This brings a smile...

it is funny.... funny, how my ang moh boss (aka director) thinks i'm direct.

personally, i think i am, but still manageable and under control (i know when to keep my mouth shut 95% of the time). but i think i throw him off guard. i guess he never expects an asian to be blunt.

he told our customer today over drinks that i'm a very direct person. not once, but a couple of times... then, he started illustrating examples. wau kows, i don't know if that is good or bad. i don't really give a damn shite, to be honest.

my director is a very straight forward person too (sometimes too much, in my opinion) but i like it.. no bullshit, yes!

bs drains the hell out of me.

andy, you hit my soft spot.

me and him were talking random stuff. i wasn't feeling anything till....

........
Andy says:
and one day

Andy says:
we will be having fun together

Andy says:
at the same place

loraAc says:
i CAN't wait for that day when everyone can be at the same place again

Andy says:
it will happen

(this is where i burst out crying)
Andy says:
when we can do christmas dinners together at each others homes

Andy says:
u go back first

Andy says:
i will follow later

hey dude, i can't wait for that to happen...when we can all have dinners together at each others homes. till then, all the best and take care!

prior to being a christian, i hated it when 'church people' call you up to do some sort of follow up. there is this expectation for you to come regularly after the first time. to me, that was annoying.

however, now, i feel differently. i am so grateful, honored and thankful for their concern. at least, from MY friends from church. these people were just acquaintance a year ago but slowly and steadily, became friends who are truly concern for me.

i haven't been feeling good since i came back. to make matter worse, work has been busy. i just don't have the energy to go for bible study every friday. it is draining to have your mind run 15 hours on a friday, not to mention 10 hours for the days prior.

when i didn't show up, one of them will definitely call to see if i'm okay. i appreciate that and i don't find it annoying. BECAUSE, they don't have to. they did it because they thought about me and they WANT to.

remember, no one has the obligation to do anything for a person. it is nice when people think about you.

in this fudging busy society where we sometime don't even have the time to eat, how often do we actually thought of someone besides your boyfriend/girlfriend? and besides that, do we even have the energy to bother calling them up?

pictures speak a thousand words.

i just won $56 for nailing the due date of michael's baby and 2nd place went to pete who won $14 (80/20 game rule)

americans have this game that they play.. $5 from everyone, whoever guess the correct date of the due date or closest to it wins.

initially, i think is pretty bo liao to waste money like that but since i won, i think is money well spent.

on another note, when i came back to work last monday, i nearly fainted when i saw my desk area. it was like a snowstorm just hit california. young and pete had styrofoam all over my desk and bubble wrapped my desktop to welcome me back... oh boy! i was so tired cleaning everything up.

pictures later.. i forgot to save them to my flash drive.

no wonder, when pete and i were on the phone on sunday, he told me not to hate him when i get in to work the next day. whatever it is, he is not the mastermind and he die die also refused to tell me what it is.

is payback time..

young knows that i will retaliate so everytime he has to close his room door whenever he leaves the office. haha.. serves him right.. he will definitely get it, is only a matter of when.

on another note, united airline customer service has almost no existence.

i would never (although never say never) take united again if have a choice. i value customer service big time, i don't mind paying a premium just so that i get treated well or decently. that explains why i don't take american airlines on international routes. i have no problem paying two, three hundred more just so that i don't have to face attitude with the crew.

earlier on the day of departure, i wanted to change my departure time and thrice, THRICE, i was put on hold for more than 10 min. not to mention that prior to that, i had to go thru that stupid robot.

and they lost my baggage. these bloody asses, no wonder they go into bankruptcy.

so now let us wait and see how long they will take to deliver it. the last i checked, they did manage to find it and is on transit here.

oh by the way, when i was put on hold for more than 10 min, i didnt even get to speak to any of these suckers cause i got tired of waiting.

goodbye united, you just lost one customer who travels quite a bit.

i'm finally back!

i have been on the road for a week and nothing beats being back home.

i have tonnes of pictures of chicago.. and there are all incredibly amazing. personally, this is the best city i have ever visited. even though, the weather is not something to be boast about, i have beautiful sights of this city to keep me occupied with then to focus on the cold.

and this was also the 1st time that i pretty much travelled alone. when mark and the rest of the gang were here, we always go on trips together so i was very well taken care of. i kind of grew up more along the way and not to mention that i have been very lucky. i originally planned to take the amtrak (train) to chicago from kalamazoo and the day before, danielle decided to cancel her flight and join me in the train trip.

also, it was great to be able to walk around by myself, absorbing the beauty of this place and at the same time, if i needed companionship, i can join the girls so that also worked out great.

it was a tiring one week but a very very memorable one too :)

kobe beef burger and truffle tries. yum yum.. now, i have higher expectation of fries.
this is how the water is supposed to look like when is dyed green.
of course, i need to show you my fun room in chicago. isn't this cool? i wanted something different so here i am, at hotel allegro!

deep dish PIZZA @ lou malnati. fantastic! how can one be here and not try this!
isn't this interesting? parking is so exciting here!
st pat's day! it was crazy. all these people, including myself were waiting to see the river dye green. is a tradition here. it took a while and i was hungry so in the end we went to grab some food. halfway to the bar, it snowed!

