BMPIL Writing Challenge - My Current Morning Drink

Jun 27, 2021

I finally got the keys to my new place yesterday and today, my current landlord bring peoples for house viewing while I am still in the house. Did I told you that the peoples were male and that I wasn't informed anything about it. I keep having mixed emotions with her.


Anyway, my morning drinks were variation of coffee. Sometime, probably once every two months, I won't feel like drinking coffee and make milo instead. I have cereal drinks as well. I only make a cereal drink if I feel like having some kind of food but I will still make a cup of coffee. Other than that, I usually only drink coffee for breakfast. It's not healthy folks. Just putting it out there.







I used to only drink 3 in 1 coffee, specifically the IndoCafe ones, since my degree years. I don't like Nescafe. I feel like it is too aromatic as compared to its actual taste. IndoCafe have stronger caffeine and a whole lot cheaper so it easily became a daily drink. 


However, I don't drink much 3 in 1 coffee nowaday. I somehow manage to build this hate toward the "instant" taste. Weird isn't it. But I still have Aik Cheong 3 in 1 coffee cause sometimes I do have sudden urge for 3 in 1 coffee. 


I do own a simple coffee machine but I hardly uses it. I only ever use it if I feel like drinking a good black coffee with sugar only. This is my excuse to splurged on a good finely grind coffee beans. There's a Jaya Grocer nearby that have a variety of coffee grind so I'm making it my mission to try as much as possible. My current grind is from Starbuck. The aroma is so good and I'm loving the sleek taste so much. I also notices recently that Speedmart started to have this exact type in stock. 


Other than that I just make one using instant coffer powder. Same like my coffee grind choices, I was going to try as much instant coffee brand at our Jaya Grocer here as well. My last brand was Davidoff. I was too lazy to go there when my Davidoff finishes so now I have a small packet of IndoCafe instead. I made this with either condensed milk or sugar. Sometimes I added creamer with the sugar. If I make my coffee using my coffee maker, it will be black with sugar only. 


However, recently, the most amazing thing happen with my coffee drinking habit. I was introduced to Frenché Roast instant coffee, specifically the cold latte ones. I drank this almost everyday. Creamy iced coffee in the morning is a true bliss. 


I'm thinking of buying an espresso machine. But to do that, I need to somehow get rid of my current coffee machine. It was cheap so I don't feel like going the trouble to sell it. I probably can just give it to anyone but the problem is I can't meet anyone during PKP. I'll rethink about it once my craze for Frenché Roast ended.

BMPIL Writing Challenge - How Last Night Went By The Hour

Jun 26, 2021

Let's get this written as simple as possible. If I'm ever going to finish this challenge, I need to be more straightforward and lessen the depth of my commentary. Since this challenge needs me to go by the, let's write it by hour then. I'll start from the moment I finish my work which is at 8pm. Pharmacy has to be closed by 8pm during PKP or else we'll close by 10pm.





8pm - This is the few times we actually managed to finish everything and clock-out exactly at 8pm. I drove back home and arrived around 825pm. 

830pm - I was so lazy these days. I simply lay on my bed scrolling through TikTok and Instagram 

Sometimes after 930pm - I started to feel a bit hungry. Since I went back early, I made a point to cook something for dinner. I usually cooked as soon as I got back but I got too lazy last night. I decided to start writing this challenge instead but on my phone. 

Sometimes after 11pm - I was decently hungry and went downstairs to cook some fries. I usually just need some small meal but still it wasn't good to eat that late. I took a quick shower I went to bed right away afterward without publishing the post. I wanted to do the final editing on my laptop and then publish it but it was getting too late and I decided to just do it tomorrow. 

1am - I can't sleep and keeps on scrolling things on my phone. I only get really sleepy around 1am. This is why I shouldn't eat that late.






Turns out that the magnesium supplement I was eating really does have grogginess as a side effect. That does make sense as I wasn't eating well for the longest time so my body probably in dire need of that magnesium. I tried to eat the supplement earlier and the grogginess lessens by the day. If you have trouble sleeping, why not give magnesium a try!


