My 1st race

As I am writing this, I am still having the bout of adrenaline rush. I just had a race along Bukit Timah road with a black Chevrolet. I was taking my time travelling back home from Toh Yi Drive when one stupid car overtake me recklessly! WTF! Heaved a breath that I did not picked up my speed at that time. Then I saw the jackass rest his elbow on his window. I was damn stirred up at that time. I stepped on the accelerator and overtook him to the 3rd lane.

Then on he picked up speed too. Fine! We reached the next traffic junction and the race begun and we were driving like 100-120kmh along Bukit Timah Road towards Bukit Panjang and my rpm shot up to 4+rpm during take off from the traffic light. For those of you who knows me, I don't usually exceed my acceleration to >3rpm. During the route, I realised what I learnt during the Einstein Module in Uni was so true. The faster you drive, the narrower the road looks. How accurate! Anyway before passing the Linear, he gave up. Ha! I won. I just changed my tires alright? The grip to the ground is very good and you want to play play?

Felt an overwhelming surge of excitement. The thrill was one of a kind, even better than the Viking rides. The last time I experience it was when I was racing a Toyota Wish along a short stretch of about 300m at the small road outside my work place. That time, this stupid car don't want to give way to me turning left and simultaneously, both of us raced to the next turn.

I think Singaporean are very bad drivers. Taxi drivers are worse. In Europe, if you are travelling on the 1st lane and an oncoming vehicle high-beamed the car in front, the car will defnitely give way. Or if they see on their rear mirror that a car is approaching, they will automatically give way. In Singapore, the idiot will purposely drive even slower and prevent you from overtaking somemore. There is speed limit correct but if you are so "chicken" you may get fined for driving over the speed limit then for holy sake, move your ass to the left lane and let the approaching car bear the risk of getting fined! What if there is some urgent matters that it is a race against time? Some drivers are just so selfish. In many countries, cars can travel up to 180-200kmh and still feel very safe. Speeding is not as dangerous if tailgating, road-hogging and overtaking unnecessarily are not practised.

Damn pissed off!

Haven't been updating my blog for quite some time. My life's been pretty normal, nothing excited to update about also, except included a new routine in my life - mahjong every weekend without fail! But that was not what triggered me to blog. I am going to blog about this "Hao Lian Bor" in my office.

This girl, no I mean woman (she is my age but look older than that!), as the name "Hao Lian Bor" suggest just made me boil today! I have tolerate her once a year ago on a similar matter and seeing that we share the same cubicle and we worked together in the same before, I let it rest. Oh, and I thought her the ropes when she first came into my shift. I should have "te kan" her last time but heard from a colleague that she was worried after knowing I was her shift leader, I decided to welcome her into the shift by first breaking the ice. I seldom do that one ok especially when the fella did not come and talk to me first.

Anyway, when I read my passdown this morning, I realised I was hit by a giant knife behind my back! I passdowned something during the weekend and it was not done properly by the shift engineers. So on Saturday when I came back to work, I wrote in the passdown to inform them that the specific thing was not done so need to do an extra job at night and I even reminded them to read the instruction over the weekend carefully to avoid making mistakes since this is a big issue. And guess what? "Hao Lian Bor" wrote in the passdown to say I was the one who did not do my job properly causing them to make the mistake!

I was freaking "du lan"! Pls exhibit some kind of diligent lah, my goodness sake. As an engineer who has worked 4.5 years, dont you know how to check the status and do the necessary task? Must I write every single bit of shit for you? If I write "pls shit after at 3o'clock sharp and after shitting, use the shit and smear on your face", will you also do that? What a pea-brain!

Also, she always join in my other male colleagues to say I am fat. My male colleagues meant it as a joke although yes I put on some weight but she did not make it sound like a joke. .. and she is like 10kg heavier than me and yet she still dare to say I am fat!? Bloody piece of lard!

Suddenly after talking to Superboy, I have less to say. She is just an incapable person who only knows how to open her mouth and complain and tell takes behind one's back. F#$& you! No way! How to f&%$ someone who look like that? *puke*

Home Sweet Home!

Not been blogging since I returned from Italy. To sum up the 2+ months I been back - one sentence, I love to be back! I can go anywhere in my car and dont have to ask 6 person before finalising where to go for dinner, what time to go for dinner and what not. I can now eat whatever I want to eat and not live with some arses who must have a healthy meal every night. Cannot stand some of them really... live a short while in a foreign land still expect everything to be like home. WTF!

Anyway, was glad that I am finally back to my work station. Feel useful and important at last and not hanging out at the vending machines and sneakily logging on to the internet. This is the first time I feel tired of not having anything to do. 2 months gone by and I was vrey happy at work though at times can get rather busy... UNTIL yesterday when this bloody mother fucker came into the picture. It was difficult to explain here what the bloody fucking thing he did but he offended me big time. Highly possible that I keyed something into the system which made him get a scolding from his boss. Professionalism he ain't got any, hence he snubbed me back in this system, which if I dont key in to look, I will not know what he did. He is sneaky, smelly piece of shit! I want to curse him, curse that he fall into a pile of dog shit, facedown and his car gets spray paint with the word "fucking CB" across his bonnet, hope that the earthquake will engulf him into the ground and never to have this piece of junk straying in the streets ever again. Any good fairy godmother wants to help me with my wish? I shall repay her back when I am back from Bangkok next week.

P.S: I am going Bangkok tomorrow! Yippee! =)

Madrid (16 Dec 2006 - 17 Dec 2006)

The decision for the last place of travel for my stay in Italy has got to be something either not so common or exotic. We had narrowed down to Prague, Athens and Madrid. The better air ticket for Prague required us to depart from Bergamo and return from Malpensa and this is impossible since we need to park our car at the airport. As for Athens, we do not have enough time to plan and time may not be enough. But Athen is damn cheap can? Only about 35 euro! We don't want to go Barcelona cos everyone from Singapore coming to this training was visiting that place. Moreover, Madrid is the capital of Spain so that gives it another better reason to go.

We arrived in Madrid at night. Their metro stations and trains are one of the cleanest we ever seen in Europe. Took the metro to our lodging place near Plazza Sol, one of the most crowded place in Madrid it seems. The place is as infested with people as Orchard Road during the New Year countdown. We slowly squeeze our way to our hostel which is like just beside a Starbucks and in the midst of all the crowd. Our hostel room is just enough to fit 3 double-deck beds and there is barely enough space for the 6 of us to manoeuvre around, but there is an attached bathroom which is of a reasonable a size and clean (most important!).

