project manager wannabe

be tough

A whole list of tasks each day.

Over 15 people to deal with and their issues are all inter-dependant.

It all goes back and forth, back and forth...through me.

Don't know what I got myself into with all these additional managerial works.

Gahhhhhhhhhh.

Suddenly it's 1pm while my breakfast still sits on the table.

Suddenly it's 2pm and I haven't had lunch.

Suddenly people are packing to go home because it's 4.50pm. 

Suddenly it's Friday tomorrow.

Omgggg. Time does fly.

Only get to sketch some concept design after 5.30pm when the emails and phone calls stop.

The almost a century old granny will get new retaining walls next year if all goes well.

No one really knows the hard work behind this.
No one questions 'how'.
It's okay.
That's what engineers do, they make things happen.

Once in a purple moon, I need a food therapy to straighten my mind.
Craving for Korean hotpot.
Reminds me of how my sis and I used to finish a hotpot for 4 and fall into 24 hours of food coma.
Those were the days.
Now I wish my sis still flies with the SIA.
Oh well, the craving will go soon.

Tomorrow is another day.
Two weeks to 2016.

nephew #2

a child and all the comfort in the world

While on a video call with my sister last night, my dear nephew came to interrupt.
He randomly said to me...

A: 二姨，我不能进去这个screen leh. (pointing at the screen).
Me: 进去screen? 为什么你要进去呢？你要来找我吗?
A: 我不能进去。我要去梦中。
Me: 梦中？Ok. 你可以在梦中见到二姨。我们在梦中meet咯。
A: 嗯。Hehe.

Perhaps he saw that I'm alone and wanted to be by my side?
Such a darling, as always.

For this season of love, hope, and joy, my sis got him to send out greeting cards to our loved ones far and near.
While he prepares the cards, he says his wishes and prayers for the respective recipients.

Greeting cards for loved ones.

Wishes for Eryi.

This kid has the most sympathetic and empathetic heart.
Who is sensitive with people's feelings.
Who is always making sure that no one is upset.
Who hopes that no one will be left alone in this world.
Who always gets worried when someone is unaccompanied, hence he always wants to make sure someone is with/around me while on video call. If he sees no one else, he would ask 二姨有谁跟你一起？二姨你一个人吗？二姨ML阿姨在哪里？
He just has to know that I'm not alone.

Thanks for coming into our lives, bringing joy and laughter with you.
As much as you're here to learn and grow, we are also learning from you as you grow each day.
Thanks for assisting us in becoming better adults.
Thanks for being the constant reminder, prompting us to be kind and patient.
Thanks for just being you.

Lastly, great thanks to the parents who brought up this wonderful kid.
It's the EQ not IQ which will help us through the hiccups in life and also make this world a better place.

my dear sister

blessed to have sisters

These days, it's hard to find travel mate.
Perhaps the places I want to go are not appealing to many - India, Myanmar, Nepal.

Shopping
Food-hunting
Spa and massage
Luxurious hotel or homey Airbnb
High tech world-class transportation

In exchange for...

Dusts
Dirty food
Polluted city
Dodgy motel
Traffic jam
Charcoal pills
And immeasurable life experience, which can never be 'shared' on Facebook or 'posted' on Instagram.
Sadly, if it can't be 'seen', it won't be popular.

The few who might be interested are in Msia and Singapore, with different holiday periods it's hard to get a mutual period and length of travel.

After repeating (as usual) a few times to my sis about not being able to find travel mates to Myanmar, I think she had enough of listening to the same whinge over and over again.

Despite always nagging me for travelling to ulu places - end up with food-poisoning and had to visit the local hospital, out of contact for a few days due to bad reception, altitude sickness, delayed flights, etc. - she signed up as my Myanmar travel mate.

Haha. You're the best!

I know I'm sometimes (maybe always) unpredictable, random, out of the norm, lazy in planning, lazy to check for cheapest prices, make quick decision and deal with the issues later, bad in time scheduling, etc.

Maybe in other words, I'm not an organised traveller and not the best travel partner.

Thanks for still willing to jump on this 'sinking' ship.

I don't wanna do anything less than 7 days and I also know it's hard to leave the baby behind for more than 7 days, hence I really don't wanna drag her along with me - especially knowing that it won't be some kind of luxurious, pampering, eat-till-you-drop trip.

Can change place, don't change me

I said I can find other people to come with me so she won't have to.
She insisted to come.
Not for the sake of seeing places.
More of being my company and being in my company.
I appreciate that.
It's something you can never get from a normal friend.
And something people without sister will ever understand.

The whole bunch of things friends will consider before accompanying you to anywhere or sparing just few hours of their time are:
- why, where, how, what, when, who
- destination
- purpose
- budget
- annual leaves
- work commitment
- weather
- their partner
- their interests
- their pet
- their diet
- their me-time
- their savings plan
- their sleep
- anything you would never think of...

