London, Glorious London

Thought I should attempt to post up some photos of London. Sigh, sifting through them brings back such an acute longing that it's almost painful. I miss London tremendously. The sights, sounds, people, vibrancy... it's a city you fall in love with. There seems to be a vibe that runs through the city and everyone is intricately connected. Be in on the train, walking through the meadows or browsing through things at Harrods, you feel like the city has embraced you, rather than simply being a tourist. Ah well, good memories, good memories.

Family holidays are great cos it's basically a free vacation, you are with people whom you love and love you, and you understand what each other wants. But at the same time, it can totally drive you crazy cos when you're with your parents, you can't do certain things or they'd do things to drive you out of your mind. Like when I was discussing with Cheryl whether we should go clubbing, my mum chimed in and said she wanted to go to. When Cheryl and I gave her horrified looks and asked her why, considering she hates places that are dark and noisy, she said she wanted to take a look and go back to the hotel. Needless to say, we never went clubbing.

Anyway, it was supposedly summer in London, but the average temperature was 16 degrees. Cheryl and I, being very trusting fools, believed my mother when she said it'd be hot. So we brought summer things. The spaghetti strap tops, the short skirts, flimsy articles of clothing. Hence, we look the same in all the photos cos we never could bring ourselves to remove our jackets. A tragedy to be in fashionable London and look like a smuck the whole time.

Our beautiful hotel, the K+K Hotel George! Lovely, love place. No complains at all. London hotels are all exorbitantly priced and usually very tiny, but the 3 Chan sisters fit into the room quite comfortably, so that's saying a lot. Breakfast is good too! Champagne at 9am, absolutely devine!

We arrived early in the morning and as the rooms weren't prepared yet, we ventured out to Hyde Park, which is this huge park in the middle of London and it's gorgeous.

My dad's nice. He feeds animals.

Geri teaching a squirrel to beg for food. Cheryl was in the background chanting "eat her! eat her!" Don't you love sisters?

Despite the shining sun, it was bitterly cold, and more so at the River Serpentine. Yes, we are both cowering in the wind. Yes, I'm taller than Cheryl, who's 5 years older than me. Yes, I'm the youngest. And no, she wasn't adopted. Next question!

We went for breakfast at this darling sidewalk cafe and my crazy mum wanted to enjoy the brisk cold wind, hence al fresco dining. When C and I visibly turned pale, the kind waiter offered to switch on the outdoor heater. Bless his heart. As a side note, the waiters in London are absolutely, fabulously gorgeous! They are all foreigners, some students, some I suspect hoping to make it on broadway. But nonetheless, I was drooling at almost every restaurant, and not just from the food.

We had a traditional English breakfast (eggs benefict, fried tomatoes and mushrooms, toast, baked beans) and this was also the place where I promptly left my camera behind when we left for a musuem. -_-''' Only discovered it when we were at the musuem and I practically ran back to the restaurant, which by the way, was at a different tube stop. My parents were not pleased in the I-could-disown-you-for-being-careless kinda way. Luckily the waiter was honest and I almost kissed him in my gratitude. Almost.

We covered a lot of sights in our 6 days there. Posting all of them up here would be nuts, not to mention damn tiring. And it's getting kinda tiring describing all of them. So just enjoy the pics and the minimal words. :)

Harrods! Super expensive and only crazy tourists with tons of money shop here. 15,000 pounds for a chair????

A bust in the image of the owner who happens to be Princess Diana's last boyfriend's dad. He reckons himself to be a pharoah.

We celebrated the parents' wedding anniversary at Jamie Oliver's restaurant, 15. The food is so good I wanted to wept. Incidentally, the restaurant is in this real grotty place. Jamie set up this place as he wanted to give delinquents and people down on their luck a second chance. Hence, he trains these people to become chefs. So noble right?

Happy anniversary folks!

The gleeful freeloaders. Hiak Hiak.

