Taurus & Leo

This is a Place for me to give vent to my frustrations and my thoughts for the day...

Monday, October 31, 2005

November is here soon.....


November is going to be here soon. Can't wait for it to be mid-November...

Went out shopping again on Saturday. Bought more things for baby. Went to watch Deuce Bigalow at Marina in the evening before heading for home. It was so hilarious that we can't stop laughing throughout the movie. Sunday, had dim sum with my mum in law and sister in law with her 2 cute daughters. The dim sum was nice and the price reasonable. Went to PS to change the cable box to the new digital box. Got a lot of free channels yesterday but expect it to be gone by today.

Monday morning, my sup was asking me to go check on how other people are recovering their cost from different business units. I don't really want to go round doing stuff that is not productive so I asked him what is the directive from Corporate? What are they asking us to do? Any directions from them? He replied no. I then asked him if he would like to check with the main coordinator for us in Singapore. Guess what he say, "XXXX, he don't really knows what he is doing."

Excuse me.... You mean to tell me that you know what you are doing???? You have me checking things left, right and center but you too can't give me a clear direction on how things are suppose to be done. What needs to be set up etc. and you got the cheek to say that the other guy don't know what he is doing... My eyes are rolling upwards when I heard him saying that. It is really too much, to say that the other guy doesn't know what he is doing.

End of my lunch time, need to go back to work now... sigh....

Friday, October 28, 2005

Had a scare yesterday.....


Had a scare yesterday... It all started on Wednesday night, noticed that my feet had swell considerably but thinking that it is ok till mum commented whether it can be cause for concern... pre-eclampsia... it is hypertension that develops in the last trimester. I remember telling mum that it should be ok as I don't have this for the first 2 pregnancies so I shouldn't have it now.

But imagine my horror when I woke up on Thursday morning to find that the swelling had become more pronounced. My skin really felt that it is all stretched out and can't be stretched anymore. Puffy looking with wiggly toes. Don't look nice and my concern factor went up a few more notches. Decided to go see my Gyn just in case it is serious. (Anyway, I am suppose to see her this Saturday)

Arrived there and surprisingly there isn't much patients. Saturdays are a nightmare, it is so crowded that I will always try to be the first few there, which means I have to arrive slightly before 8.30am to be the first few patients of the day. Have to do my CTG... monitoring of the baby heartbeat first before I see my Gyn. Sat there for about 15 to 20 minutes, reading a magazine. Then went for my check up. First remark from my Gyn is ... I looked bigger than I was 3 weeks ago. That is good news, considering that I only put on about 1.6kg from the last check up. Checked me and told me that no, I don't have Pre-eclampsia. Felt so relieve after that. The swelling is most probably due to water retention, so got MC to rest at home and put up my feet to see if the swelling goes down.

Luckily, by this morning, the swelling had gone down, doesn't look as swollen as before. So it is back to work.

3 more hours till end of the work day... can't wait....

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Raining again this morning


Was raining this morning, early morning, when I am still comfortably in bed, no wonder it seems cooler till James covered me with another blanket... Thanks dear...

Traffic wasn't that smooth this morning so everything was delayed. Anyway, everyone is late when it rains. So it is not a problem. Had a good breakfast as usual before going to office.

Had a long conversation yesterday with the girl in Beijing. The travel freeze is confirm and she can't come over to Singapore for training. So we talked about how we will go about it in the next few weeks. She kept saying that she didn't know how to start. Had told her the steps the last time when she was here but apparently, she didn't take much notice of it. Then she asked me for any sample formats to send to the managers to get them to fill out the templates that she will be sending out. I told her that I don't have any but she can draft out a new one if she needs to. Then she starts to say that she don't know where to start again. I am getting a little tired of her "I don't know where to start." I won't be doing a single thing for you so please don't expect me to be dropping presents on your lap anytime soon.

