HR Away Day!

HR Away Day - 26 June 2012

Recently attend a company event - HR Away Day! I'm very fortunate because this is the first time we have this event whereby the entire HR department is able to come together to bond and learn more about what each function does. Of course, it's great to have a day off work! :P And you can expect some real good food coming up. 

Vivian (my HR friend) and I arrived at the venue and was wowed by the gallery of art works! 

Breakfast started out to be amazing! On the plate I am holding below, there is a warm egg topped with bacon and a cherry tomato, and a strawberry muffin cake.

Lunch proved to be even more...

I love desserts! That's why most of my food photos are actually desserts. I love sweet things and I love cream! YES. All the fattening whipped, non-whipped whatsoever, creammmm. mmmmmm yummy

Macaroons for tea break!

In case you start wondering why is there only food? No work to be done? hahaha, here it comes. We have lots of presentation to understand more about how the company is doing in the recent quarter and also lots of discussions to understand what our HR colleagues are busy with for the year.

Of course, there are really fun activities as well. The morning started out energetically as a trainer (I think from Africa) came in to teach us about drums! The drums exercise had a meaning to it. We each have different coloured poles that produces different sounds. For me, I had the green one! The message was, all of us had to listen and work as a team in order to create harmonized music. If any team started playing on their own and not following instructions, then the overall music created would not be nice anymore. This is called, team effort!

After a long day sitting on couches and listening, it's time for some team building activities! This is the best team building activity I have done. See that tennis ball below? It's on top of a metal ring suspended in the air, supported by all the rings attached to it because we are holding the strings and pulling the strings tight. We are supposed to transport the tennis ball as a team and position it on top of the pipes as shown. So what's the difficulty? The catch is, 2 team members are being blind folded! 

When my team saw the trainers giving out black cloths, they were like... O_O are we going to get blind folded?! Thankfully, only 2 lucky team members needed to be blind folded. I actually volunteered to be one of them. I thought, actually, being blind folded isn't that bad. You can to rest your eyes, you don't see the difficulty of the task, you just have to listen and follow instructions and you get an excuse not to be doing anything. Cause you can't see! What can you do? You can only follow instructions carefully and cheer the team on! Simple yea!

Dinner was at Capella. This entire event was held in Sentosa and we saw many peacocks strutting  everywhere. Did you know peacocks can fly?! We saw them flew up to the tree. I thought they are too heavy to do that. Capella is a really expensive hotel. Evident from the decor and food served.

Once again, my favourite. Desserts and CREAM.

Look at these pretty little exotic desserts! The best of all is the strawberry cheesecake. 

Unilever gave each of us a souvenir. It's a thumb drive! So where is the USB stick? Guess it! Just remove the head.

Before dinner starts, there was a small BBQ session. These 2 chefs were grilling beef patties, sausages and prawns for us! It smells so good. 

The prawns were the best. They are so big, so fat and so fresh. 

Dinner time! Main course was good. But... I thought the BBQ appetizer was better. They had a strange type of pasta (see the mushroom looking balls in the photo below). It's like eating balls of sticky pasta. 

Soup was delicious though. Butternut soup. I think it's pumpkin soup from the colour.

We had nice performances during dinner too. A band was playing for us. They sing great and of course they sound great. The guy on the right plays the saxophone. He played it so well that his face was red! hahaha. But that doesn't mean if your face is red, you play the saxophone well! :P

Fulfilling weekend

Went to Bugis+ on Saturday. Bugis+ is actually the NEW illuma. Illuma didn't work out very well in the past as the shops are not quite the "normal shops" that you see in typical shopping malls. But now, a new developer has taken over the mall and revamped the entire mall. Now you can see hip shops like Pull & Bear, Berksha, Uniqlo etc. Apparently, Bugis+ has the largest Uniqlo in the whole of Singapore!

Had my usual tom yam ramen at Ajisen for lunch. I am such a loyal eater. Every time I go Ajisen, I'll order tom yam.

Here are some interesting shops along the walkway from Bugis Junction to Bugis+! Candy shop.

This is the "sell interesting stuff" shop.

Found an interesting book there called Singlish. It is like a dictionary and has the Singlish word plus its meaning written like below. Eg. sabo has 2 meanings

Had J Co donuts for dessert to be eaten at church before fellowship starts. As a very loyal eater, I chose the oreo donut. For Ronnie who likes to try new things, he chose the lychee flavour donut below! But don't look like lychee hor.

