Shanna’s Gregarious Life

Archive for the 'My Life' Category


164 Hits!

Posted by Shanna on 26 September 2007

My! 164 hits in 1 week to my new site at http://dreamproperties.wordpress.com.  Not bad for a starter!

I started out wanting to just key in my properties for sale and rental, and it escalated to include property news and project information!  The property news is a killer!  Day after day, I have to input news from the numerous newspapers here in Singapore.  And I have to choose what to add in.  So mainly, its property news, and nothing else.  Didn’t want to add in US stock markets or the UK Bank loan news, or even overseas property news.  Singapore property news is good enough!  Or else, I’ll never be able to sleep!

Well, now with the 164 hits I have, I do hope that the hits would turn into sales!

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When I blog, I blog…

Posted by Shanna on 19 September 2007

I notice something…. When I blog, I blog, when I don’t, I go silent for weeks or months before I blog again.  Here I am blogging for the second time since June 2007!

I have been busy.  Busy blogging.  Busy blogging on a new site which I have just created.  So busy blogging on my new site which I have created that I have now 10 over posts in the 24 hours which I created that blog.  And now, it is time to reveal the new blog: http://dreamproperties.wordpress.com

Yes yes, as the name suggests, it is a property site.  I had wanted a property site for SO LONG but I have been too broke to be able to afford those fanciful ones which some agents have.  So in the end, I had to make do with using wordpress to create this site.

Don’t expect anything fanciful here in this site.  It’s just clean lines, simple and hopefully, straightforward enough to use.

Do hope that people can chance upon it and comment on it so that I can maybe improve on the site a little bit.

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It’s been a long time…..

Posted by Shanna on 17 September 2007

It’s been 3 months or so since I last wrote in my blog! Can’t believe it! But then, I have a good excuse!

  1. I was busy at work and when I got home, I was always too tired to blog.
  2. I changed my job AGAIN! So it’s starting all over, the foundation, getting started, straight from ground zero up.
  3. I bought a red poodle puppy, so she is taking up alot of my time.  If I am not playing with her, I am reading up about her.  Books on puppies (it’s like being a new mummy again!), books on training, books on grooming!
  4. Facebook.  Can’t stand it! can’t get enough of it!

Now, the explaination of the past 3 months in 1 blog!

I was working so hard at my company but it seems it was not good enough!  I felt that whatever I did, it was not up to their expectations.  I was proud to be part of this company and I thought I was doing well.  But like what people say, sometimes your best isn’t good enough.  I started having doubts.  I started thinking of leaving.  1 of the reasons was that if I were to be confirmed at the end of my 3 months probation, I’d be required to give 2 months notice period if I do want to resign.  Another reason was that I felt I could not adapt to the culture of the company.  I used to joke that it is like a communist company! :p  They were always trying to change your midset to suit theirs.  Of course, I am not saying that it is bad, it’s just that I am unable to adapt.  I did learn some things from the company though.  I’ve learnt time management skills which is essential to me in my new line of work.  I’ve learnt how to dress up better! Cos I used to be very much a jeans person, being in an office environment, I have to be in office clothes.  Since I was proud to be in this company, I wanted to look good too, so shopping I went, to buy a few more presentable tops.  There was a downside though.  We were to be at work earlier then usual, and we should not leave on the dot too.  In fact, a handful of the staff are so busy that they end up staying back as late as 7 to 8pm at night when they should finish at 6pm.  Well, that is a part of my life I will want to remember still.  It was memorable, though short.  I did not have a good chance to even thank my boss for what he has taught me. :(

After leaving that company, I decided that property is still for me.  It gives me the flexibility that a normal job can’t.  I do not need to report to anyone and I am my own boss.  Income is up to me to decide.  If I am lazy, no money honey!  It is also great that I have joined a better company and have a great suppportive manager.  So as mentioned, I had to start from the bottom up again.  I had to get my bearings right. Learn to focus on the property market again.  Prepare my move to CONQUER the market!  And that takes time!  Til now, everyday is still a learning stage for me.  Wish me all the best!

