Time To Go

3-weeks ago, after 3-years -- well close to 3 anyway -- of unrelenting work, the highs and lows, the agony, the joy, the oohs and the aahs, I finally resigned my post as a Jr. Art Director from Megan Ads Advertising. The company I've been working with since my graduation. It wasn't easy typing my resignation, handing it to my boss, the idea of leaving an agency I've been with for so long. But time isn't on my side and I ain't getting any younger.

3-years ago, on my first day when my boss when telling me about his so-called brach in KL, I bluntly said to him, "So, Kee, when are you gonna send me over to KL?"

Well he kinda did. A lot of times. But it isn't what I exactly wanted. We went over to KL a lot for business trips and such. What I really fancied is a permanent move. Fresh out of college and barely 6-months after my short stint with a publishing company, I really wanted to continue where I left off in KL. As I have secretly grown to hate the advertising life in Penang.

3-years later, I still find myself stuck in Penang. Despite of all that, I did enjoy my time here. However, like I said earlier, I ain't getting any younger and after my trip with my parents to KL, I met my rich uncle for breakfast in Klang, "Meng, the best way to be successful is to hop around from one employer to another," he advised, "Your pay will increase substantially if you do. Don't get me wrong, loyalty is very respected. But honestly, I think it's time you take a chance and move on." His son, my cousin did just that, and now he earns 5 times more than he did when he first started. In the space of only 3 years. He works in Singapore now. He's so rich now that he gave up the MINI Cooper they bought for him.

When a rich uncle gives you an advise. You listen. You obey.

3-months later, in December 2007, I got a call from a potential employer. He asked, "Would you be able to meet up sometime this week?" because he was in town. He's a Penangite too and also a Saint.

Excited at the prospect, and with my portfolio all ready since my attempt to go back and get a Bachelor's Degree, I replied, "Sure, sure. Of course. Is tomorrow ok with you?"

"Tomorrow it is," he replied.

That was it. I dare to say I nailed it there and then. But there was some sort of formality required and he asked if I could come down to KL and personally see the office and meet the other partner. So I went. 1 week later, they called and gave me the green light, "Meng, OK, we're gonna hire you."

Oh yeah! I am finally moving to KL!

---

You know, it's been one hell of a ride, I have to say. The best and worst of me were revealed during my 3 year tenure. The chance to get to know Elaine, meeting Kee, David, Audrey, San then Ching Yee. Debbie was also with us for a short stint. I owe it to you guys for keeping me sane all these times!

Elaine, though we were only colleagues for a few months, but it was there we had a ball and did stupid things which led to wherever we are now. Pinch!

David, he was my Art Director when I joined. And now I leave as his Art Director. Strange how things work out, huh? He is our resident pop star with weekly performances somewhere which he refuse to tell us. The guy that turns red -- and I really mean RED -- when he drinks alcohol. The guy that could drink half a mug of Graveyard and go, "Aiyah, boring lah."

Audrey, Ms. She is Everywhere I go. LOL. We were college-mates, "OMG Ian! Audrey's is in EAA also!" to becoming classmates, "OMG Ian! Now Audrey is my classmate!". You see, JM used to fancy her. But it was a long time ago. Drey, if you hadn't came over to the far end where I was seated, we would probably never be friends. It was you that made this friendship. You know its you! :) And yeah, we were in KLue together as well. Ah good times. Not to forget the "last for her first day" incident and the bloody pink cake.

Hooi San, EAA's top student of her batch. Lovely girl, one of a kind, sweet and oh-so fast when it comes to graphic design. It's a shame we never work together as much as I would want to. You so understand what I see in my head. It's so bloody easy to work with you. And though you don't drink alcohol anymore, it was fun when you did (or tried). When we went to 3 clubs with our colleagues. It was memorable.

Ching Yee, I had no bloody idea they hired her. I came in one day and tah-dah, she was seating next to me. "Ummm, who is this?" I asked. Turns out, she was one heck of a designer. All the way from The One Academy, she was Hooi San's former colleague at another agency in Penang. She is damn random, bubbly and man I love her ringtone, always make me laugh. Until this day, I have no idea what does it say. Its in Japanese.

Kee, ahh ze boss. He laughed -- and almost fall onto the ground -- when I said RM800 for my starting pay. What? I had no idea what to ask for. He paid me close to double. Then increased it further after my probation period. Subsequently, after strings of somewhat good performance and my ability to handle various kinds of work from print, to handling clients to presentations, to videoshoots and editing to basically everything else in between. He made me into a Jr AD after that. We had our good times and bad times. But hey, it's a passionate job innit? Oh, the company he helped founded has a logo that I designed. LOL. Just thought that was worth a mention.

And for those I've left out, Michelle and AJ. It's been a blast. It really has been.

Gosh, I may get crucified if I don't fix this entry later on. I will. Just that I am still in the office typing this on my last day. Damn last minute as usual.

Oh well. Time to go.

Cheerio mates. And all the best. I will miss you guys.

Most Likely To

Limpek Design Eh

Invitation cards. If you receive this. Then you know you are filthy rich. Or your dad.

