Shortest Work Week EVER!!!

I'm so looking forward to this week. Monday to Wednesday on course. Thursday back at work. Friday is GOOD FRIDAY!! Muahahaa!!!

Time for a break

Stayed till super late today, cos i'll be on leave tml and on cse from mon to wed next week. Have so much stuff to clear. I can't believe the amount of issues I had to respond to after dealing with the urgent issue. Then again, after that urgent issue, I just kept getting 1 urgent after another. Not to forget meetings after meetings. Seriously!!   I think there's something wrong with our workflow. Nothing much I can do abt it, not at this stage at least.

I'm so happy there's someone waiting for me with dinner when I work late. Thank you! :)

April's Fool??

While many ppl are happily collecting their bumper bonuses, there are few lucky ones like me who have only to look in envy at the bulge of others' wallets. oh well, facts of life, you don't always get rewarded for what you have worked for. here's a another fact, you can't stop trying harder either.

The next few months is going to be a trial for myself. Taking up the numerous tasks and projects. I'm testing myself, stretching my time. Will I be able to pull them all off? Or will I end up burnt at both ends, only time will tell. I just hope i'll get better with each task and wiser with each hurdle.

Simple goals, arduous journey...

Multitude March

Ever since coming back from Hanoi, March had been pretty eventful. Ups and downs, disappointments and hope. It's this kind of time when it seems nothing seems to be going well, yet it seems there's hope that things will take a turn for the better. Lot's of new things happening around me too.

Got my first bunch of credit cards. Citibank. It's so easy to get them, instant issuance at vivocity branch. Quite cool actually, and I got 3 cards at one go. Aside from the M1 card which I know I'm going to use it to pay bills, I'm still confused when to use the rewards card and when to use the dividend card. Anyone with advice?

I got a new TO this week. There had been quite a few staff who came in after me, but this time I feel like I've been in TM for a while. Perhaps cos he'll be working with me, and suddenly I feel like a senior. Hahaha. Not really sure who to distribute the workload around in future. For now, its me and my buddy going through almost everything together, but 3 guys going thru the same thing together seems redundant. That means i'll need to find a new way to redistribute the workload once his honeymoon period is over.

I believe we had a roadkill today while doing our site check. It was an unfortunate incident involving a very reckless animal. I wanted to go back to take a look, but my buddy avoid the route. I just hope this is not a bad omen, the last time I saw a road kill, I flunk my O'lvls.

Sapa Twist & DBS vs UOB

After spending 8 hours on the train, I've arrived at Sapa. It's nice and cool, the weather is just wonderful.Totally reminds me of the weather back in yellowstone. Cold, foggy, snow-like raindrops. The hotel i'm staying at also reminds me of the hotels in yellowstone. Very wooden but not as classy.

An unfortunate event occur today during the first part of my hike into the native villages. My wallet was stolen, the side pocket where I kept my wallet was open when I was trying to get money to pay for lunch. I was really annoyed with myself then. However I tried to convince myself that it was probably left at the hotel and there was still chance of finding it. Nope!! no such luck, it was not there and the wallet was gone. Luckily this was my holiday wallet, only 2 card and some money inside. Good thing I still have some spare USD to spend, so things were not too bad.

What I really want to comment about was the difference in service level for DBS and UOB. So yah those were the 2 cards that went missing along with the wallet.

First I called DBS, after verifying my IC number, the  service person agreed that the card would be suspended immediately. When she asked me if I wanted to be given a replacement, I said yes. It was a new card, just issued not long ago. She went on to ask several other questions to verify my identity, most of which I couldnt remember at hand. She asked for things like if my account was a salary payable acc, wat were the details of my last transaction, acc no. and even i had any giro arrangements for this acc. But WTH!! I just lost my card, I want a replacement sent to my home address, how much security do you need for that?? The bank records have my address, i'm not going to tell them to send to some 3rd party location.. simply duhzZ.. I told the person I was overseas so I did not have access to all tha tinformation she needs. So I had to solve the situation myself by telling her that i'll call DBS again when I get back to Sg to get a replacement card. The best part was that checked with her if any transaction was made in the past few hrs. She told me she could not reveal anything. she still doesnt believe that i'm who I am! wth!!

