Keep The Dream On

Another year is coming to an end... It was a year full of many ups and downs, for example: I found a job but not a career (yet to become permanent staff); I met nice colleagues but not good mates (yet to become good friends); I found my "dream" land but not a "dream" home (yet to obtain residency status)...

The above-mentioned are just some basic but rather meaningless analyses to recap what I have been going through in year 2006 (there were also many other minor details which are not worth mentioning here)... Somehow I do not seem to have a clear objective in life anymore. At the moment my dream hope is to settle down at a much quieter place (Australia or New Zealand to be specific) living a simple life. This is probably something that not many would hope for because of people surrounding them such as family and friends and even other factors like status and pride. Of course many people around me found my idea dull and weird, as a result some even started to impose their opinion on me to do something else instead such as getting married and setting up a family in Singapore. To be honest, I'm getting tired of people being so opinionated about my personal life, which ponders me to think whether is this what the society here is all about???

Hopefully 2007 will be a miraculous year, and may all our dreams come true...

Super Annoying!!!

My ex-colleague is getting married today and I feel both happy and sad for him... Happy for him cos marriage is a joyful and unforgettable occasion once in a lifetime; but sad for him cos he would be losing his job next month... He had actually quitted his current job few days ago due to an exaggerated demand from his boss whereby he wasn't allow to go on leave for these two weeks despite that he's getting married, as his boss went on an overseas business trip and so he is required to cover his boss's duties... It was perhaps a wrong decision for him to leave (my current workplace) to join a global investment bank, but at many times people need to experience for themselves before they can realise whether it's a good or bad move... In a way it's also a blessing in disguise for me as I was actually hoping to move to this investment bank that my ex-colleague was in but was unsuccessful with the job application. So I really have to say that God always plan what's good for us all...

I'm feeling more and more disgusted with this colleague of mine (someone that I also bitched about in my previous blog)... He's simply judgemental and disrespectful about other people's decisions and religion. Take the above incident for example, this guy actually told others that my ex-colleague's decision was "mad and stupid" (he had also made this statement to others as well), which I feel it's so annoying as who on earth is he to judge others by calling them "mad and stupid"... On top of that, he even make fun of me when I (as a Christian) have to say grace before meals by imitating me and mumbling nonsense rather than giving thanks to God... So perhaps the term "mad and stupid" should be used to describe himself for being childish, ignorant and irritating towards others... :@

More bitching to come along the way...

High Expectation!

I just sent my CV to apply for job opening at one of the global investment banks here... It would be a dream comes true if I get the job as the selection process is not going to be easy at all...

But I really hope to move on from where I am now... Getting sick of the current working environment and situation, i.e. disorganised workloads, ignorant management, unnecessary sarcasms, etc...

+o(

Slow Recovery...

My blog is nearly becoming inactive... To continue its lifespan I'll be blogging on summarised versions every now and then...

Here's the summary of what has been going on recently:

At workplace - I received news that my bank job contract would be extended for another nine months after it ended at the end of this month. I'm disappointed of course as three of my other team members were offered permanent positions instead... The reasons behind this decision were unknown, but I'm thinking that it could possibly be due to the lack of previous job experience as this is actually my first job after graduating from university. The consolation is that I'll get a pay rise for my next contract. My colleagues have been encouraging me to look at the bright side as the contract would guarantee me a pro-rated one month bonus if I stay through to the end of my contract next year, but only God knows what will happen to me after that...

At home - I just bought a new wardrobe and a new office chair, and also reshuffled the positions of the furniture in my room (thanks to the big help from my brother)... But I'm having some regrets buying the wardrobe as the space for hanging my clothes is actually similar to my old wardrobe. The only difference is the drawers are bigger and there're some compartments in the wardrobe for storing folded clothes. Now I have to crack my thoughts in finding ways to rearrange all my clothing instead of hanging every single one of them like before...

Other thought - HOT and CROWDED, are the two words to describe my feeling about Singapore... Somehow I'm still reconciling to the fact that I'm no longer living in Brisbane. I miss winter and the less crowded and more relaxed city of Brisbane and even Perth, the place where I went for holiday about three months ago. I have come to a conclusion that I'm a laid back person. Perhaps such mindset will change as time goes by but it's quite unlikely for now...

*-)

Disturbing Act!

My tooth has been giving me problems again... I went to the dentist this morning and was told that a crowning treatment is needed as part of my last upper right tooth was damaged and chipped off. The total cost for the crowning treatment plus x-ray would be S$470, and that means my shopping expenses for next month will be foregone :( ... Prior to this coming dental treatment, I had already spent over S$1,000 for major dental treatment like wisdom tooth surgery, root canal, etc in recent years. I just hope all these can stop happening anymore...

