Thursday, January 29, 2009
Good start to the Niu Year
Some good news today. Boss had told me to keep mum regarding this cos it's not announced yet. But since no one in the office knows that I have a blog, I think it should be okay to say here. Firstly, the request for me to remain in FI team has been approved. Yeah I won't be going to the EQ team already. Nice to remain with the current team. Boss said that there could also be a chance to rotate to the front office which is a plus point. It would be good to gain some exposure in the front office and see how the traders operate.Had Dialogue session with GMD in the afternoon. He's the person directly under TT. Basically, it's a session for you to voice your opinions and ask whatever questions that have been bugging you or have been on your mind. I was seated right next to him. Luckily his attention was directed at those in front of him and not beside. All I had to do was smile and nod as he talked. Haha...
Alright, on a more serious note, certain issues with regards to the recession were brought up. We asked if there will be any change to our HR policies like pay cut, retrenchment and bonus. GMD replied that he dun see why we should retrench as M&M are still giving us business. So basically, we are doing quite ok and there will not be any pay cut. (Come to think of it, if we are doing really badly, then there may not be hope for the rest of Singapore alr. Lol...). He mentioned that bonus will be "adjusted". At least he never says that there will be no bonus lah. Phew...
++ MarryMango at 9:15 PM.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Year of the Cow
The annual reunion dinner at my Uncle's place yesterday, this time at his new condo @ Lorong Chuan.
Standard 'Lou Hei' for a prosperous year.
It's buffet style cos there is simply too many ppl to sit down at one table. 3 families ate together which is a total of 13 people. Dinner was quite ok with assortment of different food like bee hoon, sushi, prawns, rojak etc.
Worked this morning on the First day of Lunar New Year. I dun mind, road was quiet and it was only for a short while. Ought to be thankful that I got a stable job amidst all the retrenchments out there. Feel so old though, it's my year again and I will be turning 24. Juz woke up from my nap. Aunt and her family are here to visit. Gonna have dinner then I'm heading out to visit a few relatives. Need to collect ang baos badly. Haha...
Happy New Year to all!
++ MarryMango at 4:43 PM.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Another Coach Bag!
Coll just got back from US. Asked him to help me get a Coach bag before he left. Called me at 5am when he was there. My phone was not on of course. He left me a message to say that there is only black color for the bag that I want. Therefore, I replied that it is okay, I dun wan the black one. A lil disappointed at first, but think that this is good savings. But this morning, he returned to office with this big package.
Tadah! My antique gold signature hobo bag. He managed to find this color that I want at other store, which costs 120 bucks more than the previous black color one at factory outlet. I still think it is super cheap compared to the price in Singapore lah. A good buy but damn there goes my money again...
I just got my salary for this month yesterday. Seems like it's depleting within days though. Paid my credit card bill for last month, transferred some money to my Dad and paid my coll for this bag today. Nothing much left for me to spend alr...
Luckily, CNY is coming soon. Can collect ang baos. I still have a few things on my list currently though - cut and dye hair, CNY loi hei with my colls and Valentine. Oh well will try to start saving again in Feb. Bleah :p
++ MarryMango at 9:38 PM.
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
Touching blog of a Cancer patient
Relatively free in office these days cos I have handed off some of my work load to others as I'm moving off to another team. Decided to visit this blog which was mentioned in an article in the papers the other day - http://shandysim.blogspot.com/ It is about the journey of a lady, Shandy, after she was diagnosed with cervical cancer.Since I had so much time, I managed to read each and every entry on her blog since June 08. To me, she was not an ordinary lady. Despite going through the painful treatments and chemotherapy, she remained upbeat throughout. She was humorous in her blog as she joked after shaving her hair off:
"The good thing about this is that shampooing takes a couple of seconds and it dries almost instantly. Styling takes no effort. :)"
And on losing weight after chemotherapy:
"Am waiting for Marie France Slimming Centre to endorse me. Hehehe..."
She was also optimistic all the way. She constantly reminded herself that everything will be better in time to come. She thought about the things she wants to do after recovering. She mentioned that she wants to go London twice this year as she did not manage to go in 2008 (it was an annual affair for her to visit London). I think she was ultra brave to endure all the pain and agony that she went through. Sad thing, she was unable to overcome this illness. The cancer cells still spread eventually and took her life on 26 Dec 08.
I truly applaud her for such bravery and perseverence. Her fighting spirit was awesome and inspiring. It's something that everyone should learn from. If it was me, I probably would have given up and committed suicide right from the onset. Firstly, it deeply saddens me if I was told that I was unable to give birth cos I love kids alot. This was one of Shandy's wish too. Secondly, my threshold for pain tolerence is extremely low. Probably no amount of anaesthesia or sedation is going to numb all my pain. My tears fell uncontrollably even though the dentist had injected several jabs of anaesthesia when I had one of my tooth extracted.
Shandy's story touches me so much that my heart goes out to her and her family. I can't help but kept thinking about this all day, even when I was in meetings. I have even smsed her brother to offer my condolences to her family. It's story like this which make us stop and ponder in the midst of our busy schedules. We have often taken life for granted and forgotten about how precious life really is. Shandy was a manager at OCBC with a bright future and had barely started on her life journey. She had yet to marry and start a family but cancer had striked her.
From this, I think it is important to take care of your health and seriously cherish your loved ones. Even though alot of such illnesses are fated, one should still try his or her best to be healthy. For me, I am still trying to maintain my weekly run. Went for a run yesterday after work. Looking forward to my first pilates class tomorrow. Wanted to sign up for Yoga too but the time slot is very popular and the class is full already. Oh well, will sign up for the next available slot...
*Love my family, friends and DD*
++ MarryMango at 8:33 PM.
Saturday, January 03, 2009
Eating and more eating
Ate so much over the past week. Bosses treated us to dinner at Zhou Kitchen on Tuesday. It was like a post-Christmas celebration cos we did not celebrate during X'mas. Zhou Kitchen is under the Tung Lok Group. It was buffet ala carte. Thus, we ordered as much as we could.
Crabby with the favorite buns that everyone loves...
Mutilated fish and Sweet Sour Pork.
Curry Prawns. There were many other dishes like Peking duck, shark fin, roasted chicken, ee-fu mee and bee hoon which I did not take pics of. Simply too many and I was busy eating. Haha... Felt as though I was at a wedding dinner, those 8 or 9 course meal. But we ate more than tat I think...
For desserts, I ordered 2 of them - Mango Sago (standard, everytime confirm will order one) and Glutinous rice balls (cos I missed the Winter "Dong Ji" recently and did not get to eat any). Both are not bad but I was kinda full and jelat after eating the 3rd rice ball. Hence, we hid the last ball under the crab shell so they can't say that we waste food. Lol...
The very next day was New Year's eve. Half day for us again. Yippee! We had lunch catered in as part of the Asst Director's farewell. She's not leaving the company but moving to another dept. She has been with our dept for 12 years! Imagine tat! Not an old lady but a pretty young mom. She's my idol :)
2009 is here alr. How fast a year has just passed! I have no idea what new year resolution to make though cos 2008 was too good to be true alr. Just wish that 2009 would be better bah...
++ MarryMango at 1:30 PM.
