Transcribing is a killer

I start knowing the general price of normal goods in Singapore. After several times of spending on expensive food and buying over priced goods, now I know where to buy value for money food or goods. What is a must buy and what is a definite “no-no”. I am looking into savings as well. After the first month of splurging on luxurious clothes, fancy shoes, colorful hair-cut and ecstatic clubbings with no incomes, I can feel the tightness around my belt. So, I have decided no more new clothes and shoes. I am going to tuck away the money for my next trip outside of Singapore, where will be the filmic Redang Island.

Transcribing is a killer. I should have not shown my sympathy to one of our interns, who has four tapes to go through. I agree to help her with one tape which almost bumps off me.

Who cares

I have been making stupid mistakes at work recently. Missed read a Chinese newspaper news, calling a journalist twice for the same matter, research on the wrong materials, etc. Never mind, that is how I learn from making mistakes.

When I leave before 7.30pm everyday, one or two will say to me: “You are lucky”, “so early!” Hey, we are talking about efficiency, not dragging out your time to make a complement with others. Work will never stop, as long as I finish what I suppose to do for the day, why cares what time I leave.

Back to the dance floor

I finally put my feet back onto the dance floor this Saturday afternoon. I started learning Samba from this tiny studio in town. The course I am doing is an eight-week Samba technique class which suits me perfectly as I don't know many of the Samba routines. Once I get a hang of its rigid technique, I will look good on this sunny dance. The teachers are ex-Singapore dance sport championship winners and they both good-humored and patience in instructing postures and timing. If I go well with this course, I may probably do more classes after the eight-week.

On Sunday, I met up with Stu, a friend and my ex-economics tutor from Australia, for coffees. We some sort of working in the same industry now, while I am on the agency end and he is on the client’s end. We talked a lot about what we do (we are both working in the Healthcare sector), why we want to leave Melbourne, life in Singapore and good places to hang out. It was a great catch up and he gave me a lot of inspiration on where I am heading to. Hmm…I found one more friend in Singapore now.

Dumping ground

My room becomes a dumping ground towards the end of the week: clothes are lying all over the floor, handbags are half-in and half-out of the draw, make-ups are box-up on the dresser table, the rubbish bin is full, … I feel tired and lazy to keep things in order after a day’s busy work. It is real work, not like in slacking around in the Optus times. Although I am trying to leave before 7pm every day, still, the pressure is on and I am starting taking up more account works gradually. The bottom line is, I won’t trade in my health for the work.

Basically my work is to read and monitor my account’s news on newspapers in the morning, pitch our story to the Junos, research answers to email interviews, sometimes I also have to have my hand in events. Event is no longer my things, as it is such a low end work that I would rather outsource it to event companies. There are three of us as graduate trainees, one is allocated to assist a workaholic oldfangled woman, another one spends half of his day monitoring news and the rest liaising with demanding clients doing minimal work. I am banished to a Siberian corner, where is cold and lonely, but am assisting an associate who is my senior from my course from Melbourne Uni - the world is a small village. Following her will definitely have a better life than the other two. We will see what we will become in another six months. Yet, I can’t understand how people can stand that they have to work as late as 9ish at night weeks after weeks. Obviously, I can’t live like that when I am 40 plus.

My monthly budget has almost been blowed up by today. Not only that I spend more but I earn less. If I don't control my spending habit, I will never save up to go to Penang, or Rendang Island, or even a cheap cheap Kayaking trip.

Sport's Day

A new graduate trainee is recruited in my company a couple of days ago, which made me feel a bit of seniority although I am still at the bottom of the corporate ladder.

Our company has this serious working culture that everyone does their own work and hardly talks to each other unless necessary. That is why we can have so few people but achieve such a great result. This environment is both good and bad. So to compensate the bad side, it has organized this sport’s day that the whole office go out to play sport together, and, of course, eat afterwards. A team bounding activities that, hopefully, can make us more cooperate. It is held every quarter; today is the day. We went to East Coast beach to flow Frisbee, catching ball game, and even soccer. It sounds boring, actually it is not at all. You know Singapore is hot and humid, we all sweat after running back and forth several times. We then rested on the grass and started relax our tighten face and talked to each other. After the physical activities, we went to eat in this high-class seafood restaurant located inside the famous East Coast seafood center. Wow ~~~ what a big feast! A huge tray of chili crabs, corn flake prawns, Beijing pork, and so on. I am going to go on a detox after the meal. All these are being paid for by the company.

Even though a lot of ex-company people bitch a lot about the company, for me, my feeling is positive so far. I understand they don't like the bounding schemes, yet, that is how you can manage the high turn over rate in such a tough and saturated industry. On top of that, the company pay for my PR health check, my lap top (if I stay with them for 18 months) and even my Malaysian travel visa application fee!

