New year new outfit

As it's of the Chinese custom to don new outfit for the new year ( 新年新衣裳嘛！) I skipped the treadmill today and headed to ps to get this after receiving the emailer this afternoon.

But I need to spend min sum to purchase one (and limited to ONE piece pax) So since I won't be getting the BV hobo, I reckon an AB is a good consolation. ;) Not to mention my cover cracked slightly at the edge after my mom sent it flying to the floor accidentally last evening. Thankfully Phone was alright.

Guess which design I bought .. ;)

it's really pretty. The design is formed by swarovski crystals ;)

Bubble

If we could live in a bubble, well-shielded from the cares & what's not of this world.. How great life would be. Unfortunately, that's not reality.

Hello world.

Having said that, looking forward to an hour time so it's time to knock off and do the hamster thingy...

And looking forward to Friday/ Sat cuz it's when I get to collect my dresses which I ordered last night. Cheap thrill. Cuz it's an irritable mid week Wed.

the one tenth alternative

Perhaps it may be foolish to some, but the first thing I did when the Ching ching came in was to sow back the fattest of all.

Perhaps it's been a habit for the almost one decade . That monthly one tenth is no longer an issue since many years back... But come today, it just occurred to me that I could get this maxi hobo(and probably another mini one) with that one-tenth today. The ratio had not changed, but the absolute quantum did. The shophalioc would have chided me for not getting that but nah, that's not gonna work.

Then again, I still have the other nine-tenth. ;)

the pay-off

The couple of days prior to the announcement of the year-end results usually meant "ching ching" for us, the employees. The 13th month bonus pay out in December was not part of our compensation plan, but merely an advancement of the overall bonus package that one would be getting.

Being performance bonus, the pay out is dependent on (a) the company's performance and (b) one's individual performance. Hence, employee A's payout may or may not be the same as employee B's. I wasn't expecting much (perhaps an amount comparable to last year will be good since the appraisal was slightly better than the last..) For the record, it was 8 months (per the letter, but due to the complicated mechanics as explained in the following paragraphs , the monetary amt was about 6mths) last year..).

I was kinda wow-ed when I learnt on Tuesday that employees of a local supermarket chain gets up to 10 months of bonus. But then again, He is my provider. He will see to it what He deems I should be receiving. :)

To cut the story short, I received the bonus payout letter last morning. When my GM told me the amount, I was like (oh, okay..). Then she computed it in terms of months, i was like wow..  Perhaps being inculcated with the level of materiality of figures at work, that sum I was told wasn't at all very impressive to me.


It's kind of complicated to comprehend the mechanics of the the computation - simply put it what the letter purported you to have earn, you will get a portion of it now, the remaining portion to be placed in to be paid out over a span of three years. In monetary terms, what goes into your bank account is: (a) the definite portion of the year bonus, (b)1/3 of what was declared previously to you but have not gone to you. So technically speaking, the letter said I'd a winfall of 15 months.. but technically speaking, what goes into my pocket is 10 months. Deducting the one month advancement in December, additional nine months of pay sounds equally fantastic. :)  oh yes, and a slight salary adjustment.. not a lot but still an upward adjustment. :) Praise the Lord!

This makes me more appeased to be working on a Saturday morning when my puffy eyes acted up again (last night, the irises were all swelled up and thank goodness I managed to find the viscous eye-drops which the GP prescribed a couple of weeks ago when the same symptoms happened). Hands up to my friend's comments on working today -- "after getting bonus, I'm a bit more balance." ;)


Happy me is finally visiting my best pal in Spring this year!!

volunteering?

If you aren't concerned about what I'm doing for the first 120 hours out of the 168 hours of the week, why makes you think that I ought to be disclosing the reason(s) why I am unavailable for the 44 hours out of the remaining 48 hours of the week, which in the first place the 4 hours were made available on a voluntary free-will basis?  (and the other 3 weeks of the month  as well) [My boss doesn't even question why we applied for annual leave if the leave period does not clash with the peak period because she knew that we are matured and wise enough not to take VL during the peak /crucial period. Not to mention, these VL are paid leave. ] Yet, in situation when one volunteers one's free time to do something out of free will, one is still obliged to EXPLAIN & ACCOUNT why the other time are not freed up as well, it doesn't make sense. I mean,  why do I need to explain & account for the time in which belongs uhm to me (in a way, unless you are He who creates time.) If you argue that you are in a principal-agency relationship with the Creator, you win.

