Compliments, again.


I wore my flowing black striped Zara dress to work today. It’s the wrap kind and I had to tie it really tight at the waist to prevent my breasts from peeking out of it.


My colleagues who saw me complimented me on my dress. They said it suited me very well. A few of them said that I remind them of the past, of Marilyn Monroe. Hee hee hee! They asked me where I bought it from and I said Zara. I tell you, they are really into my clothes. Every time I wear something new to work, there’ll be someone asking me HOW MUCH my clothes cost! And they would baulk at the price of my clothes. Sheesh!


And these people are not the normal basic credit card holders. They are the Gold, Black and Platinum card holders. So I cannot understand the fuss they make when I tell them the cost of my clothes. Sigh…


As with every other Tuesday, I had a compulsory meeting in the afternoon, where all the upper management would sit down with the rest of the middle management to discuss company issues. Many of them told me that I looked beautiful in my dress, to which I thanked them their compliments. Even my supervisor said that I looked very pretty. One of them, SE and my colleague, LBO, said that they never knew that I was so well-endowed and had such a small waist! Hahaha!


When I went back and told Xue, we both rolled our eyes and laughed aloud! ^_^

~ ~ ~ Skye's telling at 8:37 PM ~ ~ ~
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Happy Birthday, Xue!


It’s Xue’s birthday today, so Jos and I celebrated it with her over a high tea buffet at Marriott. Jos bought her this Sylvanian Families toyhouse with a baby white rabbit in it. We made Xue unwrap her present before we started eating and I took photos of her as she opened it. She look ecstatic with her present! Me, I shared with my mum and got her a chain and pendant set from the jeweller’s.


We spent the day chatting, eating and shopping. After food, we attacked the shops and spent a very long time at Zara’s. Jos and I paraded in different clothes while Xue commented on them. I ended up buying a dress and co-ordinates from the store. Although we reached home extremely late, what with me having to work the next day, but we still managed to blow the candles on her birthday cake before the clock struck twelve!

~ ~ ~ Skye's telling at 11:59 PM ~ ~ ~
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Surprise.


Last Tuesday, I met up with Xue and Jos together with DD. On the train ride to town, he had told me that he would buy the Marks and Spencer’s Butter Mint sweets and share with me when he bought it. I told him that it’s alright, as there was no hurry. Anyway, I was joking with him that I wanted to eat the sweets then. They may be my favourite but I can always but them on my own.


Imagine my surprise when he stopped me this morning at the entrance to the office and said “Skye! Come, come! I’ve got something for you!” I was wondering what it was until he took the packet of sweets out of his bag, opened it and put it in front of me! Eh, that was really startling. I didn’t expect him to remember what I said after so many days. And to think that he actually brought the packet and offered it to me so early in the morning.


What can I do when a packet of sweets is shoved under my nose? Why, take it of course! I took two of them and thanked him for them. By this time, some of my colleagues were streaming in and saw DD holding the sweets, so I told them that he was giving out sweets and to take from him!


I didn’t see his reaction as I had left for my table, on another level, but SH told me that when he didn’t offer to anybody else at all. She said she was annoyed with him for not sharing his sweets. Hahaha! :0)

~ ~ ~ Skye's telling at 10:08 PM ~ ~ ~
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Aversion.


I really, really dislike my work.


I do the same thing daily and it’s getting on my nerves. I can never comprehend why people can do this kind of work day in and out, for more than twenty years. Doesn’t it get monotonous after a while? Doesn’t it get boring at all?


My work is not challenging, no siree. I am, in a way, quite dissatisfied with working life. I never expected it to be like this – full of constraints and a mountain-load of things to do. It’s like an endless pit, it just goes on and on, nonstop. It’s as if I’m trapped here and can’t get out. I feel stifled and robbed of my life.


If I had a choice, I would not choose to be in this profession again. I don’t want it at all. What is there to make me happy at the end of the day? Nothing. What is there to remind me of my lost youth? Plenty. Frankly, I am suffering from Job Dissatisfaction Syndrome. There doesn’t seem to be anything worthwhile for me to hold onto workwise.


What I am mildly glad for is my pay. Do you know that I am just simply waiting for my pay to be credited into my bank account every month? I live for my salary. No other company pays me this amount for whatever little experience that I have. For without the thought of my pay to see me though all the hopeless nights, I might have checked myself into IMH by now.


