Archive for » January, 2010 «

Double Farewell Celebrations
January 31st, 2010 | Author: gabriel

Two farewell celebrations in a day, two seafood meals in a day… Luckily it’s not the same restaurant.

Friday became a farewell day for me as during lunch, had a farewell/welcome/teambuilding session with my department people at Jumbo near Indoor Stadium. Jumbo almost became the default place for any of my deparment’s outing.. Even though we always call for a vote each time there’s an outing. Ate the set meal which consists of several main course dishes. Of course, the main delicacy there are crabs, which wasn’t very nice in my opinion.

Mobile VAS Planning Jumbo

Then at night, had another farewell dinner for Yvonne at Melbann Seafood Restaurant. She’ll be flying off to Korea for the next 6 months after finishing her ‘6 months-shift’ here in Singapore. Again, had crabs again but ate more crabs here than Jumbo. But this time round, as most of us were there, we had a round of lou sang first. First lou sang of CNY. Okay, actually not really counted as it’s not CNY yet.. haha..

 

lou sang

Then, had the usual crab meals and the stir-fried dishes. Was a very filling meal. Some came late as there was work to do but everyone was there by end of the day.

group 1 Out first batch of meal Chee Lim, Chin Zwen and James aren’t here yet.

group 2 When we were leaving and everyone was there

Later after that, they continued their night with drinks at a bar but too bad, Kah Hon and I couldn’t join them. Had to wake up early the next morning for other matters. Anyway, was a great night and hope Yvonne will do great in Korea. =)

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Getting Accustomed
January 27th, 2010 | Author: gabriel

I guess I’m getting accustomed to work… It’s been half a year already since I started working. Wow.. How time flies..

I think what helped me to get accustomed is this believe – many things are out of our control. We only have this much capacity to do something.

To bring less stress to an already stressful job, I’m trying my best not to bring work back to the house cause.. well, you can never finish your work. Of course, with a few exception that it’s very urgent and need to be completed there and then!

In order to sleep soundly,I jot down all the things that I need to do for the next few days and let the ‘book’ worry about it. I’m even keeping two organizers – 1 for everyday tasks, 1 for notes from meetings.

I’m also getting immune to the constant buzzing from my hand phone indicating a new e-mail has arrived.

Hope I don’t speak too soon… As any moment in time, things may just happen. Worse thing is, many things happen at the same time. Oh well, at least I’m not working for long hours… *Cross fingers*

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NIS Teambuilding Session
January 24th, 2010 | Author: gabriel

It’s actually pretty cool for a sponsor to organize team-building events for their scholars… Well, that’s what IDA did for their National Infocomm Scholars. They organized a teambuilding event to Pulau Ubin which consists of both current scholars and alumnus. So, the age group is actually quite large… From those waiting to go Uni, to those who have been working for 2-3 years.. Yea, and I suppose it’s also a ‘braniac’ outing…

I think there’s only about 35 participants who showed up. I was there with my 2 other colleagues who so happened to be in this scholarship programme where we’re all working in the same department. We had our breakfast at Changi Village Hotel (yes, there’s a hotel at Changi Village) and a quick ice-breaking session before taking to ferry to Pulau Ubin. The highlight for the day’s programme is an Amazing Race session at the island. But of course, it’s nothing like the Amazing Race show. There are just some brainy questions, questions to be answered along the way while cycling to the east (Chek Jawa) and to the west of Ubin, and several station games.

The programme was pretty simple I would say although there were a few injuries and broken bones involved, but I think it’s actually a good approach to have a somewhat networking method cause we can really make friends through events like this. After the Ubin programme, they really fed us good.. With a lunch buffet back in Changi Village Hotel followed by another round of tea-session after a de-brief.

All in all, I think it’s a  Saturday well spent although I actually woke up when the sky was still dark… But learnt a couple of few useful things… Like there’s a direct bus to Pasir Ris… And Changi Village.

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I am a Singapore PR
January 14th, 2010 | Author: gabriel

I’ve gotten my Singapore PR Approval! After waiting for 3 months+, I now have a Singapore IC number and have all the privileges close to a Singapore citizen.

I can buy property, apply for credit cards, get government funding… And can use the fast lane at the immigration check point. haha

Hmm.. I’m sure I can think of more benefits of becoming a PR….

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The journey to 2010
January 02nd, 2010 | Author: gabriel

Celebrated the last day of 2009 in SG by having a year-end celebration in my company after working during the morning hours. Yvonne stayed over last night cause there was a football match and she didn’t have to work on NYE. When I reached home after lunch, everyone was busy with their own affairs – Yin Sin’s watching show, Yvonne’s playing Nancy Drew, Jit-Vern and Chee Lim on their comp, Ian’s out with his girlfriend, Yee Weng still not back from work.

Spent the afternoon playing Warcraft with Jit-Vern. Us housemates finally found a game where all four of us can play, even Ian. For dinner, we met up with Ian and Mel at Aston’s Specialties in Suntec. It’s food is good and the price is reasonable. We went there early to beat the crowd at about 6pm. My last meal in 2009 – A medium-rare steak

steak

Spending the last moments with the people that I’ve always been close with…

ian-melvon-gab-ys

 

 

ian-jv

When we finished our dinner, it was just like 730-745pm. It was still damn early. Initially, the plan was to meet at Marina Barrage with Chee Lim after dinner but well, after dinner was still too early. Ian accompanied Melanie back first while the remaining 4 of us just walked about Suntec Area. We walked around Millennia Walk cause some haven’t been there before…

After what seems like point-less walking, we decided to follow Yvonne back to Kembangan. She needed to pack her stuff for another round of camping at our place. We err.. watched Godzilla on Channel 5. Hahaha… We really didn’t know what to do… Actually, we had a few choices –

  • (1) to be in a crowd to enjoy the NYE’s atmosphere at Marina Barrage. There we can watch fireworks, drink and all…
  • (2) to be in a non-crowded area and just spend some quality time with a small group of people.

And naturally, we chose the most logical thing to do – option 2. *smirk*. Of course Chee Lim wasn’t very happy as she’s more of a partying-kind but we all 4 (five including Ian) of us unanimously chose to stay-in without even discussing with each other.

So, we headed back to Hougang. We played our new board game, Urban Legends, bought by Yvonne to the ‘house’ for Christmas.

urban-legend

We had our leftover Chivas and Coke from the Xmas Party and count-down together with the TV. We can see the concert, the fireworks clearly from the TV. And best of all, no need to be crammed up like a sardine. We ended the night by watching Star Wars Ep 4 on my computer. New Year’s Eve may not sound exciting and wild, but we sure had our own kind of fun… *sigh* I wonder if this is a sign that we’re getting old.

Cheers to a better year! With good health and good wealth!

cheers!

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