Friday, May 30, 2008

Overheard

While eating curry chicken noodles during lunch, I shared my table with some strangers and there was this middle-age guy, who was complaining to (i am assuming) his colleague that his daughter often only gets home past 1am in the morning. The dialogue went like this

Man (M) "My daughter doesn't come home till 1am! This is not good for a girl!"
Colleague (C): But she's an adult already right?
M: It's still no good for a girl to come home so late everyday.
C: How old is your daughter?
M: Well, everytime I threaten to lock her out, she comes home earlier but after a while, she goes back to coming home late
C: What does she do?
M: I don't know. All I know is she's at her computer all day and night.
C: BUT she's an adult right? How old is she?
M: She's 30 but it's really no good for a girl to come home so late.

.................???!????? I tried not to choke on the curry chicken bits in my mouth.

My my my, if your daughter is 30 and still coming home, it's not a good sign!

30.80

That's the amount I spent on cosmos at Harry's Bar before the movie, ticket, nachos & a bottle of green tea. Totally enjoyed the evening... and realized only after I got home that hey, I actually watched a movie on opening day! Not on the plane, not on DVD, but at the cinema!

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Sex And The City - The Movie

Going to watch it later... Yeah! Yours truly the loser haven't been to the movies in a long long long time... last movie was ......"Curse of the Golden Flower" in 2006?

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Company for 2


Tuesday, May 27, 2008

3 Asian Bears

The lights went out. The little one protested so I told him I can tell him the story of the 3 bears without the lights. Went something like this >>>

Once upon a time, there were 3 bears... and they were hungry one morning. Little bear wanted porridge. Not noodles, not bee hoon, not chwee kueh. He wanted porridge. Papa bear wanted Mee but Mummy bear said, no. Because Little bear wanted porridge so she'd cook porridge! (Hmmmm) Porridge was cooked but they all agreed it'd taste better with Bak-Hu ( Pork floss) so off they went to the market to get some.

Meanwhile, there came along a girl named Lock Li-Goy. She saw the porridge and decided she must eat them! She added some Soya Sauce into Papa's bear porridge but it was too SALTY! So, she added some sugar to Mummy's bear porridge, but it was too SWEET! Finally, she decided to add Vegemite to Little Bear's porridge. It was just right so she ate it all up!

Then I mumbled something about watching TV on the sofa, rocking chair and the IKEA stool ......which broke apart ( I fell asleep at some point, only to be poked in the eye and told unsympathetically to wake up !!!! )

Then something about a water bed, a rock bed and finally a mattress bed. And angry bears who threatened to eat Lock Li-Goy up with their Bak-Hu.

Finally, I said "THE END! GOOD NIGHT!" and slept.

Monday, May 26, 2008

Losing a staff today to motherhood.

Hi Everyone,

******** has decided not to return to work, in order to care for her child.

Her last day is 26th May. While I have no arguments against her decision, it is nevertheless with regret that we won't be able to continue to enjoy her company as a valued colleague in ******. I for one will miss her keen intellect, quick wit and hilarious Swiss-responses at work.

All mothers are working mothers and the multiplicity of being an all-in-one carer, function organiser, nurse, driver, handyman is extremely daunting (at least to me!). But if we know her well enough, we will certainly know that she will take those challenges by the horns and be very successful.

I wish her all the best.

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Wii-olin

His Teacher solemnly asked that I bring him in for a REMEDIAL lesson "to catch up".

It's not as if I hadn't made an effort practicing the violin with him. But if I can describe the effort, it's like trying to squeeze coconut juice out of the whole coconut with bare hands. Nothing comes out!

But today, HEY! We went through 3 songs in a breeze... the Coconut has been inspired! The Big One told him he'd get to play Wii if he practiced well.

It's all about pulling the right strings huh?

.....>>???!?>>......................When is Wii Violin coming?

Friday, May 23, 2008

Breaking new grounds...

First Vietnam, then Cambodia and now Laos!!!???

Am reading up about Laos...and came upon this. Hmmm....??!??

HEY ME, Quit fantasizing!!! GET back to breaking new grounds! ONWARD MARCH!

Where's my weekend?

More

The small one is now into throwing his kisses away for me to pick up. This morning, I had to pick up 3 before coming to work.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Unbroken

The little one 'threw' a kiss out of the window. I feign horror and told him I'd pick it up downstairs. His response: "Mummy, it's not broken! You go downstairs and pick it up and bring it to the office OK?"

Fatigue II

Hey, maybe after the months of hibernation, the fats will melt away? Work: I've ran 40 miles, only to find that the end of it is the beginning of yet another. *sian*

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Fatigue

I feel like I need to hibernate...find a cave somewhere, cosy yet well ventilated, and go to bed for a few months.

