Wednesday, November 30, 2005
A visit to HK Café
For one, the prices at HK Café are like $2 to $3 more expensive than Central even though Central’s in Takashimaya. The “Yuan Yang” and the normal milk tea (though very smooth) were VERY EXPENSIVE at $2 per small tiny cup. If you like your stuff very sweet, you would like it but I like my tea sugarless. Then I had the macaroni with ham, which is supposedly a traditional HK dish. Well, perhaps it’s not to my taste as the macaroni came with a piece of ham, pork, egg sunny side, 1 stalk of veg and bland soup. Hmm.. I think I can jolly well cook that myself and not pay $7 to $8 for that.
J had fried beef horfun, nothing different from Singapore’s version save for the size of the noodles but it was not bad. Hmm.. I think the best was the mango pudding. I love mango pudding though this was as usual, a tad too sweet. All in all, the mango pudding was the best dish as it was natural and fresh. Again, the size is too small, I think it cost about $3. Oh, they have cheese baked rice with chicken, beef or seafood or even pasta. Hmm.. Isn’t that Italian? Well, those dishes came in metal round trays which look weird. It looks like a tray prisoners have – but that’s just my personal opinion. And the famous lemon with coke? They just provide you a cup with some slices of lemon and a can of Coke. Is that called authentic? I was quite pissed off at it. I thought in the Straits Times report they can ALSO serve it WARM but this was ONLY cold. Anyway I wont pay $2 or more to drink Coke, with or without lemon, in this place! In total, we spent $24 for 2 pax.
The conclusion is, I would visit this place for the experience or even better the one at Taka but I probably won't make it a frequent haunt.
Should we start a food blog??
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Why am I unhappy at work?
It’s a Monday yesterday and Mondays are blue. I never had such bad weekly Monday blues before.
Monday is blue blue blue,
Yes, yes it’s so true.
I need some sticky glue
To piece the stupid clues.
I think it’s because I finally realized what I wanted to do. And that’s marketing communications. I want to help maintain/ edit the company’s website, help in doing up brochures or rather marketing collaterals. I want to proofread and edit newsletters and perhaps other related stuff such as helping to organize events, liaise with advertising agencies on production of these collaterals and maybe conduct market research. I foresee this role would give me some opportunities in interacting with internal and external “customers”. It’s still desk-bound but at least there is some scope for work-related interaction?
I am not bothered about interacting personally as I believe I am capable of making friends whether it takes abit longer to open up or whatsoever. I just want some interaction with work, about work. There doesn’t seem to be any at where I am now and it’s killing me. I just feel like a robot and somehow you don’t feel you belong. You are just a worker, the environment is so cold. I don’t want to come to work, work, lunch and then work again and go home without any interaction. Apparently this is the culture here, as my other colleagues who have been here for 1 to 3 years testify. I wish there was some interaction between departments. A minimal amount will do. Probably all our work need not rely on others down the “production line”. Yet I want to have colleagues, not strangers who come to work at the same place. If that is the case, I might as well work at home. Anyway I think my situation cannot be changed given that there are so different characters in my team and mostly so fake and selfish. I don’t even want their interaction.
So, there I have it. My answer. Job misfit and a work environment misfit. My values are being compromised.
I shall change and I will change. In His time.
Friday, November 25, 2005
All I want for Christmas
All I want for Christmas…. Is my 2 front teeth, my 2 front teeth, my 2 front teeth.
No la.
I want
1. A beautifully decorated regular rectangular shaped mirror. So I can put it on my desk and see who’s coming in from my back. Right now I can’t see and it’s tough trying to guard against people who will peep at what you are doing even if you doing work-related stuff.
2. A small, tiny cheap radio. Retro style would be nice. It has to be small and tiny so it won’t take up too much space on my desk. It has to be cheap just in case people steal it from my desk. You never know. Yankee Inkees Doodles or similar countrymen may steal it.
3. A partition. I need this so I can put it in front of me and guard against the horrible admin person. Right now she has placed this small calendar that conveniently blocks my eyes from her eyes so I cannot stare directly into her. Which is good too but I would prefer a bigger partition or a poster would do?
Dead town with zombies
I used to be bored with work as I have been at it for almost 2 years but I didn’t really hate it. The only things that kept me going were my fun colleagues and the comfortable, familiar environment. It was like an extended family which I came “home” to during my working hours. Company dinners, events and retreats helped many colleagues to grow closer and to get to know each other although many grumbled at having to spend time outside work going for it. On hindsight, it was fun and interesting.
