Oh Creative!

My beloved pair of Creative earphones is spoilt. Left side working, right side no sound coming through.

BUMMER.

I need to plug into music to drown out the distracting sounds in the office. Especially so now that this new office has an open concept.

lucky draw

A vendor sent in a hamper to the company for CNY. We held a lucky draw today to distribute the items within the hamper and also the basket which was carrying all the goodies. Goodies included abalone stock, dried scallop, mushrooms, dried cuttlefish, etc.

I ended up with the basket. -_-''

Oh well, at least it’s a pretty basket. More of a wooden box actually complete with a brass lock and rattan handle. Red and black in colour. Might come in handy for the Chinese traditional stuff for the wedding maybe?

Fighting Spiders

Literally.

Spent CNY eve searching for and killing an adult spider which had made a home out of the bonsai plant K’s Dad gave me. Took me about 10 minutes for that effort. And I spent another 30-45mins searching for and killing 15-20 baby spiders on that same plant. Eyes were super tired after that. Each spider baby was just about as big as…..a speck of dust, less than 0.5mm wide. These spiders were already there when the plant was brought over to my place….I know because of the webs which were already on the plant.

Yesterday night, on the 3rd day of CNY, I spent another 20mins searching for and killing an adult spider which had somehow sought refuge in my open-air terrarium. Searching for a dark brown spider amidst dark brown soil and many many red and green fittonia leaves was really quite challenging….

And I had to kill a baby roach on the 1st day of CNY...hmm...this CNY seems to have more than my fair share of encounters with these pests and insects...

Project Updates..Progress Reports!

Project Moss seems to be slow-going. The two pieces of moss which I transplanted onto a new bed of soil doesn't seem to be growing nor spreading. Nevermind, patience...I shall just continue watering it everyday.....

Project Spring...the one where I am trying to grow spring onion from yes, an onion. Seems to be slow-moving as well. Hmm, I've only seen new roots grow from the bottom of the onion butnothing growing out from the top. No green shoots or anything. Hmm...am I doing it right?

Project Bonsai. The pot from K's dad seems to be doing alright. Don't think I saw any new shoots but at least it's not turning yellow on me. :) My own pot of ficus is doing good ever since I changed its position in the balcony. From being on the balcony window ledge to being on a table in the balcony, it's now growing a number of new shoots and some of its leaves are bigger and rounder as well. :)

Project Rosemary. Err...not quite sure what to make of this really haha. I had 2 sprigs of rosemary. I kept one in some water. It has been 3 weeks plus I think, and it has not rooted. Strange thing is that it is still surviving and doesn't seem to be drying up. I stuck the other sprig directly into a pot of soil and that cutting absolutely did not survive. It started drying up and so I threw it away. Now that I have rooting powder, maybe I should try rooting the last remaining sprig into the soil and see how it turns out. Hmm...

Project Coriander!

New Project!!

Managed to locate the shop "Ban Lee Huat Seed" on 32 North Canal Road and went to explore it last Friday. Old school Chinese towkay shop with containers and containers and packets and packets of .....yes, seeds. Nope, no points for guessing.

Pak choy, cabbage, lettuce, bell peppers, parsley, long beans, cucumber, tomato, chilli...all sorts of vegetable and fruit seeds.

I asked the uncle (who happened to be dressed in a retro white singlet and blue-striped pajama cotton pants complete with a white-coloured drawstring) if he could sell me some coriander seeds. He asked where I was planting them and I said at home, in a pot. He shuffled to a cabinet, took out a container and a small little plastic bag and filled the bag up with coriander seeds.

Hundreds of seeds I think, perhaps weighing a grand total of....err.....10grams?

And he charged me a grand total of.......$1. So cheap!! Lol....

Anyway, I planted some seeds last Sunday. I've never grown anything from seeds before, right from scratch. I didn't really know how it would turn out. I just threw some seeds into a small pot of soil and watered them faithfully everyday.

And....

Guess what I discovered earlier tonight?

Yay!! I saw two small little seedlings!! :) Just breaking out from the surface of the topsoil.

Lol, never knew it would bring me so much joy just to see two little seedlings haha. Anyway, I'm hoping that more seedlings will start to sprout from the 10-over seeds that I threw into that pot. I hope the seedlings survive too!

Gonna give Ally some seeds tomorrow when I see her! Lol, so she can start her own plant experiments. Whee!

of plants and poultry

Popped by NTUC yesterday after lunch to buy a toothbrush. Ended up chancing upon stuff that I've wanted to buy for a few weeks but can't seem to find readily.

