TGIF

Thank God It's Friday! Went to work together with Pino almost every morning since I'm passing by Serangoon, and both of us work at Chinatown. Great 'cos I have him to help me carry my laptop along the train journey hehe :D Oh yes did I ever mention that I gotta bring my own laptop to work everydayyyy?? :((( It's freaking heavy. Arghh I'm so tired to carry the laptop on and off to work. 

Well today I went to Maxwell Food Centre for lunch with my colleagues. Had Phad Thai, not bad. I was looking for Selegie Soya Bean, was craving for it, but didn't manage to find it :( Went back for work, suddenly all of our phones rang with sms. "You can pack up and leave early in -lieu of hours you gonna have tomorrow. You can leave at 4.30pm. Don't forget to lock the doors. See you. Al". WOO-HOO!!! :) Went home and SLEEP!! :p

There's a Forex seminar by Stuart McPhee tomorrow, my company is the event organizer. So we gotta work tomorrow from 12-4pm. Alright that's all for now. :D

Farewell Dinner

Chilli Crab

Looks nice but I think the one in Batam is much much nicer hehe..

miss the seafood there!! :(

Mixed of black pepper prawns, sweet & sour chicken, salt & pepper squid

Not too bad.

Finally there's something makes me feel delighted,

Steamboat with Tom Yam soup base

The soup was really niceeee! It feels like having Indonesian Sayur Asem.

Had sooo much of the soup! LOVE:)

(left-right) 

Mahesh, Shivia, Tommy, Me, Meilany

Well, today is Meilany's last day at eToro. And there's another new freelancer coming in as well, he's recommended by me hehehe.. My junior in high school & university, our parents are friend, my ex-church mate, blah blah blah.. So much connections between us hehe.. So my boss, Al treated us for lunch at a Japanese restaurant at Smith Street. The food is not so expensive, the set comes in huge portion, taste not so bad. I just  shared yakitori and gyoza with Meilany 'cos we just had lunch before hand. The lunch treat is kinda last minute decision. My boss left even before the food was served. A VERY BUSY MAN!! :D He left money for us, of course! hehe..  After lunch we went to a dessert shop just opposite our office, I had Mango Sago, nice :) I was really tempted seeing the Ice-Shaved dessert the shop has, how they shave the ice is very unique. It's not like Ice Kacang normally. I don't know how to explain, but the ice is shaved in a different way. Next time I shall try it with Pino, 'cos the portion is huge!

After knock off, we had steamboat dinner at Smith Street (again). This is kinda a farewell dinner with my fellow colleagues, Meilany, Tommy and Mahesh (who'll be leaving next week). Shilvia, an ex-freelancer came too. Had so much laugh and chats over the dinner. Suddenly I feel kinda sad 'cos it's like we are just started to know each other better and they are gonna be leaving soon. :(

Well, let put that aside, work has been quite enjoyable. Calling customers is just like a ritual for me now. My boss said to me the other day that I have to come at 9am, start do callings at 10am-2pm. So that time slot is for company's purposes. Between 2-6pm I can do my personal stuff & own things, but he reminds me to use the time WISELY. Hmm I'm glad I have my own sweet time and space, so that I can continuously take care of my stocks' movement, facebook, MSN messenger hehehe.. ;p

But I don't start calling at 10am 'cos it is still 9am in Indonesia. So I call as I go. I have no fixed time when to call, etc. When I am done with callings, I continue doing the account updates, and for these 2 days I have always been knocking off at around 7pm. Feel tired everytime I came home and I have to wash my hair every night. I know it's bad for health, but I simply lazy to do it in the morning. It takes longer time, I think might as well do it at night and I can sleep a lil bit more in the morning hehe..

Gotta work on this Saturday, there'll be Forex seminar coming up, sponsored by eToro. Look forward to it.

P/S: Happy Anniversary, Baby! 2 more months to our 4th Anniversary <3

Steamboat Fever

Woo-hoo to the long weekend!! Woke up at about 12pm hehe.. Went over to Pino's place, waited for him to wash his clothes, a bit of house cleaning and stuff, and idiotly waited him playing his War Machine. *HATE* When we were about to go, it rained heavily so we couldn't get out of his house but to again idiotly sit and wait for the rain to stop. He continued with War Machine, and I played with my iPhone. 