Oh Here We Go, Again

The tagger refused to be mentioned. So umm, yeah. One more time, here we go... (I am in bold)

Hi, my name is: Meng

but you can call me: Ah Beng or Handsome (heh)

Never in my life have I: thought I'd be doing so many of this crap.

The one person who can drive me nuts is: Roby. When he tries really hard to be funny.

My high school is: Saints baby! What bunch of angels we are, aren't we?

When I’m nervous: I play with myself some music.

The last song I listened to was: Jack Johnson's Tomorrow Morning. Love that song. Love it!

If I were to get married right now it would be to: the chick I accidentally knocked up. Or some super rich chick. Or both. 

My hair is: still stuck in the '70s.

When I was 4: my dad threw me into a pool, "Meng, look! Water!"  -throws son-

Last Christmas: I got sloshed. Like proper. No thanks to that Tequila.

I should be: writing a long email to one of my favourite client.

When I look down I see: my crotch, heh.

The happiest recent event was: when me and mah Penang matchas went to Palette Palette and got smashed. Man, I really need to stop getting sloshed at every party.

If I were a character on ‘Friends’: I would be Joey. 'Cos he gets all the chicks.

My current complaint is: umm, funny. Can't think of one.

I have a hard time understanding: Calculus and Quantum Physics. I read a snippet online and got a headache. Maybe I should just say, "Love."

There are these girls: who I really fancy. But they may not like the idea of an orgy with just me.

If I won an award, the first person I would tell would be: Me folks and then I'll call JM and scream like a girl going, "OMG! OMG! OMG!"

I want to buy: the new Macbook Air, Man Utd's jersey complete with my own name and number, 23, in Champions' League typeface. RM380 for a jersey is just waaay too much though.

Where do you plan to visit: Koh-bloody-Samui. Come on ya'll (to those who haven't been there) where da spirit?!?!

If you spent the night at my house: I may sleep with you.

The world could do without: Bush or Backstreet Boys. 

Most recent thing I’ve bought for myself: Umm, 2 pairs of boxers. One with cartoon dinosaurs and the other with bats and balls. Hehe. 

Most recent thing someone else bought for me: was a pink T-Shirt. Thanks Porky! And a keychain of one of the Beijing mascots. I think I gave that to my sis. Long story.

In the morning I: I hit snooze 3 times before I officially rolled out of bed and slept in the kitchen.

Last night was: quite gastronomical. I had Char Koay Teow and Koay Teow Th'ng for starters followed by a Chicken Cordon Bleu for my main and pears for dessert.

There’s this guy I know who: I don't really give a shit. 

If I was an animal I’d be a: Giraffe. OK, bet you saw that coming.

A better name for me would be: TAN AH BENG. 

Tomorrow I am: gonna sleep late because its Thaipusam! Wooo!

Tonight I am: going for a company dinner at G-hotel! Never been there yet. Ya, how sad.

I fear: being chased by a wild bear in the forest with no mobile coverage and my Puma running shoes. Because with it, I could so out-run that fat-ass. While I dial 991 and wait for 30-minutes before any real help arrives.

Ze Airhead

Frankly, this morning I woke up and cried as I read the newspaper. And when I got into the office and went to their website, I think I cried somemore...

How could they?! How?! Ahhhh!!!

However, it does seems like a Airhead to me rather than Air. No CD/DVD slot, one USB port...quite the style over substance eh? But still! It's quite nifty!

I'm gonna go cry somemore now.

Made by God Himself. Thank God!

When moms tell you, "Hey wanna go grab some groceries? It'll just be a few minutes," don't ever believe them! It's a myth. A few minutes its never a few minutes. It's at least a solid 2-hours of grocery shopping and some window shopping.

Yeah, so I got tricked by my mom today when she pulled the whole, "Let's go grab some groceries -- it'll only be like 20 minutes," on me. I believed every bit of it to even leave my mobile phone behind.

"Mom are you sure? Cos I'm just gonna leave my phone behind," I told her. I have JUST plugged it in for a re-charge. Won't wanna mess up 'em batteries.

So yeah...after 2 hours and 3 big plastic bags (and a small one) later. We made our way out from Island Plaza's main entrance. That's when I saw it. Like how I describe to JM, "An ass made from heaven," on the phone 20-minutes later after I got home. Yeah, very tacky. But if you saw 'em buns yourself, you'd be tackier.

Back to 'em lovely buns. They were 2 of them. Japanese, if not Korean. One of them wore those ridiculously short skirt, so short I really don't see the point in wearing it in the first place. Unless they're sole intention is to mess up my head. No, not that head. My real head. The one with a brain.

It was rather windy upfront as they walked thru the driveway onto the taxi stands. Thats when it happened. Wind blows...skirt bouncing up and down and me standing 1 meter in front of mom. I had a mental orgasm right there. Yes, I'm aware mom is just behind, but I DON'T CARE. Those black v-string are calling out my name! It was destine for me to blatantly gaze on 'em!

