I have had the above blog address since i was 18. So i've been blogging for 5 years. From those angsty (not so rebellious) teenage years to this young working adult.  We kept telling each other that we don't wish to grow old but the truth is most of us are raring to move forward, no matter in terms of getting that promotion, buying a new house, having kids etc. Even that holiday in December makes you wish time would pass faster.

There's so much in life to look forward to, especially when you have so many wonderful people to share it with. That's the optimistic me speaking, by the way. I gotta admit that this should be the best part of my life now that i have considerable financial freedom and almost zero burden. When you are young you can't help but have this feeling that the world is your oyster and you can be whatever you want to be.

I've decided to move on to another blog. It's not a turning point of my life (although maybe in my own little digital world), i just thought that it would be a nice fresh start with a cleaner template. I'd also like to put up some of my handicrafts online if time permits.

I've moved all of my travel posts there to start off cos i thought it'll make it look more happening. It does!!


www.daralis.blogspot.com

Isn't daralis such a nice name? It means beloved, by the way.

Labels: being a techie, getting creative, musings

Make someone's day
{4:08 PM}

It's 3.30am in Texas and i can't sleep.

I just found out (from facebook) that a colleague of mine is quitting. A few others have decided to quit and a few more are hesitant about staying. Now that my bond is almost up, i would expect to hear more of those around my batch quitting. If i knew i had gotten into the wrong job, i would too quit as soon as i can and 2 years doesn't seem soon enough.

Am i going to quit? Nahhhhhhhhhhhh until i can find a good enough job. Contrary to popular beliefs i don't think i have the best job in the world but i believe i could sustain enough happiness to last me till i can find a good job instead of 'i just want to get out of here' like so many others out there.

Then again thinking about a 'good enough' job i'm back to where i am again when graduation loomed near and 'i dunno what i wanna do with my life'. Seriously i still dunno. And staying in this job will always beg the question of 'where are we going'.

To make myself feel better here i'm sure most of the people out there do not know what they want to do/ what they're doing either. Most of us are simply just following the flow, graduate from college then find a cushy job which your parents like and related to your field of study then work till you die. That's life when you don't waste too much brain cells thinking about it.

I wonder if i would fall into that someday (sounds VERY probable).

OK enough pondering in the middle of the night. I'm going to eat pancakes in the morning WOOHOO CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!

Labels: daily grind, musings, workworkwork

Make someone's day
{5:32 PM}

It's always so nice to see a familiar face on board. I met jeremy again on my SYD flight. Knew him from our Moscow-Houston trip where i also met so many wonderful people :) Didn't even know he was on the plane until during the lull period when he started lurking around the cabin lol.

Finally there's someone out there in the company who agrees with me about the 'union' and what a union is supposed to be, unlike many out there. I shall not elaborate but, although it seems like the fate of 80% of the workforce is dependent on 20% who are the decision makers; 80% of the wealth are dominated by 20% of the population, i can only strive to be that 20%.

He asked me if i'm going to buy a house and in my surprise i blurted out "that's sooooooo far away for me...." and he looked disappointed haha.

BTW 'house' meaning a place to stay which i own, not really a HOUSE house.

Truth is i've always wanted to own my own space but after 1.5 years working maybe i can rent a shack. Damn either he forgot i only earn half of what he earns or he thinks i'm OLD enough :'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''(

During disembarkation i saw my NUS lecturer on his way out hahahhahahha i was in his WORLD RELIGION class but he was sitting in Y i was in J so didn't get to interact with him.

Aren't professors supposed to be rich???

Labels: musings, workworkwork

Make someone's day
{1:42 AM}

I can't help but think that i could be doing so much more with my life, given my flexible (kind of) work pattern and off days. I could be doing another degree, or even a masters. I could continue with my little handicraft business online. I could even be taking hobby lessons. I could even clean my room.

BUT.

When i come home from work all i wanna do is nua, watch tv and play games.

So well i deserve the rest right? I have yoga lessons which is a good step forward (even though the visits are getting less frequent). But i feel a little stagnant. The learning curve is almost flat and there's nothing much to stimulate my brain.

I think i gotta do something.

Keep thinking that and one day i hope i DO get to it.

Labels: daily grind, musings, pointless statements, resolutions

Make someone's day
{9:15 PM}

I have a problem filling up application forms. I dunno which box to tick under 'occupation', thus i will usually tick 'others'. Then i came upon this website which says that cc is 'rank and file'.

rank and file

–noun

1.	the members of a group or organization apart from its leaders or officers.

