Red Tape

I was asked to make a trip to ICA by my boss today to make an enquiry on the renewal of entry pass for one of our clients.

Since it was my first time handling such stuff, my boss was kind enough to give me a short briefing as to what questions I needed to ask the officer. Took a cab there at my boss’ request

At the ICA Entry Permit office, I joined the queue. I noticed that there were quite a number of China people in the queue as well. I had tried to get the Chinese officer to answer the questions that my boss asked me to ask, but I was stopped at 2 questions, before I was asked to join the queue again. Again, the Chinese officer asked me to rejoin the queue after I asked another question again. It was not until when I queued for the 3rd time, then a Malay officer, Ms Fadilah managed to go through all the questions that my boss had. I must commend her for doing a great job.

I just wonder if the Chinese officer should feel ashamed of herself for showing such lack of patience about answering my questions. Its no wonder we are still a long way from being a gracious society. What would would-be PRs feel if they had receive such service from this officer?

New Bus Stop Signs

Recently, some of you may have noticed that there are new signs at your bus stops. I feel that the new signs are slightly better as the font size are bigger, making it easier for people, especially those with bad eyesight to see better.

But I thought that the short working trips of some of the bus services should be shown on the bus stop sign as well, instead of being shown as part of the information display.

Just a point to highlight to any LTA or SBS Transit officer who may happen to swing by my blog, the bus stop sign at SLF Complex at Thomson Road, one of the services that serve that bus stop is stated wrongly. Service 56 does not serve that bus stop. The correct bus service should be Service 54. So far, the error has not been discovered for three days, since the sign has been put up.

If any tourists or people who are waiting for Service 56, they will be surprised not to see the bus at the bus stop, but instead see Service 54.

For information, both bus services starts from Bishan Interchange. Service 54 terminates at New Bridge Road Terminal, passing by Raffles Institution, Mount Alvernia Hospital, Novena Church, Far East Plaza, Liang Court, Chinatown & SGH, whereas Service 56 passes by Toa Payoh, KK Hospital, Shaw Towers & Marina Centre.

I hope this would not become a laughing stock for LTA or SBS Transit.

HP Software Crash & The Big Hunt for A Laundry Cleaner

My handphone had been hanging on me for the past few days, so I decided to head down the Samsung Service Centre to do a software upgrade. At the same time, I wanted to send my coat to the drycleaner.

Went back to my old workplace, but sadly, the drycleaner that I used to frequent is no longer around at that building. Anyway, since it was nearing lunch time, I decided to head to the Army Market, aka Golden Mile Hawker Centre to have my lunch. The Yong Tau Foo stall uncle was surprised to see me as it has been close to 2 years since he last saw me.

After the meal, I headed down to PS to get my handphone software done. It was a long 3 hour wait. During this time, I was busy viewing X’mas cards at Cards N Such, reading books at Times Bookshop and window shopping at Best Denki & Carrefour.

Got my phone back at 5.30pm, and headed down to Hougang Mall as I remembered that there was a dry cleaning shop at Hougang Mall. I am glad that my memory has served me well. But the cost was slightly higher and the lady actually commented that my coat’s buttons were coming off that she removed one of my buttons and told me to collect the coat in 10 days. That’s very long by my standards but I guess it cannot be helped.

I would like to thank the Service 74 driver, Ah Guan for giving me a ride home, despite the fact that he ended his shift already. Can you imagine having the whole double decker bus to yourself?

Photos from Yesterday’s Movie Outing

 

Here are the photos from yesterday’s movie outing with Qiqi. The first 3 photos were self taken at the cinema before the show started, while the next three was taken at Coffee Bean.

Have to thank Qiqi for the photos.

Mulan

This movie date was fixed 2 days before. Luckily, my friend, Qiqi was ok with the last minute arrangement, as she wanted to catch the show as well.

Met up with her at Junction 8. I went to collect the tickets first, before having our lunch at Ajisen, then we caught the movie. We thought that the movie was great, although some parts were a little draggy.

After the movie, we had a walk in Junction 8 before settling down at Coffee Bean for a chat, then moving about again, and having our dinner at MOS Burger.

I certainly enjoyed my date today. I hope Qiqi did too.

I thought the soundtrack was great and I managed to find on Youtube, so here it is.

Plan for Colleagues Gathering

I am actually in the midst of trying to plan for a mini gathering for my young colleagues as I feel that it will defintely improve communication between ourselves and it will defintely improve workflow.

