My sincere apologies to all my ex-bosses. Since I've always been the hot-headed rebel who riles the rest of the minions into mutiny, I guess God - and the my ex-bosses - have found the perfect way to punish me by placing me in the very unusual position of authority. What sweet irony.You wouldn't know from looking at it but bosses are a very stressed lot. That cushioned swivel chair in the corner office comes with a helluva lot of unseen crap. From balancing budgets to choosing minions for promotion, from office extensions to interdepartmental squabbles. And ...

Just a tip for the wannabe fugitive. It's much easier to disappear in the vast expanse of suburbs and large cities than in a smaller town. In a small town with a close-knit community, it doesn't take all that long before you know most everybody - and everybody knows you. At least vaguely. Everyone you meet on the street starts looking eeriely familiar. Didn't you just see that lady walking by the grocery store? Doesn't the man sitting at the cafe look like the appendicectomy patient last week? Wasn't that the woman who serves lunch at the canteen?Umm... do I ...

Remember that colleague of mine who just dropped her scion off at school? Well she did so insisting that the school doesn't matter at all in shaping a kid's personality.How very odd. I beg to differ. School actually matters. Of course it doesn't matter as much as the home environment but it still plays a significant role. Certainly don't mean the boring cookie-cutter schools that have sprung up in the suburbs recently. I doubt you can tell the difference between generic School A or School B, especially with their shockingly interchangeable names. Seriously. Numbered schools?I'm talking about the older ...

Despite the fact that my schedule's pretty empty these days, there's really not much we can get up to here. We - as in the coven-ish trio exiled over here - Fabulous Felix, Piratin Patty and me. After all, there really aren't all that many cafes, restaurants of stores here. Short of jungle trekking, karaoke-ing or illegal smuggling, we don't really have all that many options for wholesome entertainment. Reason enough that Piratin Patty decided to rush out to get an oven. This way we at least fill our time with something that we can bite on.The Pie Man ...

At least over here. In the city, we are spoilt for choice with dozens of radio stations competing for our attention. Always amazes me that we have bandwidth enough to fit them all in! Just tune in, flick the dial and you'll find a station specific enough to meet the needs of almost everyone. Unfortunately not the case in Miri though. Despite the rumour that they once boasted of having the fabulous Capital FM over here, I have to say that the radio airwaves these days are generally... soporific to say the least. Although the single English-medium station ...

They say after a couple of years, things start to get a bit boring. You've known each other for a while, most of the kinks have been ironed out and it's gotten a lil humdrum. At least that's what I thought. Want this fixed?Then the electric cord I'd bought for the kitchen turned out to be a tad too long. Now don't look for it, there's no wicked innuendo hidden behind those words.Paul : Damn. I need to get a new plug.Calvin : That's no problem. I can shorten it for you.Paul : You can do that?Calvin : Of course. ...

Remember what my uncle once said about the civil service and the private sector? Rice bowls, he said. He likened the civil service to a sturdy wooden bowl, be it ever so humble, while the private sector was a fragile Lalique bowl, apt to shatter at the slightest vagaries of a fluctuating economy. Well today I actually turned down the Lalique bowl.Not that it wasn't terribly tempting to grab it with both hands. Finally Mister Fortune beckoned with promises of endless bounty and yet I firmly closed the door on him. After weighing my present options, I figured it ...

The mystery's afoot, my dear Watsons. Something's been troubling me soon after I received a letter announcing the arrival of a new colleague. Not very long after, the unsubstantiated rumour started going around the hospital that our department's being haunted by an unseen spectre. Fortunately for us, not the creepy ghostly kind with icy claws out to drag us screaming into the bowels of hell. Our phantom's a far more benign sort. Seems this particular ghoul of ours slips in and out of the workplace without any of us knowing, randomly dropping items, letters and assignments on our desks ...

So what has been happening in the country lately? Certainly no need for me to reiterate since the shameful news has been blared loudly ( and embarassingly ) in all the papers around the world. But let me tell you a story.Once upon a time there was a little village. In that village there was a nondescript tin can that they all prayed to. Seems it fell down from the heavenly skies one morning while they were all out in the farms. An act deemed supposedly divine. Hence the prayers offered to the humble tin can. So for years ...

As I feared, it took a mere four days to reach the end of my rope of resolutions. Patience and compassion were my resolutions for the year but I fear I'm hastily running short of both. Especially when it comes to a certain delicate lady recently conscripted into service. Hereby dubbed Milady Malady.Barely half a sennight into her transfer to a certain department, my lady has descended into a monumental fit of vapours brought upon by the unaccustomed stress of intercontinental travel. Oh, her shattered nerves! Seems the act of transporting a mere handful of hatboxes left our simpering ...