Ms Claire & her poor battered cat!

Ms Claire with Cat Cat (her fave stuff toy that is "battered" by her)

Taken at home before we go to Ah Gong & Ah Ma's place

What's Ms Claire up to these days!

Ms Claire has been back home for almost a week already.

During her 2 weeks of absence, her development seems to be so fast!

She is more willing to play by herself, has a better understanding of how to play certain toys and not to mention, be able to express herself better even though at times, I m still trying to figure out what she wants.

But she is extremely clingy to me these days. She dun want PK to bath her, pat her to sleep or bring her to my parents' place. Everything is Mama! Yesterday was the ultimate, she wailed when she realised its PK bringing her to Bedok and not me, I can hear her wails from the lift inside my room (our apartment is on the 3rd floor!)

PK was totally helpless and even using food to pacify her doesn't work. In the end, PK sung the "Sweetie Pie" song and she was okay after that.

I guess 2 weeks of not seeing me makes her extremely clingy to me and now, i m worried about her childcare days next week onwards!

Weary.. really weary

I m really weary... In a span of 2 days, another family drama unfolds again.

As mentioned earlier in some of my posts, my parents are not on talking terms and their behaviour are downright childish. On Monday, my Dad called me and lashed out at me despites my repeated attempts to tell him to talk to me after 6pm as I m swarmed with work. But NO, he just won't stopped!

I decided I had enough of the parents' behaviour and i had to speak out to both parties separately in order to get the issue resolved or at least made it known to them that their behaviour is getting on everyone's nerves. So, i spoke to my Mum first as I was meeting her after work. I told her the truth about my siblings & my take on their behaviour and told her that both parents are at fault for things to come to such an end. As usual, Mum cried and at that moment, I regretted my decision to tell her that while at the same time, I feel relief.

As I had to stay over at my parents place on Monday nite, Mum came in twice into Bro's room and asked me why do I think she is at fault and questioned me even further as if I m siding with my Father. The thing that pissed me off most is to threaten me with the childcare arrangement again! Nevermind, at 12 midnight, a call from London and asked me why do I have to confront my Mum with the truth?

Next morning, I woke up feeling unwell as due to lack of sleep, my flu has finally blown up. Went to office with blocked nose & ears that led to teary eyes. My colleagues all told me to see the doc & take the day off. Guess what, at the doc's place, Mum called and told me to pick up Claire straight after seeing the doctor as if I can afford to be sick, why not she!

I cleared my work and went to pick Claire up and SK Aunt called and talked to me a while about my Mum's behaviour and advised me on what to do. Later, my Dad called and I was not in a mood to talk to anyone. I just switched my mobile to silent mode. Upon reaching home, HK Aunt called and I told her that I will call her back later as I need to settle Claire first.

I called HK Aunt and she asked me this question, "What do you mean by both parents are wrong? What WRONG did your Mum do?" I was like, "What!" and I replied that I dun want to answer her question and I m tired. She begun to plummet me with accusations and that even if I m tired, I MUST ANSWER HER QUESTION. I got fed up and she even accused me of throwing my temper at her... I really can't take it and broke down & i told her that i need to rest.

Suddenly, I m the one who caused everything. Everything is my fault, I should not have say this or that. I m really sick of all this, pandering to everyone... I m really angry, I m angry at my parents for doing this to me. Why can't they settle their own problem and get so many parties involved? I mean getting a divorce in their 60s is nothing shameful to be about either, what is face? If you really want face, will both of you behave in such a manner?

Now, I m really weary of all this drama. I will talk to my Father on Thursday and my case is closed. I should not bother about them anymore and I want to get on with my live. I dun want to be shackled by them anymore.

Updates of Ms. Piggy in HK

I called Mum in the afternoon and Mum was busy trying to get Ms Piggy to nap. So I hang up and continued my work.

After a while (less than an hour), Mum called me and told Claire to speak to me. I heard her sobbing in the background and I asked her what's the matter and not to cry. Mum told me that Ms. Piggy immediately pouted and attempted to sob louder.

Mum's observation is that Ms. Piggy seems to be missing us and she requested for Mum to call me. I guess Claire was trying to teh me over the phone again. Mum was unwell in HK due to the cold weather so HK Aunt bought Claire to the restaurant for dim sum. On their way back, Ms. Piggy refused to climb up the flight of stairs back home. She just sat down on the stairs, refusing to budge! This gal of mine!

Anyway, i had about another week of freedom before Ms Piggy comes home next Saturday!

All Man are equal but.....

Yesterday, SS did another thing that really angered me. She was forcing us to clear leave and she told us that if we dun clear all the leave, it will be forfeited. I just stopped short of exposing her coz she bought forward one day of leave herself from 2008 to 2009.