In contrast, UOB had much better customer service and verification were so much easier. Just full IC number, credit limit, and when I answered my limit slightly off, she followed abt asking my current employer, which i answered correctly. That was it and they suspended the card and asked me if I needed a card couriered to where I am. How nice? They even informed me that my card has been unused in the past 24hrs so that i could have a piece of mind. The level of service is so very different.

I'm so disappointed with our local homegrown DBS. It's time to relook into useless and pointless procedures.  Thanks to the customer service of DBS, I have struck off 1 bank from my choice of credit card banks to look at for my application.

Still in Hanoi

I'm still here in Hanoi. I'm enjoying it. I'm staying in a hotel with impeccable service. They are so proactive, i felt scared. It's too much for a singaporean. The westerners simply loved it. The amazing thing is that they seem to provide the same level of service even though we are asians who are often known for not being able to reciprocate the same sort gratefulness the westerners are able to provide.

Hanoi is fast-paced, yet there's a zen feeling about it. You can feel that sense when you cross the roads here. Traffic lights basically have no meaning for the people and the motorists here. no one cares cos no one needs them. people cross wherever they want and whenever they want. Here's the zen magic, the pedestrians never ever turn to look at the traffic, and the vehicles will always seem to weave around the pedestrian without even losing a beat. How amazing is that? You will not know the feeling until you try it. There is order in chaos. I have not see any accident between the vehicle and the pedestrian over the past few days and the roads are super super packed.

The food here is great. Lots of veges, lots of mint and basil in everything. That's probably the reason why I don't see any rounded bodies around me. Probably also the fact that the average annual wage is 7-800USD. I'm sure there's also an elite rich class here. It's just that i'm not in the right city to see them, not that I care to see them. The pho (noodles) and the banh xeo (rice paper wraps) are some of the stuff that we liked here. Yummy Yummy.. Food is quite cheap here, but I believe it's still inflated due to the tourist attraction.

Loads of places have internet access, and i'm typing on a hotel provided IBM thinkpad right now!! Another fantastic service from the hotel. hahaa. But somehow, facebook is being blocked here. No way I could load the page. interesting.

I'll be off to another part of Vietnam tml evening. Sapa valley, a place where we are going to meet up with the local tribes and probably live among them for a while. Looking forward to it. :)

Not Enough Rest

It's been a month since my last post. There's been so many instances that I wanted to blog about something so many times there are things happening that i wanna just record down before I forget about it. But you know what? I'm always so tired when I get home, I fall asleep soon after I turn on the com. And I've also forgotten about what I wanted to blog abt.

Few hours ago, I was thinking abt something, I wanted to blog abt it. But by now, it's out of my mind already!!!

Amnesia + Parkinsons + Dementia + Alzheimer

Aargghh!! WTH!!

2011 - A New Beginning

It's been 2 weeks into the new year and things are happening at quite a fast pace. I have experienced for the first time the change in work pace at the turn of the year. Immediately as the holidays ends my inbox gets filled in a pace pumped with steroids. It's quite scary actually, i was getting used to the 2nd gear speed of daily work for the past few months. Suddenly things are happening so much faster.

Luckily I have this knack of getting used to new things/environment quite easily. I think I'm quite up to speed already, but the thing is my schedule is simply packed. Having enrichment courses going on at the same time doesn't really help the situation. Those days while i'm gone, I can only hope that people realize i'm not around and relent a little in their bombardment. Alas, it doesn't work that way.

New year, new experiences. I've have several things on my agenda which i'm trying to push for. I hope I can achieve them and make some good improvements in my area. I'll have to be determine to follow through with what i've started and make progress. I just hope i'm not killing myself by juggling the multiple locations i'm trying to handle. Time to psycho myself. All is WELL!! hahaa

Tried a new dim sum restaurant friday night at location where I used to have my sichuan food. Operated by the same chain, the taste of the sichuan food has changed slightly. I wonder if I could get them to do it the way they used to if I requested. Anyway, the dim sum was not bad. It's a breath of fresh air from the usual place we always hangout on friday nights. The menu had many interesting items as well. Most exciting of all was Durian Muah Chee. The durian was really rich, the skin was relatively thin, so it basically bursts in your mouth. Quite shiok.

