My KL Adventure - Part 1

After more than a decade of not having gone to KL, I set off for Absolutz Concepts’ first overseas business trip on 11 July with partner-in-crime, J.

The trip started with me being at the bus station on time and J, late!! And the bus tickets were with him so there was basically nothing much I could do except to wait. But luck was not on my side – I had a terrible tummyache since early morning and J was still not there. So what was I to do but carried my huge luggage with me to the toilet at the basement of Golden Mile Shopping Centre. The trip to the toilet and the toilet, itself, was an eye-opener.

There was no escalator down from the first floor, so I had to lug my luggage and my new laptop more than 30 steps down (yes, I counted the steps down). Apparently, the basement is where all the sleazy Thai pubs were and I felt really out of place there at 7+ am. It was dimly lighted and scary. I kept on thinking that there were some drunkards around waiting to jump out at me but thank god I managed to reach the toilet in one piece.

Upon reaching the toilet, I was dismayed to find out that it was rather unclean (ok, that was an understatement) and that there was a chee-ko uncle manning it. I had to pay $0.20 to use the toilet. Yikes! I had to search for coins for the longest time cos’ I didn’t take any with me cos’ I was obviously going to KL so why would I possibly need Singapore coins! Anyway I managed to find the coins and went into the toilet. I didn’t think it was safe to put my luggage and laptop outside the cubicle so I had to take them in with me! Ladies, you know how small the cubicles are, so can u imagine me having to squeeze those in with me!

Well, to cut the story short, I finished my business; lug my bags up only to receive a SMS from J saying that everyone on the bus was waiting for me! I was so pissed! How did I manage to get myself in this situation when I was the one who came 30 mins before “reporting” time! I hated J for putting me in the “limelight”! I was so embarrassed coming up the coach with everyone angrily staring at me…. Hence, began my KL adventure that lasted for 7 days (till 17 July). More about that soon………

Stress Relief Tips

Do you know that pent up emotions act like poison within our systems? It’s best to find an outlet for our feelings so as to reduce stress. So, some solutions are to talk it out (in my case bitch about a certain woman client) or put it in a journal/blog and feel the stress ebb away….
I don’t understand why some people just want to make lives difficult for others. On its own, life is already difficult. So why make it even worse? Do people who make lives difficult for others, feel better about their own lives? I just don’t get it….

I wish these people would take up some of the stress relief tips that I have conjured up below so that the world will be a better place for million others.

“Do you enjoy making the lives of your subordinates/vendors, etc, extremely difficult? If so, you are suffering from “I Am an Ass Syndrome”. Here’s some sure-to-work Stress Relief Tips for you!!”

Stress Relief Tip #1: Go to the highest building you can find (at least 20th storey and above) and bungee jump… without any ropes attached. Enjoy the wind blowing in your face and scream all your frustrations before making your landing on nice cool cement below.

Stress Relied Tip #2: Fill your bathtub with soothing lavender/peppermint oil/bath salts and lukewarm water. Lie in the tub, underwater, and stay in there for at least 20 minutes. Use the time to think of calming things like blue oceans or green pastures. Don’t get up even when you feel yourself drowning or losing consciousness.

Stress Relief Tip #3: Sharpen your trusted kitchen knife (not the butter knife, though). Stab yourself in both eyes before going for the heart….

Stress Relief Tip #4: Make a delightful concoction from your household cleaning supplies. Here’s a secret recipe – mix 250ml of bleach (any brand will do), 150ml of fabric softener (choose from a variety of “flavours” as this will largely give the taste to your drink), dissolve one pc of round tab toilet flushing tablet (choose either the blue or green one , depending on which color you want for your drink). Mix all the items thoroughly and bottoms up!

Stress Relief Tip #5: Go to an open air MRT station during peak hour and jump down onto the tracks just as the train is coming into the station.

Indemnity: Readers will indemnify this writer of all liabilities should they be silly enough to practice any of the tips that have been highlighted above.

To the Newly Weds!!

My sis-in-law, M and her now, “official” hubby, A, were happily solemnized on 26 May 2006. Their wedding reception was held on 28 May 2006. It was damn tiring for my hubby and I (and the whole family) during the wedding reception cos’ there were many tasks for us to do but thank god, everything went quite well.


Even M’s ang moh friend from the US flew in to help with the wedding. Justin’s such an angel and the whole family appreciated his helpfulness and humour (which was needed to liven up our spirits at times!). Justin even acted as the ‘barrier’ at one of the three ‘checkpoints’ that A had to go through, on the wedding reception day. It was hilarious!

M and A are now away on their honeymoon. I wish them all the best. Here’s something that I wrote for them (sorry if it is terrible cos’ I am no poet!):

A marriage celebrates a new beginning,
A couple starting out as man and wife,
Two hearts together,
And one diamond ring.
To be wed is a promise,
So sweet and so pure,
Together forever,
For love shall endure.

