Office X'mas Gathering

Thanks to Miss Molly who again led the organising efforts, we had our annual X'mas Gathering, albeit a more quiet affair. Besides the usual bunch of people, this gathering saw a number of new recruits who had joined the organisation progressively in 2007.

This year, the gathering was held on X'mas Eve itself and we only needed to work half-day so we gathered on 10th floor at noon. Food this year was Old Chang Kee fried finger food ordered via phone.
Some of our new colleagues.
Gifts for the gift exchange. The gift at the foreground was wrapped using our organisation's newsletter. The owner has explained that this was in line with the eco-office policy.
Besides myself, I have discovered another double-chin.
Happy with the exchanged presents.
Till next X'mas. Next year, Wui Seng will be back from his studies so we will be expecting him.

Roti Prata cooked using Olive Oil

To cater for the health conscious, even the humble and traditionally oily roti prata has turned healthy, at least for the use of oil. Notice the large poster hung across the front section of the coffee shop and the large wordings at the bottom "1st Shop in Singapore using Olive Oil Roti Prata". There is an interesting indian chap there who speaks fluent mandarin called Simon who took our orders.
Where is this place? It is called the Thohirah Restaurant and situated along Jalan Kayu and just beside the public car park. Prices are not cheap and it is suggested that you go through the bill before you pay to make sure that you are not 'slaughtered'.

Talk: Really achieve your childhood dreams

Ah Keong sent me the link to this inspiring talk over msn this morning. Although the talk is more than an hour long, it is worth taking the time to listen. Why? When a person is close to dying, you would expect nothing but the honest truth from him and that is the situatioon facing Dr Randy Pausch, who at the time of the talk, had another 2-3 months life as he was diagnosed with cancer.

There are many nuggets of wisdom in the talk and I think I would dilute the essence if I would to summarise anything here. But rest be assured that this is no end-of-life self-pity, instead it is a positive look back on one's achievements and the realisation of the goodness of life and people, if you do things the RIGHT way and wait LONG enough. Enough said, enjoy the trip.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=362421849901825950&pr=goog-sl

Friday Nite at Marina Square (14 Dec 07)

It was an enjoyable night out with a few friends from the office. Dinner was at Spageddies followed by dessert at Secret Recipe. Thereafter, after another round of drinks at Coffee Bean, this uncle could not last the night anymore and called it a night. Only the still young at heart Cheeko Keong wandered into the night to another appointment of fun and drinks.








Cheeko Keong:"The night is no enough!"

My 1st post on this blog...

Ello Everyone,

This is the very first time I’m blogging and yea, decided to post something after reading Miss Molly’s posts about working. Haha…ok just to introduce myself a little, I joined the organisation in June 07 and I’m in the same division as miss molly, which is GB’s ex-division…so I noe them!

Just some reflections about how I feel after working here for the past 6 months. This is my first job upon graduation and I’m glad that my colleagues are, in general, nice pple and I’ve got a bunch of really good friends here, which makes life here pretty fun !! ~^^~ Regarding work itself, I’d say that whatever I’m doing now is totally new to me because of my educational background, but yea I’m relieved that there are some v experienced and cooperative people around to help me, so well I guess I'm fortunate to have such supportive and helpful colleagues and that makes working life less undesirable…(by the way, I still think schooling is much better than working, haha).

Referring to Molly’s post titled “Things to improve at work”, I guess I can add on to what she has written…I totally agree that we should have shorter meetings! I just attended a 3.5 hr long meeting yesterday morning, but still we didn’t accomplish much. I suggest to limit ALL meetings to max. 2 hrs. I remember hearing this during a talk back in my JC days: Maximum attention spent for humans – 15min. After 15min, the amount of attention spent diminishes exponentially and when 45min is up, attention spent = 0. This is why we all need a BREAK after 1hr, albeit a short one. So, no point wasting time on LONG meetings which are not going to get us anywhere.

Sometimes, I think it’s the nature of what our division is doing that makes things a little unpleasant; we’re the so-called FIREFIGHTERS of our division, got to be alert 24hrs..I remember waking up a few times in the middle of the night because of incoming SMSes about emergencies. I used to be really excited whenever I receive an sms, wondering which friend has messaged me! But now, I think SMSes are a nightmare. >_< Because we are at the frontline, our bosses esp. are under quite a lot of stress, and this translates into a rather high degree of kiasu/kiasee-ism in terms of the way our division works. Maybe this is something that I have to get used to..?..

Oops I guess I’ve written too much crap…that’s all I want to say! (Hmm or rather, that’s all I can say because something that I learnt after working here: anything written in black n white is dangerous!! LOL~)

Molly at Taiwan

It has been months since I returned from my Taiwan trip.... Suddenly got an urge to post something on this trip.

Briefly, I enjoyed the trip to Taipei (4D3N) and it was R&R. Though I didn't go to many places in Taiwan (just ard Taipei), I had an enjoyable time feasting on the local food. To me, this is the TOP LIST... pls try them if you are going to Taiwan... Hehe!

1) 阿宗面线 (avail at Shilin night market and ximenting)

2） 豪大鸡排 (avail at Shilin night market and Danshui)

3） 胡椒饼 (avail at Raohe night market)

4） 香肠 (any night market... their squid one is yummy, though it looks black. HAHA)

5） 阿给 (at Dan shui.. it is actually tau pok with dong fen in it.)

Awww... missing the food already!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Things to Improve at Work

Hmmm.... after reading Yuwen and Giin Bo's comments on my previous posting, here are my comments which I think shd be improved working here:

- SHORT meetings, plssssss.... loooooooong meetings are ineffective and a waste of many pp's time!

- If really need to have Looooooong meetings, nevermind... but pls DECIDE and CONFIRM an outcome. What's the action to be taken next? Sometimes, I leave the meeting even more confused without conclusion. You may think, if dunno then ask lah, Yah ASK LOR, but sometimes more questions just led to more confusion. @*$&@*><

- Pls direct comments to the matter/issue NOT the person. Many a times, I am quite surprised to hear comments from older officers during meetings, finger pointing or rather implying it's someone's else fault. Let's be more objective.

- Lastly, and most importantly, think my attitude needs to change too... these trends (which I have mentioned) are probably quite common in other organisations. So it's really up to me to manage my feelings at work. It's really a challenge but luckily, I have FRIENDS in the organisation who share the same thoughts.... of course they are the reason which I "look forward" to work. (My Friends, are u touched? Hehehehhehe!!!!)

TGIF! YAY!

Marathon

Tomorrow is the day of the marathon. To all the marathoners, good luck to you all, the end is not that far away. I've been there before too in 2004. That was my first and last marathon. haha. To spend 5 1/2 hours running from dawn till noon is really quite an experience and one I would not want to go through again. For the record, I beat Chee Keong keke....