Hell.... Holidays Over and A New (Prison) Term Begins....
Well after kissing the last week of the holidays good-bye, courtesy of a crash-course module on Grammar by Mr Moe's sister, Nie, the new term is upon us.
In order to prepare for the term, I got out the 'usual' clothes from the warbrobe and went to bed early, around 11am. But when I woke up, it was still hell... but what to do? This is my job. And got swiftly into the usual routine and stone mode until I reached the workplace.
During the first few moment, u feel the sense that you've been away a long time.... And the next moment, you are ready for another holidays. Strangely there is a sense of deja vu. *sing to Celine Dion's Its All Coming Back to Me*
When collegues saw me, they kept asking when am I going for Nie, whether got break in-between etc, to which I replied 4 more weeks. And not much of rest cos had to go for that intensive crash-course thingy for the last week. Pretty much cant do much say wait it out. Outplay, Outwit and Outlast the last 20 days til the nie term begins.
Then the class... sign... they are not as afraid of me as they should be. They are barely paying attention when going through the holiday worksheet. Some are. Also behaved like this when my mentor is around but dared not play around as much. I guess cos the weather was hot and the last two periods. Anyway I just tried to explain as best and control as best as I could. Hmm it took me about 50 mins to go through 20 mcq and 5 short answer questions. I wondered if that is slow, or am I explaining too much. Maybe I should have just given them the answer... half is barely listening... but if I short-changed them then I would have failed. But the least they could do was to cooperate. Well if some dont want to be saved... then go ahead, be my guest.
Hmm anything else worth mentioning...
This week I am going to start the electric lead guitar course, though just prep class. Am looking very forward to that.
And hip hop class, after 2 lessons, can do 5 eight-beats routine, though some still got syncronising problem.
Now without tuition, my afternoons and evenings are mine alone. Am now trying to fight off the urge for a nap... Will try to do more. There is still the driving course.
Lastly Jap test in another 2 weeks time. Urgh.. just give me a Long Island Tea.... (7-11 having discount I think)
Monday, June 27, 2005
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
*sing to the tune of Mr Lonely*
Titled Mr Sleepy
"Sleepy.
I am Mr Sleepy (dun use miss cos will spoil the song)
I am so sleepy
Dun have pillow.
Oh!!!!"
Please repeat many many times.
Right. In my earlier post, lecture and tutorial is on everyday this week. I am in the morning session for tutorial.
Just call me 'Black-Eyed-Bags Yenn' from now on. This week was meant for my re-adjustment back from my night-owling ways to the waking-up-before-dawn sleep pattern. Now my eyes are closing and the time of 11.18pm on my watch suddenly seems so obscenely late. A few days ago, I would still be awake up til the wee hours of dawn.... *Sign sign and sings Mr Sleepy song*
Now I am printing out the stuff needed from the super user-unfriendly site. *Eyes closing... starts dreaming of Gackt or Cillian Murphy...*
You might not believe this but I take an hour plus maybe ten minutes to travel to NIE. Yes, I take just as long if not longer than those who live in the North and even East to travel there. And where do I live? Its in the West. Nobody is convinced.
The freaking reason is because I do not just live beside the mrt station. Its not easily accessible from my place. I can only hop on 2 buses, which once you miss, means a good 10-20 mins wait. Then one of the bus loops around so the journey is another 15 minutes. That takes up a good chunk of the time. Then add mrt journey plus transfer at JE and bus into Nie. I left home at 7am sharp, arrived there at 8.15am. Tell me now. It took me an hour to reach home too. Tell me the reasons why I shouldnt live in the hostel though I live in the West.
Saw more bizaders today. The tutorial plus lecture for my session is 5 straight hours. At the end, I was stoning. Then ate malay rice which werent so good. Had stomache when I reached home. Went to gym then come back stomache again.
Going to sleep liao, cannot take it/make it anymore. Night.
Titled Mr Sleepy
"Sleepy.
I am Mr Sleepy (dun use miss cos will spoil the song)
I am so sleepy
Dun have pillow.
Oh!!!!"
Please repeat many many times.
Right. In my earlier post, lecture and tutorial is on everyday this week. I am in the morning session for tutorial.
Just call me 'Black-Eyed-Bags Yenn' from now on. This week was meant for my re-adjustment back from my night-owling ways to the waking-up-before-dawn sleep pattern. Now my eyes are closing and the time of 11.18pm on my watch suddenly seems so obscenely late. A few days ago, I would still be awake up til the wee hours of dawn.... *Sign sign and sings Mr Sleepy song*
Now I am printing out the stuff needed from the super user-unfriendly site. *Eyes closing... starts dreaming of Gackt or Cillian Murphy...*
You might not believe this but I take an hour plus maybe ten minutes to travel to NIE. Yes, I take just as long if not longer than those who live in the North and even East to travel there. And where do I live? Its in the West. Nobody is convinced.
The freaking reason is because I do not just live beside the mrt station. Its not easily accessible from my place. I can only hop on 2 buses, which once you miss, means a good 10-20 mins wait. Then one of the bus loops around so the journey is another 15 minutes. That takes up a good chunk of the time. Then add mrt journey plus transfer at JE and bus into Nie. I left home at 7am sharp, arrived there at 8.15am. Tell me now. It took me an hour to reach home too. Tell me the reasons why I shouldnt live in the hostel though I live in the West.
Saw more bizaders today. The tutorial plus lecture for my session is 5 straight hours. At the end, I was stoning. Then ate malay rice which werent so good. Had stomache when I reached home. Went to gym then come back stomache again.
Going to sleep liao, cannot take it/make it anymore. Night.
Monday, June 20, 2005
1) Person of Action
A person of action is what I am proud to have become. The same me two years back would not make any moves until every factor is accounted for, until every consequences examined. Now I am different. What I am driving at is, I aam willing to invest some time, money and effort to master new skills and explore my passions. The newest course I have signed up for is Lead Guitar aka electric guitar at Yamaha. Date of commencement, 2nd Jul, every Sat. Really want to master at least one instrument in my lifetime.
Hopefully guitar together with Hip hop, Jap and regular gym will rejuvenate my passions and inject spice into an otherwise routine existence.
2) NIE starts.....
Today marks the start of registration at NIE. Details are hazy until the briefing today. BUT I had to wake up at 6.45AM in order to reach there on time. (Imagine suddenly waking up in the morning when previously I woke up well after noon...) Basically I had guessed that this would mean my holidays are going to be cut short. I was right. This whole week is an intensive lecture and tutorial for Eng grammar and stuff. Almost all are involved. The ONLY consolation is that I can skip my cca practice and performance this thursday and friday.
Anyway met up with Tab and later Turtle to go in for the briefing. Basically all of us are IN for the ride. I saw a couple of secondary long-lost classmates, but when I waved to them, they dont recognize me. (Well that just goes to show how MUCH I have changed from then til now :P Hopefully prettier? :P) Then the unimaginable image came...... we saw Leroy! Flashback... Leroy is our honours senior who graduated while we were in year 2. So that means, he had graduated for at least 3 years plus. Then saw another senior.... Small world it seems. NOW we know where Bizaders eventually go to...
Later we headed downtown to PS, where I signed up for the Lead guitar course. Maybe for now, I will put the animation course on hold. Its way too expensive to accomodate. At most I use my free afternoons to go to gym, read up on investments, learn HTML, Photoshop, Excel spreadsheet and whatever with Tab's help. Basically we hung around until dinnertime at Orchard where Turtle went off. Me and Tab continued and ate dinner. Basically there is a pattern here.
