That French Chef

I love Raymond Blanc! Watching his programmes always brings a smile to my face. Besides the fact that he's French and a talented chef, he's got a weird laugh, an equally weird sense of humour and a down to earth personality.

Charming. With a capital C. :D

Different People Handle Things Differently

Some internalize their problems. Others voice it out to the whole world.

Some listen and dish out advice. Some listen but ask questions to guide the first person to think and come out with his/her own conclusion.

Some draw their energy from being around people. Others draw energy from within themselves and get tired when there’s too much going on at the same time.

Some recharge by immersing themselves in busy places. Others need to recharge by being alone.

I suppose….well yeah….I can’t and I shouldn’t judge someone just because he or she takes a different approach from me.
==============

For the most part, I internalize things and I tend to need to be alone for some amount of time to recharge. Give me a day’s off and I’d be perfectly fine just sitting at home and pottering around doing my own things or not doing anything much at all.

At this point in time, I feel a little overwhelmed with things. Maybe a day’s leave one of these days would be a good idea…

Today

I am...

1. Happy.....because I managed to speak to a colleague whom I'd not seen nor spoken to over the last few days. She brought me some laughs and I'm grateful for that. Am also happy because I had a nice lunch with a good friend-cum-ex-classmate. He just started dating a girl too which makes me even happier.

2. Pissed and frustrated.....because of a colleague. I feel he's not pulling his weight in the team. It's been like this for quite a long time and I don't know how much longer I can hold it in. I'd spoken to my boss on at least two occasions but I don't see much being changed.

3. Stressed.....alot at work and other things out of work. Just realized I've been partially holding my breath for the entire day till now, 830pm. No wonder my chest feels a little tight.

4. Somewhat tired.....physically tired and still a little sick. Mind is still racing though. Trying to slow it down a little.

5. Grateful.....yes, although I've complained about things here and there, I'm still grateful for all my loved ones and close friends in my life, and for all the good things that have come to me so far.

Upset.

Made another silly mistake at work. Very careless mistake.

To think I tried and tested it out for so many times just to make sure I got things right.

But when the actual and final execution of the task came, I flopped. Tremendously.

Brunei snippets

I was there for only 4 days and 3 nights but it was sufficient to give me a glimpse into life in Brunei.

People
They are a soft-spoken, patient, relaxed, friendly and sincere lot who seem to be genuinely content about life in general. Maybe these all stem from a life of shelter and protection from the Sultan. It was nice talking to them and it's easy to feel so at ease with them. Even people from higher management are easy to talk to. No airs. I cannot really imagine them quarreling with anyone.

Work
Their hours are usually 9am to 5pm. Normal enough. But people usually take a morning break at 10-plus, then leave for lunch at 1130 or so. Then they pick their kids up from school and send them home and then go back to work at 2pm. They have their afternoon tea break at 3-plus and then leave office at 5 or 530pm. All breaks are unofficial but the norm lol. Shiok! I also want!!

Royalty
This is big there. So who's considered royalty? The Sultan and his family. His siblings' families. In-laws and possibly their families. All in all, several hundred perhaps? Out of the entire population of 450,000. Palatial houses and big cars seem to be the status quo for these royalty.

Some of them have special traffic police escorts accompanying them on the road. Apparently when the escort out-riders sound their siren, you as a commoner driver need to shift to the left and allow the royalty and accompanying convoy to pass. I was on their roads for a grand total of only 3-4 hours across the 4 days I was there and I already had the chance to witness royalty pass us by on 3 separate occasions lol.

Drivers
Gracious, polite, friendly and patient is all I can say about Bruneian drivers. They give way to each other, they signal and they wave! So so friendly it's almost like one big family driving together. :)

Currency
For the life of me, i didn't know that Bruneian and Singaporean dollars can be used interchangeably in both countries. Ok I am suaku I know.

Life
Not much entertainment around. No pubs since it is a Muslim state, just some cinemas around. I might be generalising since I was there for only several days but I think that while life there might be slow-paced and boring, people are quite content. Maybe because the State (Sultan) takes care of a lot of things. Petrol is cheap, medical costs are covered and students are given allowances of $300-$400 a month to attend university.

Brunei

It was nice to see Brunei in such evening splendour. This was on our last night there and we had ended early. My 2 colleagues and I decided to explore the area and drove 25mins out to see a high-end beach resort. We were greeted by this sight...lovely sunset. Sometimes, doing things on a spur brings you unexpected lovely results. :)

I don't need this right now

Strongly-worded email from staff again, without my clearance. Tone used was not professional and quite bad. International organisation not happy. Now it's spiralling down.

