Kim Gek... & Proud to be one :)

Last Thurs was a very nostalgic nite for me; a nite where it brought together some friends I spent most of my school years with and whom I havent seen in ages; a nite where I caught up with a LOT of my old teachers; a nite where memories of my school days were brought back so clearly in my mind; a nite where we all remembered that no matter where we are, we are still the "Kim Geks" that we have been moulded into; a nite where we gave our heartfelt thanks to the woman who helped so much in our formative years to make us who we are today...

After being the principal of SCGS for the past 28 years, Miss Heng will be retiring @ the end of this year and thus a dinner was held in her honour last Thurs. However... as usual... sleepy was late (no thanks to the rain & horrid jam @ orchard road) and thus missed her speech :( Was just in time for the dinner... but it seems that no one had the food in mind... and the food was actually not bad!!! Most of us were table hopping around and catching up with all the teachers; some of them still teaching in SC but some of whom have left but came back to pay tribute to Miss Heng. Due to work schedule, it is rather difficult to go back to visit the teachers, used to do that once in a while and I missed the times when I did relief teaching back in SC *wistful* and it is AMAZING how most of the teachers look exactly how they were when they were teaching us!!! Got hwee to comment that perhaps teaching was not such a s-t-r-e-s-s-f-u-l- job afterall heh!! actually I don't think so, just thnk that comparatively, we were easier to teach than the kids of nowadays (no offense!!) And teachers have really good memories as most of them can remember us, well maybe not the name, but if we tell them the year or class, they could very well tell us some of the things that we did!! Like how my former A-Maths teacher commented that we were a v naughty class and that she thought that we didn't like her!!! But dat's not true... like I was telling Dar... I feel that my class was the naughty but rather smart class, that's why all the teachers "bo bian" :P And it was very heartwarming when they asked us what we are doing now, and being so proud of us!

I almost didn't become a student of SC... mummy used to tell me that she actually wanted to enrol Jie in St. Joseph's Convent as it was nearer my house but 1 of her colleagues recommended SC and she decided to enroll Jie there... and being siblings she enrolled me there too!! Thanks mummy!!! My 10 years there are days where I look back fondly upon, the teachers were great; not only did they make the lessons interesting, they also instilled in us the values which we still hold today. Though so long ago, I can still vividly remember some of the things that happened in class!!! :) And it is also there that I know my closest gfs; Dora, Siping, Huiwen & Youping... whom have been w me thru my ups & dwns, listening to my complaints and giving me advice and just keeping me company... thanks babes!!!

I guess when pp think about SCGS, they will think about the school in Orchard Road and our "pinafore without the shirt inside". And though most other pp have a lot of comments about our school Uniform, we are v proud of our uniforms... it's very unique isnt it?? ;) And I was very lucky to have studied @ the premises in Orchard Road (now the Australian Int'l School or something). Though it was a small premise, it was v v cozy such that everyone knew everyone else!!! I miss the old school building and I remember on the last day of school there, we went around taking photos!! Had the chance to study in the new school for half a year, it was huge but I guess being that everything was new and all, wasn't really used to the new compound...

Really sad that Miss Heng will be retiring; future SC gals will be missing out on her dedication and leadership but I am sure the past and present SC gals will always remember what she has done for the school and for us gals. It is small wonder that when we have daughters ourselves, we are definitely goin to enrol them in SCGS!!

Glad that I live am I

That the sky is blue

Glad for the country lanes

And the fall of dew

After the sun the rain

After the rain the sun

This is the way of life

Till the work be done

All that we need to do

Be we low or high

Is to see that we grow

Nearer the sky

~school song~

Interesting Sat

Sat mornings are usually rather quiet; well crowds can suddenly come in but is nothing unmanageable. Last Sat was no exception; and sleepy was rather free as there were 3 (technically 4 but 1 went dwnstairs to help but she helped me cut cheques in the am heh heh) officers working so sleepy was kinda e "extra" officer :) But some "exceptional" incidents happened...

Firstly, the aircon suddenly dieded on us around 8.45 am. Still didnt realise until my teller asked me how come there's no aircon. Had to dig for the number to call for the aircon guy to come but the silly guy didnt switch on his handphone and no one picked up the office numbers listed. Oh dear!!! Thought that perhaps it was a tad bit early and that maybe there will be someone picking up the phone after 9 but NO!!! By this time, it was real stuffy out front; and the poor tellers were perspiring like mad as they had to wear jackets and had to resort to fanning themselves with brochures!! Luckily there weren't many customers or it would have had been worse!! Thankfully, finally managed to get the office gal and thankfully they were quite prompt in coming dwn... apparantly 1 of the units above us had a short-circuit or something, thereby affecting us.

But the more exciting thing was... my teller spotted a counterfeit $100 note!!! And got the whole office rather excited coz most of us havn't seen a counterfeit note before. It was a rather bad counterfeit for a few reasons:
1) it was smaller than the real $100 note;
2) the texture was super super smooth;
3) u know when u hold up the note to light and u'll be able to see the head of Yusof Ishak in the lite? For the counterfeit, it could be clearly seen and it was a cartoon cariature form!!!
On further analysing, it was q clear that the culprits used colour photostapting machine to produce the note but yet somehow, they managed to make the hologram feature on the note. The uncle who banked in the note claimed that he received it from a foreigner who boarded his cab; and he was rather upset that he had been cheated. But what to do, we have to send the note to MAS/BOC and see where it goes from there.

So everyone... OPEN ur eyes big big ya? :)

Bidding Farewell

Last Friday marks the last day that I would be working with 2 of my nicer and closer colleagues; they will be starting work @ the new branch come tomorrow. And though the branch is only just a short distance away, it was v sad to have to see them go. Had the "official" farewell for them on Thursday as my manager was not around on Friday and it was such a tearful farewell!!! Most of us so scared of spilling tears that we quickly dispersed from the "scene of crime" choosing to hide inside the office instead.

Veron was the Cash Officer @ the branch and having to be the alternate Cash Officer, I learnt a lot of things from her. Added to that, she is extremely helpful, patient and doesnt throw her temper around. It was really a joy to work w her as she would go out of her way to help me especially when blur me never knew how to answer the questions posed by my tellers or find numbers to pp in other departments for me. She is also very appreciative even when small little things r done for her. like help her to check reports or something and it is these little things that shows the goodness in a person.

As for Julia, though just a teller in the branch, her wealth of knowlege is amazing!!! Even beta than me heh heh!!! And I really admire her dedication to her work whether it is to solve customers' problems to little things like ordering stationery n blah for the branch. She also knows when not to call respective officers for overidding and that is 1 of the things I am most appreciative of... workwise. Guess both of us being "horses" kinda brought us closer also. Find myself telling her about my problems w Dar or about my friends and her concern shows *touched* and though she can be rather frank & straightforward, know it is for the gd of us as only true friends will want u to be beta rites? Thanks my dear, and I will learn to be more careful w my work and find out the correct information before giving out and I will also try to act more like an officer :P :P :P

It is never easy bidding farewell; day to day affairs have now become memories albeit nice ones. M gona miss them a lot... not only are they wonderful wonderful colleagues, it is the easy camaderie we have and the dependability that I am going to miss most. Made a mental note to stay in touch, but sometimes it is not easy what with everyone's busy schedule. Nonetheless, I shall not say "bye bye" here but "see you again". Take care...

