Yesterday, I met up with some old schoolmates from my HR course. It's been a few years since we last met. Some looked different while others still look the same. I have put on that extra kilos over the years and could not recognise myself in the class photo. We were also trying to put a name to the face.
We have Eileen to thank for organising the gathering. Our topics were mostly about the lessons and the lecturers, and the impression they have made on us. And the one person no one could recall was the lecturer who taught us C&B. His class was so boring that we wondered if we even took that module.
Most of the class are not practising HR despite taking the course. But it did help us gain some useful knowledge to apply in the corporate world.
I was a little hesitant to meet up but am glad that I did. Unfortunately, we have lost touch with two of the members in my project group. I'm sure they are faring well in life.
Well, at least this has reunited some of us, and they are thinking of keeping in touch through facebook instead of our yahoo group. Thank God for technology!
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Friday, April 18, 2008
We Will Rock You
Last week, we attended the Queen musical 'We Will Rock You'. Queen is Sam's all time favourite band, after the Beatles.
Well, the storyline was rather disappointing, and the second half of the musical was better than the first. They sang many familiar hits like 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love', 'Another One Bites the Dust', 'Under Pressure', 'Radio Ga Ga' and so on. Of course, they left the most popular hits 'We will Rock you' and 'We are the Champions' for the finale.
Just while I was expressing my disappointment that they did not sing the hit song 'Bohemian Rhapsody', they cheekily flashed on the wide screen asking 'Do you want Bohemian Rhapsody?'. That led to thunderous roar for the encore performance. They performed that song really well to standing ovation. The 8-piece band, especially the drummer and leading electric guitarist rock!
Too bad they did not perform Sam's favorite song 'Love of my life'. He tried to serenade that song to me decades back, and even influenced his niece to learn that song.
Personally, I prefer the 'Mama Mia' musical as the storyline was more interesting. Also, I didn't like one part of the performance cause it was a little blasphemous. They had a guy in a kneeling position with his arms widespread, and someone placed a wreath made of colorful lighted bulbs on his head, resembling the crown of thorns. It was a brief scene with the lights deeming out, but it caught my attention.
Well, apart from the darkness of the lyrics and the influences behind Queen, the musical performance was great! They added some local flavor to the script injecting words like 'lahs', 'bugis street' and 'PCK'. Some parts of the show was funny though forgettable. I did enjoy the evening despite having a stiff neck and not being able to rock to the music and clapping like a moron...
On a separate note, I think this season's top 10 American Idol Michael Johns performed songs from Queen really well. Too bad he's out of the race.
Well, the storyline was rather disappointing, and the second half of the musical was better than the first. They sang many familiar hits like 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love', 'Another One Bites the Dust', 'Under Pressure', 'Radio Ga Ga' and so on. Of course, they left the most popular hits 'We will Rock you' and 'We are the Champions' for the finale.
Just while I was expressing my disappointment that they did not sing the hit song 'Bohemian Rhapsody', they cheekily flashed on the wide screen asking 'Do you want Bohemian Rhapsody?'. That led to thunderous roar for the encore performance. They performed that song really well to standing ovation. The 8-piece band, especially the drummer and leading electric guitarist rock!
Too bad they did not perform Sam's favorite song 'Love of my life'. He tried to serenade that song to me decades back, and even influenced his niece to learn that song.
Personally, I prefer the 'Mama Mia' musical as the storyline was more interesting. Also, I didn't like one part of the performance cause it was a little blasphemous. They had a guy in a kneeling position with his arms widespread, and someone placed a wreath made of colorful lighted bulbs on his head, resembling the crown of thorns. It was a brief scene with the lights deeming out, but it caught my attention.
Well, apart from the darkness of the lyrics and the influences behind Queen, the musical performance was great! They added some local flavor to the script injecting words like 'lahs', 'bugis street' and 'PCK'. Some parts of the show was funny though forgettable. I did enjoy the evening despite having a stiff neck and not being able to rock to the music and clapping like a moron...
On a separate note, I think this season's top 10 American Idol Michael Johns performed songs from Queen really well. Too bad he's out of the race.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
High Definition
On Tuesday, Sam very excitedly came home with a HD Set-top Box. He has exchanged the very old black box with this one at a promotional price of $48.15 plus free 3 months HD Plus for 1 yr contract. The recommended retail price for the box is $300+ without contract. He also had to purchase a special cable for the connection. And of course he subscribed to the additional sports channel.
