this is probably one of the most unlucky week this year so far. and hopefully from tmr onwards, luck will turn to my side.
Monday- i was on DMSO call. and if i didn't mention earlier, well one of the roles of the DMSO is that we forward important emails to key appointment holders in the corps, and henceforth we are usually kept in the loop for all the happenings in this organisation. this includes death cases. well death isn't really a very common occurrence in this organisation, yet on my call there are 2 cases! sighz.
Tuesday- blackout at home! it happened when the lightbulb adaptor in the bathroom turned faulty such that the whole part needs to be replaced (one plastic component was chipped off so the lightbulb can't fit into it). so i tried to change the whole adaptor, but i can't remember what coloured wires should be connected to live, neutral and earth respectively. anyway i managed to find out from the internet,so garang me began to change. and guess what, even before i connect the wires, the house suddenly turned pitch dark. we on the main switch and i tried again; and it blacked out again! then we on the main switch and it blacked out AGAIN!! and this time round, even turning on the main switch doesn't solve the problem. my mum was so worried about the food in the fridge; whereas i was more worried about how i am going to sleep in such a hot climate. Fortunately, one of my neighbours is an electrican who managed to make the house bright again. Apparently there is some sequence to follow when trying to reset the switch in the switchbox - press the white button, then switch back the blue one on, followed by the red one. hmmm... i guess i am better off treating patient than dealing with electricity.
Wednesday- hmm probably the most uneventful day.
Thursday- my car got clamped in my camp!! dammit! well for those of you who come to my camp in the north before, in particular the HQ that i am in, u will know how difficult it can be to find a parking lot. so nowadays i usually parked at a slip road leading to basement one, ie, i din park at a parking lot. well i think i may not be right, but i dun think i am in the wrong. firstly, there was no double yellow line painted on this side where i parked, and secondly there wasn't any "clamping zone" signboard along this road where i parked. so it wasn't really illegal per se. I am just too suay. that day so happens that mine was the only car parking there and the RSM probably has nothing better to do then and instructed the RP to clamp my car (i heard they have only one clamp). anyway i called the RSM and asked him to release it, cos i need to rush for DB check. I think next time i shall call him every time/every day when i see any cars or motorcycles parking there, since he is such a fine law-enforcer. hummph. and i shall check half an hour later to see whether it is clamped, if not i will call and pester him till he buay tahan.
Friday- have 2 meetings today. one in the morning, and i happened to be the secretariat cos the usual secretariat is happily enjoying himself in japan right now =(. and i hate being a secretariat/secretary cos i hate writing politically correct minutes. anyway, the chairman of the meeting is my boss's boss (COL C). and first thing before the meeting, he actually kicked out a big fuss about the conference room! well he preferred the conference room at level 6 (which happens to own by the biggest boss in the HQ, who happens to have a very nasty and eccentric secretary, who takes charge of the conference room) while usually we booked the one at level 2. We tried booking the level 6 conference room earlier when he voiced that out one week ago, but Ms M (the biggest boss's secretary) roared that it was occupied. never mind. But COL C wasn't happy that we din ask the eccentric secretary the reason why it was occupied (ie: used by who? from what time to what time? etc). well in fact i dun even think that it is important to find out. occupied = occupied. period.
my friend gave a very good analogy - when u wanted to buy a pair of size 42 shoes, and the salesman told u that "sold out", would u ask "who bought the last pair?" "when?" etc????!!!! secondly, we all know what Ms M is like. she is eccentric. knowing the answer won't solve the problem. forcing her to answer us won't solve the problem. in fact, it makes it even further next time when we need to know information from her. we are long enough in this organisation to know all these, which i am sure COL C should know too despite that he was quite new in this department. Yet we can't really tell COL C these cos i dun think he will understand our predicament (3 crabs vs 3 chocolate bars on the shoulders). i don't want to be too defensive here anyway. whatever the case, i dun think i was at any fault for that matter. I dun even think that i should be the one booking conference rooms. my job is just making sure that the booking was done. Of course, i din tell COL C that. I just feel that this matter is too trivial to generate such great heat.
My EQ may not be ultra-high, but i believe there is probably a hidden agenda here by COL C. I can sense that he doesn't like Ms M too, yet it would appear too misery if he were to scold Ms M (the biggest boss's secretary, ie, his boss's secretary). Yet he needs to solve this problem. So he needs his staff officers to deal Ms M for him. I happen to be the unlucky one today cos this is my suay week!
yesterday was cindy's wedding dinner @ hotel intercontinental and yup of cos i will go for the simple reason that i have known her for around 10 years. so this paragraph is dedicated to u and congrats!!!
anyway this was my first time driving to bugis junction and i thought i will go by a different route, ie, from upper bt timah rd to dunearn rd to rochor and to victoria st. and guess what? it is the newton circus again! this time round, the traffic light at the junction was faulty. so i waited for the traffic to clear first before i turned (green route). However, there was another car on my left which is travelling along the red route and i tot it wanted to continue the same route as me. but unfortunately it is trying to complete the turn! so almost got into an accident but lucky we stopped fast enuff.