Hehe, I bought organic fertiliser and rooting powder! :)

Silly me thought that organic fertiliser was just something more natural compared to chemical fertilisers but it didn't occur to me that it would actually be.............................................

............

...................

.................................

.....................................................

processed poultry manure.

Yeah, the organic fertiliser I bought was actually chicken shit.

And I only just discovered it a day later i.e. tonight. I cut open the packet just now and was immediately hit by an overpowering smell...One whiff and I went "oh shit."

Ya, "oh shit" as in both metaphorically and literally.

I didn't dare put too much on my pot of mint. The instructions said 1 tablespoon to a 10cm pot. My mint is in an 18cm pot and I think I only dared to put half a teaspoon of the stuff onto the pot hahahaha. That's about as much smell as I can tahan.

I hope the smell dissipates by the time my mum wakes up tomorrow and steps into the balcony lol.

Toothy business

I had 2 fillings today and cleaned my teeth as well. And that easily set me back by $220.
Ouch. And I still have 2 more fillings to be done.

Bleah........zzzzzzzzz......

Boooo...

Sutffed nose and scratchy throat over the weekend.
Nose cleared yesterday after self-medication but then phelgm developed instead.

Feeling paiseh cos I passed the bug to K and also to 2 of my colleagues I think.
Both of them are on MC today haha.

Anyway, not absolutely well yet so hope I get back to at least 99% by the time CNY comes!

sigh

Lying in a big open field
Bright blue skies above me
Big white fluffy clouds adorn the sky
Sunrays caress my face
A light breeze blows
The air is crisp and clean
Peace abounds
With an undercurrent energy
Of growth and renewal
Dandelions dancing with the breeze
Marigolds and daisies
Tilt their faces to the sun


I hope I can be in such a place right now.
Unfortunately I am not. Sigh.

Major project not looking good at all. Friggin thing got thrown onto my lap.

Many many many obstacles. And this is even before we start any actual work for the project. The more I look at it, the more I feel I have been thrown into a losing battle. Like a sacrificial lamb. Tmd. Really frustrating.

Mind Over Body?

Bad throat.
Feeling so cold in office. But my colleagues are not.
Nose starting to feel a little weird.
Eyes tired and dry.

Hang in there Michelle!
You cannot fall sick! CNY is coming!

*sniff*

no, you are wrong.

There are just so many “I-know-it-all” people around.

It makes even a simple thing of having lunch together difficult. If there's a particular topic being brought up, people want to butt in to give their expert opinion and if there are differing views then voices get louder and louder and more agitated. Nobody wants to back down from their own views.

Hello, it’s just a lunch conversation. Can we just eat in peace and have casual chats. Can we not get into heated discussions over trivial things like “the official age of retirement in Singapore now” or “whether the CPF special account can be used for investments”? Leave the agressive discussions to work-related issues.

I prefer my lunches to be simple, chill-out sessions with simple normal conversations...

Mr Az!!

I had the luxury of listening to Jason Mraz the entire day. Mr Az is one of his monikers in his early days by the way.

A youtube playlist was playing all the way and I am mesmerized. Most of the songs were sung live in front of a fantastic crowd and his voice was absolutely wonderful.

To have that much soul and sincerity in his voice. To be so charismatic and charming. To be able to improvise and conjure up a melody and a whole song on the spot just like that. To sound better in person than on any commercially produced album. To sound even better in person with just a mike and an acoustic guitar rather than having digital nuances added to his voice. To have this wonderful sense of humour that endears him to everyone. To have this down to earth quality and humility even though he is a big star.

Pure pure talent.

I really hope he comes to Singapore again. I missed his concert the last time round in March 2009 because I had to go to Mexico. Please please come back again!

Journals

I have a penchant for notebooks and journals. I can’t describe their allure in words.

Maybe it’s the blank pages and the potential each page has to tell its own story that gets to me. Or maybe it’s the capacity of the book to hold my thoughts and give it some tangibility. Or maybe it’s just me with my obsessiveness of making lists and trying to organize things.

I’ve had acid-free books which acted as my diaries. I’ve kept one of them, a lime-green book, for 13 years and the pages have not yellowed one bit. Wonderful quality. Made in Japan.

I’ve also had cloth bound books, a variety of colourful Azone books, some from IKEA, and others. Big ones, small ones. Thing is, I buy some of them and end up not using them because….because I want to find the right purpose for using them and sometimes…I can’t find that right reason ahha.