Hmm. It is the plain truth, just that i haven't thought of it this way before. Plus it doesn't sound... very impressive. Then, i had another idea in my head. I have successfully jumped from a management job to a 'rank and file' job that pays more.

Hmm. Interesting.



In another story, i was waiting for don at habourfront mrt station. You know how it is always crawling with people making you do surveys in the pretense of selling you things. I was standing alone by myself in front of a Halloween poster, twiddling my thumbs, minding my own business.

Young chubby guy approaches.
YCG: Can you don't stand there, you look like a ghost. (In mandarin)
Me thinks fuck off.
Me: Hur.
YCG: HAHA. Just kidding. So are you studying or working.
Me: Erm. Working.
YCG: As?
Me thinks what has it got to do with you. Mumbles something.
YCG: Can you help me do a survey?
Proceeds to take out a crumpled piece of paper, each side containing multiple pages of surveys, folds down to a small, single page and passes it to Me.
YCG: (makes numerous attempts to create a decent conversation eg. which is your favourite country)
Me: (refuses to cooperate by responding with 'hur's and it's ok's)
Finally...
YCG: Have you heard of upgrade of medisave?
Me looks at her survey paper and sees only questions regarding her hobbies and favourite place to shop.
Phone rings. Don is here. Me walks away.

This salesman suck because
1) He is not well groomed nor well spoken.
2) His first sentence, supposedly an ice-breaker, was WRONG. He thought it was funny.
3) He started asking personal questions without breaking the ice, because of a very bad mistake which is no. 4
4) He did not sense that the ice was not broken.
5) Not at all professional. Survey forms were like salted vegetables, and did not introduce himself nor his company.
6) All in all, very low EQ.

Take note, would you buy something so important and life-changing like insurance from this guy????

On the contrary, the Singnet personnel who came knocking on my door this evening was much more impressive. She came with appropriate greetings, showed me her staff pass, introduced herself and asked how to address me.

I'm not a snob or anything, but these are the little things that can determine other's attitudes (+ve or -ve) towards yourself, be it conciously or not.

You may not be able to outrightly pin point the reasons why you would not buy insurance from YCG but you just know that you definitely would not.

Labels: just sayin', musings, workworkwork

Make someone's day
{10:01 PM}

I bought myself a savings plan worth $300 per month! (estimated value)

Opps did i say that out loud was it supposed to be confidential.

So i was convinced that after putting aside $300 more i'm gonna be so much poorer. I told dondon 'no more luxuries. we gonna have to tighten our belts from now on'. I think he rolled his eyes.

So technically i save 1.3k with 1k of liquid per month. After paying rental to my dad and groceries fee to my mum, i realize i am left with little disposable income. That kinda depresses me. But you see if i think long term, i'm gonna be a rich woman when i grow old cos i would have accumulated 72k in my portfolio in 20years time. That's kinda cool but then i won't be buying pretty dresses and sparkling accessories when i am old would i? So this money could all go to my children's TUITION FEES and PIANO LESSONS. That sucks cos i kinda wanna learn to play the piano myself.

Whatever it is I HAVE ALREADY DECIDED so just stick to the plan damnit i dunno why i'm debating myself on my blog.

So then i decided to check out the IKEA catalouge to see how much furniture cost. I think a sofa already cost more than 1 month of savings. I want plasma TV and pancake machine that prints out Hello Kitty's face too!! Gee! I feel like i'm in The Sims where your simulated people start out with 500 Simoleons and all you can afford is PVC sofa, black and white TV and a foldable dining table.

Labels: daily grind, musings

Make someone's day
{1:47 AM}

My roster is funny.

Check out the amount of standbys.

Aiwei said she is indian crew. I am standby crew!

But i am also japan crew cos checkitoutcheckitout i'm going Tokyo!! RAVESSSSSSS. One more stop and i conquer all of japan stations!

Damn excited! And for once there is no creepy india turn hahahhahaha. Hey i'm not being racist. Imagine working from 7pm all the way till 7am. Zzzzzz. That's usually how an india turn works. So stop judging me!

Amsterdam again but i love this place :) Especially now it's gonna be spring! Tulips yay!!!

And someone's screwing with my roster. I was suddenly 'released' from standby this evening. I don't even know why or how it works. But i'm not complaining.

From 'you need to improve your work' on my 2nd check to 'keep up the good work' on the 3rd to 'you are very good for a new crew' on my last flight. I'm getting increasingly more comfortable and confident in my job now so life is great, especially when i know my job is (pretty much) secure. HOHO!!!!

Halfway through to clearing probation! Gogo!

Labels: musings, pointless statements

Make someone's day
{4:14 AM}

I'm so bored.

