Dance like no one's watching

Argh… this is terrible. I’m a bad bad handphone addict. When i was a poor student, i restricted myself to changing handphones once a year so that i could recontract and enjoy the offer prices for signing my life away. After i started work, this once a year trend soon accelerated to once every 6 months… and now, changing handphones has become a quarterly trend. (Maybe i got subconsciously influenced by how most tenancy contracts require tenants to service the aircon on a quarterly basis? Hmm…) Last year was when i changed phones the most number of times. From the Nokia 6230 to 6260 to 6230i to Sony Ericsson’s Z520i, i bought them all! (Ok, the last one was bought by Clown). Even the guy at the handphone shop in Eastpoint recognizes me. He probably can see the word “sucker” etched across my forehead whenever i step into the shop.

Once again, i’m at a major crossroads in my life. Ever since i found out that 3G video calls cost the same as a normal voice call, i’ve been itching for a 3G phone. Thankfully, most of the 3G phones on the market the past year were bulky & just not very appealing… well, except for maybe Sony’s k600i but that didn’t come with expandable memory.

But the itch was still there and u know the thing about itches… ignoring it doesn’t make it go away. U just gotta scratch! And since my Singtel line is eligible for a recontract now, i’ve been doing research on which handphone to get next.

According to the 3GSM World Congress held recently, the best 3G phone is Motorola’s Razr V3x was voted the best 3G phone. But the thing about Motorola is that the user menu is just not as user friendly as Nokia or SE. Certainly, the Razr V3 range of phones look cool, and are slim & stylish to boot. But no point getting a phone that i can’t get used to right?

So i explored my once favourite brand, Nokia. Nokia has 2 new 3G phones hitting the stores here soon (i suspect this weekend) – the 6280 & N80. The N80 is really really cool ‘cos it has a 3 megapixels camera (that’s almost the same as my digicam!!). But have u seen the size of that thing? It’s so bulky & heavy that if i got into an accident with a road bully, i could take a real clear picture of the accident scene, plus clobber the road bully with it in self-defence.

Then there’s the 6280. It looks slim enough. But i’m not quite sold on slide phones… i mean i did have one before – the 8810 (the “fingerprint” phone) which looked really great ‘cos of the shiny finishing. But the 6280 looked a little “toy-like”… and a little manly too. Should i pay good money for something i may not like that much?

My search for the 3G phone soon took me to the Sony Ericsson website. Wow. I was bowled over by their upcoming k610i. This k610i is an improved version of the current k600i (which i.m.o looks really good too). The main difference is that the k610i has expandable memory, and a 2megalpixel camera. This is gonna be one slim, sleek, stylish & ultracool phone. But there’s 2 things i don’t like about SE phones in general – first, the name search process can be rather tedious. Second, i still prefer the way Nokia’s messaging system works.

Sigh… decisions decisions decisions. Initially, i thought of getting the Nokia 6280 for myself, and the SE k610i for Clown when it comes out. Hey, no point getting a 3G phone if there’s no one to share the 3G video call fun right? (As far as i know, only Azure uses a 3G phone, of which she has never used the video call function….)

So should i get the 6280 now now?? If u notice the latest “scam” started by Motorola – they released the V3 in silver & black, then in gold & pink, and now blue… which means u’re stuck with the same colour unless u buy a new phone. It appears that Nokia is going that direction too? ‘Cos the 6111 first came out in black & silver… and now there’s frosted pink… whatever happened to Nokia’s innovative Xpress-on covers?? That was 1 thing i loved Nokia for! 🙁 The 6280 is going to be launched in silver & black… but those are such boring colours! (Sheesh, they’re not even considered “colours” in art). I want something unique… something feminine…. baby blue, pastel pink, lilac…

How now brown bunny? To 3G or not to 3G?

I was a big time hypocrite today. This morning at the showflat, the Sales Manager of the developer asked me for a hard copy of the factsheet i prepared, as she wanted to show our joint marketing agents (aka our competitors) all the info i prepared & summarised into a single sheet for easy reading.Although reluctant, i told myself that i should take pride in my work and since the factsheet was emblazoned with my company’s logo on the top, i should be proud to show it to the joint marketing agents. They requested for half a dozen copies which i duly obliged (although i was still feeling a little reluctant). The crunch came when the Sales Manager asked me to send the soft copy to the joint marketing agents. In my mind i thought, fine, i can always email them a .pdf format but the Sales Manager’s intention was for me to send them a Word document so that they could remove my company’s logo & use it!