The next day, we made our way to Plazza Mayor and there is a small X'mas market selling mostly X'mas decors. I miss the fanciful X'mas market in Innsbruck... Then we went to the Madrid Royal Palace. This is the first time that a palace/castle is readily available for visit despite so many we came across during our travel. We joined one of the guided tour at 5 euro. We learnt that one of the king actually made his queen bore him 24 children and due to complications, the Queen died at a early age of 30+. 24 children!!!! My god! But at least those ang-mo kings seems more faithful. Not like that Chinese kings who has a concubine palace of 3000 wives! Does that means he'd had sex at least 3000 times before? Who on earth can reach that number! Does Guinness Book of Record has the name of the person who has the most number of sex partners? Bet it must be a Chinese king! The tour was about 2-3 hours, walking through the heavily decorated rooms and explaining to us what room was it. Amazing thing is the Spainish king and queen have separate rooms. There is a room especially for the Queen. We saw some porcelain plates and cups there and the guide told us it was given by China when it was still under the Emperor's ruling.

We planned to make this trip a relaxing one... that is no places that must be covered, no need to strictly follow itinery. We went to the Madrid Garden next. Heard from one of my friend that "San Mao" wrote a famous short story and one of the setting was in Madrid Garden. The garden is indeed big with a small lake in the center where families row around in small rented boats. The garden reminds me of the many gardens I visited while in Melbourne.

Some of Spain most famous for are bull-fighting and tap dancing. We went to this bull-fighting arena and it was big. It looks something like the Colosseum in Rome. Was a pity the bull-fighting season is over, but we tour and learn more from the guided tour nevertheless. When the bull-fighters (called metadors) met with a mishap and died during a performance, he will be taken to this small room and his family can collect his body there. And before a matador goes for his performance, he will pray in silent at a small chapel in the arena. All this makes this bull-fighting thing so scary. But it is a classic experience to be inside the bull-fighting arena, one of the most famous in the world.

Paris (7 Dec 2006 - 10 Dec 2006)

This weekend's destination is Paris, the city of lights. When I was a little girl, I heard so much about Paris through the television shows, books and magazines and how romantic the city is. I had always wanted to go there and fall into deep, passionate embrace on top of the Eiffel Tower with my Prince Charming. As I grow older, I wanted very much to see the Lourve Museum in Paris. I am not those arty-farty type but because I heard about many attempts made in history to steal the paintings from the Lourve, it made the place sound so mysterious. Can you believe the excitement in me when Da Vinci Code came out?

After arriving in Europe and hearsay from other people, Paris doesn't seem to be as perfect as I once thought but nevertheless, a trip to Europe without going to Paris seems like a sin. For this long holiday of 4 days, I decided to see Paris for myself.

Day 1:

When we arrived in Paris, it was raining heavily and the wind was very strong. Our brolly almost got blown off! The metro lines were a terror. There are the inter-city lines and the intra-city lines. There are at least 2 different metro companies operating in the same train station. It took us a while to familiarize with the understanding the metro system.

We walked several blocks from the Marcel Sembat station to our hotel under the rain and wind and with our 4 days of luggage. The room was really small. I guess most hotel rooms in France are tiny. After drying ourselves, we started on our first stop in Paris - Notre Dame.

It is just a cathedral like any others we see around Europe. I think the Milan duomo looks nicer than Notre Dame. Guess it is so famous because of the show "The Hunchback Oak of Notre Dame". Seriously, I never see the movie before but since it is listed in one of the must-go so go there take a few photographs to show BTDT (been there, done that).

Next stop - Lourve. The walk from Notre Dame to Lourve made me realized how beautiful Paris is. The cars are better maintained, the people dress more elegantly, the French are fairer... ok, maybe the fairer part doesn't make Paris a better city. Ha! We started cam-whoring everything from the graffiti, leaves to the dustbins. Lourve was a palace before it was converted into a museum so you can imagine how bloody big the museum is and how many thousands of paintings and artifacts there are in Lourve. Saw the prism shown in Da Vinci Code and began to fly my shutters away. Somehow after watching the movie, you feel like you came all the way from across the globe just to see this prism thingy. Walked around and towards the direction of Mona Lisa. I don't find her portrait fascinating but then again everyone heard of Mona Lisa so must also go and see. If you don't know where is her portrait placed in the museum, just go to the place where many people gather and you will see Mona Lisa behind a plastic cover. We were speculating if it is bullet-proof. Haha! Spent about 4 hours in Lourve and we still could not cover the entire place, given the fact that we really zoom past each paintings and artifacts except for photo-taking.

Went to see the night scene of the Eiffel Tower and it really took my breath away with the dazzling lights which lit up the entire tower at every hour. With the cool breeze and warmth of the beautiful Eiffel Tower, I almost would marry anyone who proposes to me at the moment. Ha!

Day 2:

Fulfillment of childhood dream. Paris Disneyland! I am not into thrill rides except for ferris wheel or the carrousel. My main purpose there is to take pictures and buy those cutesy souvenirs and to see the princess castle. Paris Disneyland castle is the Sleeping Beauty castle. I have that fairytale in hardcover somewhere in my storeroom. I think different Disneyland in the world has a different castle. As it turns out, Disneyland was really pretty. The atmosphere is very much alike in the storybooks. And with X'mas round the corner, the place is even more magical.

There are a couple of interesting thrill rides but due to the strong winds, many of the outdoor rides were cancelled. Too bad for those who came for the rides. Haha! I bought a lot of stuffs from the stores. It's a crime if I don't bring those Disney tins of candies home! Despite spending the whole day in Disneyland, we are still not able to cover every corner of it.Day 3:

Lucky to have nice weather today as we are going to the famous Eiffel Tower. I wonder how many movies have their setting in Eiffel Tower. The structure was humongous! It was a Saturday and the place is infested with people. We spent like 2 hours in the queue to purchase the ticket. In the end, we either bought the wrong ticket or went into the wrong entrance; we climbed up the stairs of Eiffel Tower instead of taking the lift up! We climbed the 1st 2 segment of the enormous mega-structure and took a lift up to the highest part of the tower. The view there was magnificent. Had our lunch at the Eiffel Tower - how cool is that but it's freaking expensive though. But it was worth it, given I was on one of the most talked about structure in the world.

We went to the Arc de Triomphe next. The purpose of an arc in Europe is mostly to commemorate the bravery of the soldiers who has died in a war. Sometimes, it is also a structure for victories won on battlefields. I thought it was just like the other arcs I'd seen in Europe. But this arc is way bigger and most importantly, it is situated at this big roundabout with 12 exits around the roundabout. No wonder it is one of the must-go places in Paris. It would have made a nice picture to take from the top of the arc but it was getting dark and the queues are never-ending.

When night comes, we had dinner at this typical French restaurant and tried the French cuisine, foie gras and... I dislike it. They say either you love it or you hate it, just like durian. Ok, so it has proven that I belong to the group which hates it. After which, we went to the famous Champs Elysees, a high-end shopping street at one of the exit from the Arc de triomphe. It has trees on both sides of the roads lined with X'mas lightings. But too bad, we came too late and most of the shops are already closed but the crowd was still mingling around all dressed in Hugo Boss suits and Prada dresses. Bought a NIKE tee with "Paris" written on it, which I think is only available in Paris. Love it, Think more international brands should have such a concept just like hard rock cafe tees.

