Olduvai left for the US early this morning where she'll stay for two months, after which she'll be heading for the UK for further studies. I'm going to miss this good friend of mine. No more eating kaki and no more conversations about life, food, books, movies etc over a good meal.
But I am extremely happy for her. And excited for her too! This is going to be such an exciting time for her! I will live her adventures vicariously through her blog.
It's nice to see that people are moving on in their lives, living new experiences and adventures. Of course, I hope that I'm doing so myself. I think I'm not doing too badly. I guess, or at least I hope so!
Goodbye and Good Luck gal!
1) Had dinner at PS Cafe at the Paragon branch. Ate the beef brisket tagliatelle which I found a little too sweet for my liking. I mean, I thought the beef was actually pretty tender and I liked the vegetables that came with it, but the sauce was just a tad too sweet.
2) Then went for drinks at Free Banana, the cafe along Orchard Road just outside Wisma Atria. The drinks there are awful. My ice calamansi, my friends' ice coffee and hot chocolate were all too sweet. Definitely not going there again.
3) I finally got back onto the outrigger canoe on Saturday morning. The paddle at Sentosa was a good one focusing on mastering proper technique. The stroke for outrigger canoeing is so different from dragonboating that I'm having to learn to paddle all over again. It's tough. Very tough - especially when people are pinpointing mistakes all the time and your brain has to channel that message to the rest of the body to somehow move correctly. So I got my weekly dosage of sun. It's like I run on solar power. I need to recharge my batteries by getting out and feeling the warmth of the sun on my skin.
4) Watched Pirates of the Carribean 2: Dead Man's Chest. Didn't enjoy this as much as the first installment. I think the plot really lost it at around the 2-hour mark. The show became one big circus with all the running around and fighting that was going onscreen for what must have been an eternity. At first it was exciting with all that action. Then after all you're just thinking "Get on with it already!" But anyway, I love Johnny Depp. I don't think anyone can play Captain Jack Sparrow like he does. Orlando Bloom is, as usual, bland as Will Turner. Keira Knightley's plays Elizabeth Swan (Lizzy) well. Funny how she always plays characters with the name Lizzy (Pride & Prejudice) and they all seem to have the same personality--feisty and a woman way ahead of her time.
5) The Singapore Paddle Club's annual general meeting was held yesterday and I will serve another term as the club's Secretary (not that anyone contested any of the positions anyway). So there were some changes in the Executive Committee due to people relocating. It's sad to see people go away but that's life. People move on and life goes on.
Anyway, it's the start of another week. Let's hope it'll be a smooth-sailing one.
On checking my work email this morning, I saw that I had three emails sent by two colleagues over the weekend. One on Saturday and two on Sunday.
The one sent on Saturday was from a colleague who's travelling on business at the moment, so I can understand why he's sending work emails over the weekend. I realise that when travelling on business, the concept of a break over the weekend doesn't quite exist 'cos you're cut off from your routine and weekday nights and weekends are probably the only times you can clear and answer emails.
But the two emails sent on Sunday by a Chinese colleague of mine is just insane. She sent it in the late morning, and I'm thinking "Woman, go get a life!!!"
I don't know what she is doing checking work email over the weekend. She's such a workoholic that I think the concept of work-life balance does not actually exist in her realm.
Personally, I don't check work email over the weekend unless absolutely necessary. That would mean that I would be informed at a certain part of the work week that I will be expecting over the weekend. It's just that I feel it's important AND healthy to give myself a break from work over the weekend. So that means no checking of work email or doing any work. I feel that I return to work as a more efficient worker if I've had a proper break. But this doesn't mean that I have never worked over the weekend. I have done so on many occasions. However, I do it on a need-to basis. Thankfully that hasn't been too often.
But this Chinese colleague of mine is just over the top. Someone needs to tell her to slow down and just smell the roses.
The ones at Sin Hoi San at Blk 55 Tiong Bahru Road are good. Went there for dinner with a couple of friends on Saturday, supposedly to celebrate olduvai's belated birthday and also a farewell dinner for her. So while the rest of us ate, the poor girl just drank tea. So it wasn't much of a celebration for her in the end! But I guess the thing that mattered for her was really the gathering of friends she won't be seeing for the next year or more perhaps!
Yes, by my colleagues in China. I get the same question from them almost every day in various word permutations--"When can we get the books?", "Can you please give us an update on the schedule?", "What's the publication schedule for the books?", "Can you give this to us by so-and-so date?", "Why do you need so much time for this? Is it because you're slow? [NO!!!!]"
And so on and so forth. I'm telling you, it's getting to the point of harassment. Just get off my back already!!! Being hounded by these people is just f**king annoying. Like how many times do I have to repeat myself to get understood??? Bombarding me with emails that basically border on the same premise does not serve to make me work any faster. In fact, it's just counter-productive 'cos it only annoys me and makes me hate my work even more and it could result in lower productive. They can't seem to get it into their skulls that certain things just require a certain amount of time to get done. Then they complain about quality. Like look, if you want quality, you gotta give people time. That's the reason why even though many books in China (from the local publishing houses there of course) can be published really quickly, many of them are of really low quality.