---> Early morning met Tab, ate Macs, drank weak coffee, talked
----> Waiting for briefing, drank Milo, talked
-----> Lunch at Jurong Point, chicken rice, Coke Lite, talked
------> Mos burger, Ice Milk Tea, talked
-------> Dinner at cineleisure, gyoza, white tea, talked
Hmm basically we are doing nothing much but changing venues to eat, drink and talk. But talked about many stuff until all of us suffer information overload, to a certain extent. With fellow contract educators, we exchanged experiences. For those fresh educators, we shared experiences.
3) Sleep...
Now my head is very heavy. Kinda stoned from my night-owling ways. Its so hard to just switch it back to school hours. Tonight definitely going to sleep early. I have to do an emergency switch back before school starts. However my plans were dashed by the early start of a course by NIE. My switch starts tonight.
A person of action is what I am proud to have become. The same me two years back would not make any moves until every factor is accounted for, until every consequences examined. Now I am different. What I am driving at is, I aam willing to invest some time, money and effort to master new skills and explore my passions. The newest course I have signed up for is Lead Guitar aka electric guitar at Yamaha. Date of commencement, 2nd Jul, every Sat. Really want to master at least one instrument in my lifetime.
Hopefully guitar together with Hip hop, Jap and regular gym will rejuvenate my passions and inject spice into an otherwise routine existence.
2) NIE starts.....
Today marks the start of registration at NIE. Details are hazy until the briefing today. BUT I had to wake up at 6.45AM in order to reach there on time. (Imagine suddenly waking up in the morning when previously I woke up well after noon...) Basically I had guessed that this would mean my holidays are going to be cut short. I was right. This whole week is an intensive lecture and tutorial for Eng grammar and stuff. Almost all are involved. The ONLY consolation is that I can skip my cca practice and performance this thursday and friday.
Anyway met up with Tab and later Turtle to go in for the briefing. Basically all of us are IN for the ride. I saw a couple of secondary long-lost classmates, but when I waved to them, they dont recognize me. (Well that just goes to show how MUCH I have changed from then til now :P Hopefully prettier? :P) Then the unimaginable image came...... we saw Leroy! Flashback... Leroy is our honours senior who graduated while we were in year 2. So that means, he had graduated for at least 3 years plus. Then saw another senior.... Small world it seems. NOW we know where Bizaders eventually go to...
Later we headed downtown to PS, where I signed up for the Lead guitar course. Maybe for now, I will put the animation course on hold. Its way too expensive to accomodate. At most I use my free afternoons to go to gym, read up on investments, learn HTML, Photoshop, Excel spreadsheet and whatever with Tab's help. Basically we hung around until dinnertime at Orchard where Turtle went off. Me and Tab continued and ate dinner. Basically there is a pattern here.
---> Early morning met Tab, ate Macs, drank weak coffee, talked
----> Waiting for briefing, drank Milo, talked
-----> Lunch at Jurong Point, chicken rice, Coke Lite, talked
------> Mos burger, Ice Milk Tea, talked
-------> Dinner at cineleisure, gyoza, white tea, talked
Hmm basically we are doing nothing much but changing venues to eat, drink and talk. But talked about many stuff until all of us suffer information overload, to a certain extent. With fellow contract educators, we exchanged experiences. For those fresh educators, we shared experiences.
3) Sleep...
Now my head is very heavy. Kinda stoned from my night-owling ways. Its so hard to just switch it back to school hours. Tonight definitely going to sleep early. I have to do an emergency switch back before school starts. However my plans were dashed by the early start of a course by NIE. My switch starts tonight.
Sunday, June 19, 2005
HIP HOP...
Today marks the start of a new course that I am taking up, Hip Hop, courtesy of the many courses available at Clubfit. I signed up for this mainly to do something interesting and also train up my stupid elephantine legs how to move in a cool manner. The ultimate goal is to be confident enough to do a cool dance besides the 'hand-at-the-waistlevel-and-move-left-and-right' dance like in Hitch. Its $80 for 12 lessons, every Sunday.
I dragged myself out of bed and made my way down to the dance studio. The instructor is younger than most of the participants. M is 19, going into NUS, has 3 years of hip hop experience. So began one hour of hip hop. I must admit she is a good instructor cos her instructions are easy to comprehend. So maybe in one part, there are 3 actions involved, she would break them into individual steps and go through one by one. Then combine all 3 together. Then add on more steps.
At first I was conscious of myself but after a while I stopped thinking so much and enjoyed myself. So far learnt 2 routines, each one 8 beats. Actually hip hop have to do fast so it looks cooler but now still-in-progress. But I can remember and execute the sequences. Just the looping of the 2 routines part I still have to work on. Hmm look forward to more routines.
Incidentally I also want to sign up for this electric guitar course. Already checked out the price, timing. Just need to call and register and pay. Its at the Yamaha school in PS. Hope to see it through also til the very end, which is like 2 years. Then master guitar. Yep, add more 'coolness' to my already frozen image.... Oh well...
Today marks the start of a new course that I am taking up, Hip Hop, courtesy of the many courses available at Clubfit. I signed up for this mainly to do something interesting and also train up my stupid elephantine legs how to move in a cool manner. The ultimate goal is to be confident enough to do a cool dance besides the 'hand-at-the-waistlevel-and-move-left-and-right' dance like in Hitch. Its $80 for 12 lessons, every Sunday.
I dragged myself out of bed and made my way down to the dance studio. The instructor is younger than most of the participants. M is 19, going into NUS, has 3 years of hip hop experience. So began one hour of hip hop. I must admit she is a good instructor cos her instructions are easy to comprehend. So maybe in one part, there are 3 actions involved, she would break them into individual steps and go through one by one. Then combine all 3 together. Then add on more steps.
At first I was conscious of myself but after a while I stopped thinking so much and enjoyed myself. So far learnt 2 routines, each one 8 beats. Actually hip hop have to do fast so it looks cooler but now still-in-progress. But I can remember and execute the sequences. Just the looping of the 2 routines part I still have to work on. Hmm look forward to more routines.
Incidentally I also want to sign up for this electric guitar course. Already checked out the price, timing. Just need to call and register and pay. Its at the Yamaha school in PS. Hope to see it through also til the very end, which is like 2 years. Then master guitar. Yep, add more 'coolness' to my already frozen image.... Oh well...
Friday, June 17, 2005
Re-visit NUS
I was lazing around the home around two in the afternoon yesterday cos I just woke up. Yes. I just woke up at two in the afternoon. I sense green eyes. Well I slept very very late the night before, flooded by unpleasant memories...
So after a light lunch, I was slouching around, too lazy to move, cant find anything to do... My sister told me that the NUS canteens have been renovated so much so that there are delicious food there. Esp the Engine canteen now called The Techno. Yingel (my younger sister) was raving on and on about the roti prata there. How crispy and tender, how it was much more delicious than the Fong Seng ones. Then Geoky (youngest sister) raved on how the Jap food was delicious and cheap also around three-fifty for a set. Okay since its still my holidays, I might as well go back to visit and try out the food that I've missed.
Geoky and moi made our way to The Techno, to discover that the Jap stall was closed..... AHHHHHH cos by then it was already four. Nevermind there was still the prata. I admit it is cheap. 70 cents for prata with onions. Crispy and tender inside. Tasty sauce also. And the Indian guy can speak fluent Hokkien. Geoky bought char quay tiao which were so so. I saw an Indonesian bbq stall also but too bad I dun have 4 stomaches to stomach all of the stall's food.
