Shopping at Woodbury Common Premium Outlet, one of the big factory outlets. We took an hour's bus ride to the place and another 1.5 hours back.
Clear blue skies (ok, with some drifting clouds) and the green hills behind. WW & his sis, WY.
Subway in NYC
World Trade Centre used to be behind.
Chinatown in NYC. Good (by NYC standards) Chinese food and si mu nai chai (hong kong milk tea)!
Italian Street in Chinatown. As the name suggests, there are Italian restaurants and shops along this street. Together with some Italians, probably.
Park in Chinatown
Court, along the way from Chinatown to Wall St.
Wall St.
That's NYSE behind me! Wonder if it looks like SGX in there?
The ferry to Statue of Liberty. No, we didn't make the trip there, as you know, we don't like crowds (excuse, haha).
Like how there was a massive jam along ECP this morning when I needed to attend a 9am meeting and couldn’t be late. As a result, my usual 845am bus fetched me to office only at 905am. Good thing I wasn’t the latest and I didn’t quite care.
I like my new attitude to work. In fact, it makes things more efficient!
Haven’t been updating in a long while! It’s either I lacked the inspiration or there wasn’t sufficient time.
In between, I’ve been to the States, specifically New York City. Explored a little of Ontario – Niagara Falls as well as Washington D.C. Although no where is better than home, the break from the work and more generally, the routines of life, was good. Good till a point where I’m starting to feel nothing is more important in life than life itself. Work is secondary to the need to fulfill own needs and wants. Thus, for the past two days I have been going back slightly earlier than my usual timing, wanting to do more things of my own interest. But alas, I found myself dozing off at 10+pm almost straight after dinner.
A break away from your familiarities does give you new insights. This morning while walking down the CBD from MAS to my office building, I noticed the fast-paced white-collared workers beside me, breezing through the crowds, always on a rush. I wasn’t happy that another lady wanted to cut into my path from behind and stepped up my pace to outdo her. That’s it in this world, everything’s competitive and fast-paced.
These days I’m still considering the thing I’ve been thinking about before my holiday. Should I pursue the Masters degree, and take it full-time? Recently there have been more opportunities surfaced for a possible alternate in career that gave me more considerations, which is a good thing. But then at the end of the day, when can I start living my dream?
Lamenting aside, during the NYC trip, we – WW, his mama, his sis and I – were with WW’s sis and new-born baby. She’s a cute little thing aka xiao bu dian who seems good-natured (at least to us; to her mama we don’t know) and has a pair of sparkling round eyes. She has the privilege of getting the green card and perhaps, the access to a more liberalized world. I wouldn’t mind working in the US, but given the limited entertainment options (museums, musicals and shopping – ok, maybe shopping aside), I prefer living in Sweet O’Singapore.
More photos to come. Perhaps tonight!
Company rule #xx - Produce a medical certificate (MC) for your absence at work due to illness or discomfort.
Don't understand why companies have to treat working adults as children. When I'm sick, I just want to stay at home and self-cure using natural remedies or simple household medicine. I don't see the need to visit the doctor every time. To visit the doctor just to get an MC sometimes become more of a chore. You're sick and trying to avoid the air-con, but still have to drag yourself to the clinic and wait in the queue to be attended to. What's worse, some doctors treat you with the mentality of treating schoolchildren. They think you are visiting them just to escape work and not really that you're unfit for work. Won't that time be better spent sleeping away, letting the body recuperate?
We should adopt the approach of the Europeans. Just call to inform you are unwell for the day and your boss will exempt you based on trust and not on some slip of paper. A good employee would not abuse this trust while those who would are not worth keeping in the company for long anyway.
Stepping up to the bigger perspective, I feel corporate stifles one's freedom and enslaves us employees. You are bound to the office (or work-related venues) for at least eight hours a day, have to report to your bosses, report on your deliverables and get graded every half-yearly or yearly.
Such a caged life!
I recall vividly how we used to play lanterns at our old house during Mid-Autumn festivals. The 3 of us siblings had our own favourite lanterns or for the earlier years, just simply the usual paper lanterns. We burnt the candles, carefully stuck them at the bottom of the lantern and carried the whole piece around our house. It seemed like we used to have a spare room in the old house (or that it was spacious and rather under-utilised) where we played with the lit lanterns. The best and most fun part was the burning. Due to the unsecured candles, the lanterns often got burnt by the loose candle (with its flame) and caught a mini-fire. We would then throw the burning lanterns on the floor and stamped on them when they were near dying-out.
That were the childhood days.
In NUS, as the festival coincided with inauguration for the Freshmen, there were beautiful lightings hung on the trees around the UCC. My hall stay during my last year of studies was at Sheares Extension where these lights could be seen. There was this happy festive hanging in the airs. Though I didn't get to carry lanterns or eat mooncakes then, I recalled enjoying the festival still just by absorbing the beauty of the colours and lightings.
