sat & sun

The weekend has come and gone.

Saturday early afternoon was spent visiting Granny as usual. Hung around on my own for quit awhile before PQ fnally got back to me about where and what time to meet. Sigh. Met up with her and then took a cab to Ally's place.

Kyler has grown so much bigger since 2 months ago when I last saw him! Haha, so much chubbier and he's much more fun to play with now. He's making so much more sounds and noises compared to last time. Plus his motor skills are slowly improving and he's learning to grab and hold onto things. I was unfortunately pinched by him a few times....bleah. Oh ya, he slathered me with his saliva too lol. Managed to play a little with Happy too. :)

So after Ally's place, PQ & I went over to Cafe Iguana to meet up with Parwin. Just us 3 ladies eating, talking, drinking. It was a nice, cosy affair.

Meeting these gals again this coming Saturday. We're gonna choose our bridesmaid dresses!!


Had Sunday brunch with Mei, Marc & my parents since Adrian was out of town. Walked a little after that before heading home. Well, more like they went home and I went to buy my tank. Remember the self-sustaining tank containing volcanic shrimps I talked about earlier? Voila, I bought it just now. :)

So now I have new pets, who only require feeding only once a week or once every fornight. In fact, they'll still survive even if you don't feed them for more than 2 months according to the shopkeeper.

The whle of Sunday afternoon was spent entertaining guests. Because of my Dad's recent health condition (he's not been feeling too good), my Mum's relatives came to visit today. I'd actually rather have spent my time napping or going for a jog than participating in their small talk.....But oh well.......

And now I don't feel like sleeping...Because when I wake up....
It'll be Monday again.....:(

On Edge

Frowning
Tight lips
Tense shoulders
Heavy chest
Increasing irritation and impatience with colleagues.

RANT POST

Am upset with 2 colleagues. We are at a crucial time now before the event in June.

Colleague 1 is a part of this and has gone on course for these 2 days when something urgent needs his attention. He is a part of another of my project which is going to be launched in June as well. And he owes me a MAJOR portion. And now he’s disappeared from office. WTH?????

Colleague 2 is assisting me on settling some things. She’s gone on leave and is also attending a course. Will be gone for a whole week. And threw everything onto me. WTH??????

My plate’s overflowing and now I need to cover these two??? WTH??????????

F(ed) up.
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An oh yes. Colleague 3 comes in at 945am, has a 2-hour lunch and leaves on the dot at 6pm. I come in 1.5hrs earlier, take a quick lunch and go home after him. Eeeeeee not fair!

the day in points

• Preggy the Tabby seems to be putting on some weight. Her tummy's getting bigger too I think. I went downstairs to feed her after my run earlier on. What's on the menu? Whiskas' Sardine & Tuna flakes. I think, can't remember haha. This is the second time I am feeding her. Am wondering if I should get some more cat food for her or not.
  

• The day was arduous. I had writer's block, in addition to working block, in addition to thinking block, in addition to .....One word, UNPRODUCTIVE. Wasn't in the right frame of mind, I felt like surfing the Internet and playing more than anything. Could be the late night I had yesterday. Anyway, will try to sleep earlier today so I can be an industrious bee tomorrow and clear many many things.
  

• Skyped with K on the phone in the afternoon. He's in Estonia now and had roasted wild boar for one of his meals yesterday. I also want!! I wanna be overseas now too!!! Surprisingly, his WIFI connection was excellent. We had zero interferance and the line was smooth and steady throughout our conversation. I hope the volcanic ash situation doesn't affect his travels. Muacks baby...
  

• Had lunch with TH. Always nice to gossip and catch up and......talk about his new relationship hehe. :D
  

• At the shrimp shop I was at earlier this evening, the owner and his son were talking to me. Junior was quite tall and good-looking, maybe in his early to mid twenties. He spoke well too. (No, I am not a cougar.) Senior was quit tall too. A nice man but when he came forward and bent down to speak to me....all I had eyes for.......was an exceedingly huge whitehead on the side of his nose. All I could think of was to wrestle him to the ground, and squeeze out whatever it was in that whitehead. I'm still thinking about it now. If that whitehead had been on K instead.....hmm....