Mac Ritchie Reservior Park

My calf muscles as well as my lower back are aching. One month of slacking from doing exercise, Saturday was my repayment to fitness. I went for jogging in Mac Ritchie Reservior Park, which is only 5 minutes bus from my flat, accompanied by J. I was amazed to find that Singapore has such a prime reserve on its small land, which is no worse than Mount Dandenong in Melbourne. The reserve covers several tracks to suit different needs. The longest one, which connects to another reserve, will take at least four hours to complete. To add more on its attraction, it has an inland lake, in where you can practise kayaking at a fairly low price. This has inspired my desire to learn kayaking, seriously. I am planning to take the kayaking Certificate One course, which will only take two Sundays to compete.

Back from the water to the land. The residents of the reserve are a group of monkeys. The natural environment is so well protected in this city state that the wild life creatures are living the life as they are. They swiftly jumped from one end of a branch to another, then climbed up gracefully. They are not scared of human either, scratching their backs and playing with each other right in front of us! A peaceful coexistence is presented on this island.

We then walked through this well-known HSBC tree top walk – a free-standing suspension bridge – that was newly opened since 2004. I could have a bird’s eye view of the community of plants under the forest canopy from this bridge.

At the end of our three-hour journey, we slightly veered our way by incident and trespassed into this grand golf course. Oh well, this gives me a reason to come back again next time.

At night, I went back to Union Square to soothe my salsa dance urge, at no cost! I was too stingy to pay: went in before 9pm for the free entry and only drink water for the whole night. There is no such good thing in Melbourne!

I am a bit gloomy today. Z is moving out from our apartment and will be leaving Melbourne next week. My Melbourne story comes to a pause now. Every time I think about not going back to Australia anytime soon, I feel sour. My best mates and beloved cousins are all in Melbourne. Even today I went to IKEA, trying to get something to decorate my “home”, I could find nothing. This is not my home! Once I get what I want, I will go back for sure.

好久没有去听任贤齐的歌了。来到这里，听中文歌的机会多了很多。当听到这首歌的歌词时，突然感慨年良多。我一直想要往外飞，最终想要和得到的是什么呢？

任贤齐 《想飞》

我想飛，往高的地方飛
飛過高山和原野
帶著祝福和期待
我要全世界都了解
我想飛，往高的地方飛
廣闊天地任我飛翔
帶著幸福和喜悅
我要和全世界分享愛
當風吹過來
輕輕的吹在我的臉上
輕輕的吹動你的長發
輕輕地隨風飛
當雨飄下來
輕輕的灑在我的臉上
輕輕的濕潤你的長發
輕輕的我的愛
我只想讓你明白
不管多遠的未來
再大風雨有我為你擋下來
我只想讓你明白
不管多苦有多累
我只想擁抱你在我的胸懷
我想飛，往高的地方飛
飛過高山和原野
帶著祝福和期待
我要全世界都了解
我想飛，往高的地方飛
廣闊天地任我飛翔
帶著幸福和喜悅
我要和全世界分享愛

Time Out party

Last night, I was invited to this Time Out magazine launch party in a bar next to the Singapore river. The guests of the night mainly work in the media industry; so the night was set for us to socialize and exchange gossips among companies. A couple of my colleagues turned up, and through them, I was introduced to several others in the media industry. I have met with people from the HSBC marketing department. The most recent HSBC campaign – the world’s local bank - was brilliantly executed; such result was the achievement of its marketing department. I also met with this humorous Channel News Asia programme producer, who was overwhelmingly popular among the guests.

I bought back home not only a glimpse of the media industry in Singapore but also tips of surviving in such a “bitchy” environment. Don't feel defeated when you are being blamed. Take them in, suck up wounds and keep working.

One month present from Singapore

What will you do if you are on the 20 plus floor and the building floor is suddenly moving severely? Jump out of the window? Fainted? Pretend nothing happened? Or go for an early lunch? I chose to do the last one. What if there is a second time? You should run away and don't come back to work until the next day! That was half of my colleagues did. Yet, I am new, I don't have any leave entitlements to take, so I have to stay back, shivering. As soon as the clock hit 6pm, I ran out of the office with no manners. Hey, this was my first experience of earthquake! I am still feeling swinging now.

My one month present in Singapore – earthquake.

Spoil myself

Wow~~~ only two days of working, I feel like a millionaire already. I spent fortunes in the Espirit store on buying its collection suits, then threw money in the OG store on a new Guess handbag. Nail polish, new tops, and make-ups were the add-ons. Today’s hair rebound plus colures are splendid accessories. Ok, ok, you may think this is a bit prodigal, but think about this, what I have spent in the last two days are equal to what I had spent in Melbourne in the last two years! I worked all the OT offers and rarely spent when I was in Australia. Why shouldn't I spoil myself a bit better in this prismy country?

I understand how those Hollywood money-strapped celebrities spend their time when they have no work – gussy up their hair will take a day! Especially they so much like changing hair colors and styles. Today I stayed in this hairdressing for seven hours to just have my hair straightened and with a bit of color. I look very young and neat with my new hair, which lightens me from living in this new city.