today is a good day

got my petty cash! all $77.90 of it!

AND my sales appointment got converted to 18 sqm! WHEEEEE!

mental note to self: buy...

shimmery light green/white eye shadow
a weekend bag
liquid eyeliner
new eyelash curler
2 pairs of shoes
classic t-shirts to replace the ones i have grown too fat to wear
a see-through sling bag for easy passage through immigration


and...
finally get down to cleaning my cupboard of clothes i cant wear, my 5 years of Seventeen magazine (US) to sell off at Bras Besah, the box of books under my bed to sort and pack away into the right cupboards, picking out the clothes i want to send for alteration AND getting them to the alteration seamstress...

AND
plan my life for the next year - deadlines to meet and a to-do list to complete.

i really wish i could be doing half the stuff now in the office because i feel sooo unproductive at the moment. i hate the waiting for someon to do that something so that it can be passed along the line to the queue of people waiting to add their parts in.

i am an old fogie

my mom won an i-pod nano yesterday in the staff-room teachers' day draw.

so now EVERYONE in my house has an MP3 player. except me.

my mom is more "happening" than me.

a test of will-power

when my ex-sup decides we should go out of Changi Business Park for lunch, it is always a test of my will-power.

the mind is willing but oh! the flesh is weak...

those pretty shoes... affordable too... oh and that top... sigh...

i.must.not.buy.no.money.to.waste.no.space.in.suitcase.

sigh...

it's great to have a friend who shares a passion

i'm really glad that i went for the ROH Behind The Scenes course - it's really exciting meeting people who are as kooky as you! people who you can comfortably start a conversation with about Tamara Rojo, how many times they have been to the ballet this month, the latest gossip in the artsy world (and even in the Royal Opera House! oOOOoOo...). one of the girls could even point out every single (even remotely-famous) person who walked into the cafetaria and tell us who he/she was! talk about hard-core!

we all knew that we wanted to work in the industry (i'm sure almost every person wished he or she would someday call the Royal Opera House our office!) and it was fantastic knowing that there are other people out there with similar aspirations (people are usually are stumped when i say i want to work in arts management).

during the course i met a girl called Urzula who i didnt really talk much to but after the course, the whole group of us swapped e-mail addresses and she and i ended up having each other on our MSNs. then started the very random msging (which at the beginning was awkward because we never really hit it off during the course): she used to send me links to dancey stuff and then we'd start chatting about the contents of the link. in some ways i'm glad i didnt blow her off initially because she was really such a big help! when i decided to teach a movement class during the Warwick Student Arts Festival, i knew that she was the right person to ask for help from. she immediately gave me some suggestions and pointed me in the right direction to the right forums to post my problem to the rest of the www-connected dance world. she even told me whom is the resident guru of the forum who would give me the most qualified help. we'd laugh over all these funny games we'd play (one was guessing all the acronyms she had on her MSN nick that were all dance companies) and gush over Mikhail Baryshnikov and Sylvia Guillem clips on youtube.

she recently sent me this which i thought was fantastic because i love love love Darcey Bussell AND Anthony Dowell, and this French & Saunders sketch was really tastefully done.

Part1
Part2

strange things about the human mind

isnt it funny how when you wake up in the morning you think, 'oh crap, i have so much work to do today', but when you get to work, switch on your computer and stare at the screen, your mind goes blank as to what work you had to do, and you need to think really hard (like Winnie-the-Pooh) what it was 1hr ago that crossed your mind.

and now i have less work to do because i asked Sales if there were any companies on my list that they were personally following up on and my ex-Sup said they'd do them all.

so, errr... what was it again that i said i was busy with?

