Have you ever been to a book reading before?

If you haven't, here's your chance!

As mentioned before, we are having a book launch for Dumped: A Journey Of Lessons Through Breakups, Mishaps and Misadventures, on Saturday, 30th September, 2-4 pm, at MPH Bookstore, One Utama Mall, KL.

The book launch will be really casual and fun - we're talking mixers, fun games and prizes, gifts for all guests, books on a discount and of course, a book reading!

During the book reading, I will read aloud some parts of the book to everyone, and we could have a Q&A about it too. If you would like to dedicate the book to your loved ones (or yourself), I would be happy to sign them as well during this event!

It's a free and open event, and I hope you'll come by and say hi!

You can RSVP at the link below
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/book-launch-dumped-lessons-through-breakups-mishaps-and-misadventures-tickets-37720555196

See you there!!

Amal 

​In the wake of the current oil price plummet, everybody is starting to get restless. This case is evident when you see the faces that turn up at the office everyday. There is a strange forlorn dark cloud that seems to follow everyone, and behind the usual work routines there is an obvious unease that can no longer be subdued. People started talking about ‘alternatives’. Some have that paranoid look in their eyes, making sure that everyone joins the wagon by constantly spreading rumours on what might become of our fates. Eventually these possibilities became exhausting to hear.

I have never thought that work could cause me this much anxiety. I enjoy my job, but have always found it easy to detach from its issues the minute I leave the office. My job takes me on wonderful work adventures, pays my bills, allows me to live the life the way I want, and some of my colleagues are friends and exes. In other words, my job is a great enabler for other things in my life. And thus, when the sense of security of having this job is being shaken, everything else shudders with it in a frightened might.

As a self-professed pro in the department of Anxiety and Overthinking, I started harvesting obsessive thoughts immediately after someone mentioned the word ‘retrenchment’. That night I went through a roller coaster of emotions. I started weighing my options, visualising a worse-case scenario, and then reliving them again in my head.

1. If (God forbid) I get let go, how do I deal with it initially? Do I keep it discreet, or do I announce it? (No, why would I announce it? I’m not the Queen of Scotland.)
2. What’s my backup plan? Okay, there’s KWSP, there’s savings, there's a closet sale… Oh my goodness my apartment! And my car! My super-sonic speedy internet bills (that’s the killer right there)! And avocados are expensive!
3. Is it difficult to be an avocado farmer? Maybe I can ask my Dad to loan me a piece of his orchard and I can become an organic farmer extraordinaire. What are my other life skills? This is the part where I realise that I’m pretty average at everything else. I don’t have a particular awesome skill to showcase. This is how people die in The Walking Dead.
4. I can’t try for a job on TV. My face is just not commercial enough under bright lights.
5. Obviously I would have to start thinking about alternatives at some other workplace. The competition will be tough. Last week I saw another geologist doing some fancy structural things on his software, and all I could think of was I hope he’s applying somewhere else. Otherwise I’ll have to run him over with my car. Eliminate competition.
6. Wait. That’s not healthy. But I’m starting to understand why people take Xanax now.
7. Oh God, I’m so sorry that sometimes I take for granted my opportunities. An employment is something a lot of us always seem to surpass when we count our blessings. So many people would’ve done so much more to get what we’re having.
8. Mom said in an extremely worse-case scenario, I can move back in with them. I was so relieved to hear it, although I cringe at the thought of me, a woman in her late twenties, moving back in with my parents after 10 years. I’m so grateful for my parents.
9. Alright, it’s almost 1 am. The last time I stayed up this late was to watch Homeland.

Employment and unemployment is a common theme anywhere you are in the world. In movies you see people happily quitting their jobs or getting fired with such dramatic exits and not much of a forethought of a future strategy, some of them being a hilarious feat to watch. But in reality it is nerve-wrecking experience, one that would flip the tables and change the course of our lives altogether. Some of us have mortgages, children to feed, parents to take care of, loans to pay and even rely on jobs to give us a reason to get out of bed in the mornings. A job may not be our livelihood, but it certainly is a catalyst that allows us to have and enjoy one, whatever that may be. And so as I, and many of us in the hydrocarbon industry brace ourselves for what may or may not happen in the near future, I hope that we'll make it through and be okay. It is a scary thought, but word on the street is that life? It scares us sometimes.