Right now, I m not bored with work, well maybe slightly but I just find that this new place is like a dead town. People hardly interact, there is no WARMTH or COMPASSION. Initially, I wanted to be friendly and smile, say hi or acknowledge people to make a good impression but I found out it was useless here. Not many people responded. It’s a dead town with unfeeling zombies walking around. It’s abnormal. And I daresay I am one of the very youngest staff around. Heh. Granted, it’s more of a global culture with people of different nationalities and ages, yet there doesn’t seem to be any common company identity or unity. Some people in my team love to raise a big fuss over trivial matters, often administrative ones. Perhaps they don’t have enough attention in the office as people just come here to work and only work, work, work and then go off. No camaraderie at all. Maybe it's just my dept? Hmm...
It’s true that this happens everywhere but I guess I really know what I value more now. I want to stay in a place that allows me to develop myself and my career as the company grows, somewhere where I belong, not only for my usefulness or productivity but where I am respected as a person, for my abilities. I feel that when you are valued, you will put in more effort and not be so calculative. As for my present place now, I seriously do not know how long I can take it. I am trying real hard to adapt and try to change things or focus on positive stuff like at least I have 2 to 3 nice colleagues as allies but with not much growth or activities in this place, it’s a struggle. I do not know how long I can survive.
I miss you, you and you!!
I remember this “cheena” or china-looking girl whom I took under my wing for a few months to guide and supervise her on the job. She’s also another blur person but she was so fair that many customers mistook her for a Mainlander. I always thought I was quite fierce to her, in terms of look and discipline, haha. Yet in the end we became firm friends and often “crapped” around. Yes, she’s real crappy and after much “crapping” I will get lost in the conversation and give her this furrowed eyebrow look of disbelief. She made work less boring though I always have to go to her rescue be it to fix the loose computer cable or some weird computer commands she typed which rendered her system crazy or some funny question that the customers would ask. Haha. But she has since quit too.
Right, moving onto another “cheena” girl. Actually, I don’t think she’s cheena but she has very good skin NOW, good sexy bod, good height and such a sensual soft voice. In all, she’s a HOT babe! She was recruited about 1 month after me and I remembered my ex-manager telling me to guide her. I was like “Guide her?!” I was quite new myself but I gritted my teeth and went on. I guessed she learnt real fast and I learnt from her too Through many trials (and temptations) we became fast friends. She was there when I was scolded upside down by some Ah Lian customer which made me cry at the insults. We had many good eating outings and crazy babbling sessions in our pantry and I was really upset when my ex-manager wanted me to move to the branch office. But she has since quit too.
Oh, another sexy girl is this shorter ex-colleague with quite big eyes and … She always run while I walk when we “walk” side by side. Haha. You get the picture. She’s funny and crazy. You can hear her laughter miles away and it never fails to infect me. Hey gal, you have made my days so so memorable!! Even though she’s an only child, she doesn’t behave so much like a spoilt brat at work and not that much to her friends either. I mean people who are the only kids can be really self-centred, selfish and attention seeking at all times but she knows how to behave. Hehe. But she might just quit soon for better endeavours.
Hmm.. who else, there are so many of them!!
There’s another pretty girl in the graphic design dept and I never fail to marvel at how she manages to dress up so demurely and nicely and do her makeup and her hair in different styles each morning. Granted, she may have a bad temper at times at work but overall, she’s still quite nice, friendly and funny yet helpful to me. She’s still there though.
I miss. I miss saying “Hi! How are you?!” or “Hello!!” to any of my colleagues when I meet them anywhere in the building. I miss the nice stall vendors who greet you with a “Good morning” especially the one selling curry puffs or even say “Thank you” with a smile. I miss rushing to meetings or briefings at the auditorium, I miss the fun and crazy people who are not afraid to let their hair down and look silly during anniversaries or events. I miss all of them.
Thursday, November 24, 2005
I miss them!!
I remembered this old short Chinese guy. He isn’t good looking but I won’t classify him as ugly because he was really very funny. He was a natural effeminate and he was the only one who never gave me the goose bumps, in fact he was really friendly and naturally funny. I never failed to laugh at him and with him just at the way he speaks and the way he walks or moves his hand. Sometimes my colleagues and I would pretend to be coquettish with him and he would reciprocate. I think I seldom saw him get angry, he always smiled but even his angry looks are comical. He’s sporting too, at our company events, we would often get him to play effeminate characters and he does them very well yet exaggerated.