Now that was just too much. All my hard work and i am supposed to freely offer it to my competitors?!? I was thinking of a way to reject them… but thankfully, the joint marketing agents said that they only needed the half dozen hard copies & they didn’t mind my company’s logo being there. They said that it was only right since i did all the work so i should be given some credit for it. Sigh… what nice uncles they are (my competitors consist mainly of 2 old men in their 60s.)

I know it all seems very petty but we are competing for sales after all. It’s bad enough that the uncles were going to use my factsheet to train their newly recruited agents, who obviously would be competing against my sales team. Am i supposed to teach them how to compete against my agents??

Anyway, i don’t have to send them the soft copy so i thought everything was resolved. I didn’t need to voice any objections either so that was good. Peace was maintained…. but i’m not sure if anyone saw the displeasure & unwillingness on my face. I was trying very hard not to let my emotions be displayed on my face… don’t think i succeeded that well.

Then in the afternoon, 1 of the new recruits of the joint marketing agents got an offer for a unit!! The offer was a little low, at 14.4% discount, compared to the offers of 10-13% discount that my side has been putting up so far. At first, 1 of my agents had 2 offers too… but both offers burst! So i was really really sore when i heard about their offer. I was smiling and nodding when everyone was congratulating that new agent but i couldn’t bring myself to congratulate her. That would have been way too hypocritical.

Sigh… was thinking about this hypocrisy issue when i was in the shower just now. Is hypocrisy a sin? I’ve always associated sin with things like murder, adultery, going against God’s will… then where does hypocrisy stand? I guess it must be since we are supposed to treat everyone kindly & genuinely from our hearts. Don’t ask me why but hypocrisy as a sin was just a little difficult for me to grasp.

So i did a google search about it & found this article that makes a lot of sense. It’s extracted from something Josh McDowell wrote and of ‘cos, hypocrisy IS a sin. Sigh… i’ve got a lot of soul searching to do. How does one balance between maintaining a harmonious relationship between competitors & clients, and remaining true to myself? I wouldn’t feel half as bad as i did if i could just say out what i feel (i do feel that my company is always getting the shorter end of the stick ‘cos the my competitor’s boss is a good friend of the developer’s boss).

Anyhow, i think i need to strongly remind myself once again that in whatever i do, or think, or say, i need to run it by God first. Seek the fairest path, and be brave to stick to it.

I know i should be sleeping ‘cos i need to wake up in 4 hours to feed Pinky but don’t feel like sleeping leh. Not that i’m not tired… i am! But whenever i get real busy with work, i like to stay up real late otherwise i’ll feel like i’m being shortchanged by my work! Just need that “stay up until shiok” feeling.

So how did everyone spend their V-day? I didn’t have any special plans… actually, V-day just isn’t a big deal to me. Clown asked me repeatedly if i was sure i didn’t want any presents for V-day… i said no. Firstly, there’s nothing in particular i want now (heh, the new Nokia 6280 & SE k610i that i’ve been eyeing are not out yet). Secondly, i find V-day rather meaningless – i don’t understand the background nor the culture nor the tradition behind it. To me, it’s just another excuse for shops & florists to ring in the ca$h.

Thinking back, i don’t think i’ve ever truly celebrated V-day. Let’s see… the cheesy-est date i was ever invited to was to Smooth Operator’s buddy’s gf’s birthday party (her birthday falls on 14 Feb). And by some quirk twist of fate, i don’t remember ever celebrating V-day with any of my ex-bfs either! BM2000 and i were together for 2 six-month periods… but they were both from Jun – Dec… so no V-day there. Hmm… with DT, i remember having to sit for a very very tough economics test after school. Gosh! I don’t think i’ve even received any V-day presents before! Let’s see… the closest i ever got to receiving a gift would probably be when socks went Swatch shopping with his army buddy but didn’t buy anything in the end? Wahahahaha. Ok… i did get a rose from someone in TPJC long time ago but i ripped that rose up while chatting with my classmates in the canteen. Heh.

Sigh… sounds so deprived… but i am tickled. Clown said that his mom was rather surprised that he didn’t get anything for me. Er, i didn’t get anything for him either. We just went for dinner and then came back to my place to watch “The Conqueror’s Story” (u should really catch this show. It’s Chinese history packaged in the most entertaining way)… i was hoping to catch a couple of episodes but unfortunately i konked out 3/4 way through the 1st episode! Heh… utter failure.

At the end of the day, i guess it just doesn’t make sense to “celebrate your love” for someone on a day designated by God knows who (shopping centres?). I’m happy enough that my current relationship has broken the “6-month curse” and that i’ve found someone who whips up yummy dishes (and he actually does it instead of making empty promises to do it), cares for all my bunnies (except poor Patience), and entertains a gf that animates her soft toys.

