Wx, Ping and I went to Hong Kong recently. On our way back to sg, we decided to get rid of excess HK dollar by buying drinks on the plane. A bottle of water (300ml) costs $3.00 sgd. However, our intention was to get rid of HKD, so we asked them how much was their quoted exchange rate. It was a ridiculous HK$7.3 per SGD, a far cry from the market rate of $6. For those who don't get the math, here's a quick summary:
we changed sgd to hkd at 6HK = 1SG
Water cost 3SG.
However we had to pay at a rate 7.3HK per SGD, so it came up to be 22HKD.
But with what we exchanged, it means that we were really paying 22/6=3.7SGD for water.
Technically, it's just 70 cents extra, and we didn't mind paying for it. But crux of the issue was the lousy service we got in the process, which ticked us off. Hence this whole "saga" which ensued.
So we ordered our drinks and paid for it in HKD, even though we'll lose out on the exchange rate. We offered a mix of note and coins, which they then refused to accept, saying that the airline doesn't accept coins. If you think about it, no idiot would want to pay in large HKD notes and expect to get back change with a lousy rate. You wouldn't pay for a $3 item with a $50 note, and similarly, insisting that $22 is to be paid in notes doesn't make sense. ( note to readers, denomination for HK$10 can be found in coins and notes, and for an item as small as 22, coins make complete sense)
We made noise, and said that 20 was the only note left. For the coins, they can either take it or leave it. Maybe it was just the first guy who's being an brainless twit. The rest of the service crew were pretty nice, come to think of it. He came back 5 mins later, and said we can just pay 20 for our bottles of water instead of 22. Whee Score 1!
When the trolley comes around, ask for ice to pour the water in. Ice is technically water too yknow. And since ice is the free part of buying a drink, just shamelessly ask for ice refill. The brain freeze is worth it. Nothing is more important than hydrating yourself on a plane. Water is a scarcity, so keep asking for it(ice). Yea score 2! Between us 3, we had at least 6 cups of ice on top of our purchased drinks.
And that, my friends, is how to be budget on a budget airline. :)
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Graduation. Milestone.
16 years of education. Wow. No more exams, no more lectures, no more school. (If I don't go for an MBA or PhD, that is) I think this milestone deserves a blog post. More importantly, it deserves a celebration. It will have to wait until friday I guess. GRADUATION PARTAYYY! In the meanwhile, I've to FOCUS on completing the final handover slides for my six sigma project, and prepping for a job interview.
For now, I'm just thankful for everything God has given to me - the opportunity, resources and brains to come this far. It's something we all take for granted. Thank God for parents who dote on me and let me pursue so many school activities, and sacrifice my grades for my passion in the arts. Thank God for friends who taught me so much about life. There is also the shitty things I experienced made stronger, the embarassing moments which made me bolder, the heart warming moments which gave me hope, the bitching and gossiping which made me wary and not so gullible, and the successes which made me believe in myself whenever an inferiority complex kicks in.
I'm gonna miss my friends the most. The best thing I'm taking away from 4 years of university, would be the friendships made. In the past 4 years, I've met people who are so diverse, so global, so smart, so talented and it's been a great honour to be friends with them. Of course, there are also the douche bags, the bitches, the whiny brats and the downright weird. It's all about getting to know yourself in the process. You begin to figure out who you want to hang out with, what kind of personalities you can't stand. It's such a relief to not be the same old nice girl I was 4 years ago. I no longer love everything. I no longer like everyone. I have preferences. Yay. I'm judgemental to people who are not my friends. Yay. I wonder sometimes if you have ulterior motives for being nice to me if we're not close. Yay. Street smart FTW.
okayy.. enough blogging of random thoughts. Need to finish my work asap! TTYL.
For now, I'm just thankful for everything God has given to me - the opportunity, resources and brains to come this far. It's something we all take for granted. Thank God for parents who dote on me and let me pursue so many school activities, and sacrifice my grades for my passion in the arts. Thank God for friends who taught me so much about life. There is also the shitty things I experienced made stronger, the embarassing moments which made me bolder, the heart warming moments which gave me hope, the bitching and gossiping which made me wary and not so gullible, and the successes which made me believe in myself whenever an inferiority complex kicks in.
