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.::z. 8/8.

elegantly wasted.

Saturday, March 29, 2003

Its almost 2am and I'm back at the hotel. Chee Koon is stuck at Malacca so we're meeting tomorrow instead. Its crazy, my diarrhoea is still very much... active. Do I have SARS? I think thats one of the symptoms. I might be paranoid. (As I promised, no details of the frequency and strength of it will be mentioned). We went to KLCC for dinner and since there was nothing much to do, we saw 2 movies back to back. First one was boring, I slept halfway. Hollywood Bollywood cant even compare to the other Indian themed movies of late, like Bend it like Beckham and The Guru. The second movie was a treat. It was my first Malay movie that I saw at the cinema since "Penyamun Tarbus" back in .. 1978? Laila Isabella starts Nasha Aziz, she of the famous nude pictures circulating emails and the net now. You know the story, someone took pics of her nekkid in her own house. They looked posed to me, (for goodness sake who wouldnt know somebody is taking pics of you when you're peeing?) but Rhymie told me the pics are not those of her, they're fake. Nevertheless she was enjoyable to see up on the big screen, as are the other stars of the show. I dont really know them except the old stars of the 70s and 80s like Yusni, SM Salim and Azean Indrawaty (Iva can make a really hilarious impression of Azean haha). The WHOLE theatre was 100% Malay, as in, it was full house and every single one is a Malay. I felt like jumping up and shouting "Hidup Melayu!". The atmosphere was definitely there.

I saw a real cool blue and white jacket at Topman. I feel like going back there to get it tomorrow.

There's going to be an anti-war demonstration right here in the city tomorrow. We wanna be there when it happens. Already I see banners and stickers all over town proclaiming "Malaysians for Peace!". Indeed. Peace.

I think of her all the time. I wonder if she thinks of me too?
posted by zul, 2:07 AM | link | 0 comments |

Friday, March 28, 2003

Its 3:55pm Friday afternoon. I'm in KL's Prince Hotel right now. 5-star. I can see the twin towers from the window. Its raining. Reached here at 2pm after driving for about 3.5 hours. Typing this using Rhymie's laptop. The hotel has broadband connection, they charge RM1 an hour capped at RM30 per day, so we thought, why not. I need to blog. He needs to blog. Everybody need to blog.

I might meet Chee Koon later tonight, he's now with future wife-to-be Su Yian and her parents at Malacca. They're supposed to drive up to KL but I just got an SMS from him "Still at Malacca stuck with the parents". If he does not call by 6pm, I'll just hang around the city and meet him tomorrow.

Time to rest some more. Feet still numb. And I still have diarrhoea, went to the toilet like 8 times already today. Thank God I managed to hold everything in during the drive. I know I know, I wont say anything more about it. Zip.

posted by zul, 3:59 PM | link | 0 comments |

Wednesday, March 26, 2003

Whole day at the office I was contemplating whether to see the doctor again. The day started badly cos by lunchtime, I had gone to the toilet 4 times and it was like .. full blast, u know what I mean. But I had work to do, and I had 2 days to finish them cos FY is ending soon and I'm not going to be in the office from Friday onwards (KL till Sunday) and then I'll be on course next Mon to Wed. So I put up with it and by 5pm, it went away...

Bike lesson subject 6 was cool. The Emergency brake. Zoooom and attain the required speed (about 30km/h), then close throttle, front brake, rear brake and close clutch. All in a matter of 3 secs. The instructor gave me the chop I needed to go on to Subject 7 next Tuesday. Since it was only 9pm after the lesson ended, I went up and took the Theory Test evaluation. It was easy-peasy, I passed it and booked the Riding Theory Test, but it was on 7th of May, that's the earliest date available. Thats more than a month away, and the results will only be made known 2 weeks after that. I should pace my practical lessons from now on.


posted by zul, 11:46 PM | link | 0 comments |

Tuesday, March 25, 2003

I'm sick.