a very good sales ploy

Spring Court is currently having a fantastic promotion going on - which i think is a brilliant way of luring customers to spend more at their restaurant. we decided to go there for dinner tonight since my brother and i had never been to Spring Court before. once there, the waiter informed us that if we ordered $77 worth of food (main dishes only) we can get a peking duck for 77 cents. so of course we ordered more - we chose his recommendation of sea cucumber with mushrooms ($20 for a small portion) because what we had ordered had only come up to about $60+.
the food came really fast and i really liked the sea cucumber and mushrooms because it was cooked in a very tasty stock/sauce (quite like fish maw soup i had the week before). we were drinking it up as if it were our soup course!

we ordered pai gu wang (erm... spare-rib king?) which was excellent - the meat was tender and the sauce had the right amount of sweetness as well as savouriness.
the yam basket was delicious - crispy on the outside and melt-in-your-mouth on the inside. wasn't too thrilled by the toppings as quite a lot of oil was used to fry them.
the salt-baked prawns were fantastic! mmmm... you could even eat them with their shells because they were really crispy and tasty due to the salt.
the 77 cent peking duck was nice but didn't blow me away as i expected it to. i wish they had cut some of the pieces of skin smaller as the crêpes they gave could hardly wrap each piece of skin. also they gave too little cucumber and the spring onions were huge chunks instead of butterflied so everytime you bit into them it gave you such a strong onion taste in your mouth.
we knew we wouldnt be able to finish the duck meat so we got them to wrap it up for us to take home to cook either preserved vegetable soup or duck porridge with for dinner tomorrow.we ended the meal with seafood hor fun which had the gorgeous burnt aroma makes the dish.

very satisfying - the bill came up to $101, which is pretty reasonable considering we had eaten fill and had a whole duck to take home.

Spring Court is in Chinatown, just opposite Chinatown Point, one door away from the corner Chinatown Hotel 81.

All by myself

there's something liberating about being in the office all alone on a Friday night at 7pm. almost everyone has left - either to go to a bowling tournament organised by one of our clients, or to celebrate the weekend's arrival with parties. every Friday i get asked the same question: why aren't you going home? and the truth of the matter is, I LOVE THE OFFICE ON FRIDAY NIGHTS.

no crowds, no one to screw up your evening that you have had such high hopes for, no one to rush to meet, no one to annoy you.

just you, your music player, your computer, and a stack of databases to key into a spreadsheet.

not like during office hours when you have to be on the phone trying to convince someone who isnt interested that he should meet up with your sales executives to discuss the information sent to them about the exhibition you are organising.

not like during office hours when you are calling someone to remind them that the reply form for the pre-exhibition event you are organising is due Monday and they stop you mid-sentence to answer their mobile phone.

i've got one last week in the office and even though i complain about sales, i know that i will miss this place. the last time i said goodbye i was so certain that the exhibition line is not what i want to be in. but i think i've changed. perhaps the last time there was too much happening in my personal life that made me feel dissatisfied with the office environment. this time round, because i've told everyone i'm essentially uncontactable during these 5 weeks, it's been pretty smooth-sailing. no one i need to please, and i've had time to do MY things.

i'm looking forward to going back to Uni though. i love my course and it is going to be devastating at the end of it to think that i will no longer be a student. EVER. i think that once i have crossed that bridge i cant go back to being a uni student. it will just feel too much like regression. yet i know that unless i find a job that challenges me i will always be thinking back fondly on my days of academia.

perhaps that is why i dont want to work here HERE (i.e. Singapore office). maybe in the UK. but then, all work has its icky bits, right? who am i kidding...?

though i think that if i did PR, the crap bits will at least be what i'd prefer to do...

the pros and the cons

the good thing about living so near to work is that i can wake up at 8.25am, leave my house by 8.40am and get to work at 9.05am. and probably be the first person in.

and even if i change my mind about what i decided to wear to work while still lying half-awake in bed the night before/8.15am AND take my time to choose a pair of shoes as i leave my house to the extent that i only leave my house at 8.50am, i can still take a cab which will get me to work in 4mins (i.e. by 9am).

the bad thing about living so near to work is the embarrassment of having to tell your taxi driver that you live less than 2km away, especially when you know that he has been waiting in the queue for approx. 15mins till you got in.

or like on monday when i only had a $50 note since the ATM at work could only dispense $50 notes and my taxi fare (boarded at 11.55pm-ish), including the late night surcharges, only came up to $3.90.