Who ever had the experience of having everything done for them when it is their job to do it? Don't know where to start, then organise your thoughts and start somewhere. I have already listed out everything for you. You just have to get started. Don't know who to draft the letter to managers, learn... I won't draft it for you. Enough is enough. The coming month end closing, you will be on your own. I won't be doing anything for you. I know that it may seems that I am not doing anything for you but I can't carry on holding your hand anymore. What if I need to go on maternity leave earlier than expected. There is no one to guide you then.

Enough of her, dragging my mood down again. Had spend more than 1 hour on the phone with her yesterday, holding her hand till I nearly screamed in frustration.

Two more days till weekend....

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Broken sleep


Had been waking up in the middle of the night for the past few nights. Mainly it is to change positions, from lying on my left to lying on my right, then back to lying on my left again. Could always feel the baby moving after I settle in my new position. Wonder if she is already awake or is awaken by me when I change position.

Feeling tired in the mornings and afternoons, and even the evenings. Looking forward to next week as there are two holidays and I had took leave to enjoy a long weekend. Extra sleeping time for me. Hahahaha....

In fact, I have started to sleep earlier too. Eyes are closing as early as after 10pm. Something that have never happen to me before.

Had a hectic Friday and Monday at work. Getting all the figures in the system. Finally the 1st round of figures are in, now we have to wait and see if management is agreeable with the figures. But I am sure that the figures will keep changing at least till January, then it will be finalized.

Nowadays, everyone I meet keep asking "When are you due? You look very big." I will tell them that the expected due date is early December. But secretly, I am hoping for baby to come out earlier. Feel so tired eveyday. If baby is early, that means I will be back at work before the CNY.... Not a bad idea. Then I will take the rest of the maternity leave one week at a time, spread it out over a period of 4 months. Meaning that I only work 3 weeks every month... feel happy just thinking about it.

But my manager must agree to it also. Had sounded him out on this and he seems ok with it. Must get him to tell HR about it so that they agree to it also. If not, how to enjoy my maternity leave??

Anyway, this is the last week of October already and I am counting down to November.

Monday, October 24, 2005

How much is your blog worth???


Just saw a few blogs with the caption "How much is your blog worth?" and thought that just try, even if it is like a few hundred dollars, it is nice... Well, the results are not too disappointing as it shows that it is worth at least $1K. I am very happy to see that it is worth $1K. So go ahead, see how much is your blog worth... just click on the link and type in your blog address....


My blog is worth $1,693.62.
How much is your blog worth?

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Wednesday... Mid week


It's Wednesday, two more days to the weekend.

Was actually thinking that this week will be relatively free as there is no supervisor to ask me do tons of reports but alas, there is such a thing as remote control... after a teleconference yesterday, more work needs to be done to meet the deadline tomorrow for the 1st freeze of the budget figures next week.

This leads to frantic calling of people to get information and setting up of new accounts to be charged and some other miscellaneous stuff that are itsy bitsy but definitely needs to be done before anything else can proceed. Emails flying everywhere to provide managers information and get information myself.

Taking a 5 minutes breather now, too brain-drained to think further. Expecting more calls to be coming from the managers soon to finalize the figures to be entered into the system.

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Estee Lauder....


Saw an ad in the Sunday papers that we could get a makeup set for $95 if we were to purchase any fragrance. Yup, it is the Estee Lauder makeup set that comes in a nice little handbag with brushes, lip glosses, the works.

Made arrangement to meet James after work to go buy the set. He is early so he was surfing net at MacDonalds waiting for me. Met him at about 6.15pm, I think. He was saying that I came earlier than expected. Walked over to Paragon to buy the set. (Single-minded, go to town only to buy the set and then get out of town). Tried a few fragrances and finally settled on one. The saleslady shows me the set before taking it over to the cashier for me. Paid for the purchase then took a cab home.

