Formula 1 October 1, 2008

This is a special year for Singapore as this is the 1st time Singapore is hosting the Formula One and this is also the first time they are having a night race. There are a lot of adjustment for the driver who always have their races in the daytime.

I wasn’t a F1 fan but when my client gave me the tickets for the practice round on Friday last Friday, I just grab the opportunity to experience the atmosphere of the race. It was a great experience to be able to enjoy the excitement of the race. The lights that lit the streets, the office buildings that was being asked to turn on all the lights for the races, the crowds with cameras on their hand to capture any of the cars that zoom past and of course the race cars themselves as they getting used to Singapore road and trying to cover as much laps as they can. The noise that they make was incredible, that your eardrum practically hurts by it..as it is so loud and sharp when they go pass you!

Maybe I am not a really f1 fan, I grew tired of just watching the cars zooming from right to left, right to left with no idea whose team is that from! So SP & I went to get some drinks and watch the practice race on a gigantic screen at the Padang. I find watching the race from the screen is so much nicer as you get to see how and where the cars at right now and which position they are at. After the practice sessions, R.Massa-Ferrari is on top 3 and he kept the position, the next day qualifing session on Friday as well.

However to my great dissappointment, when it comes to the final race, which i watch at home through the TV, Ferrari was no where near Top 5! Just because of the error that he did by driving off with the fuel pipe still attached to the car and due to that error, he had a penalty and also having a puncture and took a wrong turn making him the 13th in the race. Then his team-mate crashed on the 4th lap when he is at the 4th place! Unexpectedly, Renault came up first and won the race! It was a really great dissappointment and Singapore Night race really created a great impression for Ferrari! Hope they will perform better in other races!

But overall, it was a good race and was well managed. Hope the coming 2 more years it will continue to be so or even better for  Singapore F1 race!

A long lost college friend.. July 27, 2008

Human always needs to interact with other people. Therefore we will definitely make friends along the way from even nursery up till now in our own company that we work. But not all the friends we are able keep in touch over the years. Only a handful that we are closed to, we will still keep in contact over the years. However, now with a website called ” facebook” where somehow friends still able to find some old friends.

Recently, thru facebook, I found the contact of a long lost friend who went for a class with us in 1998 and we have to do a cultural performance before. He was from Jordon and now an executive chef in a hotel in Phuket. He came down for a 3-day course and we manage to catch up on what we up to since 1998. of course being the shy me, he ended up have to do most of the talking. It was great to meet up and he was quite a funny guy had fun going out with him.

Of course being friends, we have our own obligations. Yesterday was quite a busy day, being got to work for half a day and after work I went to one of my friend’s grand openning. She just started her own beauty shop at Cuppage Plaza called Glomax Aesthetics. It was a small shop but size is not the matter as it will be a great achievement for her.. Even though I am that close to her, but I just went to give her the support. I knew her from one of the badminton sessions that I had with my other RE colleagues. She is a happy go lucky girl and I do wish her all the best! It must be a good feeling to be your own boss!

At night, I have to attend a wedding dinner of my ex-colleague. It was suppose to start at 1930 hours but being a chinese banquet, ended up the dinner starts at 2100 hours. We had finished about 3 small plates of peanuts. Since our table, there are only 07 of us, we were only able to finished first 3 course, as we were hungry but after that, most of the dishes were sent back with 3/4 of the entire dish. One of the dishes we even have to pack it up and one of my colleague to bring home. The food are quite tasty but the waiting time was too long. Oh yes, we did finish the dessert as well. It is very tasty – its the pamelo, sago and mango pudding. Eventhough we were very full, but being a sweet tooth, I still kept some space for the dessert! But then, my ex-colleague look really pretty that night. Hope she and her hubby will have a happy and blessful marriage!

It has been a long time I have so much social activities and it was quite fun to have such activities once a while! If not it will be quite boring especially if we just go to work and go home.. There must have more things in life that we are able to enjoy occassionally!

Night Out.. June 29, 2008

Friday night is always a night where people will take the opportunity to go out after work to catch up with friends, go clubbings or just go somewhere to have drinks.

As the sales team from our sister hotel from Bangkok – The Sukhothai, came down for the weekend. They came down to stay with us and also to shop! Just imagine, normally Singaporean loves to go Bangkok to shop but for this case is the other way round! They would buy at least 5 pair of Charles and Keith shoes and buy bags as well. They brought an empty suitcase just to put all their merchandise.

We arrange for a group dinner and we went to a restaurant at Clark Quay called The Quayside for seafood.. The restaurant provide aprons for everyone so that we do not get any gravy on us. We had a cold dish with some abalone and something like jellyfish which we can either eat it raw like sashimi or we can dip into a boiling soup as appetizer then we had chilli crab, black pepper crab, steam prawns (which I skipped), vegetables, fried rice, steam fish as well as  fried doughstick.. yum..