Sometimes, I use these 'excuses' myself.
The 'excuses' may be true to some extent, but the better truth is, the company isn't right.

And 'friends' will probably take...
A year to decide if they wanna go on a holiday with you.
6 months to decide if they wanna invite you to a holiday with them.
3 months to decide if they wanna visit you.
1 month to decide if they wanna spend the next long weekend with you.
1 week to decide if they wanna spend the next weekend with you.
3 days to decide if they wanna have dinner with you.
Just because there are so many other people and things who/which come before you. That's what waiting-list is for.

Truly, there is only ONE main reason - you are not the person they wanna spend time with.

Other than giving me life, the next important thing that Mum gave me are my lovely sisters. Couldn't have asked for anything else.

I'm also appreciative of my other non-biological sisters who entered my life by fate.

One offered to accompany me to Myanmar, though she can only do 4 days due to family commitment, I'll have to do the remaining 3-6 days on my own. Well, at least she tried. And no, the last thing I want is for people to sacrifice for me, so she's not allowed to come along. Haha. 

In the end of the day, what's important is the quality of the company. Destination doesn't matter.
In order to be able to travel together, we decided to choose a nearer place, for under 5 days.

'Change place and not change her'.

Oh Myanmar...I shall visit you when a travel mate comes along.

All of you, thanks for loving me. I love you too.

communication skills

communication, bridges to all minds

This week, we had one full day of communication training at work.

The course first helps us to identify and understand ourselves better and then, identify the behaviours of people around us be it families, friends, or colleagues. By knowing the behaviours of others, we could then communicate using a better approach.

I find this course well-needed as we are all new to the company where no one has worked with anyone in the office for longer than 6 months. Hence, no one can really tell the true behaviour of another person yet. It comes to a point where we start to get frustrated at times with particular people in the office.

For example:
- The admin and her fussy house-keeping rules
- People not replying emails
- People not aware of meeting agendas

The course identifies 4 types of people - the purple, yellow, red, and blue.
The trainer plays a set of slides with over 50 characteristics for each of these colours. Each time a characteristic for a certain colour describes you, give yourself one point for that colour. The colour with the highest points is your main 'dot', second highest is your second 'dot', and so on.

Below are what I can recall from the course:

Purple
Free and easy
Relaxed
Think into the future
Optimistic about the future
Always need to see the bigger picture of things
Don't like to be asked about details
Not reliable
Exaggerating
Short attention span
Unable to focus on 'now'
Were school trouble-makers
Start strong, finish poor

Yellow
Attention to details
Needs to have ALL details of things
Puts importance on time, quality, making things look very nice
Completes tasks in a timely manner
Organised
Punctual
Inflexible
Have their own idea to do things
Lone worker
Not a good team player
Not approachable
Critical
Aggressive
React without fully-listening

Red
Attention to details
Loves themselves
Lack of emotions
Reluctant to change
Clarity
Direct, straight to the point
Hates people beating round the bush
Gives short and precise replies, holds back on details
Types email in bullet points
Solve problems
Delivery focus
Dominant
Reliable
Loyal
Patient
Forgive but not forget
Always perceived as introverted
Never complains until close to explosion
Win-win or lose-lose, win-lose doesn't exist

Blue
Never shows their guts
Cooperative
Sincere, no hidden agenda
Good at giving 'kind' feedback
Not sociable
Procrastinates
Kind
Caring
Approachable
Takes a long time to make decisions or make up their mind
Over-sensitive
Takes things personally
Emotional
Hates to be called stupid
Avoids confrontation

Purple and blue are people who work with 'feeling'.
Red and yellow are people who work with 'thinking'.

It turns out that out of 21, we have 14 reds, 1 yellow, 3 blues, and 3 purples.

It explains why most of the emails circulating in the office are in bullet points and very lack of emotion, why most of us love giving short replies and never automatically elaborate ourselves. I have to admit, it makes the office atmosphere very robotic and task-oriented. The 'reds' also think that we are fine being called stupid - lack of the 'blue' elements in us.

The ones who organise social stuff, give out chocolates, and bake cakes turn out to be blue dot people.

The ones who love to talk, relaxed, ignore deadlines, never finish the things they start, are miraculously the purple dots.

The lonely yellow dot, turns out to be our dear Miss Admin. LOL!!!

Now that we know each other's colours, it allows us to accept each other's way of doing things - why some people are slack off, why some people are inflexible, and why some are emotionless. Haha.

People's dots can be identified through their environment, appearance, and the way they speak.