After fixing it up, we channel surfed and realised that they have opened up all channels for our preview. There are more than 100 channels to surf. How exciting! Didn't know that there's more than 1 HBO channel. We also came across an interesting channel 70 called Discovery Home and Health, which offers content on health, beauty, pregnancy, parenting etc.
I like the additional feature we get with the new set-top box. There's on-screen TV Guide & Reminders and of course HD pictures. That's enough for us. Now we will be busy channel surfing for the next few days before they remove the preview channels. Anyway, we wouldn't have time to spend on the goggle box.
After fixing it up, we channel surfed and realised that they have opened up all channels for our preview. There are more than 100 channels to surf. How exciting! Didn't know that there's more than 1 HBO channel. We also came across an interesting channel 70 called Discovery Home and Health, which offers content on health, beauty, pregnancy, parenting etc.
I like the additional feature we get with the new set-top box. There's on-screen TV Guide & Reminders and of course HD pictures. That's enough for us. Now we will be busy channel surfing for the next few days before they remove the preview channels. Anyway, we wouldn't have time to spend on the goggle box.
Crowning
Well, one of the most stressful thing in life for me is to visit the dentist. But instead of suffering any worse consequences, I decided to pluck up some courage to do my half-yearly check, albeit after much procrastination.
So I braved the thunderstorm and went for my check up last Sat. I would have chickened out but I have already postponed the appointment 3 times. It makes me nervous just thinking about the visit.
Within minutes of sitting on the dental chair, Dr Lim quickly determined that I have a hairline crack across my two left upper molars. According to her, there are 2 reasons for the hairline crack. Firstly, I already have a big filling in those teeth. And secondly, there's not enough calcium going to the teeth. It's normal that ladies loose more calcium as we age.
Dr Lim advised that it may crack someday and I would have to pull them out! So the proposed solution is to do a crown which will cost me S$700 and 2 more visits. I conceded as I had a horrible experience pulling out a upper right premolar that cost me lots of money, pain, tears and blood!
I had to make sure that I time the visits well as I will be travelling end of the month, and the treatment needs to be completed before the travel. So I visited her today, and the first thing she had to do was the long needle injection to numb the gums. I was begging her not to give the injection, but she said "Don't worry, I will help you along". I think those words did some comfort, though it may sound like something she would routinely say. She then told me to take a deep breath and gently poked the gums with the needle. The deep breath helped! She did numerouos impressions of my teeth and I could feel substantial amount of bleeding during the drilling to remove the old fillings.
Fortunately it was over in less than half an hour. And I was told that there will be no injection the next time round. Yeah! And coward me survived another round of treatment! Thank God!
Now, I need to deal with the pain when the numbness goes off...
So I braved the thunderstorm and went for my check up last Sat. I would have chickened out but I have already postponed the appointment 3 times. It makes me nervous just thinking about the visit.
Within minutes of sitting on the dental chair, Dr Lim quickly determined that I have a hairline crack across my two left upper molars. According to her, there are 2 reasons for the hairline crack. Firstly, I already have a big filling in those teeth. And secondly, there's not enough calcium going to the teeth. It's normal that ladies loose more calcium as we age.
Dr Lim advised that it may crack someday and I would have to pull them out! So the proposed solution is to do a crown which will cost me S$700 and 2 more visits. I conceded as I had a horrible experience pulling out a upper right premolar that cost me lots of money, pain, tears and blood!
I had to make sure that I time the visits well as I will be travelling end of the month, and the treatment needs to be completed before the travel. So I visited her today, and the first thing she had to do was the long needle injection to numb the gums. I was begging her not to give the injection, but she said "Don't worry, I will help you along". I think those words did some comfort, though it may sound like something she would routinely say. She then told me to take a deep breath and gently poked the gums with the needle. The deep breath helped! She did numerouos impressions of my teeth and I could feel substantial amount of bleeding during the drilling to remove the old fillings.
Fortunately it was over in less than half an hour. And I was told that there will be no injection the next time round. Yeah! And coward me survived another round of treatment! Thank God!
