Archive for October 31st, 2009

Of Wednesdays and Windows 7

October 31st, 2009 by admin

This post should have came earlier on Thursday, but since it was such an eventful Thursday that I was in too much high.

If fate is anything to be believed, then the past 3 days have shown that I am very fated with my past, thus, the past had relentlessly pursued me to trigger the nostalgia in me.

More of that later.

I need to get this and many more things out of the way!

***

The Wednesday on the 21st October was one we managed to pull through with bated breath. It was an event that the team did a majorly magnificent job, and received quite a bit of positive feedback (depends who you are, really).

We reached early that day to help with the set-up and mall deployment, and as the time drew near, we kept our fingers crossed at all times, unaware what was the response gonna be.

And of course, doing things like sorting out the queue sequence cards, and making sure everything was in order.

After briefing and all, we took our positions.

Brandon (my frequent life-saver), Jess and me!

We squealed excitedly when we saw the queue was forming around the mall early in the evening:

It certainly calmed the nerves by a huge degree.

The queue was served with coffee, and the crowd was patient, ruly, and participative.

And they were mostly nice and kind! That made the job easier :)

I received a call earlier from Eileen that Wendy and Adrian were there queueing at number 21, which means they were there at almost 5+pm.

But the cute duo had mistook the timing to be 7pm, and didn’t know it was a long way. They were tempted to leave but with the queue behind and since they had boarded the “pirate ship” they hung on ALL the way till midnight!

Way to go man :)

The patient wife could go around picking up bargain, and it was a shame they didn’t manage to get the notebook they had wanted during the auction.

Mr Poh also dropped by to give moral support, and it was nice to see him since he had moved on to start out on his own.

The press was amazing to turn up at close to midnight just to attend the media launch. All in all, we had the best help, and best support.

Not to mention the best team, and a very competent Dawn, an impressive Ian Tan, and a team-wower – Hanson Yap.

And various people who were involved to get things in order.

Mr Hanson Yap, we will miss you!

Windows 7 had garnered record sales in the 1st 3 days of launch, outselling the Vista when it was first launch, almost 7 to one (as reported in the papers), and the momentum was followed through with the immense PR effort, and the team’s fabulous event. Of course, it wouldn’t have happened if not for itself being a much stronger, consumer-friendly, quality product that had gathered pretty much decent fan-fare.

The journey to midnight was a long one, and going by the time differences and all, it could well be that we were the world’s first to launch Windows 7.

By then, it was so tiring that, Hanson was all drained, draping over the chair, dripping with exhaustion.

I was still whoring my products.

Yes, Apple is my friend, too :)

The big moment finally arrived, and our first customers were received by blinding flashes and plenty of attention beyond belief.

You probably seen them gracing the front pages of broadsheets, on major news and soon, they will be gracing some of our homes as we were all given one framed article of the launch as a memento for the success.

The back of the queue had to wait further for the transactions, and some of them only finally got their copy after 1am.

I wanna thank all their incredible patience.

And we have a sleeping baby who did not fuss, a heavily pregnant lady who was eventually given priority and an elderly Caucasian in the queue.

Ian and I met the elderly Caucasian as we were carrying some boxes, and a small conversation was struck up.

I like that man. He walked with a hunch and a slow gait that will naturally make you feel for him, and he was dressed in pants, shirt and a formal jacket that made him seemingly out of place together with his age.

When he was in the queue, I was pretty much worried about him and if he could take the wait. He was occupied by a book in hand, and thankfully, was not at the back of the queue, so he didn’t have to wait for another hour or so.

He mentioned in his visible fatigue how his children had wanted to get a copy for him anyway, but since he was in the area, he might as well drop by. It is just queueing and waiting, and no big deal. He casually said this would also show his children how to be frugal.

The man left a very deep impression on me as he spoke. He went off saying matter-of-factly how the team did a great job, and it was a good event.

The man wasn’t overly friendly, and yet there was just some warmth in his voice, that… well, I have no description for that.

***

Tsk! I wish I could get a copy at $77 too!

And now I am kicking myself for not getting the external harddrive 320GB at $77!

Finally, it was time to pack up head for supper with the rest.

