"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.