Can't imagine that James slept so early last night. before 10pm, he is fast asleep already. I am left to watch TV by myself. He is so sound asleep that I could be tickling him and he can't feel anything. No fun if he is not feeling anything. Feeling sleepy by 11.30pm so switched off everything but sleep is not coming as my comfy pillow is with James and he is not budging at all even when I shake him... aaarrrggghhhh.... left with 2 hard pillows to sleep with, results in broken sleep throughout the night.

I shall wake him up the next time this happens. I need my sleep....

Monday, October 17, 2005

I love my weekends.....


Was on half day last Friday, went and did my mani and pedi while I waited for James to meet me at 4.30pm to get something settled.

Went for a show on Saturday - Into the Blue... No swimming among sharks for me. I have never dipped my toes into the beach since I saw Jaws when I was a kid. Correction - I did go swimming but it was in Phuket, snorkling among the reefs... while on the lookout for sharks... just can't get it out of my mind how a shark can creep up on you when you least expect it to.

Didn't shop much over the weekend but got cute Halloween lanterns and cauldrons for sweets for the kids from Toys R Us. Saw that they have got new lego models for their Dinosaur series. Hhhmmmm... tempted.....

Got to know that my supervisor will be away from the office for the whole of this week on Friday, was initially very happy to hear that news but he say that I will have to sit in a meeting for him on Tuesday. No meeting room were booked, no projector and polycom were booked, he said that he will send me an email to tell me about things on Monday. It is 3pm now but still have not receive a word from him as yet. Went ahead to get the polycom and projector. Now to get a room, have been calling up secretaries to see where can I get a room.

Don't understand my supervisor, these are the things that you get a secretary to handle for you. I am not your Secretary, you know and we do have a division secretary. Why can't you get her to do these bookings/reservations for you??? It is not like she is serving a few managers and is over-burden with work.

Or perhaps it is just to show others that you have got a personal PA to do your work for you? You call the meeting but don't want to prepare anything. And you are off for the whole week!!!

Anyway, I will just try my best to get things done for you. Since you didn't even bother to send any emails back to office to tell me what needs to be done. Don't expect miracles at the last minutes tomorrow.

Thursday, October 13, 2005

Happy news


Have realised that I have been complaining about my supervisor for the past few posts. Can't help it but he really pi**ed me off with his indecisiveness.

On a happier note, I called my girlfriend yesterday and found that she had just had her baby on the 2nd of October. Baby came earlier as her due date is actually on the 15th so thinking that she is still waiting for the arrival of her baby, I could call and chat with her but imagine my surprise that she already had her baby at the start of the month.

Chat about everything under the sun for more than an hour before I went back to work. At least I know that she is ok and happy with her new baby though her older son is rather jealous of his new brother.

Will be taking half day off tomorrow. Been a long time since I took a off day. Starting to feel lighter just thinking about only working half day on Friday. Maybe I could go for pedicure, pamper myself....

Two more weeks till end of October. How I hope that time would pass faster so that November is here.

One of the manager just popped in to speak to me about the training for my colleague from China, it seems that the travel ban may be imposed soon so that would mean that no travelling is allowed at all unless 110% absolutely necessary. I was joking with him that it mean rather late this year for the travel ban to be imposed. If I am not mistaken, the travel ban for last year started really early in the 3rd quarter. His reply was that this year's business was much better than last year. So I can start to look forward to my incentive bonus for next year... should be quite good then from the looks of it.

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Breather.....


Finally, I can take a breather. Had been busy the past few days with work. Reports, reports and more reports.

Had to be hold teleconference with Beijing to solve problems, discuss her next trip to Singapore for more training etc. Being bugged about figures, had to explain how figures are derived again and again to the same person, he still don't understand and claims that he is still confused and in the process making me frustrated and confused also. How can a person not be confused if you keep changing your mind about how you want things to be done.

