Granny

I love my granny. And I love this picture of her and me taken when I was 5months old. Although it's an oblique angle of her, you can still subtly sense her joy at that moment in time.

Slowly but surely

The rooms are taking shape. Piece by piece. Bit by bit. Week after week. A new coat of paint a few weeks ago. New waterproofing. New varnish for the parquet. Wardrobes and bedframe last week. New lights soon. New mattress soon. TV console soon...Settee, shelves and desks soon too....

Voila, bientot, notre petite d'espace sera prêt. :)

May our pockets stay strong enough and hang in there! Lol...

Battleship

I'm glad we made that impromptu, spontaneous, spur-of-the-moment decision to catch a movie after dinner. I'd had a bad night yesterday (was in self-bashing mode) and woke this morning with swollen lids and a headache. The movie was a welcome respite.

I'd initially thought Battleship was a lame fighting type of show, typical guy-stuff. Well, it still was a run-of-the-mill humans vs aliens type of show with a predictable ending. But it turned out that I actually enjoyed the movie alot and was surprised by some of the comic dialogue and scenes peppering the movie. Eye candy, patriotism, romance, comedy, excitement, sadness, scary parts, lame parts....the movie had it all. :)

Nice show. Surprisingly.

Ohm.....

I guess I do not like taking instructions from people whom I do not report to. Especially when I think it is not even necessary to issue that instruction. And especially when it is coming from The Coll.

I know I am supposed to do certain things. When I see it coming in, I KNOW it is my responsibility to handle it. So you do not need to tell me to do it.

I guess I need to learn even more patience. For my blood pressure rises when I get into such a situation. Ya, I guess I need to be more cool and patient, lest more wrinkles appear.

Cool cool, calm calm, zen zen.

In the words of Ally……“Ohm Ohm Ohm”

vro...vro....vrooo....vr...vroom?

Engine does not seem to be working well today. I am slow, groggy and distracted. All I seem to think of is K and whether he’s doing ok (he’s sick), how I need to go home for a run after work, and how I need to cook dinner for myself thereafter (parents are overseas).
I have not gotten much done since morning and I didn’t even have any appetite for lunch till around 1pm. Went to dabao mee hoon kuey eventually.

May the drone of the afternoon NOT lull me to sleep. May work beckon a little too otherwise I’d feel like a useless sack of potatoes sitting here.

want. to. go. somewhere.

A 6-month hiatus from flying or having any short trip suddenly seems too long to bear. Wonder if I can squeeze in any 2D1N trip to a nearby place in the next few weeks? Time seems short and tight these days, hope K & I can find some time out from the hustle and bustle of work and stuff!

Orr Kuay

I'll spend some time on another day trying to figure this newly revamped Blogger interface out. For a first impression, I quite like it though. Spiffier, funkier, more up-to-date and the colour scheme is much nicer.

So anyway, back, to the issue at hand.

Um, I had my virgin taste of black chicken today. At K's place. The helper, under instructions from K's mum, cooked black chicken with white fungus as a soup, with no Chinese herbs if you wondering. Their family apparently likes this combination and K's Dad was happily feasting on the chicken.

I, on the other hand, have never ever had black chicken before in my entire 31+ years of existence. Mainly because my family doesn't cook it at home and those found outside are usually prepared with Chinese herbs. Plus, I find the thought of cooked black chicken quite strange.

A big bowl of soup and its accompanying ingredients was given to me during dinner. No choice.

As squeamish as I felt, I managed to take a few bites of the black chicken thigh I was given. I "donated" the rest of the meat to K.

Verdict? It tasted ok I guess. But I still felt squeamish trying it. -_-

Errrr

So I've not logged on to Blogger in 3 days. They now have a whole new format and layout and I am suddenly at a loss...

加油！

I wonder how my boss does it. Maybe that’s why he is the boss.

To need to go through every single item and every single sentence a staff does or writes and make sure everything is correct and accurate is a tedious, cumbersome and challenging thing that I have not mastered fully yet.

I don’t know if this is considered managing at too micro a level but at least some important mistakes have been previously corrected in this manner, through his sharp eyes.

I gave my staff too much trust and did not check through and confirm whether something she wrote was factual and accurate. I should have done so when she has a track record for being careless. When the paper reached my boss, he pointed out the discrepancy/mistake almost straightaway.

