Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Drama... Drama... A cargo container fell over!!!

Saw this from my office today. A cargo container tipped over. I kind of wonder how it happened! And to think that the container tipped over without crushing any of those cars! Also strange that none of the car owners went rushing out to shift their precious vehicles away from the container which was leaning at a strange 45 degree angle. It looked like it might just give way and fall flat onto the fencing.

They brought a crane in to lift the container

The crane setting up the stabalizers

Chains attached to the fallen container


The fallen container being lifted straight

The container being lifted up and transferred to another trailer

So scary... fortunately, there wasn't any one walking along the pavement, and no cars were crushed. So people, stay far far away from these huge things. You never know what will happen!

Sunday, May 27, 2007

Tasmania Trip photos (Part 1)

Earlier this year, I made a biz trip to Tasmania. Went to look at the Tasmanian salmon farming operations and understand the defferences between the Norwegian & Tasmanian growth cycle. I went on the trip together with Kevin, the only other sales person who was involved in the Tasmanian product.

I have here some very nice pics which we took whilst there.

A hot earl grey & yummy butter cookies @ the Qantas Club lounge in Sydney airport

Me sipping my earl grey tea while waiting for Kevin


Me @ Salamanca

Salamanca Square

View from my hotel room

We visited an oyster farm

Me squinting in the bright sunlight

See all those oysters in there!

Oyster farmer shucking a live oyster to feed us!!! (YUMMY)

A nice beach just 2 mins away from the oyster farm

After oyster eating, we went to Bonorong Wildlife Park and had some fun chasing kangaroos and wallabies. Saw some devils & wombats as well.

Zzzzz... Zzzzz... Sleepy kangaroo....

OK, there are a lot more pics which I'll find time to post, so do check back again. Before I go now, I must put this one up as well... Kevin & I were at this park where we saw a couple playing chess on the ground. Huge chess set it was!!!

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Kevin

Kevin insisted that I must write about him and include his photos in my blog as well. I think he also wants 5 minutes of fame! ahahahaha...

Kevin is my colleague from Taiwan. We've known each other for 7 years and i think he's a really fun person to hang out with. He thinks and reacts very fast and usually spews nonsensical jokes that sends the whole group of people into fits of giggles and laughter.

Kevin's Signature pose!

But when it comes to work, he's a real thinker and observer. Which is really good because our line of work is very fast paced. People tend to try and get things done very fast without thinking twice. But Kevin's always asking tons of questions and observing who does what and then he acts in the best course.


A colleague in my office commented that he didn't look like a man in his 30s (or are you older Kevin?) and a father of a 9 year old girl. He looked more like a very mischievious college kid who's been skipping lectures!

Kevin & his daughter (See the resemblence?!)

I have more interesting pictures of Kevin during our Tasmanian biz trip, so do keep a lookout!

Monday, May 14, 2007

17 year olds... Too Liberal?

Met up with Jeff recently for dinner & drinks. MT was supposed to join as well but apparently he decided to start "flying airplane". So only 3 of us, including hubby made it for dinner. Went to Lao Pa Sat and ordered quite a fair bit. Sambal Stingray, Fried Kangkong, Carrot Cake, Hokkien Mee & Satay. We ate so much till we were quite bloated.

After that we went to Clarke Quay clubbing. Initially I wanted to go CLINIC. But the guys were not game enough. Jeff suggested HOOTERS... (-_-). We walked around quite a bit to check out the crowd at quite a few clubs and then we decided that we just wanted someplace to sit and chat for a while (in hope that MT would still come by to meet up). So we decided to pop in to HIGHLANDER. Initially, we wanted to sit outside where we could people watch. But there weren't any tables available. So an Indian waiter offered an indoor seat and told us that he'd shift us outside once he managed to get a place. We said OK, and proceeded to order our drinks.

Guess what, we placed our orders and waited. We tried chatting over super loud music but gave up. The we started to play with our mobile phones and PDAs, all while still waiting for our drinks. After nearly 20 minutes, still nothing came, and Jeff decided to ask the waitress who took our order. She strolled by to our table and Jeff asked her "Excuse me, we ordered some drinks, but we haven't got them yet. Can you please check?" and her reply was "Oh, was it your first round of orders?" And Jeff answered "Yes." And she said "OK, I'll check it for you." And then she went off, and within 10 seconds, another waiter appeared with our drinks!

