Droplets of my life

My Bali Trip left me wanting more. Damn Shoik man! Was practically dream walking when I returned to work last Monday. The road to the MRT station seemed less polluted as I envisioned myself walking down the rice padi path. In fact it was quite refreshing and I felt very much as if I was still in Bali. But hor being the accident prone and one-second-unlucky+full-of-embarrassing-turned-safe+pleasant-moments gal, I had some unforgettable adventures thru’out my Bali stay. Buay ta han man. hehe.

Day 1: To start it off, we were almost late for check-in. On the ticket it said check-in at least 40mins before departure, we raced to the counter with 39 mins left. Whew, we were not the last and we could still pick our seats!! I thought I could still jalan-jalan & do window shopping after checkin in but got to answer nature’s call first. Then took a good look at the board, what I saw made my heart skip a beat. Did I see "Gate Closing"?! Wah piang, had to do a 100 metres dash, nope, was 400 metres dash! Bloody gate was right at the end of the terminal lor!! Was running so fast & noisily (Jay was pushing the baggage trolley over 2 humps which flew n landed with a bang) that we made everyone’s head turn & stare. So paiseh!

Obviously, we din miss the flight. Before I make those spa-wannabes so "gian" I just have to tell you my NIGHTmare first. After I touched down, located the hotel personnel, to my horror they were not expecting me!! Cool Cool Cool, deep breath! Fortunately I had a copy of the email confirmation sent to me previously. A few phone calls and clarifications later, we were informed that we were good to go. They were expecting us now. Hmmm, made me wonder abt their system and xxx my fingers that they wil not shock us by allocating a horrible hotel room.

Day 2: Ubud is really a very small town, about the size of Bedok Central. My agenda was not shopping, anyway, nothing much of what I wanted there. The silver jewellery is good but read that it was cheaper n of better qlty in urban areas. Maybe someone can verify it.

Booked my 4 hr spa package for day 3 before I entered Monkey Forest. The most unexpected thing happened to me. I was harassed then beaten by a monkey!!!!! Okie, u can luff all u want at me. Ya I know there will be lots of GREEDY monkeys; I was informed by fren n local. But to suffer a bite that later turned blue black!!!??? Wat can I say? Plain unlucky lor.

What follow save the day! Had my 1 hour body massage + spice bath, chill down by the river restaurant, dinner was fabulous, wind down with a bottle of red wine, listening to the rhythm of the rain n sounds of bugs, and enjoyed each other company. Even though we had been blissfully married for 1 year, it felt like catching up on each other’s life all over again. So romantic!!

Day 3: Rice Padi Field Trekking - Campuan Ridge Trek!!!! Rewarded by a lovely view after a 15 - 20 min walk up a deserted lane. It was not long before we were stucked in the rain. There were a couple of times when we werent certain if we should continue. The rain was heavier and there was no visible trail ahead. We kept on trekking and just when Jay told me to be careful as it was slippery; I fell! Nearly had half of my body going into drain or was it river? Anyway, got a big big patch of purplish bruise. Fortunately, we reached midpt of the ridge where we seeked shelter, drank jasmine tea, dry ourselves, wait for the rain to stop b4 we started again. I was really looking forward to 3pm when my spa will begin.

A guy from Eve spa picked us up from our hotel. The masseur’s skills was even better than that of the hotel one. The sore from my morning trek evaporated (but not my bruises hor). Balinese massage combined with acupressure steady bomb pi pi! Body wrap to moisten your skin. Enjoy your fruit platter + sip refreshing ginger tea during floral bath. Shower n proceed to facial mask. Sumptous dinner n last but not least hair treatment. All in all 4 hrs at a price of S$45 per pax. I just went to arab st for dinner this evening, checked out Balinese traditional massage 1 hr for S$50. How I wish Bali is at my doorstep!!!

Day 4: Haha, cant get enuf of Balinese massage. Managed to squeeze in 30 mins of tension relief massage. Superb! Their svc standards much much better than Sg. The pple are friendly and really warm unlike the Thais whose friendliness scares me.

It was definitely not an uneventful day. My flight was delayed for 6 hours!!!! Ah!!!!! Really Buay Ta Han man!!

I want

1. Eve of Good Friday to come quickly

2. Good Friday to pass slowly

3. Eve of Labour day to come quickly

4. Celebrate Labour Day!

5. Labour day never to pass

6. God to make pt 5 materialize

7. Everyday except those days I mention above to pass faster n faster

So happen I read the forum page of today newspaper and saw readers’ comments on an article published yesterday. The comments brought back to mind an encounter (which was really nothing special) but happened earlier this everning.