But really, inspirational rationale such as this scheme was implemented because it was in the framework of the higher authority to groom you guys to be like those of the higher scheme.

It just removes the joy out of the volunteering when you simply ask the reason and don't really bother to find out the underlying reason. Frankly, if I don't want to do it, there is no way you can force me to do it. But out of politeness, I obliged.

Relationship precedes authority. Get it? I answered simply because I respect the authority. Period. Perhaps that's what the (old school) sg education system has inculcated in me. Do not challenge the authority.

I don't welcome dictatorship nor am I a Nazi fan. Nope, hail not Adolph Hitler.

From Fat Bird to Jetty

Out of boredom of being a hamster prancing on the rubberised tracks of the treadmill, decided to join my friend ziv for his evening run last evening.. cuz I was acting as the guide to direct him to ecp from the sg river area. :)

Dumped my bag & collected my shoes @ the gym.. :) 

 

Wasn't in my outdoor attire (cuz the top was just a training top - not of the quick drying dri-fit material) as I had intended to do the hamster run that evening.. :) but running outdoors seems more appealing. Since it was a breezy evening (with the impending dark rain clouds that hover around the raffles place area but didn't follow us to ecp!)

 That's the fat bird statue where we embarked on the trial run to ecp/bedok jetty. It was quite an interesting route though personally, I won't ever attempt to head to ecp from rp again as I don't fancy the dark underground passes.. :) It wasn't a long distance run. According to the maymyrun's gps.. it was approximately 15.45km. :)

Sadly the lagoon hawker centre was closed and our dinner plan was foiled..(I was so craving for the satay bee hoon!)

As it was kinda dark to en-route back to the fat bird statue, the return leg was done via cab. :)

Hmmm perhap when I don't feel like doing the hamster routine @ the gym, I can consider the helix bridge/sg river route a couple of times (should the weather/ timing permits)!

byee 2010...embracing 2011

2010 had come and gone and we are already into the 8th day of 2011. 
mione's 2010 summarised...

January was rather bleh.. oooo highlight would be dearie vory's & cgl's wedding! Feb was delightful cuz of the 'fat' bonus that sponsored my trip to land of kawaii in end march/early April. May saw me completing the first longest (then) race 25km - the PA run in the sweltering afternoon heat. Ooo the AC fell in May that explained why I opted not to participate in the sundown.

June came and left and I booked my iPhone 4 on 31 July and got it 11 days later!Yippie (cuz by then the samsung was dying..)

That spiraled purchases of some accessories (like 2 casings – the white colorful silicon one that has broken down by December...

the agnes b limited edition blinky gold one which I snapped up the last on display last mth – to replace the silicon one (the free black (boring) bumper doesn’t count!);

a spare battery & a spare charger!). September was (yet) another a running month.. the army half marathon (not a pb timing but on record it was) to accompany ziv.. and accidentally came in first in the az’s zone inaugural city run! (even though I didn’t even train for it!)

October saw me conquered Singapore’s highest peak (ie bukit timah hill) after the 30 Km Newton Run on that morning... my reward from the run - blistered toe! :(

In the same month, joined the nike city run - cuz I missed it last year.  Also entered the nike+ SG vs KL’s challenge for fun (cuz I'm patriotic! haha!) which won me a 8G iPod nano unexpectedly! - cuz was in the top 10 SG runners resp clocking the most mileage for SG!)

In nov, I turned 13! Received gifts and bought myself gifts with the gift that I received (and topped up the rest!).

December was crazy time cuz of the vetting of tax provisions that saw me working late into darkness and cab seems like a rational means of transport. Completed my 60% run, 40% walk full marathon in one piece (and an extra large blister and loads of nagging from e), carolled a couple of times for both pre/post services slots despite missing practs for a couple of mths due to work.. Oh and I visited the exterior of the sg universal studios for first time with May after chilling out @ Chili’s! (Like the Jap trip, I only visited the entrance, took pic with Zoe & Elmo and for tour of Osaka!) 



So that was my 2010 in a nutshell. Seems like a happy year cuz the not so happy days were forgotten and hence edited (like the gahmen's fuss on internal affairs which sparked interest from the public, the overhaul of authority which resulted in some migration). Oh well, it’s a new year and it’s the year of my favorite animal – bunnies! The Year of Miffy!!

2011 will be a year of yet more miles! The sundown in May and standard chartered in Dec. And the Gold Coast marathon in July seeming is so ever tempting.. awaiting the green light from Jac [babe.. it will be fun celebrating your birthday in aussie!!].. :)