And Mr Ian Tan gave a show of public indecency as he changed out of his shirt.

Weet-u-weet!

I was scared stiff when it was past 2am in the morning when my boss gave me a lift to the west. Because he had threatened me with an one-on-one meeting session when our brains were hardly working.

Relieving-ly, it was just a bad joke. -Gulp-

***

The Wednesday that just passed was one that was hilarious.

I went for a free trial class for pole-dancing, and had asked Jiali to join me to spare me the embarrassment.

Before you start to think way off the tracks, let me assure you that it is nothing glamourous, nor dirtttyyy.

When I reached there, the girls were all prim and proper, and a mum even brought her 2 young kids (a boy and a girl) along.

Before our class commenced, there were a group of 10, with majority of them being guys, and a chap was even wearing corporate shirt and pants (like, seriously?!).

Apparently a company was having some team bonding thingy and I am quite sure it was a female’s idea. But the chaps had some real fun and it would be something I would suggest for team building to ANYONE next time round. Everyone being silly and have a good laugh, now, that WAS something!

Ming was really cool and a pretty good coach, though it was just too many people at the trial for anyone to have a good grasp of it.

In the short 45 minutes, there were 3 rounds of rotations for warm ups and for individuals to try their hands on 2 spins.

And to illustrate how it wasn’t that difficult, almost everyone could do the spins at the end of it.

The funniest part was when I tried to wrap my legs around the pole, and I kneed it instead.

I have this massive bruise on the knee, and you thought that was it.

It was more of an uphill task for me cos my sweaty palm was giving me quite a bit of problems.

When I did a slide, it was too wet, and I literally slid from the pole like those cartoon character slipping off the tree after they had ran into it.

And I landed on my knee.

Talk about real grace. Hahahaha!

Then, when the sweat dried up, it was too sticky!

There was this part when I spin, I ended up being in that position like stuck on the pole, instead of a graceful, gradual, sexy slide down the pole.

Jiali was late, so she only managed to see the ending where I also kicked the pole which caused a big swollen bruise on the ankle.

Besides me, I think everyone walked away pretty unscathed.

I think I needed a companion which was probably the wisest choice cos it was only when Jiali was here that I could be less sheepish and go all out and had fun.

There was this girl there who is beautiful, and incredibly graceful.

Jiali was pretty excited after seeing the fun we had and how Ming had spun without using hands or legs, sometimes, and she said, “let’s do it!“.

I laughed at the spontaneity and gamely set myself up for more aches and bruises to come!

***

Jiali and I caught up at Millenia’s Walk Bakerzin after the class, and it was a long, long catch up session since we hadn’t seen each other in months.

Dinner was good and topic was good, as we reminisced the past 12 years and the common people we know.

It was the same Bakerzin I saw Quanbin and Yaocheng last night.

Somehow my phone will go into twilight zone at some places in the area, like Suntec’s Coffee Bean which me and my colleague experienced the same thing, and Millenia Walk’s Bakerzin.

If I get out of the zones by walking a few steps away, the phone will return to its normalcy, and stop its act of shutting down and restarting, which totally crippled its usability.

Strange.

We extended the chat even till way after the eatery’s closing, and she disclosed her desire to further her studies, perhaps in the States.

We both left when it was 11 plus, and on the journey home, an ambulance was seen just at the junction before turning to my place.

A badly mangled Honda RVF was lying on the ground, and a bus was stopped after the junction, with the driver standing there taking pictures of the barely damaged right front of the bus 157.

The injured rider (I would assume he was injured since the bike was so badly smashed) was nowhere to be seen, and I remember tweeting about it and hoping the rider would be alright.

Saw the board appealing for witnesses for the accident yesterday, and it says “Fatal accident”, and a sinking feeling was in the heart, cos I believe that would mean the rider had not make it.

Apparently, he had died on the spot. :(

He was 21 and he had a pillion with him, who was his campmate, who is now seriously injured.

They were rushing back to camp and eye witness accounted that he was rolling towards the red light, and accelerated when the light went green, and the bus which was turning right, hit him.

Shubin was 21 too when he left. It was one junction down from where this had happened, and it is just devastating to another young life lost just like this.