If your thoughts are not organised, I don't see how clear can your instructions be. If you have not thought through how you want things to be done, things will be in a mess because you will start to fix any problem that rears it head. Please don't plan to solve problems with only tomorrow in sight as you are not looking forward and anticipating in the bigger problems that are looming in the horizon. All your short fixes are just that - SHORT FIXES. It is not solving the problems at root cause. Do you honestly think that by providing a temporary solution it will solve the problem forever?

End of my ranting.... back to work, solving problems.....caused by people with no foresight.

Friday, October 07, 2005

Happy day for me today......


Happy happy day for me today.... my sup is on 1/2 day leave.....

Not that he didn't leave me piles of work to do before he goes off but at least he is not around... Hahahahaha

Anyway, was bothered by him the whole day yesterday, mentally drained by the end of the day, imagine falling asleep in the cab on the way home. This shows that I am really tired.

Was really angry/pissed with him towards end of the day because after standing and sitting close to me the whole day to go through the reports, he told me that his son had got HFM (Hand, Foot and Mouth) disease....

Do you know that you could be carrying the virus around?? I happen to be pregnant if you didn't noticed it in the last few months, what happen if you were to spread it to me??? He was telling me the symptoms, rashes on the body etc, so I asked him, if his son had got ulcers in the mouth? (That was what happen to Cheryl when she got it when she was 2, a whole mouth of ulcers.) He replied no, just rashes on the body, no blisters on the hands or feet. So I told him to go check if it is dengue... press on the skin if you can still see red dots on the skin, that means that it is dengue....

This morning he came to tell me that he is on 1/2 day leave to bring his son to see the doctor again... I asked him what happened?? He replied that they suspect that it is dengue fever now. At least if it is dengue, I am not that worried that he is standing/sitting close to me... Dengue can't be spread by close contact.... If not.....

Teaching the Girl over in Beijing to do the closing this month. They are suppose to have a week long break this week but she came back to the office specially just to do the closing. At least she is making an effort to learn how to do it. I may not be around the next round to teach her if she don't get up to speed....

Thursday, October 06, 2005

BLUE BLUE DAY

Posted early this morning @ 12.25pm :

NOT IN THE MOOD TO BLOG TODAY...

DUE TO BEING ASKED TO DO UNNECESSARY REPORTS FOR SUPERVISOR AGAIN...

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Latest update : 2 hours ago, my sup came to tell me that there is a need to clarify the items in the reports that I prepare. It was then that I realised that my sup don't have a clear picture of what is happening at all. Claiming to be confused now by all the items and reports that I had prepared, there is a need to sit down and go through all the items one by one.

I was nearly in tears after all the clarifications. You are the one who gave all the instructions, where to book the items, which ones to put on hold but now you are claiming you are confused. Are you confuse in the first place when you gave me all the instructions?? If you are, then won't I be more confused than you right now?? You are changing your mind left and right, then you claim confusion. What about me? How clear in mind will I be when you gave confusing directions in the first place??

I am correcting things posted in the system now due to lack of communication/clear directions. Nothing was said about there the items should go so logically, if the project is sponsored by A, it belongs to A but noooo... only partial belongs to A, the rest will belong to the respective parties. Why didn't you say anything before I key in everything? Only after I had completed all the entries and printed out the report for checking then you say that it is not correct. I can't read your mind. If I can, I won't be reading yours, I will be reading the Big Boss' mind to know what he wants and not what you want. It will save me a lot of trouble and double work.

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Gggrrrrrrhhhhhh...............


As the title implies.....

I don't understand why is it that you need to do 5 different kind of reports based on the same information then tell me to extract the same information to input into the format of your report??? Do you think that it is fun to do 5 reports for you then you need me to extract the exact same information to fill up your template? I am sure that this is something you can do, extraction of data, even through you are a supervisor, your PC skills shouldn't be that bad.

