My Dayre Diary

Blogged more on Dayre now as it is much convenient from a phone :)

Find me here http://dayre.me/mellissalee90

New Year A Better Chance of Getting it Right!

The new year just kicked in and only now I got into the mood of sinking into 2014 :)

Suddenly I realized, there are just too many things in life to catch up with as if we are aging already. What?! When I take a step back and look at my life in a nutshell, it's pretty messed up here and there. Messed up in the sense that there are just things here and there that I want to do and want to care but not in order.

There are many times we tend to chase with stuff, trying to fit in but in the end missing out the gist of the moment. Couldn't deny further the quote; "You might wake up one day and realized you lost a diamond while you were too busy collecting stones."

Things I learnt in 2013:

• If you are desperate about getting something, you will lose it or not even getting it.
• If you start comparing, most of the time you get tired and that doesn't change anything.
• You are good enough yourself, you deserve the best from people who likes you. If you need to please everyone, you're too busy for people to please you. 
• God knows everything, if you surrender it all to Him, he never fails to make the impossible possible.
• Your outlook on life is a direct reflection of how much you like yourself. -quoted
• Best moment in life, find joy in every little things. All of a sudden, you see how colourful life can be that you can't help it but to smile. Really. 
• If you care about someone, tell them. 
• When making a decision, lose out all the noise of chatters behind your mind. When you can sit in silent with your best feeling at that moment, you know what and how best to move on.
• Nothing in work is so urgent that you cannot spend it with your family/friends.

I think biggest resolution that I want to achieve this year is to 

"Live a simple life and start enjoying the simple joy that generally comes."

Happy New Year everyone!
Get it right this year!

Weekend in Kerteh

The common question that comes from people for us who are working in Kerteh is that, "What do you do during weekends?" First thing is to laugh. lol

Usually, I will just say nothing you can do except eat, sleep, movie and drama series. Then, I thought alright it's time to tell the world Kerteh is not just about eat sleep movie drama. lol 

Kerteh is located in South Terengganu, nearing to Kuantan, Pahang not in the north towards Thailand border. Just in case you have no idea where Kerteh is because people do ask me that haha

Anyway, one of the weekend activities that you can do, hike/jog at Bukit Bauk, Dungun. It is two towns away from Kerteh, only 45 minutes drive away. 

Although it is not a big mountain to hike but it could be quite challenging as the hill is really steep all the way up. You barely go up and down. It is always up and up lol For those who hike, you know going downhill is not an easy task as well. So, you will be going down and down steep hills. For UTP-ians, a good benchmark is Bukit Keledang, only difference is the steepness which doubled.

Overall, it is still a good hike or jog if you want. Advisable to go as early as possible to get nice morning breeze. Not too sure about watching sunrise, not that I know of. Don't expect spectacular scenery on the top, not to discourage  you but it's still a good morning hike you can do during weekends here :) 

We were quite tired by the time we reached the top so we hang around there before coming down and of course taking photos as our energizer! haha

This kind of trip works best with friends together as we get chatty along the way and enjoy the hike. View from the top is simple but I guess reaching the peak is a great achievement with that steepness :D

Dungun is also famous for its 'Megi Ketam'. Basically, maggie with crab. Who doesn't love maggie? haha Unfortunately, it is only open in the evening and we didn't get to drop by for some. Will be back again.

Graduation is not merely certifications

Graduation is yet another key milestone in life. Well, to some it's a very big moment of celebrations yet to some it could meant just the end of a certification or qualification. To me, it is not merely certifications especially if you graduate from a university.

My tuition teacher once said, "University life is a time you enjoy with friends especially the freedom you get outside". Indeed.

Graduation is a time of reminiscing the good old times. It's always great to look back and search for that special moments you spent or witty things you did that got you in trouble and so on. It is something you wouldn't find or get once you step into the working world. As cliche as it sounds, it is true. It brings you to the next stage of life; the adulthood. 

Graduation also depicts how much you've grown through the years. I think everyone started out as a young, innocent, naive student going Educamp, following instantly what the faci said, following rules like it might get you terminated if you don't. 

Gradually, you start behaving like seniors, understood that rules are meant to break, punctuality is ridiculous, wearing matrix card all the time is lame, skipping classes are normal and so forth (oh please, not something to follow if possible lol).

Most importantly, at the end of the day or perhaps the year, you grew into that Graduate with much honors not only in education but the whole well being that makes every mum and dad proud. Great achievement doesn't only refers CGPA nor does it sees how thick your certificate files etc. Great achievement comes from hardship, great efforts, multitudes of ups and downs to get to the end. 

