Conversant.

The turnover rate at my workplace of late had been alarmingly high. People would quit their temporary job just after working for a few days. To think I had imagined the last job I held as Program Administrator at a US-based Manufacturing firm was the worst that I could have ever imagined.

One separate factor that I have considered is that most of the staff on the ground operations are students from tertiary instituitions on short vacations, school-leavers waiting for results with the occasional graduates awaiting for a new and perhaps higher paying job. Most of these people have no idea how to start a proper conversation with no immediate topics in mind. Tough luck because a number of these projects are requiring the staff to be naturally conversant. Today a young boy sat next to me, with his wide innocent look and an expression that says, "Oh My God, how am I going to start talking to this person to ask him/her to give me their details of their job appointment and the answers to this survey?"

Naturally it took me a while to explain a number of things to get him started on just the first phonecall.

I had a short chat with my direct Supervisor today and my first question to her was "Are you planning to leave the company?" because I heard from a hearsay [donated from a colleague who had just finished her last day today] that my supervisor was attracted by a job offer as a Personal Assistant [PA] to a Director and the pay was quoted as 5K. In my heart I was thinkin "OMG, 5K. That is pretty high for a secretary or as the job title appointed, a Personal Assistant." thus thinkin as compared to what she is struggling now with her role in the company it might seem like a really attractive offer. By logical comparison, if you're doin the same tiring work [probably the amount of work would be slightly more at the offer as the PA] but get paid like almost 3 times more, why would you not get tempted?

That's when I did her comparison to another colleague of mine who joined this company for approximately 7 months now. From my observation of how she works its obvious that she's a pretty capable person not to mentioned an experienced worker but why then would she accept such a "simple" job of simply taking incoming calls at a Call Centre? I had a brief chat with her once and she said she got tired of "Corporate Politics" and simply decided to leave. How then, does one measure the willingness to endure politics so as to put aside everythin in order to receive that coverted pay check at the end of every month?

Is 5K enough to make sure you can endure all kinds of torturous work - physically and mentally? I'm thinkin along this path is because I'm assuming that the work as a Director PA is worse than a Call Centre Team Leader.

That thought floated my thoughts back to my 2 month stint at the US-based Manufacturing Firm.

The pay is indeed much better than this current job I'm holding but the amount of mental torture that was imposed on me was simply of unreasonable standards and despite my best efforts to endure and manage it, the amount simply kept increasing until one day the inevitable happened - I tendered.

My parents got worried about me for a while because despite the job market picking up I tendered at a time where it's approaching the end of the year and this usually means companies are doing their financial year end closing accounts. This also means they're not prone to increasing their headcount for staff because this would mean unnecessary and unwelcomed work for both the accounts and the HR payroll section. So naturally these companies would put aside any recruitment till early next yr. Indirectly it meant if I do not get a job soon, I would remain unemployed till Feb or even March next year. Not going to reflect good on my resume if as a fresh graduate I do not try to secure a job within 3 months. Thankfully, my supervisor said no and laughed it off because it was meant as a joke to tease the colleague who's leaving.

I took the explanation with a pinch of salt.

I guess the effects of being an experienced worker made me a little critical indeed. Lesson number one - Do not trust your fellow colleagues lightly because you are all aiming for the same promotion. Unless you are from different departments whose jobscopes will never clash with one another then perhaps the trust is more easily placed. However, they won't be able to dish advice that is as effective as a colleague who is in the same department and knows more appropriately what is useful advice and what are simply words of consolation.

Take advice from someone whom you can trust but knows little about what is exactly happening? Or take advice from someone who gives effective advice but unable to trust?

The burning question would be - Is the effectivenes for you? Or the colleague?

Efforts. Relief.

A throbbing now resides evidently in my head, apparently from a slight dehydration caused today by a long period of perspiration without any H2O replenishment.

Packed my bag and headed straight for NYP today to practise jazz and hiphop chereo. Mei Xian joined me in the early stage to recall some of the locking chereo based on the previous September performances. Finally I get to remember in detail what are the exact steps of the locking chereo. Also managed to recall in smoother sequence the current chereo based on Jennifer Lopez's "Still" and the rapid chereo based on originally Anastacia's "Love is a Crime" song but recently had been using PussyCat Dolls' "Buttons" song to practise instead. It's freakin fast.

But I enjoyed the challenge. =)

In the later stages - Wei Lin, Pauline and Treasa dropped by as well to practise. Partnered Pauline for waltz and to my surprise I finally managed to recall the entire sequence around the room and Pauline & myself actually managed to complete one round around the room without any major mistakes. Felt so relieved my efforts had slightly paid off. In addition, as we were both able to complete that one round around the room I believe Pauline felt more relieved as well.

