tales from the mainland...

Well, this is not much of a tale but more of the high and low lights of the journey through the cities of China by Mr Kevin Chan, Mr Gerard Wong-Wong & yours truly, Ms Wu-Hoo*.

Hi-Lites (of which, there are many)

Beijing – where we did the touristy things

A couple of good Yanjing Beer at Hou Hai Lake District on our first evening
Hou Hai Lake district is becoming a more happening area in Beijing, especially in the evenings over the popular Sanlitun Entertainment Area, which we didn’t go. Hou Hai Lake district was good enough for us.

Being on top of the Great Wall
We went to Badaling, which was very touristy. There are other parts of the Great Wall which would be more interesting and perhaps not too crowded with tourists. Hence, the Great Wall will not be off my list yet.

Riding on rickshaw in and around Hutong
This was after a failed attempt to maneuver a tri-cycle between the three of us. We discovered many things along the way. It was interesting to see how people lived there. Also, our rickshaw rider was such a joker. He kept us well entertained with his wierd sense of humour.

Enjoying a good Acrobatic Show by Chinese Youth at the Theatre
We were definitely impressed by the performance. A group of young girls were able to flip metal bowls to each other while balancing themselves on their cycle while we failed to even balance a tri-cycle.

Walking around the Summer Palace
It is no Chateau de Versailles or Leeds Castle but it was nice nonetheless.

Having the best Peking Duck in town in Beijing
It was well worth the journey to the other part of the city (we were stuck in traffic for a bit) because we had a very good meal.

Being at Tiananmen Square at night
Had to be done. The atmosphere around the square was good. Plus, good photo opportunity.

Kevin & Ger flying a kite at Tiananmen Square
Re-living their childhood I suppose.

Hangzhou – where we did the recreational things

The West Lake
We rode on bicycles around the lake and made stops along the way for visit to a temple, climb up a pagoda and photo stops. Racing Kevin & John (Ger’s brother) was a lost cause since I never seem to be able to get ahead of them anyway. We had a boat ride in the evening and ending it with a delicious dinner & a good cold Siwo beer at this posh restaurant by the Lake

Nature trail at Bamboo garden
How often does a person like me get on these nature trails in Singapore anyway? Hence, it is a highlight for me.

Shanghai – where we did the cool things

The walk down the Bund & River Cruise on the Hangpu River
Failed to do these during my last two visits to Shanghai, so this had to be done. It was a nice way to enjoy the view of the city.

Enjoying the view of the Bund from Mark’s (Kevin’s friend) apartment
Fantastic view, good wine and great company. What more could you ask for?

Drinks at a bar called Face in the French Quarter
It felt like we were in a villa away from the city but this bar is situated in the middle of the city. Met some new people. Good atmosphere.

Yunnan Mian at Super Brand Mall
The noodles were delish. I am longing for it now. The side dishes that John & Feng Yi (John’s fiancée) ordered were excellent too!

Meals at Xintiandi (Kevin’s favourite spot in Shanghai)
Kevin and I went back there a couple of times after Mark brought us there for a Chinese dinner a couple of evenings before. We had fabulous dinner & cocktail (Shanghai Fling) at Luna on Saturday night and a very nice brunch at Kabb on Sunday afternoon.

Cocktails at Cloud 9 on the 87th floor of the Jin Mao Tower
We were there on our final evening in China. It was a good way to end the holiday – enjoying some nice cocktails and the view from up the clouds.

Lo-Lites (of which, there are few… thank god!)

Kevin’s luggage went missing in action. It showed up 3 days after he arrived in Beijing.

Yours truly fell sick on the night before going to the Great Wall. It was such a struggle to get through the day when you can’t consume anything but water because your body just refused to take anything else in.

The other low-light for yours truly would be forgetting to apply sun block and bring my hat on the last day in Shanghai. Now, I am burned!

Ger lose his wallet in Beijing – credit cards, bankcard and some cash were lost. It may have dropped in the taxi. He spent the evening and the following morning sorting out the cancellation and the getting some financial assistance.

Little things that mattered (to some of us)

Starbucks Coffee
Call us crazy but one needs a real good cup of coffee to start off the day.

Ice Cream at Haagen Daaz
Ok, I know that this is too much but we needed the sugar fix. The outlet is just there right in front of us. It is not like we went looking for it. I am in love with dulce de leche.

Having a good piece of steak
After a load of Chinese food all week, a good piece of steak is definitely in order.

In conclusion ladies and jellyspoons, as far as I am concerned, this has been a very good holiday. Already planning the next holiday now.