Today, was recounting this incident to the one who got promoted. Guess what, she made this statement, "To be fair to SS, she won't allow you to bring forward the leave coz she will have problem getting you folks to clear 30 days of leave!" I gave her the look and she knew she made the wrong statement.

Frankly speaking, all of us in the dept has no issues in clearing leave but the problem lies in SS. There are far too many of instances & incidents that got the dept frustrated over leave clearance with her that I should not comment.

SS always love to use this phrase, "To be fair to the others, blah blah... U can't take leave." But she dun practise what she preached thus double standards. For me, i dun care how she practise double standards but when it comes to leave, which is my entitlement, I really really get very riled up!

Thus i think this phrase is most suitable for her, "All Men are equal but some are more equal than the others." (Extracted from George Orwell's Animal Farm)

Sour grapes, sour grapes, sour grapes

Was on MC today due to menstrual cramps. The doctor's advice, to exercise more so that i wont be feeling lousy & in pain.

Just went to check the company email and they made the official announcement of the promotion of my dept colleagues. Frankly speaking, I dun feel good about it and in fact, its SOUR GRAPES cum shitty feeling when the news was first announced last month. In fact, I really want to confront SS on what selection criteria that she has promoted my colleague on but I m afraid to face the truth. Call me a coward or what, I m really afraid and I dun think I want to know either.

With this official announcement, there's no reason that my colleague should complain about lopsided job scope allocation. In fact, she was comparing the duties allocated earlier as compared to now etc etc... I believe the company will compensate her accordingly.

For me, I had accepted the fact, handled it and going to put it down (still trying coz on & off, i will gloat about it.) The next step that I m going to do is to find better opportunities for myself especially I had lost my drive to work in this company. Nothing motivates me now.... Thank god for the support & encouragement that I had been given by my other dept colleagues. They restored my faith in myself and told me that this, "If its meant to be yours, it will be. Dun force it." That strongly encouraged me and I tell myself that the time is not ripe yet. Thus, nothing for me at the moment and my sis is even funnier, she commented that I might be the next one to be promoted to higher level. I almost choked on her compliement!

Anyway, whatever isit... Work still has to be done. Whatever decisions that SS made, i prayed that it wont be extra work for me and frankly speaking, the colleague who got promoted, I have a feeling that her progress might be an exact replica of the drill sergant in my company.

For me, just gotta make the best of my situation and network more with other colleagues in other dept. :) I really wanna see the light sooner at the end of the dark tunnel.

Indian cuisine today...

I can't believe it myself...

I had Indian Cuisine for 2 meals today, Lunch & dinner.

Lunch was Indian Vegetarian at Amara Hotel Food Court. It was a farewell treat for my colleague, L. He is leaving the company to pursue his Sea Captain course. It was my first time trying it and it gave me a good impression as it was not oily & greasy as the usual Chicken Biryani I had in those Indian Food stalls.

L was surprised that it was my first time having it and he was relieved to know that i enjoy it very much. We chatted about work, family and stuff. We shared similar views on our company's management and he even told me about this nickname given to one of the colleagues. From him, i learnt quite a couple of things and this will help me in my work experience in dealing with people.

Dinner was at Tiffin Room, Raffles hotel. As PK was a Feed at Raffles Gourmet card member, the compliementary voucher was buffet at Tiffin Room or Bar & Billard Room at Raffles Hotel. We decided to give Tiffin Room a try since Bar & Billard Room's buffet is CMI. Quoting PK's words, "To try ATAS curry!"

Well, the ambience was good and the food was good too especially the Tomato Soup that they had at the buffet, its something like Tom Yum (slightly spicy) while at the same time hearty... good for the rainy weather. Basically, the variety is not as much as those normal buffet but it gives u an insight on the North Indian food from appetitisers to main course to desserts.

The desserts we tried, i must say is really an acquired taste and it s either too sweet or too bland for most of it. PK & I loved the Indian style ice cream but we concluded that we won't go for the 2nd time unless its a treat! :P

For me, as usual after each Indian food meal, I will have the runs and that explains why I wont go for Indian food. :)

Clowns

For the past few days, my colleague has been interviewing potential candidates for the position of the Financial Accountant.

Quite a no of colleagues came up to me and asked me this question,"Your dept hiring ah? I tot headcount freeze = hiring freeze?"

One of them's reaction is even more agitated. He even cited that in HIP (Co's intranet) explicitly stated about the headcount freeze and stuff. Guess he is fed up but who isn't?

In one dept, they hired a foreign import from UK to do a normal executive work. The amount of $$ spent on getting this foreign import is more than hiring a local one.

