training week

i broke all records this week. at work, that is.

this is the first time in my current employment that i had to do training 5 days straight. and that means lots of work got undone, or i needed to do it after work hours. it ended up being a superbly tiring week for me. and due to the non-stop standing, i ended up with backaches. am glad the weekend allowed me the space to catch up with my work and for my body to recuperate. a quick visit to my chiro also helped relieved my backache.

:-)

punctured tyre

it was interesting that lots of my neighbours noted i had a flat tyre.

you see, one of my tyre went flat early this week (monday if i recall it right). what a time to get a puncture. my week would be superbly busy and i wouldn't have time to get it corrected until weekend. and so, i left it as it was...

and on tuesday, bee asked me about it. the security guard had noted it and asked him to tell me (darned! these people are observant, and they are good! they even know who lives in what unit and who visits who). 

and on wednesday, as i sat at the lobby waiting for bee to pick me up for dinner, a second floor neighbour saw me and he told me about my flat tyre. kinda interesting cos this neighbour had never spoken to me in all the years he had lived in my condo. i thanked him.

and then on thursday, my neighbour saw me and told me about it. and not only that, he even placed a hand-written note on the windscreen to tell me about it! hmmm, that was very thoughtful of him right? and that night, a teenager girl whom i couldn't recognise ran passed me as i was walking sapphie. and then, she ran back and told me "hey, did my mum tell you your car has a flat tyre?"... haha. that does it. i quickly replaced the flat tyre with my spare tyre. 

i had since patched the puncture. a simple flat tyre, but it certainly got everyone noticing and informing me about it! how nice right?

:-)

deadpool

watched deadpool last night with bee. it doesn't get any more politically incorrect. but i thought it was tastefully done. quite funny. but amidst all the funny bits, there was a sad story. seemed like most avenger characters has some kinda sad past. but for deadpool, one thing that i thought interesting was the fact that his body cells (including his brain) is constantly changing. as such, he is rather unpredictable in all sense. read that we can expect a sequel where he has a boyfriend. really? and darned, i understood that the singapore version is heavily censored and that there were even scenes where his privates was shown! now, what have i missed!

nonetheless, it was a good show. a little bloody for me, but the nude scenes more than made up for it.

;-)

old dog

sapphie is getting more and more stubborn these days. she protests little things, refuses to obey commands, and walks away when she sees me hold things like shavers, scissors, nail clippers, etc. it can get rather frustrating. increasingly, and for some unknown reasons, she is also showing some new habits - like going to the toilet to lick the floor, drinking water from the toilet bowl, staring blankly into space, and so on. is that what old dogs do.

i also find myself being tied down to her - need to observe specific routines and rushing home from work to bring her down to pee, cutting short trips or not going out in order to look after her. it seemed like looking after mum all over again. admittedly, at times i do put the blame on james for wanting to have her, and to have to inherit and to look after her by myself. but of cos, i do remind myself that i also need to think about the positive experiences that i had had with sapphie. well, in any case, it wouldn't be long before she passes on anyway. she's 16 this year - too old for a dog.

"my smile is free"

in my flight home from hong kong recently, there was this elderly hk gentleman. it was his first trip on a budget airline and he was enquiring on the price of the food items in the menu. and every item that he pointed, the cabin crew patiently explained the details and the cost to him. and he asked, in a heavily hong kong accented voice, and sounding a little surprised: "waaaaahhhhh... how cum air-very-thing must pay one?"

the cabin crew, in as patient a tone, and with a little cheekiness, replied: "oh yes sir, everything inside here must pay, but if you want something free, well... my smile is free" and he broke into this broad smile, complete with a set of beautiful white teeth.

it was quite funny actually.

:-)

germs & f

my friends returned to sg this week and i had a good chance to catch up with them over dinner and coffee. was a short meet up. nonetheless, it was good to see them again. and one thing i do realise, we are all aging faster than what we used to. i supposed once we enter our late-40's, the external appearance begin to deteriorate faster than before.

of cos, what we lose physically, i am sure we gain elsewhere - like we are more mature and (perhaps) more charismatic. self-consolation?

haha...

impending work trip

my boss wanted me to head to china for 2 weeks early march. it is to settle a staff into the country. its the company's first time sending someone there and thus i must go there to settle the new staff in, help to set up the office, and at the same time recruit people to help this staff. and whilst i was there, i should visit our vendors to introduce them to this new staff, and at the same time, conduct training for them. sounds easy right?

thing is - i have just inherited this task of liaising with the local vendors from my colleague just because "i know a little bit of the language". other than that, i don't know the local vendors, i know nuts about the local authority's procedures, i have my own language limitations and to top it all off, i was told to just go there and do service training at very short notice. and this training bit was thrown in last minute to further justify the need for me to be there. but of cos, i could sense from my boss's perspective that my presence there is to help the department score political brownie points in being proactive in helping to set up the office). seen from that perspective, i am nothing more than a pawn.

but on the bright side, it sounds like a good time to learn more about the system there and, more importantly, have a break from people in singapore. 

hahaha...

restful trips

was in hong kong over the new year period. was a good restful trip. lots of eating and lots of walking.  and things there were not cheap. a simple bowl of noodle cost hk$35, or roughly about s$7, or twice the price of what would have cost me in sg. similarly, a 1-2 station trip on the mtr cost me about hk$10 or s$2 - would have cost me about s$1 in sg. for the 2 day trip, i spend almost s$400, excluding airfare. darned expensive right? but i welcome the cold temperature. a good break must be one that provides me with a totally different feel from singapore, and that includes the weather. all things equal, i was glad i made that trip. it provided me a quick time away from everything local. looking ahead, i will probably make more of such weekend getaways to nearby locations. and i better do it while i still am at my current company. once i leave, i will no longer enjoy discounted airfares.

:-)

work politicking

i sense myself being positioned to fail very soon.

lotsa stuff happening at work - stuff that the company has never done before and i have been pushed to do it. if it is developmental stuff, it is ok and are opportunities to shine, but these are administrative things that are dependent on foreign country's regulations that no one is any wiser... and i have been given very tight deadline to do it. couple of that, there are quite a few other pressing issues at hand locally and are being pushed to me too. things that cannot be solved. all these on top of the many other routine things that i have to handle that are also pressing. and it will get terribly challenging to have to also try to handle these things when i head overseas. and if anything happens, my neck will be on the chopping board. 

let's see how things go. will do what i can and leave the rest to providence.

hong kong

it's really cold here at the tian tan buddha. was shivering as i took the 5.7km cable car here from tung chung. had to buy an extra jacket to wear over my jacket, t-shirt and singlet once i arrived at the ngong ping village! but it's worth the efforts. it's good to be back here to give thanks to the buddha at the temple and to pray for health and a smooth sailing career. 

good short getaway.