New bedsheets for me!

My weekend has been pleasantly idle so far, aside from the much needed workout in the morning :) It's such a luxury to be able to do absolutely nothing, once in a while. However, decided to go check out the IKEA sale with mum in late afternoon; and came home a happy girl with two new sets of bedsheets! (Ok lah, actually more like quilt covers cum pillowcases, cos their bedsheets technically dun have design one) I also wanted to buy some cute bowls and stuff, but had to give up idea 'cos we really dun need more kitchen barang barang :( Have been wanting to check out their bedsheets (I already have two nice ones from there, but still wanted some more hehe... :P) The light blue cum white one is one design (one side blue, the other side white) while the green pacman-ish design one is just a plain print throughout. Yeah, even sleeping on pretty things makes me happy haha.

Tmr after jap class, I shall hunt down a cool art/book/design store casualpoet somewhere near Chinatown :)

The "pjt" I am working on has led me to work closely with one or two colleagues i haven't had that much contact with previously... and it has allowed the usually passive me to somewhat 'hit it off' with one colleague :) Like when talking abt work she would also share awww anecdotes abt her son with me; indeed my motherful unit has given me an advance peek into what mums think/feel/gush about. And funny as it might sound, it appears to me that for many, being a parent in turn brings out the 'child' in otherwise serious and cynical-ish adults :P

This morning tph and I also concluded that under this boss, we are always 'guilty until proven innocent'... I have finally deciphered why it's so stressful to work under him sometimes... it's because the default (when doubts arise) is always that we are in the wrong, unless we prove him otherwise. So even if you think you did everything nice nice already, the way certain clarifications are put forth makes the 'accused' extremely uncomfortable or feel bad about herself.

Today I also scored two black marks with boss... The first one: When questioned why I never included a certain enquiry number in my draft, I bluntly answered, erm... cos it never crossed my mind that I needed to put it in?? It's not like I was careless and left it out... it just didn't occur to me to include it :P (Afterthought: Though my answer prob didn't reflect too well on myself, it was really the truth mah and I suppose I didn't see the need to make up an excuse. Later on when I reflected, I also realised that my mind was stuck in writer-mode and not really reader/enquirer/information seeker-mode) Second work crime of the day was committed when during a site visit, I failed as a site OIC to enlighten boss on which block number was what on the site plan (block numbers were obscured by my coloring)... At that moment, I could sense that he was ready to pull my ear, just that he had excellent self-restraint and let me off.... :P Though I felt a little bad, deep down I was actually not that guilty, cos it's like who in the right mind would memorise position and number of the blocks on the site plan??

Die, who would guess that the guai1-looking me is becoming such a rebel at heart :P

Today I this blur OIC was chased left, right and centre from various ppl but surprisingly it made me more amused rather than annoyed or really stressed. Amused because I am really not a good follower worker bee who religiously finds out and ensures that I've done everything I need to do in the SOP. And only when ppl chase me to do this/that then I panic (not for everything though, things i like i do first :P...); deep down I know that my ensure-everything-goes-well boss disapproves of such short-sightedness. Hmm perhaps every good boss will lah. And if I were in the "old era" I would have gotten many harsh lectures on such tardiness... so lucky that the new era style of mgmt is like cool and calm style... However these past few days I'm finding that the bulk of my time at work is really spent on multi-tasking/coordinating inputs/stringing bits and pieces of info tog rather than really racking brains. While busyness has generally improved my productivity level, mind doesn't seem to be getting much exercise. Which is not so good....

Japanese class, Ocha Cream and John Stuart Mill

This is a random post on things that made me happy over the weekend.