We plan to have steamboat for dinner, so we went to AMK Hub for grocery shopping. While buying the stuff, I saw lots of people buying ingredients for steamboat as well. Long weekend = Steamboat?? haha.. It's crowded like mad! Took cab home 'cos today is my current favourite drama's finale. Reached home, prepared all the stuff for steamboat with Pino's help. At the end I didn't manage to watch the drama. I got MOBTV!! hehe :)

Lime Juice made by Pino. Hmm not bad.

Chicken Soup base Steamboat. 

We bought the soup base which already comes in package. 

But I find the soup base taste weird.
So I put in some prawns' heads. And it turned out much much BETTER.

This was today Brunch. <3

Another session of steamboat hahahaha..

Seems like we can't get enough of steamboat. But this time round we bought another brand of soup base, and it tastes yummy!!! 

Fullest meal of the day. 

Office Moved

We have moved to the new office today. It is at Temple Street, somewhere in Chinatown. That's the first time ever since I started work, my boss was there with us for the entire day. Not really though, he left office at 2pm. I was rather early today, nobody at office except my boss. He's early indeed, I reckon he sent us email at 7am! 

After having known my new working desk, I unpacked my stuff and settled down with the internet connection etc. Signed the Offer Letter and chatted a bit with my boss. First question from him, "Don't you feel that the job is rather boring, Chinese says wu liao??" I answered, "yeah kind of". hahaha.. Ya true cos I am doing the same thing over and over again every day. He told me it's mainly because we just settled down with the new place, so many things are yet to be done. More complicated and difficult tasks are yet to be done too! Hmmmm...... 


So today as usual I did the updates of customer leads, and finally have courage to call customers. Quite nervous though, and Tommy said my voice is too soft as an Indonesian. Mwahahahaha. He said Indonesians talk loudly and fast, but I talk so softly and slow. Hahaha. Alright, you don't know me yet hehehe.. Pino always complain that my voice is loud and make disgrace of him whenever we are out at public place. But I tend to talk in a much lower tone and of course politely to strangers, especially when they are my potential customers ya'know!! 


Oh yeah, one fun thing for today. Al (my boss, Alastair. We call him Al, reminds me of Al for Alpino hahaha), was asking me & my colleague, Mahesh, to record our voice for the company's voicemail. Mahesh in English, and me in Bahasa Indonesia. We had lots of fun doing it!! Mahesh said listening to my voice feels like when he's calling to AirAsia or Garuda hotline. Hahahaha. 


So that was today. Pretty fun at work. I can smell long weekend coming soon!!! Yayyy :D

Second Day

I received a letter from StanChart. At first, I thought it was  just a normal monthly statement. When I looked at it, I was quite shocked 'cos it was a reminder letter saying that I have an income tax liability due to be paid. I have no clue at all about this. I didn't even receive any letter in the first place, and out of sudden there's reminder. They didn't state the exact amount of tax payable, which I really wanted to know. The worst part is my money in StanChart has been reserved and they will forward the sum to IRAS if I don't settle by 1st December. No wonder my NETS was rejected the other day at Cold Storage. 

It was about 8 pm when I read the letter, so I couldn't get to contact the tax officer as much as I wanted to. My curiosity is killing me!!! So I texted one of my friend who works at IRAS. She advised me to directly call to IRAS the following day. I called Mel as well. She told me the amount shouldn't be too high, perhaps about 100 or 200 bucks. Really worried and don't even know what's going on. Hmppfff :(

So early in the morning, I called to IRAS. Came to my shock, the amount is $997.05. I asked the officer if he can verbally tell me the breakdown and details of the amount. He said he can't do so as the system has some problems occured. So I asked him some general questions about the income tax 'cos I have quited my StanChart job since 8 months ago. He said because I worked for less than 6 month, the tax rate is based on foreigner rate, which is 15%. Ok, end of story.

When I was about planning to make the payment, I thought I should try to make another call with another tax officer. So this lady officer told me my total employment income is $6647. And 15% of that is $997.05. When I asked her how to derive $6647 from, she couldn't explain it to me. That amount is a big question mark to me, cos I have calculated and I simply couldn't get that amount. So the lady asked me to call to income clearance department for more details.