Also tried paintball for the first time today. It really felt good pulling the trigger and seeing the pellets fly. But as a first timer, there are many lessons I learnt today. Painful lessons. It was an exhilarating experience. time passes very fast in the few games that we played. The location has pretty good facilities and the equipment were quite well maintained. Definitely would be something I would return for. Down side is simply the price. It's not a cheap past time.

Open mind, Open heart, the year will be good ahead. :)

Mixed Feelings

Dear is back - Happy!


Completed RT- IPPT today, slightly improved on my running time - Happy!


Whole body aching after IPPT - SHAG!!


Had a nice dinner, bah chor mee + satay + rojak - Fulfillment!! Guilty at the same time!!


Managed to clear all my emails yesterday - Happy!!


Just realised while I cleared my work yesterday, I actually missed a wedding dinner of someone impt to me - super super sad and guilty!!


My Short Term Targets: 
To Achieve 75kg by 30 May 2011
Currently 105kg with 160 days left
Lost 4kg and used 50 days

A night before returning to my real world

Having spend almost a week here, i've learnt..... a lot really.. first and foremost i have to say this wasnt what i expected. I had expected much more work to be done, laborious stuff that should be done on missionary trips. But no, this was a family visit in an unfamiliar place. We were well taken care of and we had lots of play time with the nieces.

While we spent most of our time within the house compound and garden, it was easy to realise that we are not in our element. It would have been difficult for us to survive here. The people here don't look like the usually indons we are used to, they were aborigines. They looked more african than asian, and like seeing any race for the first time. They all looked the same!!! It was tough to tell one from the other. We dare not try to talk to anyone either, they had this fierce look in their eyes.

There seemed to be some familiar type of indon faces as well, but those were not the majority. There were also a few chinese. While the general feel is that the place is full of people who are poor and made living of simple crafts and small crops. There also seems to be people are are very rich, huge house on hilltops, large 4-wheel drive all-terrain vehicles.

There are no mega malls here, as far as shopping centres, the largest was one at Jayapura, the main city of the province. It consists of a pizza hut, KFC and a supermarket. Supermarkets always make me feel at home, no matter what country i'm in. Seeing a supermarket always makes me feel i can survive in that place. Much like the same feeling i had when I saw walmart for the first time in US. SHIOK...

Most of the time spent here was within the house, the house was huge by singapore standards but really quite cheap. I had a lot of time reliving my childhood with the kids. Playdoh, make-believe, lego, watching cartoons. The rest of the time I was indulging in my storybook. 900pages of it, and i've just finished it in less than 6 days!! That felt like running through 25 episodes of CSI or something and I just wanna get home and start on my next book. That would have to wait.

Back home, i know what awaits. Work and more work. RT as well. I hope I have rested enough over this trip to be recharged for the final dash of the year. This is supposed to be a lull period for the public sector, but i do have a few need-to-dos on my list.

In Unfamiliar Land

Arrived in West Pupua/Irian Jaya today. It's a different place to me in. culture shock is the word. I have no idea how to communicate with them. It's going to be a tough week ahead if we are to try to explore around here. Our main purpose here is to visit yanli's nieces. They are super excited to see us, even more excited when they see all the new books and gifts they are getting. The stuff we have to lug over is super heavy, but we somehow managed. Phew. 


Thanks to the attacks on the cyber world recently. This blog had actually disappeared for a short while. That kindda got me lost for a while. I have not saved the blogs for this year and it would be super sad if I had lost all those records. This is where I record part of my memories and I would very much like to have them available. So it's time to back up again!! :)


My Short Term Targets:
To Achieve 75kg by 30 May 2011
Currently 105kg with 172 days left
Lost 4kg and used 38 days

Changing Times

Last week had been another one of those busy weeks. But bonus has been announced, it's good, but mine will still be pro-rated. Quite sore about that but it's still better than nothing. That also meant that i'll getting my first bonus ever since starting work. sound cool.. looking forward to it.

