Yeah...

Once upon a time, there are two coworkers in the office…

One is a happy soul, who is satisfied with what he has, passionate of what he is doing, treasured his work, and has a good work – life balance.

Another is a challenger soul, who is always looking for opportunities, ready and often goes the extra mile (a.k.a OT) to get things done, and have a big curiosity to stuff beyond his scope of work.

The question is…

Which type of person are you? And are you ever satisfied with your type?

I heard so often of the argument between these two leagues. When you’re happy with what you’re doing, people will poke and say that you’re stagnant and not enhancing with your career life. When you go the extra mile, people will say that you’re workaholic, busybody who wants to know beyond what is required, and have no life except work.

It’s just impossible to satisfy all the different perspectives. But seriously… I’m getting too comfortable being in the first zone. I often questioned myself of how far should I go in pursuing the latter zone. I realized that once I’m in the latter zone, I’m married to my work, people set that high expectation of me, and I have little chance to turn back to the first…

By all means, I need enlightment.
ED

Restored.

Ok... I'm abit too much... but I really can't stand having something missing without fixing it...

So I redo my icons and find a new free image hosting... what else if not photobucket...

So I got it done... and it's 2.30 in the morning. I'm to work tomorrow omigosh.

Sometimes, I'm really amzed with myself... I know I'm gonna regretted this tomorrow when I'm all sleepy and dozing off in the office T_T

Anyway, just back from Eve's Wedding. She is stunningly beautiful :)

Happy wedded life, dear!
ED

Aaaa.. Geocities!!

I received multiple emails from Yahoo alerting that Geocities is closing soon and we're to pull out any data that we need from there...

I tried to recall what I saved there... can't remember anything but my funny website... so I ignored the alert...

Now after posting and notice something weird in my blogger display... I remember... I put my blog icons there!!! I linked them to Geocities!!

Now I have no way to retrieve my icons :( Thanks to my IE settings to always clear history when closing the browser, I don't even have it in my temporary internet files...

So either I have to redo the icons... or it's time for another blog skin revamp...

Hmm... think about it later... I'm getting late! T_T This is the risk of using free stuff... you have no one to sue.... hahaha...
ED

Hi, B!

Yet another week full of midnight taxi bills…

I just completed sticking my taxi bills for this month… and it goes to the record of SGD 230 T_T and it’s not even the full month… It started only after 9th Oct, with 2 days of training in between.

In conclusion, I’m taking taxi for every working day T_T with more than half goes high due to midnight surcharge… It’s not good… I feel totally isolated from outside world… my world is only home and office and pantry. Where is Orchard Bugis Westmall… where is swimming jogging cycling… where is movie shopping chatting… I miss my old routine. True that you won’t appreciate those small things till the day you can’t afford them…

Ok… at least I learnt something here… and I’m still waiting for the day when I go out from office and the shopping malls are still opened… Shaji, my dear colleague… I hope you enjoyed your two weeks holiday… Now come back to office soon!! We need you desperately… I really wish to see him in office this Monday… he will be the best gift for the month…. Hehehe…

Anyway, because of the long-hour days at work… I decided that I need another break this year… I applied for 2 leaves for this Dec. One for my cousin’s wedding ceremony back to my hometown, another one for the Taiwan New Year eve trip. I got only tentative approval, but I don’t care… I’m going to buy the ticket and confirm the tour :) so at least I have something to look forward to… I need motivation badly…

Again, it’s not that I didn’t like the work. I like what I’m doing… My boss was giving me a test few days back to decide on my scoring, and there I realized that I have learnt a tremendous amount of knowledge from these past 4 months... yeah… nothing comes easy…

Since I have not much update out from outside world, let me update what I know… hmm.. nothing much change at home… lights were always out when I reached back home. Our current owner has decided to sell the flat and the agent started to be hyper on this. We received 3 requests to open our door for agent this week alone. Not that I ever been in the home, but it starts to get annoying as people keep taking picture of your stuff :( I’m partly hoping that they sell the place soon and then I can move to somewhere nearer office… or perhaps better, move to office itself… :D then I will be the ultimate “terminal” for office version.

Office wise… hmm… not many thing changes. Glen is back and I’m entertained again with his latest cold jokes :D (I am seriously hoping he doesn’t read this). Since he went back to China for his b’day, we celebrated it when he is back… giving him the latest mouse from Apple… the Magic Mouse. I was so glad that the delivery came on time… The party was at that evening and the DHL people sent it at 5pm… My impression about the mouse? It’s a moveable track pad. Glen’s impression about the mouse? He didn’t know what the thing is for the first few minutes and still confused after reading the instructions. I guess I’m too geek and had picked too geek a gift T_T all the best in figuring out how to use it, Glen.