I don't understand why is it that you can't load the data into your system, you will come running to me, to fix your problem for you. I have no knowledge of how your system load the figures. I just know that the procedure that I had created my data is the same throughout. No difference. Month after month, there is no change. If you decide to change the procedure on your side, please remember to take in all changes so that your data can still load in correctly. I have no training on how your systems works, furthermore, you are in the midst of implementing a new system, of which I have not been trained for.

Isn't it funny how people expect you to fix things that you don't know just because you can tell them the root cause of the problem? If a certain field indicates that there is an error, won't you look into that field to see if there is an error there instead of just coming over to ask me to fix the problem? I am not even the IT Helpdesk.

I really don't understand why there is this type of people working in the same company as me.....Fortunately, there is only a handful of these people.....

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Grumpy Tuesday


Sigh, not in the best of moods today.

Received a request to compile another report once I step into in the office. I don't really mind that except the boss put both my name and my supervisor's name on the email. Naturally, now the report had evolved to 3 and more variations of the original report. I absolutely LOVE the way my sup evolve the reports that he needs me to prepare. From the 1st original report that I pass to him, he will need another few variations of it, just in case. Just is case of what, don't ask me as I don't think it is productive to produce more reports in different variations for a "Just in case" situation.

James had asked me a few times how people like my sup can survive in my company, it is easy. It all boils down to have that piece of all important paper -- a degree.

So long as you have that piece of paper, you seems to be able to do no wrong.

Take for instance, there is this girl in my division. Her dad had passed away sometime in August, if I am not mistaken, due to some complications that the hospital had caused... that is according to her side of the story. In September, she request for 1 month's no pay leave from my boss. She just went into the boss' office to let him know that she wants to take 1 month's no pay leave on a Friday. The following week, boss flew off for his home leave for 1 week. She did not turn up for work. Boss came back and was upset that she just went on leave without his agreement/approval?? So called her back to the office and spoke to her, her excuse, she is too depress to work for the time being and she needs to see the lawyer to handle the lawsuit against the hospital.
Boss told her to be back by the next week to start work. 3rd week, Monday, she just called in to say that she needs more time. Didn't turn up for work the entire week. Told her that she must be back by the following week. Same thing happened again. She just called back to office and say that she needs more time.

Given this situation to another person who is not holding that all important piece of paper, I believe that a letter would have been send to his/her house to tell that person, "you can stay home for all you want". But not in this case, no action is being taken against this girl till date. I am sure that even when it is time for her annual appraisal this matter will not be brought up. That is how unfair it is.

Was sleepy this morning due to the cooling weather as it had rained all night but due to the lack of leave days left, will not be taking any leave this month. Maybe next month for that extra long weekend, I will be tempted to take leave then....

Monday, October 03, 2005

Weekend


Went down to Orchard to more baby stuff. Need to get most of the things I need by this month as I think I will be rather tired by next month to do shopping over the weekends.

Meet James at Orchard at about 1+, just in time for lunch. Went for Japanese food, my favourite, at FE Plaza afterwhich we went to get books at the 2nd hand bookstore.

We planned our shopping route, going to Centerpoint, Metro Paragon and Tangs is our last stop.

Didn't really buy much over at Centerpoint Robinsons, bought more at Metro as they are having 20% discount for card holders...Wanted to get the baby cot over at Tangs but it so happen that their Baby section is closed for renovation and will only open in November... It will be rather close to due date by then... Hopefully by 1st week of November, they will reopen.

As we were walking to Metro, we heard someone playing on the drums... didn't really know who that was but as the afternoon was rather warm, I quickly walked into the shade and stood there waiting for James. He went over to take a look. Then he waved to me asking me to go over to take a look...

The boy who is playing the drums is only 6 YEARS OLD... can you imagine that... but he is really playing very well. A sign was displayed saying that he is Ethan, 6 years old but started to play the drums since he was 2 and that he was the youngest busker in Singapore. It really takes a lot of courage to be playing in front of all the people standing there, watching and listening to him. How many kids of that age will do that, playing in front of an audience in public?

Need to start printing my reports...