Pre-Requisites of a Project Manager

1. Control Freak.
2. Micro-Manager.
3. Not Trusting.
4. Highly Assertive.
5. All of the Above.

Holly Jolly Christmas Presents

I received some presents this year that I'd never ever gotten before lol. Some notable ones include...

1. A Rowenta hairdryer. 2000W salon grade. The box had "Elite Model Look" stamped on it lol.
2. A nightie. A purple one with a satin-like finish. I think K liked this too hahaha.
3. A New Balance runner's singlet. Pity it was an M-size. Quite baggy on me but I loved the colour.
4. A mini book about 5cm long, 4cm wide and maybe 2.5cm thick. Many many nice quotes about wisdom within it.
5. A customised notebook/diary cover with my name stitched onto it. This was cool...

Other stuff included:

• Chocolates
• Notebooks
• A tote bag
• A 2013 calendar
• Pens
• A luggage tag. Neon pink with the words "Not Your Bag!"
• Concealer...
• Capitaland vouchers
• Tea from TWG

That's quite a long list! lol....
I still have Ally's present which I've not collected from PQ's place yet....:)

The Year End

At times, I still feel like a teenager. Gawky, awkward, not confident, uncomfortable, on the fringe and left out.

The year end never fails to bring me over to the "emo" end of the spectrum.

Have a Cuppa!

This year, I made open terrariums for Ally and PQ for Xmas. I've never given out "living things" before so this was a first. (Plants ARE living things right?)

Here are some pics for posterity. Forgot to take the pic after I had put some white lace detailing along the rim of the cups. The cups look plain in these pics haha. The pink cup was naturally for Ally. :)

One Day In Office

It was 630pm. I was tired and wanted to go home early. So I packed up and left. Walked past my boss' room on my way out.

Me: 老板, bye *waves goodbye*
Boss: Ooi!! How come leave so early?!?! *pretends to stare at watch*
Boss: Alamak why you leave before me?!?!
Me: *rolls eyes* Excuse me hello! My official working hours are till 6pm leh. Then last night I left at 7-plus almost 8pm leh. Wah Lau.
Boss: *guffaws*  kidding lah alamak...go home lah go home lah. *beams at me*
Me: Hahaha okok bye! You don't stay too late ok. 再见!!

A colleague from another department witnessed this and told me he was amazed I could speak in such a light-hearted and candid manner to my boss. My 62 yr-old old-timer boss who used to have a reputation of being one of the most rude, grumpy and bad-assed boss when he was heading another department. He would call his staff into his office and scream at them when he felt they did something wrong.

That colleague was surprised that I was talking to my boss like as if he was an equal. And that my boss could be so open and fun when talking to me.

Time mellows a person I guess.

Or maybe I am just too lovable. :) Muahahahhaa.

Lapse

I had a great morning, a nice afternoon and a nice dinner with K's family. But things got to me after dinner and the emotional side of me took over.

It was quiet. I was alone. And I found myself crying in the middle of the study room where I was wrapping up a teddy bear I'd bought for Granny for Christmas.

I was thinking of her and then other thoughts came. I guess I was overwhelmed. 

Inadequacies. Frustration. Helplessness. Self-doubt. Realisation. Fear. Weakness.

When you start holding things in, they accumulate after awhile. When they accumulate, they might overflow.

client vs agent

Between client-side and agency-side, I think I'll always choose client-side and I'll advise others to do so as well.

You might learn more on the agency-side but in return you'll get far greater amounts of shit heaped onto you.

I don't have the patience, humbleness and strength to be on the agency-side.

Janus - Boyfriend

I don't usually follow Kpop but I happened to switch to Channel V 2 days ago and they were showing some Kpop videos. This MV popped up and I actually loved the song! Lol. I've been playing this song the whole day today. :)

Enjoy the song.

Janus by the new group Boyfriend.

I hope this is not the start of my conversion to Kpop. *horrors*

P/S: These boys look like they're barely out of their teens. Wonder how old they are...hmm. Maybe I'll google them later.

Open Letter

Come back soon sayang...Miss you.
It's getting colder here in Singapore and it's raining everyday. I want my hugs!! Lol. :)

Strange but Awesome

I've never experienced this before. I was on the bus home after work.

There was a Korean mum with 2 children, a boy and a girl. Both were 7 to 8 years old. I knew they were Korean because they were speaking in their native language. The kids, being kids, were being rowdy and were chatting loudly in Korean.

And then suddenly I heard this:

Girl: Give me.
Boy: No. Dun wan.
Girl: Why you dun want to give me leh?
Boy: Because I dun wan to lor.
Girl: Please? Oma (mum in Korean), he dun wan to give me.
Mum: *says something in Korean*
Boy: *to his sister* Aiyah you are very irritating.

It was downright surreal. The two Korean kids were conversing in fluent Singlish.

