My First BD

At this stage of my carreer, I'm more concerned with expanding my knowledge and expertise in various areas of law. But yesterday one of the senior associates asked me to follow him for a business development meeting. Business development, that is going out and pitching for new work from new clients is usually what we have to do later on in our practice. But no harm in starting early right?

So yesterday was the first time I went for BD meetings. Overall it was a good experience and quite successful as we did manage to get new work from 2 financial institutions.

Moving forward, I have been tasked to work with the senior associate and specialise in Islamic Banking Litigation. Since there are not many lawyers who specialises in this area, I think it is worth looking into.

I have to say there is so much to learn!! So far I have only been exposed to Murabahah Tawarruq financing and I think getting to grasp with the concept for the facility itself is complicated enough without considering the legal aspects of it.

So I think what I have to do is read up! Plan to learn more about it on my own time and have asked for book recommendations from the senior associate for me to self study. Let's see how it goes :P

My Best Friend's Sister's Wedding

Jonie's sister got married on 18 September 2010 and Audrey, Sheryl, Azmir and I were invited to go. Sheryl was performing that night so Audrey and I went early to give her moral support and help her get ready i.e give our views on which dress she should wear and put on her makeup. Jonie had a room at the hotel so we crashed there.

The wedding was limited to close friends and family and had a very nice feel.

As for Sheryl's performance, it was great! :) She performed Alicia Keys 'If I Ain't Got You' and Adelle 'Make You Feel My Love'.

Jonie also prepared a surprise video for her sister and it was so brilliant and funny!! I laughed non-stop until tears were actually coming out from my eyes. I don't know how to describe it but it was definitely not the typical slideshow photos. It was awesome!

After that we hung around the hotel for a bit and left at about 1.30 am. A very fun wedding! :)

Before the reception

Shauntaine and Justin

Azmir admiring the bride :P

with Herbert, Ballie & Jo

Superstar! :)

Birthday Treats!

Since my Birthday was on the 3rd day of Raya, did not have time to go anywhere that day since I was travelling back to my hometown at Perak. So I got some birthday treats on Wednesday :)

Firstly I met up with Hafiz for my birthday lunch treat. The plan was that I pick the time and date and he would settle the rest. But when he came to pick me up, we got stumped at the same question yet again so where are we going.....What happened to 'I will settle the rest'?!! :P

We went to the Curve since I just went to 1U yesterday. I had 3 options, the Chocolate Lounge, Paddington Pancakes or Bubba Gump. Hafiz said we should go Bubba Gump since I have not been there before. So Bubba Gump it is! Everything in the menu actually looks yummy so it was very difficult to choose what to eat! We decided to share since we were not sure what the portion was like. It was a very nice birthday treat :)

Speckled Lemonade with real Strawberries

Combination of crabmeat, lobster, shrimp and fish

Shrimp salad (always need my vegies)

Later on at night, I met up with Jo & co to try out this new place at Empire Gallery Mall, Subang called Whisk Expresso Bar / Bake Shop. Sheryl has been meaning to take us there and I have been very curious about this place. Since we were out for desserties, it was a good time to try it out.

Hummingbird Cake - had a nice banana flavour to it

Macarons!

Red Velvet - very nice and moist

Mochacinno con la Nutella

All in all it was a very nice cozy place :) The only downside is that it is a little small. So if you're planning to have a big gathering there, it probably wont be the best idea.

AirAsia X opens tickets to Tokyo!

Airline will be first foreign low-cost carrier serving Haneda airport from Dec 9

PETALING JAYA: AirAsia X will begin flights to Haneda airport in Tokyo on Dec 9 and open ticket sales for the sector next week.

The airline plans to mount three weekly flights and it will be the first foreign low-cost carrier serving the airport that is expected to open for international flights in late October.

Asashi newspaper in Japan reported that AirAsia X was expected to price fares far lower than those charged for existing services between the capitals of Japan and Malaysia offered by Japan Airlines and Malaysia Airlines (MAS).

AirAsia X chief executive officer Azran Osman-Rani declined to reveal any pricing when contacted yesterday by StarBiz. But the market is abuzz with talk that the introductory price could range from RM99 to RM199.

Azran said that flying to Tokyo would be “super exciting as finally people will have choices and low fares to go to great places.’’

Three flights per week may be too few for AirAsia X but for now the airline does not have much of a choice.

It is learnt that the Japanese authorities had accorded seven rights and the Malaysian authorities awarded three each to AirAsia X and MAS, and one to Transmile.

“Japan is a high fixed cost city and with so few flights it would be difficult to make the sector sustainable so we will have to convince the authorities to grant us daily flights,” Azran said.

Source: http://biz.thestar.com.my/news

JAPAN HERE I COME!! ^__________^

Wedding Errands + Babysitting

Since I'm still on Raya leave, I'm taking this opportunity to sort out all of my wedding preparations. Went to SSF at Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman to check out some hydrangeas in the morning and then went for lunch with my family at Pasta Zanmai.

