Ego Trip / I feel so loved!

This post is a big ego trip for me, so please pardon me whilst I let me head get way too big for my shoulders...

I tendered yesterday afternoon.. before then, KP, LY, LC, KC, OE, TE, WK and MP already knew that I would be quitting.. once I tendered, I told KC when I had to look for him for something, who went around telling the people on the 22nd floor... by the time I was through the door of my office, the phone was alreading ringing, and when I picked it up, GS went "why?"...

I've realised a "why?" is a genuine sign of appreciativeness and at least a tinge of sadness to hear that I'm leaving... of all the words I've heard the past 2 days, that is the nicest one...

and of course, there are some people who, out of politeness / obligation, will send an email when they see in my emails informing them that their files / needs will be handled by someone else....

I always thot that KT and I had a love-hate working relationship - when I gave him the legal advice that he wanted to hear, I was his good friend, and when it was otherwise, he thought that I was being uncommercial... when he (1 of the out-and-out ops people and hence a rough-and-tough guy) found out that I was leaving today, he actually called me up, and said that he really appreciated me running alongside him, and that I had the right fighting spirit! That totally cracked me up, when I thought of the times when I got accused by him of being uncommercial...

I had to go to the 19th floor to see some of them for work matters... when the SVP of the dept. walked past, he asked me to go to his room after I was done with the other guys... apparently he heard at lunch that I was leaving, and we had a nice long chat... We reminisced about the first file we worked on together in my 2nd week here, and it never crossed my mind to tell him the "untold story" of that matter... what happened was that I had to explain it to around 3 or 4 people of varying seniority one after the other, and by the time I was done with the person before him I was getting a little exasperated... then SVP called (I didn't know who he was) and introduced himself by his first name, and asked that we discuss this in person... I tried to find his designation in our email system but this was not possible as we search only by last names, and I was very tempted to ask him to come up to see me, but fortunately held my tongue... so he told me he was on the 19th floor.. I went down to the 19th floor (a little self-righteous), and when I asked someone where SVP sat, he pointed in a certain direction... I walked in the direction he indicated, and the next thing I knew, I saw his name plate in a room, a corner office at that! Heng ah... But he turned out to be very nice... and I think what impressed him a little was that I could rattle off some of the technical jargon of our industry... anyways, today he really made me feel very appreciated, and it's truly nice to know that there might be a place in the company for me if I ever think of returning...

On a different topic, most people have been asking where I'm going... it's fun to see the look on their faces when I yank their chain and say I'm joining [name of competitor]... hahaha... considering that the word people have been using to describe me the past 2 days is "nice" rather than "good" (not a good thing.. haha), I think for the fun of it, on Monday when people ask, I'll say I'm training to be a pastor! Seeing their reactions will be priceless!

Moving On

Dear [boss],

It is with regret that I am handing you this document as my letter of resignation.

At the outset, I'd like to express my deep gratitude for your taking me on when I was a relatively young lawyer with limited corporate law experience, and giving me the tutelage as well as opportunities to develop my legal skills and serve [company] in the process. Your trust in me for matters big and small is something for which I remain always indebted.

My time in [company] has been a truly great one - from the delightful members of the Legal Team to others throughout our organisation, I can honestly say I've enjoyed working with almost everyone.

I have been approached with a fantastic offer to join a company in an unrelated industry as legal counsel. After some deliberation, I've decided to take up this offer for it would give me the opportunity to experience working in a small but rapidly-expanding company, and an industry-switch which might not come by easily for someone firmly rooted in the [x] industry.

I understand that the notice period in my employment agreement is 1 month. By tendering notice today, my last day at [company] should be on 22 April 2006. However, if work exigencies require, I am happy to stay for a little longer.

A chapter of my life draws to a close... I truly enjoy working with most of my colleagues, who are nicer than in most other companies (though very few young pretty chicks.. heh)... My boss took it slightly better than I expected, which is good! For the curious, I'm moving to the infocomms industry, which is a whole new world for me... and the new office is back in Raffles Place! woo hoo!!!

As with many other things in life, it's sometimes sad that people only express their gratitude to you when ure leaving / dying / dead... some colleagues already know, and it's really quite nice to hear them say heartfelt nice things about you, and nice when they call right after they've heard off the grapevine and you know it's out of concern / happiness for me / regret than to make sure the nail really is in the coffin...

Who knows? I might come back in 3 years time...

Congratulations are in order

As FF says, after following Little Cart Noodles' blog for so long, it feels like my own son is getting married.. congratulations! I'm proud of you, sonny boy!