I've been sick since Monday morning. I saw the live telecast of the Oscars with aching joints and a splitting headache. I felt feverish, but it was the ache that I couldnt take. Shoulders, elbows, ankles, my pee was warm, and I just felt generally weak. Adrien Brody and Chris Cooper won, I have not seen both Adaptation and The Pianist yet, so I cant comment. Michael Moore took his stand and got booed off stage. My muscles ached more watching the bigger movie on stage. I switched between CNN and Ch 5. The world's going straight to hell.

I dragged myself out of the house cos I already booked a 440pm bike lesson, and I'm not going to forfeit $22, especially for a repeat lesson. The narrow plank. And I have to go through it again with weak arms. I braved myself and surprisingly was able to pass the lesson, the plank wasnt too hard, I just have to lean myself forward when going slow over it. But the last 20 mins of the lesson, my limbs went dead and I went pass the pylons and somehow surged forward, hit the kerb, and fell. The bike landed on my left leg. I immediately stood up. I thought I was ok. It felt ok. I pulled the bike up again and made another round. It was only later while walking back to the car that I realised my jeans were torn at the ankle area. I pulled it up and discovered a rather bloody cut. Great. I was shaking then. It didnt hurt that bad. But I still felt weak. WEAK, u know.... Damn I was hungry too so I had dinner with Audrey and Mervin at Newton. Right after sending them home I went to the 24hrs clinic at Pasir Ris. The doctor didnt bother much when I told him that I feel weak, it was only after I showed him the wound on my leg that he told me to rest at home and gave me an MC. Good. I need the rest. I need to snap out of this lethargy.

I stayed at home most of Tuesday, but went out around noon to drive around. Just to move my limbs a lil bit. I still feel weak now. Maybe I should go see the doctor again. But I got a lot of things to settle back at work before going off to KL on Friday. I think I'll be fine by then. Bush is rattling on on TV. He needs to rid Iraq of the evil regime. Right. Like when Saddam's gone, all the evil in the world will follow him to the grave, cos Saddam is the all-powerful mother source of all evil. And Bush is God, or so he thinks.

And I need sleep.
posted by zul, 11:40 PM | link | 0 comments |

Monday, March 24, 2003

I watched 2 movies this weekend. Run up to the Oscars. Went to see Chicago again on Friday night, I wanted to see it again cos I've been playing the songs over and over again while driving in the car and it got stuck in my head and I thought that it'd be nice to see it again so I did. Enjoyed it just as much as the first time I saw it. I had a feeling that this movie might win all the major categories, until I watched The Hours on Sunday. Beautiful, beautiful movie. Poignant. Depressing. It really haunts you. It awed me as much as Chicago did, but where Chicago razzled and dazzled me with music, dance and colors, The Hours amazed me with fine performances by the 3 leads. Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore. Julianne Moore - special mention. Now thats an ACTRESS, she is really a character actor. I was rooting for Zeta Jones at first to win Supporting Actress, but now I am hoping Julianne Moore's the one to hold that Gold Bald One tomorrow. Give her the Lead Actress statue too! I have not seen Far From Heaven yet, but I'm sure her performance's just as wonderful. Renee might win the Lead award, if she does, I wouldnt bitch, but I dont think Nicole Kidman deserves it if she wins, her role in The Hours does not outshine the other supporting actresses in that movie, namely, Julianne Moore, Julianne Moore, Julianne Moore.

That makes it 4 out of 5 Best Picture nominees I've seen for this year. LOTR, The Hours, Gangs of NY, Chicago. I have not seen the last one, The Pianist, and I dont think I will. Here are my predictions -

Best Picture - Chicago, but The Hours might just steal it from Chicago right under its nose.

Lead Actress - Reene's year, but the buzz is Salma's going to win it (I dont think so). I loved Diane Lane in Unfaithful (saw that movie twice too) but compared to the others, its tame.

Lead Actor - Enough with Jack, have never liked Cage, have not seen Brody in the Pianist, I should have seen Caine in The Quiet American but never got round to it, so I'm gonna say... Daniel Day Lewis for Gangs. He is EVIL in that one. Evil rules.