till now i still dunno whether he is at fault or me, or the traffic light. i am quite sure that the lane i am in is allowed to travel in the direction i am in. hmmm.
anyway newton circus is so dangerous. and in retrospect, i realised that actually i dun even need to enter newton circus as i can enter the flyover (purple route)!
i went to the national skin centre for my follow-up last friday for a small lump that i have over my left shin for dunno how many donkey years. well it itches quite a bit at times and it's a reflex for me to scratch it. i believe it is some sort of an eczema cos it improves slightly when i applied steroid cream on it. but well, since i am in this organization which provides me some medical benefits, and this IS a medical condition, i thought i might just seek a dermatologist's opinion.
He suggested a biopsy to confirm the diagnosis, and so here i was on a friday morning to get a punch biopsy done, with 2 stitches. attached as illustrated... with dressing on heh in case it's too gross for some.
yesterday was father's day, so we went out for a father's day dinner at Turf city, one of those seafood restaurant. unfortunately, as fate may have it this way, i am having quite a bad sore throat and hence dun really have much appetite, so din really enjoy the meal as i hope to. but anyway it's always good to have a family gathering cum dinner.
talking abt family dinner. i have always wanted to bring my parents to try something which they themselves will never go and experience themselves. They are the traditional kind who will find it safer to eat something they are familiar with, ie, chinese dinner eg: crystal jade etc. while i dun detest chinese food (in fact i am quite traditional myself too!), i still prefer to try sth exotic. But of cos, exotism has a price to pay. Literally. So most of the times, either i am too lazy to think of sth special or i am just quite tight financially, we will settle having a chinese dinner. i remembered those times when i brought them to eat italian food and they dun seem to appreciate it that much. sighzzz
* anyway here i am doing my night call in this branch office after like more than 1 month. that's how long i have not done dmso oredi. and i am starting to experience this hypoxic-drowsy-groggy feeling again in this suffocating office (remembered i mentioned previously that the air-con will be turned off automatically at 6pm). i think i shall sleep early today; and if i manage to wake up early, i shall go for a jog.
damn!! got into an accident (a minor one actually... but the most serious one so far for my car). involves me and my car only.
i was going for a medical appointment at national skin centre yesterday from home and since this is the first time i am driving there, as usual i will read the streetdirectory to plan my journey, so more or less settled that i will go from upper bukit timah rd to dunearn rd to newton circus and out to newton rd and finally moulmein rd.
and for those who have been to newton circus... well u have to agree that it can be quite complicated for first-timer.
I am supposed to take the blue route as shown above. but unfortunately, i made the wrong exit (red route) and went straight into bukit timah rd ahead... knew sth is amiss when i saw KK hospital on my left hand side and simlim square in front!!! so i made a U -turn and hope that i can reach back to newton road and continue my journey. subsequently i saw a slip rd and tot that it could lead me to newton rd, so i entered the road and to my horror, i actually reached orchard rd and had to pass thru the ERP gantry! damn. at this point i tot maybe i should go home instead. but i remembered another way to national skin centre is to go by CTE and exit to moulmein rd and i decided to try... luckily it is the correct direction.
so after i exited CTE, i saw communicable disease centre (CDC) opposite the rd and i remembered that i have to make a U-turn (red route). so after the u-turn i continued forward and saw the signboard saying national skin centre. dammit.. shouldn't they put the signboard in front of the turn-in rather than behind? it doesn't give people enough time to prepare! anyway my instinct then was to turn, at 60-70km/h. i dunno why i did that. just an instinct. and cos the speed is too fast and the angle of turning is too acute, i mounted the kerb as shown in the blue oval and sustained scratches over my front right wheel rim and right buttock sprain. the only consolation is that i didn't scratch the rest of my car.
sighzzz. now my car is misaligned after the impact and there goes part of my money again.
The leson learnt is dun turn when u are travelling too fast.
on a lighter note, now i have conquered all the expressways in singapore!
we went back to suntec again today for PC show and yup i got myself a laptop after procrastinating for so long. Acer Aspire 5585WXMi (D). The specs:
Processor: Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor T7200 (2GHz, 667MHz FSB, 4MB L2 cache), supporting Intel® Extended Memory 64 Technology (Intel® EM64T) Display and graphics: 14.1" WXGA Acer CrystalBrite™ TFT LCD, 1280 x 800, 16.7M colours ; nVidia® GeForce® GO 7300 with up to 256MB TurboCache
It weighs around 2.4kg and comes with a webcam, 160GB HDD, 1GB RAM (which i upgraded to 2GB). Total cost: S$2057. There was a further deduction of $100 today and comes with free 3yr extended warranty, 4 GB thumb drive, mouse, speakers, headset and icepack. I think it is quite worth it after comparing all the choices and keeping close to my budget. heheh can't wait to play with my new toy... but now i need to charge the battery first for 8 hours. shall explore it tmr =)
Other than the good specs, what really makes me choose this compared to others are: 1) acceptable weight 2) affordable price 3) not-black covering 4) webcam (cos i find it cool to have a webcam haha) 5) 3 yr warranty 6) acer desktop din give me much problems; so hopefully the laptop does me well too 7) freebies!
