Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Xmas season

Xmas eve was rachel's surprise bdae party at mc donald's. First time i attended a birthday party at mcd (iirc) and luckily the waitress was funny enough to accommodate us 'kids'.

XMAS IS ANNUAL (not for last year) CHRISTMAS CHOIR (indoor) BBQ! Thanks to songern and his family for preparing the food for us beforehand and booking the pit.

This year was special because of the rain, we had an indoor BBQ so we actually cooked the food on the stove instead. well, his parents did. it was so wonderful.

and WE FINALLY GOT TO CAROL!!

WELCOME BACK CHRISTMAS SPIRIT!



less pear.

Boxing day was meet up with Agnes and PX, and i bought myself a nice sweater which can be used for my US exchange next year. haha.

and till the rest of the year, i'll be on leave! no working till next year!

Saturday, December 25, 2010

lemon meringue - fail

First trial lemon meringue pie fail

I just found out the reasons

The container of white powder that usually contained corn flour was replaced by potato flour so i used potato flour instead of corn flour. That explains the meringue and the lemon liquid.

I didn't check the acidity of the lemon curd. It was way too sour for human consumption. Too much lemon juice. check.

i used the wrong kind of eggs. The very small eggs does not contain enough protein in their whites to form stiff peaks when beaten. thats why meringue is so runny.

but the pastry crust was unbelievably a success! Its so nice when eaten on its own and its my first time baking a pie tart pastry.

ok nxt one will be good.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

working weekend

I was thinking about work this whole weekend although I did went out for some xmas gift shopping yesterday and supposed to hang out with another group today but it was postponed.

so I got up today to complete some work in the afternoon because i knew it's going to keep running through my mind until I've finished it.

yea I was a little bored today, all my shows like walking dead, gossip girls and glee are on halt because of the holiday season, might as well do some productive stuff like work.

I can foresee myself as a workaholic next time.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Xmas cookies and card

Lionel's wife baked xmas cookies for everyone in the department and Lionel gave me a hand written Xmas card.

THAT IS SO SWEET AND NICE!

Really touched at the fact that my supervisor's wife actually made cookies for me!
and my supervisor gave me a personal xmas card with his well wishes.

In return I bought candy-canes for his family. He said his 4 kids will LOVE them.

I will wish to post a picture of the cookies but i dun think it'll look as good when it comes out of my body.

Intern + Supervisor Xmas Gathering

You know you have to do something when your supervisor mentioned "hey we should have an interns and supervisors gathering" on 3 separate occasions and the Korean boss asked for a xmas gathering.

So, I chaired the event, asked everyone for a free date and send calendar invites to 13 people. Nobody knew who's gonna pay for it because its difficult to split and the 4 interns were prepared to go dutch, or worse still - BUY for our supervisors.

And then judgement day is here.

the afternoon Lionel pulled me into a room to pass me some department xmas gifts.

L: hey so what's the program later?
Me: oh just a simple xmas dinner, are you okay with that?
L: yup i'm fine, but since its an unofficial event you know the company will not be paying right? because every department has their own financials and its difficult.
Me: yup, we know we expected it.
L: or are you all buying?

He must have seen the look on my face the split second i hear that. I swallowed.

Me: Er.... we don't mind la.

Game Over.
Well done, myself.
Now i think of it, i should have said something like...Good idea, should we? or we'll leave it to another day? or i hafta ask the other interns first.

so i went back to announce it to my other 3 supposedly-good-intern-friends and they thanked me. Thank you, in our intern terms means thanks for paying. I was so stressed up the entire afternoon i couldn't do any work. I have already made reservation at Brotziet, a german bar and restaurant with mains starting at $20 and beers starting $10.

1 intern + 1 supervisor = $80
1 intern + 2 supervisors = $120
13 people = $450

i got ready my gloves to wash the dishes after the dinner. Nearing the dinner time, the korean boss came over and i was a little bit relieved that he was going. Well he's the one with the corporate credit card.

Fast-forward, I was thinking, heck! just have fun first and stress later. I was in my natural high because I was chairing the event. K boss ordered everything and we all had beer. Pork knuckle, sausages, seafood appetizers and beer. Super wonderful and sinful combination, but it was really worth it. SO GOOD. The company was exceptional, a lot of laughing and interacting.

ok i said i will never drink in my life but alcohol is never unavoidable, especially after work and exceptionally especially with a korean boss. Once your glass is empty, another glass automatically comes up at his order.

My body system is very sensitive. Not having touched alcohol for a long time, i feel the maximum effect of the alcohol. I wasn't drunk, it was only beer, just high and babbering almost non-stop at the table (i think). Its not over the edge, just taking more than usual.

The bill came, magic dusts and fireworks appeared on my mind when O KOREAN MIGHTY ONE whipped out the credit card which shone like a golden sun over the horizon and hand it to the waitress.