After finishing the food. We continued walking on to the newly improved Yusoff Ishak House and cos it was a hot day, we decided to hop into somewhere with air con. We went in to Genki sushi. Geoky was worried that we wont be eating but somehow I was still hungry. Sat in an almost empty Genki sushi, drinking Green tea from tea powder, I finished off 4 plates of Unagi sushi. Then there is the green tea ice cream with red beans. Oyishiii yo! My treat to her. But cos of her weakened stomach, she didnt eat ast much as I did. Hehehe... these few days my appetite is horribly huge. I can eat a mountain of food. Really earlier on monday, went to the temple and ate some vegetarian food there. I took a MOUNTAIN of rice, with lots of veg over it and finished all of it. It was like 3-4 times what my mom took. They stared at my mountain of rice and asked me whether I could finish it. Which I did. Man this is not helping my diet. Havent really lost weight... then a bit lazy ne. Went dilligently to gym 3 times last week but come to this week, I still havent gone once and the week is almost over.
After staying at Genki for a very long while, while I demolished at least 5 plates of sushi, dessert, and many cups of green tea, we made our way back to Bizad. Sadly nothing too much has changed in terms of the food except there was a new stall selling Vietnam food. Unfortunately the only stall opened then was the Confectionary one. Nice food trip. Definitely on my list of food places when I move into hostel at NTU.
I was lazing around the home around two in the afternoon yesterday cos I just woke up. Yes. I just woke up at two in the afternoon. I sense green eyes. Well I slept very very late the night before, flooded by unpleasant memories...
So after a light lunch, I was slouching around, too lazy to move, cant find anything to do... My sister told me that the NUS canteens have been renovated so much so that there are delicious food there. Esp the Engine canteen now called The Techno. Yingel (my younger sister) was raving on and on about the roti prata there. How crispy and tender, how it was much more delicious than the Fong Seng ones. Then Geoky (youngest sister) raved on how the Jap food was delicious and cheap also around three-fifty for a set. Okay since its still my holidays, I might as well go back to visit and try out the food that I've missed.
Geoky and moi made our way to The Techno, to discover that the Jap stall was closed..... AHHHHHH cos by then it was already four. Nevermind there was still the prata. I admit it is cheap. 70 cents for prata with onions. Crispy and tender inside. Tasty sauce also. And the Indian guy can speak fluent Hokkien. Geoky bought char quay tiao which were so so. I saw an Indonesian bbq stall also but too bad I dun have 4 stomaches to stomach all of the stall's food.
After finishing the food. We continued walking on to the newly improved Yusoff Ishak House and cos it was a hot day, we decided to hop into somewhere with air con. We went in to Genki sushi. Geoky was worried that we wont be eating but somehow I was still hungry. Sat in an almost empty Genki sushi, drinking Green tea from tea powder, I finished off 4 plates of Unagi sushi. Then there is the green tea ice cream with red beans. Oyishiii yo! My treat to her. But cos of her weakened stomach, she didnt eat ast much as I did. Hehehe... these few days my appetite is horribly huge. I can eat a mountain of food. Really earlier on monday, went to the temple and ate some vegetarian food there. I took a MOUNTAIN of rice, with lots of veg over it and finished all of it. It was like 3-4 times what my mom took. They stared at my mountain of rice and asked me whether I could finish it. Which I did. Man this is not helping my diet. Havent really lost weight... then a bit lazy ne. Went dilligently to gym 3 times last week but come to this week, I still havent gone once and the week is almost over.
After staying at Genki for a very long while, while I demolished at least 5 plates of sushi, dessert, and many cups of green tea, we made our way back to Bizad. Sadly nothing too much has changed in terms of the food except there was a new stall selling Vietnam food. Unfortunately the only stall opened then was the Confectionary one. Nice food trip. Definitely on my list of food places when I move into hostel at NTU.
Thursday, June 16, 2005
Many Things to Update.
Yesterday was another ordinary day except I was still on holidays! Yay! Intended to meet Tab for jap class. Then I read about Batman Begins articles in Life and and checked out the sneak timing. Hey, we can make it for the 9.30pm show. Sms her to ask if she was interested. Can beat the weekend crowd. She was okay. I went to a nearby AXN machine to grab the tickets cos I dont have a Debit card or any card say for an ATM.
After going through the entire transaction, the thing didnt allow the transaction to go through. So after 3 tries, I hopped on a bus to clementi central to use the axn machines there. One gave up on me and the third one finally allowed me to transact. Finally tickets for Batman Begins Sneak.
Japanese saw me and Tab making broken jap sentences about killing one another. Throwing each other out the window, giving money to me. After class, went to PS to catch the movie. I wanted to sign up for the guitar course in july but they were closing then so we headed down to carrefour. Tab bought her pandan milk again... and me, coffee milk and yorgat drink. Strangely enough, the coffe milk which is the same brand as the pandan milk, is very very sweet and reminds me of ice kachang, the after-taste.
The movie started after a few trailers... boy was the movie long. Like the review, which says that Batman only appear after the first hour. BUT I was distracted. By who? Err definitely not Batman himself. In fact I paid him scant notice cos there was this doctor guy who looks alot like Gackt. I was bioing him throughout the whole movie. Not to mention, there were many closeup of his face. I will definitely buy the Vcd/Dvd when it comes out. So err everything else seemed secondary.
I checked my watch, when the movie didnt seemed like it was going to end, and it was already 11.30pm. Am definitely going to miss the bus unless it ends in another 15 mins. No... the action barely started then. By the time the movie ended, it was 11.55pm.... Walao. Luckily I didnt settle for the 10.30 show. So me and Tab hurried to our bus stop. All my last buses had gone except one. Phew. Otherwise I would have to bunk in at Tab's place. Had to grab a cab later from the mrt station. It really feels like a weekend.
Later that night, while trying to sleep.... suddenly I remembered something (Err this is the part where the post gets very negative. Pls do not continue if you are weak-hearted or affliated to ShittyBank)
As I was saying..... suddenly I remembered that on the 16th June 2005 marks exactly 1 year after leaving Shittybank. Earlier 2 weeks ago, suddenly I realized that. After I clean-forgotten about it until that last instant just before I was to fall asleep. Sometimes I reflect upon my earlier work experiences or suddenly have flashbacks. Last time was in December where I vaguely registered that it was one year from the day i started hell in shittybank.
Exactly one year ago on this day, I left ShittyBank, spirits low and cynical after 6 months of internship or what is a more accurate picture 'a cheaper than temp slave'. The experience left such a deep scar that until now, whenever I see the Shittybank logo on ads, buildings, branches, the first thing I would say was "burn down.... burn and bankrupt..." Sometimes I reflect and dont really dredge up any specific examples of what I experienced there. BUT last night was different. Suddenly it seemed, the floodgates of Hell opened. I remembered.
Most of the incidents, bitches, stupid and menial work all came back to me. The more I recalled, the angrier I became and of course all traces of sleep vapourised. Like what Tab says, I have issues, unresolved issues. I tried to think through the memories logically. And of course compared them to my current work situation.
Basically
Pay-wise, I am better off. So much more comfortable. Though I have quit my tuition, with a pay-raise on the way, I can still mantain my current lifestyle and saving rate comfortably.
Work-wise, I am more satisifed cos its not desk-bound. Imagine the whole day being chained to your workspace. No freedom except to go for waterbreak or toilet. Not even to surf the net. Now I can walk around, surf net, prepare activities, have my coffee break without guilt. Different routine each day. No questions asked when you have free time unless u go around and broadcast too much. Dont have to sit and sit all day. Now I have a choice. There is no more morning rush hour, lunch rush hour and evening rush hour. I really dun miss the tightly-packed trains at all.
Collegue-wise, there are the fair share of assholes and bitches but its tolerable compared to Shittybank. There are genuine sincere ones who treat you as an equal. They are willing to admit when you are good. Give credit when its due. Unlike ShittyBank where the project which I slogged over, no credit was given. Not even a Thanks. Implemented I think but I wasnt there to see it being fully implemented except partially. Again not a mention of my part. No adknowledgement. WTBF. This is one of the main thing that really angered and irritated me.
