Today finished my work early then rushed home. Still takes an hour to get home despite avoiding the rush hour jam. Well anyway, it's the first time in 2 weeks I managed to have dinner at home and i'm relieved for that.

Here's some pictures I took in my free time using my 'starting-to-be-retro' T610.



A Lamborghini parked at Bayshore. It's wider than the SUV beside it yet half the height.


One of my tiring lectures at SIM Management House.


The place where I'm situated 9am-6pm or even later.

Dinner is served!

Till I'm free again.

Monday blues struck when I put my hand on my face and slouched while I was going through my paperwork. The long weekend literally made me feel groggy when I woke up in the morning. 3 days of getting stuffs, snooker and mahjong was great man, haha.. Won a bit of $$$ in blackjack after the mahjong session. Courtesy of some friends wahaha. Leslie was in a crazy form, almost anything that involved money he would win.

Left work zun zun on the dot after work at 6pm and rushed off to SIM. Guess what? Dozed off just a few bus stops away and missed the stop. CB man... Took a cab and the cab almost brought me to SIM Headquarters instead. "Yo you going where huh? I suppose to go to SIM at Namly Ave? Now we reaching SMU!" "Huh? SIM at Namly Ave? I thought at Clementi?" "Aiya got another branch la!" He was embarrassed that he never heard where I wanted to go properly and own backside itchy bring me to the one he ASSUMED i wanted to go so he restarted the meter... Wahaha.. Actually made not much diff la but I appreciated the fact he did.

During break, I headed for the last two pieces of cake that was remaining after i went to the toilet then two ladies seated there asked me where I was working, coz they noticed I'm always late. Replied "town", where you stay, "east" they probably think I'm siao ting tong, which i think i am too.. sigh. And there's nothing I can do about it.

Lesson time did a quiz. Then the lecturer told us the quiz was basically "How much would you go to backstab someone to get to the top" To my horror I had a box-office hit in the scoring department! Am I such a sucker? If am, how come I not yet at the top ah? But then again, maybe it meant I had the potential... depends whether I am willing to go all out for it, to be the God of Fuckers.. Well, I just feel that whatever a person does, conscience must be clear that's all. What about you? For what you know, you might be a natural backstabber and you do it all the time without knowing it at all! Anyway, I believe all of us have some point in time done it whether intentionally or unintentionally. No one is perfect.

Generally I think backstabbers may get ahead earlier but it is just a matter of time when others find out what a shithead you are and the repercussions comes and you fall hard. So, be true to yourself. In fact, successful people actually spend most of their time building up their social network and communicating with people. But of course I'm not talking about the guy whose social network only consists of every Vivian, Priscillia, Sofia that he met at Zook la. I'm still working on my socialising skills, kinda hard when you're the new guy and all eyes are on you to sniff out the tiny little bad points that you possess.

Till i rant again...

The first break of my worklife had arrived! After work I had to head straight to SIM for accounting. All of us went blur at the lecturer who was teaching us. Either she was fast or we were slow and confused. She tried to slow down but the damage was done. Officially we were screwed. Even the usual subtle me had to clarify some questions with her.

I'm glad that this week is a long weekend. I haven't enjoyed something like this in years since I had to work alternating days during NS and basically I helped out at the cafe so as you people know in the F&B business, weekends are not weekends. If fact, that is the most busiest time of the week. Screw F&B man, I wanna live my life the normal way, spend my weekends the normal way, not wait until I close the cafe then rush home to change before I join my friends at the club.

Chatted with Diana online when I woke up on Hari Raya. Haha, if you're reading this, I find it funny that we both are now office workers. Around 5 years back we were probably hanging around at Funland! Well anyway, we decided to gather some guys for Elecktra at Plaza Singapore. Namely Les,Huijing,Zhenhao. After the show we were like.. Argh.... Only Leslie found it not bad.