SKIRT-ASS-SKIRT-ASS-SKIRT-ASS-SKIRT

I swear I died there a few times too.

Please Read

You know, every now and then, I'll get an email from a friend that reads:

"Please Be Extremely Careful
especially if using internet mail such as Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL and so on.

This information arrived this morning direct from both Microsoft and Norton.

Please send it to everybody you know who has access to the Internet.

You may receive an apparently harmless email with a Power Point presentation
'Life is beautiful.'

If you receive it DO NOT OPEN THE FILE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES , and delete it immediately .

If you open this file, a message will appear on your screen saying: 'It is too late now, your life is no longer beautiful.'

Subsequently you will LOSE EVERYTHING IN YOUR PC and the person who sent it to you will gain access to your name, e-mail and password.

This is a new virus which started to circulate on Saturday afternoon.

AOL has already confirmed the severity, and the antivirus software's are not capable of destroying it.

The virus has been created by a hacker who calls himself 'life owner.'

PLEASE SEND A COPY OF THIS EMAIL TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS and ask them to PASS IT ON IMMEDIATELY.

Always. I'd just hit 'Reply All'

"Buy a mac."

Post New Year

Do anyone of you actually watch Desperate Housewives? Oh come on, I know you do watch the random episode on Star World. Or am I the only one? Crap.

But anyway, for those who did...remember there was this one episode where Lynette insisted that his husband, Tom to take a break after exhausting himself with setting up his own pizza parlour. And that she insisted she would keep to his demands and not make any changes to his concept, decor and so on. Yeah...so...

Came the opening night (or was it a soft launch) the chairs which they book did not arrive and Lynette scrambled and borrowed chairs from all over Wysteria Lane and placed it in the shop. Yeah. From garden chairs to stately dinner chairs from Gaby to stools.

So where am I going with this, you might wonder. Well, last weekend, I took a trip to KL for some business, to unwind and to have a post-New Year celebration since most of us had a terrible, if not a quiet and low-key New Year, apart from each other.

So on Saturday, we did the whole lot. Watched AVP2 (Alien v. Predator 2) which wasn't bad to be honest, in fact, it was ruthlessly good. It's what the first should have been. The bit when the Predator shook hands with the humans in part 1 spoilt was what already a disaster of cheesy acting, bad dialogue and tacky plots. After the movie, we had dinner at Ian's uncle's place somewhere. Till this day, I have no idea which part of KL it is. Apart from ordering like a bunch of hungry African kids, we also couldn't resist the towering Beer Tower.

"We MUST have this!" insist Adil followed by a sinister, almost borderline pedophile smile as he clutch his hands together.

After dinner, we went to the local 7-Eleven nearby to buy some mixers before shooting off to Adil's for some pre-drinking session. Originally, we were due at Laundry, which is just a stone's throw away. But like how Man Utd won their treble at the very last minute, our plans were changed by our "Party Agent" of the night, Adil.

"Have you guys heard of Palette Palette?" he asks, sitting on the floor in between in Ikea sofa and Ikea lazy chair.

None of us have heard of it before and were rather skeptical about it. And it was waaaay too far. In KL.

"Dudes, trust me, it's this awesome chillout place with great music and all," he tries to justify, "It's near where No Black Tie is,"

Still not very convinced. And still very much at Adil's. We were supposed to leave 30-minutes ago when we said, "We should go in 5,"

In the end, we all agreed. After all, it's Adil. He knows...

So back to the Desperate Housewives where Lynette messed up the chairs.

Palette Palette was like that. It houses random art and none of the tables or chairs there match! Each and everyone was different. From stately chairs to classic kampung round elastic chairs to kindergarden stools and mini stools. It was uber-awesome! The drinks are fairly priced, waiters a bit spaced out at times, but that adds charm to the place. And the toilets have at least 20 locks. You know like those cartoon shows where they have a paranoid character locking up 20 different locks on the same door. Yeah, I actually tried to utilize all. Just for kicks. I stopped at no. 3 when I really gotta go...



In the end, we got our proper New Year's celebration. Albeit a week late. But hey, good things happen to people who wait, right? Heh. The bill came up to abt RM500+ and I am quite sure I paid half of it. I didn't even had that much. OK maybe I did. But it was waaay worth it.

Gotsa love that picture!

Nothing Better Than Starting The Year With A Bang!

Yeah...
It sounds lovely.

But its freaking not! Ughh, so much work, so much things on me head...I want to blog! Tolongggggg...!!! I am dying. Crazy bitch client is eating me alive. For weeks, I've been telling myself, "I'm going off at 5pm!" and leave the office at 8pm or 9pm...and so on. Sedih giler man.

I guess fresher, newer things are coming soon. Real soon.

Later.

To Gilo Gilo Eg

Here's to another year!
Another set of resolutions which most won't keep.

Never bothered making one up since 2004, because I know I will still smoke, I would still be over-worked, perpetually stress, single, thin and occasionally feeling lost somewhere between a career and chasing a dream.

Maybe Chinese New Year might fair better? Heh.

Happy New Year yo!