Today's the beginning of another new 6-wk term and though I reluctantly dragged myself out of bed at 8 something in morning, wondering why I constantly deprive myself of more beauty sleep every Sun, I was reminded why as soon as class began. Though a fellow classmate and I both agreed that we dun really have much time to study before class (actually the truth is probably not disciplined enough :P), classtime itself is just so enjoyable and fun. I suppose that's what keeps me going. And our new topic for the term is 健康ブームの光と影 (which can be roughly translated into the pros and cons of the health boom). So our sensei explained the imagery associated with 光 and 影 and their respective association with good and bad things... Not that the association of light with good and dark with bad is anything new, but I thought it was very interesting how the Japanese frequently formalise words that conjure up certain images or sounds into actual usable terms for their own language. But it's fun, cos it's easy to imagine when your language has descriptive terms that try to paint reality :P The trouble is that only the Japanese really understand what their thousand and one onomatopoeic words mean...

Ocha Cream is a talented local jewellery designer, and her necklaces/earrings are all so quirky and cute. Imagine wearing a necklace with a Tiger Brand label on it...! Well, though not all of them are nice and that wearable, there are quite a few really nice ones... And I would say all of them are so creative, with so many neat little details. She makes me so want to set up shop and make all these jewellery on my own... (ok lah, say only) Unfortunately, her merchandise is so overpriced... :(

Someone reminded me of my PEIS 100 class in an email and I nostalgically dug up my class notes and rediscovered my favorite John Stuart Mill... Hai, looking back at all the assignments I did that summer, feel like my brain has indeed deteriorated. Anyway, here's to share a cool excerpt from Mill's 'On Liberty' that I will try to always bear in mind:

He who lets the world, or his own portion of it, choose his plan of life for him, has no need of any other faculty than the ape-like one of imitation. He who chooses his plan for himself, employs all his faculties. He must use observation to see, reasoning and judgment to foresee, activity to gather materials for decision, discrimination to decide, and when he has decided, firmness and self-control to hold to his deliberate decision. And these qualities he requires and exercises exactly in proportion as the part of his conduct which he determines according to his own judgment and feelings is a large one. It is possible that he might be guided in some good path, and kept out of harm's way, without any of these things. But what will be his comparative worth as a human being?

Ah, 2 hrs to the end of my lovely weekend and start of another tiring work week... I need to read The 4-hour Workweek some day.

Today was stressfully draining though it started off and ended well. My heart melted a bit on the way to work upon discovering that the hole in my skirt pocket had been magically mended by 小叮当mum... even without me having fedback on the almost invisible hole! Clothes would be all crumply and holey (haha ok lah i not rough) if not for mum's tender loving care :) Unfortunately, these days my mornings aren't as carefree as before and while searching for some answers for a stress-inducing boss this morning, tph remarked that it was the first time she witnessed me lose my temper. Her conclusion was that I must have felt really pek chek :P I suppose I was! By 6.30pm I had entirely given up on trying to be productive and went for dinner breather with fly... And successfully tempted the usually ultra-healthy lady to snack on 60cents vanilla cone with me after dinner... So rarely do we sit around leisurely ard Toa Payoh that we found sitting and chatting at the breezy area outside Macs pretty relaxing... Finally at 7.45pm we trudged back to office, before I packed up at 8pm... :)

**TGIF tmr! **

Yesterday I found out that I had been confirmed as one of the interviewees to be "grilled" by assessors assessing my organisation for a certain business excellence award. Hai, 不见得 I so "lucky" in other aspects of my life :P Hmph. After the briefing last week, felt rather amused by how staged things could be... I mean, passion has to come from the heart and not from some external party egging you on to be passionate... But I suppose I'll do my part in my own way :)

I found a nice French song from Un Homme Et Une Femme (A Man and A Woman)! And apparently this famous french movie won the Oscars in 1966..... :)

I had a productive Saturday... On Sat morning I decided to act on a whim and taxied to ComfortDelGro Driving Centre to enrol for the refresher driving course, after finding out via the phone that practical lessons were fully booked till late Aug! But very unfortunately I made a wasted trip 'cos by the time someone attended to me at the counter, only two peak-hr slots were available for rest of July and Aug. So mafan, they should allow ppl to enrol and book classes online. Oh well, so i suppose the earliest I'll be hitting the roads would be in Sept... Come to think of it, it wouldn't be of much use learning how to drive and not knowing my way around in sg AT ALL. Will only know how to drive to like MRT station; or maybe Pasir Ris to HDB Hub... haha. Need to stop being a passive passenger. And will KIV someone's idea to rent car to drive around at night when there's no one..... :P

