The Chinese New Year Post

As promised.

Chinese New Year is diluted in Singapore. And that is a fact. We can hardly feel the joy and festivity of the holiday this year. It just came and went.

This Chinese New Year, yours truly made some discoveries:

1) Someone casually mentioned if I were going to someone's (a mutual friend) house on MSN. I could only say, no, not invited. I used to hang out with this bunch of people, till they get married one by one. To satisfy my curiosity, I casually ask P about the visitation. She knew about it, but didn't know that I wasn't invited.

I think I was probably not invited because a) I am not married, b) I am the much thinner among all of them who are married c) I am only good to ask to help write a termination letter to an employee, but not for house vistation.

Fine. It's the second time that I got the same treatment from the couple. The 1st person and P, upon hearing that I was not invited, asked the host why. The answer was, a) she forgot to sms me b) she msn-ed me. It's her word against mine.

Well obviously, my response ain't that important.

2) I guess the organiser who arranges "gatherings" for my group of friends from secondary school wasn't that keen to organise anymore of these things. I think nobody responded to her call to suggest ideas for the meeting. The meeting was cancelled.

When I msn her, she doesn't seem keen to talk to me. I guess I can officially stay away from future gatherings.

3) I gave away ang pows this year! :D Felt weird that our staff started work on the 5th day without a ang pow (I usually receive this at my former workplaces) as the boss is away on holiday. So after some thought, I decided that I should behave like a proper boss and gave them ang pows. Call me Chinese, I just think that it feels weird not to do that.

I also thought it's time that I think and act like a businesswoman, and not a money-pinching staff.

So I did it. :D I am an adult now! :D

4) Oh, I got myself a new phone :D I have exchanged the phone that was part of a get-over celebration for a Motorola Q9 Smart Phone.

I have been eying on it, along with the Blackberry HTC Dual for a while now. Can't decide which one buy. Ended buying this because:
a) It is cheaper :D
b) I don't like the sliding phone; feel that it is straining my right hand.
c) Don't like to dirty my screen with fingerprints.
d) I don't know that it is rumoured that Motorola is going selling away their money-losing mobile phone division :d
e) I have forgotten about the bad experience I have had with the Motorola Service Centre.
f) I need to have Windows Mobile 6 on my phone to syn my calendar and contacts.

Only bane now is that it does not support Chinese input. Other than that, I think it's an ok phone, though some features are pretty retarded (when I reply to a message, I cannot add in other nos.) But still ok, not life and death issues.

I have only owned it for 5 days, so yet to report any major glaring fault or nice features. One thing though, it does look like a Blackberry. Haha... But I think it looks better.

5) My cousin tries to get me into MLM again. This time, the strategy is go listen to someone talk about having a millionaire mind. And this time, it's really getting into me, because I can feel that he is trying to be nice to my parents, let me see that he is nice to them, then hopefully I can join in their 'crusades'.

Like I have mentioned in my previous entries, I am so totally uninterested in MLM. I know they think I am probably a good target. But really, I don't want to be bugged by any of them who wants to sell me MLM. Its irritating.

So anyway, I will ignore their invitations lah. Hope they get it.

Yep. That's my Chinese New Year story. How was yours?

My Own Time

I've never been so aware of the minutes and hours that belong to me and me alone. Not until I've started on this job. And not until this week.

As workload (supposedly) begin to wind down because of the Chinese New Year break, I felt kinda lost at the temporary ownership of my personal time. It's like someone just gave me a bag of my own time and say "here, this is yours, use it freely."

I've forgotten how to make good use of my personal time. So I just sit in front of the familiar computer screen and click away, or watch American tv shows online. Habitually, I would stay up late, even though I know tomorrow I need not go to the office.

The truth of the matter is, there is no such thing as my personal time since the job took over. I do not have to worry how do I spend my "free time" cos they are always used to finish projects. When I am at work, I do not ponder about where do I want to have dinner or which movie should I catch for a long time.

I am still not used to some free time on my own. I don't know what to do with them. Well, it won't be long till I lose it again under piles of work.

My hope this week is that I'd be able to manage my time and get good rest this week to tide me over the work road ahead.

That I would luxuriate in this period where I own my personal time. That I would treasure and cherish this little amount of time I have with myself.