Photos from this holiday are being sorted out as we speak. Watch this space!

* - We adopted Chinese names for ourselves while in Hangzhou. Wong-wong is the chinese version of a dog barking i.e. woof-woof, if anyone was wondering.

high..

I am high on the happy side… despite being tired still, had a bad sun burn on my face and shoulders, my luggage went missing in action while in transit and having to go to work today after only landing in Singapore only the day before.

The last ten days has been the longest ten days but in a good way. I’ve spent ten days in the good company of Kevin and Ger in good ol’ China on a holiday. It started off with a stumble but there was no letup after that. Good times were had.

I’ve been to China before but only to Shanghai and it was for work. This time around, it was for a holiday. I left that country with a different impression – a good one. China has its setbacks but if you look beyond that, this country has much potential. There are still much to be developed but from what I’ve seen, they are getting there. Hong Kong! Singapore ! Watch out !!

There will be more details of the holiday in the next few days. I am trying to get back to the hang of things – that is the one thing I don’t like about holidays… the end of it. I used to get awfully depressed when returning from holidays but this holiday has ended with a high. So, I am happy despite it being a somewhat short holiday. I hope to maintain this feeling for a while.

let me entertain you...

Being the music junkie that I am, I cannot go about my day without music. Ok, so my taste my music may not be impeccable but who does? Taste in music is very subjective. What could be music to my ears may be noise to another. (This also applies to what you think is beautiful. I think Hugh Grant is gorgeous but other girls may beg to differ.)

The first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is turn on the music. I listen to music while I am in the shower (off course, volume will have to be turned on real loud for me to hear anything behind the closed doors). I listen to music while I get dressed and put on my face. I listened to music while travelling on the bus, the train, the plane.

If there is no music, there is a void in my day. I don't seem to know how much time have passed without music - average song is about 4 mins each. If I have listened to 5 songs, I know that approximately 20 minutes have passed. Crazy, yes but it works for me.

However, during my travels, those times in my hotel room without music just drives me up the wall. Yes, I can listen using my earphones but I can't possibly be using the earphones with my iPod when I am in the shower. There has been occasion where I wanted to bring small speakers but apparently they are not small enough to fit in my damn luggage. So, yesterday, I invested a small fund in a small speaker.

Edifier MP220

Features:
Dual powered USB, AC/DC, all in one Portable Stereo System for amazing bass performance. (USB power cord Included)
3.5mm line input, connect to all types of Portable PC, MP3 Players, CD Players, PDA and etc
High performance neodynium micro driver
Worldwide 100-240V AC/DC power adaptor
Power output 2 X 3W RMS

Specifications:
Input Impendence: 15K Ohm
RMS 3Wx2 (THD=10%, fo=1KHz)

Slick!! It is so tiny (approx 19 cm x 6cm x 2cm & weighs approx. 550 grams) compared to the other speakers that I have purchased before. It may not have the ultimate sound you would love to have, with sub-woofers and what nots but you get by with what you have when you are away from home.

So now, those time spent in hotel room during my travels will no longer be quiet - there is my iPod with over 3000 songs and my Edifier speakers to keep me entertained. I just hope the power convertor works in the hotel room.

Oh, I think the ultimate would be an iPod video which will provide some visual entertainment where needed. That is currently in my new toys wish list... the never ending wish list.

everything changes...

Lately, I have been feeling rather nostalgic. Signs of aging, I suppose, where you can't help but think about what you have gone through... the people you meet, the places you went, the music you listened to. Which brings me to this. I was watching a documentary last night about a British pop group which hit the world (well almost) by storm in the 90's. And you have probably guessed it by looking at the album cover on this page... yes... Take That. Do any of you actually remember them???



It was not like I was such a big fan considering that I only discovered them after Robbie Williams left the group in 1995. I bought their greatest hits CD in 1997 and like their music so much that I bought the compilation of their videos. Off course, I was devastated when I left their CD in the player of Susan's car when visiting her in Holland a few months after I bought the CD. However, Sal was nice to actually gave me her copy (apparently, she didn't want to be known that she owned a Take That CD but the truth is out now... sorry missy). Okay, so having said all that, yes, I am quite a fan.

It was interesting to see where the members of Take That are now. They had a reunion but Robbie Williams was a no-show - apparently still sore after 10 years. You know, some people have difficulty letting go... I know this because I am one of those people. But I admire them to actually retreat from the pop world while they were still at the top. Not a lot of groups do that. Take Rollling Stones for example. For heaven's sake, they are a bunch of grandpas and they are still rocking away like they are a bunch of teenagers. Oh, grow up, please!!

