chance meetings...

today went to carrefour plaza sing juz before gg back to office to meet my fellow interns for some housekeeping and admin matters. left the building then went to relac one corner... then saw my fren from NS, my last unit. he saw me, and i went "Bro!"

this "Bro" is our sarge, who i muz say kept alot of shit away from my superior. i think he saved our asses quite many times and mine as well, not burning my precious wkends in the stupid camp. so we, the RPs, really respect him lots... and he's a fren to many ppl in the guardroom which i frankly muz say is not an easy task, given the... "diverse" personalities... (ie cb and lj ppl)


chatted wif him for awhile. got to know that he's still studying, n still in the aviation industry. so, its like, ok... still the same career aspiration, given tat he applied for air steward (he's got the stuff - looks, humor and BUTT! - fellow RPs will noe wat i mean). now he's applying for a new position as a sales exec... career switch tat is...

good luck bro.

so next up, aft i knocked off from work i went to eat fish head steamboat... whoa... beri beri nice! then i was eating halfway when a familiar figure strode down and our eyes caught each other. it was my fren from uni, haven seen her for quite some time le.

cos she deferred sch to concentrate on her insurance career. well, the reasons she gave was tat studying largely depends on her mood - so she wanted to recharge b4 gg back to study - fair enuff, i guess, since insurance does ensure some xtra pocket money even when u're studying. hmmm... tat's someone to look for when i need some safe investments tat give me safe returns... the "kao shan" of my portfolio besides the blardy savings acct and endowment plan... kns pittance returns! PEANUTS!

and the protagonist of the PEANUTS saga gets 3 months! wow thks dude, tis guy does get away wif things... hope u dun get toothbrushed (ie stabbed by some toothbrush sharp end as always featured in the movies) by some dialysis patient in changi villa...

6 wks of internship down!! ha... mixed feelings. cant reveal too much here yet, as i'm still doing PA and not much can be revealed. wat i can say now is the arrows flying ard in office - and i happen to be the target! specifically the sandwiched ham. yes i do make perfect ham cos i hv a flabby body but its kinda out of pt. ha... i learnt tat sucking up to both sides is nt an easy task... so wat can be said, wat cannot be said, muz be real careful... and... truth and honesty DOES pay in tat... well, we'll see if there's any payoffs.

as far as performance is concerned, i'm much on the right track. better gimme my A for PA... ni na bei lim bei tio ar ni juay sai... boh A lim bei kar ngli gan... gan tan la! (感叹）

BnJ outing with my sisters!

BnJ outing with my two sisters! aka hao jie mei la... looking fwd long time to tis outing le to catch them again n see how they doing in their pa n own personal stuff... haha all v quirky pix! but is aft my careful selection, muz show off their great looks mah! hahaha... told u le will post the best de mah, my sisters!

kiss?? no kiss?? (no kiss!)

haha so happy ya...

there's got to me as well mah! haha y i put my phone there huh... anyway i kinda look tired and having a bad hair time (think is cos put during hair wet wet... then go toilet a few time and try to style but then wash off quite a lot of the gel... so too bad lor. ignore the hair k!) enjoy the pix... may our sisterhood last 4ever!!!

roaming and hiking around

currently doing the second project for my attachment, so req'd to run ard various stores in sg to collect relevant info. includes running to rather inaccessible and new housing areas. had the chance to go north east yesterday, quite quiet and empty. bare tpt and shopping facilities, but i find the scenery beautiful. so juz to share some pix...

clouds gathering for rain. look - nothing but the skies and the punggol LRT adding to the forefront of this pic. was v windy at tat time and then was waiting for bus to come, so SNAP!

taken slightly to right of first pix. shows a station, then dark clouds to the left and the sun's rays protruding thru the clouds, like some heavenly beams.

punggol interchange - mostly empty flats, i suppose. very bare interchange with v little ppl. storm clouds gathering, my first stop for the day.

stopped at the wrong stop. suppose to alight 1 more stop aft this, riviera LRT station. who the hell takes this anyway? anw, it had begun to drizzle and this lonely van happen to pass by. juz to illustrate the emptiness of the area, roads and flats etc

taken at the "wrong" stop. shows the sky slightly clearing up, tho its still drizzling and gg on to a major downfall soon. cant realli see the rain in this pic, this is one of the few places in sg that has not been ravaged by bulldozers, molested by skyscrapers, harassed by humans - yet.

subsequently went some places in sengkang... not v interesting as they're quite populated. aft some trips there went to buangkok, if i not wrong somewhere near institute of mental health, hougang area.

taken on top of a overhead bridge, showing the badminton and general facilities courts of buangkok crescent estate. such a nice environment and view... northeast side actualli not too bad for living juz tat abit distant from CBD, tpt quite limited unless got car.

taken left of previous pic. this piece of land, perhaps the nxt time i go there (who knows when) might have 2 - 3 blocks of hdbs or condos occupying this plot of space. 6mil in population... well i guess there's not much of a choice. thing is, will our ladies - our future gf and wives - collectively bear till that number, or will immigration policies be relaxed?

leaves much to the imagination... food for some tot...

first project down

some time ago i was blogging abt my first project at my attachment co unilever, named shopscore. aft 1 wk of intensive data compilation, analysis, report and powerpt slides (yes, at least 10 hrs per day incl. sat and sun) the work finally came to an end.

as usual, b4 the presentation there is some anxiousness as we, tho used to present in sch to fellow classmates, do nt hav much exp dealing with corporate presentation. what's gg to happen? is it gg to be long? wat abt "thinking on your feet?" the Q&A, is it gg to be hard?