Fine... We finally got our drinks. But I knew I made a mistake when I looked at my glass. I ordered Scottish Lager Ale for the fun of it. The lglass of Ale was very dark brown, Jeff said it was probably something like half stout and half beer. I took a sip... and had the urge to take my tongue out and rinsing it it water. Goodness, it was soooooo bitter! YUCKS!!!

But I still had to put on a straight face and drink it. After half a glass, I couldn't take it anymore and swapped it with hubby. Geez......

I also have to mention that all while we were sitting inside HIGHLANDER, there was this live band singing with a terrible sound system. Halfway through almost every song, there would be very loud static noise, or the speakers would blast out some very loud cracking sound. Our ear drums nearly burst. I decided we had enough and told the 2 guys we should really just move on to somewhere else. Tweetie called at this moment.I went outside to meet up with her while and Jeff called for the bill. After more than 10 minutes of waiting with Tweetie outside, the boys were still waiting for the bill! Apparently, they had to ask for it twice before it came! Bad. Very bad indeed!

We went on to FORBIDDEN CITY after that. Jeff was wondering what he'd drink when a waitress (let's call her Miss B) came by with the drinks list. Jeff cheekily said "Teh si siu tai". And we giggled. But Miss B said "How about Teh O kosong instead?" Promptly handed us the list and looked at Jeff.

Jeff couldn't believe his ears and we all just burst out laughing. Jeff actually asked her if they really served that! Hahahahahahaha... OK, he was also just being cheeky. We ordered our drinks and then relaxed and chatted.

Then after that, I saw a group of guys at the bar and the bartenders were setting up this drink tower. It was called WATERFALL. They had stacked a pyramid shaped bottle on top of a glass of cocktail. Gave the drinker a straw (or 2 straws in case the 1st straw melts or burns) and then the light another glass of alcohol up with fire and pour it down the pyramid bottle. Fire will then stream down with the alcohol into the cocktail below, and the drinkers are supposed to drink up the cocktail all while the fire is burning. Geez, if you ask me, I think that's scary. I can't imagine myself doing it, lest my eyebrows or fringe go up in flames!

Anyway, back to us sitting lazily and chatting on the cushioned sofas, with Tweetie trying very hard to figure out what we were laughing about, Miss B came by a few times and started chatting up Jeff. Then we asked if she could bring us more of those mixed nut stuff to go with our drinks. She went off and returned with 2 more bowls. And then she started asking us to guess how old she was... Tweetie was looking at me like very strangely... Why the hell would we want to know her age. Hubby laughed when she said she had just "kissed goodbye to sweet 16 yesterday". And we confirmed she was hitting real hard on Jeff! Hahahahahaha...

Miss B had then gone off to table waiting and we were joking about how such a young girl was being very open and chatty. Hubby told Jeff she'll definitely come back with more info about herself later. And she did! She walked very calmly past Jeff and passed him a small piece of paper rolled up like a cigarette between her fingers, and then walked off. Jeff was quite pleasantly surprised I must say.... He unrolled the piece of paper, read the short message about her being very happy to meet us, and her name was .... B***** Well we didn't know her name before that. So I laughed out really loud and confirmed that she's really onto Jeff! Hubby couldn't help it but to say the next thing she'll give Jeff her mobile phone number, all without being asked for! I agreed and I literally saw Jeff blushing! Tweetie was very amused.

Hubby told Jeff to try calling her to test if the number she gave was real. He did that and asked her if she could come over to take our next orders. Hahahaha.... Well, her phone did ring and she did come over, and hubby & myself were really laughing uncontrollably.

Well after all that laughs, Jeff's phone rang about half an hour later. Miss B had called him, asking Jeff is he could giver her a lift home. I think Jeff was damn happy about it. We hadn't finished our drinks yet, but I could see that Jeff was beginning to drink a little bit faster just so that he could excuse himself. After he left with her, we were speculating what will happen after that. Tweetie was really curious, and hubby was saying, well Jeff is after all a man, so.... But I said I doubt anything will happen because Jeff is a gentleman. I doubt he'd take advantage of the situation, that fast at least.

The next morning, hubby SMSed him and asked what happened. It turned out that Miss B got into Jeff's car and started telling him how she was related to a now defunct since 1978 secret society blah blah blah... I couldn't believe it and started laughing till I got the cramps. Anyway, Jeff said he couldn't be bothered and just sent her straight home!