So today, I have been listening to the tracks from Take That's greatest hits CD. Their music ain't that bad, if you prefer music with little or the absence of heavy guitar sounds stringing to your ears, like those from those American rock groups. Most of them puts you in a good mood.

The video which I owned on VHS has now gone mouldy (what with the humidity in this country) - I am considering buying their DVDs actually. So yes, I am a loser. I need to get a life.

Come on, come on, take that and party!!!

information overload...

This first week at my new job has been quite the roller coaster ride. The first few days have been slow and all of a sudden, at the end of the week…… BOOM! There were meetings, teleconferences and training to attend.

On Friday, I had too much information coming to me that by 5pm, my brain was tired. It seems my ‘processor’ speed, ‘RAM’ (Random Access Memory, for those who are wondering) and my ‘disk’ space require either upgrading or replacement, considering that this ‘machine’ was built in 19 blah blah. I am sure you know what it is like when you are mentally tired – it is worse than being physically tired. When you are physically tired, you can just hit the bed and sleep. When you are mentally tired, sleeping at night can be a problem. Your subconscious would continue to work while you sleep and leaves you more tired when you wake up. I hate that. I pretty much spent much of Saturday resting my brain i.e. not doing much, that is. There were minimal conversations and nothing that requires any thinking. I guess it is time to admit that my parts are wearing out and this is part and parcel of aging. Oh lordy!

it is a small, small world...

Since I’ve been in this new organisation, not only have I met some nice people but some of those people are familiar faces from the past. You know the saying that goes, "the past may come back to haunt you." But not in this case. I am glad to have met these people again.

So, on top of those people who came from the organization I have left (there are quite a bit of them here), there is J. We attended the same course in the early nineties. Then, there is Fifi. We worked with the same American MNC back in the late nineties. Perhaps there could be others who I may have known but this moment, only the above which I have mentioned. I am so glad to have met both of them again, especially Fifi because I saw some old photos with her in it recently from when we worked for the same firm.

It is a small world after all.

caffeine city....

That sleep last night must have been good because yours truly is in a seriously good mood today, despite not having any work to do. Mind you, this is the calm before the storm. I have been told that the project will only kick off end of August. But hey, I am up for the challenge! Give it to me, baby!

I had my new boss came up to me late this morning and said to me, “Go for lunch now and come back at 2. You might as well enjoy it now.” And on that green light, I went for lunch and ventured around. That was when I discovered that the area around my office is a coffee haven. Gasp. Saliva dripping. Well, I am, after all, a caffeine addict.

There are varieties of coffee establishments here:

Starbucks
The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf
Spinelli’s
Pacific Coffee
San Francisco Coffee
The Coffee Connoisseur (TCC)

Man, I am spoilt for choice. However, I have told myself that I am going to allow myself only a cup of caramel or Irish cream latte once a week. And that is what I am going to stick to. At least now, I can rotate from one coffee establishment to another. I am excited already.

Oh my, this is my second post in one day and I have not even had more than one dosage of caffeine today. What is going on??? :-)

new beginning...

So, on the 17th day of the 7th month (7th month? Based on the Chinese calendar, it is not a good month, innit? Oh god!!!) was my first day at this new organization. It was marred by lack of sleep and hormonal issues. Yesterday, I began to wonder if I have made the right decision to move to this new job. But after a good night’s sleep, I am different person today and my perspective on things has been different – more positive I would say. I guess when you make a new start, there is a tendency of not knowing what to expect.

However, working in the heart of the financial district is something which I am going to have to get used to. I have never worked in the financial district before – downtown yes but not here in crampy Raffles Place. I don’t fancy the crowd, the train ride or the lunch hours. It is a total nightmare! Sigh, what did I get myself into??

Anyway, I will have to make the best of it. Things are pretty slow at the moment. Perhaps that is why I got the time to think about all the things that I should not be sweating about. I better enjoy this honeymoon period before the going gets tough. And the other thing I need to do is try as much as I can to ignore the politics here, if there are any going on. So yeah, it’s time for a new beginning and I am ready for anything coming my way!!

au revoir...

