Dieting

After a somewhat filling weekend with Michelangelo’s, Coca, Provence, California Pizza Kitchen and Canale, I decided to go for a low carb lunch and went for fish soup with a bowl of rice. (I said low carb, not no carb)

It was relatively satisfying but I have no doubt I’ll be hungry later.

My colleague wanted to buy crystal jade egg tart for tea time and I tagged along. Then I saw this...


Man, they always make it so difficult to diet.

But im glad to report that I declined my colleague’s offer of the free egg tart she got.

Sweets!

Saw these hand made sweets at a shop in Central.

Made from a long rod of hardened candy and then “hand chopped” by the staff. Imagine the effort trying to do the little images in the centre of the sweet.

Rare Sight

Caught a rare sight today..someone entering the phonebooth and using a phone card. However, he came out after a while and went to another booth and subsequently left that booth too. Probably none of the phones work anymore.

Sad State

I went to Ion today. It wasnt my first time so it was a calmer and more relaxed walk through the mall.

As with the first time i came i had some bread from Provence. Now, Provence isnt new to me as i used to have it once in a while from Holland V during those Uni studying days. And oh those custard-filled babies.. oh man. The Provence in Holland V was popular but it wasnt overflowing with people.

But not the Ion one.

Throngs of people queuing and also watching the bakers. And people, most aunties, were just grabbing the lighter-than-air custard and also chocolate thingies almost like they were free! Oh man.. When it got to my turn, i am embarrassed to report that i did the same too.

In the middle of our whacking in the crowded bakery, we saw another group forming when the bakers brought something new out. Not knowing what's inside and what it tasted i re-joined the queue. Wahahahaha..

No regrets man... super fluffy and super light and filled with cream cheese. These babies are great.



People watching is so fun in times like this. Couples are sitting and waiting at the tables with a drink and waiting for the chocolate thingies to come out.

But what happened next took the cake (or fluffy creamy bread). A young couple with a pram and their parents were waiting outside for a table. When there was an available table, they all came in and left the pram outside, simply cos it was too crowded to push the pram in!!!! THAT WAS SOOO WEIRD!!! The young mum went like " Aiyah, outside can la.. we can see him from here."

So the baby's parents and grandparents sat on our right and on our left is another table before you see the pram outside the shop. The picture below shows the pram, partially hidden, while the parents are seated on my right.



Throughout their time there, they were more interested in the lighter-than-air bread than their kid/grandkid. In 5 seconds, someone could have to pushed the pram away.

Gosh..

Blogging about the bread now makes me quite gian of it man.. haha

Eeks

Im usually not judgemental on people’s dressing but I thought this one takes the cake.

This dude is in a macho Stanchart Marathon tee and sporting pink Crocs! PINK!

I was eyeing him for some time and wondering if he lost a bet and had to wear these. But no, it didn’t seem like it.



Ok, im very judgemental.

Leap

Went to KL yesterday for a day trip.

Very tiring. It was supposed to be a meeting between the working group but then suddenly the client's big bosses decided to come for the meeting as well.

Oddly, the client's office's air con is spoilt cos the building owner was too cheap to repair the air-con system. So we had our meeting at the lobby lounge of this busy hotel. From a meeting of 5 people, it grew to 9 people and it was quite difficult for the big bosses to see from my laptop from so far away.

Thank goodness i had my self-binded nicely printed on letterhead documents to distribute to them. I was happy.

We took a huge leap forward in securing a deal. Upon reaching Singapore at 930pm, i bought two apple pies and nuggets to , in part, celebrate and in part, last me through the night. Had a call with my lawyers in Dallas then conference call with my colleagues in Chicago and Atlanta till 12:30am. Yawn.

Next week, they're coming to Singapore for a meeting and we are hosting them for dinner. Hopefully it works out.

Also, tomorrow, a mayor of some chinese town is coming to Singapore and my bosses want me to meet them for a nice dinner cos i speak mandarin. I always knew my mandarin would be my burden. Bleah.. Client dinner on Friday night. Hopefully it leads to another deal.

Deflated

My birthday balloons are oddly enough still floating, albeit a little deflated.

It has been a crazy few weeks and therefore i havent been blogging. So crazy that i feel
kinda like my balloons.



It was a little embarrassing to float deflated balloons so i decided to place them on the floor but they still float to my sitting height so it's a little weird. I hadnt shown this before but holding the balloons down was this - a Playmobil Prince. No idea why they got me a prince. I guess maybe they think im a prince. Man, that sounded so lame i actually feel embarrassed to type that.



This is too much text about some balloons so im going to change topics.

