Be appreciative

Thank you...thank you...thank you...

Does saying 'thank you' means that you appreciate someone? Especially s/he had helped you?

You know...sometimes we said too much of something, it becomes a routine, just out from our mouth, but it does not mean that we meant what we said. After sometime, hearing too much of such words, like 'thank you' from people, makes you feel that they don't mean it, it's not really from the heart, but just saying it for the sake of saying it.

The other word people commonly like to say in this part of the world is 'sorry', sounds like 'sorry' or an apology, but really, do people mean what they say?

She is back...

Oh yes, she is back today. Her leaves ended last Thursday, but she took a day of medical leave for Friday, she had sms-ed me saying that she had diarrhoea on the day (Thursday) she reached here.

I had tried to contact her via her hp no. on Friday and Saturday, but couldn't get through. She finally sms-ed me on Sunday's afternoon, saying she just got her new SIM card, humm...I thought she had just changed a new one recently???

I have not seen her this morning at office, but, I heard she came in around 9+am, early, huh?

She is coming back soon...

Well...for almost a month away from office, she finally coming back in 6 days time!

I wonder how she would have changed after coming back from her hometown. I noticed that after coming back from her past overseas trips she kind of behaving differently.

We have recently moved our office to another floor of the same building, our desk spaces are now smaller, and quite squeeze. She has been allocated a desk space next to the other Sys admin, hope that she will like it.

How is she?

Heard about the bombing at Yangon near Kandawgyi Lake in the military-ruled country's commercial hub where crowds had gathered to celebrate the Buddhist new year (Thingyan/Water Festival, 13 to 16-Apr)  on 15-Apr.

I wonder how is she, I tried to call her but couldn't get through her Hp. She told me that she will be bring her mum to a hospital in Yangon for medical treatment, so not sure whether she was affected. Hopefully, she is alright and not harmed.

Time is so slow moving this week, she is only away for less than a week, and I'm missing her so much. Where is she now??

She goes away

Starting today, she has gone on leaves, back to her home country in Myanmar. She said she will need to take care of her mum who is undergoing a surgery in Yangon. So, she took all of the 6 days of Family Child care leave days, plus 11 days annual leaves. She will only be back on 7-May, that's for almost 4 weeks!

Heard from the PM, some of the team members were making snide comments with her taking such a long leaves, and apparently she (PM) was not happy with it (i.e. the comments)...why some people acted in that way? What's wrong for a her to take leaves to visit her parents overseas? Then, I realised that it's all "office politics", whoevers survive it,  lives! I just can't be bother at the moment, busy with other things.

Oh yah...I missed her, wonder what is she doing now?? 4 weeks more to wait...my gosh...*sigh*.

Universal Studio Singapore

Two days back, my company invited us to an USS night out event (7pm to 11pm). Each of us paid only $20, was $25, but reduced due to the closure of the BSG rides.

Well, I would say it was a 'pro-family' event, because you see lots of parents with their kids and families. Not all the attractions and rides were available, but the food court, some restaurants and food stalls were open. For the rides, only the Mummy Revenge (indoor) and Shrek (outdoors) were available. The other fun attraction is the Shrek 4-D show, where you have to wear 3-D glasses to watch it, the chairs rocked and water splashed at you, fun eh...

Try the Shrek ride for warm up before going for Mummy and the rest. The Shrek roller coaster ride is fast, but no stops like the Mummy ride. For the Mummy ride (~2 minutes), it accelerates, stops, reverses, bang walls (be warned of internal body injuries!),  fast speed turn left and right (no upside down or twists)...SCREAM!!! HAHA...

Half a candle

Next time you want to celebrate birthday for your girlfriend, try this...

Buy a small cake, with just 1 small candle. This 1 small candle symbolises 1 year old, right?

Break the candle into half, put it on the cake, and lit it up.

If your gal ask you why only 1 small candle and it's broken into half? Say this...

"1 small candle on a cake symbolises celebrating 1 year old birthday, so, half a candle for you means...my dear, your are my BABY! I will always care for you..."

Cheers for CNY! Cheers for my holiday trip!