New Wheels

Darling collected his new car on Fri :) :) :) n I kinda insisted that he came to pick me up after work just so that I could sit in the new car hee :P

Almost couldnt recognise the car coz I couldn't really recognise the colour; it looks grey but it is called purplish grey or something... so strange haha!! Managed to recognise the car by the car number; actually could have gotten the car earlier but Dar didn't like the number "5" so requested to wait for number "7" which is his favourite number. But like murphy's law, when u don't want n it happens; the 2nd number of the car plate was "5"!!! Dar was q disappointed heh. Car had the nice car smell but other than that it was q simple, we were q shocked to realise that there weren't additional lights above the driver and front passenger seats. Intially when I was sitting @ the back seat, felt the space pretty cramp but then I concluded that it was coz Dar & his fren shifted the seats WAY back!! heh

So now Dar gota "drive-in" the car. My only qualms is dat it is a M-A-N-U-A-L car and I haven't driven a Manual car since I passed my driving test eons ago so I will definitely need many many lessons *groanz* N i m actually q apprehensive to drive the car now coz it is new & I m scared that I cant control the clutch so guess Dar will be driving the new car more often. But Dar's hasn't managed to sell his old car which means I can still drive only that being a continental car it is q heavy... added to that that Daddy is out of town this week, e 2 of us r really spoilt for choices what vehicle to drive :P:P:P anyone wana rent a car 4 a week? :P

梁静茹签唱会

Went with Mangojo to the 梁静茹签唱会 compliments of tickets given by Shanster. :) thanks gal!

Mangojo came to pick me up and we arrived @ Expo ard 3pm admist the pouring rain. As we towards the Hall, noticed a lot of ushers helping to control traffic and blah. Intially thot "Wah, so happening ah, they expecting so many pp dat's why need ushers" but then realised it is coz there's a church there... which also explains why, the ushers "disappeared" halfway along our journey hee. Was expecting a looooooooooooooong queue so q surprised that the queue was NOT that long, guess it was partly coz of the rain bah.

The time stated on the ticket read 4pm so we were anticipating that we would be able to go in by around 330 pm. Good company helps in times like this when time seems to c-r-e-e-p by... and of course the crowd around u. There was this lady standing behind us and I intially thought that she was a Malay coz she had this scarf which she used as a head scarf... and she was q dark. Anyways she kept complaining about how the organisers couldnt let us go in and sit down first... and apparantly she q playing w her scarf and it kept "flicking" on Mangojo haha!! And @ ard 330 thereabouts, seeing how we were still not allowed into the hall, she actually went in to ask the organisers when they r letting us in!!! gosh!!! Reminds me of last year when I went to Star Awards w my colleague; there was this guy who kept on complaining about waiting n scolding the gf 4 dragging him here n how he was not goin 2 come next year; goin 2 leave half-way n blah... but we saw him @ e end of the awards haha! :P

True to the organisers' words, trickles of the crowd were let in @ 350pm. As they wanted to let the pp in in batches, the crowd was stopped from entering the hall about 6 pp in front of us, which resulted in the aunty in front of us commenting why pp we were stopped fr goin in!! Alamak... ugly singaporeans ah!!! Then when we were inside, somehow 2 queues fr formed before the entrance of the main hall and lady w pink scarf kept asking the hubby/bf “为什么有两条？我们可以排那边吗？”and she asked this a few times within the short 3 min we were there and got frantic when she saw pp joining that queue!!! And when we finally got into the main hall, she was rushing in front whilst Mangojo and I were happily strolling to e less crowded area n finding seats. PIANGZ!!! Bet she wld haf rushed RITE to e front :P

So much of complaints... really did enjoy the showcase presented by Fish. (although was a little pissed intially coz we were forced to move due to the messy planning of the organisers which resulted in having 2 tall men sitting in front of Sleepy n blocking her precious view... luckily the guy in front finally decided to slouch a bit yipee!!) She sounds as good as the CD and she seems warm and sincere, and u cld tell that she really enjoys to sing :) Q like the songs in her new album as well... muz rem 2 borrow the CD fr Dar's fren as well as 2 pester pp to make the ring tone for me hee hee. She's gona haf a concert next year... feel like goin heh... Shao Ye helped to duplicate her previous convert VCD 4 me & I thot it was rather gd... but muz see if the hole in my pocket can be sewed up first :P or anyone wana sponsor???

And had a really gd time w Mangojo... hafnt seen her since Deepavali & so was exchanging gossip and telling her about my latest encounter w CB. & I know we r gona meet up soon... to go shoppin when the sales r here or 2 go HelloKittyland rites??? :P

Twitch Twitch

The skin juz below sleepy's left eye has been twitching for the past couple of days. Not that it is uncomfy... but it juz feels strange having it twitch on and off the whole day :( I tried to massage/press my fingers to the area to "calm" it down but it still comes back after a while. 1 of my colleagues say it is due to lack of sleep whilst another says that i am goin to strike lottery/toto!!! But then... I don't even buy them!!! I have heard before that if your eyebrows twitch, it means that something bad is goin to happen but not the area under the eye leh... anyone has any probable suggestions??

Was on course on Thurs & Fri; good break from work and the course ended v early on both days so it was double plus points. Unlike in PA where we could choose which courses we wanted to go to; now we don't have any choice. We only have certain dates that we can go for courses and that in itself is planned by the manager. Which sucks coz I don't like going for courses where I don't know anyone. But luckily this course comprised mostly of young officers who joined within the last 2 years and some of them I knew so all in all it was q fun. Got to know new people as well so now I have more kakis when goin for courses/briefings :) Realised also that everyone is v disiplined (not like me!!) arrive for course on time; don't take too long for breaks; don't chat whilst the coordinator is talking and don't give silly answers... unlike the PA courses... heh heh... issit the culture of the organisation or the influence of friends?? :P

Conversation Tool

It is funny how some things can become a conversation starter. Like a piece of clothing, having the latest gadget hairstyle... blah blah blah... how about a $50 note??

Darling picked me up from tuition today coz lazeee me cldnt b bothered to go home and get the car (and anyways the tank was close to empty... AGAIN!!!) and as I havn't had dinner and he only ate a bit, decided to grab a bite @ the Circuit Road food centre next to MacPherson CC. We didnt have very much choices as there were mostly vegetarian stalls down there and we didn't exactly wana eat vegetarian. Anyways in the midst of my meal, passed Darling the old $50 note he wanted and he conveniently put it on the table as he didn't bring his wallet down. We were chatting away when I noticed the drinks stall uncle eyeing something on our table and I thought he was looking @ Darling's phone or something. Then he picked up his spectacles and walked even closer to our table..
Uncle: "那个是旧的50块啊？”
Dar: “是啊。。。”
Uncle:“哇！现在很难看到这种50块了hor。。。”
Dar: “A nor... (pointing to me) 她在银行做工，人家进钱给的。。。”
Uncle: “Orrhh... 难怪啦。。。”
Me: “Uncle, 你要吗？”
Uncle: “我跟你换50对50就ok。。。”(laughs)
Afterwhich we didnt answer coz uncle went to sit down liao. We continued to chat and then this cleaner lady came up to us with the same exclaimation and roughly the same story goes. But this lady is v cute, when she heard that I work in a bank, she actually asked me to keep a lookout for the $50 bird and ship series for her and left her contact number with me so that I can call her if I have it!!! And she insisted that she would treat me to coffee when I come and pass her the money heh heh. Now I am worried that I don't have enought of these to circulate around as Dar and his best fren also ask me to keep a lookout for them... *frets*

Btw, have any of u seen the orchid series before?? It is a wonder that some pp still have these notes!!! They muz be when I was just born coz I can only remember the bird and ship series...

New Trend??

issit a new trend?? couple of friends have decided to change blog sites recently (incidentally we were all users of the friendster blog hee). Being a super nice gal n an even super friend, sleepy has dutifully updated the links. Check out the links on the rite :))

Has also added a super dear friend of mine to my links... Yoz HW... how's Amsterdam??

Burnt!!

