the nclave

a little enclave for me in the vast ocean of the web. here's hoping i'll look back on all these someday, and be glad for it.

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Location: Singapore

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

ching chong business


Details of my trip have been more or less finalised as per the itinerary on the right. Flying off on the morning of 14 May, and returning to Singapore at dawn on 17 May. Will be spending about 5 hours in transit in Beijing back and forth, so any ideas of what to do for 5 hours in the Beijing airport would be most welcome...

Quite exciting to be flying business class for the first time! (yes, I know I'm most suaku)

Will be staying at Golden Gulf Hotel, which is apparently one of the best hotels in Yantai. Click here to read more about it.

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Monday, May 07, 2007

a smashing afternoon...

Thanks to the generosity of HEP, Ad and I got a couple of passes to the corporate box for the Aviva Open 2007.

Had a similarly good time as last year, enjoying the exciting matches and the food, drinks and comfort of the VIP lounge. And as with last year, I managed to get some good deals for Yonex apparel and shoes.

Am most inspired now to go play badminton. Looking forward to Wednesday's session! :)


For more details and results, click here.

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scratch, scratch...ouch!

So the eczema was itchy, but it can't really beat the pain of forking out another 231 buckaroos for the 2nd appointment at the dermatologist's on Saturday....ouch.... :(

It's the cost of the medication that kills, so it had better work wonders!

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Friday, May 04, 2007

humour of the day

Lost on a rainy night, a nun stumbled across a monastery and requests shelter there.

Fortunately, she's just in time for dinner and was treated to the best fish and chips she had ever tasted.

After dinner, she went into the kitchen to thank the chefs. She was met by two of the Brothers.

The first one says, "Hello, I am brother Michael, and this is Brother Charles."

"I'm very pleased to meet you," replies the nun. "I just wanted to thank you for a wonderful dinner. The fish and chips were the best I've ever had. Out of curiosity, who cooked what?"

Brother Charles replied, "Well, I'm the fish friar."

She turned to the other Brother and says "then you must be...?"

"Yes, I'm afraid I'm the chip monk."

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Thursday, May 03, 2007

Glee!

Just received written notice that the TOP for The Nclave is estimated to be granted in about 3 months' time. Most exciting! :)

On the other hand, that means it's time to fork out the second 10%, plus stamp duty. Which involves liaising with CPF, UOB, lawyers, and not to mention having to top up any cash difference and start paying off the mortgage, which translates to further destitution. Such party poopers.

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Itchy Business

I apparently have eczema.

Started during Exercise Voyager, and it's been a long-drawn battle since then.

At its peak, I was in Macau with my hands covered with blisters. Went to see Dr Ang Por of Dermatology Associates at Paragon Medical Centre when I returned from Macau, and was given a steroid injection, a 2-week course of oral steroids, and topical steroid cream.

The skin responded very well to treatment, and the blisters went away in a few days. The dead skin is currently peeling off with a vengeance.

However, upon finishing the oral steroids on Sunday, the itch came back on Monday, and by Tuesday, it was apparent that the damned eczema has not surrendered. Tried to make an appointment to see Dr Ang yesterday, but she's on leave and will only be back on Friday, and so I guess I'll have to stick with my appointment on Saturday.

In the meantime, the itch is back, the rashes are back (more numerously so on the torso), and the blisters are starting to return. God help me..... :(

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A step closer to home...

Things have also been moving on the housing front.

We met with Sean on 19 April 2007 to view the computer graphics for our interior design. It was most exciting to have a visual reference as to what our home will eventually look like. Spent a couple of hours tweaking the design, and instructing on the changes to be made, and we’re scheduled to see the revised drawings on 2 June 2007. :)

We have decided to scrap the idea of a revolving TV panel though, since Roxy Homes is not cooperating. On that note, let it be placed on record that the customer service for Roxy Homes Pte Ltd is sorely wanting, and they do not even have the courtesy to respond to our emails. While we acknowledge they are not under any legal obligation to accommodate our variation requests, it is just plain rudeness to dismiss the requests with a curt email, and thereafter ignore our further emails. I would thus warn all friends to beware and avoid buying a property from Roxy Homes (which is under the Grand Mercure group) if you do not wish to encounter bad customer service. Sean has also shared that he is encountering massive problems with Grand Mercure in another project where they have delayed maintenance and rectification works for prolonged periods. Well, I’m not prepared to take any further nonsense from them. If the rectification works exceed the deadline by even one day, my letter of demand is going out to them.

