Of Siew Kum Hong

Now its not everyday you take notice on someone who is a NMP in the parliament.. you have probably never heard of Mr Siew Kum Hong. I think it takes something for people to take notice of a politician, much more if you are just a nominated MP with no party ties and political mileage.

Yet, this name is worth remembering and what he says is worth attention.. i have monitored this guy for awhile now and once again, he proves his ability to connect with the people from the ground and displays his compassion..

in his own words:

"Well, I think there is nothing constructive that can be said here about compassion -- either you believe in the idea of what I said, or you don't. It is about the idea, not about specifics."

Read his original speech in parliament, very well done indeed

Excerpts:
"Sir, I want to live in a country that cares for its people first and foremost, not a country that prioritises GDP growth for its own sake. I want to see a nation where Singaporeans are valued for everything that we are, not just the economic contribution we can make. I want to grow old in a state that places a higher premium on helping citizens, than on ensuring that there is no wastage. I want to be part of a generous society that helps its most vulnerable members, instead of counting the pennies and tightening the purse strings."

and his response to the Finance Minister who sadly dismissed his speech as "reckless"






We need more of such people in parliament

Of Speculations

DPM Wong Kan Seng urged the house not to speculate until an independent investigaton is completed..

But i'm not part of the house and here goes my speculations:

1.Escape from toiletThank you for the information, so Mr.JI needed to pee/poo and was taken to the loo on his way to see his family. And he ran away from the toilet..
Now that's not a hard thing to do if the toilet has more than 1 hole to enter/exit, he could have climbed out of a window, he could have even removed an entire toilet bowl and crawled through a hole..

So that brings us to the next question..

2. Escape from Detention CenterDetention center: Guarded, Fenced area, out of access to members of public, no one gets in without permission, no one gets out without permission, so how the heck did Mr.JI get out?

Conspriracy Theory:
Inside-job. Someone must have helped, someone familar who the terrain, someone who had the means to bring him out from those gates or who had the means to cut a hole in the fence and bring him out of the compound.

If the above is true, question also spreads to how many people were involved. Surely the plot to bring a detainee out of the center was not hatched over a peeing session right?
That bring us to a more worrying point.. if this was a planned escape, what are the plans after escaping? Hit back at SG and gain "heroic" status among his brethen or run away and live to fight another day?




Either case, its bad news for Singapore

King's Guards, Hawaii, Waikiki

Worth the 2mins of your time

Of Work Challenges

Fourth week of work, 4 big bombs to clear and now there's a fifth bomb, they're getting bigger and more powerful.. haha

this time round, i'm assisting in a ministerial visit..ah, brings back memories of dry-runs, protocol seating arrangements, checks with the PA on food to avoid, admin program for the VIP to understand the flow of events and his role in the entire run.. so.. so civil service.. haha
hopefully, this time round, coming from the "consultancy" angle, i wouldn't have to be the one who is doing all this admin support. Presentation contents are already on the table and that should take up a large chunk of time to get the content out, lay in nicely in powerpoint and get clearance from the internal and external parties.. isn't it much fun?

Brings back memories of a time when a new unit that was established in the North-west part of Singapore where graves outnumber humans.. they were thrown in the deep end of a conference and i was surprised that no one really bothered to give them the necessary guidance.. no admin program, no seating protocol, no logistics support team, no pre-event comms..

i'm no messiah but i did give them whatever help i could so that the unit would not end up embrassing ourselves.. its heartening when they responded with an open mind and gave equal, if not double, effort to make things right..

still remember how i stayed up one night to finish up a conference background on photoshop, tired as i was, i never one questioned why i was doing this or how i should be rewarded.. instead, its just a pure desire to make things right, to play your part of the deal to make things happen and that my friends, is the drive that should keep us going everyday!





Even when you stop, the world keeps moving

Of Future Star

Great great strike.. 4 red shirts around him but none could do anything.. his movements looks fast even on slow-motion replay!

Of Concrete Jungle Adventure I

Having been working in the raffles place/shenton way area for a short period.. there are a few distinctive features one has to note when spending a day in this concrete jungle..

Tissue Paper represents people.. once a tissue packets, full or otherwise is laid on a table in any food establishment.. the owner has claimed ownership of the table and the chair for an unlimited period of time.. removing such symbols of ownership is taboo in shenton way.. as such, always arm yourself with a packet of tissue to conquer your piece of furniture during lunch hour..