I am so glad everything worked out in the end and everything went smoothly. Except for the fact that my corner of the table didn't have much to eat and went home feeling a bit hungry.

and another thing. I'm feeling the effects of talking too much then. I wanna take back some of the things i said, like how i have a lot of free time or how i wanna join the company, because my supervisor just opened the flood gates of work.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Customer visit

well, i really dun have anything to say after meeting the customer, its kinda boring for me while both of them do their magic talking.

and then after they asked me how was the visit, I really don't feel anything. Mayb i was expecting a bit more or issit because of a culture shock.

it kinda opened another world to me when i know what Lionel's doing. He's really the expert, the pro, the everything who is good at talking and moving on to our objectives smoothly without the customer or me realising it.

Seriously he is the expert to learn from. I have infinite to learn from him.

prof visit

So my prof texted me at 3pm asking me if he can visit at 5pm. what else can I say?

I think it was my first important exam-like event for this semester, i was a nervewrack. I can't concentrate in work after the message and thought he was a scary guy, but he turns out to be a very serious person with a kind character!

i wonder what Lionel and him talked about in the room for so long while i was waiting outside.

well, I have no worries coz Lionel is the best supervisor an intern can get.

and i wonder whats in that envelop that Lionel passed to him after my interview. Might be some voucher or something for the visiting prof as a gift. even the visiting prof have a gift. I bet visiting friends have door gifts too.

and then I met huiting for dinner! yay!

anyway I'm gonna meet a big customer tmr and i'm really excited!

Monday, December 13, 2010

EM DnD pictures

Here are my DnD pictures!

The theme was masquerade, we went as pirates coz we interpreted the mask as our eye masks and pirates are in the victorian era too. My idea. heh.

Anyway the costumes were rented for $50. Good thing we went to Lynn's house to change first and she drove us to Marina Oriental.



Mi and Cindy



Our table!



This is the Korean boss, aka my future F-I-L, who forced us to tattoo our faces with the same flower as him. He likes me very much.
Bonus points added for me!

Oh anyway he came as a genie which is so cool! and won one of the best dressed. He took out his hat and mask in this picture thou..



This is Lionel my supervisor and my idol (Story for another day).
Many people say we look alike. I look like a younger version of him and he looks like an older version of me.
He haven wore this bow and tux since his wedding like 10 years ago. heh.

I won a $60 Haagen Daz voucher, and a set of portable chargers.

The first few prizes for lucky draw were ultimate good. Mac book air... Ipad... Xbox... Dyson air multiplier... $750 Marina bay sands voucher... 2 night spa and stay at Banyan Tree... so on.

It was super fun and entertaining and full.

interns BBQ

Did i mention i love to BBQ?

the exhilarating effect of starting the fire
the heat of dancing flames
the sizzling of first trials
the excitement of food getting burnt

and of course, the friendship bonding!!!!!!

last saturday was my first BBQ of the year (if i remember correctly) with my fellow interns and scruffy the dog.

The food was catered and the chicken wings were best ever. very well marinated and fully cooked. We had tiger prawns (my fav), shitake mushrooms, hotdogs, chicken chops, bacon, otah and mashmellows!

it was one of the perfect BBQ where there were minimal leftovers and well cooked food and great fun even though we had 7 people and the place had mosquitoes at night.

and then we went Lynn's house to play wii till 3am. ha

Annual Choir Xmas BBQ is up next!! YAY

Wednesday, December 08, 2010

Company Perks

HALO WORLD I'M BACK IN ACTION!!

I have finally finished my last hurdle of internship: the report and logbook. Report is done while logbook is 99% done while the due date is next week.

I'm also extending my intern till mid jan (i think) and then school will rock and roll.

My company has been treating me very well thank you, my supervisor is my idol, and i have received many perks like....

$100 shopping vouchers after winning something at an event
$60 Haagen Daz vouchers after winning it at DnD
$30 popular vouchers for completing the attachment
$20 starbucks card as a doorgift for an event
and i have tonnes of chocolates at my desk after winning at my team bonding event

Right now I really have no idea how to spend them. Haagan Daz is ok, but i dun really buy books at popular and i don't drink coffee. oh wells, at least they do not expire within these few months so i can take my time to think how to spend them.

AND THEN there are the company lunch and dinner treats

The DnD at marina oriental,
the other day my supervisor treated me to carl's junior for lunch
the next day my event committee treated us to dian xiao er with 2 herbal ducks and we only had 4 people
and dinner my department had 5 HUGE CRABS and more dishes at long beach for 11 people.
yesterday had a treat from Marg, whos our fun fellow colleague at taiwanese restaurant and we had 2 awfully chocolate cakes and 2 scoops of awfully chocolate hei ice cream which is simply the best chocolate ice cream ever.

tomorrow we are having lunch with another younger colleague at vivo and next week we are having an intern and supervisor xmas dinner at a german restaurant.

It is crazily sinful to stuff all the food. And i always suffer when there are food left on the table.

Colleague: hey there's one more crab claw/duck/chicken/beef/egg/ anythingonthetable!

another colleague: OH give it to the youngest!

*everyone looks at the interns*

Me: *pretend to be distracted/look for somewhere to hide my face*

female interns: no, we are full!

*everyone stares at me*

Colleague: Come on, you are the youngest guy intern, don't be shy.

Me: but I'm very full already!

Colleague: No, young man needs to grow!

the next thing it's on my plate and it happens ALL the time.

Till now i have no idea if its a good or a bad thing.