Happy Birthday Glen!
The remaining set of the pics are too violent and hence censored.

So… after the fun Friday night, I was only 25% awake in office on Saturday. I finished my work only at 9.30.. then hopped to Habour Front for a quick dinner before reaching back home at 11.30…

Sunday is always reserved to home relaxing now. I woke up at 12, took my lunch, called home, drolled over iPhone (3 out from 5 of my friends are using it, this is too much!), and now I shall get ready for Eve’s wedding celebration :D

Bye, A
ED

*Wondering if anyone figures out what is A and B.

iRelax

I’m listening to Michael buble latest album – Crazy Love. No specific songs that truly stuck to my mind, but the slow melodies are good enough to make me stay patient with the slow connection of office network.

This week is still the same with last week. On Monday, I went off from office at 11pm. Tuesday at 12am. Wednesday at 1am. Thursday, my mind was almost blank and I almost can’t do anything on Friday. This is definitely not a work life balance… :(

Anyway, I woke up late on Saturday and reached office only at 1pm. I had to cancel my 2-month appointment to donate blood because of this new Saturday-working arrangement. Well… I really hope that this is as much as what I have to forgo. My whole weekdays and Saturday. I don’t think I can take further request for work. Totally exhausted…

Today, I decided to have a proper rest and stay at home. Even so, my heart can’t really go away from work… so I login to office. Thanks God the application is down such that I can find my own excuse not to work. Haha..

During the end module training, there was one exercise asking us to draw a pie chart denoting the amount of time you spent on every activity. I was putting 75% on work and another 25% on friends and personal time. I guess I have to update the percentage from 75% to 90% now :(

But guess what. During the Friday networking event at ORQ, I was still so passionate of telling the potential grads of how fruitful it is to work here. Huahaha... Anyway, being at the side of employer feels different. You can talk whatever cross your mind and your counterparty will have to either agree or think of a good respond that won’t insult you. Haha... Guess what else… you can eat while they talk, but they have to listen to you with full attention. I feel quite nostalgic after the event… I went through all these 2 years ago. Wait. 2 years ago? I am THAT old now?

Can’t believe how fast time flies. I feel so far now from the student life… but definitely still not ready for the next. I can’t help but to jump in surprise whenever I heard that my friends are getting married. This transition is tough. I’m too comfortable with where I was and don’t feel like changing anything.

Ok… anyway… life goes on. Enjoy more about the present and worry less about the future :p

Argh, my application is up,
ED

(Un)officially Graduated

This week, more than 50% of my expenses are on Taxi =.=’ I don’t know if it’s fate or it’s because I hurt my knees and it made me lazy to walk. Haha.. anyway, I’m glad that my knees are getting better… I expect it to recover in another month. I’m so prone to wound recently. After my bicycle incident, I knocked my knees to swimming pool’s steps, and now I fell off chasing a bus. I might need to get flower shower to wash away my bad luck T_T

So… I had my End Module Training this week. The location is Mandarin Oriental. Poor me get confused of the different Mandarin around Singapore – Meritus Mandarin, Marina Mandarin, Mandarin Oriental – and was almost late for the first day because of that. The hotel is good. The decoration is better than the Swiss Hotel… but in term of training class, Swiss Hotel wins most of the grads heart. I myself love Mandarin Oriental more, and definitely in love with the room. Truly envy those grads which got the chance to stay in the hotel. Oh well, I least I got to lunch there for 2 days. Haha..


The accomodation. I wish I were hired by other country because of it.

The training was good. On first day, the instructor was talking about our career path, how to pick the suitable career based from our strength and weakness, how to plan the career for the next 5 years, etc. I like the second day training better, which was talking about being assertive, giving and receiving feedback, and how to be ‘politically correct’ in redirecting responsibility to other people. Haha… At the end of the day, both instructors are highlighting a lot on networking. I must agree that I can’t run away from this topic.

We have a 'graduation' celebration event on Wednesday, a chili crab dinner on Thursday, a graduate event on Friday, and I was totally exhaustive by Saturday. Thanks that Deepavali come at the right moment and I didn’t have to work on Saturday. Hehe..


The best Chili Crab I had in my life - No Signboard Restaurant, Esplanade


The girls and the lost man

Saturday and Sunday had been great for me :) I went out for most of the time. I went to watch a movie – (500) days of Summer. It was a story about a guy who was deeply in love with a girl… but after some time, the girl just seems to get bored and get married with another guy… 500 days are the time they spent together. The plot is pretty interesting… the way the film flipped through the random days and run the event of the day… was really unique. The jokes were funny and I laughed a lot through out the movie… but when the movie was over and we talked about the morale of the story… I have no answer to the question of why the lady dumped the guy just like that. Sometimes girls just get complicated, don’t they?