Next, yes, I bought a new puppy!  Benji passed away on 14th June 2007.  He shall be remembered and missed dearly.  ShandyShandy came into our lives by accident.  I bought her at Pasir Ris Pet Farm because I had too!  She was just too cute to walk away from.  She has been a bundle of joy in our home since 13th August 2007.  She has recently turned 3 months old and she really is such a joy to have around, though I doubt Jesper, my other dog, would feel the same.  Shandy is always chasing and biting Jesper.  And he HATES it!  Though recently, I feel he is beginning to enjoy the chase.  :p  Shandy sleeps in my room, while Jesper sleeps in my mum’s room.  We do need some peaceful, quiet times too, with no barking and yelping!  Shandy is my alarm clock every morning.  She wakes up about 7.15 am EVERY morning, if I am lucky, it would be about 8am.  She would start whinning and yelping to wake me up.  I would then reach over and pick her up onto my bed to play with her awhile before giving her breakfast.

Lastly, who the hell introduced me to Facebook?  I can get quite hooked on its applications!  Daily, I will be giving drinks and pastries to friends, or asking them to support causes, or using my ‘pet’ to fight with other pets, and many many more!  I am so addicted that I am switching in between Facebook and my blog now!  Erh…. I think this is a long blog for today… Facebook is calling me now…..

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Its My Birthday!

Posted by Shanna on 13 June 2007

What a day it has been!  Going to work with a hangover today!  I’ll never forgive my gal friends for that stupid drink they gave me last night!  Its not the whiskeys and beers which I had.  I didn’t mind those!  But its that shooter concoction I can’t stand!  It was so YUCKY!  Just thinking of it now makes me wanna through up! 

 I was at the verge of taking MC today so that I can sleep off the yucky taste!  But am I glad I didn’t do that!

Work was busy then usual and I think its one of those few times that I work on my birthday.  Birthday wishes and birthday songs flowed my way the minutes I stepped into the office.  I have been waiting for the birthday card which everyone usually signs for a staff birthday, and also the $50 Takashimaya Voucher, but none came… :(  I was even wishing for a birthday cake…. Sigh…

I waited and waited, and lunch time came.  I was getting grumpy!  What a day! My birthday, and I don’t have a card?  Is it because I am not a confirmed staff yet that I don’t get anything?  I was already complaing during lunch on how hot the weather was, and was gobbling down my lunch so that I can rush back into the cold office!  What’s worse was, when I was about to leave the table, my colleague had to stop me to discuss WORK!  I was thinking, isn’t there a better place to discuss work?  The office is nice and cool, we could easily discuss work then!!!  Then she rushed off for a minuteMy Birthday CakeMy Birthday Cake to talk to another colleague and rushed back to me to discuss more!  Getting hot and bothered, I was rattling off what I have done in this project I was working with her on.  And before I knew it, surprise surprise, my HR Manager walked My Birthday Caketowards me with another colleague, carrying…. A BIRTHDAY CAKE!!!!  By now, I was cursing under my breathe!  My colleague had tricked me!  From being irritated, I was close to blushing!  Now the whole school knows its my birthday!  Students and colleagues were singing the birthday song!

Well well well, it has not been a bad day afterall!  The cake was a chocolate mousse cake made of 4 small hearts!  Made from pure Valrhona Chocolate!  1 heart was in gold, 2 were in dark chocolate and another in milk chocolate, made by our pastry chef and the chef from Valrhona.  What an honour!  This will definately be a birthday I will always remember! My Birthday CakeMy Birthday Cake

The cake was melt-in-your-mouth smooth!  1 of them was a mix of mousse and sponge cake, another 2 were of dark chocolate mousse, and 1 in milk chocolate mousse.  So sinful!  So yummy! So utterly cool!

Happy Birthday to ME!

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I Got The Job!