"working naaaaainne to faaaaaive"

as darling Dolly Parton sings it with her cute twang. in fact, i think i watched 'Nine to Five'(1980) where she played Doralee Rhodes, a secretary who works together with her 2 colleagues to teach their boss a lesson.

anyway, during my lunch break i was filling out my timesheet and i realised i have worked 116 in the last 10 working days. which works out to be an average of 12 hours a day in the office (if you include lunch).

the downside is that because of some proceedure with finance side, i will only get my pay (4 out of the 5 weeks i am working) after i have flown back to the UK.

:( *sob*

"if you have to grow, you have to grow. don't fight it"

ahh the wise words of my dear father - what inspiration to all of us...

food in Singapore has been rather disappointing. not to say that the food is bad, but just that a lot of places that i used to love eating at have deteriorated in standard - like Ka Sou (fish bee hoon), The Signature's Fish Bee Hoon at the food court (what Ivy, Yi and i survived on when we were working in Reed in Aug 2004), Muthu's Curry...

but one place is still as fantastic as it used to be - Bee Heong Palace Restaurant. they used to be on the fourth floor of PIL Building along Cecil Street but have since moved to 134 Telok Ayer Street because PIL Building is supposed to undergo major renovations. they serve really good Hokkien food and we always order the same few that are their signature dishes. the big big boss is (i think) the chairman of the Hokkien Association because they used to use the PIL Building restaurant for Association meetings and functions - sometimes you'll see a group of old men having some secretive meeting in the outdoor dining area, with waitresses going back and forth with brandy. and to add to the secrecy, there's always a cloud of cigarette smoke.

they have updated their ngor hiang (deep fried fve-spice and meat mince) dish by now serving it with stuffed you tiao (deep fried dough stuffed with fice-spice meat) as well. dip it into the sweet sauce (similar to the popiah sauce) and mmmm...
another fabulous item to have is their fish maw soup (i think it's even nicer than ordering their shark's fin, though that is good too) - very generous on the ingredients.
we usually always order a vegetable dish and today, since they were out of asparagus, we had spinach with mushrooms. the mushrooms were nice and juicy, having soaked up all the stock and sauce it was cooked in.
next came the trademark Hokkien Noodles - delicious as always. the sauce really makes the dish and they dont scrimp on ingredients.
and to round it off, my brother's favourite - kong ba (stewed fatty pork) with man tou (steamed buns). the thick layer of fat has so much flavour and they put a generous portion of garlic into the dish. mmm...
definitely a place where you can get great food at amazingly good prices - all that (for 4 people) cost just $49! so at least one bit of Singapore is still as good as i remember it to be...

A House is not a Home, but what IS Home?

'I couldn't deal with the changes: The places that I grew up in, they've all disappeared. It is hard for me as a father to tell my son: "This is what I did as a kid and this is where I went to primary school." It's a very lamentable state. You turn around and that place is gone... We are all made up of memories; who we are depends on what we've lived through. Going back to beginnings is very important. I always tell my students you must research your beginnings; that's where the clue to who you are lies. I don't think there's been enough looking back... My work has been kind of a quest for a home, but I don't think I've quite found it. Maybe I never will, it's an impossible thing.'

Straits Times interview with poet Boey Kim Cheng who gave up his Singapore citizenship and moved to Sydney, Australia.

ChannelNewsAsia has been showing a series called 'Chinese Restaurants' where a Canadian Chinese reporter goes around the world in search of Chinese Restaurants and interviews the owners of these restaurants because he believes every one of these Chinese has an interesting story to tell.

