Tumble Dailies

Shifting

2007-04-01T15:46:00.000+08:00

Have decided to make a move from Blogger due to security insufficiencies. However, I will not shut down this site as it contains all my fond memories of the past 2 years. Instead, it will be up and available till Blogger decides to shut it down. I might consider shifting the posts over, just that it will take some time. Meanwhile, here's the link to my new blog: http://tumbletot.livejournal.com

Review: The Children of Men (DVD)

2007-04-01T01:04:00.000+08:00

		Category:	Movies
		Genre: Rating:	Science Fiction & Fantasy

A thought-provoking show, one that makes you wonder what will happen in our future if we humans continue to decrease procreation rates.

The year is 2027, and the human race has suddenly lost its ability to reproduce. The reason is not clear cut, it may be due to disease, or genetic changes. The world looks bleak, as it has been 18 years since the last human baby was born. Also, the fight for survival forces the government to capture all immigrants into the UK and send them off to refugee camps. Some never make it though.

Theo (Clive Owen) is suddenly approached by his former lover Julian (Julianne Moore) to help him with something secret. She is a notorious leader of a terrorist group, and she needs him to get papers to help send someone out of the country. Someone who has hope for the future, someone non-local, who is pregnant. 8 months pregnant. Julian needs Theo's help to smuggle this pregnant lady, Kee, out to the human project, and she cannot trust anyone else in her group. Can he make it?

End of March

2007-03-31T12:34:00.000+08:00

Stock take results are out, and thankfully our variance was in the acceptable range. A big sigh of relief for everyone in my shop. Hopefully we don't need to have another one till 4 months down the road. Keeping fingers crossed real tight.

Just went to view my new home for the last time to check for any leaks/cracks/other defects before we sign the final papers on Wednesday. Can't wait for Wednesday so that we can finally start on our home renos proper.

Weighing my odds also on whether I should go back to school. Am toying with the idea of doing a MBA. Getting pretty tired out by my company's nonsense, coming out with "new ideas" that probably would only make us go further into the pile of dung. The profession is going nowhere either, despite the Society's best efforts to make it recognised. Both the husband and I feel so disillusioned by the total lack of prospects that it has for us. Job change might be another option to explore other areas of the profession, but there ain't much openings at present. Going back to school won't come cheap either, full-time or part-time. One of us still would have to work to ensure an income. Plus we have to finance our home. Will see how things go.

March comes to an end so quickly.

Tired...

2007-03-27T00:19:00.001+08:00

Just back from a tedious stock take, which I finished surprisingly early, maybe due to a lack of a crowd towards the end of the day, allowing me to have a head-start in counting. Hopefully this time's results will be satisfactory; am keeping my fingers and toes crossed very tightly for this take's results.

Left my staff in the shop to finish up, really couldn't afford to stay coz I was already yawning away at 11pm! Came home to a grouchy and tired husband who is now snoozing away as I blog. Not the very best thing to be working opposite shifts as he worked the morning shift today. But at least, he did care enough to keep dinner for me. Well, better call it a night as tomorrow is verification day, plus I have to work another 12-hour shift again. Sheesh...

Finally... it's over!

2007-03-25T12:51:00.000+08:00

Finally, my three days of 12-hour shift is over. It was sheer torture, considering those three days had not much of a crowd, and what I was more concerned about was checking that my stocks tallied with existing system's balance on hand (BOH). Pretty mind-boggling, checking both parent and child codes and calculating to find the exact BOH, while counting the tablets manually. Not that stock-take is really stressful, I usually breeze through it, just that this time round we are under extreme pressure to perform as it's a re-take since the last time we had a huge variance uncovered.

Moreover, I think, doing 12-hour shift isn't as easy as it used to be. To think once when I did the weekend scheme, there were several days when public holidays would fall consecutively with the weekend, and I was still able to pull through with not much fatique. I think it's age catching up with me. Plus, I guess the heavier responsibility on my shoulders now that I'm more senior and have to be an example to the rest. Haa... Can't sit around and kiow-kar (shake legs) like I used to, but instead must act busy all the time, going around doing stocks and stuff, helping out at the cashier, doing planogram changes. Plus with this CM, he has made life a living hell out of everyone, implementing impossible SOPs to follow, especially with the lack of staffing, which makes life all the more difficult. Have always had this thought at the back of my mind to move on to greener pastures, but somehow, I guess, deep inside me, this is the kind of job I like, interacting with the public and educating people on their health, despite a shitty management and ungrateful beings galore.

Well, enough complaints. Both the husband and I have more than enough complaints to fill the entire WWW up since we are in the same boat. Next up, another hurdle to cross, which is the upcoming stock-take on Monday night. After that two more 12-hour shift days, before I get a weekend rest. Just need to psycho myself that the OT money is contributing to the house. Haa...

Oh, which reminds me, I never updated on the house accessory shopping coz we didn't go! We had to postpone it coz my dad had some appointment to check his eyes, so my presence was required. Well, house accessory shopping will be postponed to next weekend, and I'll definitely bring my new cammy to take lots of photos! Hee... So looking forward to the fun.

Review: Idiocracy (DVD)

2007-03-21T21:45:00.000+08:00

Category:	Movies
Genre: Rating:	Comedy

The movie begins with a voiceover about how less intelligent people were outbreeding the more intelligent people, indicating that future generations may be made up of less intelligent people.

Later, the army chooses this average army librarian, Joe (played by Luke Wilson), to take part in an experiment of hibernation together with another female, a prostitute named Rita (played by Maya Rudolph), for a year. The objective was to see if they could prolong the lifespan of humans through hibernation and in so doing, preserve the smarter people for future use when the need came. However the experiment went awry as the officer-in-charge was arrested, and the experiment was forgotten. 500 years later, both Joe and Rita were awakened from their slumber to find themselves in an entire new world of dumb people surrounding them.

The show is really hilarious, filled with loads of slapstick (and mostly vulgar) humour of almost any kind imaginable. Plus, the actors (other than Wilson and Rudolph) are really good at acting dumb: they walk moronically, and talk with the typical monotone of a dumb person. However, the vulgar comedy gets a little nauseous for my taste after a while, but I guess it's just because dumb people don't really know how to vary dumbness? Probably that's what they intended to put across.

Anyway, if you need to de-stress and don't mind vulgar comedy, you might wanna pick this one up to laugh your guts out. Coz after this show, you would really be able to put your troubles behind you and relax.

My new camera

2007-03-21T00:09:00.000+08:00

Click me to view

I did it. Or rather my hubby did it. We bought the camera. We went down today to get it from Sim Lim. Turns out, the Canon Powershot SD800 IS is known under a different name in Sg. Rather, it is labeled as the Canon Digital Ixus 850 IS. We went to several places looking for it, and thought it wasn't available. Then at the last shop we went to, we asked for the latest Canon model, and were shown the Ixus, and then I realised it was the same as the manual had both names printed on it. Ha.

Anyway, the camera is super cool. The pixelation is terrific, at 7.1 megapixels. We played with it for a while, before purchasing it, and then we played some more. Hee... The husband fiddled around with it, while I read the manual for a bit. Then it was my turn to play.

Took it out for a walk when walking my dog, and took the opportunity to explore its different modes. The video above is the end result of the experimentation.

Gadget geek

2007-03-20T01:25:00.000+08:00

Ok, I have to admit, I'm a total gadget geek. Every now and then, I will have this sudden urge to get the latest gadget of some sort in the market.

Few months back, it was the mobile. Of course, I had the perfect excuse. My old mobile's keypad was giving problems and not responding very well to my input, plus I took more than 5 minutes to compose and send a SMS. Duh... Not only that, it was chipped at the most crucial area, the hinges (a flip phone). So... I gave in to temptation to get myself a Sony Ericsson K800i.

A year ago, the husband and I found ourselves having to fight over the one and only one desktop in the house. And... we are both internet addicts. When one was hogging the comp, the other had to find some other means to pass time. Very bad for the net addict. Solution: IT show was just round the corner, so we popped in to get a new laptop so that both of us could each feed our net addiction without having to suffer from withdrawal effects.

Before that was my HP pocket PC, which has now become a showpiece, placed in the corner of the study. Before the pocket PC, was the SE K800i's predecessor, the Z800. And the list goes on...

So what's my new target? Despite having a camera phone with the highest pixelation of all camera phones, the next gadget I'm eyeing is, that's right, a new digital camera. Reason, coz my old one (I only own one digital camera though) is an old SLR Canon Powershot G3, which is only 4MP, and pretty bulky. Why did I buy it? It was one of the best at that time, and at that moment, I was starting to get hooked on photography, so I thought it would be great to invest in something that not only could point-and-shoot, but allow me to fiddle with manual settings. Good idea, but never had the time to explore all options. Don't get me wrong, I'm still using it. In fact, my France photos were all taken with it, despite my dear old hubby complaining about the weight. And the photos did turn out pretty decent. So, it's not a white elephant. Just that, haiz, it's a little too big to fit into my handbag for me to bring around on special occasions. And even though the SE K800i shoots decent 3.2MP pics, the image can be a bit bad when lighting ain't good.

Ok... enough of the excuses. So what am I setting my sights on? The latest review from CNet says that the best ultracompact, 7MP camera, at the top of the editors' choice, is a Canon Powershot SD800 IS. And after reading all the reviews... I am inclined to go along the lines of the reviews. But first... I have to check out the pricing before jumping onto the bandwagon.

Oh... BTW, did I mention that it was going to be my birthday prezzie from the husband? hee...

Rudeness

2007-03-20T00:26:00.000+08:00

Here are some different types of rudeness I encountered today:

1. People who totally are oblivious to you and don't even acknowledge your greeting or smile in even the simplest form, which is just a mere nod. Not only do they not acknowledge, when spoken to, they simply turn away and have their back facing towards you, or pretend to look through you as if you were invisible.

2. People who brush by others without a simple "Excuse me", and in the course of their action, cause others to lose their balance or hit something nearby.

3. People who rudely interrupt when others are in mid-conversation without an apology or saying "Excuse me". To top this off would be people who rudely interrupt others in mid-conversation and pushing one person away to get the other person's attention.

4. People who rudely hang up the phone without any indication that the conversation has ended, or worse, when you are in mid-sentence.

5. People who yell loudly over the phone thinking that they can't be heard, and when asked to lower their volume as their loudness is affecting the clarity of the conversation, they raise their volumes even more.

6. People who yell loudly into their mobiles, totally oblivious to the fact that everyone around them is able to hear the conversation loudly and clearly, and just disturbing the peace.

7. People who loudly play their MP3s on their mobiles while talking to someone, causing the receiving party to have difficulty in understanding what they are saying over the loud music.

8. People who walk in large groups, taking up the entire walking space, and yet strolling at snail's pace as if they were strolling in the park, totally oblivious to the human traffic jam they are causing (the human version of roadhogs).

Home design/honeymoon vids

2007-03-17T23:06:00.000+08:00

Met up with M today to look at the design/layout she had planned for our home. Must say I'm getting more impressed and delighted that we chose her. Of course, as we went along listening to her proposal, we had our own objections as to how certain things were preferred, and alterations to certain parts of the built-in furniture, but all in all, it really seemed as though she had read my mind as to how I wanted things to be done. Looking forward to meeting up with her again on Tuesday to go shopping for lights, bathroom accessories and the other necessities. Can't wait...

(Unfortunately can't post the designs coz the copies I got are all black and white. Sigh...)

Meanwhile, I've done up 6 vids of our honeymoon trip to France last year. I know, backdated. Haa, but better late than never. Here are the parts: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6

Lethargy

2007-03-15T23:33:00.000+08:00

Felt to lethargic going back to work after a 4-day break. I barely could even get myself out of bed at 7am, very unlike me since I don't have a problem waking up on a working day. Then it was the dread of getting ready for work and leaving the house.

Once I started work, I thought I would wake up with the leftover workload for the last four days. Boy was I wrong. Took more than the usual time to do my usual morning stuff which was to check and order stock. In fact, I was so dazed that I even missed out some items. Thank goodness those colleagues of mine who helped cover on the 4 days helped me do some of my duties too, to lighten my load. (Thanks you guys! )

Think I only started really kick off when the lunch-time crowd came in, and rx started to pour. No matter how rusty the brain was, the routine counselling seemed to start up like I had my brain connected to the WWW and was constantly downloading information. Haa... then it was just back to the normal work-cycle once more. And of course, a little caffeine to perk me up mid-way, when the brain needed the extra boost.

I guess the 4-day break did do me some good some how. Found myself being more tolerant to the most irritating scum of the earth, when previously before the break I would have just snapped at the person. Example: enter irritating aunty of around 40 years, asking for some darn nonsense which was right under her nose when I was filling rx for another person. Usually I would just ignore, and then snap at her to wait for another staff to come to assist the person if she gets too irritating/impossible. Instead, today, I managed to hold my tongue and told her nicely to wait while I finish serving this other person, several times some more as she was constantly grumbling that there was a lack of assistance. In the end, all she wanted was a box of plasters, which was right under her nose, and even then she was too lazy to walk the cashier to pay and expected me to do so on her behalf and return with the change. Sigh... my patience didn't extend to the point; I just firmly directed her to the cashier and walked off to assist someone else who had been waiting patiently for 5 minutes and had let that aunty go ahead first.

Anyhow, sometimes, people like these make me wonder whether Sg's courtesy campaign did its job. Courtesy, I feel, is never for free.

Photo montage

2007-03-14T17:41:00.001+08:00

Spent the last day of my 4-day break doing up the video montages for my wedding. Haa... so much for a year and half long wait. Actually, also finally figured out how to do up video clips, thanks to a dear friend who told me of a program. Silly old me, never noticed that I had the Windows Movie Maker and Toshiba WinDVD creator in my laptop all this while...

Anyway, here are the six montages:
Wedding morning: parts 1, 2, 3
Dinner reception: parts 1, 2, 3

Enjoy!

Doggy walk

2007-03-13T18:15:00.001+08:00

Just took an hour long walk with my doggy, Kenshin. Haven't done that in ages since I always work long hours. As we were setting off, he gave me this characteristic look of his that I just couldn't resist taking a photo of. Here's his signature look which stands for "What are you waiting for gal? Let's go!" Isn't he just adorable?

Althea

2007-03-13T16:02:00.001+08:00

Just for fun, I went to google my name and here's my findings:

On the first page:
althea.sourceforge.net: Althea is an IMAP client for X Windows that uses the GTK widget set. (I'm an email program!)
http://arts.ucsc.edu/gdead/AGDL/althea.html: The Annotated "Althea". There's a (Grateful Dead) song written in my name! (which is pretty long, so go to the listed site instead.)
www.altheas.com: I'm a cafe/bar @ 614 South Vernon Street - Mount Vernon, WA 98273
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/788/: I'm associated with a species of hibiscus: Rose of Sharon, Althea (althaea syriacus)
www.altheagibson.com: I'm linked with a tennis celebrity, Althea Gibson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Althea: My name is of Greek origin (no wonder I'm so interested in Greek history). Althaea (original Greek name) is the daughter of Thestius and mother of Meleager
http://www.altheaspa.it/home.asp: I'm associated with an Italian producer of spaghetti, tomato and pasta sauces

Review: 300

2007-03-13T11:40:00.000+08:00

Category:	Movies
Genre: Rating:	Action & Adventure

The show is based on Greek legend's Battle of Thermopylae, in which King Leonidas led a small army of 300 Spartans to block the only path that the Persian army, led by Xerxes I, had to reach the Greek states. (This review contains spoilers, so do not read on if you want to enjoy the show.)