Posted by Shanna on 13 March 2007

After 3 days of interviews with 4 different people, and an email to say why I wanted the job, I had better get the job!

They called me yesterday at about 3.40pm, just as I was about to step out of the house to pick my little rascal for her swimming classes.  They had wanted me to rush down to sign the Letter of Appointment immediately!  I think they were afraid that I would change my mind or either not able to make it on other days as I am still working!  Rush I did! I reached the office in less than an hour! :P

Well, I’m pleased to say that I have been offered a great job with fantastic benefits!  I have never seen such a long Letter of Appointment.  Those I have seen were just a page long, cos the companies I worked for were smaller and lesser established compared to his company.  The letter was about 4 to 5 pages long with an attachment of the benefits!

They have offered me what I never recieved in my other companies!  I had the 13th Month bonus, performance bonuses (every 6 months), $500 medical, which if I do not use all of it, can be used for dental, buying new spectacles, having meals at hotels with my colleagues…. Of course also including the basic annual leave, compassionate leave, maternity leave, childcare leave, etc… the list goes on…

Now the only problem is, HOW AM I GOING TO WAKE UP SO EARLY IN THE MORNING TO START WORK AT 9AM???  I think I need few alarm clocks!  I’ve already got 2 alarms from my 2 mobile phones!  I think I need more!  Would anyone like to wake me up every day at about 7am?

I’ll be starting my first day of work on Tuesday, 20th March 2007.  So my alarm clocks can start ringing from then!

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What an Interview!

Posted by Shanna on 11 March 2007

I didn’t know going for an interview would be so strenuous!  I had already gone for 2 interviews with 3 different people, and now I have to email them, telling them why I want to work for them?  And then still go for another interivew with the founder?  Well, here’s what I emailed them! =>

I have always believed that one should either work for a company where one knows she will love and enjoy working for or if one has a hobby, find a job which has similar interests.  I have found both of that in At Sunrice, as being in the kitchen is my hobby, and yet, I have always enjoyed the educational line of work.  Many could say that this would be a dream job for me!  Just by stepping into At Sunrice, I felt very warm and welcome with the environment, the atmosphere, the company and its people.  Knowing that it is a proper organisation with an excellent system in place makes me feel at ease. I feel confident that I will be well taken care of, as a guest or staff member. 

I may just be a home baker but I’ve always been enchanted with the culinary world.  It never ceases to amaze me however on how chefs are able to transform a simple dish into something so exquisite and wonderful! 

I have met with Sandra, PA to Chef Megel, and she has explained the requirements of the job.  It may be slightly overwhelming for now as I have yet to understand the ‘running’ of the company.  However, I found it very challenging, knowing that I will always have to work under pressure.  Sandra has showed me that I had to arrange appointments for Chef Megel, and had encouraged me to have a written schedule, one on the computer and also manually key into Chef’s computer as it is a Macintosh interface, which is different from the normal PC interface.  She has also informed me that the PA-to-be will be in charge of stationary inventory, the phone system, inventory and purchasing of books for sale, scheduling of staff, managing projects, arranging and organising the SCA (Singapore Chef’s Association) outings and much, much more. 

Being able to work with Chef Megel would be a great privilege to me, as he is a World Renowned Chef, with a book under his belt, or in his case, apron.  After meeting up with Chef, I found him to be a straight-forward person with a great deal of integrity.  He wants to be able to trust his PA, and I would want to be able to trust my boss, and I do think that is a pre-requisite to build a solid working relationship.

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A Job Disappointment

Posted by Shanna on 6 March 2007

I guess I have tried to be as understanding as I can towards my boss.  She’s 79 yrs of age, and still going quite strong.  However, it is unfair to say that I should consider that since she is much elderly that I have to close an eye to her misgivings.  She has been blaming me for things which I have not done or things which I have told her.  At first, I put the blame on myself for not doing it, or forgetting to tell her things, then I realise that it is not that I haven’t done or reminded her of certain issues, SHE FORGOT about them!  And all those times, I felt so bad about certain issues.  It affected me so badly that I couldn’t sleep at night at times, or I may call up friends to find out if I did any wrong!

