Me

My Personal Dna Report

ssshhhh

Baby

psst friend... I have a brand new Porsche for sale at SGD90k.... :D

cute car eh? someone modified the body of a baby Fiat to make it look like a Porsche 911... hahaha...

<3

I'd forgotten about the question in this post, but anyways no one gave me the answer... till I read this post in her very very good blog!

Now I know the heart really is slightly displaced to the left in our body... which then leads me to ask what organ takes up the "empty" space to the right?

Anyways, hers is truly 1 of the best blogs I've read in quite some time, even though you could say I'm slightly prejudiced cos I've always been quite into medicine blogs and tv shows.. hell, I have all 12 seasons of ER on DVD!

Security overkill

This is how many password related numbers I have to remember / use in my new job:

• User ID (6 numbers)
  
• Windows password (word and number)
  
• Email system pin (8 numbers)
  
• Office door access outside office hours (4 numbers)
  
• VPN pin (4 numbers)
  
• VPN 2FA pin generator (6 "floating" numbers)

It's crazy... they are all assigned numbers, so I can't even change them to be varying lengths of the same combination...

And the ops people really store some of their documents in a safe, with a rotary knob and all! Sometimes I wonder if the company is doing some other "business" which I am unaware of... heh...

...

SMU is starting it's own law school this academic year, and has been going on a media blitz with slick ads for its courses, including the law one...

Guess the people at NUS law fac weren't going to take it lying down, and decided to place 3 or 4 ads this past week... they obviously weren't as professional looking, but came with this barb u find in the photo...

One wonders whether the "best" kids will choose NUS or SMU for their law courses... presumably still NUS for the first few years, but NUS better buck up and help its own students in getting internship places, etc. in a more sophisticated way if it wants to retain the advantage... will be fun to see the inter-law school battles begin in a few years!

Abode

Presenting my humble abode... I don't know about you, but somehow it really feels like my little own room in a dorm or something... and don't ask me about the funny green color they use... something to do with the nature of our business I guess...

I get a nice chair which, frankly, isn't very comfy... I also get the morning sun cos the window faces directly east, which frankly is quite nice... The computer is a 2-year old one, which runs on bloody Windows 2000 and Lotus Notes... jeez... but my boss weighed in and saw to it that they are getting me a new one! yee haw!

If I survive the next few months, it's probably time to make it a little more homely.. a proper cushion-y reading chair would be nice... heh..

Greed sux

I was lucky to get 2 lots of the recent Yangzijiang IPO... IPO price 95 cents, and it opened at around $1.33(?) yesterday morning.. closed at $1.34 yesterday off a high of $1.39... but I was greedy and refused to sell yesterday as I usually do for IPOs...

Opened lower this morning, and started sliding bit by bit... queued at the sell queues at $1.33, then $1.32, then $1.30 as the prices dropped, but all didn't fill... finally decided to "bite the bullet" and sold into the buy queue at $1.29... greed sux!

***

I was just told that I can claim around $400 for a suitcase / computer bag... thinking of getting a Tumi computer bag... It's slightly crazy to pay that kinda money for what basically is a nylon bag, and honestly 3 months ago I would have scoffed and paying that kinda money, but since someone is "sponsoring" most of it, what the heck right? Anyone have lobangs?

Knut morning!

Bombs Away!

Was dropped a huge bombshell today... 2 weeks into my new job, my boss told me this morning that he was leaving the company to join another company in a different role...

I really don't even know what to think of it... just last week, I was thinking of ways to accelerate his trust in me so that I will get more countries to look after, and today I find out that in all likelihood (except for a few huge files which will get transferred to HQ) the entire "kingdom" is mine... now it's so big I don't even know what I'm going to do and how I'm going to be able to do it... I've zero experience managing department budget and fighting turf skirmishes... how?!

Was kinda banking on the fact that I would have an influential boss who could show me the ropes and on whose coat-tails I would be able to get doors opened for me in terms of a longer-term career in this company... now I'm just the little boy who has 10 fingers and 10 little toes trying to plug the leaks sprung in the dikes!

The only (very) cold comfort is that if I survive it all, I'd have learnt a lot more and be ahead of the seniority / management curve compared to my peers...

gimme hug!

...

You wonder what the brown one is praying for... heh..

Went to walk YT's dog yesterday, and was basically slobbered and licked all over my face three times over.. fun nonetheless!

Boss will be out of the office for 4 out of the 5 day work days this week, so it's up to me find ways to amuse myself! :D

Personal space

The junior lawyer from our default HK law firm I met during the trip seems to be a really nice dude, and because he is only 1 year my junior, I was telling him at lunch (when he was seated next to me) how much the private practice people in my year in Singapore and HK are probably making...