It's about 11am plus, and I have to meet Meilany for lunch at 11.30am and work at 12pm. Crap! TAXI was the first thing on my mind. I will take cab to work hehehe.. So I called to the clearance department, and this lady told me she couldn't verbally tell me the breakdown via phone, it can only be done by post-mail. She said she doesn't have my residential address in the system. Hmmm NO WONDER I didn't receive any letter previously. I was told that alternatively I can check the details using TaxPortal at IRAS website. It requires me to login using either SingPass or IRAS PIN which I don't have. So I requested for IRAS PIN, and the PIN will be sent to my address within 3-4 working days. Another crap! 

Anyway, all I want is just to see the breakdown and make sure everything is charged accordingly before making the payment. I don't want to pay, at the end it's over-charged, and I have to write-in to demand for the refund.  Really don't wish to have those kind of troubles. But I guess I have no other choice but to top-up my StanChart account (which apparently not sufficient), by this week or Monday I should get my IRAS PIN on hand, if everything is okay, on 1st December I'll let StanChart take the money and forward to IRAS. Sounds better to go this way. Honestly, I'm really shocked that they charge me so much. Huhhhh...!!!!

Well, I took cab to Tg.Pagar to meet Meilany for lunch and after that went to office. Boss was not around today. Set-up my laptop, checked emails, listened to Meilany do callings. I am still not confident enough to call, so I didn't make any. The whole afternoon was spent by doing LOTS of updates into the system, customer check list, sending emails to customers, etc. I am having neck-ache, man!!! Time passes real fast when working. Love it! 

Went home, took a nap. My house is such a mess! Huh.. Met up with Pino for dinner. We had Ayam Penyet Ria.. Woo-hooooo!! It's been a while. Having tummy ache after that. Troublemaker: The Chilli.

FIRST DAY AT WORK

Woo-hoo...!! My very first day at work. Woke up at 8am, had my hair washed, ironed my clothes, packed my bag and laptop. And there I go with an excited yet quite nervous feeling. Took MRT to Outram and changed to Tg.Pagar. I hate the pathway at Outram that connects purple line to green line. It's bloody far! And I have my laptop with me, and I'm wearing that bloody heels. Killing meee!! 

Was quite worried that I might be late as I was told to reach at 10am. Reached M Hotel (yeah, the office is at the executive and office level at M Hotel). But we gonna move to our new office at Chinatown on Wednesday. Gonna work nearby Pino hehe.. Good lunch companion, huh? :D Okay, so I took the lift and only realized that the lift doesn't have Level 8 button. It's too late that it already went up. And hell, it kept going up even I have pressed "Go Down" button. Luckily when it reached 20+ floor, a cleaning service guy came in and asked me to go down to Lobby and take another lift service. 

So finally met up with my Boss and the Account Manager. Nice fellas. My boss, Alastair, was kinda busy and he went off after talking to me for a while. The Account Manager, Tommy, is a Australian-Chinese. He set up my corporate e-mail account, gave me some briefing about Forex trading platform, how it works blah blah blah..

Meilany brought us Chicken Rice lunch. My tummy was growling terribly as I didn't have my breakfast, simply no time. Time wasted for make-up and hairdo hahaha.. :P Well, after lunch, I sat next to Meilany and listened to her doing some callings. Looks kinda easy task. Just a simple introduction and chit-chatting with the customers about his/her experience in Forex trading, telling the customers about our promotion, etc. Most importantly Indonesian's customers are ALL very very friendly, unlike......... ehemmmm.. Past experiences tell me the difference. "Not interested" hang up the call. "Never ever call me again!"  I was stunned...... Yeah those happened during my previous employment.

I like the way how I don't have to be "pushy" and hard-selling. It's simply like chatting with a friend. If they are not interested, then we'll just send them e-mails. No follow-up like crazy, pushing them to buy our products etc. Although it's a mix of sales & customer support, there is target to hit, but it's more to customer service role. Haven't started to do the calling yet, perhaps tomorrow :)

Oh yesssss, while I was listening to Meilany calling the customer, the Account Manager fell asleep. HAHAHAHA. Meilany told me she's used to it. My boss is very busy with meetings, trainings and stuff, so he rarely at office. So the two seniors slack most of the time. Sometimes MIA, sometimes sleeping hahaha.. Yeah, I didn't see him doing anything after lunch. Simply browsing internet, MIA for a while, came back and SLEEP. Hahahaha. So funny!! ^_^

Weekend Food

A courier came on Friday morning to deliver this to me. It's from UOB anyway. My banker called me the previous day asking me whether I like going to spa as she has spa voucher for me. I was thinking since it's free so why not! The voucher is valid till 31 December. It's for two person. So I'm still thinking who to ask along. Hmmm.. :D I am not a spa person, so not so excited. Perhaps I'll forget about it and at the end it'll be a waste. 