Supporting Actor - All the predictions I've read so far in magazines, have their bets on Chris Walken to win this category for Catch Me if you can. Its an OK performance, but not memorable. Ed Harris was good in The Hours. I'm gonna say.. Ed, cos Reilly's Chicago role was didnt stand out as much as ze ladies. Road to Perdition sucked and so did Paul Newman, and I have not seen Adaptation so cant comment for Chris Cooper.

Supporting Actress - Catherine Zeta Jones and Queen Latifah for Chicago - if I have to choose between these 2, Zeta Jones will and should get it. But Julianne Moore's performance in The Hours is, yes, I'll say it again, brilliant. Kathy Bates has won for Misery and she will only be remembered for that, and Meryl Streep is nominated for Adaptation. So its a tie between Zeta Jones and Moore. I'm cheering for Moore.

I took leave tomorrow just to catch the live telecast of the Oscars. I'm a sucker for this. Have not missed the live telecast of the Oscars since... more than 10 yrs in a row. Enough has been said about what is going on in the world right now, and I wont pen down my thoughts about the war now. Not yet. Right now, I just wanna enjoy the Oscars.

Stay tuned.
posted by zul, 12:26 AM | link | 0 comments |

Thursday, March 20, 2003

Summary summary summaryyyyyyyyyyyy

Monday - Got the news that the ISO14001 Surveillance Audit by BCA is on 20th March, Thursday. They will be in ISD from 3-5pm. I panicked. Lots of documents to update. Even the paper usage hasnt been updated since Oct 02. Time to get busy. After work I went running at Macritchie as usual. Shih Wee got some Genki Sushi vouchers so we went to the United Square outlet and had dinner. My, that place has really undergone a major facelift. I worked there for about 6 mths waaay back in 1990. Times the Bookshop at the basement. It's gone now. The place really looks cool, dont mind going back there someday.

Tuesday - Its Futsal day. I really couldnt get players. David, King, Raymond, Thomas, they declined. I still have my toe injury. Only Wee Wah, Mun Wai and Alvin agreed. But firs thing in the morning, Alvin sent an email to the 3 of us, saying that he had to attend a friend's wake. I gave him the benefit of the doubt. I sent an email to Peng Khoo suggesting that we walkover. It was only then that I heard from Fariz, he started going around DA to look for players. Ho ho. Finally he took notice of my emails! He managed to get Wui Kok to play. After work I sent Wee Wah and Mun Wai to the CC, Sul and Ros followed along. I didnt wait for the games to start, I left and met Mervin at Kallang KFC. He was really upset about the war. Oh, he snapped at work in the morning, and just left office and went to the beach. He looked like he walked the entire coastline! We had coffee at Boy Accident area after.

Wednesday - Went to the 'The Next Big Thing in Technology' Seminar at Raffles City Convention Centre. Scott McNealy said something about puttin everything on the Internet. EVERYTHING. Clothes, people. Benetton bought millions of RFID chips and put in on their clothes, they can track every single one of them, how many times they are taken off the shelves and tried, how many times each type of items is brought out of the store.. etc. The red banners with chinese calligraphy and the lion dance at the end of the seminar irritated me. So irrelavant. Chinese Imperialism at its best. Is this a chinese country? The first sign of Muslim writings and they would have shouted "Extremists!". Bleh.

Got a call from SGH, Damian has taken a turn for the worse and is in a critical condition. I rushed there right after the seminar. Spent about 2 hours from 11:30-1:30 donating my blood platelets. They hook me up to this interesting machine, it pumps blood out of you, the plasma gets separated first, then the platelets. After 7 cycles and 3litres of blood later, 280ml of platelets were drawn out of me. I felt good, at least I contributed, at least I gave the family hope. By the time I reached back to the office, it was already 3pm. Rushed to prepare the ISO14001 documents for tomorrow's audit, stayed till 8pm then left for BBDC for bike practice lesson 5. I was too tired by then. Did the pylon slalom pretty well but sucked at the narrow planks. Kept falling off. Tried over and over again but just couldnt contol the handlebar with my arms. I guess 3 litres of blood would have an effect. Coming back next Monday for another try........

