One step at a time.

An education abroad is going to cost - A lot! I went down to the Regional Language Center (RELC) to gather information for furthering my education overseas. I'm thinking of taking up a course in Professional Communication, from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT).

The trip was fruitful and I have a clearer picture of how to go about doing this. All thanks to the nice lady that assisted in answering my queries. It pays to be a little nicer, people tend to be more patient with you. All that's left to do now is to gather information for a local University, do a little bit of calculation and comparison, and I should have my decision.

Interesting Sight

Cleaning while abseiling

Something you don't see everyday; Was on my way to my next appointment in Shenton Way, when I saw a bunch of people looking up to the sky. Not wanting to be kaypo, I continued my way to my next appointment - Curiosity got the better of me.

Alright it appears that nobody got the answer to my post "More about work" on 21st December 2004; Guess I get to save a drink. It was at Zouk - a popular nightspot. I sure miss Mambo Night, reminds me of the times where I would go clubbing with my army guys.

Can't wait till tomorrow, don't have work till Friday. Which only required me to go back to the office to submit all my applications. I took leave to settle my school stuff and for a little gathering with my JC schoolmates. Not to mention the upcoming New Year celebration.

The Gathering

Till I can find a proper picture viewer to compliment my site, I think this would do. Damm I think I need to give the site a face-lift. It should materialize.. in time.

Mock Award

I have no idea what this is for. The "award" in Damien's hand is the cutlery wrapped up with a napkin. Yes, these are my friends.

Zhong and myself enjoying a pint.

Ahh yes.. Joy Juice - Brewed specially by Brewerks.

Biker Buddies

Okay long story, these 2 weren't the original biker buddies - They were Joe and Kiat. Kiat got lost while we were travelling to Mohamed Sultan, so Zhong took over to direct him. Countdown for Christmas this year was in Alex's van. Good enough for me - Peaceful and spacious.

Joe's attempt at art.

Okay that hand belongs to Joe. And that container was from Brewerks - Now it's with Joe. I have no idea what this picture means.

What's up with Damien?

This picture shows the forbidden circle in it's making. The one where everyone would gather in a circle to decide what to do next. Happens a lot with my guys. Not too sure what's with Damien either.

Damien in a world of his own.

And this shows the circle as it completes it's formation. Damien still in a world of his own.

Joe's crowning glory.

He's spontaneous. He's hilarious. He's just Joe. Gotta love the wig.

Who's that chick?

Okay so who's that chick? None of us know her, but she came in time to get a nice picture taken. Joe's sure smiling with glee.

The Party

The aftermath of the party at the little joint in Far East Plaza known as The Other Side. Apparently it's owned by the cousin of my batch-boy in NDU. Only noticed he was there after a while. Could have saved the money for the drinks if I had known earlier. Our drinks after that were all free!

Clue No. 2

Here's another clue.

Surely this would be a little more obvious right? Anyway, I can't wait till Christmas. Will be catching Kung Fu Hustle tomorrow. The week of activities awaits.

More about work

Make a guess!

Work was all right today, did a lot of running about though. My colleague, Eileen, has been commenting that the contents of my blog revolve around work. Seriously, what else can I write other than work? Not many profound thoughts come into mind when I work - Everyday is a repetition of my routine. Thank goodness I get to meet different people every time, otherwise things will get mundane.

I'm looking forward to 2 things this week though: Catching Kung Fu Hustle, a Chinese movie by Stephen Chow, and the Christmas Eve dinner with Da Guyz. Both to occur on Thursday and Friday respectively. No work for me on Friday I hope, but I'll still have to go back to the office for my submission work and weekly meetings - Boy I love Fridays.

Can anyone guess where I was at for appointment today? Make a guess; ^the first correct answer will get a drink from me the next time we meet. I'll post the results in my next entry.

^Terms and conditions apply - No Citibank staff allowed. Too bad.. :P

As our paths cross again..

I met a few people from camp today. Just thought it was worth mentioning to remind myself of this day.

First off, I met a junior from camp. Used to play basketball with him and a bunch of guys from his batch. Weiqiang , if I still recalled his name.

SSG Mark was at Jurong Branch to pay his bills, and I got him to take up our online services. He even got me to get a personal banker to call him up.

Jansen passed by Orchard Branch and gave me a call. Unfortunately I was at Jurong, otherwise I would have had the chance to meet up with him.

I met Rishi and Rebecca! They were at Jurong Point and I was at one of the residence for a appointment. They took a moment to recognize me. (Am I any different? Must be the hair.) We had good chat. They were on their way to the movies so I didn't want to hold them up. Rishi was one of my first cabin-mates - We hung around a lot in camp, till he went out of course during our dive phase. He's now with the Commandos. Boy I sure miss that guy.

