28.11.10

I have a new daily activity now... browsing online job ads and sending my CV. 2 months has passed since I handed in my resignation letter.... I really hope I would be able to get calls for interview soon, as there have been not much responses to my applications. The only phone calls I get are from banks' telemarketers, so disappointing..... I'm serving my last month of notice now and I aim to have a job offer by end Dec.

I hope my US holiday plan for Sept 2011 would be realized. Due to the uncertainties, I wasn't able to go on holiday to somewhere further away in the coming 6 months. This year I have only went to Malaysia for holidays.... The exchange rate is really good, so it's really worth to go Malaysia for shopping. :) I tell myself that I must think positively.

I'm going for an archery workshop on Friday~ hurray! Though it's just an hour long, I hope to be able to hit the bull's eye for just once. I like shooting, but I couldn't control the arrows well, as my arms are easily tired. Guess I need to train up my arm muscles. It would also enhance my stamina in doing my laundry. I have also been eating too much these few weeks, so I need exercise badly. Hope I won't end up with muscle ache after the archery and after my badminton.

Some are asking me whether I would come back to the company to work again.... For those who have given me farewell lunches and gifts in Jan 2006 - sorry to let you all treat me again, but please don't spend on gifts again, as it would make me feel bad. I'm happy to get to know you all better this round and for the newer friends I have made, I'm very happy to have known you all. Leaving the company doesn't mean that our friendship has ended, so do keep in touch after I left. We can still meet for karaoke, mahjong, lunch, dinner, travel and other outings etc.

21 Sep 2010

Someone left a nasty comment on my chatbox at my blog, saying I have "stolen" his/her blog url...he/she is really weird. Isn't it on first-come-first-serve basis? Only immature people would say words like "cb", which's so rude. I have removed the chatbox from my blog to stop all these nonsense. My dear friends, if you wish to send me any comment, do feel free to leave your comment on the blog entry.

I have officially closed my blogshop... thanks to all who have given their support. I have decided that the low profit margin isn't worth my time and effort. This would also help me minimize my online spending, as the temptation to spend is always there when I had orders coming in.

I would like to go Australia for holiday during Nov/Dec... would love to explore Sydney and/or Gold Coast... I have made a major decision lately and I hope I won't regret it. Counting down now... may luck be with me.

6th August '10

It has been so long since I update my blog... I have been promoted~ happy! But my tender notice period has extended from 1 mth to 3 mths, which's quite long...

I have started learning to read and write korean words at CC, but I found that I don't have the motivation to revise after each class...perhaps because there's no exam/ test? I tried to install korean dictionary on my Nokia, but the characters couldn't display properly. The korean characters all look so similar, and until now our teacher (pronounce as "song seng ming" in korean) has yet to teach us how to pronounce numbers in korean. Our last class for stage 1 is on the first Thurs of Sept and I don't think I'll register for stage 2...

I started a blogshop and was really busy updating it for the past few months...I found that it is actually quite time-consuming and not worth the effort if the customer base/orders are not huge. My profit is like peanut... (I realized that I really like to use the word "peanut" nowadays) I am now considering whether I should close it for good...I had placed so much advertisements (free of course) and it seems such a waste to close it.

I miss my Picanto...and I'm now on the lookout for COE to drop again. I hope I'll still know how to drive by then....

My 1st weekend without Picanto...

I really miss my dear Picanto, which I have sold away on Mon. I wonder when I would be buying my next car as the COE is so high now and many felt that it would stay high in the year to come... I hope my Picanto would meet a nice owner. I felt bad scratching and denting it in the past 1 yr, but I'm glad it survived. It's sad to part with my first car, but I think now is a good time to let go, as used car price has gone up so much.

Owning a car is costly, especially if it's not driven often. My mileage to-date is only 2240 despite having driven it for 1yr 2 mths old...and my auto insurance costs a bomb. I'm going to save up for a normal plate car and by then my insurance premium would have gone down. Or maybe I should just drop the idea and take taxi instead... At least now I don't need to worry about spider web or bee hive forming on it. I wonder what attracted those insects to build their home at my Picanto. No more car wash exercise or petrol price hike worries.

Bye bye Picanto...may you be in good hands.