Thursday - Whole day busy with Audit. Opening meeting at Board Room. Lunch at Cafe Vienna with Gom, Lay Peng, Eileen, Tony, Soon Ai, Siak Hwee and the BCA auditor. Mr Chong Ching Hoe. EUS was also there for their unit lunch. Mr Chong came to ISD at exactly 3pm. I did a little presentation at the Integrity Room and he went through all the documents in the Register. With the help of Wai Yin, Chew Lian and Ai Tee, I managed to smoke my way through. We went to the Data Centre after that. Mr Tay Chee Kuan is a lifesaver. He gave a complete tour of the Centre and the Printer rooms. Engaged Mr Chong thoroughly and answered his questions convincingly. He was impressed. After a short tour of the department, he summed up the audit as "You definitely passed the Audit, kept the documents up to date and showed your commitment." When I went back, Leong sent an email "Well done, Zul!" Its good to know he recognise my efforts. When I talked to him last Friday to inform him of the audit, he said "With you around, there shouldnt be any problem." Heh. Ran at Macritchie after that, cool day after rain and it was a relaxing run. Went home to watch American Idol. Its Friday soon :)
posted by zul, 8:38 PM | link | 0 comments |

Wednesday, March 19, 2003

MaxOnline sucks big time
Its so slow! The difference in speed as compared to ADSL is so obvious. I take back all I've said about PacNet. I want it back.
posted by zul, 12:05 AM | link | 0 comments |

Monday, March 17, 2003

Friday after work I met up with Mervin and we had dinner at East Coast. Curry chicken! Bought drinks after that and chatted at the big car park at Fort Road. Lots of bladders. A few minutes later a few 3-tonners drove up and out came an entire platoon of NSmen. They assembled at the area near the big drain, I think they were about to start a route march or something. Pity pity. Went home early to prepare for tomorrow, I had to report back to camp for a Workplan Update very early in the morning.

Saturday
Reached camp at 730am. And even the reporting booth wasnt setup yet. This is crap. Alpha and Charlie officers started to come about at 8plus, I felt uneasy and went up the auditorium. There were only 3 other people sitting inside. Great. I slouched back in my seat and daydreamt about something. 1 sheep 2 sheep... WO Alagappan came in and began the briefing when the hall was about half full. 845am. Good news, no ICTand no NDP for 583 Guards this year. Some might be selected to support 582's ATEC in Jan 2004. New IPPT system, and mob dates. Yada yada yada. "And gentlemen, the briefing has ended. You may go now." Time on the watch - 9:20am. Wonderful. I had to wake up at 6am on my precious Saturday off and drive from the most east of Singapore to the deadend west (a 40mins journey travelling at 100km/h) and for what? To listen to a 30mins briefing. And the information could have easily been disseminated through mail. Or even email. What am I going to do now?

I popped by at NTU, new buildings coming up, the School of Biogical Sciences, the TechnoPlaza, and some other building I dont recognise. Had breakfast and read the newspaper. The Recruit pages had some interesting job openings. MUST apply. MUST. Left NTU and drove to town. Gym time. Ran, BodyPump with Julian, and right after I showered, I got a SMS from Poh asking me whether I wanna go to the IT show. Sure! Anytime.

Met him and KC later and we went round and round the jam-packed Suntec City halls. Tungsten... drooool. Apple G4... Droooool. Sony VideoCam, Drool droool drooooool. We left at 8pm and met Mervin at Raffles Hospital for dinner. I believe this is the first time all 4 of us sat together and had a proper meal and conversation. I was really really glad Merv and KC seem like they're back on good terms. I hope. We talked about a lot of things, Poh kept saying "I have to go back now" but eventually left with us at about 10. KC sent him back and Merv and me still had time to go for one more cup of tea at Ubi. Excellent Saturday.

Sunday I rushed to Toa Payoh first to pick up my tailored pants before going to BBDC for a repeat of Subject 4 - the figure 8. But I aced it this time. No more problem with the gears, and I was experimenting on ways to clear it faster. I mounted the kerb twice. Hah! I think the instructor saw it, but he still passed me. On to subject 5 on Thursday! Narrow planks and err.. I cant remember. Right after the lesson ended mom called me and told me Aunt wants to treat us to dinner again and can I join them this time? I felt really bad, I did not join for the last 3 dinner appointments, the last one being the time I went to the fish farm with Merv and Audrey. Mom said that Aunt lamented I was becoming arrogant (sombong) for declining her past invitations and that I was becoming "TOOOO" busy. Heck thats the last thing I want her to think about me. I am most grateful for her for helping with my Uni fees. So I gave Merv a call and told him I cant meet him today. Besides, Sofian was also busy, he had to report back to VideoEzy Siglap to look at how Sundays store closing are done. I think they have to print out special weekly reports or something.

