Simply bo chup

All my kakis flew back to Singapore today. Woke up at 430am to send them to the airport. Then came home and slept until 845am. Reached office only at 930am. Good thing no guard to take attendance of latecomers...

When I was in the Spore office, there used to be this admin guy who would stand at our office floor elevator lobby at 845am sharp to take down the names of employees who came in late for work. He was ordered to do so by a Corp Tax partner who viewed punctuality as a serious business. Our official work hours were from 830am to 530pm. I understand the importance of being punctual. Just not sure why the prickly partner didn't think of keeping track of what time we leave for home everyday too. I was working until almost past midnight for a good half of the year then.

I made it to the late list a number of times. The weird thing was that most of the people that were caught were those that live in the North, namely AMK and YCK. Those that live further were always on time. Rumor had it that our bonus would be affected if we were caught coming late for work too many times.

Of course, being the smarty pants that we were, we found a way to beat the system. Instead of coming up by the office elevators, we took the cargo lift which led us directly into the office, bypassing the elevators altogether. That way, the admin guy will not be able to "catch" us.

Of course the partner was no idiot. He discovered our little trick. So he ordered the admin guy to stand in the office with the wooden doors opened, so that he could monitor both the office elevators and cargo lift.

How did we beat the system this time round? We didn't. We just ignored the rule and continued coming late. We were no schoolchildren so we didn't see a need for a "discipline master" to "punish" us for being late. Talk about simply bo chup

Shopping spree

It’s been a while since I last shopped, not counting the countless supermarket trips of course. So when we went to San Marcos outlet malls – Prime outlet and Tanger Outlet - two Saturdays ago, I had a whale of a time checking out the shops.

The 250-store outlet was ranked the third-best place to shop in the world by ABC “The View” in 2006. Even though the mall is ginormous, every time I visited San Marcos, I had more than enough time to cover both the outlet malls. If fact, Tim and I could cover the malls in less than 5 hours!

But each time Zing was there, she would complain that she didn’t have a chance to even properly cover just one of the malls. I couldn’t fully understand why. But now I know…

Coach was the first store we went to. After deciding that there was nothing we wanted in the shop, Tim and I walked out and went our own way, leaving behind Zing, Neo and his friend. In fact, Tim and I found a bench and took a nap.

About an hour later, Zing called. Wanna know how many shops did she cover during that time? She had only gone from the Coach store to the Ann Taylor shop next door! Faint…No wonder she doesn’t have enough time to shop!

Then I started shopping with Zing, leaving Tim to his own devices. True enough, we only managed to cover just Prime outlet and one other shop at Tanger outlet by the end of the day. Kua kua…

Pictures of the damages
BCBG Max Azria belt. Original price: $60. Final sale price: $24

Michael Kors watch: Original Price: I dunno. Final price: $50

Roxy bikinis: Original price $75/set. Final Price: $23/set

Since the bikinis are sooooo cheap and I couldn't decide which one to get, so I bought both sets. hehe... Bikinis parade in Hawaii!

I bought two other tops - one from Calvin Klein and another from Ann Taylor. Seems like I didn't buy that much after spending 8 hours at San Marcos. Not very productive yeh...

Home-cooked food

Invasion of the food bug again....

This is a picture of the steamed Alaskan Halibut which Yiren and Zing caught while fishing in where else but Alaska. Duh… It costs around US$19 per pound in the supermarket. They gave us four pounds equivalent to almost US$80 worth of fish. Ain’t we lucky to be their neighbor?

p/s: This post was written before Neo started claiming money from us. He ain’t that nice after all.


Since Houston is such a boring place, without much to do on a lazy Sunday afternoon, I tried a new recipe which I found on the web. Presenting…..

Salmon with mango-melon salsas Cool name eh….Taste really good too.


Feeling really, really bored, with the leftover melon from the salsas, I also made cantaloupe sago dessert. Used to love eating this dessert so much…


Chinese BBQ PastriesThese pastries taste really good.

