Karaoke night

Joined my young colleagues (I am considered uncle-level amongst them) for a karaoke session. Before the song singing, we went for dinner. As it was on the way and we did not want to have fried and hence heaty fast food, we opted for japanese food at Wasabi Tei at Far East Plaza. The food was good and value for money as usual. The service was also, as it has always been, characteristically bad. The owner cum chef, although he looks japanese, his attitude is definitely not japanese. Before the sashimi came.

Me figuring how to use the remote control. It has been years since I stepped into a karaoke joint.

My young colleagues seemed impressed. haha

Mr Qu.
Mr Qu has strong jaws. Like Emil Chau. But not the singing ...keke

Miss Xie forgot to take off her glasses for the photo.
The uncle and the young colleague.

The BIG '4' for Ming

Our dear friend and colleague Ming celebrated his big 4 this week. Dinner was at the Red Dot Brewery at Dempsey. Food was good, booze (for those who drank) was quite good (I gathered) but service was super lousy. Anyway, the birthday party was happy and we were all happy for that for he is a good buddy.

The birthday day giving all he's got.

Proudly declaring his age!

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.