• For the first time in my entire working life, I drafted a speech for a Minister. It's for my major event in June. Ok lah, I came up with the first draft. It'll probably and eventually get amended and red-lined by the big big bosses till it looks nothing like the original draft. BUT EH, it is still not easy to come out with the first draft okay. I racked my brains for a good few days trying to cough that 4 page draft out, finally handed it in today and itll go up to the CEO soon. The shitty thing is, I have another speech to draft, for another VIP but of a lower level. Sigh...

• Made a 10-minute call at 8pm just now to a person in New York to discuss some work issues. Yes, it's for the June event again. I wonder how much that call will cost me. A 7-minute call cost me $40 last time but I can't remember which country that was. Hope I can claim this call....
  

• I am sitting here in my stinking running attire but for some strange reason, I have no desire to shower. Hope I'm not morphing into a slob.
  

A Prawny Affair

I ran and ran, walked and walked, ran and walked. I ended up taking a detour to explore new territories and running routes and suddenly an idea hit me. I had wanted to find a shop for the last month or so but didn't really get down to it. And so, I ran round a small part of the Tampines estate trying to find it. Turned out it was relatively easy to find. :)

CRS Haven is a specialty store selling shrimps. Yup, small little shrimps that you rear as pets, definitely not to end up as "heh bee" in your glutinous rice dumpling or what. Here's their site --> www.crshaven.com

They have this special tank about 15-18cm tall, 8-10cm lengthwise and 7-8cm wide. some are cylindrical but of similar width and height. Each of these tanks houses about 3 or 4 volcanic shrimps which are pale orange in colour. Each tank also contains substrate, decorative items for the shrimps to cling onto or hide under, and about 2-3 small balls of algae as food for the shrimps.

This tank apparently requires very low maintenance. You technically don't need to feed the shrimps as they can last for months and years (or so the brochure says) feeding off the algae balls and the other microscopic materials in the specially treated water. But if you want them to be healthier, you can supplement their food source with one food pellet per week.

I saw the pellets. They are exceedingly small with each being less than 1mm in diameter. It's amazing how much (or little) these shrimps eat!

So anyway, these tanks can be placed in an office environment as well, just out of direct sunlight.

I want to buy a tank for myself. :) Something else to care for in addition to my plants and (occassionally) the pregnant tabby below my block.

The tanks I like are about $78 each. Will pop by there one of these days or maybe over the weekend. Whee!

Itsy Bitsy Stuff

• I want to watch Fast 5, Pirates and Kungfu Panda 2....
• I want to watch DrumTao, a Japanese performance in early September, involving taiku drummers who are trained in martial arts also. Would be a nice one I think.
• I want to watch Jump, a Korean comedy featuring performers who are trained in martial arts as well and who combine their skills with comedic timing to put forth a fun-filled skit.
• I did what I've wanted to do for a long time. I got myself a digital weighing scale. And no, I did not like what I saw when I first stepped onto it after I got it started up. :(
• My hands are itchy and I feel like colouring my hair again, a lighter shade of brown.
  
• On another type of itchiness....I feel like going shopping again...
• And still on itchiness...I got myself non-scented liners...and I'm glad the itchiness has abated...
• I want to visit Bhutan, Nepal, the Silk Road, Tibet, Lombok, Boracay, the savannah plains, Prague, Scotland, Ireland, more of France, New Zealand, more of Australia, Mauritius, Maldives, New York, Borobudur, Egypt, Bali, Japan, more of Korea, more of Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Turkey, more of Vietnam....oh and the list goes on. I travelled quite abit over the last two years...and now I am yearning to go somewhere...:( There'll be a HK trip in November but it's only for 3D2N, hardly enough and it's still half a year away...I want to go somewhere in July or August!!!!! And another trip in Sept or October!!!
  

Wardrobe Malfunction

Was just done with peeing. Zipped up my pants and....

WTH?!!!

I found my hand going way above where the zipper should have stopped and the whole zip head was in my hand. I tried frantically to put it back along the zip teeth but then discovered that it had already broken into two.

Woe is me.