Cheryl terms this as "disgusting close".

A more friendly reception from Geri.

Covent Garden Square. Frankly, I dunno what the hype is about. You can definitely give this place a miss.

We went to see the changing of the guards ceremony down at ol' Buckingham Palace. You have to go early to get the best "seats". But the hordes of people were nuts. It's a nightmare and not for the fainthearted. My mum's one comment, "Why is the palace so dirty?" Sigh, hundreds of years of history and it's summed up by this one statement.

More random shots. This is a zoomed in view of the palace gates. Couldn't get up close.

We then decided to leave the city life behind for a while and venture into the countryside to see this traditional mansion that was donated to the government by an earl. Think he was being generous? Not really. He received a tax break. Nonetheless, the place is gorgeous.

How quaint can this village get?

Every opportunity to cam whore.

Geri in the wilderness.

The mansion, Kenwood House, thoughtfully provides a cafe, or orangery, for tired tourist to consume deliciously prepared country food (think quiche and hearty soups) amidst bright flowers and swaying trees.

Aw, I think me Mum and Pa are so sweet.

Hey, my dad told me to pose, so I did. And I took off my jacket, in case you didn't notice. Yes, it was bloody cold. But I wanted some pics that didn't involve my Juicy jacket. Humpf.

We spent a long, long time taking photos. See how beautiful the place is!

My dad and I were running up and down the hill like idiots cos we were using auto-timer. The ang moh people must have laughed themselves sick at the sight of China people running like suakus up and down.

Some kind folks finally approached us gingerly and offered to help us take a pic. Unfortunately, they failed to capture the house. -_-'''

I love the lake. Note to self: future house must include lake and swans.

One more for the road!

Tower of London where the Crown Jewels are kept. I nearly hyperventilated when I saw all those jewels. I think Cheryl and I were in keeping with the tone seeing how this palace has witnessed murders and intrigued...

Yeah, yeah, I'm a poser.

This guy is called a beefeater. Nothing to do with beef. They're the caretakers of the palace and act as tour guides.

Posing next to a tame raven. Legend has it that if the ravens ever left the Tower of London, London would collapse. Creepy.

Onward to the Tower Bridge. No, this is not the London Bridge of nursery rhymes. But it's magnificent, complete with castle towers and flags. Makes a person feel so small.

Look, it's Orlando Bloom! Haha, or just a really realistic, life-like display of him at Hamley's, a huge toy shop in London. I wanted to rip his clothes off.

At the Royal Kew Gardens, which is like the botanical gardens in Singapore, just a thousand times nicer.

Smile!

My mum forbade me to post this online, but I can't resist. I think it's beyond adorable! And incontrovertible proof that my mum is a chee ko pek. See, I get my butt-appreciation genes from her. I just think it's damn sweet lah.

Portobello market! A definitely must-go! The knick-knacks, fabulous treasures that you suddenly unearth.

Yup, a real mummy at the British Museum. The British were known for their pillaging ways back in the colonial days. They removed thousands of priceless artifacts from the lands they visited or conquered and brought it back to England. Now, despite petitions from governments around the world to return these artifacts, the British are saying no.

The British Museum was our last stop in London. And then it was home to Singapore. Sob. I want to go back there. Stat.

I suppose what made London so great was the existential life we led. We would walk around museums, visit all the fabulous sights, eat magnificant food, and watched a play. Oh, and the wine. We had wine/beer for every meal. Kinda adds a buzz to your day, don't you think? To have nary a care in the world except the next museum to visit, the next cafe to discover. To quench thirst with perfectly chilled wine or a hearty pint of local beer. It didn't feel like life. It felt like paradise.

Wow! Long post. LOL. Hope you might have found the pics nice to look at. :P

Ratatouille

Ratatouille - a traditional French Provencal stewed vegetable dish.