I guess what is left is to finally polish up my basics of my hiphop again. Based on the timing for Pat's wednesday class at Jitterbugs I believe with my work timing schedule I should not have any major problems. My first day of work at In-Call Systems starts officially on 01 November and Pat's first class wednesday nights will start on 15 Novemeber. Well, hopefully it will not run into major clashes because a colleague at my work place had cautioned me that sometimes we would be required to stay back for quite a while because we have to compile the statistics that the daily telemarketeers had made so after a while she stopped making any weekday plans. Goodness, I sure hope that wont mean I have to stay back for at least 2 or 3 hrs because that would mean no more dance practises with SA Dance anymore. Noooo...

I'm gonna work even harder and hopefully I can even be included in the NYP Musical. Not sure if the NYP Management would make such an exception but.. it would be an experience that I'll never forget.

December is the month for the Impresario competition and I'm looking forward to it. Not for the sense that the team I'll be based with will stand a good chance of winning but seriously I miss the old Chroma training days. Not to mean that I enjoy being drilled like an animal for engineering precision in moves clarity, timing and formation changes but I must admit that because of Funkamania my dancing did improve a lot. So many mistakes in my styling that was relatively unnoticed when I'm just doin classes and more classes with Patrick and Claire were ironed out with the occasional scoldings by other team members. Look beyond the scoldings and the essence of the corrections were noted.

Tomorrow is the public holiday for Hari Raya and it seems a lot of my friends are being occupied with visitations for either their Malay relatives and close friends. An attempt to organise an outing was met with dismal failure due to the major unavailability of most people. Sigh, ah well, there'll be other chances I believe.

Meeting with a few old friends tomorrow early morning around 11am. Gonna do some shopping after that heh heh. Finally been some time since I'd been in a mood to walk and shop around. Cross my fingers, let's wish for a good bargain to fall into my lap and allow my eyes to notice the bargain at the same be oblivious to everyone else till I've bought it! *Evil laugh*

Hands up and chest upwards, I'm on a one-way track to seriously tone my physical appearance. Work hard I shall. Rest well I will.

Relations. Pickings.

An outing after my ballroom practise included a movie titled "The Prestige" at Cineleisure, a dinner at this food court somewhere in the midst of Cuppage Plaza vicinity and a coffee session at Starbucks [next to California Fitness Orchard] concluded with a chatting session at Boat Quay MacDonald's. The original finale was supposed to be TCC at Boat Quay but it was really packed and thus we decided to move to Mac's which luckily had a round sofa seating area and good aircon. Yes, lepak sessions should not be without aircon unless it's right after a dance session. Then perhaps places like CLC [ask me nicely and I will reveal it to you in due time LOL] would be pretty appropriate. By the way, for the peepz who knows wat CLC stands for kindly please do not spoil the fun of suspense.

At Mac's Yang Yang proceeded to ask me the questions which she had seemed to be building up for quite some time with numerous prompts along the way. Well.. the questions were finally asked right amidst the company of Peter, Josh, Anselm, Priscilla, Yvonne and Loretta. Missing in action was Zelia and Yeeshan but oh well I guess they would have a good idea of what had been goin on around me.

The discussion had set me thinking. How does one effectively treat a partner "well"? The word "well" sounded so subjective.. so.. ambiguous. Yang Yang mentioned that ladies would never tell their counterparts the direct answer but chose to drop clues and hints along the way. When the answer is presented to them, that is when they would enjoy the most. No wonder some people have compared the process of relationship to a cat and mouse game or perhaps hide and seek. Seek but do not search, ask but do not query, know but do not understand. Do we seek understanding in our knowledge all the time? When we finally know what our partner wants do we then strove to understand why? What happens when the understanding itelf is elusive?

Through the discussion I did realise I can be a very stubborn person. Determination is termed as a positive trait but unwillingness to listen sets in at times when I made up my mind. I guess being understanding is something I would request. Yang Yang threw the question back at me - How much are you willing to compromise for this understanding then? Am I able to give a fair amount in return? Again the discussion routes back to the starting point - How do we give the measurement for what is considered fair? Setting aside a certain amount of time a day may not be the "right thing" to do because according to what she understands from women.. they need constant attention. Not in the sense you have to be around them physically but more like showing concern for them most of the time. No wonder some people claim of being tired of a relationship after a while. Do they then deserve to be branded as being uncaring? Is the reason of wanting to achieve something in career a valid reason? Or simply jus a convenient perspective that society has presented to us?

Perhaps.. willing to listen.. is one factor that I need to work on. Being able to provide a listening ear might not equate to a willingness to listen because I believe we are all guilty of selective listening at one time or another. The only variance is perhaps the kind of topics that makes us more selective as compared to the rest.