I've been away for work for the 5th day and i'm still here....

3 more days to go...

It's 6.18pm now and i'm waiting for dinner.

So i'm in Istanbul riding on stolen broadband (thank god for free broadband). I watched Twilight and the part of Madagascar-where-i-fell-asleep online and caught Stardust for the second time on tv. We went sightseeing and took the local tram to the Blue mosque, some bazaar and the spice market. I also crossed the bridge from the continent of Europe to Asia and back! Pretty exciting. I never knew Turkey rests on 2 continents- our hotel is on new Europe and the airport in Asia. Whee hee!

I miss dondon :( But he doesn't come online nor message me nor offer to fetch me back (boo). I think he's too busy (yes more so than me) to think about girlfriends and such.

Let's all hope i get long flights all the time! :)

Labels: dondon, musings, travelogue

Make someone's day
{12:14 AM}

Happy 2009!

I'm still in 2008 currently at GMT +1.

It's freaking freezing, my face froze after 10mins outdoors. Plus most shops are closed. It's like a ghost town over here in the streets.

So i'm now currently sitting in bed watching crappy american reality tv on MTV with a tube of chips, a bag of chocolates and a bottle of mineral water, randomly looking out of the window at intervals at the constant fireworks going on outside.

Are fireworks free here? It's been going on for hours. I saw some last night as well.

Sounds great right? Especially for a lazy non-party person like me.

Only drawback is that i'm all alone.... Gua gua....

Labels: musings, travelogue

Make someone's day
{3:08 AM}

I wished my blog had more photos. See i was blog surfing(stalking) as usual and i got so jealous over the colourful blogs of others and their beautiful clothes and bags. And i thought damnit why don't i have this habit of taking pictures of food, my friends, my face, my hair, my dress, my bag, and my dog (opps sorry i don't have one) on every occasion i get.

I want to make my blog colourful too :( Maybe i will attempt to blog about some sort of an outing soon. But a lot of times, after putting up a picture, i dunno how to comment.

Like, for example. Today Mary, Lily, Tom, Dick, Harry and i went to Sushi Tei. I ordered soba. It was nice. Very delicious. We talked. It was fun catching up. The end.

I mean, how different can each "meet up for lunch" be? I think i'm bad at chronicling my life and its activities. Or maybe i'll simply put up some pictures and not comment. At least i'll have some sort of a memory of my youth when i become old and saggy.

Anyway i've accepted the fact that my most frequented shop is.... Watsons. You can get so many things there like cheap cosmetics that don't matter, toiletries, hair spray, hair wax, dry stores...... so many! I can live in a Watsons.

Labels: musings, pointless statements

Make someone's day
{1:11 AM}

Greetings from a pseudo indo crew. Indo flights are actually good. Indonesians are generally very friendly. After working for some time i think i will start stereotyping nationalities.

So i have an off day on Christmas eve, but i'll be staying at home watching tv while others have to fake MC to get Christmas off. Haha! I'm sorry, i know it's unfair. I also got cny eve, and first 3 days of cny off. Maybe someone from the office likes me.

*Smooch*

But i think karma will hit me back in the face in terms of getting lousy flights for vday xmas birthdays new years etc. for the following years hehe but i guess it doesn't really make much difference to me. I'm just crossing my fingers very hard in hope that i can stay home for cny eve cos i don't wanna miss renuion dinner! How could i skip something that i've been doing for as long as i could remember.

Labels: musings, pointless statements

Make someone's day
{11:10 PM}

I think my company has misunderstood. I am not an Indonesian staff. Why do you keep sending me to Indo??

Just got called up to go Jakarta right after a Bali flight. And guess where i'm going for Christmas. Yay Jakarta. I've got another Jakarta flight next month. Strange neh.

But at least i got Christmas eve off. Not that i'm doing anything special :'''''''''''(

I'm sent to Indonesia more often than any other country in the world right now. Next on the list is India/Australia. Woohoo!

Anyway, i came back from a $34 "volcanic stone" full body 2hour massage. Best $34 spent in a long time. I've never tried any form of full body massage but i don't think i ever will unless i'm scheduled for Bali night stop again.

Hello $34 in Singapore is only enough for a manicure :s

Labels: bimbo blabbers, musings, pointless statements

Make someone's day
{12:06 AM}

Ooops i got called up to go Sydney so did not blog about mushrooms yet.

Overall was a good flight. Had the best set of ranking crew ever. Had an leading who made milkshakes for us so that we can get sugar high for work. Sweet.