I also notice that my digestion went somewhat smoother in the morning even without my morning coffee. Turns out magnesium works in such a way too. 



BMPIL Writing Challenge - My Current Netflix Watching List

I think this writing challenge is really working out as I am more aware how days have passed. I'm on my fifth days already and this is such a fun topic to write. I'm a genius really coming out with this challenge.


I hope there are more anime on Netflix. I love watching anime dearly. I started watching anime during highschool and stop watching much during my degree years and only recently pick it up about two years now. I got bored too easily with drama so the hypeness in anime really does wonder with my attention span. 





Moreover, I am more of a supernatural and sci fi kind of person and anime just brings out the best out of this two genre. I also can't do any "slice of life" kinda of series anymore especially those with love arc. I do watch plenty of this kind of show, mainly k drama, during high school but now it just bores me. This then leaves me with such little choice of drama show. With this being said, my current list are almost all being anime. If I found any drama series that I liked, I usually just got so invested and finishes it quickly. The last series that I've finished on Netflix was Ragnarok. Others includes Stranger Things, Altered Carbon and Diableros. I tend to take forever to finish an anime series though. Apart from this, I just watch movies. 


I want to show a screenshot of my Netflix but it is not accurate at all. Most of my recommendation are k-dramas because my cousin uses my profile to watch those. I guess she watches it more frequently than me so each time I opened it, it usually shows her watching history instead of mine.


Ok, enough introduction, let's get into it!

Jujutsu Kaisen

I just have to start with this one. It was only recently been on Netflix and I had to pirate it previously. I always love a good supernatural anime and JJK just works so well especially since it is based on a more current timeline. I'm loving with their sorcerer and curses world and I totally lose it when one of the character says that his favourite actress was Jennifer Lawrence. It have a good background story that balances with the action part thus allows me to understand the characters better and then be all hyped up during action scenes and just be "yass, that's my guy!". The humour is so well done too and the characters were presented so well that I just love everyone even the bad guys. Bonus point there are a lot of hot characters!




I won't watch anime with funny looking characters like One Piece. I have this principle that is, if I'm giving an effort to watch any anime series, it might as well have lots of good looking characters.

Psycho Pass

I got interested in this since it have the same concept with this movie called Minority Report. That movie leaves such an impression on me but I never got around to actually watch this anime until this one TikTok video came on my For You Page. It just shows this scene where the main character looks all cool and super hot and I'm like this is the sign I've been waiting for.

It has a good plot but a bit too serious for my liking so I don't really rush to finish it. But I still loving the sci fi setting and characters (albeit all being so uptight) so I'll definitely still finishes it.

Haikyuu!

I'm currently on my fourth season so I guess it was too late now to hold onto my principle to not watch any sports themed anime. I watch few sports themed anime during high school and when I pick up anime back this time around, I made a point not to watch this genre anymore. Firstly because it gets too technical-ish and secondly because I just think I have enough of this "this sports is my life and I'm going to give my everything to it" and then everyone become so sentimental about it while I keep on having this nagging voice inside me saying "it's just a ball". Plus, I hate the tense that came during a match lol.

I only watch this because my sister was adamant that it is so good eventho I told her I'm done with sports anime. She told me that Haikyuu is different and honestly I shouldn't listen to her since she's still new in anime and her previous anime was according to my viewing history. 

Anyway, it wasn't bad per se. It was just not my thing anymore. It got good humor, really tense matches (not good for my heart at all) and by including many teams from other district into their storyline, it made it more interesting. I saw someone saying that the reason Haikyuu was so famous is because there's always a character for you. Being a simple high schooler made it more laid back and just lovable. 




I was so done during the second season and decided not to continue it afterwards but it turns out that the entire third season was this important match with this team that was implied from earlier on during season one so now I just have to watch everything.

