One last post - Goodbye 2008

Yaya.... one last post to conclude year 2008...

BYE 2008 !!!!!!!!!!!! Bad things ended in 2008, no brought forward to 2009!

By the way, I don't know why I would leave my cash card at checkpoint counter last evening. I felt very "sian" when I noticed that this morning. Cos I topped up the cash card just 2 weeks ago, which is sufficient for my 4 - 5 months usage. BUT...... not to worry (although I did go through all the hassles this morning - trying to retrieve my cash card number, worked out the cash card balance, get a new cash card etc).... If you really leave your cash card at checkpoint, just bring your passport to the ICA office at checkpoint. The officer will be able to retrieve your cash card. Don't have your 16-digits cash card number on hand? Nevermind. It's not required. (But still, better record down your cash card number, precaution is better than cure.)

Happy New Year. Notwithstanding bad economy outlook, hope everybody will have a better year ahead!

Shut down

Have decided to shut this blog down.... Till then...

Toy-toy corner

This being the toys corner in my room....


Toothy and Handy...

I especially like Handy.... particularly his expression... :)

危机意识

You might have read this, since I extracted from a forwarded email.

A crow was sitting on a tree, doing nothing all day.
A small rabbit saw the crow and asked him, 'Can I also sit like you and do nothing all day long?'
The crow answered: 'Sure, why not.'
So, the rabbit sat on the ground below the crow, and rested.
All of a sudden a fox appeared, jumped on the rabbit and ate it.

Moral of the story:
To be sitting and doing nothing, you must be sitting very, very high up.

I'm thinking of ONE person in my office. Whenever I look at her, the feeling is complicated. She's abundant. For myself, if I can have the luxury to have her, I'd be very happy as my work is less loaded (although I'm not very loaded); for company, she's totally abundant (because I can also do what she does), although she's not harmful.

At one time I was thinking, it's no good to keep one person here doing nothing. It is a back track to her career. She would have no advancement. But, she does not seem to think this way. She's very contented to be here doing nothing. She does not care about her personal growth. I really puzzled why there's such person in this world. This kind of ppl should have extinguished in our profession. Look at our line, banks are laying ppl off, more stringent rules and regulations applied, more and more disclosures requirements etc. How can one stay where he/she is forever? Won't she has the kind of 危机意识? She is old enough to know how office works. Or, at the very least, show to others that it's company's fault for not giving her enough volume perform.

To be sitting and doing nothing, if you are not sitting very high up, you must hold difficult tasks with you.

蟑螂贴

A small cockcroach appeared near my workplace this morning. My HR then passed me a cockcroach killer to paste it under my desk. I was thinking: "像蟑螂那样讨厌的人也可以这样贴一下就可以赶走，该多好....."

My MBA application

I have not checked email for a number of days. I'm very shocked to read this:

"I am pleased to inform you that your recent application for the MBA programme has been successful. An offer together with an invoice will be sent to you in due course.If you have any questions regarding the above, or about the programme in general please don't hesitate to contact us.

Regards,MBA Admissions Team"

The email dated 20/11/08.

I am surprised by their "efficiency". The closing deadline was on 16/11/08. The system must receive the application form by the date, other required documents can be submitted later. I submitted my form on 15/11/08, at 11:58pm. And I had my one referral submitted his form on 18/11/08. And the email dated 20/11/08?!?!?!?!

What shocked me is, there was no verification of my personal details, no interview, no presentation of my certificate and transcript! In the rush to submit the application, I wrote a lousy essay. The essay required 500 to 700 words, I wrote only 451 words, still submit cos it was already 11:58pm. I could not squeeze another 49 words in 2 minutes time. Seriously I did not expect the application to be successful.

Does this lesson tell me, we must go all out to try? We should not give up until the last minute? Cos you never know what you gonna get from the chocolate box.

霉到

"霉到" is a word I recently learnt from a little boy. Yeah, I feel that luck has not been with me these days. Did I step on shit? Or somebody is cursing me at my back? -_-

Job wise, SAI; 人緣, SAI; colleagues, SAI; things that I encounter these days are so SAI!

When the radio broadcasted COE for small car dropped to $2, I interpreted it as "dropped by $2". I NEVER EVER thought it would drop to $2; a difference of $2 sounds more reasonable to me.... until I read the newspaper online, I heard from 10pm news. This news really hammer my heart!!!!!!! Argh.....................