I also did some unintended hiking on a scorching Sat afternoon and arrived at my destination in pretty dismal flustered state. Was supposed to meet someone at 2902 Gallery at Mount Sophia and stupid me didn't internalise directions properly before setting off... thinking that I wouldn't get lost... Well I didn't get lost, but walked a lot of 冤枉路 circling past Paradiz/Peace Centre and following windy road quite a bit up the mountain (instead of taking flight of stairs that led directly to destination) before finally chancing upon Old School at Mount Sophia. Had no idea that it was like a new creative hub until I googled it after my mini outing... And the compound is supposedly a refurbished MGS... The location was pretty cool, peacefully tucked away up on tiny hill yet overlooking city. Now I know the shortcut up there, can get ppl to go watch movies with me at Sinema one day ;)

I like mature trees!

Initially I hated them for delaying my announcement again and again. But recently I've developed some kind of weak spot for them. I suppose when they are but green circles on your map you can easily dismiss them as annoying 'redevelopment obstacles'.... but after I went on site some weeks ago, the original resolve to just cut them down somewhat evaporated into thin air... cos they felt like they've been around forever and full of life... And today during a site visit I couldn't help noticing a lovely huge rain tree. It felt like an old wise tree kindly extending its beautiful crown to shade passers-by... And on my ride home today I couldn't but help thinking and realising, wah, Singapore really has many many trees... But though they have been around me all along, I have been pretty oblivious to them... [J, I was also reminded of your Singapore Standard Time :P]

Two weeks ago there was also a pretty nice tree by the 'holy matrimony' site at Rasa Sentosa...

Tmr's my 2-yr "anniversary" at work... And it really doesn't feel like I've been working for that long. But hey, why should I be complaining? Yay for me that it's 2 down, 4 to go :) Recently I've noticed myself becoming less complainy about work too, through no conscious effort of my own. I think that on some days I'm simply too busy to 胡思乱想, and it's kinda a blessing in disguise 吧。Me is gradually becoming more rational and less emotional too and it certainly feels like a change for the better. I suppose it helps that I have cool 偶像-potential friends like Miss W, who inspires me with her "why should you be worried if you're not doing anything wrong" attitude... :D And so I am trying to personalise such an do-what-you-think-is-right-in-smart-way attitude for myself at work... I suppose my only gripe at the moment is just having too little personal time to myself for the 101 things my ever-wandering mind dreams of doing :(

After a 2-year hiatus from the roads, I am finally seriously considering taking up refresher course so that I can drive again... Though I've always thought it rather stressful to drive in sg (with so many cars and narrow roads) a trigger event has reminded me that driving can be a very useful skill when you need to take care of aging parents... and in preparation for potential rainy days. So, yeah, I think it's about time I resume responsibility as an adult/good daughter :P Though I have a converted (but essentially 骗来的) local driving licence, have not risked my life (nor anyone else's) by attempting to drive. Certainly not when I absolutely do not know how to operate a manual car nor have any experience in driving on the other side of the road :( The dilemma now though is whether to do an auto car refresher (and pressure dad to switch to auto car) or bite the bullet and go learn manual (sian....) so that I wun impose externalities on nice, accommodating dad. Thinking abt driving again is making me miss my nice Honda... :P

Such a sweet dialogue

Have been reading (on and off) Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by British writer Susanna Clarke for more than a month now, but am still only halfway through the 1000 pages or so. In any case, I'm not really in a hurry to finish it, cos it's just fun to pick it up now and then to enjoy the most bizarre but highly original and entertaining contents of this ingeniously written historical + fantasy novel. That the English is (intentionally) Jane Austenish also adds to its charm... :)

Anyway, I came across a really sweet bit during my commute this morning -- a conversation btwn Jonathan Strange (one of the main characters in the book, who's a magician) and his wife after he returns from a war. This story is set in the early 1800s...