Ok, so now is 1am in the morning. Time to sleep :)

Listening to This is Us – Backstreet Boys,
ED

Shooting Star

It was a sunny Sunday. I was working in office listening to "No Matter What", chatting about Boyzone. Suddenly, my friend gave me a text saying that Stephen Gately, one of the two main vocalists in Boyzone, has passed away.

The mix of sadness and shock surrounded me, but especially, I felt spooky! What is the chance that I am listening to the 90s hits and talking about them and one of them died...?

After the spooky feeling is gone, I recalled how Stephen Gately used to be the only name I remembered from the boyband. I like his voice. I bought his single album and loved every song there. My favourite song from the band is... surprisingly, not from the band's greatest hits. It's his single. In one of the Disney OST for Hercules: Shooting Star.

No one seems to think too much of me here
And they're glad to tell it to my face
And they're right I'm not supposed to be here
I'm completely out of place

Somehow there has got to be a reason
Evening as I try to think it through
There's a bolt from the blue...

And I see a shooting star
Set apart from all the rest
While the other stars are standing still
He's on a quest...

... I love every single line of the song. It just fits so much to the movie :) The song used to accompany me during my exam time... and I still remember how I called the local radio station for half an hour only to request for this song. My first and last radio call OK!

So... Thanks for leaving me with a great memory :) May you rest in peace, Stephen Gately.
ED

Hi, Singapore...

This week has been tiring. Very tiring. And I’m demoralized. So much :( I am really wishing for a better next week. Else I might break down… emotionally and physically.

Anyway, at least I had a good Saturday… I went for lunch with friends @ Garuda, watched “Defending Caveman” show @ DBS Art Center, had dinner cum b’day celebration @ Bayang Clarkquay.


Cool Guy B'day @ Bayang Clark Quay

The show, Defending The Caveman, is a good show talking about the difference between a man and a woman. It said that it's in the gene. Man used to hunt. Hunting required the man to lock on a target and focus. That's why man are used to focus in one thing. On the contrary, women used to be gatherers. When gathering, they need to look at surrounding and everything... and that's the reason why ladies tend to be interested in almost everything... and that's why ladies love... shopping. It's a gathering act. It's on their blood. haha.

That's the core of the story. The narrator gives a lot of hilarious examples to explain the differences. I myself was particularly interested with one. He mentioned that ladies measured the quality of time they spent by the amount of information they gathered / the activities they do during the period. For guys, they measured it by how relaxed / enjoyed they are with the companion of each other. He mentioned that guys like invite their friends to come only to watch TV together. Where I myself... I will feel guilty if I ask my friend to come all the way to my home only to watch TV. It sounds insincere... haha..

The other point that he repeated several times is the fact that women are more into cooperation and men are more into negotiation. For instance, say you are at a party and the chip bowl is suddenly empty. If there’s a group of women, all of them will offer to refill it and often times they will even all do it together. However, if the same thing happens in a group of men, the excuses start flying - I brought the chips, it’s my house, I brought the dip, I got the beer, etc. until someone finally loses the negotiation and he ends up having to re-fill the chip bowl.

Altogether, it's a funny 2 hours show :) The show makes me think of how amazing a guy and gal can be a couple despite all the differences. haha...

Ok... enough about caveman... back to reality. The weekend is over and I have given both my precious friday night and sunday night to the office! T_T I'm not satisfied... I'm not. Let's watch Big Bang Theory to balance everything out :)

Laughing at the nerds (or myself),
ED

Australia - Travel Log (2)

In a blink… The holiday is over. In a blink… a week has passed and I realized that I haven’t updated my travel log since day 2. Now I can remember nothing more than the pics I took… so here they are…

23 September 2009

Happy Birthday Princess Aurelie :)


Habour Bridge after the dust storm – Honestly I don’t know why it’s so popular… Can’t find anything special.

24 September 2009


Happy Graduation, Master :)


Family dinner @ Korean BBQ

25 September 2009


"Cooking"


Sydney Aquarium


Amazing Pancakes on the rocks

26 September 2009


Aurelie’s B’day Party

27 September 2009

OMG I’m missing my picture for Sunday. Can’t find it anywhere :’( Went to Vihara and reached back home freezing

28 September 2009


DB Office Visit – I am wishing you a happy marriage, John!


Casino – The place where I won AUD 2. Fufufu…

29 September 2009


Gold Coast – Surfer Paradise

30 September 2009


Warner Bros – Movie World

1 October 2009


Sea World

2 October 2009


Around Sydney with AUD 17 Day Pass Transport

3 October 2009


Homemade Steamboat for the Mooncake Festival Dinner :)

4 October 2009


Sayonara Sydney. Thanks for giving me the 4kg fats.

... And I'm missing Princess Aurelie...
ED