Hello!

It's been some time since I last blogged...

Been

Freaking

Busy.....

Anyway its Huihui's birthday on 14 Feb!

Went to her little cosy party real late cos of WORK. (zzz)

But was nice meeting the girls up, all dressed in red, white and pink to suit the theme.

Happy birthday again Huihui =)

Time to get back to work. Zzz.

2008...

2008 felt like a big year.

Not because it had one more day in February...

2008 feels like it just flew by....

Or do I say this every year ?

Frankly I don't feel that today is the last day of 2008.

But looking back... a lot has happened in 08.

Good and bad.

Well, just hope that 2009 will be an even better year... :)

A Happy New Year in advance to all of ya!

My phone is dead by the way.

Will try to get a phone later, when I go out. And I lost a lot of people's contacts. Super irritated!!!

I'm currently using my dad's phone... borrow for a while. Receiving a lot of new year wishes but all don't know from who =X

I'm back from Taiwan!!!

The trip didn't turn out the way I wanted it to be... But nonetheless it was still a great getaway.

Before booking the tour I wanted free & easy, but my dad didn't want that. So we went ahead with a tour package, with only the last day as free & easy.

Then on the second last day the guide said he can throw in "free tour" for us on the last day. My parents loved that idea and so we went ahead... leaving me with no free time... urgh. And those "free tour" is to visit those memorial halls... And places selling their local 土产... Stupid one lor.

The itinerary sucked. Seriously. But the guide was good. The driver was good. The tour group consisted of not very boring people. So that's a consolation.

Went to a few really scenic places too. Really pretty places :) And some damn good experience places. Ok the tour is not all bad. It's just that... so many people went to Taiwan recently and came back with so many exciting stuff!! And I didn't have time to shop!! Imagine that.

All my shopping in Taiwan is done in like... 2 hours? And I didn't manage to get souvenirs. Sorry...

Super sad... :(

Anyways I will upload the pics soon. I doubt I will have time to blog about the trip. Maybe will write more on the captions in FB. Haha. See how.

Have a great 2008 ahead everyone :)

感触

Sleepless last night...

And I thought a lot the whole of today.

昨天是最快乐, 也是最难过的一天.

Went to a wake and a wedding this past week.

Made me think of a lot about life. About death. About marriage.

Spoke to a friend... Didn't know someone who always crapped with me is someone who can really give me good advice too.

I feel so so so damn screwed up... My life is in a fucking mess.

I so want to clean up the mess... Easier said than done.

Why didn't I do anything earlier. This is so me.

My toenail cracked right in the middle. I've cut it real short, but there's still a part which is still attached to my skin. Hurts real bad when I try to take it off.

So I decided to put a plaster over my toe, so that it doesn't hurt when I wear shoes.

I've been putting a plaster over it for almost 2 weeks now.

I suddenly realised - This is so me.

Putting a plaster over the wound, so that it doesn't hurt.

Pretend that the cracked toe nail doesn't exist.

But the root of the problem is always there.

长痛不如短痛. 可是我不能忍受那种痛. 为何没有不痛的解决方法...

不想..就不会痛吗?

Unhappy stuff aside,

I'm going to Taiwan from Christmas to 30th.

Going with family. Was a super difficult trip to plan. Everyone said "anything", but all of them have some sort of objections.

And it's super last minute. Went to many agencies yesterday and all of them said there's no more vacancies.

Finally managed to book one, with only 5 slots to spare. First day of the tour is on 24th. But I gotta work. JD is in NS and gotta be in camp.

So my parents and JH are going first, on Jetstar, on 24th.

JD and I will be travelling by SQ on the midnight of 25th, meet them in Taipei, and continue with 2nd day of the tour.

I will be looking forward to it.

I need a getaway.

I'm feeling damn suffocated.

I shall clear up my stuff before 24th. Then I will run away to Taiwan to hide... Haha.

Come 2009

I will be different.

I will be stronger.

In 3 words I can sum up everything I've learnt about life - It goes on ~Robert Frost

I love this quote.

Feeling kinda worn out these days...

Been real busy... Been real stressed...

I'm feeling a little overwhelmed in fact. Overwhelmed by the expectations that I have to meet.

I remember the day I got my Sec 1 posting results... I was in my mother's car...

And she was driving me to see where will my secondary school be... 

In the car we were talking about financial crises... And she mentioned that it happens approx every 10 years.

I did a calculation and exclaimed "Oh shit, that will happen when I graduate"

That was in 1998. And that always sticked in my memory.

10 years on it's really happening.

Though I was hoping it wouldn't.

Cos I'm fresh out of school with a degree in BANKING AND FINANCE. -_-

I'm seeing friends all around me getting affected by this crisis, one way or another.

Just talking about jobs alone...