U all wouldn't believe what happened just now... sleepy & friend was having dessert @ Seasons Reasons (located @ the new Marketplace of City Hall) when "disaster" stroke! We we eating their signature dessert, cup in a cake; which is actually chocolate brownie with vanilla gelato and mocha chips (or @ least we think they r mocha chips...) and commenting that although it is Halloween, there doesn't seem to be many decorations @ the restaurants we have walked passed. So anyways, sleepy's friend was pointing out that there were actually 2 small little pumpkins on the table @ the entrance and sleepy was trying to lean forward to see it (being blocked by a pillar), oblivious to the fact that there was an unconvered container with a tealight in front of her. Suddenly, a "Szzzzzssszzzzz" sound could be heard and to her horror... her lovely tresses have been fried!!! Luckily only a little portion of the hair was burnt, resulting in a part of the hair becoming curvy wurvy, but the worst thing was that, there was such a horrid smell!!! How come fried hair smells soooooo bad??? Just what is our hair made of anyways?? Of course, the bill was paid immediately so that ms frantic sleepy can go home to wash her hair to get rid of the bad smell... it is still wet now... hope it will be ok tomorrow *crosses fingers*

Think I always have had this "fascination" with fire... oh I don't like to play with matches, but rather with tealights. Used to love to burn those aromatherapy stuff when I was in hostel and also @ home or those candles that gives off some scent when burnt. As the holders/tealights are usually circular in shape, when the candle wax has burnt off in the middle, there is actually still some wax left @ the circumference of the base, and not wanting to waste, I would "dig" up the wax & put them in a new tealight and so on and so forth. Sometimes the wax pieces can be quite big causing the tealight to overflow haha... but actually that is still q ok; sometimes the wick burns finish but there is still a LOT of candle wax left over... mois would then use the burnt candle stick to try to burn dwn the wax or something (cant remember what I was doing then) and sometimes the fire can get q big... causing like a mini bonfire of sorts!! I remember once I was in hostel, I was using a burner that was not covered. Somehow my tissue paper holder was placed pretty near the burner and somehow coz the fan was turning @ dat time, the tissue paper caught fire and burnt the plastic holder!!! Gosh... luckily I happened to see in time or else sleepy would now be paying through her teeth for 1 block HAHAHA!!!

Morale of the story: restaurants should NOT use such dangerous tea light holders! :P :P :P

Sleepy explains...

Sleepytoon has again received complaints about the colour of the font that she uses on her website... resulting in readers having to hilight the passage before being able to read the delightful content :P

The thing is, there aren't very nice dark colour fonts that moi can use... and being a vibrant person (heh heh) I do prefer to use different colours for each entry. And the soft pastel colours are soooo v much nicer... funny thing is it doesnt really strike me as unreadable whilst writing the entry, so I can only once again that old people doesnt have good eyesight :P But I kinda like this shade of blue, and I thnk it is dark enuff to be seen on a white background so I thnk I shall be using this colour more often :) Hope this satisfies the older readers heh heh. In retrospect, is there anyway that I can change the colour of the background to a darker colour??

And though I prefer using the small font size as it is cuter (like me!! :P) I have written this entry using the bigger font so that the older folks can read it and stop berating me on using pastel colour fonts hee. Maybe I can use the pastel colour fonts when I am saying bad things abt them... heh heh... *idea*

sleepy rests her case :)

Short Short Week

A happee little Sleepytoon was looking forward to this week as she only had to work 3 days this week... how's that?? :) :) :) It couldn't even dampen her spirits of having to do Cash on Tues heh heh. Wanted to take the following Mon off instead of tomorrow but it being the day before and after holidays, permission was NOT granted... but oh well... 3 days of work, 4 days of rest, 1 day of work, 1 day of rest then 3 days of work... not bad lah :P

Luckily had a relief officer @ branch on Mon and Tues which helped a lot as vouchers were checked on time and the tellers were "smart" enuff to ask him to do the overidding; both days got to leave branch before 530!! Today wasn't so bad either although I made this terrible mistake with my cheques but managed to solve the problem on time *whew* think I am rather butter-fingers these couple of days, keep dropping things and couldn't open the combination for the vault doors!!! Luckily my boss never scold me heh heh!!

Lookin forward to spending 2 whole days w Dar... well 1.5 lah since he gota drive boat on Fri... still apprehensive about him driving boat... just pray & hope for the best for him... Went w him to Gelare last nite for half-priced waffles... intially I was the one that wanted to eat but we kept postponing and last nite he had a craving for it. Funny thing is we headed for Parkway which we went to the previous time we wanted to eat; and was suddenly reminded that the old Gelare is now Don's Pie... what a BOO BOO!! In the end we went to the one @ Marine Cove which is pretty spacious... not like the other outlets I have been to and we managed to snag the cosy seats *smiles* Dar was reminiscing the very 1st time I brought him to eat Gelare; he claims he was never a big fan of such "fancy food" as he so terms, preferring normal hawker/foodcourt fare in the past and that I have been a bad influence to him! hee hee... hey... I also don't really like to eat v v v ex food ok... (coz to me; eat liao short while laters come out?? haha) juz dat don't really like to eat @ hawker/foodcourt so often coz it is hot & sometimes dirty... yep yep pampered am i...

Distraught!!

An extremely distraught Sleepytoon just plucked like more than a dozen white hair from her beautiful mane of hair!! ARRRRRRRRGGGHHHHHHHH!!!! Getting freaking old!!!! And they were all on 1 side of the hair... HOW COME??? Hairdressed have been telling me that I have more white hair on the right side of my hair than the left side but when I tried "looking" for them to pluck them out, i couldn't find them and then VOOOM!! They all appeared today!! Issit coz of the stress of the past week??

And Dar has gone off to KL with his friend and will only be back on Tues afternoon... sobz sobz!! M definitely not used to not having him ard :( Tues come soon quick!!

Hello to a new week

Boy am I glad the past week is finally over... it had been a rather bad week of sorts and I am juz real glad when it was Sat yesterday and Sunday today. :)

It was like nothing would go rite; on Monday, my colleague who is also the cash officer told me that her hubby might hafta go for an emergency eye op and thus might be taking the half day off... it turned out to be 2.5 days off which means I had to take over cash which I absolutely detest. Even my tellers were rather wary of me haha!! Then somehow, I managed to do everything wrongly... there was some case on Monday (which I can't remember) and then on Tuesday, I keyed in something wrongly which resulted in the main office calling and I had to call them back to and fro before the matter was finally was resolved!! And during that period, although it was my lunch time, the tellers still ask me to overide n help them solve their cases... like there's only 1 of me lors :P Then on Wed, after a big hoo ha about a Negative Balance case, I went to overide a transaction with Negative Balance as well!! *piangz* then it was a frantic rush of reversing the entry, trying to contact the person which took me like half an hour!! and @ the same time not letting my boss know about it!!! Gosh... luckily my alternate advised me and helped me to cover up. *whewz* On Thursday, my boss wanted to have a staff meeting and wanted me (coz I was assigned as "Service Champion" haha) to come up with something which would improve the service of staff and I was totally clueless!!! Thankfully, being a marketing student, I managed to smoke my way through haha. On top of that, had a quarrel with Dar (but we made up yipee!) so my mood was in the pits!! Was also very tired because of tuition as my kids were having their exams... thank god they have finished :)) And yesterday... the branch was to have a power shut-down so I had to stay back with my boss. The guy was late and though thankfully he didn't take very long, it took a while before the lines for the machines were brought up and so by the time I left the office, it was like 245!! I have never knocked off so late on Sat b4!!! so all in a all it was a pretty bad week for me...

But there were also little pieces of good news:
1) got a message fr a dear friend of mine... she somehow always seem to know when I am down and wld drop me a msg... thnx YP! And... i met up w 2 of my closest SC gfs littlebloom & huiwen. :)
2) my aircon's like FINALLY fixed!!! so bye bye to noisy nites :) :) :)
3) and yippee yayee... my boss has decided that we shd have alternate Sat off!!! although that would mean that we only have 1 wkday off a month, think it is so much beta!! *pleased*

Connected to the "Outside World

Yipee yayee!!! We have been recently been granted external email acess for out email accounts :)))) Still remembering feeling v "uneasy" when I first started working as my email had no external access and we can't access external websites either; oh well we still can't but at least I don't feel so "alienated" from the outside world, being able to only check mails when I am home and then waiting 1 whole day for the reply. Now I can answer in REAL time :)

Also had a yummylicious dinner @ Tao Restaurant w Stella & ZH juz now. The food was q unique and tasty... rather worth the price. As usual, we had a great time catching up, chit chatting and got me got pressies too! :) Thanks guys!!! And not to mention the karaoke session w the PA pp e other day, didn't really get to talk a lot, but yet in a way, having the company was somehow enough. If only wish we could all meet more often but more often than not, schedules don't meet and then we take it for granted that there's always another day to meet up. (yes, I am 1 of the guilty ones...) Or that there's always email, msn, and even now, blogging to keep ourselves updated on each other's life... but somehow feel that a face to face meet up is still the best coz it is difficult to anticipate's one's feelings over these channels... don't ya thnk?

