I am NOT your waitress!!

This, pisses me off BIG TIME. The one thing about my type of job that I absolutely abhor.

I AM NOT YOUR SLAVE/WAITRESS/SERVANT/CARPARK ATTENDANT. If you can't find parking in the building, go park somewhere else nearby. If you dun like the food provided at lunch, deal with it. And if you really want a SLAVE/WAITRESS/CARPARK ATTENDANT, go hire someone else.

I don't f***-ing care about sucking up to you in any way or form. I don't even care that you are some CEO or whatever big shot company and have only had foie gras for lunch. Your tastes/lunch preferences are of very little consequence to me. Oh, in case you haven't noticed, the highlight of this is the meeting, not the lunch??

I'm sorry I can't understand your $90 sushi taste 'coz I've mostly had $1.90 plates from Sakae Sushi so far. They taste pretty good to me. But then again, how would I know right??? My tastes are so plebian compared to YOURS.

Oh btw, did I mention I only have an $18 working lunch budget? U can bring your own $90 sushi if my $1.90 plate is really that offensive to your tastebuds.

gump-tion [noun, informal, "guhmp-shuhn"]: courage; spunk; guts: It takes gumption to quit a high-paying job.

Love the word - GUMPTION - rolls off the tongue with so much gusto, so much conviction and resolve, yet has an incredibly down-to-earth ring about it.

Picked this word up from the movie, The Holiday. I think it was possibly Kate Winslet's best line and best moment, when she demonstrated gumption, ie. Fantastic moment, esp. when she kicked that jerk of a ex boyfriend out of her house and her life for good. I cheered her on. *haha* Its crazy to be so involved in a movie character. =P

But yes, I resolve, and I think I've gathered sufficient gumption, strangely, over the last few days, to re-assert myself (even if I'm just ordinarily beautiful) and my life.

Enough is enough. If you can't live with it, well, then too bad for you (notice I don't say very rude things people typically and appropriately say at this juncture - coz I sincerely don't wish for anyone to go to hell, but that's a separate story altogether....).

Absolutely magical. So empowering. *woohoo!*

Orbituary

*wow* This is harder than I thought.

I lost a dear friend yesterday. An ex-colleague who I've known and worked with for the past 4 years, and who'd become a friend. Completely unexpected and coz of that, extremely shocking news of his passing. Ex-colleagues showed up in droves last night at the wake, people I haven't seen in the last 2-3 years, looking absolutely dazed by the news. Very few words were exchanged, just knowing silence - of shock and of loss. I don't think its something we'd get over anytime soon.

William, was one of my colleagues when I started my first job. Specifically, he was the energetic young chap who sat in the seat next to mine, always there with a ready smile and a helping hand. We got along and worked well together (occasional disagreements wrt to work here and there), and shared a lot of good times just laughing, joking, making fun of each other, praying and encouraging one another. We even tried to start a fellowship group at work once, although that died after a while. I remembered his frustration with work as the organisation evolved, and eventually him striking out to run his own business for a while to get away from office politics and to try and find a better livelihood for his young family.

He was your super "da hao nan ren" type of guy - warm, sincere, kind, dependable, earnest yet fun-loving. A dedicated husband and doting father. He was well-loved by all in the workplace, was everyone's friend/buddy. Even my then-CEO particularly liked him. I don't know one person who doesn't like him because there was nothing to not like about him. My fondest memory of him will always be how he'd play the theme song from Winter Sonata every morning as his 'national anthem', partly because he really liked the Korean series and the song, but partly also coz it irritated the living daylights out of me as his cubicle neighbour. He relished the moments when I'd roll my eyes in disdain at his music choice. I also remember how he used to "rescue" me from difficult clients at events, angry customers who'd insist on scolding me for hours on end - William would make up a white lie about Boss wanting to see me urgently to get me out of the situation, sometimes taking my place in front of the scolding customer.