Buy SIA shares!

Can you imagine that the business class tickets to and from Amsterdam for the week of 10 April (3 weeks time, for god's sakes!) are all booked out???

Clifford Pier

It's funny how some things sneak up on you... a sign that we're not young anymore? It really feels like 1 institution in Singapore after another is biting the dust.. first it was the monorail at Sentosa, and now I hear that Clifford Pier will be closing from 1 April 2006...

It's one of those places which hold a special place in my heart... From 2001 to 2004 when I was working in Raffles Place, I had lunch there once a week on average, at one of the following joints: (1) the kueh-charp nazi's store, which sells chicken rice, wonton noodles, kueh-charp (2) (not so often) the economical-rice / zzz-char noodles place and (3) the malay noodles / nasi padang shop...

My favourite, as with many of my friends (including 1x blogging friend, Ms. M&M even), was the malay food store... my fav was the mee soto, with 1 bergerdil and 1 dish of nasi goreng for the few of us to share... I remember LG loved hers with lotsa chilli and the vendor's eyes would light up at the sight of LG just piling the chilli on... not to mention the kick-ass lime tea, and low-quality goreng pisang... on the few occasions when I went running from the office to Benjamin Sheares bridge in the evenings, I saw them selling satay in the evenings, but never got round to trying them even once...

At night, the kueh-charp place transforms into a chinese nightclub of sorts... never been in it at night, but whilst we're having lunch, we can see the strips of paper with $200 for a Martell, $400 for a Royal Salute or whatever, and the photos of the dancers / hostesses who would be gracing the occasion that week... was just telling Ms. M&M that once, when LG / YT (can't remember which) and I were walking there after a particularly shitty day at work, we saw an old man seated on the steps outside the place, with a can of beer / stout beside him... he obviously couldn't afford / didn't want to go in, but was blissfully listening to the songstresses belt out the hokkein / old chinese numbers... it was both nice and heart-wrenching seeing him...

It was the safe haven that we ran to whenever we needed to hide or to talk... I remember some afternoons towards the end of pupillage when we just wanted to slack off... I left the office, went to Clifford Centre to buy fruits, and sat at the old-style stone seats munching the slices of watermelon...

It was also the same place LG or YT and I went to talk... for a while, we were allowed to sit at the steps of the jetty where boats came alongside, talking from when the tide was at a certain mark on the jetty steps till it was 3 or 4 steps higher / lower...

I miss those days...

As Ms. M&M said, Clifford Pier was also the border between (the traditional notions of) rich and poor, new and old... step eastwards out of Clifford Pier, and u get One Fullerton, with fancy joints like Pierside, (now-defunct) Centro, an 1 of those East-Coast seafood establishments... step a bit to the west and now u'll get a prestigious condominium... it's a wonder Clifford Pier lasted so long...

Too bad LG is in Hong Kong, and won't get to have her favourite mee soto one last time (though that's where we ate when she was back in December / CNY)... I'm gonna make plans to meet YT there for lunch tuesday or wednesday!

I really really will miss this place...

Boston

I've been at reservist and overseas so much over the past 2 months I've not really listened to radio and heard nice new songs lately; then my brother tells me about this one by Augustana called Boston - amazing! I've had it on repeat for the past 40 minutes...

That's it!

Back from Bangkok for the 7th time in around 10 months.. really hope that's it for quite some time! Why couldn't it have been Tokyo or something?

And, you know you're travelling way too much when you realise during conversations with friends about movies that you've watched half of the movies on a plane, and sometimes (e.g. Rent) even before they are released in Singapore.

+++

Why do I always get swayed by people's opinions when it comes to investing in shares? I was reading quite a few reports about Labroy appointing an oil-rig man as their COO, and had this really really strong hunch something was going to happen soon.. then I spoke to a couple of investing friends, and 1 showed me some TA charts which reflected that the counter was overbought... and when the price dipped a little bit, I hesitated on buying... shot up from the $1.17 I would have bought it to around $1.40... that would have been a cool S$1000+ in 2 weeks, and around 10% of my $15k stock-profit objective this year... dang!

Afro

Somebody looks positively miffed! hahahahaha...
Link

Ill and Bored

Imagine if my teddy bear did go on a trip with me.. cute, ain't he?

To all the women in the world:

I'm sorry for trivialising your cramps.

