Count My Blessings

Have I ever told you how lucky I am or I'm the luckiest b*stard in the whole wide world? I believe I have right? You see my chinese name, Kau Mun Seng, given by Grandma does signify something actually. According to her, my name brings the meaning of "a lucky star" or with the "millions of star, only one star shines the brightest - me". Yea, go ahead, tease me, laugh at me, call me Mr. Narcist, and declare me as a boy who is too full of himself for all care. Grandma probably did see something in me where others don't see. Creative and smart old lady eh? I always knew she was smart and she's pretty and beautiful as always although she wears dentures. Hahahah! Man, I miss her terribly and I love her a lot. Wish you were here on my 22nd birthday.

Speaking of which, my birthday isn't all about big party, clubbing - drinking my life away (its not like I can drink anyway), big hooo-haaaa celebrations, nah uh you got it all wrong. I'd rather have it small, dinners or outings with my dear ones especially my family. What more do I want than spending time with my special ones, ohh yes, I'm very family oriented, so screw you if you've got something against that.

Well to start off with, Mommy and Pa gave me Angpao on my birthday. How much? It doesn't matter how much because I know they sayang me a lot and brought us (the whole family) out for dinner in Fridays, thank you very much. Everyone wrote on the card, here's what they say..

Mommy and Pa wrote, "Dear Ollie Kau Mun Seng, Happy 22nd Birthday. A shining star that leads the path way. God's gift. Don't put that to waste but be a BLESSING to others. Always cherish the person who gave you this name".

(Of course I do cherish the person who gave me this name. See even Mommy and Pa calls me shining star *wink*)

My darling Grace JieJie wrote, "Happy Birthday! Guess you don't really need best wishes on your birthday since you YOURSELF have been a "Lucky Star". God Bless you *and she scratched that "you" word out.

(Wahh, seriously damn dengki man! Hahaha! But I know she don't mean it that way, she just knows that I'm a Star, but hates to admit. But I still love you, yes I do)

Joshua wrote, "Dear KorKor, Happy 22nd Birthday and many happy endings in return"
(Thank you adikku, thanks for the wish and there'll be many happy endings of course)

*My dear family members have and always been my backbone, I love them very much*

Next is my dearly and beloved girl, as always Dian Amanda Pereira. Shocked eh? Think I wouldn't post about you huh? She's been always there when I needed someone and when the whole world seems to go wrong, guess who's there. Although things have been rough and we somehow settled on errr things, she never fails to make me happy at the end of the day. Thats Dian. She bought me something which I wanted for so long! Yes, I finally got it.

(Cupcakes to replace cake, cute eh? *smile*)

(Wahaha! did you see that?!! My own Manchester United jersey!! And on top of that, she bought me that fitting thingy where you wear underneath the jersey, something like NikePro only it's not Nike. Thank you!!!!)

Thank you, sayang you always.

Next is Adik, also my best buddy, or also known as my annoying little pest, Nur Azhani MAS/AirAsia. Known her since level 1, damn right, never regretted knowing her. She's way blunt, speaks her mind but at least she's truthful and that's what I appreciate the most. She's caring, truly I tell you, only that she doesn't show it and she's also there when you need someone to talk to. Adik has been special in her many own ways but mind you, she spits (unintentionally), phlegms flying around (unintentionally as well) and way sarcastic (intentional). She's the little Budak Kecik which I somehow sayang quite a lot, tak tau kenapa. Ohh by the way, am also very close to her family especially her mom whom I also regard as Mama and Busu, her aunt and my darling Kak Syazz and my Uncle "Pa" - Mr. Anil. Hahaha. They're like the second family to me. Sayang semua as well. :D. Here's what Adik and her family got me.

(A card, a Puma cap with pretty cool prints [needed a new cap anyway, thanks!!], Puma socks [haha, I know lar my socks koyak] and sweets & chocs to spoil my teeth so it'll look like Busu's, haha, shhh don't tell her though)

Most importantly it was the card with short but beautiful words.

Mama wrote, "To Oliver, Happy 22nd Birthday to you. Wishing you good health, happiness and all the best. Love you always.

(Ahhh, that's Mama who sayang me a lot too. Heh)

Uncle "Pa" wrote, "To Oliver, Happy Birthday and may God Bless you always."

(Hahah, yes I believe with God's blessing, postman won't langgar me anymore right then I don't have to disturb you late night to talk to you about "unfair life", which by the way, I still remember your joke saying you're not very fair either its because you're dark! hahahah!)

