The Orange

This year has been quite a hiatus for me from writing in here. Though occasionally I would have thought about something that is worthy to write but I would always forgot about it by the time it is proper for me to sit down and have it typed down.

This year, many things are looking to fall in its place. Firstly, career wise, I finally got to move on from doing jobs for that bad developer to doing other projects for few other different clients. Many thanks to my concerned colleagues who finally conveyed it to my boss that I was about to call it a day. He pulled me off from that project and I've had not heard from them ever since.

My biggest concern was that if there's any damage has been done. I realized I was always being sarcastic in most of my conversations in the office. I don't like about it but it was happening anyway. To countermeasure, I had to keep a check on it whenever I talked to my officemates and managed to keep it at a level.

I began to treat my work very lightly, all of these because I'm assuming it will never take off and would be a waste of my thoughts and efforts. I questioned a lot on the instructions given and would not take it seriously. It appeared that I have become rebellious. Professionally, this is very unprofessional and in the long run it will leave a scar of bad reputation to me.

Based on my experience having resigned from previous companies, it is proven that money is not the main factor for satisfaction. Discontent is a major problem. It may be in several forms and in my case was to deal with the crappy client. However, to have solved the main factor and then later being rewarded with a handsome pay hike, it looks like I'm going to extend my employment here.

On a sad note, some of my colleagues have left the office to pursue better dreams. To me, it was a battle lost for losing good people that may have driven the company to a new level.

With me got pulled out from the job, I was assigned to work on few other jobs. It was refreshing. Though some of it didn't get the kick off, somehow it felt good to work on something that meant a value. With this being said, I'm referring to my previous work with that bad developer as of little to no value.

I am currently assigned to a project located down south in Johor Bahru. The working environment is totally different. At least, some decisions are made and fought for. Consultants are treated with respect. I can see there is sensibility among these people even though they are also after the big money.

This job requires me to travel down south at least once every fortnight or at times, every week. I used to drive as it allows me some flexibilities but it is tiresome to make a return trip of 750 kilometres within 24 hours.

However, the company prefers me to fly there. So, I have now become a frequent flyer. The busiest flight schedule I had in a day was during early this month (October 2013) where I had to deliver an important document to the client's office and afterwards to attend the World Architecture Festival in Singapore (oh, a big YES, I now can fly out of Malaysia. Oh my!...Oh my!). My ticket to Singapore was bought one week in advance when few days later, I received an instruction to deliver the document urgently.

Technically, for travel claim process, the client's finance department is awkwardly rigid and requires any working trip shall have a return journey. It happened to another colleague working on the same development but in a different phase who took a lift back to KL with his brother in-law. So he didn't file a return travel claim and later there was a dispute within our finance department and theirs.

With this as precedent, instead of continuing my journey to Singapore since I already in a neighbouring state, I decided to return to Kuala Lumpur by afternoon, to avoid dispute between the finance departments, and just in time for me to be able to catch the flight to Singapore in the evening. Basically, I went down south twice that day by boarding on 3 flights.

Though for the past few months I have traveled a lot by wings, this year also marked another new exciting mode of transportation for me. It was a dream since my teenage years. Back then, when I was still in the boarding school, a friend utilized the empty space of my locker door by putting up a superbike poster. While in the beginning I didn't pay any attention to it but after having to look at it everyday when I opened my locker door I fell in love with beautiful bikes.

Early this year, I bought my first bike. It was a love at first sight. It is not a superbike because it is just a 200cc machine. However, it performs like a sport motorbike due to its high torque. As per many reviews, the bike is an urban machine. It suits perfectly for my justification to use it for me to commute daily to work. Once in a while, on weekends I would go for a 2-hour ride through the curvy road near my house. Being able to be on two wheels evokes a sense of liberty in me.

Looking at it all, it seems this year I am very much influenced or affected by the color orange. The company I'm working has been more accommodating in my career. It looks like I'm going to stay here and would be seeing more of their orange corporate color for another couple of years.

The new job I'm handling requires me to fly south frequently and the airport closest to my house is the base for an airline that uses orange as its corporate color too.

Finally, the two-wheel sexy machine I just bought is produced by an Austrian manufacturer, using the color orange primarily for most of the bikes they manufactured.


Perhaps, I would like to call the year 2013 is the year of the orange to me.