Satisfaction-wise, when students greet me when they see me, when they remarked that I am a good educator, I feel that I have done well. I do hope they have learnt much from me. Definitely more satisfying than doing up a loan application data entry, one after another. No one would say thank you.
Dress code-wise, I am happy wearing my trackpants, T-shirt and sport shoes to work. No make-up, no gel in the hair, no perfume, no nice working bag. Just a bagpack or slingbag with Grey, my waterbottle, umbrella, pencilcase and jacket. In fact I look like those bound for either gym or bumming at orchard road than going to work.
Of course in the future, the pay raise and promotion aspect of my current job is limited. But somehow I dont mind trading those for a bit more freedom, a bit less ridigities in the work environment and dress code.
In the end, I asked myself. Am I willing to forgive and forget the ShittyBank experience?
For the 3 bitches who really screwed me all over ----No
For my Unit head bitch who didnt give me credit for the project ---- No
For all the work that I had helped to do, which spans 3 sub-units where I was only attached to one. All menial in nature with limited learning and very manual. No thanks for my efficiency ----No
For the way which interns were treated as the OUT group and very very marginalized --- No
For the freakingly obscene low pay that was even below what a factory worker gets ---- No
For the Big Boss who also didnt speak to me at all or adknowledge my work---- No
My conclusion is simple. No, I have not forgiven Shittybank after 1 year and I will still continue cursing and swearing for it to burn down/bankrupt/financially implode like Enron whenever I see the logo.
Yesterday was another ordinary day except I was still on holidays! Yay! Intended to meet Tab for jap class. Then I read about Batman Begins articles in Life and and checked out the sneak timing. Hey, we can make it for the 9.30pm show. Sms her to ask if she was interested. Can beat the weekend crowd. She was okay. I went to a nearby AXN machine to grab the tickets cos I dont have a Debit card or any card say for an ATM.
After going through the entire transaction, the thing didnt allow the transaction to go through. So after 3 tries, I hopped on a bus to clementi central to use the axn machines there. One gave up on me and the third one finally allowed me to transact. Finally tickets for Batman Begins Sneak.
Japanese saw me and Tab making broken jap sentences about killing one another. Throwing each other out the window, giving money to me. After class, went to PS to catch the movie. I wanted to sign up for the guitar course in july but they were closing then so we headed down to carrefour. Tab bought her pandan milk again... and me, coffee milk and yorgat drink. Strangely enough, the coffe milk which is the same brand as the pandan milk, is very very sweet and reminds me of ice kachang, the after-taste.
The movie started after a few trailers... boy was the movie long. Like the review, which says that Batman only appear after the first hour. BUT I was distracted. By who? Err definitely not Batman himself. In fact I paid him scant notice cos there was this doctor guy who looks alot like Gackt. I was bioing him throughout the whole movie. Not to mention, there were many closeup of his face. I will definitely buy the Vcd/Dvd when it comes out. So err everything else seemed secondary.
I checked my watch, when the movie didnt seemed like it was going to end, and it was already 11.30pm. Am definitely going to miss the bus unless it ends in another 15 mins. No... the action barely started then. By the time the movie ended, it was 11.55pm.... Walao. Luckily I didnt settle for the 10.30 show. So me and Tab hurried to our bus stop. All my last buses had gone except one. Phew. Otherwise I would have to bunk in at Tab's place. Had to grab a cab later from the mrt station. It really feels like a weekend.
Later that night, while trying to sleep.... suddenly I remembered something (Err this is the part where the post gets very negative. Pls do not continue if you are weak-hearted or affliated to ShittyBank)
As I was saying..... suddenly I remembered that on the 16th June 2005 marks exactly 1 year after leaving Shittybank. Earlier 2 weeks ago, suddenly I realized that. After I clean-forgotten about it until that last instant just before I was to fall asleep. Sometimes I reflect upon my earlier work experiences or suddenly have flashbacks. Last time was in December where I vaguely registered that it was one year from the day i started hell in shittybank.
Exactly one year ago on this day, I left ShittyBank, spirits low and cynical after 6 months of internship or what is a more accurate picture 'a cheaper than temp slave'. The experience left such a deep scar that until now, whenever I see the Shittybank logo on ads, buildings, branches, the first thing I would say was "burn down.... burn and bankrupt..." Sometimes I reflect and dont really dredge up any specific examples of what I experienced there. BUT last night was different. Suddenly it seemed, the floodgates of Hell opened. I remembered.
Most of the incidents, bitches, stupid and menial work all came back to me. The more I recalled, the angrier I became and of course all traces of sleep vapourised. Like what Tab says, I have issues, unresolved issues. I tried to think through the memories logically. And of course compared them to my current work situation.
Basically
Pay-wise, I am better off. So much more comfortable. Though I have quit my tuition, with a pay-raise on the way, I can still mantain my current lifestyle and saving rate comfortably.
Work-wise, I am more satisifed cos its not desk-bound. Imagine the whole day being chained to your workspace. No freedom except to go for waterbreak or toilet. Not even to surf the net. Now I can walk around, surf net, prepare activities, have my coffee break without guilt. Different routine each day. No questions asked when you have free time unless u go around and broadcast too much. Dont have to sit and sit all day. Now I have a choice. There is no more morning rush hour, lunch rush hour and evening rush hour. I really dun miss the tightly-packed trains at all.
Collegue-wise, there are the fair share of assholes and bitches but its tolerable compared to Shittybank. There are genuine sincere ones who treat you as an equal. They are willing to admit when you are good. Give credit when its due. Unlike ShittyBank where the project which I slogged over, no credit was given. Not even a Thanks. Implemented I think but I wasnt there to see it being fully implemented except partially. Again not a mention of my part. No adknowledgement. WTBF. This is one of the main thing that really angered and irritated me.
Satisfaction-wise, when students greet me when they see me, when they remarked that I am a good educator, I feel that I have done well. I do hope they have learnt much from me. Definitely more satisfying than doing up a loan application data entry, one after another. No one would say thank you.
Dress code-wise, I am happy wearing my trackpants, T-shirt and sport shoes to work. No make-up, no gel in the hair, no perfume, no nice working bag. Just a bagpack or slingbag with Grey, my waterbottle, umbrella, pencilcase and jacket. In fact I look like those bound for either gym or bumming at orchard road than going to work.
Of course in the future, the pay raise and promotion aspect of my current job is limited. But somehow I dont mind trading those for a bit more freedom, a bit less ridigities in the work environment and dress code.
In the end, I asked myself. Am I willing to forgive and forget the ShittyBank experience?
For the 3 bitches who really screwed me all over ----No
For my Unit head bitch who didnt give me credit for the project ---- No
For all the work that I had helped to do, which spans 3 sub-units where I was only attached to one. All menial in nature with limited learning and very manual. No thanks for my efficiency ----No
For the way which interns were treated as the OUT group and very very marginalized --- No
For the freakingly obscene low pay that was even below what a factory worker gets ---- No
For the Big Boss who also didnt speak to me at all or adknowledge my work---- No
My conclusion is simple. No, I have not forgiven Shittybank after 1 year and I will still continue cursing and swearing for it to burn down/bankrupt/financially implode like Enron whenever I see the logo.
Monday, June 06, 2005
Another Blue Monday...
Today is just one of those days you really really hate.
The day, Monday.
The time, a Monday during your holidays.
The place, back to school.
For, cca at 11am.
Oh well so when I walked intot the staff room, saw a few collegues and my ex-mentor. The first thing he said to me "Kenasai, what ARE you doing here?" I replied, "Cca..." So this happened with a few other collegues who saw me including the VP. (seriously I rather have an uninterupted holiday if you dont mind)
So once I reached there, started doing some admin work for the cca like updating the name list, cca work plans. The VP then came and wanted to chat with me. With regards to NIE and the pilot-program thing that I was selected for and also with regards to the relief episode during Term 2.