Personally, i feel that as a leader, it's so important to set a positive environment for work and be a good role model to the juniors. We usually have a briefing before work starts and some leaders will start the day by saying "don't let me catch you doing this-and-that it's so bad and people will complain and...." etcetc which already creates a negative beginning to the day.

On the other hand, an encouragement would go such a long way, especially for my job where smiles and enthusiasm for the customer is the key to a good job done. I honestly find it hard to smile from my heart when someone is breathing down my neck all the time.

But well i guess some people only care about themselves and they just don't see the big picture.

Shrugs.

Labels: musings

Make someone's day
{1:40 AM}

Labels: musings, shopaholic

Make someone's day
{5:43 PM}

For the first time i think i'm a rebellious person. No matter how much people advise me not to challenge my seniors/explain myself, i can't help but do it. Especially on so many occasions when i know i'm right, to the extent that i can bring out my manual and point out to them. But sigh. With all my heart, i sincerely feel that people of my job loves face (full of pride). They buy themselves LVs and Chanels, dine in expensive restaurants and smear $200 cream on their faces. They then like to bring others down to make themselves feel good, just because they can.

Doesn't it sound like a fabulous life?

I hope i won't become like that in future.

On my first solo, a very nice colleague was so worried about me, he kept asking me "you ok? don't cry ok?" hahaha and i said "what's there to cry about. i'm not that type to cry during work". But i am angry at myself at times for not being prepared and focused enough to minimize chances of being picked on. This was reinforced by my boss on my way back today. She said "if you don't give your 100%, as a junior people will sure pick on you. don't give them the chance".

I try my best.

Labels: musings

Make someone's day
{4:02 PM}

Ok i've been reading forums again and irrational people roam the world! Like, i can't believe people actually hide behind their computer screens and make stupid comments that make me feel like i'm the wisest girl in the world.

For example, i went into this thread that goes like "the reality of being a *my occupation*" and this girl went completely insane saying that it is a well known fact that girls of *my occupation* are pretentious. The interviewers are arrogant and ask stupid questions that's why the staff is arrogant. I quote her "like mother like daughter".

The following is what she thinks the mentality of us are. Again, i quote "eh, I'm wif *my company* ley, prestigeous airline k? u know how hard to pass the stages or nt? I pass them liao ok? i am smart and I am the one they are looking for."

The company is also apparently not "professional" compared to others with no "standard".

Fish! Is that true? Is that how people see us? Anyway i can't really be bothered cos i know she's not making sense. BUT then i went to check out other threads and discovered........

........that she's just a wannabe loh. She was posting on other threads asking questions about the interview and her personal experience. Gee!! She obviously must have failed! Not only that, she also applied for other companies of the same industry. Huh! She must be seriously cmi.

But anyway sour grapes are extremely common to me. I don't even know what they are trying to prove. Boohoo too bad i still love my job and i love myself and i love my friends and i love dondon and i am neither "pretentious" nor "unprofessional". Yay! Slap me and give me $10000!

And then someone also mentioned in the forum that my job is only like being a high class waitress, the girls are like ah lians. So someone else rebutted that it is not true cos many graduates are in this job now. Then this person replied that graduates come into this because they have lousy degrees like NUS Arts and Social Science.

OH NO!!!! THIS IS TRUE!!!!

Labels: musings, rubbish

Make someone's day
{3:19 PM}

Labels: musings, pointless statements

Make someone's day
{11:12 PM}

No travel logs for now cos i've headed back to training centre for more training. Incidentally, i have graduated. So i'm officially a great way to fly woot~!

Till my first official flight to Brisbane, it's just words in this space now.

So we recently had some VVIPs in the form of Chinese officials to visit the training centre to see how we managed to give each employee 6months bonus in previous financial periods. Obviously, it's not going to happen again now. But i got to see the nice CEO during the event and i remembered how he said we won't be cutting jobs yet and we all love him.

Labels: musings, training

Make someone's day
{8:05 PM}

Labels: musings

Make someone's day
{12:14 AM}

Somewhere 2 years ago i was watching the korean drama 'goong', the female protagonist was grumbling about her husband. "Shin goon seemed to already have his future all planned out. His plan however, does not include me".

I thought wow this is so appropriate because it was exactly how i felt back then when dondon was overseas. He had so much to do, but all without me.

Anyway in this particular story, this Shin goon guy did had his future planned out, but now that his wife appeared, he meant to alter it to include her. Aiyo so sweet right, i wished dondon was Shin goon!

Back to reality, today our plans are totally unexpected from 2 years ago. But it's nice to know that i'm still part of the plan :)

Labels: dondon, musings

Make someone's day
{12:25 AM}