Have fun with your bosses!

After telling you howboring my office, here's some fun and joy to share. First, some top guy in my company said "a SET of twins". It's like a set of chopsticks, a set of team, a set of people and a set of eyes.

And here's something more - A picture says a thousand words.

Someones, but i won't who, have been bringing joy and laughter to the office with photoshop. We went beyond work.

May I present to you my "new" boss - Kungfu Peter

as well as master wu gui, the tortoise, now turtle






My boss has seen all these, and he seems to be enjoying all the attention.

Enjoy the weekend!

Use my brains!

I'm so bored at work working on the nothings... can die. And this morning, the aircon died... added on to my woes. I'm also becoming more stupid each day. The only comfort is the Recruit section in ST everty Saturday and recently one more to assure myself that i can still think - I actually came up with this while watching tv - which is the most environmentally friendly animal?

(Scroll down)







It's the kangaroo! (cuz it carries its own bag around). I'm really intellectually deprived, isn't it?

Oh yes, and the manager from Chan Brothers finally called to apologise after seeeing my letter in the ST forum the same day. He said it was all his agent's fault. He had told him to look into the matter but he forgot all about it, busy preparing for the upcoming travel fair. The manager promised to mail us a cheque for the exchange rate difference and even took down my address. And it has been 3 weeks since we spoke. Maybe he needs another letter to remind him so he can remind his agent? Besides using his brain, he also needs to use his heart.

Chan Brothers - Fly-by-night

In early March this year, my sister and I wanted to book a free and easy holiday to the US for mid March, so we went to an established travel agency, Chan Brothers Travel. The trip to Portland and San Francisco was wonderful but the experience with Chan Brothers was unexpectedly disappointing.

We had enjoyed a two-night stay at the Mark Spencer hotel in Portland until we checked out. The hotel staff refused to honour the hotel voucher issued by Chan Brothers, saying that they were unaware of the arrangement. We tried explaining to them that the accommodation had been paid for in Singapore as part of the package, but to no avail. The hotel suggested we make the payment first and then seek a refund from our travel agency when we return to Singapore. As we were in a hurry to catch a flight, we had no choice but to settle the bill on our credit card.

Upon coming back to Singapore, we reported the case to Chan Brothers. We specified the refund be made to us in Sing dollar. They did manage to us get a direct refund from the hotel to our credit card but it was in US dollar and due to a difference in the exchange rate, the refund was S$15 short of what was debited. We went back to Chan Brothers but they said there was nothing they could do. They were unable to compensate us the difference. The tour officer that helped us book the tour package and whom we subsequently called, always seemed freaking impatient over the phone and in his emails, and it has been almost two weeks since he informed us that his manager would contact us on the exchange rate matter.

To Chan Brothers, S$15 may be a small sum (at least that was the impression we got) but that is not the point!!! We do not think it is fair for consumers to bear the extra cost due to miscommunications (or lack of it) between the travel agency and its hotel. The explanation given to us was there was problem with the computer system.

I thnk it might have been better to travel with the fly-by-night travel agencies at People's Park than with the cannot-make-it Chan Brothers. Or do your own booking online.

Ways to experience San Francisco

Hey there, I went to Portland San Francisco 2 weeks ago and have MY way to enjoy the hilly city (i.e SF).

Take the cable car, ride up and down SF, especially the stretch bewtween fishermen's wharf and union square, be entertained by the 2 drivers onboard and watch them change the direction of the cars at the terminals.

Try to find the free Presidio Downtown at the Embarcado station (bus stop rather hard to locate), take it to the Presidio Visitor Center and change to the Presidio bus to see the Golden Gate Bridge. Free one.

Don't worry if you lose your in the Presidio, just look out for this friendly, superstar lookalike Muni (no.43?) driver who tries his best to give directions and takes you THERE.

Eat dim sum at Chinatown (siew mai at Hoang Ah, Pagoda St is great but provided u can locate it), then walk up and down the hilly district to burn some calories. Chinatown in SF is like HK in the 70s and 80s. Reminds me of Sheung Wan. Look out for the "Goach" bags

Visit Alcatraz and learn how to escape from the prisons.

