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[ 10/11/08 on Sat @ 04:42 P] |
( Starring: The Malay, the Chinese, the German and the Vietnamese )
Without a doubt, my Business Communication projectmates have been among the best :) We've got a nice multi-cultural mix, and everyone gets along with each other really well :)
***
And I have also finally received my acceptance letter via email from Mannheim University! The accompanying admission package is currently being mailed over from Germany ... and when I receive that, I can finally get down to planning proper :) I am so excited, and you have no idea how badly I want this whole trip to work out. *crosses fingers*
And also, now that the Euro has depreciated against the Singapore dollar, would it be a good idea for me to start changing my cash to Euros? I mean, I've never changed money for speculative purposes so I'm really kinda unsure. What do you think?
Deutschland, hier komme ich!
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[ 10/03/08 on Fri @ 11:09 P] |
( Hari Raya Celebrations so far )
As mentioned in the previous entry, NUS was EVIL to make us sit for an evening paper on the 2nd day of Hari Raya! Efforts to study for my Finance paper on Hari Raya itself turned out to be futile as I was too busy with the celebrations.
Hairol and I happened to both wear our baju kurung to school yesterday. I reckon I saw our finance lecturer gazing in our direction when we were waiting to enter the exam hall. And that was when we both decided to be bitchy and walk past her (she was also with a group of tutors) and talk loudly to each other about our celebrations. So I was asking him, "EH ARE YOU GOING VISITING AFTER THE PAPER OR NOT!" and he replied, "NO LAH HOW CAN! BY THE TIME OUR PAPER ENDS IT WILL BE TOO LATE ALREADY!" I think we walked past them twice, and we shouted those words twice as well. I hope they got our point!
The paper turned out to be insanely tough; I could only work out a grand total of four questions out of 25. So for the last few minutes I was decided to shade all my remaining blank answers in this sequence: "C", "D" and "E". In other words, I channeled all my energy from attempting to answer those questions into taking a gamble on how best to shade my answers to yield the most number of correct answers, hurhur.
More Hari Raya visiting to follow over the weekend! Will see whether I decide to take more photos but in the meantime, that's all for now! And I reckon I've eaten one kuih tart too many already :(
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[ 10/02/08 on Thu @ 12:13 A] |
Sitting for the mid terms in the midst of Hari Raya is UNCOOL! :( And it doesn't help that the finance paper tomorrow will only start at 8 pm tomorrow. By the looks of it all, we'll probably only be done around 10 pm after the collection of scripts. It's INHUMANE!!!
The only form of finance I want to dabble in this time round is to count my Hari Raya takings and I don't want to give a damn about measuring the risk, returns and future values of investments and whathaveyou. Garhhh.
But that aside, I hope you've all had a blessed Raya so far!
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[ 09/20/08 on Sat @ 11:42 P] |
So Wilfred and I were on the train earlier on, doing lots of catching-up what with his return from his 10-month army stint in Taiwan just days ago - and we saw this mother whipping out a white plastic bag for her (presumably) 5-year-old son. I thought the son needed to barf into the bag because just moments ago he was sliding around here and there on the pole(pole-dancing, anyone?).
But NOOOOOO!! Said mom proceeded to lower the bag to his crotch...and then the unthinkable happened: HE URINATED INTO THE BAG! Like, I totally saw the whole bag filling up with urine!! No, I was not being overly kaypoh, because it just so happened that they were directly in our line of vision!
Very, very disturbed I was. And then I started getting all paranoid. Picture this: A plastic bag is after all, VERY flimsy. It takes alot of dexterity and stealth to handle a plastic bag filled with liquid (or rather, URINE in this case). What was going to happen if said mom were to accidentally lose control of that bag? Wilfred and I would have been the first to get wet, and VERY WILD, and VERY FILTHY.
I quickly asked Wilfred to get up from the seat and we "sought refuge" at the other carriages. Well, I'm sure the other passengers might have seen just what was going on but maybe even if they did, they probably just pretended not to notice. I made no effort to conceal my disgust, however.
I have a very good mind to complain to the Straits Times Forum regarding this issue. Now, how to do so in an objective manner? I've never written in to the Forum before, so I need help on this one!
PS: Said mom was a Chinese national. Could tell, from the way she was talking to her son. Of course this is not an entry to slam the Chinese everywhere but man ... is such an action actually acceptable back home, or what?
PPS: And I saw them both getting off the train at Tampines. There was no white bag of urine found on either of them, however. *raises an eyebrow*
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[ 09/05/08 on Fri @ 06:22 A] |
I know, I haven't updated in the longest time ever and there's no excuse for that - just that I've been busy as hell, and terribly unmotivated to blog.
