Wednesday, May 31, 2006

to each his own

working at EY has allowed me to meet and interact with people, thus further helping my cause of observing how people work. these are some of those that i find worth talking about.


1) esther: first knew her in pow wow camp when we were freshies. over the course of 2 years, we shared the same LTB, FA, company law and ethics class but we never progress pass the hi-bye stage. but now, we are working in the same department and we are even sitting next to each other. we go for lunch together and knock off together. we agonise over tax comps together and talk about our views together. u cant have a relationship like this and not progress further. she is a very interesting character, and i really like hearing her views on anything and everything. we share gossips, speculations, comments and observations and we can connect on a similar level. today, we talked about some people in the office, how we think they connect to other people, how to banish garlic breath after eating lor mee and the reasons why some people walk with toes pointing outwards and some with toes pointing inwards.

2) log-off (not her real name): prefers working life to study life and finds that 1 more year in uni is 1 year too long, yet intensely dislike her current institution almost with a passion. pleasant to talk to though not entirely on the same level. nonetheless, a nice person with rather different views from me.

3) shen (not his real name): takes time to warm up to people, appears to be detached on the surface but i believe he is a friendly and possibly funny person at heart. works super efficiently and is known as the 'yardstick' for the others. they go home too when he packs up. is called shen as a pun to his name and his workrate. there were comments that he looks and behaves a bit qwah but i don't necessarily agree with that.

4) peterpan (not her real name): i wonder if she has sensed what we sensed about michael and jordan (not their real names) and if she has, how if feels to be in her position. i wouldn't exactly be feeling estatic if i were her.

5) michael and jordan (not their real names): not my fave people, hence i shall not comment.

6) icy: as the name suggests, icy on the exterior, unsure how he might be at heart cos he is too icy to even fathom a guess. probably wonders what the hell he is doing here every other day, if not everyday.


ok that's about it for the people.



on finding out that i am from smu, people usually ask me this question, i'm sure a lot of smu students get asked this too - what is the difference between smu and ntu (or something to that extent)?
and i always reply - i don't know, i haven't studied in ntu before. what i can tell u is why i like being in smu, and u go hear about why some people choose ntu and make your own conclusion.

but being around ntu interns and observing how they comment about ntu, i can come up with a point on what sets smu apart:

our students have the will to fight for what they believe in. when they really believe something should or should not be done, be it academic or sports or arts, smu peeps dare to speak up and do something about it. be it see a prof, a staff, even the dean, we will dare to do it. the student unions of nus and ntu might be stronger and have more influence over the student body than ours, but ours is a school that believes that the strong-minded person will be heard. ours is a school where we will do something if we believe that something should be done. the outcome may not always in our favour, but ours is a place where we are unafraid to try.

4 years in school instead of 3 years, u say? well, if you are going to spend the next 30-40 years working after you graduate, what's 1 more year in school? 1 more precious year where you get to try, fall, try again and eventually emerge with experiences more valuable than book knowledge? i'll take that 1 more year in school, thanks.


------ Tuesday, May 30, 2006

it's official, my latest case of tax comp is driving me mad. at the rate i'm going, 100 hours also might not be enough.


today at lunch, i had a very nice bowl of lor mee and a very nice serving of tau hway. both were very nice individually. but both together didn't agree with me. for i am now having the hugest stomach upset known to jiahuikind. it is on par with the huge bout of stomach upset i had in china, 5 times in a row hahah!
in fact, my stomach still feels super vulnerable now. i havent eaten anything for dinner except for about 3 spoonfuls of rice, some long beans, some bits of fish and a dubious-looking piece of meat. i am very hungry now but whatever goes in just comes out straight. painfully at that. grrrrrr.


tmr is daddy's birthday! i've gotten him soul by hugo boss as his prez. burnt a hole in my pocket too but it's ok, he's my daddy! tmr's dinner will be good so... please stomachache, go away!


i've alr decided what i want for lunch tmr.. porridge!


