Times flies and it's end of October... So what happening... Well, I had to make a trip to the neighbouring country as a trainer, and came back with a cough... Well, it start with a little dryness and sore throat due to excessive talking (what can you do, but talk when you are the one doing the training!??!?), and by the time I landed back in SG, it developed into a cough.. Bad cough that I got nagged by mother (who else?!?!?) to see the doctor, in view of my next trip starting this Sat... As she put it... "You want to get well, before your trip to Germany... Very cold, must get well, if not will have more problems when you are there!!!"
Well, I did see the doctor, and got the cough medication, and, today, the day before the trip... I am still coughing... Well, at least the phlegm is being cleared by coughing it out!! However, I doubt it will be enough to get well by Sat morning... So I guess I just have to rough it out...
These 2 trips, in turn, make it such that I could not be part of Ms Clover's Bday party... AND this Germany trip, will lead to me missing Nat's 1st birthday! Sigh... Oh well... There will be more (I hope! :P)
Anyway.. Now I am trying to find out details of where to spend the Sunday, as I will be in Germany by then. Was thinking of Lake Titisee, but then it's a resort town and not sure what i will be seeing there in winter! Then thought of Triberg... But the waterfall will not be part of the itinerary as the path will be close by now... Maybe I should go to Alsace or Colmar instead... Will figure out by then - I hope... Then again, if I am still coughing... I might just wander around Freiburg town centre again... But that would be like my 3rd time doing that!
At least I will get a long time to test out the new Audio-Technica ATH-ANC7 noise cancelling headphones that I just recently acquired from US... Took it for the previous trip, but what can you test for a less than 40 mins flight time???? This time, it will be around 12 hours.... Wonder what will be shown on board the flight?!?!? Time to check the airline website...
Till then... Hopefully to be back with some reasonable photos...
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Friday, October 10, 2008
Ranting Session
What do a person do when something you faced at work and felt that the other person is not thinking properly and taking an easy way out (by making assumptions) on issues with may affect the company and the system you work on? This person is supposedly trained in the field and have other degrees that "persuaded" the manager to hire. However, in field and work done, even a person who is not trained knows that you should not be doing what the person is doing, especially in making assumptions as some of it may deal with people's life and health.
How do you tell a person who is rather bullheaded, non-communicative and has the tendency not to listen to people, especially those who were in the field longer and with more experience - even if they are supposedly to be reporting to you - that this person should be more careful in the requests and perhaps discuss with the team before making those assumptions? As I learn to be a leader may not be as experienced as required, but you must have that ability and knack to recognise the talent of others and to put them of good use; giving them encouragement to grow and expand; selling them visions and how they can contribute to that vision; empowering them to make decisions so that they can grow; not only areas which they are good in but also other areas; challenge them to do better, to go further.
Then again, I guess that's an idealist thinking... Realistically, 90% of the workplaces in the world is the opposite of what is listed... Nevermind... Just another ranting that I felt need to get off my chest...
How do you tell a person who is rather bullheaded, non-communicative and has the tendency not to listen to people, especially those who were in the field longer and with more experience - even if they are supposedly to be reporting to you - that this person should be more careful in the requests and perhaps discuss with the team before making those assumptions? As I learn to be a leader may not be as experienced as required, but you must have that ability and knack to recognise the talent of others and to put them of good use; giving them encouragement to grow and expand; selling them visions and how they can contribute to that vision; empowering them to make decisions so that they can grow; not only areas which they are good in but also other areas; challenge them to do better, to go further.
Then again, I guess that's an idealist thinking... Realistically, 90% of the workplaces in the world is the opposite of what is listed... Nevermind... Just another ranting that I felt need to get off my chest...
Thursday, October 09, 2008
What a start to the day...
Sigh... Who would want to wake up to a flooded kitchen? Well, I definitely won't want it but it did happen to me this morning. It seems that the recent change to the kitchen tap has affected the flexible pipe that connects to it that that pipe has burst, which happened when I was still asleep... So, currently I am not certain when it happened, and how much water has flown from the burst area. I do know that the kitchen floor was flooded, given the fact that the drainage hole was somewhere around there...
It's a good thing that it did not reach higher than 5 cm, which is the level which the other cabinets are elevated. The other was that we got the contractor to place in switches during the last small renovation we did, so it was more modular in shutting down the water pipes - only 2 taps were affected by the shutdown - kitchen tap and the water heater tap.
Went down to the stores and bought another pipe and had to fix it in myself. This leads me to think how on earth did those people do it when the piping and the joints are of such awkward positions! I mean the joint for the straight pipe and the flexible pipe is exactly that the corner which leaves little space to maneuver the wrench in either loosening or tightening of the screw!
Oh well, it's fixed... Just waiting for the wet area to get dry, and then having the task of placing all those stuff back into the cabinet below the sink...
It's a good thing that it did not reach higher than 5 cm, which is the level which the other cabinets are elevated. The other was that we got the contractor to place in switches during the last small renovation we did, so it was more modular in shutting down the water pipes - only 2 taps were affected by the shutdown - kitchen tap and the water heater tap.