I've made up my mind
It's time for a new beginning
I'm living my life, yeah
It's time for a new beginning

There's a new day coming
I'm getting ready for a change
Yes, I am
Yes, I am
Gotta keep on running
Gotta be a better way
Yes, there is
Yes, there is

(words from Stephen Gately’s (formerly of Boyzone fame) song, New Beginning)

So yes, after almost six years at my current job (yes, a job and not a career. Who has a career these days anyway?), I am moving on. It was at the end of November last year when after moving from the office downtown with a spanking glamorous address to a business park in the suburban east, I had a feeling that I was not going to be there for long. (My friend, Moh, felt that I was just bragging about this but it is true! I did feel it!) I had a feeling that 2006 will be the year that I land myself a new job – and I did!

And so, last Friday was my very last day at the company where I have spent almost half a decade (according to my friend, Noridah, six years is not long. If you are talking about ten or twenty years ago, yes it is not long. These days, people don’t stay in their job for long). I didn’t do any work that day. Well, considering that it has been crazy the last few weeks, not doing any work for one day is not going to matter. Also, the other thing was I forgot to bring my laptop to work – never had this happened in my working years. By noon, I was rushed for lunch and a so-called off-site team activity with my teammates all afternoon. I didn’t even have the chance to say farewell to some of the other people from other departments who I know.

As I begin my new journey tomorrow at the new organization, I begin to think about the good times (and bad but try not to think about that too much), which were had. As with every story, there has got to be an ending. As I’ve told some of the people before I left, this is not goodbye – it is see you again soon!

no, the italians didn't do it better!

Here is the text, which my friend, Moh sent on my mobile this morning:

“I shall not drink Italian wine for a month. What? Penalty to take the cup?”

Well the penalty shootout was a last resort but for a team who has been spending most of the second half and extra-time playing in their own half, defending, they totally don’t deserve to win the World Cup. I would have given the same strategy too if I were a team manager - just hang on till penalty shootout!

The French were unlucky. They were great but Buffon was standing in the way of them getting a goal. And when it had to come down to penalties to determine the winner, I just knew that Barthez could not make one save – it was a gut feeling. No offence to the Italians – they have good players but they were not playing like champions of the world would be playing last night.

No point dwelling about this because the champions have been crowned. I am joining Moh on a strike – no Italian wine and also Italian food for at least a month!

40 years on...

Heads hanging low were not only observed in Gelsenkirchen but also all over the world when England failed to win on penalties yet again. The England fans, yours truly included, set ourselves up for disappointment every four years and not to mention, the European Championships. Last night’s match was like the 2002 World Cup Quarter Final’s match between Brazil & England all over again. Heads hung low that day too. Getting over this disappointment will take a while. It has been almost 8 hours since the match ended and I still could not believe that it is over for England. The Portuguese were controversial! The match against Holland got me all nervy, what with all the yellow and red cards and I was rooting for Holland for that match.

Did you see Beckham cry after he was substituted? I feel sorry for him (I feel sorry for him for having such a bitchy wife too!). He is a great player and deserves to win something at this level. However, a team cannot win with a talent of one player. They are other talents in the England squad but I guess maybe their talents alone are not enough to win this tournament.

On the bright side, England’s closest rival across the Channel managed to get one over Brazil! No offence… Brazil is a good team with the likes of Kaka and Ronaldinho but I think I just have enough of the samba team dominating this major tournament. At least this World Cup, for once, we are not seeing a Latin country in the final! It is a nice change.

So, while all of us were cheering for the likes of Brazil, Argentina, England, Portugal and what have you, some of us in Singapore were cheering for the Singaporean referee! He is our only representation at this international stage, so we have to give him our support. I don’t mean to be unpatriotic but I don’t think we will ever see our Singapore team reached the World Cup finals. Hence, cheering on our Singaporean referee is the closest thing we got to cheer for our country at this event.

Four more matches to go before the end of this tournament. We were so used to having 2 to 3 matches in one night since 10 June 2006. Those nights without matches after Round 16, we were at lost at what to do. After 10 July, it is going to be worse! We have to wait till at least end of August to see any LIVE actions when the club league starts. Well, it is better than having to wait 3 months after the end of the club season during a non-World Cup or the European Championships year! For now, we just have to wait for the World Champions to be crowned on 9 July 2006. Let's just hope it is not Portugal!

ccd – can or cannot do...

In 2003, I converted to digital imaging when I bought me a Canon Powershot A70. It is 2006 now and off course, it is considered a dinosaur. Well, it has already looked like a dino in 2004 when Ger and I held both our cameras against Kevin’s spanking new Sony Cybershot, which was inches thinner and lighter with a much bigger display. I was not going to let my piece of dino shit (like most people would say when they look at my camera) get in the way of my pursuit of beautiful digital imaging. I have always believed that it is not the equipment; it is the talent and the eye of the owner of the piece of machine. It is like owning a spanking new high speed computer with a whopping memory capacity and a gazillion gigabyte of hard disk space but all you work on the computer is surf the internet and check e-mails.