Im flying to KL tomorrow to hopefully move closer to a deal that'd make or break my year. This year no deal yet and this one could very well materialise to a deal. So ive been busy. So busy that i havent had time to collect my IC. So busy that i forgot to think of where to eat for lunch. So busy that i didnt even have time to write my daily To-Do list. Phew.

In many ways, im very anal. I can feel a number of you nodding your head vigorously. Hoping to give a better presentation, i decided to print it on nice letterhead paper, with color pics and wire binding from downstairs. Advisor has said no need so nice la but i was stubborn and i wanted to create a good impression with the client.

So tonight i rushed and rushed to get it out. Finally done at 730pm. The binding shop downstairs had already closed. Had to walk to suntec to do the wirebind cos i didnt want the cheapo looking plastic bind.

Alas the suntec shop had already closed as well. Dejectedly, i walked back to the office. But not before buying some gummy candy to accompany me as i bound my documents alone in the dark office when the aircon's off.

Here's me in the binding room and my bag of gummys.

Surprise!

As mentioned numerous times in this space, it has been a horrible week at work. At the Exco that concluded in the early part of the week, everyone was a little disappointed with the lack of progress from Business Development  That’s me. My president was like “I cant help but feel a little disappointed with the pipeline we have thus far”.

Diao.

I feared for my job. I was remarking to another colleagues that it seems like every year around my birthday, I feel for my job. I cant remember if I blogged about it last year.

I was of course in a frenzy all the days after.

While at my desk today, I heard some murmurings of some uncoordinated singing behind me. Then suddenly it became “Happy Birthday” song and I turned around, I saw my boss (the Prince), my chairman (the king) and his two daughters and several other colleagues (including the irritating advisor) holding a cake and walking towards me..

Awwww so sweet..

They asked me to make a wish.

I said I hope to sign some deals before year end.

King said “Only a few? Give me a dozen!”

All laughed.

I couldn’t laugh.

Anyway, here’s the cake and balloons they bought me. It’s a little distracting with the floating balloons. The cake has a hard hazelnut base which the plastic knife couldn’t cut through. Then someone got a metal knife (pictured below) but the handle broke (I hope it’s not an omen) and in the end they needed a hugemongous knife.

Doors

My colleague and i were returning to the office after lunch when she saw this shop, with one door open and the another closed.



She asked me how come like this, cos usually both doors are closed.

I was feeling a little philosophical amidst all the busyness.

My reply was "It's cos when one door closes, the other opens."

Presented

I realised that most of my entries' titles are really words that can be verbs and nouns and i usually just past-tensitise the verb. Quite a lot of entries really. Speaks volumes of my lack of creativity.

With the itchy eyes incident, I got a super long weekend from Thursday to Sunday, which was good since i couldnt take leave on Monday.

Monday was so busy that it just flew by. Different groups of people i work with celebrated by buying me lunch and buying me a cake for teatime at 4pm. Ended the day with a wonder dinner at Da Paolo in Chip Bee.

Here are some of the presents i got.. Quite a varied bunch of presents really.

My sister got me this golf cufflinks and Borders voucher card! w00t! Im going to wear this tomorrow for my Exco meeting.



Then i got this wonderful Scotty Cameron Newport 2.6 Studio Select straight-shafted putter. I know Sox isnt a fan. I think he's just being jealous.







And also someone sent this to my office.



And then another came to the office...



Then someone gave me this. It's a little scruffy hippo. Wahahahaha. cracks me up when i see it.



And amidst the shopping for the scruffy hippo, she chanced upon this fridge magnet, and thought it apt for me.



And lastly.. a beanie and scarf set..

Itchy and Scratchy

I didnt mention in my bday dinner that i was scratching my eyes like crazy that night. I have no idea why. This was more itchy than the dry eyes i had after my lasik.

I decided to go back to my lasik surgeon yesterday to see what's up. Apparently, due to too much aircon, too much computer or too little sleep or combination of the above has contributed to super dry eyes.

In the end, i got prescribed eye gel (4 times a day), milky eye drops (2 times a day), clear eye drops (as needed), a $200 bill and 2 days MC.

This little ordeal turned into a mini long weekend.

I walked around the mall to buy lunch home and found that my first love is back in Singapore!

w00t!

Braced

My university friends celebrated my big 3-0 yesterday. It’s probably the first of numerous gala celebrations in the next two weeks.

We had it at Double Bay in Raffles City. The food was bad. The service was good but that doesn’t make up for the bad food.

We went to Timbre after cos my friends wanted to use the excuse of my birthday to bring one of our friends to matchmake one of their friends who was waiting for us at Timbre. That’s pretty confusing really.