The scenes are very graphical and gory. The beginning shows how Spartans are chosen to live; deformed babies are discarded. Once allowed to live, the males are trained from young to fight, and at the age of seven, are sent away from home to train to be warriors. They are exposed to the most gruesome treatment in order to harden themselves so as not to show any weakness. Their final test is to be sent out into the wilderness during the cold winter months to survive, and if they do, they will emerge as a Spartan warrior. (Fight scenes are pretty gory, even at the parts that show the boys in training. Lots of blood is shed, through beatings and whippings and fights.)

Then the story proceeds to how the war was started, when a Persian messenger came to ask King Leonidas to bow down and look upon Xerxes as the new ruler of the world through the offerings of earth and water. Instead of yielding, as it would mean that he had to bow down to another, he led his men to kill the group of Persian messengers, and hence called war upon himself.

To prevent the siege from occurring at the homes of his people, he led 300 of the strongest and fittest of his army away to Thermopylae, on a pretense of taking a stroll with 300 bodyguards as he had broken one of the laws by not consulting the counsel. En route, he met a 700-strong Thespian army who joined him on his quest. After that gory scenes of battle, enhanced by slow-motion action, begins as they fight Xerxes and his Persian army.

(Storyline of the movie probably defers at certain points from the actual Greek legend. The most prominent one is when Ephialtes betrays the Greeks and leads the Persian army to the goat track that led behind Greek lines, the Thespians decided to retreat, realising that it was going to be a losing battle. In actual Greek legend, the 700-strong army stayed on to fight and helped the Spartan army slow down and greatly reduce the Persian numbers, allowing Athens to prepare for a naval battle against the Persians in the Battle of Salamis.)

Official website: http://300themovie.warnerbros.com
Read more about the Battle of Thermopylae here.

My Celebrity Look-alikes

2007-03-13T10:13:00.000+08:00

http://www.myheritage.com

Busy busy...

2007-03-13T00:17:00.001+08:00

Made the most out of day 2 of the 4-day break. Woke up early to go watch "300" at TM. I would say the show is pretty good, and gory too. ("A Spartan warrier is trained the day he is allowed to live after being born. Spartan male babies are killed if they are born with deformities of any kind. They are then taught from young how to fight, how to be a warrier, and are put through gruelling training the moment they reach seven years of age. They are trained not to cry, not to show any emotion and are trained to withstand everything to be the ultimate warrier.") Plus they slow-motioned the fighting scenes, to enhance to goriness. If you wanna watch this show, boy, have you got to be prepared for gory scenes, like the head being chopped off.

The next most happening thing was of course, the concert, Yo La Tengo. Hee... had been looking forward to it for don't know how long! Somehow, after you work for so long, all these little treats are like deserts to an already bland lifestyle. Anywayz, the music was darn good! Funny thing was we saw the weird guy that we met at the Muse concert. Haa... what a coincidence. Saw a few more people that we had seen previously at the Muse concert too. The husband quibbed that it might be an idea to start having some concert club thingy with these people, but of course we didn't bother to ask. And of course, I captured a few photos which you can see here and uploaded a couple of vids which you can view here and here for memory sake. Enjoy!

Ample rest

2007-03-11T12:22:00.001+08:00

Yeah... today is the start of my 4-day break, need some time off for ample rest. Feel myself burning out with the persistent long hours at work, and my ability to be tolerant with ridiculous people is getting lesser by the hour.

Looking forward to staying at home to nuah... enjoy a few DVDs, read my book, go for concert (Yo La Tengo @ The Esplanade on Tuesday) and just spend time with my hubby and family and doggy. And best of all, get sufficient sleep.

Zzz...

Eeyore, collector's item commemorating 80th Anniversary of Winnie the Pooh and friends

2007-03-07T23:15:00.001+08:00

My new toy, Eeyore, that I got for myself. See how new it is? Still in the plastic, totally untouched! Yeah!

Review: The Moonstone

2007-03-07T00:36:00.000+08:00

Category:	Books
Genre:	Literature & Fiction
Author: Rating:	Wilkie Collins

Wilkie Collins is truly one of my favourite authors of mystery and suspense. Like the other book of his, the Lady in White, I really couldn't stop once I started. It just made you want to continue, to find get to the bottom of the mystery.

In the Moonstone, the story begins about an ancient diamond, dubbed the Moonstone, that once belong to a shrine. The gods had placed the responsibility upon three Brahmins, the guardians of the shrine, that the Moonstone should forever be in the shrine, and if it were to fall onto the hands of a human, that person and his generations after him would be cursed and damned. It was also the job of the Brahmins and their future generation to ensure that the Moonstone would always be in the shrine, and that if anything were to happen, they had the responsibility to restore it back to its original place.

However the Moonstone was subsequently taken away from the shrine when civil unrest began and after several years of wars, it found itself in the hands of an Englishman, who brought it back to England with him.

The story continues to tell of how the Moonstone came to be inherited by a young lady after the death of the Englishman, and that it was stolen on the very same night that she was given the stone. Thus the mystery begins.

The investigation into the missing Moonstone begins and the story is told by several people, who had in one way or another been apart of the investigation. The narration of each of the individuals can be really funny at times and this adds humour to the otherwise thrilling storyline. My favourite narrator would be that of Gabriel Betteredge, who is the house steward of Lady Julia Verinder, mother of the heiress of the Moonstone.

To find out what happened to the Moonstone, go pick up a copy of the book and read it for yourself. Trust me, you won't be disappointed.

Long day

2007-03-06T22:53:00.001+08:00

Very happening day... which started at 7am in the morning, despite it being my off day.

Had to wake up to go for PPM. CE topic was pretty good, on vertigo. Learned quite a bit from the dr. Then during the toilet break, we left. After all, it's my off day, and I don't feel that obliged to stay on for the rest of the meeting, since it's my OFF DAY! Bad choice. CWL noticed a lot of people leaving and ran through the attendance a second time, so I heard from a friend since I was already not around. Plus my AM smsed me to check on me. I replied as-a-matter-of-factly that it's my OFF DAY, and that I had other commitments. I also reminded him that we all have lives outside our jobs and it's only on our off days that we get to settle such things. Point noted I think, but he still tried to encourage me to stay on to get updates on latest company plans. Yada yada... perhaps I should just change my off day, or consider working 24/7 since the company always loves to eat into our off days. Sheesh. I already had to spend my afternoon last Saturday, which was also my off day, to attend another lecture. No offense boss, but seriously people do have lives outside their work; I'm one such person that needs to keep in touch with that aspect of my life, coz it is what makes me who I am. And, I am NOT a company SLAVE.

Anywayz, we had a little kopi break after we left the darn meeting, and then set off to meet up with our renovater. (Yes, boss, I didn't make up the story, I really had an appointment to go to.) Both of us had decided to stop the bargaining shit coz it was really starting to take its toll, getting so many quotations from 5 different contractors, and in the end, the one that I had set my heart on, was still leading the race. Plus, give and take certain factors, her pricing was still probably one of the best. So, we signed with M, after giving the contract/proposal a final run-through to make sure all was in order, and paid the deposit. Heart feels lighter having settled on this finally, though pocket also lighter, as the hubby complains. And we have yet to purchase other necessary appliances like the fridge, the hood and hob etc. Hai... really have to take things one at a time. If all goes well, should be able to move into our new home in early June. Yippee!

After a tiring 7 hours, we decided to call it a day and head home. Took bus to Clementi and boarded the MRT there. That's when we met the most inconsiderate couple/commuter. Took up the entire half of the entrance into the train, and totally self-absorbed with each other, oblivious to the rest of the world. The guy didn't even care that he was blocking half the door, and continued to do that all the way till they alighted at Raffles. Me, being me, felt super fed-up. Plus for once, the usually-patient husband also super irritated with such behaviour. So... we took a photo of the inconsiderate couple, and submitted to Stomp. First time we are actually driven to do something like that. Goes to show how terrible they were. Have done some PhotoDJ-ing to the pic, and here is the edited copy of the photo:

I even made several comments during the course of the journey but haiz, they were really just too oblivious to anyone and anything around them. I know leaning against that section of the train is pretty popular for most couples, but at least try to move aside when the train doors open so that people can board/alight lor. One can always re-position oneself when the doors close what... Duh...

Maybe should take a poll here. Please let me know what you feel about such behaviour in the above poll.

Anyhow, I think I got my retribution for taking such a photo. Came back home with diarrhea. Have let my bowels run wild a total of 3 times in the last 6 hours. Not a very good sign. Think I have to control what I eat for the next few days, less oil: less fried things, less milky stuff. But, I can't do without my morning breakfast milk! Charcoal and loperamide, you better prepare yourselves, I will need you if the loose bowels don't stop by tomorrow! Can't afford to MC tomorrow, coz got loads to settle after being off for one day and a lecture to attend somemore at night.

Ohm...

Whirlwind of a day

2007-03-05T23:12:00.001+08:00

The day passed damn fast. Sometimes you just have too much backload of things to do, especially after being off for 2 days. That was what happened today. Spent the entire day looking through all the orders to be made, before continuing to go through my never-ending list of short expiry meds which had been shouting for attention for the entire month of Feb. After procrastinating for so long, I felt I could no longer do justice to myself if I didn't look in at the items at least. Knowing myself, the moment I started, I couldn't stop. Ended up settling through almost every single item that had an expiry within 6 months or more if it were slow-moving and sending to one of the faster-moving stores in town to help me clear them. (Thank you FK if you're reading this. )

That itself took half a working day. Other than doing that, I had to clear a big number of items that required returning to suppliers coz they were not in the planograms or some other reason. My big CSOs also came in, requiring my immediate attention to pack and prepare them for home delivery to my customer, after he had come by to settle the bill.

On top of all these, I still had to serve the customers who came by, and scurry around the shop like a frantic mouse hunting for food. Luckily, they all seemed to understand the crazy amount of work I had to settle and didn't seem to mind having to wait for a while if I were on the phone settling some problem or running around doing some other chore. Plus, I wasn't the only busy bee around, my in-charge and 2IC were both busy with their responsibilities as well, and that kind of made the shop look a little chaotic with all our crazy scurrying around. But when all was done, it really made me feel very satisfied that I had managed to accomplish so much, all the more coz there were a lot of things that I had put off for so long.

Oh... by the way, the resident mouse has been caught. It was pretty cute, but we just couldn't have it living in our shop, not knowing what destruction it would cause.

Review: The Professor

2007-03-02T01:33:00.000+08:00

Category:	Books
Genre:	Literature & Fiction
Author: Rating:	Charlotte Bronte

Pretty intriguing. Couldn't put the book down once the story really caught on. First few chapters when the main character, William Crimsworth, was working for his brother in some clerical job, was rather boring. Probably coz he was not in a job that he liked after graduating from school. Then he meets an associate of his brother, Yorke Hunsden, who helps him find a job more suited for him, away from his brother, whom Hunsden believes is not a trustworthy person. Crimsworth consequently moves to Brussels, where he works as an English teacher, first at a school of Monsieur Pelet, and subsequently at Mademoiselle Reuter's, where he meets the woman of his dreams.

Exposed!

2007-03-02T01:08:00.001+08:00

Phwah... really exposed to the most extreme form of work hazard today. Immune system has been a little low and I have been downing myself with loads of vit C to help cope with my own sniffles and all the sneezing/coughing around me. So far so good... keeping my fingers crossed so that I can enjoy my weekend this week.

Then, walks in this guy with a rx for TB. Not much of a problem, see this kind of case once in a while. Except that this time is different: he is coughing, and in my face without covering his mouth! And I had to grin and bear with it, all the while being exposed to all the TB germs flying through the air, worrying not only for myself but also the people around me. The moment he left (I didn't stock the meds with me), and the people started to move off, I picked up a can of Dettol spray and sprayed the entire area around me and the area that he had passed by. Also I took a thick wade of wipes to clean/disinfect the table and surfaces he might have coughed on.

This is the second time I've been exposed to a coughing TB patient, first being when I was working part-time at the emergency dept in SGH. No offense to all the TB patients out there; I know this is a part of the job, but it would have been much more considerate if the guy covered his darn mouth when he was coughing with some hanky or tissue. It feels like SARS is back all over again! Now I have to monitor myself for the next few days to make sure I don't come down with any flu-like symptoms. And load myself with more vit C! Pray for me!!!

Stiff neck, and lunch @ FK's

2007-02-26T09:57:00.001+08:00

Really hate it when you get into some weird position and results in a stiff neck. I was fine in the morning yesterday before I went back to laze on the bed, and the extra lazing resulted in the stiff neck. I can turn my head left and right to a certain extent, but looking up is a little bit of a chore. Turning left also hurts once it's passed the 60 degree position. So now I look like a moron, having to turn my entire body at the same time when I turn my head to look at something on the left. It's a real big ouch!

Despite the stiff neck, I still had to drive down to FK's parents' place since we already agreed to have lunch with them. Stiff neck made driving a little difficult, coz I can't really look up at the rear view mirror well, but I kinda managed. There were loads of road hogs that were driving at 50 - 60 km/h on the extreme right lane when the darn speed limit was 80km/h, really pissed me off big time. Because of that and my stiff neck, we were slightly late.

The luncheon was pretty good, and had 2nd helpings plus a serving of honey-sea-coconut desert. Really nice. Didn't take any photos though, too busy catching up with friends and attacking the food. After lunch we adjoined to his place, which was just in the next block, where we spent a lazy day watching 2 shows back-to-back: Snakes on a plane (which is really hilarious at certain moments) and Casino Royale on DVD.

Right or left brain

2007-02-23T01:07:00.001+08:00

Brain Lateralization Test Results

Right Brain (66%) The right hemisphere is the visual, figurative, artistic, and intuitive side of the brain.
Left Brain (30%) The left hemisphere is the logical, articulate, assertive, and practical side of the brain

Are You Right or Left Brained?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Left brain dominant individuals are more orderly, literal, articulate, and to the point. They are good at understanding directions and anything that is explicit and logical. They can have trouble comprehending emotions and abstract concepts, they can feel lost when things are not clear, doubting anything that is not stated and proven.

Right brain dominant individuals are more visual and intuitive. They are better at summarizing multiple points, picking up on what's not said, visualizing things, and making things up. They can lack attention to detail, directness, organization, and the ability to explain their ideas verbally, leaving them unable to communicate effectively.

Overall you appear to be Right Brain Dominant

-----------------------------------------

According to Darwinian theory, optimal evolution takes place with random variation and selective retention. The evolution savvy individual will try many different approaches when faced with a problem and select the best of those approaches. Many historical intellectuals have confessed their advantage was simply considering/exploring/trying more approaches than others. The left brain dominant type suffers from limited approaches, narrow-mindedness. The right brain dominant type suffers from too many approaches, scatterbrained. To maintain balanced hemispheres, you need to exercise both variability and selection. Just as a company will have more chance of finding a great candidate by increasing their applicant pool, an individual who considers a wider set of options is more likely to make quality decisions.