We guys went back to my old unoccupied place at Simei and managed to dig out my grandma's mahjong tiles! I finally played my first game of mahjong. Interesting. :)Luckily, coz if I didn't manage to find it, we would be hanging out again at ECP or Altivo at Mt. Faber! That was gonna be boring already then. But then, we were not gonna just finish the public holiday just like that after watching Elecktra.

Chinese New Year is coming! Are you guys excited? Making your rounds collecting red packets and lots of food to eat.. Seems great isn't it? Let's see how much we'll get this year.. lol!

This has been an unbelievable tiring week. I'm new to the operations of the credit retention department so I had to pick up the tricks of the trade fast. Everyone's been helpful to me so far. Whatever I ask, they will take the time to walk through the CardPac system which controls the database of credit card customers. I can roughly know what kind of a person is by what he/she spends on. Like tai tais around 30 years old constantly charging beauty treatments to her card, the yuppie that always buy drinks at zouk/wine bar or the shopping fanatics.

After work, I always have to rush off to study. And I'm always late man. So blardy far that after that I reach home in only 1 over hour which by then is already 1130pm. Maybe it needs getting used to. I think should be able to handle la, after this, everything else is chicken feed.

Thank god it's a long weekend. I'm gonna sleep my ass off!

After my usual routine of sending grandma to market then to the cafe, I immediately rushed home to grab a shower and change into my attire for my new job. I also bought a new tooth whitening toothpaste along the way - gotta create a good impression on my first day of work. People judge you by first look, from top to bottom and bottom to top. I know because I like to judge people alot. It's a habit that eats me up because every little thing I don't like about this person I see, I'm gonna make sure it doesn't appear on me. Ends up that I tend to be extremely self-conscious of my appearance and behaviour and even the way,tone that I speak to people.

Anyway, I can't drive for nuts because CBD costs $2 and parking for a while costs $3 in Suntec and this is gonna take the whole day so I took public transport. Straight bus to Suntec, waited only a while for the bus to arrive(i'm feeling lucky) and walked 10 mins to Millenia Tower. I'm getting immerse sense of dejavu because I haven't done this in a long while, like taking a bus and walking along Suntec. Feels good! And it's more peaceful on a working day than the surging crowd on weekends - I steer clear of that man.

Learnt more in-dept about how credit cards and overdraft facilities function and how credit banks squeeze consumers dry with their killer 24% interest rates. "Or else how Citibank have such a nice office in the CBD for you people to work in?" my in-charge told me. I sniggered and replied,"Ya man.." Anyway, credit cards are fine as long as you always pay what you owe in full. Suppose you charge $500 to it this month, your statement comes, you better pay back $500 or whatever you owe will be charged 24%p.a interest. You no longer have credit benefits, anything else you charge next month while still you still owe the bank money will automatically be slapped with interest. Understand? Good.

Officially I start work on monday in office wear. So today gotta go get some business attires to stock up on my bare cupboard. Since it's my first office job (I never had a job that required me to don office wear) so I'm gonna invest in some solid shirts and pants now. Probably a book titled "How to survive in office with bus loads of woman" lol i'm laffing my ass off on this one.

Mondays/Wednesdays/Fridays are killers. After work I gotta rush to SIM at night to attend 3 hours of lectures. Then since i'm not driving, it's gonna be a long way home... Leslie got 'direct bus to my house', nncb lucky bastard!!!

Tuesdays and Thursdays probably can go back together with tab, since she is working at suntec, but she always OT, poor thing.

I feel wonderful today! Today my handphone rang and I was offered a job! It came just when I was thinking of my possible career prospects. I was also wondering whether to go back into the computer line or not.


Several hours and 2 interviews later, I managed to secure a job in Citibank credit card department. Actually credit cards are not my interest in finance industry. I was hoping for a Financing position where I could handle loans and stuff but oh well. I waited outside Citibank for a guy to receive me but i sat in the sofa for 15 minutes but he never came out! KNN, I called him again and he said 'Coming coming'. Ended up one super-good-looking-delicious lady peeped out of the door and asked me, " You here for the interview? You are? I answered "Yes, Rihao here". She looked at her list, smiled and beckoned me to follow her in. I thought it was suppose to be a male!??!