Went down to the stores and bought another pipe and had to fix it in myself. This leads me to think how on earth did those people do it when the piping and the joints are of such awkward positions! I mean the joint for the straight pipe and the flexible pipe is exactly that the corner which leaves little space to maneuver the wrench in either loosening or tightening of the screw!
Oh well, it's fixed... Just waiting for the wet area to get dry, and then having the task of placing all those stuff back into the cabinet below the sink...
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Shopping... So unlike me... :P
If there is anywhere in Sg that I don't really know well, then it would have to be the east side. The funniest part to it all is that everyone kept saying that all the good food are found at the east side of the island...
I have spend most of my life in the centre of the island as I was staying in Toa Payoh when I first know my location. Then, changes in my life that lead to moving over to south-west part of the island. I am now staying in the North. So, you see, I have moved mainly around the central region of the island since young. The most time I ever venture to the east was because the airport is there!! Of course, I do have a friend living in that area, but it has been ages since I had visited her place.
So, it was a public holiday, and because of my mother's quest to look for the cabinet (so that she can place her boxes of shoes and stuff into it), that we ventured to the huge Giant Superstore in Tampines (Yes, it's the east side of the island!). Interestingly, the Ikea superstore as well as Courts Megastore are also in that vicinity - directly opposite Giant.
Started with Giant, since the cabinet was actually from their advertisement. However, we were not lucky as the cabinet is not found there. So, instead, we went round the hypermarket, and look at the stuff they had. Of course, it quite similar to what you find in IMM, but just the size is 2 times the size of the Giant in IMM. Can't quite remember what we purchase there, it's definitely not the cabinet - Still waiting for them to restock!
From there, we moved to Courts, which I wanted to see if the Wii console was still selling at the reduced pricing. Alas, it was only for Friday and there isn't any Wii console in the store that day. Instead, my mum bought this Corningware like bowl for her colleague's wedding (I think).
Then we went over to Ikea as I was looking for a cabinet (specifically a solid wood one) for my books & ever increasing DVDs. Walked the entire floor area and finally, after queuing for almost half an hour, we left with a table lamp for my mother's table.
By then it was late, and time for dinner. We had chilli crabs (among other stuff) at Ban Leong Wah Hoe Seafood at Casuarina Rd. I think that was the best highlight of the day... Oh, and they ran out of tables by the time it hits 6.15pm! Good thing we were early!
That was not the end of it...
On Sat, mother decided to visit Tangs to get the Tanyu claypot. It turns out to be a 3 hour visit, as we were standing, among a large crowd of ah sohs and ah mas... Listening to this man teaching how to cook - using the Tanyu claypot. The most interesting point I pickup from this guy is that he uses coke to cook his braised duck! Anyway, Tangs made 200plus $$$ from me that day as we walked away with 1 Tanyu claypot, 4 cookbooks, 1 set of 3 knives, 1 BBraun blender and 3 white vinegar shampoo.
Darn... Spending $$$ again...
I have spend most of my life in the centre of the island as I was staying in Toa Payoh when I first know my location. Then, changes in my life that lead to moving over to south-west part of the island. I am now staying in the North. So, you see, I have moved mainly around the central region of the island since young. The most time I ever venture to the east was because the airport is there!! Of course, I do have a friend living in that area, but it has been ages since I had visited her place.
So, it was a public holiday, and because of my mother's quest to look for the cabinet (so that she can place her boxes of shoes and stuff into it), that we ventured to the huge Giant Superstore in Tampines (Yes, it's the east side of the island!). Interestingly, the Ikea superstore as well as Courts Megastore are also in that vicinity - directly opposite Giant.
Started with Giant, since the cabinet was actually from their advertisement. However, we were not lucky as the cabinet is not found there. So, instead, we went round the hypermarket, and look at the stuff they had. Of course, it quite similar to what you find in IMM, but just the size is 2 times the size of the Giant in IMM. Can't quite remember what we purchase there, it's definitely not the cabinet - Still waiting for them to restock!
From there, we moved to Courts, which I wanted to see if the Wii console was still selling at the reduced pricing. Alas, it was only for Friday and there isn't any Wii console in the store that day. Instead, my mum bought this Corningware like bowl for her colleague's wedding (I think).
Then we went over to Ikea as I was looking for a cabinet (specifically a solid wood one) for my books & ever increasing DVDs. Walked the entire floor area and finally, after queuing for almost half an hour, we left with a table lamp for my mother's table.
By then it was late, and time for dinner. We had chilli crabs (among other stuff) at Ban Leong Wah Hoe Seafood at Casuarina Rd. I think that was the best highlight of the day... Oh, and they ran out of tables by the time it hits 6.15pm! Good thing we were early!
That was not the end of it...
On Sat, mother decided to visit Tangs to get the Tanyu claypot. It turns out to be a 3 hour visit, as we were standing, among a large crowd of ah sohs and ah mas... Listening to this man teaching how to cook - using the Tanyu claypot. The most interesting point I pickup from this guy is that he uses coke to cook his braised duck! Anyway, Tangs made 200plus $$$ from me that day as we walked away with 1 Tanyu claypot, 4 cookbooks, 1 set of 3 knives, 1 BBraun blender and 3 white vinegar shampoo.
Darn... Spending $$$ again...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)