I met another camp mate after that, but I forgot his name. One of my batch boys, but got out of course before I got to know him better.

On a side note, I was at a drink stall when the drink stall lady caught me off guard by commenting in mandarin to the other vendor, "I thought you were Japanese. Can be a movie star!" I was amused and went off sipping my drink happily - Must be the hair.

22 years ago..

Happy Birthday Eileen!

21 years ago..

Happy Birthday Zuwei!

1 year ago..

Many blessings to the union of Joe & Lu.

You meet all sorts..

Interesting thing happened at work today.

Another one of those appointment I had today belonged to the older generation. I had my doubts to getting him take up our services. So I did my usual thing, and guess what, he dozed off during my demo. I didn't know whether to laugh or to continue. (Gosh, I didn't know I was that boring.) So I tried to suppressed my laughter and spoke a little louder to jolt him out of his slumber. It worked, but I had to repeat it a few times.

He took up the services. I'm worried for these people.

Another moment of ego inflation..

"Bryan is very patient in explaining and he is very courteous and polite. A good staff. His explanation is very clear."

The lady that wrote this on the feedback column was one of those that is not very familiar with using the internet. I managed to get her to take up our services - I do hope that it works out for her. It brings me joy to see that people are willing to venture the alternatives, but sometimes I do have doubts to whether to persuade those in this category any further.

Outing with my colleagues

My first outing with my colleagues and it turned out pretty all right. Weiliang, Vincent and myself met up earlier and had a game of pool and billiards. Weiliang thought us a new game involving a deck of cards and number balls, for billiards, and it turned out pretty fun. I could never stand playing billiards because of the lengthiness of each game - I'm not particularly good at it, so each game takes a long time to complete. This new game we tried allowed up to 4 participants.

Mor came along a little later with another Citibank colleague, Carrie, I think. (Mor, if you're reading this, I've written about you and there's nothing you can do about it. :P) We all talked and had dinner at a food court somewhere around Lavender - The wan ton mee there was supposed to be good. I had a plate of chicken rice already and Mor wanted to have more. He persuaded me to queue up with him for the noodles, and not wanting to disappoint him, I did. I was fairly full, and I wanted dessert. As we advanced closer to the lady taking the orders, a middle-aged woman approached us.

"Erm, excuse me, can I just queue in front of you and buy this ah? We are very hungry and want to eat this." she said.

Astonished by her request, but replied in my most polite manner, "I would love to help, but if you could convince this queue behind me, I would gladly let you queue in front of me." Seriously, if she could convince the rest of the mob, I would definitely let her take the spot. Firstly, she was polite enough to ask me, and secondly, it would only show that she's either really hungry or that she had such persuasive abilities that I had to give it to her.

"But we are really hungry and we want to eat this." she retorted.

Unconvinced, I replied, "I'm sorry mdm, it is not up to me to decide. The people behind would not be hap..."

"Ohh, so not helpful lah?" she snapped and stormed off.

"...?!" Mor and I just looked at each other. He was quite pissed off but I wasn't bothered a bit by it.

"I can't stand being said by people like that." Mor said.

"But did you lose anything?" I questioned. We were 2nd in the queue and she still had to line up. I was full from my chicken rice initially, but having that encounter only made me want to buy a plate of the noodles just to spite her - Which I did.

My first paid performance

My Video

"Zackery, a new video enthusiast who brings his camera every he goes. After shooting some events, he discovers that the people around him was not what he assumes them to be. He was devastated by what he sees on the video but never once questioned the camera.

After all, seeing is believing... or so it seems?"

It's not much to brag about - My first paid performance. I wasn't expecting much from the token they said they'll be giving, nevertheless, here it is: A DVD of the production, and a cheque for a cool $100. Not much, but it makes up for the lost battery (Alright, I'll stop harping on it..). Quite honestly, I was expecting something lesser for the 4 day stint (my filming only lasted four days.)

The DVD comes with the usual features of a menu screen, the film itself, and the making - Yes, the making. The making contains pictures of the filming process, sadly not in film. No NGs were included also, would have been fun to see some of those. I distinctly remembered some hilarious moments while filming.

The film itself was a 12-minute production. It comes with the formal proceedings of an introduction to the credits. I'm not too sure if the soundtrack for the film was originally composed, but it sounds authentic. I can't decide on the genre of the film. Perhaps if anyone were interested, I could bring the DVD along our next gathering and we could all have a good laugh. Don't be too critical though, it's the production company's first attempt at a short film, and I too have my pride.

*sigh*

I was chided this morning, again, for my mistakes - Twice in fact.