After dinner some of them decided to go back to hotel and left a handful of them which we brought them to a pub called The Pump Room. I have been there a couple of times, the music there was quite good especially their live band. We had a couple of drinks and had fun that night. Finally after the band last performance, we decided to call it off the night which is at 3am! That’s not all.. I am working the next day.. sigh.. lucky I was able to get up in time to go to work in time.

Without saying after work and whole of Sunday, I stayed at home to rest and to gain back my rest.. Well. at least is not a normal thing for me. Once a while, it was quite fun to have such outing.. but of course always hope that the next day I don’t need to work!

More farewells.. April 27, 2008

Last night we had another department to celebrate the resignation of 2 of my colleagues. Now many people always thinking of getting  better job better prospect outside than our current one.

We went to a seafood restaurant – Long Beach for our farewell dinner, at East Coast. It is the place where people goes there for exercise as well, rollerblading, cycling, running, joggings..

We had a sumptious dinner with chilli crab and fried bun, steam prawns, tofu, roasted chicken, vegetables, fried you zha kuai, baby squid and otak otak.. yummy..While enjoying our dinner my colleague passed around her phone where she store some of her wedding photograph that she took at Batam.

We conclude the night with drinks at another venue nearby to the restaurant. It was quite a fun night and we manage to go home around 1am plus – considering is quite early comparing to the other earlier weeks outings where we go home at 4am! But one thing good bout last night outing is that I don’t need to work this morning.. yay!

Tummy upset… March 21, 2008

Normally we would hope that our days, weeks years will go smoothly while staying healthy. But often the case it will not be so.. that’s is what makes life more interesting with its ups and downs that we have to go through. 

Even though I do not expect everything to go on smoothy but these couple of days, I am so unlucky.  Last week I sprained my ankle, however before the ankle has really recovered, due to my gluttony, me and a couple of colleagues went to Bukit Merah for Curry Rice this week and the next day, I had diahorrea. Kept visiting the toilet whenever I drink or eat anything. Sigh.. After working half day, without lunch or breakfast, I made my way to the doc.. Was given 01 day mc (What a waste of a half day… but at least get to go back earlier to rest)

Thinking my tummy has finally settled and my ankle has recovered, I entertained my client for a buffet lunch on Thursday. I was  also looking forward for dinner as we are having our annual dinner and dance on that night as well.

This year, our theme is “Olympics in Sentosa” Geez.. of course being supportive, we went in our sporting attire.. sports shoes, shorts, shirt & a vest. The activities are quite fun with games and songs that they played. Had a different way of presenting the last 10 prizes compared to the previous years.  However, maybe due to the excitement of the games and the huge variety of food that I had consumed, I started feeling a little uneasy in my stumoch. Oh no… trying not to think so much, I continued with my dessert.. yum… As the night turn late and I have not even won any of the lucky draw prizes, my tummy starts to give me trouble, it crammed! Trying to wait it out, till they announce the winner of the 1st prize – which sadly wasn’t me..

I left the place and made my way back to office and to call for a cab home. Half way through, my GM secretary saw me and asking how am I. Out of concern, she helped me to call for a cab, was very touch and really appreciate her help. Went home with tummy ache without any medication on hand, had a hot milo with my housemates and finally felt much better. whew! What a week! Hope this and last week experiences that I went through will never be repeated again!

Awards Nite.. March 4, 2008

Everybody also wish to have a night that they are able to shine, to be appreciated by others on the effort that they put in their job – of course mostly wish to be appreciated by bosses so that able to get higher salary increment or potential promotion. But if there is a chance, they would also like to be star in front of the entire industry!

Yearly, STB – Singapore Tourism Board will host an award ceremony to celebrate the winners from many categories in the Tourism & Hospitality industries – Hotels, Travel Agent, Leisure companies, Transportations, winners being nominated by the public and will have judges going around to judge their service levels. The winners will then be announce in this ceremony.

 For the 2nd year, I had attended this ceremony hosted by Mr Phua Chu Kang himself – Gurmit Singh! It was a great pleasure to be able to attend such a grand ceremony where you see all the hoteliers, press, stars and even the President of Singapore and his wife!

Not trying to boast – ehem!.. last year we won 02 awards which are the tourism host for spa and another for the dining experience. Previous years we won the Best Spa Experience 03 years consecutively but we lost to another spa last year. But this year, we were being nominated in 2 categories: 01 Best Spa Experience & 01 Tourism Host under spa categories.

All of us keeping our fingers cross.. But, all our wishes and hopes has been granted, we won both awards! Really a double celebration tonight! Yahoo…!  My colleague who won the Tourism Host is one of our therapists and she is from Burma - she is a very friendly lady, whenever you see her, she is always smiling! A happy going lady.. Very happy that she won the award! Congrats Khin Lay! Way to go!  – ok ok.. I am not drunk ok.. just had 1 glass of red only – Just being too happy.. la la la..

Crappy week March 1, 2008

We do not aspect that every week is a smooth sailing ones, of course that’s what everyone hopes for. But with a week with its ups and downs brings some excitements into the life or life will be very dull and meaningless.. But no matter what, we always wish to start the week (monday) good without any mishaps or problems.

