dance moves

Don't even know the names of the moves.!
Rashida had not done those before so everything was down to my strong lead.!

resignation!

I'd had this playing over and over in my head for countless times.

When I finally pulled the trigger today there was actually a tinge of sadness.  I will be leaving behind some of my beloved friends from work.  Didn't see that coming really.

The gratification wasn't really from finally buggering off in the most irresponsible fashion possible, rather it was from looking forward to the new challenge, new people and the new work place.  I will blow them away so I vow!

My long interview history:

Deutsche x 2
ING
Standard Chartered x 3
Citibank
NETS
Maybank
BNP Paribas
Temasek

fine dining

Had some torteleni with 'king crab', it had some really fancy name that I forgot immediately after reading it the menu.

'King crab' was just a mouth piece of crab meat which I savoured very slowly like sipping aged whiskey.  The flavour was absolutely fantastic.  A mouthful of this king crab was way more satisfying than a whole mud crab.

It is the experience that counts I suppose.

Life is like chocolate - social butterfly

Aki is one of those girls.

You will spot her immediately like a beacon, like a lighthouse by the sea on a pitch black night. She simply stands out.  She just attracts attention effortlessly.

Sure she is good looking but that's not all there is to her. She exudes that star quality.

Did I also mention she lived in south America,  is a kickass dancer and speaks multiple languages?

"Is she coming tonight? "

"Yes she will be here "

"Who will be here? "

"Aki.  Aki will be here ".

Then the crowd goes into frenzy . The men start to check if their hair look OK.

"How many out of ten would you say Aki is? " I ask cheekily

"At least 8.5"

"9!!"

"The perfect 10!"

Everyone wanted her number and she was not shy to interact with members of the opposite gender.

When she showed up at a salsa venue she would get invited for dances all night long.  The queue would get so long that her girlfriends benifitted from the spillover of the attention she was getting.  Everybody dances  more and everybody wins. Sweet.

I invited her to a language exchange event and all the guys swooned and gathered at her side. After it was over she said she wanted to go dancing.

"I want to go to the dancing place now. "

I looked at my watch, it really was late enough on a workday. Buy hey I'm not her mother.

I annouced that Aki was to go to for a  second round and told everyone who was interested to follow our lead.

An army of men followed us to our regular salsa venue. Most of them didn't dance; Aki sportingly showed them how.

I met Aki on and off at our usual salsa place and other music festivals. She always glammed up and she always partied hard, real hard,  with beautiful girlfriends and of course hordes of eligible men.

I made my opinion about her.  She is a party girl.  Actually  I would go as far as to say she was sex and and city.  Perhaps not a Samantha but at least a Carrie.

Girls just want to have fun. I don't judge. If I could command men's attention and compliance wherever I went why would I even consider settling down.  Why would I get just one dish when I'm dining at a buffet restaurant?

Many months later I stumbled upon a photo showing Aki in a traditional Indian wedding dress.

My curiosity got the better of me and I dug further.  It turned out Aki married an Indian guy in a whirlwind romance.

Last week I met up with our mutual friend.  He was closer to Aki than me,  in fact I got to know Aki through him.

"In the traditional Japanese society, girls in their late 20s face a lot of pressure to settle down.  She was under a lot of this pressure. "

I cocked my head like a curious puppy which doesn't quite follow an instruction.

"She had always been very focussed on finding a husband.  She only wanted marriage as she had no time to fool around. Her going to parties and night outs was just to meet the right man to marry. She wanted to do it at the earliest possible opportunity."

That's rather incredible stuff.  I knead my eyebrows tightly.  So I had been wrong all the time.   All she wanted was a good, family man to settle down with as soon as possible.   Sbe did it by partying as much as she could and by meeting as many men as she could.

She was no sex and the city after all.  More like pride and prejudice,  or sense and sensibility, and I was the bloody fool.

life is like chocolate - lunch break

Working life is a pain.  It can really be a pain in the neck.

Sometimes I go through a whole day without a break, or rather without a moment even to catch my breath.

I get frustrated when I don't get my lunch break because I simply do not have a moment to spare.  I get even more frustrated when caring co-workers with good intentions insist I join them for lunch.

"I just had a really heavy breakfast "

"I am on a special diet regime. I don't do lunch"

"I not feeling well so I'll skip lunch. "

After a long period of deliberate evasive maneuvers everybody gave up on me.  I'm simply known as the person who doesn't eat.

"You know what,  I don't think I have ever seen him eat"

"Perhaps he doesn't need to because he is a vampire. "

I adopt and own such a reputation. Just let me be.  I just sulk and work through lunch grouchily,  staring daggers at anyone who brings up lunch in their conversation.

As expected or unexpectedly, work efficiency is still low. I hardly accomplish anything.

I do feel angry all the time like Bruce Banner though, restraining myself hard not to smash all the office equipment.

One fateful day Cara had some matters with me and I had to meet her for lunch.  It was such a long lunch break that I eventually gave up on checking my watch.

"Just take it easy and have your food"

I begrudingly complied.

"After this we will have some desserts next door. "

My exasperation turned to despair.

When I arrived back at my desk I realised I had been away for 2.5 hours.  That's a crime for capital punishment if caught.

I thought no further about it and dived back into work.

When I finished for the day I realised it had been the most productive day I'd had for as long as I could remember.

I really should take long lunch breaks to improve productivity.

Or I could just be my usual tired and hungry self and attempt murder on people around me with my angry stare.

It's just a personal choice.  There really isn't a right or wrong answer.

Life is like chocolate - mobile

The mobile phone has been serving me faithfully  without any big problems albeit the occassional niggles.  It has been functioning well,  well I guess well enough.

Then one fine day it decides not to wake up.

I spend hours at end trying to charge it with different chargers and rebooting it incessasantly.  On some rare occasions it powers on but the battery just drains flat almost immediately.  Having used multiple chargers and cables I manage to isolate the problem.  It has to he a faulty battery. I arrive at this conclusion cocksure.

So off I go to a electrical store to get a new battery.

The same problem persists. I spend many more hours trying to work out the cause in futile.

I rant to Mr Ong at work. Being an outrageously kind person as he always has been, he offers me a spare phone which is the the exact same model as mine.  I try to decline.

"Just use it until you decide on a new phone.  It is just at home gathering dust.  Soon it will become faulty for being disused anyway. "

 Well it sounds like a sound argument.  I object no further.

Upon receiving his mobile, a thought strikes me and I proceed to using the battery from his mobile.  My mobile now works fine.

I run through the evidences in my head, apply logical reasoning  and arrive at a second  conclusion cocksure,  discarding my earlier conclusion.

"The electrical store sold me a faulty battery. How could they be so unscrupulous?  It's not just the money they cheated but also my precious time.  These cowboys should be tightly controlled.  The government should clamp down on dishonest business people... !"

I spend a considerable amount of time at work trying to make clear my political views to at least half a dozen co-workers.

With that behind me I get back to my routine.

Until later in the evening the battery goes flat shortly after I try to recharge it.

Now with two mobiles and three batteries and a dozen charger and cable sets I sit down and reassess the entire situation. I charge multiple batteries using the mobiles and observe the outcome.

It then finally comes clear to me.  The charging point on the mobile phone is the culprit.  It drains the battery upon charging.   This is the my third and final cocksure conclusion.

Such is life. Eveytime I am cocksure about something it turns out I am wrong. I may get it right eventually but only after being repeatedly humiliated and humbled  along the way,  all along the way.

fortuitous

Stumbled upon a book shelf and made it mine.

It was hard work carrying it from the skips.  In the end I was thrilled with how I made use of it right away.

Celebrating little fortuitousness in life..