1) Tell us about the first time you met and your first impression of him/her:
I first heard about her rather than meeting her. It was Teddy who used Shell Communicator to message us to say there are two new testers talking to Jenny. It was then I took a glance and saw this lanky girl with long hair nodding her head furiously and agreeing ‘Okay, okay’ to whatever it is that Jenny and Ervan was telling the both of them.

Still vivid in my mind was the first few occurrences where she stood really close to me, one where the whole SSW team is in the lift and another time at Shell House canteen where we were queuing at the cashier. At both moments, I felt the urge to need to know this sweet aura emanating girl.

The first time I talked to her was when Teddy asked me to help to organise moving one of the computers to another cubicle which was originally located at Vimala’s cubicle. I went over to her place to see the computer and cracked a little joke about the network cable being stolen and she laughed. That made me smile instead.

She then took the opportunity to ask me regarding changing Mercury Quality Center defects status, to which I told her to check with Jaja who should be more familiar with the testing processes. I then heard her speaking in Cantonese, to my surprise, and found the accent so cute.

2) What’s a weird habit or quirk that s/he has?:
When she sneezes, she makes a follow up sound effect of ‘ahh-choo-ee-excuse-me-oo-ee-oo’.
She needs to sleep with her baby pillow at home, or with her own pillow case, with the lights on and music playing.

She always scratches the right side of her nose when sleeping.

Her feet never fail to not shake when she has fallen asleep. That has been the most obvious sign for me to know she’s asleep soundly, so I can stop my patting, brushing or humming.

She’s always feeling cold after waking up from slumber.

3) What makes him/her happy?:
Cheese cake, all sorts of cakes, crabs, chicken wings, steam fish, coke, tea, frappucino, scoring some awesome buys during shopping, receiving presents, festive seasons, colourful lights, europe, sushi tei, soup restaurant, being hugged, being massaged.

4) What makes him/her sad?:
She’s usually quite a cheerful person. Emo movies and separation makes her sad.

5) What makes him/her angry?:
Stupid and inefficient people. Women gossips. Office politics. When I disappoint her.

6) What excites him/her?
A holiday to somewhere she’s never been. Shoes.

7) Tell us something funny about him/her
She has a habit to give cutesy names to some of her more often used objects. Ms Pinky, Ms Fatty, Fishy Fish, Dermy, to name a few.

8) What’s she like at home?
She’s often dressed in a T-Shirt and a cute hot pant with her hair tied in a pony tail.

9) What’s s/he like at work/school?
She is a lot more serious than normal. She takes her job very seriously and professionally. Still she would crack some jokes and is friendly to others. She is very good at multitasking. We would be chatting or talking over Shell Communicator and at the same time, she could be finishing her work.

10) Describe his/her room:
Many hints of pinkish hue. Average size. Her old wardrobe is definitely insufficient to store her clothes. She has a big Hello Kitty cushion and a longish doggy pillow to share her bed with. She has a ambient bedside lamp that emanates a diffuse yellow glow rather than the glaring bright fluorescent light one would normally see. Despite the many bags, belts and clothes; it’s generally quite neat and well organised.

11) What’s her best friend like?
She has 3 sisters - Chocolate Jessica Teo Yen Qi, Shirley, Audrey Chong - Bao Bao. In order of closeness, it would probably be Shirley, followed by Bao Bao and then Yen Qi. The 3 sisters speak with a typical Singaporean slang in their Mandarin. Yen Qi makes lame jokes while Shirley seems to make sarcastic jokes. They communicate with each other quite frequently and even during work hours. They would help each other by sharing shopping cards, help to check prices, and borrow but never returning DVDs. She’s got another close friend in her beloved Malaysian ex-housemate - Karen. Karen also serves as Susan, her secretary that takes care of her mails and bills.

12) Do you know who s/he hates the most?:
I doubt she really hates anyone with a passion.

13) Have you met her exes?
Nope. Only saw in photos.

14) Does his/her parents like you?
Never had that many chance to meet her mom. But I think her mom is okay with me after seeing me despite saying to her daughter not to believe a Malaysian.

15) What’s the first thing s/he would do or say if s/he fell down and scraped their knee:
“Fuck” then whimper needing people to sayang her.

16) What would s/he do in an emergency situation with other people involved?:
She would start to think of who to call to get more help.

17) Which shop would s/he spend the most time at in a shopping mall?:
Longest I’ve been with her was in ESPIRIT

18) What would s/he have for a typical breakfast?:
During work days, if she’s late, she would skip breakfast. Otherwise, she would go for a tuna wrap if available. She likes the Pratha at Shell House. On weekends, she prefers self made ham&cheese sandwich. She also likes Loh Mee with only Fatty Nyuk Nyuk in Singapore.

19) Where would s/he want to go for dinner?:
Japanese food especially when she has no appetite. Otherwise she needs rice rather than noodles.

20) What kind of movie would s/he choose at the cinema?
She likes romantic comedies and comedies in general. She also fancies vampires and werewolfs. She fancies movies and cartoons from Disney. Other movies with intriguing effects or story lines also excites her. But she will avoid movies with extreme violence and of the superhero kind.