Despite my love of my dino camera and some of the nice photos that I have taken since I bought it, the Charge Coupled Devices (CCD) have been giving me issues. First, it was in 2005. Warranty had expired, so I had to pay for the part change. Then, a couple of months ago, it went kaput again. I must say I was quite frustrated. I was not ready to fork out the money to repair the camera and at the same time, I am certainly not ready to invest in a new camera. However, I think the determination in believing that this dino can still be fixed and the perseverance paid off. This week, Pierre told me about an article he read about CCD issues on Canon cameras. Apparently, it was a manufacturing defect, where under high temperature or humidity environment, the internal wiring may become undone in some places. This was made public – well, not public enough because yours truly didn’t know about it until now! The article was published in October 2005.

The very next morning after having that conversation with Pierre, I made my way to the Canon service centre. I made sure that the senior member of the service staff was attending me. I told her about the article and her response was, “Oh? So, you knew about that? We normally don’t highlight this to our customers.” Honestly, I was not very impressed with this comment but who cares when I get the following:

1. The CCD will be replaced at no charge.
2. I will be refunded for the previous part replacement – approximately SGD$140.
3. They will deliver the camera to me after the repair

Moh remarked that I must have been a pain at the service centre to get this sort of service but no. I was such a good customer and the above was offered to all owners of camera that has been manufactured with this defective part.

A co-worker remarked that Canon was just giving me an outstanding customer experience so that my next camera will still be a Canon. Hell! Regardless. My first and only SLR camera is a Canon. What makes you think that I will switch? Well, I have to admit that I was eyeing on the Panasonic LX1 but now that my dino camera is going to be dino-mite again, I can put off my consideration for a new camera for at least a year.

Question : Who are all those people mentioned in this post? (Well, if you are wondering, that is.)
Kevin: friend
Ger: Kevin’s friend
Pierre: an avid photographer friend and team member from work
Moh: another avid photographer friend, who always treats me like one of the guys. Only because I told him that I am a man trapped in a woman’s body.

me and the married man..

I bet you all think that this is going to be my confessions of an affair I had with a married man. Well, you are so wrong!! Some of my closest friends are happily married men. There is nothing wrong with that. And some of my closest friends are also men who have been spoken for. And they are nice men. Now I know why I am still single.... all the good men are married, spoken for or gay. Well, at least if you have a good gay male friend, he could be your gay best friend. I am still in search of one by the way.

Anyway, the point of this post is about how my feeling for a married man was rekindled recently. We used to work in the same corporation a few years ago. I never really took notice of him. Mind you, I don't go around gawking at men in the office like most of my colleagues think and besides; he wasn't exactly the type of man I am fond of. However, my perception changed. As I continued having conversations with him, I found him attractive... the whole works... the physics, the personality, etc. Then, I found out that he is married, happily married.

The rule of MY thumb is never cross the line with a married man. It is so morally wrong. Also, there is no way in hell is he going to leave his wife for you. He may say that he will but he will keep you hanging without a string. And if you pursue it, don’t you feel guilty? You are living in a relationship, which is a lie. And what does that say about that married man? You are married and you still want to have part-time relationship? I’d rather be relationship-less than go through this. Some of you may beg to differ and I understand. Like I have stressed, it is the rule of MY thumb.

So, despite my recent re-encounter with this married man (he still looks good, I tell you and still charming as ever) and I had all these funny feelings in me when I was talking with him. I could feel the butterflies in my stomach, the blood rushing all over my body and my heart was racing. But I am going to leave all those feelings the way they are – that funny feeling.

un, deux, trois... aller, aller, aller..

It will not be a long summer this year because there is the World Cup!! Yay! I am looking forward it. It was 4 years ago when the World Cup was held in Korea/Japan. At the end of it, I realised that my social life came to a stand still for a month because I would be rushing home from anywhere, to watch LIVE matches on the tele. I will not be surprised if this June, it will be the same. I am excited and I can't wait for the days when I would be watching 2 matches if not 3 in a day. Right now, I am in withdrawl as there are no LIVE matches to watch on the weekends. In twenty days, the withdrawl will be healed for at least a month! Aller, aller, aller!

dilbert visits other corporations...