Hence, I always believe the importance of our journey in bringing us to our destination. My journey in UTP has been great definitely. If it was not because of the people around me that supports or discouraged me in some way or another, I wouldn't have grown wiser in mind and attitude. I believe in friendship, as it is hard to come by. Education aside, life living with friends around are something to cherish. They are the ones to bring you through the storms, back you up in studies, make you laugh and put that extra sauce to spice up your life. 

You see, that's life. How funny sometimes we think we can manage on our own, live our own life and mind our own business. But you know you fumble at simple things and smile when someone appreciates or compliment on your deeds. We need people. We need friends.

Oh well, maybe too much of stuff here and there. lol Anyway, to my graduation success, I would extend my gratitude to both my parents and family, UTP friends who stand by me, friends back home who supports me during my down time, lovely juniors and seniors who directs and lead me. Most of all, thank God for all these wonderful precious blessings I've been showered through the years.

Big LOVE from daddy mummy!

I think the best part of it is my extended family in Hope Ipoh :) They've been my great source of comfort and peace and fun. They're my source of inspiration when I need that renewed spirit. 

Happy Graduation!

Certified PADI Diver Now

*time to post out of my draft box.

Finally did my Open Water Dive Course and got my PADI certification. Such a great achievement lol Been wanting to do it since when I was in UTP and just excuses after excuses, I got to nowhere. Now that the island has been "brought" nearer to me, I've got no excuses to give haha Wonder if that's the reason I got posted to East Coast.

So, one of the weekend when I knew there's a Malaysia Day holiday, I straight away took a leave on Sunday (yeah..I'm working on a Sunday) and signed up a 4 days diving course at Pulau Perhentian.

Was recommended by people, Panorama Diver is a great diving shop to start out. It was quite a last minute thing, and we thought ok, if we can't book a place then we'll just go next time. But of course, when you hope for something, it turned out something else haha

Off we went on a Friday, totally excited! Woke up super early and starts our journey about 5am. It was my second time to Pulau Perhentian. The last was at Perhentian Besar Coral Bay which I finds it too boring and small. Perhentian just didnt give me any great impression.

But when I arrived at Long Beach Perhentian Kecil, it was totally different. The scene is almost like Redang although not as beautiful. Then, I realised it was an 'ang mo' island :) Anyway, first thing you will see is Panorama Diver shop itself which is great, you don't have to search for it.

The place was decorated nicely which makes you feel welcomed and excited for the holiday. They made the environment seems fun. There you see Panorama Diver and panorama Chalets & Restaurant. Please do not be confused as both is two different entity.

We checked in and met some dive instructors. It was quite a free and easy kind of schedule. They arranged our dive schedule according to our preference and time. It was quite relaxing and enjoyable. First day, was more like theory, watching videos about diving fundamentals. We did it together with another two Germany girls who came and decided they want to take the diving license spontaneously. How awesome.

Kinda like I'm the Panorama girl. lol Since first day has nothing much, we just hang around the beach and thank God for all the 4 days we were there, it was not even raining at all despite the rainy season. There are lots of things you can do there. You can even sign up for yoga class by the beach.



We had our first dive on the second day. Like Yay! the fun part finally arrived. Our dive instructor was Pablo and he gave us a short briefing on our first dive. He was such a great instructor, funny, witty and friendly. Diving was made easy by him.

First very important lesson to learn is to breathe continuously in water and stay calm. I did have some difficulty in equalizing the pressure in my body and hence got disturbed by it during the first dive. But the next one onwards, I actually manage to master the equalizing part and voila! Everything else became amazing underwater.

We have to check and fix our own diving stuff after being taught. That's still fine. The only thing I hate is to carry that heavy tank to the boat. The first time I carried it, maybe they fix it the wrong height, it hurts my back badly. I remember how I hate carrying my own ski when go skiing at the mountains too. It's heavy and troublesome lol

This is the after diving moments, cleaning equipment and keeping it the correct way. Not something you would like to do after diving haha But in any case this diveshop made it very organized and neat. There are specific bins for BCDs, fins, goggles and appropriate area for hanging.

The area is cosy for hang out and not to mention the people there are awesome. What we do every morning is we ordered the food from the restaurant and eat it at the diveshop while the instructor explained our next dive mission. Ok mission sounds like a big plan haha

Too bad we don't have a waterproof camera to capture all those creatures underwater. The only creature we manage to capture is that sea cucumber lol Will make sure the next round we get someone with GoPro cam =P

Well, couldn't express how awesome underwater life is until you experience it yourself, really. As a beginner, the deepest we could go is 18m and the deepest we managed to go is 16.9m. Best creature seen is Jenkins' Whirpray Stingray and Porcupine fish. Porcupine fish is my all time favourite since a kid, am always amazed by its bloated body haha But sadly during that time it did not bloat. Still, it's great I finally see it underwater myself.