the park outside navy pier. what a beautiful day! clear blue sky but pretty windy.


oh chicago! what a beautiful skyline. a shot taken from the navy pier.
the few shots below were taken from John Hancock building. up@ 94th story. the views were magnificent. the moment i walked out of the elevator, i was speechless. i was up at the empire state building @ new york city too but this was much better. you get the lake view and city life, all in one.




buildings in chicago were gorgeous. the architecture is very european. being here reminds me much of home. tonnes of high rise buildings and very clean.

it has been 3 wonderful days in chicago.

it snowed on me this morning as i was coming back to the hotel from the hair salon. pretty romantic sight.

todays is st. patrick's day. the streets were filled with people, bars were jam-packed. like seriously, crazily packed. tonnes of people were lining up trying to get into bars... cause is a big tradition to drink like crazy on this day

i didn't have much cause i have a plane to catch. just went to the bar for lunch and had 2 bottles. my crazy friends are going bar-hopping the whole day. they are leaving tmr so is fine.. today, is also the 1st time i tried truffle fries.. oh boy, it does make a diff.

anyhow, got to run... leaving in minutes to the airport. will tell more when i get home.

i just aDOrE & LoVe chicago.

fabulous city but.... very cold. emm.. about 2-3 celsius.

just simply love it, love it!

this windy city is like singapore and so much cleaner and less dense than new york city.

i think (remember, is think....) i can give up my sunny weather in california to live in this fabulous city. maybe im just lucky that today is just very cold and not slushly with dirty snow.

anyhow whatever, never been happier. being here is great! i love city life with everything close by.

not to mention, i have 2 very crazy friends. typical sorority gals. under normal circumstances, i won't even think twice of hanging out with these people but u know what, is actually pretty fun. oh boy, they can really sweet talk their way through and at this italian restaurant, we even managed to get a plate of 6 diff flavors of gelato for free. shiok.

this is so damn cool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3Ez0TpeLL8

go check it people..

clip done by fanny when we went tahoe for skiing. i looked quite kuku and abit shy. hahahaha.

well done fanny! thanks a billion.

oh boy, michigan is pretty damn cold but not as bad as i expected it to be. snow is everywhere.

not too big on the seminar though. is all about teaching you how to sell a product. is great if i were to embark on the business manager route but nop, i'm not. americans do that much better. i suck as bs-ing so i'm the quietest one in class. not liking it here. time needs to pass faster so that i can go chicago and PLAY.

i hate it here now. 4 more days to go.

oh boy, michigan is pretty damn cold but not as bad as i expected as it to be.

not too big on the seminar though. is all about teaching you how to sell a product. is great if i were to embark on the business manager route but nop, i'm not. americans do that much better. i suck as bs-ing so i'm the quietest one in class. not liking it here. time needs to pass faster so that i can go chicago and PLAY.

i hate it here now. 4 more days to go.

lifz has been good to me.

i just had my performance review. it went very well. i'm thankful.

thankful that i have such great bosses (though is not rosy all the time, i am very lucky compare to most of my peers)

how great it is if i have mark and my family here to share the joy.

just either would be good enough. am i greedy?

you know what i feel like.... a princess trapped in a castle.

i read the post on mr brown's blog --- "breed", that even less educated women don't want children.

not surprising in my opinion.

if is not for my faith, that is exactly what i plan to do. children are a hugh liability. returns are not only zero but might go into deficit too.

this is one issue that mark and i have been squabbering about. it has been an issue for a while now.. with no consensus quite yet.

i admire my parents. how can one be so selfless? that i dont know. if you ask me if i would spend XXX,XXX amount to send my child overseas for an education.. highly impossible would be my most honest answer.

worries come with having children. as if, work and life have not enough of that already.

one more? no thanks.

but then, God says to cast all anxiety on him. that's why i say, if is not for my faith, i would not even think twice about this issue .

pretty ironic.

singapore felt the tremor from sumatra yesterday. a pretty strong one i would say, 6.3 on the richie scale. just last week, pete warned me about earthquake here as northern to central california have had that recently and us folks should be next down the strip ....

but the unexpected. singapore felt it first.

oh dammit. i hate next week. going to freeze my arse off.

will be off to michigan and chicago for seminar first and then a 3 days' vacation. temp hovering around -ve to low positive; not to mention the wind chill factor, esp in CHICAGO. how great is that!

being the kiasu singaporean to prevent myself from getting frozen, im stuffing my suitcase with clothes. i'm trying to make sure that everything can fit into my cabin bag but from the looks of it, that ain't happen i think.

oh dammit.

i'm okay. though not great but still hanging there.

some days were good and some not so.. and i know that alot of people care for me so im slowly picking myself up.

just as i type, the tree outside my house is starting to bloom. weird but yes, flowers are popping out from the branches.

california is gorgeous. the other day as i was driving home, i could see snow on the mountain and yet it was 70 farenheit (about 22 celsius) here in the city with clear blue sky. where else can i get this?

work has been good. in an effort to cheer me up, my sbm asked if i wanted to join him and his wife for korean food on saturday. soon, it became quite an outing with my director coming along. it was fun and the food were fantastic. i have been lucky to have such great bosses.

life has been good to me but the puzzle is not complete.