Basically there were many mcs during Term 2 and during one of the week, I was doing full-day relief from Monday to Friday. The following week this continued. So I asked the HOD who was doing relief that time, why was there such an arrangement. (I didnt really say out that I observed that the other trainee B, got off with much lighter or no relief for that period.) The response was along the line, you are contract, others are perm with own classes. It natural for you to take over relief. Of course I wasnt remotely satisfied with that answer. So I asked my ex-mentor why did I get this type of relief duties where B didnt seem to get as much. He also told me in a qian bian manner, "Well you are extra what." Wa lao. Then he mentioned that mgt dont trust B and D so they rather put me in. So being trustworthy is a bad thing sometimes especially if you get to do more work instead.
My response to the VP was that I was quite stressed out as I had to do full-day relief for more than a week and was away from my own class so long that when I went back, I was totally lost. Also the things that I wanted to go through with them had to be done one week plus later. Also stressed about what to do with the relief class. I have just 5 mins to plan the activities for the class. Even if there are lessons, I am not familiar with the syllabus but no time to even take a peep at the textbooks. And worse, I dont know where the teacher put her stuff. She told me when my ex-mentor alerted them to my unhappiness with the relief time-tabling, they investigated and found it to be true that the HOD did up the relief timetable in the most convenient manner, easy just chuck a contract teacher there. She told me that I could give them my time table so that they can plan according to it. I did, but I cant remember whether I gave it to him before or after the episode. Oh well, had to talk with the P as well. Luckily I was not at fault. Phew.
That aside, went to the gym around 2pm. I have not gone to the gym for 1 full week. I missed out on it as my sister was warded in hospital on Wed evening. I had planned to go gym around thur and fri but changed my mind. We visited her during the afternoon and evening. So I dont go for the afternoon visit, stay at home. Then I played alot of online games, so when its evening, go and visit her, then have dinner. By the time I can exercise, its already time to sleep. This continued until today. Dont worry, she is discharged today. So its lots of rest for her. Hence I began my regime again.
Man, just being inactive for 1 week can do wonders to your body.... I keep on having this 'I am FAT feeling' and my usual weights seemed heavier now. In order to jump start the body, I did much more cardio, all 1 hr 10 mins of it, followed by machines, free weights, stretches and abs. It was much longer than my usual, 2.5hr. I intend to up my cardio in order to lose that extra weight fast. I had gained 5kg inspite of going to gym regularly... Want to lose it. Only way, Cardio. So bo bian, I am going to do 1hr cardio every workout. See whether I lose that flab and gain more definition at the end of June. BUT it feels GREAT after a workout.
Hmm incidentally after buying the Pedometer (measures how many steps you take), I have been diligently monitoring my total number of steps I take. Yesterday very sendentary, less than 2000 steps. 11K steps when I went shopping with Tab. 12K steps today when I go for Cca and gym. Average ranges from 3k to 5k. A good gauge of laziness during this holiday I guess.
[To Tab]
Hey after going through with you the endowment plan in the most simplest manner, you still say its greek... Finance ga heta desu ne! Yo. If you really dont understand, fine, I just tell you the amount to save, you save it okay but not in a piggy bank, in a bank account with no atm available. One you have to physically go to draw out money type. This can force you to save.
Today is just one of those days you really really hate.
The day, Monday.
The time, a Monday during your holidays.
The place, back to school.
For, cca at 11am.
Oh well so when I walked intot the staff room, saw a few collegues and my ex-mentor. The first thing he said to me "Kenasai, what ARE you doing here?" I replied, "Cca..." So this happened with a few other collegues who saw me including the VP. (seriously I rather have an uninterupted holiday if you dont mind)
So once I reached there, started doing some admin work for the cca like updating the name list, cca work plans. The VP then came and wanted to chat with me. With regards to NIE and the pilot-program thing that I was selected for and also with regards to the relief episode during Term 2.
Basically there were many mcs during Term 2 and during one of the week, I was doing full-day relief from Monday to Friday. The following week this continued. So I asked the HOD who was doing relief that time, why was there such an arrangement. (I didnt really say out that I observed that the other trainee B, got off with much lighter or no relief for that period.) The response was along the line, you are contract, others are perm with own classes. It natural for you to take over relief. Of course I wasnt remotely satisfied with that answer. So I asked my ex-mentor why did I get this type of relief duties where B didnt seem to get as much. He also told me in a qian bian manner, "Well you are extra what." Wa lao. Then he mentioned that mgt dont trust B and D so they rather put me in. So being trustworthy is a bad thing sometimes especially if you get to do more work instead.
My response to the VP was that I was quite stressed out as I had to do full-day relief for more than a week and was away from my own class so long that when I went back, I was totally lost. Also the things that I wanted to go through with them had to be done one week plus later. Also stressed about what to do with the relief class. I have just 5 mins to plan the activities for the class. Even if there are lessons, I am not familiar with the syllabus but no time to even take a peep at the textbooks. And worse, I dont know where the teacher put her stuff. She told me when my ex-mentor alerted them to my unhappiness with the relief time-tabling, they investigated and found it to be true that the HOD did up the relief timetable in the most convenient manner, easy just chuck a contract teacher there. She told me that I could give them my time table so that they can plan according to it. I did, but I cant remember whether I gave it to him before or after the episode. Oh well, had to talk with the P as well. Luckily I was not at fault. Phew.
That aside, went to the gym around 2pm. I have not gone to the gym for 1 full week. I missed out on it as my sister was warded in hospital on Wed evening. I had planned to go gym around thur and fri but changed my mind. We visited her during the afternoon and evening. So I dont go for the afternoon visit, stay at home. Then I played alot of online games, so when its evening, go and visit her, then have dinner. By the time I can exercise, its already time to sleep. This continued until today. Dont worry, she is discharged today. So its lots of rest for her. Hence I began my regime again.
Man, just being inactive for 1 week can do wonders to your body.... I keep on having this 'I am FAT feeling' and my usual weights seemed heavier now. In order to jump start the body, I did much more cardio, all 1 hr 10 mins of it, followed by machines, free weights, stretches and abs. It was much longer than my usual, 2.5hr. I intend to up my cardio in order to lose that extra weight fast. I had gained 5kg inspite of going to gym regularly... Want to lose it. Only way, Cardio. So bo bian, I am going to do 1hr cardio every workout. See whether I lose that flab and gain more definition at the end of June. BUT it feels GREAT after a workout.
Hmm incidentally after buying the Pedometer (measures how many steps you take), I have been diligently monitoring my total number of steps I take. Yesterday very sendentary, less than 2000 steps. 11K steps when I went shopping with Tab. 12K steps today when I go for Cca and gym. Average ranges from 3k to 5k. A good gauge of laziness during this holiday I guess.
[To Tab]
Hey after going through with you the endowment plan in the most simplest manner, you still say its greek... Finance ga heta desu ne! Yo. If you really dont understand, fine, I just tell you the amount to save, you save it okay but not in a piggy bank, in a bank account with no atm available. One you have to physically go to draw out money type. This can force you to save.
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
I got a LOVE LETTER. After waiting in vain for so very long, after all the relentless search and endless heartbreaks.....
I finally bought Gackt's Love Letter Album. (chey.... thought Hellbound finally found her dream guy? Nah :P)
Today did something more constructive besides lying around in bed and lazing around the house, went shopping with Tab. (well help the economy) With the start of the Great Spore Sale, I decided to check things out, with a few items on mind, laptop and some clothes.
First off, the journey begins in Plaza Singapura at 12pm. The intention was to have lunch. I ordered a Chicken cutlet. An ordinary order right, not some out-of-the-world food right. Wrong! When I first bit into the cutlet, I told Tab, "Average. Not even there." Later Tab was inclined to try.