Advanced personality test results

2007-02-23T01:02:00.001+08:00

Advanced Global Personality Test Results

Extraversion	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	56%
Stability	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	50%
Orderliness	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	40%
Accommodation	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	43%
Interdependence	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	36%
Intellectual	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	70%
Mystical	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	63%
Artistic	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	70%
Religious	\|\|\|\|\|\|	30%
Hedonism	\|\|\|\|\|\|	23%
Materialism	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	50%
Narcissism	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	70%
Adventurousness	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	70%
Work ethic	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	70%
Self absorbed	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	50%
Conflict seeking	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	63%
Need to dominate	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	70%

Romantic	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	56%
Avoidant	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	43%
Anti-authority	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	56%
Wealth	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	36%
Dependency	\|\|\|\|\|\|	30%
Change averse	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	36%
Cautiousness	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	63%
Individuality	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	70%
Sexuality	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	50%
Peter pan complex	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	63%
Physical security	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	83%
Physical Fitness	\|\|\|\|\|\|	30%
Histrionic	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	56%
Paranoia	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	63%
Vanity	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	56%
Hypersensitivity	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	70%
Female cliche	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	63%

Take Free Advanced Global Personality Test
personality tests by similarminds.com

Work was torture

2007-02-23T00:08:00.001+08:00

Work was really torture today. Maybe coz I MIA for the last 3 days to take a good rest, which really resulted in a pile-up of work today. Loads of stock running low, had to really order like crazy to top up the stock in excess. Back dated customer orders that needed my attention. Stocks all over the place. Having to key in form G for poisons invoices, and tally expiry dates of stocks that came in (which I didn't accomplish). And the ultimate thing: major price changes for majority of stocks, resulting in my having to update the computer system (which played me out coz it didn't save the changes despite me keying in twice) and having to nag at my staff to put up the new shelf tickets quickly coz we were receiving loads of compliants from customers about the prices not tallying. Had to honour the lower prices in the event of customer disatisfaction, and get scolded on top of that.

All in all... a very torturous day, not to mention that I had my insomnia again last night.

Time flies so fast

2007-02-21T20:46:00.001+08:00

Our three days of rest has just vanished into thin air.... time really flies fast when you are enjoying it. Although nothing productive was done, I did manage to achieve something: get enough rest. Really ensured that I had at least 7 - 8 hours of sleep per night, and added in extra nap times in the day, here and there. And, I managed to cover more than 10 chapters of the current book I'm reading, which is The Professor by Charlotte Bronte. Plot is getting interesting... can't seem to put the book down now . Zoraide is flirting with William Crimsworth while supposedly bethrothed to Pelet whilst William turns his attention to a new gal in the plot.

So it's back to work tomorrow... back to the same old routine .

CNY 2007

2007-02-20T11:20:00.001+08:00

CNY is here... and again, like always when relatives gather, the same question is asked: when are you getting pregnant?

Don't know why this is the favourite question of all. Don't they have anything better to talk about then that? To me it is as good as asking are you having sex, coz that's what leads up to pregnancy of course, and it really is such an invasion of privacy.

Pressure felt greater coz one of the cousins is pregnant and due in June. So, to evade this question, the husband and I didn't quite mingle with the relatives but rather spent more time in front of the tube, watching silly drama serials to while the time and prevent people from asking that question. It struck me how great the invention of the tube is, helping steer people away so that unwanted conversation is avoided. How anti-social, but worth it.

Went through the same old nonsense on the eve, first and second day. Wonder whether today will be the same still. Sheesh.

Oh, plus, the news of us having our own abode is spreading like wild fire. So fast all the relatives found out about it. All asking where, how much, when we moving in... even felt there were hints of when the housewarming would be. Now I know why the husband used to hide in his room after a while of spending time with the relatives, can really be overwhelming when relatives rain such questions on you, making you feel obligated in some way or other. Furthermore, his side of the family is really huge, so everything is multiplied by a bigger number.

Maybe we should consider bringing our Simpsons DVD over tonight to watch to entertain not only ourselves but everyone else so that such questions can be ignored again...

More beautiful ice skating

2007-02-17T11:15:00.000+08:00

Ridiculous accusation

2007-02-16T23:00:00.001+08:00

People really never cease to amaze me, especially the kinds of excuses they can come up with when they can't get what they want. Had this young b**** come up to ask for oral contraceptives and gave a super long story of what she was advised by don't-know-who. At the end of her long story, I asked her for her rx, and she said that her friend said that can just come and buy, no need anything. So I asked if her friend were a dr, coz only drs could say that since they could prescribe, and she retorted by asking what a rx was. So I took out an example from my rx file to show her, and told her she need to get this in order to buy, and that it was a legal requirement, plus the rx couldn't be used indefinitely coz the person was only allocated whatever was prescribed and any subsequent purchases would require another rx. Unhappy that she was not able to get the oral contraceptive, she suddenly launched a ridiculolus accusation that I was very rude for banging my drawer (which incidentally always bangs coz it's already spoilt and out of alignment) and that I had very bad service attitude. WTH. If I really had bad attitude, I would probably throw the 20 boxes of Clarinase I was holding in my hand right at her face instead of going through the entire explanation of what a rx was and the laws regulating the purchase of medication, when knowing full well she was just trying to work her way around the legal system to get her hands on the med without a prescription. To make things worse, she had to purposely repeat her accusation at the door in a loud voice just to get her point across and possibly tarnish my reputation, knowing full well that as a service personnel, I could do little to retaliate. WTF.

Ice skating accident

2007-02-16T12:27:00.000+08:00

Beautiful pair of ice-skaters, Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison. Take a look at this:

Until this accident happens recently:

Warning: Do not watch the second video if you have no stomach for accidents.

Jessica Dube gets cut by her partner's skates in the nose and cheek during their side-by-side camel spins. I hear you. Ouch! is an understatement.

Valentine's Day aftermath

2007-02-15T23:18:00.001+08:00

I realise that every time after a special occasion, the surge of requests for the morning-after pill never fails to astound me. Being in my line for so long, you can always estimate when to stock up the emergency contraceptives just before one of those special occasions, such as Christmas eve/day, New Year's eve/day and the most popular would of course be Valentine's day.

Surprisingly, today, the influx of people requesting for the morning-after pill suddenly took a dip, very unusual considering that today's the day after V-day. Only had a handful asking and only one with a rx to purchase. Pretty amazing. Did most people suddenly remember there's such a thing as condoms? Or has my store begun to only cater to the less romantic and older crowd? I think the latter is more appropriate, coz according to a fellow colleague, she was plagued with morning-after pill requests the entire day. Maybe coz I'm aging, so I have a tendency to attract the older crowd. Sigh... how sad.

Anyway, this year's V-day is probably the first time the husband and I couldn't celebrate coz we were both rostered to work night shift. Oh well, we had to celebrate it in advance the day before by having a facial session in the afternoon and a Sakae Sushi dinner. Romantic hor?

On a side note, wish to remind all car owners to kindly respond to their bloody car alarm when it goes off. This inconsiderate neighbour's car alarm went off in the middle of the night at around 3am and the idiot didn't respond to it till I was in the bath, which was at about 7am. This is already the second time this year and it caused me an entire night of sleeplessness, causing me to be really grouchy and irritable, all the more so since I had to work the 12-hour shift today. If you're gonna install a car alarm, then make sure you respond to it, no matter what time it goes off. What's the point of having a bloody alarm when you don't even react to it? Might as well let the car be stolen if that's the case! If not, you'll probably have to spend the next morning jump-starting the car since the entire night of alarm will probably empty the darn battery. Sheesh.

Busy... and uninspired

2007-02-15T01:04:00.001+08:00

Nothing much to blog about. Too tired and frustrated about the never-ending mad last-minute rush for people to stock up on their medicines before the long CNY holidays. Little do they know/care that poor health care professionals like me have to work throughout the CNY hols. Or maybe most people still "pan tang" coming to a health-related place on CNY. Furthermore, little old me has to work on the first day CNY, though it doesn't let me escape the agony of giving ang paos despite having to work. And mind you, there ain't any extra pay. Sheesh.

Arrogance

2007-02-09T22:12:00.001+08:00

I told my hubby I wouldn't post about it, but somehow I just had to. Not posting this would be a big injustice to me and my customer.

W came to fill her rx today. Only when I took the med out did she realise that there may have been an error in the rx. So to make things easy for her, I called the clinic to confirm the strength of the med.

The person who first answered the phone was a lady, who told me she would retrieve the records. After 5 minutes, a guy answered instead, and I thought it was the dr. When repeating my request half way, this guy told me arrogantly that the dr was very busy and that he had a string of patients to attend to. So I asked how long I would have to wait before calling back. He replied sarcastically that he didn't know and asked me to leave my contact number, and that he would get the dr to call back once they had cleared the queue of patients. So I asked if it would be possible for him to interject and check with the dr after he was done with the present patient and before the next patient was called in. He replied sarcastically again: "No, cannot, wait the dr scold me for interrupting."

My first response was like "huh?". To me I felt that no matter how long the queue was, just a simple thing like that wouldn't take more than 5 minutes, and it would be to the benefit of both the clinic and me to make things more convenient for W. I had done this several times through the course of my work, and never had such problems, and this was the first time that I encountered such an uncooperative person at the clinic end. Totally stunned, I told the person I'd check with the patient if she would like to wait and call back later. I didn't want to leave my contact for I was actually on the way out for lunch and also I didn't know if W wanted to wait or go back to the clinic since she was browsing around when I was the phone.

So after hanging up, I checked with W if she wanted to wait, and she said she wouldn't mind waiting, and would take a walk around before coming back in an hour. Instead I told her to leave her mobile so that I could contact her when I had checked back with the dr, since I was going for lunch. But I didn't get to leave for lunch in the end, coz a crowd had just entered, so I stayed on to clear the crowd, which took about half an hour.

After that period of time, I decided to try my luck and call again. The same guy picked up the phone, and in the same sarcastic and arrogant voice, told me that the dr was still busy with the long queue, and that he had not passed the message. He went on further to rub things in by saying that I was "stupid" in the first place for not leaving my contact number, and that in helping me, it was "disrupting his business for the sake of mine". This really shocked me, coz my only intention was just to make things convenient for the patient and nothing else. Asking the dr to clarify such things in-between patients was very common, and I had done it several times in the course of my work without having any problems with any dr before. So I told him that, and all his same silly response was that the dr would scold him for interrupting, only this time he raised his voice when responding. So I told him firmly that he did not need to raise his voice, and that we could all settle this without getting worked up. But then he started getting personal, and said that I was the one who was impolite and raising my voice, even though I had been the receiving end of it all. Also he told me again that I was disrupting his business, and that the patients at the clinic was more important than the one with me. That was the limit, and I told him to mind his own manners himself. Also I reminded him, that the patient with me was also the clinic's patient and that helping her would also help the clinic. Instead he replied nastily that they could do without it then. Not wanting to hear his voice further, I just left my contact number and last name for the dr to contact me. Instead of leaving things as that, he further irritated me by asking why I dared not leave my full name, and whether I had anything to hide. So I told him irately that I always only use my last name coz no one can pronounce my name correctly (which is true for a fact, coz 9 out of 10 people mispronounce my name and it inconveniences all my staff). He told me to try him, which I did, and true enough he couldn't pronounce it. Waste my time. And just in case he played me out, I asked for his name too. Guess what was his reply? The dr's father.

I was totally and utterly shocked to hear that. Such total arrogance. So what if he did manage to put his son (if he's really the father) through med school and all? Such attitude was so uncalled for. If the patient had heard the entire conversation, I don't think she would ever want to go back to the clinic. I don't think anyone would want to, if all the person is concerned about are the people there at the point in time and that once the person left the premises,he is totally dismissed. No matter what, she's still the clinic's patient, even though she's not in the premises, and that such services would only improve the dr-patient relationship and improve the clinic reputation, not the other way round. It was no wonder that he was striving to meet the needs of those patients there, coz with such attitude, I wonder how many people wanted to go there in the first place.

In any case, I fumed for the next one hour, totally losing my appetite for lunch. Luckily it happened at that time too, coz there were less people to witness my irritated look. And it did take the dr that one hour before he returned the call.

Interestingly enough, the dr was the total opposite of the "father". He was soft-spoken and pretty apologetic about the delay and inconvenience. He managed to clear the discrepency very quickly, in less than 5 minutes, and at the end of the conversation, I managed to cool down since he was really very sincere and sorry for the long wait. The only thing I wondered after hanging up was whether the annoying fella was really his father coz there was a big contrast in character. I'd probably never find out.

In any case, if that uncle is reading this blog, I would like to say: Uncle, watch your words and your attitude. Coz if you continue on giving such bad service like this, your clinic business will really be affected. So buck up.

A very productive but expensive day...

2007-02-08T22:12:00.001+08:00

Today was spent productively. Left home to go to the HDB Hub at Toa Payoh for our 1st appointment. A lot of time wasted though. First we weren't familiar with the area, so we kinda got lost. Walked around for a bit looking for a place to eat, and actually walked an entire circle before we found some eateries. Very irritated with layout. To link from one block to another, have to go up to a floor where the bridge is. Yet the bridges are on different levels for different blocks coz of the companies that take up the shop space. Not only that, the lifts going up and down are slow. Plus using the stairs (yes we took the stairs coz we couldn't wait for the lifts) is a hassle, coz certain floors did not allow access again coz of the companies taking up shop space. Then cannot remember which floor the adjoining bridge is on for which block, and we had to backtrack a lot. Think they should put up more signages for people like us who don't frequent Toa Payoh much.

Wasted time at the HDB office itself too. Firstly, the signages were very confusing as to where the resale office was. Staff also didn't readily keep a look out to help the blur-sotongs like us. We had to open our mouths to ask around. Also we were already scheduled a time-slot for the appointment, yet we still had to get a queue number to queue for the appointment. After the first wait, which was more than 15 minutes (coz we were early and the allocated time was also during the lunch hour), we still had to wait another almost half hour as the first call was just to verify our documents. Only then on the second call did we actually get to see the officer. Very weird system. Why can't they just settle all the necessary things in one seating, instead of having to go through one thing after the other? After all, verifying the documents didn't take much time as well. All in all, I think we spent more than an hour waiting to finally settle the documentation for the first appointment, which involved a lot of signing. Made me actually wish I had a shorter signature, coz my hand nearly exhausted itself mid-way.

After the tiring visit to the HDB office, we had coffee before heading off to Orchard for CNY shopping. Yes, I know, I'm super last minute. But no choice! No time, and so much things to do! Plus I had to coordinate time so that I could go shop with my mummy, and get her expert opinion (she's always been my shopping kaki). And since both my parents had to come with us for the 1st appointment, what better time? Boo excused himself, whilst my dad went off to work, whilst we spent the afternoon walking from Isetan Scotts to Wheelock Place and finally to Metro Paragon. Other than clothes, for me and the men (hubby and Dad), we bought two bags, one for me, and one for my mum. That makes two bags for me, since I bought another bag the other day from World of Sports.

My new Puma handbag in lime green!

My new Braun Buffel handbag!
All in all, we spent more than 3 hours shopping for us and the men, and spent more than $1k in that time span. Argh!!!! Well, I made a promise to myself, that there'll be no more clothes shopping for me for the entire year, coz the amount of clothes that I bought for myself would probably last me the entire year, till they wear out. Plus, must TOTH: think of the house!

Valentine's Day 2007

2007-02-08T09:12:00.001+08:00

So sian... have to spend this year's V-day working again. Didn't take leave this year coz we need the leave later on when we're moving house. So... no choice, need to work.

However, I already got my V-day gift. Ha! Very much in advance. Was just casually asking about it, so the husband told me to go look see to see what caught my eye. This was the night after I did my hair.