Results for HDB balloting was out.. and the results sucks!! my application was beyond the 300% mark for the queue number, thus it was deemed as an unsuccessful application. That really sucked when they kept sending letters in november informing that my results would be out in november. I really liked that place!! AARRGGHH!!! Now we just have to wait again for a suitable BTO to appear or hope that there are leftover flats offered for this location soon...

Watched a few movies this week, cos it's been awhile since I catch up with the movies. I'm still lagging behind. there are still movies i've not watch but at least i'm trying to catch up with the popular ones. Watched "Harry Potter" and "Easy A" over the week. I like this Harry Potter, it's dark and somewhat gloomy and much more adult minded then the earlier versions. After reading the final book, I already knew that this last installment is more about death than anything else. I think that part of the book was very well done in the movie. Super looking forward to the final movie and perhaps a movie marathon just before the end.

Easy A is a well done movie. Funny, lame but really sweet in the end. Well recommended too.

My Remedial Training has begun for this year. Met guoping at the training session. I was quite surprised he has to do RT too.. But at least now there's someone I know to go training with me. We did 1 good thing today, we change our RT schedule to Sunday mornings with Tues evening. That schedule make some of my upcoming events easy to manage, so i'm actually happy about that!! :)


My Short Term Targets: 
To Achieve 75kg by 30 May 2011
Currently 106kg with 184 days left
Lost 3kg and used 26 days

Kaboom!!!

I finally managed to begin washing by bicycle. I made good progress and the bike wash pretty much cleaned. All I needed to do was to fill the tyres and I use it to get back onto the road again. But... 


人算不如天算，命运永远不是掌握在自己手中。乐极生悲，喜极成泣。。。 


my tyre "pong chiek"!! super depressed.... yet it was not unexpected, cos i believe the rubber tubing inside could have already harden by now. so now i'm going to look for spare tubings.. and also some spray paint.. time for extreme makeover.. muahaha!!


自强不息！！:P


My Short Term Targets: 
To Achieve 75kg by 30 May 2011
Currently 106kg with 193 days left
Lost 3kg and used 17 days

Home Hoping

Closing date for application was last week. I've been waiting anxiously for a positive answer since a few weeks back. It's nail biting i tell you. aarrgghhh.. the best part is that they can still send me letters informing me about having to prepare my supporting documents when i get my balloting queue in Nov last week... it's already Nov!! This week they send me another letter telling me i'm in the first applicants group and results of the ballot will be out in Nov! How many times do they have to tell me that results will be out in Nov?? Especially when it's already Nov!! DuhzZ!!


It has been a busy week, somehow my issues seems to be involving higher level people. That's really stressful, and the multi-layer clearance needed to get to that level make my message so distorted by the time it reaches up there. It weird actually. Everyone does things based on a standard, this standard is supposed to be the same standard but yet everyone can have a different understanding and perception of the standard and that leads to very different results. It like the chinese saying "一种米养百种人“. I believe some people can't understand my analogies but that's how i feel. 


My goal for weight loss seems to be hitting a blockade. No volleyball this week. No dosage of exercise. Only maintaining my carbo during lunch only diet. Even though I did take come potato and bee hoon for dinner recently. But the weight is still maintaining. I'll be cleaning up my bike tml. Next week it's time to start using it. Muahahaa.


My Short Term Targets: 
To Achieve 75kg by 30 May 2011
Currently 106kg with 194 days left
Lost 3kg and used 16 days

My other Prongs of Actions

I'm going to wash and clean up my bike soon. Then i'll be able to cycle to work early in the morning and get some workout done. It might not be a everyday thing to start with, cos I think i'll be drained after doing it the first time. It has been ages since I cycled to somewhere.


The 1 meal carbo per day thing seems to be okay, sustainable for now. However its really hard to find stuff to eat for dinner without carbo. 


Today I shocked my office vball mates with my enormous amounts of perspiration. Hah!! I always get that when I start wringing my t-shirt. hahaa. 


My Short Term Targets: 
To Achieve 75kg by 30 May 2011
Currently 105kg with 202 days left
Lost 4kg and used 8 days

Busy week again

"Busy" seems to be the word popping up most often in my blog recently. There just seems to be too much work going on. Somehow i'm not able to clear the backlog every time i get back into office. It may be normal to have stuff piled up in my line of work. But I cant stand it!!! I want it gone!! I want the backlog cleared!!!! Aarrgghh... 