Devilman Crybaby

I watched this randomly with my sister. I like to spent my time at home watching and hyping over anime with her. I think we were all caught up with Attack On Titan and decided to watch any random anime. This was during the end of the second PKP. I didn't continue it afterwards and only decided to catch up last month. The reason I decided was that I needed a distraction from the secondhand embarrassment I was watching on Haikyuu. 

I don't like watching secondhand embarrassment in any kind of shows. This is why I don't watch Mr Bean. 

Devilman Crybaby animation was done by this studio called Science SARU. This isn't a more popular studio and they uses this hybrid of hand drawn and digital animation technique. Their animation style combined with the manga style is why I still remember to continue watching it. I'm not sure how to explain it but it's just interesting and it also made the whole story really more captivating.





 
I'm also not sure how to explain the plot. It is a mashed of both supernatural as they play with the theme of the society getting sick and turning into evil demon and then the sci fi part are more on the gadgets used. The plot also have these pure characters that turns into demons, play around with graphic content that includes death, sex and drugs and then have one the main character being morally gray. The dark cinematography looming throughout the entire series is such a vibe too.

Vincenzo

There are so many type of k drama out there and I tried to watch some especially those that have supernatural themes but I still got bored as they will still includes all the "living a daily life" things. I mean I am a living person already, I don't need to watch how this powerful witch was all sad and misery because life has mistreated her.

I got such high hopes with Hotel Del Luna.

Anyway, I watched this series for three reasons.

The first one being, I still need to watch more kdrama. I keep on feeling that not liking kdrama in general is such an uneducated opinion so I need more experience in it before continue to not liking it. Does that make sense? This is the very reason why I started to listen to BTS and ended up really liking them. I don't want to not like something for no valid reason. Furthermore, the choices for kdrama are becoming more variable so I was determine to try and find if I actually like anything.

The second and third reason are more basic. The second one because the main character was Song Joong Ki. I don't watch korean drama but I do know Song Joong Ki were among the more popular ones so I wanted to see how he acts. I tried Descendants of The Sun but it just bores me. The third one because it was mafia themed. Knowing k drama always does a good job in the accuracy of potraying their theme, I  was so curious to see how the mafia part was going to be done. The first few episodes was quite boring though but I still pull through until the main story arc started and it turns out to be fun. It feels good to have one kdrama that I actually like.

I love how Vincenco does speak Italian, all those fancy suits which of course is important in mafia kind of shows, having fighting scene although it feels like a bit too try-hard to make Vincenzo look the coolest, all kind of family dynamics and the use of all the plaza residents characters in the storyline is just the most creative plot. 

I am still not as hyped as compared to watching my usual kind of drama series but I do want to finish it. Plus it is so fun to finally get to experience this unique quirkiness and humour that came with kdrama characters and the more professionally done product placement.

But then I won't continue watching it if they have another season, which I know they won't. Thank god. 

That's it! I should do an alternate list where I told you guys about the shows that I started and I just gave up because it wasn't interesting. That would be fun.


BMPIL Writing Challenge - What Did I Do At Work Today

Jun 25, 2021

I have this frozen chapati that I've mistakenly bought thinking that I've grabbed the paratha ones and it was bugging me how it doesn't taste the slightest like a chapati. Turns out I used too much heat. Also, it was a bit too thin. I miss having a good chapati.


Oh ya, I decided to train myself to be more direct with my writing. I know I always have this habit to ramble too much and not being able to be more refined in my writing. Anyway, Nanami Kento is so hot and istg he was based on Mads Mikkelsen which make a lot of sense. Plus why didn't I start writing earlier, I'm bound to only finish this somewhere after 12am.







I had my two days off on Tuesday and Wednesday so although today is Thursday, it does have that Monday vibes to it. My weekend off privilege was put off for a while in order to cater to the new hire. 