Macau and Zhuhai holiday

19th Nov: Weather was really cold...We took the free shuttle to Venetian Macau from the bus terminal at Gongbei custom. A nice fit old lady has led us to the custom, which was supposed to be within walking distance from our hotel as the locals defined. However, he route seems so long and we all felt tired from the walking. The old lady was walking really fast without any sign of tiredness. I lost S$33 at its casino *sob*. It was my first time visiting a casino. I didn't even managed to grab one of the free drinks. The boat/Gondola ride was very relaxing. The boat staff's singing attracted many passerby to take picture of our boat during the journey... Lucy bought the whole set of photos taken before we took off in the boat and it was so expensive.

We took the free shuttle bus to City of Dreams. There is another casino there, which I visited on the last day and lost S$10. I bought my first winter jacket, as there was some special offer for it and they have my favourite colour - light pink!

At night, we checked out of our hotel and took a cab to the Gongbei custom for entry to Zhuhai, as it would be a hassle for us to drag our trolley luggage there.

Our suite at Zhuhai Jinye hotel was quite nice with a living room and a bedroom. There were 2 television sets and I love the antique chairs and table in the living room. However, I had a bad experience with the switch in the bedroom. One of the switch was faulty and when I tried to fixed it, the bare wires touched the back of my right palm and gave me an electric shock. Luckily, I drew back my hand forcefully as it was really painful and my whole palm was trembling and numbed. The whole room suddenly went into darkness and we were in a panic. We called the reception, only to know that they didn't have any technician around. Dorothy switched on her mobile phone backup light and I checked on the plugs using the light. Then, I tried to re-enter the hotel card at the main switch near the door and luckily, the light came back on. We couldn't sleep that night as we had not gotten over the shock. I rubbed some balm onto my palm to get rid of the numbness...I wonder what would had happen if I had not pulled my palm away in time.

20th Nov: China Zhuhai. We took a half-day package tour and besides us, there is also another China couple in our tour group. The couple kept asking us about Singapore and the guy asked "Does Singapore provide free food, education and housing?" I told him no and that maybe only applies to Brunei.

The chairlift ride gives really good view of the hill, but Dorothy was scared of height as our legs were dangling in the air with a thin foot rest for support. I slipped on the steps on the hilltop and only realized the pain of the fall on the last day of our trip. There were many beggars near the Fisher Girl's statue. Lucy donated to one and soon another came. We love the breeze there... Our tour guide cum driver asked us for a tip and after he received the tip, he told us that they were actually not allowed to collect tips.

What I don't like about Zhuhai is that the traffic is a bit messy there. The pedestrians and drivers don't really obey the traffic rules, as there are just too many vehicles and people on the road. It seems a bit dangerous, but I guess the people are used to the loud vehicles' horns. Their zebra-crossing isn't as safe as Singapore, and vehicles just zoomed past the pedestrians on the crossing whenever there is sufficient space. Once, I had a car moving towards me while I was crossing and it still moved even though I was just infront of it. The drivers need a lot of skill to handle cars that cut into their lane suddenly, even though there isn't much space in between the cars. I also don't like the way people spit their germs onto the walkway, especially infront of many others who were walking nearby. I also found an interesting fact - The locals simply eat the fruits in the supermarket to test the taste without any signage or staff allowing that.

At night, we went to eat seafood after meeting up with a colleague and his family. The place he recommended had lots of live seafood stalls like in a market and we are supposed to buy them and give them to a restaurant to cook and serve on our table. The competition of the restaurant was really intense and many ladies (representing different restaurant) were following us and aggressively promoting their restaurant when we browsed through the stalls. I felt that Zhuhai people are very hardworking and they could endure working long hours and outdoor in the really cold weather.

21st Nov: After buying the buns for breakfast, we walked around in the underground tunnel where there were many shops. It was fun shopping when the crowd wasn't in yet. I happily bought my Sims 3 game at a very cheap price. In the afternoon, we took a cab (they call it "Da Di") to Xing Yuan Ming Yuan (Mock palace). We took a short tram ride, but the tram driver cum guide was not very friendly as some thing happened before we took off. The tram ride was pretty expensive (S$10 per pax) as it was quite a short ride (just 15mins?). The place was really nice with many photo-taking spots. We didn't managed to see all the shows as a few of us were tired and wanted to go shopping instead, plus they wanted to return to the hotel before it gets too dark (I'm a bit disappointed though). This was also where I slipped for the second time as the path was rather rocky.