But obviously these people don't see it that way. I really hate the way the mainland Chinese work. They give you short notice when it comes to everything, and then expect you to perform magic to get it done for them in that short span of time.
Anyway, I guess I should just learn to block them out and remind myself of the bigger picture. This is not all that defines me. This is not all there is to my life. Even if I get fired because of these annoying mainland Chinese, big deal. There's always something out there for me to do. Heck, I'd be some data entry clerk or even toilet cleaner if I have to!!!
I tried the chocolate ice cream at awfully chocolate last night. It's velvet smooth, dense, rich, chocolatey--awfully good!!! What's more, it's served in these cute little white cardboard boxes (has a handle too!) fashioned after the Chinese takeaway boxes used widely in the US--awfully cute!!!!
This postcard from the Netherlands is one of my favourites out of the 46 I've received so far. Indeed, like the sender has written, the picture shows many of my loves, including travelling ('cos of the train on the stamp). Such a wonderful postcard which has summed up my love for the sea, for reading and music. I suppose the only thing's that missing in the picture is a beach mat laiden with lots of good food and drink!!!!
It's terrible--I haven't had the time to write a half-decent entry in the past month. It's been difficult trying to squeeze time out to write with all the deadlines looming at work. Anyway, here's a quick summary of what's been happening with the dimsumdolly.
1) The weekend of 1-2 July, there was the dragonboat race at Bedok Reservoir. Our team was a very small one this time as several members were at an outrigger canoe at Hamilton Island, Australia, while others were abroad. In any case, we didn't do well in this race. The loss was a deserved one and it only shows that we really have to train much harder in order to be a threat to the rest of the competition.
2) The club's taking a one-month break from training to let everyone recharge and come back refreshed and ready to go for more competitions in the months ahead! But the problem is, I don't know what to do with myself now. And it seems like my teammates are all having the same problem. Our coach said after the competition, "Now you can all go get a life for one month!" And I'm thinking, "But this IS our life!"
3) I had my first lesson in rigging an outrigger canoe this morning at Tanjong Beach. I've never been good at all this knotting and tying stuff, but still I feel it's something one needs to learn to become a more complete paddler. Rigging an outrigger canoe is hard work. It requires sssooooo much pulling of the string in order to keep the tension. Our fingers were all numb and palms all red after that. Anyways, I need to start getting back into the outrigger canoe. Been away from it for too long. Miss it. Hopefully I'll get to for an outrigger canoe race this year, if not next. And speaking of the club's outrigger canoe that's stored at Tanjong Beach, we discovered today that members of the public have been damaging our canoes and the canoe rack. It's annoying!!!! These people ought to be shot.
4) I got my first lesson in jewellery making from my cousin last weekend. I made two pairs of beaded earrings for myself. Hope to make more soon!
5) I ate at The Ship a steakhouse on the 4th floor of Shaw Centre. It's an old establishment and has definitely seen better days. It's like it's stuck in a early 80s timewarp. I had steak set dinner. The food was OK. Edible, but not fantastic.
6) I ate at Spring Court. Had a set dinner at Spring Court, a Cantonese restaurant at Chinatown's Upper Cross Street. Food was not too bad...but it was the usual Chinese set dinner fare--cold dish, sharks' fin soup, steamed prawns, steamed fish, salt-baked chicken, spinach & mushrooms, Ee-fu noodles etc. Boring.
7) I had tea at PS Cafe with Tim, a friend visiting from Sydney. We were at the Harding Road outlet. It felt like I was sitting in a greenhouse with all that lush greenery you can see through the glass windows. I had the strawberry scone with a cup of old ginger tea. The scone was rather dry and was a bit disappoting. But it was a giant of a scone!
8) I ate at Desire, the restaurant at the Scarlet hotel. Tim was staying there for a night, and he wanted to have dinner at the restaurnat downstarirs. I only had dessert as I had already eaten dinner before meeting Tim there. I had the banana fritters with walnut ice cream. The caramelized banana fritters were lovely and so was the ice cream. Service is also good.
9) Dimsumdolly hasn't been exercising and she is getting fatter by the day.
10) Dimsumdolly can't possibly go for a navel piercing as one of her readers suggested. Firstly, she has no washboard abs which would justify having one. Her abs (or lack of it) are more like bouncing pads. Secondly, she's too terrified by needles. However, she (crazily) contemplated going for a tattoo (she wants a tribal dragon on her lower back), but knows that she will never do it as she'd be scared shitless by the needles and pain.
Yes, that's what I am. My heart is in tatters now because the Celede outlet at Temasek Towers has closed down. Boohoohoo. How am I now supposed to satisfy my cranberry scone and carrot walnut cake cravings when I'm at work??? These confectionary delights used to be just a five-minute walk away but now it's probably a 500-minute walk away!
Depressed now lah.