Came across this lovely blink-blink that caught my eye. Lee Hwa was having an atrium sale at TM. However at that time I didn't actually get it coz the price was a little on the steep side. So I told Boo to forget it.

Which ended up being a bad decision coz I lost precious sleep over the blink-blink subsequently.

So, went back the next day. Another salesperson calculated for me and she realised I was quoted the wrong price yesterday! The difference was $100++. Phwah, big diff leh... with that in mind, I got it on the spot. Charged it to the card, which the husband said he would foot the bill when the bill came. Yay!

Am now the proud owner of a princess-cut diamond pendant. Here are the pics:

My Valentine's day prezzie

Ta-da!

Here's a close up...

Hair day

2007-02-06T22:11:00.001+08:00

After procrastinating for so long, I finally went to do my hair today, in lieu of the coming Chinese New Year. Since it has been 6 months since I last went to do my hair (gals have such luxuries of keeping hair long and saving $$), I decided to do go ahead and have my long-awaited hair treatment as well, to get rid of all those damaged twigs!

It was during the treatment session that I had a funny moment alone, me with my hair wrapped up and steam emerging from my head through the steam wrap, making me look like one big 包. I just couldn't resist taking such a comical photo of myself.

Me, the human 包

Anyway, the treatment was worth it. My hair is in much better condition right now and doesn't look so damaged. Here's a look at my new hair-do.

Ain't that good, but better than nothing

People read my blog!

2007-02-05T23:14:00.001+08:00

Ok, I know I'm sounding a little stupid/naive, but I finally have proof that people other than my friends/family read my blog! Haa... big deal right? After all, when you put it up on the net publicly, it is free for all. So definitely got someone read one mah... But somehow, you don't really know who takes interest in what you write and ramble about. That's what I think/feel, till you get a comment from someone whom you don't know. Then... there's the proof.

So thank you Victor, for making my day, even though it was just to let me know that you had photos of food from Aston's Specialties that I could stare at and let my mouth water.

On another note, I finally realise I do have customers who care. Remember about a month back when I had to rush to the hospital when my dad hurt his head? And that I had shooed some customers to hurry so that I could rush off? One of those kind souls actually came by today and asked how my dad was/is. He actually remembered and bothered, and little old me had to be reminded about what he was referring to. When I finally realised what he was referring to, I felt really touched that he actually cared enough to inquire about my dad. Thank you sir, for making my day.

Both France albums updated

2007-02-03T23:14:00.000+08:00

Ok... both France albums have been updated with descriptions. You can view both parts: part 1 and part 2.

Photos updating, and furniture shopping

2007-02-03T21:08:00.001+08:00

Accomplished quite a fair deal today. Spent some time updating my France photos... part 1 has photo descriptions added. Not an easy feat, 300 photos. Will try to do part 2 tomorrow.

Went out to do more home shopping. Wanted to view the Rinnai cooker hood and hob, but the authorised dealer near my place didn't have any show pieces. So sad... Planning to go maybe to the main office to take a look, but another time lah.

Then we dropped by at M's to discuss (bargain) about the proposal. Hee... got her thinking of how to get us to sign. Hopefully she zi4 dong4 a bit and waive off the things that we brought up. Keeping fingers crossed.

After that we headed down to furniture sight-see. First we were at the Furniture Mall at Beach Road, to see Mondi. Very happy with what we saw, and have almost settled on quite a few items. They were having sale, and the prices were quite reasonable. Plus this salesperson, Mel, was willing to give us some discount if we bought more stuff. Settled on the Betto set, that comes with an L-shaped sofa, and a side chaise lounge. Only not quite settled on the colour. Love the chilli-red colour as seen on the online catalog, but don't know if it will go well with the house colour scheme. If not we might go for the caramel colour, coz it comes only in three colours, chilli-red, caramel and dark brown.

For the coffee table, I fell in love with the Vento piece, which is in black with a glittered glass top. Second place was the Vega piece, which has a clear glass top with chrome legs. The choice of the coffee table will probably depend on the colour of the Betto set, but since the Vento can go with the caramel and red colours, I probably might settle for that.

They also had very nice dinettes. Boo and I loved the Novvy set straight away, which is black glass top dining table. For the chairs, we can choose between the Novvy or the Cambio chairs but at the moment we haven't made up our mind. I might want to go for the Cambio to contrast the squareness of the Novvy table; we'll see when the time comes to make the decision.

We left with Mel's contact, and headed towards Massimmo down in Ubi. However, no matter how the Farfalle had intrigued me through the online catalog, the actual piece was disappointing, more so after viewing the Mondi pieces. Furthermore, the price seemed more expensive than the Mondi ones, and Mondi was full leather, whereas the Massimmo ones were fabric based. So in less than 10 minutes, we left the Massimmo showroom. Ha, we didn't even need to pay for parking since we had left within the grace period.

Heading back home, Boo told me that the choice was mine, but I think both of us had been more impressed by Mondi. Even my parents were impressed by the Mondi sets, so I guess the answer is pretty obvious. So now is just settling on the colour after discussing with M on the colour scheme.

Furniture almost done, just left the bar stools and the study furniture to go. And my throw cushions. But next up is my fridge and my cooker hood and hob to be settled first.

Obnoxious people... and other matters

2007-02-02T23:45:00.001+08:00

Life is really made up of all sorts of people. Like what my parents used to say, it takes all sorts of people to make the world go round. Haiz, I admit this is the variety of life, but gosh! some people can just be so obnoxious!

First irritating person I got was this fella who was buying some med for his girlfriend. Granted he ain't local, so may have some problems in communication, but it got a little irritating after a while when he kept not answering my questions directly and made me guess instead. I ended up being so frustrated with the never-ending vague answers that I just asked him whether he understood what I was saying. It is one thing to say yes to everything, but it doesn't lead to anything if you don't mention specifics, like whether the cold was a runny or stuffy nose, the answer would be "ya". What kind of answer is that? Later when I realised that he also wasn't very sure what the girlfriend had, I told him to contact her so that I could get the exact symptoms. And I realised she also spoke in the same "kind of language", with things like "I don't have a runny or stuffy nose, but I have a cold." Duh... don't people know what a cold is? In the end I had to be very direct and told the girl to just answer my questions exactly and not give vague or misleading answers in order for me to help her.

Second person came to ask me for something for yan4 zhen4. What the hell is that? Ha, my china ain't that good ok? At first I thought was something to test for ovulation. Then she gave me a frustrated look. Come on gal, describe further so people can understand lor. We Sg Chinese don't use the same terminology as you foreign Chinese. Then she mentioned about heavy discharge that always occurs before menstruation. Duh... that is kind of normal lor... discharge texture and volume depicts the part of the menstrual cycle in a rough fashion. In the end, it was actually for vaginal thrush. I nearly wanted to scream! Since when does one always get thrush everytime before the menstruation? If you do, you must be constantly suffering from the thrush and not have done anything about it!

Third obnoxious person of the day was someone who just didn't seem to listen to what was said. First she asked if an emulsion was a moisturizer. After I gave her the answer, which incidentally, it was, she asked what was the difference between the rebalancing soothing emulsion and mattifying fluid moisturizer. As mentioned on the box, it was stated for different facial types. After I pointed that out, she again asked whether the emulsion was a moisturizer. Hey lady, didn't you even hear me? Plus the tone of voice was pretty skeptical, like she didn't think I knew what I was talking about. If you don't believe me, why still ask me? Sheesh! And after all the talk, she remained skeptical and ended up just walking out on me. WTF.

On a different note, I think that teenage sex is really starting to get rampant and scary. I actually had a teenager approach me regarding pregnancy test kits. This ain't uncommon, I see increasing number of teenagers coming to buy such stuff, sometimes in their school uniform some more. Makes me really wonder what kind of upbringing they have since no one seems to highlight to them the fact that what they see on the media about teenage sex is not right (call me old-fashion) and has dire consequences. Plus don't they realise that they bring shame not only to themselves, but also to their schools when they come in their uniforms?

Ok, enough morals. Regarding this teenager, he came to ask me how soon one could detect a pregnancy. He also asked me whether a girl could be impregnated if withdrawal method was used. It made me wonder whether schools still hold sex education talks. Clearly it seemed that the teenagers are in dire need of sex education talks when they enter puberty. A lot of them think that pregnancy can be detected immediately after intercourse. Wow... if only such miracles could happen. Unfortunately, the hormone HCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) ain't produced in sufficient quantities till some time later. So usually the earliest one can check for pregnancy is one week after the estimated day of missed menses. Also, I think quite a fair bit of people think that withdrawal is a reliable method of contraception. Sorry... but pre-ejaculate can also contain sperms, so you still can impregnate a person even through withdrawal method. Hey, don't you know that there is such a thing as the condom? If you really want to do it, then use the condom lah!

I think the best way to deter kids from having unprotected sex is really to show them videos on abortion. I remember when I was in secondary school, we were shown 2 videos. One on the typical abortion procedure and another on late abortions. Granted it was pretty gross, but the videos did make me think twice about sex before marriage. Perhaps such videos should be shown again to schoolkids to make them aware about what happens during abortion so they wouldn't do things without considering the consequences.

Haiz... it really does take all sorts of people to make the world go round.

Irresponsible...

2007-01-31T23:43:00.001+08:00

Hate people for being irresponsible, especially when their actions affect others greatly. This colleague of mine, SW, was supposed to cover my store in the morning since I'm working afternoon shift this week. Instead she didn't turn up at all! And her excuse was that, she didn't know that she was rostered at another store! On top of that, she didn't even have the decency to call my store up to apologise to my staff, who had to bear the brunt of the scolding for her no-show. And because of her irresponsibility, I had to rush down to work as soon as possible so that my staff would not have to continue getting reprimanded by the customers.

I don't see it as an viable excuse that she didn't see herself rostered elsewhere. In the first place, her rostered time at her own store was only 6 hours, so which means to say she definitely had been placed somewhere else since we usually have to work a minimum of 8.5 hours a day. The fact that she didn't bother to check makes her irresponsible.

Secondly, I heard from her staff that not only did she not turn up at my store, she left her own store early to "claim hours"! Since when does an executive get to claim non-rostered hours, as according to our company's SOP's? Only unless you have overlapping hours and someone else is there to cover your duties can you get to "claim hours" so to speak, since extra hours are actually deemed as part of a responsibility of an executive. Plus furthermore, SW is actually a SIC! All the more no excuse to do such a thing! I'm just really disgusted with her total lack of responsibility and don't understand how someone like her can be given the responsibility of being a SIC. Hmph!

Because of her, I had to work almost a full-shift day of 10 hours, making it feel like working 2 full-shift days consecutively since I worked full 12-hour shift yesterday. Sheesh!

Washer & dryer

2007-01-29T00:14:00.001+08:00

We've purchased our washer and dryer! Yippee... Went down to Parkway just now to take a look at the Mayer showroom and realised that other than the advertised Indesit model that was on offer, the other one that I was eyeing also had a special promotional package. So in the end, we just topped up $50 bucks to get the model of my choice for the washer plus the promotional dryer model for $1099.

Wanted to get a better dryer under the Ariston brand, but after hearing some facts from the saleslady, I realised that the extra functions in the Ariston brand weren't really necessary at all. Ha, so can save some $$ and get the promotional package and still meet our needs. Isn't that killing two birds with one stone?

Went down to Harvey Norman and Best Denki to look at the fridges. Saw the model I was interested in from Samsung, but ended up wanting the upper end model, which was slightly bigger but one extra function, which was that it had the cool curtain system, which gives even cooling via a three-dimensional system. This would actually help to conserve more energy. On top of that, it also had a little display to show the temperatures of the fridge and freezer, and you can set the thermostat to vacation mode for the fridge and super freeze mode for the freezer. Think I've set my mind on this model, which coincidentally is also going for $1099, but it will only be budgeted as next month's purchase since the promo is on-going till next month. Shan't put so much pressure on our pockets.

Promotion crazy

2007-01-28T12:56:00.001+08:00

Flipped through an array of promotional deals last night. Apparently, there was a lot of ads on the newspapers yesterday and I only got to flip through them when I came home from work. Coz of that, I also came online to surf, hoping to see better online deals.

The Mondi lifestyle advertised a sale! Cool... plus they have 0% installment plans for certain credit cards. Can tompang my parents since I don't own any OCBC, DBS, POSB or Diners credit cards. Hee... still eying the Betto sofa. Dunno when the promo will last though... thinking of going to view next week or something. The husband isn't in the mood today.

Then there was this advertisement for Brandt cooker hood and hobs. Apparently they have a promo for hob, oven and hood for $1099, and if you want a chimney hood you have to top up an extra $350. Offer till end of February... Thought that was a good one, till I came across another one from Rinnai online. However ain't sure whether the promo is still on since the ad was on 1st Sept 2006! May have to call them to check. They apparently have a range of hoods and hobs at promotional prices, and I fell in love with one set, which is going for $1055. If the offer is still on, then I shall call M to speak with them, so that she can also get some commission. Ain't I nice?

There was also a promo for Indesit washer and dryer from Mayer. But the offer washer has no spin function, so I'm a little wary. Went to look round the site and found a better model with more functions for a top up of $130. Ain't happy with the promo dryer too, coz too little functions. Then I found an Ariston one, which had more functions for an extra $110. That would be a whooping $1488 for both washer and dryer, compared to the advertised $1048 for the promo one. Ain't sure if they are the best bargain, but will keep in view. After all, heard they ain't bad, and even Panasonic washing machines ain't cheap as well, even though they advertised a year-end promo.

Went online to search for fridges, but they ain't cheap. Even the Panasonic promotion has their 468L fridge going for $1099, just because of the new Magic Top technology. Don't really need to pay extra for some cool new tech stuff. So I went to search Samsung online, which is seemingly good since my aunt is using that fridge and it's been working well all these years. Found one cool 470L one in matt silver, but no price mentioned. However all Samsung models seem to have this new silver nano health system technology. Dunno how good that is. May find time to go view at Courts or Best Denki before I decide.

Aston's Specialties

2007-01-26T23:29:00.001+08:00

Went down to Katong just now to our favourite tailor to get my dad's and hubby's pants made. Very lucky we went down today, coz the tailor told us we should be able to get the pants before CNY. Hurray!

After the tailor's, we walked down old East Coast Road to head towards Aston's Specialties. It was featured in the Sunday Times food section and was given a 4.5-star rating. My dad said that even before the feature, the queue for the place was already quite long, so we wanted to give it a try.

True enough, when we went there, there was already a long queue, and it was past normal dinner hours then, around 8.30pm. We waited in queue for a good 45 minutes before we got a chance to order and take our seats. Then we waited for another 15 minutes before we got our food. So total wait was 1 hour.

Well, it was worth the wait. The steak smelt so good that we just attacked the moment we got our food. Maybe coz we were super hungry as well, especially Boo. Well, it was only when we finished our food did I realise that I had totally forgotten to take photos of our delicious rib-eye. Haiz... too bad. Maybe next time I guess.

Anyway, we will definitely be going back there again, coz not only is the food good, but the price was reasonable as well. Only thing is that they only accept cash. Not very good. Well, perhaps they might want to consider accepting credit cards soon since they are intending to expand. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

Headache over renovation works

2007-01-26T14:06:00.001+08:00

Phwah, didn't know the amount of headaches pondering over quotes for reno works can give me. Like I said earlier, I'm pretty set over M, but argh, the price!!! Though according to latest issues of Home & Decor, the pricing seems to be pretty reasonable comparing with featured homes of similar sizing. Wondering if I'm really gonna get what I'm paying for or is there more to squeeze out of M. I need my calculator!