My kesayangan Busu wrote, "To Oliver, Happy Birthday and don't be naughty"

(Haha! truth be told, she's the naughty one who can't seem to stop annoying me and bullying me, yet I still sayang her)

Adik Nur Azhani wrote, "Happy 22nd KAU MUN SENG! (Hahah, if only you knew the meaning *wink). You're DEFINITELY OLDER but WISER? Still need a lot of effort!

(Cilakak this Adik, tak habis-habis kutuk. Hahah! Don't kutuk me on my Birthday can ah?!)

My darling Kak Syazz wrote, "Happy Birthday dear Brother"

(Hehe, thank you my Kak Syazz!!)

*There's my second family :)*

Last but not least, my bestie whom I've known since 13, Jamie Wang. Jamie Wang has been a very dear friend to me, started off terribly but somehow as time goes by, we're all good now. I've seen her through sunshine and rain, happiness and pain, oh yes I have. I remember we used to quarrel a lot shouting across tables in classroom and tuition. Time flies really fast eh, and the next thing you know, we're both 22. Anyway thanks a lot for present you gave me, remember I told you it was orgasmic? Hahaha! it still is!

(And you thought you were seeing double eh? This is the long sleeve jersey which you definitely can't get it in Malaysia, or even if you could it quite hard to find it around. Jamie did the sweetest thing by ordering directly from UK and it reached within 5 days. I Loike my Jersey...or..)

(...my two very special jerseys from two special people. Told you that I'm one Lucky B*astard. Thank you!)

*Jamie Wang!!*

I've got wishes from others too, thank you all especially Reshveen and I-Lynn who drop a note together with Adik's card. Am definitely very blessed with these people around me. I love each and everyone of you.
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Now, speaking of being blessed, my blessings yadayada, not to sound so holy and religious, I seriously think that the One above has truly showered me with a lot of blessings which I probably fail to see. Like the recent event that has happened, my team emerged as the Champion of B.A.T's "Bring Your Difference" competition . It was rather shocking to be honest.

I have never entered competitions such as these before and I was rather reluctant to join this competition but Mommy and one of the staff from Career Placement Office were really persistent.

To start of with, I didn't even think that I could have gotten through the interview having to be interviewed by the Senior Manager of Organisational Development, Talent & Leadership of B.A.T. (yea, sounds really scary), Mr. Chen, but I somehow got through. Mr. Chen a really brilliant and funny man told all of us in the workshop that he only interviewed four candidates of which those who lasted at least 20 minutes would definitely gain entry to the second day of the competition.

Ok fine, after getting through the interview, I thought it ends there, it ends on the first day of the competition itself after having to crack a case study, coming up with future plans for the case study and also plans to be executed for the second day (if I got through the first day that is). Well I had very good teammates of which one took the lead, which was a good thing as others were a little blur and not knowing where to start. We had to present the case study after cracking it and I was the unlucky one for there weren't sufficient time for me to present, but I took the last few minutes to present on one of our marketing plans which I think the accessors finds it really amusing. Thank God for that. I got through and onward with the second day. Yay!

(They're in my team for the first day. She's from Taylors, he's from UTM and the other one wasn't around, I think she went back, she's from UM)

(These are the funny bunch of people from the Uni. of Notthingham)

(And these are the top 20 finalist)

Onward with the second day! If you notice there's only 6 male finalist and the rest are all females. Pffttt!~

(See, told you so)

So the second day challenge was executing the whole marketing planned during the first day of the competition and we had to sell Japanese snacks. I had to be the mascot or the person wearing the sandwich board, whatever you call it. It was embarrassing but, ssshhheeesshh, for the glory of my team. Heh.

(Our team were known as the Potato People, and I had to be the Potato Man or Mr. Potato)

The competition ended at 5 p.m. after a day of hard selling. We had closing ceremony in Mantra, Pyramid and we were announced the winner, champion! Wheeee!~. I think the reason we won the competition was because we had different approach of selling compared to the other teams and that was what the competition was all about, being different. Damn, I love my teammates for being so brainy in coming up with those strategies.

(Check out the prize money, weee!~. And those are the Directors of BAT)

(The top 3 teams)

(With the whole BAT team)

Did I tell you that Inti College Subang Jaya rocks! Because we're all winners too! :D

400 Resumes

80 Interviewees

40 Selected

20 Finalist

1 Team (which I'm in) to Rule Them All..Yay!

Told you that I was blessed, and also I got the "fast-pass" award! yay! I don't have to go through series of test, interviews and case study but direct interview with the Directors, make it or break it, to see if I can build my career in BAT. *fingers cross*

Lucky boy I am, Grace JieJie got lucky too (or blessed). She got offered Relationship Manager in Corporate Banking, RHB. Yay! Congrats to her.

Till then, blogging off. Ciao the Meow.