"Hmm... it taste like soya bean. Did you taste that?" she asked.
"No... I dont eat much soya bean. But I know the taste is perculiar. Maybe that's the soya bean."
"Wonder what they did to get the soya bean taste?" Tab continued.
"Maybe they feed the chicken soya bean? seasoning? I dunno but I am getting FULL..."
Tab started laughing when she saw my bo-bian look while i crammed the cutlet into my mouth to finish it. All this while, I left my coleslaw alone. Havent ate it yet.
"Your coleslaw seems wilted. It really looks different" Tab started.
"Ya. I know. There are no sauce on it. You are supposed to add your own mayo." Proceeded to put some into my mouth.
"Coleslaw without sauce..." Tab said.
"Yep, coleslaw without its dress. Its naked." I replied.
"How does it taste?"
"Err like preserved vegetables i guess." (made another face cos my ordinary cutlet didnt turn out ordinary at all)
"Lemme try.... Yah it really tastes like preserved vegetables. Tab made a face too. "So a cutlet that taste like soya bean and naked coleslaw that tasted like preserved vegetable...HAHAHAHA!" Tab started laughing...
Finally after I got through my lunch, I promised never to order from that stall again. It has put me off the humble and tasty chicken cutlet for a while.
We continued on our way to the Yamaha music school to check out the prices of the electric guitar course. Its affordable. Maybe will take it up after I got my time-table and schedule figured out. That will be at the end of June.
After we made our way to Carrefour to get some drinks. Specifically for Tab, pandan flavoured milk. Which made me shudder with cold when she mentioned the name. EUUUUUU... I kept making that face. While walking in, we chanced upon new flavours for Nescafe. There's Tiramisu flavour and Banana Caramel. Tab decided to be adventurous and chose Banana Caramel against her normal choice for Tiramisu. Oh well, I took the Tiramisu one instead. Later she found her pandan flavoured milk and I bought another bottle of CornerStone, a red wine, which my ex-mentor said was very sweet??? Decided to give it to my dad. Belated Birthday gift? Hopes he dont nag and criticize when I give it to him.... he always does that to whatever we give him. I write about the taste after I try. Once outside, we opened up the coffee and took a sip.
"Mine, the banana taste is overwhelming... nothing much of the caramel." Tab made a face.
"How's yours?"
"... okay lor taste like chocolate. Lemme try yours..." we swopped bottles.
"Yours taste much better than mine." Tab replied.
"Yours, the banana smell is STRONG..... Very complex taste there.... like chemical."
"Man, I should have stuck to Tiramisu."
"HAHAHA! Who asked you to experiment and choose other exotic flavours. That's what you get when you laugh at your friend first." (made a face at Tab gloating over her misfortune)
"At least mine was exotic flavours, yours was just an ordinary order."
We continued walking around Plaza Singapura. Went into the sports equipment shop. I was looking for a small clip that you can use to measure the number of steps you took. Its called a Pedometer. Found it at Abi and it cost $29 bucks. A bit steep and the GSS was around so I asked if got any offers. The salesguy gave it to me for $25 bucks. So once outside the shop, I put on the pedometer and tried it out. Tab excitedly asked me to hop and jump to check if the meter was working. It is. Actually it works by measuring the up and down motion one makes when walking. She shook it in her hands and the number of steps increased too. A few steps later, Tab wanted me to jump a few times again. Imagine how we appeared to other shoppers. (One girl kept on looking at her friend's hips and asking her excitedly to jump and hop.)
So we continued. Decided to shop around the small shops at the basement. Went into one cos Tab wanted this top that is like a cardigan except that there are only sleeves. I tried it on and not so nice. Tab tried too. Not nice. Went to its neighbour shop and tried on an orange and a yellow top. While I was inside the changing room. This Saleswoman came to the outside and said that the jeans are on sale and shoved in a pair of jeans. It was kinda scary cos I didnt know if she was going to pull open the changing room curtains, to leave me exposed half-naked to Tab who was waiting just right outside. So after that, I tried the orange top and the jeans. My thighs not nice fitting. So off she went to get me one size bigger. While I was trying on the other yellow top, a hand came in to hand me the other pair of jeans which I didnt even ask for. Okay tried on. Still too tight for my liking. Tab said the jeans look okay but I didnt want the jeans as I had put on some weight (people tell me its muscles... I hope so.) Though my current jeans are a bit loose, I am trying to lose this extra weight first. Maybe by then I would lose more inches and would need another pair of jeans by then. So we hurried out of the store without buying anything.
We agreed that that Saleswoman was very very aggressive. She came, opened the changing room curtains to hand over jeans that I didnt ask for, did it again and made me feel anxious whether I would be 'exposed'... While I was changing, she kept telling Tab to try out the jeans and other merchandise. Then we fled. Not EVER going back again. I dont want to feel 'endangered' everytime I am in the changing room.
Continued walking and I saw the Fox brand boutique.
"Tab, lets go to F-Men and F-Woman shop."
"What did you just said? F-Man.... F-Woman..... Muahhhahahahah!"
"What? I didnt think that way, you know. Its you."
"You are the one who said it. You know what that sounds like?" Laughter roared.
(for people who happen to be very clean-minded. Basically I say F as a short-form for Fuck. So lets go to Fuck Man and Fuck Woman.....)
I tried on a pink top just for the heck of it. Its a size 1. Both of us agreed that Pink is just not my colour. I took a green top and tried it. Nice. Size 2. Decided to try the size 1 cos I could fit into the pink one. Except for the arms where its a bit tight, the rest especially the stomache is fitting. Finally I have a piece of fitting clothing. Size 2 is just nice for the shoulders but loose for the body. So I am a SIZE 1..... There is a 50% discount so I paid $11.50, a steal for a nice top.
After we left Plaza Singapura, I had bought a pedometer, a top, a bottle of wine. Tab bought pandan milk.... Hellbound 3 v Tab 0
Made our way down towards the main part of Orchard. We went into a shop that sold a lot of thai fisherman pants and dress. Almost bought something. But for me the pants not fitting. So didnt.
I wanted to go to HMV to check out a CD. When we reached the Japanese section. I saw my Love Letter, Gackt's latest album sitting nicely on the shelf. This is opposed to a few other occasssions, where there was absolutely nothing after the album was released for a month. I finally found it. There was also the soundtrack for Howl's moving castle. CD ga hoshii desu ne. Almost wanted to grab that and the soundtrack of Spirited Away all at one go. Luckily I restraint myself and listened to Howl soundtrack. It contained all the tracks from the movie but as the music is purely or performed by orchestra, I changed my mind. Too much of it will put me to sleep. Maybe I try to find my favourite tune online first.
In the end, I paid $53 bucks for the album. Very expensive ne! I agree but you havent seen the rest. A jap single cost $30, some jap albums cost over $80 dollars. The FFIX complete soundtrack which I paid $50 bucks for cost $91 for the original. So for this original album from Japan, $50 bucks is expensive but not the most expensive. Thank God. Otherwise I might not be so suportive for the albums. Then his last album I also paid $52 bucks. But I kept on listening for 1.5 years until this new album so I believe its very very hua shuan. His last album kept me alive while I worked in ShittyBank. I would bring my discman for lunch and listen to Gackt's songs. It kept me sane. Tracks like Last Song sooth my anger. It was something that kept me going. Cant wait to listen to this album.
I can say to myself... "I got a Love Letter from Gackt-san! Gackt-san, AISHITERU!"
(sense the desperdoness in that)
Oh well, I am in a bit of heaven. I always am whenever I manage to buy the comic or CD that I really wanted.