I really, really wished I were somewhere else and doing some other kind of work that I like, other than being stuck here. My job is one of the thankless kinds, where I have to interact with people of a different and often, lower frequency from mine. I also have to put up with the inane flow of complaints and grumbles about other people, when it doesn’t even concern me in the first place. It’s NOT fun! I want a fun job! I want a job where I can be happy. At this rate that I am going, I am just thankful if I can get out of this game alive when my contract ends.


I want to study. I want to be able to learn more about the subjects that I like. I want to feed my mind with the things that are being argued by the leading people in the field. I want to be able to participate actively in research of my choice. I want to contribute to my chosen field.


I do not want to be shackled to my job. I do not want to be doing it like a robot. I do not want to grow old at my job. That is the greatest fear that I think some people might have – that you go on toiling at your job without even realising any part of your dream, your ambition. That you are just another face that fades along with the passing of time. That no one will remember you long after you are gone.


And I don’t want that. Not at all. Not for all the money in the world.


I want out.

~ ~ ~ Skye's telling at 1:01 AM ~ ~ ~
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Graduation pictures.


The studio called me to remind me to collect my pictures which have been framed up nicely, last week. So, after breakfast today, we headed for the studio to collect them. Eh, they are really HUGE! Now I wonder where in the house I can hang them.


I had an album of some of my graduation pictures made too. It’s an 8R album and I still have quite a few empty leaves left. The salesgirl told me that I can always return to fill them up. That is, provided that I wash my own 8R photos before getting the studio to laminate and stick the photos into my album. There is an extra charge, but I cannot remember the cost. Ah well, I’ll ask the salesgirl when I want to add the photos in future.

~ ~ ~ Skye's telling at 6:31 PM ~ ~ ~
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To the theatre I go!


I finally get to have a break! Yippee!


I went out with Yee to watch 2 plays today. One was in the morning, by The Little Company (TLC), called “The Sound Collector”. The other was by I Theatre, called “The Secret of Laughter”. Personally, I prefer the first play though Yee likes the second one better.


Why? Probably because it was more interactive and the props were cute. Before I go on, there is something else that you should know. The Sound Collector is a play for children between the ages of 2 to 7 years, while The Secret of Laughter is for those aged between 4 to 16 and “adults with a sense of humour”. I’m waiting to go for the next play by TLC, which is based on one of Wilde’s short stories, “The Selfish Giant”. I think that Yee might want to go again. Hopefully, I can persuade An, La and Andd to come along too. Then we can all go for tea or something after the show.


Today really was a hectic day. After the 10am play, Yee and I took a taxi back to campus for her to submit her application for further studies for this July semester. She said that the due date’s tomorrow and she wanted to get it in by today. So poor little me had to go down with her and spend some time back at campus (which I had no intention of returning to at all!) on a beautiful Thursday morning. Sigh…


I knew that Ms T would not be in the office today as she told me the last time we met, that she would be on leave this week. I think she wanted to bring her family to Thailand for the weekend. It didn’t really matter to me as I wanted to pass something to Dr A’s secretary, Ms AL.


It was a sheet of personalised name stickers which I ordered when the company came down to my office to promote their stuff. Yup, this uncle and his helper went to my office sometime before Chinese New Year (I think), to sell the personalised stickers and ink-stamps. I bought so much from him that he gave me quite a few sheets, FREE! Ain’t that sweet of him! So I use the free ones to make the stickers for my professors.


We reached campus around lunchtime and the office was empty of people. So I brought Yee to the library to while away the time. I miss the library! Ahhhhh, the many times when I hid there to study and relax. The little cosy corners and the freezing cold air-con. I was ecstatic to be back again, even if it were only for a short time. While Yee was snoozing at the table, I went to browse the shelves. Boy, was I lucky! I found this new book on Pragmatics and after reading the first few pages, I decided to photocopy the first three chapters of the book for some light reading. When I met my ex-classmate, Jer (she’s back for further studies), on my way out of the library, she was surprised that I actually photocopied the chapters to read.


The campus still looked the same, except that there was some reconstructive work being done to the Art Gallery. Oh yah, and the school put up many banners on the different buildings too. I saw the faces of a few of my tutors up there like Mrs S, Dr L, Dr Y and even Mr C.


