there's nothing like a flower to brighten up the day (: (:

961

Thank God we're okay. Just escaped a traffic accident yesterday. Baby and i were on the bus home (961) along bukit merah when another bus crashed into our bus. The window pane shattered directly one seat away where we were sitting. And shards of glass flew. towards us too. but luckily we weren't injured or anything. the bus driver seemed more concerned about his bus than us, his passengers. argh. there was an indian lady who escaped just barely cos she was the one seated one seat away from us.


once again, i'm reminded of the fragility of life. for that split second of that impact, i didn't know what would happen. how serious it would be, etc.


i'm just glad we're all safe.

i'm getting boreeed at work. they haven't assigned any challenging tasks yet, so i'm stuck with just reading ALL the magazines and ALL the newspapers ALL day long (well, almost). some people might envy this (wah, i get paid for reading mags?) but not me!

Okay...dinner time. Guess I won't post again until there're happenings!

well.

to be on the safe side, i won't blog about work. will definitely get tracked la.

it's kinda tiring, but for different reasons.
yep i'm gonna turn in soon..nighty night!

(let's hope i will have a life OUTSIDE work to talk about next time)

on tenterhooks

kinda nervous about tomorrow as it's my first day on the job.
will my colleagues be nice?
can i manage the workload?
can i still have a personal life?

it always feels as though i haven't prepared enough.
not enough clothes?
shoes?
makeup?
technical skills?
has my command of language deteriorated?

speaking of language, i'm supposed to continue to give tuition via email. and maybe go down once a month?!

ah well. we'll see.

ugly side of retailers

don't ever, ever, ever replace your watches' battery at lucky plaza. i guess that's where they rip off the tourists (and locals alike, because they nearly pulled a fast one on me!). the first shop at the basement closest to paragon showed me the worst service ever.

some snippets of our conversation:

'ah seng': eh, you never change your battery before ah? very hard leh. got so many small screws! your battery very expensive. $35.
me: [quiet] (thinking to myself, is that my problem? how is that related to me?)

few seconds later..
ah seng: eh, miss, can don't stand near me? you giving me stress. (in an impolite tone)

few seconds later..
he puts the small screws on the table, without anything to hold them (he drops them later on)
then, he takes out an electronic calculator battery and tells me that the battery is more expensive, so i have to pay him $45 instead. we negotiate and reach $38. asked for receipt but he said they didn't issue them for under-$100.

when the battery was installed, it looked totally unresponsive. in fact, it looked like it wasn't working.

ah seng: i don't know how to reset your watch. ask your boyfriend press some buttons himself. should be no problem.
me: can you do it for me instead? you should know.
ah seng: aiyah, this watch i don't know. ask your boyfriend la. $38 please.

after standing around with my friends for a while looking at the poor watch, i approached them for a refund. or just somebody to UNDO the lousy thing. apparently NOBODY knew how to do it besides that guy. and guess what, he conveniently disappeared to the toilet RIGHT after he collected the money. i pressed his colleagues to find him immediately.

he looked nonchalent and gave no explanations. but he complained about having to re-screw the pieces. said it was difficult. and in the process he DROPPED one of the tiny screws on the ground. that wasn't all, you know. he asked for a $5 service fee!!!! at this time, one of my friends had gone off first, leaving me and another girl. we both looked very unhappy, and my face was very black. i think the shop people knew. they started pulling down the shutters of the shop. at 7pm?!?!? we wondered if they were afraid we would create a scene (i was already planning to, as soon as my watch was safe in my hands).

when he was done, he said, "so i'll give you back $33 cos of service fee. i did a lot of work you know."
i stubbornly insisted that i was NOT going to pay him for any service. i wanted $38 back. he tried again, "$5 service".

"WHAT KIND OF SERVICE IS THIS? I AM NOT PAYING FOR IT!"


i got all my money back, but not before he shouted a hokkien vulgarity at me. i spent the rest of the night seething. even through dinner with the girls. i'd love to pursue this matter, i'm just not sure which is the best way. or if it's even WORTH my time.

but the more i think about it, the angrier i get. hey guess what, the world is ugly after all.

results day!

still can't believe we got an A+ for our final year project (FYP)! i think it played a big part in determining whether i would've gotten Honours or not. anyway, time to celebrate!

flashback - crossed paths

traced a place which brought back memories last year on 6 May 2006! this was the coffeeshop that me and holly went to after clubbing at The Liquid Room (which has since closed its doors. sigh.) :



where i just couldn't stop thinking about whom i had met there. coincidentally enough, he had gone there just a while after i had left. that very same coffeeshop! i wonder how many times we had missed each other in the past, when we were in nj, or elsewhere in ntu.

if someone had a record of our lives, wouldn't it be interesting to see all the flashbacks? lol.

gaga over donuts?

this is the day where i queued for donuts at raffles city.
after lunch with marc and meiwen, thought i'd use my spare time to stand in line. the queue was VERY long. i waited for 2 hours. goodness! yet i think the donuts are merely so-so.

bought a few things at the gss! love the discounts.
shall go shopping again soon.

benzie

hey! i met mr benzie dio in wisma last night! it's been 3, almost 4 years since i've last met my jc civics tutor and he still looks the same. laid-back, cool and still good-looking! lol his girlfriend works in the same pr agency i first interviewed with (foreword). a pity we didn't get to meet his gf, cos back then all the rumours were that she was quite hot! heh.

sure brings back memories of nj.