What's fair?

I’ve always believed that the world is unfair.

Circumstances at work have yet again reminded me about this awful fact.

Will I see the gain from the “no pain, no gain" saying?...

Shanghai, oh.. Shanghai...

If nothing goes wrong *fingers crossed*, I shall see myself in Shanghai from the 8th - 15th May for a work trip. With the Shanghai World Expo starting on the 5th, I will take this opportunity to visit the Expo too! However, 1 "big" problem which I'm currently facing is the hotel accomodation if I were to arrive there earlier / extension on personnel expense.

Hotels are raising their rates during that period - 1 of our affordable corporate hotel has doubled their rate! Well, to be fair to them, their usual rates are really attractive so I guess the Expo is a good time for them have the cash register ringing all the way too...

AHH.. how how?? I want an affordable + nice (aka boutique style) hotel!!!

Food blogs - no no

Reading food blogs in the night is a big no -no especially when you only had yougurt for dinner...

This resulted in 4 pineapples tarts and a couple of hae bee hiam rolls popped into my mouth :p

Plus many more "I want to try this.. this... and this..." restaurants being noted down.

A conference with mixed feelings

(initial) Relunctance - knowing that I'll be the only one doing all the logistical arrangements for the 110 pax and worried that should anything wrong happens, the blame will be pushed to me. However, the thought of gaining the experience of handling a conference from beginning to end made me moved on. It also helps that we get to fly buiness class to Beijing! :p

Fun - having dinner of Peking duck with the SG colleagues. It's really about the company you're hanging out with. I really enjoyed the dinner. It was so different from those wine drinking dinners we had 2 days back. Give me Qingdao beer anytime!


Cold & sick - it was so cold that my hands were numb and red and I didnt had the mood to take much pictures at the Great Wall and Forbidden City. During the last 2 days of our own extension, I fell sick (vomitted and fever) and didnt had the chance to explore more of Beijing and missed out on the snow!!

1 week before the event, I posted "that which does not kill us makes us stronger"... Should I be asked to be involved in next year's conference again, I'll say "Bring it On!"

Beijing Conference

Finally, after a month of preparation, the conference ended pretty well! Having to coordinate a meeting for 110 pax is no easy feat and I’m glad that my hard work paid off. Be in a toast/handshake or a simple thank you, it was really nice to feel the appreciation from those who saw the effort I've put in.

Of course, there were certainly more things which could be improved – starting everything early (sending out of items, arrangments for car pickup etc) and to declare shipment 100% correctly or risk having it stuck at customs (esp in China).

It was indeed a good learning experience!

Constantly reminding myself...

That which does not kill us makes us stronger.

Friedrich Nietzsche

2010 New Year Resolutions???

I've never written any New Year Resolutions before and nope, this post is not going to have me writing the list for 2010.

Last year, I specifically requested a particular Xmas gift from Sis. And now, with that present on hand, 2010 will be a year for me to learn and improve my dealings with the people in my life!

Reading 1-2 chapters before I head the sacks daily, I realised that I'm trying to apply those points to my life the next day. And seriously, there's so MUCH for me to improve on! *hides*

Be careful what you wish for...

2 yrs back - "Oh, I won’t hesitate to remove my 2 other wisdom tooth too when necessary ;p"

1 colleague had her wisdom tooth removed recently and I said over lunch that I feel like removing my other wisdom tooth too, esp when there was a slight swell around the gums these few days. Lo and behold, the gums started to swell on Mon and experienced pain when chewing on my right side. Went for an Xray on Tue and scheduled the extraction on Wed - 2 days before Xmas!

A minor surgery was done (cutting the gums which was partially covering the lower tooth and drilling was also involved *gasp*) and with that, I was on soft diet for 2 day. "Thankfully" I was able to go back to normal diet on the 3rd day which is Xmas day/Grandma's bday! Mummy cooked up a feast of chix rice, wasabi prawns etcand the greedy me still ate 2 bowls of rice, seating through till the 2nd round as I needed more time to chew. Haha

3 weeks since the extraction and my left tounge is still numb. Read online that the senses might be back to normal in days/weeks/months/years or even NEVER! *Fingers crossed*

2 years later - I didnt really like the experience this time as compared to NDC. There was no calls from the Doctor to check on my (numbness) situation ever since I told him about it when I went to remove my stiches 2 weeks back..*roll eyes*

Work is...