For more photos on the wedding, please go to: http://just-t.blogs.friendster.com/photos/mayas_wedding/

Here's to a new beginning......

My sis-in-law, M, is getting married this weekend. She SMSed me yesterday to meet up cos she wanted to talk about some excess baggage, some ghosts from the past (as she referred them to), before she gets married. She ended up sleeping over at my place since hubby is still away at Horsburg. We had a fun time doing what gals do best -bitching about our partners’ psychotic EX-es. I don’t know why but chances are if you ask your friends, at least 40% would have had a psychotic girlfriend sometime in their lives!! Whoa, that’s many psychotic people around…

Anyway, the psychotic ex-gf, (let’s call her L) had written a poem about how 28 May 2006 will be a day of new beginnings for my sis-in-law’s fiancé (let’s call him A) while it will be her death day. The way the poem is written is so dark and well, you are right, psychotic!

I have nothing against people who write dark, psychotic poems, it’s just that if you treated your partner badly, say, you were unfaithful towards him; you can’t expect to have a happy ending with him, right? So be a gentleman (umm, a gentlewoman? a lady?) and gracefully bow out of his life and wish him all the best, right?

So, I told my M, to just forget about this sad woman, cos what matters now is that A treats her well and is not in touch with L. I can’t wait for M and A to be wed!! Now, that’s truly a happy beginning…. And A, welcome to the family, in advance. We are not perfect; we have our quirkiness (some of us more than the rest. I shall not mention who) but we are a downright a great bunch! I am so looking forward to spending late nights at Party World, croaking to the wee hours of the morning with my darling hubby, M and you. :)

p.s. Finally, hubby dearest is coming back tomorrow!! I can’t wait……

2-in-1 story

Car Display - Final Episode

To those who have been following my ranting on the car display project that Mr J and I had been slaving ourselves to for the past 1.5 weeks might be relieved to know that the car display is up!!! I have photos to prove too!! See……….

Anyway, Mr J swore not to do anymore such displays cos getting the licenses from the relevant government agencies are enough to kill anyone who’s dumb enough to try getting them in the first place!! (Confused? So am I) So we’ll have to really consider if we are offered a similar job.

The Search for Food Episode - Part 1

I told Mr J about me not being to Amoy St Food Centre. In fact, I didn’t even know of existence till I saw an episode on “Makan Lost & Found” on Ch 5, recently. He laughed at me, saying that it’s such a famous food place and that everyone knew where it was – let me ask you, do you know about Amoy St Food Centre? OK, maybe then it’s just me….

So, this morning Mr J was feeling magnanimous and decided to bring me to this famous food place which I have been deprived of for 27 years of my life. I was feeling quite excited at the prospect to be able to visit a new place (since Singapore is so tiny!). We took a cab to the food centre.

Upon reaching there, I noticed that most shops were closed and those that looked open, did not seem to sell anything. The vendors were sort of sitting around with piles of crockery, etc. I confided to Mr J on my observations and he simply said that it being a Saturday, most shops might not be opened. I was puzzled. How can it be? This is a freaking famous food centre and don’t operate on Saturdays?!!!

Then, I stumbled upon this!!!! And I almost cried of disappointment.

Alas, there’s 365 days in a year, and 9885 days of my life and assuming the food centre has been around that long, but it has to be closed today!! What are the odds?!!

Anyhow, we went to the nearby Maxwell Market to eat and the only Muslim food stall opened is an Indian one (at the corner). I ordered Roti John and it sucked big time!

So, in the next few weeks, I simply have to drag either Hubby or Mr J down to Amoy St Food Centre for a food fest! Yeah…

O Hubby, Hubby! wherefore art thou Hubby?

I am lovesick… My hubby is away on duty at Horsburg – before anyone thinks it’s in some exciting place in Europe, it’s actually the name of a lighthouse at Pendra Branca. It’s still in Singapore waters and the only way there is either by boat or helicopter. Anyhow, he’s supposed to be there for about 10 days and today is only his second day there!

I hate it when he’s not around. The bed beside me is empty; I can’t smell his cologne; I can’t see his smiling face; I don’t have him to pamper me (especially since I made a complete fool last night by falling down in front of Kembangan MRT in a split 7! My left knee is so swollen and bruised now) and the list goes on and on. But the most important thing is that I don’t have him to irritate me!

I used to think that not having around to irritate me will be great but boy, was I wrong! I miss him so much… I miss not having any dirty socks/underwear to pick up outside the bathroom door; I miss not having to fight over the computer; I miss not having to scream at him to get off the Playstation so that I can either a) play SIMS 2 or b) watch TV and I miss him irritating the wits out of me by rubbing the stubble on chin on my face (I swear it feels like a toilet brush). I think being married to him for close to 2 years now, made me take him for granted. I can’t wait till he gets back in another seven million years so I can give him a bear hug and wet kisses!!

p.s. I have to wait for Hubby to come back before I can watch The Da Vinci Code!! Boo hoo....