Slow Morning

It's gota be 1 of the MOST boring Sat mornings in office for me today!! and almost every Sat, my boss would comment that our branch should be close which I totally agree!! Other than the fact that I can sleep in late and laze around in the house, there are hardly any people on Sat, safe the employees of the establishments in the building. Just wondering if the few transactions we did justify for our pay, the utility bill and all other expenses??
Actually it has been a really slow week... partly due to the IMF I guess; road closures making our branch somewhat inaccessible (yipee yayee) so almost everyday, we balance by 5 and can happily leave the office by 530... how's that??? (now u all can understand why I say I am sooo comfy in this job hee) This morning, when we came to work, we noticed that the surrounding side roads have all been closed off, and then sometime later, the portion of North Bridge Road just in front of my office was closed off too... No wonder there weren't many pp coming in!!! I was trying so hard to keep myself occupied the whole day and it was TOUGH!!! didnt wana spend the time reading process maps, yet didnt wana seem to free to my boss :P Tellers didnt have much transactions so there weren't many vouchers to check either... so went to pester them to close early and return money early so that can try to aim for record breaking time home haha!! And they were really sooo cooperative that I, as cash officer balanced before they did!!!! Only thing is 人算不如天算，1 of my tellers didn't balance so we could only leave @ 130. BAH!!!

Appraisal Time

*Gasp* gota pass up my appraisal by next Mon... has it been soooooooooo fast already??? Was just given the KPIs by my boss 2 days ago and gota hand it to her on Mon... thankfully, there weren't a lot of KPIs but i found it difficult to phrase my own appraisal. Truely miss the good old PA days where we just copied from each other or rather where 1 person did for the rest of us haha! :P Unlike in PA too, I don't think I will get an exceptionally good Evaluation coz there are already certain areas where we fall below the KPI and I am not a very conscientious worker either *sheepish look*

During this time, it always makes me wonder how effective are the yearly appraisals. To me, it is like a "for show" kinda thing, where you try to "promote" yourself; or rather don't make yourself to be a bad worker. Thing is that the KPIs are given to us at the same time of the appraisal (actually they are the same every year but still!!! I only just received mine!!) so how do we measure ourself and take note of the things we shd be looking out for??? To me, I also feel that upper management already has in mind who are the people they wish to promote, so why bother with this kinda self-promotion?? Although supervisors are supposed to meet with the staff after their appraisal, it has never been done in PA... but I heard UOB is different, they do talk to you about it. But then again I don't like these kinda stuff haha!! Heard that I would have to evaluate some of my counter staff too... definitely NOT looking forward to it...

Received the news after my block leave that the new branch @ Raffles City would be opening soon and my Cash Officer would be going over. SOBBIE SOBBIE!!! I really really like her... I thnk that she is THE nicest person in the branch; she doesn't raise her temper and is ever so helpful even if she is soooo v busy... which is what I can't say about some other pp heh heh. I have learnt a lot from her and chatting with her; like recently over SI haha. In the morning she never fails to greet with a cheerful Good Morning and end the day with a "See You..." Sometimes I feel guilty coz she has many things to do and when I try to help her (coz our duties overlap) to clear some, she will quickly wana take over and do herself instead. But I feel bad to just leave like that mah... I am sure gona miss her a lot... and hopefully the new cash officer that comes in will be just as nice. I always have this impression that all Cash Officers are motherly and nice coz the Cash Officer @ King George was also suuuuuper suuuuuper nice too!!! And I do hope there is a replacement coz if I am tasked to be the permanent Cash Officer... i will QUIT straight away!!

Almost...

Almost... Hit
Izzit me or other drivers... have been encountering some errant drivers on the road lately... first it was e silly lady in her beemer along Bukit Timah Road who simply cut lanes like she owns the road or something... AND she did it sooooooo slowly... the uncle in front of me buay tahan her n horned her. Then there was the uncle in his huge bus who wasn't looking where he was going and almost banged into me whilst doing a rite turn in a small little carpark. I horned so loudly @ him that it caught the attention of the residents who were going to do their marketing haha. So Mangojo, after u get ur license... pls don't follow their examples ok? :P

Almost... Fined
What a close shave... ystd Dar was giving his mum to Aljunied when we were stopped by a traffic police!! actually it was q funny coz we were @ this traffic junction when the traffic police pulled up next to us. I noticed that he was looking @ some papers and then @ the car plate of the car in front of us... but we were a bit worried as none of us had our seat belts on!!! Who would have known that the police then turned his head to face us and SAW that we had no seatbelts on... ALAMAK!!! so dao mei!!! He asked us to pull over the side and Dar was chided for the fact out of the 3 of us, no one had the seat belt on. His mum & I were like thnking... die liao... sure summon liao coz he look soooo stern wor... but after Dar told him to give him a chance... who would have expected that he said ok and waved us off!!! Thanks Mr Traffic Policeman!! Saved our money and demerit points! :)

Almost... Drenched
It has been so sunny and hot the past couple of days... & the sky chose to rain yesterday when I decided to run around town... GRRZ!!! It started to rain when I was having lunch w Kai Ye but as Kai Ye predicted, it was only a passing shower. However when I reached came out of the underpass @ Lucky Plaza, what a sight greeted me... it was raining cats & dogs!! Was q pissed coz i only needed to cross the road to get to Paragon but I didn't dare to run over in case the ever clumsy me fell dwn... what a sight that would have been!!! Luckily this indian lady agreed to shelter me over... heh heh... if not i will be cold, wet n pissed haha! :P

Almost... Over
Xians... my block leave is almost over... Guess it is like what DewDrop said... when u r happy.. time seem to fly past... 4 more days... but i am looking forward to the weekend *grinz*

Tech Savvy I am not... SOBZ!!!

Irritated I am coz I am such an idiot when it comes to tech pdts. Got my new phone and installed the programme but the file manager thngy DOESN'T WORK!!!! Haiz... :( the same thng happened with my Palm programme the other time; cldnt get it 2 synchronise properly... but after installing and uninstalling a couple of times... the silly programme (or the silly computer I dunno which!!) finally decided to work :) But even though I have uninstalled and installed the hp programme... it still doesnt work... FED UP!!

Wierdest thng is that, only the file manager doesn't work, the rest of the stuff work so I did manage to transfer songs to my phone which means that now my ipod shuffle and my Creative MP3 players has been rendered pretty useless hee and i did manage to send some pics to my phone... i used to send it 2 my palm then infra it to my phone... how dumb is dat rites?? but like i said... i m a totally tech unsavvy person heh!

Anyways was @ Dar's place the other day and decided to try out the camera on my phone. As both of us were not trigger ready that day... the job of being the model fell on 小猪头. The camera is almost like a digi cam... got a lot of functions...