I'm gonna miss my friends the most. The best thing I'm taking away from 4 years of university, would be the friendships made. In the past 4 years, I've met people who are so diverse, so global, so smart, so talented and it's been a great honour to be friends with them. Of course, there are also the douche bags, the bitches, the whiny brats and the downright weird. It's all about getting to know yourself in the process. You begin to figure out who you want to hang out with, what kind of personalities you can't stand. It's such a relief to not be the same old nice girl I was 4 years ago. I no longer love everything. I no longer like everyone. I have preferences. Yay. I'm judgemental to people who are not my friends. Yay. I wonder sometimes if you have ulterior motives for being nice to me if we're not close. Yay. Street smart FTW.
okayy.. enough blogging of random thoughts. Need to finish my work asap! TTYL.
Monday, April 23, 2012
Answering my own questions
We might have all in some point in time or another, questioned God why He allowed certain things to happen to us. I've had that revelation today, when I answered my own questions which I posed to God on an almost daily basis during the Sept to Dec emo phase of you-know-what.
Thank God it's all over now. But it all started with my friend wanting to HTHT and take a short break in the midst of exam prep. Let's call this friend, B. So B and I started talking, and she was letting out some pent up feelings about the impending 6 month seperation between her and her sweetheart. B thinks she thinks too much, but honestly, we all over-think about stuff like this all the time. But the thing is, B also poses some pretty good questions about balancing relationships and life. When I answered her questions, it was like a sudden "I see the light!" moment.
Christians often hear pastors and preachers talk about how God has a perfect plan for us, and we just have to wait in His time. Often we're impatient, often we argue and try to work a compromise with God. But more often than not, when we reach the end of the segment of this journey in life and then we look back, we realise the shitty things and the good things all contribute to making us who we are.
B knew right from the start that this guy she was seeing is not the one for her. But yet they were both willing to date, with the knowledge that they will breakup within the next year or so. She asked a rhetoric, "What if he didn't have to go away? Then we could be happy and continue being together like a happy couple." Immediately I realized what was the key to it all. If God didn't have a filter/trial/seperation for them, then who knows? Perhaps B will just float in this quasi-happy state with this guy, and be willing to settle just like that. But since we all know that it wouldn't work in the long run, technically, it is better for this "trial" to take place, so that we can all move on to better things. It sounds like a flawed argument, but forgive me for the lack of time to write down various other factors about why they won't ever live happily together. And by settling, I am no means comparing either one of them to be better than the other, but I meant it as in settling for someone whose values, beliefs and character does not match yours. They're just way different.
Similarly, I knew right away that the trials that God puts me through are for my own good. Usually these trials don't do me harm, but they try me, make me struggle and reminds me to call on God for help. I become a better person. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Indeed. I had learnt from my mistakes. Who knows if in retrospect, it keeps me from getting into serious trouble. I reflected on the decisions which got me into the shit in the first place and realise that my actions weren't wise at all. I could have done better. i could have saved myself all that agony. But I knew that if this didn't burn this much, then I would have continued to make the same old mistake again.Technically what B and I went through are similar-but-different situations, but it was the age-old question of "why does God allow XYZ to happen to me" which answered.
Thank God it's all over now. But it all started with my friend wanting to HTHT and take a short break in the midst of exam prep. Let's call this friend, B. So B and I started talking, and she was letting out some pent up feelings about the impending 6 month seperation between her and her sweetheart. B thinks she thinks too much, but honestly, we all over-think about stuff like this all the time. But the thing is, B also poses some pretty good questions about balancing relationships and life. When I answered her questions, it was like a sudden "I see the light!" moment.
Christians often hear pastors and preachers talk about how God has a perfect plan for us, and we just have to wait in His time. Often we're impatient, often we argue and try to work a compromise with God. But more often than not, when we reach the end of the segment of this journey in life and then we look back, we realise the shitty things and the good things all contribute to making us who we are.