Left Paris to catch the plane back to Milan in the early morning. I will miss Paris. Think it is one of the best city so far I have visited. They say Rome is nice but I say Paris is stunning.

Innsbruck (2 Dec 2006 - 3 Dec 2006)

Austria - A country which I always have this impression of dull and dark mass of land, filled with soldiers wearing those hats that covers the ears (Argh! Forgot what was it called?) and had a history of century-long battles. Boy was I wrong!

We drove like 5 hours to this famous town Innsbruck. First thing that impressed me were the very organized streets with CLEAR road signs. This is exactly the opposite from Italy! The street names were nicely displayed in manuscript fonts. But the street names were kinda difficult to pronoun. There were 2 parts of the town on both side of the canal. Most of the accommodations are situated on the other side of the canal from the town centre where the buzz is. Our 2-star hotel (Innbruke Hotel) is a small pink building with a very warm feeling and there is a pub at the ground floor. Our rooms were very clean and there is a basin with a mirror in the room too. The toilet and the showers are in the corridor and was very well lit up and most of all, clean!

After putting down our luggage, we began our exploration in Innsbruck. We crossed the canal which was lined with colorful low-rise buildings on one side and a bustling X'mas market on the other and halfway on the canal there was snow-capped mountains ranges in front of us. What beautiful scenery! Took a couple of pictures and we walked towards the much talked about X'mas markets in Europe.

The X'mas market is already alive in the day. With the cooling weather and the glittering and colorful decorations on the buildings, it was awesome! All the shops are selling things related to the X'mas season. There are stuffs like candy floss, cookies, nuts, X'mas tree decor, scarves, beanies, etc. We grabbed wurstel sausage burgers and a hot cup of cappuccino before proceeding to visit other places of interest in Innsbruck in case night fall.

We were walking across the X'mas market and unknowingly came to our 1st attraction, the Golden Roof. It was situated just inside the X'mas market. You will not know it is so famous unless you see people snapping photos in the air. It was merely a small roof which is gold in color... why is it so famous? The roof is not so high up to be any lookout point? A quick google check reveal this: "It was constructed for Emperor Maximilian I to serve as a royal box where he could sit in luxury and enjoy tournaments in the square below" Ok, now I know... after I went to the place. Haha! The next few places we went were the exterior of the Hofburg imperial palace. It looked very modern with what looked like a fresh coat of white paint recently splashed onto the building. I was still expecting it to be some old tall castle with fort and ropes thrown down from the top for the soldiers to climb up in the past. As the night was starting to turn dark at 4.30pm, we went briefly to this museum next to the palace. The museum was so small! One look and you can see the whole place. It was actually a small church which still houses the tombs of one of the king and queen of Innsbruck in the attic.

We went to this Swarovski shop in the town center and spent like an hour shopping for crystals there. The things are not exactly very cheap there but there are some small jewelries which range from 15 euro to 100 euro. There is this triple-layered cake displayed on a table with 2 chairs and all of them are made of crystals! I spent like 80 euro buying gifts for friends as well as a pair of earrings and a necklace for myself.

After we came out of the Swarovski shop, the night is already dark and the streets are filled with lots of people. We began strolling along the X'mas market. They always say "Save the best for last". We came to this stall with a long queue selling apple cider. As the weather was turning chilly, we also queued to buy a mug of apple juice. Though I think there is nothing fantastic about the apple juice but drinking something hot under the cold starry night is really amazing. The feeling is so comforting. Ahh...

Came across this colorful shop selling woven or knitted stuffs. Since I did not attach my hood on my jacket, I bought an Austrian-style beanie. A 100% woolen beanie cost 25 euro! So I settled for this half wool and don't half what material beanie which cost 10 euro. Couldn't find the perfect design in the 10 euro range but I bought it nevertheless since I probably won't be wearing it ever again. (I will not travel in winter and I will definitely not come for such long overseas training again unless it is on short business trip.)

The next day we went to Stubai Glacier about 40 min bus ride from Innsbruck town. We past by many small, quaint houses along the way and one thing I noticed are that the windows panes are either nicely decorated or they draw some designs around their window. This makes their houses looked really cheerful. It reminds me of those images from Enid Blyton storybooks. Skiers with full blown ski gear started coming up the bus. At the beginning, they looked so out of place wearing ski equipment in the bus. But as we are nearing the foot of the Stubai Glacier, we are like one of the few people in the bus without ski gear on and it is now time for us to feel so so weird. The view to the bottom of the glacier had me engulfed with excitement. There are snow flakes on the grasses and trees and soft snow at the side of the road. I was hoping it would snow.

We took a cable car up this ski place where there are beginner slopes. The place is infested with skiers of all ages - kids as young as 3 years old to grannies and grandpas. We went to this ski rental shop where there was a superb range of ski equipment available. I did not ski though cos partly I feel 4 hours is not enough for me to master the art of ski and I would not have enjoy the whole ski thingy and secondly I want to try skiing together with Superboy as both of us have never ski before. This set me to reminisce of the times we had in Melbourne during my graduation tour to Australia. We had wanted to ski at Mt Buller in Melbourne but I was running out of money that time. Anyway, the rest of spent like an hour there trying on the sizes and learning how to lock and unlock the ski. After which they walked like a duck from the rental shop to the ski slopes. But after gearing up, they looked pretty cool. As they try to even walk or stand up from the falls, I took the cable car to the highest point of the glacier. The slope at the top of the cable car station was just steps away after you alight from the cable car. I think the temperature there was like sub zero! Cool right? Haha! And I was only wearing my thermal top and my jacket.

Austria is really neat place. I would definitely visit it again if I have the chance.

Rome (25 Nov 2006 - 26 Nov 2006)

There's a saying that goes "if you haven't been to Rome, you haven't been to Italy." Right, so I must proudly say I have came to Italy.

I covered most of the main attractions in Rome in just 2 days. We did tons of walking but not as much as what I did in Australia with Superboy though but it got me pretty tired; must be the age catching up on me. Anyway, the domestic flight was delayed for 30mins at Milan and we arrived at our hostel "Yellow" at midnight. The hostel was still very much alive at midnight! The reception area is like a drinking place, reminded me of this pub-like cafe I went in Liang Seah Street. After lying out our linen, I was pretty fast asleep despite the howling and laughter from the dorms across ours at 2am.