Found my ideal sofa online, and I think I might just go with that. You can view it here. Think it's really funky and stylo, something different. Was actually looking at another piece from Mondi's online catalog, but I think that is really gonna be very pricey coz it's a full leather L-shaped sofa. The husband is turned off by its colour on the online catalog, coz it is in bright red. Haa... But little does he know, I just might consider red for the Massimmo one... hehe. With such a stylo piece of sofa, may just go for a plain and simple coffee table that they have as well. Well, won't make a confirmed decision till I go see the furniture at their showroom. Keeping my fingers crossed...

Saw a cool piece of dining furniture on Ikea site, called Fusion. The entire 4 chairs can fit under the table and totally decrease the amount of space they take up. Very funky. Like the idea of maximising the space that I have. Will go down to Ikea to see when I have time, after all there's one very near my home. Can also find some throw cushions while I'm there. Hee...

So much to think about. Still gotta hunt for furniture for my study room, and a nice study couch. Saw one chaise on the Massimmo site as well, but that can wait. My study table and chairs are more important. Then there's the bookcase for our books (we have a lot), and a nice console for the husband's boom-boom box and 400+ CD collection for the music room. And home appliances... washing machine, dryer, fridge, cooking hood and hob, microwave, TV, vacuum cleaner... The list is endless! If only our bank account was also endless...

Jia Xiang kolo mee

2007-01-24T11:10:00.001+08:00

Went down to Beauty World to meet with M to get our second quote. We were there pretty early so we decided to explore a bit and maybe get a drink. It ended up with us eating lunch instead, despite having had a late breakfast.

We walked along the shophouses across from Beauty World. And then we saw this shop. Pretty small, but the queue was long, so we guessed the food should be good if there people queueing for food. Thus we went to join the crowd.

We ordered their famous dry kolo mee, with a luohan longan drink for me and coffee for my hubby. Noodles were ok, not really fantastic, just that all the flavouring came from the meat, which probably had lots of MSG added in. Wanton was a little overcooked for my liking, and the prawns were soft, no kick when eating coz they weren't crunchy. All in all, we felt that it wasn't worth the price we paid. So much for relying on the crowd to judge on the food.

Mark at the store waiting to be served

Kopi

Luohan Longan drink

Half eaten kolo mee

Wanton with prawn soup

Irritatingly rude

2007-01-23T00:25:00.001+08:00

Find customers getting more and more irritatingly rude. Terrible bunch of people, really reflects badly on Sg, especially when a foreigner is nearby. WTH.

Had this customer who had to come just during the first hour of my day to spoil the entire day for me. And it had to happen in front of some foreigner. He came to ask about hair dye allergy. Or rather how to tell the doctor he suspects he got hair dye allergy. Which is a very weird way to phrase the question. But had to be a little tolerant. Then I told him to tell the doctor what he told me. Then he asked me what to apply, thinking can save some money if not need to see doctor. But the medication is a prescription item, so I said that he would need to see a doctor to get a prescription if it really was a hair dye allergy, since there wasn't any over-the-counter steroidal scalp lotions. So I asked him if it was for himself, and what were the symptoms he was experiencing. And his reply was that he used this brand for so long, this is the first time he experienced itch after using it. So I asked if the entire scalp area was affected, in which his reply was sometimes here itchy, sometimes there. Duh... If if really is a hair dye allergy, it would be the entire scalp itching and swelling up, and probably the face may be affected. So I mentioned that maybe he didn't wash off the dyd properly after using it, which can cause an itch to happen since continued contact with peroxide and dye might irritate the skin. With that he started to raise his voice, saying that he washed his hair with all kinds of shampoo and that it didn't help, and that I didn't know anything so try not to play doctor. And he ended the conversation with a "bodoh", which means stupid.

Haiz, the price to pay for being nice. I just had to swallow my pride in front of the other foreign customer and not retort at his outburst, giving myself the excuse that he was an old man, with probably limited comprehension of the English language, so perhaps that was why the entire thing was like a conversation between a chicken and a duck.

What was more surprising was that the foreign customer looked at me at shook her head, complementing me on my ability to shrug off the entire matter and just move on, and she even said that she didn't understand what the big fuss was about when he clearly was the one not understanding me. At last... someone understands my plight! Nearly wanted to hug her there and then! Really seldom see people who undersand the difficulties of being in the service industry. Thank you Aunty, for making my day.

Later when I met up with my colleagues for our meal break, I realised I wasn't the only one having customer troubles. One of my colleagues had just had a difficult customer as well. His Listerine pocket paks tasted funny and he was demanding to know why. So they explained and tried to placate him by offering to do a refund. Funny thing is, he wasn't satisfied with the refund and wanted something more. But the thing is, I don't think he knew what he wanted, probably wanted to blow up the entire mess so he could get something out of it. In the end, the entire thing escalated into him wanting to bring it up to MOH and the supplier of the Listerine pocket paks and HQ. And that he wasn't happy coz he wasn't given the service he wanted, or something to that effect. Which I feel is a big duh, since he didn't know what he wanted to begin with. Just really ridiculous. This guy should just reflect upon this incident, and he would probably realise what a fool he painted himself to be. Sigh...

Moral of it all: if you wanna make a complaint, make sure you know what you want. Don't keep asking the service people what they are going to do about xxx problem, coz all of us are just going to follow the SOPs of the company. If you want more, just say it, since you are already that thick-skinned to kick up an entire fuss over a small matter, so you can be seen and heard by everyone else in the shop. And at the end of it all, if you do manage to get what you want, then just leave it as it is and don't make life any more difficult for the poor service personnal that served you. Coz don't forget the saying, "what goes around, comes around", so if you do something bad unto others, something bad might just come back to you.

Mediacorp report on Muse

2007-01-20T12:52:00.000+08:00

Found a report on the Muse concert on Mediacorp, with close up pictures of the band. Perhaps we being oldies in the crowd, lingered at the back because we didn't want to join the screaming and pushing fans in the front. Which was good, coz we didn't realise that the crazy fans in the front were causing trouble. We did notice however that there were people throwing empty plastic water bottles and red and green cyalume sticks around. Maybe they should consider not serving alcoholic beverages at such concerts coz evidently there are underaged people in the crowd as well as people who can't hold their liquer well.

Oh... and the last song of the concert was Stockholm Syndrome.

To read the full report, the Mediacorp article is here.

Ultimate hush...

2007-01-20T00:43:00.001+08:00

Wah liao, I spoke too soon yesterday. Today was much worse! When I went in at 1pm, there was not even a single rx. And it continued to be like that till 5.45pm, when the first rx of the day came in. Ended the day with only 2 rx. Could quietly spend the entire day counting my loose tabs in preparation for my stock take without having anyone bother me. Argh... Excuse me everyone, are you being considerate because of the impending stock take, that's why you do not want to disturb me?

Quiet day

2007-01-19T01:02:00.001+08:00

Day was really bad, really quiet. Had loads of time to do my own paperwork, order stocks at my own leisure and clear stocks without having much interruption, for most part of the morning and afternoon. Not a very good sign, considering that the weather was very good and no rain during the period of time.

Despite not having people bugging me, I was bugging myself to start counting for my stock take. It was this time when this regular moody bitch of a person must come in to interrupt me when I was in the middle of counting 300++ tabs of bloody amitriptylline.

To this demented woman: no doubt I would have stopped to serve you, but the least you could have done is just wait till I have a round number that is easy to remember. In fact i was nearing the end of the count, and you couldn't even wait one bloody minute for me to finish. Plus you even had the freaking cheek to tell me off for not stopping my count immediately to serve you. WTF. You just had to wait for me to tell you off to try counting those 300++ tabs and then have me interrupt you in the midst, to see how it felt like, right? Every time you come you just have this bloody sickening air of importance and impatience that just sickens the very air around you. Can't you be just nice for once? Do you have some bloody underlying psychiatric problem, or are you experiencing perpetual hormonal mood swings every darn week? Perhaps I should have been counting some mood stabilizers instead like lamotrigine and then just chuck one in your mouth to improve your sickening mood. Or probably an ill-mannered hag like you just has had no proper manners inculcated in you.

Anyway, this entire incident just destroyed my desire to continue my count, which was really bad coz it was really the perfect day to do a count since there was hardly any crowd. (Bad for business though.) Which was not very good coz despite a slow day, I didn't get to eat lunch till 4pm. Really detest how such terribly irregular hours worsens my gastric problem.

Had loads of stock to clear though, which was just as well, and just when the second batch of warehouse stock came in, the crowd started to pour in, finally. In a short span of 2 hours, I managed to amass the same number of rx as I had accumulated for the first 8 hours of the day. Haa... talk about sudden influx. Despite the incoming crowd, it couldn't make up for the terrible slow morning. So I guess today's sales would be the ultimate low for the week. Cannot confirm it till I go back to work tomorrow though, but in my heart, I think it will really hit rock bottom. Let's just hope tomorrow would be a better day.

The one with the interesting m/v

2007-01-18T00:08:00.000+08:00

Muse - Unintended

Another Muse song that I like

2007-01-17T23:28:00.000+08:00

Muse - Sing for absolution

My favourite song from Muse

2007-01-17T10:59:00.000+08:00

Muse - Starlight

Muse - Live in SG

2007-01-17T01:05:00.000+08:00

Had a terrific evening at Fort Canning Park today. Weather proved itself to hold up for the concert we had been looking forward to, even though we were well-prepared for it, bringing ponchos, raincoats and umbrellas. Halellujah!

As usual like all concerts, it started late. So I entertained myself by looking around at the people who were attending. I can easily say, my hubby and I were the worst dressed of all. Coz we were so prepared for the worst, we just turned up in berms, t-shirts and sandals. Talk about "lok kok". We made ourselves comfy by laying one of the ponchos on the ground and sat ourselves down to wait for things to start. Then came more people, who irritatingly enough, stepped on our poncho. There was this gal who was with a bunch of gals on my right who kept moving up and down, like some ADHD kid who can't keep still and kept bending down to talk to her friend, who was seated on the floor, inevitably flashing her huge butt in my face. Then there was this other group of gals with one guy, who took advantage of our poncho to put their bags and other personal belongings. Talk about invasion on personal space. On top of that, some of them were smoking and one actually threw her cigarette butt right at the edge of our poncho! Bloody inconsiderate bitch! If my poncho had caught fire, I'll really slap her in the face. Their photo (which I've altered slightly so as not to be so mean) is here.

Finally, the concert began, almost one hour late. Everyone yelled and screamed, the typical setting of such concerts, and things got really exciting. Haa, especially for me, who didn't know that this band existed till my hubby wanted to get tickets for this event! Loved the music, though I really couldn't hear what Matt, the lead singer, was saying at all. Well, always the case for such concerts I suppose. Anyway, we caught a video of the opening song, which I found out is called "Knights of Cydonia", which you can view here. Also found a music video on YouTube which you can view.

Things did get pretty rowdy coz when they were singing "Bliss", some gigantic balloons filled with confetti were thrown down from the back, and everyone started trying to lay their hands to help keep the balloons in the air. I had my fair share of touching the balloons too. It was later that I think Dominic the drummer mentioned that we had to burst all the balloons before they would carry on with the next song. Fun eh?

As you know, all good things have to come to an end, and after about slightly more than an hour, they sang their last song, which I have yet to find out what the title is. Haa... Then it was toodles to all, despite lots of crazy fans in front chanting for an encore. Or wait? Did they disappear first, then after an encore chant, appeared and sang 2 more songs first before ending the night? I can't remember, but I think it was the latter. Anywayz, the concert got me a little curious and as I'm typing this blog, I'm also reading up about them on Wikipedia... hehe...

Oh, forgot to mention. There was this really funny dude whom I couldn't resist taking a photo of, coz he was really so engrossed and absorbed by the music that he just danced and danced, in his old weird style. Really take my hat off to such people who don't give a damn to what people around them think so long they are enjoying themselves. We should really learn from such people, I think.

View my photos here.

Renovator hunting 2

2007-01-15T00:49:00.001+08:00

Just met up with one of the renovators we visited last week, M, the one I was impressed with. She had already come up with her proposal and quotation, despite having been down with the flu. Am very pleased with the layout that she proposed, especially the kitchen, which came as a surprise when she proposed an island cooking area, right smack in the middle of the kitchen. We also did some changes, like the moving of the walk-in wardrobe to some other part of the master bedroom. There were other pretty cool suggestions, like the intro of graftstone on certain parts of the cozy corner, as highlights. The only thing that was not that nice was the quotation, but I guess the pricing would change due to the adjustments that we made. Looking forward to see the adjusted quote, but I think I kind of set my mind on her, coz she and I seem to have a connection somehow.

Boo wants to keep his options open still. We'll see...

My wedding photos

2007-01-14T12:29:00.001+08:00

Finally, after a year of procrastination, I've put up the finer photos of my wedding day. View the selection here.

Scariest moment of my life...

2007-01-14T01:23:00.001+08:00

The day was busy, unlike what I thought it would be, despite the rain still pouring. Had my first rx within the first 5 minutes of work. Then customers kept pouring in, like the rain. Think they realised that it probably would still be raining for the next few days, so like it or not, they'd better get their necessities to stock up. Time flew by very fast, and the crowd kept coming in at the steady flow.

Then at 12.15pm, my mobile rang. Judging from the ringtone, I knew it was from home, and that meant something was amiss. But I was busy with a queue of six people, and right smack in the middle of counting tablets. When it stopped, I thought it wasn't that bad so I continued serving the customers. That was when my store phone rang, and there wasn't anyone available to help me answer the phone. When the phone rang a third time, I immediately stopped talking to the person I was with to answer the phone.

It was then my mum's frantic voice came through the line, telling me that my dad had bumped his head and it was bleeding profusely, and refusing to clot for the last 10 minutes or so. She was unable to get a cab due to the rain and wanted me to rush home to send him to the hospital. In a surprising state of calm, I actually told my mum to cool down and not panic and try to call for a cab again whilst I rush through the queue of people before getting back to her. What could I do? I was 20 minutes walk away from home, and even if I could somehow shoo my customers away, the chances of her getting a cab and reaching the hospital first would be faster than me rushing home in the rain to fetch them.

After that, I told my last few customers that I had a family emergency and had to rush off, so as not to offend them by serving them in a hurried manner. Thankfully, they were pretty understanding, even the last two long-winded customers, whom I had to urge on with increasing impatience to hurry up . To any one of them who is reading this blog by any chance, I'm very sorry if I sounded rude and impatient at that point in time, for the only thing on my mind after the call was to rush to my parents' aid immediately.

After I cleared the last one, I closed up and made two calls, one to my manager and another to my in-charge to let them know what happened. Then I called my mum back to find out where they were, and to my surprise, my dad was actually driving himself to the darn hospital with my mum holding on a stack of tissue to his injury to stop the bleeding! To any one who knows first aid, this is probably the most ridiculous thing to do, coz any person with head injuries could easily pass out at any time, and having my dad behind the wheel was simply unacceptable.

Nagging on the phone I knew made no difference, since they were already on the way down to the hospital, so I just told them I'd meet them at the A&E and took the train down instead. (Luckily the darn hospital is only one stop away from my work place.) Upon reaching there, my heart skipped a beat to see my dad have his head totally bandaged up like a Sikh.