------ Sunday, May 28, 2006

i havent been blogging as much as i'd want to, just been really busy and tired.. kinda reminds me of the time when i worked at uob, we work ot so often that by the time i get home, i often feel soooo tired that all i wanna do is to sleep so that i wont feel so sleepy the next day. fast forward to 2 years later and this thing is repeating itself again.


this time, it's not so much the ot, the perm staff never fails to tell us to go home on time (positively chased us away in fact) cos we are only interns. it's more of the mental exhaustion and mental straining at work. then depending on the day, i'll be home after work or meet frens, or go back to sch for meeting, home by 10pm to watch da chang jin as often as i can (heh), bathe at 11pm, check emails at 11.20pm, slack at bit playing games or reading a book at 12.30am, then hit the bed and snooze till 6.50am. cycle repeats. even though i get abt 5.5 hrs of quality sleep as often as i can, i still feel tired.


the past week, i've finished 1 tax comp (yeah i only took abt 25 out of the budgeted 40 hours!) and i've started on a new case on thurs afternoon. i've done the budget for that case and given myself 50 hours, but my asst manager came back to me and said, "are u sure 50 hours is enough? come, i'll give u 100 hours".. i was like... ehhhh ok.. but in the end i think 100 hours maybe just enough man. i took like one whole thurs afternoon trying to figure out the schedule for provision for doubtful trade debts, and the better part of friday morning trying to figure out the figure for staff salaries, bonus and cpf to calculate medical expenses restriction. oh man.


ok that was technical. fri we had a fire drill for the whole building. only thing is that it was made known that the fire drill is gonna be at 2.30pm so my dept started "evacuating at 2.15pm". by 2.25pm when i was about to leave, i swear my whole level 17th level was gone by then. no one wants to climb 17 storeys down haha! then work ended at 5pm cos it was have-dinner-with-family day. which needless to say, i don think a lot of us really made use of that.


anyways.


tues met up with my claw mates hui ying, yvonne, pearlyn, jing en, weijian and eric. had dinner at cafe cartel at cineleisure, then hy, yv, eric n i went to alley bar to chill.. not bad, really got the yuppie feel drinking there are dressing so corporately hahaha!


thurs went back to school for arts fest meeting.. another long meeting where i was trying to do eng chuan's stuff (waste of time if i may add) while listening to what's going on.. super tiring.


fri supposed to go down to esplanade with jem, ln and melwyn for some networking thingy but i got the dates mixed up.. i already have a date with kel dearest.. so i met up with kel for dinner, a bit of shopping, plenty of people watching (i even spotted a cute guy haha!) then watched da vinci code. well. i'm gonna say what everyone's say.. it's not a good movie if u've already read the book. much like harry potter.


sat stayed home to do eng chuan's stuff in the afternoon while the rest of the fab 5 played mahjong at anna's place. then met up with the guys (ray, edmund, ln) for dinner at crystal jade at tampines mall for dinner. because the bus only came to the bus stop after half an hour, the guys had to wait an hour plus for me hahaa.. and ray couldnt eat his chicken noodles even though he has had 1 hour to decide what to eat hahaha!
then we went for drinks at timbre.. last nite was atas nite, so we drank wine! we had 2 bottles of red wine and a bottle of white wine and there even was 3 pints of kilkenny going around. kilkenny not my kind of beer, so i only drank the wine. good la, wine not as calorie and carbo-laden haha. it was nice, chilling with them and all that..


tmr marks the start of another week.. ahhh.


on another note, I'M GOING FOR COLDPLAY'S CONCERT!! bought the tix last friday so... am going for coldplay's concert with edwin on july 10!! coldplay here we come!~~~


------ Sunday, May 21, 2006

haven't been in here for a long time because there seems to be a problem with the template and because i have no time to do anything about it, i am not doing anthing about it. for now.


work is alright, i guess. busy, but that also means i'm doing something constructive everyday instead of doing sai kang or worse, nothing. so that's good, i guess.


some totally random stuff coming up:-


1) i didn't expect that too.


2) the recluse and the wannabe were with a group of friends and they were talking about a whole host of things and amongst them, the topic of regeneration. the recluse thought about it and came to a conclusion that it won't change much (well maybe just a little, but who doesn't). the wannabe, on the other hand, exclaimed that it will want to change a lot of things. the recluse can guess what the wannabe wants to change and for that, this made the recluse think of the wannabe as more of a wannabe than before. that being said though, if the recluse can say something to the wannabe, it will be for the wannabe to be thankful for the way it is cos if things were what the wannabe wanted, the wannabe might just turn recluse, just as the recluse had become.


