For my dear junior..

This posting is for my dear junior, who did a really sweet posting on his blog for me. I was absolutely touched reading it ;) (I won't be so obtuse as to give the link to his posting, but hint hint. It's one of the blogs that I read frequently. One of those blogs on the left hand column of my blog ;p)

Speaking of this junior of mine, I can still recall that very first night where I spent close to an hour on the phone, literally cajoling him to join my eca group. That was definitely an exception. But I'm glad I succeeded ;p For those of you who know me, I guess you would know that I don't beg/ "whine" for things in general ;p sounds like a toughie huhz ;p

Am glad that I've kept in touch with this junior of mine through the years. We maintained contact even for the 4 years when he was away in the US :) We have managed to keep the friendship going for the past 10 years. Really gotta thank him for being such a wonderful friend, for lending me a ear always and for being my trip adviser, for my 2 mega trips to the US ;p Here's to many more years of our friendship :)

My week of sin...

It's been an eventful week. I think I"ll call it my week of sin! Before your thoughts start running wild, pray, please do hear me out :)

On second thoughts, I could probably call this the week of cheesecake and mudpies. Within a short span of 6 days, I've had 3 slices of cheesecakes and 2 slices of mudpies. The week has been eventful and foodful (a kestrel-coined term) ;p


Mon - started my lessons in something new. Gotta say it's fun and interesting. But I don't really think it's easy ;p Interesting classmates as well ;)

Tue - Had that first slice of bakerzin cheesecake plus a teh tarik during an afternoon meeting. Thought that I would have time to go for a long run after that. But was caught up in another meeting. Didn't have time to run. Haiz. So much for the carbo loading. arrghz.

Wed - start of my own private celebrations. Had really yummy jap food at this place called Matsuo - sushi platter and tempura udon (per pax) for lunch. Went for an indian wedding in the night. Yum Yum. Loved the north & south indian food. Must say my indian friend has the same taste as me ;) the songs that they chose to play for the march-ins were mostly my favourite English songs ;p

Thurs - Boss bought us yummy cheesecake brownie. Loved it so much that I had two slices. Sinful but absolutely delicious! (I got the address of the shop. Let me know if you're interested ;p)

Fri - Had yummy pasta for lunch. Am quite impressed with the standard of TCC's pasta ;) Celebrations continued in the evening with my first beloved bunch of friends ;p Mouthwatering wood-fired thin crust Italian pizzas (this is what I call the real thing!). Followed by a session at a min2 ge1 chan1 ting1 ;p Was absolutely cool to have the singers singing the b'day song for me ;p

Sat - Went for tea at the V cafe. Had this yummy chocolatey stuff. Yepz. Chocolate always works for me. I'm an absolute chocophile ;p Nice chit chat session with an old friend who turned up as well :)

Sat (cont'd) - Went to shop at zara for my birthday present. Am absolutely thrilled with what I got ;) A dress! This was followed by dinner with another beloved bunch of friends. Followed by yummy desserts at Ben&Jerry's @ Dempsey ;p Once again, chocolatey stuff (esp for me) if you can see ;p

Would love to thank all my lovely friends for taking time out to celebrate my birthday with me :)

Would also like to thank my msn friend, for remembering my birthday and for offering to throw my favourite flowers at me on facebook ;p

Lastly, would like to wish my twin all the best for his exam. Tough luck that your exam is still so close to our birthday (thought that would have only been during our school days) ;p Gambatte!

The anatomy of the photocopier

Friday. I came to the sudden realisation that quite a number of us office workers must be good mechanics at trouble shooting the photocopier after a fair number of months/ years at work.

I'm sure all of us must have been stuck at least at one point of our working life stuck at the photocopier. The horrors grow especially when we are doing duplex copying (double-sided), sorting or simply using the feeder function of the photocopier. Spent close to an hour and a half dismantling and trouble-shooting the photocopier just to make duplicates of some documents that I was handling. Took a real amount of patience and discipline to not kick the machine, left it jammed or give up on photocopying totally ;p

Am totally familar with the 10 different doors (not to mention the other levers, rollers and other parts in the machine) by the end of Friday. Even had to poke my ruler into the machine to retrieve the different bits of paper that was jammed between the rollers. Arrghz. Was sorely tempted to do a short write-up on the anatomy of the photocopier. which I'm sure would bore all of you ;) But I'm glad that I managed to make duplicates of all the documents that I wanted. You can just imagine how triumphant I felt at the end of it all. Kestrel won the battle against the photocopier after 2 hours. woohoo ;)

Anyway, that was one of the highlights of Friday. End of a work week. Had nice nachos at a rather interesting cafe with live guitar music ;p

Happily ever after....

Perhaps this is a really productive weekend. My second blog posting for the weekend ;p

To quote from one of my favourite songs..."somewhere inside me, there's a spark of inspiration"...