Something new, something old

I learnt something new today - how to do set up my blog properly. Thanks to Miss Pearlyn, now I know how to link my friends' blogs to mine. Yay! Some of you reading this might think that this is lame. It's not difficult to do this what, but hey, I havent been in the blogging scene (till now) so I dont know these "technical" stuff.

Anyway, I discovered something old, too, today - my passion for writing a journal (diary). I used to keep a journal about my life and it was even more than a best friend to me. But I stopped writing in my journal when I turned 20. I dont know why I stopped - maybe I didnt have enough time (it's really a commitment you know to have a journal). Now seven years later (yes, I am 27 now), I have vowed to myself that I will start documenting interesting stuff that happen in my life so that I can look back at reflect on my life.... And I'll do that right here, in my blog. So this is not the last you'll hear from me.. .

Life Miseries - cont'd

More on the life miseries that I am experiencing....

Remember the issue about the oudoor display? J and I thought we can breathe easier after we get both Client and Landlord to approve the designs. Mind you, this is after I worked our two designers to death and J and I having only three hours of unpeaceful sleep. Alas, luck is not on our side.. We have more hurdles to jump over!!!

1. The Fire Safety license can only be processed electronically so there's no such thing as express "queue". Outcome of license will only be known in a week's time so there's no way our license to set up the Display will be awarded by this week.

2. My contractor, Z (a "he-she" as J would like to call him/her cos his/her gender is unknown till today), cant do any set-ups next week other than the night of 18 May. Client wants Display to be up by morning of 18 May latest!! Client said if we cant deliver by 18 May morning, we have to give her a discount (bitch!)

3. Landlord needs to know the exact date of set up to apply for license from SLA - and the fees are computed on a daily basis so Landlord needs to know exact dates of set-up and tear down. Unfortunately I dont have the answer cos this depends on 1 and 2.

So you see, J and I are in a real fix. He said, "If they want to squeeze my balls, I'll rather cut them off!" I can just imagine a scenario: J faces a difficult client who wants to try and squeeze us and he says, " Sorry, you cant squeeze my balls cos' I dont have any!" haha...

Oh here's a pic of J in his glorious fury (or is it furious glory?) as Hellboy J!!!

J wanted to call the job off but being pragmatic, I thought of some solutions:

a. Set up on 18 May night so display will be ready by 19 May morning and give Client a tiny discount

b. Persuade Contractor Z to sub out to another contractor and pay Contractor Z a token for this if necessary, so as to meet deadline of 18 May. Can also dangle a carrot to Contractor Z by promising more jobs for he-she in the future.

c. Pay Contractor Z a token sum to cancel the job and find a new contractor for printing and set-up and hope that they will do this real last minute job within the price range that Contractor Z had quoted us.

I really hope we pull through this intact cos I can feel a heart attack coming.... Arghhhh...

*Reposted from my Friendster blog (10 May 06)

When things go downhill, they really go down the hill....

My best friend, J and I are tired of having other people boss us around - so what better idea than to be our own bosses?! Hence, Absolutz Concepts was born on May Day!!!

Absolutz Concepts specializes in events (exhibitions, conferences, roadshows, etc) and of course communications (copy writing, design, production, etc). We managed to get our first job almost immediately, thank heavens, but now having some problems. First, Client just approached us about the job on 5 May - it's for the construction of an outdoor display in Orchard Road. Second, she wants design, license applications, production and set up to be ready by 12 May. That's exactly 1 week. What she think we are? Miracle workers?

Anyway, J is the gungho one between the two of us - so we accepted the job. So this past four days had been really hectic. We had to call in favors from vendors and get them to "bend backwards and under their legs" (quoting J) and made our two designers' lives living hell! (I am so sorry Yazid and Lin) With barely four hours of sleep per day, we managed to produce two designs for Client to choose from and when we thought that everything will get better, the landlord (of the venue for the display) said that our design is not approved cos they felt that it blocked their shopfront! Puhleez.... Who cares about the side of your shopfront?! Nobody sees it anyway - it's a shadowy corner!

The frustrating thing was that we considered that initially and provided our client with design that did not block the shopfront but Client wanted the display to be huge and enclosed. So you see, we had to go back to the drawing boards for almost a million times before Client agreed to this design and now, the Landlord doesn't approve! So looks like my designers cant sleep again tonight.. Poor angels..

Then there's yet another problem. We need the approval letter from Landlord before we can apply the respective licenses from the Govt agencies. And now we cant do that today. Do you know that application for licenses from Govt agencies generally take about a week? So you can see how challenged we are. We cant have anybody "dropping the ball in his court" (quoting my ex-boss). Now it seems BALLS are being dropped everywhere....


OK I feel so much better having ranted here so I am going back to do my work - Mission Impossible 4...

*Reposted from my Friendster blog (8 May 06)