21) Describe her taste in music?
Dance music and trance. Generally she’s not very artist based as long as the music is catchy. She also likes Chinese music especially Jay Chou and Ah Mei and Vicky Zhao and also a few female Chinese singers whom I have no idea what their name is.

22) If s/he wasnt going out with you, who would s/he be going out with?:
Her sisters, Karen, or her bros.

23) What item in his/her wardrobe would you like to burn:
Tough question as I don’t seem to find any annoying and quirky item that she owns in her wardrobe yet. She has good taste in choosing clothes that suits herself. Probably will try to encourage her to go sexier and sweeter (in more dresses rather than in jeans).

24) What is s/he good at?:
Board games. Puzzle games. Multi-tasking. Socialing. Planning all activities ahead in daily details which can be so advance into the following two weeks while I generally take a day as it comes. Swimming. She claims to be good in cooking.

25) What is s/he horrible at?:
Handling work stress even after work. Short term memory loss. She can lose herself into forgetting what she’s going to say or do especially when she’s interrupted.

26) What’s something about him/her that is annoying/infuriating?:
At times she has a goldfish memory and it’s saddening when she forgets about the sweet things you’ve done for her. When she is in the mood to be naughty, she'll annoy me until she perceives she has reached my limit. Never allowing me to sleep when it’s obvious that I’m feeling sleepier than her.

27) What’s something that you two fundamentally disagree
Our taste in food are localised therefore she thinks food taste better in Singapore whilst I prefer Malaysia’s.

28) What’s something that you two agree whole-heartedly on?
It is safer, more stressful and public transportation is great in Singapore. That we’re in this relationship for the long haul and we will make it work.

29) Is s/he possessive?:
Yes. Cannot let another woman touch her dear dear not even by accident.

30) Why would s/he succeed in life?
The things she wants, she gets, one way or another. She is clever, she enchants people with her charm and charisma and puts up a likeable personality. She’s a determined individual.

31) What is the coolest gift that she has ever given you?
Her love, devotion and care.

32) What is s/he obsessed with?:
Cheese cakes. Pink. Hello Kitty.

33) What does s/he avoid at all costs?:
The Sun as it gives her freckles

34) What does s/he spend the most money on?
Right now it would be her car installments. Aside from that she splurges most money on fashion items and holidays (though she is calculative and she will plan and budget not to spend a lot on holidays).

35) Describe his/her typical sunday:
Wake up in the afternoon. Generally Sunday is a rest day. If possible no activities will be planned on a Sunday.

36) Why would s/he be dangerous?:
When she’s angry, hell hath no fury like a women scorned.

37) Tell us about a time she looked absolutely gorgeous
Don’t think a time will make it. I’ll list at least 3. When she’s dressed to see Disney on Ice in the greyish and slightly lacy espirit top. When she arrived at KLIA in a grey singlet top. When she’s dressed in a white spaghetti top with a skirt.

38) What’s something about him/her that would surprise all of his/her friends?:
She plays pool professionally well.

39) What do you love most about him/her?:
How she cares about me, her affections and our chemistry.

40) The biggest lesson you have learnt from loving your soulmate.
We both agreed that we both fell in love super fast almost instantaneously. She made me realized that when you are with someone you love, your life just feels complete. She also taught me how to love whole heartedly and accept human’s flaws with love.

No doubt, the financial crisis that has dawned upon us has been amazingly and shockingly fast. At times, it feels as though there is not enough time to register the reflexes that should be appropriate in such conditions. Needless to say, I've not made any changes to my portfolio and was caught out in this sudden plunge. The situation is increasingly worse and no one knows for sure when the tide will turn and a genuine bottom be found. I did a health check to gather the numbers and below is the current result:-

Net yield since I'd stepped foot into equities almost 3 years ago: -11.43%

Current yield of my portfolio: -24.54%

My current portfolio tells me I have lost a Tag Heuer Grand Carrera 17RS and abit more. :(

I was miffed about the workshop that I usually go to, trying to up sell me with those exorbitant carbon removing liquid. Just provide the services that I as a customer demand. Mechanics motivated by sales commissions is rather weird. It doesn't then seem to have any other difference as opposed to you going into a butcher to get slayed.

On a separate note, I went to a packed bank today to withdraw some moolah from my FDs since my bank account ran out of them. Long story short, I'm just moving some money around for optimum state so as not to be charged of bank interest that much. We should be careful of these legal loansharks. Later on while doing some bookkeeping, I'd found out surprisingly that I'm very close to surpassing the half a million mark in assets. Seems like a major milestone. Now the question is, what is my leverage? That I think is the question which matters more.

Condition
The past 2 and a half months have not been great. The persistent and stubborn inflammation of the skin has returned yet again. I have seen 4 doctors to date. And the amount spent for medical expenses has breached RM500. The third doctor that I went to see is a dermatologist specialist and had diagnosed my condition as pityriasis rosea and had prescribed me with an ointment and probiotics. I was also given a jab and miraculously the condition was almost gone by the next 2-3 days. However, it seem to came back with a vengeance and grew more and in more chronic state. I then decided to see Dr. Mak, who took a quick look and in less than 30 seconds had prescribed ketaconazole, cetrizine hydrachloride and econazole cream; and sent me off the room. He didn't mention what it was and from my research based on the prescription, it could be tinea versicolor or some fungi related infection in the bloodstream. Today is the second day and I have so far see rather positive results. Hope this will finally clear up as I have been very frustrated over this.