Condolences to the family of the boy, and hopefully his friend will pull through this.

Posted in For the Dough, Life's Fillers | 12 Comments »

Finally, it’s Friday!

October 31st, 2009 by admin

Today started off with a long boardroom meeting, which got me reflective of this position of mine as it went on, and I chewed on the figures and bytes rattled off.

It was a long train of thoughts.

Where do I head next?

What do I want to go next?

In the midst of it, the thunder and tappings from the raindrops reminded me that the end of the year has arrived, as it gets chillier, and rainier.

The plan to have a nice seafood lunch was thwarted by the fact that the restaurant we were supposed to make a stroll to, was no longer weather-friendly.

The contigency plan was for us to head to a newly opened Japanese restaurant at The Sail, Yamada.

It was one of the worst foodie experience I ever had. I have pretty high threshold for crappy services, but the thing is, they weren’t rude, so that itself should be commendable, but then the fact that the services were so bad it surpasses bad attitude or terrible food, which the eatery, well, thank goodness, have neither.

It was so bad, that I have no idea how to even start.

All I remember was being busy feeling hungry throughout the meal, and getting really confused after repeating our orders for the umpteenth time.

We ended up ordering more because we grew increasingly hungry, and we don’t remember what we ordered cos those we ordered simply weren’t served….. until of course, towards the end.

Firstly.

When we first reached, we were split into 2 tables, with most of the team in the VIP room, and some of us overflowed to a more cosy booth seat, which 6 of us squeezed into.

On the table, the wasabi jar was empty. The chopsticks were on the next table. So I had to go over to the other table to get the wasabi, soy sauce, and chopsticks.

Then, we made our orders of starters and bento sets, which the server seemed confident of her order-taking, and we waited.

Then we waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited.

First to serve, was the tempura.

Okay.

And soft-shell crab. Which was miserable 2 piece of soft-shell crabs. So we added another order of 2 plates, to share amongst the other 4 colleagues.

Then, the first to be served was a plate of sushi, which a co-worker ordered, which was supposed to be the sides to her soba.

And then, we waited.

After everyone had their order served, the starters started trickling in.

Our orders of green tea were forgotten.

So everyone got their hot green tea after a long wait later.

Then, my cold green tea took another 10 minutes after their hot green tea was served, to reach me.

I checked my order of Bento. They said they check with the chef (most used excuse for the day), and it was going to be ready.

After I waited, and waited, my colleague checked again, and she came back with her earlier order, she actually did NOT take down my order at all. So what the….? Then told me it was going to be ready for what?

So she served the miso soup to me first. Then she said it comes with all the set.

And then she was confused where to leave it, because she realised they didn’t serve any miso soup to ANYONE prior to that.

By now, a colleague of mine had finished his meal.

He asked for his dessert to be served. The dessert he had earlier order, since the rest of us were still eating (with poor me munching on the other sides). The server said okay, and left.

He was then served with his miso soup, and then the server came back to tell him the chef said it was not available. Uhm…. okay. So she suggested the ice-cream instead. All of us looked at each other utterly amused, cos she didn’t mention the item was not available.

So my colleague said okay to the ice-cream and she said she would go get it.

Okay, with this colleague already finished with his lunch, my other colleague’s soba, was still not there, and her sushi were already all polished off the plate.

Poor me was offered bits and pieces from my colleagues’ bento.

And then, the additional order of soft-shell crabs arrived.

First plate was served. They must have very small fryer cos it couldn’t accomodate 4.

And, we all burst out laughing incredulously when it was served.

This plate of 2 crabs, have no legs.

SERIOUSLY!

NO LEGS?!

It was about this time, when my colleague’s soba was finally served, and I was closed to being full from all the discussions of how poorly organised they were.

And my other colleague asked about his ice-cream. The server asked, “You want ice-cream?”

All of us replied, “Yes, he ordered just now!”

She replied as if he didn’t order, and then went on to get the ice-cream prompt. Prompt enough before my main was served. Only saving grace so far.

It was the same tone as she implying I didn’t order my bento when she came back to inform we only placed 4 sets instead of 5. With my colleagues repeating my orders, I am quite sure they heard the server acknowledging the order.