We had dinner at Banquet foodcourt at EastPoint. The whole family had chicken rice, I had Ramen. I was expecting she will ask me to accompany her shopping after that, like she always does, but this time she said that 2nd bro can send her home and she's too tired to do any shopping today. So by 7pm I was free again. Called Merv but I think he wasnt very happy with the last minute cancellation. Oh well, I'm sure he'd understand.

I remembered I wanted to buy the casing for my Palm Zire and I know Poh is at the IT show again to buy his PowerShot G3 (he made like a thousand bucks from the Man U and Arsenal matches last nite) so I gave him a call and asked him to buy it for me. I then drove to Bedok South and picked Sofian up and we had snacks at KFC Parkway. Poh joined us there, gave me my casing and I wanted to take a look at his new G3 but didnt ask. I thought he might wanna show it to his wife first. Dropped Sofian at VideoEzy then sent Poh home. While talking inside the car at under his block, a taxi pulled over and his wife came out with Joshua sleeping in her arms. He immediately said goodbye and jumped out, running towards her. Married man. With a kid. Something to think about.

posted by zul, 1:26 AM | link | 0 comments |

Friday, March 14, 2003

I failed Subject 4. Figure 8 was damn difficult. And I had problems with the bike. It kept going to neutral when I am shifting the gear up. Maybe its the way I do it. I dunno. Well, more than half of the class didnt pass. Those that did, already took Subject 4 more than once. I'm demoralised. I'm going to bed now. I'll write about this some other time. Sigh
posted by zul, 12:54 AM | link | 0 comments |

Wednesday, March 12, 2003

Bike lesson on Monday was Subject 3, moving on and off from slope, and making left turns. I aced it again :) Had a little difficulty moving off from slope initially, but at the end of the lesson I got the 3 chops and thus move on to Subject 4 on Thursday, which is the "S" and Crank courses and the gymkhana. Woooo I really love going through those courses while I was taking driving lessons. Lets see how I do this time on a bike.

Tuesday I felt really really rimas (whats the english word for rimas?) with long hair so I decided not to run and went to the hairdresser instead. Vincent gave an OK haircut, I've had better before. Met Sook Ping and Mervin after that at Pacific Plaza's Coffee Bean, but she left us soon after so we went to Newton to have dinner. Stingray, Squid, the usual stuff, Mervin was trigger happy with his digital camera and snapped away like xiao. I obliged and posed, to the laughter and smiles from girls sitting behind him. Whatever, there is no reason for embarrassment, especially when you're hitting 30 soon.

I went for a run at Macritchie with Poh Yee and Shih Wee after work on Wednesday. It was a cool day after a rain so I enjoyed it, I think I smiled most of the way. Oh, I smiled cos earlier on at work we were told the amount of Performance Bonus given out, and I got more than a month's :) Well at least its higher than the previous 2 yr's amount. After the run we went to AMK central and had drinks at S11. Poh Yee is kinda of an oddball, if you ask me. She does things out of a sudden and leave you wondering what the hell she's thinking of, and her laughs are indeed weird. But she's good fun to be around, and I love her company, and I'm sure Shih Wee does too.
posted by zul, 9:59 PM | link | 0 comments |

Sunday, March 09, 2003

I left work at 12 on Friday and went straight to SGH for my blood screening test. Something I should have done last week. It was an easy procedure, a nice guy at the haemo centre called Siva drew 2 bottles of blood from me and told me they'll give a call once the results are out. All done in just an hour and a half. By the time I reached BBDC for my bike lessons, it started to pour. The instructor told us to put on raincoats and continue with the lesson in the rain. Subject 2 - review of changing up and down gears, and low gear control. I passed it - :) and immediately booked for Subject 3 on Monday.