Investment
At the current situation, needless to say, my investment porfolio isn't looking great. Couldn't be categorised as abysmal but suffice to say, a -9.41% yield is paltry at best.

To make matters worse, the next progress payment for my apartment shall be disbursed soon. That shall entail more funds to be channeled into the loan account to offset as much of interest charged as possible. If we are not confident of winning 6.85% in investments, we might as well dump the fund there to reduce the amount of principal which is to be charged at -6.85%. Simple arithmetics.

Work
Managed to take 4 days of replacement leaves and went for a short trip to Singapore. Did a lot of walking, as expected, but this time I guess the crux of the trip had opened up my perspective of the lifestyle there and necessary adjustments for working there. I think now, I will only move if the money is right.

With the departure of two team leads, I have suddenly promoted to a higher position, at least on the responsibilities and workload without the pay increment and position change. It has been tough working long hours and trying to solve problems to which I've not had experience on before. Fortunately we have managed to pull through most of it and have gained a lot more understanding and knowledge as a result. To take something out of this, I guess this will clearly mark me as one of the candidates for a promotion in the next upcoming round. Let's be patient and sit out this till March 09 and see what happens.

Misc
Today I have bought my first pillow. It's a dunlopillo and had cost me RM 150. Just a pillow for goodness sake!

Some interesting figures:-

38,000 Malaysians have an annual income of more than RM 250,000 ( 0.3% of workforce )
120,000 Malaysians have an annual income of more than RM 150,000 ( 1% of workforce)
7 million Malaysians have a monthly income of RM 3,000 to RM 5,000. (58.3% of workforce)

Yet, why there are only 1.14 million tax payers?

The following chart shows the Monthly Income per household as of 1Q 2008. Isn't it sad to see most Malaysians are actually living close to poverty. As for my family, we are in the top 5% category fortunately. But not so fortunate, in terms of how easily we are in that bracket simply because of the sad state of the overall income of Malaysians.

Apparently, for 1Q 2008, there are only 1.14 million tax payers. In other words, only 1.14 million individuals who has a monthly income of more than RM2500. That is only 10.8% of the total workforce which pays taxes. Isn't that baffling or what?

What this has proven, is clearly that our economy has not been able to move up the value chain and has still remain largely on the manufacturing side. Failure to raise and develop better human capital is one of reason why. Brain drain is also seriously affecting the economy. Wages are extremely low and can't keep up even with neighbouring countries. How are we supposed to attract and retain our own knowledge workers? This becomes a self excaberating situation where the economy does not move up the value chain due to lack of human capital, and our top knowledge workers cannot work in the country because of lack of jobs.

Zeti's report on CPI inflation at 3.81% are bollocks. First of all, you have a direct 40% hike on petrol and 60% on diesel. The food prices in hawkers and food court nearby the area where I work at has gone up by 12% to 16%. In July, we will see 20% increase in electricity charges. Credit card companies will impose interest charges on future purchases should you not clear your outstanding balances every month. How many people on the street can't do that? Apparently the figure is 1.8 million. That is nearly one fifth of our working population. We see news about price increases everyday in newspaper. Tiles, steel, stationeries, rice, pork, and many more to make the list. And another startling news which is if poverty level is at RM 1500 and in my opinion this is a fair figure, it affects a quarter of the households. In most corporations, the annual increments is less than 10%. Which means, wage earners are getting poorer by the day.

I've noticed a drastic drop in the traffic on the road. I myself think twice now whenever the need to travel occurs, especially for leisure purposes. Silly trips like going to Klang just for seafood dinner is automatically crossed out.

The stock market is in shambles. I have, currently on paper loss close to RM 8000. FD rates at 3+% eventhough losing out hugely due to inflation looks so much better now. An impending BLR hike will surely accelerate this doldrum. This is the new reality. Stagflation is here to stay.

The rising cost of living is certainly beyond worry. A fellow colleague of mine commented over lunch today, that his fixed expenses takes up 70% of his take home pay. That got me startled and prompted me to do a fast calculation of my own. In order to appear healthier than what my finance is supposed to be, I have put in only the minimal amount of what must be spent in each category of expenses every month. To my dismay, it also clock in a 70% rate. The consolation to that is, I can see a 30% buffer or savings every month. Do note that I have entered only the minimal amount for each expense category. I then wondered what might probably happen in year 2010. My house installments will start to kick in, in another 1.5 years. That's not too far away. By then, the ratio has gone up to 95%.

As prudent as I could have been, I am left with only 5% savings. If I had to struggle in such a condition even without the full cascading effects kick in, i.e, the rise in food prices, building materials, financial cost (hope not!!), utilities, car maintenance, etc, one can't imagine how someone with lower income than myself could pull through. I now still have a six figure liability to my name. More probable than not, I have to let go of my condominium unit in the near future. The problem is can I find a buyer?