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...

My trip to Kedah

It all started with my boss calling me to her room on Friday afternoon telling me she needs me to go to court in Jitra, Kedah on Monday. The case is not too complex...it involves violation of the Food Act and I just need to do a plea in mitigation (basically ask for a reduction in sentence as the maximum penalty was a fine of RM60K and/or imprisonment).

The other thing I had to do was check how to get there. Found out that there were very limited flights to Alor Setar. Had no choice but to go on a Sunday afternoon and catch the flight back on Monday night. Which meant that my Sunday was gone and practically the whole Monday too. But I was prepared for it. Brought my office laptop with me. So long as I have internet connection, I can connect to the office server from the hotel room and work from there after I'm done with the court case.

Thank goodness the next day is Merdeka holiday so can wake up late and relax the next day.

When I arrived at the court in Jitra, I thought it was really like no other. Sort of in the middle of nowhere...even the cab driver said "Tulah pakcik dah cakap dah, mahkamah ni tengah-tengah hutan" I was like...uh oh...how am I going to get a cab back to Alor Setar! Luckily the cab driver was nice and said I can just give him a ring once I'm done and he will come and get me. Cool!

Went in to the courtroom and saw a guy in black and white and assumed that he was a defence lawyer too. Plus I saw that he had the Food Act with him so I thought he was handling the case before mine. Tried to ask him a bit about the court procedures (cause every court is different) and felt so blur...I couldn't understand his thick northern malay accent!! So I just nodded and pretended to understand what he was saying.

When my case was called up, this lawyer stood up and introduced the case. He was the public prosecutor!! Luckily I didn't talk about my case...imagine that! Anyhoo, proceeded with the mitigation and got the fine down by about 90%.

All in all, I would say that this is an experience to remember!

Green light for leave

I'm planning to take about 1 1/2 months of leave at the end of the year to get married but didn't know how to tell my big boss.

I told my other boss the other day and she was totally okay with it but just advised me to give my big boss a heads up since she would be going on maternity leave at the end of the year.

Why it is so hard to approach my big boss is that she is always very busy. It is often very difficult for me to even get 5 minutes of her time to review a piece of urgent work what more discuss a non urgent personal matter. I also wanted to make sure that I catch her at a good time so that she would approve my leave. The last time I wanted to take 3 weeks off before joining the firm as an associate she negotiated it down to 2 weeks :P

But today I told myself I have to tell her soon. November is not too far away.

So when I saw that she was back from her meeting, I approached her and asked her whether she had a minute as I would like to discuss my leave. She said sure and I told her my plans. Amazingly she was totally okay and just asked me how long, from when to when and when will I be back at work.

After pondering it for a bit she said with a smile "okay, if you gotta go, you gotta go" and then she said that she would send out an e-mail to my other team members so that no one else takes leave...ooops..sorry guys! hehehe

I'm so relieved and happy!! :)

Shopping at KLCC

Today I decided to go to KLCC with Azmir to look for things for our hantaran. I was thinking of getting a nice clutch or evening bag for one of the items. I remembered some time ago seeing a nice dark purple one at Marc Jacobs so I decided to swing by the store. Unfortunately it wasn't there and there was nothing that I fancied.

So after walking floor after floor looking at things, I decided. Today is going to be the day that I finally get the Burberry Bag hehe

But before that we passed by Coach and saw this cute lilac bag. So we stepped into the store to check it out. I think the size would be nice to put on a tray for the hantaran and I really like the colour and the design. Not flashy or loud, but nice and simple. But hmmm I have to ponder for a bit more just in case I find something nicer.

So next stop, Burberry!

I saw the bag I wanted and straight away went for it. Even though I already tried it on on 2 different occasions at The Gardens, I tried it on again to get Azmir's opinion hehe

Verdict: Get it! :)

They didn't have the other one for me to compare as it was sold out already :P Oh well, I guess it doesn't really matter since this one actually looks better on me when I try it on.

