Some sound advice..

"You will receive sound advice from an unexpected source".. that was what my zodiac read yesterday. Didn't turn out yesterday, but it got delayed till today instead. As I was walking along the linkway, I saw a senior staff from my former department. Seeing that we seldom exchanged much words, we greeted each other casually and as I was passing by, he asked if I was doing ok in my new department. Being sour from the past ordeal, I told him that there's nothing to be happy about being in the new place. His response somewhat caught me aback. "Sometimes, when we face a difficult situation, the best way to deal with it is treat it as one of life's challenge. Often than not, we end up laughing it off some years later and wonder why we found something so simple to be so difficult to handle." He added by recalling his first job as an enforcer.. someone who tears down people's houses. "The key is to be able to tear down a house and still have the house owner thank you for doing it!" At that point, I looked at him and wondered what he actually did. He went on by explaining that "The easiest way to do something is to help people and to remember that you're always learning. No one wants their houses torn down. And people understand that sometimes, the people doing the actual work may not be the ones who ordered their homes to be torn down." "So, as long as you try your best to help them, be it helping to find them alternative shelter or directing them to the right people to seek help, you'd find that most people reciprocate with gratitude." "You can't learn people skills like this in expensive seminars or talks, so forget that you're in a difficult situation, and just tell yourself that you'd be able to learn no matter where you are. Then you'd be alright!" Well, needless to say, I guess it woke me up a little. The self pity I was feeling waned. I felt a new sense of meaning to what I was doing. Walking back to my cubicle, I wondered why I'm always blessed with wonderful and nice people around me whenever I need them..... :)

When you just know something is wrong the moment you click on the send button

Was talking to my other half when I recalled this incident when I was typing an e-mail to a friend. We were on the topic of business opportunities.. and half way through the e-mail exchange, we were discussing about pumping in capital to start a business... just then, my friend exclaimed that she had no capital to start anything.. trying to be supportive, I replied by e-mail telling her, "If you can run the place, we can pool some capital and start something. I can be your sleeping partner", and clicked on the send button. Just then, it dawned on me that something was wrong.... I leave the interpretation to you..... Lucky thing, that friend didn't realise the pun and replied in a normal way that the biz was too difficult to begin with....phew!

Paranoia..

Talk about being paranoid.. was at a meeting room helping a colleague prepare for his presentation. Just then, my supervisor, who was standing beside me, turns around and sees this chart pinned to the wall... the next reaction was spontaneous! He grabbed his glasses from his pocket and started staring intently at the pictures...My colleague, who was preparing the projector, came over and started staring at the same chart.... I was the next looking at the small boxes and the names below them... "Nope, nothing new.. outdated organisation chart..." And as spontaneously as we started staring at the chart, we went back to preparations. After the presentation, some managers gathered near the wall. And instinctively, a manager spotted the same chart we did. Guess what, four managers went towards the chart and repeated what we just did!!
This really shows how stable things have become back at the office.....

Singlish...

An excerpt of an e-mail I got from an ex-colleague working in a foreign country:

My attempts at speaking good English have failed miserably.
It was not too difficult for the first few days to pretend that I was truly English educated but once I got focused on the job, Singlish expressions were just too direct and practical.
I have tried the following expressions during meetings and it always resulted in blank stares or laughs:

"Where got?"
"Nahbe"
"Can or not?"
"Sure or not?"
"Cannot be wah""Got meh?"

A new start...

First day at a new department!! Still feeling a little strange in this new place after spending such a long time in my ex department... Lady luck isn't on my side though.. guess 'fan tai sui' comes in many forms:
a) First news was that I've been posted under a slave driver....
b) Got pulled in a meeting before the seat was even warmed..
c) Today was my first day and already tons of projects have been assigned to me..
d) My colleagues use the word 'challenge' to replace 'impossible' and 'inhuman'...
e) Each of the projects I got have 'challenging' preset deadlines...
f) First news I got was that the past two people who sat in my cubicle have left the department..
g) The only people left in the department after 7pm are the colleagues from my team...
h) Nobody seems to know what I'm supposed to do...
Now where did I save that copy of my resume?....

Hey! It's Valentine's Day!!

To all visitors, Happy Valentine's Day!!! Got a Ravnica Deck Box (yep, the one with the novel, 6 booster packs, 2 card boxes, a random Pro tour Player card, 2 card boxes, a life counter, players guide, 40-land cards, etc.) for Valentines, so I'll cut this post short. Have to spend some time opening my gift! hehehe...

Moving out...

Have been packing up, shredding papers, preparing handover notes for the past week. Frankly speaking, moving out from my current department and shifting to another is not a pleasant experience. I mean, this is not the first time I have shifted departments. 3 years ago, I requested for a shift, and back then, it made sense for me to move out. This time round, I've requested not to be shifted, but ironically, I am not given a choice. All in all, for the past 3 years, I've made a couple of buddies here. I guess I've also become quite attached to the job, the people, the friends and even my bosses here in this department. Starting off in the department was difficult, but after adapting to this environment, I guess I'm starting to miss this place. Consolation is, I'd probably get to meet some new people, get closer to those I already know and I'd have 3 departments of buddies to share things with! The people in my first deparment were great. Had 'lou hei' with 5 of my buddies just last Thursday. The second department is swell too. I can at least single out one great buddy which I would make an effort to keep in touch with. Let's just keep my fingers crossed and hope that things go well for a third time. After all, this is my second transfer and as the cantonese say, "hou see sing seong"!! (good things come in doubles)....