And to think I just saw him a couple of months ago - we caught up for lunch when I noticed he started 'lurking' around my office building again, before I left my last job. We ate, laughed, shared our lives and our fears. We even joked about his "new eyes" with lasik surgery. Man, those times were good..... but things are different now. There's an inevitable tinge of sadness that I didn't spend enough time with him in the last couple of months.

Goodbye William, my dear dear friend. You will be dearly missed.

StanChart Run

So, our mad over-achiever friend (and I stress "MAD"), Ajantis had been training to run his first full marathon this year in Dec, at the usual Standard Charted Bank Run. He said he'd only run it once in his life, never again - yeah right...... *chuckle* But he did lose a lot of weight in the process of training for it, so that's a definite yay (apart from actually completing the marathon, which then deserves a "WAH!").

Anyways, we all showed up bright and early on a Sunday morning to cheer him on. I think we were a little nuts that day - we grabbed the free sign boards the organisers gave out for us to write our messages to the runners, and climbed on board the Run-spiration bus. See, this bus was suppsed to take us to see the runners run, and hopefully to see our runner run right past us so we can cheer him on in the most embarressing fashion.

Well, somehow things got delayed, we tried to time it to very little avail, so we missed him running right past us. But the worse part is, we got stuck in the bus for more than 2 hours, coz the bus took us through the entire route of the marathon and got caught in multiple traffic jams. In the end, our runner got to the finish line before we could arrive (in fact, we were still about an hour away). *gasp*

Btw, about the note on that board - Theresa was miles away in Ohio, and did send a message via us to say Hi to Ajantis! So we meant it, kay! *haha*

What an excursion.

The Holiday Season

Can I just say how much I LOVE the holiday season??? Not the holidays itself (not usually at least), but the entire 2 months leading up to it - its very festive, the streets and shops are all dressed up in holiday cheer, everyone's generally in a much better mood, all nice, warm and cuddly. *hee*

Typically, the holiday cheer comes in for me via the Xmas Starbucks paper cups. They change every year - did you notice that?? Its always slightly different, and its really nice and Christmasy. Just holding that papercup in my hand make me HAPPY. Like on drugs type happy. Happy beyond belief. *haha* We liked it so much, Serene and I even took 2 small paper cups (the type they leave there for you to get a small cup of water with) back to our offices! *hee*

But, typically, Xmas Eve and Xmas Day feel like the anti-climax, like they dun live up to the hype of the season. Its all fine and dandy if you've got plans, like a party to go to, or a loved one to spend time with etc. But if you don't, its incredibly lonely. I can't remember exactly how many Xmas Eves I've spent alone at home watching DVDs. Of course Mom and Dad are tyically around, but they have their stuff to do as well. Its miserable to be alone on a holiday - its when all the festive cheer comes biting right back at you and makes you completely cranky and grmupy. =P

ok ok, I'll stop freaking everyone out now...... *haha* Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year folks.

The Babe is Born!

No no.... I'm not refering to Jesus and Christmas, although it is apt for the season.... *chuckle*

This is a super overdue pic - Auntie Bimbo #1 (Babe, I have to upgrade you to Auntie status now) gave birth to a healthy baby girl in Nov, and we were just so soo pleased!! =) Its been a rather tough journey getting here, but I'm glad we arrived! And that I've had the privilege to walk through this part of her life with her and to see the lil one born finally.

The funniest bit?? This young mother had new fangled ideas (I din coin this word ah - the Nazi did!) about NOT taking epidural (C'mon, the woman faints when she gets normal injections, altho' I told her by that point of pain, you can't quite be bothered about that super large needle going through your back - you'd actually be glad!). But anyways, as predicted, the queen of no pain finally succumbed and took the epidural. Much to her relief actually...... *hahahaa*

So, congrats Auntie Bimbo #1 and Uncle Cannot-Tell-Jokes-While-He-Plays-Mahjong! *chuckle*