My shift started at 11am until 8pm today. The other staff was having her day off so there were only two of us today. There were two suppliers who had delivered their stock and also a bunch of other stock from HQ that came in during my days off. I went on checking out those first. I'm always excited about getting new stock. I make sure the items were arranged well, tweak some arrangements here and there and reconfirm some stuff with the staff. I make a point to ask some stuff and point out things to see if she understand how things were done. 


Apart from that I also checked the delivery order for asnaf that we did. Our pharmacy is a panel pharmacy for zakat. I've settled everything before my two days off and what was left is for the asnaf's guardian to pick up the stuff. It was their second time but somehow both of the times they came in is when I was having the day off. I hope they don't feel bad not being able to meet the actual person who manages their order #lol. 


Since we deal with different departments for different parts of the shop's management, it can be a hassle to confirm things. I always made a point to Whatsapp any related people earlier during the day so that I can get replies before their office hours ended. For today I need to clarify about some poster and some points about next month's rosters. I only call when it needs urgent attention or if I think I needed to discuss verbally first before texting them the details. 

These look like a lot of things but it took only about half an hour. I then went out to do some business at the bank. The operating hours at the bank have been cut shorter during this PKP and it was so annoying as they needed to cut out some services too which include depositing coins. I can only get coins to change at the bank if people can actually deposit those first. 

When I went back to the shop, there's a sales representative already waiting for me. It was our Hurix's supplier. He had already gone through all of our Hurix's stock and even made a list of stock that he suggested for us to get complete with the quantity. That was such a good approach I give him that. We talked for a while as he explains some products to me. There are some new items and one of them is this herbal syrup for kids meant for increasing appetite. He told us that our HQ will order it for all of the branches and I forgot to confirm with HQ if they actually will. Hurix's product always has good flavor and herbal-based appetite enhancer does look promising. I also returned some close expiry stuff so then he issued us a credit note.

There was another sales representative who came not long after the first one went back. But he seems in such a hurry. He manages Gynita products. I'm glad he was such in a hurry because apart from their vitamin C, the other stuff hasn't really been selling much and I don't really feel like talking about it. He gives me a sample of their heatiness drink like those Air Cap Badak but it tasted better than 100 Plus. It was called Icezon Bodycool and you need to make it yourself simply by mixing it with water. I love how it came in a sachet thus making it easier to carry around. I love 100 Plus so this is a big thing for me.

Why am I doing product reviews now? Be more objective and refined Afifah!





Anyway, it wasn't like I meet the sales representative that often. These only came in after they went to HQ since HQ is so close by to us. There are also those who approach us to promote their product and I usually just listen to their explanation a bit and then explained that purchasing decisions were done by HQ and proceed by giving them the contact information of the actual person in charge.

I also spend some time explaining stuff to the new staff. It was easier for me to tutor her when the other staff wasn't here. She is much slower than the other one so I always feel like I need to work at this medium speed when there are the two of them but then the slower ones still didn't grasp the point well and I think it bores the other one. So with that, I take advantage of being only the two of us to kinda refined whatever I have thought her and take a slower approach. I thought her how to sell some products and since we did some product returns, I then taught her how the product return procedure goes by. I also give some pointers on how to address customers better and what she needs to improve.

In between those, since it is the end of the month, we're doing the stock order. I did some quick stock checking while ordering new stock for next month.  It was a bit tedious and somewhat time-consuming as I need to closely cross-check our current stock first. What happens is that there is this issue of always not getting the stuff we ordered. To cater to this, we did ordering every two weeks. 

With this method, for those stock that we didn't get, we can try to order it from the other supplier on the next ordering. But since the gap is too close by, there's a chance some stock not even arrived yet when the next ordering came in. That is why I need to closely cross-check our stock and since the ordering was done more frequently, I always have mixed memories of what I have ordered or what I have not yet ordered. Thank god this two weeks ordering system wasn't done on all of suppliers or else it will be an even slower process. 






