The yellow ribbon around the old oak tree

I am now back in Petronas, at my old place where I did my training exactly a year ago. I have to say that even if the people and almost everything else is almost the same, the fact that I am now a staff member rather than an intern, has changed things a lot.

The first day was quite a shocker. I was expecting a full day of talks, briefings, forms to fill, setting up my IT profile and a lot of staring into the blank not knowing what to do. Surprisingly at 8.30 I got a call from my manager that I have to join an external course right away.

It was a whole day course of 'FRS 7: Financial Instrument Disclosure'. Luckily it was not really a heavy course, but crucial to stay awake nonetheless. But I got my first taste of the perks of being a semi-governmental employee. We had a buffet lunch and the spread was huge. From spaghetti to satay, and from teh tarik to DIY ais kacang.

Today was a bit more feet-on-the-ground day. I had a briefing from my manager on my job scope. I think the highlight of the briefing, and probably of the day was when she said '...and this is X, and she'll be your staff'. OMG! I have a staff! How cool is that? I get to ask her to help me out with anything from 'Can you please make a copy of this' to 'Can you find me an invoice from Z supplier in the month of June that was more than RM 20,000 that was printed on a pinkish-mauve coloured piece of paper?Find it, make a copy, file it and tie a yellow ribbon around the old oak tree'

I am such a bad supervisor.

In short, things have been going my way a lot these days. I got the appeal to come back, I got to work with my old department, I passed my June papers, and basically whenever I think I am about to find myself in a knot, somehow something would come up to untangle it soon enough.

I couldn't help to think that this is all a test. After all His tests are much more difficult when the subject is 'Easy Life - 101' rather than 'Introduction to Life's Hardship'. Plus, I always find myself bracing for the free fall after the long uphill stretch on this roller coaster ride. It's like, I know I should be jumping for joy right now, but somehow I have to be careful not to trip and fall.