Off-In-Lieu

Took my OIL on Monday. Figured that i had better clear it soon cos its been more than a month since Deepavali, so if i were to take it later, people may wonder if i have really taken it etc etc. Yes, i know i can clear it within 6 months so there's no rush, but i know what i'm doing, so stop nagging. :P

When i came back, my colleagues asked me if i had gone overseas (ie up north i suppose?), but i told them that i met up with my ex-coll and was at the terminal, chatting with them and the cleaners. They were quite amused and said "Talking with the cleaners? What for?"

I suppose they had no ill intention when they said that, but it just highlighted how lowly we think of those who keep our buildings clean. Look, everyone wants a clean toilet, tables and chairs, but how many of us are willing to wash and clean these items? Would you be willing to wash the toilet, knowing its a public toilet, instead of cursing at the person who dirtied the toilet with poo and urine? Would you be willing to at least clean the seat if its dirty before using it, or would you just leave the cubicle for the next person and of course, the auntie to clean it? Most importantly, would you be willing to do it day after day after day?

I doubt so. If we can't even take the time to clean the seat if we dirtied it, or to flush the bowl as much as we can, i doubt you can be a cleaner. It takes strength of mind to do it daily and knowing how lowly people will think of you.

I remember the story about the body parts who were competing for the title of the most important body part. Every part was boasting about what it can do, and what the ass did was just to shut up. Moral of the story? The one quietly doing the dirtiest job is often the most important.

I wonder, what if one day all the cleaners stop working? There'll be on one to clean the toilets, clear the plates and wipe the tables, no roadsweepers, no one to clear your office wastepaper basket. What will you do then? And btw, do you know who your office cleaner is? Not just by sight, but her name, her family etc? Cleaners are people too...

No suggestions = lots of comments

One thing i dislike immensely is when people have no suggestion to give -- "I'm ok with anything; I'll go along with the majority lor" -- they still have lots of comments to make when others give suggestions. Look, if your own bloody choice was to give up the opportunity and to go with the flow, then don't bloody complain when the decision is not what you like! Have the guts to suggest! Instead of giving comments later to the community. grr...

I should have done what i wanted to do, but if i had done that then nothing will probably happen. Its really terrible sometimes. sigh. Give up on these people.

bunny hunny honey boney

I saw a guy at the pedestrian crossing the other night carrying a plastic bag with a picture of a pink cartoon head and i told dear that it looks cute. Dear thought it was Winne The Pooh, but i told him i thought it looked more like Piglet cos WTP isn't pink. We then continued talking about WTP and his bees...

Dear: His bees are all over his honey pots.
Me: Well, i don't like the way they spell honey. ''H-U-N-N-Y". Its just bad spelling lor. I always pronounce it as ''hue-nee''.
Is it? Its pronounced as ''honey'' isn't it? As in hunny bunny?
If thats the case, why don't they spell ''bunny'' as ''B-O-N-E-Y"? ok what, honey is H-O-N-E-Y, money is M-O-N-E-Y, so why can't they spell bunny as B-O-N-E-Y? Honey, money, bunny?
Isn't B-O-N-E-Y pronounced as ''bone-ni''?
Err... ya hor...

Kitty Korner

I brought the Hello Kitty dolls to liven up my cubicle and brought some map pins to pin them up, so set about the task this morning. The left side of my cubicle is the L-shaped fabric partition while the right is the storage shelves and cabinet, so i figured that if i were to hang them at my right, they would be in danger of being knocked about whenever i take things in or out from the shelves. Besides, as my notebook and phone is placed on my left, i wouldn't be facing my right very often. So the dolls, calendar and nodding head toy was carefully hung up/placed around so i can see them from where i was seated. :)

In the end? I realized that my toys are all tucked in one corner of my cubicle, or as i was telling little plum, all the HK dolls/toys she gave me form a Kitty Korner!

Haha! :P

My very own Kitty Korner... :)

New office & cubicle

My branch started the moving ball rolling today. It was mainly because of a shortage of office space, which was why some of us were moved out to an old building. We are now sharing the premises with a few other occupants, apart from those branches moving this week.