We started off the morning walking towards the Colosseum. Along our way, we past by some of the attractions seen on the tourist map; places like the Piazza Repubblica and many cathedrals. Before we went Rome, we would get very excited whenever we see buildings with dome but in Rome, it was domes-overdosed! Saw a basketball court on my way there and the ground was covered with fallen dried leaves. Think it made a good picture so took a snap of it with me in it of course. :) Missed playing basketball... feel so unhealthy now... miss Superboy when I see something related to basketball... wanna watch NBA during my honeymoon... ok, I am talking nonsense now. :p

Finally saw the famous Colosseum. It was not as massive as I had imagined. It did not give me that 'wow' feeling. Maybe I have seen too much of such structures that I was not awestruck by it. Nevertheless, took picture of this much talked-about place of interest. Oh ya, the Colosseum is also an excellent spot for pickpockets. Heard so much stories about the "art of Italian pickpockets" and we actually met with a group of them! 2 women carrying BABIES and a small, crumpled cardboard, suddenly came up to my colleague who was walking behind me and started walking in circles. I thought they were beggars but my colleague who managed to escape their grasp, told me they were trying to unzip her bag and using the cardboard to block it. A passerby saw it and told them off and they backed off. Er... when you see someone trying to steal in public, do you merely tell them off? I think I will shout "thief!" and naturally the pickpocket will run away right? But here, after their unsuccessful attempt, they went back to their "territory" (the staircase leading to the Colosseum) and await the next prey. *roll my eyes* I have photo to show it. See below. On the left of the picture are the pickpockets showcasing their Italian Job.

The other attractions I visited include the Pantheon (some cathedral that is known for its design which has a hole at its roof - duhz... how "ingenious"), Castello Sant' Angelo and how can I forget the Trevi Fountain! The place is soooo crowded with people! It is not a musical fountain but it is magical enough to attract such a huge group of people, either posing photos, relaxing by the fountain or throwing coins into the water! They say, if you throw 1 coin into the fountain, you will return to Italy; if you throw 2 coins, you will meet a handsome Italian guy; if you throw 3, you will marry the Italian guy. So guess how many did I throw? *wink* ... I don't want to return to Italy nor do I wanna marry an Italian. Meeting one handsome one is kinda difficult here I realized so see whether does this myth work or not lor? ;)

The next day we went to the Vatican City. It is another country of its own because it does not fall into the Italian rule. Think the Pope has all the say in this so called country. There was no immigration though. We visited the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican Museum. The queue for the museum was terrible! We queued for like 2 hours before we got in. I like the Sistine Chapel but too bad we were kinda rushing for time hence there was no time to slowly appreciate the paintings on the walls and the ceilings. Not a part of the ceiling is empty without any paintings on it. And it is painted on the ceilings mind you, not those which you hang onto the ceilings. Our objective is to see the famous Michelangelo painting - the one with the hands of God and Human touching each other (See below). It is amongst other paintings on the ceiling; if you do not know it is so famous, you probably will not notice it.

St Peter's Basilica was filled with thousands of people when we arrived there because the Pope is giving his speech while looking out of a room on top of the Basilica. There were people carrying banners like in a soccer match like that. In Vatican City, everywhere you also have to queue up. We queued up to get into the St Peter's and we saw the tombs of all the previous Popes. There was even a security screening before we enter the basilica. It was huge inside and the ceilings are also painted. Most probably they are also painted by either Michelangelo, Leonardo or Raphael (Not Ninja Turtle lah!).

My friend, Arthur

My friend Arthur passed away two weeks ago. I received the news on a cold and windy day in Italy on my mobile and email. Enedfea has been trying to contact me all morning but my mobile was off. When I on it after lunch, a couple of sms from Superboy and Enedfea came beeping in.

1st sms from Superboy: Pls call Enedfea, she got something to tell you.

2nd sms from Enedfea: If it is convenient, pls call me.

At the same time, I was logging in to my email and two emails from Superboy. Very seldom he will email me nowadays...

1st email: Dear, pls call Enedfea if you see this email.

2nd email: Dear, I think I have to tell you this bad news... Arthur passed away this morning...

I blinked my eyes to make sure I read the sentence correctly. Which Arthur was he talking about? I know 2 Arthurs and the one that both Enedfea and Superboy could most likely be referring to is the Arthur, my mahjong and supper kaki back in my uni days. I was momentarily stunned for a second and exclaimed "huh?!" so loudly that everyone turned to stare at me. I grabbed the telephone on the table and began dialling Enedfea's number. I need confirmation. I need to know is it the Arthur whom I often had late night ICQ with many years ago.

Me: Hello.... what happened?...

Enedfea: Arthur passed away this morning.....

Me: (pause) Which Arthur...?

Enedfea: (pause) Arthur, our SA bball senior...

Me: What happened?.... Was it an accident?

Enedfea: Nobody knows. We will be going to his wake tomorrow.

And the rest of the conversaton was difficult to continue. I can feel tears welling up my eyes. Many questions ringing in my head. Did he passed away suddenly just like this guy from my uni whose heart stopped out of the blue while on the phone with his friend discussing on the subject which we would be having an exam on in Suntec that afternoon? Or did he have some critical illness which he did not mention to anyone? Did he meet with an accident?

I rushed to the toilet and tears began rolling down. I was still browsing through his Friendster account the day before. I had not look through his Friendster for like a long, long time. Was even surprise to see that his status has changed from "Single" to "In A Relationship". The last time I met Arthur was sometime last year and we had Japanese dinner at this hotel he recommended. It was a short dinner, just some catching up with each other. He was looking good, slimmed down a lot from the previous time I saw him. Was worried that he was still suffering from the break-up with his long time girlfriend... but seeing the cheerfulness in his face, I was glad that he has moved on and was also doing very well in his job as some Account Consultant. He told me he was into this gaming thingy and had made some friends in Hong Kong and he would be going Hong Kong to meet up with them. He told me he is happy with his job but he will eventually start his own business or something and make his first million by age 30. Usually, when people tell me such things about making the first million, I will just listen half-heartedly; but with Arthur, I was confident he could do it. He has a happy family and is smart - no need to study also can get distinction for his Honours and Masters. Why does this has to happen to him?

The next day, Superboy forwarded me a newspaper article which described about an accident occurring on Turf Club Road at 3.30am. The car hit against the divider and crashed into a wall and bursted into flames. When I saw that sentence, it hurted me so much. Did his car malfunction? Was he dozing off while driving? Then I realised that driving is actually such a dangerous thing. It is like a time bomb. And God had cruelly pulled off the time bomb that Arthur is holding onto.....

Seravalle Shopping Trip (18 Nov 2006)

Went to this place called Serravalle, about 1.5hrs drive south from Milan. I think Serravalle means designer factory outlet, just like the Habour Town in Brisbane. Our colleagues told us that the traffic jam started outside the expressway! So, we reached there at 10am (their opening hour) to beat the crowd. But the traffic is smooth that day probably the day they went, it was sales on top of the outlet price. Anyway, it was a big low-raised building of shops, unlike Takashimaya and Marina Square though.

Started off with a cup of coffee at a cafe like the Italians before we started our rummage. The first shop I went into was Prada and without hesitation, I bought a wallet which cost only 100 euro and plus the tax refund, I think it only cost like 90 euro! Along Prada, there are D&G, Versace, Ferragamo but nothing caught my fancy. Also bought a small dinner bag from GUESS for only 25 euro! Haha! Nevermind people saying GUESS bags are not trendy... to me what is important is the confidence of the person carrying it and whether do that person has the status to carry the bag.