Ends up that the guy was waiting inside for me. He told me that he was impressed that I was studying part-time and asked me how long was my course. I told him 2 years then he said, "So you going to stay in this job for 2 years after that you're gonna leave?" Huh? Why must leave? Why must stay? Lol. I simply answered that i just wanna further my studies further and the reason I'm taking it part-time at night is so that I can work and study at the same time, maximizing my time. I'm actually thinking of jumping to other departments once I have gained enough experience. Heh, evil me!

I'm relieved that I have finally ended my work drought ever since I came out of NS. My computer business seemed to have stuck in foreplay ever since the product designs was sent overseas with not much feedback coming from my partner. I'm beginning to suspect that they are not that confident about the business prospects already. But what to do? I was stuck in NS for 2 years, I couldn't do jack-shit about the business man.

I'm just gonna turn up for training tomorrow and focus my energy into work and studies for the mean time. It seems that life has just begun for me.

After 3 to 4 days of intense medication, I'm about 80% back to full-health. But there are still so many pills to pop finish, as I have to "complete the course of anti-biotics". I dread to visualise my stomach bloating with so many pills of penicillin man! I'm not a medicine kind of person, as I usually tend to recover from flu, stuff like that naturally instead of spending the money/time/effort to the doc's to get meds. Well, let's hope I finish these vitamins before Sunday! Heh heh, but I feel so good man, so good that I intend to lay off the occasional puff to NO PUFFING ever! Whether that happens is still up to anybody's guess although there's no girlfriend at the moment to nag at me constantly anymore! Let's just wish people I know stop offering or light up in front of me. *Visualising super-healthy offsprings.. muahaha* Let's just settle for healthy lungs for now. :P

No luck with job-hunting yet nowadays, get the occasional interview over telephone but I guess my half-dead voice is scaring the person on the other side of the line. Hey man, what happen to the cute eruasian babe at the employment agency who asked me to forward another completed resume to her? I almost asked her out for dinner man, if not for the fact that there was another girl present. Never hear news on any employment opportunities from her!!! Fiakz. Nevertheless, shall keep monitoring the job industry for opportunities to gain experience before striking out on my own. *Following Rich Dad Poor Dad's concept* You'll never get rich working for someone else but for now I need to bite my teeth and gain more real world experience about this cruel/evil/scandalous/money-minded/shark-eat-shark world I reside in.

Lesson starts in a few hours tonight. Life's bored as shit nowadays, with illness and lack of income these days. Handphone's so quiet that I suspect that I forgot to pay Starhub. But no, I just did. And to think I'm having two lines. What a waste of money! But seriously I think we all have to start working and saving for the future. My BMW and a bungalow in Sentosa are whispering to me "i'm waiting, waiting...."

Ok har, wait long long...

On Tuesday morning, while doing some of my errands, I decided to see a doctor which was conveniently situated beside the place I was going to. The doctor was a lady who was quite chirpy and attentive to what I was complaining about. I had a sore throat, a fever seems to be brewing and my nose was quite stuffy. So she prescribed me some meds and tell me to watch my health and stop doing this and that.

Upon about to pay for the medicines, the counter lady told me the price. "WTF" I tot. $79 for a couple of meds and a Flixonase Nasal spray? "Oh I adjusted the price for you already. And this spray is 150metres, normal one is 100meters. Come on.. I got it for free when I was in NS last time and I didn't even use 5 times as I found it ineffective unless you consider spray then it was good at that department.


That night after I came back from lessons, my face was burning and I rushed home to take the meds. My dad saw me and was shocked at my body temperature. He immediately put me on the "ice-blanket" treatment where I got covered up by ice towels from my head to my upper-body. The 2nd night, I couldn't sleep as my fever still maintained a persistent 38.5degrees(thanks to a thermometer given by the goverment to NSman during the SARS period. This time I really opened up and use. LOL.)