Just today, we had a meeting.  She brought out an A4 piece of paper and said that there are some ‘issues’ that she would like to bring up.  Covering the paper, she read out one after another a list of things which I did not do, should not do, have not done,  etc… and what surprised me was, she was saying things out of context!

My working hours are usually 10.30 am to 6.30pm on most days except for Tuesday and Saturday, where I start at 9am.  Yes, she did mention that I have improved on my punctuality.  I was usually late for my 9am working days!  But then, she had to add in by asking what time have I been coming in on my other days as she doesn’t come in til earliest noon time on the other days!  Then she went on saying that she called a few times around 11 am and my colleague picks up the calls, saying that I have just stepped out to buy breakfast or have not stepped into the office!  I said, I don’t think so, get your information right! I have been at work latest by 10.30am.  In fact, usually in slightly earlier then that!  I later found out from my colleague that he only received those calls no more than twice!  And I really did just stepped out for awhile!

Next, she asked why was it that I went to work late on 21 Feb 07, a Wednesday.  And when she called, I said I was cleaning my place!  In fact, she was so sarcastic to say, I thought most people cleaned their house on the first day of Chinese New Year, why do you clean your house on the fourth day instead?  I was totally shocked cos I told her that I would be having a party on Tuesday night and I may be late as I would have to clean the flat, and she was ok with it!  She even said to take my time as there were no classes in the morning, just be in time for my colleague’s class at 3.30pm!  And now, here she is saying that I didn’t tell her!!  So I was so pissed off and told her that I did inform her, and she kept saying that I didn’t.  In the end,  I waved my hand away and said, then forget it, if you say I didn’t tell you, then fine, I didn’t!

I even was close to being speechless!  And I gave a last try by saying, ‘Es, this is not the first time this is happening!  You keep saying that I didn’t tell you when I said I did!  And it is really slowly getting out of hand! Cos I know I did tell you!’  But she is as stubborn as a mule, refusing to apologise for her mistakes and forgetfulness, instead, she said, ‘if I did forget, I would apologise but I know you didn’t tell me’!!  DUH!  What do you want me to say?

 Even the simple Saturday task of picking up my daughter when my mum drops her off at the building, she had to make a fuss of it!  She knew that I pick my daughter up every Saturday for her English class at the school and yet, she told me today, ‘You went down and left the reception area unattended for about 15 minutes’.  The last time, she said it was ok, as it was not a busy time, it was during class time, so no one hangs around, and now? she changes her mind!

So I told her, ‘dun worry, I know what to do, from this Saturday onwards, I shall stop bringing Nicole for classes.’  Then she looked in disbelief and tried to be ‘nice’ by saying, ‘can’t your mum bring her up, cos other parents can’ and I said, ’she can’t as she is not so good in driving and parking in the public car park and going up the slops is something she is not good at’.  Then she said, how about the hubby? I said, not possible as he works and even if he can, he drives a van, means, he can’t go into the car park building too!  So I said, sarcastically, ‘Don’t worry Es, as I said, I understand, I’ll just stop bringing Nicole down for classes’.  She was speechless!  In fact, I think I shall return most of the materials to her too!  I don’t think that I am THAT hard up for a free lesson!

It’s no wonder my colleague flared up few weeks back, throwing his office key on her table, telling her that he is not coming back!  And I had to pacify him and advised him to stay!  From the way things are going, I may be the next one to flare and walk out the door!  It’s also no wonder that last year alone, there were about 4 ot 5 administrators in 6 months!  All must have been unhappy with her!

How can one tolerate bahavior like that?

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My Interview

Posted by Shanna on 6 March 2007

Yes, I am out looking for a job again!  I’ve applied for a few jobs in December and one of the companies called me up for an interview few weeks back!  I was telling myself, no harm going for the interview and finding out more about the company and IF I do get the job, we shall see how from there!