In one of the episodes he interviewed a Chinese man living in Argentina whose wife and son did not like it and have moved to the US, leaving him and his daughter, who now works in the UN in a different city, in Argentina. In the final interview with him, he sounded so resigned as he said,

'I don't think I can ever go back to China. I will not be accepted there because I am different. But I don't think of Argentina as my home. I can empathize with the global society of the young people. For me the concept of home is fading.'

It ended with a shot of him having a smoke alone outside of a bar/pub along the street under a streetlamp, and the camera slowly pulling away from him.

Is it perhaps better to accept that there isn't such a concept of home and to go off and be a "global citizen" rather than lament and look back for something that is only a figment of our imagination - something we create to give ourselves a sense of comfort (the phrase "opium of the masses" comes to mind)? yet there will always be a longing for "home". i guess what Boey Kim Cheng said is true -there isn't enough looking back. but do we really want to look back and thus dwell in the past, in this rosy picture, tainted by nostalgia, that we always yearn to return to? is it better not to look back and subsequently be disillusioned with the present? but if we don't, will not the past be lost forever and we lose our identity?

sometimes i wonder what kind of emotional and identity strains my children will undergo if the world becomes even more paradoxical. or will they not realise it if they are not taught to ponder? no, i will teach them to think. because if we do not, we will degenerate to mere bodies with no souls, something many people have already become.

VIKING RIDES AND BOUNCY CASTLES!

surprise surprise, i received an SMS from Ms Choo today telling me the following...

"Hi. VJC is having a sports and lifestyle carnival called Family 3 on 2nd Sept from 9am to 4pm. Funds raised go entirely to the Singapore Action Group of Elders. Focus is on building intergenerational dialogue and active ageing. I am organising this. Can i count on you people to buy coupons and come? It's for a good cause and good way to catch up with everyone. Let me know? There will be free performances, health talks, carnival rides, flea market stalls, art, jamming, mural painting, massage services, food, etc. If you have young siblings or relatives all the better as there will be train rides, mini viking rides, bouncy castles etc. Miss Choo"

So i replied:

"OOooOooO mini viking rides and bouncy castles! erm... not too sure, will get back to you."

her next SMS was:

"Ok. Would be good if you can help spread the word around to your batch. If you people want to have a trial yoga class for only 5 bucks per hour you can let me know by next fri. It can be from 9to 10am or 10 to 11am. Trained instructors of course. But they must be committed!"

so any VJC Alumni, want to go? :) not necessarily for the yoga but definitely for the BOUNCY CASTLES! :)

Friday Nights in the Office

it does sound sad to be working late on a Friday Night, especially 2 weeks in a row. last Friday i was in the office till nearly midnight and if i really want to, i can possibly do that again today.

but things arent that bad as they appear - almost everyone is staying back late tonight to do work and we had a fun takeaway dinner together, cracking jokes and forgetting about work for that 30mins.

i've got Class 95 blasting in my earphones and no obligations at home or with friends. work can be really relaxing...

phew...

thank goodness i was curious enough to go onto Babelfish and find out the phrase for "information" in mandarin. because one of the companies i called started speaking to me in mandarin.

btw, it is "信息"

it is a good day

I MADE MY FIRST SALES APPOINTMENT!

thankyouthankyou! the power of a simple little prayer...

and now he can get off my back!

ARGH

i hate it when he comes to bug me if i have made any sales appointments for him. i hate it when he tries to remind me that i am supposed to be making calls. HELLO! i HAVE been calling these companies but if no one wants to talk to me, can i really help it?

and who are you to say that the other work i am doing is not important? plus, do you REALLY need to print stuff every 5 minutes? isnt your walking to and from the printer wasting precious time as well?

and why do some companies stupidly decide to employ very rude receptionists. or just very stupid ones who just say 'dunno' or 'no' to every question you ask.

