Celebrating 10 Years of Waking Up Early

It was 3rd of February 2008 when I first joined my current employer here in Dubai, United Arab of Emirates. The joining date should have been earlier but I was actually called at the later stage... I was told that our then HR recruiter forgot to call me to report to the office, it was our first GM who called me and asked me to come to office on Sunday, February 3, 2008 to sign all the papers and officially welcome me on board.

With all the excitements and overwhelming feeling I immediately stood up from bed and prepared my things and clothes to wear 2 days earlier! Yeah you read it right! Our then GM called me on Thursday late afternoon and I was on bed that time thinking of my next move in looking for a job! Hence, the excitement got me ready for work 2 days earlier hihi.

Anyhow, I got the job and offered me to work in DAFZA and was told that we will be transferring office in Sharjah after 3 months and I was lucky enough when we moved to Sharjah since I was living there. But after few years we were told that we need to move to Dubai Industrial City... friend I am a living proof that 'the struggle is real' waking up at 5:00 am and be ready at the pick-up point at 6:00 am to travel to DIC. It was a real struggle and never imagined that I will be travelling everyday, 5x a week from Sharjah to DIC; and before reaching our DIC office we need to make a longgg U-Turn to Abu Dhabi boarder just to reach our destination. And if you missed your company bus there is no way you can go to work unless you are willing to pay 300 Dirhams for taxi or just call your boss and say 'Sorry boss, I am sick and cannot make it today' or 'Sorry boss, I have an emergency and cannot come to work'. I honestly thought I cannot make it, there were many times I planned to leave my job and look for a new one... but I cannot find any job that will give me the same benefits I am getting that time. So to make the story short, I traveled, stayed and enjoyed myself despite of the long travel, early wake-up calls and long nights and 4 hours sleep. I managed to do this for years until...

After 4 years we moved again to a new location wherein all types of public transportation are available, you can use train, bus and taxis. Yehey! What a joy! I am now waking up a little later than before hehe yeah, I am still staying in Sharjah, you cannot blame me because the rent there is lower than in Dubai. But after few years I made a biggest decision of my life and I moved to Dubai with my husband and guess what??? It is 5 minutes walk to our office! Our apartment is expensive but I really enjoy giving myself more time to sleep and rest after all I am not getting younger, my body needs rest as well. Enough with all the struggles in travelling coz I am now happy where I am right now. But hey I thought my happiness and fulfillment at my work will start when we moved to this new office, but I was wrong... I've got new friends in the office as we merged with our other branches but I've got enemies as well or let's say slight backstabbers. They're not bad people, but they have poker faces and a slight not so good hidden agenda. But that did not stop me for working hard and give my best shot to this company I love... I learned to ignore what people will say, learned to say NO in a nice way that will not offend your colleagues and even learned to put everything in writing you will need this in future.

I've said so much about my experiences with this company but in every story there is a happy ending and a new beginning that you will look forward to. As of today, February 11, 2018, one week after I celebrated my 10th work anniversary in our company! Yippee! February 4, 2018 when our company gave me a surprise lunch party which I never expected and because of that I would like to share with you my happiness and my never ending gratitude for the appreciation that was given to me on that day onward and for the non-stop support I am still getting. I would like to show you the gifts I received but please don't think I am bragging nor showing off, I just wanted to share my happiness:

We had our lunch at NAY Restaurant, Somewhere Hotel, Barsha Heights Dubai, UAE:

Source

You can view their website here for more information: http://yournay.com/ ; to check their menu, you can find it here and last but not the least they currently have an on-going offers here: http://yournay.com/promotions/

I honestly love their buffet, it was Iftar 2017 when I first tried their buffet with my husband and the second time was when I celebrated my 10th Work Anniversary with my office mates! Here are some of their mouth watering menus! Sorry I forgot to take pictures of their main courses, they are on the other side of the table and I was sitting next to the desserts bar and appetizers side but I did take 1 photo of 1 of their main courses, please have a look:

These are my lovely office mates from our Fire Department.

And here are the pictures of the gifts I received (apologies for adding some clip arts on some photos and blurring the others as I really need to... I hope you all understand).

And to those who are thinking how I used the vouchers and what did I buy... I am happily announcing or rather typing that I just ticked-off 1 of my millions bucket list of having this adorable bag and honestly I've been eyeing to get 1 for myself for the longest time I remember.

Thank you for spending some time with me... before signing off, I would like to give some advice that you may want to think and maybe will be a learning point for you.

I always believe in these old sayings 'Do what you LOVE and you'll never work a day in your LIFE' this helped me a lot when I first started working there's always ups and downs and mostly down times of your life at work but if you start loving what you do... you will never work a day in your office life. And last is the saying 'Always put your feet on the ground' you may have reached the highest goal or work achievement you've been dreaming a long time but always look back and stay humble as you will never know if you'll be staying on the top for long time... and falling will be the hardest thing to accept...

Until then... thank you all c",)