End of MSIG, Beginning of MMU

I've ended my 11-months of service as an Assistant Executive in MSIG. I remembered, when the first day I joined MSIG I am so determined to outdo myself and keen to be in the industry. Nevertheless I left the industry after 11-months of living in it and might never ever stepped into the industry again. It was rather a precious moments and knowledge I learnt form these 11-months. I should have learn more and have some achievements before leaving the industry. I have not complete the AMII certification. It was a regret. I hope to complete the certification, but I have to put this back because I should not let this certification messed up my studies. I shall complete the AMII certification after I complete my studies, to keep my fingers crossed, hopefully I'm able to complete it.

1 August, I will begin another stage of life which is to be a graduate research assistant (GRA). To be a GRA, I must enroll Master of Philosophy. Hence, I am a GRA and also student of research master. Further, 1 August, I declare myself to be in research industry and no longer in general insurance industry. With this sponsorship, I might not stepped in to corporate world and continue to live in research and education industry. Based on my personality, I'm not suitable to be in corporate world but to be in corporate world and to have a high position in corporate world is always my dream. And now, I should say, dream will always be dream. Dreams are hard to achieved and need tonnes and millions or even billions of courage and effort to make them true.

Thus, I should be determined to complete my master within a year, put back any unhealthy thought and move forward to a new place and environment!

Bangkok shopping spree 2012

It has been a month since I'm back from Bangkok and I hadn't blog for a month!
Oh boy! What had I been doing all these days? Gross, let's just share something happy and enjoyable.

June 24th, the departure day to Bangkok! It was a 4 days 3 nights trip to Bangkok. It is not my first trip to Bangkok and I've been there last year. This trip gives me a feeling of 'return to hometown' because I'm staying the same hotel and went to the exactly same place as my previous trip. It is an indeed comfortable and yet familiar vacation.

I'd return to the stall who sell tasty tomyam kung. The tomyam might not be the most tasty tomyam but the cook should be a humourous and kind person. He enjoyed cooking tomyam very much as he would sing and move along with the music rhythm while cooking. I went to the place where supply cloth and clothes. It is called Pratanum. It is a small area with people depending on cloth for living. Therefore this area slowly evolved to be a clothes wholesale market. Two main spots to spree are Pratanum market and Platinum Mall. There are several wholesale malls around that area but Platinum Mall is the largest mall and it has extended to the third zone from the former two zones. The third zone is another building located right next to the former building and whole-selling clothes, bags and shoes targeted for higher-end.

It was a shopping spree trip thus I do not have much photo shots as I was too obsessed with buying and searching the 'right' clothes for me. After I'm back, I think that it was a waste that I did not manage to grab more shots and clothes. There's area of improvements which I should look into; those are:

1) To outline a plan on what I need to buy
2) To snap more photo on people's lifestyle in that area
3) To observe more and fuss less

I'll definitely return there someday!

Flight to Suvarnabhumi Airport from LCCT

Sweetened pancake with red bean paste filling

In line with the release of Spiderman 3

Main entrance of JJ mall

A noodle shop by the road side

Delicious noodle!

Spices to enlightened the dishes 

My favourite fruit in Thailand!

A beverage to refresh the sunny day

Simply shot while waiting

Mixed-fruit salad!

Another weekend...

It seems that I'm blogging on every Sunday. It seems like I'm concluding every of my week with a blog post. This post will be the story of me for two consecutive weekends.

These two consecutive weekends, I went out shopping with two different group of friends. What a great accomplishment! Recently I'm just too lazy to hang around and socialise with friends. In two consecutive weekends, I'd asked my closest friend for outing. It has been long long time ever since the last time I went shopping. In fact, I seldom shop and most of the time I only do window shopping. If I really were to buy something, I will just enter the shop; grab and go. My only conclusion after two consecutive weeks of shopping is: I'm lethargic! I would prefer a group of friends, find a place and simply hang around rather than window shopping in the tiny mall.  

Tomorrow will be Monday. What a Monday blue! I seldom have the Monday blue in my mind but very obvious that I'm suffering from Monday blue week; maybe due to the uncertainty and ambiguous mind of state. I'm a little lost currently as I can't see a new path of mine. I have already drafted the pathway but my mind don't seem to agree with the path. Keep my fingers crossed, I shall have my mind, soul and body to be in the path that I've already planned. 

Simply share some shoots from 2 consecutive weekends :) 

Basic Communication Training @ Prince Hotel & Residence Kuala Lumpur

It was an A.W.E.S.O.M.E. training and said to be the best training I ever had!

A. Amusement

W. Wholesome

E. Exciting

S. Sophisticated

O. Opportunity

M. Mischievous

E. Elise

Generally my training is about methods of communication and to improvise one's communication skill in workplace. Modules are taught on methods of communication with customers, colleagues, superiors. The methods of communication inclusive of verbal and non-verbal mode. I had used six adjectives to describe my training. These adjectives are used describe my three days two nights training journey in Kuala Lumpur.

On the 23 May, my colleague, Janet and I took a cab and headed to Prince Hotel & Residence. Upon arrival at our destination, it is about 8.00 p.m., then we checked-in.  Our accomodation is allocated in the 18th floor. Then around 9.00 p.m., both of us crossed the busy and hassle traffic of one of the busy street in the heart of Kuala Lumpur and met Janet's friend in Pavilion. Unfortunately, during the journey to Pavilion, my sandals were broken, but luckily, I still manage to walk with it. Therefore, I left my broken sandals in the hotel room without bringing them back to Melaka, it can be considered as a souvenir to Prince Hotel.