Having said that, construction progress appears to be moving along fine. In fact, it looks simply great! :)





For the entire collection of photos from barren ground to its present state, click here. Can’t wait for the keys to be handed to us. :)

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A step closer to the aisle...

Went to meet with Willy of LiveStudios last Friday. Their office is situated at the end of some remote lane near Novena MRT. Upon viewing his portfolio and pricing schemes, we’ve duly engaged them to be our actual day photographers. Now all we need is an affordable videographer. :)

On the same night, we went down to town for late-night shopping, and upon reaching Goldheart Jewelry at Centrepoint, we saw the perfect pair of wedding bands - half-eternity design for Ad, and a matt-chrome combination for me - and we promptly bought it! The brand new rings should arrive from Switzerland by late July, just in time to be used for the photoshoot on 17 August.

So 27 April 2007 marks a day of massive spending, but it’s money well spent! :)

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Goodbye....and hello!

11 April 2007 was my last day of work at WTL. By sheer coincidence, I had spent exactly 10 months in WTL, and I am grateful for the learning opportunity which it had proved to be. Much as I feel bad about “abandoning” the firm which very obviously needs its associates, I guess I simply had to do it for the greater long-term good of my career path. I will certainly miss the great work-life balance though.

After returning from Macau, it was a week of rest for me, but it flew past in the blink of an eye. Before I knew it, I had started work at A&G on 23 April 2007.

It is only now that I realise why my first employers cannot compete in the big league yet. This place is truly huge, and has brilliantly solid infrastructure to facilitate the management and day-to-day operations. Evident of this is that fact that I had a proper orientation programme planned for me on my first day, taking up ¾ of the day with personal briefings from the various departments - HR, Admin, Finance, IS, etc. I am duly impressed with my new employers.

And frankly speaking, they do take care of their lawyers pretty well. Save for the workload, which I have yet to properly experience, I think this place might well be worth staying for some time. Plus the fact that God has blessed me with seemingly nice bosses, and I haven’t heard anything to the contrary yet. :)

My first week was really quite boring, as there was no work for me. I toyed with the idea of going to ask for work, but was advised by various parties that it might prove to be suicidal, and that I should just enjoy this slack period while I can. Finally attended a kick-off meeting for a new IPO this Monday, and the work should start building up soon. Am currently slated to head off to China from 14 to 19 May for due diligence, and while it sounds somewhat exciting, I’m not sure whether I should be looking forward to it at all. After all, due diligence is NEVER fun! And it doesn’t help that we’ll be dealing with Chinese clients, which means a lot of drinking. The bosses have asked me to brush up on my drinking ability, but that’s a really really tall order.

Been bugging the IS Dept to give me a blackberry, as I keep harbouring an irrational fear that I could be missing some urgent email from the bosses after office hours. Much as I don’t want it, I hate to admit that a blackberry is essential for the job. :( They appear to be currently out of stock, so I’d better enjoy this period of freedom from emails while it lasts.

I am also pleased to find out that A&G has a pretty active badminton thing going on as well. Have signed up for the legal vs. business services challenge in late May, and have been playing with the legal team for the past 2 Wednesday evenings. Coupled with my existing sessions on Saturday mornings, it should help to maintain a bit of fitness. Should throw in some jogging as well though. Sigh.

So that’s that. A new milestone, a new journey. May God direct my path. :)

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The Unbeatables...

12 - 14 April 2007 - Macau/HK trip

Had a taste of what it would be like to be in The Amazing Race, when our original destination of Bangkok was abruptly changed to Macau just one day before departure. This last-minute change can be credited to the darned fool in Bangkok who decided to set off a minuscule bomb in a phone booth, sending Ad’s parents into a frenzied panic.