e.g. 1
Me: "Hi, i am calling from XXX, my name is Adeline. I'm calling regarding XXX. May i know who i should speak to?"
Receptionist: "sorry, very busy"
Me: "pardon?"
Receptionist: "very busy"
*hangs up*

e.g. 2
Me: "Hi, i am calling from XXX, my name is Adeline. I'm calling regarding XXX. May i know who i should speak to?"
Receptionist: "errr... sorry you calling from where?"
Me: "X X X" (spaces in between indicate me slowly repeating the company name)
Receptionist: "about what ah?"
Me: "about X X X"
Receptionist: *silence* "orh... i tink no lah."
Me: "pardon?"
Receptionist: "i tink no need lah"
Me: "i see. may i find out for feedback any particular reason why your company does not wish to participate in XXX?"
Receptionist: "err... no lah. dunno."
Me: "would you like me to send some information?"
Receptionist: "err... no lah. is okay"
Me: "i can just send some information about the general event and you can have a look at it"
Receptionist: "err no lah. i think dowan"

e.g. 3
Me: "Hi, i am calling from XXX, my name is Adeline. I'm calling regarding XXX. May i speak to someone in sales or marketing?"
Receptionist: "ya you can speak to me."
Me: "Would you like to receive any information about XXX which will be at HERE during THEN?"
Reception: "uh-ah. er no"
Me: "may i find out for feedback any reason why?"
Receptionist: "err that one i dunno. cos actually the person in charge is not around"
Me: "perhaps i can call back later. may i know who i should look for when i call back?"
Receptionist: "oh. errr... *silence* ah Mr X"


GARGH!

Postscript:
e.g. 4
Recorded answering machine: "Welcome to XXX. Our operators are unable to answer the phone. Press 1 if you know the party's extention number. Press 2 if you wish to search the directory by name. Press 3 if you wish to search the directory by department."
Me: *presses 3*
Recorded answering machine: "I'm sorry. There is no recorded message for that extention. Please try another number."

OMG i can no longer call myself bilingual!

how do you say "information leaflet" in mandarin?

good thing i work in a fish tank...

a good book

is one that even though you know is going to depress you with its tale of the downward spiral of the protagonist, you can't help but continue reading.

Like Camus. any of Camus' books - The Plague was brilliant, and am hooked on The Stranger, his first novel. and i dare say even Zola's Thérèse Raquin and Germinal (although my fellow Naturalism coursemates will disagree about the last one).

Even though it was past midnight when i should have gone straight to bed, i read another chunk of The Stranger and was bracing myself throughout because i could see how Monsieur Meursault was destined for trouble.

at the Asian Civilization Museum

i hear beethovan and turn around to see a construction foreman answering his phone.

even museum construction companies are high-class...

it's monday again

The Bee Gees belting out "Stayin' Alive" has got to be the most apt song to listen to when walking to the office. Hypes you up but has the whole Fritz Lang (think the Silent Era classic 'Metropolis') doom and gloom going for it.

they are doing a seat reshuffle in the office and i have been reshuffled in the reshuffle. so now i am moving to the adjacent fish tank. which isnt any better but at the same time has it's pros. like out of the watchful eye of my boss (though she has been too busy this week) but an animal in the zoo to a new set of people. URGH.

weekends and public holidays are meant for enjoying the little things in life

like spending time with my family - travelling around the island; having 4-way conversations in the car or over meals; the whole family ending up in one bedroom reading the papers (what can i say, we are environmentally conscious)...

and like photo-blogging. :)

last saturday was really spent as a family. as mentioned before, my parents took me to the Garden of Remembrance before we swung by to St Luke's in Bukit Batok to visit my grandmother. She's getting better because now at least she can open her eyes. No one in my family knows if my uncle has broken the news to her yet and we have no idea if she has realised anything amiss.

and since we were on some round-the-island rod trip (haha), we stopped at Adam Road Hawker Centre to have the famous Nasi Lemak. now i know that almost every other stall sells Nasi Lemak but this guy has pulled ahead of the rest by winning the Makansutra MasterChef award (or was it some STB/Food Festival tied-in thing?).
although i do have to say that i paid $4 for that... and the egg looks tiny, not to mention the dismal amount of ikan billis... but the teh tarik was mmmmmmmm...