My bad. I made a mistake too. I did not check her work thoroughly. :(
Nevermind, learn from this and move on.
下次我会做的更好!

My Monday

Went to guan yin temple today after my morning medical check-up.
Prayed for loved ones, family, closes friends. Hope I didn't miss out anyone. Hmm...

Parked myself at TCC Bugis for the nex 2 hours trying to sort out some personal and also som work stuff before heading home.

And that's a whole Monday gone already. Well almost, there's still 5 more hours to go till bed time. Let's see...what shall I do now?

equilibrium

Life is all about balance is it not?

Where there is good, there is also evil.
For every grain of rice we waste, there is someone elsewhere in the world who would kill to have it. For every tear we shed, there is a smile to counter it.
For every unwanted pregnancy, there is a couple who is trying ways and means to conceive.
For every baby born, there is an old person leaving earth and returning to the heavens.
There is Heaven and there is Hell. There is white and then there is black.
There are dreams fulfilled and there are those which are not.

I don't know where I am heading with all these. Just that life's quite a mystery.

ambitiousness

I’ve been recently digging through my old photos for the purpose of doing up a photo montage for the wedding dinner. Leafing through them definitely brought back memories of my geeky secondary school and JC years and of my fun-filled years in hostel.

I still find it strange though, that my closest friends are from my secondary school and hostel years. None of them are from my JC school years. But anyway, that is not the crux of this post.

While sorting through the photos, I came across a box of my old autograph books. Back in the days of the 1980s and 1990s, it was the trend amongst teenagers, especially girls, to pass around autograph books to their classmates so they could jot down contact details and nice words for the owner of the book.

I leafed through the book I had when I was in Sec 4 and came across an entry I thought was strange and um, sounded very serious. Here’s an extract:

“…I personally feel that you should not be so ambitious. It’s okay for a man to be like that but I shiver in fear when I think of a girl/woman who is so ambitious....you have made me wonder what it would be like if a lady were to be elected as President, what would her husband be called? First Man?

Anyway, you have also taught me about the power of women and that it takes a lot of effort for something between 2 people to work. Ambitious people like you have to sacrifice a lot you know. Maybe when you stop bouncing around more, you would comprehend.….”

Needless to say the above was written by a guy whose initials are CKM. I might have brushed off his entry when I was aged 16, I cannot remember. I cannot even remember if he was from my class or from the next class.

I wonder why he wrote those things about me being ambitious. Maybe at that point in time his young male MCP ego couldn’t take it that a female his age was excelling in all aspects of studies way more than him.

And for the life of me, I also cannot fathom why he wrote those last few sentences…

I was competitive when I was young. I did not want to "lose" out to another girl whom I disliked back then. She sometimes smirked at me when she trumped me in class. So I studied hard and gradually excelled in all my subjects (except Chinese lah ;p).

But I wouldn’t call it ambitious. Reading his comments now somehow makes me feel a little riled up and at the same time a little amused.

Riled up cos he was being an MCP even at that young age of 16.

Amused because most people who know me now probably won’t even say I am an ambitious person.

$&^%*&^@#@!$^&^%*

Xian.

Staff just wrote a strongly-worded email to an international organisation. Chairman of that organisation just replied back in a strongly-worded email as well. And cc-ed the entire world including my boss.

I really don't need this now. Was already feeling down and then now this.

Need to pick up the pieces and answer to the boss. Damage recovery badly needed.

Oh FML.
How to rein-in a staff 12 years my senior and who is emotional and quick to jump the gun?

Business Trips

Just realised that I've been dropped out of the trips to a neighbouring country for a consultancy project we're doing for their government. I'm still part of the team but I'm the only one not going there for information gathering and presentations to their Management and Minister. :(

I'd initially relished the opportunity to go there and learn and get exposure. How often would you get a chance to attend high-level stuff like that? Sigh. The only time I'll get a chance to go there would be to conduct training for their staff....on a rushed 2-3 day trip.

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Meeting in Toronto in October is confirmed. I think I'll love the place. I've booked my hotel already as well. The only thing is.....my birthday is right smack in the middle of it. FML.