Look a pic of 小猪头 using the "frames" function... taken in 3 seperate shots... I like this v much :)

N these were taking using the "Burst" function... it is like it will take 4 shots consecutively so Darling was like shaking 小猪头 whilst i took e pic hee. Actually got some more functions but models being models... 小猪头 started throwing a tantrum so we gota stop the photoshoot... well until next time then :)

Me got a New Phone :)

This post is in black in "tribute" to my new Sony Ericsson w810i phone which is kinda in matt black in colour... I like :)
Unlike the previous times when I knew I wanted the 6100 or the 6230 v v v badly, I was pretty clueless what phone to get this time round. Wanted to get either a swivel or a flip/slide phone but nothing seemed 2 catch my mind; thot the 6111 was sleek n cutsey when it came out late last year, but it has been out for so lg liao... novelty has worn off. The SonyEricsson w550i is kewl but then bro bear & tibetan nun has that phone (n both own the orange one!!). And then all the new nokia, being 3G n blah were all 2 bulky n thick for me. Added to that, I wasnt particularly too keen to buy another Sony coz of my horrendous experience w the T630 in the past. Ha... m I a confused kid or wat?? :P
So anyways, they were having some promo on the w810i n the 6111 (which incidentally would have been free since Dar was gona change plan...) so decided on the SE coz @ least it is a newer model, so when I trade in next time will have more value... HAHA! :PP
Actually the promo was on since last week but coz of Dar's emergency eye op, couldnt go dwn 2 buy... then when I finally decided to get my butt moving yesterday, I couldn't buy the phone n effect the mobile plan change on his behalf coz we didnt write his mobile number/account number on the letter. Being me... I duly gave the pp @ Starhub Call Centre a scolding. I m just wondering if they are even following up the matter... hmm...
But what goes ard comes ard coz this am i was chided by this tuition lady coz I went to tell this mum who wanted tuition some wrg information... :P


PS: Me just did this personality test fr a friend and I am a "Fruity-Fragrance Type":
You radiate independence and happiness, always immersed in fun-seeking activities, like an innocent child. You always manage to bring life into the party, thus you are indispensible to parties. Although you are cheerful, well-liked by most, others think that it is difficult to be good friends with you, because the impression that you give is one of a comedian. Some thinks that you like to make a fool of others and are dependent on others, so they are reluctant to be close to you. But, you are actually mature and firm. There are few that truly understands you, leaving you with few bosom buddies.

Some parts not v true leh...

Coincidence or Plain Unlucky?

A shocking sight awaited me when I went home this am; walked past Daddy's car and was wondering why the rear windscreen looked "frosted". Intially thought it was due to the early light rain but on closer inspection, to my horrer, the windscreen has cracked/shattered!!! which explains the frosted look!! Daddy came down to take a look and it was the cause of a this little piece of porcelain like thingy... poor Daddy had to rush the car to e workshop and thankfully they were able to rush the repairs by tonite as he needed to use the car.

This is the 2nd time since the car has been bought that such a thing has happened. First, there was this HUGE dent on the top of the car, when Daddy brought to the workshop, they said it was prolly coz a tree branch or something fell on it. But i seriously doubt it coz how come we were e only car that kena and it wld b q amazing that such a big thick branch could drop to create such a dent rites? N now this shattering of windscreen... Dar was commenting that since Daddy bought the car, we already have 2 such cases (not to mention Dad reveresed the car into something...) which is really q unluckly. But on the other hand, I m wonderin... it is too coincidental liao... was it a deliberate act...??

Being Thankful...

How often do we sit back on think on what we have and be thankful for them? I guess for most of us, more often than not, rather that be grateful for our possessions and our well-being, we lament on things that we can't or are not able to achieve.

Was at Serangoon MRT yesterday when I saw this gal w her friend, all dressed up for a party or dinner function of sorts. I was wondering why she was carrying her little black bag so high up when I realised that it was because she did not have a left hand!! Her vitality and vibrancy whilst she was talkin to her friend striked me even as I was thinking whether she lost her left hand due to an accident or whether it was a born defect. I wonder how it feels like to be so young and yet to be short of a limb; to have the whole world ahead of you but yet having to put up with the stares of everyone around you. But i guess it is up to the individual; you can either wallow urself in self-pity or put ur head high and take everything in ur stride like that gal I saw.

I recalled when I was in sec 4 and preparing for my O-Levels (actually it was like a day or 2 before my chem paper) when I woke up 1 day and could not stand having to face the sunlight. I had to shield my face and my draw the curtains in my room whilst I studied. Paranoid, my mum of course broughtme to the dr where I was told I had an ulcer in my eye and had they brought me in a couple of hrs later, I could very well have lost my sight!! Somehow when I heard that @ 16, u seem to think that the adults tend to exaggerate and that it was impossible for me to lose my sight. But thinking back, I realise how scary it was (especially for my parents) and how lucky I was that nothing happened to me. Likewise, v thankful that Dar's retina detachment was noticed in time or it would be highly probable that he have lost his sight. *whew*

And so I juz wana say that I am thankful of the big and small things bestowed on me:
My Dad, who has not only provided a warm shelter, food on the table for me my whole life but loves me in his own way and is ever so concerned abt me;
My sis, though I dare say we r v different, who always buys me stuff when she is back and sends me cards n lovely notes on my bday;
My Darling whom I have so much to thank for... ;
My friends, whom have always stood by me, supported me through my downs and joyed with me through my upsides of life... and whom I know will always be there for me;
My ex-colleagues turned friends - fate let us know each other and m very happy that friendshop has been forged;
My colleagues who help me in my work;
a Job so that I can live comfortably and spend on my whims and endless number of shoes (haha);
the Luxury of having both Dad's & Dar's car to drive when i m too lazy to take public transport;
and for all the other things that I have... the list is endless!! From this day forth, I shall be more thankful and hopefully complain less!!! (let' see how lg this lasts heh heh! :P)

And What are YOU thankful for?

Shifting House

Renovations to Darling's new house were finally completed and they started shifting in for the past 2 weeks. The reno were q a headache coz the contractor cannot listen to instructions properly AND the workmanship wasn't that good; dar had to like ask the guy to change the floor tiles 3 times and countless other stuff that were ignored. It was real frustrating as there are 2 chinese 7th month this year and they wanted to shift in before that. Finally the house was ready!! :))

Good thing that they are only shifting across the road, so they can kinda take their time to shift their stuff over slowly... which is what Dar has been doing. The past 2 weeks have been spent goin to IKEA with him to get his stuff and to shift his stuff fr his old place to the new place. GOSH he has so MAAAANNNYYYYY stuff I was amazed!!!!! I helped him to carry the stuff over and boy were the boxes heavy!!! thnk all the durians and ice cream I have been working were worked off heh! Kept nagging him to throw away what ever that is not needed, as I told him, if he hasnt used them in the past 10 years, he is unlikely to use them in the next 10 years rite??? But he is e sort that likes to keep stuff and so, much to my disappointment, not much stuff was thrown away :( His new room is kinda cramped rite now with all his possessions collected over the years which I don't really like. Of course he claims that he juz wana shift everything over then slowly pack and throw stuff but somehow I don't see that happening hee hee!! Best thing I like about his rm is the super comfy sofa bed he bought; it opens up to a slightly smaller than Queen sized bed. I almost always promptly fall asleep on it when I am @ his place which is why he is q pissed coz I always say I wana help but end up sleeping instead *grinz*
The other thing I like about the house is that it has a TERRIFIC view!! It's like we can even see the audience at National Stadium, although they lk like ants lah! :PPP Hopefully they dun tear dwn the old bus interchange and build high rise buildings in it's place. Me can't wait to catch the NDP fireworks @ his place this year!!

Mc Dessert Attack

Had this in M'sia the other day & thought they were not in Singapore yet...

They are known as Flavour Burst; it's like a normal cone but has this strip of flavouring to it. I had the Mocha one whilst Dar had the something Orange one and it was nice!!!! Not as boring as the good ole Vanilla cone but it costs 3 times as much!!! Only cost twice as much in Johore though :))))

And Mc's milkshakes are BACK!!!

I had such a HUGE craving for them when they were taken off the shelves back so many years ago (anyone knows why??)... thick & creamy... SLUUURP!! Tried their Banana milkshake (think this is really new... can't find it on their website) on Sat n it was YUMMMMMMILICIOUS!!!! A Definite Must Try!!!!! Rated 11 out of 10 hee!

