Me - the Jakun...

Q - Katak apa yang tak pernah tgk matahari?
A - Katak bawah tempurung!

and like a toad underneath a coconut shell I did feel when I went for my Effective Communication Skills in PJ Hilton recently.

The course was organised by NPC and there were about 16 participants - all from different walks of life. There was only one other doctor there and he was like the Head of Department! Yikes, but not the old and baldy type though - the young-ish and good looking-ish kind, haha.

I won't talk about what they were teaching and I must say the second speaker is more like a motivational speaker for Effective Customer Service rather than what they were supposed to convey. and As usual, chinese whispers was done, the one-way and two-way communication demo was done where you had to describe a picture with just words. I volunteered and at least one person got every diagram right!

There was a librarian from Bernama, a guy from the Fisheries Dept, two staff from a local plastic parts manufacturer, two people from another manufacturing company and a few from a local courier service....a serious eye opener and very refreshing.

The two things that I became a 'jakun' to were:

ONE
- the sumptuous, magnificient, way-too-much-food lunch buffet.

Seriously....there must be about 200 types of food there, ok. About 20 types of dessert (three flavours of icecream with 8 toppings to choose from, hot-from-the-grill-crepes with 5 fruits accompaniment, kuih melayu, Indian Gulab Jamun and milk candy, rice puddings, strawberries in syrup, chocolate cakes and cheesecakes), about 100+ hot dishes - Malay, Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Western, more than 10 meats from the grill station, tak termasuk the cold salad and what nots. My jaw was like, on the floor, with drool all over - well, maybe not like that lah. Tapi close though.....hehe.

and as I usually am in unfamiliar situations like these, I stand still, act in the knowing and observe. Plates? Under the table top - check. Should I get rice? What? With all these luxuries? Atkins diet la wehh.... Where is our assigned seatings? Oh, over there - check. Now back to food. A little bit of this and a little bit of that. Baru half of the food hall and plate already full. Finished everything and went for dessert, ignoring plates that were shoved aside with things left uneaten. I remember now why I avoid food buffets.

Five star hotels make me feel small (and that's not an easy thing to do!) - maybe it's the inferiority complex in me? Somehow, survived lunch, made conversation and didn't fall while walking to and fro the food hall.


TWO
- how other people were networking like mad.

Cards were whizzing all over - phone numbers exchanged. I was among the few who appeared unperturbed by all this. Sesungguhnya konsep networking is something so alien to me. Which is why I think I'd be happy being a hermit (as mentioned in my profile).

and then, when we had a five-min presentation to make, while I talked innocently about my trip to India, this guy actually spoke about his Internet-Investment thingy and how by 5 months, he has already made RM100,000 and anyone interested pls give a him a ring (number written on white board)....

Eye Opening, indeed.......