We waited for our turn to see the doctor, and after all the tests, x-rays, we were relieved to find out that there wasn't any fracture or otherwise, that it was just a head laceration. With a tetanus jab and some suturing, he was discharged with tetracycline cream and mefenamic acid, and given an appointment to remove his stitches in 5 days time.

Stubborn as a mule, he wouldn't let me drive him home, and instead drove me back to work, despite a throbbing headache. Couldn't do any thing about it coz he was so insistent, and I didn't want to aggravate his pain anymore, so I just conceded. But before I got off the car, I nagged at him to sleep out the entire afternoon to ease the pain.

Then it was back to the fast pace of work for the next few hours, before the crowd subsided and allowed me to get my pulse back to normal with all the day's excitement.

What a day...

Surprising fact: When I helped a customer check his blood glucose monitor to see if it was working using myself as a guinea pig, I found that after all the excitement, my blood glucose level was at an ultimate low of 3.2mmol/l. It was a miracle I didn't faint with such a low blood glucose level...

Rainy day, meant more for sleeping

2007-01-12T22:15:00.001+08:00

Hated waking up early this morning to go for meeting. Weather was meant more for sleeping in than having to get up at an ungodly hour of 6.45am. Then had to rush to HQ for the meeting in a train full of people who had the same thoughts as me: that the bed was more inviting than the workplace.

Everyone was late, including the breakfast. That made everything seem very draggy since there was no coffee to perk people up for the first hour of the morning. Meeting room was freezing as usual, since the air-conditioner was on, with the rain outside making the temperatures inside dip further. Regretted not bringing my cardigan. Topics were of course dry, other than the interesting talk on HPV, which seemed like a real eye-opener. On top of that, topics were made more boring coz of our new PPD, CWL, who continually dragged all topics with her long-windedness in repeating everything unnecessarily so that she could be heard. Makes me wonder if she's ever heard of the idiom about empty vessels...

Rushed back to work after morning meeting, and was deluded that the day would be busy since I had a pretty busy 1st hour in the shop, just settling rx. After two hours, things started to dwindle, and I soon found time to clear my paperwork, settle the merchandises and do all my normal non service-related work. Then it became clear to me that the rain had once again driven off all the customers and made me yearn for a nice warm bed to rest my head upon.

Crossing my fingers in hope that the rain tomorrow would lessen so that the 12-hour shift tomorrow will not crawl by so slowly...

Horoscope for the Goat in the Year of the Fire Pig

2007-01-12T00:18:00.001+08:00

It is not an auspicious year for a person born under the Goat sign, with obstacles and hurdles aplenty in life. Some of the foreign connections may present nasty surprises, with mean people from faraway places undermining your work. You may also face accusations and gossips in the office. The good news is that a solutions star is present among the many inauspicious ones. However this star is more effective when you contribute effort in working against the problems. When the effect of the star is activated with your own effort it will bless you with more and more will power. Thus not all is lost though the outlook appears bleak at first. The more you take on the problems head on, the more you will be able to summon the power of the auspicious star. Hence, grit, courage and resolve will help you ride through the year.

Wealth is not entirely negative. The talents you demonstrate in your work or business can protect your wealth flow. However there are chances of getting summons from the authorities.

Romance shall encounter many forms of challenges, thus you have to summon the resilient nature of the Goat in order to ride the tide. A sense of hollowness shall rise, but do understand that it is only temporary. Trust, love and care are the weapons to ensure victory over bad luck.

Phwah... must tread cautiously next year...

Rainy day, yet we accomplished so many things...

2007-01-11T22:17:00.001+08:00

Day started off lazing around, being unwilling to wake up. But eventually we had to, coz it was Shin's annual vet visit day.

Struggled to bring him to the vet in the crazy rainy weather. Started raining very heavily the exact moment we had to leave the house for the vet. Took only one golf umbrella at first then realised that the umbrella, no matter how big it was, would not be able to shelter the three of us (Boo around too to help). So in the end we had to return to get another golf umbrella.

By the time we reached, narrowly avoiding accidents like bumping into the pillar with that gigantic umbrella and nearly falling off the overhead-bridge, we were half-soaked, Shin almost totally wet at the face. He just casually shook all the water off his body and looked at me with that "What's next?" eager-for-adventure look. We set off in the direction of the vet, while Boo went to settle the food stuff and other necessities.

Visit was a little too good to be true, when the vet told me that recent studies found that the doggy vaccines had be found in two separate studies to last for up to three years, which meant that he didn't need to get his injections till 2009. So we just had our routine check, with him calmly though a little uncomfortably allowing the vet to "sodomise" him to check his anal sacs and prostate. She also checked his ribs, stomach and ears to make sure all was fine. Then she proclaimed that he was in terrific health and that all we needed was just to continue with his Revolution (for heartworm prevention) and make sure he was back annually for check-ups to ensure all was well. With that we just paid up, bought his next three-month supply of Revolution and set off.

After we dropped him off home and had a hurried lunch, we rushed to watch "Pan's Labyrinth". Check out my review here.

Boo also gave in to the temptation of buying a new phone, and we did so after the show down at TM Hello! shop. Being impressed by my SE K800i, he got one for himself, though in brown, kind of unique, as you don't often see this model in this colour, plus this colour ain't listed in the official SE site. Anyway, I managed to take some shots of him playing with his new phone and struggling to transfer pics via bluetooth from his old K700i to his new K800i. And to do this, we went to get dinner at the Organic Cafe in CS. Here's the pics:

Boo struggling with his old phone

Boo with his new phone

My grilled beef tenderloin with organic pasta in organic mushrooms sauce

A new updated wish list

2007-01-08T21:56:00.001+08:00

If you are on my blogspot site, you will notice that I have updated my wish list. If you haven't, here's the new list anywayz...

My very own home - attained! Yay! Now just waiting for the keys...
Sony Ericsson K800i - bought! Yay!
Find the perfect renovator
Get an affordable 40-inch LCD TV that is fully HDTV functional and not just HDTV-ready
Get an affordable washing machine and dryer (separate)
Get a terrific and economical fridge
Get a Panasonic Inverter Convection Microwave Oven with Steam function
Find a terrific air-conditioning inverter system that has at least 34
BTU that is up to cooling my large hall and is affordable

As you can see... clearly my new list is all appliance related, coz I'm having a nightmare sourcing for things for my new home. And I haven't even got my keys! Sheesh... talk about kiasu...

Renovator hunting

2007-01-07T12:19:00.001+08:00

Went renovator hunting yesterday. Pretty tiring, and not very productive, coz we only managed to cover 2.5 companies. Must say I'm very impressed by the first company, which was recommended by our agent. M, the design consultant was very professional in her approach and really impressed and amazed me with her quick thinking as she could come up with various ideas on the spot. When I told her I was thinking of having a walk-in wardrobe, she could come up with a design just based on the floor plan within seconds. Whatever ideas I had, I just had to say what I wanted and she would already understand what I meant. As if we had some kind of telepathy going on. Really goes to show how good she is. She's so updated with her contacts that she could even give a quick rough average on how much the total costs would be.

Second company we went was because there was an advertisement on the radio by Hamish Brown. So we decided to check it out. Ended up not being very spectacular plus the sales personnel were so slack, lazing around in the office. Didn't have a very good feel about the place, so we left after just taking a look.

Third place we went was another one that had been advertising quite a lot on media. So we decided to see what they had to offer. Showroom looked pretty big and impressive, but I was less impressed by the sales person, who didn't seem to have the creativity and quick-thinking that M had from the first company. Plus when approached with the same question as M with regards to the walk-in wardrobe, he wasn't as fast in his thinking and even said that it might be difficult to do coz of the space constraint. He even asked us to consider hacking our store room to make space for the walk-in wardrobe. The other ideas I had when mentioned to him, took him quite a while before he understood what I meant. Goes to show the difference in calibre.

Well, decision ain't final till all the quotations come in, plus we are still going to look around for a few more, and awaiting some via email. And we do have some time on our hands right now coz we won't get our key till end March/early April. But some how, personally, my mind is pretty much set on M, coz I'm really impressed by her. Let's see how things go.

Trust

2007-01-04T00:54:00.001+08:00

What is trust, I wonder... Everyone in the world needs trust. You give your loved ones and closest friends trust readily. Those not so close to you may gain your trust after a while. But what is it that makes one trust another? Is it because you have the utmost confidence that no matter what happens, that someone that you trust will never be the one to hurt you, or do anything against you, and that that someone will stand by you in good or bad times?

Then what is misplaced trust? When the person you thought you could trust the most suddenly turned against you? Under what circumstance can that occur, and for what reason, big or small?

It can be hurting sometimes when the person you love and trust the most suddenly turns against you over something so miniscule that you wonder how suddenly all the years of love and trust can suddenly be overturned by one minor incident. Does the want of "face" and pride mean so much that it can negate all other aspects of a human relationship? It is disconcerting to realise that through it all, no matter what happens, the love for oneself may be more important than anything and everything else.

What is your take on trust?

Binge eating to usher in the New Year

2007-01-02T22:57:00.001+08:00

Phwah... ushered in the New Year by eating non-stop. Feel like a walking barrel... stomach entirely bloated. To top it all, my poor digestive system ain't able to cope with the excessive amounts of food, so I've been having constant diarrhea to rid myself of the excess food. What a way to go...

First binge was on our wedding anniversary at Pontini's, with subsequent tv snack supper in the room, and buffet breakfast the following morning.

Second binge was yesterday, New Year's Day set lunch at the Raffles Town Club's Dining Room which consisted of buffet appetizers, soup, main course (which you can choose from the following: braised leg of lamb, pan-fried salmon, chicken breast and beef tenderloin), and desert which was Panna Cotta with blueberry pie and raspberry coulette with exotic fruits.

New Year's Day desert @ The Dining Room
Photo taken with Sony Ericsson K800i

Last binge was just now, to celebrate my dad's birthday, at PeraMakan, one of our favourite haunts that serve authentic Peranakan food down at Joo Chiat Road. Menu included assam fish head, hati babi (pork liver wrapped up in membrane), beef rendang, nonya chap chye (mixed vegetables done nonya style), sambal brinjal, seafood otak otak, ayam buah keluak (chicken with buah keluak, a type of nut) and bakwan kepiting (minced pork ball soup served with bamboo shoots in soup), and for desert, chendol (normal or with durian) and apom kaya/durian. What a spread...

Guess my new year's resolution should be to fast and exercise to burn off all the excess calories... argh.

Farewell 2006

2006-12-31T22:58:00.001+08:00

2006 has come and gone so fast, in a split second, it is the last day of the year. It has been a pretty happening year for me, both good and bad, and I guess the year's worth of experiences has made me grow and mature even more.

I am looking forward to next year for there are quite a number of things in stored for me. My new home will of course be my biggest project, and I am excited about the challenges ahead for me regarding the home renovations and the works. I'm also eagerly awaiting my cousin's wedding, to be held in the later part of 2007, which I think will be something special since she and her fiance plan to have it held in two countries, one in France and another one back in Sg, so two separate parties. A friend's pregnancy will also be one of the highlights next year as her baby should be due some time in May. And of course, a few good concerts along the way, like Muse, which my husband and I are attending in January.

All in all, an exciting year ahead. Can't wait for it all to happen... the anticipation is almost killing me. So goodbye 2006, you've been a rather good year to me, lots of fond memories, and hello 2007, may you have more good stuff in stored for me.

Happy New Year!

Our 1st wedding anniversary

2006-12-27T23:38:00.001+08:00

Pontini's
Photo taken with Sony Ericsson K800i
Originally uploaded by tumbletot

Celebrated our anniversary back at the hotel where we had our wedding reception. Boo made all the arrangements to have a one-night stay back at the hotel and have dinner at a lovely Italian restaurant which we had always wanted to go to but never did.

Dinner was superb. We had a 3-course meal which comprised of calamari, Presidente pizza and Spaghetti Aglio Olio with prawns. The calamari was something unique as it was more chewy than crispy. The pizza was a real deal coz the crust was super-thin and crispy, the way I like it coz it doesn't fill you up as much compared to the thick type. Spaghetti was a little disappointing though coz the serving was a little small and the pasta a little undercooked. My take on the food: if you wanna go there, just head for the pizza.

Despite a rather satisfying meal for me, Boo wasn't full naturally coz he's a much bigger eater. So we ended up ordering tv snacks later in the night, comprising of a huge basket of fries, the in-house snack combo and a flask of hot chocolate. Yummy... the hot choc was really my favourite. Must learn to make it... And we ate it whilst watching the OC on the telly. Don't ask me which season, I've totally lost track of the show even though I once followed it like a huge fan.

The next morning, we had food trouble. We had already paid for the buffet breakfast at Cafe Brio's which was a whooping $50, but after the heavy late night snack, we really couldn't eat another mouthful. Not to waste our $50, we went down to have each one serving of breakfast, which to me was a total waste. Had I known we were going to have a TV snack that huge, I would really have not ordered the buffet breakfast for the morning. But too late for us, since we had already paid, better to take whatever we could than waste it all.

After breakfast, we went back to wash up and prepare to check out.

We decided to make our first trip down to the not so newly opened Vivo City. It was the new in-thing, with all the publicity and we were waiting for the hype to die down before making the trip down. Oh sheesh... such a big to-do over nothing. To me, I think the entire place is just an enlarged version of most of the shopping centres in Sg. Although, it had my favourite Ben & Jerry's. To make matters worse, I think it was the first time we encountered a change in movie time slot as we had originally intended to catch a show there. The newspapers had posted the show to be at 4.45pm, but when we were there, the only earliest available slot was 6.15pm. Not wanting to wait for so long, we decided to finish up my post-Christmas shopping, and head down to Plaza Sg to catch the show instead. What a downer... Boo and I made up our minds after this experience that our next trip to Vivo City would be months away...

Check out our photos.

Merry Christmas and Happy Anniversary!

2006-12-26T01:14:00.000+08:00

Haa... my favourite time of the year has come. Why? Coz it's Christmas! And the day after is my wedding anniversary! Two celebrations back to back...

Today's Christmas not very happening, coz we both decided to stay home and nua! I played around with the laptop and worked out a new photoblog, which you can find the link if you scroll down to my links section. Later after lunching out at Eatzi, a new subsidiary under Jack's Place, we went to buy food to prepare our very own Christmas dinner together. And we also got my Kenshin dog a Christmas present... a new toy!

After my parents left for their own dinner party, we started to work on our own dinner, my specialty which is pasta. Hee... only thing that I can cook well. Made fuscilli with peas and carrots in tomato paste, with a jiapalang host of other things, all Boo's choices. Includes canned pumpkin and leek soup, CP's frozen shrimp wanton and Taj's frozen chicken kebab. Our very own spread! After dinner desert included a pack of Lay's Sour Cream and Onions chips, whilst watching 2 DVD movies one after another: "Scoop" and "Lady in the Water". All in all... a more eventful evening... with me still toggling on the laptop and pissing him off.

Well... looking forward to tomorrow, or should I say today? Gonna spend our 1st year anniversary back at the hotel where we had our wedding reception. Yay... mini holiday...

Happy 1st year anniversary to my Boo... and may we have many many more to come...

Birthday boy & wife

2006-12-24T01:44:00.001+08:00

Photo taken with Sony Ericsson K800i
Originally uploaded by tumbletot.

Just back from Christmas cum birthday party at J's place. Dear birthday boy has his birthday on the same day as Christmas, so two-in-one celebration.