3) i first heard "requiem for a dream" in the lord of the rings trilogy. and because i happen to think that the lord of the rings trilogy is one of the best movies ever made, the fact that "requiem for a dream" is used in the advertising campaign for x-men 3, i have this totally inexplicable irrational feeling that x-men 3 won't live up to all its hype for me. totally irrational.


4) speaking in 2 tongues, making no sense, swinging violently, staring into space, acerbic attitude and tone, unforgiving nature, punishing glare....... indeed i am an exceedingly, disgustingly impossible person to be around with.


5) the utmost procrastinator has struck again, with the weekend idled away with no real work done.


6) i finally, finally met up with kel on friday and we had the most sumptous meal at crystal jade. in total, we had a bowl of la mian, 2 baskets of xiao long baos, 1 serving of beijing pork dumplings that the neighbouring ang moh table passed to us cos they ordered too much and can't finish their food (yay!) and red bean paste pan fried something. then we walked down the stretch of orchard road and talked plenty. times like this are the times i love best. and i saw the biker too. not bad, quite cute!


7) next week. tues - dinner with claw mates. wed - da vinci code with kel. thu - arts fest meeting. fri - wala's? sat - fab 5? i'm not crossing my fingers for anything though. i expect a very tiring week ahead and knowing me, it won't be beyond me to cancel on people. oooh gotta make time to meet bainie too...


8) watford is leading 1-0 over leeds at half time. i cant wait for epl 06-07. i cant wait for world cup already.


------ Sunday, May 14, 2006

the "you know it's time to (a) when (b)" series:


(a): ...start sleeping early...
(b): ...you start feeling sleepy at 10am and the bland sucky coffee at work doesn't exactly work...


(a): ...stop spending so much money...
(b): ...u swipe your card after deciding to buy something and the cashier smiles at you and says "there's an error"...


(a): ...start hitting the gym to lose some weight...
(b): ...the size 8 three-quarts you bought from topshop that costs a shitload of money is starting to feel uncomfortably tight...



alrites that's all i can say for myself for now. not in the best of situations, as can be seen.
i just spent the whole saturday sleeping away. woke up at noon, slept again from 2-6pm, dinner with family, watched some tv and soccer, and slept again at 2am.


work starts again tmr argh.


------

haven't updated for a relatively long time i guess.
started my internship at ernst n young as a tax intern (haha yes please laugh). the first 3 days were spent going through training in EY's global audit methodology. by goodness, i thought i won't be seeing audit for at least 2 or 3 terms but no, they had to bring it up first thing during training. geez.


thursday was tax training and the trainer effectively squeezed 7 weeks worth of tax seminars (plus 1 exam-styled case study) into 8 hours. was totally brain dead after work (which ended late btw). monday is the last day of training before we get into otj stuff.
i'm in tax b, with esther lau, and melissa n jia qi fr ntu, as well as elaine pan when she joins us in june after her taxp mod term.


but the one thing i need to whine about is covered-toes-covered-back shoes. they are the ultimate torture mechanisms, i swear. the goon who invented them and the goon who first started the need to wear them should be shot.

i now have 7 blisters on both my foot and they were unbearable esp on tues and wed. it was pure torture. my little left toe even swelled to twice its size, which ended in a really vicious circle cos:
little toe swells = difficult and painful to wear the shoes = little toe swells even more = even more difficult and painful to wear the shoes = little toe swells even even more = yeah u get the idea.


rarrrr it pains me to think that work can swallow up my life if we have to do OT. i don't want! not that i have a tremendously active and happening social life, but even going home to nua is better than working late in the office!
but i managed to meet serene on tues to return her the dvds and then got some shopping done, met bain on wed to have a long nice dinner n talk n some shopping, and arts fest meeting on thurs.



sigh weekend is ending.
.
.
.
.
.