Free spaces during lunch hour comes at a premium, you either pay for it by paying for the corresponding meal/drink/dessert.. or sit out at the public areas where a free sun tan while you are in your long sleeve shirt /power suit/ nice dress or blouse.. there are some "free" space that's aircon-ed but don't really expect to find seats that come for free.. while there actually is.. but i'm not sharing to preserve the integrity of the area..

till next time.. i bring you more adventures in our concrete jungle





This jungle has its fair share of monkeys..

Of Being Busy

There are some people who have a so-called hard life.. or bitter life.. people who cannot sit still.. people who cannot stand being stagnant and people who don't just settle for a status-quo..

perhaps, this time, by joining Business Advisory Services, i have found a match to my nature.. pity though, i'm not an associate, but a project coordinator that was appointed as a short term solution.. job offer, if any, would come from the client and not my current employer..

my days are now busier and i'm pretty much left alone with task to complete.. no one bugs me on what i get done and on one interferes with my decision making.. its pretty much like people telling me.. here's how we have done it.. understand it, and make improvements on it.. ah.. that drive to understand a situation and make efforts to improve the situation.. i'm really starting to love this job.. its going to be a tough road ahead, lots more hours, more white hairs, more self-satisfaction.. could i even be coming close to self-actualisation? no.. not really.. but its close

wisdom tooth is out again.. this time, on my left jaw instead of the usual right.. i didn't pluck them out when i was at my first job due to work commitments etc, how i regretted it.. i didn't have an opportunity to pluck it out in my second job.. and that too was a mistake.. now with this work on my table and studies running weekly on the background after exams on 18 and 2ofeb.. i find myself once again having insufficient space of time to get rid of the wisdom tooth..

in short.. busy but happy.. at the same time..too busy to get rid of my teeth (there's 3 by the way)






Facing a challenge and loving it

Of CNY Thoughts

CNY is always about the food, the laughter, the gambling and the greetings..

This CNY, i learnt something more about my distant relatives.. distant in the sense that they are actually my grandaunties.. yes, i do have grandaunties, and they are my maternal grandfather's siblings and there's quite a few of them.. not counting the granduncles..

I heard of how one scrimp and saved in the olden days to put her children through school and make ends meet, since her husband passed away at a young age.. there's an account of how she would carry heavy bags out grocery home to woodlands, in which, at that time, there wasn't any grocery store nearby.. instead of taking a long journey bus, she decided to luge it all back and walked home, just to save that few cents of bus journey.. so hard was life then..

Nowadays, she spends time at home, worrying about loneliness till it made her cry.. one of her child(my uncle) is away working in hongkong and hardly in touch with the family..

i don't have enough information to paint the full picture, but amid the cheer and fun of CNY, stories are shared and we get to know people around us better..

i have once again witness how shabby my grandfather treats my grandmother, yet she tirelessly guards his welfare and do his every bidding.. it is her unique way of showing everlasting love.. now my grandfather is not a bad person, just an old man with a sometimes bad temper, and he has already mellowed since that stroke many years ago..

elsewhere, a friend remains in hospital, reacted to an allergy after an operation, shall check on his status and visit him this few days.. get well dude





5th Day of CNY and we're back at work

Of Day Two

Day two saw me clearing the "results" of the mystery shopping.. basically, to do admin work, fold letters, put in envelopes, affix stamp and send out.. mundane task perhaps? But perhaps the people around affects the way of thinking..

Basically in the company, we have a managing director that is like that big boss.. within my working group, there is a Manager, S, its a her, so its yet another female boss.. fellow colleagues wise, there are 2 associates, who are pretty much like an executive level.. none of them are senior associates..yet.. currently there's also one singaporean intern thats from Melbourne Uni, he's leaving tomorrow..

back to the mundane task, one of the associate bothered to share with me how it sucks to be doing it and how they all go through the same thing and also hate it.. but just getting on with it helps.. i truly agree.. and when i think back of how associates, people who are supposed to be higher level than me, do the same stuff.. its not that bad after all..

furthermore.. its not like i'm thrown with the whole thing, one of the associate, M, helped as she generated the sheets and cover letters to be sent out.. teamwork in action yeah

I'm typing now from a Dell Latitude D630 laptop that was issued to me.. how nice it felt to be given a "personal laptop".. a first since i used desktop PC in both instances at my previous workplaces.. remote access into my email is also a great plus

i'm also back on the lotus notes email system, one that i have always perferred over the MS Outlook

Some much to write, a good new beginning.. need to get to know the people better and warm up to them sooner.. till then





Day 3 is half day and its the holidays!

Of Day One

And so.. i'm finally into my new office..

Day One seemed to start well enough, i managed to get on a premium bus service that went around Lorong Chuan, Up to CTE and out to Orchard, Diverting to suntec and stopping at the bus stop just in front of my office building..