Went to the new place this morning. Dear was so sweet; he sent me to the new place even though it is out of his way, and all because i was grumbling about having to bring so many things along (pail, rags, all purpose cleaner, detergent etc) to clean my cubicle. Well, had nothing to read and do, because i had the notebook but no LAN cable! So no internet and intranet. The movers were fast; the first lorry arrived slightly after 10am. But as luck would have it, the boxes that came in weren't mine. In fact, mine only arrived about 2pm.

Spent my time cleaning, wiping, cleaning, wiping. And of course, trying to set up the notebook and playing minesweeper. Helped my neighbour to settle her cabling cos their idea is just to have the cables all behind their equipment! Wow... Then all the dust would be there and it would be too gross to clean, right? tsk tsk tsk... After settling hers, some of the other colleagues came by to visit and to compare how others arranged their cubicles -- the new workstation is about half the size in terms of tabletop area -- and when they saw how my neighbour arranged her cables, the two of us ended up showing how it was done and helping others set it up too. Heehee...

I like my new cubicle cos its in an isolated area. Although its facing the door -- i'm the second cubicle facing the door but because there's no one in the first cubicle, i'm technically the first that people coming in will see -- the partitions are relatively high so K and i are quite alone. Some of the colleagues had their location described as 'Good Class Bungalow' while AD's was Istana. K & mine? Semi-d/corner terrace. heehee!

setting up...

Lots of storage space what...

All arranged and ready to work! Still using the clock from the 1st christmas exchange with the class and brought HK given to me by little plum. :)

My larder... See Keroro on top? :)

Neighbourhood cat

This little grey cat lives at the carpark near my block and she has a very high-pitched meow. She's quite friendly too, and will present her tummy for a rub when i click my tongue at her. :)

Saw her focusing at the drain nearby and despite people walking past her, she was looking intently at the base of the drain and occasionally moving towards the edge of the drain before drawing back. No idea what was inside...

Photos of Horus

Took some photos of Horus. I like his butt a lot, especially after a bath when he is all shiny and gleaming and nice smelling. I'll grab his bum and take deep breaths. heehee...

Caught him in some adorable poses too, though its a typically sleeping position! But zoomed in at his parts that i found interesting... :)

Pressies from little plum

Little plum gave me a Hello Kitty calendar and a tissue and purse present. Yay! Brought it to the new office but still wondering how to hang the calendar cos the fabric partition is rather thick...

Shopping trip

We went to Bukit Indah today after our lunch at GP -- had crabs! yay!!! -- and spent 7 hours and RM$400. sigh... Well, applied for the membership card a bit too late, else it would have meant 400 points in my account. But then, it was more to be able to have the member's price when it comes to toiletries, so better than none... (self consolation!)

While waiting to pay at the supermarket, dear spotted a Hello Kitty ''bread'' so i went over to take a look. Of course, being me, i grabbed a box! Haha! Once its all used -- 100 pieces! -- i'll see how i can reuse the box. Its quite pretty, but i'll have to cover one side and the bottom. Will use my scrapbook stuff to make something out of it.

I pointed out to dear a car decal thingy, and being him, he took a photo of it. I suppose i would get it, but he didn't want it. Seems the bike is a real bike, only a super old model...

We had a snack at their local kopi-tiam. The coffee is not bad, but the bread was quite a sad case. Thought the butter sticks looked more like french fries than butter! Price was comparable to Ya-Kun's though.

All in all, had quite a fun day today. :)

yakkety yak

Attended a symposium on Thursday morning on best sourcing. The GOH had a pretty long opening speech -- all 45 minutes of it and he "ate" into the next presenter's time -- and he was going on and on about best sourcing and how we would have to compete with other countries by being cheaper, better and faster (yup, i guess you can guess who was the GOH and where the symposium was conducted).

While the GOH was talking away, the people in the row behind me were GOH-wannabes who were also talking away. There were 5 presenters, and these people decided that they wanted to be presenters too. So i had a fantastic surround sound system. Wow, i didn't know the auditorium had surround sound!