Balancing Acts

Question 1) Too Much? Too Little?
As u all probably know, the front-line tellers would have to balance their cash positions before they can close for the day. And if there's a shortage/excess, we would look through the transactions and see if there are any errors or hopefully the teller can recall which are the possible customers that more/less cash was given to so officers can check with the customers. My branch has been pretty clean of cash shortages/excess for a while but recently it seems we have been "hit"; 3 times in 3 weeks!! The 2 by 小妹妹 was still ok but the other one by aunty teller simply blew up!!!
Ok, honestly, I am not very found of aunty teller (poor Darling has been hearing my endless complaints abt her :P); she is damn kan cheong & always damn eager to run off. She always wants to leave early & thus always chase officers to check her vouchers. Fair enough, I m q mean, when I was cash officer (& thus her direct officer) i q purposely choose not to check her vouchers haha!! but I dun care coz u all dunno how irritating she can be!! That aside, she always don't want to remember what we tell/teach her resulting in her asking the same qn over & over again. She also likes to choose the easy way out and I am really talking about shortcuts here & sometimes I think she don't have common sense & to think she used to be a remiser yet still so lax on banking rules. But the most classic thing is that she LOVES to argue w my boss!! Ok lah, my boss can sometimes be q unreasonable but when my boss tell her what she has done wrong, she can tell my boss, "ya ya, I am a bad girl, sorry, I am a bad girl..." PIANGZ!!! what was that for??? & she has a daughter almost as old as me leh!!! *faints*
So anyways back to my story... (sorry had to let it out & muz give a bit of background abt aunty...) the other day we had spot check for the tellers & aunty teller was short of $50; there were only 95 $10 pieces in the flap for 100 pieces!! My alternate is q good @ catching snake one, then plus my tellers, they all helped to look through the vouchers and also to search the surrounding area (even the dustbin which she apparantly spits in... gross rites???) to see if she has dropped it anywhere. But in the end we realised it is q a futile search as she didn't bundle the money on that day itself but a couple of days ago, which means that she was actually short of cash for the past few days. The thing was that, when my alternate spinned the money and realised that 5 pieces were missing, the 1st thing aunty teller said was "nvm lah I put back the money." and they are not supposed to do that!!!!! So anyways they were all helping to search, even my boss... when tada!! aunty teller comes in to tell her she has found the money!!!! It was like so DUH and obvious she took the money from her bag coz 1) they already searched the surrounding & 2) I was in the toilet when she went in to get the money and she was behaving suspiciously when I came out of the cubicle. Less than 3 minutes after I went back to sit dwn, she say she found the money liao. Some more, when my boss asked her where she found the money, she mumbled and couldn't give my boss a definite answer. Like my boss say lors, "want to be thief also be a clever thief mah!!"
We let the matter rest and my boss was discussing with us whether she should tell higher authority about the matter. Personally I think she should coz 1) aunty teller won't appreciate & 2) to protect herself lors. So on Fri, (incident happened last Wed n aunty was on leave on thurs) my boss spoke to her privately & asked her discreetly if she put in the money. and guess what??? Aunty insisted she did NOT put in the money and she was damn adamant about it lors!! Apparantly she kept looking down and repeating "No I did not, No I did not!" My boss spoke to her 4 a damn lg time ( @ least half an hour to 45 min) before she finally admitted that she put in the money. Her reasons being 1) she didn't want my boss to scold her & 2) coz the other tellers were waiting and she didn't wana hold them back! (I must say the tellers in this branch are v v helpful, whenever 1 of them havehis kinda prob, everyone will rope in to help to lk @ vouchers/txn & help the affected person to recall their tx.) My boss called back on Sat to ask aunty to write a report & then aunty panicked!! She asked for boss' number & apparantly called my boss to give her another chance but my boss was firm that she wrote a report & that her boss the ZM be informed. Aunty then asked what were the possibilities that she will be asked to leave and my boss replied that she really didnt know. Soon after, aunty called back again & told my boss that she has decided to resign, and that on Mon, she will find everything in her drawer & locker. & being the irresponsible person she is, she simply juz did not turn up for work on Mon... that means she is giving a 24-hr resignation!! We were all blur coz she did not mention anything to my alternate on Sat & so we were all clueless that she has resigned!! N she really caused a lot of trouble coz we had to "break open" her box & my poor 小妹妹 had to help her to return her stock & also to count and take over her cash (incidentally her cash was short of 2C haha!) holding everyone back!! I simply do not understand her, I mean if she is so scared of losing face, then why do it in the first place? Which in any case, the other tellers wont like lk down on her or what coz they all have shortages or excesses b4 mah. Also, when my boss ask the 1st time, she should have just admitted it lah... i mean it was damn obvious lors... like that, of course my boss will want to protect herself mah. Some more, if the other tellers know (n there was a new teller who apparantly saw her putting the money in) then next time, they can just happy happy take out or put in the shortage/excess liao mah. Sighz... thought only the younger generation would be capable of such things but she is like a middle-aged woman liao lors.... *shakes head*

Question 2) To go or not to go?
Q pissed w office this week... haiz actually it is my usual gripe of always being the one being called for overidding. I don't understand why, no matter which position I sit, this downstairs teller would always call me and I m not even her direct officer lors!!! It is worse when there are only 3 officers working; somehow tellers don't like to ask my boss to overide (actually she also wierd one, she tell the tellers not to call her unless officer bz... we keep overidding we dun hafta do our thngs liao lors!! n then she can happily tok on phone... mad!) n then my other officer may sometimes take v lg to go out so in the end who do they call... ME LORS!!! Dar tells me then in that case don't go out so fast lors, sometimes i also think that way but then i will thnk that they are the ones facing customers & they can't do anything whilst waiting for us then it will be v awkward for them also mah. but sighz... then WHO TRIES TO UNDERSTAND MY POSITION??? sometimes really doing things mah n got many thngs to do mah. And we have upstairs dwnstairs somemore, i can go dwnstairs n overide, come up, haven't even sit dwn then gota go n do overidding liao. And not that I thnk i m v great or what by always doing overidding for them, but sometimes I feel the tellers don't appreciate one lors; like when they can tell that I m bz already or when there are already many things in my pigeon hole, they can pile even more things on top one lors. Or if I m doing cash @ bz periods, they will ask me to check stock (or vouchers like silly aunty mentioned above) for them. Eh u all fin liao n wana end early, i also wana go off early mah :( don't quickly go n do overidding, cx gota wait, get impatient then complain or vent anger on teller then teller gets pissed or worse we get complaint letter, or boss will ask why we take so lg 2 go out; as her phrase goes "cx waiting u know, how can u make cx wait??" but if go then i v buay song, then sometimes i will show grouchy face to my teller... how now brown cow? anyone has a solution???

& the Million Dollar Question... More Money or More Time for Self?
Also thinking whether I wana take up a new tuition kid... still trying to fig out the place... not v far but machiam q diff 2 go there. Wonder if I can cope what w work n all and also if i m willing to sacrifice the time which can be used 2 rest & relax ; meet up w frenz; & spending more time w Dar (hmm serious consideration :PP) As it is, 1 of my kids keep changing time one, don't have fixed timing then I don't like but apparantly her CCA teacher always add/cancels CCA one... dunno true or nots... n i still havent ask my other student if she wana continue... 2 lazeee 2 call n she also v lazee 2 call me haha! oh well... i have until 2nite 2 give an answer... shall take a nap n ponder over it... zzzzzzz

HAPPEE 1 YEAR to me!!!

How time flies... last year today was my 1st day in UOB! So fast and it is 1 year already!! Remember last year on this day, went to sign contract, had lunch w my new found friend then went to my training branch @ King George's branch.

3 months there and I was posted permanently to my present North Bridge Branch. Have I learnt a lot? Well, learnt quite a bit about back office operations but still feel that there is much for me to learn; still a lot of things gota ask my colleagues for help or to ask various departments for help. What I really hate is customers always calling and asking about this & that, alamak there is the HOTLINE mah :PPPPPP (though I must admit it is pretty hard to call through... but then again we also don't have any special number to call me!! DUH!!)

But haiz... kinda feel like leaving liao, tired of facing silly customers and picking up nonsense calls but yet I am just toooooo comfy in my present branch, no form of motivation to leave... muz really decide what to do soon... :P

JJ RAWKS!!!

