Work From Home Option

I am grateful that my company introduced a work from home option to office-based employees once a week. Today is the first day that I have made that happen successfully.

To be fair to the company, whenever an employee works from home, he/she must adhere to 2 criteria:

1. Be fully contactable via phone, email and sametime at the stipulated normal working hours of the day.

2. Be able to come back to office or meet customers when needed.

It's almost like working from office, only that on this day, home is the office.

The only difference is I get to see my baby daughter awake in the morning for a bit longer before she goes to her babysitter. And I get to have lunch normally with my family members. And I don't need to get stuck in the traffic jam commuting to and from work.

It's also nice to be sitting in my "home office" in a t-shirt and not having to dress up for work ;-)

Unifi - Internet installation completed at The Domain

Wednesday morning, the TM contractors came as promised. The installation took less than 2 hours, the only problem being they had to buy a longer telephone line to connect the modem to the telephone port. The design of the apartment is weird, the telephone port is not located close to the power socket, so you'll either have to extend the telephone line, or use an extension cable for the power supply.
The whole package came with a free cordless phone (Panasonic), a free TV decoder (for internet TV with 21 channels) and a free modem. I checked the tv programs, it has some Australian channels, some Chinese channels, BBC Travel and BBC Life etc. A good free alternative if you do not want to subscribe to cable tv.
Besides that, I also got my free streamyx zone password, now I could use the wireless internet at any streamyx hotspotz.
I tried out the wireless internet on my computer after the installation, it was really fast. The contractors told me that this system is more stable than streamyx. Unifi is a great idea if you don't mind paying more than streamyx.

Baby Xin and her Punjabi suit

This Punjabi suit is a gift from Baby Xin's nanny, who came back from a holiday trip in India. She is a darling woman who not only bought the suit, but also got a tailor to fit the trousers and modify it so that it is somewhat more fitting. The trousers are still long and needs to be bunched up now, but that's ok, I would want her to be able to wear when she is a few months older.

My baby looks like an Indian princess here.

Hurray for Unifi!

After calling TM again to chase for my streamyx application on the Friday of last week, I was told that I had to wait 3 working days before they can give me an answer as they are searching for solutions. So I waited until Wednesday, but still no news from them. So I called them again on Thursday. The response was the same, there are no more ports and I am on waiting list.
My tenants are desperate for internet access, especially the student who has to do assignments. So I asked the TM 100 teleoperator what other alternatives she could suggest, since TM had no idea how long I have to wait. She said there are no suggestions, I can cancel the application if I want.
So I decided to apply from some other service provider. From the email that Anie forwarded to me from the streamyx reseller, I saw that the reseller suggested that there is a new product called Unifi. I did not know what it was or who it was from, so I visited the website.
To my surprise, it is also from TM! This one is using fibre optic cables (unlike streamyx which is using copper optic cables). There are 3 packages, VIP5, 10 or 20. VIP 5 is the cheapest at 5MB, RM149 per month.
This was even better than what my tenants wanted. Initially they wanted me to apply for the 4MB streamyx service, with each of them prepared to fork out RM50 each. And the best part is, the Unifi teleoperator checked that the service is available now at The Domain, and I don't have to wait for ports. Immediately I made an application over the phone, and everything was settled there and then. When she called me back 30 mins later, I've got my telephone number and an appointment for the TM contractors to install next Wednesday morning.
What I don't understand is, doesn't TM streamyx and TM Unifi talk to each other? How dumb can the TM 100 service be, with no alternatives offered at all? Even at TM Point this was never mentioned.
To those of you with internet port problem like me, check out this website: http://www.unifi.my/

Because I was born to you

Last night I came home from work and my daughter, Yuan, came to me apologizing profusely. That meant she had done something wrong. She told me that she had accidentally pulled the curtain rail off the wall. This is not the first time she had done this. So, naturally I wanted to scold her.
Before I could launch into my lecture mode, she said, "Please give me 1 more chance. I promise I will not do it again. If I do it again, you can throw me out of the house."
I was amused, but didn't show it. I said calmly: "I've told you before not to play with the curtains. At night, you go to bed late, and in the morning when you can't wake up for school, you throw temper tantrums. You are also lazy at brushing your teeth. Now tell me 1 good reason why I shouldn't throw you out of the house now."
She looked at me, and thought for a while and then she said, "Because I was born to you."
This girl is just so good with words...
So I told her to explain to Papa what happened when he got back. Papa must be the handyman to fix the railing now.
But I know there will be many, many more chances that I have to give this girl.

Joyride to Cyberjaya at 1am

Sunday night (well, actually Monday morning), 12am I received a frantic call from one of my tenants. He couldn't get into his room, there seemed to be some problem with his key. I asked him if he tried it before he went out, and he said he didn't. It wasn't locked when he moved in, and when he went out he just locked the door.
Then I realized what happened. I had given him the yard door key instead of the master room key. What a blunder! So there was nothing to do but drive all the way to the Domain and get him the right key. Serves me right for being so sure, and not testing the key first before giving it out. J and I had a 1-hour joyride to and fro, and finally got home around 1.30am. One of the lessons learnt as a landlord!

Playing Board Games

Today I learnt that my boss, a successful career woman, also plays games with her kids at home. Board and card games such as Pictionary, Monopoly, Taboo, Boggle etc.
I, too have 3 games that I bought for my kids: Monopoly, Uno and Mastermind. In my often busy schedule, I neglect and dread to play these board games with them. When they ask me to play with them, I always ask them to play by themselves. I am much too impatient and am always busy doing one thing or another, either household chores or on my computer.
But after today, I am changed. I am afraid that one fine day, the kids won't ask me to play anymore. And that day will come very soon, before I know it. I made up my mind to play a game with them once a week. Today I started to play Mastermind - 3 rounds. I taught them about logical thinking and making educated guesses. I didn't even know they actually didn't know how to play the game even though they've often played by themselves.
I think I'll start with Mastermind and Uno. I don't think I can handle Monopoly yet, the game takes too long and I would be too impatient. Monopoly, I'll leave that to their dad. Later, maybe we'll progress on to Scrabble, Taboo and Pictionary. And I hope that I would be remembered as a mom who played board games by my kids when they grow up.
Post-note: 16 Sept 2010, Yuan read this blog and told me: Don't worry Mommy, I would always want to play games with you. I am so touched.