WW and I have spent 4 Mid-Autumn festivals together. Heh, but I can't seem to recall the first 3 occasions except the last. We went up to Kent Ridge Park with a mooncake in hand and some lanterns. When we were about to start the mooncake feast, we realised we didn't bring along a knife and WW used his keys (wrapped with tissue) instead for cutting. There was a platform set up and we just sat on one of its edge, munching our mooncake and taking in the night view of Kent Ridge and Pasir Panjang houses below. We don't usually make deliberate efforts to spend occasions like this together (since we both don't really fancy mooncakes) but seize whatever opportunities we have.
The sweet little moments in life. How we wish for more of them amidst our busy work lives.
It’s disappointing at work when you tried hard for something but do not get the outcome desired. And it’s not your fault but the lack of commitment from fellow colleagues. Or perhaps it’s the culture here – fire-fighting and projects consume most of your time that you have little or no time left for other important matters.
That’s why sometimes I wished I were in the upbeat, open-culture place instead.
But thinking doesn’t help. The next step is to seriously consider and plan the 5-year roadmap. Where is my guiding light?
Our gathering @ Paulaners
It has been a while! Till a point where I couldn't differentiate who are from my junior batch and who from my junior's junior batch. Only remember XL and I are the oldest.
Five years on, we all are still in the IT industry. Perhaps with the exception of Steven and Julian, who manage to do more of IT-related work in cable and financial services sector. And me la, the one who still doesn't know where to venture for non-IT work.
Sam, Tong (the two guys at back row right-end) and I still meet up rather frequently and keep in touch with one another's happenings. With the others, we don't meet that often and with this gathering brought some pleasant news from some of them. Julian is engaged with his other half and XL is getting married to Stephen on the 19th of this month. Congrats! Another two marriages are from Tong & YJ and Jack & JY. Wedding bells chiming everywhere!
Boo. I've been having headaches almost everyday since two weeks back. What's happening?
Our extended weekend was simple.
I got a slice of experience of being in his office, mapping his previous description of the office to the images I saw through my eyes. The blue walls, the windowless space yet being sufficiently spacious, the messiness (actually it wasn't that bad) of his table and the unwashed mug on his table with residual coffee at the inner bottom. Then, there was the greenness surroundings, the vastness of the landing fields and the craft he has spent often racked his brains over for. In a way, his workplace allowed him the flexibility and freedom of movement, which I suppose he values quite a fair bit. Yep, I appreciate him bringing me around and introducing to the place he works at every workday.
Then it was bread-baking at home on Fri after the hangar open house. Spent 3 hours plus getting the two loaves of raisin bread out; happy that it was a success! Luckily there was an engineer at home to help adjust the oven temperature and timings. The under-performing Takada oven would have to go soon! WW and his parents found it of some standard, but too bad my own mama papa just dumped the whole loaf into the fridge and didn't cover it up. Thus it became a little too dry. But mama sang praises of it nevertheless. Didn't know one could be so proud of a bread loaf. Hoho
Saturday we were shifting some flower and plant pots and some furniture from Hillside Drive to Blandford Drive. WW and family will be moving to their new house on coming Friday. The new house is very-almost done and all the lightings, deco and feature walls are completed. It's beautiful place; can't wait to own a piece of it! Haha... (just kidding)
Today is Papa's bday and we headed off to Mong Hing Teocheow restaurant. Busy Shou Bi came down directly from his hostel at NTU and went back to his hall after lunch. Such family meals out are not that frequent anymore now that Shou Bi has his own very-packed life in uni. He has joined the Motoring Club and ODAC in uni. Hope he still has time for studies and don't end up with one more year of studying. Furthermore, Tian spends most of her weekend with Hen, sometimes wii-ing away. Good thing WW likes dinner at my place and we have that with mama papa almost every Sunday evening.
Reflecting back, it is a bliss to lead a simple life. Both WW and I don't ask for much, we live our days doing what we like (most of the time), don't particularly have to handle unpredictabilities in our lives and are pretty easy-going. To soak in the late afternoon sun earlier today, we went downstairs to fly a kite at the open area beside my HDB block. He controlled the kite movements while I released/wound up the kite string. It was a simple old-day childhood activity yet it could bring us relaxation and joy. You really don't need a lot to be happy.
Our generation, who grow up in a competitive environment, don't quite like failures. Perhaps it's due to our protective studying and living conditions. But must remember, 失败乃成功之母！
Next month onwards will see a different me. It's time to dress a little more my age, starting with make-up to dressing. Got bonus on Friday and can splurge on clothings for a revamped wardrobe. Time for a refresh!
New thrusts:
- Professional make-up for work
- Revamped dressing - feminine or professional pieces
- Set new direction for next step in career, which may lead to:
- Taking up either baking, CFA or finance courses
Or maybe, end up idling away. At the end of the day, what pushes you on?
I'm eating my dinner, surfing net and watching news on TV, all at the same time. Such is the outcome of lack of time. Or when you have too much to do at work. Then there's the pile of notes on my bed waiting, but I'll have to leave it to tomorrow morning on the bus ride to office.
