Monday 24 October 2016

Great Leadership with Long Lasting Impact


I am privileged to have met and always be surrounded by amazing people and during this London trip I was reminded why it was very hard for me to leave this country to go back to Malaysia for good. The amazing colleagues and mentors I had here in London.

One of them was this previous boss of mine. Patrick was the first I had met, right after Masters for an interview for a job at CIMB London - he was heading the London Securities office at that time. Scored a job, he became that very trusting and dedicated Boss who allowed me to start relationships with Malaysian Sovereign Wealth Funds in London and he'll back me up at initial meetings. Today, he is more than just that and is an amazing friend to both Aiman and I who never fails to make time for us to check up and offer wise advice to us. I have major respect and love for this amazing ex Boss of mine! I think being able to have that huge respect for your Boss speaks volume of what kind of Boss he is. 

We made time to meet (he even postponed his meeting to the next day and spent the entire afternoon with Aiman and I) and spoke about global mega trends and real hard changes that are coming our way sooner than we think and I agree that not many will be ready for it, but we will adapt InsyaAllah.

Maybank London, you are no doubt in good hands with Patrick leading the team. In fact Malaysia is lucky to have had him in both Banks 😊 Nope, he is not Malaysian Chinese. He's Korean. And he insisted I take a picture with the famous tiger. 

Wednesday 19 October 2016

Awesome Colleagues


I walked into our London office and the lively vibe just made me feel right at home! I mean I've left this place for almost 3 years now and the receptionist still remembers me as this girl who would come into office very happy in the morning. I guess it showed that I loved my job then whilst I was here. 

Went into the trading floor and some of them were still there from my time previously, but there were also new friendly faces and a new head leading the Trading desk out here in London. Man, I'VE MISSED THEM! What did I do to deserve all these, God is too great!

Mickey and Sophia introduced me to their new colleagues before we all headed out for lunch. Yup, they all cleared their schedule so that we could catch up! 

These are half of the team I used to work with in our London office who always had my back at any one time (always made sure I had halal food too!) and they're one of the reasons I looked forward to going to work at 6am every morning. You spend a good amount of time with them and you'll just know that they'll make good company for the rest of your life! Of course I'm remembered as this only Malaysian girl working in a Malaysian bank, always in her own world singing to Disney songs on the trading floor during trading hours whilst everyone is busy screaming.

I used to remember the times when we took clients out for drinks and they'd make sure I have orange juice and fish and chips and funnily enough one time, when the team went through the bill the next day it was a whole long list of alcohol before it came to 5 Orange Juices and since then they'd make a joke that I looked kinda hungover from too much orange juice. 

Man, I LOVE THEM BIG TIME! ❤️

Monday 17 October 2016

London Familiarity


Image result for tower london bridge
Recently we decided to take advantage of the Matta Fair and chose to fly to London. 

Why London many had asked?

There is something so familiar about it that is so special to me personally. Having studied in this busy city for both my Undergraduate and Masters degrees and later on continued to work here made it felt like home away from home. The familiarity of the alleys, the ability to walk without fear across its busy streets, the familiar friendly faces, the familiar rush on the 
tube, everything. 

In fact there was one night when Aiman and I had decided to walk all the way from Holborn to Marble Arch and then hopped onto a bus back to Knightsbridge where we stayed when suddenly I felt stress. I told Aiman, the city feels too familiar that I felt stress for walking out late at night because my body felt like I had assignments to complete and work the next day. Completely forgot that I was on holiday right there (Read: Mandatory leave)! I used to be in bed by 10pm last time (if I wasn't out with clients).

Oh London, you feel all too familiar I could stay here forever and ever!

Monday 10 October 2016

That Blog Name

I often get asked how my blog name ever got so long?

To be honest, it was that one time in Uni when I was bored and was tired of studying so I thought hey why not start a blog. But then I had no name (till today I struggle to give Project names to all the deals I do at work!). When I looked around on my table for inspiration, all I saw were books and books to study and assignments to complete. Clearly this was one of the things that made me want to start writing somewhere else.

My degree.

Economics, Mathematics and Statistics.

EconoMathemathStistician. Get it? :D

Friday 7 October 2016

Hibiscus Leaves

Yup, those hibiscus leaves are believed to be able to soothe down fever and help one get better - or so I was told. So Mika has been getting on and off fever the past week, and finally two nights ago he vomited out all his medication, refused to even hold down anything from water to food to his cute animal biscuits. 

It's true what they say - Grandparents would spoil and do anything for their grandchildren, thank god for them! Definitely God sent/heaven sent. 

So mama and papa actually went out on a little adventurous walk by the roadside to look for Hibiscus. Couldn't find so they decided to walk further up nearer those residential area in Subang. Nope, none too. So Papa suggested "Maybe we should go to the area near the school, because it's a national flower". Off they drove off to a school nearby. NOPE. None either. 

By now, it was already dark, and they probably would look like crazy trespassers trying to get hold of our national flower. Haha I love you Mama and Papa!! *makes me smile so wide everytime I think about it* In the end, Mama found it the next day, by some roadside, which she funnily parked her car, went down and plucked those leaves with her shades on. I'm sure you guys would think that is cute instead of crazy right? That's crazy LOVE right there for her cucu, may Allah SWT continue to bless my parents for being so awesome!

My next question is, is it that hard to find Hibiscus flowers in Malaysia? If so, how can the next generation learn more about this beautiful Hibiscus that previous generations speak about? Sooooo.....where is best for me to go find hibiscus huys?  

