I love Sundays and the go-with-the-flow easiness of it. Waking up early with the 1st thought- Hmmm…what to eat for breakfast-ar always makes me pop right of bed!

I love Sundays coz it promises many hours of reading- from Sunday Star for the travel articles (the only time we bought newspaper are Sat & Sun) to my greedily bought books from BookXcess lying on my table.

Hubby bought The Edge, and as usual I flipped through scanning headlines for interesting read. This week’s Edge covers 3 short & sweet articles- one on my fav bus company Aeroline’s-CEO (I think it’s not deserving to even call them a bus company, haha!), another of a yet-to-meet Facebook friend- CEO of Exabytes.

As a fellow (albeit, newbie) entrepreneur, it’s uplifting to read success stories and journey’s of other companies’s founder & CEO. It sometimes makes me feel less alone. (:P)

Few key words derived from the various articles on what it takes to be an entrepreneur- Persistence, passion, ambition. I scanned the list- check, check, check! And if I may add my own- hunger. The hunger for the sense of achievement (that $ can’t buy*), thirst & curiosity to learn, to unlearn, the hunger that will fuel you thru downtimes, that gets you up in the morning so god-damn eager to get to work.

These are some of the things that keeps my heart pumping, and eyes sparkling. What a lovely day to spend a Sunday, looking forward to yet another fun ride next week!

To those who are celebrating, have a lovely Easter!

*But money is a good thing too, lol

Man: “Would you marry me?”

Woman (in typical Msian radio squeaky voice, sort of like she inhaled all the helium from a blimp) : “But you’ve got RM5000 outstanding on your credit card balance, how can you afford it?”

Man (enthusiastically): “No problem, EAC bank now have -Just use your card as if the $ is already there, and when you realized you can’t pay us back, no worries, you could just sell your car, your house…even your wife plan!

I can’t believe my ears when I heard this just now. And I can’t believe people fall for this. Shame on the so-called financial institution(s), shame on the agency who came out with this ‘creative’ concept, shame on the sorry-state of our financial education, or lack off.

Nobody heard of saving towards something nowadays, nor having a planned investment that will gradually reap the return- which one can use towards purchases such as these.

Flabbergasted, it’s the word.

Bored shitless. Not to be confused with nothing-to-do-ness, on the contrary, loads of work to do.

But just feeling kinda bored these few days. The routine, the blah-ness, the chores, the responsibilities, the planning, the should and should not, the strings, my gosh, the strings.

I missed the days of spontaneity, the major throw-your-head-back laughter, the silliness of all.

And I’m not talking about work per-se.

“I’d kill to have a security device at home so I can know what my maid is doing at home with my kids.”- a friend said.

And I thought, what a sad world we are living in nowadays.

I yearn to have kids roam free, running from one neighbors house to another, their pet dog running with them.

Neighbors who actually knows each other’s name (at least I got that base covered at home)

Blue skies, not grey smog.

People actually have the brain & consideration not to double park and let you wait for 20 mins, without even an apology. Bangsar- check, Taman Desa- check, Damansara- check…actually the whole of Klang Valley, Penang, etc- check.

Fresh, natural food  is not a luxury, look at all the ‘organic’ shops around, look at the price tags.

Junk food manufacturer (and I’m not only talking about potato chips, but even ‘nutritious’ drinks fortified with WTF for smarter kids) admits that they are producing crap. Hey! I’m all for eating processed potato chips if I want to. Just don’t sugar coat things.

Emails, missed calls, sms are replied. Where’s the courtesy?

If it’s a no entry/one way on that road or in your condo car park, please- can you look up dictionary the meaning of One way/NO entry?

Days when people have the principle not to take short cuts that endanger, inconvenient others- just so they have their own little convenience.

People talk, as in talk, face to face, flesh to flesh (er, i think that’s another thing all together ) to each other.

A Twitter, sms or two is fine. But don’t Twitter, sms non stop when you are catching up with friends or anyone for that matter. What?! Their company is not enough for you?

Religions that unite, not divide.

Reality shows that’s beautiful, not perverted, ugly, shallow.

….the freedom to enjoy a beer or two, and the luxury of having just short of a handful of like minded friends to enjoy it with.

Completely broke down & cried.

Our Version 1 was almost completed, just final touches to improve the user interface. Dunno why, now it’s screwed up.

Had an online disagreement with business partner over her complaints of my ‘never-ending’ list on the completion of Version 1, that was already a great start to my Saturday working day.

Now, staring at the site, with all the carts f*cked up; when last night, I was beaming & excited and eagerly awaiting it to be completed.
Even got a customer who’s waiting to go online and order his one year cards from us tonight.