  

The one I saw is the one on the left. The one I wanted to see is the one on the right. 

After the fourth day of diving, we wanted to try an adventure dive at Sugar Wreck where there are thousands of fishes around the sunken boat/ship. Sounds like a mermaid fairytale already lol It seems scary at first but I think it's worth exploring. Anyhow, we just have to go back because it was a working day the next day. We will be back for this for sure.

Sugar Wreck at Perhentian Island. Credits to this youtuber.

Our diving package + accommodation sums up to RM1050. Rating wise, diving shop is great but accommodation sucks to the max. Advisable to stay somewhere else but dive at Panorama Divers :)

Yay! Next diving spot will be Pulau Tenggol. Looking forward to it next year! More to come hopefully. Life in Kerteh not so bad after all.

PIPE - Petronas Induction Programme for Executives

Officially completed my PIPE, Petronas Induction Programme for Executive at Petronas Leadership Centre (PLC). Many said it is a 2-week vacation from work which is very true. 

Now I miss the place.

Enjoyed good food, good sports, good bedrooms and most of all great and awesome people.

After that two weeks of fun, am proud and ready to work in Petronas :) Actually fun aside,I did managed to get a lot of great insights from those experienced people. They indeed have open up a different perspective about work life and share their two cents enough to give us fresh grads some tips to survive! 

The proud 'Scorpions' of PIPE 112 :)

Best part about PIPE is doing CSR. We had it at Subang in a very badly managed and low level people area. Anyhow, the childrens are still nice. These are the ones who attends Sekolah Agama which I think is more appropriate and well mannered. 

They were so innocent that one kid asked me, "Can I eat this in class later?" and then later when we were in class, she asked, "Can I eat the bread now?" 

*heart melts*

Whenever we got the free time at night, we will go 'makan'. Alamanda is like our base shopping mall but at least we got ourselves to The Mines too. 

Fellowship-ping with PIPERs really makes it all great especially when you have humour master in your group. There is no one day we do not laughed about his jokes and actions. 

That's what I missed most right now. The humour, the people, the moments in PLC itself. 

To all of them starting their life journey with Petronas: All the BEST! :)

Best First Job Never Wanted to Leave

I think I havent yet mentioned I joined Talisman Energy since April in fact I will never forget my first day of work because it was my birthday that day haha Anyway, it's an opportunity I never thought will come by at all in my life. I was attending SAP training for 3 months since Feb and during that time my other friends who were also attending the training with me have gotten call from Petronas to report duty. I was saddened by the fact that I did not get any placement in KL but I got call from Bintulu. After letting them know about my preference to be in KL, I actually just lose that placement. So I began to worried I cant get a job at that time because at the same time I wanted to quit the training so badly and I need to attached with a company to do so.

Out of all the worries, one day Talisman called me while I was watching tv at home. It just came at the right timing. Unprepared, the HR guy ask if he can do a brief phone interview with me; freaking the crap out of me. And the next thing I know I went for the face to face interview and I got the job as HR Admin.

Well, I am really not a fan of HR in fact I did told them HR is my enemy lol however, within one month my boss changed my jobscope to HR Mgmt System Analyst whereby I dealt hands on with system management; not development but more to like consulting and coordination task. I managed my own projects and given chance to make own decision here and there which was great.

Within 4 months before I left, I've managed to learn like a thousand whole lots of other things from them. It actually changed my whole perspective of what HR was like. It's not just about recruitment and paperwork. And I guess what is most valued in HR is relationship. Everyday I look forward and driven to go to work despite waking up early and going through hassle to drive all the way to Kelana Jaya and then take LRT all the way to Ampang Park.

The main point is that, now that I left Talisman for Petronas in Kerteh, when I look back, I realised how the people in Talisman is so much bonded and warm welcoming. Not that Petronas is the opposite, but there is this something that I feel is missing when I joined Petronas. I am not promoting Talisman but truly there is a big difference when working with expatriates. Since it is a Canadian company, work structure is much flexible and open for discussion as well as fun while working. Jokes and laughters in the office most of the time. Then I realised it was the culture at workplace that got me so motivated to work in the first place.

Indeed was my best first job I gotten. Am grateful for all the friendship gained and laughters as well as memories built within that short 4 months. Short yet many things happened!

Maybe now I'm having too much of a culture shock here in Kerteh. It's a big total change for me because I am used to working ang mo style in a big lively city. To be here in a super slow pace and almost empty city with longer hierarchy working place, hmmm really takes lots of effort to adjust.

Gambateh Mel!!

Still believes that my journey doesnt just end here and no goodbyes shed, just moving forward to the next oil and gas company :) 

Thank you so much Talisman!