Next, there were the Levi's, CK, Diesel and GUESS stores. At first, I was about to give up after trying on about 3 pairs of jeans from Levi's cos they were too loose at the hips. Then on this small corner were the slim cut which most ang mo woman cant wear probably and I found my jeans which cost only 30 euro! Wanted to buy a pair of jeans for Superboy but jeans need to be tried on to see whether is the cut suitable or not. Saw a polo tee but left only the XL sizes and 90% of the tops are long sleeved tee shirts or sweat shirts. When I was about to pay, I spotted this short sleeved lady tee hanging amongst all the long sleeved blouses and quickly grabbed it. In the end, when I went home, I realized the cashier charged me only 1.50 euro instead of 11.50 euro for the top! Haha!! Bought a tee from GUESS, also like the last black piece of size S hanging there. It's a good thing that the ang mo women are mostly big size.

There was this big NIKE and ADIDAS store but mostly it is selling winter clothing. It cost like only 50 euro for a set of very nice track suit. But too bad Singapore is a humid and sunny country. Nevertheless, I found this ADIDAS green top with a small cherry logo on the left side of the top! It was the one and only tee with such a design lying on the rack in the whole shop! This is my favourite buy from Serravalle. Combed the whole of NIKE store twice to find something to buy but to no avail. The bags are pretty neat but luggage space is an issue hence I left NIKE empty handed. Can you dig it? Sigh!

Then we came to the chocolate shop that sells Lindt products and everyone are like rushing for the Pick and Pack. At first I don't want to buy any more chocolate but seeing the mad rush inside, I also picked up 2 empty bags and began to select one choc from each variety and ended up paying about 10 euro for like 20 small chocs?

This Seravalle trip was supposed to be a shopping trip for Superboy's things but I regret to say I could only manage to buy him 2 tee shirts only... L There are simply no short sleeved tops and Superboy has high expectations of the garments he wears; cannot be too loose, color cannot be too bright, neckline cannot be too high, sleeves cannot be too long, etc. Not my fault!

About An Asshole

I am so fucking pissed off by this horrible asshole at work. He is the worst male creature on Earth I'd ever known in my entire life! He behaves just like a woman on menopause or PMS. A selfish idiot and ungentlemanly. He is not those type who will extend his help to woman. On our way here to Italy, he is supposed to help this HR personel carry this box of pineapple tarts on board for the Italian counterparts here but I was the one who ended up carrying for him! Before we came here, our boss stated clearly that the 4 of us will be sharing 2 laptops but now it seems that he is the only one solely using it! If I were to be using the laptop on his table, he will show a kind of CB face. What the fuck!? We are supposed to be sharing the laptop. It is company's belonging, not his! But if I were to rebut him, he will definitely ask me to carry the laptop all the way. He is just this kind of CB person. His wife is not any good either. At the airport, I went over to say hi but his wife just gives me a dumb face. So fucking rude!

I had worked with him a couple of times and he gets on my nerves, right to the root! I thought it was a blessing that I don't have to work with him anymore but now in Italy and he is here too! Remember my 1st few blog entry about this scandalous couple at work? This CB is the guy and the other girl is also a CB person who thinks she is damn hot. KNN. It's no wonder he stays alone in Australia when he is studying. This kind of people has no friend. He is a crane driver-mechanic in NS. Lo bo kind, no wonder his character sucks! I always believe NS mould a person but of course if they are those lo bo types, then there is nothing much to mould. Mould until mud also like shit!

And one of the disgusting things he does is he keeps digging his CB nose and he never wash his hands one lor! Dig and dig and dig with everyone in the room. Dig in the office, dig at home, dig while driving. I wonder at home, after he digs his nose, where else does his fingers dig after that. Wah lanz eh, I feel like asking him to stop or at least use a tissue paper lor. He is disgusting both on the outside as well on the inside. Yucks! I hope he fall down on a puddle of shit and die and nobody will know he is dead cos he just blends in so homogeneously with shit. Bloody bastard!

Monte Carlo (5 Nov 2006 - 6 Nov 2006)

We drove for almost 6 hours to reach Monaco, the most famous part of the city being Monte Carlo. We traveled along the highway to Genova and then took the scenic drive along the coastline starting from Imperial, San Remo and a few other towns which I had forgotten. The view along the road trip was beautiful. I don’t know why but I have a thing for scenic route with houses on hilly slopes and blue sea.

We passed the Italy-France border on the hill top route and reached Mentone, the 1st town in France. The architecture in France is neater than in Italy and you can no longer see those typical rounded balcony as in Italy. Enter into France, all the signboards began to change into words starting with "Le ...", "De ...".

Drove for about a short distance, we finally arrived in Monte Carlo, the city where all the rich people reside. I have only one word to describe it- OVER-RATED. I had imagine it to be like the Las Vegas of the States with all the flamboyant cars, mansions on hilltops, glimmering lights on buildings and handsome men lying on sun deck chairs on their yachts. There were only a handful of Ferraris, Carreras, SLKs, Z4s, Bentleys, Aston Martins, Rolls Royces and only one Lamborghini. It was unlike what I was told - everywhere you turn to, you will see a flashy car zooming past. I only see a number of them parked outside the Monte Carlo casino and the glamorous Hotel de Paris (We were staying in this hostel called Hotel de France... but it was heaven and hell!).

Nothing interests me there. Maybe another highlight of the place is the Formula 1 route. Nothing special though; no signboards to say this is the F1 track if you are not aware of it. It is just a normal stretch of road along the sea where you can see yachts with female names painted on them. Wish I had a yacht naming after me... How about Maiden Janice? Haha!

Bergamo (1 Nov 2006)

It is a public holiday in Italy today and we went for a short trip to this town nearby called Bergamo. I was told that the sunset in Bergamo is fantastic.

Bergamo has an upper town and a lower town; the upper town being the older one is on the hill while the lower town is more bustling with high-rise building. We reached the place around noon but most of the shops were closed probably due to the public holiday. Hence, we had a hard time searching for a place to eat. There was a small flea market though and the things were mostly handicrafts or antiques-like teacups and what-nots.

After roaming the town for a while, we took the funicular up to the upper town and the place is totally different from its sibling downhill. It is a medieval town with very ancient buildings and it has a fort overlooking the town below. The view is er... not that "wow", a bit like Mount Faber in Singapore. Ha!

We walked towards the castle on the highest part of the hill hoping to see something that will take my breath away. We climbed like hundred over steps to the entrance of the castle and it literally took my breath away. We were late by half an hour to the opening hours of the castle! We hurried back down to the direction of the sunset for the much anticipated sight but it was a disappointment. The sun was not very bright in the first place and when it sets, it did not emit those red and purplish rays of dusk.

Overall, it is not a place which I would recommend to go though unless you have no other better place to spend the day then perhaps you can go feel the contrast of the upper and lower town and wait for sunset to see if you are lucky enough to witness the so-called fantastic sunset of Bergamo.

Cliques

We all form cliques wherever we are - at the playground when we were little kids, in school where we have sit together for breaks, at work which whom we have lunch with. Why do individuals inevitably form groups? Usually we form cliques of the common interest, goal or likes and dislikes. Cliques are something like culture. It is a powerful strength. They do the same things, talk about the same things and behave in the same manner.