Now, I need to deal with the pain when the numbness goes off...
Monday, April 14, 2008
The Greenhouse
I'm supposed to be on a diet, or at least watch my diet cause I've not done anything about the 5 kg I'm supposed to loose since ... 3 yrs back?
Well, one of my bro decided to buy parents dinner for his birthday and a job promotion. He invited us to tag along but go on dutch. And so we did...
It was my first time at the Greenhouse at the Ritz. And no, it's not in a Greenhouse. Boy, am I blown away by the sumptuous and wide buffet spread, a haven for seafood aficionados. There's fresh scallops, oysters, slipper lobster, shashimi, chilli crab, cold crab, drunken prawn, stir-fry prawn etc just to name a few. There goes my diet...
For dessert, there's creme brulee, nice and warm chocolate souffle that melts in your mouth, assorted chocolate pralines, chocolate mousse cake and variety of other fruits and dessert. I only managed to indulge in half of the buffet spread.
The dinner cost us a pretty penny, but it's all worth it. It's been a few days, and I'm still thinking about the food... so yes, it's that good.
After dropping the folks off after dinner, we decided to take a stroll along Clarke Quay. Well, it's just our feeble attempt to get the food down our digestive system instead of up to our brains ...
Well, one of my bro decided to buy parents dinner for his birthday and a job promotion. He invited us to tag along but go on dutch. And so we did...
It was my first time at the Greenhouse at the Ritz. And no, it's not in a Greenhouse. Boy, am I blown away by the sumptuous and wide buffet spread, a haven for seafood aficionados. There's fresh scallops, oysters, slipper lobster, shashimi, chilli crab, cold crab, drunken prawn, stir-fry prawn etc just to name a few. There goes my diet...
For dessert, there's creme brulee, nice and warm chocolate souffle that melts in your mouth, assorted chocolate pralines, chocolate mousse cake and variety of other fruits and dessert. I only managed to indulge in half of the buffet spread.
The dinner cost us a pretty penny, but it's all worth it. It's been a few days, and I'm still thinking about the food... so yes, it's that good.
After dropping the folks off after dinner, we decided to take a stroll along Clarke Quay. Well, it's just our feeble attempt to get the food down our digestive system instead of up to our brains ...
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
The Lull
Yes, I've not been blogging. There's just so many things to update but too lazy to blog. Now where shall I start?
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Living Things At Home
It's amazing how our Frangipani (or Plumeria) has bloomed a few weeks 
after we brought it home. Well, initially it withered and there was only one miserable leaf left on the stem... and still one leaf. So we decided to place the pot on top of our A/C condenser outside the kitchen, where it gets the most sun. Then one morning we noticed one partially bloomed yellow flower among the many flower buds. And when we got home that evening, we were delighted to find that more flowers have bloomed. Thanks to Aunt D who donated a stem from her Frangipani tree :) It's one of my fav plant.
While waiting for the Frangipani to be revived, we bought a Periwinkle from the nursery just to add some colors to our balcony. Turned out it is still doing well too!
Our Basil plant is also doing fine though a little bald and sad looking. But when we need herbs for cooking, we just reached out of the window to pluck some leaves :) It has survived our ill treatment after being left in a small pot and shady area for a long time.
We will next get a Citronella plant to repel mosquitoes as they seemed to be quite a nuisance lately.
after we brought it home. Well, initially it withered and there was only one miserable leaf left on the stem... and still one leaf. So we decided to place the pot on top of our A/C condenser outside the kitchen, where it gets the most sun. Then one morning we noticed one partially bloomed yellow flower among the many flower buds. And when we got home that evening, we were delighted to find that more flowers have bloomed. Thanks to Aunt D who donated a stem from her Frangipani tree :) It's one of my fav plant. While waiting for the Frangipani to be revived, we bought a Periwinkle from the nursery just to add some colors to our balcony. Turned out it is still doing well too!Our Basil plant is also doing fine though a little bald and sad looking. But when we need herbs for cooking, we just reached out of the window to pluck some leaves :) It has survived our ill treatment after being left in a small pot and shady area for a long time.
We will next get a Citronella plant to repel mosquitoes as they seemed to be quite a nuisance lately.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)