Monday, July 28, 2003

a new place called the 2nd home

It's somewhere in Nanyang Crescent, learned the roadname after an almost lost (okay okay lost) incident.

Ma Life

Roommate - NUS, exchange too . Nice, likes her . Keeps gerbils . Named them rum, champagne and ??? . Gerbils gave birth on Friday, now we'd have a Vodka and Magarita maybe.

Fellow SMUians - next block, occupied a room vacant for a while. Reason? Unknown. Happy 4 of us meetup everynight for social gathering and some other stuff. :x

Other friends so far only include people from ma JC, and Ping's friends from JC (or other sources).

So far I have.........

Attended a seminar styled lesson which was pretty stressful for us, since everyone in the class knows we are from the dramatically different SMU, with horse-shoe styled lesson and lurrrve to speak up in class. Therefore, a strong sense of belonging beckons us to uphold the SMU image, but I doubt it can be done much.

Attended a 200 strong lecture. Felt like I was in JC. LT smelt like smelly socks. Lecture was utterly boring. Decided SMU is the best. Zao after 1 hour.

Cycled around the school. Visited various halls of residence and almost died on the slopes. Realised why people don't usually cycle in school, except perhaps someone by the name of s e h s u a n. :D Gave up at Hall 3. Called Rose for help. Walked/ Jogged back in the end.

Ate at NBS canteen. Haven't ate in a canteen for a while. Amused by the yellow boxes in front of each stall. Figured it's for smooth human traffic flow after happily standing in it for about 1 minute. Drinks are freaking 30cents!

Found my dad's old hall. Block 18! And it's still there. Talk about it being more than 30 years old man. Damn freaky.

Kinda lost my way when I went for the above boring makeup lecture on Saturday. Never realised the yellow bus stops it's services at 2pm. Waited for 2 hours and din know how to get home. 179, the only SBS bus at the busstop, did not go to my hall. Frantically called up all the NTU ppl I know, and the one with car did not become my knight in shiny armour because he was happily sleeping in the hall. !@#$%@$. Poor us finally flagged a cab and took it from South Spine to Hall 15. How smart.

Cultural shock so far:

1. People do not call their Professors Prof. When I said Bye Prof! He kinda gave me a funny look.

2. There is, really, a lot of PRCs.

3. Paying 20cents for the stupid bus ride which travels at 20 cents speed. I LOVE SBS!

4. Notes are already printed for you at the photocopying places. You just need to go and collect them. Don't have to print!

5. People ask the prof which few suggested texts he could probably read. Who the F*** reads suggestive extra readings? Even if you do, who the F*** asks on the 1st lesson!

Awaits more interesting happenings in my life.

Thursday, July 24, 2003

marder-fcukin-shite

If ever there is a company called Behind The Scenes that wants to hire you for whatever reason, DON'T. It is the most screwed up company I have ever seen in my 21 years of life.

And the director told me I can take whatever actions I want to, and he told my dad too, so I am not afraid of telling the whole world here. And calling up the bank to let them know about it, and hopefully make the company lose their only client.

Worked for them, this shite event company, hired us to promote XXX bank's (they are quite nice so let's not spell it out) opening ceremony and stuff. And well, that was April.

Guess what? I haven't even got my pay!

They have been dragging for years, as long as it's possible, 1st claiming that XXX bank, which is a MNC, did not pay them. I mean, hello? you sure? Then now they change their tactic and suddenly decided to be a American based company, and are waiting for the funds in US to come.

I worked for them for the bank, and the bank has paid up, so what has it got to do with the funds? Obviously the company is in deep shit, and having some financial problems, so bad that they can't even take out less than a grand. I don't know. And they are playing mind games, saying things like

"you have been the most patient....... please trust me........... one week........"

WTF. Trust you? How to? You promised like a billion time to pay, but never did. Even asked my dad to talk to them and they said the same thing to him. Tried to threaten him somemore.

Called up the bank and they are nice enough to help us put pressure on the company. It's not even the bank's fault at all. Even if the banks owe them 100k, it's none of our business, it's between them, and we are just freelancer isn't it. And thing is, the bank paid up already? So wtf did they do to our money?

The only worry I have is that they'll close down, and there goes me and Ping's 600 bucks. Yea it's just 600 bucks you think, but I worked hard and paid it off with sweat, literally, under the hot sun, skating around like a bimbo.

Mood: utterly pissed

Wednesday, July 23, 2003

I'm in Singapore

Back for 2 days already. Love Thailand, but don't miss it that much, it's just 2 hours away anyway, we can always go back.

Continuing the previous entry which ended at the internet cafe, we went back to feed the mosquitoes at the hotel lobby. Slumped into a sofa that was not too comfortable and breeds mozzies. Gawd, I thought I would die. Went back to Ayutthaya and had many many nodes of nostalgia running through my little body. Seeing the kids, learning that these kids remember my name (and all you Aegiers out there, erm maybe some), realising that they remember all the songs we taught them, and the line dance too. It's great to see the villagers, and it is a great difference how villagers live their lives and how they treat us as compared to the people in the city. All the pushing and cursing can never be found in the village. If given a choice to live in Ayutthaya or Bangkok, I'd choose Ayu. anytime. BTW, the kids were pestering the principal everyday, asking him when we are going back. Awww!