Really glad to be able to catch up with old friends to share the Christmas cheer, though it's back to work tomorrow (or should I say today since it's passed midnight?). So much for Christmas eve...

Merry Christmas everyone and happy birthday J!

Manja Kenshin

2006-12-23T16:58:00.001+08:00

Photo taken with Sony Ericsson K800i.
Originally uploaded by tumbletot.

Here's my attention-seeking doggy, Kenshin, as he snuggles into bed with my hubby, curling himself up like a ball, and making himself very comfy.

Harassment??

2006-12-23T16:15:00.000+08:00

Have this male customer who has been frequenting my shop a lot. Things started out ok, coz he is my regular customer, so sometimes I just listen to his chatter when he comes to buy things from me. But recently he has become a little too friendly that it is scaring the daylights out of me.

It all started out with him getting a huge pimple on his cheek. Being a little vain, he sort me out to get a solution to remove his pimple. A week later he came back to say that he had scarring on his cheek coz of his itchy fingers squeezing the pimple, and a stupid little sob story that because of the scar, his girlfriend left him. Ha... like the girl is really shallow, if he does have one. Anyway, he wanted to find someone to blame, so he blamed it on me. I got a little irritated, so I told him off by saying that I never did advocate him squeezing his pimple to begin with, and only asked him to apply the pimple gel that I recommended him. Plus I reprimanded him that it was his own fault to get the scar and he could not blame anyone else but himself.

With the excuse that his girlfriend left him, he tried to ask me out for a date. I turned him down instantaneously, saying that I was already married, and that to me, he was just another customer that I was trying to help, and nothing more. Plus I told him that I don't go out with customers for ethical reasons.

After this incident, I started seeing him come to the shop every day to look for me. He would come up with some lame ailment to get medication that he really didn't need like buying hair tonic when he clearly isn't balding etc. Sometimes he just came in to get a drink and would hang around for some time to find a chance to talk to me. But I was already on my guard, and would usually make myself look busy, even if I didn't have a customer to tend to. In the first place, my store is always busy and I don't really get to rest very much, so I really hate his visits as they really deprive me of getting a few minutes to breathe and relax. On top of that, he was acting very strangely desperate as he would start staring at the my counter from the other end of the store where he was queuing at the cashier.

The final straw came a few days back when he came by to get another bottle of hair tonic. He actually started the conversation like this: "Hi! Long time no see. I missed you, did you miss me?" It kind of stunned me a bit, and disgusted me totally. So I replied straight in the face that his presence or absence didn't affect me at all since he was nothing more than another customer in the shop, with which I proceeded to ignore him after handing him what he was looking for and tended to the next person in queue. He hung around for a while, trying to wait for a moment to get back to talk to me, but it didn't happen as the queue was pretty long at that point in time, so after a while he walked off. Little did I know he actually went on to disturb another one of my staff, asking her for her name and making her feel uncomfortable. This continued for the next couple of days when he would talk to my other staff, who are pretty young, and make them feel extremely uneasy and distressed, whenever he was unable to approach me.

I decided to get help from my store-in-charge to step in to protect the other staff on the shop floor. If it were just me, it was easy coz I had no qualms in telling him off if he were getting overboard. But I was worried for the rest of my staff on the shop floor, who were mostly young girls working with me part-time, and usually covered the night shift after they finished school. So my in-charge finally got a chance to meet him and talk to him about his "over-friendliness" as we both put it to the females in the store just three days ago. (It's a good thing to have a male in-charge when such incidences happen, coz it's a little difficult for females to approach such matters.) Am not totally sure what transgressed between the two of them during that short 10 minutes, but he did come by the day before and apologised to me about his remark in the context of buying another bottle of hair tonic, which I accepted with a curt nod and nothing more so as not to further encourage him.

Just hope that he does wise up and behave himself coz if not, my in-charge and I might have to take more severe action against him if he repeats his offenses again.

Home sweet home

2006-12-13T22:44:00.000+08:00

Yippee! After months of searching, we finally found our new home, our very own love nest. Granted we will probably have to wait for 3 months to get the key, and another 3 to 4 months to do renovations, before we can move in, but at least the search is over! So hurray!

Funny enough, we didn't really consider re-sale flats. Maybe coz we thought that they would require more renovation works and thus more $$ output. Oh maybe coz I was just so blinded by the new Premiere @ Tampines that I didn't look at other options. Anyway, I guess we were just swept away by the mad rush for new housing, especially the Premiere which is the first of its kind, a Design and Build Scheme joint venture under HDB and private developers. Everyone was, as a matter of fact. It was reported in the papers that when they re-opened unsold flats for walk-in buyers on a first-come-first-serve basis, there was such a mad rush that people actually fought for it. Argh, luckily, my darling didn't get involved. He was in the queue that day, but he gave up only after 15 minutes of queueing.

Well, after that day, we took things easy, and I totally was not expecting anything, nor was I in the mood to look around at adverts. But my dad, being pretty keen in helping us, found the perfect place just advertised the weekend after the fighting incident. Apparently there had been a flat in the block that my parents and us are currently living that had been vacated for sometime, and now it was apparently open for sale! What luck! Like what my hubby said, when one door closes, somewhere another one will open for us. Like not getting the Premiere was meant to be because God meant us to have some place better. Anyway, we bargained a little with the agent, and to cut the long story short, we finally got confirmation from the agent today that we got the flat! So it will roughly take 6 to 7 months before we can finally move in to our new home.

Home sweet home...

Feeling low

2006-12-12T17:53:00.000+08:00

Ever felt suddenly that something in your life is not right? That maybe you're an outsider looking into your life, for you feel that you are suddenly pushed back into the shadows. That things regarding yourself do not matter anymore, and that you're not important, and are no longer an integral part of people's lives, especially people you care about the most. That somehow you feel fat, unattractive and totally unwanted, and that your presence should quickly be turned into an absence for you seem to have lost touch with people and things around you and you feel totally lost and not at ease. That everything you do seems to be wrong, and everything you say seems to offend. And that the person that matters most to you and is the most important person in your life may probably not feel the same about you.

That's what I'm feeling right now...

My dog and me

2006-12-09T11:53:00.001+08:00

My dog, Kenshin, and me, in your face! Haa...

- This blog was updated through my M1 mobile phone.

The moment of truth...

2006-12-09T10:09:00.000+08:00

GAPBuster results for the month of December are out, and my store got 70.7. Argh! According to company standards, we failed, miserably. Passing I think is 80. But, it was a vast improvement from last month, where we got some miserable 30+ per cent. Think the main category that got dragged down was telephone! Ha... that person definitely must be me. Never follow service standards when answering phone call... the standard answering phrase is so freaking long, that the usual impatient customer would already butt in after your first 2 words. What's the point? As long as they know they got the right place, fine! Duh...

But wait... one category got 100%. Haa... and that's under the "meeting the customer's needs" category. And surprising enough, the person that served the mystery shopper was mua! Phwah... beat record liao... I got 100% for my service standard! Good also lah! Shove this result into the arse of my previous store-in-charge, who being such a bitch, blamed last month's result on me when my name wasn't even mentioned in the result slip. In fact, the one who served the mystery shopper last month was her... haha, and she has definitely got zilch service standard!

Work so long in this company but never get a single compliment letter, the least is to have been evaluated for service standard and get 100%. Goes to show I ain't that bad huh? :P

Food for thought

2006-12-06T22:34:00.000+08:00

Why do some females behave flirtatiously more than others? Bat their eyes, pay more a particular male even when the person is either unattainable, or accept gifts from a male whom they just treat as a platonic friend (in which the poor guy gets let on).

Why are males insensitive? Either they are too slow to notice that a person is not his/her usual self, or say or do things that hurt a person unintentionally.

Just some food for thought...

Idiotic people

2006-12-05T23:43:00.000+08:00

Had a terrible day. Understaffed as usual. Worked alone with one staff for three hours in the afternoon. Had only a 15-minute break, including toilet break. Then the after-office crowd came. Intended to have a better break at night after a customer came to pick up her order. It never happened. Some idiotic inconsiderate bitch ate up 20 minutes of my break time by asking me stupid questions. Took 10 minutes to choose a darn eye-drop. As I walked out for my dinner after placing the dinner break sign, she came after me to ask for a cold medicine. Choosing a darn cold medicine took another 10 minutes, with her fickle-mindedness like which one is better?! A queue started to form behind her, and I had to clear the darn queue. That took another 5 minutes. After I cleared the last person in queue, she came back to ask for diarrhea medication. That took another 5 minutes. All in all, my 30 minute dinner break was used up, all because of a darn inconsiderate bitch. And what did I get in return, not even a darn thank you from that woman, who damn well knew I was intending to leave for my dinner coz I kept telling her so. Guess I really break record, working a full 12-hour shift with only a 15-minute break inclusive of toilet break. Has anyone done better?

Dinner at Pregos

2006-12-03T22:50:00.001+08:00

Photo taken with Sony Ericsson K800i.
Originally uploaded by tumbletot.

Went out for dinner just now with our parents and my brother-in-law with his girlfriend to Pregos @ Raffles the Plaza to celebrate my mother's-in-law birthday. Food was delicious, though a little pricey, but it was worth it, just to see our parents enjoy themselves.

There was a free flow of pita bread, which they served with some tomato paste or you could opt for a healthier choice of balsamic vinegar with olive oil. We also ordered calamari for starters, which was served with tartar sauce. After that, it was to each his own, as we all tucked into our own main courses. Mmm... yummy... I ordered linguine soglio which was linguine with seafood in tomato paste whilst Boo had oven baked cod with fried soft shell crab with asparagus.

After we finished our main course, Boo and I went to choose a tiramisu birthday cake from the Pregos Deli. The waiters and even the cook then came to sing a birthday song to my mother-in-law before she cut her birthday cake, and some of the patrons in the restaurant also joined in the singing! Talk about spontaneity! I guess that really made her birthday, with everyone singing to her.

Now my tummy is bloated with all the good food...

My dog Kenshin

2006-12-03T10:57:00.001+08:00

My dog Kenshin, posing like one of the posters of the movie "Quill", about a golden retriever in Japan who was trained as a guide dog for the blind. Doesn't he just look like a star dog?

- This blog was updated through my M1 mobile phone.

Dinner at Chef Chan's

2006-11-30T23:55:00.000+08:00

Met with our friend to have dinner at this new restaurant down at Bras Besar, Odeon Towers. Food was pretty ex, but personally didn't think all the dishes were worth the money. Only truly spectacular dish was the roast chicken, I guess. Anywayz, bill was settled by our friend, so we never knew the damage it amounted to, which was also fair, I think, coz he chose the place to have dinner at to begin with.

We went on to have desert at Haagan Daaz at Raffles City and was irritated by this loud idiot who kept on droning about himself to an almost bored companion whom I guess was just entertaining him just because of her job. Poor lady, she was almost nodding half to sleep with his constant loud remarks about himself, and nothing but himself. That fellow really spoilt desert for all of us.

- This blog was updated through my M1 mobile phone.

Mumble Happy Feet

2006-11-29T23:46:00.000+08:00

Went to watch "Happy Feet" the movie with Boo after work. The show is really great, makes you feel very up-beat and happy. All the characters are pretty interesting, but my favourite character ain't Mumble, though he's really funny and gets you all emotional with the ups and downs of his life. I like Ramon... his comments are really tongue in cheek sometimes and creates a lot of the funny moments in the show when he makes weird comments together with the Amigos. Wanna know what the show is about? Go watch it then...

Bad luck

2006-11-27T21:36:00.000+08:00

The day started bad. My dog had diarrhea in the middle of the night and woke me up several times. Ended up having not enough sleep in the morning. Furthermore, was working morning shift, so all the more had to get out of bed earlier.

Then the woman-boss on her last day at the store, had her bag stolen. Silly billy announced to the entire shop that she was just chucking her bag at the top of the stack of water at the doorway of the store room and then walked out to get something from another branch. I was busy ordering stock and another staff was carried away with her work. We both heard her, but we didn't really pay attention. Anyway, I guess we also both took for granted that she would be a little more careful with her bag. But I guess it's a lesson learnt, coz after that all of us were very cautious with where we placed our personal belongings, especially those of value.

With this bad incident, I noticed the store was quieter than usual. Business was bad. I had loads of time to do things like topping up stock, clearing the goods, rearranging the merchandise, with hardly any pressure to rush back to the counter to serve people. Sigh... guess weather had a part to play as well, coz it was such a rainy day. Only towards the end of my shift, after I had complained to a fellow colleague about lousy business that the crowd starting picking up. Hai, hope my colleague who took over after me had better luck with the crowd.

My new phone pouch

2006-11-26T19:26:00.001+08:00

My new phone pouch for my new phone

Photo taken with my new Sony Ericsson K800i

- This blog was updated through my M1 mobile phone.

Wish list item & outing...

2006-11-25T22:28:00.000+08:00

Yay! Attained one of my wish list items... a brand new Sony Ericsson K800i phone! My old Z800 is still in working condition but the keypad was starting to give me problems and sms was just a hassle to fight for the right letters to appear, even with predictive text messaging. And, I didn't even realise that a part of the phone had chipped! Argh... to think that I actually hurt my dear Z800. So I guess it is time to put my Z800 into the museum, even though it's only 14 months old, and get my wish list item, which is this year's Christmas pressent from my darling hubby. Am gonna fully utilise the camera to take nice pictures to blog... haa. So beware!

We both went out with FK & J today to visit this year's Sexpo, which is held at Suntec. Quite an eye opener, I must say, to both the exhibits, as well as the crowd. Plus, we spied a lot of lao teekos (dirty old men) around, haa! Wonder why they were there; is their gear still functioning?? Anyway, the talks held were pretty informative, really like a sex education camp. And only $10 entrance fee. So.. quite worth the while, if you are interested. But you have to hurry, coz tomorrow is the last day, and unfortunately, admission is only for those above 21 years.

Step Up

2006-11-22T17:45:00.000+08:00

Went to watch the movie alone today, since Boo's got to work, but I've got the day off. Anyway good timing too, coz he will never watch this show with me, so not his kind of show. Well, surprise surprise! The theatre was pretty packed for a Wednesday! Goes to show this movie is pretty popular, with lots of teenagers.

Plot is pretty average, guy from bad background, girl needs help to prove herself, so they meet and click and help each other. Then comes the love thing. Seems almost every show in the industry nowadays must have a love plot, or some violence or otherwise to get their show on the go, if not, then it's boring. Well, this show has both, but my take is, the plot ain't that good. Story line needed a little more substance.

Dancing on the other hand was pretty good. Channing Tatum is remarkably good with the hip-hop thingee, a real natural. Jenna Dewan is very talented, incorporating ballet, modern, and jazz in the dance moves. A little plump for a dancer though, but no complaints. Fat doesn't mean you can't dance. My only complaint is, why is the dancing so scarce?! The show's about dancing, but the percentage of the show featuring dance is so low! If the show's about dancing, then dancing should be the main thing. After all, it would help take the plot out of the spotlight, since the plot is so average. More dancing please...

Got these clips off youtube.com. The main dance parts. Enjoy!

This is from the senior showcase

This is the dance club scene

Disappointment

2006-11-22T00:20:00.000+08:00

Have been house-hunting recently with my hubby. Applied for the Premiere @ Tampines, which is supposed to be a new Design and Build collaboration with HDB and private developers. Shouldn't have placed my hopes too high, coz I feel rather disappointed that we didn't make it through the ballot. Oh well. Just have to go looking for others I guess, maybe resale flats or condos??? To think I was so looking forward to having our own love nest. Sigh. Just hope that this setback is for better things to come.

