Wang~wang~wang! Happy Chinese New Year 2006!

It's the time of the year again, where family members, relatives and friends congregate and spend time together updating one another about how one has been doing for the past year, whether good or bad times, and also for some people, it's the time to show off their possessions to peers. To cite an example, you can see how well-off a person has become by seeing the car they drive to your home during Chinese New Year visiting. Haha, anyway, I am the happiest this new year even though I am out of job now, but that one is not of a big problem since I know I would be able to clinch a new job again very soon. I have adequate confidence. The decision to resign from my company was considered a major one, it was rather a difficult decision to make since it was my first job and I always thought that I should have gotten at least a year's work experience before job-hop to another company. I actually felt unhappy working in the company and the urge to leave the company had become stronger as messiness and its disorganisation began to unfold. I didn't give a month's notice to the company as stipulated in the contract that I signed with the company as my boss believed that there's no point holding an employee for another month because he had no intention of working for the company already.

Okay. I won quite a lot of money playing Blackjack with my cousins and my uncle on the 1st day of Chinese New Year. Yeah, I guess this is a good sign since that's a prosperous start. Haha, oh well, I only gamble with them once a year, but it's actually considered not a lot of money being gambled after all, since I don't really quite like to gamble, otherwise I would be on my way to Genting to gamble by now since my luck seems to be quite good apparently.

Just came back from visiting my relative who is turning 95 years old this year. My family must pay him a visit once a year during Chinese New Year. He seems to have grown weak this year, he had to depend on crutches this year to walk out from his room. He still seems alert though, but not as chatty as before. Thin and some part of his skin seemed rather black, probably due to dead skin. Hmm...

Photos before CNY 06

Highly dependant on medication

I have to rely on two types of medication, namely Panako & Anarex. Panako is a combination of Paracetamol(or Panadol in 500 mg) and Codeine Phosphate(9 mg) for which it is for the pain and fever. The other one which I am taking, Anarex, that's for relaxing the muscles(specifically to my chest muscles which are aching). It composes of Orphenadrine Citrate(35 mg) and Paracetamol BP in 450 mg. I wonder what's the difference when there's a BP after it. Anyway, these two can make you feel very very drowsy as both have combined almost 1 g of Paracetamol. After watching one episode of Choong Siong Wan Siu (Triumph in the Skies), I felt the drowsiness starting to creep into my body already. My ache was relieved over the night, but the next morning it will come again. The ache is like a 1 ton iron bar imposing pressure on the chest, even when I am typing this entry, I tend to bend my body to 60 degree angle to horizontal line because the chest seems to be rather heavy. Actually it's not so much of a pain, but it's the uneaseness and feeling of tightness in the chest.

Anyway, Mich's birthday falls on tomorrow. Hehe, when I went home previously, I learned how to bake chocolate chips cookies from my mom and so I did it and then moulded some into love-shaped cookies so as to be given to Mich at midnight of her birthday. Oh well, for some pieces of the cookies, the textures were not so soft and not so loose and MOST PROBABLY it could have been due to TWO reasons, which were high level of hand-moulding and also water content was not adequate OR the flour was overproportioned. I feel that it's like concreting theory in some way. Haha. Bought a soft transparency flowery wrapper to wrap up the cookies, and then the primary present that I bought her was the novel Memoirs of Geisha (with Zhang Ziyi's face on the book cover). Tried in vain to search for its original book version by Arthur Gadden, but I thought the former would cover similar kind of tale about the Geisha. And then finally I bought a cute paper bag to contain all these. The last thing to do is to find a 1/2 kg cake today which I haven't bought now. Still early after all. Haha. My wish for her birthday is that she will have good health, if not excellent health this year, and she would be able to clinch one of the three pharmacist positions at her workplace so that she can still stay within walking distance of her workplace. Happy Birthday Honey Bunny!

Picking up the last speck of dust

I went back to office this morning to settle all the outstanding matters pertaining to my job, then I could see the unhappy and rather black face of my lady boss. She seemed not to be able to give the last smile to me. Perhaps it's due to the fact that I didn't give a month's notice for which earlier on I made a pact with my boss(her husband) that flexibility could come into play as long as a site job is concerned. Anyway, they were lenient enough to give me full month's salary even though I am gonna end my job today. But I actually have unclaimed annual leave to be included into the outstanding salary so it's alright. For the time being, I believe that I need a month's time to rest, but I have to find part time job to support my living here, since on top of the food and travelling expenditures, there are still a few loan repayments have to be made every month. Fortunately, I have managed to change my spending pattern into not lavish kind already. As a result, I still have some money to last me for at least three months while I look for a new job.

Resigned

Yes, I just did. My worsening health condition triggered an early resignation which I think is highly justifiable since health is the top priority of life. I went to see a GP at a clinic near my company yesterday, it took me an hour's waiting time to be called in to talk to the doctor. Anyway, despite being long-winded, he seemed to be an experienced doctor that has loads of advice to offer. Back to my health, what about it then? I've been grappling with chest pains recently, worst was yesterday. What causes it then? I think it's the work-related stress that has caused it. What's so stressful about my work then?It's the inactivity that is stressful coupled with parents' pressure(self-induced partly). I found it tough to tell my boss of my intention of quitting because since I haven't found myself a new job and that losing this job would lead to loss of income and then I would have no money to send home. I pondered too much in this process resulting in an extremely painful experience which I never want to experience it again if possible. At this moment, I just want to recuperate.

Be careful when you enter the lift

Recently there have been several cases of robbery which takes place inside lifts in HDB flats. So to all my friends, be careful and take note of any suspicious person, especially when they are coming into the lift wearing a helmet! Just trust your instinct, leave the lift at once! Otherwise, it would have been safer if you move to private apartments or condominiums, so as to avoid such problem, or at least put it to minimal risk! On top of that, you won't have salesperson knocking on your door, coaxing you to buy his latest home applicances or gadgets!

Wasted!

Would you buy vacuum cleaner which is at a hefty price of SGD3000 dollars plus? Yes, my gf just did. $830 was paid on-the-spot for the downpayment, and then a 2-year-instalment of $100 per month will be paid. She said that she just couldn't say no to the two direct salespersons who went to her house and convinced her to make the purchase.Right after she signed the contract, she gradually started to realize that what she did was a mistake. A grave mistake. The worst thing was that because she was afraid that I would be angry with her, she didn't let me know until the next day. Oh dear, was that a case of hypnotic coaxing?I think it will remain an unsolved mystery.

Job change is needed

I need a job change! The things I have to learn at work has attained a saturated level where I can no longer learn more new things, especially when the senior engineer whom I have been made by my boss to follow around seems to be rather reluctant to impart his knowledge on me. As you all know that my company is rather a SME type of company so fundamentally every teeny weeny of task have to be done as there was not office staffs, despite the fact that my boss just thought that it is alright about the strength of our office staffs. At the beginning, there had been room to learn new skills in a small company, which was the value-adding factor that I had in mind upon clinching this job. Resignation intent is now expectedly pervasive in my mindset, given that a month's notice has to be made beforehand. It's been 6 months plus since my career kicked off as an engineer, and actually being an engineer is alright to me. Just that my company's organisation system has been truly messy. Perhaps it's where they came from. Undoubtedly, my lack of experience which started off as a fresh graduate doesn't give me the pass to make a major revamp in the company, as I can't be having the ability, isn't it?It's all about the rhythm of collaborative work with colleagues.