Off we go to church! This sat, we played running man during fellowship. What a chaos! Everyone is screaming around in church and defending their tags from being teared down by other teams. Long story cut short, it was a fun activity that bonded the YA and YF. 

This Sunday is Youth Sunday - a Sunday dedicated to celebrate the presence of us Youths. So for today, the church service is in charged by youths and here are the different brothers-in-christ who were serving this morning. :)

First, let me introduce Leonard and Si Yang who are our song leaders for today. I was surprised by the first song they chose, cause we hardly sing it and it's such a calm and still song. But it's a nice song.

This is our Pin Xian da ge reading the assigned bible reading for us. 

This is Ernest! He looks so much like his father. He is really calm and steady on stage for his age.

And... this is our pastor, who is the father of Ernest! Like father like son isn't it.

Here we have Ronnie who is our 主席 for today. And we have my brother, Song Yu and En Mian as the 招待。

After service ended, I took a picture with the pretty flowers!

After church went to Orchard ION to shop. Had TCC for lunch since it's 1 for 1 offer during the GSS sale. TCC really has good food to offer. 

I had this chicken with I forgot what sauce main dish. It's nice but I kinda regret not ordering pasta. People around me are all eating pasta! It looks more delicious than my chicken. T_T I'm so easily suayed.

Lastly, I went to Sephora and bought 2 items to add to me make-up. My posietint blush is finishing so I went to buy the bigger bottle. Was deciding between benetint (rose colour) or posietint (pink). Ultimately pink wins! I think benetint is more popular and more people have it...so I want something more special. The salesgirl recommended me to try the brightening primer. She said it will act as a base for the make-up so it stays on longer. In addition, it brightens your face and moisturizes it. It's apparently a popular product sold (not sure whether it's true though :x) So here it is! I bought it as well. I'm such a good customer right! hahahha. Hope it's a good investment. 

Off to work tmr. Brand new week. My line manager is back tomorrow from his holiday. So...it's time to update him on my work! hehe :P

Love it!

Today is such a great day! I had a meet up with my lovely Alum L friends! We went to eat Thai food at Porn Sak's restaurant. We actually bumped into him at Bugis Junction.

The food is not bad. I think the Phad Thai is the best. Miss my Alum Group friends so much. I'm always so happy to see them. A lot of people told me that it's hard to find true friends in uni, so I'm very very glad to find such a cute bunch of them! We need to meet up more often and spread the happiness! hahaha. One dinner together is not enough to finish talking!!! We want more!! Jeremy is not with us too! We need another one! hahahah Organise!

This photo was taken spontaneously by Ziye when we are on our way home on the train. Not bad. The camera managed to captured all of us in! and also that mysterious guy at the back :P

On track

It's been so long since I went back to office. It felt so long. After the recent ordeal, I know I am no superwoman. I fall sick easily. So glad that at least things seem to be picking up now. I'm now on my way to office.

I remember how I used to tell myself not to worry about things. Things will eventually be in placed. Problems will never go away. All I have to do is learn to accept them. Learn to not keep worrying. Learn to trust.

Thank God I am coughing less today.

Take it easy.

And life would be so much more enjoyable.

dying down

Happiness seems to be dying down. :(
Don't know why, but I have been feeling less easy to be cheerful as I used to.

NOOO... I don't want things to end! Hope to be easily happy and contented soon!

Maybe I've been feeling sick for too long. The longest I have ever been sick.

Need to rest. Goodnight.

The Angry Bird Story

Finally managed to put together 2 new art work. The first is this heart-shape mirror. It looks like a hole in the middle because I put a piece of white paper opposite it. If not it will capture my room which is in such a messy state.

I bought the originally wooden colour heart shape mirror from Art Friend. Using the Pentel poster paint, I painted the frame in dark blue and grass green. I love painting on wood! The colour appeared so even and silky smooth. The only concern one might have is, isn't this not waterproof then? What if you spill water on top?

In the past, I used the nail transparent top coat to waterproof my art work. BUT, that's obviously too expensive if my art work is big. Furthermore, using that small nail brush is way too tedious.

So then, I recently bought a bottle of satin spray that could waterproof my art work. It will create a layer of lacquer and can be used on wood or metal.

