Living It Up

Just confirmed today that my last day at work will be 8 Aug. Well, officially it’s 9 Aug… but if i work on National Day… how the heck am i supposed to claim a day off right?? So, my last day at the 18th floor of SLT will be on 8 Aug 2006. (My notice period turned out to be 2 weeks and not 1 month. Heh.)

Had a short discussion with a colleague today and it seems that my boss hasn’t decided who’s going to take over my duties for Triumph. I told some of the agents at the showflat today that this would be my last week with CI… and sent a mass mail out about it too…

Initially, i wanted to wait till i knew who was taking over before breaking the news to them. That way, at least i could like give clearer instructions on transition issues/matters… but given that there’s nothing concrete planned… if i wait any longer, it would be a “hi today, bye tomorrow” kind of thing. So i thought i might as well just tell them the news today.

I want to take a short break before i start work at Eon. (Speaking of which… when i told the agents today, one of them mentioned “Eon”… so i guess she might still be reading my blog… which leads me to wonder… wouldn’t they have been guessing about my job change already?? Hmm… shall ask her when i see her over the weekend. But no.. “Eon” is not the name of my new co. It’s just my nickname for it. Haha.)

I’m definitely going to Bangkok with Cirrus. I know it’s so sua-ku but i’ve never been to Thailand!! Got a big headache over which hotel to stay, how to get around, etc. Visiting a place where i don’t understand the language for the first time is freaky. Very freaky. Was hoping to go with friends… but still haven’t found anyone who’s available at the same time as us. Sigh. I want to shop for lingerie, clothes (stuff i can try on… not those at the night markets), cheap/wholesale type of semi-precious stones, pearls & stuff, and of ‘cos try all the fantastic food, massage/spa, and manicures/pedicures. Tips on where to go anyone??

Okie… the countdown to 8 Aug starts now.

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It’s the 7th month of the lunar calendar once again… when the gates of hell open for inhabitants the other world to visit ours… In fact, this year, there are two “7th months” unleashed upon mankind….

A mysterious sighting was witnessed at the Forbidden City… see it for yourself…

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Sigh… just realised that blogspot has blocked photos from being hosted on their server & linked to other blog sites… so all my old posts with photos in them (posts i transferred from blogspot) now all have problems loading the photos.

I don’t know if i’ll be able to redo all the posts, as in upload all the photos to my current server & re-point the links to my own server… may be too much work. I’ll prob. do some of the more significant posts… and pray hard that blogspot will not start charging for their service so at least all my old work will remain intact in my old blog.

Dearest Blogspot,

Should you one day decide to make blogspot a paid service, please follow blogspirit!! When they made their blog a paid service, they allowed existing users to continue on the free plan!!

Despondent blogger,
UptownGal

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Confession time.

The reason why some of my posts have been password-protected is ‘cos they were about my search for a new job.

Today, i’ve finally signed my new employment contract with my new co. to be, Eon, and tendered my resignation with my current co.

I was rather hesitant about tendering my resignation cos i have no issues about my current company. Sure, there are certain colleagues who really irk the crap out of me… but they are few & far between. Most of my colleagues are friendly, helpful, and people i would like to continue keeping in touch with.

I have also grown rather attached to the condo that i’ve been in charge of since Mar 2005… and of ‘cos, many firm friendships have been formed with the agents there. In fact, the agents are one of my greatest worry as i prepare to leave. Will whoever who takes over me treat them fairly? Will the person sort out time-tabling issues properly so that everything can run smoothly?

The resignation procedure itself was rather funny. After a sales meeting this morning, i told my boss that i needed to talk to him. He thought i wanted to talk about work so he wasn’t expecting it at all.

He asked me to talk to him at his cubicle so i just went over, passed him my resignation letter, and said, “i’m tendering my resignation.”

He was like, “huh?”

So i repeated myself. “I’ll like to tender my resignation.”

I then pulled up a chair to sit next to my boss, as he opened my letter and read through it. He asked why i was tendering and i said briefly that having been from an insurance background, i hope to go back to the insurance industry.

This was where the funny part happened. He said, “ok”, and then he offered me a sweet.

No, not a sweetener to entice me to stay on, but a sweet. Werther’s Original to be exact. Hahaha. I thought that was quite amusing.

The news is starting to spread like fire… so most people in office should get to know about it soon. Well, nothing’s ever a secret in SG. Much less a not too big office like mine.