Feel like writing about weddings. Yes. Following the seventh lunar month, this is the period where weddings are in full swing again :)

Having been through i.e. helped out, at so many weddings by now and in a variety of capacities from jiemei, emcees to reception, I dare say that I more or less know quite a bit of how weddings are held. What goes into the preparations. What to look out for. What are the taboos. The possible sore points that might crop up etcetc ;p

Take for example, on the side of the bride. One of the most exciting part would be assembling the wedding entourage of sisters or "jie meis". Different brides have different "requirements". Some brides are strict. All jie meis have to be unmarried. All married friends will have to be part of the entourage waiting at the brides' home, but they can't follow the bride to the groom's place ;p Some brides are easy. Anyone can be a jie mei :)

Some brides want their jie meis to be in the same colour e.g. green, pink or white :) Some brides want their jie meis to turn up in multi-colours except white. Cos white is strictly for the bride ;p hehz ;p

For me, anything goes :) The bride is queen for the day ;p So I'll just take instructions and follow them to a T ;)

For the record, I've been a wedding emcee thrice, wedding receptionist twice and going to be a jiemei for a wedding the third time in a row ;) Despite the fact that this means that my wedding dinners are disrupted ;p I must say that these are all pleasant disruptions. I loved every one of those "helping out" experiences ;) Weddings are happy events. I'm glad and honoured to be able to chip in to "contribute" to the happy day :)

Sometimes, I really feel that, if I am not in my current career, I would love to be either a wedding planner, events organiser, travel planner, national park ranger or working in the hospitality industry e.g. hotels or airlines hehz ;p Hehz. For those of you who know me personally, I bet you can't tell that kestrel would have these secret aspirations, right? ;)

Anyway, I've also gotten round to collecting the wedding memorabilia that I've been getting at weddings. Posted a picture of some of the cuter stuff at the beginning of the posting ;)

Especially for you..

I would like to dedicate this particular blog posting especially to the 4 lovely people who had dinner and the yummy dessert (in picture above) with me on Friday :) Macha ice-cream, sweet potato and yam! For simplicity, shall simply term them as Ms CSFB, Ms Exxonmobil and Mr&Mrs PM ;p (if you folks prefer other nicks, please do let me know hehz)

Would also like to thank Ms Stardust and daniel for leaving such interesting comments on my blog ;) Hehz. As I've always said, it feels so good that my blog is read by u guys ;p

I thought I'll write a little about friendship today :)

I consider myself rather lucky in the area of friendship. I've had my fair share of hits and misses when it comes to friends. But generally, they are mostly hits. I've hardly had any misses. Perhaps one or two borderline miss cases which I'm still trying to figure out ;)

Glad to say that I've been able to "keep" most of my friends through these years. I really treasure their friendship very much! My "oldest" friends have been stuck with me for 20 years hehz ;p In proper facebook entourage lingo, my collection of friends have grown through the years :) Particularly in the last two years, I'm proud and thankful to say that there has been a sudden spurt in growth ;p You people out there who are reading this, I think you know that I'm talking about you ;p

My friends are a diverse bunch of people. Folks from different walks of life, very different interests, personalities, career paths. I'm fascinated and drawn by all these differences between us. Whilst, I do take comfort in the similarities that I share with some friends. In any case, no two individuals are exactly alike. I tend to see it as a form of chemistry or perhaps fate between two individuals, that transcends beyond character similarities or differences, that binds us together as friends :)

Agree?

Jack of all trades

I told myself that I ought to be less trigger-happy when it comes to blogging. Even promised myself that I would not be blogging today.

But oh well, something just inspired me on my way back home ;) So here I am again. Friends who know me well should know what kind of frame of mind I must have been in at work today. Hehz. kestrel shouldn't reveal more ;p

Realised out of the blue that being Singaporean means that many of us are multi-lingual to some extent ;p Take for example, I'm sure many of us can say "thank you" in more than one language. Did a short tally of the number of languages that I can thank people in. I counted 8 - English, Mandarin, Malay, French, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese.

Have taken formal language lessons in English, Mandarin, Malay and French. But I'm really quite lousy at Malay and French. Made me realise that I'm really a jack of all trades but master of none. Hehz.

To make the picture more complete, I think I ought to learn how to say thank you in Tamil. Yogz, if you know how to say thank you in Ceylonese, teach me! ;p Other languages on my radar includes german, flemish and some other eastern european languages. Hehz.

Realised in office today that my usual font size is rather trying on the eyes. So, have decided to change the font size that I blog in as well ;p Is this better? Let me know :) Adios.

The Oh So Familiar...

A very good friend, who went for jazz and martinis with me over the weekend, suggested that I update my blog on my first day of work. :) So here I am again.

First day of work. Had to wait for more than half a day, made a couple of calls to pester the IT folks, before I finally got my password to log into the system :( Teething pain. arghz. Made a couple of calls to "harass" my old friends while I was free as well ;p

That aside, looking at the oh so familiar portal, parts of which I helped to develop and do user acceptance testing about 3 years ago. To see the stuff that I lodged into the system 2 years ago...to pick up from where I left off. It's nostalgic but I do seek comfort in the stuff that I am so familiar with all over again. Yeah. I'm quite the sentimental person who seeks solace in memories. You'll be surprised at the number of smses, e-mails and other trivia that I've accumulated over the years ;p

Some of my friends suggested that I should have done my rounds and said Hi to all the people that I know from the 24th floor of the building down to the basement ;p They jest ;p

Despite the comfort, I think I'm raring to go :) The scoring board and the dartboard's up again after a 2 year break. Kestrel likes challenges and resolving complications ;p hehz. silly me does not always choose to take the easy way out of things. This has resulted in either much satisfaction or much pain ;p Yeah. sometimes. I learn things the hard way.