Getting Old...

Today, after work and dinner, I got home and was preparing to countdown till 12am beside my pc, waiting to wish my best buddy a happy birthday. Whislt waiting, I was actually lamenting on what I should say to him and what type of reaction I would get from him. So I waited till about 11am, and all of a sudden I receive an sms from him telling me that he was depressed because his hamster is in hamster heaven. So I told myself, be patient... wait a little while more.. 'I know you're sleepy, but just a few minutes more, wish him a Happy Birthday, and then you can sleep' . So I logged in to blogger, posted a post, then waited a few more minutes before I called. Enthusiastically, I pick up the phone and hoping to surprise him, gave him a call. No one answered, so I decided to send him an sms instead. After the sms, to my surprise, he returned the sms. The sms read "Hello..My bday not here yet la...lousy bro.. it's at least a week away!!!

Uncle.. excuse me ler..

After dinner, we decided to hop by the local lottery shop. Surprisingly there was a huge crowd, but no one queueing to buy lottery. We made our way to the queue line which was arranged in folds, and there at the start of the queue was an uncle blocking the way. I tried to get past him and asked him to please 'excuse me'. Just then, the uncle turned around and smiled. He looked at me, giggled and said, "nobody queue la, can just go straight the other way". Turning back, I realised that I could have just walked straight to the counter instead of walking in the folded queue line. Sheepishly, I made my way through the various bends with no one in the line, but with everyone else staring at me wondering why I am using the queue line!! Finally, when we reached the counter, two uncles that walked straight to the counter was in line in front of us. We followed the queue at one counter not knowing that the queue was meant for horse racing. Another uncle behind me tapped on my shoulder and said ' eh, buy toto that side can la' pointing at another counter with no queue! We couldn't help but laughed all the way from the toto shop up until we reached the car. Man, the patrons of the shop must think that we have never patronised a lottery shop before!!

Wild Rumors...

This is one of those weeks which I really dread going to work.. Having to prepare for the departmental audit single handedly and handing over all your blood and sweat projects is bad enough, having to listen to a whole load of rumors is worse... not that I dislike being a bit 'pat kua' (translated: inquisitive), but having too much information is at times not good. "So my boss is moving out? So someone else is taking over him? What? His boss is also moving out? So his bosses boss is also moving out? So someone is taking over his bosses boss position in the company? I can go on for hours!!! By the time I had enough info, I had to conclude that perhaps the entire company has gone bonkers and they've decided to play merry go round. Then the next wave came... "So your boss resigned? So your bosses boss also resigned? Say what?? I resigned??? How come I don't know about that??? You mean according to your reliable sources, I resigned, and you don't believe me when I tell you I did not resign because your source is more reliable than me???... bummer..
I ended the day with yet another piece of info that my colleagues boss, which is a dear friend of mine, had also resigned. Well, if you can't beat em, join em... my last e-mail to him read, "Heard that you are leaving... mind taking me along? I can't stand it anymore!!".

Turning 30..

Turned officially 30 today. Went to the office, worked the entire day, and up to the stage when I reached my other half's office, nothing seemed close to it being a Birthday. Work was hectic today. And to add on to the problems, I get told that my transfer to another department will be official by 20th Feb 2006, which is two weeks away. Then I had someone screaming my head off for my boss assigning something I was handling to him and countless people sighing at me when I tell them that audit is coming. Well, it's all part of the job and having a hectic day isn't that bad actually. The moment I saw my other half at the entrance of her office walking towards the car with a cake in one hand and a present in the other, I knew I was going to have a very Happy Birthday! Nonetheless, I complained the entire way home about how hectic the day was, which bosses I had to put up with, my impending transfer, career woes etc. We had a nice dinner at Spizzas, went home and had Prima Deli hazelnut cake, opened presents, saw some tv, and when it was late, I sent her home. It just feels nice to know that my next 60 or 70 birthday's wont be spent alone. Tonight, I’ll sit back, have another piece of cake, look at the stars through the small window of my room, and wonder how lucky I actually am!

Chasing fortune..

Back at the office, I received an e-mail from my immediate supervisor, my ex-supervisor to be exact. He was asking around if anyone of us knew when the Hong Bao Draw was. In Singapore, every Chinese New Year, the local lottery or toto promises a lucky draw worth $10 million. The queues for the toto stores would build up and tons of people would queue to buy a lottery ticket. I was contemplating on how much to invest this round and my sup replied that this time round I should put in at least $1,000! I mean, life is a wierd thing. Touching 30, we've reached a stage where we no longer look forward to the next outing at the disco, or the next Magic game with friends. Conversations now revolve around how we can make more money, or where is the next best place to invest. People tell me that buying the local sweepstakes or lottery is like buying hope. People need hope. And in a place where competition is abundance and challenges are aplenty, I guess the toto counter does play its part in keeping people's sanity intact. We may loose that $2 or $10, but there's always the next draw right? heh.. As long as it keeps people away from hardcore gambling or vices with worst consequences, I guess spending some money in the local lottery isn't that bad after all. So I've made up my mind. I'll invest $17.50 for 5 sets of system 7 this time round! Wish me luck!