In the afternoon, I went to Raffles Hospital to collect my medical result. It was about 3pm, so I thought that another window-shopping would be a good one 'cos I can't think of anything to do if I headed home straight away. Bought a Hush Puppies T-shirt. Quite nice with the bright pink colour and of course CHEAP :D 

Didn't see anything else nice so I went down to Cold Storage as I already planned to whip up something for dinner. Thought of Mom's homemade mixed salad, I miss eating that. So I looked around to see whether the ingredients are all available. And most importantly the dressing. Yeah we make our own salad dressing. 

The Ingredients

Rock melon, Sausage, Fries, Lettuce, Prawn

When I was trying to look out for something, this happened...

.

..

...

....

......

........

...........

..............

..................

......................

...........................

...............................

...................................

................................

..........................

.....................

...............

............

........

.....

..

.

ARGGGHHH!!

I accidentally broke my Mom's teapot, kind of her favourite :(

Haven't told her about this yet.. Bleah!

The Cooked Ingredients

Own made dressing. Contains mayonnaise and pineapple jam. I had quite a hard time looking for the pineapple jam. They don't have it in pineapple alone, it's a mix of pineapple & mango. So it tastes quite weird as compare to Mom's. But not bad lah. Edible okayyy!!

Lynn's Salad 

Looking good, isn't it?? hehe :)

I had Beef & Mushroom Spaghetti on Saturday night. As usual, Pino was the one who cooked the dish. Oh man, I miss Nel's Seafood Spaghetti!!! *droollllll* 

That's how I spent my weekend. EAT EAT AND EAT hahahaha.. I don't why I'm having HUGE appetite these few days :( Must be due to the monthly thing coming soon. Urgghhh.. 

Oh yeah, I'll be starting work tomorrow. It's gonna be part time, till 1st December then I'll be in full time position. Sigh I don't know why. I got this weird feeling now. Still in dilemma whether this is the right one, am I going to like this job, whether this whether that blah blah blah.. Never ending worries, like always!! Worrying Queen hehehe.. Alright, gonna hit my bed now. No more late night sleep from now on, meaning I must wake up early now and then... sob sob @_@ Good nite, folks! :)

Mom's Visit

Sushi Tei @Paragon.

 It has moved to the other side. Awesomely bigger and posh!

Soft Shell Crab Sushi. Mom likes it so much.

Baby Octopus. Looks scary but very nice!!!

Our All Time Favourite and Must Have! UNADON <3

Agedashi Tofu. Another favourite.

Ebi Tempura. Not bad.

Mom came yesterday. She was here to accompany her friend to do medical check-up. I woke up quite early knowing that she's gonna take early ferry. At the end she reached home at about 11am plus. @_@ Should have slept for a while more hehehe..

First stop and the only stop was ION. Mom will be going to Jakarta end of this month to attend my cousin's wedding. So she's thinking of buying chocolates and stuff for my relatives there, as my mom's gonna stay for a couple of days at their house. She bought 7 boxes of alcohol-contained chocolate, and I snatched one hehe.. and 5 boxes of chocolate with almond, hazelnuts, etc. We bought Nougat as well. I love Nougat, man! Especially the soft one with Almond. I guess we spent about 30 mins in the shop before the decision was made. It's simply too confusing. So many varieties to choose and all looks nice and yummy. 

After that, we walked to Paragon and had Sushi Tei for lunch. I am quite sure that everytime Mom came, we ALWAYS go to Sushi Tei. Simply because she's the one that enjoy Japanese food as much as I do. Other than Mom, Bro & Sister-in-law are also Jap food lover. So Sushi Tei is our favourite. But my dad doesn't like it haha.. 

As what you can see in the pictures, we ordered quite a lot. It's only two of us. I haven't taken my breakfast yet that time, so we ended up finishing all the food hehe.. Was worried that we ordered too much, but simply can't resist Jap Food. LOVE IT! 

After lunch we went back home. It was raining heavily so Mom took a rest for a while. In the afternoon, I sent her to Harbour Front to meet her friend and they went back to Indonesia. It's still early so I headed to Vivocity for some window-shopping. Christmas is around the corner, I saw LOTS of interesting and pretty Christmas decorations. Arggghhh feel like decorating my house, man! Saw a white Christmas tree at Paragon, it's so beautiful. All the decorations are in black and white. So classy!! 