The next morning they still had not said a hundredth part of all they had to tell each other.

"Sit there," said Strange to Arabella.

"In this chair?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"So that I may look at you. I have not looked at you for three years and I have long felt the lack of it. I must supply the deficiency."

She sat down, but after a moment or two she began to smile. "Jonathan, I cannot keep my countenance if you stare at me like that. At this rate, you will have supplied the deficiency in half an hour. I am sorry to disappoint you, but you never did look at me so very often. You always had your nose in some dusty old book."

"Untrue. I had entirely forgotten how quarrelsome you are. Hand me that piece of paper. I shall make a note of it."

"I shall do no such thing," said Arabella, laughing.

Perhaps I am mad, but I thought the sentence in bold was terribly cute. :P

This is another one of my random TV posts... And this time round, I'm recommending the 聊斋奇女子 that has been showing on weekend evenings on Channel 8... I watch it on and off, cos not always home to catch it on TV... but yeah when I manage to watch it, usually get quite glued. I like it not only cos it has good plots (Fann Wong starred in the first story, but she was bleah...); also 'cos it has such tasteful period costumes! It's just eye candy for a very visuals person like me... Last of all, it has such beautiful Chinese dialogue... this I only realised last night, when watching the 辛十四娘 story... The characters speak so poetically and beautifully it made me fondly remember my love affair with Chinese in sec sch... now all 荒废了。And that's also how I got my latest quote hehe. Anyway, just to share the 成语故事 behind it, I'm pasting an explanation from some googled website:

成语“精诚所至，金石为开”，意思是说，如果做事肯花心血，就连像金属、石头那样坚硬的东西都能被打动、被敲开。形容只要有恒心、有毅力，没有什么事是做不到的。这个成语来自“飞将军”的故事。

西 汉时期，有一个著名将领叫李广，他精于骑马射箭，作战非常勇敢，被称为“飞将军”。有一次，他去冥山南麓打猎，忽然发现草丛中蹲伏着一只猛虎。李广急忙 弯弓搭箭，全神贯注，用尽气力，向老虎射了一箭。李广以为老虎一定中箭身亡了，走近前去，仔细一看，没想到被射中的竟是一块形状很像老虎的大石头。不仅箭 头深深射入石头当中，而且箭尾也几乎全部射入石头中去了。学者扬雄知道了这件事，评论说：“如果诚心实意，即使像金石那样坚硬的东西也会被感动的。”“精 诚所至，金石为开”这一成语也便由此流传下来。

这个成语现在常用来鼓励人们，为了理想和目标努力奋斗，不怕遭受挫折。如：“这次失败没有什么大不了，‘精诚所至，金石为开’，你继续努力，就一定会成功 的！”这个成语的使用范围非常广，工作、生活、学习，甚至追求爱情，都可以用到。

Actually this story is a bit *scratch-head*, cos what has mistakenly planting arrow into stone got to do with skill/perseverance?! But I suppose the idea behind this 成语 is still pretty inspiring lah :P

Late this week I got rather upset over someone whom I felt was/has been a smiling knifer... Perhaps such people are commonly found in the corporate world; and perhaps I have been working with ppl who are real sincere and helpful, the (long suspected) existence of such a person has conjured feelings of disgust and helplessness. Disgust 'cos I just hate ppl who are fake and harbour ill intentions, yet appear to be very nice on surface; helplessness 'cos I am not street smart/experienced enough to know how to deal with such ppl. Then again, I also ask myself whether I have been too sensitive and misinterpreted a series of events that led me to make such a conclusion? Whatever the case, I guess I'll still be civil to suspected knifer and all should be well as long as I wen4 xin1 wu2 kui4... And I have to keep reminding myself, tsm, some ppl are not worth your getting upset over... Though it's one of those easy-to-say-difficult-to-practise kinda things.