Between the bacteria I picked up on my business trip this week, and the dinner I had last night, something caused me really really bad diarrhea and abdominal cramps this morning... I was okay with the incessant fluid passing out as bowels, but the killer was lying in bed in excruciating pain, whilst every 4 minutes I'd get 3 "contractions" without fail - 1 small one, then 2 stabbing pains where you could feel the stabbing pain radiating from this point on my tummy to a circle the diameter of 20 cm... it was so bad I had trouble finding the energy and balance t0 put on my boxers everytime after I did a round to the toilet...

If some girls out there get cramps as bad as this once a month, I'm really really thankful I'm not a woman...

+++

And now I know what about clinics pisses some people off... all of the 3 clinics in my neighbourhood open at 0830.. I saw a short queue forming outside 1 of them at 0750 (I thought they, or at least 1 of them, open at 8am) and not wanting to lose out on a place in the queue, I stood and leant against the wall of the clinic whilst the cramps "raped" me again and again every 4 minutes... this was for 20 minutes until the shutter went up and we could register.. then I find that the toilet is not functional... win already lor..

Then the doctor had this chao(4) bin(3) a.k.a. black face which totally turned me off... as I was describing my "3 cramps every 4 minutes", she pointed out to me that this was called "intermittent"... n@beh I "O" Level English and "A" Level GP A1 okay! don't need you to teach me a "new" word...

But her pain-killer jab kicks ass! 10 minutes was all it takes for the pain to go away...

Masters of the Universe

I know I shouldn't, but I just need to brag - I maxed my pay grade for my 2005 annual bonus payout! I swear when I saw the figure with my own eyes, I felt a little dizzy for it was (not that big in real dollars though because my base pay sux) much more than I expected! Who's ure daddy!

Strangely Empty

Tomorrow's the first time I'm going on a trip where I fly in the evening, sleep in the hotel, have a meeting for half a day, and then catch the plane back...

I set out to pack the stuff I need, and it barely fills 1/4 of my usual rollaboard: 1 work shirt, 1 t-shirt to sleep in, 1 change of undies and socks, and the usual toiletries... makes me feel strangely empty inside..

Maybe that just means I have space to smuggle back 4 bottles of Macallans... heh..

Edit: Come to think of it, I should have brought my favourite teddy bear.. haha

Question Time:

If you have a scaredy-cat colleague who is really afraid of the being alone, and you were in the office really early one day, and can hear her coming in, do you (i) say hi as she walks in to "pre-emptively" scare her, or (ii) let her see for herself that there is a human figure in the office, hence scaring herself?

Happiness is..

Seeing your golf ball, struck with a 7-iron, smack right into the board that says 150 metres and be rewarded with a "tock" sound 0.4 seconds (150m divided by 330m/s mah) later... until you remember you were hitting off the lower deck of the driving range which is 20 metres nearer the target than usual...

+++

Today, for the first time in my life, I was scolded for holding up play on the golf course.. balls to you!

13 to 30

That was the phrase uttered by 1 of my HJ-bunch of friends yesterday..

We had dinner last night to celebrate the first 30th birthday of the bunch of friends.. Went to Table 108 at CHIJMES, which I frankly think was a slightly disappointing experience, partly because of the glowing reviews that the restaurant got. Apart from the chicken and beef skewers, the rest of the stuff (like spring rolls, Vietnamese rice rolls, crabmeat fried rice and mee goreng) tasted pretty normal, except they cost 3 times the price you'd pay from the similar-quality neighbourhood stall... would be a nice place to bring out-of-town guests to try local / Asian food tho, I guess..

But anyways, it's amazing, but we've known each other from when we were 13, and we'll all hit 30 at some point this year... At the table of 8 yesterday were HJ, the 3 of us (TL, GL and me), YF, and his sis and her family... It was not planned, but as HJ mentioned that we were the ones who have, together, seen him through all the shit in his life...

Last year was a year of change for him, and this year will be as well... he's going to be relocating as part of a job transfer, which means that we won't get to meet 5 times a month like we currently do.. somehow in our minds we haven't, and don't want to, address it yet, but it's gonna be strange not seeing each other for maybe 2 months at a stretch when usually the furthest we go is 14 days..

Of my 3 best friends, the 17 years I've known him is still more than the other 2 (9 and 5 years) put together.. really, we've seen each other grow up and crawl our way through all the trials of life.. his mom passing on when he was 13, moving house 6(?) times in 18 years because a lot of the time he had no other choice, clearing out a fridge full of rotting food because he had no money to buy a replacement.... we've gone through it all together...

It's sometimes hard to guys to say or do certain things for / to each other... like we've hardly ever hugged, but somehow we know we'll always be there for each other... I would fly 3 days emergency leave just to fly to meet him there is there was a need to, and imagine he would do the same for me..

We'll see..