Wee!

I was scanning through my old blog entries looking for this person’s blog’s url… couldn’t find it but saw a couple of comments that were posted quite some time back! Aiyoh, so paiseh. Sorry i didn’t see the comments earlier… not that it’s a big deal to anyone but i didn’t realise that i forgot to set a notification to be sent to my email add if someone leaves a comment on my blog.One of the comments left was regarding www.styleupcover.com. Seems like i’m not the only one who got a bad deal from them. I ended my blog entry saying “stay tuned for the outcome”… but i really can’t remember if i posted anywhere on my blog about what happened in the end.

Hence, just for the sake of completeness, i shall write a brief account here. I did get my styleupcover in the end…. and Iceman managed to find the link that shows u the status of your order. The link was somewhere on the bottom right corner of the styleupcover.com page if i don’t remember wrongly, in very, very fine print. Although i did get the housing i ordered, the workmanship was TERRIBLE!!!!! The colour of the photo on the back cover was not accurate, and there were burnt marks on the edge of the back cover (most likely due to lousy workmanship in attaching the photo to the cover). I also ordered white for the front cover but was given the navy blue one (again the finishing was rough) instead.

I was quite pissed when i saw the quality (or rather the lack of it) of the product. Wanted to send it back initially but when i calculated the cost of sending it back, i realised it just wasn’t worth spending even a single cent more on this stupid product.

So if u’re thinking of getting a styleupcover too, think again! And don’t bank on Sonyericsson offering any assistance at all. I had to wait like 20min before i could get someone to assist me over the phone, and the only assistance i got was this polite gal telling me that SE doesn’t know anything abt styleupcover ‘cos it’s a 3rd party product, and she thinks i’m the 1st & only person who’s ever ordered the product.

Crap!

Have u ever wondered who is reading your blog, if anyone at all? Given the vast expanse of cyberspace, i’ve always wondered if anyone other than my few colleagues & friends know of the existence of this blog. How do people find their way here? Do i pop up on Google (i do!)? Where do these readers unknown to me come from?I got my 1st known visit from a stranger a few days ago. I didn’t realise she left a comment on 13 Feb till last night when i saw her comment (albeit a really short one) about Pinky. I was pretty happy…. in part that someone thinks Pinky is adorable, in part that someone outside of Singapore found my blog, and left a comment. (Not counting all those automatic spam comments i get from idiots who just want to generate publicity for their blog.)

Curious, i checked out her blog too and found it interesting enough to explore it and guess what? I found this statistic counter that helps webmasters tally various information about the people that access their websites. Ah…. finally a good tracking tool to monitor who reads your blog.

Click here if you’re interested in downloading this counter too. 🙂

Heh… don’t say i didn’t warn u. I’m watching u….

After not taking photos of Pinky the past 5 days, i went totally trigger happy just now. Took lots of shots of Pinky, and some of mommy Horlicks too.

It’ll be too huge to post all the pictures here so i’ll just post those i like.

My mom says Pinky is truly a “lop”… as in lop-sided ‘cos her right ear is floppy but her left ear is perked up. Heh. I keep telling my mom that when i go to the pet shops, all baby lops have unbalanced ears but the ear that’s perky will eventually flop down too.

🙂

Dinnertime for Pinky.

Pinky’s favourite hideout in the backyard.

Chillling out!

Horlicks “kah dai” & “siew dai”

Horlicks relaxing after chaperoning Pinky in the backyard.

No prizes for guessing who Pinky learnt this from!

A little late night exercise never did hurt anyone.

Managed to see Dr. Peter Ng successfully just now. I asked him whether his clinic had a policy whereby registration closed 30-45min before closing time. He said there was no such thing. I told him that i was at the clinic at 4:45pm this afternoon but was turned away ‘cos the nurse said that the registration was closed. Dr. Ng said that he went out for a short while this afternoon but he instructed the nurses that he would be back. In fact, he was back at 4:30pm. (Talk about suay!)I told him that the last time i visited the clinic, i was turned away at 8:15pm even though the closing time was 9pm and he was shocked. Dr. Ng said to give him a call if this happens in future and he’ll look into it.

Sigh. I knew it. Those evil auntie nurses think they can “1 hand cover sky” (一手遮天). Hmph! I don’t like all these evil aunties. Don’t understand why Singapore seems to be flooded with them. From my old work place to the clinic nurses… *$(&!@#$%^

Caught a cold yesterday morning and though it was supposed to be my off day, i was at the showflat most of the day ‘cos i got an offer & had to help in preparing & delivering the Option documents to the buyer. This morning, the cold escalated to a cold + fever + sore throat. Was too tired to drag myself to the doc in the morning so i decided to go in the afternoon. After spending most of the day sleeping, i dragged myself up & arrived at the clinic at 4:25pm. Other than a patient collecting his medicine at the counter, there were no other patients at the clinic. That was when i saw the sign that said “Registration Closed”.