I’d gotten Ally & PQ notebooks for their birthdays from the Kimmi doll collection (www.kimmidoll.com). I hope they find a right purpose for their books :)

360

Some companies call it the “360 Appraisal” and others refer to it as the “All Round Appraisal”. My organization calls it the “Multi-Source Feedback” where you are rated on a certain set of competencies and hard/soft skills by your supervisor, your subordinates, your team-mates and others within the organization whom you work with (but not from your team).
The report used to be tied to your performance appraisal but these days they’ve removed that link already.

The FY11/12 report just came out and I checked mine out yesterday.

Glad that this is the best MSF rating I’ve ever gotten in my 4 years. 4.9 out of 6.
Received both candid, amusing, good and not so good feedback in the free-range comments section including the following -->

• Must learn to share more knowledge with others


• Be more confident


• Develop more soft skills like people management


• Responds promptly to emails. good.


• Able to deliver and perform above expectation
  
  

Project Moss

Project Moss is underway. I was given two patches of moss by K’s Dad who was so generous about it. He scrapped some off from the big pot of cactus in their driveway.

I’ve since patted them down in a bed of soil, given them a generous amount of water and placed them in partial shade. I hope they start multiplying soon!

Bonsai

There’s a new honorary member to the family of plants in my balcony. A small pot of bonsai though I’m not sure which species it is.

Courtesy of K’s Dad who insisted I take it home with me and take care of it for awhile. It won’t be a permanent fixture in my balcony though. I’ll bring it back when I move into K’s place in a few months’ time. Either that or I’ll bring it back sooner if I think it isn’t doing very well at my place under my amateur care.

I gave it a misting yesterday night and also watered the moss and soil at the same time. It doesn't look as healthy as it should be though. The leaves are a little on the pale side and have slightly yellow undertones.

Stress. I hope I can take care of it well enough.

I was told that the plant’s 20 years old. O_o

AmeiZing!

Went for the Zhang Hui Mei "AmeiZing" concert last night with the sec sch folks.

Compared to her 2007 concert, I thought she was much more subdued this time round. More emo and less stamina as well. 2007 had been a concert full of adrenalin pumping dance songs and quick beats. 2009 however had lesser such songs being performed. Instead, she had a whole section of 45minutes dedicated to all her famous emo songs from her past albums. (Think I teared for some of the songs).

Not complaining though. Her voice is still as powerful as ever. Big lungs in a small body.

I also love the fact that a very big majority of her supporting stage performers are from Singapore. From the two female keyboardists and the two bassists to the back-up singers and even the drummer and the music producer.

Kudos Amei!!
May your music continue to touch us for many more years.


I think, I want to watch the following artistes. Hope they come to SG again:

• MayDay (aka Wu Yue Tian) - their coming in a few weeks but I did not manage to get tickets.
• Jacky Cheung - I was supposed to go to his concert this year but due to exigencies of work, I had to travel and had to miss the concert. Mega sad.
• David Tao - I loved many of his songs during the peak of his career a few years back.
  
• Jason Mraz - he touched my heart the first time I saw him sing live in a Youtube video. Sincere, unassuming guy with a great talent.
  

me time

It is late and I am supposed to sleep.

Instead, I am awake, on the Net, warbled thoughts in mind, pillow behind me, laptop on err..my lap. I have things to do and can't sleep as yet. It just started raining outside. Pitter patter. The sky is a muddled colour of purple and pink. A slight breeze is drafting through the windows. The room is dark. I have switched off all lights.

I relish this time at the end of the day before I go to sleep. I feel like I am in my sanctuary, safe and undisturbed. Just me, myself and my mind. No one else. Sometimes I manage to calm myself down, sometimes I still feel tensed up and end up going to bed tired. (Hmm, come to think of it, beause of the latter situation, maybe that's why I have perpetual dark eye circles. Hmm.)

of ups and downs

I don't enjoy the see-sawing of emotions.

When there is a high, it isn't the highest it can go. I always feel like I have something holding me back somehow, something at the back of my mind. But when there is a low, I sink deep. And sometimes it becomes a struggle trying to claw my way out.

Does this make any sense?

The Funnies

A member of the public just brought me peals of laughter. Hahaha....he said this in an email sent to me about one of our policy documents...

"I have read through the document. Very long and my brain come out with nothing. Hope you can help me."

Hahahahhaha....hilarious!