The little house which angry bird stays in is made of fat ice cream sticks. I painted them in red, yellow and black (the colours of the Germany flag) because I love Deutsch!! hahaha

The angry bird story is actually pretty simple to narrate from this picture. The pig has stolen the eggs from angry bird and so angry bird is going to take revenge. The angry bird is not stuck in its house, so it could potentially fly out and go missing.

My 2nd piece of work is this flower pot/ pencil holder/ container looking object. I really love the colour navy blue. Somehow, it tends to look smoother on wood than any other colours. This is meant to be a birthday present for my friend. I don't think she knows I have a blog... so it's still going to be a little surprise. 

My mom says it looks like a flower pot. My mom loves gardening. Unfortunately, in such a pragmatic society, a gardening job is unlikely to raise 4 children for you. She hopes to do it as a hobby in future. When that comes, I can make little flower pots for her and she can plant her flowers inside to be given as gifts for friends! 

I'm glad I revived this hobby of mine. I really enjoy doing art. Not those super artistic painting kind, but art work like all these. 

On a more serious note, I went to see a doctor yesterday night again because the previous set of medications seems to be taking NO EFFECT at all. I was still running high fever every now and then, coughing like mad and my throat was horrendously painful. The new doctor said the medicine prescribed is prob too mild. He prescribed me stronger medicine and one night is all it takes for it to show significant improvement. That was the 1st night I slept without waking up in a pool of heat. My throat was much less swollen. Though I am still coughing mad, at least I'm now alive on Earth. 

Post Lasik Experience

Well well well, it has been 1 month since I did my lasik! Now, it felt as if I have not even gone for the operation. Except for the fact that a miracle happened and I can see perfectly clear now~

Have been procrastinating a lot about what one should take note of after doing lasik. It is very impt to keep reminding yourself you just had your lasik done, and avoid doing certain things. About 1 week after I did my lasik, I can feel myself lowering my guard down. Thankfully, I became more alert when I wanted to rub my eyes. Which of course did not happen because rubbing your eyes is the No. 1 NO NO!

1. Do not EVER rub your eyes within that 1 month. Doc says you can rub your eye as hard as you want after 1 month, but I don't think you want to try that. Actually rubbing your eyes is a very bad habit. Yes, it does relieve some itch when you rub your eyes, but after rubbing, your eyes will feel red and sore. Worse than how it felt originally. Now that I have successfully kicked off the bad habit of rubbing, I never want to go back into it again.

soft band and cushioned eye googles - comfortable for sleeping

Doc provided a sleeping google for me to prevent me from rubbing my eyes while sleeping. Got to wear it for the 1st week. Some people might ask, how does it prevent you? You can just take off your googles unconsciously and start rubbing your eyes while sleeping right? Yes, that is true. If your hands are so bent on rubbing your eyes, there's nothing we can do other than tying your hands up while sleeping. No kidding! I know some people actually do that. If you rub your eyes, you might get microfolds. Your vision will be blur and the doc has to IRON your flap for you again. Scary huh. Better not rub then!

2. Stay away from dirty places like BBQ (dirt, ashes). I was asking the doctor if the heat from BBQ will melt my flap away, that's why should avoid BBQ. But he said, it's more of the ash getting into your eye that is of concern.

3. Do not go swimming, sauna, steambath. These are places whereby you can get infection easily. You don't know how "clean" these places are.

4. Drip your eyedrops diligently. Sometimes it may not feel dry, but it actually is. If your eyes are not moisturized enough, it will affect the healing process.

5. For the first few weeks, I experienced halos at night. The traffic light has a big glow ring surrounding it. I know even for normal people you'll see a halo around it, but the halos I saw didn't look that the normal ones I usually see. Maybe it's just a psychological effect. Now the halos for me have disappeared! The doctor says for most patients the halos will disappear after 1 month.

6. Dripping the 2 types of eyedrops given can be a little stinging at times. But as time pass, it becomes less stinging and you don't feel much anymore. Becomes just a daily habit.

More or less, just be nice to your eyes. Don't do strange things and everything will be ok.
Of course don't be so suay as to get an eye infection! Some things can't be helped. A general guide is to have a healthy and strong immune system. Don't overwork yourself, eat more fruits, and rest a lot!