The interview went great but I didn’t hear from them until last week.  They said that they couldn’t pay my asking salary!  Sigh… If only they knew, I would take what they offered me.  It would be great to work in that environment!  It is a school and,… its a CULINARY school, and I love baking!  Well, they invited me down for another interview for another position, PA to the CEO!  Wah! So high class!  So I went, not knowing what to expect, and I realised that the CEO was a 37 Bachelor French Chef! :D  Heard he was the Head Chef of The Ritz, before moving to this school.  He even wrote a book called ‘Asian Tapas’.  It would be a dream to work for him!

I had the chance to speak with his current PA and found that this is not an easy job as she has to not only arrange his appointments, but also be in charge of inventory of books sold, the copier machine, phone system.  She did even say that she doesn’t even have time to MSN at work!!! :o  Well, I think I’d rather be THAT busy than not knowing what to do at work each day!

I have this fear that I may not be able to meet up to this CEO’s expectations as his current PA is fantastic!  She is neat and tidy, no filing left on her desk, her diary planner and Outlook was SO organised!  She is meticulous!  I guess the fear is because I did not know their work system, filing system and how the company is run, so I guess it is all just jitters and excitement.  Thus, I shouldn’t worry so much!

Well, now, my fingers are crossed, hoping that I’ll get that job and leave my current job.  Sigh… work hasn’t been that fantastic of late.  I’m still doing fine, the boss still thanks me for the job that I have done but then, there are other issues which I have not been pleased about.

I think my current job deserves a new article!

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Hiccups!

Posted by Shanna on 16 February 2007

Bloody Hell!  I’ve got hiccups!  Excuse me if I have  been typing wrongly!  I have tried taking a deep breathe, and I still have the bloody hiccups!  I am holding my breathe this very minute!  Instead of a ‘hiccup per second’. it is now ‘hiccup per micro-second’!

I tried holding my breathe for few seconds, and the hiccups stop for the few seconds!  The minute I breathe, OR stop breathing, it comes again!!!  So the ’stop breathing’ technique doesn’t work!

Argh……….! FINALLY!  No more hiccups!

 To start off, it has a hell of a nite!  A friendly game with another pub, then hving to be anchor player!  SO STRENOUS!  Thank goodness my buds won the first 3 games, so the doubles and last singles was not that stressful!  I managed to ‘luckily’ win my game but WOW! one hell of a stressful game!  Heading back to my home ground was just as stressful , but we could have left earlier and do what we want!

On top of the whole scenario, it was saddening to find out problems with my 2 best buds!  One felt sorry, the other tried feeling strong.  Both forgave each other, but I realise, no matter what, the hurt will always remain!  It did take awhile, but I think we have overcome that stage in life whereby we can stand up for what we want, and/or what we need.

 All I do believe is GIRL POWER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Take control of your life, take control of what you want to do in life.  The rest is history!

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Chinese New Year is coming!

Posted by Shanna on 14 February 2007

Its that time of the year again!  I have to start packing up the red packets with money….  I am going to be really stingy this year when I give Ang Paos…. Too broke you see… :p

The hubby had mentioned that he may invite his friends over to our flat on the third day of CNY.  And I have been asking him day after day if it is confirmed!  If his friends are coming over, then I’d have to really clean the place up and also buy some food to standby when people pop over!  I have already planned to buy loads of frozen food to stock in the freezer, either to fry, bake or grille them if his friends do come over.  Maybe some packet of Chicken Nuggets, Fishball, Sotong Ball, Samosas, and whatever I can find in the frozen section of the supermarket.  I may also cook something simple or depending on my mood, may cook my beef stew… DAMN! I don’t have a rice cooker at the flat!  Note: To bring rice cooker from home…. Or maybe buy frozen french loaf from Delifrance, just throw into oven and it will be good to dip for the stew.

I’ll decide that tomorrow!  Better get to sleep!  Dreaming of the menu and what I shall bake for that day!

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