So anyway, it turned out all good. Managed to change our Tiger Airways flight, and also cancel our Novotel Bangkok booking (forfeited 1 night’s charges), and secured a last minute booking at Grandview Hotel in Macau for a fraction of the usual price.

The flight took about 3.5 hours, but it was a lot more pleasant than my previous flight to Macau when I had to sit next to my boss. Upon arrival, we managed to figure out the public bus to take, and got to our hotel in mere minutes. Got bumped up to an Executive room, dumped our stuff in the room, and promptly headed off to catch the free hotel shuttle to the Macau Ferry Terminal.

A word about the shuttle - It’s amazing that almost every hotel has a shuttle bus service to the ferry terminal, which runs every 15 minutes or thereabouts. This meant that we could get around to practically everywhere for free, with the ferry terminal as the central “interchange”. Most cool.

So anyway, we explore Fisherman’s Wharf, had a pork cutlet sandwich, and strolled around the very expensive shops. Came across a nice shop selling all things casino, and bought a card dealer for Irwin & Gigi.

It was off to Sands after that, and made a few hundred HK bucks at blackjack. Then went to New Yaohan, where we bought some cool stuff for The Nclave. Essentially some mahjong cushions and a huge lightbulb! Back to the hotel, and ordered room service for dinner. Good stuff, but a tad oily.

We had bought our ferry tickets before heading back to the hotel, and the next morning, arose bright and early to grab breakfast at the lobby lounge, and then on to the ferry to HK at 9.30am.
The journey took about an hour, but the seat was so comfortable I simply slept through it all. Upon reaching HK, we hopped onto a cab to Ocean Park, which we figured is an economically sounder choice than Disneyland. Unfortunately, Ad had a migraine attack just as we approached the entrance, and we thus ended up not taking any of the rides at all. Wasted a lot of time on the escalators, but managed to catch a short little show about dog training.

Hopped onto a public bus again to the nearest MTR station, and took a train to Mongkok station. Ad had a second migraine attack, but managed to weather through it bravely. Emerged at Mongkok, and asked a stranger for recommendations for dim sum. The food was pretty good, though I’m sure we could have found an even better place if we had time to do more research prior to the trip.

Went to the Ladies’ Market for shopping, and bought plenty of stuff for everybody back home. Didn’t really get anything or myself though. The market was loooooong, and it was almost dark by the time we reached the end. Chanced upon a Krispy Kremes outlet, and just HAD TO stop for a donut. Thereafter it was a long walk down Nathan Road to Tsim Tsa Tsui, to catch the ferry back to Macau. Very tiring, but generally a good day in HK. :)

Back in Macau, we got on the shuttle for Wynn casino, and won another few hundred HK bucks at blackjack. Ate at a restaurant in the casino, where the noodles were pretty good and affordable. By the time we emerged from Wynn, the shuttles had stopped operating, and we had to walk to the main road to grab a cab back to the hotel. Zzzzz….

On Day 3, we slept in and missed breakfast. Woke up, checked out, left our luggage at the concierge, and went to explore Taipa Village. Ate at a supposedly very good Portuguese restaurant, but the food was only reasonably good. Strolled around a bit, then hailed a cab to the ruins of St. Paul’s Church. Explored a bit, took some photos, bought some local goodies for the folks, then strolled through the heart of Macau. It was a small place, and we covered it in no time. Had a nice sundae on the 2nd storey balcony of a Haagen Daaz outlet, and just sat there watching the world go by below us. Lovely.

We then walked down to the Grand Lisboa for some final punting, and promptly lost all the earlier winnings plus some additional monies. Oh well, gotta do our part for the economy right?

Then it was back to Fisherman’s Wharf for dinner and a nice American outlet styled like Billy Bombers. We had a FEAST, and the food was really quite good too. Before we knew it, it was time to head back to the hotel and grab our bags for departure. Ad got hit with another migraine attack just as we reached the hotel, and we thus rested for a while at the lobby lounge with an iced milo, before heading out to the airport by cab. Home sweet home!

Thank God for making the trip happen despite all the hiccups and last minute bookings, and for keeping us safe and sound throughout! For more pictures, click here.

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