An announcement last friday from my company says that monday is closed as well thus fully extending our break till the comin wednesday. Finally, a couple of days to clear my room up properly before my Dad starts making changes to the house. My room in particular. So.. hopefully I can muster enough determination to spring clean my room properly before the workers set in and start messing things around.

The patter of rain amidst the mist
Sets in a pensiveness
Light grayness on window panes
Random rapid streams downwards

The mood sets in. Pondering.
Fingers dance lightly over the silver
brushing the numbers
Pondering.

A vibration. A surprise.
Forwarded. Anticipation.

A reply. A smile.
A short conversation. A happiness.

How does one measure the sufficient amount of attention given?

Relief

And so marks the end of the StageArts Dance Assessment for the second term.

To all the SA dancers who have taken the dance assessment today - Congratulations on your passing. From a heartfelt sincere regards I must really applaud the effort and to my delight a few hopeful potentials have emerged which I must say possess the ability to bring SA dance to a even higher level in the later years to come.

As we embark on the third semester - greater challenges lies ahead which I could only have one advice - dun give up because I didn't give up despite battling with "physical limitations" for the past 1yr plus and if its any inspiration to and of you I sure hope it will. It drives me green with envy when others have much better physical ability but lacks even more than half of my drive.

In-Call Systems has offered a permanent job for me as a Call Centre Executive with the prospects of becoming a Call Centre Team Leader. A quick check with a friend who is the Assistant Manager of an established Recruitment Agency cautioned me however that Call Centre Staff would not gain much recognition on their resume because their jobscope is too limited even in the fields of Customer Service. The alternative was to join the Recruitment Agency for the things I learn can be applied into related fields of sales and even HR in terms recruitment for future related jobs should I decide to have another career switch in the next 3 - 5 years to come. As for the Call Centre environment.. it's a really nice environment though - the current company that has offered me the permanent position though.

Sigh. Choices.

A bit hyped up now.. from dancing two chereographies for the SA Dance Assessment. It's been a really long time since I get to dance so much within a lesson. But I'm also glad so much time had been spent on building up the proper techniques and stretching the muscles because today I felt that my coordination in getting steps had somehow improved unconciously. A side disappointment though is that comments and feedback pointed to me that my hiphop styling is still very much concious when I perform jazz routines.

Sigh.

Ah well. At least I have a new target to achieve and I will make sure I improve enough to reach tat target. Grrrr.



To Miss.... well you know yourself. Reminder ah - Outing not equals matchmaking ah.

Happiness

On this day of yours the smile is wide
clasped in your arms the a whitish shade of hide
emblazoned on the front the crest of Pride
spells out the words "Converse" by which it abides

A sigh, a release of a sound of pity
Opportunities lost of catching your expression
despite torturous methods suggested witty
as you savour your present, exhilaration

May you be blessed with health and wealth
And a pot of gold from the Rainbow's end
They say it contains treasures untold
from which sacred pleasures unfold

So before the clock strikes twelve
and the joyous occasion ends
Let me wish you again a Happy Birthday
A sincere well-wishing - from a friend


Happy Birthday Miss ShanNx =)

Madness

Yes indeed, madness is the word I would use to describe how my weekend had passed. Never did I imagine that an outing at Minds Cafe could generate so much madness. The amount of fun we had posing and trying to use our body actions to convey the message that was written on the cards was simply enough to drive everyone into hysterics. I guess the people who have the most fun though are those who see the words written on the cards of the opposing team and crack their sides till hyperventilation takes over in watchin how the person tries to use body language to communicate just one single word.

What started out as a dinner at Thai Express slowly evolved into a full-swing non-stop heart-racing slew of activities that threatened to suck all essence of energy out from our very being leaving jus an empty shell of lifeless trance-like state.

From the dinner at Thai Express, the symptoms were already in place with several tables combined. The alpha signs were distinct with the volume of laughter slowly rising, people teasing one another and jokes shared and crazy expressions being made by different people. Of course a major contributor goes to Mr Yeeshan with his four seasons expressions [a term coined by myself] under direct translations meaning "Joy, Anger, Sorrow and Happiness" not to exclude a final suggestion by Miss Zelia who shouted "Show us how you look when you strike lottery!" LOL.

Price of a plate of Shrimp Paste Fried Rice : $8.90
Price of a Nokia Handphone taking the clip : $700+
Price of Yeeshan's expression in the clip : Priceless

And in case you guys start thinkin my final quote is "For everythin else, there's MasterCard" think again because there is no one else who can put forth such comical expressions like Yeeshan.