The office was generally a nice place, bright cubicles, clear windows and i got a window seat facing the main road, at the corner, the great durian peeks out and further in, patch of the raffles place green can be seen..

Practically spend the day reading alot of documents including a full report, that surprisingly mentioned about my employment as well as my suggestion for an event, the idea was produced during the 1st round on interview and elaborated and presented in the 2nd round.. what's satisfying is that i get to see my idea in a report.. guess thats one of the reason why i was employed too..

the afternoon saw a repeat of admin duties, while boring, it wasn't as morale bashing as the previous office.. guess the environment and the people helps.. i do feel that i'm surrounded by people who are more eloquent and capable than me.. people who know their stuff and put their weight in make things work and to keep the engine running..

Day One also saw me OT.. what a start






Towards a better path then

Of Shit at work

Ah, the dangers and perils of working in the private sector? Perhaps in this arena, there are people who are more afraid of challenges, more afraid of people outshining them..

Important lessons learnt perhaps..

I bring to you a piece of history, read on and i assure that you will be entertained:

Her email:
klayhead,

Just to make things clear.

We can confirm with the secured pax, in this case 30 pax – which you did mentioned yesterday.

Cxxh should be able to sign the contact too (for 30 pax) coz we should settle the payment for 30 pax first and the additional charges we can get them to invoice us or get Cxxh to pay using her credit card.

BTW when is your first correspondence with x(vendor)xx? Early/late Jan?

The main reason, no one keep me in the loop nor advise to raise PR/PO or issue payment for this event.

I only get to know about the payment when I pop up the question to you yesterday.

See if you let me know in advance, we can ask finance to issue the 30% deposit and pass the chq to them on the event day itself.

If I’ve been approach earlier from day one I could have advise you accordingly

Definitely there will be a delay in payment process (don’t worry I will keep you in the loop when payment is issued) & nope you are wrong they can issue 2 invoice or receipt upon our request. Ive did this before with other companies with no problems. Sorry to say lah, you are not pushing them hard enough.

An as for the SOP, you should refer to purchasing & finance SOP in (company name) i-net(intranet) for more details coz their SOPs practice thru out (company name).

Anyway no points of arguing as you already left (company name) and since you’ve forward the cost breakdown; I have no choice but to follow up from here.

PS – Cxxh, Mxxxn

Do keep me in the loop when you’re planning for event, in other word let me know when there’s $$/payment involves.

Regards
sxxi


So in response, i concocted this:

Sxxi,

While its not my normal practise to use my private email for work, i shall make an exception this round.

In view of your recent workload increase and all, i deemed it necessary to settle the confirmed cost and seek to settle payment after the event instead of going through the "normal" procedures of getting (company name) to issue 30% deposit and then making payment for a tentative number and again making payment for additional cost. In any case, i doubt the efficiency of the system to provide a cheque within days of confirmation to (vendor), which was last week.

I understand where you are coming from, but bearing in mind your progress and workloads arising from the (some brand) system, i believe and hold firm to my decision not to keep you in the initial discussions with (vendor).

And no, i didn't say that companies are unable to issue 2 seperate invoice, i just meant that SOME companies could have problems. With (vendor name) granting us waiver for deposit as a gesture of goodwill, i didn't find a need to push them hard, i prefer to work closely with vendors to work out the best working relationship, as evident from the decision not to bill us for the additional pax for the workshop.

Since iNet(intranet) has details on the SOP and is practised throughout (company name), perhaps the department should do a thorough review or internal audit as to why there are so many incidents where (my department name) did not follow the SOP.

With your years of service in the department and your role with all payment matters in (my dept name), i'm sure you would have spotted many incidents in which perhaps (my dept name) did not follow the SOP, this could also be a reason why you mention that (my dept name) is "being labelled as not following their SOP"

And yes, since i have left (company name), i would be unable to follow up on the cost breakdown although you seem to sound so reluctant to fulfill the duty and close the loop. Would suggest you approach Cxxxxxxxxe to discuss if you require alternate arrangments.

Lastly, there is no need to keep me in the loop when payment is issued, you can inform Cxxxxxxxxe still she is the Manager in charge of the event. Likewise, Cxxxxxxxe has the liberty to contact me should she require any clarifications. I do not see the value of being informed of an administrative procedure.

Hope our next conversation would not have to arise from work reasons since our relationship as colleagues is officially over.

By way of leaving my private email as an offer of continued friendship with (my dept name), i wish you all the best in your future endeavours.

Regards,
klayhead

*All names of persons, companies, vendors and departments have been modified to protect the identity of the innocent and shield the guilty from public shame.










Some people just don't learn from mistakes