22nd Nov: We went back to Macau and deposited our bags at the airport. We took the free shuttle to Venetian, which is nearer to our next planned stop - Taipa Village. We bought most of our biscuits there, as most of the Macau famous biscuit stores were there. The peanut candies I bought were so heavy that my shoulder ached. We went back to City of Dreams where we watch a free dragon show in this indoor theatre. We happily deposited our bags of biscuits at the cloak room and walked around without the load.

We met a very rude driver when we took the free shuttle to the airport. He scolded us for not letting him know that we were going to the airport, when he didn't even make a stop there. The signage for the shuttle has shown that it would be alighting at 2 places - the ferry terminal and the airport, and we had told the staff at the queue that we were going to the airport. I had really bad sore throat, which I guessed was due to a burn I got during lunch. I had swallowed a mouthful of the hot stone rice accidentally (was shocked by the hotness and had swallowed it instead of spitting it out). Our plane was delayed, and the waiting seems really long due to the pain.

07.11.09

Today, instead of being very busy doing the volunteer work at Redhill, I ended up chatting with the other volunteers, as there were not many people collecting the rice and vouchers allocated to them.

There were a line of early birds, but the queue disappeared after half an hour. There were complaints when we allowed two to cut the queue due to a mom who brought along a child with fever and a mom whose K2 child is at home alone with her sick husband, and she needs to rush home to bring her child to the K2 enrollment (she even brought along a letter from the school to prove that she was telling the truth). As the queue wasn't very long, I felt that they should be more compassionate and not reprimand us volunteers for allowing that extended waiting time of 5 minutes.

I realized just how little I know about the financial world when I chatted with a volunteer from the insurance industry. I really need to brush up on my knowledge and read the current news in details.

Halloween at Night Safari 31.10.09

The rain started to pour not long after we gathered in my car. Luckily, Qiuwen is all prepared with 6 ponchos for us. We got caught in the traffic jam at PIE (should have use the KJE) and only arrived at the Night Safari at 7pm. There was lots of people jamming the entrance and lots of screaming as well. Quite a handful of the staffs had put on the standard pale and bloody makeup, and dressed in scary looking costumes. I didn't really dare to take photo with them, as they were making scary gestures, trying to frighten as many guests as possible. Brave Qiuwen took quite a few photos with them.

We were really disappointed when we heard about the temporary suspension of the train of terror service due to the rain. We started our walk in our poncho and the path was really dark. I regretted not bringing along a torch. It was fun to walk in a group and we managed to walk through the whole park, enduring the stuffiness of wearing a poncho in the drizzle. There was one enclosed area of the park where we could get really close up with the bats; it was quite scary to walk past them as there were some that flew across our path as we walked towards the enclosure exit.

The bridge of no return was full of staffs in Halloween costumes. A few gave chase when they saw that we were scared of them. A witch chased me until I reached a pot of bones... luckily, I was not hit by the long bone, which the witch was holding up high.

Upon completion of our walk, we reached the entrance where we purchased tickets for the train of terror that has continued service. Doris and her daughter went back first, as the queue seems really long and the walk has been tiring. We met a family who put in effort to dress up as a Flintstones couple and The Mask son. They were really friendly and agreed to many photo-taking requests. I was amazed by the number of camera flashes behind us (they were queuing for the ride behind our group).

During the last section of the ride, the staffs in costumes tried to scare us by jumping onto the train as it drove slowly past them. I found it funny that disfigured Snow White could bounce up an down the train so well. There was one section where a fat mermaid had her tails cut and bloodily hanged up on the tree, while she was screaming for help on the chopping board. The bloody-looking butcher was holding up his chopper and laughing like a mad man. Nice setup.

We ended our adventure at 11 plus and I believe we all had fun, despite the scare and tiredness from the walk. It was a new experience for me, and now I know who is easily scared, haa.