2 days, came to Labuan the very next day. Didn't really have any rest. Good thing was that managed to catch up with KL old friends in badminton session before coming to Labuan. Also travelled in business class from KL to Labuan, which I only knew when I checked in. I thought to myself, my goodness, luckily I chose to wear jeans instead of the normal short I always wear that day. Haha. Had good rest with good seat and the stewardess gave good service.

Came to Labuan to stand in for the warehouse supervisor here. He'll be going off to year end holiday till next year. Handover was only for few hours, I hope I captured everything that I needed to do during my stay here.

Work has been interesting. Knowing that I'm improving bit by bit everyday is satisfying. Hope will be given my lead assignment soon. If things go as per plan, I hope to be working out of Malaysia soon. If possible I would hope to land a new benefits to be based out of Malaysia, I have no intention at all to pay income tax anymore. It's just a waste of my money to pay income tax to this rotten and selfish government.

Finally I have the chance to stay in Hotel Pulau Labuan 2. Have been hearing about it for so many years. This is 'THE' hotel for BJ Services. Now I know what it is like. Haha. I stay in Deluxe VIP room, which costs RM138 per night, still much cheaper than Hotel Tiara Labuan Apartment which we normally stay that costs RM270 per night. Seems like the hotel business picks up during the end of the year. Many hotels are fully booked till end of the year. Luckily Deluxe VIP room is available for at least one whole week i.e. I don't need to move around like a normad.

There are few things that Pulau Labuan 2 could do better.

1. build a lift.

2. use different detergent, the entire hotel has a cheap detergent smell (maybe it's just me only).

3. housekeeping should collect laundry from room (now guests have to take own laundry down to reception at lobby - walk, no lift).

4. improve the wi-fi service. It's accessible at lobby and maybe first floor. I'm staying at second floor, so no wi-fi loh.

This is good for me, as I'm gaining knowledge in hotel business. I still hope one day my dream of owning a hotel will come true ;-)

Another good things about this job is that I could rent car on company expense. So far I've driven Nissan X-Trail, Nissan Sentral, Toyota Vios, Honda City and Daewoo. Tomorrow car rental guy will deliver a new Honday Civic to replace the Honda City that I'm driving. Hahaha.

Life has been intriguing and inspiring. No more routine. Now always expect the unexpected. Nothing is permanent.

Offshore Holiday

December... Many people are already on the year end holiday, vacation or planning for one soon. Year end school holiday and Christmas fall on this month. Generally people would take time off to enjoy the family time and go away to relax to wind down on a hectic year.

As I'm writing this article I'm actually in the middle of the ocean, erm, South China Sea. I'm on Tioman T-9 rig, and it's at EPMI's Guntong D platform for my work. Sometimes sleep at night, work in the day time, sometimes it's the other way round. There is no normal life out here.

However, I'm quite enjoying this job and life. It's exciting and not common. Has anyone not working offshore had the chance to job on the helideck in the middle of ocean before? looking at the sunset / sunrise so near to you? seeing the half moon hanging in the middle of the night in a distance I feel like I could touch it? eat hagen daz ice cream for free? experience the wind speed of up to 70 knots? work in the condition where wind speed is 50 knots? catering crew to take care of your life 24 hours a day, 7 days a week? BBQ during weekend above the sea? realised that some seawater fish actually eat bones? watch dolphines 'dance' around in this wide open sea (not sea park)? Telephone, Astro and internet are available, hard to imagine, right?

Well, of course I wish for a proper holiday for December, but at the moment, rig is experiencing some problem which delays everything right now. Only God knows when we'll resume the work. But at the moment, I'll just relax and chill out here, enjoy the nature, take time to catch up with things in life, catch up with friends online... Hell, this feels like a holiday as well, and it's December... hahaha...

Date: 09 Dec 09

Hotel: Rig Tioman T-9

Room No.: 12

Location: Guntong D (One hour chopper ride from Kerteh Airport)

Holiday period: 16 hours (too short but better than nothing)

Total Expenditure: FOC (:-P)

Chilling Out

Wake up naturally, don't even need to worry about going to office or what to do today, online surfing internet, chat with friends, eat some junk food, nap, watch some movies, cartoons, do some house work, write some articles, no worries about what's gonna happen tomorrow... haha, sounds like an ideal chill out day...

And yup, that's my day today... 01 Dec 09... One fine day it turned out to be... Feel like a recharged battery, full of energy right now...

Once in a while we really need to recharge our battery... Hmmm, guess it would be different for a married person... I'll worry about it later, but right now at this moment, I'm glad to have this quiet time and my own space... Nobody disturbs me, and I'm glad I didn't receive call from office for any assignment... hahaha...

Well, the only disturbance I had today was when the old customers called to ask something. They were with my ex-colleague. I couldn't really remember what happened then, it was quite long time ago... Just funny why they would call me... In my opinion, they should call the District Manager to find out more details... anyway, I'm glad I was able to help out a little bit... hahaha...

This morning also managed to catch up with a long lost friend. We last met in April 2001 if I got the date right... She's been lost in the air for such a long time... Through Facebook we managed to find each other again. Owe a big one to Facebook, really... She's now happily married with 2 really cute daughters... Next year when she moves back to BKK maybe able to meet up with her and her family...

Also a friend told me that she received good news about the business she's doing right now... she's been a bit down lately because of this... everything turned out to be just fine... happy to hear...

Afternoon rented a cartoon DVD, Japanese series, Bow Wow. It's about a very naughty and funny dog... good cartoon, i like it very much since the first time I read its comic way back in Leicester Library in London like 10 years ago...

Oh well, it's a good day today... tomorrow will be another day we live for... things will turn out just fine as long as we always still alive with hopes... **** Something just came into my mind right now... it's good to be alive, and please, take a moment, feel our breath... it's beautiful, isn't it? This is what keeps us alive... Stay alive is the most important thing in the world... Without live, without you...

Stay alive, hmmm, I guess I have some inspiration on my next topic right now... hahaha...

华文版

好久都没有些华文了， 感觉真的好陌生。 今天选择写一写只是想看看到底自己的华文还剩下多少， 哈哈！！！
时间过得真快， 每天都告诉自己， 要早睡早起， 身体才会健康。 可是不到一点凌晨都不甘心睡觉， 要多点的纪律。
好吧 ! 今天就到此为止， 下次再接再厉。 今天算是做了个突破。 哈哈 ！！！