In my workplace, my lunch "kakis" consisted of people with average age of 33. They are mostly married, experienced engineers and I am the most junior of them all. There is another group of young engineers which consist of people my age but I don't join them for lunch. The topics they discussed are lame and the jokes they attempt to make are pathetic. I prefer more constructive discussion like investment plans or upcoming new estate projects, not insincere talk and boring topics like where I went during the weekends. The type of people who put me off are those who always try to say something really exciting (or seemingly) and then ends it there, to keep you in what they hope to be suspense and then shake their head and mutter with a grin "nothing". These groups of people whom I avoid are those whom I regard as having immature thinking. Call me old or snobbish, I simply cannot stand having a conversation with such people. They are pretentious; one look and I know that they are definitely not one you can regard as friends.

Before I came to Italy for work, my clique warned me of people who take extra bread-sticks home from the company cafeteria because they wanna save on breakfast. Our company provides free bread and break-sticks as something extra to munch after lunch but they are not meant for bringing home. Boy, were they right! This group of people whom I hang out with, (with no other choice) did exactly the same thing! The lunch is already free and yet they still want to steal bread home? I am dumbfounded.

Another thing that pissed me off is there are people who like to imitate your way of talking or dressing. "Attack of the copycats!" I don't know why but I have a very strong sensor for such copycats. Since young, I came across people who would buy the same wallet, tee-shirt, slippers as soon as I bought the previous week. There are also those who copied by saying the same type of lingual which I had "invented" a few days back! It used to bother me but someone told me to think of it as a compliment. Yes, we all look up magazines to see what the latest fabs are and may rush to buy that newly launched bag showcased by Elle mag. These are not the kind of copycats which I am talking about. I am referring to those who are outright copying you. If I were a model and people wears the same sun shades as me, I will feel proud but I am a bloody plain Jane and... gasp! It is like stealing your ideas for a big project!

Right here in Italy, the few girls I came Italy with just did the copycat stance!!! I told them I wanna buy a pair of boots when I arrived on the 1st week and asked them to look out for me. I bought a pair on the 1st week and wore it out during the weekends. The following week, I hear one of them say she wants to get a pair of boots and slowly, now all of them got themselves a pair of boots! Maybe if I were to be in Singapore, I will just complain to Superboy and think they are pathetic but I am all alone in a foreign land and the least I want is someone wanting to "challenge" me. They even intend to bring the boots back to Singapore to wear?! They must be out of their mind wearing boots in the hot and humid weather like Singapore. I am gonna throw mine away on my last day here. I hope their feet rot wearing them.

Milan (28 Oct)

Finally went to the heart of Milan city this week despite staying in the region of Milan for almost 1 month. The mention of Milan makes me think of glamorous fashion, young aspiring designers and hot-bod models sashaying down in Armani, Prada, Hugo Boss and so on. Indeed, designer's shops are everywhere but I don't see any models though. Sidewalk cafes are also apparent and flashy cars are parked along the narrow streets. It is so common to see people carrying a Gucci or a LV bag along the streets. I want to buy one (or maybe two) of those too!

Alighted at the Duomo metro station and was greeted by the famous Duomu de Milano. It was said the building has 137 spires each with a different design in it. Although I am not really into art but I can't help but appreciate the hard work put into carving out each individual statue. We climbed up the duomo to admire more of its beauty from the rooftop.

Next to the duomo is Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, a famous shopping mall that houses some of the big boys in the fashion industry. It is not well-known because of the shops but more on the sculptures and paintings on the walls and the layout of the arcade. Superboy said amazing race introduced the place. (sidetrack: I miss watching amazing race... sob sob!) We spent so much time snapping pictures of the place that we have no time to enter the shops to do any purchase. I will return on another day to do some shopping myself.


Another anticipated itinery of the day is the Milan Derby match at San Siro stadium. Yes, you heard it. I will get to see international stars like Paulo Maldini and Kaka! I thought that such a famous stadium should be nicely maintained with bright and clean seats but it was not what I had expected. The seats are so dirty with burnt marks caused by cigarette buds. But one good thing is that the spectator seats are sheltered. You can really feel you are NOT in Singapore stadium with the enthusiasts cheering SO loud even 2 hours before the match! It is like a shouting competition between the two groups of supporters. We were seated on the top few rows because all were already sold out! Now I understand why cos they probably bought the tickets in bulks of thousands. There are a lot, a lot of banners and horns and they are also putting fire flares. At times they appeared to be so rowdy that you are afraid you may hear a gunshot from afar anytime. However, I must really give it to them for being so united. They even chartered buses to watch the match can? The match ended in 3-4 with Inter Milan emerging as the victor.

Actually, we left 10 mins before the match ended because the "home" team, AC Milan (in fact both of them share the same stadium) was losing 2-4 and we are afraid that there may be fights happening and we are like one of the few Asians... On our way down, we heard a thunderous roar and we had missed a goal from the home team. It was an exciting match with Inter Milan leading 3-0 in the 1st half and a red card for one of Inter's player for excessive celebration of a goal. The atmosphere was terribly good but I will not attend another match there again because it is like an opium house in there! They smoke like nobody's business and I can barely breathe!!! I almost died of air sitting there.

Lake Como (7 Oct 2006)

On our first weekend here, we visited Lake Como, a 1.5 hrs drive from Milan. It is a famous lake known for its beautiful scenery and quaint little towns at the northern part of Italy. Do not regard the term "lake" here to our Jurong Lake. This Lake Como is don't know how many times bigger than Singapore!

We drove along the lake from Lecco, a town on the south-eastern part of the lake and passed by Bellagio and then to Como town. The scenery was indeed beautiful. It is not something which can be captured on film and be able to feel that kind of emotions when you looked at the pictures again. It is the whole atmosphere of the houses, villas and churches on the slopes of the valley and some built on the lake itself. After driving for a few kilometers, you will chance upon another town, and another town with all the necessary shop like a pharmacy, restaurant, and so on. The best part of it is that you can see the houses and towns over at the other side of the lake.

Throughout the whole trip, I am pondering... How did they manage to build those houses on the valleys? It's not just a few houses, it's like thousands of them from the bottom of the valley to the top of it and there is only one road up and it is a winding and narrow road. When it first started constructing the town, wouldn't there be traffic jams? And how did they transport those cranes up the valleys? How do these people go to work? Wouldn't there be traffic congestion if everybody drives to work every morning? Although cars are cheap in Italy, how about those who cannot afford a car? I barely see any public buses going there. Grow their own food? Nah, I see very few vegetation plots around. And where do the children go to school? I saw school buses along the way but I don't see any schools around. Does that mean that all these children have to travel 1-2 hours everyday downhill to the cities to study? So many questions on my mind. I hope I can get to know a local staying on the valley and have an interview with him.