If I were looking at them or if they weren't speaking Korean in the beginning, I would have thought they were some local kids. Maybe these two have spent most of their young lives growing up in Singapore. They're probably studying in a local school as well because they spoke English with a Singaporean accent. Lol.

Losing steam

Another rejection from an important potential sponsor. Registrations are slow moving. Losing faith.

Undeniably the toughest project I've ever undertaken. Most of the lows in 2012 were because of it.

2 years in the running. 2 more months to go.

I thought there should be more light when we're nearing the end of the tunnel.

But there seems to be lesser light. Getting dimmer.

This almost looks set to be a loss-making project.

So Sweet!!! - Part Two

I really feel so loved lah!!!

My little cousin who is working in the next building from me just called to see if I was still in the office. She wanted to send me home because she was worried that I'd be caught in the heavy rain!

The warmth and fuzziness just doubled!

Maybe the Xmas spirit of giving and sharing is in the air haha.

So Sweet!!

It's cold, wet and rainy now. The sky is so dark, the clouds are so heavy and ominous and the thunder is downright scary.

Feeling warm and fuzzy inside though. Because of 2 SMS-es.

My mum texted me at 620pm to tell me thst there was very heavy rain and asked me if I had an umbrella with me.

And then my FIL texted me at 625pm to say that there was heavy rain too. And to ask if I needed him to fetch me home from office.

I feel loved. :) :) :)

Little Potty

I've always enjoyed building or making things with my hands. I've not built terrariums for a long time and thought I'd just make a small simple one since I had new leaves on my existing pot of red fittonia.

First time I'm using such a small container. No points for guessing, it's the ubiquitous small spice bottle from IKEA. :)

Energy, wherefore art thou?

I want to do things and get presents settled in time for Xmas. Kah Hui's going on leave next Thursday and I need to finish making her present before that.

The body is weak though. It's 9pm and I've just finished dinner. I have not bathed yet but I'm already lying flat out on the bed feeling exhausted. Eyelids are closing on me.

How ah? :(

Thoughts

Sometimes, the more you think about something or want something, the more it eludes you. It would do good to relax and let things flow naturally, but sometimes, it's easier said than done too. Hmm.

Happy News from the Cuz!

It was like telepathy. She was thinking of me yesterday and I was thinking of her too. I didn't manage to text her yesterday though and decided to MSN her today instead to see how she's doing.

She's pregnant! :) 15 weeks.

Really really happy for her. She went through a rough patch early this year and I'm glad that she's managed to conceive. :)

I'm supposed to help with naming the baby lol, but we have no idea about the baby's gender yet. She's going for a scan next week and hopefully we'll know!

The people in your life

There are some relationships in my life which have almost melted away into oblivion or there's so much dust and cobwebs obscuring them that I've almost forgotten they were there.

I used to think that the other party was at fault for not putting in enough effort to keep the relationship alive and healthy. That might have been selfish thinking. It suddenly occurred to me recently that maybe I did not put in enough effort too.

Maybe I should pick things up again and work harder? Better late than never?

Le Bon Weekend

It was a good weekend. Tiring but fulfilling.

Saturday
- visited my granny as usual
- had lunch with my folks and spent the early part of the afternoon running around with my mum in Tampines running errands
- popped by PQ's place for our weekly visit. Met up with Ally there. Ran around with Kyler and cradled 2-week-old Darius! Baby D happened to burp when he got into my arms lol.
- and then it was back to my parents' place for dinner with them, my brother, my sister-in-law and my nephew.

Sunday
- went to run errands again, this time with K. finally settled all the xmas presents which needed to be bought.
- finished with wrapping all the presents

And now for the rest of Sunday evening where I hope to.....
-finish making at least 2 of the 3 Xmas presents I intend to make/assemble this year
- watch Asia's Next Top model with K
- spend some quality time at home with K before sending him off to the airport....

$3,200 and counting

公司欠了我很多钱。那个Claims Processing Unit 真的process得很慢。圣诞节和农历新年要到了。开销会蛮大的， 真希望他们快点把钱还给我！

Christmas

The Christmas mood hits me later and later the older I get.

But it's still.....

*sings*

The most wonderful time of the year...

I guess the jingles, sales, lights, decorations and mad shopping brings out the joyousness and festivities of the season. 


The only thing is, K will be away for 2 weeks from the 9th till the 22nd. :(

Groping in the Dark

Caught in a strange situation where even my vendor "complained" to me about my staff. Spent half an hour talking to him while I was making my way home from work earlier this evening.

Not quite sure how to handle this hmm.

So now I have overseas people hinting to me that maybe she should not be so hot-headed and speak so freely. I have internal team-mates who have casually mentioned to me that she maybe should keep a rein on her emotions. And now I have a vendor who is giving me feedback that they are trying hard but are somewhat exasperated with her.


She was hired to get the job done for me, not to add onto my burden of dealing with these people-to-people relationships.....

How to manage this?

I'm new to this. Never quite experienced this before.
Groping in the dark somewhat. Trying to learn from all this at the same time....