The rascals

Time flies. Because it seems like it was only last week when DoRaeMon were still small, cute, and adorable.
Now, they only create havoc, and drive me up the wall, going crazy that they are biting my pants/ jacket/ bag/ whatever-else-I’m-holding.
But I reckon they have stopped growing any bigger *phew*, thank god, for if Mon Mon grows any bigger, when he pounces at me, he’ll be able to lick my face~! *Yuckies* (o.O)
It is truly, a love-hate relationships with them these days…

Bailey. I reckon she has mellowed down quite a bit after giving birth and the accident. It’s only fair to say, experiences change a person (or a dog, in this case). And I truly believed she has been through a lot. Abandoned, sick, giving birth, being a mom, accident, more sickness. Seems like she has aged a bit, but still look as adorable!
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Lucky, the big sister. The smallest of the 3 err..puppies, (although still bigger than Bailey), but one helluva chilli-padi (small, yet fierce). Not one to cross. With strangers, however, it’s a separate story altogether. She’s only very fierce when the brothers are there to be her “bodyguard”
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Patchie. The rascal. The naughty one. Runs away from home at every opportunity he can get. And comes home everytime, looking like he went to play with a hippopotamus in the mud. (=.=)”
p/s: Don’t mind the grill and the wall. A result of them scratching and biting the grill/wall every now and then.
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Mon Mon aka Monster
Patchie’s partner in crime. Attention seeker. Dad adores him, for to him, when he pounces on him, he’s giving dad a hug.
(o.O) —> (-.-)”
He has got very nice fur tho.. soft and white…like a nice carpet. That’s why he’s quite nice to hug, when he’s clean, of course.
Mon Mon has also officially made a lil boy cry. Dad’s friend came over with his family, and Mon Mon pounced on the son (wanted to give him a hug i reckon). They were face-to-face…and then the boy started crying. hahahahaah..oppss…i mean, poor boy. Bad Mon Mon. Bad Mon Mon. *shakes head*

Anyway, just an update for those whom are interested to know how my doggies are doing.

Conclusion: If you are wondering why they kept going back to the grill, it’s because dinner was about to be served, and they knew it! =P

When it feels so real

I jerked awake. 4.27am. Too early to get ready for work. I wiped the cold sweat off my forehead. “It just a nightmare..” I told myself. But my heart was pounding hard. I didn’t want to head back to bed. I was scared. Nightmares always have this thing that sweet dreams never had. The dream continues to hunt you down when you head back to sleep.

When I was younger, I have always been a bit of a scardy cat. Whenever I get a very bad nightmare, I would go to the room next door, via the toilet, to where my sister is. I take the toilet route because for whatever reason, I feel safer there, enclosed I reckon. I would knock on my sister’s door, even if it’s wee hours in the morn, and tell her I’m scared, that I just had a very bad nightmare. She usually is too sleepy to really pay attention to me, but she would ask me to sleep with her, on the small single bed, and pats me to sleep, just so she I can sleep with peace of mind.

As I sat there, awake, but tired, I realised I have no one to run to. Mom & dad’s room is too far away (it sure seems so when I’m freaked out), and the room next door’s empty…
I wanted to call her, I’ve thought of calling him, heck, I even thought of calling my dad/mom to pick me up from my room (yes, I was that scared)..just calling someone, anyone to get my mind off the nightmare, but at 4.27am? I would consider myself uber lucky if they didn’t curse and swear at me before slamming down the phone. So, I decided against it.
About 30 mins later, I went back to sleep, consciously thinking about happy thoughts to shut that nightmare out. I dozed off after a while, and sadly, the nightmare really continued…but this time, she was in the picture, and saved me. \(^o^)/ I finally woke up at 7am, feeling rather tired the whole day, due to that. (T.T) (Well, it was a long battle, in my dreams at least)
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I generally enjoy being left alone, to do my own things, have my own bed, my own room, my own place.
But this morning, I really hoped for someone to be next to me, calm me down, and tell me…it’s just a dream..

My Job, My Career

When I first joined the firm, my aim was to stay for 3 years..nothing more, nothing less..
Reason? I needed 3 years to get my CPA status, and the firm was the platform I needed to reach there…or so I think…

With a blink of an eye…ok not really a blink of an eye, for it was after many blood shed (Uncountable paper cuts), sweat (Moving paper files, mountains of them) and tears, my 3 years have passed…
I counted the number of us batchmates that are still in the firm, and although the Jan 9 batch were relatively smaller compared to the rest (with 14 of us), the whole batch managed to pull past the 2 years mark. But since then, many have left, and if my memory serves me right, there are only 4 of us left..myself included.