Ok. enough of all these emotional out-pouring. shall get back to blogging about the more normal trivia stuff soon ;)

2 good friends of mine have commented on my lastest profile picture in facebook. Gonna take their advice and change the picture now ;p

New Posting. New Life.

Last day of leave. Mixed Feelings. Time to move on. To start work in my new posting. Time to rejoin the corporate rat race after a 2 year hiatus.

With a new posting, comes a new life :) Sad to leave the good memories behind. Good opportunity to let go of the unpleasant memories as well. Life's a balance of the good and the bad. Guess the bad memories shall serve as learning experiences in life :) Don't dwell. Move on.

Should write about something chirpy in typical kestrel style, rather than to sound moody and philosophical ;p

Have lotsa stuff that I want to share about my Korea trip. Shall share them bit by bit.

Hmmz. My Korea trip was done in a package tour style. Granted. Package tours are value for money. Comfortable. Relaxed. One definitely gets maximise coverage of all the touristy spots in a country. Coupled with juicy bits of information on the country from the social to the political aspects from the local guide. However, what I miss was the sense of initimacy that one gets with the country. Miss the days of just ambling about and exploring a country be it on foot, via public transport or in a car. Topo-ing my way around with a map or GPS for reference or simply by talking to the locals. Hmmz.

Came up with a couple of grand travel ideas during my Korea trip. For my next travels, shall aim to do one predominatly by rail and another that involves lots of sea travel. Am also eyeing a country that has the most number of UNESCO attractions (if I get my information correct). Shall aim to do this country from one end to the other ;p Guess where this is? :)

Still on leave

I'm currently clearing my carried forward leave from last year. So it's 1 week in Korea and 1 week bumming around in Singapore.

well, I wouldn't exactly say 1 week of bumming. Have been up to quite a bit of things actually. For starters, there's all the archiving and cleaning up of my office laptop which took me 2 nights to complete. I've gone for 3 straight days of yoga lessons, probably will keep it up for another 2 days or so. Queued for 1.5hours at Raffles City for donuts ;p Gone for facial and shopping.

Been contacting quite a number of old friends to catch up :) First batch of catching up on Tue. Sent out messages to 3 people whom I've known for at least 10 years on Wed. Managed to meet up one of them last night. First time in 5 years! ;p Going to meet another of the 3 today this evening. For the last one who did not reply, arrghz. no comments.

1 week of leave passes by fast! There's still quite a number of things which I wanted to do badly, but can't seem to find the time for it. I still have an unfinished book on hand and a magazine to complete!

Thought I'll share something really interesting about the old friend whom I met last night. This is a friend whom I've known for close to 20 years ;) We share the same birthday. We will always get in touch every year on our birthdays! That's probably the strongest reason why we have never really lost touch through the years. ;p Upon catching up last night, kind of realised that we both seem to share similar experiences in certain aspects of our individual lives despite the fact that we have both led very separate and different lives for the past 10 years. We seem to be in similar limbo situations now and we are both wondering if this is some form of "retribution" for some of the stuff that we have both done previously ;p

Wonder if you guys have friends who share the same birthday as you? ;p Any similar experiences with these friends? ;p

I love mushrooms!

I'm back from Korea! Bursting with things to blog about. Thought I'll start off with something close to all our hearts. Food! :) Need to appologise a little for the messy layout of the pictures. Too lazy to change the html codes to put all these in table format, which would make a much better presentation. So do bear with it! :)
Pan-fried black pig on Jeju Island. Yum yum. Think those stir-fried korean meet that you get in foodcourts, on the hotplate :)
For those of you who have watched Da-Chang-Jin, this is the sulphur duck soup ;) Something delicious to have on a cold autumn night ;p

Grilled pork :)
You eat the grilled pork by wrapping it in a piece of lettuce with bean-paste and rice :)
A typical korean meal. Seawood soup at the four corners, complete with all your side dishes. Spot the beansprouts, ikan bilis and kimchi!
Bean paste soup. My all time favourite for Korean meals ;)
Raw Abalone on Jeju Island. Yepz. I ate that. with chilli sauce and freshly cut chilli. It costs us a total of 10,000 won (approx S$16). Hehz.

Bimbimbap ;) 'nuff said. Dunno this? Check out the korean food stalls at our foodcourt.

Shabu Shabu!! Mushroom hotpot with chicken. Mushrooms! My all-time favourite :) Eaten raw, grill, stir-fry, deep-fried, sauteed, in soup, etc. I love them all :)
Yellow fish hotpot :)
Seafood hotpot. :)

Hotpot with Inoki mushrooms (my favourite too!!) and pork :) plus vermicelli (another of my favourites )

Some typical korean side-dishes :)

Korean ginseng chicken soup :)