So the 4th week of the semester is drawing to a close; it's been an unexpectedly fast and frenzied month in school. I have a pretty flexible timetable actually - free days on Wednesday and on Fridays (well sort of, cos I only have one lecture on that day, which is webcasted). But of course, that also means squeezing almost all my modules back-to-back on the other days. Like on Mondays, I have lessons from 11 to 7 pm NON-STOP! Well, until 6 pm officially actually, but I have aerobics lessons thereafter which I am attending with Sheryl and which is such a blast! Tuesdays are pretty fine though - lessons from 10 am to 3 pm and on Thursdays, lessons back-to-back from 10 am to 6 pm with a 2-hour break in between.
I joined a CCA as well, partly because I should stop sitting on my tiny little ass and quit moping over how school is oMgZz s0000 siAnz aNd b0`r1ngZz! I'm in the CAC Guitar Club Band, and this Saturday evening yours truly will actually be performing at 'Scape @ Youth Park! It's part of the inter-tertiary band competition (Jam Aloud) but we're not participating though, we're the "guest band", so to speak. Do make your way down this Saturday evening if you happen to be in town then!
I've gotten to know more people this semester too, partly because I registered for all my tutorials alone. I thought it'd be rather nervewracking having to go for lessons alone initially, but I was pleasantly surprised to see some familiar faces around in every lesson.
But that aside, I can't wait for the week to be over. Or rather, next Monday. I've been busy as hell - last Wednesday, for the first time ever, I spent 12 HOURS in school! On my free day, no less. I've been swamped with so many projects and assignments, it's not even funny. Econs presentation this week, Econs graded assignment due today, Managerial Accounting presentation next Monday, Biz Comm presentation next Monday, *attempting* to catch up on my readings, Saturday's gig, *attempting* to start mapping out my modules for Mannheim and making other preliminary preparations (e.g. surveying the accommodation costs over there etc) but failing miserably simply because I haven't had time to do so. I really, really need to take time out to sit down and start my planning proper!
Okay, I will attempt to update more regularly. But that's all for now, ciao!
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[ 08/17/08 on Sun @ 09:53 P] |
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Am still immensely proud of Singapore for garnering that silver medal :) There was a lump in my throat admittedly as I saw the Singapore flag being raised at the victory ceremony. Even if detractors might be quick to label it a "hollow" win for Singapore, because of the fact that those peddlers are China-born, to me, it matters not. As Mark Richmond summed it up yesterday on "Today in Beijing", if anything, this would indeed inspire many more locals back home to scale greater heights in sports for Singapore :)
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[ 08/15/08 on Fri @ 12:03 A] |
Business Communication lesson today was rather interesting, save the fact that our discussions got rather heated at one point of time - pertaining to the service industry here in Singapore.
During the discussion, people were only too quick to opine that the standard of service in Singapore is terrible. And this particular classmate didn't mince her words by saying, "I think when I go to high-end stores like Chanel and Gucci, I don't get very good service because these SAs think that I look like a student and can't afford anything at all. It's as if I feel that they judge me based on how I look and what I wear. And sometimes these people (referring to the SAs) think that they're very high and mighty just because they're working there."
Last part got me rather riled up. I was about to retort more when the tutor cut off the discussion.
Well, I feel that it's always those friends/relatives/acquaintances/outsiders who put us on a pedestal, instead of the other way round. In their eyes, we are perceived as ambassadors of a high-end brand. That, of course, is true. It's often easy to think that working in a high-end brand equates to glitz, fun and glamour. Well, not necessarily so. You're under scrutiny all the time, people expect (or maybe even demand) more out of you, and as I spoke up earlier on, "Sometimes, customers tend to forget that we're only human and they tend to nitpick on every single detail, making an entire mountain out of a molehill."
And I really don't want to make it seem like I am putting myself on a pedestal either, but hear this: Back when I was working in Gucci, I actually enjoyed what I was doing and personally tried to give it my best when it came to serving customers. Of course, sometimes you have those blah-days, when you feel moody and maybe sometimes it tends to show up on your face, but you realize that it's all about professionalism and that you have to compartmentalize your feelings and still focus on your job. And hey ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) xdolls and Justin, befriending you both (having started out as my customers initially) was actually one of my job highlights and certainly did make my job more meaningful.
Receiving compliments from customers also went a long way towards making my day - no, it's not that I consciously fish for compliments as a measure of self-worth or anything, but you do realize that in the service line, it really does make your effort seem even more worthwhile and meaningful. What prompts a customer to extend his/her compliments to you is rather subjective - one could be simply happy with the mere act of you "surprising" him/her by giftwrapping the purchase(especially when he/she walks into the store pointing out the desired item almost instantly), and for another, it could take a comparatively longer time of recommending an item/giving your input/giving advice on taking care of the product before he/she expresses her appreciation.