My socks were damp and stinky from riding in the rain and I couldnt wait to get to Amrita Spa. It was a really pleasant surprise, it was my first time there, Citibank had changed their RSVP benefit for Gold Cardmembers from St Greg to Amrita starting from Jan. Much much much better than St Greg, it had 4 small pools, a sauna and steamroom, and a really realllly cool gym. Especiall the threadmill area. It looks down on a matrix of tv sets and there are attached headphones to the threadmill. I didnt have time for a run and besides I already went to the gym in the morning, so I just relaxed in a whirlpool and almost fell asleep. Oh.. guess which MTV VJ took the locker besides mine? It was Utt, I didnt notice him at first until somebody started talking to him about the jam in Bangkok (Utt said the jam here in Singapore is just as bad) and that he'll only be here till the weekend. Its funny how TV really make you larger than life, he is actually a whole head shorter than me and not as .. err... i dont know, not as cool as he looked when he is hosting in front of the camera.

While driving out of Raffles City Dan gave me a call and I picked him up at Taka. We drove to Onan Road and had Ngoh Hiang for supper. I told him I was at the hospital earlier in the day for blood screening for his brother, and he looked appreciative. ;) We talked about a lot of things and left for home at almost midnight.

Saturday was a real hoot. Went to the gym for a run and class from 11-1pm then went all the way to Causeway Point for a celebration lunch with the IFVS team - Nor, Dilip, Ferdinand, Shekar, Beth and Gladys. Good food at Siam Kitchen and even better company, as usual Dilip kept making sexual jokes and Beth and Gladys were actually talking about Smallville so I chipped in and we actually discussed the episodes! Heh. Dropped Nor at Admiralty, Shekar at Yishun and Dilip at Bishan then proceeded to Suntec. I had about 2 hours to waste so I went to Harvey Norman and Millenia and signed up for Starhub MaxOnline1500. Enough with PacNet. Time for a change. After SingTel Magix and PacNet Broadband, its time to give cable modem a chance. Expect a comparison report from me after a week of use.

I then met Su Yian, CK, KC and Dan (Sofian's working till midnight, official opening of VideoEzy@River Valley) and we had dinner at Outback Steakhouse to celebrate KC's 30th birthday. The big 3-0. My turn will come in exactly 5 mths. I shall not talk about that tonight. We wanted to have desserts at Baker's Inn after dinner but there were no seats so we had tea at Conrad Hotel instead. I love this gang, Dan is always chatty, CK has mellowed somewhat after meeting Su Yian and KC's peaceful demeanour makes great company.

Nemesis was waaay cool. Go watch it! Although the middle part almost put me to sleep after a long day, the ending was really action-packed. We went to Fat Frog Cafe for supper after the movie and relaxed listening to the live music there. There was a guy and a girl on stage, the guy was strumming away on his guitar and the girl sang like a pro! She had excellent vocal control and great delivery. Songs meant for a cool Saturday evening outdoors with friends. Songs by Jewel, Sarah McLachlan, Bangles, Coors, I enjoyed her immensely. Her voice, that is. I think she's Malay. Nusri or something like that was her name. I'm going to go there again next week. I promise!

On Sunday I went to collect my free Palm Zire from signing up with Starhub MaxOnline at The Amara, then went to the gym for the usual workout. Picked Audrey and Mervin at Fullerton and then we had dinner at Raffles Hospital. End of a great weekend, time for work tomorrow. I am already looking forward to Saturday :)

posted by zul, 10:46 PM | link | 0 comments |

Thursday, March 06, 2003

I've been having very late nights these past 3 days. Bike lessons at BBDC on Monday and Wednesday. I forgot how far the centre is when I signed up. Heh. My fault.