Had to go ask around for a safety pin to hold my pants up in place. Thank god I always refer wearing long tops that go way way past my waist and end at the hips or lower.

It's my fav pair of pants!!! Hope it can be saved by a seamstress or something....:(

....

I'm a simple girl who just wants a simple life. Why does it seem difficult to achieve?

Rat Race

The days have been hectic and I find myself looking forward to 6pm everyday working day when I can officially knock off. Things have been a blur with deadlines being yesterday, different aspects of one project all looming up at the same time, staff bothering you with meaningless questions, bosses bothering you with high-level questions that make you squirm in your seat feeling like a small child, and so on.

There has been times when I found myself staring at the computer screen, suddenly at a loss and wondering what I was supposed to do next. And other times when I found myself holding my breath for no rhyme or reason. These days all I want to do when I get home is to skype with K and then crash into bed.

I feel like a lab rat running on a wheel. I just know to keep going forward. Is this good or bad? I don't know.

KPIs and indices mark our daily lives. So many comparisons, so much competition, so many report cards. Both tangible and intangible ones. Both conspicuous and discreet ones. Both work and societal ones.

How much are you earning? Which school did you study at? Are you planning to further your studies? Where are you working at? What is your designation? Are you married? When are you settling down? What phone are you using? What performance grade did you get this year? How many months of bonus did you get? Do you drive?

As a friend once put it, it's like a race but without the literal sweat, pumping heart and heavy breathing. For me, it's a constant tight feeling in the chest. And a bubble of impulse to drop everything and go away.

How nice it would be though, if we could press CTRL + ALT + DEL and reboot our lives whenever we find it tough to keep going.

tick tock

I am scared of losing time too quickly.

Living paycheck by paycheck, dinner by dinner, gathering by gathering, it bothers me how days, weeks, months and years have inexorably passed by. I'm at a point in time when I look back and wonder what have I achieved, what have I seen in my life, what have I done in my life.

The C-hole

Aka Chloe.

Love you babe! I had a good time last night...:)

We were at Chili's at Resorts World Sentosa having dinner just generally gorging ourselves and talking ourselves silly. From gossips to politics to general trivia. And yes, she bullied me again. 'Suaned' me several times. Woe is me.

May our friendship stay strong!

The Greens

I might be labelled as a plant killer soon. :(

Two pots of African violets inherited from a colleague of mine are not doing good at all. They may have been too used to an air-con environment. They started wilting the moment I brought them home. And after the recent heatwave across Singapore, they are wilting even more. I've pruned off the dead leaves last week and yesterday, I discovered there were more discoloured leaves. Jialat...:(

A pot of African violets that I bought myself seems to be doing fine though, since I shifted it into my room. I'm sleeping with the air-con on at night these days and maybe it likes the cooler environment. The pot Ally gave me is doing fine too, especially after I gave it a nice pruning 2 weeks ago.

My fittonias are not doing good. Limp and draggly. Only two pots seem to be going strong with the leaves being deep-coloured and firm with clean and clear vein lines. The other two pots look lacklustre and are nodding off into the soil...:(

Another two indoor plants are doing good so far, growing out roots everywhere and reaching out to the sun.

I've signed up for a half day workshop at the Hort Park on the 3rd of June. It'll be a session on caring for epiphytes, or "air-plants". I'll get my own airplant after the session too. Yay, it's going to be an interesting workshop! Looking forward to it!

The Folks

It is at times like this when it hits me. That I've grown older and so have my parents.

I guess, they are no longer as fit as they once were. A simple cough can take months to recover from and you start seeing them get all kinds of ailments like breathlessness, coughing, excess fluid in the ear, kidney stones, lung infections, eczema, nasal insensitivity, blood in the stool, etc....

I find myself getting impatient when my mother complains to me sometimes about these things and about their medical check-ups. I brush her off at other times. And then at night, when I'm alone in my room, I'd feel guilty for not having been more patient.

I still get impatient with them but I'm trying to rein it in. I'm also making a conscious effort to set aside time with them as well. A 5 or 10-minute talk everyday is better than none at all. A sit-down meal with them at least 2-3 times a week is better than none at all. An occassional outing is better than none at all.