I put minced pork and mushroom as the filling. Maybe next time I should try putting some curried chicken and potatoes instead.

Since it was so good, I decided to bring them to the office the following day for breakfast. I placed the pastries in the oven before pre-heating it. After the oven was heated up, the pastries were also hot enough that I din have to continue baking. I happily took 2 out of the 4 pastries and brought them to the office to share with Neo.

Then at 11am, while I was taking a break from working, it suddenly dawned on me that......I totally forgot to turn off the oven!

I rushed back home and these were how the remaining pastries turned out. Black and hard....

Actually they look better in pictures than they really were. In fact, they look better than the "non-chao tah" ones if you ask me.

Got all these recipes from Jaden’s Steamy Kitchen. I accidentally stumbled on her blog while looking for recipes. Really like her style of cooking - simple yet creative. And she is really farnie and “steamy” too….

It's officially over....

Busy season lar.... what are you thinking? Come to think of it... it hasn't even really started for me. I worked like two days of OT at most and it was only until 9pm at the latest. Of course it is not all so rosy for everyone. Some of my colleagues really had a rough peak period. Then again, no matter what, it would never be as tough as in Singapore.

Over here, or at least in my department, the managers really show their appreciation if we put in extra hours just to complete a project on time which is so unlike in Singapore where it is expected of you to stay late. People will start talking behind your back if you leave at 7pm as if you have committed a sin.

There was this one time during non-busy season over here when the analysis we had prepared for the client had to be changed because the client provided us with some last-minute revised data. The report was supposed to be due in two days so we had to stay late for that night to complete the project. Actually, we only stayed until 10pm and was told to go home after that so that we could start the next day fresh.

When it came to appraisal time, my manager actually wrote this in my review, "She went above and beyond what was required of her to ensure that the project was completed on a timely basis." How cool is that?!! You will never find this kind of review and appreciation in Singapore. If only we have this kind of positive working environment in Singapore. Life would be so much better.

Nevertheless, it is not like that everywhere in the US, and certainly not so even within the same firm. I've heard horror stories of managers/seniors from hell who would make you work like shit and claim the credits. Unless you speak up and fend for yourself, you will only suffer. So I am really thankful to be in a department where everyone enjoys working with each other. There are no bad vibes between colleagues (or so I choose to believe) and everyone is just so happy to be working in this big "family".

P/S: I am writing this in the comfort of my home at 345pm on a Friday afternoon. I just got back from a post-busy season celebration lunch at El Tiempo, a Tex-Mex restaurant. We got the rest of the afternoon off after the celebration. Isn't it awesome?!!

The sale worth waiting for...

To all the Coach lovers out there, Coach is having a storewide sale again from 15 Sept to 23rd Sept. Let me know if you would like me to help get one for you. Special tie-up with Neo to bring the bags back to Spore at the end of Sept. Check out Coach official website for the latest designs.

Charges, terms & conditions apply.

New York Part II

During our four-day trip to NYC, we squeezed in a camping trip to the Oquaga Creek State Park with a group of Singaporeans living in NYC, some of whom we only met for the first time there and then.

Not wanting to check in our luggage at the airport, we traveled light thinking that the weather would reach just around 60s Fahrenheit (below 20 degree Celsius) at the coldest.
While the rest of the New Yorkers brought sleeping bags, warm clothings and tents to the campsite, the Houstonians happily brought along just our tent which we hand carried all the way from Houston.

We really regretted not bringing more…

It was so cold that all 11 of us cuddled around the campfire all night, stepping away only to take a quick shower. We only went back to our tent after a ranger “told us off” for being noisy during quiet hours at around midnight.

That’s when the torture began…

I brought a pair of three-quarter pants and t-shirt for sleeping. Although I also had a fleece jacket, it was simply not enough. I kept waking up all night. At one point, it got so cold that I emptied my backpack and put my frozen feet into the bag to keep warm. Innovative leh!! Wen calls it the feet in bag technique. Eventually, I even took out my dirty clothing and wrapped them around the part of my legs that were exposed to the blistering cold. Yet, it was still not warm enuff.