But I'm having fun. Monday's lesson (Subject 1) was a bit of a disappointment. I got 2 chops instead of the 3 required to go on to the next Subject. Instructor said I have poor throttle control. Well I dont blame him for saying that, when I move off, I really make an impact. Vroooooooooooommm hahahahhahaha. So Wednesday was a repeat of Monday's lesson and I aced it. What really pissed me off was that there were others in Wednesday's batch that had an even worse moving off and stopping than me, but the instructor passed them. I guess its just luck to be allocated an instructor who is lenient or otherwise. I bumped into Saiful and Farah there on Monday, Saiful was there to sign up for his class 3. I had to tell him not to tell his mother so she wont tell MY mother that I'm taking bike lessons. Hahhehhah. Its funny innit. Oh well I guess you cant blame your parents for worrying so much. On to subject 2 on Friday! Since all the night slots were booked, I had to book the 445 to 620 slot. I figured its Friday anyway so I can take half day time-off from work and then go to SGH for a while to have my blood checked (something I should have done last week!) then go to BBDC for my lesson.

Thats when I remembered I heard Jasmine and Stephen talking about how our new Unit Head, Mun Wai, does not recognise the time-off we've accumulated over the past years. Stephen tried taking it but was denied. Jasmine had to negotiate for hers. I know Nor have about 100+ hours of unclaimed time-off, when I asked her how, she just said "Cannot cannot lah.. what to do.. sigh." I gave it a shot.. I went over to his cube and said "Mun Wai, I need to take time-off tomorrow." The first thing he said was "NO".. then he laughed. I explained about how Friday's I have time-off for prayers already and taking PM leave was not worth it and I have to go to the hospital to donate blood for my friend's sick brother (I wasnt lying!), so he said ok (He HAD to) and I said thanks and left. That settled it. Went for a run at Macritchie's after work with Shih Wee then rushed home for American Idol.

Tuesday night I went to watch Daredevil with Mervin. Supposed to have watched it at Orchard, I went to book online and somehow, dont ask me how, I booked 2 tickets for 730pm at CAUSEWAY POINT. I dont like the show. Ben Affleck is stupid. Daredevil is stupid. Elektra is LAGI stupid. The fight sequence at the playground where they met is ULTRA stupid. The only parts that stuck in my mind are the flashbacks he had while he was young. The villains were cool though, Bullseye more than Kingpin. I hope The Hulk wont be a disappointment.

I got back the Letter of Recommendation from CIO on Monday after he signed it. I sent 2 job applications on Tuesday. One of them I reallly hope to get. Please please pleaseee.

AND WAY TO GO LIVERPOOL! 2-0 Against Manchester United in the Worthington Cup Final.
posted by zul, 10:58 PM | link | 0 comments |

Sunday, March 02, 2003

UPDATED!

I cant remember what I did on Friday. I think I went home straight after work and slept early. Anyway, what a weekend!

On Saturday I went to work cos I swapped my Off Day with Nor. I took part in ISD's cross-country run anyway so it made better sense to come to work and go to Macritchie from work. Andy, Bang Lit and Hui Meen took my car and by the time we reached Macritchie at about 230pm, the sun was shining and I felt like backing out. There was Chin, Sebastian, Andy, Howe, Kenneth, Khoon Kiang.. I definitely cant overtake them. Well I know I'm more or less faster than people like Bang Lit, Alex Chao and Khoon Heng. I hesitated and almost backed out.. Oh what the heck, just RUN.

And run I did... from the moment Teng Seong flagged off, I huffed and I puffed and I almost blew the house down. Heh. I almost blew myself down. Right from the start, as expected, Chin and Sebastian were right up in front. Andy, Howe and Khoon Kiang followed suit, then me. I cant possibly pace with the 2 front leaders so I tried to run with Andy. That was a mstake, he's a commando for goodness sake. I overtook Khoon Kiang somewhere just before the route branch off into the ladies' and I latched on to Howe for the rest of the race. He signalled me twice to overtake, I tried, but cant maintain it. So I chased his ass till the point when we turned back into the road for the last 500m, he picked up pace suddenly and sprinted all the way and I couldnt catch up. He came in 4th after Chin, Seb and Andy, and I reached the finishing line 10 secs later. My final timing - and I am damn proud of this - is 25:52! My best ever! I shaved off almost 2 mins! Shiokkk man.. One more thing accomplished before I turn 30!