I must find some ways to do things faster, analyse faster and more accurately, reply effectively. THINK FASTER!!!


Perhaps it's being busy at work that some of my weight just suddenly disappeared!! I have no idea how it left but i hope it stays away. haha..


My Short Term Targets:
To Achieve 75kg by 30 May 2011
Currently 106kg with 203 days left
Lost 3kg and used 7 days

A new Beginning....

I have a huge backlog of movie which I should write a review about. But I think i'm going to skip them. From now on, i'll only review movies that are really bad or good and really compel me to do it. Instead i'll be trying to embark on a project on myself to lose weight. I'll also try to update my blog regularly to document this journey i'm embarking on. It's going to be pretty tough. It's going to take a lot of discipline. I'll do good with lots of encouragement along the way.

So i'm soliciting encouragements during this project of mine.

My Short Term Targets:

To Achieve 75kg by 30 May 2011

Currently 109kg with 210 days left

Lost 0kg and used 0 days

Busy Busy!!

I'm so busy recently, i'm always so tired when i get back home. So many things I want to blog about yet no energy to do so. This weekend, i'll try to catch up as much as I can!!! 

Movie Weekend!! Resident Evil - Afterlife (3D) & Grown Ups

I've been waiting for Resident Evil - Afterlife ever since I watched the last installment. I was totally looking forward to an enormous clone war brought forth by the army of Alice clones. Especially if they release their super powers all at once!! The start of the movie was promising as at was like I expected, an army of Alices going up against the Umbrella Corp, somehow the clones are easier to kill compared to the original Alice. They got eliminated. Damn Sad!! Double Sad when Alice lost her powers too. :(

The rest of the movie were more or less typical Resident Evil action minus super powers. There's also a huge hint for a sequel, i hope it gets on screen soon before Milla Jovovich gets old for this. The 3D effects were, not bad but it's also a case of having 3D for the sake of having it only. They don't need to be there.
______________________

I've trying to catch Grown Ups for the past few weeks and for 1 reason or another I kept missing the chance to watch it. Well finally I caught it and I liked it alot! It's Adam Sandler style comedy at it's best. Really funny and apt jokes, although some are just lame and sick. It's really enjoyable and really relaxing movie to watch. And like always there's always a moral of the story included. This time it's simple enough. Just see the quotes below.

Stressed out Singaporeans out there!! Watch it!!

Spikefire ratings:


Resident Evil - Afterlife (3D)
Story & Plot: 6 out of 10
Audio & Visual: 8 out of 10
Overall: 7 out of 10

Grown Ups

Story & Plot: 8 out of 10

Audio & Visual: 7 out of 10

Overall: 7.5 out of 10

Favourite Lines:

Resident Evil - Afterlife
This movie is never about the lines.... hahaaa.

Grown Ups
Coach: Today's game, all of you played your best. Play exactly the way we wanted to and when the buzzer sounded, we were champions. Now, I want you all to live your life like how you played the game today. So when that final buzzer of life sounds.. you have no regrets.
________
Salma Hayek: How did you miss that last shot? You never miss that shot.
Adam Sandler: Sometimes Lennys have to learn to lose while others learn to win.
_______
watch the movie for the jokes.

Resident Evil Official Website

Grown ups Official Website


Pictures

4 Months In

It's been 4 months since i started here. Daily processes are not much of a problem any more, but it seems most of the things i'm getting everyday falls outside the norm and there's also this void in knowledge i need to fill. I'd like to work with all the information and knowledge already present in my head. Yet sometimes I feel my head is filled up with so much information, it takes me forever to dig out the information i wanna use at critical moments. I think that makes me look kindda dum sometimes. 


I personally feel there are flaws in the way some things works, most others have gotten used to it. But here's the question, do i get use to it? or should I shake things up a little? 


How do you differentiate if you are over loaded or being slow in work?? Depends on output ya?? I think I'm producing output all the time,  but somehow things are still piling up. I don't think i'm overloaded, but i do think i need more time. 


But in a nutshell, I think I'm very tired!!


This weekend I'm going RELAX!!!!!!!