My pity, broken sandals

My 3 days 2 nights training expedition begins with amusement as my expedition began with a broken pair of sandals. Then I met and had dinner cum supper with a bunch of amusing people. We had laughter and chatter during the session and I took back a very thing which does not serve any purpose and the thing is junked on my messy table. Its shape like a 1 litre UHT milk packet. 


Here goes the story, we went to Ben's for dinner. On each of every table, there is the thing placed as decorations. The print is about their promotion  on a market operating on weekends. Both of us got very excited on that decoration and Janet asked the waiter if she could have that. The waiter answered, "Yes, you may" thus it ended up belongs to me. I feel bad leaving it in the hotel so I brought it back to Melaka and just placed it in my room.

The gift from Ben's

My dinner cum supper in Ben's

24th of May, my day began with buffet breakfast in the dining area in Prince Hotel & Residence and my basic communication training started. My wholesome breakfast

Lessons of day 1:

• Do not make people's communication problem your problem 

This is the most important and virtue phrase I learnt from the training. Every one has their communication ways and habit. We can never change one's communication style but we can learn to accommodate and tolerate them. It is extremely difficult to accommodate and tolerate with people who have rather bad communication skill especially when their communication style tend to be more agitated, demanding and harsh. Once we met such people, we normally would avoid or run away from them. We might think, 'Why those group of people need to be so harsh and demanding? We are also human being. Can't they talk politely or nicely?' Mind our thought, those group of people are human too, they definitely have their soft side too. Nevertheless, they are too ego to show their soft side. In sum, regardless who we communicate with, we should be brave to overcome the unfavourable communication style. 

• Our mind is ruled by the conscious and subconscious and filtered by ego

The consciousness of our mind is governed by our five major senses and subconscious mind is made up of the nature, upbringing, observation, religion, education, environment and other external factors which shaped us. Filter and ego gauge gap in between conscious and subconscious mind. This mind model is developed by Dr. Thurman Fleet. Hence, different people have different kinds of thoughts and communication style. This lesson is slightly towards psychology theory. Trainer grouped us into four categories of birds which represent four different kinds of people. There are dove, the peace and get along representatives, peacock, the gaining attention group of people, eagle, the task oriented and demanding group of people and lastly owl, the rigid, systematic and sequential group of people. 

We had several role plays and scenario given during the two days' training. After each role plays and scenarios, trainer will explain and share with us on how to handle and solve the problems. The roles plays and scenarios are tailored-made to suit our working environment and those problems are difficult situations that we may deal in our daily working life. 

After lunch, we had our first exciting role play. Trainer as the General Manager, group leader as the Manager and the rest as workers. We are assigned several tasks, for instance, making the largest, most beautiful and strongest aeroplane from polystyrene, building a tallest, most stable tower out of straw, in between, with interruption of e-mail, messages and  meetings from the General Manager and the final task is paper cutting, without any breaking point which is able to fit a human. All these task are need to be down within 45 minutes and it is a competition between groups. 

What a sophisticated mode of training with integration of role plays and interaction between  participants and trainer which enhance the effectiveness of the training progress!

Some shoots from my training activities to share!

 

Lessons of day 2:

We continued our training session with sharing and briefing. Trainer shared many of his previous communication experiences with us, seek our opinions and discussions are made. This training is more about sharing and discussion rather than lecturing and listing mode. During the first day, the training focuses more on verbal and interpersonal communication skill. Training ended with written communication and tele-conversation communication skill. We were trained on e-mail writing and handling tele-conversation in workplace which was our final chapter before we are dismissed.

This training provide me an opportunity to meet new friends, learnt on human psychology which interest me most and provide me a 5 star accommodation. I enjoyed the training while relaxing; dining in fine restaurant, sleeping in luxurious hotel and enjoy the relaxing lifestyle with 5 meals a day. I took plenty of pictures fooling around and things which I encounter during the training. I mischievously play while learning during the 3 days and 2 nights and subsequently, these 5 adjectives fairly and adequately describe the final adjective 'ELISE' as she's undergoing all the 5 adjectives within 3 days.

Summary of 3 days 2 nights training in Kuala Lumpur

Wholesome & busy bee!

What a busy busy week I had! Even though it was a busy week but I still put on my slow and lazy mode in my daily activities.

Monday to Wednesday - working days

Exceptionable milestones: Banner for university registration day added to my already hectic workload and external communications. 

Thursday and Friday - Training in Prince Resident Hotel, Kuala Lumpur

The best part of all in the month of May

Saturday - colleague's son's birthday party

Sudden interruption: To choose the birthday present

Sunday - helping in an university's registration day

The worst part of all in the month of May

Two highlights of the week, i.e: my training in Kuala Lumpur and helping in an university's registration day.

I enjoyed the training session extremely well. I learnt several things and this is the most fun and interesting training ever. Later I'll write a post solely on my training as I have several shots to share. On the other hand, oh my gosh!for heaven's sake!helping in an university's registration day is like hell to me. It is a chaotic and disaster day without proper management, system and leadership. We are living in cruel and realistic world where most of us are selfish. due to our selfishness, we tend to be reluctant thus there's no one would like to lead and take the initiative to make the registration process a success. Every fingers' are pointing at each other, waiting for instruction to be given and ordered. The day ended up with a mess but still no one gets their lesson yet. 

*Finally, I managed to post this after a week of drafting. Wondering why on earth I'm so busy and what I'm busying with as there isn't any outcome of the week.