《牙关》~ 五月天
放肆的尽情挥霍 那一年玩得多疯
你和我站上全世界的最快乐的巅峰
等着雨停的午后 你希望此刻永久
而现在永久就是永久的牢笼 让我一直在等候


等待后面是等待 更寂寞的等待
然后咬紧了牙关 等待更多的等待


如果你爱过我 你不会就这样走
就这样丢下我 和那些天真承诺
如果我再也不 不能再更多的承受 痛哭之后 只有咬紧牙关


你最爱哪个歌手 最爱吃什么火锅
最爱把小小的脸轻轻地靠在我胸口
这城市每个角落 回忆都霸占街头
我知道你会想起雨停的时候 我知道你会回头


等待后面是等待 更寂寞的等待
然后咬紧了牙关 等待更多的等待


如果你爱过我 你不会就这样走
就这样丢下我 和那些天真承诺
如果我再也不 不能再更多的承受 痛哭之后 只有咬紧牙关
继续漂流


然后咬紧了牙关 等待更多的等待
如果你爱过我 你不会就这样走
就这样丢下我 和那些天真承诺
如果我再也不 不能再更多的承受 痛哭之后 只有咬紧牙关
继续漂流 继续等候


------ Monday, May 08, 2006

ahhh so the GE has ended and jalan besar is won by PAP as usual. not that i'm complaining though. to be honest, they have been doing ok over here. the opposition won potong pasir and hougang, the rest goes to PAP. but this year, the opposition has seen a rise in popularity and votes. so the next elections will be interesting haha.


ya i know, i'm talking as though elections com around once a year or once in 2 yrs.


starting work tmr at EY.. hope things go okay. in a way im glad work is starting cos that means i'll be earning what paltry money they are paying us. cos it's going to my bangkok vacation in august! but yet again, quite sian that i cannot nua around anymore.
oh well, u cant have the best of both worlds.
or another phrase, u cant have the cake and eat it.
(of which i always respond - why not? if not have the cake for what? until jeremy pointed out that it makes sense if i read it backwards: u cant eat the cake and still have it. something from AS class tells me that the statement is fallacious thou ;p)


------ Saturday, May 06, 2006

there has been so much hype about the opposition parties' rallies and the huge crowd that attends those rallies (see sgrally.blogspot.com), i thought i should go see it for myself. so i went to the workers party's rally on friday night at serangoon stadium with my parents and boy, the crowd was HUGE and very responsive!


i reached the stadium at abt 8.20pm and i was already impressed with the huge amount of people heading towards the stadium, the number of people outside the stadium waiting to get in, and when i finally got in, the number of people in the stands.

i thought this was a lot of people.


and as we began to make our way nearer to the stage, i was struck by just how many people there were in the stadium!

the whole field and the 8x400m running track were packed with people!


everyone was waiting for low thia khiang and sylvia lim to make their speeches, and they did not disappoint. they raised very valid points about the accountability of the PAP, concerns about the outflow of young talents, the need for an opposition voice in parliament, questioning the means testing in C-class wards, lift upgrading for the ageing population, an explanation for the james gomez fiasco, and a passionate plea to the people to trust in the 3 Cs and 2 Ps (character, capability, credibility, passion and public spiritedness) of and to vote for the workers party.


and how the crowd responded! cheers were heard with every few sentences of low's and sylvia's speeches, and shouts of "workers party, workers party" kept ranging out, and reached a crescendo after the rally has ended.

the atmosphere was really charged, and a lot (and i really mean a lot) of young people were in the crowd.


some in the crowd even had banners made.

"we low thia khiang"
there was a "we love sylvia" too but i couldn't get a decent shot for that one.



cool chinese slogan. the back of the banners read something like "???????????????"



and a banner showing u just how to vote for workers party.


the atmosphere was really good, the speeches made a lot of sense, and i was glad i went to down to listen to it cos it's a different experience indeed.


not say i say, but my area (jalan besar grc) should be the same old winner as it has been for the past dunoe how many years (which is PAP la) but it is interesting to see how the other constituencies voting play out indeed.


=peaceout=

[[.ran.]] 2:49 am

------ Wednesday, May 03, 2006

been away (but still in singapore) the past few days.. seen stuffs, heard stuffs, said stuffs and felt stuffs, and all i wanted to say is that.......
i am reminded why i need some things and that what i dont need is some insensitive blabbering being.


let's wait n see if any repurcussions following up.


foolish prick, that's what i am.

[[.ran.]] 1:12 am

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