I also got myself a linksys router so that next time both my sis and i can surf the net at the same time. Managed to set up the router just now so at least one job done before i sleep.
And today suntec was even more crowded and i foresee tomorrow will be worse. too bad i am not free tmr, else i believe i can get a better deal. We also drop by the book fair at level 4 and what a big contrast in terms of the crowd. anyway i am not really a book-fancier so i left the hall after 15 minutes. Surprisingly i managed to find a parking lot immediately when i entered the carpark at suntec! initially i oredi planned to park at esplanade cos i foresee there will be a damn long queue (which happened to me on vesak day), but i actually missed the entrance into the esplanade carpark along nicoll highway, so no choice have to continue driving down to suntec.
anyway the laptop is probably going to be used mainly for work for now, but i suppose i will find it handy when i return back to my official job. oh yah.. thanks to the promoters at the PC show who helped to give me some insight in one way or another - timothy from lenovo, eric from fujitsu, gw and iskandar from acer etc etc. quite professional in selling your products.
the 3-monthly IT event started yesterday and will end this sunday. and it was so damn crowded yesterday despite being the first day.. guess it's bcos of vesak day. the linkway from the suntec city mall to the convention centre is jammed with human such that we can only move inch by inch!
need to get myself a laptop this time round cos i need it for home and work. and i did some research over the net and others' appraisal before making a trip down.. so it narrows down to either lenovo or acer. my preferred specs are actually quite simple - Core2 duo processor (at least 1.6GHz), at least 1 GB RAM, DVD-R, weight <2.5kg with batteries, long battery life (hopefully 6-cell or more), budget around 2k, >100GB HDD, asthetically appealing (ie: better to have an other-than-black-colour casing), hopefully comes with webcam, hopefully has discrete graphic card.
Comments for acer weren't too good.. that's what most people from hardwarezone said. but then again, my current acer desktop din really give me trouble for 4-5years until recently when the battery starts to wear off and the clock keeps resetting itself.
lenovo shouldn't be too bad in terms of reliability since it was from IBM. i also considered other brands- toshiba and hp, but somehow not too appealing. of cos, i tot making an initial trip down to the PC show will help me make my decision better and clearer. And talking to the promoters does affect my decision at times, especially if the promoter is sincere enuff and if the model is one of my choice.
But i guess human beings are weird creatures. You would already have something in your mind that u yearn to have; and most of the times, your decision wouldn't change despite all the influences.
So at the end of the day, my main choices are still either Lenovo or acer heheh.
Usually after my enquires with the promoters, i will ask for their names and numbers so that i can get back to them if i really want to buy that particular brand. Especially if they are very sincere (yah i can be quite swayed at times by people's sincerity). but unfortunately most of the times u can't get back to them as 1)i can't recognise the faces; 2)when i asked for them, the other promoters will say "dunno this person... can i help you instead?" so..
anyway i reckon as a promoter, u should know your stuff really well (at your fingertips) and dun be too forceful in trying to clinching the deal! i had an encounter yesterday when some promoters dun really know the specs well and give me wrong info somemore (yah sometimes i will act ignorant and ask some silly questions to test the promoters hahah..=p). And keep asking me "so which one u want to buy?" sighzzz.
i think i will be dropping by again this sat and sun to buy my laptop. and hopefully i can get some really good deal!
holidae.
singapore.
lefty left-brainer.
leo.
9 Aug.
selective procrastinator.
paladin by day and nite.
Chatters
Wishlist
tag watch
learn cooking
play a new musical instrument
lasik op
new hobby
clear exit
Fav food
chilli crab
fried kway teow
fried carrot cake @ upp bt timah, bt merah, bt merah view, clementi
fried dang hoon
pig kidney/liver/small intestine/large intestine/organ soup/pig blood
kway chap from sembawang hills
hainan chicken rice with gien3
century egg porridge
fried oyster
BBQ stingray
clams and lala
chicken soup and all sorts of soups my mum cooks
fried fishballs
fish soup from han jee @ amoy
fried chicken wings
salmon belly sashimi
hairy gourd
lotus root
szechuan veg
prawn mee esp from old airport rd, zion rd, adam rd, sembawang hills and hong lim
chwee kueh from tiong bahru, jurong west, clementi, queens st
kueh tutu
coffee/bread toast/egg from sembawang hills, ah kun
prawn cracker
strawberry sundae @ macs
hotcakes @ macs
rum and raisin
duck's tongue
indocafe coffee
water chestnut juice
sugar cane juice
marigold lemon barley