B knew right from the start that this guy she was seeing is not the one for her. But yet they were both willing to date, with the knowledge that they will breakup within the next year or so. She asked a rhetoric, "What if he didn't have to go away? Then we could be happy and continue being together like a happy couple." Immediately I realized what was the key to it all. If God didn't have a filter/trial/seperation for them, then who knows? Perhaps B will just float in this quasi-happy state with this guy, and be willing to settle just like that. But since we all know that it wouldn't work in the long run, technically, it is better for this "trial" to take place, so that we can all move on to better things. It sounds like a flawed argument, but forgive me for the lack of time to write down various other factors about why they won't ever live happily together. And by settling, I am no means comparing either one of them to be better than the other, but I meant it as in settling for someone whose values, beliefs and character does not match yours. They're just way different.
Similarly, I knew right away that the trials that God puts me through are for my own good. Usually these trials don't do me harm, but they try me, make me struggle and reminds me to call on God for help. I become a better person. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Indeed. I had learnt from my mistakes. Who knows if in retrospect, it keeps me from getting into serious trouble. I reflected on the decisions which got me into the shit in the first place and realise that my actions weren't wise at all. I could have done better. i could have saved myself all that agony. But I knew that if this didn't burn this much, then I would have continued to make the same old mistake again.Technically what B and I went through are similar-but-different situations, but it was the age-old question of "why does God allow XYZ to happen to me" which answered.
Friday, April 13, 2012
Love, Hate and Nonchalance
The opposite of love isn't hate. It's nonchalance. Loving requires so much energy. You expend your life and soul into someone else, making sure he or she is ok. You constantly think of that person. You talk about him or her all the time. If you think about it, hating is just the same. You just change all that positivity into negativity.
To be truly free from loving and hating... that's the real nonchalance. Apathy. You feel nothing, you don't care about anything about that person. Whatever it is, it doesn't affect you, you just don't give a damn. Just like how you read about strangers getting into accidents. You feel sorry for the poor chap, but you don't feel sad for him cos you don't know him. It doesn't matter.
If the world is worse off hating each other, wouldn't be better for people to move to a state of apathy instead? Instead doing horrible things to people who are just not worth your time and energy to hate, people should just ignore it all and move on with their own lives.
To be truly free from loving and hating... that's the real nonchalance. Apathy. You feel nothing, you don't care about anything about that person. Whatever it is, it doesn't affect you, you just don't give a damn. Just like how you read about strangers getting into accidents. You feel sorry for the poor chap, but you don't feel sad for him cos you don't know him. It doesn't matter.
If the world is worse off hating each other, wouldn't be better for people to move to a state of apathy instead? Instead doing horrible things to people who are just not worth your time and energy to hate, people should just ignore it all and move on with their own lives.
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Strangers again indeed.
It's amazing how we can move from being so close, to becoming strangers. Yes, it sounds familiar cos I got that line from WongFu. It struck a chord after watching At Musing's End and When Five Fell (nope, not Strangers Again). Both shorts pretty much summarized what most people feel when they fall in and out of love.
The short depicted how the relationship ended naturally when distance and time made it hard for them to continue. There was this narration which went something like this: "With every promotion, his return was postponed.. she felt like he was disappearing.. It didn't ache because he was gone. It ached because he couldn't tell her when he would come back. All that distance and time apart would turn them into strangers again". Those few lines hit me hard. Real hard.
When we first met, his job really sucked. His hours were bad, and he couldn't really get out much. Since we were half the world away, a selfish part of me was happy that I could have him to myself. But when he got a new job, the change of environment just took him away from me. He met other girls, he spent more time with his friends, less with me. We eventually stopped communicating so much. I knew he was seeing another girl, yet he would text me every now and then. It's been 3 weeks since we last spoke, and I'm not an idiot. Even though he says he's coming to see me again, deep down in my heart, I know it's not going to happen. He could never tell me when he's coming.
I'm alright now. I'm more than alright. I'm happy. I've moved on at last. I just wished that it were as easy as it was depicted in the shorts. Cos it real life, it really sucks.