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Thinking about the Prague meeting in June. In two minds about attending. It's a place I've always wanted to go cos TH said it's a beautiful place. But the wedding's only 3 weeks after the meeting ends.

moolah no lah

I seldom swipe for so much payments on my credit card.
I got a shock when I received a message from DBS this morning asking me if I wanted to increase my credit card limit. My initial reaction was whether my card had been fraudulently used.

Did some Math and then realised that hey, I actually did soend so much money within this month alone!! And it's only Day 10 of the month lol...

Time to eat grass...

hmm.

Words and nuances are often misconstrued and lost in the online virtual world.
Words meaning something to one may mean something totally different to another.
And people don't talk as much to each other in maintaining relationships as before?

The more connected we get, the more disconnected we get as well?

afternoon rants

Just found out from staff that The Coll told them not to approach me anymore for any advice on general enquiries from the public and just go to her only.

So, she's carving me out of the equation. -_-
Win liao lor.

===============
I've been put on another dose of doxycycline and also been given antibiotic cream to zap the stupid thing away from my forehead.

Darn it, I've never had any acne cyst before and suddenly over the last 2 weeks, I had 2 of them??!!

Please hormones...don't wreak havoc on my skin now...I only have less than 4 months to the big day!

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Maybe the basil pesto pasta wasn't a good idea for lunch. Tummy has been feeling bloated and heavy since then.

Will you marry me?

I read with amusement at the recent news of how a man proposed to his girlfriend of 3 years. He had arranged for a flash mob just outside the Art & Science Museum at MBS. Dancing to the tune of "Marry You" by Bruno Mars, he popped the question to his girlfriend.

That guy turned out to be one of my ex-colleagues. I did not keep in touch with him since I left the organisation 5 years ago. I'd always felt he was one to love attention and drama haha. Anyway, I'm happy for Charlie and his fiance. May their union in the near future bring them much happiness and everlasting bliss.

I was thinking.

Why are marriage proposals getting so competitive these days? Seems like as if so many guys are trying to outdo each other? I had a friend who got up on stage at Timbre to sing a song and propose on stage. Another who sprinkled the whole hotel room (including the carpeted floor) with rose petals and different presents and a big bouquet of 99 roses. Another who lit candles on a grass patch spelling out the words "will you marry me". Now Charlie has upped the ante with his flash mob proposal.

The trend seems to be going on elsewhere in the world as well. I've noticed that in recent years you start seeing more and more photos and videos of dramatic proposals being circulated on the net.

Then again, where there's demand, there's supply. Are these men going to such lengths because their other halves are asking for it?

Whatever happened to the good old "down on one knee-will you marry me" type of simple proposal?

Or maybe it's just me who doesn't need the theatrics.

Miss that feeling

It's been a long time since I had that feeling. That feeling of seeing a random something and feeling the need to write about it. Or seeing something which triggers a story which in turn starts unravelling on its own in my grey matter.

I miss that feeling.

That feeling when a random thought floats across my mind and I feel the urge to write it down. Or when I stand alone in the crowd and my mind starts stringing out simple poems and verses on its own. Or when I witness something mundane on the street and my mind starts thinking about life's coffer of amazing things.

It's slowly slipping away over the last couple of years. I hope I don't lose it completely.

I used to spend 1-2 hours each night glued to my PC typing away or blogging away. These days I hardly do so and I probably spend that amount of time on my blog in a whole month.

The big picture

Speaking or discussing things with people who draft and strategise policies for a living makes me feel inadequate. Alot of these are the public service scholars and those armed with Masters and PhDs.

I feel small and somewhat dumb when I'm sitting in with them in a discussion. Half the time I am lost in the wilderness, the other half of the time I am trying hard to keep up. And most of the time my mouth is shut. I just listen in. How to comment when I have no idea what is going on half the time?

I tried asking a question today. And the reply I had from someone was in such a "matter-of-fact, you mean you didn't deduce it?" manner that I retreated back into my shell again after that. Sigh.

They speak in motherhood statements and the big picture. They speak in "what ifs" and "what if nots". They speak in nuances and angles of influences. They speak in positions and propositions and ???...???.....

Oh bugger. :(

Someone suggested to me that I could seek a job rotation request and go join the policy team. No, definitely not my type of work.