Tmr's my emcee-ing day and I'm debating whether I ought return to office for 2 hrs in morning before event, then rush down to MND... On one hand, I want to take a good rest and "appear pretty" (As instructed by organising committee haha) yet on the other hand I feel really guilty with all rather urgent things left undone in office... I suppose I just have to choose something later, before I go to bed. :( And yeah, I this kind really cannot multi-task very well... I need to concentrate on doing each thing well... else throw everything at me then I will get very luan4 and stressed. So far, our emceeing practice has gone fine-- only that according to organising committee me and co-emcee appear unnatural during 'banter' cos we 'do not really look at each other'. HAHA. This kind of things cannot really help right; though we are going to try to practise tmr morning again, dunno how 'natural' we would eventually appear. Oh well. I will still try lah. ;)

Sat's boss's wedding and everyone in office seems to be getting pretty excited, discussing what to wear etc. And alas, I've not been spared an arrow even when attending a wedding, cos Boss wants me and ph2 to usher his VIP guests (aka CEO and DCEO) from carpark to reception area/ ballroom. But ok lah, given that he's been quite nice to me all this while, surely I can do him the tiny favour on the most impt day of his life (I am assuming, but believe that I am not too far off from the truth)...

J.K. Rowling's definition of personal happiness VS mine (for today:P)

Today The Sunday Times published an excerpt of J.K. Rowling's speech at Harvard's commencement on Jun 5th. Though I've never been a die-hard fan of Harry Potter books, I like her inspiring and sincere speech... At one point, she says,

Given a time machine or a Time Turner, I would tell my 21-year-old self that personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a checklist of acquisitions or achievements. Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two. Life is difficult, and complicated, and beyond anyone's total control, and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes.

***
On a more frivolous note, my personal happiness for today was derived from greedily buying up two boxes of konnyaku drink from Mos Burger hehe. It's buy one box get one box free for now, and comes in three flavors-- peach, orange and grape. I tried a peach-flavored chilled bottle yesterday evening, and totally fell in love with it! It's such a cheap thrill sticking your straw into the soft konnyaku jelly in the bottle and sucking up the yummy jelly.... Not sure how long my whim would last, hehe, but I think I've enough bottles to satisfy myself for the time being....

12 bottles per box * 2 = 24 bottles. And yeah, I was so bent on having them that I unglamly lugged everything home on my own via MRT/feeder bus... Notice that straws are included? Hehe, i think it's cos they are the key to enjoying the drink... You shouldn't be drinking it from the bottle opening, like you would a normal bottled drink. :P

Hehe, the peach-flavored bottle... According to this website, konnyaku is a marvelous health food too.... :P

My guardian angels

This morning 3 min after I settled down at workstation lhp walked over and said to me in a very serious tone, "I have a piece of news for you..." Though I cannot remember the exact words she used, at that point in time I really thought something really terrible had befallen me and was braced for some really bad news.... And so it was a huge relief (though by right I shouldn't be) that the key consequence of this piece of news was that I would have to work v v hard in the upcoming weeks... :P Felt quite sian, but might as well, since I've morphed into the sort who doesn't budge till i'm abt to be burnt by the fire. And I felt so awwww... that my dear "aunties" had decided not to break the news to me yesterday afternoon, since they knew that I had taken time off for a tiny break... It seems like every week I find something to love my favorite few colleagues for.

Took 2.5 hrs time off this afternoon for a relatively impromptu meeting with Ting, back from Cambridge for very short holiday in sg... feels real nice to meet up with good old frens. And a luxury to be able to go shopping on a relatively crowdless weekday afternoon. AND... I found two lovely bargain buys within 2 hrs! Very proud of my efficiency (if only I can also say this for work...) and luck today. But yeah, have been terribly undisciplined with shopping the past few weeks, splurging on items that I cannot resist but don't actually need. Hai.