After 2 rounds of message passing, and an sms later, only 2 guy colleagues responded that they would be joining me for the dinner cum KTV. I am actually not surprised by the response though, as this is the first time that I am doing such a thing and on a personal capacity as well as my boss does not believe that such activities will improve communication between colleagues.

My manager and my mum were in support that I am taking such a step to organise such activities for my colleagues, and they felt that it is good that I am using my birthday as a starting point to start it.

I certainly hope for more responses coming in 3 weeks.

Eventful 2 days

These 2 days had been rather eventful for me.  Here’s why.

A colleague of mine had forced her way out through the lift and in her haste, nearly shoved me out of the lift, causing me to lose my balance nearly. I decided to tell my manager and other colleagues about what she did. Apparently, my colleagues are not surprised.

Joined my cousins and their Taiwanese friends at $10 Club KTV.This was my first time to this KTV and 1st time singing with them. I enjoyed myself.

Got my birthday present today for myself. The Man U jacket that I wanted at a 40% discount. Finally can send my coat to the cleaners for a wash.

Bad Dinner Day

My parents took the opportunity to have a dig at me when they were watching 企鹅爸爸today as Ann Kok’s character was going for her open university class after her employer had encouraged her to upgrade herself to take on the job as Deputy Editor.

I saw it coming. They were going to nag about me not taking my ACCA again. Anyway, I know that my parents are concerned. My manager is as well and I appreciate it as well. But since my parents have not attempted a professional qualification before, they would have not know how tough it is for me to come to this stage within 4 years. I had previously set high targets for myself, thinking that I would clear the papers in 3 years, but one of the papers in the Stage 2, which I retook 5 rounds before passing it, made me change my mind about clearing within that time frame. It made me realise one thing at that time too, I was not having a life for myself, and my boss didn’t appreciate my qualification when I attained the certificate. My pay was stuck in an assistant level for 2 years after that, if I had not moved on, I won’t know my market value now. My grades have suffered since I came to this level, clearing only one of the papers that I am using for my work. The most disappointing thing was failing 2 of the papers despite with all the hard work put in. Spending money on the ever increasing fees and subscriptions. The more failures I had, the more disappointed and tired I became. The last time I tried, the passing mark was even further for me to attain. Therefore the decision to have a complete break from it for the time being to allow myself have a break.

Slowly, I am regaining my confidence, and will certainly rejoin the rat race again.

Uncle And Cousins’ Birthday

My whole family and my aunties and fellow cousins were invited by my first uncle （大舅）to the coffeeshop near our place to celebrate his birthday and 3 of my cousins’ birthdays whose birthdays are all in November.

Time flies, 2 of my cousins, Huiqing & Huijie are in university, while Huimin is already working at a reputable bank. It is always good to have these gatherings every now and then, otherwise we will only be meeting over during Chinese New Year. 2 of Huimin’s friends, who came from Taiwan, was rather impressed by how my uncle could gather most of us on short notice. We were split into 2 tables, where the youngsters were on the same table, while our parents were on the other table, the Elders Group table.

There was something interesting that happened today too. My young cousin wore the Manchester United away kit that he bought from Thailand, while I wore the Man U white polo t-shirt that I bought recently. One relative was commenting that we really are 曼联(Man U’s name in Chinese) fans. Apparently he was telling  me that he bought the replica kit at 450 baht, which was about S$20. Like me he is interested in the Man U jacket, which we think its quite classy.

Pic courtesy of Nike Singapore

Huimin’s Taiwanese friends have invited me to join them for singing at $10 KTV club on Tuesday. Apparently, they saw from Huimin’s facebook that Paul is a KTV group organiser, so they wanted me to join them as well. Looks like Paul is getting famous. Hehe. I haven’t try there before, so I am not sure what is it like?

Heard this new song when Andrina introduced this new MTV to us yesterday. I thought that the song is rather nice. Do enjoy.

KTV @ Andrina’s House

Today, Jonathan, Lynn, Lance and myself were invited to Andrina’s house for a mini ktv session. We had a few surprises as we were introduced to some songs that may not be found in K Box or Partyworld.

Was introduced by Lynn that Sandy Lam does this Jay song too. I feel that she does it better than Jay.

Another song introduced by Lynn

 

I guessed these songs really brought back many memories for all of us.