Lovely long weekend...

It was such a great long weekend :) Exercised, researched for trip, learnt (went for photography and jap class), explored (Little India & indian food with the family), chilled out and watched two movies (Tokyo!@The Picturehouse and I Capture The Castle at home :P) Though it's back to work tmr morning, I wun have too long a week since I'm on do-nothing-leave come Thurs and Fri. Life feels good...

The family was atypically adventurous on Sat and decided on a spontaneous outing to Little India. Mum has apparently never set foot in Little India proper all her life...! It was great that they chose to go down during the Deepavali festivities period... cos it was a lot more re4 nao4 than usual! However, I was almost smothered by the crowds... We brought home addictive crunchy muruku snacks... and have been unable to resist them the past few days... Now the sinful keropok-ish stuff is almost half gone.... :(

Alas, it was also an indulgent weekend. Need to jian3 fei2 in coming weeks...

Fun with reflections@Vivocity

Japan alas!

My holiday decisions this year have all been very 'chop chop'-ly made :P But it kinda makes life more exciting haha. One week ago I was just toying with idea of flying somewhere last week Dec... As at today, I've confirmed my flight to Tokyo!!! And so the Krabi trio shall meet somewhere in Japan for winter... all I know is that I am going to Kyoto for sure... hehe. Though one week ago none of us said anything abt gg to Japan in Dec, somehow we all ended up thinking about it and could all make it around the same time... it's so cool how things just 'happen'... :) Well, though J in Japan claims that Japan is an overrated destination, I refuse to be convinced hehe :P

Hmmm, I feel tempted to buy this... :P

I thought "I Survived A Japanese Game Show" currently showing on Channel 5 was pretty trashy... Am surprised that it's actually an American reality tv show... well, cos there's like all these Japanese gameshow audience (all super on and into the mood) totally enjoying themselves and laughing their heads off at the silly games the (poor? I added a question mark 'cos well, after all, they are voluntarily throwing away their pride on TV for the $250,000 prize money) American contestants are put through... And I am not sure why I felt strange, but suspect cos it was pretty unusual to have such an atypical asians-get-to-ridicule-caucasians scenario...

I feel like the show is intentionally humiliating... In the episode I just watched, the elimination game (the loser will have to leave the show) was unflatteringly titled "You Look Funny Stuck On A Wall"... The two participants had to like wear velcro suits and with the help of some trampoline pad, jump to fit the human outlines on this "velcro-compatible" wall... Before the participants proceeded with their game, the Japanese host actually turned to the audience and speaks to them in Japanese "Applaud if you think the Americans look silly!!" I mean, seriously... that was kinda mean... though it was probably intended to be funny. Now... somehow one of the participants was just super talented and managed to fit into the human outlines quite perfectly each time... whereas her fellow participant was just pretty off... And so at the end when they announced the winner, the game host like leaves the loser stuck on the wall for an excrutiatingly embarrassing 30 seconds or so (cos they are wearing velcro suits, they unfortunately can't get themselves unattached from the wall without external help) and then goes oops, XXX, how are you feeling up there...?! Seriously, I almost felt like strangling him...

This show made me cringe... By the end of the show I decided that one episode's enough.... :P Be warned... But i suppose you can catch it if you want some cheap, brainless entertainment... I just hope for your sake that not every episode's this bad... :P

I feel rather restless at work these days... It's not as if I have nothing to do; rather, there's nothing very exciting to do... :P The thing I have to do entails meticulously planning out implementation timeline, digging up old history... both of which I am terrible at! And DCF is just DCF. Aargh, but I suppose I have to grit my teeth and just get them done somehow. Deep down I know I am sitting on time bomb that can explode anytime... Maybe this time round I wun be so lucky... hai.

Hmmm, it appears that consultants (the reputable ones) earn good and easy money. Do half a job can earn almost $200k... And the recommendations made/ work produced don't even seem that solid/concrete. It appears that what matters most is to learn and master the art of persuasion, so that you can effortlessly convince your customers that your findings are credible... ;P

Floral beauties

Yesterday was photo outing to Sentosa, to put into practice the three most impt concepts- aperture, shutter and ISO... However, I wasn't too good/attentive a student and was instead was a little wandery, trying to get good shots of interesting subjects...