• scary when the people you work with are (too) smart in this 'game'
• funny when people let things happens the way it has become
• sad that I have to put on a plastic mask when dealing with certain people
• fun when I laugh and bond with my lunch khakis

p/s: 英雄難過美人關 - so true!! just that the men in our company are not 英雄 la...

An invitation to Hong Kong!!!

Received a phone call from an hotel representative today and at first I thought it was a sales call to arrange for a meeting. However, she said that she’ll like to invite me to HK as the HK Tourism Board is arranging a familiarization trip - Cathay Pacific will be sponsoring the air tickets and their hotel will do so for the accommodation!

However, I knew that this invitaion has to be approved by my direct supervisor, followed by our dept’s VP and also the legal dept. Our company has always been very strict about compliance issues and I know that this has only a 10% chance of approval.

Anyway to cut the story short, it was rejected from my direct supervisor even before she asked what the purpose of the trip is. She gave reasons of compliance issue etc etc...la la la

Why I am so not happy over it:

1. You didn’t even know the purpose for this trip and you rejected it! After I told her that it’s an initiative from the HK touisim board, she gave another reason which goes “Oh… anyway we’ve selected the country’s hotel already etc etc ”

Don’t give me the crap la!!! This is not a invitation for site visit to the hotel, it’s from the HK Tourism board to introduce their country lor!!

2. I received a call that night and got to know that someone asked our vendor for F1 tickets!! Oooic..... so....

Invitation from a tourism authority = not compliance
Asking vendor for F1 tickets = compliance?!?!!!?

Well, I guess the bottomline is, it's always the case of who's invited and how that person is going to make the “invitation” compliant...

com⋅pli⋅ance 
–noun
1. the act of conforming, acquiescing, or yielding.
2. conformity; accordance: in compliance with orders.
3. cooperation or obedience: Compliance with the law is expected of all.

**Definition of Compliance from Dictionary.com**

Day 4: Osaka

After having breakfast in the hotel, we proceeded to the Shinkansen (JR) station to make our way to Osaka.

Along the way on the high speed railway, we saw the Mt Fuji which was awesome and I had my camera clicking away. Unfortunately, Mt Fuji was not on our itinerary for this trip. Will definitely visit it someday! The train journey took about 3 hours and we upon reaching our Osaka hotel (Comfort hotel), our luggage which we sent over at Narita airport has safely arrived. We rested for a while before heading to Dontobori where all the Osaka’s food awaits us! We didn’t try the Kani Doraku and went for street food - 2 servings of takoyaki balls and yakisoba which we enjoyed by the Dotonbori canal. After filling our stomachs, we walked along the canal and realized that we've reach the end of the Shinsaibashi Shopping Arcade which is also very near our hotel! (we acutally we took a train from Shinsaibashi to Namba).

This is where the famous Glico Running Man sign and other neon lights shine up the night. Took some touristy pictures before walking down the shopping arcade and back to our hotel as Mummy was rather tired.

What I did @ Melaka

So what do you do when you visit Melaka again after 13yrs?

I ate ALOT...

Upon stepping into Doris auntie's house, we felt that the long journey of 8 hours was all worth while. We gorge on kutupat, habeehiam, asam fish, wine + ginger soup, chilli fish the moment we hit her dining table! And she's one of a cook!

We made reservations and even a trip down to select our dishes 1 day before our "group" dinner @ Aunty Lee. Jon-boy said that as compared to other Perenakan restautnts in Melaka, the food is pretty good. But be prepared of the unwritten "rules" - the cook will determine the size of the dishes; ayam bulaek is in the menu BUT even if you order in advance, and if they dont serve it to you on that day, it means that they do not have enough manpower to prepare the dish; the cook will fiinsh serving 1 table before preapring the next table order - this is pretty ok, as it means that all your dishes will be served out promptly; reservations is a MUST! Total bill - SGD 100 for 8 pax - super worth it as the food is fresh and sedap!

