Finally, a chance to go on stage.

I have never won any prizes or competitions in my life so oppotunities to come on stage to receive something is few and far in between. The last instance on stage was during convocation, some eight long years ago. Finally had a chance to go on stage and receive a letter from the big boss.

Shouting

Since the new office follows an open concept, it is not difficult to hear conversations between other colleagues if they happen to be near you. I myself have a tendency to speak loudly too especially over the phone.... but nothing beats the volume of my "neighbour"... some of you know who.... well, that doesn't matter.

But today, it was my first "encounter" when my this neighbour quarrelled with her "supervisor" over some work, at the discussion table nearby.... yes near my cubicle. I was on the phone with an external party when I heard SHOUTING from them. I AM NOT EXAGGERATING.. they were REALLY SHOUTING AT EACH OTHER, AT THE TOP OF THEIR LUNGS. The noise got to a certain point that I have to stop my conversation and ask them to go to the room!!!!!!!!!!!! This is so embarrassing....

Open concept... this is what we all have to put up..... but i just hope people can be more considerate and aware.... I am not asking for whispering but some sense of control.

High up on the Singapore Flyer

Eager Smiles: Group photo before boarding the Flyer.

Booming Singapore? View of the IR in full construction.
Floating platform used for last year's NDP
Keong and me.
Pitlane building for Sep's F1
Lawrence and Keong
A goof view of the Sheares Bridge and eastern Singapore
Group photo at the top of the Flyer
Taking a photo with my boss.

Melvin and Boon Lin's wedding.

Finally, our dear friends BIG DAY has come. Best wishes to them.

This post and the many photos is for Wui Seng so he can see how his colleagues and friends look now!

Office gathering coming up

Our annual dinner to celebrate the end of the financial year and the hard work done will be held two Fridays from now. Chee Keong has graciously helped to reserve a table at the NUSS Guild House. Keong said that the buffet spread is good and value for money.

Watch out for the photos!

More on primary school memories

Now that we (primary school classmates) have passed the awkward 30 years of age, we are able to share each others' achievements and foibles quite frankly and also rather nonchalantly. If someone has done well, for example, made partner in a law firm, the sense of happiness is quite genuine and this is in a way reflective of the age of innocence in which we made acquaintance.

We were all in the same 'A' class for more or less from primary two to primary five. I couldn't remember how we studied then, though I had tuition in english and maths, but we all did pretty ok and ended up in the top class every year. This is nothing to boast about but I reflect that I have learnt some things from being with the obviously smarter than me friends.

For the boys, we were roughly split into three groups, the chinese group, the malays and the brainy ones. Two of the most brainy kids were Xiao Yan and Yasser. According to Yasser, the group had a 'club' and they called it the Sun Dial Palace. The honourable venue for the club was behind erm.. the school canteen and it was such named because Xiao Yan often brought along a piece of rock and read time as you would a sun dial. Xiao Yan laughed it off and said he could not remember such an interesting past.

Yasser is blind in one eye and he would think of the most incredible stories to explain. According to Norman, Yasser said that he became blind in that eye when his FATHER breastfed him (I know..but we were all primary school kids and blur and did not have the benefit of the internet and wikipedia then), some milk dripped on his eye and it got infected. Another witness, Xihua who sat beside Yasser confirmed the story and said that Yasser said that two drops of milk were all it took to blind a person. This so terrified her that she started to have a phobia against milk and argued that this was the reason she stopped growing vertically.

Another fond memory I had of primary school was our quizzes in class. After exams or when we had free time, our teacher split us into two groups and pitted us against each other. Each team would take turns to send someone to post a question and see if the other can answer. Xiaoyan, Yasser and Sophian would often be the guys that would go up to the blackboard and ask questions. I learnt a lot of general knowldege then.

Being in the top class has many benefits. Simply, because the others were so driven and smart, you got pulled along despite being less intelligent.

Nash's Wedding Dinner

I attended my primary school friend Nakoorsha's wedding dinner. It was held at the Hilton Hotel. As he is a lawyer, many of those attending were from the legal fraternity. His big boss SM Goh Chok Tong was one of the invited guests. Before SM arrived, we were all wondering whether the obvious police presence was because of one Mas Selamat!

Spot SM in the photo below, should be easy since he is so tall.

My primary school classmates and me.

This is what I meant by strange messages

Don't Click.

Phuket..... Sun~Sand~Sea~ *

Hey hey hey.... for those who are waiting for this post (hehe), here it is. Sharing with you my recent trip at Phuket! It was a good holiday for me as I had so much fun, mostly eating and drinking Beer/Coke... Superduper HOT weather there and it's no wonder I come back as "CHAO DAR" mui.

Also to share with you an experience at Patong Beach. If ever your jetski got overturned, and the engine cannot work cos "The water gets into it", be sure to negotiate the price they asked you to pay. My Jetski capsized and the beach guys asked for 7000 Baht (~ S$300 or so) for their repair! Of cos, there is no grounds to believe them! Nearly went to the police station for this as we insisted we didn't have that kind of money to pay them! It was only on our way to the police post, the price was negotiated and cut to 2000B (~S$100)... well, at least we did not have to waste more time with the Patong Police. Other than that, I think the people were still generally nice... nice beach, nice coke, nice view.

In this trip I got to walk around Patong area, went island hopping (maya beach, phi phi and Khai Nok beach) then also to Phuket Town where there is a night market (close to Chatuchak in Bangkok as they only open during weekend evenings.) Of cos, there was SHOPPING and BARGAINING! heheh! Oh yes, there's a new mega mall called Jungceylone at Patong... similar to our Suntec? Hmmm.... nice to walk in (cos of the air con), as for shopping, really have to look for items on discount.

If you like the SUN, SAND and the SEA, I think Phuket is one good choice.

Caution. Do not click on strange messages

I am very sure that this blog of mine is not a very popular nor that well visited. But for some reason, some pranksters have been leaving comments in the Bo Ji post and links which actually are virus or are tracking cookies. So please do not click on the links of messages that say "Look here" etc.