Romance Fannatic Part II

Early this year when i started blogging, i did an entry on picking up a new hobby, that is reading. As of now, i am pleased to announce that i completed all the words of Julie Garwood, who is pretty good with romance in old English settings as well as modern world. In her storyline, there will be main plot that get the leading guy and girl to fall in love. The way that discover their love for each other and how they resolve the mystery will get you glued to her works. Hence, if you are a romance fanatics like me, you can start reading her books.

Above that, i also completed another romance Korean show: My Girl this week.

I guess i am really a die-heart with all these romance shows. Though the plots usually involve Girl A falling in love secretly with Boy A who is also in love in Girl B. There is also a guardian angel for Girl A who will suffer at the side, trying so hard to get Girl A to notice him and protecting her from any pain. Through the process, the Boy A start to fall in love with Girl A. However, there is these obstacles that stop them from declaring their love for each other such as the evil plot by Girl B who can't believe she will lose Boy A to Girl A. At this time, i will be sharing a few buckets of tears for the couple. Since i just stand the sight of 2 madly in love people and can't seem to be together. Lastly, another key uniqueness is Girl A is not the prettiest or cleverest but she will still get the love of Boy A. Hence, it is good that is always a happy ending for all. That is why i never seem to enjoy those initial Korean show that got everyone hooked to TV as it is usually a bad ending with the guy or girl either dead or never together.

With all these happy endings that i have seen, will i ever have a happy ending for my life story? Will I ever meet that Boy A of my life?

My dreams continues......

Painful Week

Some of you might not be aware, due to my decision that i will quit my job by next Feb hence i have decided to pack my lunch to work daily as part of my savings programme or cost savings measure. Furthermore, my mum cooks everyday so it is actually not a difficult thing for her to cook more the previous day and i bring the leftovers to work for lunch the next day. Lastly, assuming our daily lunch cost ard min. of $5 and i work for 4 days a week, hence, i can save ard $80 per month. Though it is not a big amount but at least it can help me save a little more and maybe contribute to my monthly retail theraphy.

However, with the no. of people leaving my department, i have to attend their farewell lunch. I will normally attend such functions only for those who actually make my life in my sucky job slightly better. Hence, i am okie to spend slightly more for lunch for their sake. Since it is our practise that everyone treat the person who is leaving and normally we will go to a slightly better place for lunch.

This week alone i attended the farewell of 3 different people, of which one of them is my department director. Hence, the farewell was left to 2 of my colleagues to organise and hence when they send out the notice for the farewell dinner, i gladly accepted it since i can't be that anti-social. The day came and i was told that we were going for a dinner at Holiday Inn Hotel, Tandoor Restaurant - Indian Restaurant. First thing that came to my mind is India Food! OMG! Hopefully it is not those india vegetarian restaurant with all those yoghurt and stuff. So my colleagues and i went for the sake of attending. The good thing when we arrived is that it is not those vegetarian restaurant and i saw on the menu that we have chicken and fish. Phew! Then i was pretty impressed with the set ups and service since after every course we have fresh new cultery and the waiter are so fussy with the placement of the cultery. However, the serving is very small starting with an appetitizer consisting a drumstick, small fish fillet and small portion of mutton which i didn't touch. Then followed by the main course of Nann with small sauce bowl of chicken, prawn, chicken, mutton, cauliflower and peas. Lastly, the dinner was completed with a india ice cream for desert. However the taste is nt to my liking as it is a sour and super creamy. Thus i only took a bit. Though the serving are that small, i actually went home feeling damm full and bloated. That's realli surprising.

Considering my description above, i will have thought that the dinner + price (pre-aligned of $10 per pax) will be only around $ 60 per pax that i will be paying including my director share since there were at 10 of us to split her share. The shocking truth was the dinner was $70 per pax + $10 for present. Hence i have to pay $80. OMG! My whole month of saving + the farewell lunch that i went which is $20+. There realli goes all my effort of saving. Thinking through i guess this is the most expensive meal that i paid for myself in my life till date.

If you think that's it. I receive my phone bill from my trip in GZ and i have another shock.... total of $270 and i can only claim for $70 for work related calls. The rest was spend contacting the team since we were split. Come to think hw come it was only me who was asked to make those call and everyone was calling to my line. :-( There again per call per min is abt @ $1+. Hence, if you are ever in China, try nt to call via HP furthermore nt by pay as your roam service.

There goes all my hard work of saving. Must realli make it back next few mths.

Sorry for my long, dragging and complaining entry but my heart is still very pain.

