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!
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!
