Wednesday, 27 June 2007

In the toilet of Marina Square...

Yesterday after crashing in for the DnD PC meeting, me and a group of friends popped over to Yoshinoya for dinner. Naturally after a few hours in an air-conditioned place my bladder was going all jello, so off the to toilet I went. Went in and queued for a cubicle, then I saw a filipino lady sitting by the side in the toilet. She seems in pain but still fine and her friend was with her, so I ignored it and went to finish off my business.

When I came out the toilet was empty other than the lady I previously saw who was in pain. While I washed my hands I observed her through the mirror in front and saw that she had sat herself on the floor, bent over and was moaning in pain. So I stayed with her and rubbed her down while she waited for her friend to return with some water to ease the pain. But when her friend returned with the water she didn't feel any better and kept saying she felt like fainting and dying.

Through my conversation with her, I was led to believe it was menstrual pain so I suggested to her friend to get her some painkillers first. I stayed with her, but in my mind I knew my dear will be worrying about why I was away for so long and probably searching for me. I wanted to leave for a while to inform my dear, but the lady started vomitting and was sprawling on the floor from the pain. Her friend then came back with the painkillers and medicated oil. I then found out she had a mobile and called 995 for an ambulance to come for her, as by this time it seems more like she had food poisoning and was incapable of moving anywhere without the help of trained paramedics. Initially I wanted to help her out but there was only 2 of us and she was of pretty big build.

But of course I still remembered my worried darling so I quickly went back to inform them. True enough he had asked YY and Ben to accompany him to look for me in the toilets. But sadly they looked in the wrong toilets "P. Jokes aside, luckily her friend had looked for some security staff to assist when she went out to get the painkillers. So shortly after I went back with my darling, they came and took over the matter. I made sure she was gonna be taken care off and I return back to Yoshi with my worried-sick dear.

Looking back at it, I was so nervous making that 995 call that I couldn't even describe the location properly. So dumb. Felt terrible messing up everyone's dinner from my sudden disappearance. I was also told to carry my mobile next time even to the toilet "p and yup it would have solved the matter much faster if I had my mobile and called sooner. So dumb dumb, but it did make my day more interesting than usual.

Friday, 22 June 2007

In the clouds.

Last day of work today at BroadcastAsia2007. Pretty fun all this while there. Colleagues were great and easy to get along with (other than a couple that luckily I don't have to deal with much). Learnt some things about working from them as well, about job-hopping, PR and staying out of the shooting range.

Always liked being at such shows 'cause I get to see all kinds of people from all over, especially the Europeans (in particular the French and Italians ;P). Very friendly people who speak to you on equal standing regardless of the age or background differences. Was working at the organisers' office and had to tend to exhibitors and visitors with queries and requests (of course complaints too). Some were very thankful for the help we provided, while some just took for granted good service was part of what they are entitled to as the customer. All I hoped for was just a smile when we delivered what they asked of us.

Other irritating sights were the inconsiderate temp staff that were present during show days. The privilege was given to them to have access to the pantry, but they exploited it by literally pillaging the stocks in the fridge. They being the temp staff who were stationed just outside the office, for shuttle service and entrance ushers. Coming in at such frequent intervals for breaks and messing up the place. I was particularly irritated 'cause I was the one re-stocking the fridge! So after Day 1, my perm staff colleagues said to leave it empty until after lunchtime. Unfortunately, the stock that was to last 4 days were out in 2.5 days. It's fine for me and another temp in the office who were surviving fine off mineral water from the dispenser, but sad for the perm staff there. Some people just can't exercise self-restraint and consideration for others. Disappointed.

On top of that there was another eye sore to the show days. This is going to sound so evil but I've absolute support from my colleagues in the office on this matter. Of those walking in frequently to "patronise" the pantry was 2 ladies. They weren't exactly of very likeable personalities, a bit stuck up and ah-lian so to speak. They weren't exactly of very attractive figure as well, a bit on the full side to put it gently across. If you are asking if I've a problem with over-sized people, the answer is no. The problem I had was they were perpetually in mini-skirts, that wasn't exactly flattering to their figures. As my male colleague like to put it, "Your leg is so FAT, can you don't wear mini-skirts?" Coupled with the action of imitating the actual circumference of their thighs. Pure evil, I say.

Enough on the unhappy moments since there were much more happy ones to remember. Although BCA wasn't as lively as CMMA, we still had our share of action. Just yesterday drama occurred just at the door of the organisers' office. One of the catering staff while transporting some food, tipped his trolley and a canister of laksa toppled from it and splashed over in front of one of the booths. It would have been lucky if no one was hurt from it, but unluckily there were a bunch of very humiliated exhibitors. In the action of spilling the laksa, it splashed very badly (saying "very" is probably an understatment) onto the booth. Everyone that was sitting inside the booth was hit. I hadn't seen exactly how bad everyone was hit, but it was described to me by my colleague. The lady that came in to notify (I wouldn't say complain, since I felt in her position she was rather calm already) us, smelled like laksa. Her boss was half covered in it too. The damage was so large it hit the fascia board that was at least 2 to 2.5m tall. The manager were quickly activated to pacify the exhibitors and operations quickly acted to it by re-carpetting the stained area and sending them back and placing a security for their booth while they were away. After all that action when I walked past the rest of the day I could still distinctly smell the fishy odour from the booth. Eww...