If you think we were rude, we weren’t. We were just trying not to laugh miserably, cos the service was one of its kind.

The next plate of crabs arrived, and these 2 were not handicapped!

And my bento finally arrived, just as the group from the VIP room were leaving.

My colleague had to ask for the tempura sauce.

And then, our other starters, century egg tofu and california roll were served.

SERIOUSLY!

Starters were served AFTER everything?

I shall not mention how we didn’t get a spoon throughout and cos we were so tired of waiting that no one asked.

We self-helped ourselves for the mayonnaise sauce.

The chawanmushi were hard, not moist and springy. I could do better, really.

The century egg tofu was pretty good.

BUT, at the end of it, we were told that they were told off by someone with an acid tongue in the VIP room for their poor service.

So it wasn’t our orders that were messed up.

I can’t believe we passed Palm Beach for this. Boohoo. I want black pepper crabs!

The lunch was dragged on for longer than it should cos of the slow and flawed service, and everyone consensus was we should never return.

It was just unfortunate that it was an experience that no one would want to go through, and with the owner apologising saying it was too big a group, I just think the excuse didn’t quite hold up, because if you think too many people is a problem for you, then it should be a good problem you should have a solution for.

But it was the basic things that fell through the net (table set up and all), and it made it a very hectic and very confusing dining experience for us.

***

So that was the buzz of the day until tea time when a colleague and I went for kopi session, and I was informed of his due departure.

I was feeling quite shocked, since his presence has brought some life to the team. His reasoning seems to make lotsa sense, and I wish him all the best.

It led to a series of other thoughts, and by a twist of fate, intercepted by the beauty of serendipity (which I was strongly shown these 3 days), a topic I brought up during the session, had a ready answer when we got back to office.

I told him a stumbling block of mine I needed to move forward, and he was approached by a friend, and somehow some constellation was in my favour, and it was just what we had spoken about mere minutes ago!

By evening, I left work to head to Suntec area to have dinner with the guys at Millenia’s Walk Bakerzin, and the discussion went on later than expected.

But it was peppered by surprises when I first bumped into Lauren (who was from Hwachong), and then the mega surprise later, when I bumped into a friend who used to mean awful lot to me, yet haven’t seen in years and years.

For 3 days straight, my past is seriously haunting me.

I bumped into Quanbin who was with 2 of his JC mates, one of whom was a common friend back in those days.

Yaocheng’s first response was “Why you still look the same?!”

I was like “Should I be glad with that?”

When they went in, Lauren recognised them and struck a conversation (since same college). Talk about small world.

I mean, it was incredibly creepy for me especially that a holy-mama-moomoo cow reunion happened just the night before.

I messaged Jiali and her first response was “CREEPY!” since she had called to ask about Windows 7 just earlier and we were speaking about how my blast from the past was really eerie on Thursday night.

And on Thursday night, the friends I hung out with were just mentioning about this friend of ours.

And now, I chance upon another 2 friends whom she shares.

Those were the days.

Seriously.

I am overwhelmed with a big bout of nostalgia.

Those were the days. Man, those were the days.

Of letters, airmails, airports, carefreeness, and plenty of innocent sweetness in the heart. Of course, the impromptu appearance at their doorsteps with my excess baggages in tow to announce my arrival back for holidays and giving them the biggest hugs….. hey, those days were shit amazing man. And these were the very people who had made shit load of differences in my life.

If I pull my fingers away from the keyboard now and just reach other to the drawer 2 inches beneath my wrist, there sits a card from Quanbin, and it has been there for.. years.

Unfortunately, people drift along the way, with different paths taken in life. I miss Quanbin very much as a friend, but somehow the sad truth is as we grow up, the distance grew. Is it because the line is more obvious cos, essentially our thoughts are manified and womanified along the way?

Hmm. Some things I may never have answers but I was just very excited to see them, really.

Got back home and have a great great shower and fall into the comfort of bag shopping.

I think the timeline is too short for me to do spree, so I shall go ahead and get things I have been wanting to get.

There are plenty for me to chew on this weekend.

Posted in Life's Fillers | No Comments »