First was for leaving the branch, while leaving my equipment unattended - I went to take a break. Probably should have learnt by now; Having lost my battery last week, and they inculcated the same thing in the army.

Next was for failing to update the office of my appointments today - I overlooked to update on the offices' copy for a reschedule made on Friday.

My mistake, yesterday, was failing to inform Raymond, another colleague, of an appointment that I've rescheduled to him last Friday. I left him a message asking him to call me back to get the information. Needless to say, it didn't happen, and the appointment was not fulfilled - I should have remembered to follow up. I called to apologize to the customer; thank goodness he wasn't too upset about it.

In light of recent events, my only defense is that it all started from the battery incident last Thursday. My mind was too fixated on finding a solution, and the battery incident became the focal point of all my distractions. Not a very strong argument one may criticize, but I have no other explanation. I have a tendency to let my distractions run on to following events. My only hope is to break from this vicious trend as soon as possible - This bad streak is not good for the track record.

Unfit, Shocked, and Broke

I went for a run today, and I am worried for my upcoming IPPT next year. It was an easy run, around Bukit Panjang Ring Road, but I couldn't complete it. I've got to start my running regime again - Getting terribly out of shape.

I took a slow walk to the Plaza to get myself some groceries. Bought a bottle of shampoo and my favorite magazine, FIRST. Apparently, the extended version of <The Lord of the Rings - Return of the King> would be available on the shelves on 15th December 2004. I'm looking forward to it to complete the trilogy. Maybe I can hustle someone to buy it for me for Christmas. *Evil grin* Anyway, I was in the queue, behind a family of mother and daughter, and was thinking to myself, "Boy that's a lot of groceries they're purchasing. If I were buying all that, I'll definitely let the person behind me go first if they don't have many items to pay for." By some stroke of cosmic fluke, the older lady offered to let me go first. I was both amazed and appreciative, and thanked her for her graciousness. It's good to know that people are still considerate to others' feelings.

I followed Weiliang to Sim Lim Square, after my run, to get a new battery for my desknote - I lost the battery, somehow, on Thursday this week. Frankly, I have no idea how it happened. Expensive lesson, it costs a hundred bucks. Oh well, guess I've to be more careful next time.

Just another day at work

"Very informative, nice to know of Citibank's effort in providing more better and efficient services, Bryan is good, know what he is promoting on this demo. Keep it up!"

A customer wrote this remark in the feedback column of my Customer Acknowledgement Letter. It's not an official written letter or E-mail, so no $50 Tangs voucher. Damm.. heh.. No issue though, the monetary rewards are meaningless to me. The remarks keep me in check - So that I know that I'm still doing my job well. The customer is applaudable also. He was patient, he asked me questions, and he served me a drink! The works! Complete with ice, coaster, and straw. Yes! Straw! I've always appreciated it when customers treat me like a guest, instead of a salesperson.

It's no denying that the persuasion and convincing skills involved are sales-like - Customers tend to think that we're trying to sell them something. It just takes a little bit of effort on our part to guide, while the customer has to be a little more open to listen to us. 80% of the time the message is sent across - Today was an ideal situation.

Everyone has their style - I'm different from my colleagues. In fact, we're all different. "The key is identity." A customer once told me that. He is in the shrimp business and made his first million at 26 - He fell short of his plans by a year. With just 1 product, shrimp, he boasts that the business is too much for him, "Diversity is necessary, but with identity, people will think of you first." And he quoted some brand names to support his claim. I had a 1-hour conversation, but failed to get him to take up our services.

I put some thought into the crux of the conversation and it does make sense. Once you've established the identity in your product, people would think of you first because of reliability and the confidence in it. I hope the same can be said about a service.

1st December 2004 - Singapore Idol Day

Singapore Idol

Let this day be known as Singapore Idol Day. It's like a festival! Everyone is talking about it; everyone wants to rush home to catch it. I had half the mind of asking my boss to let us go back after 7pm today. No point staying at the branch, customers excuse for today would probably be, "I'm in a rush, need to go back and watch Singapore Idol." - Almost as important as, say, reunion dinner. In fact, my last customer for the day wanted to reschedule our appointment.

"Oh yah, our appointment is today right? I have something on tonight." my customer went.

"Oh, you would not be available tonight? Our appointment would only last for 15 to 20 minutes, Sir. Could I inquire why you would not be able to make it?" I persisted.

"Because I want to watch Singapore Idol lah." he responded.

Amazing enough, I had no night visits today. In fact, I could finish my previous appointments and bring forward the last one, giving him more time to prepare for the showdown. It's encouraging to see Singaporeans so supportive of their local stars. I wonder if the same enthusiasm can be aroused with the next General Elections.