Thinking back, just wanna laugh at ourselves. I mean, it's quite right to do it, but it's kinda funny. 1st thing we ask the cabbie is "meter"? Once he start saying funny things like "I drive you to XXX, very cheap, only 10b", the next thing he turns around, we are all gone. Hands always on the doorknob ready to jump off the cab.

Some Thai lingo

"cheep, cheep, no charge expensib, wholesale pri"
"i no make money"
"give me more, give me one more pri"
"same same locals, i sell you"


our lingo

"too expensive"
"paeng la"
"what is your best price"
"sell cheaper la, we buy more"
"don't sell cheap we don't buy"


Anyway, now it's time to move on in life and adapt to the Nan-Da lifestyle.

Thursday, July 17, 2003

I'm in Thailand

Sitting at a internet cafe with many other kids around playing CS. 3rd day in Thailand and we are stranded without a hotel room. Things just was a little off what we hoped and expected, but no worries, it's quite fun still. Poor Rose Rose is sick though, kept coughing. So kelian. And dear Ping Ping is getting the virus too!

Anyway, I just cannot believe how resourceful we always try to be, thinking of all kinds of weird ideas to get through. We are supposed, or rather planned to stay at Ayutthaya, but the bus took too long and the place we wanted to stay is not available too. But in the end, we thought of going to the hotel we are supposed to check in tommorrow and decide to bunk in there at the lobby for the night, pretended that our friend we are supposed to stay with is sick and all (You go Ping! - can always trust Ping to think of this sorta thing.) and go to Ayutthaya to visit the villagers tommorrow first thing in the morning.Went to Rayong once we reached BKK airport, stayed overnight at a budget 400B apartment, then went to a very very pretty Ko Samet. The beach is really what you call powder white sand and clear water. Tried to be a true blue backpacker sourcing for the cheapest rooms around but then always fail. :P

There was a few hiccups on the way, some unexpected happenings which I think would be too long and inappropriate to say here, but I feel that I have learned quite a bit from this experience. Looking forward to the next few days shopping till I drop here!

Thursday, July 10, 2003

Love hate relationship with the NEL.


As of everything in the infant stage, there will be hiccups. All the sudden delays and buey zhun timing display of the next arriving train gets on my nerve, but it's really pretty convenient. It'd get better, says SBS, it had better.

Found the lit-up track a lil' irritating when I try to nap on the train, kinda glares into my eyes. But it is such a pretty sight, isn't it. I love this picture man. 1 of the only few pictures I can be proud of.

hee

Monday, July 07, 2003

mobile training

Went for the mobile training today. It's soOOoO silly. Spent the whole day there from 8.30am to 5pm, with the first half of the day talking all about customer service, and how to smile, approach customers and even more crappy stuff.

If we are going to smile, we will smile, if we are dao, we will remain dao. I don't think a morning of smile preaching is gonna be of any use, especially when you are not that effective a trainer, bite your own tongue while talking and laugh at your not-too-funny joke. I was seriously bore to death, stared at everything from my toes to my nails, even tried to check out my blackheads on my nose.

And the worse part is, they're just training people for a 2 day roadshow.

And, the worst part is, I don't understand why they are putting me through
1. a smiley session
2. cable TV/ Maxonline training (for tommorrow)

I mean, I worked for weeks for the 2. already. Waste my time man!


Tuesday, July 01, 2003

The age old decision - Finance or Marketing

And I sort of came up with a conclusion. Although I am not too sure how long this decision is going to stay with me. In general, I kind of thought of the pros and cons:

Marketing: Easier to study and graduate. Higher chance of getting honours. Not so stress. Should be more fun. But not as marketable. General. Anyone can do it.

Finance: Tough. Boring. Lots of numbers. But useful. Very. Why?

A book I read taught me that many well educated people in this world are not finacially educated. They earn more, spend more and get themselves into a vicious cycle where they worry of not having enough money to pay off their mortage loans and credit card bills. They work for people. And fear being sacked, prays hard to get retirement pensions. The people in the rat race.

But rich people are financially educated, they know how to make money work for them, buying in good stocks and practically live off their dividends and royalties (for writing a book like that). In other words, are able to stop working but still can manage to live a comfortable life.

Of course you do not need to be a major in Finance to know all of that, or in a sense, become a Rich Man. But then, since I'm paying school fees anyway, and will want to learn about all these one day, why not go along with the flow and learn it from school.

Convincing? Now I just have to convince myself and my friend.


There was a girl who was pretty bored in the cinema. Apparently she din quite enjoy the show. We know because she started scratching her scalp and she only does that when she is bored. :P Well the movie will be rated 3.5/5 to me, I guess, overly exaggerated actions without much of a storyline nor character buildup for most characters. But alright on a weekday @ $6.50 at Cineleisure, especially since the ticket stubs entitle you to a free bowling game! Bet you din know that.

Anyway, the high of the movie is the inspiring Abs. :P

Anyway, after that, we tried our hands at bowling and it is surprisingly very fun when you laugh your head off washing the gutters and not getting super stress over not striking. It's quite fun when you just want to anyhow throw and stuff. But man house shoes is a no-go, yuckies it stinks, and it doesn't slide at all. I almost fell at my very 1st throw cos I expected it to slide but I kinda stopped short. Haha, nvm.

Let's do it again girls.