Also the title of an absolute delight of a movie playing in theatres right now. The humour is sly and witty; it's like animation for grown-ups who simply enjoy the wonders of cartoons (hey, how else could you have realistically filmed an army of rats cooking up a storm?).

Watched it with the Fadz man. The unfortunate thing about watching cartoons is the annoying presence of children. Good Lord, shut them up already. We honested don't need a kid who is constantly going "Why he do that? Why she slap him? Why this? Why that?"

And when there was a kissing scene, the monologue paused for a brief, blissful second, before the kid went "Eeeeeeeeeee". I giggled hysterically.

I know I know... London photos.... Soon soon... :P

Goodbye, Global Brands

Well, the internship is done and school has started. Before I launched into my London series, perhaps a farewell to the company is in line. I had fun. I learnt, what I believe, one hell of a lot. So thank you, Global Brands, it has been a good ride.

The entrance of the company. I still remember arriving here on my first day and sat at the recep area for 45 minutes because my sup was on MC and didn't inform anyone that I was coming. But I loved the recep area. So big, with comfy sofa seats and a plasma tv. Wicked.

Fast forward to my last day. 10 August 2007. Half the office was on leave as it was the National Day weekend. Whatever. The SMU interns bought eclairs for the whole office as a farewell gift. SMU has trained us well. :)

The 2 other interns. Harold and Wei Hao. The classic case of Jerkyll and Hyde. Harold was a jerk, but we still got along. Wei Hao was so nice that he made Harold's meanness all the more glaring. But good lads, I suppose.

They were so unwilling to pose. *pout*

The company's belle. She's sweet, soft spoken and very well-liked. Look how she glows!

Hello Ghim Hui! Thought I should pay homage to you. Finance Executive. Very, very nice guy (wahaha).

My sup who was very helpful. She taught me a lot. Pity she's since left the office. Some problem with my big boss. Don't know the exact details.

My colleague on the other side of me. Goh Chee Yan. Super nice business analyst who was always up for a good time.

Some of the girls went pubbing in the evening. Mostly secretaries, but the invitation was extended to Chee Yan and myself. Here you see Belinda (secretary to VP of Licensing), Loretta (secretary to CFO) and Chee Yan.

Belinda and me

Chee Yan, Shahnaaz, Belinda, me and Loretta at Balaclava

Shahnaaz and me. Don't ask.

Ok, done with my homage.

P.S.: if this entry sounds totally pointless and more like a photo blog entry, well that's cos I'm in class, listening to some Chinese prog taking about Information asymmetry. Sigh. School is a drab reality.

London, London!

Helllooooooo dearies! A shout out from London to anyone who bothers to read my blog!! I'm in London and so far, it has proven to be absolutely WICKED. I love, love, love London. The streets are so pretty, everyone's accent is amazing, even the person making the announcement on the train isn't as grating as Singapore's MRT announcement system.

Only 1 grouse. Once again, I've been cheated by my very own mother. She told us it is summer. She said it is going to be hot. So being the dutiful daughters we are, Cheryl and I packed things suited for the Sahara desert, i.e. very small pieces of clothing. We touched down, the winds were up, and it cut straight through the pathetic cloth that we assumed would suffice.

Frozen, absolutely frozen. Meanwhile, my polar bear-built mother and Geraldine have been prancing about in practically NOTHING and saying it's HOT. This is utter madness.

But anywayz, beautiful city. The museums are breathtaking and I could spend hours wandering about. Pity all my mum wants to do is shop, shop and shop somemore. Sigh.

Everything is horribly expensive too. Damn the exchange rate. £1 is SGD$3.11!!!!!!!!!!!!

Will update when I can! XOXO

Later, People

My last hurrah before school starts.

I'm off to the land of tea, crumpets, Manchester United and Prince Williams, dearies.

FYI, that means London. Yup, the parents are in the mood for celebrating their bond again, hence we 3 freeloaders are milking them. Working adults be damned.

Plenty of entertaining posts when I return. Oh my god, so much to bitch about. But that would all have to wait. Cab coming in an hour.