We came across this interesting Hotel Belvedere at Bellagio. This town is sited on the promontory overlooking the three arms of the lake. (Lake Como is shaped like an inverted 'Y') They have rooms on the ground floors that have windows that stretches from the height of the knee to the ceiling. The wondow looks out to the vast lake and valley on the other side of the lake and... the bed is placed just at the window! Can you imagine waking up every morning to be greeted with such a stunning view? I think this is the best spot especially for honeymooners to have a break from all those hectic city tours. I wished my honeymoon suite will have a view as nice as this. *wink*

Venice & Verona (14 Oct 2006 - 15 Oct 2006)

Venice - a city on water and is sinking each year. In time to come, it may become like a historical site where it is remembered as the vibrant city that stood proudly on water for centuries.

The drive to Venice was pretty simple. This time we did not spend hours getting lost b'cos it's A4 highway all the way from Vimercate to Venice. We parked our cars on the mainland near Mestre train station and took a train into Venice. It is a car-less city; the only form of transport is your trustworthy pair of legs or a gondola (their famous boat). The city is very small... you can visit the whole of Venice within a day. It is actually like Sentosa but more compact. It's amazing that it is so tiny yet such a famous city in the world.

The gondola is a symbol of Venice. The boatman is dressed a typical Venician boatman uniform and sometimes in a square-topped hat. If you are lucky, the boatman may provide some entertainment by singing as he rowed away. It cost $45 euro for a trip around Venice on gondola but I was afraid of getting seasick hence skipped the idea. The houses in Venice are one of a kind. It actually reminds me of the story, Ali Baba & the forty thieves. The entrances to their homes are not a compound but merely a door that opens up to a staircase and leads to individual apartments. They are like a maze - narrow streets with colorful shop-houses and shops selling Venician masks.


Speaking of those masks, I fell in love with their exquisiteness and how they can create so many fanciful designs, some even with feathers! I wish I can bring home one of them and put them in my house but I doubt my luggage has enough space for that. Suddenly I felt so "arty-farty" that I bought 4 small masks, the size of my palm though.

Saint Marco square is also another highlight of Venice. It has the biggest cathedral (called duomo in Italian) with a rich history. The place is filled with tourists and pigeons! I wonder do people avoid the place when there is the bird-flu epidemic. The duomo, like other duomos in Italy, has many paintings and sculptures each painstakingly done up by famous artists.

On our way back from Venice, we passed by the town of Verona. It is a small town famous for the setting of "Romeo & Juliet" play. All of a sudden, the recollection of Shakespeare's stories during my secondary school days emerged. "... In the city of Verona, house of Juliet Capulet..."... I did not know that Romeo and Juliet were Italians! One of the streets stands the balcony of Juliet which Romeo tried to sneak in every night. Now it has become a tourist attraction. There is also a bronze statue of Juliet below her balcony. It is believed that if you touched her right breast, you will be lucky in love. Her left breast has now become silver instead of the original bronze-color after all the sweat from the tourists' hands. Poor Juliet.

Interlaken @ Switzerland (21 Oct 2006 - 22 Oct 2006)

Interlaken - a small town between Lake Thun and Lake Brienz in Bern Oberland. It is popular probably due to its accessibilities to many of the famous alps nearby.

We set off at 6:30am by car from Cosmo Residence. We took about 6 hours to get there, 2 hours longer than what other people experienced. Haha! We got lost in Milan main town for about an hour or so... The map which I had was so small that I did not know the route we are planning to take does not intercept each other. People said once you drive inside Milan, you will be like a lost child. How true it is. After searching for the nearest highway, we managed to exit Milan. From the map, the 1-hour search covered only 5% of Milan! We even drove onto the tram road which was illegal. How scary can it get!

After getting out from Milan, we took about another 45min to reach the Swiss custom. Need to pay 40 swiss franks for a pass to use their highway. The immigration did not check our passports though. Once we entered Switzerland, we were bewildered by the views of snow-capped mountains and small cottages at the foot of the mountains. Cameras began snapping away. It was highway all the way until we reach the SustenPass. It was a pass through a few of the mountains, Yes, it was literally crossing the mountainS. The roads are treacherous. It was nothing like Genting or Cameron Highlands. Comparatively, the latters were like babies to a mother. With our 1.2 litres FIAT PUNTO, it was no surprise that it took us 2 hours to cross the 40km of mountainous roads. The view there is breathtaking with the occasional waterfalls, plateaus of water and valleys.

After crossing this range of mountains, we heaved a sigh of relief when we reached the bottom of the mountains. We continued "wa-ing" at the sceneries for an hour or so before we arrived in Interlaken, where we will be lodging for the night. As it was still early for check-in, we went check out the surroundings and to admire the serenity of the town. Then we head to the nearby supermarket to buy chocolates! Actually, they are not that cheap as what some people said. Maybe they have more varieties from the Lindt choc range and slightly cheaper than in Singapore that's all.

Time for check-in at 4pm. The hostel, Backpacker Villa was great! It was way off better than the one we stayed during our Venice trip. We had a 7-beds mixed dormitory with attached bathroom and, a balcony! The view at the balcony was really what I had always hoped for. Mountains! Snow-capped too mind you! The hostel is very self-sufficient. When they know that we will not be in time for the all-you-can-eat breakfast in the next morning, they gave us each a token to buy hot drinks and a bagel for breakfast. How sweet of them. I highly recommend this place - www.villa.ch.

Off we head to Darlingen to view one of the 2 lake, Lake Thun between Interlaken (hence the name). The other one is Lake Brienz which we had seen on our way to Interlaken. The town has many small cottages, just like those I had imagined in Hansel & Gretal's story. The Swiss also placed a lot of attention on their house decorations, all those little ornaments on their window panes. So cute!!

Dinner was at this authentic Italian restaurant just down the street from the hostel. Their local specialties are the fondue (cheese, olive oil, chocolate) and the rosti. I had wanted to try on the rosti but the menu shows beef fillet with herbal butter and I could not resist it. I have not had steak for the past 3 weeks and I am going crazy! The meat was tender and the presentation was great. Later, we had the chocolate fondue to dessert. It was nothing fascinating - a ceramic bowl with melted chocolate and a small plate of typical fruits like bananas, strawberries, peach, grapes, apples & pears. I don't really the chocolate cos it is slightly bitter. Why cant they melt those toberone chocolates instead?

The highlight of this Swiss trip is the Jungfraujoch mountain that we went the next day. It was named "Top of Europe" although it is not the highest mountain in the Swiss Alps but cos it has the highest train station stop in Europe. The train cost 100 euro to get up the mountain. The journey up the mountainous region was a sight to behold. Cottages at the foot of the hill became like houses in the Monopoly boardgame. There are snow-capped mountains everywhere and I don't even know which mountains are which. But I know it when I reach Jungfraujoch. The air got thinner and I saw a wide spread of snow. I was dying to feel and touch the snow. However, the feeling was not as overwhelming as I expected, probably cos it was still autumn and the snow had became compacted ice. It was not like those I had imagined where once I stepped foot on it, my whole boots will be stucked in the snow. The ground is like a skating rink just that it is a -4 degree rink. It's amazing that I don't feel at all -4 degree, all thanks to my thermal top. I was merely wearing a thermal top with jacket and jeans. On our way back to Interlaken, the train stopped by Grindlewald where the main attraction there is the Eiger Mountain. It is just a tourist town, smaller than Interlaken with lots of Japanese visitors.