*****

I have a colleague who had joined my team for two months now and I'm finding him annoying... He is the most junior (about 3 months junior than me and other team members) and at the moment he's still working as a temp staff. But sometimes he will act as if he's in command and control; questioning other team members on what they are doing and telling them what needs to be done... In particular, he always like to come by and sit beside our desks to look at what we are doing when he had finished his work or when he has nothing to do. This really annoys me as I feel that he's not respecting the privacy of others. My body language has been showing that I don't like him coming over to my desk unnecessarily but I think he's just pretending that he don't get it :@ ...

*****

World cup 2006 is on now and my favourite soocer team Italy is playing tonight. Hopefully they can go all the way to win the world cup title (yay!) ...

Season's Change

My stomach has been giving me problems again over the past few days and it's been really annoying... I had diarrhoea on Tuesday and stopped after I took the medicine prescribed by the doctor, but it started again once I stopped taking the medicine. On the other hand, oreo cereal plus little bit of fresh milk seem to be a much more effective cure for diarrhoea. Looks like those stuff that causes constipation may prove to be a remedy for diarrhoea... =D

I'm really getting sick of the weather... It's super hot and humid this moment and the next moment it started raining like mad. The current temperature ranges between 25 to 33 degrees celsius and I think it'll continue to remain at this range until the end of the year... (#)

I'll be in Perth next week to spend my one week holiday break. I'm looking forward to this trip as at least the weather in Perth now is definitely much cooler than Singapore. This would be the first time I'm travelling alone on a backpacking experience, but at the same time I'll be enjoying some quiet moment, as well as shopping, eating and sightseeing at O.T.O.T. (own time own target)...

=)

Rare Privilege

I had the luxury to leave office at 6.30 pm over the past 2 days... Such situation doesn't happen often as most of the time my team members and I could only leave office after 7 pm in order to clear up most of our work. Although it's just around half an hour different in timing, it really mean a lot for us especially after a long and tiring day at work...

Managed to catch the whole of the reality show 永不言败 (Never Say Die) today... The contestants in this show had taken part in other reality programmes before such as project superstar, star idol, etc, but weren't able to get through to the next round. In today's show, the contestants were supposed to sing duet with a mediacorp artiste on any mandarin love song of their choice, and I was quite impressed by the performance from few of the contestants who actually sang quite well. Even though they still don't performed as good as finalists from the other reality shows, I felt they did however shown improvement as compared to their previous performance experience. Therefore I just couldn't agree when my mom said that this show is full of rubbish...

Will be going to the gym at my office building after work tomorrow. Need to burn off the extra fat and stress...

=))

Mini Gathering

My blog seems to be dead after two months as working life has really been killing my time...

I'm so glad to have attended the "Face-Off" concert at SMU and really like to thank Hui for the invitation... The atmosphere was actually quite "high" especially towards the end when all the three bands made a combined performance. I was moving myself along with the rhythm when some of my old time favourite retro songs were being sung...

Being the first time stepping into SMU, I got the opportunity for a short tour around the place (courtesy of Justin)... I even met up with some of my other ex-Poly schoolmates, i.e. Gerald, Phelicia, Lim Wei and Wilson. It's somewhat like a mini BIT's gathering I would say. Many of them didn't really change much in looks. The only exception is probably a sense of growth in maturity level. Afterall, life in university is very different as compared to those days we spent in polytechnic...

After the performance ended, we had the usual "kopi session" at the Kopitiam opposite SMU with Hui, Jus, Lim Wei, Georgina and another friend. There were so much fun and laughter especially when the topic involved one particular "disgusting" person that we got to know during our Poly internship 4 years ago :=D ...

Will definitely like to catch up with them again next time...




(Picture taken during the concert with my Nokia 6111)

A Challenging Year Ahead...

The new year has arrived once again... It also means that there will be many challenges and uncertainties ahead of this new year...

Received news last Friday that I'll be starting my new job this coming Tuesday 3rd Jan... It was indeed marvellous that I managed to pass through the interview which was the first one I attended since I started applying for jobs upon completing my studies less than one month ago... The job involves providing support to the finance department in a banking institution which is somehow related to my areas of studies in university... Although at present this is only a 3 months contract job, there is a chance for further extension of the contract or even possible conversion to a permanent post at the end of the 3 months. But I won't be too bothered about what is going to happen 3 months later as my priority now is to do my best in this job and gain as much knowledge and experience as I can in order to prepare myself better for any future new job applications...

At the moment I'm facing the issue of reverse culture shock since returning back to Singapore... I still feel that the pace here is too fast for me comparing to Australia. For example, I'm unable to get use to squeezing with the crowd in the MRT, walking along a crowded street where people don't bother to give way or knocking onto you without apologising... I just think that such behaviour is annoying and frustrating. Perhaps I really need more time adjusting to such a fast-paced society again...

Hoping that this new year will be bright and sparkling...