Luck ah, luck ah, please come to me!

Hainan dishes

I'm on business trip in Guangzhou City for the entire week. The first dinner I had here really surprised me. I do not expect to have Hainan dishes here in Guangzhou as I thought this is a place for cantonese. Oh... ya... talking about this, I suddenly recalled my grandma was from Guangzhou!

I don't have much knowledge about Hainan dishes, except for that few classic one. An average person will know what are those. This "Hainan Fen" is something I have no idea about it. Having said it's classic and traditional, so I ordered. This is a stir fry thing which is as good as rice. Ppl either have "fen" or rice. Very yummy!

Apart from the chicken, we also had "char siew" where they just "siew" the pork without putting any color in it. The way they "siew" is unlike the Hong Kong style, there's no burning part and still fragrant.

I did not take any picture of the food.... with the presence of my boss.... I have to behave "guai guai".... hoo....

*scratching head*

Because of certain issues between my company and this "C guy", I am almost talking the same thing to him for one or 2 weeks. No progress at all.

Yesterday, there were little bit progress. At least he gave in little bit and I was quite relieved. Today, he came out with some other ridiculous reasons which is going to create lots of hindrance to my work. Anyone with common sense knows how inefficient it is to work with soft copy, moreover it's more about vouching !!!! He thinks that I have luxury of time to do his work?

And his reason for not bring the original is because he wants to keep the original until he get paid for whatever money he put into the business venture. He somemore claimed that this is the business practice. BUSINESS PRACTICE????? MY FOOT ! I only know, that you want ppl to pay you, you must present the original receipts! I do not oppose him for keeping the original but AT LEAST, at least let me go through the documents first. Even if I want to make a copy, I'll make the copy myself, not him. Who knows whether he modified the original before he makes the copy? I've got to be skeptical right? He even proposed to pay for my trip to Beijing. Isn't it ridiculous to do that fair bit of work when the travelling time is more than sufficient to cover the work?

I'm very sicked to deal with nation C ppl. They can come with all sort of funny things especially when they've come to the crunch. 做人简单一点不行吗????????????????????????

Shifted out

On October 27, I finally shifted out the place I used to stay in the past 2 years....
I'm no longer regretful for my own decision....

Very tough job?

House is under renovation for 3 months full. When the renovation is undergoing on full time basis, I don't understand why it took so long too. Given that it takes long to deliver the work, the workdone is supposed to be satisfactory right? In fact, IT WAS NOT!

One of the unsatisfactory is this stainless steel door. Everything was fine until the door was installed, and the tiles were patched up. Is the door properly installed? The door INCLINED OUTWARDS, slightly run.

The second thing, a very exaggerating mistake! See the floor tiles and one can easily tell what was wrong. The toilet was OUT OF SHAPE by 2 inches!!! Is he blind??

Then is the painting work.

Veerla says (9:02 AM):
hahaha
Veerla says (9:02 AM):
ugly leh ur room
Terence says (9:03 AM):
they painted the wrong wall
Terence says (9:03 AM):
funny hor
Terence says (9:16 AM):
油漆佬也是亂來的
Terence says (9:17 AM):
那個豬肝紅是油外面的牆
Terence says (9:17 AM):
他油我房間
Terence says (9:17 AM):
還油錯牆壁
Terence says (9:17 AM):
爸爸要和他講油冷氣對面
Terence says (9:17 AM):
他油窗口
Terence says (9:18 AM):
雞蛋不雞蛋

乱

就这样，不由自主地觉得朋友怎么就越来越少
让我想起某友人说过的话, 类似: "朋友间的相聚, 也不知道什么时候是最后一次."
想要找人聊, 想了很久却不知道要找谁
想要找个听得懂我说什么的人, 更难
头脑闪过几个人的名, 却因为厉害关系, 电话始终没有打出去

2008 年头到现在, 有一种活了很久的感觉
活着, 活着, 都不知道为了什么而活
是我还没有适应? 还是它本来就不寻常?
问了无数次 "怎么办"
兜兜转转还是转回了原点

我已经不清楚我要的是什么了
以后的路, 该怎么走?
真的很担心我会把底线越画越粗
粗到有一天不管我做什么烂事都不可能会越界

"I've changed my mind"

When you're bound to hold to your "honour of words", how do you get yourself out of it? So long as the agreement is not signed in black and white, there is a powerful phrase: "I've changed my mind."