It was overall a good experience given that I had always wanted to feel the coldness and admire the snow-capped mountains in Switzerland. It also convinced me that Switzerland is more than just a chocolate country.

Ciao!

Ciao! Been ages since I have written. I am in Milan, Italy now on business trip for the past 3 weeks. Another 8 weeks more to go! Gosh, do I miss Singapore! The prawn soup noodles from Newton, the garlic butter crabs and honey pork ribs from Defu Lane, the fish head curry from Banana Leaf and "cui kuey" and of course Superboy!!! Sob sob!

To be specific, I am in the town of Vimercate in Milan. Before I came here, my image of the Milan is full of glam and people wearing trench coats carrying poodles, modeling around the town with huge sunglasses covering 3/4 of their faces. But I was so wrong. Maybe this scenario only applies to the centre of the central Milan where all the posh boutiques are. The first time I went inside central Milan was to get the permit of stay from their police station. The roads there are terrible. We would never had made our way back to the apartment if we were not taking a cab. And one horrible thing is there are very few cabs in Milan. Hey! Milan, the main fashion city, where are all the cabs? I haven't been to the heart of Milan yet but this Saturday I will be going to check out those big boy boutiques in town and to see those aspiring designer shops and to watch the Milan Darby match at San Siro stadium. I am so excited!

Alright, to elaborate more of my life here for the past 3 weeks... basically, I look forward to dinner at night in my apartment where the few of us will be cooking Chinese dishes everyday. Of course, the week will begin with planning for shop trips to nearby cities or countries for the weekend. Work is so light... I don't consider myself working at all. Lunch here is free in their cafeteria. Their food is not too bad but it is so crowded cos the thousand-over strength of employees eats there cos it is a ulu place and you can hardly walk anywhere for a decent meals unless you drive. Fortunately, my apartment is comfortable. It is a 5-star service apartment where you have chambermaid cleaning up for you everyday. The bed is comfortable and the view is good. We can see the Swiss Alps from our windows. Milan is actually about an hour's drive to Switzerland. So far, I have been to Lake Como, Venice and Verona. I will write more on my trips in the later entries.

Time to pack up and go home!

Troubled TGIF

Tired. It's TGIF but damn I don't feel the mood. Reached home not too long ago. Was finishing up some things in the office. The office was as quiet as a graveyard. Mine was one of the 3 cars in the big carpark when I left. Look this is how an European company opreates. Time up to go home and all vanished. *poof*

Was bothered by what is happening in my work place... Have been giving training to some newbies. This is my 2nd batch actually. I will be expecting a 3rd batch. Since when did I became my department's trainer!? Ok, I don't deny I have always been thinking of becoming a lecturer. I thought I like to teach, to impart my knowledge to others. I always know I cannot stand teaching kids. Cannot tolerate their disobedience and rowdiness. But I never expect adults to be so hard to handle as well. And maybe I neglect the fact that not everyone is a fast learner. I was looking forward to train the newbies.. I had some materials prepared which was not asked for by my boss. I was recalling how things would be easier if I had those materials when I first started out. I thought my trainees will all turn out to be appreciative of what I had done for them and will all turn out to be diligent young engineers. I was wrong...

They complained that there were too many things to remember and shouldn't there be a manual to show them how troubleshooting should be done. Where do they think they are in? Primary school? I don't even have a fucking guide when I was an apprentice! I have to recollect everything that was taught to me and try to draw some flow diagram for easy reference at the end of the day. Also, I remembered I dared not even go for breakfast and tea-breaks which only the more seniors are "entitled" to. But these newbies don't give a bloody respect. They go for breaks after our morning meeting at 9am and only appear in the office at 10am. They would go for another tea break at 3pm which will last another hour. As a senior and a trainer to them, I only occasionally go for breakfast if my work is still manageable and I never go for tea-breaks.

Besides these, being a shift trainer I have to fall under the critism of the other shift people. If a less diligent trainees cannot perform a task well, they will say the trainer did not teach them. The training is on top of my workload. No one know how I stayed back everyday to complete my work and the datelines that I did not meet. My peformance objective did not state "Shift Training for newbies".

Why am I getting so upset over this? I should just let them die in shift. This was what happened to me last time. But I can't. They have became my responsibility and their every actions reflects on my achievement. I cannot control them like a mother hen and scold them like a primary school discipline mistress right? I don't want to tell on them to my boss. I dont wish to destroy someone's career. I can only swallow and work late everyday and get upset everytime and be treated as a poor trainer.

Missing

Been too lazy to blog lately... Maybe I can summarise the major happenings in my life for the past 2 months?

Had been leading a normal person's life after switching to work on the normal hours 830am to 600pm. So that means I can see the Orchard crowd on Fridays and not fall asleep on Sat midnight shows. I missed those days of shift works though. Most importantly missed the good money that comes with shift work and the many off-days where I dont have to queue for the hairdresser or the bank. Can go swimming in the noon without having to be deafen by the cries and hysterical screams of kids... Now I work an average of about 11hrs a day compared to 12hrs for shift work but surprisingly, I dont feel as tired as I was on shift. I can still meet Superboy for dinner every other day now or come home and watch TV and VCDs. I guess I look fresher now. The main reason why I don't resist coming out of shift is because I want to do things that are constructive and more project-based. It has come to a point in time where I want to advance. I guess I had just been given such a chance...

Right... last week Superboy and I attended our good friends' wedding. We were one of the bridesmaid and bestman, and we were also the emcees for their wedding dinner in Pheony Jade restaurant. The place is nice but a bit small though. The aisle is in the center of the 22 tables which leads to a small stage. We were slightly nervous as we did not have much time to prepare and we are afraid of spoiling the beautiful night. Superboy did great but I think I somehow did not deliver it as well as I did during our rehearsal. Anyway, it was a very tiring for all of us. Wedding can really be the most tremendous project of your life! I wonder will mine beat my unforgettable FYP. Haha!

The World Cup fever is here again after 4 years. Still remembered 4 years ago, I was addicted to betting on the World Cup and as a poor IA student, I lost my 1 month's pay. I knew it was addiction when I looked back because everything on my mind was the damn World Cup - looked up soccernet.com to see which key players are injured, read analysts comments, keep messaging my friend on the match's details during IA, and most obvious of all was I totally forget to think about Superboy! We were still not together at that time and I recalled I was day-dreaming of our conversation and hoping he will message me every minute of the day since we started getting to know each other. But World Cup came, and I eat, drink, sleep only soccer and started to fantasize about how to use my winnings. Quite insane when I come to think of it. Those were the days....