then and now..

It seems like this blog will soon die if we do not start writing, so come on folks write something okie, can be anything, and it does not take very long , haha!

I will try to make this post not so emotional but few thoughts have been dancing in my head ever since I started work at my new place and just wanted to share these with my close buddies.

I am not sure if I am the only one who feels all this. I could not help noticing some differences between my old and current jobs. Some of them good and some not so good.

Let me start with the good things about my new place. It is a very warm and cosy place with friendly people. I was really touched with the monthly employee meeting concept where all the new employees were introduced and a huge cake was cut for people whose birthdays fall in that month. I have always felt it is very important to be close to your colleagues beyond work and at the big MNC, everyone was so caught up with work that we could not find time to even wish our team mates on their birthdays.

But then as the old cliche goes, a coin has two sides. I must admit that the intellectual calibre of the people here is not comparable to the old company. I myself am no guru or anything but I have been very privileged to work with some of the best brains in the industry and learn from them and very importantly spend the first three months of my professional life with smart and passionate friends like yourself. It is not wrong when they say that the big MNC attracts the top talents in the industry, at least from what I have seen so far.

Besides these, other feelings are quite mixed at the moment. Still lots to learn and prove myself , even though having a strong sales foundation does help me.

Okie, let me end this post by putting up some photos from our mahjong gathering on 17 feb 2008 at brother isaac's place...enjoy friends!

Post Colonial Hangover?

Are we still suffering from post colonial hangover? Take a look at this advertisement at a local kopi stall...."....good old colonial days..?!"

me like 'Timbre' very much

It is surprising that I have not blogged about Timbre yet considering I have been there like almost every week , sometimes every twice or thrice a week in the past couple of months. I had heard about a cozy restaurant + bar near the old national library but only went there in Dec last year. And now it is my favorite hang out joint. Since it's discovery, I have also brought many of my friends there and all of them absolutely loved it too.

Timbre is a restaurant + bar with live music from upcoming local bands. You may like this place for several reasons ...
1. It is an open air place with wooden tables and chairs. It gives one a very relaxed and cozy feel. And with good evening breeze it is just about the perfect place to hang out with friends or business associates for a drink after work/classes.
2. The food is simple and yummy. I personally like the think crust pizzas and the soft shell crabs. The pizzas are not too cheesy and go along well with the beer or drinks.
3. And that brings me to the drinks. The bar has almost all popular beers on tap and a good variety of wine too. The prices are reasonable given its location and setting.
4. But the most important reason I love Timbre is because of the live bands. The management encourages local bands and gives them opportunities to perform. I have now long been a fan of 'The Goodfellas' ever since they played in China One on Thursdays. They now perform in Timbre on Thursdays and Saturdays. I also heard this new band '53A' who now play on Fridays and quite liked them too. Maybe I should go back next Friday to hear them again. Besides these, 'E I C' plays on Wednesday and 'Reverie' on Tuesdays.

Another thing, whatever I have written here is all with respect to Timbre @ Substation at Armenian Street as there is another Timbre at Arts House too. I have been to the one at Arts House only once but did not like it all that much. There are more details on www.timbre.com.sg and you can even do reservations.

So yeah, if any of you friends want to hang out at Timbre, do not forget to call me okie :P

saturday night life in taiwan p1

To end off, let's take a look at this clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7eiY2xkltE. Now this is something I want to see more often anywhere!

Singapore English Gets Criticised

I was quite tickled when I read about this in the newspaper and I found the youtube clip showing a snippet of the show. In a nutshell, during a popular Taiwanese variety show, the celebrities were criticizing and laughing at the way Singaporeans are perceived to speak English. With their limited knowledge of what is the actual language standard of Singapore, they mimicked the way some Singaporeans speak English and actually had the audacity to laugh at our standard. I have posted the link to the clip, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYuIg7Tnc7g, hopefully this link works. In any case, I do not find it worthwhile to debate over the language proficiency of our fellow Singaporeans. We know better, the facts speak for themselves.