Based on comments and some other people's comments it would appear I have made some progress in waltz however it would appear I do have a lot to catch up with if I truly want to be included in the NYP 2007 Musical because the rest of the cast have already been subjected to almost 5mths extra of ballroom training while I have only attended abt 4 classes so far. Oh Heavens, please grant me the ability of photographic memory in addition to an extended size version of a SD memory card inside my brain. Make it the biggest size available so I can store the maximum amount of information within the shortest possible amount of time.

Just a little update on my mundane and limited working life - I'm currently based at this Company called In-Call Systems where they have an operating premises located at Science Park Drive I. To those who are relatively unfamiliar with Singapore roads and streets Science Park Drive I is about 15mins walk away from the National University of Hospital [NUH]. An alternative venue of rest should one day I ran out of places to snooze during office hours. H e h.

As I gazed at your side view
A swift glance, a teasing look
directed at your direction
But unable to gain attention

As I hovered near your presence
Hoping to catch a whiff
of any possible memory based on
the symbolic sense of smell

Chances unprovided

Wondering again how does one leave
a sense of lingering about
the what-ifs, the what-might-be(s)
bundled into a shackle of possibilities

Then attempt to realise it

Hurray, its Monday again and my mood is as the color of the clear October skies.

Activities

Much as I try to recollect what had happened for the past weekend the membrane simply does not co-operate with the cerebellum.

My memories are suffering from short-term absence of presence. Fine I'm jus trying to be creative in saying I'm sufferin from short-term memory loss but the bare essence of the activities which transpired over the past 2 days are still ringing clear in my memory bank. Perhaps I simply do not recollect things that had happened for more than 5 days ago.

Well in a nutshell - Saturday morning I was not awakened by my mobile phone's alarm till my mum woke up from her usual waking hours and knocked on my bedroom door to ask if I'm awake. To my horror, the time she woke me was already 6:45am when the ceremony is at 8am and my reporting time to 7:30am. 45mins to shower, get dressed and reach there to "warm up my voice" Thank heavens im still on time. Overall the ceremony went smoothly with jus a few timing clashes because some parts of the ceremony i got so nervous that my mind went blank a few times. Almost like I'm the bridegroom. Just for clarification, I'm the commentator so I'm responsible for leading the crowd in some prayers, singing and announcements.

Saturday afternoon was the last lesson of the 4-part series of ballroom classes at Michelle and Why Pong [WM] DanceWorld. We had a pretty tiring time going through all the routines and details over and over again. I must admit Why Pong and Michelle are really really wonderful ballroom teachers and if I had the excess spending power I would love to have detailed lessons with them. Despite the quantity of just 4 lessons the quality of techniques, posture and even the "feel" have been made pretty clear to me. In just 4 mere lessons I have learnt the importance of posture in ballroom, from the first movement to the last finishing pose.

After the class ended we presented the two lovely teachers with a bouquet each, gathering much surprise and laughter from them. Went for dinner and some bowling, felt so good to feel the ball flip from my palm once again. Amazed some of them, Rene in particular with the minor C-curve of my ball. LOL. effect would have been much more impressive if I had been using my favourite personal ball of 15lbs cos the ball I threw at the alley was jus 9lbs so the force of impact on the pins werent that strong. Sigh, felt nostalgic abt the previous times when I trained intensively in bowling with my JC mates and later my army mates. Was well-known for my montrously high backswing and lift. Alas, dun think I can even remember my 4 steps properly now.

After the bowling session I rushed for the morning couple's wedding dinner. One note - the food at York Hotel sucks. Had a few drinks before flying off to meet Yeeshan, Zelia, Anselm and Kelvin at Paradiz Centre for a game of pool. I believe Zelia and Yeeshan including myself were really annoyed at Kelvin's apparent enormous luck in pool because his pool balls would somehow roll into the pool table holes despite his weird angles of entry and some inaccurate shots.

Ended with a early morning "supper" of a nice dish called sampler platter @ this 24hr cafe called Mr Bean and lots of iced coffe.. iced cappucino as well. The sampler platter consists of calamari, prawn fritters, spring rolls and deep-fried chicken pieces. Nothing amazing in terms of igredients but the taste was simply superb. So good that we actually ordered a second serving in the later part of the conversation. With the good food, a deep conversation was also shared which included discussions abt what they actually felt abt me after knowing me all this while. Was kinda surprised that I gave the impression sometimes that I remind them of Peter in the sense I would also be very firm in decision making jus the methods of achieving that consent would be different. Ended the "outing" with a short nap in the open bench areas of SMU before catching the first MRT train home at 6am.

Sunday. "Friendly" Soccer from 2-5pm [though I'm pretty sure some players' "over-enthusiasm" annoyed some people] while a simple dinner at Bishan J8.

I'm beat. I have to sleep. I'm supposed to wake up at 6am. Damn.