Dinner was at Pasta Mania at Cinelesiure. Earlier while walking down from OG, Tab told me she had tuition later. She would go home, change out of her shimmery fisherman wraparound pants, grab her BOOBs and off she'll go.
Wait a sec! I heard her say BOOBS. I swear. She meant BOOKS but omitted the sound of 'K'. Then she started saying that maybe I am not getting enough of it... getting desperate or horny or something. Err whose the one whose been blogging about all the lovey dovey stuff online and also thinks changes in the SEX LIFE... I think we all know who is horny. *winks*
After dinner, we left for our separate ways. Been an enjoyable day but things have not ended yet for me. I was going to Intense Animation for the free preview of the animation course that I was quite interested in. So there was showcase of Maya the program for projects like Final Fantasy games, Spiderman movie, Lord of the Ring and many more. Then an actual demonstration by the instructor and later some hands-on for us to play around with. I must say the user interface is scary but very very interesting.
Nnot to mention, there was a rather handsome instructor, tall and nice build and face and hair and voice.....
Okay, basically animation is divided broadly into character animation and background animation. To put the two together like a movie, requires compositing. An editing course which they also offer. This course deals with character modelling, very specific. Also has elements of background animation or what they call other elements modelling. Which can be put together too cos they have a bit of compositing to create the project clip. There are 4 aspects of character modelling, Modelling, Animation, Rendering and Dynamics. Its damn cool with what they can do. Its up to your imagination. With this course, you can model any character, create your own, manipulate its actions. Man I can try to model GTS into a real-life model with actions. Imagine all the flying markers.
In all aspects, its great! The only thing is the prohibitive price-tag $4.2k. Yep, totemo^3 takai desune!!!!! There is good news. To those who belong to the Infocom sector, there is a grant of $2.1k. So you pay effectively half. There is also a credit card instalment scheme whereby you pay $700 p.m over 6 months. Great except I dont belong to the Infocom sector by training or otherwise. Why arent there any training rebates for Educators? Unfair!!!! And I dont have a credit card.
The next course is in September. I will think about it, work out my finances to see whether I can afford driving, guitar, jap, hostel rent and Animation for the next six months, also whether I have the time to do so. Maybe I should quit my tuition to fully concentrate on all the things I want to do over this one year before REAL work starts. Still considering.... Money woes...Sign
I finally bought Gackt's Love Letter Album. (chey.... thought Hellbound finally found her dream guy? Nah :P)
Today did something more constructive besides lying around in bed and lazing around the house, went shopping with Tab. (well help the economy) With the start of the Great Spore Sale, I decided to check things out, with a few items on mind, laptop and some clothes.
First off, the journey begins in Plaza Singapura at 12pm. The intention was to have lunch. I ordered a Chicken cutlet. An ordinary order right, not some out-of-the-world food right. Wrong! When I first bit into the cutlet, I told Tab, "Average. Not even there." Later Tab was inclined to try.
"Hmm... it taste like soya bean. Did you taste that?" she asked.
"No... I dont eat much soya bean. But I know the taste is perculiar. Maybe that's the soya bean."
"Wonder what they did to get the soya bean taste?" Tab continued.
"Maybe they feed the chicken soya bean? seasoning? I dunno but I am getting FULL..."
Tab started laughing when she saw my bo-bian look while i crammed the cutlet into my mouth to finish it. All this while, I left my coleslaw alone. Havent ate it yet.
"Your coleslaw seems wilted. It really looks different" Tab started.
"Ya. I know. There are no sauce on it. You are supposed to add your own mayo." Proceeded to put some into my mouth.
"Coleslaw without sauce..." Tab said.
"Yep, coleslaw without its dress. Its naked." I replied.
"How does it taste?"
"Err like preserved vegetables i guess." (made another face cos my ordinary cutlet didnt turn out ordinary at all)
"Lemme try.... Yah it really tastes like preserved vegetables. Tab made a face too. "So a cutlet that taste like soya bean and naked coleslaw that tasted like preserved vegetable...HAHAHAHA!" Tab started laughing...
Finally after I got through my lunch, I promised never to order from that stall again. It has put me off the humble and tasty chicken cutlet for a while.
We continued on our way to the Yamaha music school to check out the prices of the electric guitar course. Its affordable. Maybe will take it up after I got my time-table and schedule figured out. That will be at the end of June.
After we made our way to Carrefour to get some drinks. Specifically for Tab, pandan flavoured milk. Which made me shudder with cold when she mentioned the name. EUUUUUU... I kept making that face. While walking in, we chanced upon new flavours for Nescafe. There's Tiramisu flavour and Banana Caramel. Tab decided to be adventurous and chose Banana Caramel against her normal choice for Tiramisu. Oh well, I took the Tiramisu one instead. Later she found her pandan flavoured milk and I bought another bottle of CornerStone, a red wine, which my ex-mentor said was very sweet??? Decided to give it to my dad. Belated Birthday gift? Hopes he dont nag and criticize when I give it to him.... he always does that to whatever we give him. I write about the taste after I try. Once outside, we opened up the coffee and took a sip.
"Mine, the banana taste is overwhelming... nothing much of the caramel." Tab made a face.
"How's yours?"
"... okay lor taste like chocolate. Lemme try yours..." we swopped bottles.
"Yours taste much better than mine." Tab replied.
"Yours, the banana smell is STRONG..... Very complex taste there.... like chemical."
"Man, I should have stuck to Tiramisu."
"HAHAHA! Who asked you to experiment and choose other exotic flavours. That's what you get when you laugh at your friend first." (made a face at Tab gloating over her misfortune)
"At least mine was exotic flavours, yours was just an ordinary order."
We continued walking around Plaza Singapura. Went into the sports equipment shop. I was looking for a small clip that you can use to measure the number of steps you took. Its called a Pedometer. Found it at Abi and it cost $29 bucks. A bit steep and the GSS was around so I asked if got any offers. The salesguy gave it to me for $25 bucks. So once outside the shop, I put on the pedometer and tried it out. Tab excitedly asked me to hop and jump to check if the meter was working. It is. Actually it works by measuring the up and down motion one makes when walking. She shook it in her hands and the number of steps increased too. A few steps later, Tab wanted me to jump a few times again. Imagine how we appeared to other shoppers. (One girl kept on looking at her friend's hips and asking her excitedly to jump and hop.)
So we continued. Decided to shop around the small shops at the basement. Went into one cos Tab wanted this top that is like a cardigan except that there are only sleeves. I tried it on and not so nice. Tab tried too. Not nice. Went to its neighbour shop and tried on an orange and a yellow top. While I was inside the changing room. This Saleswoman came to the outside and said that the jeans are on sale and shoved in a pair of jeans. It was kinda scary cos I didnt know if she was going to pull open the changing room curtains, to leave me exposed half-naked to Tab who was waiting just right outside. So after that, I tried the orange top and the jeans. My thighs not nice fitting. So off she went to get me one size bigger. While I was trying on the other yellow top, a hand came in to hand me the other pair of jeans which I didnt even ask for. Okay tried on. Still too tight for my liking. Tab said the jeans look okay but I didnt want the jeans as I had put on some weight (people tell me its muscles... I hope so.) Though my current jeans are a bit loose, I am trying to lose this extra weight first. Maybe by then I would lose more inches and would need another pair of jeans by then. So we hurried out of the store without buying anything.
We agreed that that Saleswoman was very very aggressive. She came, opened the changing room curtains to hand over jeans that I didnt ask for, did it again and made me feel anxious whether I would be 'exposed'... While I was changing, she kept telling Tab to try out the jeans and other merchandise. Then we fled. Not EVER going back again. I dont want to feel 'endangered' everytime I am in the changing room.
Continued walking and I saw the Fox brand boutique.
"Tab, lets go to F-Men and F-Woman shop."