There’s another graphic designer who looks and is shaped like a bear. Most people think he’s good looking and he’s quite well-built. Well, he has an artistic bad temper, can be very frank but he’s been friendly. He’s another one great at cross-dressing and he sings like Jacky Cheung, having won a few of the company’s karaoke events. He is the “husband” of another graphic designer who is very sporty but has an honest decent look. This other guy is often bullied by the girls in my department but he is quite comical and good-natured when we asked him to help us with things.
How I miss them!
My ex-manager is quite a fierce lady in terms of look and strict in terms of disciplining us, her subordinates and she does have quite high expectations. Yet beneath all that, she is caring and a good mentor.
Another ex-colleague, she has a bubbly smile and a kind, helpful heart that she cannot seem to say No to anyone. She helped me lots and though we had some brushes with work initially, there were no grudges and I would often laugh at her jokes.
How I miss them… too!
Ah, another one I miss a lot is this young girl with short hair but pretty spunky. She’s studying and working at the same time but she’s really blur. Her blur-ness never fails to make me laugh at her daily till one day I decided to term her my “kai1 xin1 guo4”. Hey she doesn’t make me laugh too, she loves to argue with me and I would do the same and we will just poke at each other till we both cannot take it. Sigh. I miss that banter.
I also miss those nice uncles in other sections, they are really friendly and “elderly” to us as they treat us like their own daughters and are ever so helpful. Even though at company functions or training, they seem pretty left out given their Chinese education, they did not behave grumpily or arrogantly.
Oh, how I miss them!!!
Thursday, November 17, 2005
i need...
The lack of interaction is killing me. How do people here survive?!
Where are the media events? Where are the company events? Where's the dynamism?? Where's the networking?
I seem to do all my work on the computer. Sitting there 8 hours a day. That sucks.
I am so not used to the non-family culture. I would love to go to work knowing that I am surrounded by friendly colleagues and friends and bosses who notice you, as a person.
Ugly Singaporean? behaviour
I have 2 main peeves after working in the CBD for some months. Some behaviour I cant stand. Some behaviour which makes me want to roll my eyes and show an “attitude” face.
I hate it when people in my office building try to squeeze in when the lift is pretty full already.
It makes it worse when they are not very small sized or carrying a big luggage bag!! There is not enough space even though the lift says it can take 20, it cannot!! Don’t these people ever understand? Why do they like to squeeze themselves at the door or try to find a teeny weeny space to stand?? It only makes my trip Up or Down my office even LONGER!! Everytime these people do that, I feel like going “Gosh. pause. Gosh.” or “Goodness. pause. Goodness.” I feel like being even more mean by directly saying, “The lift is already very packed, please do not squeeze in.”
Will I get bashed up??
My second peeve is during peak hours when people DO NOT move in to the middle of the MRT, leaving the middle portion of the carriage quite empty. It makes me even more MAD when I cannot get into the train. One train goes by. Never mind. The second train goes by. I look and see the middle portion relatively empty and everyone stuck at the door AGAIN. Ok, I shall tolerate. By the time the third or fourth train comes by, my face is BLACK. Yet, seriously after the second train passes by, I am so bloody tempted to wave to the people in the middle of the train or at the side to ask them to move. But what would people think of a furiously gesturing female?? Maybe I should get a placard and write these words, “Please move towards the centre.” And flash it.
I wish these people would be more civic-minded and courteous. Maybe I seem like a weird person, always walking to the middle of the train car, or “pushing aside” people while I make my way in but if I don’t, who will?
Ugly Singaporean behaviour.
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
of money and africans
My african violet at home seems to be dying. The leaves are turning black.
Gosh. I need to buy african violet soil and fertilizers.
Where are my green fingers???!!
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Monday, November 07, 2005
my job hangs on a thread!!
She asked me if I was unhappy with the job here as she had feedback that I don't seem happy. Her main concern was if I was happy as she did not want me to quit after a few months and waste all the time or training she's gonna invest in me (if there would be any training after all). Well, I was caught off guard. Yet I do not think I don't look happy. I am just being grumpy, black face and irritated at times? Conflicts between colleagues do occur, yah. And I admit I have not been very nice to some of them at times (read: the admin woman & the YID). So I told her, NO, she and the other people who feedback are not right with regards to this.
I guess I didn't sound convincing enough.
She asked me to reconsider. Reconsider what?! This job? NO. I need this job (money).
Oops. Was I dumb in accepting her request for me to reconsider? But I was giving her face. Hmm..
I shall tell her I am not unhappy (even if I am, but life's never perfect) and ask her to give me the letter, the letter, the letter, the letter.
I am just an ice princess. Do not force me to smile. Especially when I face the computer.
I only want the letter, the letter, the letter, the letter and only the letter.