Hahahahahaha... I think Miss B just wanted a free ride home just to save $20 of taxi fare. But what she displayed was plain stupidity and ignorance. She didn't quite do her homework about that particular secret society, and luckily it was Jeff's car that she had taken that night. If it was some other men who had other past supper itinerary in his mind, she might have been in trouble. I doubt it was the first time she'd done such a thing anyway...

P/S: Singapore is a really small place. It turned out that Miss B was the neighbour of Tweetie's friend!!! I can't imagine the embarrassment to her...

Wednesday, May 9, 2007

Guess what I had for lunch!

Pictures tell more than words! I turned this...

Into this! おいしいですね!!!


Yummy! My own Japanese pork cutlet curry rice bento! But after eating this, I need to go back to my salad diet for a week! Too much carbo here......

Superdog

Nope, it's not a new movie.

Superdog! Another great place to snack! Hmm... Sounds like I'd advertising free for them eh! BUT, credit goes to Tweetie for having recommended this place to me last week. You know, eating a huge hotdog with messy toppings dripping all over is never a pretty sight for any lady especially when so many people are queueing up and looking around and then spot you trying to fit the huge loaf into your mouth! geez...

However, it was really nice. Last week I tried their German Bratwurst with grilled onion toppings. Didn't like the bread. They used this hard loaf and it made eating the already huge German hotdog even more difficult to manage. So the day before, I went back there again and tried something else. Bacon Chili Cheese Dog. I tell you... It was.... simply... yummylicious! OK, I know, there's no such word, but then again, it was just very nice. Although the sausage was a tad too salty, the overall taste was good.



But, not cheap at all for hotdog snack. $5.80 for the dog, and add another $2.90 to get the fries and iced lemon tea to complete the meal. Perhaps Superdog should consider lowering their prices a bit and then more people will start snacking on hotdogs.

Sigh, so sinful... I need to go on a diet!

Spiderman 3

Went to watch Spiderman 3 at Great World City on Saturday. Tickets came free from Standchart to my boss but he didn't want to watch it. So the girls in the office did a "ballot" and lucky me! There were even 2 sets of pop-corn & drink that came with the tickets! What a deal, or so I thought!

The show itself wasn't too bad. Quite a fair bit of action. Also had a couple of new badies. But I think I would have enjoyed the show more if the tickets were not for the 3rd row from the front and right in the corner seats!

Imagine trying to watch the movie from where we sat. It was actually quite a challenge to our neck and eye muscles. Each time someone jumped or flew from one end to the other, we had to literally turn our heads respectively. And when the actions got too fast, everything started to look very warped. By the end of the movie, I was walking out with a stiff neck.

Really wonder why people even bothered to put seats so close to the front. Don't they ever test it out themselves? I kind of wonder if they have ever tried sitting, say, right on the first row and at the very first or last seat on either corner, and with their heads tilted at an odd 60 degree angle, watched a 3 hour movie. It'd be a miracle if they didn't walk out with a neckache!

I told my colleagues about my Spidy experience on Monday, and one of them commented that the sponsors really shouldn't have given their clients tickets with such bad seating. It was considered unprofessional.

Agree!

Well, in my personal opinion, although the tickets were free (though initially given to my boss), they should still reserve some better professionalism and ensure that their clients have no reason to complain.

Geez... No wonder I thought Spiderman looked a little pudgy in that movie... Or was it the screen....

Thursday, May 3, 2007

Did a translation for Director Neo!

Had been down with a flu, but still in a good mood. Earlier this week, I received a surprise request, from Director Neo himself, to help translate an article written completely in Chinese to English!

It was a total shock to me. My Chinese... I describe it as "As good as his English" hahahahaha. But still, when that email came about, I was very happy. I tried reading the entire article first (and that took a damn long time!), and after that I armed myself with a dictionary and started doing the translation, line by line. My God! Very very tedious, no joke. So many words I didn't recognise. So many phrases I didn't understand. I had to read it over and over again to make it sound like it made sense at all to me. Whenever I finished one paragraph, I was happy like a gazelle.


This was the article in Chinese before translation

This is after my translation

Honestly speaking, I thought he had probably gotten many other people to help translate his article. But I just tried my best since I saw it as a challenge. But little did I expect that he'd use my work on his blog and publicly thank me in it too. I'm so happy and proud of myself. Although it was not a perfect piece of work, but I know I did my best and put in a lot of effort. So a big hand for myself too!

Let's hope I could be of more service to our much respected Director Neo. 谢谢你给我机会学习!

P/S: Director Neo did make changes and edited the article slightly after my translation.