Toodles! See you in a week!

Fucked

Ok, I take back my last post. I'm super, super pissed at my HR Manager right now. She's fucking exploiting me and acting all nonchalant about it.

My office receptionist take emergency MC today and usually when that happens, the recep counter is left unmanned. But today, because 2 of the founders of the company are coming down, they need to put up appearances.

So guess what? My sup (because my manager doesn't have the balls to face me) told me that I was to be receptionist for the day (and possibly tomorrow too). Me, the intern, fucked into being the fucking receptionist.

Of course I'm fuming mad! You do not exploit the intern ok! First, you kick me out from my seat and make me move around like the hungry ghost looking for available seats. Then you give me every piece of crap shit admin work you can think of while you walk around the office aimlessly with a dopey smile on your face. You go for 2 hour lunches, take numerous breaks and chat to people around the office, then give a pained expression when you have to stay back after hours to finish your work. You ask me to write a contract and because the company name is not in full, you decide to redo the whole bloody thing by copying and pasting into a new template. And when you miss out 1 line (!!!!!), you give me a "Why the hell didn't you change that?" look.

Fucking moron. Argh, yes, you are nice like the crazed old homeless lady is nice, but that doesn't mean you get to treat me like dirt. And the worst was yet to come. The mother fucking EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT to the CEO (a glorified secretary, leave with it) was having a meeting and she had the guile to ask me to bring her water! Fucking bitch! I WAS SEETHING WITH ANGER AND KEPT HAVING THOUGHTS OF "ACCIDENTALLY" TRIPPING AND SPILLING THE WATER DOWN HER BOTOXED FUCKING FACE. Maybe it'd have melt. And since she is wearing white and is such a skanky ass bitch, I sure she'd have enjoyed the wet T-shirt look. Hey, I would have been doing her a favour.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. To think I only have 4 more days here and it was so pleasant before today. Argh. I hope the HR department sinks and down under the mountain of admin work when I leave.

The Life of an Intern

I can't believe my luck. But man, my internship company has been good to me.

My company is expanding at a rapid pace and they're due for renovation in late August. Currently, new people are joining us almost every week and the lack of space is evident from how people are sharing tables. It's absolutely miserable. Our company currently has space for about 30-odd employees. They plan to increase that headcount to 50 by the end of the year. Do the math. It's madness.

Anyway, I am the latest casualty of this dizzy growth and as a result, I had to sacrifice my seat to a new incumbent, seeing how I'm merely a lowly serf. My boss (the Group HR Manager) graciously offered to share her room and table with me. Panic mounted within me. Helloooooo, how am I supposed to play music, surf the net and chat on msn if I'm in the same room as you? So I quickly volunteered to move into this small room currently used as a meeting place/storage area. There's only 1 tiny table and 3 bar stools in it. Highly uncomfortable, but beats being under a watchful eye. I'd rather sit on the floor than sit in the same room as my boss. So my boss asked my big boss (who's the CFO; in small firms, the CFO is the overseer of everything, HR included) if I could use the room.

And what do you know... my CFO, who is like one of the nicest, most humble and friendly big bosses around, asked my boss to let me use his room as he is away on vacation. Yes, me, in the CFO's room. Which is big, airy, spacious and overlooks Vivocity and Mount Faber. I gulped down my amazement and trepidition. It was such a "What the Bleah!" moment. There was some apprehension seeing how I'm just a freaking intern.. it almost feels intrusive. So I protested a little as I felt slightly uncomfortable. To put it succinctly, although excited, I felt damn pai seh.

Anyhoo, after some protest and reluctance, I vacated my darling seat that has served me well for 8 weeks. Now, I liked that seat so much because it's isolated. My back is protected as there's this huge cupboard behind me and no one can sneak up on me. Moreover, I've gotten pretty chummy with my neighbours. But vacate, I must, amidst lots of cursing and swearing at this new interloper who was going to claim my seat.