Crabmeat Avocado Pasta with Sesame Sauce

September Special - Marron Parfait

Later we also dropped by Parkson. My mom wanted to try the new Dior fragrances and since we were already there, I decided to buy my make-up set for the hantaran. Since I don't know much about make-up, it was very helpful to have my mom there to tell me what are the basic items I needed.

After that I went to the Kelana Jaya Government Clinic to do the HIV screening and then went to SSF at Sri Damansara to buy curtains and bed spread for my room.

I also promised my eldest sis that I would visit Aqil to play with him today. By the time I settled all of my errands, I got to my sis's apartment at about 7 pm. Wanted to drop by just for a little while but my nephew wouldn't let us go home. My second sis and I wanted to sneak out when he was taking a shower but it was so hard to persuade him to shower and when he finally gave in and right before he went into the bathroom he said "don't go home yet okay?"

It's like he knew! :P

No aunt in the world would have the heart to go back after that! So we waited till he was ready to go to bed before leaving.

My Little Nephew

I was browsing through some past Raya pictures and was amazed to see how much my nephew, Aqil Ryan has grown! He is my 3rd nephew and to me extremely adorable :) I may not have the energy to take care of him one whole day (he is very hyper) but I do try and play with him whenever I can. If my sis comes over to my place, the first thing I would ask her is if she brought him along :P

I thought it was just very amusing to see how different he looks now compared to before....

2008

2009

2010

Second Day of Raya

The second day of Raya we went back to Rembau, Negeri Sembilan. We went visiting 5 houses in total so it was pretty much non-stop eating since lunch :P

Before that we stopped by my sis's new apartment, One Menerung at Bangsar. She just moved into the apartment a week before Raya and we have yet to see it. The concept was very minimalist and modern. Very nice.

Aqil excited showing his room

Not sure what exactly he was trying to do :P

First Day of Raya

Today I woke up early to start decorating my cake. For this year's Raya I decided to make a chocolate house :) The part I love most about baking is the decorating bit so this was going to be much fun! I bought chocolate sticks, mini M&Ms and hundreds and thousands for the decorating.

The cake base

Preparation of the chocolate sauce and decorative items

End product :) - front

Back of the chocolate house

Because Raya was on a Friday, everyone came a little later than usual. When Jonie, Jin Han, Audrey and Sheryl came, there were still a lot of my relatives around. Luckily they managed to find some place to sit!

Later at night when most of the people went back already, my family brought out a strawberry cake and started singing happy birthday to me :) It's 2 days early so it was a surprise!

Next up - 2nd Raya - destination: Rembau, Negeri Sembilan

Eid Mubarak

Even though the announcement was going to be made on Wednesday night, I think we all knew that Raya would be on Friday. That same night I checked my Blackberry to see an e-mail from the managing partner of the firm wishing all Muslims Selamat Hari Raya and declaring Thursday as half day!! Woo hoo!! :D

Half day is a tricky business. Most often it simply means we can leave at 5 or 6 pm :p But today I was determined to leave by 2 pm latest since I need to bake a cake for Raya tomorrow. Sharp 1pm I activated my 'out of office' and hoped that no client would call me with some emergency...like what happened on Christmas eve -_-;

At 1.30 pm I made my exit! :D

Got home, bought some ingredients and started baking! For the end product, well that will have to wait till my next post ;)

For now, I would like to wish everyone Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri and maaf zahir & batin :)

One of those days...

Today is just one of those days. Started off with morale being low as I loss one of my court case this morning. The law was not on our side for this one...but I can't help feeling what if I had done more research? maybe I should have argued it differently...*sigh*

Next was the issue of billing. Billing clients has become a super stress factor lately. The issue arises from the fact that my billing rate per hour is high and we quote low fees to clients to stay competitive. And more often than not, the budget bursts. So when I review the bills, I will have to be prepared to answer to the partner to explain why the bill exceeded the budget and justify all time spent on the file. And trust me, that session is not pleasant.

So what my colleagues and I do to avoid that lecture session is to cut our time. For example if we spent 4 hrs to do research and draft a legal opinion but the budget only allows 2 hours of our time, we enter the remaining 2 hrs under firm time. Problem solved? no...

Every week the system generates this chart which shows our target billing compared to our actual billing, which is also forwarded to the partner. So with us always under representing the time spent on a billable work, the chart will reflect this and it will appear as if we do not have enough work or are inefficient.

Before this we had no issue meeting our billing target and would usually exceed it before the end of the financial year. Now, everyone is behind on our target and are feeling the pressure of having to produce excellent quality work at an even faster pace. *stress*

Raya Cookies & Hydrangeas

This weekend was a Raya cookies baking weekend. We are not baking much this year, just three kinds, biskut arab, mazola and nescafe. I was baking cookies from 9.00 - 3 pm on Saturday and from morning till the afternoon today. Now it's all done :)

Next up - planning what cake / dessert to make for Raya. Have some options lined up...but it also depends on whether Thursday is a half day at the office. If not, don't think I can find the time to do it :P

Oh and the other day I found a hydrangea plant at home! My parents bought it recently and I think its real pretty! :D I just hope it survives...