Went to JJ's concert last nite and I must say that I pretty much enjoyed myself! He was good!!! :)) And we were pretty near the stage, well not all that near but not soooo far until he is just like a little ant and then I would have to concentrate more on the projector than on him, so well worth my $110. Havent been to concerts in eons... hmm... went to my 1st one by Jacky Cheung (tis e one he lost his voice then we had a make up of e concert... kewl!) when I was 15 & then the Take That one when I was in JC (& which I almost fainted coz we bought the standing tickets and I almost got crushed n suffocated haha!) then no more till this.
Pre-Concert had this famous dancing instructor from Taiwan (dun ask me wat's his name!!) teaching the audience some actions to be used during 1 of JJ's songs subsequently. It was q farnee but I didnt follow lah coz felt kinda stupid hee hee. Then before JJ came on stage, they showed this video clip like in the year 3006 and there was no music & this little kid happened to find this CD which brought him back to year 2006 and the kida kinda morphed into JJ. Ok... cant say I really understand what it mean but after that JJ came out on stage & the crowd like went wild!! Started off with 2 quick songs which showed his nifty dance steps before slowing down to 翅膀 from his 1st album. But e corny thing was, they literally showed this pair of wings on the screen and I soooo wanted to burst out laughing!!! :P
Didn't really enjoy his fast songs coz for 1, I am not too familiar with them and for another, somehow the music was way way way too loud during the fast songs thereby drowning out his voice. But I totally enjoyed when he sang the slower songs especially 1 of my fave 简简单单which I have as my ringtone *smiles* I recorded the song but somehow the effect not that good leh. Was thnking I shd have brought a recorder to tape up the whole concert man hee hee!!
He had 2 special guests, 金沙 who sad to say, can't sing & who incidentally is the Jean Yip gal wor... never knew that!! & 阿杜 whom JJ calls his 恩人 as he was the one who kinda intro JJ to the entertainment world when JJ first came out. What I didnt expect was the easy camaderie between the 2 of them; they r like pretty different leh but it is heartwarming to see local artistes standing by each other :)
There were also 2 special segments; 1 where he sang songs which he wrote for other pp and 2 where he sang songs by pp who has influenced him in his music whilst growing up. For the 1st session, he sang 4 songs, 2 of which I don't recognise, the other 2 being 当你 & 记得 which is 1 of my fave Ah Mei's songs!!! & he was v touched when the audience sang with him on these 2 songs!!! It was AMAZING!!! As for the 2nd segment, he sang 黑色幽默 by Jay Chou & 唯一 by Lee Hon which I was q surprised coz I thought he would sing songs by more "established" artistes like Jacky Cheung & not the new generation of singers... but I guess it is the R&B kinda music that attracted him lah. But the person that influenced him the most was Michael Jackson & he sang "Heal the World".
The concert ended with his encore rendition of 曹操，my current fave 只对你说 & 江南 fr his 2nd album. He actually broke dwn whilst singing 只对你说 then my friend was asking, why is he crying?? haha :PP
All in all, me thnks JJ is a v talented singer/songwriter. Like most of the songs that he has written save maybe for the fast ones but then again I am a sentimental gal @ heart hee hee. Hope he will continue to write & sing more nice songs for us to enjoy!!! :)

Dewdrop's Wedding Dinner

It was Dewdrop's wedding dinner last Friday nite (16th June 2005), held @ Marina Mandarin. Intially thot I could go there earlier (as I have been knocking off ard 530 the past couple of days) but it is always when u want something that you can't get; so suay, my teller's cash couldn't balance and by the time I could get away, it was already 630. Took a cab and there was a jam... so dao mei. Dewdrop was waiting for me in her suite as the makeup artiste wanted me to finish my makeup & hairdo before helping Dewdrop changed into her gown. Felt so bad that she had to wait for me :(( anyway here's a pic of us in the bridal suite before going down with her to meet the guests:

Aint's she pretty? & the hairstylist did her hair up in like buns with little white ribbons pinned on... v v sweet & elegant. Here's one taken before we went in:

The videographer did a really good montage of the customary on 11th; he knew what he wanted us to say so that everything would blend in nicely. Hope I will get to see the whole thing though hee hee!! & the couple engaged this photographer who would take pics n on the spot give u the pics in nice little cards!! Way kewl!! So of course we went around asking him to help us take pics haha!! He took 1 of me when I was giving a speech on behalf of the Jie Meis. My mouth was open wor!!! I realised that I might have talked too fast but it was a gd experience lah!! hee hee!! Here's one of the table with the couple:

This was a dinner I really enjoyed, in part coz I get to meet up w my ex colleagues fr PA & we had a great time catching up but mostly coz it is the marriage of a dear dear fren of mine and I felt involved in the whole wedding thingy. Congrats again!!!

Dewdrop: U know, actually there was very many other things I wanted to mention in my speech but it wouldn't have flowed!! haha!!! Anyways the jist of it was there lah... :)) Hope u & Ken 恩恩爱爱foreva!! :)

To Give or Not to Give

Sometime ago, there was this article cautioning pp about the "monks" (or something cant remember...) who were going around claiming they were from Thailand and asking people from donations as some of these pp are fraud. That made me kinda wary of such pp even though they were dressed in robes but their numbers seem to have dwindled since then.

On my way to work last Fri, I was walking towards my office @ Bras Basah Complex when I was kinda approached by this monk (oh well he was dressed in robes) who gave me this card with a pic of the Goddess of Mercy on it. I say "kinda" coz he appeared to come out of nowhere (i thnk he was behind a pillar) and just passed me the card. Caught unaware and thinking it was harmless, I took the card. He then pulled out this piece of paper which was a sort of donation card, where pp wrote their name, what they wish for and an amount of money was written down. I was quite shocked when I saw the paper as the amounts written were not small!! The lowest being $50 and the highest was a couple of hundred dollars. So anyway I wrote my name and he did a little prayer for me and then the monk asked me for a donation. I took out my wallet and gave him $10, BUT he, on seeing that I have a $50 note in my wallet asked me to donate more citing that other pp donated like $100 plus. When I said that I didn't have enough money, I noticed that he kept eyeing my $50 and proceeded to tell me that the lowest donation was $50!! I insisted that I didnt have enough money and he was still v persistant... asking me to donate $30 instead. When I again told him I have no money, he just took my $10 and left. I was like stunned!!!! Are monks supposed to solicit for funds in the first place?? Even so, he is not supposed to dictate how much I should donate isnt it?? Like what Dar said when I told him, all donations should be 随意 mah.

I have nothing against religious organisations soliciting for funds, but these kinda black sheep will only create a bad impression for other people; that is, IF he is a genuine monk in the first place. I am thnking that he just writes in the amounts himself so as to make others feel bad by donating so little; in the end when he walked off, I didn't even have the chance to write down the figure. I am now afraid that, he will say bad chants to me as he have my name... How now brown cow??

Dedicated... to DewDrop...

Yesterday's was DewDrops' customary and I was honoured to be 1 of her 'Jie Mei's :) My first time so was pretty excited about it! Went w her to do our nails on Thursday night & went to do hair treatment on Friday night so that I will have nice straight hair on Sat. Haiz... I miss having nice straight hair...

Reached her house @ ard 740am in the am after buying ice for 1 of our haggling games. Also (thankfully... being the scatterbrain that I am) remembered to buy/bring the sour plums bought for the 酸，甜，苦，辣 'segment'. She was already nicely dressed & made up when we reached... so pretty!! We went about getting ready for the games and also took many pics w the lovely lovely bride. As expected, she was v excited and nervous about the whole thing and I told her that she would have to try to control her tears later or her makeup will run heh!!

So anyways, the guys reached about 9am (i thnk!) after having breakfast wor!! And her hubby was made to shout up from the carpark that he loved her. We made him do it like 3 times, by which many people fr the neighbouring blocks were looking out of the window!! But haggling didn't go quite well leh... our 1st red packet only had $8.88 wor!! Alamak!! Not even enough to buy breakfast??? :PPPPP Anyhow, we did have loads of fun before finally opening the door for the groom :) Then it was the tea ceremony & more tea ceremony (& food!!) before we went back to the couple's house for a final run through for the dinner next Fri.