My boss also said i could go ahead & inform the developer of the condo i’m in charge of. I thought of doing it over the weekend but since the sales & mktg manager called just now, i told her about it.

She was shocked. She thought i was joining a competitor or something but i told her that i was going back to insurance. We had a nice chat on the phone and she was quite upset about me leaving ‘cos she says she doesn’t trust others to take care of Triumph (no, not the underwear) as well as i have. Haha. I’m quite happy to hear that. At least she appreciates my work!

As the HR lady from my office is on maternity leave, the Senior Manager from Finance is helping to find out when my last day would be… after off-setting leave & stuff.

Ooh… i just gotta mention this! Heh. The prophecy has been fulfilled… everytime i work at Raffles Place, i’m at Singapore Land Tower. Hehe. When i did my professional attaching during uni, i was at SLT (actually i did my attachment at the same co. i’m going to join but different dept). Then with my current job, i’m at SLT. So now with my new job, i’ll just be changing floors. Darn. If only i could like shift my stuff from my current desk to my new office… instead of bringing them home… hmmm..

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Oops… the recruitment guy just sms’d back (i sent him an sms saying that i accepted Eon’s offer ‘cos he didn’t answer the phone when i called) to ask me to wait for Cofrance’s reply ‘cos they’re likely to get back by tomorrow. He said it was to my advantage… haha. I feel sorry for him. Seems like i’m the only candidate of his who got through to the final round… and whom the 2 interviewers openly expressed interest in… well, too bad. Ultimately, i think i’ll prefer the jobscope at Eon better.

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Pinky waiting for his ride to the clinic

Pinky went for another operation today. A pretty major one i would say. As his front incisors were overgrown again, the vet advised that it was best to have them extracted so that they wouldn’t keep cutting into his gums. The past few days, ‘cos his teeth were too long, poor Pinky couldn’t even close his mouth! He also had a lot of difficulty drinking water ‘cos the front teeth were in the way.

In the car, on the way to the clinic

So i left Pinky at the vet, to have his 2 upper & 2 lower incisors extracted. Yeap. That’s 4 teeth at one go. It must have been really painful ‘cos i think Pinky cried a little - the fur around his eyes were clumpy when i saw him at night. Sigh. Poor little boy. But he was munching grass happily (he uses his molars to chew his food) just now so i guess this should be the best longterm solution. (It was either this, or hauling Pinky to the vet every month for the vet to sedate him & saw down his teeth… of which the problem would be when Pinky gets older, he won’t be able to take anaesthesia, and when his teeth grow too long, they’ll cut into his gums, and he’ll have problems closing his mouth, drinking water, eating, etc.)

At the clinic!

Took a cute photo of Muah Chee yesterday. He reminds me of the stingray i saw at Sentosa… haha… check it out!

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More soccer-tainment for u… hehe…

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Praise the Lord! Eon* called to say they want to employ me. I’m beaming like an idiot now! Heh.

I was with the recruitment guy discussing how to handle the interview with Cofrance* tomorrow when Big Mac* from Eon called. At first i asked if i could call him back in like 10mins but he said he was boarding a plane and i could probably call him back 3 hrs later so i was like… no worries, i’ll definitely take the call!

The recruitment guy was quite understanding… i excused myself and took the call outside the office. The conversation went something like this,

Me, “So… is it good news or bad news?”
B.Mac, “Good news of ‘cos!”
Me, “That’s great.”

(At this point, i was practically jumping up & down)

B.Mac, “So we’ve decided that we want to employ you. As for your renumeration, you asked for $XX to $YY right? Well, we’re prepared to give u $YY. How does that sound?

(This was when i nearly hit the false ceiling of Peace Centre)

Me, “Wow. That sounds fantastic! So where are u flying off to now?
B.Mac, “I’m flying to Jakarta…. will be back tomorrow but i won’t be able to meet u till Thur.”
Me, “Thur’s fine.”
B.Mac, “We can go through the employment contract on Thur, and if everything’s fine, we can sign on Fri.”

(By then i was thinking… wah! Still drag till Fri uh? Thur sign on the spot already lah! Mai 夜长梦多 [translated as "night long dreams more" - the more u drag, the more problems might crop up].

Me, “Sure. Will meet up on Thur then.”
B.Mac, “But we can only give u the title of Senior Account Servicing Exec…”

(I was thinking… whatever lah. Call me admin assistant also can)

Me, “No problem at all.”
B.Mac, “The reason is ‘cos u’ll be dealing a lot with banks and so if we call u a manager and u’re not familiar with the product, it might not be so good.”
Me, “I totally understand. No issues there.”
B.Mac, “But we’ll see how it goes. Probably later on, we can explore the title of Manager again.”