This is my favourite picture of the day. It didn't seem that lovely to me when I snapped it, but after cropping away the distracting elements, it usurped the following picture to be my favourite one. There's just something so inexplicably beautiful about this pair of flowers... And 'cos I took this pic across some leaves/stalks, there's this subtle green vignetting effect as well :)

A fallen flower I discovered on the steps... The shadow behind the flower somewhat framed it nicely for me. There's this poignancy amidst the beauty of the still-fresh flower... Due to bright sunlight, the flower petal still ended up slightly overexposed/ harsh... But it's alright :)

Somehow these flower reminded me of fairies! Perhaps due to the way the petals were "folded" behind...

There were a bunch of bright red ones too!

A pink congregation :)

Today my hairstylist managed to con me into dying my hair dark brown... he has been telling me that my jet black hair + short bob makes me look overly studious... Then coupled with specs that I usually wear I apparently look like I just graduated. What's wrong with looking decent right, why did i give in today... Hmph, though hair color actually isn't obvious from afar, I am now a little upset that now hair color doesn't go with color of any of my specs!!! But what is done is done, so I shall just wait for hair to grow out... and take consolation in fact that I at least look teeny bit different from usual. And self-deceive that yeah, I have succeeded in looking older than fresh graduate... :(

I'm going to bring the loveliest camera bag in the world out for the 3rd time tmr! Having three photography lessons on consecutive days is xiong1, but oh well... At least it's something I enjoy :) Compared to previous instructor, this instructor is certainly less ad-hoc and has proper lesson plan :P As at now, feel like he focuses more on technique whereas previous instructor was more into composition of pictures... Though I already know most of the stuff about aperture, shutter and ISO; it was good nonetheless to get some revision. And seriously I always trial and error to get a good exposure and am terrible when it comes to how many f-stops up or down, that sorta thing. Maybe it's time to work on better precision instead of perpetual "try again if this combi doesn't work'' :P

Yesterday I found myself the nicest-looking camera bag in the world for my Canon 40D... Haha ok I guess you can tell that I am exaggerating. But well, the reason I am so happy is cos all the camera bags floating around are mostly box-ey or weird-shaped with some stubbornly defined form and I would feel so 浑身不自在 if I had to carry them around ALL the time. So you can imagine my delight when I discovered T1oo (self invented acronym for my camera bag model)... cos it looks just like any outdoor sling bag... and is super env-friendly (95% made from recycled materials)... Well the only tiny flaw (big to some serious enthusiasts i guess) is that it actually has like non-existent cushioning for the camera... But it's ok if you are ultra-careful in handling the camera right (so I think :P) In any case, I now have something presentable to go to my new photography class with next week!
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For some strange reason, I have been stricken with sudden fever, sore throat and running nose over weekend... I wish myself a speedy speedy recovery!

Mamma Mia! The Movie

It was an enjoyable Hari Raya holiday... Woke up at 10am for first time in a very very long while; and actually successfully babysitted fly's girl at the playgrounds at colleague's housewarming gathering ;) Also braved bad reviews and had a girls' outing with mum and sis to watch the Mamma Mia! movie, since mum is a musical-movie fan and really wanted to watch it (though she always like say until watch or dun watch also ok... haha ok sometimes i also guilty of such things)

On the whole the movie was so-so, but the movie setting (I found out later that it was shot at some Greek Islands) was lovely. So was the hotel villa... And my favorite part of the movie was when Meryl Streep sang "The Winner Takes It All" with the beautiful sea and some cliff (with church at the peak) in the background... I tried very hard searching for a full version of it on Youtube, but only found a partial one. The beautiful song plus backdrop was really a lethal combination for me! But the song a bit the heartbreaking... Nonetheless, enjoy!

We are all human... :)

When I get arrowed to do something/ staff something/ attend a discussion not related to my immediate area of work, the most frequently cited reason given by the ppl shooting these arrows is "exposure". I am not even sure what that really means, but I suppose the outcome of the exposure is always to let me learn more about the organisation, things going on in the organisation, observe how decisions are made/ things get done etc... Given how slow I can be sometimes, am doubtful about my takeaways in those aspects... However, I have made a most intriguing but not so original discovery about fellow humans--- that we're not perfect. More specifically, I've observed that ppl in high ranking positions, ie. typically director level and above are not amazing/superhuman and can behave/feel just like you and me in certain settings...