The bottom line is, insofar that people have been quick to point fingers at us and say that we are not doing our job well enough, I feel that there's another side of the story. True, there may be other black sheep around but how about others who are sincerely trying their best to render as best a service as they can? Sometimes you really have to cut us some slack, I feel.
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[ 08/11/08 on Mon @ 02:58 P] |
Oops, I think I've been a tad too excited for school.
( Purchases acquired this holidays, on the pretext of back-to-school purchases )
I haven't made any mention about my shoes ... and the thing is, I acquired 10 pairs of shoes alone this holidays. Stay tuned for a shoe post soon!
PS: I will also be starting a sales post soon. To clear out my over-flowing wardrobe space and also because some items of mine need better owners now!
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| my lip gloss is cool, my lip gloss be poppin' |
[ 08/07/08 on Thu @ 01:35 P] |
(from left: Calvin, Qiling, me and Beets) I had the best time with this bunch of friends from German class yesterday!
These lovely friends came down to Pasir Ris all the way from their homes in the West and the North, in a bid to check out Escape theme park. And, in typical Azzie fashion, yours truly came late (okay, only 10 minutes late though!) even though I live in PR itself!
Alas, much to our disappoinment, Escape turned out to be closed on WEEKDAYS!! We were racking our brains over alternative plans, because, well, Pasir Ris does not exactly rank high on the "Cool Heartlands" list - at least, that's my personal opinion!
And so we decided to go for a karaoke session at K Box! So for 3.5 hours, we were crooning along to all those old-school hits (think Backstreet Boys! And A1 - omg who can forget Ben, with that center parting in all its glory!) and current ones ... made me realize just how much I miss karaokeing! Food served as part of the lunch-time promotion was TERRIBLE though, urghh.
( +3 )
Only 3 more days to go before school starts officially - and surprisingly I am not actually dreading the new term! I figured, I really want to make use of the new term to buck up and pull up my CAP, stop complaining how it's so hard to find real and proper friends in university and perhaps be more proactive in joining CCAs and finding like-minded people and all that. Oh, and hopefully, I'll get to hear from the University of Mannheim with the commencement of the new school term. (Well actually, I've been sent a link to fill up an online application form at the Uni. Mannheim site, after which they will verify all details and send me my application package ... soon, I hope!)
It's a lazy Thursday afternoon, I think I will just stay in and do absolutely nothing.
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[ 08/01/08 on Fri @ 03:39 P] |
I cannot believe my stint at Gucci has come to an end. Everything felt quite bittersweet yesterday - settling my last bill ever (with this Indon customer buying 6 sales items at $3000 altogether), changing out of my uniform, exchanging email addresses with the colleagues and taking random photos.
It's been 2 months, I can't believe it. I felt rather apprehensive about going back to work after a one-year absence in June, but it got more bearable as time went past. I worried about whether or not I was going to fit in with the colleagues, both part-timers and full-timers. And I'm glad to say that I walked out of the job with new friendships that I'll definitely treasure in time to come.
My colleagues have been really nice and helpful, on the whole. Even if there were times when I admittedly felt rather sore about getting lectured, I learnt to accept that it was just part and parcel of the job without any personal vendetta against me. It was meant to shape me into a better person ultimately.
And of course, I can't forget the customers either. Having customers ask you for your name or compliment you on your service really goes a long way towards making your day. Even in times when you have personal issues to grapple with, it's something that you need to compartmentalize and still make it your priority to render as best a service as you can to the customers, I've realized. Customers for sure aren't always 100% right, that I will argue on. Even though there might have been some customers lacking in social decorum and grace, I must say that I'm glad that I have never encountered an exceptionally mean one before.
( Arm candy + eye candy perhaps! )
It feels kinda strange - knowing that I don't have to wake up at 7 am (if I'm on the morning shift) or 9 am (the afternoon shift) anymore, taking the train down to Somerset, meeting Lynette en route to work, those frenzied 1-hour lunch breaks, basing your time on the punch-card system (always having to make sure to punch our cards on the dot) ... and finally having my weekends free! When I was at work, my perception of time became rather screwed up ie. weekends felt like just any ordinary day, instead of a day to relax and unwind and etc.
I never expected to stick it out for the entire 2 month-duration! We started out with 8 part-timers in June, and at the end of it all there were only 3 of us remaining - Wilson, Lynette and I. (The other part-timers featured joined us later) I was really questioning my intention of staying on after seeing almost everyone leave.
But I'm glad I stuck it through :)
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