Clothes are very tempting too!! Arggghhhh :( Always found eye-catching clothes, bags, shoes whenever I go into a store. But always walked out with an empty-hand :( BUT BUT BUT at the very last minute I bought a bag!!! hahaha.. Simple one and most importantly love at first sight!~ lalalala :) Met up with Pino for dinner and when he saw me carrying the shopping bag, he said "Bag againnn, Bag againnnn........" his face turned irritated. hahahaha.. ^_^

2012

Went to watch 2012 with Mel yesterday @The Cathay. Finally I get to watch it! hehe.. Have been wanting to watch it since last week 'cos it seems a very nice movie, especially after reading some reviews saying it's a must watch movie. Supposedly to watch it with Pino, but the only time is after he knocks off and the cinemas would be crazily fully booked. Let alone on weekend! And he kept insisting to watch it when it's less crowded, which I think not so soon right? Can't help it but kiasu-ness already attacked me, so I asked Mel along since she also wanted it badly. 

The movie is 2.5 hours long. We ended at around 8pm. 2012 is good, worth my money. My heart couldn't stop beating faster and faster as more and more disaster coming along. It's so thrilling that I couldn't stop shouting "SHITTT!!" all the way. The visual and sound effect are very real and two thumbs up for it! But kinda confused with the storyline, especially at the beginning. Is the real doomsday gonna be like that? SO SCARY!! I was still feeling fine when seeing earthquake, but when it came to the part of Tsunami, I really can't help it. I was frightened, very scared. Luckily some funny conversations help a bit. Overall, I think it's a well worth movie to watch :D

Well, I went to Raffles Hospital for medical check-up this morning. Waited for almost 1 hour. Blood test was kinda painful :( Had my lunch at Bugis Junction after that. Anyway, Mom is coming tomorrow. Yayyy! Thinking of bringing her to ION for lunch and jalan-jalan :)

Second Job??

I got a job recommendation from Meilany the other day. She works part-time at this company. It is a Forex trading company, called eToro. Google-ed it the other time, looks like quite a well doing company. The main office is in British Virgin Island. So I sent my resume to the boss and he called me like within 1 hour? Hmm.. He sounds a nice guy in his thirties or forties. It was like a phone-interview. He asked me some questions regarding my previous employment with StanChart, my expectations etc. He briefly explained the job scope that I'll be doing if I join on board. For me, it's a mix of sales & customer service job. Kinda similar to my StanChart job. The only difference is I don't provide any financial advice. It's more to providing market information that would be sent via email to customer. They need person that can speak Indonesian, as I'll be contacting Indonesians customer, which I think it's a plus point for me. We have sales target to hit in order to get the commission. Target??? Okayyyy, let it be! I've learnt from my lesson, but because of that I'm stronger. I'm willing to give it a try.

However, when he talks about the MAIN thing, which is salary. It pushed me into hell, the salary offered is like WHAT??? SO LITTLE!! I was devastated, 'cos it really sucks to the max! He asked me to get some time to consider. I asked around, and most of my friends said the salary is too low for a degree holder. It was so so much lower than StanChart paid me last time. So on last Friday, I e-mailed the boss saying that I decided not to take up the offer as the salary is not that I'm expecting for.

Yesterday morning, as usual the first thing to do when I wake up is to turn on my laptop and check e-mails. Saw his reply saying that he's willing to increase it. And the amount is my minimum expectation. So I replied back to him asking some questions regarding the working hours, whether the salary is already included commission, my PR conversion etc.

It took me a day waiting for his reply. This morning finally I got his reply with the answers. Working hours is not an issue, it's a basic salary; not included commission yet. So I told him that I decided to take the offer. I have booked appointment for my PR formalities. I'll start work on 1st December. Meanwhile, I'll start as a part-timer next week, to get some ideas how the job is actually being carried out.

Called my mom to tell her about this, and when she knows about the salary, she said, "hahaha... so "much"???" Which she means the opposite. But I told her it's okay 'cos the job seems quite enjoyable and I really hate job hunting!!! I thought it'll be good to have my PR on hand, and the salary is not too bad. I really hope I will like this job 'cos I don't want to be on job hopping again and again. Wish me luck!

Going to catch 2012 with Mel later in the evening. Can't wait!! :D