Me Bullied. No way?

I was 'zapped' at work recently.

i still can't get over it. Call me petty. But even if I were at fault, she didn't have the right to tell me off so rudely. Because everybody realized that I wasn't all that wrong either, or the only one at wrong.

She's very pretty but decided that she'd have two boyfriends in different places. Can you believe that? I thought that is so 80s or 90s! Whatever happen to self-dignity.

I did not judge her at first. But her conversation with a colleague was so darn loud (I was sitting about 2feet away) that I thought I was invited to listen to the conversation.

Later, she snapped at me for being nosy.

I did my apology.

But she wanted her own win-win situation. So, again she 'advised' me also that 'there is a better way of correcting new staff'.

Talk about double-standard. Well, she didn't do a better job herself.

I felt very upset with how the whole thing was twisted into her benefit.

She wasn't even in the position to 'advise' me this way in the most intimidating manner.

I complained this to another fellow colleague.

I agreed with her comment thereafter:
She's just a pretty face.
She's not beautiful.

Elite 300 Staff.. My foot!

I went for the training to understand the leased equipment. It's built on 1996 but refurnished on 2006. I don't quite understand why the owning company wanted to sell it.

Some high post man came to talk to us about our new assignment. Yes, I do understand the management point of view. I do understand the predicament that my company went into because of French's stupid & silly company. I also understand that it's only cost effective & it's wise to phase out our equipments as the French equipment was supposed to be received June last year, 2006.

So should I really blame the silly & stupid French company? Some blame the company. Some blame the staff union.

They selected 300 staff to go on this assignment for 10mths. And they selected the staff based on their low MC rate per year (or last year). These low MC that we're talking about is 1 day or less.

What a severe punishment..

Now they tried to make us feel good by saying "We're the Chosen ones". So what? Are we crossing the Red Sea or what?

3 Auckland projects with English & Japanese/Shanghai projects per month. Sound so lucrative? How about my exhaustion? How about the long rest in order to back Malaysia? So what this is a so-called more lucrative offer? I'm already receiving such income anyway.

THey had totally robbed my joy of my work. I could have go anywhere, especially USA & Paris the next 14months. Now the whole thing about staying on the job till next year seems so empty. Not only boring & empty, it's torturing also.

Man.. I'm gonna be hating New Zealand even more. I haven't been having good experience in there.

What a News...

I just came back to 'earth' yesterday.

And now, I received a horrendous news affecting the prospect travel of my job.

I have been selected to do at least 3 projects on Auckland, New Zealand every month! With an equipment leased from another company!

O man, I hate Auckland! It's terrible hard work & minimum rest!

I'm kind of on the denial moment. Hopefully this is a mistake. Hopefully it's really not so bad.

Alaska Cruise

Just came back from the Alaska Cruise with hubby on Norwegian Cruise Line.
O yes, I enjoyed myself thoroughly. My hubby, .. as usual.. is quite emotionless with the holiday. Even before I left for the trip, I was all so excited.

For the first time, I could relax. I didn't have to wake up or stay up for work. I don't have to unpack or pack within 2days of stay. I don't have to put massive make-up. (In Fact, I couldn't even put make-up because just after lasik operation) I don't have to walk or stand up more than one hour. I don't have to worry about time. I don't have to worry about anything! I don't even have to do anything.

Our flight to Vancouver (from Singapore) was quite long with a transit in Seoul. Of course, we utilized our transit devouring the Korean soondobu(spicy tofu soup). I watched movie till I stoned. I laughed at Diane Keaton in 'Because I said So' until people thought I was nuts. I laughed at the girl in '200Pounds Beauty' until the crew was startled with me. And then I cried on e same movie until the crew became even more startled with me.

Upon reaching Vancouver, it's a long queue at the immigration interviewing people this & that. Exactly like USA.

I was all excited going into the cruise. Immigration this time was easy. IT was very interesting though. USA immigration in Vancouver at e cruise departure.

The cruise ship was beautiful. Painted with the sun as the title 'Norwegian Sun', it gives me the feeling of bright & cheery. Indeed it did. But hubby has one complain. It's so full with elderlies, we were about the youngest people in the ship. I guess in between the lines, he was complainining of no chicks to feast his eyes on.

3port of calls. Ketchikan, Juneau & Stagway.
All existed for the same reason. Gold Rush.

The towns are very tiny. I suspect it's because they're just port towns. The profile of the people was very petite for girls & very slim for the guys. No, no, no. There aren't igloo or eskimos. These towns are at the tips of the Alaska geography. It's not even the mainland of the big Alaska yet. These are coastal area. They weren't even all that cold. Definitely nothing compared to Moscow in nov, 2006.
They looked & sounded regular British Columbian Canadian. Perhaps a little bit more American accent. Definitely minus the fat & obese issue.

And so we took the excursions of glacier visit & Yukon territory visit.

The glacier was an incredible sight. Now I truly understand why it's called 'as white as snow'.
Not only white. It's blueish white. When we were on the helicopter, the snow covering the mountain top looked so smooth, I wish I was a giant able to sweep my hair through the snow. Snapped a lot of photos.


But the photos doesn't justify the beauty on sight at all.

We were encouraged to try the water from the river running through the glacier. Tasted so sweet. What is Evian, man!!!!!!!!



Yukon territory is in Canada. It's a territory on its own. Once again the snow is incredible. But some of them look so smooth they can be very deep. So we weren't allowed to go too near snow land.
However it's so weird that there was a desert in the middle of the snow covered territory.
Carcross Desert. It's officially the smallest desert in the world. I touched it. It was really warm!

But funnily, the whole feeling of the environment's temperature wasn't too cold. In fact, when I returned to Vancouver, I felt that it was almost the same temperature.