I visited the famous Jonker Walk ...

A weekend pasar malam which sells pretty much the same things stall after stalls. And they do have quite a number of cool chill out bars /cafes in the alley. Gonna check them out on my next trip.

I paid my respect to Uncle Johnny & got to know my cousins better...

I had a quick (cousin-ly) chat with Daphne and she shared with me that she's starting a new job the following week but has yet to tell Doris auntie *a small secret between us* Also, I cant wait to attend Jon-boy and Linah's wedding next year!! Linah is a very nice girl and I really feel the happiness for them.

All in all, I had a good time there and is looking forward to my next trip up!

What I ate in Malacca

Saturday
Late lunch - kutupat, habeehiam, asam fish, wine + ginger soup, chilli fish & prawn
Supper - delicious wanton mee, chicken wings, fried oyster ommelette

Sunday
Breakfast - fried beehoon/kuay teow, big paulunch -
Lunch - Bei Zhan
Dinner - Peranakan @ Aunty Lee - delicious! asam fish, sambal kangkong, chincalok ommelette, beef rendang, curry chicken, toufu, fish maw soup, chendol
Chinese dessert @ The Jetty

Monday
Breakfast - duck noodles, fried beehoon/kuay teow
Lunch - chicken rice
Dinner - porridge steamboat

Tuesday
Breakfast - big pau and char siew pau

Speed dating for me ; )

I once said that if I'm still single at the age of 25, I'll go for blind/speed dating. And I actually did so yesterday! This high tea cum board games is organised by SDU-SDS and it started with SK asking me if I wanted to join; sensing that she's kindda interested to go, I agreed to it since it's my "plan" to do so too when I hit 25.

Surprisingly, it's was quite a big event with 180 turnouts @ Holiday Inn. We were first assigned to 3 different clusters (by age grp) and 8 pax each table. The emcee warmed everyone up by playing some mingling games 1st followed by the high tea which you start to talk to the people at your table. After the high tea, we started playing the board games and had to move between 3 tables for 3 different games.

All in all, it was a eye opening experience especially so if you go with an open mind as it's not all about desperately searching for The One. In fact, I had a good time chatting with the ladies at my table + knowing people from the different working industry.

Passed a few contacts, won a voucher for 2 to Settlers cafe and that was all about it! Too shy to ask for numbers la... :p

Received 4 calls which came around the same time (9pm-ish) today and I think I'll not answer any unknown numbers for this week.

Day 3 (morning): Shin Yokohama

We had a night stay at Shin Yokohama before moving to our next desitnation - Osaka. Hiroko auntie booked us a room at 新横浜国際ホテル which was walking distance to the train station. The night stay cost SGD 238 and it was the best hotel among the 3 we stayed for this trip :p

Dinner was at Tenya which is apparently a fast food chain all over Japan. Haha... Mummy LOVE the tempura there so much that she cant stop raving about it whenever she view the picture. Now that we know its a chain, we fret not in having to go all the way to Shin Yokohama to have a 2nd taste!

As it was only a night stay, we shopped around the shopping centre which is located beside the station and didnt had the chance to visit the famous ramen museum. Anyway that wasn't really my concern as my pirority was to get my hands on Ramen Jiro in Tokyo!! kekeke

What the....

In March, I was tasked by J to work on an invitation design for a conference which was to be held in HCMC. Well, I wouldn’t say that I’m a designer or expert in doing such things but having done some doolings prev, i certainly was interested in this task.

So, I started doing a HCMC city theme with the famous City Hall picture in the invitation. Next, was asked to do an Amazing Race theme. Sure, that sounds fun! I surfed online to check out the amazing race clue card picture and did one out. Then there was some ding dong-ing going on the text etc. Therefore I sent the working file to J to amend the text.