So I am now a happy bird :)

Annoyance at its peak

It all started last week when I found out from my boss that one of the legal executives identified me as one of the culprits of giving her lots of work but not recording it properly into her assignment list and hence leading to her missing deadlines for other lawyers' assignments.

I was like wth??!

Firstly, I don't even give her much work because most of my files are subordinate court matters and secondly, when I do give her work, it is for the simple things like writing a letter to the other side to inform them of the next date. A letter which should only take FIVE minutes to draft at most! As I was venting out my frustration of being falsely accused, I am really grateful that my boss understood where I was coming from and did not seem to buy the legal executive's excuse.

After this I told myself that I'm going to stay as far away as possible from her if I can help it. If she still blames me, then I say, show me some evidence!

So today, there was another incident.

The same executive prepares the court attendance list for each week. For tomorrow I have been listed to attend a full day trial at the Sessions Court. Okay, that is fine. But then, suddenly this morning she sends me an e-mail saying that there are no pupils that have locus to attend one of the mentions in the afternoon and therefore she listed me to attend.

So what now? I can suddenly be at two places at one time?? It's called common sense people! At the very least, if you are planning to double book someone for an appointment, you should check to see if they are okay with it, right? And plus when I checked the list, I can see that there are other lawyers who would be free to attend.

Cannot tahan already so I instantly called her up and asked her, "Why am I listed to attend in the afternoon? I have a trial listed to go on the whole day. I can't go for a mention when I am in the middle of trial."

She then tried to give some excuses and said "Well if you can't go, then the only alternative is to see who else can go or arrange for the other side to mention. This is your file right so..."

Hold on? My file? Since when? Without allowing her to finish her sentence and making no attempt at hiding my annoyance I simply said "No, this is NOT my file", indicating that it is for her to sort it out.

I'm usually not bothered by small things like this and will still be very diplomatic about it. But if my being nice is only going to be taken advantage of, that is when I draw the line.

Burberry Bag

It all started when they had this nice Burberry bag on display at Isetan. Everytime I go out to buy food for lunch I would see it and it started to really grow on me. Of course that time I was still a chambering pupil and thus could not afford it.

Since last year was a good year for me in terms of work, I figured that I deserve a bit more pampering :P So I decided that I would get myself a Burberry Bag :)

So the other day I went to try on some of the bags with one of my colleagues after work and narrowed it down to these two:

BLACK AND GREY CHECK LOWRY BAG

SMALL SMOKED CHECK TOTE BAG

The first day the second one looked better and the second day this first one looked better! So now I'm in a pickle. The price difference between the two is RM500 and at the moment the more expensive one is the one that looked nicer on me when I tried it out.

Decisions...decisions!

My rather odd dream...

I had a very strange dream last night. It started with me cycling to work! When I finally reached the Gardens carpark I was suddenly in a pickle on where to park because I can't seem to find the bicycle parking area :PAfter a while of checking the different levels of the carpark, I finally found an area where there were other bicycles. But when I wanted to leave my bicycle there, it occurred to me that I don't actually have a lock. So anyone can just steal my bicycle.

As I was pondering what to do, all of a sudden Jonie, Audrey and Sheryl were in the carpark too. Since it was only 7 am in the morning, Jonie suggested that we all go grab breakfast together before work.

So we all hopped into a cab and when the driver dropped us off, we were at a cafe in Paris! I was very excited to be in Paris because, amongst other things, I got to use some of my french, which has probably gone very rusty by now. So I asked the waitress for the menu (in french) and she tells me that they only have 2 menus and they are being used by other people so I will just have to make do without it and order. As she was waiting for me to place my order I was thinking like..how the heck am I supposed to order without knowing what is on the menu?? :P

But then I saw that Jonie was already ordering some juice and Audrey was pointing at a dessert in some poster behind her, indicating to the waitress that that is what she wanted. I figured nevermind, I will just order some famous french pastries that are likely to have at any cafe. I ordered un cafe noir sans sucre and just as I was about to decide on what to eat, I woke up...