Was tired after the long day but felt really happy for DewDrop. She is a very sweet, responsible and patient gal whom friends can definitely count on. Have known her for almost 5 years now; had our share of gripes, grievances & gossip about our colleagues and pp from our Division; had our share of working together on divisional projects that only brought us closer; had our share of many sushi meals with our cohort mates; had our share of icqing during work to kill our bordedom; had our share of seeking each other for help for constituency projects and the list is endless. Through it all, I have no complaints about this gal; she just takes everything in her stride and looks at everything in a positive light. She is 1 of the people that I am blessed to have known in PA and though we are in different organisations now (conincidentally, our offices r q near each other...) I know this friendship will remain for a long long time to come. Happy for her that she will be embarking on a new journey of life together with someone who treasures and loves her and whom I can tell will look after her well... Congrats my friend!! Have a blissful marriage and hope to hear little feet running around your house soon!!

My Piggies

Yipeeee!!! Finally managed to upload the pics!!!!
Here's 猪头 with little twin brothers 猪仔 & 猪仔仔. That's e "ee ee" 猪仔 on the left...


& Here they are after their bath!!! SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUPER PINK HOR??? 猪仔 & 猪仔仔 look alike again!! (oh well almost lah... 猪仔仔 is fatter heh!)

Close up of my most beloved 猪仔... so clean now hor... as compared to the 1st pic :) I love my piggies!!!! Especially the BIGGGESSSTT one of them all heh heh! *grinz*

Lost... & Found

1) Scrungys
Lost my pink scrungy the other day when we went M'sia... I thought I dropped it in Dar's car but can't find it @ all!! Then ystd I dropped my new good light blue scrungy. So pissed w myself coz those were the 2 good scrungies that I have... now I am left w my dirty blue scrungy which is loose and I cant tie my hair properly with it! Where can I find nice cheap scrungys??

2) Chain
Went for facial ystd & had to take off my chain. Being lazee... I didnt bother to put the chain into my many pouches but instead just dropped it into my bag. Whilst @ Parkway after facial, decided to put on the chain but again, couldn't find it in my bag @ all!! So I had to walk back to the shop but it wasn't on the ledge where I put my bag. Was feeling q upset for being careless when the gal called me back!! The chain was on the chair!!! YIPEEE!! :))

3) Wallet
A distressed Dar called me ystd (like a total of 8 times before I finally picked up the phone haha!) coz he lost his wallet!! He was tryin to recall if he left @ my hse but I was pretty sure he didn't. He went back to office to search but couldnt find it even after tracing his steps. That put him in a really grouchy mood! Went to report loss of IC but was told to wait a few days and see if anyone returns the wallet. Personally I thought no one would return it or if anyone intended to, they would have called him coz his namecard was inside his wallet. Asked him to check w the reception this morning n guess what? Received a text fr him this afternoon that said "Babee, I found my wallet!! The coffee shop uncle kept it!" Can really feel his happiness man!! haha!! Apparently he left it on the table after buying his drinks ystd... & uncle didnt call him coz they didn't wana open the wallet heh!! Anyways teach him a lesson coz he's always carrying his stuff in his hands n placing them like everywhr! :PP

4) Job
Brother Bear is gona lose his job... as he has found a new job!! Mighty Mighty happy for him! Have always thought he was deemed for better stuff than his present job. Hope all the other pp in my cohort, esp MangoJo & Pearl Jie will also leave for greener pastures soon!
(N.B: Da Xiong: there I mentioned u... satisfied? :PP)

5) Piggies gone a bathing
I have been having rashes the past few wks/months... which got really bad 1 day I had to go see Dr and take MC. The Dr say I am allergic to dust and suggested that I move out of my hse!! I mean... DUH!! like she wana buy a new apartment for me?!?! Anyways... Daddy & Dar attributed my allergy to all the dust trapped in my stuff toys so I was forced to wash them. I dunno what my maid used but my piggies came out like new!! Ok 猪头 & 猪仔仔 were not very dirty to begin with so u cant really tell the difference but 猪仔 came out much pinkier & somewhat fatter!!! Thus I have lost my "ee4-ee4" (translate dirty) 猪仔& found a fatter & pinkier one & he has also lost his smell; now smell like detergent wor :(( Give me back my "ee-ee" 猪仔!!!
(P.S. wanted to post the pics so u all can tell the diff but 4 some strange reason the pics dun come out... can someone enlighten me pls?? :P)

Oh and I can buy new hp in a couple of days time... any suggestions???

Teamwork

n. Cooperative effort by the members of a group or team to achieve a common goal.

As I mentioned in my earlier post; have been getting bad vibes abt my boss of late. Seriously wonder if she is undergoin menopause or something as she had been rather grouchy and it makes the whole atmosphere in the office so tense!! Yeah I may b a "complain queen" but most of my colleagues feel the same way too, so the prob cant lie w me rites? :PP

Actually she used to dote on me q a bit until... hmm... can't really recall when. Think partly due to this Service Quality Intiative which I had to do for the branch (& which I never really follow up) and this rather grave mistake I made (which wasn't entirely my fault). For the SQI, I had to design the survey form for my tellers for them to give customers so as to track certain key indicators. Of course, my tellers are all too "shy" to give customers so I thnk she is q pissed that I am not really making an effort and there would be a meeting w her boss soon to give an update on the project and so she is worried that our project will seem lousy in front of others. In any case, being a marketing student, I think I shall "smoke" my way through haha! What made ME kinda pissed was that intially she was like, "Oh if she wants to continue, then you can just use the same thing but use other indicators...", then now she is like, "I told you already it won't work...they are not proactive enough to give the forms to customers..." DUH!! As for the 2nd case, to cut the long story short, I "hopped" this case (cx wanted to withdraw FD and merge w another FD) from the ex-BM and didnt proceed to check properly so the FD got rolled over and to withdraw it there will be a cost which had to be approved by someone else who incidentally didnt really wana waive off the charge. But anyway, she kept saying that i was v stupid to hop on the case n blah... to me, she wasn't really solving the prob and like what the present BM said, now wasn't the time to pinpoint the blame on anyone!! So I guess she was pissed that she had to settle the case. Thing is, I am not saying it is not my fault and from this, I will learn to be more cautious next time, but why must she keep saying I am stupid/gong?? I mean everyone make mistakes mah! :(

Then there's v v v little teamwork in the office and it shows! Overiding of txns being another issue, but for other matters, why must things be segregated so clearly as to who should do what? (But I must admit, I always tend to conveniently ignore faxes haha :PP) I mean, if everyone help out everyone else, everyone gets to finish earlier then we can all go back earlier isnt it? Just a couple of days ago, my boss asked 1 of my tellers why her vouchers havent been checked for the whole day by the other officer who is "in charge of" that particular teller that day. Well, as officers we each have our own duties and jobscope and sometimes it is just v diff to find time to check vouchers if, that particular day there are many overidding txns or many phonecalls or nasty customers or diff cases for that matter. Also, some of my tellers are "scared" to ask my boss out for overidding such that they are willing to walk all the way to the other side to ask the other officer to come out for overidding. Officer may get pissed coz the teller is not under her jurisdiction and teller will get pissed coz officer will ask why ask her to overide!! So it becomes a cycle!!! Actually I do tell my tellers to ask my boss to overide coz it is like so "far away" n like i said we have our own stuff to do mah. So I also dunno how to solve this prob haha!

So yeah, have kinda lost favour w my boss... but she will be on leave next week and the whole atmostphere in office will be much lighter! YIPEEE!! There's really a 180 degree change in office attitudes n feelings when she is not around; everyone tends to be more relaxed and jovial... the kinda working environment i wana be in :)) So it'll be a happy 1 week (coz there's relief officer some more so I can zuo bo haha!) before my cash officer goes on 1.5 wk leave n that will be a TOTALLY miserable time!! SOOOO not lookin forward to it!!!