The cruise?
I think it's nice. We had balcony. When we had the very near encounter to the glacier, it was simply amazing.. No words could describe the beauty & enchantment of the sight & experience.

And we were so darn free, we ended up sitting by the coin slot machine waiting for money to drop. Well.. it did. Drop, slot in. Drop slot in. Lucky strike, drop a lot. We had USD10 from USD1. Small fry lah us. But it was really funny.
We both agreed that there is no luxury of casino else where in the world that we could sit there & wait for money to drop.
Oh I forgot to mention. The casino is literally empty. With almost 50 jackpots machine, only about 10players. With almost 10tables, only 5players.

I like the cruise. I don't know if I'd go for another cruise. In Asia, cruising was mostly for gambling. I guess there isn't appreciation of sight. But here, it's genuine relaxation & appreciation for beauty of nature.

I Don't Wana Go Back!

Today's my last day on cruise. I enjoyed myself just being away in serenity, I really don't wana go back.

There aren't any of my company's staff here. No Singaporean here at all. No people with Singlish or Sg lingo.

People here are always minding their own business. Yet, there are warmth & calm mood filling the air the whole time during the trip.

I dread going back. Where to all the rush hour & hustle bustle belonged.

I'm so happy here.

First Anniversary

Today is our first wedding anniversary.
We deliberately chose this date as this was the date we started our relationship 5years back.

I was surprised he wanted to celebrate our anniversary with quite a special way. We had a night at the JW Marriott at Orchard Road. We had our Krug brought there (I intended the Krug for our wedding, but didn't use).

We toasted to our celebrations on the eve of the anniversary quietly in our room. It was a small room but I like being on high floor. They had us upgraded to suite on 26th floor.

Abi, Happy Anniversary! I hope we have happily ever after life..

Parisian

Had my trip to Paris early this month.

I realized that either Parisians have improved helluva lot, or I had begun to understand them better.

They were universally known to be proud & rude people who'd refused to speak English although they can speak almost perfectly well. Not in those lousy French accent that Hollywood movies love to pretend & emphasize but decent English.

However, I don't know if it's because they had been trying to vie for the Olympic Games venue or they really decided to improve, but I found that they're noticeably nicer & more polite.
Of course, my friends who had tried learning French would always defend for their courteous manners & kind heart, especially those from suburb & rural.
But then.. who from suburb & rural aren't nice???

My recent trip, which involved heavy shopping (I blew my credit limit for the first time) & exclusive wine & dine was indeed a very pleasant trip.

To start with, the first meal in the city was great in the sense that they actually had English menu for us. Then the waiter took his time to explain terms that we might find unfamiliar. All happy & well.. food went ok. We ate & drank. We ordered bottle after bottle. So many bottles.. it caught up with some of us (lucky me was spared) the next day. When we talked about it over lunch the next day, I discovered that it was a total of 12 bottles!! The were 15 of us.

At lunch.. I ordered real beef tartar. We had a Greek guy in the group. He told me he'd like beef tartar just before heading for a ciggy break. WAitiers in Paris always asked if I knew what beef tartar is if I order it, seeing that I'm an Asian.
Well.. true to the waiter's surprise, the Greek guy gaped with shock when his meal arrived.

I was equally shocked, "I thought you knew!"
Greek guy: "I ordered beef tartar"
"This is.. beef tartar"
"I didn't know it's raw meat"
"...err.. Don't worry. It tastes like sashimi. Trust me"

Lesson learned: Never assume European knows everything about Europe.
Luckily he found it a good meal after all.

Oh.. back to PArisian.
I noticed: They won't tolerate impatience. They won't tolerate this thing they'd call "Rude" (by their culture).
While our culture, or in our fast-paced lives we aren't used to waiting patiently, they served customer one-on-one AND they would not divert or leave the customer untill the customer is all done. This can either be when the customer is done purchasing or is done enquiring. Before the sales person can excuse oneself, one would check that the customer had permitted one to leave when customer finally said, "THank you" or "I'm fine, thank you."

LV is still very much a famous brand. I was actually treated very well. No, thank you. Not because I looked like I'm rich, multi-million dollar, high-rised-hair Indonesian or shrieking Japanese. It just seems that they have finally learn to treat customers well.

Of course we must play our part.

In a regular pharmacy, I enquire lots of things. The poor pharmacist would not (could not) serve other until I release her. Well.. of course, my English isn't French. She patiently tried to decipher the name of the drug or item I told her. The other poor customer had to wait quite long, because they do not do multi-serving. This ain't Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong or China. This is Paris!
And the other customer really waited. I apologized for my hesitance. She pardoned me. This is their culture. This is their courteous manner.
WAIT TO BE SERVED. Do not skip queue or ever interrupt. They would never work like that.

And this is proof, that even when there was only one staff, so be it.

I learned this quite long ago, in fact. It's just that I thought it was because I was a yellow-skinned, that was why I had to wait. (You know.. some where, some people 'taught' us that yellow is inferior to white). But it didn't occured only to us, it applies to their own people too.

Well.. It has been kind of them to kind to us. Truthfully. We, proud Asians, who'd only speak English & our own mother tongues, never learn a single word of theirs (except for thank you), dared enter their country. Even the 'great' American (the best spender) would take up lessons learning the language before venturing the destination for holiday. Believe me. They do.

I have never really believe in learning a language I'd forget after the trip. Now I understand that it only shows that I have disrecpect them if I failed to do so. That is their culture.

France is the most visited country in the world. I don't think they do this merely to keep that spot.

Remember, many don't visit a country just because people there are nice(you would live there instead). They visit the country because they had a lot to offer.

France indeed does.