(As Cirrus says, call me toilet cleaner also can!!)

And we ended the conversation. Hehe. It took tons of self-control to keep a straight face when i re-entered the recruitment guy’s office to continue our talk!

Sigh… i’m still so elated. Hehe. Was shouting whoops of joy as i was driving home. Haha. But i’m still going for the interview with Cofrance tomorrow… just in case there’s any unforseen hiccups. Azure told me last week that one of her ex-colleagues was offered a job over the phone but before she signed the employment letter, the HR retracted the offer!! How horrible is that!!

Heh… just like i was once a professional contestant, i think i’m turning into a professional interviewee now. Haha. Seasoned, calm, steady, totally no sweat. My ego’s also quite boosted ‘cos AAA* wants to offer me again. Wahahaha. But no lah. I think this job with Eon will be something that i can do for a slightly longer period of time.

There’s going to be tons of stuff to study & learn… which is good for someone with extremely short attention span like me. By the time i get the hang of the ropes, it’ll prob. be like 6mths later so i definitely won’t be bored anytime soon. I also really appreciate the fact that my direct superior, B.Mac is really approachable, and his boss, the executive director is ok too. As in, thank God i can click with my soon to be bosses!

On top of that, when i look at the way this job has panned out - from how i woke up in the middle of the nite ‘cos i felt this strong urge to open the email from Jobsdb, and how i quickly rushed out my resume when i saw this job, to the whole interview process, perhaps, this job was meant to be. I hope so! I’ve always wanted to work in law… and obviously i’m not going to be a lawyer… so perhaps this is as good as it gets. Thank God! Hallelujah!

*Names have been changed for blah blah blah…..

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For Extremely bad. Just saw like 15 mins of the latest “infotainment” show on Ch 5 & it is really cheesy. The 2 hosts make me want to cringe. They have this fake “not here not there” accent, and they are SO bad at acting hip. Ewww. It’s gross. Don’t watch on a full stomach. Guarantee to make u puke.

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Have u ever taken a DISC personality test before? It’s supposed to help you understand your personality better, w.r.t your job function, hence helping u figure out if u have a good job fit or not. DISC stands for Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness. Click here if u want to know more about DISC.

I remember taking a DISC test before when i was still working with AIA. I was high I, high C, middle D & low S. Heh. Recently, i had the opportunity to take another DISC test again when i went for an interview with AAA (Alexandra). They offered me the job but i declined their offer.

Today, at the interview with AAA (Martin Rd), my test results were passed over to the interviewer and he said that it shows that i’m someone who’s easily bored. Hehe. That’s very true. I have very short attention span when it comes to whatever job i’m in. The minute i learn all the ropes, i get bored and start looking for another job. I can’t even fathom how i managed to stay all of 2 years 9 months in AIA before. Perhaps i was too busy then to look for a new job. Heh.

Sigh. I’m still rather traumatised about my bad phone conversation with B.Mac from Eon. But as azure said… it it’s meant to be, it will be. Sigh.

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I have bad vibes about the job with Eon. What happened this morning was this:

I called B.Mac but he didn’t answer the phone. So i sent an sms saying that i’m still very keen on the job after going through the notes he gave me, as well as checking out the miga.org website.

B.Mac replied that he’s glad that i find the stuff interesting and he’ll get back to me in a few days’ time.

I then called him again but he didn’t answer.

He was on the line apparently and returned my call soon after. I said i wanted to clarify if there were 2 positions available, as mentioned by Rafi (the ED) the last time, or only 1 opening? B.Mac said there was only 1 opening - which means that both the other candidate and me are competing for the same post. Damn. The conversation then turned awkward and B.Mac went like, “So how was your weekend?” I told him that it was busy at the showflat over the weekend but i managed to read the notes in between the stuff i had to do. Conversation then ran dry. Very dry. And i ended the call by saying, “So i guess i’ll be hearing from you in a few days?” And B.Mac was like, “yes”.

Bad vibes. Bleah. Not a good way to gain affinity with your potential employer. Sigh.

Went for an inteview with AAA in the evening. It’s a biz development position. I’m OK with the jobscope… not like jumping over the moon but if the offer is good, i guess i might consider. It’s going to take quite a bit to get me out of my current job, unless i’m really interested in the jobscope ‘cos i have a very easy life at my current co. Heh. I work very few hours a week, though weekends are kinda intensive.