Apart from the drama, I had my share of eye candy, especially from the Italian pavilion. I'll probably would have more if I could venture over to the French pavilion but that was too far of a detour to take, I wouldn't be able to use travelling from office to the registration area as an excuse. Too bad it's over already, but I'll console myself with the fact that they are probably too old or residing too far from Singapore for me. Was praised too to bring it up another level. Wasn't exactly from my most desired parties but it's still a compliment after all. On my way back to the office from the registration area, I walked past a man, probably African American, who gave me a smile so I reciprocated with one too. He then slowed down and told me, "I've been noticing you the last few days and just wannna tell you, 'You look very pretty'." I was like wow, so with the slight delight on my face, I thanked him for it. Definitely boosted my ego there, especially after the morale blow from seeing my friend modelling at the show while I hid away as an office girl earning peanuts. Then I thought Asians are very stingy with compliments, while Europeans, American and basically the rest of them are more open with it. Smiles and niceties are a plenty with them, which made sense since it makes people happy and it costs absolutely nothing to give. I should learn to practise it more, it'll probably make my working life much easier this way too in future. So now I'm still in the clouds with the compliment (since I don't really get them) and hopefully it'll last me for a while till my pay come and brings up my mood again.

Tuesday, 19 June 2007

Amazing!

Got this clip from my darling, who got it from her sister off YouTube. Simply amazing! You should see how dumbfounded Simon Cowell was. And I agree with my darling MediaCorp should buy the rights to this series and air it here. It'll be an instant hit with such talents.

Aspiring opera singer with an completely ordinary job. Totally taken by his vocal powers. For me who don't understand opera very well, I can still tell he's good and he'll make it far with chance.


Lovable little girl with a dream to perform (and 2 missing front teeth!). Instant smile to the foul-mooded Simon. Excellent pitch, slightly off tempo, but still marvellously adorable! Even Simon couldn't stand it! She was so innocent and totally oblivious to how great her performance was!


Heart-warming story behind it all. The performance was so alive as in literally. The baton was like flying itself! Who could thought baton twirling could be such entertaining. And granny was so excited! Go Granny!


Pure entertainment with great confidence. And guess what he's just a kid!


Never really liked "Unchained Melody" but this boy changed my view. It's the singing and the clarity of it all. See the grin on dad's face! Whack it boy!


Dancing in your bedroom?! What the hell this guys should be out performing long ago! Crap! I thought I'd never like break-dancing but his was so damn smooth! Crap!

Friday, 15 June 2007

Disgruntled

The anger didn't hit until I repeatedly heard the complaints and displeasure from those around me. This new system is throwing everyone off their rockers. Initially the fact that most of us weren't granted a room in the first round was an easily accepted fact that the incoming batch of female freshies were from the dragon year. Dragon year = baby boom, an easy enough equation to understand. 80% for the freshies?! Ridiculous. The argument being that if you are going to fill up the halls with 80% freshies who's gonna be running and organising the events in hall? The freshies can't do that, as their names states they are fresh into hall, they need guidance.

The first event that is going ka-boom is our very much-awaited yearly event FOC. But I guess this year it's gonna be more of a headache than previously. For one you've got a shortage of people, especially when you get people pulling out of the committees knowing that they can't get a room next year. Why do I have to help out when I'm already out of hall? So here on one hand you probably will have more freshies and on the other you already for a fact know you'll have less seniors. How? Luckily you have the people that are willing to help even though they are no longer residents. Then come the next problem: since they aren't residents they won't have rooms, so where do we accommodate them? We happily suggest function hall and function room, saying they could bring sleeping bags and camp a week there. So every morning these seniors will scramble awake to pack away their barang barang, carry it away to wherever will accommodate their stuff and stay enthusiatic while running the games for the freshies who were comfortably sleeping on proper mattresses. The irony of it all. Seniors do the shit jobs and at the end of the hall get treated like dirt and thrown out of the hall. No wonder people choose to pull out of hall.

Subsequently you have committees run by young, inexperienced residents and then they question Why are they doing things this and that way? Well, for your information, there's only a limited number of seniors available to guide them. Most of which who COULD HAVE helped are heartlessly denied a place back to build on what they've started. Some argue that we need to move on and let the younger batch continue what we left behind, but to so abruptly and suddenly cut us off is unreasonable. I'm not talking about just current year 3s but also a number of year 2s.

In some of the year 3s I've seen people slog their hearts out for the hall, jeopardising even their own studies. And just because they were away for the last half a year for attachment and exchange, doesn't mean they've forgotten the hall they've stayed in for 2.5 years. Just as we were returning, we find ourselves locked out and barred. Whoever locked the gates know it themselves, feigning ignorance to the scarifices made for the hall previously. It makes no sense is deciding a person's worth by just 1 year's contribution. It's just not fair.