In fact, some of the interesting and entertaining moments when I am watching the Taiwanese variety shows are when the celebrities speak English - namely Jackie Wu, but I do not assume the entire Taiwanese population speaking like him. Let's be open and tolerant, and be proud that both countries' citizens have a level of proficiency in a non-native language.

Taiwan Celebrities Criticise Singaporean English

This is from a popular Taiwanese variety program. Critisizing the english of Singaporeans....cannot believe my ears.

Team Bxxx - more than just friends

Reading the emotional posts of Joyce and Atul has brought back many fond memories we shared. The truely wonderful moment in life I will always remember are the days we met and joined Big Blxx in 2004. I am very proud and blessed to know all the wonderful, talented and intelligent people like you. In a way, we saw each other through the maze of processes in the office, the ups and downs of working life, and we witnessed each others' growth and maturity. What better way to start a career than this than with bosom friends who truely care? From being brudders and sisters caring for each other, to being brothers and emcees for Isaac at his wedding...all these are moments which we will always remember.

Of course we have Ben Ben growing up too - just opened his first JW Black Label last week!

Today I was taking the train to T2, and for the first time in 3.8 years, I did not alight at Expo. I was a little sad, wistful, and probably wondering what the people are doing in the office (actually they would be having SSLs). Oh well, we will all adjust eventually, as long as we keep in touch, our friendship will last. Heehee...now I need to figure a way to invite Zane and Isaac to share their views...haha, maybe ask them about the stock market?

CouchSurfing - Interesting!

I came across CouchSurfing on the papers and checked out the website http://www.couchsurfing.com/index.html?index=1

Simply, to save on lodging and experience a more native and authentic travel, you can locate a person in that country who is willing to host you for free. You will sleep on his/her "couch"! And of course, through this, you will interact and make new friends, as well as learn a lot more about the culture of the country you are travelling in. Now this is a good intiative to have, though couchsurfers must be careful in selecting the host. Typically selecting hosts who have positive reviews and feedback is the most important. I have yet to try, haha.

Gem in East - Chuan Kee Cooked Food

Name: Chuan Kee Cooked Food
Category: Chinese Cooked Food
Location: East of Singapore (Katong)
Address: Jalan Batu Market/Hawker Centre And Food Centre, #01-40, 4A Jalan Batu (S)432004

Opening Hours: Not very sure as this is my first time, but closes around 10pm. Please let me know if you have the information.

I tried a couple of dishes at this stall and it was simply delicious! In my opinion, this stall offers restaurant quality food at hawker price. I ordered the hot plate tou fu and their speciality of the week - orange sauce fried fish. It seems this stall innovates regularly to keep the customers coming back for more! The price is reasonable - I had vegetables, a plate of hot plate toufu, the fish and it costs only 20 SGD for 2. That is only S$10 per pax. The toufu came sizzling hot on the hot plate, and the sauce tasted very similar to the sauce used for chilli crab. Very nice, and the prawns accompanying the toufu is very fresh and succulent. The fried fish went very well with the refreshing orange sauce, and the owner placed freshly cut pineapple and orange slices on the dish. Also, what was surprising for a hawker dish is that the cook included the orchid garnish! This cook definitely takes great pride in his cooking! So go ahead and definitely must try!

How to get there: I do not know how to include the web widget from streetdirectory yet, if someone knows, pls let me know. I will just include the html link and hope it does not change anytime soon!
http://www.streetdirectory.com/asia_travel/travel/travel_id_4206/travel_site_64471/

Hidden Gems to please your taste buds : Chicken Rice

The first attempt on this blog to unearth some of the hidden food gems in Singapore. Most of the times we know about the popular joints but Singapore being a food lover's paradise has so many of these hidden gems that we thought it might be worthwhile to let our readers know (hopefully people read this :p) about some of the food places we like.