When this kind of days came, it was just more time for me being on the laptop. I guess it was because of my Monday-ish blues since I was being too slow and can hardly focus. I did some and then had my one-hour break. I make some fried rice today but I usually just buy food. After that, I continue with ordering but I was still being so slow. I even took frequent breaks lol. I just gave up somewhere around 5pm and focuses on training my new staff.

The customers are still slow due to PKP. This isn't looking too good for our sales target at all but we did our best with the ones that came in. I'm not going to lie that being able to get home by 8pm is such a joyful thing reaching sales target or not.

That was it. It wasn't this much eventful usually. If I didn't have much to do I will try to train the staff by doing worksheets and discussing their answer afterward. They have a better grasp now for me to start giving my lesson in slides which will cover more stuff. Apart from that I will just check my stock and identify any slow-moving items or if there are things that I better offer to other branches. If there are plenty of customers, I will usually just chill with my phone in between customers as I can't really finish anything with people who keep coming in.

BMPIL Writing Challenge - Three Words To Describe My Job

Jun 24, 2021

There are 35 minutes left before midnight. I should be comfortable on the bed and ready to sleep but I can't put this off. Especially not when I'm moving out in a couple of days which might cause me to be busier and probably ending up not being able to write.


I kinda want to put myself to write daily as much as possible.


Some unrelated note. I've been spending the last hour trying to do a new pinboard for my sidebar and I wanted it to be anime-themed but I just can't find the right pictures so I made a chibi one instead. Also, this is actually the fourth-day topic, not the third day. I switch the third topic to tomorrow since the topic was what did I do today at work but I was having today and yesterday off. I decided to change it so it will be written from a more accurate perspective.






Before I go into those three words for today's challenge, let me give a short explanation about my job. This is my first time being a retail pharmacist and I've done this for almost eight months now. It's a chain business and usually in this case the pharmacist will also be the branch manager in which I am. I work according to shift - either morning shift or evening shift and have the weekend off. There are two staff under my supervision. The three words I choose to describe my job would be - retail, responsibilites and social.


Retail


A business setting is nothing like working in a government hospital. My clinical knowledge from my government experience does help but I still need to learn more. I needed to learn more to help me detect the signs and symptoms before suggesting a medicine. There are more choices too. Sometimes I'll discuss with the customer the options that we have and then they can decide which will they try. Of course, I will make a point to show which will work best though. 


These in turn also affected my stock inventory. Even tho it is a chain business, I still have much control regarding my branch stock inventory. For that, I need to know the trend and also keeping a tab of stock movements. 






It also challenges my interpersonal skills as I needed to be able to detect what kind of customer that I'm dealing with and what's the best way to approach them. It's challenging and it keeps me on my toes. But it can be super boring during slow days like during the whole Ramadhan and this PKP. As the customer lessens, the stock movement decreases as well. I just don't have much to do.


Responsibilites


As I am actually the branch manager, I was left on my own managing the pharmacy but I was blessed that I didn't actually do much as others might need to especially the more technical part. The technical parts were all handled by the headquarter - ie utilities, POS system, ordering with the supplier, logistic, and even dealing with a sales representative and do all those researches before deciding a supplier. But that was the technical part, the sales, training the staff, ordering monthly stock (we just sent our ordering to HQ and they will do the rest) and making sure the pharmacy is actually running is under my responsibilities. 


It was nothing like this when I was in the government hospital. I do have my own portfolio but it was repetitive and dull and having no chance in the near future to be needing to do other things. Dealing with the same thing, especially a non living thing day in and day out was taking such a big toll on me. I was on the verge of burnout not because of how tiring the job physically but how it is mentally. This job opportunity came just right on time. The newfound responsibilities gave me more sense of purpose and satisfaction. 


Social


I'm not a social person. My friends thought that I was being funny when I say this because they see me as someone who is easy to be with. But I tend to withdraw from people and only approach them as needed. You know when you feel like you need to talk to alleviate an awkward environment? I can do well in this situation but I usually just choose to keep quiet. This will of course affected how people be around me.