The merger deal was a time wasting effort. Along the way our necks were hold for the words we said during the preliminary discussion, before anything was actually signed. When we wanted to negotiate further, the replies were just: "You said that. We go according to what you said previously." or "You should hold to your honour of words." That ended the negotiation. None of us know to use this phrase, like a fool.

As advised by solicitor, "I've changed my mind" is a very easy way to get yourself out of it. And legally, you're not wrong to say that.

All about the sub-prime mess and how it began

It's a forwarded link. Pretty interesting.

http://docs.google.com/TeamPresent?docid=ddp4zq7n_0cdjsr4fn&skipauth=true

Time to save for rainy days?

The collapse of Lehman Brothers had shocked the financial market. In between of Korea and bankruptcy, Lehman chose to file for bankruptcy. They'd rather have thousands of ppl losing job rather than have the "yellow" owns the bank, because of dignity or egoism? Under the cloudy sky, who's the next to fall?

A dual currency contract is due today. With the intention of going into another one on the expiration of the old, the contract was put on hold due to the Lehman's news. I said to my banker, jokingly: "It's cloudy day, who know AIG might collapse tomorrow?" She said:" AIG is closing down." I was quite shocked when I heard this from her. All I know about is that AIG is in the urge of raising fund, yet to collapse. She didn't say more than that but merely said she'll keep me updated. She also said, casually: "If one day my ringtone becomes a "dooooo" sound then you know what's happened." Again, another whack on my face. Does it mean that my primary banker is also in a dangerous position? There seem to be some under cover bad news, the credit crunch seems to be more serious than we expected. Some good news released by the banks in the earlier period were bubbles yet to burst?

The Lehman Brother's news caused a bit of earthquarke in the markets globally though, it has positive impact on some other investment banks especially in Asia Pacific region. More deals are coming to them. To some ppl it's time to save for rainy days, holding "cash is king" principle; to some ppl, it's time to upfold their sleeve and preparing to enter the market since investments are cheap. What do you think? It goes back to the square as in how much reserve you have. That's how poor is getting poorer, the rich is getting richer under rainy days.

A stressful day..

I was hit by all the stress today. I had basic theory test today. Seriously I started to study the book about 2 or 3 weeks ago, study bit by bit. It wasn't really a last min buddha leg hugging, I was still panic over this simple test. Maybe I'm phobia over exam. Or I just do not have confidence in myself in MCQ. I do have friends who sat the test twice or even thrice for pass. So I had my heart pumping very fast for almost 3 hours today. I passed.

Later in the evening was something I do not know to handle. It was a dinner with our business partner and investors. Yes, it's not a formal dinner, pretty casual and primarily for the investors to meet up with our business partner, to clear certain doubts on the project. For this kind of dinner I really don't know to behave cos I'm nobody to anyone. If I were the investors, I'd be the one to be pleased and I'd be the one who ask questions; if I were the business partner, I'd be the one who's telling about the products and plans; If I were my boss, I'd be the one who coordinate the conversation flow. I'm none of them, so what am I doing there? It's really an uncomfortable session to me. Time to polish PR skill? Or maybe I should learn from the Chinese girl, get things started with drinks. When you do not know what to say, what to do, just bring the glass, cheers and drink. Indulgence seafood by the merlion? I don't enjoy at all.

I feel that it's tough on ladies in today's world. It seems that ladies must carry themselves well in front of ppl. In the event of representing company, ladies cannot be plain. I don't mean to be a shinning star, but ladies do need something to make themselves presentable - through dressing, make up and accessories, so-called 输人不输阵by chinese saying. All these cost money. Gentlemen don't seem to need that. All they need is a branded watch and that's it. Oh, ya, and probably a golf set and a golf membership, for big business. I do not know whether this applies to your world, but to certain extent, it applies to my world. Yes, it's shallow to some of you.

All these social and presentation skills really stress me up somehow. There's a gap between me and other ppl. A big gap for me to bridge.