I just had to get this off my chest because, for the first time in a long time, I knew with great certainty at last that I've gotten over him. My friends and I went out yesterday. I met a guy. We swapped numbers. Even though I feel nothing for this new guy, and nothing's gonna happen anyway, but the simple act of swapping numbers just made me feel that this is new chapter. It's the start of a new episode in life where everything's gonna seem brighter. It was as if that episode dulled everything I felt. Color is coming back slowly but surely. Hope is out there in the horizon, and I eagerly anticipate each new day's surprises and challenges. All it took was a concrete action of moving forward. I don't need an outcome. I just need to know that I'm ready to take on the world, be it in my career or social life.
The short depicted how the relationship ended naturally when distance and time made it hard for them to continue. There was this narration which went something like this: "With every promotion, his return was postponed.. she felt like he was disappearing.. It didn't ache because he was gone. It ached because he couldn't tell her when he would come back. All that distance and time apart would turn them into strangers again". Those few lines hit me hard. Real hard.
When we first met, his job really sucked. His hours were bad, and he couldn't really get out much. Since we were half the world away, a selfish part of me was happy that I could have him to myself. But when he got a new job, the change of environment just took him away from me. He met other girls, he spent more time with his friends, less with me. We eventually stopped communicating so much. I knew he was seeing another girl, yet he would text me every now and then. It's been 3 weeks since we last spoke, and I'm not an idiot. Even though he says he's coming to see me again, deep down in my heart, I know it's not going to happen. He could never tell me when he's coming.
I'm alright now. I'm more than alright. I'm happy. I've moved on at last. I just wished that it were as easy as it was depicted in the shorts. Cos it real life, it really sucks.
I just had to get this off my chest because, for the first time in a long time, I knew with great certainty at last that I've gotten over him. My friends and I went out yesterday. I met a guy. We swapped numbers. Even though I feel nothing for this new guy, and nothing's gonna happen anyway, but the simple act of swapping numbers just made me feel that this is new chapter. It's the start of a new episode in life where everything's gonna seem brighter. It was as if that episode dulled everything I felt. Color is coming back slowly but surely. Hope is out there in the horizon, and I eagerly anticipate each new day's surprises and challenges. All it took was a concrete action of moving forward. I don't need an outcome. I just need to know that I'm ready to take on the world, be it in my career or social life.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Geographical Mobility
The frustration over my job search has to do with the fact that many MNCs don't have big enough office in Singapore to warrant a graduate program here. Most of the graduate programs are available only in the US, and in order to apply, you've got to have work authorization. Some people disagree, saying that sg is the Asian HQ for many companies. True, yes, but # of MNCs with grad programs in sg are very little vs # of fresh grads trying to get a job in sg. It's still dismal nonetheless.
For most of all other countries, sans the Vatican and Singapore, the country is not just 1 city. It has a few, several or mutitudes of cities. By being a citizen of your home country, you have the option of traveling out of your "hometown" to travel to wherever the job opportunities are. You have the option of geographical mobilty within your own country. If you want to run away and start afresh, you can; just move across the country. duh. There aren't any legal restrictions to stop you.
I'm griping because: I simply can't. This city we live in is the country itself. If I can't find a job, I'm pretty much stuck here cos I can't go work anywhere else in the world without a visa. And yea, the sg gov goes on and on about how local born singaporeans want to leave the country and it's not good, blah blah blah. But if Singapore doesn't have the industry which I want to go into, then it's not in my interest to stay here, is it?
For most of all other countries, sans the Vatican and Singapore, the country is not just 1 city. It has a few, several or mutitudes of cities. By being a citizen of your home country, you have the option of traveling out of your "hometown" to travel to wherever the job opportunities are. You have the option of geographical mobilty within your own country. If you want to run away and start afresh, you can; just move across the country. duh. There aren't any legal restrictions to stop you.
I'm griping because: I simply can't. This city we live in is the country itself. If I can't find a job, I'm pretty much stuck here cos I can't go work anywhere else in the world without a visa. And yea, the sg gov goes on and on about how local born singaporeans want to leave the country and it's not good, blah blah blah. But if Singapore doesn't have the industry which I want to go into, then it's not in my interest to stay here, is it?
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