I was pretty pissed off and i kept glancing back and giving that irritated look. But nope, i wasn't brave enough to hiss at them or to tell them off. Perhaps if i were seated behind them i would do so. Why not tell them off? Well, they were seated behind me. How would i know what they would do to my head after i told them off? I still recall a newspaper article where pranksters applied glue or spat at the long hair of girls and women who were asleep or seated before them at the upper decks, and to date i still have this phobia of that happening to me. So no way would i tell off people seated behind me.

Is this the kind of attitude that the working class have nowadays? If so, can i extrapolate and deduce the kind of behaviour the younger generation of Singaporeans would have? After all, its a case of ''monkey see, monkey do'' for kids. And to think we complain about the behaviour of our children. Look at the adults in the first place...

Pampered? Or normal?

Went to inspect one of the schools this afternoon, where preparations were underway to equip it for another school, while its original location is being upgraded next year.

My colleague and i were discussing the changes and one refrain that kept popping up is that the school will not accept the standard that we are providing with this holding school site.

Let me digress a bit -- there are some old school sites that are left unoccupied. These are holding school sites and schools that have to be upgraded may either occupy these sites or, if the current school location permits, the school will remain in its premises while upgrading works are being carried out in which case the holding school site will not be needed. Something similar to HDB's MUP, where residents remain while upgrading works are being carried out. So i was at a holding school site which we were sprucing up to prepare it for the school that will be occupying it next academic year.

Anyway... I learnt from my colleague that another school had previously used the same premises, and she pointed out where the previous VP was located, the facilities here, there, everywhere... And all these that the previous occupant used were not acceptable for the next school! Our conclusion? That is the difference between a neighbourhood school and a "branded" school. I was told that the school had commented that the parents of the students are all well-connected and educated and that they will complain. Wow. Is the school implying that parents of students in neighbourhood schools or non-branded schools are uneducated?

That is one reason why i don't like branded schools very much, because i always come off with this impression that i live to serve them. What is the impression that we are giving the children in these schools? That they are the elite? If the pampering continues on this way, the next generation will be far removed from the lower-income and the reality of life. You don't expect your daughter to study in an old school building? Hello... the current school building will be upgraded so your bloody daughter can have a better environment in 2 years' time! So since when is life fair? And the courts are too rough for your precious' delicate feet? So what do you expect of us? To construct a new court for your daughter's use when its only for 2 years? Hey, i pay tax you know! There are better ways to spend the limited resources we have!

Sometimes its no wonder the kids are growing up in this way, because their parents pamper them, and then the parents wonder why their children are like that.

Fracto Mahjong

Went for a seminar today and many bodies and agencies put forth their innovations (not sure if that's the right choice of words) and ideas that were implemented. One thing that made an impression on me was Fracto Mahjong, a collaboration of the Singapore Science Centre and the North Cluster teachers. Of course it made an impression on me. I saw the mahjong table and tiles and i thought -- Whoa! Gambling!!! heehee...

Well, it builds on the similar concept in forming 4 sets and a pair. What it teaches the children is fractions, percentages, decimals and shapes. For example, a set could be three of the same ie 0.4, 4/10, 40% or 4 shaded boxes. You could have 2 of the above and if someone discards the 3rd, you go 'Pong!' and you have one set formed. Unlike mahjong however, the rules are that only the shaded boxes can be the pair. This makes it more difficult to win. No gambling, though!

I thought it was a good idea cos the children learn the similarities in the numbers, percentages and decimals. Apparently the children who were given this to try out caught on very fast. However, its not available commercially -- nope, don't bother looking for it and anyway it'll be patented soon -- and the SSC staff i spoke to said they do not think parents will be happy cos they may think that its promoting gambling. Hey, if you think this way, then every time you cross the road, you're gambling too. After all, its a 50% chance that you'll be knocked down, right?

Anyway, if its available, i'll get it for the seedlings for Christmas. Heehee! :)