the entire presentation took abt 2 hrs, incl the Q&A as and when it occurs. so its nt like, presentation, blah blah blah, ok Q&A, we answer yr Qs. Qs r asked and clarification sought whenever the panel needs to ask, so apart from having to noe the material v well (which sure will b, havin spent so much time wif it) and some quick thinking, the whole thing went smoothly. sure was a great boost to morale!

we were worried in the beginning tat the presentation wun go as well, n tat the findings or data were analyzed wrongly. some mistakes there were, but given tat we were on a pretty tight schedule (prev allocated abt 8 days, excl wkends, to do the analysis) we churned out a pretty gd job. the feeling from the praise is diff from wat u get from sch. sch is like, ok you got an A, you feel ok at least cse work is there. in reality its quite different. there is no grading system so explicitly per se, but it gave me satisfaction more than i ever felt. 2 hrs of standing - n when u only had 5 hrs of disturbed slp last nite and by the end of the whole thing the blood in yr body is juz in your legs - n yr managers say, well done. wat u think? i'm very very satisfied, it spurred me to do even better for the nxt project n presentation.

so there goes 1. we shld b doing another round of presentation to 1 - 2 directors, tho this time the content is gg to b more concise n wif the errors (hopefulli) removed. so then, till the nxt presentation. of cos, there wil be another round of report writing - but its basically to re-edit the report to make it useful of management decision making. so things like accuracy, explicitness and clarity play major roles.

anyway, juz share some pics i took wif my fellow interns today... haha look at our relieved faces!
well done all!!!


me and amanda - both NTU MKG yr 3 (worr 1 more year left le!) interns at unilever, showing the "V" for victory handsign!! mission complete!!


me and shihui, shihui is from NUS MKG also, graduating end of tis year. i act cool... but cant diminish the sunshine from shihui!

"抽烟身体好，喝酒练头脑"

in other words, the direct translation for this entry's title is: smoking is gd for the body while drinking trains the brain. of cos, it is best in its original language as the translation loses the 押韵 (ya1yun4), you know, the rhythm that you often hear in chinese phrases etc.

this interesting phrase i came by last wednesday, when i went back to office to discuss some project issues with my fellow interns. as there was a meeting going on tat day wif the distributors, sales rep from exec to supervisor levels came to my new office to participate in the meeting.

after the entire thing, it is inevitable tat they have a small get-together, both my office and the distributors' ppl alike. so wat's the best way to socialize in the corporate world?

- going out to eat takes up too much time and who's going to foot the bill even though everyone's all ready to pay but who wants to eat since ppl are tired and wanna go back slp;

- go pub drink. who knows how long it will take for it to end and no pt anyway since they all drive and why risk suspending your license and be smacked with a hefty fine to fund the recent civil servant bonuses;

- stay in office to chit-chat. partly correct only but who wants to really sit in office when there's a nice balcony overlooking town (ok... can only see hotel phoenix, heeren, cineleisure.. not all of it la) and the office's located at the top of the building??

but you ask, sitting on balcony (very large one) can do wat? look at skies? breathe the night air? enjoy the scene? NO!

these things u do wif your lover. when u have working ppl in their 30s - 50s you break out a Salem pack and start distributing ard to your kakis. then, as u pass / offer a light to others, you take a space on the balcony - leaning against the parapet, sitting on the wooden benches - and then, you start the chit chatting. sample conversation below:

"wa liao eh, AMK avenue 10 ee eh budget shop eh huay long zong si parallel import leh! lim bei kee yi dao kia kia kua kua, meng yi eh towkay ai xia hui mai, ee kar wa kong wa lang eh mee kia sibei gwee, an zua tan?"

(wa liao, the budget shop at AMK avenue 10 has so many parallel imports! when i went there and asked the boss if there's any things to order, he told me that our goods are too expensive, how to make money?)

"eh, wa kar ngli gong lar, market arh, si sibei pai. jin pai zou! wa kee gwee kian TPY ee dao eh provision shop hor, ee lang eh towkay long xia si mi, ngli zai ya boh? xiang hor eh, si xia sa bao lipton teh nia, xiang pai eh, bo sia! kio wa lang an zua hit sales target?"

(eh, i tell you, the market is really bad. hard to do nowadays! i went several of TPY's provision shops, and you know wat the bosses order? the best - 3 packs of lipton tea! the worst - never write! tell me how to hit the sales target?)

"jin pai tan la..."

(very hard to earn la...)

etc etc... all in hokkien along wif many colorful varieties of vulgarities common la when they gather to discuss the latest things in the market now. all these, within puffs of smoke. so, as i was waiting to discuss some issues with my manager, i overheard one of the distributor supervisors saying the entry's title!

very interesting! never heard of it before. then on friday when i was out wif my rep the same supervisor called and talked to my rep for a while. then she pass me the earpiece as her supervisor wanna talk to me.

Supervisor (S): "eh... hello?"
Me (SC): "hey, mr. xxx!"
S: "eh, weicong arh..."
SC: "mr. xxx, i'm not weicong la, its shicong."
S: "orh... hey, i tell you ah, tell your rep not to smoke so much la. still so young, bad for body! not like me ah, smoke 30 years already so have the immunity. drinking, also the same. 抽烟身体好，喝酒练头脑!"
SC: "ok ok... i will let her know."
S: "ya ya... you tell her ok! thank you arh!"
SC: "can can! thank you thank you. bye bye."

when i told my rep she went "kns" and $@#%&?! but its true la. i mean, dun try faking to ppl and tell them to quit when you yourself still puffing... then arh, say wat 30 years of smoke build up your body liao! wa lan eh crap la... but talking to him was very funny la...

anyway, as of yesterday my field work for project 1 has ended. so its back to office for data compilation, analysis and presentation. hmmm i love office... aircon... etc etc... though now is not back-breaking (not so physically demanding) but brain-breaking (like doing a marketing project lor...) well see how it goes...

end.