Went to see Casino Royale this afternoon with Boo. The show was really great, though a little long-drawn. Maybe should get my hands on the previous Casino Royale to compare? If I have the time. Personally, Daniel Craig is rather suited for this role, the initial promotion of Bond to being 007. Like a diamond in the rough, he really has the rugged, chiselled features to pull off the initial transition of Bond to being a more sophisticated 00 spy. And to top it all, he has a terrific bod with nice ass, as what I told my hubby. Haa... made my hubby more determined to strive to maintain his body. Ah well, we'll see...

Aunty Fluimucil, watch out!

2006-11-19T00:24:00.000+08:00

Wah liao! The rudeness of customers never fails to surprise me, even though I have pretty much condemned most of them for being badly brought up and having no darn manners at all. Met one that had totally no sense of manners, whatsoever today. Aunty Fluimucil came in when I was out for dinner break, and scolded my poor staff for "my weird dinner hour", disturbing the peace by yelling at them that I was back late when in fact I was on time according to MY watch. She then rudely interrupted me when I was serving another customer, shoving the item that she wanted to buy right in my face whilst talking to someone else on the bloody handphone. Then she yelled at me in front of everyone in the shop for making her wait (who the hell knows what time she's going to come in the first place?) and cut the entire queue of 6 people claiming she was there first and had been waiting for half hour in the shop (like I care!). To make matters worse, she didn't know how to count and kept insisting that she wanted 5 packets of Fluimucil 100 when I kept telling her we sell in packets of 2s! F***ing idiot actually meant that she wanted 5 sets of 2s. Now we know why we've been told never to be involved in more than one conversation at a time... bloody incoherent old bitch. I pity the poor Tussidex customer, who was rudely pushed aside when she cut the queue, with not a single word of thanks from that idiotic woman's mouth.

I really wonder why there is a GEMS campaign when there should really be one to judge how people behave in public. The service industry doesn't have a problem; it is the customers who have a problem. Even a saint will go insane. No wonder the term "ugly S'porean" exists.

The possible worst day of the year

2006-11-16T22:58:00.000+08:00

My day started bad. I woke up with a heavy head. Decided to grin and bear with it and went to work as usual.

Work made my day worse. Sales was all time low. Maybe it was the rain, or maybe it was the holidays and everyone had left for their holiday trip. Spent the entire morning packing goods for return. After the packing came the faxing of the returns note to different suppliers. This faxing was intermittently interrupted by the occasional receiving of stocks. Thus the entire morning was just devoted to stocks.

Then came a phone call, requesting for the most ridiculous request I have yet to hear in my entire time spent at this job. This person had purchased a pack of tissue yesterday, only to realise that we had a promotion going on that started today for the same pack of tissue. So she wanted to get a refund for what she purchased yesterday and in order to purchase the same item to get the present offer, which was buy 2 get 1 free. All just to save $1.95, which is the price of a free pack of tissue. WTF.

Lunch came and went. Afternoon was uneventful. Time seemed to come to a standstill. Yet, I perked myself up. Why? Coz I was looking forward to meeting up with someone for dinner. But... dinner never happened. Someone changed his plans and met up with another person for dinner instead. Reason being that he needed to be there for a friend who just quarrelled with his wife. Instead he promised that he would meet me afterwards to walk me home.

So that kept me going. I had to report possible forged Rx for possible abuse of Dhasedyl. That made me miss my dinner as I had to plough through all my stacks of Rx to collate for the report. Then my stocks came in: damaged. One bottle of syrup had leaked, causing all the other items to be stained red. Still, I kept my mood up. Everything was fine, even though I had loads to do and was working on a hungry, growling stomach.

Until the sms came in to say that he was taking the bus home instead of the train. Then my entire day began to crumble. I knew he would not come to pick me up from work, coz the bus stop was nearer to home than my work place. All the stained stocks started to look like a pain in the ass, coz they were all wet and could not be cleared till the next day. Worst of all, I worked an extra half hour on top of not going for dinner break coz of a stream of idiotic people showing up to make enquiries without having any intention of making purchases. WTF.

To top the list of events, a cockroach followed me home for half the way, weaving in and out between my legs as I walked. Now I'm just wondering whether the light in my room would just fall on my head, after all that has happened today...

Let's pop the champagne!

2006-11-15T22:11:00.000+08:00

Don't know if this is a little pre-mature but I'm in a hell of a celebration mood! Why? Because, the B-I-T-C-H in my shop is officially going to be transferred out!!! Yippee! I outlived her with regards to service time in my shop. And I heard very nice and positive things about the new guy coming to take over, so I'm looking forward to finally not being the pseudo-in-charge in my store. Really do not reminisce the constant responsibility that was forced upon me to take on in-charge duties coz of her incompetence. Plus on top of doing all the work, I do not get the credit coz SHE takes all the credit for things other people do. Yet, if things are done wrongly, she surprisingly never shoulders the blame and constantly points the finger at others, even though if they were done by her! Ahhh... talk about the colleague from hell! Anxiously counting down now...

Yet I'm also wary about the rubbish I have to deal with once she's gone. Coz I will have to play a big part in cleaning up the mess left behind by her. And that will definitely take a long time, coz there really has been a lot of accumulation of trash/nonsense due to her incapability or lack of responsibility. There'll be loads to clear, as well as loads to find coz she's such a messy person. So... I think I need to start looking for a humongous trash bag, as well as a super powerful magnifying glass.

On the lighter side, I finally gave in to my urge and went to make a new pair of specs when I went to order my six-monthly supply of contact lenses. I currently have two pairs of spectacles, both very ancient... One has been with me for almost 10 years, whilst the other has been with me for almost 7 years. And the 10-year-old pair is really starting to give way, with the screws on the hinges slowly getting loose, despite the constant tightening every few weeks. Anyway, I decided to go a little funky and choose a bright plastic fuchsia pair, for use on off days and at home.

Yay... I'm happy, so let's pop some champagne!

Pauline the bride

2006-11-13T22:55:00.001+08:00

Pauline the bride
Originally uploaded by tumbletot.

Am so happy for my friend. Finally her big day has arrived. Woke up super early to go down to her house for the tekan session with her hubby. Surprisingly, he was very sporting and took on a lot of our nonsense. (Thankfully not planned by me, but two others from our gang.) He was asked a lot of questions, and made to eat things like chilli padi, lemon, bittergourd, dragonfruit, celery and cherry tomatoes. He also had to recite the marriage vow in Hokkien (which was really a hassle since his Hokkien ain't that good). He was made also to promise to buy her "a mango freeze" when she is down, "do household chores" when she doesn't feel like it, and "buy a Tiffany" for her every birthday and anniversary. Haa... poor chap, but he really did promise.

Dinner was a real fun affair. It was at Club Chinois which served really great food, though a little rich. The "brothers" made fun of him by making him give her a 30 second kiss on stage in clear view of everyone and made him really drunk. I really wondered if he needed a time-out at one stage coz he looked as if he couldn't walk straight. Well, in the end, it seemed ok, though I think my friend would have to nurse her drunk husband at night instead of enjoy her wedding night. Oh well...

Still, I wish her all the very best in her new life ahead. Congrats Paw!

Bad dream... and dream recipe

2006-11-08T10:55:00.000+08:00

Woke up in bad terrible state after having a bad dream. Dreamt that I had a big fight with my hubby over something stupid, but having such a dream really made me feel sucky for the first half hour of the morning. Sheesh...

Was surfing around the Discovery Travel and Living site and found a recipe to my all-time favourite dish back when I was honeymooning in France. It's a recipe for Moules Marinieres! Yippee... shall see if can prepare this is Sg, assuming I can find the ingredients. Where to get dry white wine, haa...

Moules Marinieres

Ingredients: (Serves 4 people)
4 ounces/112 g butter
2 shallots, thinly sliced
2 cups/450 ml dry white wine
salt and pepper
6 lb/2.7 kg mussels, scrubbed and debearded (just before cooking)
4 sprigs of flat parsley, finely chopped

Equipment:
Large pot with lid
Warmed serving bowl

Method:
Heat the butter in the large pot over medium-high heat. Once melted, add the shallots. Cook for 2 minutes, until the shallots are soft and just beginning to brown. Add the wine and bring to a heat all the way). Season with salt and pepper.

Dump the mussels into the pot, and slap on the lid. Cook just until the mussels are open all the way (about 10 minutes, no more). Shake the pot, keeping the lid firmly pressed on top, then add the parsley and shake again. (You can toss in an additional knob of softened butter at this point, swirling it into the sauce for a nice, emulsified, enriching boost.)

Pour the whole glorious mess into the warmed serving bowl and serve.

(Recipe taken directly from Discovery Travel and Living)

Here's the recipe for my favourite desert back in France, Creme Brulee. You can never get one in Sg that's as good as the ones I savoured in France. I wonder if I can substitute the vanilla pod with vanilla essence instead...

Creme Brulee

Ingredients: (serves 4 - 6 people)
750ml/1 1/4 pints single cream
6 egg yolks
1 tablespoon caster sugar
1 vanilla pod, split and scraped
2 tablespoons caster sugar

Method:
1. Heat a large pan of water to a simmer and place a bowl over the top.

2. Pour in the cream and egg yolks, sugar and vanilla and cook until the mixture coats the back of a spoon.

3. Strain the cream mixture through a sieve into a soufflé dish or 6 ramekin dishes.

4. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

5. When almost ready to serve, sprinkle sugar on top of the chilled puddings and grill on high until the sugar has caramelised to a golden brown.

6. Chill the creams for another for 2-3 hours before serving with soft fruits like raspberries and blackberries.

(Recipe taken from Discovery Travel and Living)

A very trying day

2006-11-06T22:18:00.000+08:00

Went back to work after resting my voice for the last two days. It was a very trying day, trying to be heard yet at the same time not to strain my voice. It was really a chore coz at the peak period, my voice is really very inaudible against the noisy background and sometimes I have to resort to hand gestures or writing on paper to explain myself. A lot of my regular customers said I look pale, maybe coz it's all the trying to be heard that drains me. Sometimes I wonder if I should go on long MC, just to rest my voice. I'm so afraid that I'll develop vocal cord nodules; yet over a voice issue, it really doesn't seem to warrant a long MC.

Anyway, one busy day down... 4 more to go. Hit a record of 13 Rx today, maybe coz most of them didn't fill their Rx in my absence the last two days. Tomorrow is 12-hour shift day some more, hope drinking loads of water and liang-teh helps. Will buy ginseng with chrysanthemum tea tomorrow to tide me through the day.

Who wears the pants?

2006-11-04T09:05:00.000+08:00

Both of You Wear the Pants

You and your guy seem to have stuck the perfect power balance.
It's not that you don't disagree - it's just that you've learned how to compromise well.
You're both mature enough to know that you can't always get your way...
And usually, you're both adult enough to reach an agreement - even if that sometimes means giving in a little.

Who Wears the Pants in Your Relationship?

How evil am I?

2006-11-04T08:54:00.000+08:00

You Are 46% Evil

You are evil, but you haven't yet mastered the dark side.
Fear not though - you are on your way to world domination.

How Evil Are You?

Losing my voice

2006-11-03T19:30:00.000+08:00

My throat has made a turn for the worse. My voice is slowly breaking up, my tone of voice changing with the length of time I have to talk and as the conversation lengthens, the volume of my voice progressive decreases. My tonsils feel awefully sore and the pain leads all the way up to my ears and head. Even my throat looks swollen from just looking at my neck. And when I cough, I can't stop. I chain-cough when I have to talk too much, and it makes the throat feel worse. Within that short 5 hours of dispensing, I have already consumed more than 2 litres of water and have visited the toilet 5 times! WTH...

What happened to my darn throat? I was perfectly fine in the morning when attending the monthly meeting!

Spoken to the roster person to inform her of my intention to take sick leave tomorrow and she was so pissed off! Sheesh, who wants to be sick in the first place? I have loads of things to do tomorrow... WTF.

My new prima crocs!

2006-11-03T00:02:00.001+08:00

Yippee... I finally bought the gold coloured crocs prima and wore them for work. And they were so comfy and decent that no one realised they were crocs! Haa... so cool! The only downside was that I bought them in a slightly smaller size coz they don't come in in-between sizes like that halfs, which is actually the kind of shoe size I wear. So to buy a bigger size would be too loose, and so I got the half size smaller one. Ain't that big a deal at first coz it was very comfy, but as the day wore on, the tightness started to be more apparent maybe coz my feet were also expanding with the heat of the day. But not to fret I guess, since crocs are designed to conform to its owner's feet, so I think it should expand with time slightly. Haa... for the sake of fashion, I actually am able to ignore that slight discomfort.

Now my toes are aching...

Bad dream...

2006-11-01T22:12:00.000+08:00

Had a bad horrible nightmare last night, that made me wake up in the middle of the night, crying. Dreamt that someone broke into my house when I was taking a shower, killed my dog, and then came into the bathroom to molest/rape? me, before making off with family property and valuables. Funny thing was that I wasn't that affected about the molest/rape? as much as I was about my dog being killed in the dream. Still can vividly remember how my dog was killed. Argh... hope this dream never comes true, one of the most gruesome dreams I have had ever since goodness knows when.

Dear Lord Almighty, please watch over my Kenshin... and the rest of my family. Please never ever let what I dreamt happen.

Off day and hot...

2006-11-01T00:38:00.000+08:00

Spent the morning watching lots of cable, mostly Discovery Travel and Living, which is one of my favourite channels on cable. Watched Jamie Oliver and Kevin Floyd cook, followed by Kylie Kwong... made me salivate. Wish I could cook better; my cooking is only limited to things like pasta, japanese soba noodles, and instant noodles, things that are easy to do. Was so inspired to cook aubergines/eggplant/brinjal, coz it's my hubby's favourite. There was this particular dish that looked sumptious which was prepared by Kevin Floyd, consisting of different mediterranean vegetables stir fried in tomato paste. Yummy... will aim to prepare that, when I finally get around to learning to cook better. Incidentally, has anyone wondered why the eggplant has 2 other names? Hmmm...

After lazing the morning away, we went out for lunch, and that's when the day became bad for me. Why? Blame it on the extreme heat. I realise that I get terrible tension headaches when the heat becomes unbearable and it stems from my jaw on the right side, to the back of my head and all the way up to the right side of my head, making me feel so unstable and dizzy at times. And to add on to the discomfort, this stupid headache lasted for the rest of the afternoon until now! That's been almost 9 hours... sheesh!

Tried not to let the headache get in the way of things (and I hate taking meds for it, I usually just leave it). We enjoyed sushi for lunch and proceeded to buy groceries for home. Love grocery shopping with Boo... makes me feel almost like we are living alone and shopping for ourselves when we grocery-shop, such a couple thing to do. We also rented DVDs to watch, making full use of the Ladies Day promo that VideoEzy had to get an extra DVD free.

Watched Elizabeth Town when we got home, but somehow didn't enjoy the show even though I wanted to watch it. Silly headache just pounded away while I was trying to concentrate. Made me kind of short tempered coz the pounding was so irritating. Plus, didn't bring my doggy out for his walk too coz of the pounding. Poor darling had to wait for my dad to come home to do so, instead of getting the off-day walk with me. Will see if I can make up to him tomorrow after work.

All in all, the entire day was just spoilt by my darn pounding headache. WTH.