It was my first time at Timbre. Im not usually a fan of outdoor places or places that serve alcohol but I heard the live music was good.

It was quite good and looking at them made me think of the days I was in a band. Maybe since im quite free these days, I’d want to take up some formal lessons for bass guitar. W00t!

My friends got me this for a present. Haha.. Bracelet.

Axe-Co And Bored Meetings

I never really had the habit of taking leave for my birthday. Wasn’t much of a reason to. I do remember spending my 2006 birthday in Tokyo on a work trip and going to the fish market. That was pretty good.

I was telling Sox that perhaps we should organise a golf trip to JB again to celebrate my birthday. Haha.. just another excuse to do it.

I found out two weeks ago that I have an Exco on the day of my birthday and Board meeting three days after. *shudder*. The last time these happened was in March and I fell sick for two days after. Bleah. Definitely not going to be a good birthday this year.

Sian diao.

HQO

I know someone who got a HQO for H1N1. Stayed home for seven days. Actually at some point of being terrorised by the new advisor, I was really hoping to get a HQO so that I can stay home, watch tv, read, surf, eat.

I just asked my friend how was the HQO experience and how she got her meals. She said “my gmother cooked”

So I said “ So she g-mealed you?”

:)

I think my pun was lost when her reply was “not really i still go to the living to watch tv”

Such a dumbass.

Update

I havent been updating. Mostly cos ive been real busy at work. My King hired this dude from outside to be some sorta advisor and he's been 新官上任三把火。 Trying to do all kinds of new things that is just a sheer waste of time. Everyone in the office hates him and yet he seems oblivious. Sometimes i try to give the benefit of the doubt, given that im still quite new in the working world. But twice already, time has proven that my recommendations to him, which was contrary to his original view, were correct. Oh well, more of that when im more free.

So now i am all super and somewhat stressed at work. I realise ive never been stressed at work, as my working life has, fortunately been quite smooth thus far.

Even the people who sit around me said i've been real quiet at work. Bleah.

Managed to play 9 holes this morning at Mandai with the people i learn golf with. Queued one hour from 730am! Not a super bad game but definitely room for improvement. Then we went to play one round of mahjong. All done before 1pm! Gosh.. some people arent even up by 1pm on Saturday and we already did so many things.

Tomorrow is the last day of badm with my this group of friends. I'm quite sad really.

Smashed

My weekly Sunday badminton sessions look like they’re going down the pooper.

One of my regulars is going to Australia to do her Masters for 1.5 years this week. I sure hope she is able to get a new job when she returns. Else she might become the world’s most educated secretary.

And another is going to UK to do Masters in August.

As it is, my Sunday badm kakis are dwindling and with these two departures, I’ll find myself quite free on Sunday noons. Sigh.

I hate it when people go overseas. I find that I am never able to keep up contact with people overseas, even when they return. It’s like something broke along the way.

I know that’s pretty weird.

Worn Out

It has been a hectic few weeks cos ive been tasked to do some meaningless stuff.

As mentioned on Facebook, tonight, I have a meeting at 3pm, 6:30pm, 7:30pm and a conference call at 9:30pm. Bleah.

To prepare for the potential missing of dinner, I bought 2 crystal jade po luo bao and bubble tea to keep me awake.

Then oddly enough, my colleague bought me two pineapple pies from Old Chang Kee with a “Have a nice day” note. There’s even a bow tied to it. So sweet.

Here’s all of them in this picture.

Retro Phone

Was at Miramar Hotel that day. For sucha lousy ass hotel, it has quite nice food – the eat-till-you-drop-but-not-before-you break-into-a-cold-sweat dim sum buffet at $10++ per pax and of course Ikoi.

Saw this retro phone .. even has the “Telekoom” logo at the bottom.

Danger!

Saw this at the ground floor of my office building the other day.

Proof that work’s dangerous.

GPS

I wanted to buy a GPS for some time now. GPS prices have not come down much in the last year but they have simply added more features which are increasingly quite kick-ass. Like there’s junction view where it will show you what the junction looks like when you’re supposed to turn there. And it will also show you which lane is the turning lane, etc etc.

So I went to the IT show last weekend.

Super crowded and the cheapest model was sold out. A salesgirl was showing me the midrange models and was going on and on about the features. She also showed me how I can get directions if I drive in Malaysia. But she said the directions in Msia don’t have the junction view and lane view features as mentioned above.

Then I said no wonder msians cant drive. Then I laughed out loud with mock pride that I managed to insult the msians. Hee hee.

She didn’t laugh.

My friend asked “Are you msian?”

The salesgirl bit her lip and nodded her head. :(

Read about another incident.