Tree-vee-ah

1. 
   
   I saw Preggy the Tabby again yesterday evening. Played with her for awhile before heading up to my flat. She started purring when I scratched her below her chin. So cute la. A very affectionate and vocal cat. She would make meowing noises when she lokos at you or when you say hello to her. Or maybe she recognized me as the one who fed her nice cat food ahha. :) Let’s see if I’ll see her again tonight.


2. 
   
   I took a normal bus home yesterday after The Coll dragged me into a discussion at 6-plus and made me miss my express bus. Bus 10 took 1.5hours to reach Tampines Interchange. I was squirming in my seat after an hour as it was quite uncomfortable. Legs couldn’t stretch too much and my bum was numb (hey it rhymes!) too because the seat had limited cushioning. But yeah I’m still thankful I had a seat. Lots of others were standing for a long time. I really salute the daily bus commuters who need to spend an hour or more on the bus to get to and from their workplace each day.


3. 
   
   My mum boiled chicken and bird’s nest last evening for my dad & I. *touched*


4. 
   
   Today shall be a productive day! Or at least I will strive to make it so! This mini post is just a breather from the daily grind hor!!! Don't start pointing fingers at me! Lol......tata, off to work.

He Says She Says

Too many cooks spoil the broth. Too many strong-headed people in a single team with each insisting on their own ideas and interpretation of things. I get frustrated at times, especially when I see things done in a possibly wrong manner, when things lose focus or when people add too much salt & pepper to other people’s projects. I wonder how my boss handles it, hearing so many different points of view in a single team meeting and needing to manage them all.

(Bimbo moment: Is that why my boss is so wrinkly? Hmm.)

Trivia

1. I recently befriended a pregnant stray cat below my block. And so I carried a can of cat food in my bag today. Whiskas' sardine with prawn and sotong. When I reached my block after work, that cat was there cleaning itself and so I fed it. :) Imagine me squatting in my work clothes and heels, scooping out food at a void deck for a cat.


2. There's work to be done and completed. BUT because of my far-off work location now, I REFUSE to work over-time. Plus, I've an express bus to catch. 30E operates in a funny way, it only has 5 timings between 545pm to 636pm at the PSA building bus-stop. So if I want to get home in the most efficient way possible, I need to catch that bus which will bring me to Eunos MRT station. And so, that's another reason why I don't want to work over-time. :)


3. I'm on a desperate mission to save alot of plants in my home. I know I don't have green fingers....but why are my fittonias suddenly turning limp on me when they've been strong and sturdy for the past 9-10months??? :( even some of the African violets are not doing too good. Is it the weather or me?...


4. Was secretly sad that Blackie & Fan Fan are married already...There goes an eligible bachelor......*wails*


5. Came home today to find my soft toy duck straddling my soft toy lamb on my printer, much like in doggy style. Wonder if it was my mum or my dad who inadvertently placed them in such a position. Wait...hmm. What if...oh nevermind.


6. Secretly envious of my friends who are happily holidaying in Phuket right now and enjoying the sun, the sand and the sea....I wanna prance around in my bikini and get a Thai massage toooooo :( But from the looks of it, my next holiday can only be after July perhaps? Too long...:(
   


7. I'm starting to enjoy my almost daily dose of bus ride from Pasir Panjang to Eunos. Feels good to sit and let the bus rock you all the way back to the East side. It's especially nice when you are by the window and you see the Marina Bay landscape looming up in front of you in the setting sun. :)


8. Getting more freckly as the months and years go by. :( Don't like. I apply sunscreen everyday on my face...how come still like that?? Could it be all the tanning that I did back in 2000-2005? :(


9. Am thankful and grateful for a boss who fights for rewards for me. Recently received our notification letter for our bonuses. Yah, for all the naggings, gruffness, scoldings, weekend calls and SMSes at any time of the day, HE'D BETTER REWARD ME HANDSOMELY!!!


10. Tired and sleepy so I'm dragging my ass off to bed....tata to all.
    

*breathe*

Talking to a stubborn non-marketing person about marketing issues can be an extremely frustrating thing. Extremely frustrating. Your corporate logo is either in its original colour or a full shade of a single colour if you need to tweak it a little for printing purposes.