Beyond me. Tied up with other things and now this has to happen.

WTF.

I feel like hiding in a corner to cry.

ppppssssshhhhaawww

So I guess life is never fair. No matter how much people try to be.

Double standards abound. People have preferences. Judgement and impressions tilt the balance.

And I don't understand why some people can get away with things when it is obvious they are not doing certain things right.

Suck it up.

Breathe

I have this feeling the closer the event gets, the higher my blood pressure will get. It is still 4 months away and things are already getting heated.

Trying to stay calm amidst the politics and bitching, the 2-3 big projects I’m somehow involved in, the other dribs and drabs of work (whether consequential or not) coming in everyday, and my diminishing ability to stay on top of everything. Some things are falling off my plate or hidden under other stuff.

Deep breath.

Cool, Calm, Zen.

Southern Biscuits

Hehe. We've loved the biscuits sold at Texas Chickem ever since we first tasted them. We'd even get them as snacks from time to time and lick every last crumb off our fingers.

And then one day we thought: we should make our own. We checked out the recipes and they turned out really really simple. Much easier than some of the cake or bread recipes out there.

Yesterday, I was still tired from the long flight home. But I managed to haul myself out of bed in the afternoon and made a batch of biscuits with K.

Success! Haha. They turned out great! The texture, look and feel of the biscuits were exactly like those sold at Texas Chicken! Though I think they could have done with a little bit more butter and sugar. :)

We'll be making them for the Xmas family dinner too!

First day back at work

Managed to clear a majority of my emails even while I was in Toronto. So I can't really figure out why I was still swarmed with work today. Bleah! Tomorrow will be a busy workday as well.

Looking forward to a nice simple dinner and then a nice warm shower later. :)

Grilled meat!

Got out of my office building and there was a heavy smell of grilled or barbequed beef in the air. Got into the cab and there was a strong smell of bak kwa and indonesian grilled chicken.

I don't feel hungry though. But am I subconsciously hungry? :)

Toronto

Travelling for work has become much less attractive for me since about a year ago.

Maybe the Africa and India trips back in end 2011 and early 2012 put me off things. Or maybe it's the backlog of work that awaits me back home. Or the juggle between attending the conference sessions, and clearing some work at the same time. Or the thought of being away from K. Or the thought of being away from my granny. Or the particular colleague that I am travelling with. Or the long-haul red-eye flights and the time differences and jetlag. Or the.....you get the drift.

Myriad reasons.

And so I left Singapore for Toronto with a somewhat unwilling heart last Friday night. Aside from some health scares, things were ok on the whole.

Weather
Singapore's weather is erratic. Toronto's is too. It could be sunny in the day and by the time afternoon comes, it turns gloomy and then starts to pour. But it is cold. The weather's cold in general. about 15-17C in the day and anywhere from 4-9C at night. It was drizzling heavily the whole night today and I'm glad to be back in my room, keeping warm and huddled in my bathrobe.

Food
Steaks. They seem to be the staple food here. Steaks and hotdogs. Lotsa beef around lol. Lotsa hotdog stands along the streets. Lotsa fried food too. Big portions though not nearly as big as the portions in the US. I can totally understand why the Caucasians in Canada and North America are much larger in girth. Had some Chinese food as well on two occassions. Rather good quality I must say.

Room Service
This trip marks the first time ever that I ordered room service for myself while on a business trip.

Faces
Met some people whom I'd not seen for a long time. Am amazed that some of them can still recognise me because I'd only spoken to them once before. And these are Caucasians. Maybe it's easier to remember an Asian female face because there really aren't many of them around at the conference. Met other good friends, hung out with mainly the Taiwanese and Hongkongers as usual.

People
Strangely, I didn't see any strikingly good-looking person. They all seemed mundane. I still think the best dressed and best-looking people are the French. :) Hongkongers come close.

Nature
Lovely trees line the streets and now that it's fall, their leaves are turning into lovely shades of yellow, orange and red. This is something we don't see in Singapore and it's such a pity because I think it's a beautiful phenomenon. It just adds a sentimental touch to the air and softens the environment.

Scare
I woke at 5am on the 2nd night I was in Toronto. My heart was pounding, my palms and soles of my feet were sweating, I was a little breathless, slightly light-headed and nauseous too. I was freaking myself out. And this continued for close to 2 hours. K was on the phone with me for more than half an hour to comfort me and calm me down. It may have been an anxiety or panic attack. I don't know. Definitely not due to pregnancy lol. I rested in my room for close to four hours before feeling better and venturing out for the rest of the day's meeting.