One of my co-worker forwarded me the following:

A magazine in the US was looking for readers to submit quotes from their real life Dilbert-type managers. Here are the finalists:

1. "As of tomorrow, employees will only be able to access the building using individual security cards. Pictures will be taken next Wednesday and employees will receive their cards in two weeks."

2. "What I need is a list of specific unknown problems we will encounter."

3. "E-mail is not to be used to pass on information or data. It should be used only for company business."

4. "This project is so important, we can't let things that are more important interfere with it."

5. "Doing it right is no excuse for not meeting the schedule."

6. "No one will believe you solved this problem in one day! We've been working on it for months. Now, go act busy for a few weeks and I'll let you know when it's time to tell them."

7. "My Boss spent the entire weekend retyping a 25-page proposal that only needed corrections. She claims the disk I gave her was damaged and she couldn't edit it. The disk I gave her was write-protected."

8. Quote from the Boss: "Teamwork is a lot of people doing what I say."

9. My sister passed away and her funeral was scheduled for Monday. When I told my Boss, he said she died on purpose so that I would have to miss work on the busiest day of the year. He then asked if we couldchange her burial to Friday. He said, "That would be better for me."

10. "We know that communication is a problem, but the company is not going to discuss it with the employees."

11. We recently received a memo from senior management saying: "This is to inform you that a memo will be issued today regarding the memo mentioned above."

12. One day my Boss asked me to submit a status report to him concerning a project I was working on. I asked him if tomorrow would be soon enough. He said, "If I wanted it tomorrow, I would have waited until tomorrow to ask for it!"

My co-worker suggested that we came up with a few from our lifetime of work experience. So, here are a few of mine:

1. When asked what the management is going to do about a generic support issue affecting most of our customers, the response was "Please prepare a Service Improvement Plan for your customer and I will bring this up with Customer Support Team." Right, like my customer is the only one with who is facing this issue.

2. "I want you to give me all the REVELANT information." Are you Dyslexic? You didn’t get any help for that?

3. "Are you sure you don't have any questions?" when the same question was raised a few seconds before resulted with a 'No' response from the team. Which part of the word 'No' didn't you understand?

4. "I will not go into details of the slides in this presentation. You can read it yourself later." So, why are we wasting our time in this presentation in the first place?

5. "With the re-branding, you will all get new namecards." Duh! Isn’t that a no-brainer?

6. "Can you please help me to talk to your colleague and ask him to do what I want him to do? I can't seem to get him to do it." Hello?

Believe me when I said that there will be more of these to come.

live feed...

From Dubai, that is. Chatted with Mister D's mom and had an opportunity to see how Rayyan has changed now that is 2 months old. He is beginning to look like Mister D. They may end up looking like twins when Rayyan gets older.


First Glimpse of Rayyan. Oh, what big eyes you have!


One more of Rayyan. Did we just spot a mole there?


Not forgetting Big Brother B, taking a peak at the screen.

annual scheduled maintenance...

It has been difficult to read football news after Man U lost to Chelsea on Saturday. I finally went to the football page today - still painful but I need to move on.

It is a day of rest for most of the working people of the world today - except for a few nations who seems to want to be different and have their labour day holidays in the later part of the year. I could feel the quietness today - it was like nothing happened today, everybody in Asia was just chilling. It was like a scheduled maintenance of a plant where everything is shutdown for the day. There will still be some standstill where work is concerned in the next 12 hours as other time zones celebrate this scheduled maintenance day for the humans!

bad day...

Yes, it is over and in the most unbearable way. Yes, Man United was defeated by Chelsea and watch them lift the title. Upset. Can't write anymore.

it's not over till it's over..

It was nerve-wrecking! It was nail-biting! It was heart-stopping! The clock ticked ever so slowly as Manchester United/Tottenham Hotspurs ended with United bringing home 3 points. So, no tears were flooded in front of the television this evening. United may still be 9 points behind Chelsea by the end of today but this season's title race may end down to the wire. I have not felt this nervous since 1999 when United won the treble. But this adrenalin rush is fantastic - keeping work stress at bay as football dominates the head. Mathematically, United may not even win the tittle this season but it has been an exciting start to the year with United creeping up on Chelsea. Here's to this season ending with a bang, as I continue the nailbiting until the League is won - may the best team wins!

the unbearable lightness of pain...

Despite what I have said in my last blog post, I will be watching the Easter Day matches especially Man U versus Spurs this evening. If Man U draw or lost, there will be flood of tears in front of my television tonight...