But I must say, I was being over-dramatic as usual. My new (albeit temporary; boss coming back on 6 August, which means 3 days of being cooped up in the tiny storage room) seat kicks ass. I don't have the actual guts to sit on my CFO's seat, preferring to use the visitor's chair instead, but the view, the privacy... it is HEAVEN. And the funny thing is, people keep popping in now to check out the room (cos when the CFO was around they obviously wouldn't dare, but the tiny intern...TAKE ADVANTAGE). My IT Manager says "Good morning, boss!" every morning, the CFO's secretary thinks the situation is hilarious (I think she's pretty funny too; so used to knocking, when she enters the room now, she knocks and I feel all weirded out), and my supervisor giggled so hard the first day I moved in my face turned red.

Damn, it's good to be here. Hmm, maybe I should rethink my career path. My HR manager's room pales in comparison to the view I'm getting now.

So hello to the new bad ass, baby. :) :) :) :)

Potter Mania!

It's a damn inconvenience when I have to work and not be able to read my Harry Potter. It's lying desolately at the bottom of my work cabinet, just begging to be flipped and cherished, word for word.

Bah.

Crazy SMEs

It's not that I don't want to support local companies and work with small enterprises, but sometimes, they truly test my patience. And I end up wanting them to burn in hell forever and ever.

It all started when my boss wanted to place an ad in the Straits Times Appointment Page. After passing me the Job Descriptions, she told me to cut it down to a decent size and send it to an ad agency to do the layout. Fine. I did all that. What I did not know was the hell hole I had just stepped into. Firstly, the agency did lousy proofreading and we had to keep sending things back and forth. Never mind. Then my boss kept changing her mind and adding new stuff in. Never mind. Even though we had a Wednesday deadline, she could still change her mind at 5pm on Wednesday. Never mind. When everything was done up properly, she decides that the layout is too boring and harsh. Change again. Never mind. But the straw that broke the camel's (aka me) back was when the bloody agency calls to tell me that for all new customers, the 1st ad must be paid up in full first before they would do the ad. THAT caused my boss to fly into an apopletic rage and screamed to cancel the whole thing.

I wanted to kill myself. After 2 days of stomach-churning, deadline rushing, coordination in Chinese (my supervisor heard me speak Chinese on the phone and started rolling around on the floor, laughing in spasms), my boss killed the whole thing.

Sigh, so after some sulking and feeling completely demoralised, I put on a (fake) smile and moved on.

A week later, my boss decides to put up the ad. This time, she gets a graphic artist to do the layout, but wants to go through the agency as we can get a discount. Can you imagine how awful I felt when I had to speak to my contact at the agency? She heard my voice and went "Harr... you again...". I know darling, I felt the same way too. Sigh. Anywayz, things were chugging along until my boss spotted some more corrections.

Unfortunately, the graphic artist was not at home and could only change things in the evening. Mind you, this was Wednesday (again!!) evening and the latest we could submit everything was on Thursday morning. Fine. But then my contact (her name is Angel) tells me the boss wants the cheque first to cash in before he would let her book the ad space. How crazy right!!!!! I was so close to telling her to "Piss Off!" but had to grit my teeth and proceed. Where got companies demand cash on delivery, you tell me? Harlow, there's at least a 7 days grace ok!

Fine. My boss conceded and I had to run around the Finance department getting the Finance Exec to do up the cheque, then had to chase 2 bosses to sign the cheque. Fine. Then Angel calls me back and says whether I can meet her at Bukit Batok in the morning to pass her the cheque because she doesn't know how to go to HarbourFront.

I think that's where I lost it a little. I suddenly (miraculously) found all the right words in Chinese to convey just how ludicrous I thought the payment situation was, going so far as to call her company crazy (but nice crazy). I was THIS close to yelling at her and questioning whether her company was really so hard up. Sheesh.