Department Offsite at Changi Village Hotel

This has been a busy week for me. After returning from Guangzhou, i am off for our yearly department offsite - BCFCPHC (aka. Baby Care, Feminie Care, Personal health Care) at the Changi Village Hotel from thur - Friday. Sorry there wldn't be many pictures since i didn't bring my camera along.

As usual, the event started with the management or we called it as Leadership team updating the whole team on our results and plans for the next year. pure boring....hence, i spend the full 3/4 day drawing on papers and playing sudokou. hehe...Hopefully, the day was saved with the wits of the MC who is none other than my director's husband. But we can tell that my director is super embrassed by her husband since he was poking at everyone and sometimes the joke can get way of hand...you can trust me on that.

After which, everyone changed for dinner, that is F1 theme where they hired 2 babes who carried 2 umbrellas taking pictures with the team. What a waste of $. Then followed by all the newcomers dance performers which is the most entertaining since u can see who are the good dancers and who is stiff one. Lucky for me, i escape my by pretending to be sick. hehe.

Then we have the awards ceremony (both serious and fun award). This year, i was given the special appreciation award for my PADEX Leadership and execution. Unlike last year where i was awarded for one of my project and i got a photo frame which is still sitting in my drawer. This year i have a trophy and $50 takashimaya shopping voucher.

Below is an excerpt of my conversation with my colleague after my award:

M: Congratulations. Still said u dun like your role and then still can get award.
K:I dun like my role and so they hv to give me an award to make me happy. :)

Though, i get recognition from the management but i guess i am still nt satisfied bah.

After all this award ceremony, it is back to the usual partying which as usual i will escape to my room since i realise that these people really can make a fool of themselves by getting real drunk and doing lots of funny things. For instance, this year we have people who get so drunk that they can't even make it back to their room and end up sleeping in the lobby until someone discover him. Or people puke all over the place and lay on the dance floor. I also heard that one guy get so high that they actually harsess some of the girls in the dance floor. Not to say this guy is actually married and with kids.

I realli wonder are they really that stress and so they always get so high each year. Then they become the talk next morning or even the story repeats itself again next year. Realli dun understand them...afterall we are all adults and should know how to control ourselves.

Then the next day, we started with lots of exercise since our new GM is a health freak and i know that my fats level is actually under the obese catergory. But again, there is tis guy who is rather fit but yet both the BMI and fat content is also obese so i guess it is nt a very accurate measure then.

Lastly, we went to Puala Ubin for a half day of team building activities which actually cause me to stay under the hot sun and make me sick with sore thoart and cold. Hopefully, after all my beauty sleep yesterday, i am actually feeling better and it will be back to work tmr again. Haiz

I am back!

I am back from my Guangzhou work trip. It is indeed a fulfilling trip with lots of work and play. We really work and play very hard. With each day starting ard 650am, getting ready for work and workshop that normally end ard 6pm and then followed by dinner till ard 8pm and shopping till 11pm and then work day start again with email clearing till 130am.

What is better than pictures, which can speak a thousand words of my adventure in Guangzhou.

Starting with a glimpse of the place i stayed in: The Garden Hotel:My Room:

As per the name of the hotel suggest, it comes with a beautiful garden:

The shopping streets that we went:

Some food shots:

Pictures with the team:

Dinner with the AAI team at the restaurant: Kai Yue.
Picture taken at 上下九路

Taken at the desert shop at 下九路.

Taken during our ride in Metro (aka. MRT) to the tea market where we spend 3 hrs tasting different tea. Though we spend such a long time in the tea house and lose a day in shopping but it was indeed worth it since we realli learn a lot through the process.

Taken at the Guangzhou office with Global folk: Jay Cramer and NEA team: Takashi-san and Kino-san and lastly, GC representative: Sicy.

Parting shot at The Garden

Finally, to show you my purchases for this trip:

To end this entry, i shall give u all a must-go shopping areas if you drop by Guangzhou:
1。 北京路
2。上下九路
3。站西路 - 白马服装市场 - close at 6pm
4。人民南路 -状元坊 - close at 6pm
5。恒宝广场 - 长寿路

Heard that the below places have gd buys as well but i didn't make it due to time:

1。天河城广场
2。海珠购物中心
3。沙河福广场

If you like to buy materials for clothes, you can try 海印布市场 but note that it close ard 6pm. Hence, you need to go there early.

For tea, Guangzhou has the biggest tea market in China with 6000 distrbutor located at 广州芳村大道中。

Okie that's all for now. If u enjoy shopping, Guangzhou might be the place for u + it is only few hours train ride from HKG so it can also be a gd stopover for u.