Ouch… my right elbow hurts. Great!!! I scraped it and i have no idea how i scraped it!!! Sheesh! I amaze myself sometimes… argh… gotta go wash it….

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A couple of days ago, i met up with some secondary school friends for dinner. One of them said to me that one of her colleagues knows my ex-bf. I was like, er, which ex-bf? After i figured out which ex-bf she was referring to, i told her that he was getting married soon and we’re actually ok friends. But while i no longer have feelings for him, i definitely still have “feelings” for his wife-to-be!

Speak of the devil. I saw her in church today ‘cos she was doing Lord’s Supper duty. I felt such conflict & “un-peace” in my heart. At that moment, i knew that i have yet to forgive her for being a 3rd party. I guess if there’s anyone i still hatred & harbour unforgiveness towards, it’s her.

I asked myself - given that they’re getting married now, perhaps she was right to be the 3rd party ‘cos they’re meant to be together? But then again, just ‘cos u feel that someone ought to rightfully be with you, does that give u the right to be the bitch? It’s not something i can accept. To me, relationships are very clear cut. There is a right & wrong to things and to place your own selfish desires above moral rights & wrongs is, just plain wrong.

Anyhow, i felt very torn this morning. After all, we were about to have the Lord’s Supper & what does the Lord’s Supper represent? It’s a commemoration of Jesus’ 2nd coming. When we break bread, it symbolises his body that was broken. He died for our sins. He died for mine, as well as hers. Who am i to pass judgement on her? I may be the aggrieved, but i’m only the plaintiff. Not the judge.

Once upon a time, i hated her so much that i wished she’ll never accept Christ. I hoped thus ‘cos i wanted her to burn in hell. Yeap. I’m that evil. To me, that’s the worst “revenge” possible. But i guess Jesus’ love encompasses all our mistakes in life. Thank God for that or i’ll probably be burning too.

Someone once told me that it’s possible to forgive, but not forget. I don’t know about that man. I’m still on the first step.

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Pinky had a very bad week this past week. A couple of days ago, he felt so insulted ‘cos an ignorant colleague of mine pointed to his photo and went, “Is that a chinchilla?”. Of ‘cos when Pinky got to know about it, he was really pissed. “Simi chinchilla? Your colleague’s eyes so lousy, better scratch them out!” Pinky said to me.

Then last night, my dad locked the other bunnies up and he let Horlicks & Pinky run along the side of my house. His purpose was to let Horlicks & Pinky continue to socialise with the others so they won’t be alienated. But when i went down to check on them, Pinky had a bloodied nose!!

I asked Pinky what happened but he didn’t want to talk about it. So i wet a piece of tissue with water & wiped the blood off his nose. He had a cut on his nose… probably got scratched by one of the others when he put his nose into their cage to kaypoh. Sigh. Guess Pinky had to learn the hard way that not everyone gives in to him like his mommy.

But Pinky’s fine. When i saw him this morning, he cleaned the wound very well. Couldn’t see any traces of blood on his nose though i could still see the cut. He’s also pretty brave… didn’t cower or anything even after he got injured. In fact, he barely flinched when i was cleaning his wound. Sigh… that arrogant bunny. Heh. Took some photos of Pinky but they didn’t turn out so nice… colours looked a little dull ‘cos taken at night. Shall post photos when i get some better shots of the little fella.

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Found Fan Fan’s beach concert on youtube. It’s broken up into several parts for viewing. Can’t embed the videos here ‘cos the owner of the clips doesn’t allow. But for all those keen to watch, click here to view them. (This was the concert that she fell off the stage at the end of it).

I watched 1 clip so far. I really love the way she sings… so moving… if she ever has a concert in SG, i’ll definitely go!!

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Found Fan Fan’s beach concert on youtube. It’s broken up into several parts for viewing. Can’t embed the videos here ‘cos the owner of the clips doesn’t allow. But for all those keen to watch, click here to view them. (This was the concert that she fell off the stage at the end of it).

I watched 1 clip so far. I really love the way she sings… so moving… if she ever has a concert in SG, i’ll definitely go!!

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I always check the stats for my blog… no. of visitors, visitor paths, etc. There’s someone who logs in from an United Arab Emriates IP address. Do you mind sharing who u are? ‘Cos i don’t remember having any friends stationed in the middle east at this point in time!

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