Your DON'T, on your whim and fancy, change it to some parts colour and some parts white. IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE and it RUINS your branding.

I know my craft ok. Just because you're more senior doesn't make you a know-it-all.
Wah pissed off.

$#^%&*O(*($&^%*&#$

New office....laments

I recently shifted office and it brought me much irritation, anger, frustration and sadness. Simply because the new location is located along Pasir Panjang Road. I stay in Tampines. That's from one end to the other end.

Anyhow, taking public transport to work turned out to be a 1h 15mins to 1h45mins journey, depending on whether there's a jam. It was extremely inefficient and cumbersome with changes from bus to train to another train and then another bus.

I've decided to try out a public bus transport service. Thank god to my colleague who managed to convince the bus driver to take me in as an additional customer. I'm paying a substantial amount for a 1-way trip I think. $90 a month. But for the convenience, I think it's worth a try. Let's hope it pans out well.

The other drawback of the far far away office location is that I need to wake up very early. I wake at 6am now, before the sun rises. Gosh. The last time this happened on a regular basis was way back when I was still in secondary school. I am absolutely not a morning person. K & my parents can attest to that. But I guess I have not much of a choice.....

Food establishments in that area is also limited, unless you can be bothered to take a bus out to places like Alexandra Village, IKEA, Vivocity, Seah Imm Food Centre or ABC market. My colleagues & I are hoping to explore the area for more food places haa...But one good thing is that at least they have an Harry's outlet just below my office tower... :)

More updates to come about the new office...(or maybe more complaints...;p)

Couch potato?

I've not been a TV person for a long time now. Ever since K went away to study, I've rekindled my relationship with my TV at home haha.

From chasing a Channel 8 drama last year, I've now progressed to following 2 Korean dramas and 1 or 2 Taiwanese variety shows.

Am I becoming a couch potato? Hmm.

growing awareness

Past elections have not captured my attention as much as this year's.

I was ignorant when I was a school-going teenager. To me, government = PAP, PAP = government. I had no concept of alternative parties or alternative voices.

In 2001, I turned 21 and thought I would be called up to vote. It turned out that they sent out the polling notifications a few days before my 21st birthday, which meant that I was considered not eligible to vote. Anyway, it was a walkover in Tampines GRC and I didn't care much either. I was busy studying hard and playing hard in university. Politics was a foreign notion.

In 2006, we were somehow subsumed into the Pasir-Ris Punggol GRC. Being older and having worked for a few years by then, I should have been more aware I suppose, but it was not the case. I was apathetic. Reading articles concerning the elections then bored me to tears. I was more interested in my own social life, work and pubbing. In any case, I was ordered by my parents to vote for the incumbent party. I cannot even remember now which alternative party was contesting in the GRC. When polling day came, I marked a nonchalant cross next to the lightning emblem.

This year, we were back to being in Tampines GRC. Bear in mind that we have not shifted an inch ever since we moved in 25 years ago. Social media has helped made me more aware of the political scene here. Youtube, Facebook, Twitter and various blogs and news sites have brought more information to us than mainstream media (which can be biased). I can't say I know alot and there are many things I still don't understand. But at least I know more now and it's a small step forward.

To that end, it was not a nonchalant cross that I penned on the voting form this year.

Angpia

你一定要幸福 leh!

I felt touched by these words because few people have told me this before in such explicit words. Interestingly, this came from Hong Bing, who called earlier just to chat and see if I've received his wedding invitation. We ended up gossipping about some of our friends, talking about how things were last time in uni and of course, the impending elections.

He's one of those friends who has been around for most of my major down times...and I don't know why but he suddenly said that to me haha.

Seems that apart from Mao Mao and Ah Seng, I'm the only other person in our uni group whom he feels closer to and bothers to call. Happy for him, that he and Lovy have gotten a place for themselves and are moving forward into a new chapter in their lives. :)

Hmmmm, old friends have been popping up suddenly over these past few weeks. Mingjie, Bernard, Eddie, Hong Bing. May there be more!