But because his boss was just sitting next to me (albeit speaking to someone else), I used my finger to "write" out the numbers on the napkin on my thigh instead of saying it out aloud... when I was done, he used his finger to "write" out his current salary, also on my thigh! Dude, some respect of personal space maybe?!!! hahaha...

SQ 77W

I'm quite an aeroplane buff, and was excited that we were trying to catch the earlier 4pm flight back yesterday, meaning that I'd get to try the 777-300ER... here are some pics:

as you can see, everyone gets his / her own "cubicle"... good if you like personal space, but it kinda kills the wide open feel of the cabin... not to mention the seats are amazing wide...


Nice big tv screen, and the well under the tv on the side for you to stick ure feet into so that you can like fully flat and sleep...


Don't u feel like a diva with this kinda lights?

****

Today's GP essay question is: "Singapore Girls are getting prettier again. Discuss."

Matthew 6:21

I was reading someone else's blog, and I came across this verse from Matthew 6:21 - for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The full context of course is the one about how there is no point (well, more strictly, we should not(?)) be pre-occupied about worldly possessions.

Strange, but I don't recall ever having seen it ever... guess it's one of those which does not really contain that much substantive meaning, but the words are positively lovely!

Infidelity

Was in HK the past 2 days... met my ex-boss this morning for breakfast before work meetings.. it's nice that my hotel, my current office, and my ex-company's HK office are all within 5 minutes walk from each other.. it was great seeing ex-boss again, even tho we'd last met less than 2 weeks ago... truly, I'm sure I'll never have another boss with whom I share that kinda affinity ever again...

But the strange thing was, when I met my ex-boss, it felt like I was "cheating"! You know, like having an extra-marital affair... if I can't even do this without feeling guilty, I'm pretty darn sure I'm not one for adultry... heh...

***

The world is an amazingly small place! Part of the purpose of the trip was for me to get to know our regular lawyers in HK... turns out that FS knows 1 of them really well, and YB worked together with another as recently as 10 months ago, throwing paper balls at each other over their cubicles then.. there are way too many Singaporean lawyers in HK man...

And it was hilarious seeing again what it's like to be a junior lawyer, as I once was... we were invited to lunch by our lawyers, but had to rush because we were trying to catch the earlier flight back to Singapore... the moment we (i.e. the clients) finished, the partner asked for the bill, and the junior lawyer, who hadn't finished his meal, had to leave half his dessert behind.. heh.. those were the days...

zzzz

It’s kinda strange, but amongst my 4 or so best friends, my best best friend YT doesn’t know even of the existence of my blog; the main reason is cos I think that if she were to find out that I had a blog, she’d insist that I tell her the URL, and the privacy would be compromised… which for some reason is something I “fear” a little, even though I don’t write about her as much as I’d like / should…

But she’s my best best friend in the world for a reason… I was minding my own business in my cubicle this afternoon, when I heard loud snoring noises next door… I almost couldn’t control myself giggling, and immediately skype messaged YT to tell her… we both laughed about it for at least a few minutes, thinking about the things I could have done to extract some more fun out of the situation…

Amazing that we’re both grown adults, and she’s due to be a mother in 5 months, and we’re both reduced to giggling fits over silly things like this…

Good Morning Vietnam!

Am in Ho Chi Minh City now, working out of our local office... all I can say is that it's very different working for a manufacturing / agriculture related company, where you deal really with the "salt of the earth" types...

Also really different working in an office which is just the regional corporate HQ, as compared to all my previous jobs where Singapore is the global HQ, and hence there were tons of people... here we only have 25 or so people in Singapore, easily 1/4 of which are out of the country quite a bit of the time..

Naturally, working for a European company (where a lot of the senior people are natives of the global HQ of the company) gives the feel that things are a bit different now, in the sense that you may be paid well and not junior and everything, but you will never be one of them... tho I must admit that generally they are nice people (I think... heh)...

Those people who know me will know that I've always prided myself as having a keener commercial sense that my average law school classmate, but even then here I'm getting a bit of the sinking feeling, cos I'm thrown into the thick of commercial matters and expected to add not just legal but commercial experience as well... kinda scary, but I hope I learn real fast!

Separately, I'm staying at positively the nicest hotel I've ever stayed in my life! The hyperlink button on blogger seems to have disappeared, but the Park Hyatt Saigon is amazing! Even better than the fancy smchanzy Grand Hyatt Taipei suite the last time!