The lack of appreciation for the seniors inevitably will lead to the diminishing numbers of active alumni in the future. If that's the risk they are willing to take, then I can only wish them all the best.

Talking about this makes my blood totally boil. Sincerely I wish the next JCRC, FOC, DnD and ad-hoc committees good luck. You'll need LOTS of it to work things out.

Tuesday, 12 June 2007

A lesson learnt.

Never understood the reason why people could be so magnanimous and selfless. Then today I was struck right in the head with the answer.

It doesn't hurt to think of others first or help them. You wouldn't lose a piece of flesh from giving a bit of your time and energy. So what if you feel tired and scarificed your enjoyment time after it all, 'cause at the end of it all you'll feel good from being selfless and hopefully be appreciated. Even if not, it's not about receiving, it's about giving. I believe in karma, so it made sense to me.

Put others in front of yourself. Don't keep thinking "it doesn't benefit me, so I'm not bothered". I reflected upon my previous doings, my style of working, and I realised how selfish I was. I didn't back-stab, betray or do anything utterly despicable, but neither did I spend the extra effort to see if I could help others, especially when it was in my convenience. I felt so ashamed of myself. To say I was brought up to be competitive is just another excuse I gave myself. I don't want to be looked down upon, but it gives me no reason too. I'm a disgrace.

So here I resolve to change that. Constantly remind myself that there's a part of me I can give to others. And good karma will always return to those that deserve it.

Photos on my last day.

Here's some well-taken photos from the last day of IA. Came a tad bit late but well better than never...

My desk at the secluded end of the office, which is furthest spot from the director's office and the managers' cubicle *hehehe*. Often the gathering spot for ha-la-ing especially during the report writing period and the last 2 weeks. The ideal spot for chicken chasing.

Our dear friend Uncle Khai aka Buaya King at SBS. Nonsense but fun to have around. That's us of 3 clobbering him with the molding room tools. In case it isn't clear, I'm with a spanner, Princess's with a brush and Xian's with a hammer. Cool!

Me with my dorky, irritating boss. Yeah I can finally openly complain about him, 'cause IA's officially over! Used to complain about him during breaks and on the way home. Thanks girls for the listening ears!

Bye bye to Lynn's Blu-Blu, my self-proclaimed cousin of BuBu. BuBu is the exact monkey my boyfriend has. Looks totally adorable when u stick his thumb in its mouth!

Xian and me remembering the door which I dreaded going through every morning at 745. I guess most of the time it's just morning blues and lack of sleep.

The 3 of us in uniform at the skyway. The door leads to a flight of stairs somehow only the managers climb, we hardly ever saw anyone else taking it unless they were in a very bad rush. It is also the setting of the "gorilla" slipping onto its butt on a rainy day, a private joke between us girls. Heehee.

Our safety boots which ensure that we kept our toes at work. The one on the right with paste is Xian's (yup, the shiny part isn't just reflection from the camera), the cleanest one is Princess's illegal internal boots and mine at the bottom is the most dented and scratched from kicking the machines.

Our BEFORE photo in the ug** uniform which made us look more "mature". Too bad we had to return them, if not we could have used them to pretend to be part-time sales promoters. *EviL*

Our AFTER photo, the young looking us. Made Princess change too to accommodate to us, even though it wasn't her last day. "P Bye bye to SBS for there on!

Saturday, 9 June 2007

Blind as a bat

Lost my specs this afternoon at Sentosa, and now I'm literally blur as sotong when it comes to noticing things. Dropped it on the beach tram. Probably flew out of my bag when the tram jerked and my bag fell over. Felt so insecured the whole day being unable to see clearly. The feeling of being unable to be in control is so terrible, even now as I'm typing this it's basically mainly based on feeling unless I really squint at the screen. While I was without my clear vision, had a couple of weird moments, like being unable to read the menus at the food court, and almost walking into the gents instead of the ladies. As I almost walked in, an uncle behind was like staring at why I was walking the same direction as him. So crap. So embarrassing.

But at least I got a good news when I went to make a replacement. My short-sighted degree went down for both eyes, especially for the left. I was told that the degree is stabilising, but the lazy eye is still there. Blessing in disguise, I guess. As my usual style I picked a plastic and dull red frame, but this time round the frame was a little more classy and mature as compared to the last.

Getting them tomorrow hope it'll be a good change. In the meantime I'll feel my way around and put my contacts into good use.

Last day of IA

Surprisingly relieved from it all. Not really bogged down with those I-miss-everyone and I'm-so-relunctant-to-leave feelings. Feels kind of heartless though. I'm not totally devoid of feelings, but I guess I prefer my student life still. The flexibility of time and the existence of school holidays.

I do miss the people there, with their jokes and nonsense. Definitely not the work there, but the diverse character of people there. Also my ha-la partners, who were either by nature evil like me or were brought to the dark side over the 5 months. Haha! Numerous issues and cursing, with senseless topics during the totally bored times after the grading.

Tonight I'll take a good night's rest after so many nights of gift sourcing and preparations. Hope the effort pays off, as in they truly appreciate the gifts. As for me, I'll appreciate if HR doesn't screw up my last pay-check or else... *eViL gRin*