To-do list

To complete by mid October: -

1. CPA status advancement
2. Apply for MBA course
3. Buy a Singapore plate car

Things have changed

As everybody's saying, I'm having a so-called "god blessed life". It is the hard work of my subsidiary pays this "god blessed life". Not just me, but every staff at holding company level. Whenever I saw my queries were answered at 10pm or 11pm, I felt very bad for making the staff work until this late hour; whenever I heard my colleague talked about the work life in my subsidiary, I felt really sad. I 何德何能 enjoy this kind of life at the expense of others. What are we all these monkeys doing in the office? We only know to drive the numbers. When the message was passed down to them that we need certain numbers to meet our target, they go all out to meet the target. When it's known that the productivity is saturated, they're still trying very hard. Once they take you as their brother, they can really die for you for anything. They are Koreans. It's the kind of spirit they're sharing, it's also the environment I'm in.

Today, I saw them fall into the trap of this shitty company, besides feeling pity for them there's nothing else I can do. As if I saw a car driving so fast to kill that person, asked the person move but he didn't want to move. They choose to believe the car is not going to kill them, the driver will jam the brake on. Too naive. The driver will not just hit and run. Before he run, he'll mamke sure he takes their wallets with them.

Too dynamic and vibrant, thing's changed so much in just 6 months time. In 6 months time, an active company can become dormant; in 6 months time, a getting married couple can break off; in 6 months time, friends can become enemy; in 6 months time, a profit making deal can become a loss. There are so many things can happen in 6 months time. 6 months only, I feel like ages.

In dilemma, I was being offered with an option and I made a decision, at my own risk. I truly hope I did not place a wrong stake this round.

Their KL trip

The trip was planned during the drinking session, I was not involved. It was said to "review" the hospitality of our KL friends, date was set on 09/08/08. I was still happily talking about the trip the week before, but I withdrew myself from the plan last minute, due to certain decisions made. Purely 鱼与熊掌不能兼得.

After they came back, it wasn't sound so fun when I first heard about their fruitful trip. The only amazed thing was they met our film director during morning exercise. That was the only drama thing I could voice "walaooooooOOOo" and nothing else. BUT, I really feel pity for not joining after the second ppl vividly told me about the trip, yeah, with pictures somemore. Saving the pictures into folder, I can only name the folder "Their KL trip" lo....... >_<

Below illustrated the "commentary".

Reviewer: This picture is a proof for fighting reputation
Me: Oh... sampai sweat somemore. Walao... still wearing mickey mouse t-shirt??
Reviewer: You notice that also. He's wearing mickey mouse watch tim!
Me: It's too obvious to show that he's just come back from HK Disneyland lo....

Reviewer: Our friend was drunk after just half cup of beer you know !!
Me: He so useless one meh?? I finally know who's the one I can win liao....
Reviewer: hahahaha... you sure win one.

Me: Who's that gal??
Reviewer: FK's 绯闻女友2号
Me: So romantic hoh... went to had night view of KL
Reviewer: ya.... he purposely brought her there
Me: Why the gal looked so familiar? FY student? Reviewer: No. Cher's Nilai's classmate. Now FK's colleague..
Me: ohh... that gal they were talking about last time...

Me: Walaooo.... can don't be so auntie??

Reviewer also commented that they're impressed by KY's performance. He's accompanied them from 7pm till the next day, which was Sunday, irregardless it's his niece 1-year birthday (the most touching part). Most importantly he bought all the bills which was considered generous. He's won the reputation I supposed? Reviewer also commented that FK impressed ppl by making reservation for table.

The other thing that the reviewer commented was how funny the couple was - I can't feel. I really wonder what "performance" that made so much fun.

I was thinking: is there anywhere else to "review" next?

有点无奈

Sigh... feeling very down... 就像小孩子吃不到糖那样... I've prepared myself for taking leave on Thursday and Friday, although there were chances that I cannot go, I still hoped and prayed until the last minute that I'd get my application approved. But... it disappointed me. Never mind, I hope for tomorrow, that I can get my leave on Friday approved...

Sometimes I just cannot do anything about this friend. While I was "immersing" myself in the down mood, out of sudden I received this sms:

"这礼拜务必出席。。。 我已招了大伙同时出现。。。 所以放飞机的行为是不被允许的。。。放者格杀勿论。。。"

"你自己讲要去的........ 难道你要放飞机??"

Yeah... I did mention that I might attend this Sunday, if I'm free. Today he had made me no way to say I might not able to go anymore. I can only admit that I really cannot do anything about him, at any time. After I aeroplaned my partner so many times, until today she still cannot do anything about me (perhaps she does not bother at all). My dearest partner... you know the tactic to deal with me now?

I look forward to the gathering... I know I'll be the laughing stock. Anyway, hope that we can have fun in that sauna stadium.