In the lift down after a offsite sharing session, the conversation between a mgr & subordinate started. "U know u can go off from here, is really no pt going bk to d office since is a quarter to 6pm now." d mgr continued, "I’ll pop back as I need to send off emails." Subordinate responsed, "Is alright, I still hv somethings to clear, let’s go back together." The exchange went on to a bitching session on who wanted what in the office and cannot wait etc.

Is it the truth that the subordinate is saying??!! And is it a pressure tactic of the mgr to have said that to his subordinate? I pity the subordinate if this is really d case. Anyway, I think most of us might just say the same thing like the subordinate. IS OT AGAIN, SIGH!

There are a lot of factors contributing to OT. They are mostly very pathetic reasons, hardly justifiable (u mean is sound to justify to slavedrive some1 and not able to justify for another headcount??!!).  I know I am making a big sweeping statement here but I cant help it.  I believe is a vicious cycle where the person who delivers the work work OT, the recipient could be OT-ing to meet the same deadlines too and it just goes on and on. So where do we start and stop? Customers (this grp of pple can b ur boss, ur colleagues, ur external clients etc) who are on the receiving end of the service providers, who OT to help them to get things done, should put a stop or put things into perspective. I just can’t believe pple can stand the cycle - hey putting a stop to the cycle does not mean u r lazy, underachiever, procrastinating and whatever ugly things u can add on.

Always had worked in a cost centre in an orgn, spent 2.5 yrs in a shared svc envt, I can emphatise with the plight of a overstretched employee. Cost centre mah, not revenue centre, somemore shared svc envt= volume & multiple transactions, so better be super efficient. I was fortunate enuf to go home OTD (on the dot) everyday while my colleagues go OT everyday. I must confess that I felt a lot of peer pressure to OT after I clear my backlog but I think I also created THE buzzword where everyone tries to achieve. I must thank my exboss for not penalising me for that and still believe I can value add to the team.

Okie enuf of ranting… oh for those (OT pple especially) who read this, I don’t mean any offence and definitely dont mean your OT efforts are stupid or wasted. I am merely writing this more from the perspective of pple who faced peer or mgt pressure to OT. So take this with a pinch of salt, okie?

Past few weeks had been very happy and quite satisfying. A lot of sales have been going on. I’ve got pretty blouses, a cute little black skirt, dainty shoes, new cosmetics, pampering facial package. Most of them going at half price. Happieeeee shopping spree!!! Visa flashes, Mastercard flashes…. guiltily, I feel good spending $$$ which I have not earned. Just cant fight the power of retail therapy. And it feels damn shiok to strut around in new stuff, have heads turn when u r x-ing the "highly challenging" road off PL to a dread-filled place for the past 4 mths. Even more gratifying 2 have people (guys AND gals) heaping comments like "ohhhh, u r glowing more & more with each passing everyday"….. "hey nice shoes, i wan to buy shoes 2!!!"….  The best part is seeing stun expression and hearing silence like "ah… i bought them at XXXX"…. response? "….."…. "u know is there n there?" and u receive more "….."

What a boring place! New pieces can draw so much response; everything is soooooo ooooooooo…… oh I had a new hairstyle too. This spark off something, I WANT TO COMPLAIN! My hubby and closest frens took like a whole 5 mins to SEE the change!!!

Actually, is not that I need the words & action (hmmm what a "personal" pun on the words…) therapy to soothe my stressed out soul. When you can look forward to a week or so of rest AND you know more $$$ will be coming, is ironical to tell pple "oh… i m so sick n tired… i m strezz". My dearest frens & even those who dun noe me well will puke in my face Hahaha!

Moving on, time to while my sat away with my piggy pig pig bibi. hehe U guys will hear from me, I promise, very soon.

My last post did not turn out at all when you tried to access it. I had sorted it out but u can give it a miss if u r not a muff’s fan!

Muffin had dominated my last 3 posts. Shall blog about something else today. A season for holidaying, enjoying, forgiving, loving, eating and shopping, dun ya agree? where should i go next? After my highlight of 2005 - cambodia trip and lazy honeymoon to korea, things seem dull. perhaps a NZ backpack trip next year with my best fren will perk me up. I am open to suggestions.

I had forgiven some of my frens this year but I’m hesitant to forgive a "big bird".

LOVE - I had tonnes of it from my frens, family and hubby. Thank you!!