At this point, I dunno whether to continue pushing on to work on my today’s priority- Plan & action steps for next phase. (Great, since the site is f up, we are back to phase 1)
Or shall I continue to get beaten down and cry.

Cross between feeling like a victim/cry/curse/angry/fight/standing firm.

Your soul will provide you with many opportunities to fall into your heart. And when you do, you will feel more elevated.

The more you fall into your heart the more you rise above the non-important material considerations of day to day life and the more you fulfill your fundamental reason for…

being here.

- Neale Donald Walsch

While flipping through a fashion mag just now, a thought crossed my mind.

Hmm…maybe it’s time I start getting facials. To many, this will draw a huh? What do ya mean? You never got one done before?

Well, yes. And I’m kinda weirdly proud that this face is still kept relatively well (ahem!) without a salon facial which I’ve been religiously keeping myself away from. Oh hell ya, I’m damn scared of these establishments pushing packages & god damn it expensive products to you.

But I think the recent reunion of my secondary school with the gals revealed that I may be probably the last female species who hasn’t let a ‘beautician’ touch her face. A facial virgin, you might say.

And erm, I kinda feel, is there anything I’m missing?

Hell, maybe it’s the not so funny laugh lines that I’ve noticed getting deeper, and the forehead frown lines (courtesy of Coconect) which got me frowning more…

But I definitely think that vanity is catching up with my age…or is it the other way around?…

I am preparing our team members’ appointment letters, contracts, etc. And I am reading samples of actual appointment letters as a reference for me to draft them (boo hoo, where’s my HR manager?)…No wonder loads of people hate their work. Look at the appointment letters…are the management hiring a robot or slave??!!! JEEZ!!!!!

It all started out nice & polite:

‘We have pleasure in offering….

Then, it spiral downwards…

The Company may at its discretion extend the probationary period by another three (3) months.

You are advised that as a condition of your employment with the Company, you are liable to be transferred to work in any location, section, department, division, subsidiary, country or Line of Business at the absolute discretion of the Company. (If hell has a valid address, you bet we have the absolute discretion to send you there too!)

Should you be found to be medically unfit, your service shall be liable to be terminated. (translated- if you are dying, please don’t bother us)

Followed by MORE discretion..

An employee at the discretion of the Company….

But, they do end the slave contract with an encouraging ending though:

We take this opportunity to welcome you aboard and wish you a successful career with the Company. (Evil smile)

I am offended to read this letter, don’t see traces of humanity here…but ahh…you say, ‘Mel, just you wait till you deal with eeeeevvvvvil employees, then you will see why you need Evil Appointment Letter Writing Skill 101′…

Sigh…I mean, c’mon, is this it? Resorting to cold, technical jargons so that you can whip people into submission?!!

I went beyond beer…and bought these

Coz beer is my happy food (Yes food, never heard of liquid diet?) But these! These are a sign that I’m heading towards evil-dom.

I only bought chips for my own consumption, let’s see…less than 6 times in my entire life.

P/S: Pringles product review: Unless I have really gone insane, but the chips are much much smaller now. Yes, the size has shrunk. Maybe overall diameter shrunk by 20%. Even the chips are pathetic to match my mood.

P/P/S: Till my next upbeat-y, happy, motivational-ty post, I am officially calling it a day off for happy mood. Now, let me just work in silence.

One half of Coconect head has finally gone back to Europe.

Here I am, in between busyness, work-as-usual day… feeling pang of loss that co-founder Jen has literally ‘went Holland’…and frankly speaking, I am really sad.

This had happened before, and now it is really happening for good for a long time.

I am feeling sad because,

Over the last few months, well more like a year, we had worked together, pitched & won Pre-Seed funding, interviewed, hired, disagree, agree, brainstorm(ed), burnout, laughed hysterically, hugged, drank beer after beer sometimes cursing over our insane stress but more often than not, enjoying our sadistic journey of entrepreneurship, completed proposals that secured projects & orders, lend each other an ear & shoulder during hardship in personal life, cried (more like me), really go out of the way to help each other as how true friends do, croak during karaoke sessions, ate many good food, talked about our dreams and spur each other on…

and really just being a real friend to each other, no ifs or buts.

Over the past 1 year, (though we had known each other for more than 12 years), we had become not only great business partner but great friend. A real gem in this world.

But on the other hand, I am really glad & happy that I,

Had the chance to appreciate true friendship, chance to get to know another gung ho, passionate individual who is absolutely crazy in going after her dreams, have a friend who can understand each other’s ‘Impossible in Nothing’ attitude yet still have room for each other to grow, make mistakes, complain (Yikes!) and forgive.

So, till we meet again in charming Netherlands or chaotic Malaysia, take good care my friend. And I’ll see you 9am SHARP (your time zone) online for our coconuty meetings.