"What did you just said? F-Man.... F-Woman..... Muahhhahahahah!"
"What? I didnt think that way, you know. Its you."
"You are the one who said it. You know what that sounds like?" Laughter roared.
(for people who happen to be very clean-minded. Basically I say F as a short-form for Fuck. So lets go to Fuck Man and Fuck Woman.....)
I tried on a pink top just for the heck of it. Its a size 1. Both of us agreed that Pink is just not my colour. I took a green top and tried it. Nice. Size 2. Decided to try the size 1 cos I could fit into the pink one. Except for the arms where its a bit tight, the rest especially the stomache is fitting. Finally I have a piece of fitting clothing. Size 2 is just nice for the shoulders but loose for the body. So I am a SIZE 1..... There is a 50% discount so I paid $11.50, a steal for a nice top.
After we left Plaza Singapura, I had bought a pedometer, a top, a bottle of wine. Tab bought pandan milk.... Hellbound 3 v Tab 0
Made our way down towards the main part of Orchard. We went into a shop that sold a lot of thai fisherman pants and dress. Almost bought something. But for me the pants not fitting. So didnt.
I wanted to go to HMV to check out a CD. When we reached the Japanese section. I saw my Love Letter, Gackt's latest album sitting nicely on the shelf. This is opposed to a few other occasssions, where there was absolutely nothing after the album was released for a month. I finally found it. There was also the soundtrack for Howl's moving castle. CD ga hoshii desu ne. Almost wanted to grab that and the soundtrack of Spirited Away all at one go. Luckily I restraint myself and listened to Howl soundtrack. It contained all the tracks from the movie but as the music is purely or performed by orchestra, I changed my mind. Too much of it will put me to sleep. Maybe I try to find my favourite tune online first.
In the end, I paid $53 bucks for the album. Very expensive ne! I agree but you havent seen the rest. A jap single cost $30, some jap albums cost over $80 dollars. The FFIX complete soundtrack which I paid $50 bucks for cost $91 for the original. So for this original album from Japan, $50 bucks is expensive but not the most expensive. Thank God. Otherwise I might not be so suportive for the albums. Then his last album I also paid $52 bucks. But I kept on listening for 1.5 years until this new album so I believe its very very hua shuan. His last album kept me alive while I worked in ShittyBank. I would bring my discman for lunch and listen to Gackt's songs. It kept me sane. Tracks like Last Song sooth my anger. It was something that kept me going. Cant wait to listen to this album.
I can say to myself... "I got a Love Letter from Gackt-san! Gackt-san, AISHITERU!"
(sense the desperdoness in that)
Oh well, I am in a bit of heaven. I always am whenever I manage to buy the comic or CD that I really wanted.
Dinner was at Pasta Mania at Cinelesiure. Earlier while walking down from OG, Tab told me she had tuition later. She would go home, change out of her shimmery fisherman wraparound pants, grab her BOOBs and off she'll go.
Wait a sec! I heard her say BOOBS. I swear. She meant BOOKS but omitted the sound of 'K'. Then she started saying that maybe I am not getting enough of it... getting desperate or horny or something. Err whose the one whose been blogging about all the lovey dovey stuff online and also thinks changes in the SEX LIFE... I think we all know who is horny. *winks*
After dinner, we left for our separate ways. Been an enjoyable day but things have not ended yet for me. I was going to Intense Animation for the free preview of the animation course that I was quite interested in. So there was showcase of Maya the program for projects like Final Fantasy games, Spiderman movie, Lord of the Ring and many more. Then an actual demonstration by the instructor and later some hands-on for us to play around with. I must say the user interface is scary but very very interesting.
Nnot to mention, there was a rather handsome instructor, tall and nice build and face and hair and voice.....
Okay, basically animation is divided broadly into character animation and background animation. To put the two together like a movie, requires compositing. An editing course which they also offer. This course deals with character modelling, very specific. Also has elements of background animation or what they call other elements modelling. Which can be put together too cos they have a bit of compositing to create the project clip. There are 4 aspects of character modelling, Modelling, Animation, Rendering and Dynamics. Its damn cool with what they can do. Its up to your imagination. With this course, you can model any character, create your own, manipulate its actions. Man I can try to model GTS into a real-life model with actions. Imagine all the flying markers.
In all aspects, its great! The only thing is the prohibitive price-tag $4.2k. Yep, totemo^3 takai desune!!!!! There is good news. To those who belong to the Infocom sector, there is a grant of $2.1k. So you pay effectively half. There is also a credit card instalment scheme whereby you pay $700 p.m over 6 months. Great except I dont belong to the Infocom sector by training or otherwise. Why arent there any training rebates for Educators? Unfair!!!! And I dont have a credit card.
The next course is in September. I will think about it, work out my finances to see whether I can afford driving, guitar, jap, hostel rent and Animation for the next six months, also whether I have the time to do so. Maybe I should quit my tuition to fully concentrate on all the things I want to do over this one year before REAL work starts. Still considering.... Money woes...Sign
Camp Fire Burning Now....
Today I couldnt go anywhere cos had to turn up for the campfire for students at seven. Hence I lazed around until then. Didnt take long as I woke up around 1pm (let all envy me..hahah) Well listening to the cheers and watching the performance, it reminded me of the time, so long long ago when I was an innocent student, doing all of that during orientation and camps. Even remembered some of the cheers and camp fire songs.
S__U__P__E___R, Super that's what we are
B__O__R__E___D, Bored that's what I am
S__U__P__E__R__B__O__R__E__D, super bored yeaHHHHHHH!!!!!
Get the picture. Cos we are just the audience. Not participating much, just watching the kids enjoy themselves, and feeling old when you remembered how you tried all those cheers and camp life before. My ex-mentor stayed over and told me that the flying fox was the coolest. The line was sagging so before you slide down, you drop down first, stop with a huge jerk cos its a long drop and then slide all the way down 5 storeys. Wow! Man, didnt have a chance to do that cos I didnt have to stay over.... The kids seemed to have throughly enjoyed themselves. Though can expect them to do all those cheers in class.
Scene 1
"Very good class." Teacher said to class.
"Excellent." Class replied.
Scene 2
"Very good class."Teacher said to class.
"Steady Steady Pom Pi Pi.... Pi Pi Pom Steady" Class echoed.
It seems every educator there expects this scenario after the holidays. I'll see if I got any relief class to the p5.
Today I couldnt go anywhere cos had to turn up for the campfire for students at seven. Hence I lazed around until then. Didnt take long as I woke up around 1pm (let all envy me..hahah) Well listening to the cheers and watching the performance, it reminded me of the time, so long long ago when I was an innocent student, doing all of that during orientation and camps. Even remembered some of the cheers and camp fire songs.
S__U__P__E___R, Super that's what we are
B__O__R__E___D, Bored that's what I am
S__U__P__E__R__B__O__R__E__D, super bored yeaHHHHHHH!!!!!
Get the picture. Cos we are just the audience. Not participating much, just watching the kids enjoy themselves, and feeling old when you remembered how you tried all those cheers and camp life before. My ex-mentor stayed over and told me that the flying fox was the coolest. The line was sagging so before you slide down, you drop down first, stop with a huge jerk cos its a long drop and then slide all the way down 5 storeys. Wow! Man, didnt have a chance to do that cos I didnt have to stay over.... The kids seemed to have throughly enjoyed themselves. Though can expect them to do all those cheers in class.
Scene 1
"Very good class." Teacher said to class.
"Excellent." Class replied.
Scene 2
"Very good class."Teacher said to class.
"Steady Steady Pom Pi Pi.... Pi Pi Pom Steady" Class echoed.
It seems every educator there expects this scenario after the holidays. I'll see if I got any relief class to the p5.
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