I have a friend in Bank R who got notice that there will be retrenchment in his bank. He has 20% of being cut, going by probability.

Another friend in A Fund House, which is also retrenching staff.

One friend who left a particular financial institution after only 2 months. (We didn't think it was a right time to ask him for the details)...

I have friends in many other banks too. Some in troubled banks like Merrill Lynch, Citibank, DBS...

There are a few friends who are so stressed up in their jobs...

But it is just not wise to leave now. So they're hanging on.

There are people who haven't even got their first permanant (or relatively perm) job months after graduation.

And for me...

I've been through a period of very uncertain times...

Gone through one round of restructuring.

They are not cutting people as of YET. But we are always told that "Business comes first" and that they can't guarantee anything.

And we're all very stressed up.. and managing bosses' expectations.

No one wants to appear as the weakest link.... To be the first to be eliminated.

Sigh.

But hey! We're all in this together, aren't we?

So we gotta be strong.

We gotta hang on!

We can do it!!!!  Let's get through it together :)

We'll emerge stronger.

Thinking about the past...

I realised I have changed quite a bit.

My expectations have changed.

What used to motivate me... has changed.

I wonder if it's a good thing.

Perhaps in life, change is indeed the only constant.

Work. SD. Bintan... & More..

Doing some updates...

D-day is over. And I didn't get retrenched (yet?) Yay!!! I think in this kind of market conditions I must be freaking thankful... Just look at some news that's making the headlines recently: 

DBS cuts 900 jobs, reports 38% fall in Q3 profit.

SINGAPORE: Singapore's DBS Group, Southeast Asia's biggest bank by assets, said on Friday it would be laying off 900 staff to trim costs amid the global credit crisis. The bank also reported a drop in third quarter net profit... He added: "We have been vigilant on costs, but as the economy enters a more difficult and uncertain phase, many financial institutions around the world and in Asia have made headcount reductions. Full article here.

Corporate loan growth likely to slow: OCBC

CORPORATE loan growth is likely to slow as companies delay expansion plans in a cooling economy, OCBC Bank said yesterday. While the bank is still ready to lend, finance will cost more and entail more scrutiny....
Loan growth in the first three quarters of the year has been strong, said the global head of OCBC's global corporate bank Samuel Tsien. But 'starting from the fourth quarter, we do see a slowdown in the growth of loans, and I believe this situation will carry forward into at least the first half of next year'.
One reason is that companies have become more cautious about expansion as volatile market conditions hit consumer confidence and dampen demand, he said....
Expectedly though, loans will be dearer. 'The cost of borrowing has increased, but so has the banks' cost of capital,' said Mr Tsien. 'We have to make sure the right cost is passed on to the customer.'... Full article here.

(Yessss so stop asking me why interest rates keep going up when interbank is going down! Boss say one!)

Damn gloomy outlook. That's why we needed to do those restructuring. We have always been told. Change is inevitable. We need to embrace change.

So yes we done our restruct, I'll be moving on to be an account manager in a new unit. Hmm more details not available yet... But it's more of a change from selling loans to doing portfolio management. I welcome this change, and I think I'm quite lucky? Somehow a lot of people wants to come to AM team, but only 10 people are posted there. Some are going to account opening, some in PM, customer service, and sales team (which was where I'm from).

But as much as I'm excited and looking forward to my new role (albeit I think it's going to be more stressful), I am really going to miss Steph's team! I so love Steph can!! Like what Jaz said, I'm super lucky to work under such a great boss on my first job! And we've gotten so used to each other's working styles.. Anyway Steph's team is going to be full of new team members from other teams, and many current team members are also heading to other departments. Steph didn't even know of this new arrangement when it is finalised on Thurs cos she's overseas. Anyway Thursday was quite emotional... The girls were all crying in the toilet. And then Ade who didn't cry was like "Hey! If we go down like that people are gonna think we're retrenched!" Funny Ade only started crying on Fri. Pentium 1 indeed. Haha.

Next week will be Balonglong No Sales Week. Need to tie up all loose ends. Finish up disbursements. Bonding sessions. Trainings. Meetings and more meetings. It's uncertain still, but much clearer compared to a week ago. Feels a bit funny. Some people are still looking for jobs and yet I feel like I'm moving to my second job liao. Was quite an experience leh. News about how DBS staff are losing their momentum and mood to work... I've seen it and felt it before. Haha. Seriously I hope this financial crisis won't affect my many many friends in the financial field.

***

Enough of gloomy stuff...

Shall blog about more happening stuff :)

23 October: EMB7 Awards Night.

Nothing much, gave out awards for top sales, top rookie and MVP. I never win anything (expectedly) lol.

But we won for some skit thingy!!! Wahaha...

