Glory Glory Tottenham Hotspurs! Karaoke

Care for a karaoke session?

Ha... Come on you, Spurs!

Playing Soccer over the Weekend

What do you get if you play soccer for the 1st time in 2 years...?

1) You can't run.
2) You can't kick.
3) Your soccer boots get spoilt.
4) You get a full body ache at least for the next 1 week...

Have not been using the soccer boots for 2 years, so not surprised that they gave way just after a few kicks. But at least my soccer ball is still "working". Ha...

So embarrassing...

My colleague jio a couple of us to have some kick around session during this festive season. It's been a long while since I last played soccer so more than happy to join them. I used to play more frequently like once a week or bi-weekly on street soccer courts. Perhaps too busy nowadays...??

Wonder if I should get a new pair of boot...?

As I'm writing this... my body is still aching... and shall see how long I need to recover from the body ache... :(

人类?

I like what my friend wrote on 人类... very interesting...

"人类人类, 做人真的很累很累........ 很累........"

Ha... izzit that tiring? :p

Tea and Spilled Milk

Tsunamis in Tea Cup

I was telling my wife, someday I will take some photos by simply throwing a camera (set with multi-shot and high shutter speed) off a high-rise building. The 72-storey at city hall mrt seem to be a good candidate :p Then collect the crashed camera at the bottom of the building. I expect the camera to be smashed while the memory stick still intact...

This will be called "Crash Photography"... :)

Christmas Outing

My wife and I went to Orchard Road (Shopping Paradise in Singapore) on Christmas Day. Heard the road was close for pedestrian to walk on the street.

We started off with a good lunch at a Japanese restaurant in WheelLock place before we start our stroll along Orchard Road.

Went to the 6-Star hotel St.Regis to have a look. Looked at the area... used it's toilet... :p

Sculpture outside the lobby. Hmm... Nice Butt...
Christmas time!

Road closure for people to walk on the main road. This is the first time I go underneath an ERP gantry without the need to pay!

We went for some desserts and drinks in Taka, then dinner. Feel relaxing and enjoying the festive season! Life should be this good. ;)

Giant Christmas tree and poster inside Taka (Same tree all decade long... :p)

Party starts!

Well, you no need to be a Christian to celebrate Christmas. Basically people nowadays used it as an occasion to give, share and celebrate!

World Peace...!! :p

Merry Christmas 2008!

Merry Christmas 2008!

It's a rather quiet Christmas for me this year. No Christmas eve partying, 1st Christmas as a married man... haha :p But so far still enjoyable.

I had a company Christmas lunch few days back. I have to say that it's the best company Christmas event I ever had (as if I had a lot of these before...?!?). Big bosses dressed up like Santa and singing festive songs. There are other activities as well. I can see the effort put in by the management which warms everyone's hearts during this difficult economic period. The effect was good; well done Bosses!

My wife got a present during her company's gift exchange. Recordable plush toy which you can record your voice before you give it to someone. Very interesting gift! Cute! ;)

Some suggested greetings...

... "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!"
... "Huat ah!"
... "Wake up, wake up!"
... "Kiss my Ass!" hahaha, just a suggestion... :p


Going Orchard later to enjoy the festive ambient. :)

Have fun! (If drink, don't drive. If drive, don't drink)

Uncle and Niece

(My 100th Post! Not bad huh :p)

Last Sunday I attended one of my cousin's wedding banquet at a hotel along Orchard road.

It's the first wedding dinner I attended since my very own one around 3 months back. The memory is somehow still fresh. But you feel a bit more "mature" in these occasions after you are married. Haha... talking BIG now?!?

My mum, brother and sister-in-law also attended the dinner. Not forgetting my cute niece! I was playing with her or carrying her most of the time; actually spent lesser time on the dinning table. It's been a while since I last saw her.

However I was so happy that day! :) You know why?? Because it's the first time she ever called me "Shu Shu" in front of me! I was so delighted!

Good girl!

Uncle and Niece

A Proud "Shu Shu" ;)

What a week...? Sleepless

What a week...?

It's the time of the year when things supposed to move a bit slower... as colleagues start clearing leaves... customers taking vacation... Christmas and New Year mood...

However this time round seem a bit busier than usual for me.
Recent time I just took over some job responsibilities from a colleague who left. Along with that, it includes this critical on-going project. It's high visibility assignment given the fact that it's a strategic positioning for future business and it also could be the only business revenue we can collect in the next 1~2 quarters. That's how bad the business is now... I suspect heads will roll if this project did not work out. We just got another few colleagues been retrenched in the past few days due to the economic downturn.