Oh good, tomorrow is CNY day 1, then day 2 and day 3, after that, I just need to show face in office on the Wednesday, and wow...I will be off to Perth...hehehe...

Tonight's CNY's eve reunion dinner was good, got lots of things to eat, but also lots of food can't finish up eating. I just had chilli crab for supper, left over from the dinner, I'm really stomach full now.

Hey, I haven't pack up for my vacation yet, maybe do it on day 2. Work? hmm...something to tell the team, esp. gal gal, so that she can help to cover some of my duties. Gal gal is acting kind of strange lately, sometimes she looks so different, e.g. with the dark eye shadow make-up, she just had her hair cut a little bit shorter and straightened too. She hasn't been talking to me much these days, except about work, I'm worried, really, whether she can cover my area of work while I'm away.

I will be away, likely till end of Feb. Time flies, in two more weeks and it's March 2010 coming.

Chinese New year coming...

                                   
You know what? In just 10 more days, it's Chinese New Year!

How times flies, we have just done with 1 out of 12 months of year 2010, I really can't remember what I did last month, or even the last month of the last year. But, I do know, most likely, I will be getting busier, because one of our projects is going for a tech refresh, and I'm working on the technology and costing stuffs.

Well, wether or not, I'm Chinese, Indian, etc., let's hope the coming of CNY will bring us better luck, and more incoming cash too, tons of it! Cheers...

Fun with special effects pictures

Have you wondered how some people can post their photos on their blog or Facebook where they look like that their faces are embeded on billboards, magazine covers or a dollar bill.

I have been trying to figure out this for quite some time, then, just last night, while doing some searching on the Internet, I finally found out how they did it, hehehe....without the use of any complicated software like Adobe Photoshop, check these out -> http://funphotobox.com/ and http://photofunia.com/.

There are other free photo editors in the Net, just need to search for them. Right now, I'm trying to figure out how to create my own templates with my own pictures.

Count down to holiday!

I have booked a flight to Perth during the CNY period, never did I know that when I checked the weather forecast, Feb happens to be the hottest month of the year there! I think I will be roasted and severely burnt there, it's already so hot (~32 degrees celsius) here, hopefully, it's not as humid as this place.

Things have not been the same since handing over my work to another senior. I did what I can to pass on the knowledge I have, it's really up to her to pick them up. I will going into stealth mode, maintain a low profile, talk less, so as not to attract attention. Good thing that the users and my team don't come asking me often now, yah, they know I no longer in charge, so, I do see a difference in people's attitude towards me! That's how it works here, they are showing their true colours, ho...ho...ho...

Fancl TenseUp drink vs Meiji Amino Collagen Powder

Last year, I tried the Fancl TenseUp drink, it supposed to improve my skin texture, make it more firm and looks more radiant, but it's really kind of expensive. A month supply (~30 bottles) costs around S$180! After taking it for a few months, I can't really tell whether it does what it's supposed to do.

Recently, I saw this product, Meiji Amino Collagen Powder from Japan, a cheaper alternative, but with more collagen content (5000mg) extracted from fishes, hopefully it works fast and better to improve my skin looks!

If you want to look young, with better looking skin, try the powder too and let me know whether it's effective; and don't worry, it doesn't taste fishy, furthermore, your can drink it with fruit juices or any beverages.

Early in the morning 6 o'clock

Yes, it's now 6 o'clock on a Thurday's morning. Yesterday's night I had attended a ex-NS army friend's wedding dinner at SUNTEC. I had a good time meeting with other friends whom we have not met for many, many years since MR.

I don't know why I woke up at 4 in the morning today, maybe because I had a dream, a bad one? I have been thinking about us, I'm really sorry if I had made you feel bad lately. I'm just not in the good state of mind to think properly, I had planned to take unpaid leaves and leave this place for awhile, but it didn't materialised. I guess you are disappointed now, I'm sorry.

Happy 2010!

Yesterday, I was out with some of my Japs classmates for dinner. We went to a Japanese restaurant at Liang Court, it's called 'Tam Po Po'. Just the four of us, the rest couldn't make it, anyway, they missed out on the good food.