Purple
Has messy desk
Dirty desk
Whatever
Not able to locate where things are on their desk
Talkative
Easily strike a conversation

Yellow
Tidy desk
Cleans desk at the end of each day
Nicely dressed
Goes for premium brands
Takes pride in their appearance

Red
Papers in stacks
Able to locate things within the stacks
Hates it when stuff are thrown out without their permission
Short, bullet point replies
Practically dressed
Uses worn out clothing

Blue
Personalised desk with photos, quotes, plant, etc
Prefers to work closely with others
Quiet
Courteous
Comfortably dressed

How do we show appreciation to the different colours?

Purple
Thrive for applause
Praise them daily
Never criticise them
Appreciates words more than gift

Yellow
Gives them positive attention
Organise small things for them

Red
Respect them
Give them honest appreciation
Give them 'practical' gifts
Hates surprises
Don't over praise them, else they feel awkward

Blue
Show that you care
Be sincere
Give them personal/thoughtful gift

I scored Red first and Purple second.
The bullet points, the emotionless emails, the one-word replies, the forgive but not forget, the messy stacked up desk, the inability to handle surprises, etc........all so very true.
As for the 'purple' side of me, it would be the 'whatever' attitude, the short attention span, need bigger picture, hate to be asked about details (in terms of work), was not very compliant with school rules....haha.

Coincidently, the top 3 directors in the office have red and purple as their first two dots.
Does it tell something? Hehehe.

The red majority in the office is because of the engineering nature of our job or we became engineer because we were naturally born as red dots?

In other words, the environment shapes us or we were born into it? Maybe a bit of both?

They say everyone's sequence of dots changes over time due to the people around them, the environment their in, their view on life, and so on. I hope I could drop off the red scale one day, takes things more easily, and be more of a 'blue' person with more emotions - except I hope I won't get affected by the word 'stupid'. Haha.

I did a quick check on my sisters, and they are also high on red. Geezz. Can't believe how long I've been in a robotic environment - being a robot, surrounded by robots for all my life. We should all start working on the 'blue' side of things.

In the end of the day, the course helps identify the 'style' of people around us, so that we can appreciate their good qualities, be more acceptable of their ridiculous behaviour, use a better approach in dealing with them, and use each other's strengths in bringing out the best of us.

I'm quite doubtful on the end product of having 15 red dots (and possibly more on the way) in a team - robots talking to each other with no feelings. Hahaha. I hope the minority purple, blue, and yellow won't feel suffocated by the reds. They should stop recruiting 'reds' for now.

All in all, it was a great experience which hopefully makes us all a better person in the society, at home, and at work.

sisters

sister is the guardian angel for life

They're the ones who know me inside out, head to toe.

They bear with my weirdest behaviour, lamest jokes, and utter randomness.

They endure my worst farts, worst temper, and silent treatment.

They are the reason how I developed the free and easy habit of leaving home with no cash in my pockets because they have cash in theirs.

They have the best ears (or eyes) when I need to complain just about anything.

They let me be myself without being afraid of being judged.

They are there when all things fail.

We are each other's strengths during the toughest times in life.

We are each other's antidote when one's poisoned by irrationality or overwhelmed with enmities.

We hated each other's bf before because he has taken some of the attentions which belonged to us.

We'd ditch our bf for each other because bfs are 2nd class citizens, sisters are 1st.

We share the same love for cleanliness and tidiness but at times the room could be in a complete mess until someone implodes and starts banging things around, the other will start cleaning obediently.

We share one wardrobe. One size fits all. Though I have the smallest boobs, feet, arms, thighs...=P

We sometimes type in the worst grammars, typos, broken english, and caplang language but there's no problem in understanding each other.

We can communicate through eye contact, body language, and facial expression.

We don't back stab each other, we stab from the front.

We'd walk in the room in our undies, who cares who's undressed and who's fat.

We are careful with our spending but when it comes to spending on each other, we become careless. When I see how others are being calculative with their siblings; down to the cents, I can't help but to feel grateful and thankful for having the most generous sisters one could ask for.

We tell each other the darkest secrets for we know it's the safest place and we won't be judged against.

We compliment each other in many different ways - like how I tend to break the needle of the sewing machine and tangle up the thread in it, they'd fix it up for me. How they freak out at a cockroach, I'd 'settle' it for them. How every piece of pork that big sis hates, ends up on my plate. How all the tofu puffs in the bahkuteh pot, end up on younger sis' plate.

We are made for each other as one is a control freak and one is a follower. I'm the 'whatever, leave me alone'.

When one of us got into trouble, the others would stand up and save the situation.

When one of us needs money, we would say 'Here, take my money'.

When one of us falls down, we'll laugh it off before helping her up.

And so so so so so much more........

Love them to the moon and back! Hugs and mwah!

If you ask if I would replace a sister for anything else in the world, the answer is No, for sister is the best 'thing' ever.

For people who don't have sister, you could still find one in your bestest friend. As people say, best friend is the sister God forgot to give you.

I'm also grateful to have a few of these 'forgotten' sisters in my life.

Suddenly feel like I'm the luckiest person on Earth. :)