The Start of Something New

Salam and hi again. It has indeed been a while and there are lots to recollect.

The Flight Back Home
Thai Airways completely rocks! Well...except for the fact that due to 10kg of excess baggage I had to pay 300 Euros!! That's RM1500, and worse the Thai Airways office at the Moscow airport didn't accept AMEX credit card! It was just plain lucky that I have almost that same amount of cash stored in my bank account, and so I paid the price ( I should have sent some of them via cargo had I known that excesses would be this expensive. Freaking cut throat.) Anyway I was at least way luckier than Ahmad who had a much bigger problem than me - won't be telling all about it here because it isn't my story to tell.

The flight home was a pretty smooth-sail journey, if I counted out the Russian Johnny Bravo who was sitting two seats from me. He didn't cause any problem actually, but he and his friends kept gathering together at the aisle and drank together, every now and then exclaiming Cheers!! until they were all red in the face. They must be pretty excited to be on a holiday I guess - those bunch were heading to Thailand. Lots of Russians are choosing Thailand as their holiday destination as of late, must be because of something between the two which I'm not quite sure what, but I know there's a rapport there between those two lands.

Usually, I'd spend the whole flight journey by sleeping all the way home, but Thai Airways had loads of good movies in store for its patrons so I wásn't gonna miss them. I think I've watched 5 movies straight without sleeping - I didn't sleep the night before, and I only had dozed off for a few minutes at the airport, so the whole journey again I was not sleeping. By the time I was done with the movies the plane was about to land on Bangkok where we had about a couple of hours transit before boarding the flight to Malaysia.

For the past two years or so, I was the one who came back to Malaysia earlier than my family so it was usually me who was there at the airport waiting for their arrival. Hence I was glad that this time around, they would be the one who would be welcoming me! And whats more, it was also the day of my dad's 46th birthday so I'd say the trip was perfectly timed. As I pushed the trolley of bags out of the arrival exit, I saw the welcoming commitee consisting of my family and extended relatives there, waiting and cheering. However, before I could get to them a stranger came by and he was the one who shook my hand, pulled me into a hug and took a picture with me. It would be way too freaky if this stranger didn't seem friendly with my family. I had no idea who he was, and he turned out to be just a passerby who had decided to 'join the festive', I'd say. Haha. Then it was the reunion with my family and we all went to my aunt's place at Sepang for lunch and tea before heading to Shah Alam where I was currently staying.

For the past few years ever since my family had shifted to Saudi Arabia, in Malaysia we'd stay in hotels and apartment suites somewhere in the middle of the city so that it would be easier for us to go around the city to get things done. Our previous house at Shah Alam was already empty and the house where my folks had bought wasn't quite ready yet so we had to stay in hotels. But enough about that for now - right now I am enjoying my holidays.

Graduation Gifts
Got a few, syukur alhamdulillah, but one of these is what I have not expected at all. Not gonna blog about them for now because I'm still am trying to let them sink in my head first. They're great gifts (thanks pa & ma) and....I'm still surveying. And shopping. Not eating, or at least not quite yet. I'm not just gonna regain the 8kgs I have lost for the past one year in just a few days - my friends back in Kursk kept saying that it seemed to them that I needed to be more careful because I wouldn't be coming back to Kursk. Because, usually during the summer holidays I'd pile up about 7--8kgs of weight due to the foods I ate, simply because I was confident that living in Kursk would enable me to shave those extra weights without much effort. And usually, it was a success. After summer holiday I'd be around 74kgs, when it was time to go back home 10 months later I'd be around 66kgs. Both are still ideal weights to my BMI, by the way, though one is close to the fat scale while the other is near the thin scale. But now I'd be staying in Malaysia for good, so.....

That's it. No more dinners for me.