after that we swung by Braddell to visit my other grandmother. when i was a kid, i loved visiting my grandmother because she'd ALWAYS ask me if i want to eat "i-see-ka-lim" (ice cream) and then give me some money to go to the stall around the corner to get what i wanted. AND she lived near the super nice cantonese roast stall at the hawker centre on Lorong 1 (though after they moved their standards have dropped). and she let me first play with the price-tag gadget, before i progressed to using the plastic bag sealer. i remember when i was in Primary 6 and had the week off during the PSLE marking, my mom sent me there to work because she couldnt entertain me while she was involved in the marking exercise. it was a good chance for me to practise my mental sums since i was made the cashier (and we didnt use a cash machine in the past, just a drawer below the desk that contained all the money). and for my grandmother to show me off to all customers. my uncle gave me the option of being paid $15 a day or $10 + 2 Ritter Sport chocolate bars. and of course i took the chocolate bars because the price of 2 bars was more than $5 (although on hindsight i should have taken the $15 because his cost price for the bars probably wasnt $5).
my uncle and grandmother have since closed that shop and opened a smaller one nearby which is fantastic anyway because i get loads of chinese groceries for free. my grandmother sees it in another light - that i cannot possibly survive in the UK without eating chinese food everyday and everytime i go to see her she offers me packets of noodles, dried shrimp, dried chinese mushrooms. she even used to try to get me to take some canned food but thankfully my mom stepped in.
all the lovely stuff that i cant take... :( dried octopus... dried cuttlefish...

weekends and public holidays are also about enjoying the luxury of being able to cook meals for the family...

on National Day I roasted chicken which was marinated in garlic salt, black pepper, lemon and pepper seasoning, paprika, and stuffed with garlic and an entire lemon that was cut into wedges.
my mom doesnt like the sharp taste of leeks but in my last trip with her to the wet market i mentioned that leeks are really delicious, especially grilled. she subsequently decided to buy a bunch which i HAD to figure out a dish to cook all at a go since i figured she probably wouldnt cook them and they'd go to waste. i didnt feel like having them grilled so i scoured my mom's collection of cookbooks for ideas and found a recipe for hearty vegetable soup in an old FEMALE Cookbook that i tweaked to use what i had.

All you need to do is coarsely chop an onion, 3 stalks of leek, 1 carrot and 2 tomatoes. stir fry the onions in some olive oil, adding the leeks and carrots. pour in some chicken stock and the tomatoes, seasoning with salt, pepper and oregano. let it simmer for 30mins (or longer). the recipe actually called for potatoes but i had already sliced them up for a crispy potato dish.my mom had seen some lovely cuts of beef at the market that she ended up buying for dinner last night which my brother grilled on the griddle pan we have. the key to them not sticking, he says, is to oil the meat rather than oiling the pan. *good tip to bear in mind* after grilling, he poured a bit of red wine into the pan to create a glaze for the steaks wth the juices and flavour left in the pan.
i made a honey mustard dressing for the side salad using honey mustard, thyme, balsamic vingar, pepper, salt and oilve oil.

a few weeks back my mom and i watched an episode of Party Dish where Trish Magwood made Crème Caramel. and we were so psyched about making it that we bought all the ingredients. but because of the insane work schedule i've been having the past 2 weeks, we kept putting it off until yesterday when i realised i had better make it or else the ingredients would go bad.
it's a really simple recipe:

1) preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius, prepare a tray filled with water for the ramekins to be placed in.
2) heat 1 cup of sugar and 1/3 cup of water in a pot until it caramelizes.
3) quickly pour a bit into each ramekin, swirling it around to coat the bottom. this forms the top layer of the creme caramel when it is turned out.
4) beat 3 whole eggs and 2 egg yolks with 1/2 cup of sugar.
5) heat 2 cups of milk, 3/4 cup of, a teaspoon of vanilla extract and some lemon zest in another pot without letting it boil.
6) slowly spoon the milk solution into the egg mixture, whisking continuously so that the hot milk wont cook the eggs.
7) pour the mix into the ramekins, about 3/4 full.
8) sit them in the water bath (the water should come halfway up the ramekins) and pop the tray into the oven.
9) bake for 20mins, or until a stick pierced in comes out clean.
10) serve either warm or cold, turning out onto a plate by first using a knife to loosen the sides.
the lemon zest made it taste a bit like lemon custard (yum!). the custard bit of the recipe can be used to make Crème Brulée whereby sugar can be sprinkled on top and caramelized with a blow torch to create a crispy top.

goodbyes and hellos!

last weekend, zhen hao had a farewell + birthday party and it was a blast! not to mention that he was the only other person interested in having some alcohol at the party (i had brought a bottle of Bacardi to finish). the guys all seem so apprehensive about starting university that it is frankly, rather unsettling. maybe it's just me who needs to keep trying new stuff to keep life interesting, or perhaps that i was just excited about university for a new start.

anyway, so many guys i know are going to London - and they have already started planning for me to cook them dinner one weekend. HA! OPPORTUNISTS!

but back to the point - a farewell party is also THE place to meet people you havent met in AGES! (considering also that i JUST got back to Singapore).
me and cheng having FUN! :) i love how all my friends have cars to drive me around! hehehhe.. she did get lost trying to find my house though i'm not complaining...
and then we have IVY and FANG! amazing how friends can entertain themselves at a party when the host is busy...

i must be one of the best-paid wrappers/packers

they pay me $12/hr to wrap presents in company wrapping paper and then to pack visitor flyers into DHL bags to be sent off in the morning.

Was the National Day Parade live broadcast an attempt on satire?

i just love it when they do live broadcasts. why? because it's always a so hilarious listening to the commentry. last night on TV, they had a voiceover interview with the assistant choreographer of one of the mass displays. he said, "they really look like they are having lots of fun" just as the broadcast editor chose a feed from one of the cameras that was filming 3 boys with an expression that said "why am i here?". and everytime they had a shot of the audience, they seemed to focus on people that seemed bored/uninterested/listless.

hmmm... being a broadcast editor must be a fantastic job - you get to choose which feeds you want AND because it is a live broadcast, there is no censorship! ahahaha! so you can make the whole event into a farce and no one can stop you! perhaps the editor was making a wise-ass statement on the whole event and no one realised. propoganda has been foiled!

the office

working late is great because
a) it's after office hours and therefore i dont have to make any sales calls
=> which by induction means no irate potential clients who slam phones down and/or rudely answer
b) up goes the music and the brainless work (like typing out some database)
c) loads of chatter over a delivered dinner
d) of course, overtime rate is 1.5

the good news about next week is that i am moving out of this fish tank with the bad echo into the open BUT that means that everyone will hear me on the phone (which puts lots of pressure on me when i make sales calls because I AM NOT CUT OUT FOR SALES!).

oh and no more blogging at work. OOPS!

till death do us not part

visiting the columbarium today to see the niche where my grandfather's ashes were placed was a mix of emotions - sadness and sensibilty and humour. we talked about all the practicalities with my parents filling me and my brother in on all the information about the Garden of Remembrance and about how they will put the marble slab in only after my grandmother passes on so that they can do a joint one. it is fitting that my grandfather's niche is in the P section because they alphabeticized all the sections and each given a name - P was for Peace. and in a way, the place gave me such a sense of peace, just as how my grandfather passed away. and really, in the past few months, i've seen how God works in His time.

in the columbarium, i perused the niches around my grandfather's and saw many couples that had their urns put together, with pictures of the two together smiling so happily on the marble slab. and that's how i want to be remembered when i leave this world. not in my lowest of lows but radiant and joyful, and my remains sealed in a niche next to the one i love.