After the run I dropped Andy and Howe at Bishan and went to the gym to take a shower. Hanged around Orchard for a while and then went to Chai Chee to pick Mervin up. We had dinner at Lemongrass @ Siglap, popped over to Video Ezy for a while to see Sofian at his new workplace. He looked happy and I'm happy he's got a full-time job now. It suits him I guess, and I hope he'll move up the ranks and be a buyer one day.

Aaaaahh now I remember what happened on Friday. It was CIO's last day at ISD and he was going around the whole department shaking hands with everybody. When he came to my cube, he shook my hand and I didnt know what to say, so I just wished him 'Good Luck'. Heh. That was stupid. But anyway, I then asked him if we could talk in his office for a while, and he said, sure, come before 12pm. My intention was to ask his permission to put his name as one of the references in my resume, and also to ask whether he would write me a reference letter. The moment I sat down in front of him in his office, he said "So I heard you opted for the SRS." That was fast. He knew already. He asked why and I repeated my reasons again. He leaned forward and said "You know Zul, you've always been my blue-eyed boy."

That made my day man.

He continued "I dont give appointments and posts to just about anyone. I give it to people whom I know got potential, and you're one of them. You've proven your management skills, your technical skills are not bad too." He sure was making me feel good then. "BUT... if you believe you can make it out there, then GO. GO and try. You can always come back if you dont like it here. Look at Chow Ngee, you're in management's good books, they will definitely take you back." I cant say I agree with him on that point, this is the SRS, not a normal resignation, and he is leaving ISD anyway so who would take me back? I told him that it would be up to management to approve
my SRS, he replied "That's true. Then let me ask you, if your SRS is not approved, would you still go?"

I hesitated. I looked down. When I looked up again he was looking at me right in the eye "Money is not everything. If you strongly believe that you can do better outside, do it now. Look at me, I didn't wait for compensation." He was comparing bananas and durians again. But he has a point. I am inspired. I WILL GO. I will try and I will succeed.

I asked him whether I can use him as one of my references in my resume. He agreed so I went further and asked if he can write a letter of recommendation, something I can use when I seek employment. I was told to write one and pass it to him by 130pm and he'll sign it. It was already 1230 so I told him I got no time to write in such a short time, he said "pass it to Chris on Monday, she'll know how to pass it to me by courier, don't worry, I'll sign it."

And I started to compose the recommendation letter straight away. After work Mervin and me went thru every word over a cuppa at Frankel. "No time to be modest" he said. "I want them to hire me the moment they read this letter without even looking at the rest of my resume!" I told him. After about an hour, THE Letter of Recommendation was ready.

Sunday

Woke up early at 7 and went for gym class from 9-10, then rushed to BBDC for theory lesson 4. The class was full of beng kias and young army guys wearing t-shirts that says "Crescendo" or " Guards" and what other formations/exercises you can think of. Finally practical started just after 12 and whoaaaaaaaaaaa?. what an experience it was! I don't know nuts about motorbikes but within an hour, I was riding round and round in circles and feeling the wind in my face, it was so cool! I had a little problem with
stopping though, kept using the handbrake a little too forcefully, so it was always jerky and wobbly when the bike is about to stop. On to the next lesson on Monday!

After lesson I met Audrey at Jurong East and later Merv joined and we took the free shuttle service to Qian Hu Fish Farm in CCK. It was a wee bit of a disappointment, it doesn't seem like there were 3000 fish tanks like what was boasted on the brochure. The luohans seem to dominate all other fishes. ENOUGH WITH THAT HIDEOUS THING! I was damn tired from a long day at the gym and BBDC and I couldn't walk anymore, even if there was an endangered mermaid on display at the next aisle. I was damn relieved to be sitting on the last bus back to Jurong East, after that we drove to Pasir Panjang but the car park was full so back we went to Fong Seng. I had always wanted to eat there anyway. The nasi lemak was fantastic! I'll take my parents here some day. The highlight of the day was listening to Dr Dre's "I wanna fuck
you" and Helen Reddy's "I am woman" back to back in the car. Hilarious shit! You just have to be there to know what I mean!
posted by zul, 10:10 PM | link | 0 comments |