For some reason it's quite easy to associate someone's accomplishments/ career success with his/her character. Esp when you know nothing about the person and have had no personal interactions with him/her. Like it's easy to go 'wow' when you first hear of someone being director of XXX in an organisation. But when you gradually observe that your bosses have their own insecurities as well, somehow they become a fair bit less intimidating... Eg. Bosses also have tendency to siam4 their own bosses by choping the least conspicuous seats at meeting table. They can also get bored/tired and doze off at dry meetings. When a certain female MP came for the EDC course last Fri, we asked her how she balanced work and life. Her honest answer was that it was a struggle for her too, just like many working mums... And just this afternoon after showing face at a corporate visit, I somehow felt a whole lot more comfortable with a certain director, cos after the visitors left, she confessed to us how 'scary' hosting visitors could be, how there's always the fear of screwing up when you dunno your facts... But I thought she handled the situation v well in spite of all that lah. I guess you become good at these things when you do it frequently enough. We also lingered on for a while to finish up the food and her candid banter with other attendees on certain individuals in the organisation also revealed her more human, "gossipy" side... I dun mean it in a bad way at all though (and btw, it's always cool when you get to be free-rider of information and eavesdrop for free, but my antennae always faulty)

Ok so after all the rambling, I guess what I really wanted to say is... I felt like no matter how successful you are in your career... somehow at the end of the day you can be just like any other human... need assurance/comforting when down... appreciate ppl to commiserate with when thrown irritating stuff to do... And in a way, being able to accept and embrace the fact that we are all imperfect in one way or another is like really "getting it" in life.

It's back to work for me tmr... :( I will miss the good free lunches that came along with the brainwashing.... But at least tmr should be a relatively peaceful last Mon of the month so no mad rush to write minutes and stuff! Cross my fingers that there will be no urgent/ immediate email sitting in the sea of red :P

I'm beginning to feel a little addicted to being on course... And somewhat dreading going back to work next Mon... This week's been relatively less intensive; I'm getting a bit more comfy with my coursemates, and though there are readings to do, I've grown really lazy and totally neglected doing any reading before the lectures for this week... While my group has this EDC challenge to do (final pdt is to have some visual cum oral presentation of ideas abt Sg in 2020) I am secretly loving how my team members are rather relaxed about it and not like seriously staying back to discuss the challenge, unlike some other teams... :P (Though we prob have to biah a bit tmr just so we are not totally outcome-less for Friday...) So yeah, life has actually been pretty good thus far this week! And cos we sometimes have to make our way to certain sites (eg. I visited a pri sch this afternoon) we kinda carpool among ourselves and dunno, it's just somewhat fun! Yest on way back from HDB to CSC, our 'driver' even dropped by Holland V for us to get the yummy frolick yogurt there...

This week I also found out a little bit more about my thinking styles and leadership qualities... According to the Emergenetics test (that analyses my thinking and behavioral attributes) I did, I have a tri-modal analytical/social/conceptual profile. Well, will not dwell at length on what that really means since I cannot imagine it being terribly interesting to anyone, but apparently the stress of having such profile comes from being "Jack of all trades but master of none".... Thought that was quite spot on... And such ppl are "not always able to sort out thoughts or feelings about an issue, since to him/her all sides of the issue make sense. Most likely, making a decision is difficult and time-consuming"... Seriously, sometimes I wished I were more extreme/ opinionated about issues, then it wun be so difficult for me to decide.... The brighter side of having my profile though (i'm tri-modal dominated by the conceptual part) is that I am a very intuitive about ideas, see big picture kinda person... And supposedly more imaginative and creative hehe. I suppose that kinda gels with the 360 degrees thingy which said that one of my weaknesses is with coming up with detailed plan/ strategy on how to execute my plans... Yeah man, seriously I am terrible at meticulously setting milestones/ interim deadlines for projects... The last min put out fire approach seems to get me to work better.... somehow i doubt my sec sch friends would believe me if I told them that... but yeah, I can be so ad hoc/ disorganised these days... But then I find my order in my own tiny chaos lah... :)

I can still drive!

This is but a self-glorifying post to declare that I can still drive decently, but given that it's such a pleasant discovery, pls at least allow me to indulge a little :P Haha and so yeah, after two refresher lessons over the weekend, I discovered that my driving skills are largely intact; and that it really isn't that difficult trying to get used to driving on the other side of the road! The only thing that kept happening during first lesson was that I kept switching on the wipers whenever I wanted to signal :P And well, I'd probably get honked at a lot by impatient drivers at multi-storey carparks; cos I seriously need to work on my parking. Prob also need GPS and better feel of roads in sg lah. That aside, I really enjoy the feeling of being in control of the car... and the feeling of cruising along the expressway. Yesterday's expressway driving was eeky cos of slight traffic congestion... but today I drove myself to the airport and traffic was pretty nice and smooth... Die, a bit addictive leh. Hmm, maybe it's time to psycho nice Dad to change car.... :P

TGIF!