***
This is such a weird thing to say, but I feel so happy and fortunate that my good friends are such "good" and cool individuals. :P

Once in a blue moon, I chance upon really great late night weekend movies on Channel 8... And for some weird reason, they are usually Hong Kong shows with obscure titles... (another great but rather obscure Hong Kong movie was this 秋天的童话 starring a very young Chow Yun Fatt...) Anyway, back to my story... so this late night Hong Kong movie is titled 忘不了and starts off looking rather unpromising (when you get Cecilia Cheung and Loius Koo in opening few scenes, I cannot help but suspect that it's those feel-good, cheesy movies with good-looking ppl) But turned out to be a very very decent and touching movie. Surprisingly, Cecilia was really not just a pretty face in movie and acted really well... I've been wondering how/why some movies really 'touch' me? I figured a key reason is cos I can identify with the characters and feel what they are feeling... And when you are able to feel the same emotions, it's like you sort of go through the same emotional journey as the characters... And cos movies are usually highly drama (and unlike my typically unhappening life hehe), you get to experience these very out-of-world things... within a very short span of a few hours... And even when you see ppl screwing up their lives, you can still somewhat identify with them and like superimpose their experiences on your own, or vice versa... I suppose it doesnt work all the time, esp when you're in a cynical mood and say, just dun buy that ppl can fall so deeply in love... But hey, sometimes it feels good to be escapist right. Ok, I have hopelessly digressed from original intent to talk about movie... :P

Last Mon after sitting thru almost an entire day of meetings I told boss, it must be really tough to be a boss/ top management. The sheer effort of having to sit through meetings after meetings and concurrently appearing interested/engaged/intelligent is simply beyond me! I wonder how my bosses do it... (hee, though I have to qualify that some of them are quite human after all; esp those whose business is just to show face... a couple do drift off to dreamland for a while during the meeting :P)

Met up with 'long-lost' Berkeley senior MY yesterday evening... and had a very pleasant catch-up session. Nevermind that we kinda lost touch for 3 years... when you re-meet ppl you can click with, interaction just seems pretty effortless! It was interesting listening to accounts of work experiences in an entirely different field; and updates on various individuals from Berkeley. We were also both utterly disgusted with how crowded dining places were on a Fri night. That it was the sch holiday season definitely made it much worse. After dinner, we adjourned to Esplanade and settled for dessert at the Cookie Museum after watching a free open-air performance. Though I was really drawn by the European/Victorianish decor (and forgot to look at menu prices before getting seats) thought the desserts/teas/cookies were seriously overpriced. And we were rather pissed that it had an inflexible policy that didn't allow us to share a pot of tea (had we shared, we would have had to order 2 pax and nearly twice the price of the original one pax pot!) Nonetheless, we managed to sample some exoticly flavored cookies, such as Nasi Lemak; Laksa-flavored cookies. Surprisingly, I quite liked the laksa-flavored savory cookies... (supposedly limited edition and usually available only during new year season) but at a pricey $35 a tin, it was definitely not worth the money. The 'Mad Rose' flavor was also very nice, albeit tasting a little like powdered bandung, but yeah; wasnt prepared to pay so much for just cookies :P

***
I dun usually fancy watching cooking shows, but I've recently started watching Jamie Oliver's television shows on Discover Travel & Living.... whenever I have the luxury to laze at home on a Sat afternoon. Maybe it's cos of the series I'm watching (in which he does his cooking in a very home-style kinda kitchen, in a casual jacket and jeans) I think he actually doesn't look like a celebrity chef.... Sis says he has a sleepy look. Nonetheless, I think the way he cooks is very 潇洒。。。And his moves are so swift....(like drizzle olive oil also can drizzle so gracefully) and his ingredients always look so fresh and appetizing... Perhaps it's these little things that ppl notice, that contributed to his 'cult status'... :)

Ah, I can finally take a breather! And so this afternoon things slowed down a little and during chit-chat session with colleagues I found out that my DD's kids were called Leon and Noel (reverse of Leon). Quite cool.... if i ever have kids I also want names like that.... :P

Ycc just returned from Tokyo and brought back some anime leaflets for me... hee... and I wanna watch Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea! Opens in Japan July 19 but wonder when it will show here. Coincidentally while surfing on Ponyo-related websites, also found out about a shop in Tokyo (click on 商品について) that makes Totoro-shaped cream puffs. かわいい。。。