Another dept, a colleague requested for 4 months unpaid leave to upgrade himself for a Captain course. His boss reply, "4 months of unpaid leave? Might as well resign." The boss' reasoning is that there is a shortage of manpower thus he can't grant him the unpaid leave. Well, alot of us saw this dept's colleagues playing online games & stuff.... Shortage of manpower? Hmm, my colleague resigned and will go for his course soon.

See, all these just made the management looked like clowns. I wonder what other funny stuff they will come up with...

PS: Dept requested for lunch duty to be voided but SS refusing & cite alot of reasons. Me expected that!

Phew!

Had a dept meeting to discuss about the handover of roles cum changes in the job scope.

I m really fortunate, my portfolio remains the same and the tough work that I m doing now, there is a back up plan!!! Yeah!

The colleague who got promoted, has plenty of tasks loaded on her and she commented that it seems that SS has dumped almost majority of the colleagues work on her & 2 other colleagues.

My only logical explanation is that SS foresees that my another 2 colleagues & me have the highest possibility of leaving, thus such handover of job scope.

Anyway, I thank god for this.

Home Projects!!!

Below is a list of home projects that I hoped to achieve!

1. Wall sticker decoration in Claire's room - Just done it with 90% of the work done by PK, he is better in this than me!

2. Storeroom reorganisation - Yesterday, my PT cleaning lady helped me clear out some of the stuff. Now the remaining portion is to reorganise the things so that the storeroom dun looked as if the stuff will topple on you anytime!

3. Wardrobe clearance - My wardrobe is in a mess and i need to throw or give away those clothes that i can't wear but in good condition.

4. Kitchen reorganisation - The stuff are lying all over the place even though i have storage space for them.

5. To paint Ms. Piggy's table & chairs in another colour - Optional project.

Claire in HK

Claire is starting to get used to the life in HK now.

First day, she was in HK. She wailed upon reaching HK Aunt's home & she only stopped when she stepped into her room. As that was the room she had stayed before in March. During the 1st day there, the elders DUN DARE to lecture her & give in to her whims as they re afraid of her crying for us, the parents.

So in the end, she literally challenged the elders by defying them. HK Aunt climbed onto a make shift ladder (a chair with a stool on it) to get the blankets & stuff for them. Ms. Piggy immediately climbed onto it the moment she saw HK Aunt on it. HK Aunt was desparately shouting for HK Uncle to get Claire off the chair. Somehow, HK Uncle din catch it. The situation was so hilarious that HK Aunt just broke off laughing while at the same time worried for Claire's safety.

During my conversation with Piglet these few days, she will pout & looks about to cry whenever she heard my voice. The ultimate was on the 2nd day, PK told her to sing the "I love you" song from Barney. She immediately pouted & wanted to cry. True enough, that night she woke up crying for us and Mum has to pacify her.

Mum told me that she is getting used to the life in HK, whenever Claire mentioned about me, Mum will tell her that I m working. Occassionally, she will utter this phrase, "Mama, working.

For me, i missed her like crazy but without her around gives the time to declutter my place. I have project Storeroom, Wardroom & photographs printing lined up to do. Plus, it also allows PK & I to have some couple time together. Though PK doesn't have any outwardly shown appearance of missing Ms. Claire. I know that he misses her too... coz at the Airport send off, he was trying so hard to get her to kiss him!

Sending Ms Claire off

Ms Piggy & Mum flown off this morning to HK.

When we reached Changi Airport T3 this morning, we were in for a shock! The internet check in queue was snaking! So, Mum queued while we checked for other counters for check in. Upon confirmation, that is the only counter! :(

Fortunately, a SQ staff diverted us to the check in counters for Business Class! It was no joke, different flight classes of check in counters had different decor. For Economy class, it was plain & simple! For Biz, there was a blue carpet in front of the counter BUT for First Class, it was RED CARPET!!!

They are supposed to fly there on last Saturday but with everyone sick upon our return from KL. Their trip was postponed till this morning, they will be in HK for at least 3 weeks. (Ya, 3 weeks of holiday for me!)

But i will miss Ms Piggy terribly, in fact my eyes teared when I saw her going into the departure hall! Mum teased me by saying, "Aiya, if u miss her, just bring her back home lah... Dun let her go!" I almost forgotten to give the 顺风 angbao to Ms. Claire, lucky Mum caught my signal & U-turn to get the angbao from me before heading to the immigration!

Mum called me earlier to inform me of their arrival in HK (Auntie's place). She told me about their flight to HK. Ms Claire was quite steady and behaved like a seasoned traveller. She never cry during take off or landing but her tears started rolling seeing my HK Aunt!

Well, as much as i will miss Claire terribly but it will be another break for me!