Sigh, I really wish I were back studying instead of working.

~ ~ ~ Skye's telling at 10:01 PM ~ ~ ~
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Out, out, out.


Jos, Xue and I went out today. I’m on leave these few days so I can afford to roam about the island. It’s been a REALLY llllooooooooooooonnnnnnnnggggggggg time since we last went out and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.


I had an urgent meeting this morning so I had to go back to the office for a while. Donald Duck (DD for short), reminded me to buy the grammar book by Michael Swan from Kinokuniya as there was a 20% off for all members. Amazing how he remembered that I’m a member when I do not recall telling him I had the card. Eh, he must have eavesdropped on my conversation with SH when we were talking about buying the grammar book, once the 20% discount is available.


I had to wait for him to finish his document before we could leave the office. When some of my other colleagues saw me on their way to lunch, they asked me why I was looking so irritated. I replied that I was waiting for DD, who was taking such a long time with his document. They started teasing me about him and I was like, “NO WAY! We are NOT together!”


Thank God that MH, my close pal at the office was there. She saved me by saying, “No lah, I don't think that Skye will like DD that kind lah. He’s not smart enough. 哎呀，他那个人真的不够聪明，她是不可能喜欢他的啦！” Bingo!


It seemed like whenever we meet, we would be spending half our time eating! We went to Taka’s Crystal Jade on the fourth floor, for a combined meal of lunch and dinner after spending too much time at Kino. God, we must have looked like three crazy gluttons on an eating spree to the people there. By the time we left the place, I was praying that I would not die of overeating! My jeans were so tight at the stomach by then that I had a difficult time even walking. Ha! Both of them were as bloated as I and one tiny poke in the stomach and out would come their food!


If you CANNOT see the Chinese words above, click 'VIEW', then 'ENCODING', then 'UNICODE' (UTF-8).

~ ~ ~ Skye's telling at 11:24 PM ~ ~ ~
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Dr W.


Yi’s supervisor from campus came to observe her today. She’s really lucky that she got Dr W as her supervisor. He’s quite a nice guy actually, the fatherly and uncle kind. Too bad that he wasn’t my tutor for my Singapore Studies module. I had a PhD student that time and she was not bad at all. Anyway, I had an A for the entire module. Frankly, Singapore Studies was an easy module.


Dr W asked me for my handphone number and expressed his intention of calling Yi and I out for a chat. He wanted to know, in his words, “how well the university has prepared you” for the working world. He also wanted to know how recent graduates are coping with their job. Well, he will definitely be hearing A LOT about it from me!

~ ~ ~ Skye's telling at 11:51 PM ~ ~ ~
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Princess dress.


For the first time since graduation, I wore a dress to work. My colleagues were so surprised to see me in it and you could see them shooting stares in my direction.


They told me that I looked very, very nice and sweet in the dress. Two of them described me as “a demure girl”! ARGH! I was actually offended, though I did not tell them so. This is because the word “demure” to me denotes weakness and calls to mind a simpering female, though the dictionary does not say so. But this was the image that my mind conjured up when I heard the word.


A few of them even told me that I looked like a princess in that dress. I tried not to roll my eyes on hearing it. Sheesh! If I were a princess, then I most definitely would not be suffering there at all. Okay, on the whole, I do admit that I looked really good today. Even MGM was eyeing me out of the corner of his eyes.

~ ~ ~ Skye's telling at 9:35 PM ~ ~ ~
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Presentation.


As part of the course requirements, I had to do a written assignment and give a three-minute presentation of my assignment to my coursemates. Needless to say, it was an ultra-easy assignment to do and I finished it within a day. The presentation was a breeze too. The facilitator of the course gave us our grades immediately after each of us had presented.


Want to guess what grade I got for both? I got As, as usual. Sometimes, I feel that it’s hard to do a piece of work well when I know even before doing it, that I will get an A for it. I mean, there are times when I have felt that it was unnecessary for me to put in much effort to do my stuff, since I will get a good grade for it.


I mean, why do it when you know what grade you will get eventually? To tell the truth, I was disappointed to get an A. Don’t mind me, I’m just being the weird one out.

~ ~ ~ Skye's telling at 6:18 PM ~ ~ ~
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