Wednesday 5 October 2016

Stressful Business Partners

Oh my goodness, our house is so messy! We've got a pile of laundry undone. 2 pitches to do. A thousand and one emails to reply (sorrry we'll reply soooon!) and we NEED sleep. Ok, maybe not Aiman, he falls asleep even whilst doing work.

So the other day, we had an urgent deadline the next day, but so much more to do the night before. I looked at the couch and Aiman had peacefully gone to sleep, and obviously that stressed me out because he said that he would do the task first thing when we get home, finish up and then only we head to bed (no matter how late that is). Woke him up (he got angry in the process, but I'm used to it), dragged him to the work table, started talking to him and by the time I looked at the laptop, he was already sleeping sitting down facing the laptop.

OH GOD WHY AIMAN WAKE UPPPP?!

Today, we laugh about it because it did look very silly and stressful at the same time and I don't want to go through it again! I'm the kind of person who does not like to do things last minutes eg we get invited to do a pitch, I would have started working on it 3 weeks before. Aiman? 3 days before.

We breathe down each others' necks all the time. Yet, we wouldn't trade each other for anybody else :)

Monday 3 October 2016

Double A Cafe KL - Durian for the WIN!

I'm no fan of Durian (yeah, I should be I knowwwww *cries*)

I don't hate it, but I don't extremely love it either. Hehe... :)

Recently we had introduced BAR TAKEOVER at Double A and the first takeover we had was done by The Skinny Bakers. Man! You should really get their cookies, they're soooooooo gooooooood! A bottle is never enough! (you can of course grab them at Double A too)

What's a Bar Takeover? A partnership between Double A and another homegrown brand who would take over Double A's bar and treat it like their own. So we prepare that platform for them to offer their products to our customers.

What did The Skinny Bakers bring?

THIS.

It was a crazy hit amongst the customers!! I should really start loving Durian or I'll miss out on this. 

The Skinny Bakers Bar Takeover will take place every Saturday in October at Double A from 12pm-10pm. 

Sunday 2 October 2016

Why is this a norm?

Eversince having cafe of my own, I had realised one thing.

Workers in a F&B are most of the time treated very lowly, if there is such a word. Especially so by working class people. And even when servers treat them with the greatest level of politeness.

Why do customers feel that they have the right to speak to waiters/waitresses/servers in such a manner? I fail to understand no matter how hard I try. Is it because customers think that since they pay, they are allowed to speak to servers in any way they feel like? Is it because customers think they're much more atas since they are higher paid working class out there? Is it because customers assume the workers did not graduate with an out-of-this-world degree like engineering/accounting/medicine?

But these servers are humans too. Just like any of the customers. No?

I go to the cafe everyday after work, clad in work clothes...and I get customers (who know of me) coming up to me and saying hi. So one day I tried. I tried going to the cafe in normal clothes and stood straight behind the cashier. What do I get?

A group of customers came in and sat down straight away.

I thought to myself, ok maybe they've never been here before so let me go and explain to them that they are required to place orders at the cashier, make payments and we will send orders to them. As I approached a group of girls (by this time they've open up their laptops so I know they are working people. Some were in work clothes anyway).

Hi there, how are you? *Very big cheerful smile* Over here, we take orders at the front and will send over the food to the table afterwards. Would you like to see the menu?

*glared at me* Erm, we've made reservations under XYZ (XYZ has not arrived at this time but I had taken down this reservation earlier in the day. But why did you not tell me when you entered the shop?)

Oh ya! It's for 6 pax under XYZ, yup. We've actually reserved tables for you but it's this one (points at a table reserved for them because there were a lot of reservations that night)...

...why? Tonight got event is it? What event?? (With a frustrated tone and without even looking at me)

Oh yeah yeah, we're having a different menu for kitchen takeover tonight. It's just an initiative that we are doing, but don't worry we've reserved your tables.

How come we don't know?

By this time I was annoyed. I was talking to her so nicely, yet she was raising her voice because she didn't know there were a lot of reservations that night. And she spoke to me without even looking at me, but instead continued to do something o the laptop.

Main point was, she found out I was one of the owners before she left and whoaaaa I got treated like a queen!

What was that?! Are you saying my staff will be treated very lowly otherwise?

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Once I had witnessed a customer (in work clothes and tie all suited up) speak rudely to my staff about his cup of coffee that I just had to stop him and asked if he had any problems.

His answer was classic..."Yeah la, your coffee doesn't taste like McDonald's coffee"

I nearly fell into the drain nearby from laughing too hard. You entertain me sir :P

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I came to work feeling a little knackered after a busy weekend at the cafe, and the one statement a working person made to me was "Eh easy only righttttt cleaning cafe. How come you so tired from just cleaning the kitchen?"

Very easy, why don't you help me tonight so that I can close the shop faster and I'll get to sleep earlier. Don't bother changing, just come along in your ferragamos and clean the toilet for a start. Those ferragamos are just shoes anyway, you can always afford another.

I looked at her and said "People like you are exactly the customers I don't look forward to at my shop". Sometimes I feel mean saying all these, but sometimes I also think people deserve it.

I've met so many working corporate people who thinks the level of difficulty of working in a F&B business will never beat their corporate job. A server may not have academic qualification as high as you, may not even have fluent english like those working in a corporate job, one may need time to understand your (complicated) orders but I'm sure everyone can find it in them to explain it clearly and look into the eyes of the person serving you when you speak to them.

Never ever treat another human being less than yourself. Treat them like how you want to be treated (like a Queen and King I'm sure). Treat them with respect. Always.

Please guys, do not treat any other person less than you, especially when they have done no wrong to you. Put yourself in their shoes, I'm sure at your own job you wouldn't want client to treat you any lesser too. Be that happy person who makes the world a greater place with a big smile :)))))