The fishes were nice, soft and not oily (fried?), I even ate 2 bowls of rice (free re-fill) because it was good, the sticky type that you get to eat in a real Japanese restaurant. We also had something like the kamameshi, like a hotpot with vegetables, fish meat (collagen!) and soup. We also had black pig meat, it was good too!

The dinner was good, one of the best I have ate so far here. Lucky that we had reserved a table before going there, because by the time we were seated, many people were already queuing up outside the restaurant!

Washoku wa totemo Oiishi desu! Daisuki desu ne!

Last day of year 2009

In just 2hrs, we are going to celebrate a brand new year, the last year of the first decade of the 21th century.

Year 2009 has been quite a hectic time for me, there were things that just doesn't work well for me.

Come year 2010, I hope I will have better luck with people relations, especially with my colleagues and friends. Oh ya, not to mentioned that my army buddy is getting married in 13-Jan and I will be attending his wedding dinner, so I got to meet up with my former army guys. How time flies, friends of so many years, getting older by the year.

I wish to hope that gal gal will get along well with the rest of the team.

Happy new year to all! Cheers...

Not easy to understand her

Sometimes I just think that she is the kind of person who is so difficult to be understood. On one day she could be very friendly and joking with you, on another, she just sit at her desk, not wanting to do anything, pulling a long face. Maybe she is in a pretty bad mood, gal arr...I just don't want to be in her firing zone when it happens.

Just 2 days back, I had a phone talk with her for almost 2 hrs, she told me that she will come in late tomorrow (new year's eve!) so that she can go for her driving lesson, it's supposed to be a half day of work. Huh?!? And she has a driving test on Monday, 4-Jan. Half day gone again...huh?!? huh?!? huh?!?...

I think she's rich because she just bought a Nokia N97 recently, cost $600++ with contract, she also told me she has a $30K study loan to pay up. Huh?!? Ain's she supposed to save $$ to pay off the loan??? I really don't understand...

MC Gal

She SMS me at around 11am to tell me that she was on MC. She's always forgetting to apply MC after she was back at office, so, I applied for her on her behalf.

Then later, one of my staff came and tell me that she may have 'planned' for her MC, why? Because her notebook on her desk is usually turned on over the night, but strange, when he saw her notebook, it was shutdown and LCD screen closed. She was still ok yesterday.

She wants to go on leaves

Gal gal told me that she wants to take urgent leaves from 11-17 December, and she asked whether she should take unpaid or advanced leaves from next year; she only has 2.5 days annual leaves till end of the year. I told her to quickly apply for unpaid leaves, as it's not the company policy to grant advanced leaves.

She will be going back to her hometown, but the flight tickets are sold out during that period, if there's still available, she wants to book it fast. I checked out the airlines' online ticketing website, really, either sold out or no more cheaper deals, after all, it's end of year's holiday season. For those 'non-saver' flights, with return, costs about 1000++, wow, that's not cheap!

Going on leaves

I will be clearing my leaves for the whole of next week, having informed my backup that I will not be contactable, whether via email or phone, I am serious to say that "I'm going on leaves!". Oh yeah, no more work...ha ha ha...

I hope gal gal will not call or email me, she likes to do that, whenever I go on leaves. Sometimes I think that I'm just too "soft-hearted" when I see her emails or messages, and then I replied her, this time, no way!

My backup has much more experience than me, so, I think she (not dear gal gal, another lady) can managed the project and the team well. The other day, she told me that Boss wants to know whether I'm interested to do a job scheduler migration project, which is going to last about 6 months. Well, I told her, "let me think about it, I may have other plan.". What I want is to let me get out of this project first, I told her boss agreed to let her take over from me starting Jan-10, I'm counting down now...YES!

Phew...been there, done it!

Finally, the disaster recovery exercise was completed yesterday. What a relief for everybody, it was only once a year thing, but so much things to do.

This time round, gal gal was tasked to coordinate the exercise (used to be me!), I can see that she had a hard time. She called me a couple of times to complain about problems with the work.

Well, I think this exercise was a good test for her, even though she had told me that she wanted to quit after all this, because this job is not suitable for her. She wanted to venture into business, so that she can help her parents run their rice sale and export business in their hometown.

Hmm...when she just joined our team, she told me she wanted to do SAP just like her friends, but now...