Man that was one hell of a night. Unable to sleep at all and my whole neck was emitting heat like an engine, affecting other body parts. I stopped eating the meds that &$#(@* doc gave me because I suspected she prescribed wrongly. That night I laid on the sofa thinking when a cardiac arrest would come and claim my soul. I kept hallucinating that the Grim Reaper was trying to come and claim my soul. A mixture of dry cough, blocked nose and aching muscles made this a terrible night to pass. Kept drinking water in hope to break the fever but each time I measured, it hovered above 38degrees. Oh man!



This morning, I hit a historic high of 39 over degrees. A bit more and I'll probably suffer from brain damage. My elder brother sent me to CGH and I patiently waited for the doctor to see me. Upon seeing my throat and tongue, he declared... You have Tonsillistis!
I expected that though, after wondering throughout the night that this was no ordinary fever. My tonsils were inflammed and infected so he gave me some meds. He assured me that I don't have to cut them out yet. (Thank God) I took the opportunity to show him what the previous lady doctor prescribed. He took a look and said,"Hmmm, you don't cure tonsillitis with this" It's not effective enough. I wanted to throw a pig head into that clinic that moment.

And the consultation plus a whole lot of medicines costed only $65. Hope I can sleep tonight.

Regards,
Mr. Tonsil Wreck

First night of lesson was tarnished by the fact that I can't find the location. I'm suppose to do a U-Turn at one of the junctions along Dunearn Road but hell there was so many U-Turns I can't figure out which one! And it didn't help that Les called and said we had to be there by 630pm instead of 7.

"Huh? Why not at 7pm?"
"Didn't you receive the letter?"
*Argh*Letter sent to old permanent address*

Finally found the place and saw him at the roadside. Phew, I'm not that late. Picked him up and drove to carpark. Walked towards the school alongside with a babe. "Wah, steady sia, scaly our batch" ...

Alas, registration and a quick peek later around the lecture theatre garnered no appreciable flowers.

2 lectures later, we have formed a group of 5 guys for our biz project. Upon submission of details, i discovered that we were the youngest in the group. Sigh... Anyway, I hope this course is what I prefer to rather than IT last time.

On the first post of 2005, let me first wish everyone a happy new year! Everybody hopes they can do better than the previous year. On the flip side, I hope I can do no worser than last year. Anyway, last year has been a screwed up one with nothing really much to cheer about, as for the same as last few years. And I'm not ranting about myself, it's a more general outlook of things around me and the world. What's up with humanity these days?


I'm sure everyone helped out in one way or another to the sufferers of the Asian Tsunami. Be it cash or items, the survivors who lost everything including their loved ones would be grateful. However, I've already predicted some nimwits would do some stupid things and it really came true. SPH asked the public to stop donating clothing items because they have sufficient amounts of it already. How is it possible when over 5 million people are left homeless? My guess is that the charity workers are fed up wif generous people in Singapore donating well used bras,high heel shoes.. Boxing gloves even? Men's G-String!? Singaporeans are a charitable lot indeed! Albeit the lack of common sense though.

2005 crept in quietly at home with my family over a hot delicious plate of home-made spaghetti dotted with strips of honey ham and cheese garnished with i-forgot-what. On the 13th storey of Bayshore, it was especially cosy and comfy with the east coast winds revolving around your windows. Raining alternating between stormy and drizzly, it felt good to be within the confines of your own home shielded from Mother Nature. Even more so because I didn't felt a particular need to celebrate 2005 wif a bang this year so it wasn't much fun out there with all the rain and water drenching the LVs and Timberlands. :)

Here's the mandatory I-Want list for this year!


A Timex Watch

A Job that offers great satisfaction and achievements as well as lovely rustles of ka-ching in my pockets.

Above-normal results for my back-to-books stint.

A new wallet.

Immunity from prosecution over file-swapping.

Better luck.

A new car.

Good health.

Last but not least, sunlight in humanity's darkened hours. This one sounds chim huh?

Regards,
Rihao.