Post Awards Night activity - SD (Short Drink) cum Benny's "initiation" cum Nelly's birthday!

A $500 night. 16 James-teamers. 25 jugs of hoegarden.

Everyone before they got high...

.

.

Then..

Didn't realise my department so loving. *ahem*

Benny damn seh already.

Heng that time I was spared from "initiation" They new guys always tio. Poor Benny puked 3 times and still came to work the next day! *clap clap*

D&D is this coming Friday. I think there'll be much more drunkards this time round.  Hope I'm not one of them.

Anyway gotta welcome xl into the drinking community lol..

25 October - Bintan Day 1

Check out how much food we brought!

At Simei before leaving for Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal.

Shortly after...

My hand tio bird shit. SWAY PART 1.

Gave my mum 4 numbers to buy 4D but the number didn't come out -_-

Cam-whored on the ferry.

All our shades look the same.

After 1 hour

HElloooo Bintan :)

Reached Nirwana resorts... We booked 2 rooms initially but they didn't have 2 rooms close to each other.

So they upgraded us to a villa! FOC! WOOTSSSS!!!!

Even the bathroom was quite pretty leh =)

Headed to the beach for more cam-whoring.

Super les. Hahahaha...

Then we headed to the Kelong Restaurant for some great seafood *drool*

Gotta go there quite early, around 5pm Indo time if you wanna watch the sunset.

Was only about 7pm when we finished dinner.

So we headed back to our villa for BUBBLE BATH!

Too bad no rose petals hahaha

And hmm subsequent pics from the bubble bath are restricted. LOL.

Ended the night watching Wo Cai (Can see Chn U from there!) and a Mahjong session.

26 October - Bintan Day 2

Woke up early for a morning swim...

The pool at Nirwana is damn preeeety!!

Supposed to be our "Competive swimming" Session. We even had a relay race okie dun play play!

Washed up...

Then went for buffet breakfast. Was quite a spread. We were so hungry that we totally forgot to take pics!

Went back to our hotel to make sandwiches for our lunch/ tea break...

Then we went to sea!!

Wanted to snorkel that day... But the tides were low and it was not advisable to snorkel. Quite sad... But so we did other sea activities instead.

Banana boat was fun. No one dropped into the sea. Shan dropped a few times the previous time i think. When the person gave instructions:

"When the boat turn left, you turn..."

Shan "Right"

"Nooooo..... left"

Was damn funny.... Then for a moment we sorta knew why Shan kept falling.

(But after the trip, I realised when the boat turns left, I move to the right, and vice versa) =/

But anyway I didn't fall lah. That's a good thing.

Xiuling was super funny. She kept falling off her seat (but not off the boat)... But we kept laughing every time she fell :)

Went for a second swim before we headed back to our Villa to wash up.

Our dinner!

Pretty budget but was nice!

Booked a cab to Pasar Oleh Oleh for a massage. The roads are damn dark at night!!! No streets lights most of the time... But the cab was cheap, and they had really good service!

The person who massaged YY looked like Pele's clone!!

Went back to our hotel to pack up cos we had to check out the following morning. Time really flew when we're in Bintan...

27 October - Bintan Day 3

Remembered to take pic this time.

Breakfast was damn shioks..

Oh and their cheesy omelette rock my socks!

then here comes SWAY PART 2

the ONLY slippers I brought to Bintan BROKE! What the hell la.... And it was actually my last surviving flat soled footwear at home. Sighhh...

Must really thank Yee for lending me hers!!!

Our lunch

Then went for snorkelling.

L-R: Huishan, Xiuling, Me, Huiyee, YY

Look at Huishan....

Tsk tsk tsk tsk...

The water's quite clear, saw quite a bit of fishes and corals....

But the sea is damn salty lah!

Went for a swim at the pool again before showering, haha. Always swim at pool after going out to sea =X

Then went to the beach for our picnic and cam-whoring

And it was Joy's birthday! So we wrote this:

Had so much fun... It's a pity we only had 3 days. Was great being away from reality for 3 days haha :) Just have fun, good food and the company of great friends :)

More pics on my facebook.

31 October - Shernee's belated birthday celebration at Timbre

1 November - Joycelyn's belated birthday celebration.

First round at Pasta De Waraku. Our first time there, and sadly we felt that it was a bit overrated.

Our toyboys. LOL.

Damn cute right...

2nd round at Cafe Cartel.

Instead of one big cake, we got many slices, so can try different flavours mah!

Actually no la, we're cheapos, cos the cakes were at 50% off. LOL.

Cartel didn't have candles, which was pretty sad :(

Joycelyn and her 88 colour eyeshadow palatte that we gave her.

Hope you like it babe, cos we like it alot!!! Hee...

2 November was Steph's wedding :)

More pics up next time.

Goodnight.