2 days later, he sent the file back and I opened it - other than the size of the card, and the picture of the City Hall, it was with a whole new design and text!!What happened next was damn ironic: Couple of days after the invitation was emailed out, J came to me and said something like "Hey, good job on the invitation, heard some good feedbacks on it"

HUH?? I beg your pardon!!!! Perhaps he was telling me that to show his appreciation of me working on it but seriously, I don’t need that when 90% of what I’ve done has been changed.

When working on such "projects" I can’t help envy the marketing folks whose ideas are always so cool, so apt, so appreciated.

=======================

Was roped in to help out for a company’s event sometime in July and did whole lots of stuffs prior to the event and on the actual day itself. As part of the committee, we got to get a jacket each. Therefore I did a size fit from the vendor and made sure I placed the right size order for myself – XS.

So after the event, the event organizer passed me the jacket and I told him I ordered 2 XS - one for myself and other colleague. However, he passed the XS to his participant which left him with only 1 XS now. He then passed me the S and passed the XS to the other colleague! I did so much shit and you cant give me the correct size for the jacket which I placed the order?!!?!

Felt so unappreciated that I dumped the jacket into the cupboard which stores all my samples. I don’t need something which fits too big for me OK….

Hello Uncle Johnny

15th Feb 08 - I didn't got the chance to say "Hello, Uncle Johnny" after my last trip in when I was 12 yrs old, whatsmore a "Goodbye Uncle Johnny" when he left us.

10th Aug 09 - I paid my respects and brought him his favourite chicken rice, bananas and nescafe. Together with Daphne , we stayed for about 20 mins before I threw 2 coins "asking" if he has finished his meal.

I hope he enjoyed it :)

Day 1 & 2: Home stay

We took the 11pm SQ flight and arrived at Tokyo Narita airport the next morning. When Hiroko auntie arrived at the airport, we arranged for our luggage to be couriered over to our hotel at Osaka.

This kind of courier service is really good especially so if you do not wish to lug your luggage all the way to the hotel when travelling by public transport. For a fee of around SGD 30, you get to travel light and do not have to worry about carrying the suitcases up the stairs and walking around looking for your hotel. There’re a few of such companies at the arrival area so pop by to any booth for enquiry. Just remember to have your hotel details on hand to fill up the form.

. cakes . store @ Uneo .
. hot soba with deep fried shungiku . Uneo station
. mentaiko . Kimura Takuya .

I can’t really recall where we went on the 1st day beside Uneo (Ameyokocho) and to Hiroko auntie’s house area but there’s no way i will forget dinner! We had fresh sashimi and sushi and after which I never see these 2 dishes in Sg the same way again unless I pay the price for it.

Though it was only a night stay, I truly enjoyed the experience of soaking in a hot bath, sleeping tatami style, waking up to Jap breakfast, helping to do some housework, having the cute neighbour twin boys over to visit us and also to meet up with Hiroko auntie’s mum!

Coming soon...

Why seat belts are so damn impt!

Were these signs to tell us that we shouldn’t be on the road:

- Told Mummy that I didn't feel like accompanying K to collect the cake as she had to be back by 11.30am and it doesnt really "flow" with my gym class and facial appt timing.
- She mounted the curb when she was driving into my car park.
- She almost mounted the parking curb again when we were @ Adam market

We just passed Coronation Plaza when the accident happened. I think she was trying to filter to the right lane but didn't notice that the car in front of her was not moving. I said “got car, got car” and the next moment, she swerved to the left lane and hit the back of the ice lorry (which was doing a delivery and illegal parked) !

“Shit!, sure bang!” was what went though my mind during that split second.

Out came the 2 airbags and some smoke. K was still in kindda shock and she said that she did applied the brakes immediately. I went out of the car (fearing too that there’ll be an explosion) and check on the damages. Boy, it was BAD!

An ang moh came from a nearby restaurant and asked we were ok. Later a very sweet couple passed by and also asked the same thing. They next moment, they lent us their red triangle (which got crashed by another stupid car) and accompanied us till the tow car and the lorry driver and supervisor came.

Thankfully, no one was hurt in this accident. (answer to the title of this post)

And I'm so gonna belt up even if I'm seated behind in future.