Back to the "project"... it's the monthly customer review meeting this week. I was busy doing the preparation. Consolidating the past month data, align with internal team, validating results with users...etc. It's critical period as we seek to have project closure by end of this year; earlier than our original schedule in Jan09. Stakes are high...

This meeting is on top of the weekly meetings with customer on every Thursday... conference calls on every Tue, Wed and Thur with my product Division... Daily email update to users... just for this project. Basically eat, sleep, breathe, shit with this assignment. Left with minimum time for other things on hand.

I was rushing to put together the monthly materials on Wednesday night. The next thing I knew, it's daylight... Sigh... Perhaps I'm too slow??

Anyway... I was still finishing the report just before the actual meeting in the afternoon. By that time, I was about 30hrs without a sleep. I was hoping to settle this and have a good day rest the following day since I would be on Friday leave.

Yes, eventually in time for meeting. Meeting went relatively ok. But getting customer to sign off the project seem more complicated. I care less at least at that time as I'm almost behaving like a zombie.

The first time I reached home is... KO... not till I received a call from my boss in the night.
We are pushing hard to get the early buyout by end of the year and I was told that Friday apparently was the last day to do so (taking in consideration of paperwork and process time).

Therefore I have to get my ass up early in the Friday morning to go to look for my customer. Was hoping to spend just a couple of hours of my off day to settle this once and for all.
I reached customer site around 7+am in the morning... but unfortunately left at 4+pm in the afternoon. Still no conclusion on the deal. "We will target Monday" my customer said. My heartbeat raced as I wondered what will happen over the weekend... more work? haha...

Sigh... times are bad. Customers are reluctant to spend $...
But it will be a company and personal win if we can complete this project earlier than expected.
Time is running out...

Well, at least my boss is aware that I sacrificed my off day to work on the project...
Pay rise? Ha... fat hope... just make sure he gives me a good retrenchment package!

What a week huh...

New Stadium

I would love to visit White Hart Lane (Home ground of Tottenham Hotspurs) some days.
Watch the team playing from the stands. Something I wanted to do at least once in my lifetime! :)

The club just announced the plan for a new stadium. So guess I need to go there in the next few years before the old stadium get demolished.

North London views...

Spurs on the Rise

Stock market diving...
Morale dropping...
Wages dropping...

At least one thing is on the rise!! My favorite Spurs has climbed the league table ever since Harry Redknapp took helm at White Hart Lane. Something to cheer about during these down times!

Come on you Spurs!

Give Up?

Been a while since I last wrote a lengthy post.

Things been happening rapidly in the last couple of weeks...

1st, A few colleagues left on their own will... (resigned)
2nd, A bunch of colleagues left against their own will... (retrenched)
3rd, I picked up more responsibilities during the process... (been forced?)
4th, I gave up on running this year Standard Chartered Run... (bad sign)
5th, Not forgetting a record low $2 COE along the way... (downturn)
6th, huh... still thinking...

A colleague of mine who was in my marketing department decided to pursue greener pastes in other industries last month. Dumping the "gone case" semiconductor industry... Good choice man! However what I did not expected was his job was eventually been "assigned" to me. What's even worse was my boss told me this decision just 3 days before my colleague was leaving. That left me just less than 24hours for pass-down; including a critical on-going evaluation.

Well... I don't really blame my colleague for that. Just disappointed with how things were handled by my management or my boss. I wouldn't go into details but there were things that I was been told in the morning like "X is true..." but just a few hours later... I was told by the same person that "X is NOT true"...

Sigh... How dynamic is this industry man??

Sad to say, I lost confidence in this industry. In some way, my company as well. This was further deteriorate during my company retrenchment which sees more than 10% of the workforce gone. More is expected. And yes, I survived the 1st round. But I was planning if I can be on the 2nd one. Crazy? Maybe...

To be fair, everyone else is also doing badly now.

People were saying that with additional responsibilities, I'm safe or "untouchable" and can go ahead to get a new car. I think otherwise, no one is indispensable. I'm tired of kept trying to make an impression with the US guys so as to justify my existence here. Hack it!

Giving up this year's Standard Chartered Run was a sign... a Bad sign... Though I did not train for this (an excuse I gave), simply giving up signalled the fact that I lost faith. Or... "Simply don't care" "Why bother" attitude. I went to the race to snap some photos but did not join my cheer leading colleagues at our designated area.

No good... no good...
Got to change and buck up!

Garlic Bread, Lemon Tea and Straw

Black Hole in the tea...