Monday, May 19, 2008

2-Wheeler

The Small One's getting it... thanks to the efforts of the Big One. It quite a brilliant idea to start teaching them on a grass patch first. Even if they fall, which is inevitable in the beginning, it's more or less 'cushioned'.

Flight BY101

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

http://www.thegirlskaksh.com

Collected my new necklace from Audrey and we had a chat over several plates of sushi - my treat, since at some point in time, she harbored thoughts about killing me.

I honestly have little recollection about our first meeting (sorry! I shall blame it on my pregnancy then) but she was this newbie AE (Account Executive) the agency brought in to service our business and I must have ignored her during meetings ( because she told me today I hardly spoke to her!). But she did great as an AE and I certainly do remember her for that.

Fast forward a couple of years. She moved over the fence to the client side. We kept in touch. I moved on to a different company. We kept in touch. Wind the tape a bit more and we come to now, her as the Lady Boss of "The Girl's Kaksh" and me as her client. Yet again?

Audrey, I wish you every success possible. Good luck and I will look forward to you buying me lunch when you break even.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Torn

... I promised this will be the last of the 3-part style series. "Torn"...that's the description for the lining of my skirt! *Shhss*

Excellence or Innovation?

Attended a talk by Don Peppers, a leading authority on customer-focused relationship management strategies for business, yesterday.

He spoke about why being customer-focused requires the company to be both innovative and flawless operations and how being better at your current business often makes it harder to be innovative and went on to present a "mental model" for how a company can use technology to:

- Harness the diverse ideas of both employees and customers to generate faster and better innovation;
- Tap the power of customer word-of-mouth and online social networks to improve satisfaction, loyalty, trust and referrals;
- Execute better by engaging and enabling employees to become a "self-organizing" force for creating genuine economic value.

He also had a couple of slides about "Path-dependence" and demonstrated it effectively within the audience by asking everyone to clap rhythmically. Within a split-second, the entire auditorium was clapping in unison.

Anyway, the talk made me think - everything we need to know is already out there! But old ideas can are rehashed convincingly with the support of new examples, and that's exactly what he did.

The world spins another day!

Monday, May 12, 2008

Stretched

If Friday's style was "lumbering"...today's would be *drumroll* >>> STRETCHED!!! which is what I'm doing to my tailored shirt from Pinky!

Friday, May 09, 2008

Lumbering

That's my locomotive style today. Lumbering! A result of those pancakes, those lovely meals and olive-oil soaked bruschettas!!! Ate a kilo of fruit today for lunch. Nothing else... well, not exactly a kilo but it was a lot! Now wondering if anyone has tried eating a kilo of food and wieghing themselves right after to see if they're exactly a kilo heavier?

Thursday, May 08, 2008

Complaining....

I bought something online... but they only accept payment via Paypal. Right, so I apply for Paypal and was charged $3 - which will be reversed once they receive the confirmation code that comes with the transaction. Statement came but the transaction wasn't captured. Couldn't wait for the next one... so tried to register for i-banking. Couldn't succeed via web. Called hotline. Voice tells me sure I can, but do I have a bank account with them? I say no... but I hold 3 cards from your bank!!! Voice at the end of the line told me I can't apply for i-banking unless I have a savings account! Right, so can they print out a statement for me? Voice said yes, they will reprint the statement. I said no, no, I don't need a reprint. I need the statement for transactions from between the last statement and now. Voice said sorry, I am only limited to 1 statement per month, which will be printed on the 20th of each month. Back to square 1. Now I remember why I stopped banking my money with this bank! Maybe i should stop using thier cards too! Hmph!

A dream pursued...

Audrey, way to go! All others, please check out. www.thegirlskaksh.com AND BUY SOMETHING!

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

New Book: Then we Came to the End by Joshua Ferris

EXCERPT: WE WERE FRACTIOUS AND overpaid. Our mornings lacked promise. At least those of us who smoked had something to look forward to at ten-fifteen. Most of us liked most everyone, a few of us hated specific individuals, one or two people loved everyone and everything. Those who loved everyone were unanimously reviled. We loved free bagels in the morning. They happened all too infrequently. Our benefits were astonishing in comprehensiveness and quality of care. Sometimes we questioned whether they were worth it. We thought moving to India might be better, or going back to nursing school. Doing something with the handicapped or working with our hands. No one ever acted on these impulses, despite their daily, sometimes hourly contractions. Instead we met in conference rooms to discuss the issues of the day. (Official Site)

Vacation Photos














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