....fat chance. ~sigh~

Registration (SPA, Malaysian Medical Council, Ministry of Health)
Last Tuesday Pipi and I went to Putrajaya to register ourselves to Suruhanjaya Perkhidmatan Awam as well as putting in the hospitals of our choice to go to work at soon. We began at around 10AM and finished everything at 5.30PM! We didn't really know what to bring with us then except for the ones stated in our provisional work offer letter we'd gotten after the interview last April. It was hard to really explain everything here, plus I didn't get the chance to use the internet too often so I'd just say that to those who are reading this, make sure you had with you at least 4 copies of your SPM, Birth Certs, ICs and your Diplomas and their transcripts ready with you, as well as a 'Wang Pos' valued RM20 (don't put the receiver's name just yet because you'll know once you're there, I can't recall what I had to put now), and 4 passport photos. Pipi and I didn't have photos and the wang pos so we had to go to Alamanda Putrajaya to get those and those took about three hours plus lunch - you could probably shave off three hours if you already have those stuffs I have mentioned with you before going there in the first place. Of course, bring also the original documents. For certification purposes, you can do it there: wouldn't recomment getting the copies certified earlier because one of the forms we'd gotten required us to get a witness to fill in a form and the witness must be the same government officer who had certified your documents. So just get everything done in Putrajaya, at the Kementerian Kesihatan building - ask at the information counter and you'll get the details. Good luck! Thanks to Pipi for the company and to Dito for showing up later in the afternoon to play chaffeur to us. Heh.

Business Cards
A friendly guy sharing a cab with me the previous day, upon learning that I'm a fresh graduate out of university, told me over and over that the pressures of a student's life can never compare with the pressures of a working life. And he reminded me of a few occasions which I have seen quite a few times as of late - when he asked about me I told him briefly of who I am, but when I asked him back all he did was to open his briefcase, took out a small casing and pluck out one of his business cards before handing it out to me. Sure, I could read the details printed on the nicely-designed card, but a verbal explanation would be nicer. In my mind, I was like 'huh? I didn't even ask for a business card' but I took it anyway. Last year when I was out with a few of my friends from matriculation, one of them met a few of his friends there at the same place, and this smug-looking lady friend of his, without any introduction or anything, just handed me her business card without anything else said thereafter. Poyo. Took it, and threw it into the nearby trashcan thereafter. Poor lady, one business card wasted, bwahaha. And the card did have that fresh look on it so I was rather sorry when I threw it inside the trashcan....

...oh who am I kidding? I did it without giving any thought of it thereafter.

However the guy I met in the taxi was actually quite nice and had struck a conversation with me throughout the long cab journey, though he was somehow a bit privy of his age for some reason (looked young but kept saying that he was old. Whatever.) And he was also generous with some advices of working lives and all, so the nice factor made me keep the card longer despite my initial misgivings. Haha.

I've seen people handing out business cards loads of times but I think the proper way of giving a card is when the other party requested for it, or at least after a conversation to get acquainted with one another. I don't know for sure, but from what I've observed from my dad and his friends as well as in TVs or so, that seems to be the way to do it. Hmmmmm........

Sure hope I don't do the same thing when I have my own business cards. I know it's useful to keep these cards but does the handing of the card needed to be done wordlessly? At least offer some verbal details to go with the card, it shows that you do care for the other person to take some time to look at it and read it, and probably keep it for future use. The lady I mentioned - she was handing out her business cards like vote-collectors handing out gifts to potential voters. It was like, "Hey peeps I got myself some new business cards so come on, take it, take it, TAKE IT!!".

Living Arrangements
I'll be hotel-hopping until my family's gone back to Saudi, and then I'll be staying with my bachelor uncle at his condominium until I get my posting. Won't be stating where exactly I am staying to avoid stalkers. Yeah, a stranger actually asked me via SMS which hotel I was staying at a couple of years ago because I stupidly had announced my cellphone number in Friendster and I have also added strangers there. Friends, I still have my old 019 number so call/SMS me! Looking forward to meet up, gathering, reunion etc etc.

See ya again next time! Bye!