Skin
After a few days in cold weather, the skin on my legs and body typically gets itchy due to dryness. Moisturiser was my good friend at night. The last time I slapped on so much lotion was back in 2010 during my Europe trip.

Bath and Both Works
This is a brand that cannot be found in Singapore.I love their products and went ballistic when I found the BBW outlet in Toronto. I bought close to C$100 worth of stuff....that's about S$120 on body lotions, candles, creams, filing sticks, etc. :)

US and Canadian TV
They generally love to talk. And talk. And talk. And it shows on their TV programmes. Trashy talk shows. Business commentaries. Advertisements that don't use much images or music but just people who keep talking. Live court sessions where arguments abound.

Movies
On the journey to Toronto, I watched these movies:

• Twelve Angry Men - FANTASTIC movie, a classic from the 1950s.
• Safe - silly Jason Statham show, violent and at least 80 people died in the movie from shoot-outs or stabbings
• Mirror Mirror
• Your Sister's Sister
• The Artist - great movie

On the journey back to Singapore, I watched:

• To Rome With Love - quirky Woody Allen show which it brought back many memories of Rome, lovely
• Salmon Fishing in the Yemen - I like indie movies, this is a cross between an indie movie and a mass appeal movie. Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt and british accents are just lovely!
• Memoirs of a Geisha - 3rd time watching....but still nice
• The Graduate - Dustin Hoffman's first movie back in the 1960s, great show.
• What to Expect When You're Expecting
• A Simple Life - HK movie which won Deanie Ip a Best Actress prize. brought me lots of tears because the show reminded me of my granny

Unacceptable

Absolutely unacceptable.


Talking to non-marketing people makes my blood boil.

But there is nothing else I can do about things.

So I’ll just suck it up and move on.

awkward

So embarrassing. Just saw someone I know. A Spanish if I remember correctly. One of those caucasians who will do the kiss-the-air thingy.


Instead of puckering up and giving a kiss in the air, I just slammed my cheek into his…he offered the other cheek and I did the same again…..and gave a clumsy embrace after that.
This is the moment when you say....

……AWWWKKKWWWARD……..



-_- Bleah. After so many years I still forget what’s the right thing to do.

My FIL

Am on leave today and had a long lunch with my FIL at home just now. He was on a roll ad spoke alot.....about various issues covering myriad areas like the economy, society, self, work, the IT sector, etc. It was a long conversation, an hour 15mins, most of the time it was a monologue but I did manage to get some points....

• Singapore is too small an environment. To expand one's horizon, we need to move out and look beyond our shores. If possible, go work in another part of the world, a bigger country. They do things on a bigger scale and we could learn many things from them. Much of what Singapore does is limited in physical size.....
• Basic literacy in numeracy is important. You don't need detailed knowledge on why some financials are in a particular manner but you should know enough to read balance sheets and understand ROI ratios and other basic financial ratios.
• Try to put yourself in a playing field where there are lesser people and where it is easier to increase your own market value.
• Everyone has skills, you just need to find your predominant skill to hone.

Ms Gloxinia

 

This is the pot of Gloxinia Ally gave me!

This was its previous spot, on Ally's office window sill overlooking the Shenton Way, Tanjong Pagar area

I love the little "windmill"!

And here's it's new spot. :)

In my study room, sitting next to some new compnions, 2 pots of red and green fittonias.

Hope it grows well enough!

Live in the Moment

Yup, but within your means.

Went for a jog last night with a tired body. Took a longer route than usual and I also didn't eat anything around 4-5 plus to boost my energy levels.

The result?

A shell with depleted enegry. Flat out. Nauseous. Breathless. Giddy. Couldn't even get up to walk without feeling like the world was whirling around me for more than 30minutes after I reached home.

I think I gave the helper a scare.

Finally managed to clamber up to my room on the 3rd floor when K got home from work. And spent another hour and a half flat on the floor before finally feeling alright enough to take a shower and have some dinner.

Feeling guilty because K had to skip his own run to take care of me and sit wth me on the floor for more than an hour while I stoned.....

Restless

bored, tired, restless and a little melancholic since last night.

couldn't wake this morning and dragged my bum to the office.
maybe i overworked my brain yesterday, was still working at home in the night.

managed to spend some alone time after lunch just now walking around NTUC and Watsons.

made for some distraction, which was good.

definitely looking forward to knock-off time.

I see some light!

The past few meetings related to the Feb event has been going well.

Just came back from another meeting with a sponsor. 

They've confirmed their participation!

Yay, more funds coming in! :)

May there be more sponsors coming our way!