I asked the nurse if i could see the doctor. After all, the closing time on the door stated 5pm, and that was like more than half an hour away. Besides, it wasn’t even a busy day such that they had to close registration early so that they could close the clinic by 5pm. But the horrible horrible nurse (i really hate the 2 old nurses at this clinic. Stupid, unfriendly, unsympathetic, downright rude aunties) said that registration had closed. I pointed to the sign that said that they close at 5pm but the nurse insisted that the doctor had left the clinic already.

Oh come on… u gotta be kidding me. Did the doctor dash out of the clinic after serving the last patient, who was only just collecting his medicine at the counter, so that the clinic could close punctually at 5pm? Ridiculous right? This reminded me of another time i went to the clinic at 8:15pm at night (closing time at night is 9pm) and the bloody old nurse also said that registration was closed though there was 45min to go! I mean WTF right? Do these people not realise that they’re causing hell of an inconvenience to people who are SICK? If i wasn’t feeling as bad as i was, i wouldn’t be at the doc’s! And i bet they get away with it ALL THE TIME ‘cos by the time a sick person drags himself to the doc, that person’s probably like half dead & left with no energy to reason with the blinking nurses.

I was and still am feeling damn aggrieved but if u’ve been nursing a bad cold, fever & sore throat the whole day, and had to drive yourself to the clinic, you really wouldn’t have any ounce of energy left to tell the nurse that she’s being one big unsympathetic & unkind asshole tho’ you would probably be cursing at her in your heart. At least i was. Stupid bitch.

So here i am, at 6:50pm at my computer, still riled, frustrated & absolutely pissed by what happened. Seriously, what’s the point of putting up a sign that says u’re closed at 5pm when you turn away patients like 30-45mins early?!? Might as well just say u close at 4pm right? Bloody hell! And if u’re wondering why i can’t go to the clinic earlier, let me assure u it’s useless too. ‘Cos even though this clinic opens at like 8am in the morning, the doc doesn’t turn up till 9am. So it’s like if i go at 7pm later (when they re-open for the night), the doc won’t come till 8pm. It’s like they expect SICK patients, instead of resting in bed, to all hang around for 1 hour waiting for the doc to come. Do these people know what it feels to be sick?!?! &$*!^%#

I’m of a good mind to boycott the clinic all together. Except that there are only 2 clinics in Simei that are on my company’s panel of docs… and the doc in the other clinic, though polite, is a really really blur doctor. The 1 (and last time) i saw him, i had to keep repeating to him what problems i had till i figured that if he got any more stupid, or if i were any more sick, i would be dead. That leaves me with only this clinic with a doc whom i’ve found to be caring enough so far, but with nurses from hell.

Oh yeah, and in case u’re wondering, the name of the clinic is Simei Clinic & Surgery (Blk 248 Simei St 3, #01-132) and the doc is Dr. Peter Ng Teck Hwee. Yes, i’m posting it here for the world to see. Sue me if you dare. This just saves me the effort of writing to Straits Times.

I hope i get to see Dr. Peter Ng later and not some relief doctor (i once had a relief doc who insisted i had dengue fever just ‘cos i had a cold & rashes on my ankles. That was another ridiculous incident too ‘cos i told him that the rash had been there for 2 weeks and it’s just a skin allergy, and how to have dengue fever when i got no fever?!? aiyoh!!!! These people will be the death of me!). Anyway, if i do get the see the doc in charge, i’m definitely going to question this practice of closing registration 30-45min before closing time. If the doc confirms that this is his instruction, i’m definitely going to boycott this clinic too!

ARGH!

Feeding time – Pinky does a sommersault to get under Horlicks

I’ve been busy busy busy since CNY. Didn’t have an off day till yesterday and boy was i getting all my days mixed up and forgetting details about stuff i had to keep tabs on! Anyway, i did manage to take a couple of photos of Pinky this week and of ‘cos i’m gonna share it with you. Hehe. Pinky’s ears are starting to droop now… not fully but they’re definitely going to droop all the way soon. She really takes after Horlicks. My dad built a “Good Class Bungalow” for her today and whenever i sit down in her property, she’ll run and walk about my lap & legs. And if i squat down, she sometimes runs behind me and stands up against my body. Just like Horlicks! Haha… really like mother like kid!

“Make me wear t-shirt… simi @$)^#!”

Horrid humans!

Time to rest folks!