Unfortunately, for our department, Monday is our Sales meeting, this is also the place where we might get buttered by our Director of Sales which I did last monday. Its kind of a depressing way of starting of the week

But as the week goes, my week gets better and better even though is quite tiring. For one I manage to catch up with a friend who I had not been in touch with for a many months. We went for dinner at a restaurant in Mohammad Sultan, a very nice place for steak and wines at quite a reasonable cost. From there we proceeded to a place for some drinks – Jump room with a live band that plays R&B songs which was the type of songs I like..

Eventhough the next day I still have to get to work the next day, but it helps to bring the week to a better light. So hope that the weeks to come, will get better and better!

CNY Outing… February 11, 2008

Karaoke is a favourite outing for many people, a place where people test their vocal strength and some will take this opportunity to gather around to catch up with one another. Different people sing different songs, some english pop songs, some Mandarin pop songs, some oldies either English or Mandarin and some even sings Hokkien Songs.

 Last night I went to karaoke with a different group of friends. One that I have never went karaoke with. It was a really eye-opening experience. We have a mix-lingual session, Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien (these sang by the rest of the people) while English (Mostly sang by me coz I can’t sing Mandarin songs due to unable to read the characters) and Malay songs (of course.. ehem.. sang by me). A really multi racial society indeed. Even though I have to admit, I am not a good singer, at some points, it will go out of tune but not as bad as (hopefully) by another guy, he likes to keep choosing those up-to-date Mandarin songs to sing but most of them are out of tune! It really spoils the whole songs as some of them, I have not even heard the original version yet. But overall, an exciting experience.

After the session had a late dinner/supper at a Hong Kong cafe before proceeding back home.. Even though I have to wake up early in the morning to go to work on Monday but really had fun last night.

Today, I bought my 2nd digital camera. A pink flat touch screen sony digital camera – T70. They actually come with 4 different colors: Black, white, silver and pink. This is the first time I buy such a girlie colour camera. But, I like it! I had a $100 cash voucher that I won from my company dinner and dance last year and they came with several free gifts as well – A mini tripod, a lens cleanser set, 2gb memory card as well as sony pouch! Yeh.. what a happy day… can’t wait for the battery to be fully charged so that I am able to play with my new toy… hmm….

Lucky Draw.. February 3, 2008

Lucky draw seems to be on of the highlights in any formal dinners. It is a norm for every dinner and dance that they have lucky draws, but is the matter if the prizes are good – useful or not. There will also be some entertainment that they will engage an event company where they will host the entire events with jokes and games.

I just attended a dinner and dance at SwissOtel today food is so so nothing fantastic, and well as usual I do not have such luck in the lucky draws.. not even the 20th price! sigh..(But this is one dinner and dance that I wish I don’t win anything due to should there be any of my full time job colleagues attended the dinner I do not want them to know that I am there!) But the Host is very funny even though some of the games, I seen before in another dinner and dance that I attended last year but with different host different presentation. I stil find it very funny especially when you can still remember what happen the last time as well!

Of course even saying that, I still wonder, is that the only game left, don’t they have different games? Hmm.. well.. maybe due to this is a different company dinner and dance so might get the similar games.. Will wait and see if there is any new games in other dinner and dance then..

Knock knock.. Hi Neighbour.. January 17, 2008

Everyone of us no matter where we stay, we will have neighbours. It is the matter whether you get good neighbours or bad neighbours.

However, I had 02 unique circumstances. When I was staying at my previous place, I have a colleague who stays just opposite my unit in the same block. Then, occasionally we will go down to have breakfast or lunch together during weekends. But after a few months, she quit the job and went to Shanghai.. and there goes my neighbour… so sad..

 When I shifted to my new place in AMK. I found out that my other colleague is also staying in AMK and just 1 block away! Hei.. How cool is that everywhere I go I got friends or colleagues nearby.

But even so after 1 and half month staying at the new place, I did not bump into her when going to work or has never go back together, eventhough we all officially finishes at 6pm. However today, we got the rare opportunity to go back together (that is also after the stress of me standing behind, breathing down her neck to hurry up so that we did not miss the bus).

We went back to AMK Hub to have some light dinner, and even though it was late and the place was quite full, we determine to have our dinner at Ah Mei Cafe – under Banquet chain. At first we thought that we will go somewhere else but at the end we still turn back there, trying our luck for the 2nd round to get a table. Voila..! there it is.. yes there is one!

We were extremely lucky. Want to know why? We got the last 2 cups of coffee, and the last 3 pieces of Roti Canai as they are closing soon! wow.. that was real close. whew! If not we will end up at one of the coffeeshops near our blocks. The plata taste good coz it was made specially for us! That was also because they accepted our order and after paying the money, the casher realize that the Roti Plata is finished. So since paid, they have to do new ones for us.. Yumm yumm…

Burb.. opps.. excuse me… After chatting and finished our dinner, we took the same bus home. It is a nice feeling to be able to go back together.. But we only have a few months to go before we move again.. sigh… dreading for it..