She compromised and agreed to take a cab to my place. Upon reaching the dropoff point, she called me to pick her up cos she didn't know how to find the security post. WTF!! I wanted to faint can! Where got people so retarded!!! Ok fine, I'm a nice person and I do it. What happens next just made things worse. I ushered her into a meeting room, passed her the cheque and inspected the invoice. Just when I thought everything was in order and I could go back to doing work, she launched into a sob story of the company and how trapped she feels. For 15 freaking minutes. It took all my will power not to roll my eyes. And honey, I do that oh so well.

Having gotten rid of her, I still had one more hurdle to cross. The graphic designer had not sent the agency the final artwork. It's Thursday morning and sweat is dripping (figuratively) down my back. I call the designer and harrass her, I call the agency to harrass people. I think I do harrassment well. And when I called the agency, guess what? I got transferred 7 times because the office is idiotic. Some people had not even heard of Angel before! I got transferred to a Josephine, an Aaron, a couple of grunters and generally blur people. Argh. Can you feel my frustration, I ask you?

All in all, that was a truly harrowing experience. Now I just hope the article comes out nicely or else there will be hell. Oh yes, there will be hell. Look out for it! The Straits Times, Appointment Page, Saturday Edition. Global Brands baby, Global Brands. Know that name.

The Small Perks of Life

My life as an intern peaks and flattens out with startling speed. Some days I'm so busy I don't have time to breathe, think or even go out of the toilet. On other days, I jab disinterestingly at the keyboard and do menial tasks with my brain shut off.

So really, it's about enjoying the small perks in life. My sup and big boss have both treated me to lunch and although I often protest to the greatest of my ability, I eventually cave in. Hey, I'm earning peanuts okkaay! And I'm privy to all the salaries so seriously, I'm sure I barely make a blip in their account.

But today, ah, today, things looked a bit better. Seeing how I'm in HR and we're also in charge of employee welfare, my supervisor wanted to shake things up a bit and try to introduce some life into the company. So she came upon this Grant given by Health Promotion Board, which basically funds companies in their efforts to promote healthy living in the workplace. I dunno why, but although my sup likes the idea of the grant, she didn't want to do the work involved. So she passed the project to me. Hence, I started sourcing around for activities the company could do and shit like that.

I thought gym memberships might be a good idea cos not only did it fit with the healthy lifestyle theme, gym memberships are a good perk for employees in terms of status and whatnot. More HR tactics to retain people. Anywayz, I chanced upon this gym near my workplace, Sky Fitness and unbeknownst to me, I started to make enquiries. This club turned out to be super exclusive and priced at a premium.

Seeing how my big boss didn't really like the whole idea of this health at workplace programme because the company must match the amount provided by the grant, I was basically working with a budget of zero. Never mind. I tried to be honest with the sales guy from the gym and tell him the club was way out of budget, but he kept badgering and pleading and invited me down to tour the gym and eat lunch.

Helplessly, I gave in and brought along my sup and another colleague. The club turned out to be really nice and the view is phenomenal. It faces Sentosa and is on the highest floor, ensuring unobstructed views of the area. Fully personalized and the sales guy, Aero, turned out to be really, really nice. He didn't try to sell a package straight away, but instead emphasized on a partnership with us and wanted to meet our needs.

Lunch turned out to be pretty good too. But as the saying goes, there's no such thing as a free lunch. I just hope he doesn't keep pestering me. Oh well. After that, we hopped over to Planet Fitness and really, there's no comparison. No doubt, it's much cheaper. But it's also highly sterile and impersonal and all about business and the money. Customer service is efficient and neat at best. Darn, we've been spoiled.

So yup, enjoying the small perks that get thrown my way. Otherwise, being an intern is rather miserable.

Did I mention that the company created an email signature that doesn't appear to me until the message gets sent out? And what title did they give me? HR INTERN. I'm surprised anyone wants to talk to me.