Is multi-tasking really good? Does it increase your productivity and efficiency? Perhaps so, but feel it could make you more tired at the end of the day and slowly eats away your heart and soul. There is no focus in the things you do and you tend to get distracted more easily.
Recently there has been so much work that I feel like throwing them all aside for the time being. The workload is actually still bearable, considering my bosses give me my space understanding that I'm straddled with two persons' work. But then there is all the politicking from other teams and colleagues and all those arrowing around that it gets pretty sick. Sometimes you have got to rack your brains out just to come out with counter-arguments. It's all so taxing and counter-productive!
Work aside, life has been good. My giddy spell that lasted half a week ended and I'm able to get a breather from the stopping of German lessons. That freed up 2-3 weekday nights, quite unbelievable huh. But last Thu I was starting to miss the lessons again as it was the first lesson of a new semester. Wondered how the class would be now, without a number of us who are either travelling overseas for short trips or are going to be posted for work long-term.
Yesterday I tagged along with WW, his mama and sis to check out sofas, dining tables and lightings for their new house. Got a inward 2-seater recliner sofa for his room, damn cool! It reclines without need for additional space before the back wall and allows for sleeping position reclining. Can't wait for them to move in and we'll get a LCD or Plasma TV to laze the future Sundays away. Don't know if WW & family are as excited as me. Kinda weird for me to feel this excited since it's not me moving. Besides, I have no status .. yet .. mah. Wahaha. So I'm actually quite glad that WW consults me for opinions too.
The future beholds endless possibilities at this point in time. I'm looking forward to what may come up ahead!
Three days ago we got our bonus letter. Gao gao leh. A bit of a shock to me at first, but after a while there was not much emotions left. Nothing ever seems enough for greedy men. Or rather, we're getting quite non-chalant.But at least now with this amount I can get a few bigger items for my loved ones. A LCD TV for family, living expenses for bro who's in Uni now, perhaps a 2-seater recliner sofa for WW's new house and a Coachie each for Tian and myself! After which I suppose there isn't that much left till the next round a year later.If.. you had the chance to work in a country you like, with people speaking the language you are interested in (and have started picking up) and be given the opportunity to grow and develop, would you take up this chance?
The run was good! And of coz, the stay in KL better.
The 4.5km KL Rat Race started with a rather heavy downpour, making running difficult with the rain splattering on our faces and breathing hard. But we pushed on and 5 minutes into the run, the rain stopped, to our relief. The long slope up was challenging, but not as much as the downwards run after the ascent. I had used up too much energies trying to keep to pace during the upslope! This year's race seemed tougher though the route and distance was the same. The weird thing was that I felt I ran faster :)
The friendly treat at QMax Bar after the run (and shower which we sneaked back to our hotel for) was fun and a little of an eye-opener. Those KL folks dance so differently from us! They did some dance sorta like a tango or waltz, but I'm too ignorant to know which. At one point the group of us nine were hogging a huge part of the dance floor moving to our own retro zouk-style beats. Wahaha.
Earlier today was free-n-easy which meant.. shopping! I spent more than S$200 in just two shopping malls - Lot 10 & KL Plaza. Just see the shopping returns below. The trip was short but fruitful. It gave us not only the chance to experience the race once more, but also gave me the needed break from work. Dunno if I'll get to go again next year?
The flight to KL. I could see clearly Bedok Reservoir and my HDB flat below!
And then the seas along ECP with the ships (which look like little larve).
The whole team representing the company. Taken just before our run at Bursa Malaysia.
At the starting point. That was Judy and me in the centre.
The view from our Shangri-La hotel room
The KL Tower
Twin Towers, but you could see only one of it as its twin was directly behind it.
The flight back to Singapore - sunset.
Shirts for myself (and Tian, if she ever wears them, ho)
3/4 pants and denim skirt. From exactly where I got my current fave weekend denim skirt last year.
Mango tops
Polo-shirt and t-shirt for WW. He's quite fussy with shirts, but hope he like these la.
Lastly, a small tee for myself!
Didn't get to buy any foodstuff for family and friends, partly due to lack of time and also couldn't see them readily. Next time, yah :)
Shopping at Woodbury Common Premium Outlet, one of the big factory outlets. We took an hour's bus ride to the place and another 1.5 hours back.
Clear blue skies (ok, with some drifting clouds) and the green hills behind. WW & his sis, WY.
Subway in NYC
World Trade Centre used to be behind.
Chinatown in NYC. Good (by NYC standards) Chinese food and si mu nai chai (hong kong milk tea)!
Italian Street in Chinatown. As the name suggests, there are Italian restaurants and shops along this street. Together with some Italians, probably.
Park in Chinatown
Court, along the way from Chinatown to Wall St.
Wall St.
That's NYSE behind me! Wonder if it looks like SGX in there?
The ferry to Statue of Liberty. No, we didn't make the trip there, as you know, we don't like crowds (excuse, haha).