To the selected (or lucky) few, accounting runs in their blood. They have the unwavering passion for numbers, for whatever reason.
For most of us, accounting was simply the result of an elimination process. When we were done with college, and needed to choose a field to study in university, we eliminate our options…no engineering, no pharmacy, no this, no that…and we ended up with business and commerce…and slowly accounting came into the picture. At least that’s how I ended up being where I am now..
When you graduate, it became “the-right-thing-to-do” to join one of the Big 4 Accounting firm, to practice and kick start our career. Yet, how many of us truly see audit as a potential lifetime career? Most are just in here, buying their time, to increase their market value. Let’s face it. Being in the line we’re in, isn’t the best thing to do in the world.

In audit, you have lil friends. Unlike doctors, we don’t save lives.., unlike lawyers, we don’t save our clients’ asses..most of our clients hate us. For we are, afterall, checking and criticising on their work. Their happiest moment comes when the auditors are finally done, finally leaving them alone, and that’s the cruel truth. We are wherever we are for the shareholders, to ensure that their investment are in good hands, but seriously, most shareholders don’t give a damn about us…not until something goes terribly wrong…and when that happens, auditors are suddenly in the limelight…or more precisely, in the line of firing. When there’s corporate collapse, it’s usually the auditors fault. When there’s fraud, it’s the auditor’s fault. There will always be an expectation gap on what we really do, and what the general public expect us to do. So, generally, shareholders don’t like us too.
We work hard. Very hard. We work and work our heads off, going overtime, suffering from lack of sleep, for datelines, datelines and more datelines. And when we finally come out with the audit reports, how many people out there truly look at them? Chances are, minimal. Most moms used them to wrap the vegetables, start a fire, sell them off as recycle papers, etc.
Appreciation, being appreciated are the last words in our dictionary, if they existed at all..

Recently, I was doing succession planning for a job, making staff bookings. And most people actually told me, “more likely than not, I won’t be here this time next year”..which surprises me, considering these people have been with the firm for less than a year.
When asked for the reason, it’s usually “Life’s too hard. Hours are long, and clients are usually very difficult. I need to manage not only the client, but also the bosses’ expectations. And feeling appreciated, is the last thing that would ever happen, esp. from the clients..it gets into me after a while, and I grow tired. I can’t live a life like that.”
And then they would usually ask “How did you manage to stay for so long anyway?”
Often, when asked, I blame it on the economic condition, but deep down, I frankly do not have an answer.
But I remembered when I was younger, my grandmother once told me. “Life is hard (With exceptions to the lucky few). That’s the brutal truth. Success goes to those who are willing to work hard. Hardship makes or breaks a person. But when you are through it all, there will be light at the end of the tunnel. Believe that. By the end of the day, its those hardships that shape you as a person”. I believed her. Perhaps that’s why. Perhaps I simply do not know where to head to, perhaps I think I am still learning, and hence, still developing myself, perhaps I’m waiting for something bigger. Perhaps.

Someone once said to me, that she sees that I have a good prospect staying in the firm. Another told me I have the looks to make partner ( o.O Whatever that means).
But I guess my point is, regardless of whether I have plans to stay in the firm to make partner (Although I doubt I would ever reach there), regardless of the bad economic condition, regardless of whether is this the career path that I truly want, one thing remains unchanged.
I may not see this as my lifetime career, I may not have the unwavering passion for what I am doing, I may have had my bad times, my down times, times where I feel cornered, I feel suffocated, I feel unappreciated. I may have grown tired of the life I’m living, where I’m practically married to the firm, my laptop, the mountain high documents…
But regardless of what and how I see my work, I never let myself stop learning. Learn about the client, the business, and what makes the business ticks. For regardless of whether I continue to stay, or leave, the knowledge I have learnt would be mine, and no one can take that away from me. I believe I would have much use for it, be it for self-development, increasing my market value, or differentiate myself from the rest.
I would never allow myself to see work as simply work, just a job to earn income. I guess sometimes, we need to look beyond that, that is it more than a job. It’s a career.
And that, kept me going.

Conclusion: Never see your job simply as a job. See it as a career. Never stop learning. For the moment you see your work simply as a job, and stop learning, you stop growing. You just…die.