Shop at Union Square and especially at Old Navy...catch the weekend sales. I bought 4 pairs of shoes at one goal

MUST go UC Berkeley, talk to some smart people there and not forget to try out the wonderfully tasty gigantic honey oatmeal sandwich from cafe montessori along telegraph ave. Amoeba music is worth a visit

For cartoon junkies, catch the simpsons and the family guy on tv in the evenings. Lose some moral values

Take the F line streetcar to catch a glimpse of the city, then spot some blacks and homeless yelling or maybe fighting along 6th and 7th Market Street, striking crowd...

Go to Ferry Plaza Market if you can spare some time

Must drink Starbucks. Everyone has a cup in their hand, so don't lose out (bring your kiasu-ism with you). Coffee especially comforting in winter (it was 5deg when i went).

Try to meet some new friends on the plane ride to Japan, most of them are Japanese. Remeber to learn some manners and bring them back to Singapore. Will talk about Portland later when i'm in the mood.

Xmas Gift Exchange – The Litmus Test

Everyone has a value attached to him or her – I mean each of us will assign a value to people we know, some more, some less, some worthless even negative. Xmas gift exchange, among other occasions such as birthdays and valentine’s day, is by no means the best time to reveal (how much u like/disgust a person) and discover (your own worth) that.

Shopping takes effort – we look forward to the expression on the recipients’ faces.

People who matter to us, we try our best to second guess what they like and buy them their dream gift. It takes lots of hard work but the look on their faces is worth it all (or can be really disappointing).

Compulsory/peer-pressured gift exchange, so we’ve to willing or unwillingly chip in or buy something for some people whom we would otherwise rather not see. In the case of the former, we make enormous efforts to find the cheap (if not cheapest) and most presentable item we can in town – it kills brain cells. But the disappointment on their faces is worth the rummaging the piles for the BEST find!


Both are painstaking but to me FUN!

Sometimes we have no choice but to buy the cheaper range cuz the real thing is out of reach; or we exchange gifts for the fun of it; or we simply buy cheappos for the cheapskates.

And its very telling when A particular person receives all the GOOD BUYS!!! Its time for him/or to reflect but of course some get the gifts precisely b’cos of who they ARE– our lives will be less exciting without them!!! I NEED them.

Working with People

I read it somewhere that smart people are those who ask lots of questions and listen more than they talk. I’m glad to be working with some smart people and also the not so smart ones. Some people just keep quiet or have the blank stare b’cos they are clueless of what’s going on. Some keep nodding when you are talking, as if they understand it all. Then the next moment, they pop a stupid question. Of course, some just look/are plain (stupid).

I’ve worked and am still working with some “genius” who screwed things up and kept assuring me that everything would be just fine. Recently there’s this cannot-make-it printer who cannot get things right, not even copy and paste jobs. Last week, he offered to give me a good price for a job, I told him to put it down in the quotation. And he said “like that it will be meaningless”. So I asked him “Then what’s the purpose of a quotation?”, and he was dumbfounded. He just asked for it.

He was supposed to print some name cards for a lady director. So I told him to follow the template he used for a male manager. He said "Don't worry, i know what to do". He sent me THE template, untouched. Of course, these are just 2 out of the 10 encounters with him.

The classic example I could quote you was my ex-colleague who put up an invitation to quotation for whistles. She received some calls for clarifications and one vendor asked: the whistle can blow or not?

I must share that I've enjoyed working with the society for the physically disabled. They are so much more abled and smarter than the abovementioned retards.

The next time someone tells you: Don’t worry or no problem, please take extra care.

Some regrets in life...

I couldn't sleep last week after waking up in the middle of the night, as well as didn't start my day well today, all for one reason - i didn't manage to destroy the 2 big, fat & juicy cockroaches in my toilet. I can only watch them grow bigger and bigger each day...

My favourite is still flying cockroaches, it makes the whole chase more interesting! Hope i can "alleviate" my regret later when i go home this evening.