Every different group of my frens organising Xmas gathering. Scary how they all zoom in on the same few dates for meeting up. Lucky for me, I dun really have a lot of frens. No need to burn such a big hole in my pocket and can keep $ for the tangible stuff. Haha!

Last but not least, shopping!! Anyone out there who would like to go shopping with moi? U know where to contact me. Will come back with another post later this week or next week. Brainjuice all drained already thou is start of the week.

It’s end of the year again… fast sia! The number tag of my life is increasing man… This is so disgusting. Before I come back to that, let’s talk about muffin again. ehhe. My dear muffin grows to 4 mths o. Next week he would hv to go for his last jab & he had started to go for walk with us!! I rem’ber my 1st walk with him - he started poo-ing d min he "touch down" on the pavement!! Oh btw, he still has not grasped where is his "loo" at home, argh! Anyway, he just keeps poo-ing at the wrong place lah.

That’s not the focal point of the dogwalk. Brought him to the playground.. haha had such a wonderful time makin him follow moi up the steps & watching him enjoy his slides. He refused to leave when we left the playground; just sat at the bottoom of the slide, grinning from ear to ear at us. No pics to show, will have to rem’ber to bring the camera down the next time!

This is still not main focus of the walk! haha You will most probably say I m crazy or sadist after you read the following… The most interesting and joyous moment was observing how the cat preyed on muffin. Okie okie, not joy lah, more of curiosity. The cat is obviously curious abt my doggie but my dog somehow din notice the fat cat. Oh boy! D cat is fat man but it displayed all its lean muscles when it pranced and tiptoed and leap after muffin. Aiyo, my muffin all he did (I had to turn him around & mk him "see" that someone was after him!!) is seek our protection. Funnily, only THAT chubby white cat was curious enuf abt our scardy, greedy muffin.

  Hello everyone! Remember muffin? Our muffin boy had grown so heavy now. Still thinking only we get pouches ar? Look at his bulging tummy… Well for the past 4 weeks, he had been eating very well. Here’s lots of "poof" to it

"I don’t care how I look like when all I can think of is food, even when my ears are clipped up, I can only focus on gobbling up all my food!"

"I ignore everything when my food is front of me"

Asked muffin if he is happy? This is the answer you get. "No separation anxiety… I seldom  cry now unless my daddy wacked me or when both mummy & daddy shout NO!! at the top of their lungs when I do noti things"

"Yea! New toy with flavour to chew chew chew. I irritate mummy & daddy so much with my newspaper chewing that they got no choice but to buy new toy to entertain me. hehe "

"Although I made them mad, mummy and daddy still go ga-ga over me when I wag my tail and stare dopily at them. But hor… when I whine at daddy, he will wack me hard… But then I can whine at mummy cos’ she will grow soft and carry and caress me. hehe… women still cannot escape my poower." 

Want to know more of muffin boy’s adventures?

Visit http://www.muf-fin.blogspot.com/

I met this little fellow; he did some tricks and then stole Jay’s heart right beneath my nose! 2 weeks later, to my dismay AND joy, he has anchored himself in our hearts. Nobody is perfect and that includes Muffin. He has a few bad habits but he does have redeeming features. The most irritating part is when he poos simply everywhere and not on the newspaper. The most amazing part is when he pees simply everywhere and on the newspaper only. Can’t imagine a 2 months old baby doing his water business on the toilet bowl? That’s what Muffin just did! He’s also very endearing when he looks at you dopily, even after I gave him a soft but firm wack.

Muffin’s days brought brand new experiences and revelations to me. It acted as an ice-breaker between my new colleague, whom I stressed is herself a dog-owner. Why the emphasis? Talking about Muffin to someone who does not have a furkid can have positive and negative reactions. Negative being “why the hack are you heaping on me a whole load of dog stories?”; the positive one has 2 schools of thoughts: the wows and the disbelieves. The former will coo over how adorable and clever the pup is while the latter can never bring themselves to believe why we can pamper a dog like a kid. It was a very interesting session witnessing how these 2 different groups of people open up to me with just the same topic.

It was no surprise to find Muffin splash all over my Friendster, blog, MSN and wallpaper. He is my stimulus to start blogging.

Lastly, why Muffin? Jay made the decision to pick him over others. The name came from a gift from my ex-colleagues. Yes, they gave me a soft-toy doggie called Muffin. It wasn’t because I was hungry or craving when I looked at Muffin, okie?

Read Jay’s blog for an overdose on Muffin.

My good mate, Patrick, gave a cool introduction of Muffin on his blog too!