Today, I am writing about a chicken rice stall at New Upper Changi Road. Yeah, most of you might go 'oh no, chicken rice again', but whatever one says chicken rice is still one of the more popular food items in Singapore. And there are so many places where you can find good chicken rice but this particular stall does it a bit differently. At least I prefer this to a lot other chicken rice joints now.

This stall is 'Kim Poh Chicken Rice' and famous for its kampong chicken. Located at Blk 57, New Upper Changi Road in the Upper Changi Coffee Joint kopi shop, the S$2 per plate chicken rice is one of the freshest and best I have had. They also have thai style beancurd or the usual oyster sauce veg and braised egg to go along but I really liked the beancurd chicken rice combo, something that I have not seen at any other chicken rice stall.

The stall is convenient for office workers around Bedok/Changi area for lunch as there is a lot of parking space and the area is also well connected by public transport. Another advantage is that it is comparatively less crowded than the other more popular joints around the area.

I am posting some pics of the stall and the chicken rice that me and my friend ordered, hope they get you interested in this stall and let us know your thoughts about the food here.

And no, none of us get any commission from the stall for posting this ...:)..

We'll be there for you, beause you are there for us too

"I guess when you're young, you just believe there'll be many people with whom you'll connect with. Later in life, you realize it only happens a few times."
And for me these few times/people are my dear friends from Team Bxxx.

All of us got to know each other because we joined Ixx at the same time, but it was really more than that. We clicked as a group of people, we complemented each other and we accepted each other for what we were. And not forgetting similar interests which range from dancing on Friday nights ;) to eating waffles or cursing/swearing/bitching about random things.

We may have worked together as a team in Ixx Club, but it was really more than that. All of us had the same passion, the same vision and unidentified levels of enthusiasm and motivation. If I ever felt down or upset, the rest of you were always around to cheer me up.

We are no longer working together or might see each other everyday (though I wish we could), but I am sure this friendship that we have formed will last forever. We should all be happy for each other that we are pursuing careers or dreams of our interest be it studying in Canada or being a station manager for the world's top airline ;)

At this stage, I am really running out of words but I guess all of you know how I feel. The feeling of starting work at a new place is sinking in slowly and I miss you folks too and feel the vacuum, however I know that my friends like you are just a phone call away and I cherish that more than anything.

"I realized how much I missed you only when you were not around."

----------- That is the end of emotional Atul -------------------------

Regarding sales rallies, I have always felt they were ra-ra events and for people to show off and earn brownie points in front of the senior management. It is just sad that corporate life has come to this but it is true that not many people who go up on stage feel much for the company or are even sincere about words they sing/say. I am still very young in my corporate career and perhaps in no position to make such statements, but I feel that for Ixx to be even a better company the people and specially the salespeople need to step down from their thrones 10,000 feet high in the sky and be who they are. They need to peel off this layer of plastic and stop portraying a certain image , an image that they think people will appreciate because we do not. But somehow we are all caught in such a vicious cycle that it will take something big/drastic to break it. Who dares?

Hug me & cry with me, the next time you see me

Sales Rally 2008 1 Feb The Rock

We had Ivan sing "I Love IXX" to the tune of "I Love Rock n Roll"
It was all very ra-ra with the Team Blues (new & old) on stage
Try as I might, I just could not rev up the "I love IXX" spirit with me
With the last 3 '04 Team Blues (Zane, Benson & me) scattered across the room
I could not find much to sing and dance to ... ...

I recall the last Kick-off where I worked my a** off
attending weekly meetings with my dear 'ol friend, Wilf
learning to sing and dance to "We're all in this together"
and having the tune stuck in my head and mobile for the rest of '07
The truth is, my friends... ... it's just not the same without you

So I left the Rock on 1 Feb with emptiness
with no feelings of inspiration, whatsoever
and a little loss of love for the Blue Cult.