RGS dances/dancers are getting hotter - do you not find that shocking?

call me conservative but it is alarming that RGS dancers are using such provocative and sexy moves that you are only supposed to learn in JC! GASP! and one of the dances had them shaking it like Fergie from Black Eyed Peas. man, these girls are going to be hot property (if not already) in JC when the boys descend on them.

amanda has not changed much (except she got skinner - DAMN). it's great to have someone that will willingly snap into photo-mode when you squeal "PICTURE! PICTURE!"and then take a slew of photos that all turn out blurry but funny because she INSTINCTIVELY makes odd faces to the camera.after doing so i was like, let's try with flash - and we look SHINY!
and for the heck of it i took a random shot and got amanda looking so serious - perhaps that's her accountant face. :)

we were getting really annoyed but the audience - one occasionally forgets that during a school show, the audience is rowdy and uncouth. but today's was exceptionally disruptive because the school kids were chatting away EVERYWHERE in the theatre and because SO many people were taking flash photography, one got annoyed with the photographers AND the audience members that loudly complained about the flash photography.

were we that annoying in secondary school? amanda says we probably were. and geekier. EEKS!

when I grow up I want to be an event planner...

because what other job allows you to surf the net/ask people for ideas for function venues, be on the phone the whole day calling up funky venues to ask for quotations for your specifications and then pay to go down to the venue in a cab in the middle of the working day to check out the venue, speak to the catering manager while being shown around the function room and look through all the quotations to come up with that ONE venue that fits all the requirements?

Reed UK is hiring - should i apply? i dont like sales so it will have to be a marketing job but can i really stand the long and erratic hours? is Reed really the place for me? my boss says that the first 2 places you work at after you graduate is usually not the right company/job for you because you are just starting out and finding out what you want to do. and Josh thinks i should just apply so that i get the option of choosing if they offer me a place.

i guess i am not in a position to turn down an option at the moment because from my disappointing internship-hunting experience, PR and Marketing jobs are hard to come by. and i might have the advantage applying to Reed because i've met the UK office reps at the last GT and can probably get a recommendation from the Singapore office. only problem is that they are looking for a few years of relevant experience and i, sadly, dont have that unless they want me in at starting level and train me.

it kind of sucks to not get anywhere with just your CV - time to exploit contacts? :) that's what they call networking, right?

what is the point?

KFC

Abs Diet Endorsements:

Original Recipe Chicken Breast (with skin and breading removed) - 140 calories, 3 g fat (1 g saturated), 410 mg sodium
Mashed Potatoes with Gravy - 110 calories, 4 g fat (1 g saturated), 260 mg sodium

The Lesser of Two Evils:

Eat this: BBQ Baked Beans - 230 calories, 1 g fat (1 g saturated), 720 mg sodium
Not that: Potato Wedges - 240 calories, 12 g fat (3 g saturated), 830 mg sodium
Eat this: Honey Barbecue Sandwich - 300 calories, 6 g fat (1.5 g saturated), 640 mg sodium
Not that: Original Recipe Breast -380 calories, 19 g fat (6 g saturated), 1150 mg sodium


erm... why would you even bother to go to KFC if you dont eat the chicken skin?!?

at work (seriously)

on my first day back, i got dragged into a meeting i didnt know of.
the big big boss decided to sit in and ask questions - and we all know that always drags the meeting into overtime.
but hey, OT is 1.5 times my hourly rate so it's not like i'm complaining.
i dont think he noticed i was illustrating strange phrases he used.

OT is good money - which is why they keep urging me to go home.
but how do i go home when i have so much paperwork to do?
and thus good ol' OT - you are my bank account's best friend.

have i mentioned i am not cut out (or interested) in sales?
which is why i am using the excuse that i am organising one of the pre-event events as reason to be calling venues instead of potential clients.

i took the fastest taxi ride in my life last night.
got on at 10.04pm, reached home in 3 mins = $3.00
the guy was speeding - i think he was annoyed that i live so near to my office.
well HA! since he cut the taxi queue outside the office building...