Even Tim who can usually withstand cold couldn’t sleep too. Neither could Celia. Tim kept checking on me throughout the night coz he was so worried that I might just stop breathing. So sweet....

Only Wen slept through the night and even snored so soundly. He only woke up coz he needed to go to the loo. By the way, he only had bermudas but covered one leg with Celia's three-quarter pants and the other with Tim's berms. I think cold weather really suits him better.

The worst was when morning was about to break. With water vapor settled all around the tent, it got so cold and wet that we almost froze to death! We found out only the next day that the temperature actually dropped to 39 Fahrenheit (4 degree Celsius)!!

It seems that every time Tim and I go camping in the US, it is always under extreme weather conditions. The first time was at Grand Canyon where it reached over 110 Fahrenheit (43 celsius) while this time round the temperature went the other way. Are we nuts or what? I think we have a tendency to torture ourselves.

Oh did i mention showering was really a torture? None of us wanted to be the first to bathe. So after the first two brave girls that went came to tell us how shiok it was to bathe with hot water, the rest of us couldn't wait to shower.

The only problem was that by the time the third girl went to bathe, the hot water had run out. The rest of us had to bathe with cold water. And guess what i did? After a quick shower (i think i only bathed for less than 4 mins), I mistakenly took the hair conditioner and applied it on my hands and leg thinking it was my body lotion. I almost fainted when i realized my mistake. The thought that i have to bathe again in the cold was definitely not fun. In the end, i just washed myself at the basin instead of taking a shower. This was all thanks to Celia who brought the conditioner which is in the exact same bottle as my lotion.

All in all, it was a really memorable camping trip. We didn’t do much but still we had lotsa fun.

Check out the photos with Wen's farnie captions:

Ducks

Was going through my photo albums when I saw this pic:


Thought I just have to post it especially after the grasshoppers pic.

Big Apple

Tim, Wen, Celia and I had a great time in NYC over the long weekend. Being in Gotham City is like watching TV comes to life. The famous buildings and structures such as Brooklyn Bridge (Fantastic Four), Statue of Liberty (Fantastic Four again), Empire State building (King Kong), Time Square (famous New Year’s eve ball), Central Park (Borat), subway stations (Matrix) and never ending lines of yellow cabs seem to jump out of movies. It's just so damn cool to be in the midst of one of the most happening cities in the world.

But I doubt I will like living in Manhattan. Visiting the place as a tourist is nice, but living there is definitely a big no no. It's simply too crowded. There are just too many tourists. Or perhaps I have been living in Houston for too long where it is so spacious and laid back that I am no longer used to seeing so many people rushing about. In fact, the crowd gives me a headache.

It also seems that I am no longer used to taking public transport. When I first came to Houston, my biggest complain was the lack of a public transport system. I couldn't go anywhere without driving which I really hated. Yet, while in NYC, I couldn't help wishing we have a car to drive around. Not that I would wanna drive in NYC though cos the traffic there is really crazy. There are simply too many vehicles and people on the road and parking is really expensive. Even with promotion, parking will still cost at least US$10 per half hour. But having a car means I don't have to rely on the subway to get to my destination. I am not subject to the trains' timetables. I have the freedom to choose when I want to go home. I am so used to the convenience of driving that I think I have been Texan-fied. Hope I don't grow as big as the Texans.

Perhaps the ultimate push factor was the fact that we waited at the subway station for about 50 mins before realising that the train we were waiting for has already stopped running for the day. Perhaps it is because most of the subway stations are not air-conditioned. Perhaps it is also because the stations are mostly dark. dingy and stuffy. Perhaps i am just finding excuses for myself.....I am no longer the girl I used to be. I have become lazy. I would rather drive and park as close to my destination as possible. Walking a few steps is just a step too many.