I think of being social as both my personality and also a skill. What this job does is that it brings out a different aspect of being social as I am constantly meeting new persons. Not only that, we've been having some regulars and that requires a different approach in socializing too. Including the staff at the headquarter, more direct contact with the managing directors and also the fact that I have trained seven sales assistant now, all of these unlocks more aspect in my social skill. I have actually taken it as a challenge. 






As of recently, I take it as a challenge to have an individualized approach in training my staff. Especially the younger ones. I used to have this idea that I need to train them all the same way and the slow one should just pick up. I restricted my social approach during tutoring and thought they are old enough for me not to spoon-feed them. I think this has affected how comfortable they are with me. I guess the ones who better suited to that approach are more comfortable with me. But now I tried to understand them better and modeled my social approach differently with the hopes that I can still tutor them effectively and they can still be comfortable enough with me so that we can have a better working environment.


I hope there aren't too many errors in this post cause my eyes are literally blurry right now. I'll proofread this later.



BMPIL Writing Challenge - What I eat today

Jun 23, 2021

I was planning to write this yesterday morning but since I'm having the day off, I thought that I can just wait until the day ended and then writes all about it. I forgot. haha.


So let's hope I'll write both yesterday's and today's challenge today. Here is the second topic of "Being More Present in Life Writing Challenge" - what I ate today.





I should've taken pictures, don't I? But it's okay, there's a reason why I keep using stock photos and it is because it easily fits into my blog's aesthetic and not because I'm too lazy.


I was having the day off, so I made a point to cook as I needed to finish whatever was left in the kitchen as much as possible before moving out of this house. I guess my current landlord is suffering some loss as she can't rent the rooms to students anymore and now focusing to rent the place as a whole house instead.


I remember waking up and wanted to drink a simple iced 3in1 coffee. I got Aik Cheong one as I kinda like it when I drink it at this Airbnb we went to before PKP starts again. I haven't bought 3in1 coffee for the longest time. I somehow grew to hate this one taste that I can't exactly pinpoint what but still there are times I simply crave one so I bought this remembering that I liked it well when I drank it there. This was one of those times. Also, I wake up feeling refresh too. Not as groggy as I have complained in my previous post.


I cooked some fries as well and that was my breakfast. I wasn't that hungry so I tidy up around the kitchen and also cooked some rice porridge. I literally just put stuff into the electric pot and leave it to cook. The rice porridge had an egg, sausages, carrots, daun sup and flavoured with ginger and those maggi cukup rasa seasoning. Then I had my so-called breakfast and continue to clean some more stuff in my room and also the bathroom. I took a shower afterward and I make another glass of that iced 3in1 coffee. It was around 2pm that I was decently hungry and ate that porridge. I have some A&W that I decided to just finish it while eating the porridge. It was left in the fridge for so long but I feel too guilty to just throw it away.





Then I went out to check out new places. One of them is at this serviced apartment. I love the idea of living in a service apartment but then I don't like the house. The pool looks so nice though. The other one is a landed two-story house that is so close to my work. I already paid a booking deposit for this one. 


I decided to get grilled corn as I was close by to this place that I always go but the corn was undercooked. It was so disappointing and just sad but I still finish it. On the way back, I have this nagging urge to get some more caffeine and decided to just get an iced Americano from Mcd. It was a Tuesday afternoon but there is still a long line and I think I finished a whole episode of Haikyuu waiting for my turn. I feel like I need to make use of the long waiting so I bought Yuzu Cream Cheese Pie as well. It was my first time eating it. The combination of yuzu and cream cheese is good but my days of eating fried pie have long gone now.


I went back home and ate the pie with the Americano while watching Jujutsu Kaisen. I loved this show so much and purposely watching it slowly cause I know I will hate it when I finish it and need to wait another year for a new season. I fried some more fries and have the leftover porridge as well for dinner. I don't finish the porridge but then my brother made a group video call and I tricked myself into slowly eating it while chatting with them. 


I really did drink three coffee in one day. 


In one day that was my day off.

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