The Reluctant Engineer

Sunday afternoon, I flew by Malaysia Airlines down south to a customer’s data center for a system upgrade task. The task was supposed to resolve a system availability problem faced by the customer ever since February 2006.

I took the assignment half heartedly, mainly because the task had to be performed within a very short maintenance window – 1 a.m till 5 a.m. I just hated short downtime, why couldn’t I get 2 long days to settle things? Although I knew damn well that minutes of downtime can cause hundred thousands of ringgit loss to the customer, but WTH…. My task was supposed to be a preventive measure taken to ensure that the system will be 99.98% available in the future, so that the customer can avoid the loss of transactions worth billions of ringgit! IT world is filled with injustice and illogical decisions.


The eerie entrance to the customer's data center.


The empty office at 5 a.m. I was alone there, when the guys went for ciggy break.


Watched the sun crept in as we dragged out sore limbs to the car after the maintenance job.




Secondly, (huuu huuu huuu!) I just added new ‘wood’ element to my laman and only got the chance to enjoy it for 20 minutes. Hmmmm, what a good excuse not to leave home. Waz1f was the one insisted that I buy the garden furniture. Although I’ve been contemplating on buying them for years, this time I didn’t think; just grabbed them, put in the trolley and went straight to swipe my just-recently-cleared Credit Card. Mr Hubby chipped in later (he gave cash.. hehehe!) The children’s reaction later, when I put the garden chairs and table at the patio, was priceless. They were screaming, ‘Jom kita main kat sini! Mak, nak makan kat luar ni! Mak, kenapa tak beli 4 kerusi? Mak, nanti beli bangku yang panjang tu!’ Both of them were not that excited when they got their first bicycles. They stayed and played on the patio until long after dark. My kids are the outdoor (and nocturnal) type, I can see that now!




The rare no-fighting moments of the Dynamic Duo.


To add more to their uncontrollable excitement, Mr. Hubby’s friend came that night bringing two of his three kids. Waz1f and Shawq1 were almost hysterical seeing their friends came. ‘Shahm1! Jom main sini! Ada kerusi baru!!’ Yeah, the whole neighborhood heard that, thank you Waz1f! So, the four of them played there for almost an hour, and I didn’t watch most of AF5 concert as they ordered iced Milo, grilled chicken frankfurter and French toast to be enjoyed in the garden – on the new table! Kids these days, they surely know what they want.

So, I was typing this in the hotel room after a long sleepless night. The upgrade task did not resolve the actual problem, by the way. *Sigh*. I know there’s going to be another expensive trip here, once we could get another downtime. I’ll take the plane, stay in 5 star hotel, order room service, refuse car pooling and do other things, just to make sure the trips will be expensive. Heheheh…. Is this one way of getting even with the industry/customer or am I’m just being the stupid/arrogant/selfish me? Whatever, I’m going to finish Adibah Amin’s book tonight – at the patio – on the new garden chair!