Much as I complain about having to interact with people, I actually ought to also give some credit to the pretty decent and thought-provoking lectures we get :) Yesterday was econs crash course/revision for me, with overview of micro/macro econs in public sector condensed in single day... Was seriously info overload, but you know, I realised that I still like econs very much... though I am now incapable of really applying concepts learnt previously. Today was part social safety net overview part entrepreneurship stuff... and in fact I also liked the sessions very much (except some PS21 thingy at end of day). Though I was presented with more open-ended questions than answers, I was glad to be made aware of some very real social issues/problems... Eg. sometimes like if ppl are not able to self-help/work even if they are willing to, yet dun qualify for govt assistance, then HOW?? The highlight of the day was Q&A session with successful local entrepreneur Ivan Lee (owner of Thai Express, Xin wang cafe and a bunch of other brands) and his anecdote (i think it was intentionally crafted on the spot for our class) how the monthly profit at just one of his soya bean stalls (the more popular branch) was abt $20 to $25k or so, easily more than that of our higher ranking civil servants.... :P I mean, he was just so frank and open about a lot of stuff that it made the dialogue really interesting...
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TGIF! I think I've had enough brain exercise for the week... though I'd better mug my driving theory books a bit tmr morning, before my refresher driving lesson in afternoon.... :P

On 2-week course!

Today is Day 3 of my 2-week course at CSC and though it's been pretty interesting it's also rather tiring! 7 more days of full-time lectures, active participation (technically i cannot complain since i am like one of most passive) and absorbing new information! Well, I suppose it is a good opportunity to actually meet and interact with public sector officers from different ministries/ stat boards... But after a while, it becomes a tiny chore. Like too much new external stimuli for the like-to-be-AS me... I mean, class is also deviously designed to encourage interaction among participants, so want to be unsocial also a bit the difficult. I suppose have to admit though that most of them seem like decent ppl, aside from a handful of questionable (but cannot conclude yet that i confirm dun like) cases. There are at least 40 participants and I wonder if i'll manage to get everyone's names by end of course... And the thing is, when you meet someone you haven't spoken to (either at tea, lunch, organised outing etc) the conversation starter is almost always, oh so where are you from? What do you do? Feel a bit like broken tape recorder already... Maybe from tmr onwards I should just be unconventional and ask ppl, so what do you do in your free time? It's like, why am I so conditionedly treating every participant as merely a rep from his/her respective workplace...

[Afternote: Apparently Sarah Palin's rectangular frameless specs (by a Japanese designer hehe) are selling like hotcakes in the States now] Well, I do agree that it's pretty stylish and quite professional-looking, but I still prefer my geeky ones... For now :)

The geeky look is in vogue...

I recently collected my new pair of thick-rimmed plastico glasses! Sis says that I now look older, though shape of lenses isn't that different from existing one. Ever since my first pair of slightly thicker rimmed glasses a few years back, I kinda started liking the way thicker rimmed glasses look. And they make me feel learned and cool haha. So from then on subsequent spectacle rims just got increasingly thicker... I think i've almost reached the limit though. Any thicker nobody will be able to spot my eyes :P Coincidentally, the black thick-rimmed/ huge lenses look is supposedly very 'IN' now... And some even go to extent of making degree-less specs (dun recall the correct term to use) just to stand out. Ahh, feels good to know that I've always been 'in'.... :P

p/s: actually i haven't officiated them 'cos wearing plastic frame takes some getting used to. Glasses have to be very much closer to eyes. I've been trying to observe types of specs ppl wear and how plastic glasses suit different ppl. Good thing that there's quite a good sample of ppl with plastico glasses. Strange thing is, seems like not everyone has to wear very close to face... It's unfair that some guys with higher and more pronounced nose bridge can support glasses nicely without them slipping down and coming too close to face (disregarding level of nose oiliness). Also seems like level of incline btwn nose bridge and ear affects how low your specs can go before you get the lao3 hua1 kind of look.... Oh well, these are just some prelim findings... the subtle observation of unknowing MRT subjects remains ongoing :)

Life feels a bit surreal this week...