I recently moved into a new office of a new company. I was pretty much one of the youngest there, and moving in with a small box filled with my personal items (my box of teas, a stapler I stole from the common office desk etc) made me feel exactly how I felt when I first started working after I graduated from college. After going through this twice, and listening to my friends’ experiences on adjusting in a new workplace, I’ve noted some do’s and don’ts that one should probably practice to survive those first few weeks.

1.       Nobody likes near-suicidal sad people. Yes, yes, I get the whole ‘be yourself’ thing, but there is such a thing as being yourself and restraining some parts of you for later surprises, not now. No matter how bad the day gets, never walk into a new office looking like you’re a pill-bottle away from depression. If you’re going to spend many years of your life sitting in that office, you might want to make a few friends, and nobody wants to be friends with a person who looks like they might have mutilated dead bodies stashed in the closet.

2.       Observe the culture, and try and roll with it. This new office seems to revolve around one thing – coffee. Everybody takes coffee in the morning, there are two coffee machines and hardly any tea, and pretty much every room smells caffeine-dosed. The problem is I am not a fan of coffee. I am coffee intolerant in the mornings (it gives me stomach aches and I don’t know why), but I tried giving it a shot post-lunch, and hey, it’s really not that bad.

3.       Be nice to the ladies. Female colleagues will be either a God-sent or a night mare. It all depends on how you are perceived by them. If you’re annoying, chances are you’ll never get any invites to anything, and you’ll miss out on special office vouchers too. You’ll never know juicy office gossips like who’s divorced and who’s being deported to Venezuela, and let’s face it, aren’t those news the things you look forward to in order to enlighten your otherwise mundane office life?

4.       Know your audience. It is kind of vital to measure yourself up with the rest of your new colleagues. The majority of the workers in my new office are experienced, seasoned staff, so I found that I had to catch up with things faster compared to my old office, where most of us are junior staff like me. I also found that certain jokes and subjects of interest are not particularly appealing depending on different crowds of colleagues. On my second day, I found myself trapped in a group conversation where one guy was venting about getting a divorce after being separated for twelve years. I felt like a teenager. All I did was nod and talk about my dead cat.

The thing is, adapting is necessary. Sometimes people may not be your type, and a place may not be your style. But by adapting, it’s a way to show that you’re giving it a shot. And doing that is never a waste of time.

Preparing to do some manufacturing inspecting work like a boss.

Kinda looks like a 'Transformer' like thing, doesn't it?

Moments before the hurricane.

I went for a job assignment yesterday. Here is a story of how the day started off badly…and it didn’t end there.

1.       I had an early flight in the morning, so I had to wake up at 4 in the morning and take a cab to the airport. I slept at 11 p.m. with the hopes that I will get at least 5 hours of sleep. But a stupid dog ended up barking/howling/screaming/turning into a werewolf outside my window all night long, and that was how my beauty sleep idea went down the hill.

2.       My hijab brooch dropped and fell on the floor. Was not able to retrieve it because it was too small to find. It was my ONLY hijab brooch that I had. Went around the airport to find a brooch shop, but failed.

3.       Checked into the plane and realized that I had left my own bag at the check-in lounge. Ran out like a crazy chick to get it back.

4.       Arrived at the place of work, realized that I left my socks. I would need to wear some steel-cap boots for work, but I would die with blisters on my feet if I had no socks. So I frantically had to search for a socks shop.

5.       Down with work. On the way back to the airport, saw some factory outlet stores, decided to make a pitstop. Got carried away.

6.       About to pay for a new bag, but the credit card machine crashed. Had to wait for an extra 15 minutes. Already late for the flight.

7.       Got into the car to go to the airport. Male colleagues already pissed off with the ladies’ lateness.

8.       A hurricane (what?? A hurricane? Now?) blew in. Like a ‘2012’ movie scene. Trees fell along the street, palm leaves flew from all directions. A large tree fell right across the road. We were stuck. Twenty more minutes till final call for flight.

9.       Called airline. No, they could not delay the flight for us. Waited for help. Nobody came. We all went out in the middle of the hurricane and tried to remove the tree. It took a rope, some saw and lots of people to finally get it out of the way.

10.   Got at the airport, just in a nick of time for the final call.

11.   Sat in plane, soaking wet all the way home. I smelled like sweat and grass. Sorry, lady-sitting-next-to-me.

12.   Arrived in Kuala Lumpur. Got stuck in a traffic jam.

Needless to say, as I arrived home, I slept for nine hours straight. And the dog was no longer there (otherwise I would’ve shot that damn thing with my BB gun).