5566

20th August 2014, Wednesday evening after work.

A new group is born

 A brief "on-line war" broke out last week which inevitably led to the birth of a new grouping.

I did not join the previous group long enough to have too much unhappiness escalate until eruption but I can't say the same for some of the players who may have compounded their dissatisfaction. Anyway, I don't advocate online rants without addressing the subject or person(s) in question. In my opinion, it makes matters worse and makes the ranting coward even though the person ranting might have a valid point.

There are always more than two sides to a story, so I feel that one could either (1) speak up in person, (2) put in more effort to neutralize any cliquishness, (3) hold on until a right moment to tip the scale, and if all fails then (4) keep calm and walk away.

So anyway, I hope all's well ends well. 

The courts are squeaky new, spic and span.
The air conditioning at the entire stadium is strong (cold), but good thing it is not cold inside the sports hall. 

 The netball courts are at the OCBC Arena

We had a new set of bib too.

Next time I'll umpire.

Hen Party

Saturday morning's Colin's music time. This week, they played games involving fast & slow.
After morning's session, it would be a quick nap (important to maintain a co-operative kid), and then it's to PJ's hen party!

We met at Raffles Hotel where the hen coop's supposed to be.
But it turned out my other male cousins were there, so it became a mixed party.

We adjourned at PuTien for dinner.
At dinner My cousin PJ asked Kiki to sing a song, and she belted out in great zest 虹彩妹妹嗯唉哟! 
We tried not to laugh as her pronunciation was funny, plus we couldn't make out what she was singing except for the phrase 虹彩妹妹嗯唉哟!

 

 

now I'm 8 kg overweight rather than 10 kg.

 

In my family, the girls always play all sorts of board games or card games, eg: Saboteur

 Then, it's Selfie Time!

Five of us born in year of Ox.

In "The Return of Goldilocks & The Three Bears",  Goldilocks cried: "Who's been sitting in MY chair!?"

I

It's none other than Baby Gummi Bear. =_="
Me & my crappy jokes made my cousies laughed. 

And then it's their turn to turn crappy-funny with  "Levitation" magic.

 When it was time to go home, Kiki cried. Who would wanna leave a fun party isn't it?
I can only tell her I'll bring her to all of my cousies' gathering in future. So that's a promise.

Goodbye, Ivana.

Ivana's going home........ wonder why we're all so "happy"... -_-"

The winning team- that's us!

A Tribute to Robin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2e_M06YDyY

I have a chestful of cosmetics in my work drawer, each morning, I put on some makeup while I login to my PC, turn on the radio, scan my inbox, put some coal onto my eyelashes; if I am early, I would also have a cup of "stockings coffee" made by the pantry lady.

This morning, a short piece of surreal music stopped me dead in my morning routine tracks. I was doing my eye makeup when I heard it over the radio and I had to ham up the volume to listen harder because I was hearing it for the first time but I know outright that the verses came from Dead Poets Society, cos after watching that movie some I don't know how long ago; my cousin- Xuiling & I went "Seize the day!" for a couple of weeks. I found tears welling up and wondered what was so poignant about that music, hence I pried and listened harder. Beautifully done, that clip. Carpe diem; seize the day, not because we're in a hurry, but because sooner or later we will all be food for worms. 

Transcribed here:-
Carpe diem; seize the day, gather ye rosebuds while ye may. Strive to find your own voice, seize the day. Look at it in another way. Carpe diem; seize the day, gather ye rosebuds while ye may. Strive to find your own voice, seize the day. We are members of the human race, and the human race, is filled with passion. Words & ideas, can change the world. The powerful play goes on, and you may contribute the verse. The powerful play goes on... goes on... "Do you have any special skills?" "Oh yes, I do. I do voices." "What do you mean -- you do voices?" "I do voices. Yay!" I'm a hip old granny who could hip-hop beep-hop, dance dance dance till ya drop drop drop. I'm a hip old granny who could hip-hop beep-hop, O-yo yo meekicuppa cool oo. I'm a Raptor, doin' what I can, gonna eat everything till the appearance of Man. Yo! yo! see me, I'm living below the soil I'll be back but I'm coming back as oil. This is rock'n roll (echo), dance dance dance till ya drop drop drop. Cast your eyes in the summer sky, and today-- make a wish. You must strive to find your own voice, but the longer you wait to begin, the less likely you are to find it at all. Carpe diem; seize the day, gather ye rosebuds while ye may. Strive to find your own voice, seize the day. Look at it in another way. Carpe diem; seize the day, gather ye rosebuds while ye may. Strive to find your own voice, seize the day. Only in their dreams can man be truly free, t'was always thus, so only thus it will be.

Glowing Loom

 These are the ones that glow.

Last Night

Last night I returned to the court after a long break to address my emotions about playing with the group of people who dominates the games in what I feel; done in a distasteful manner. Being a peace-lover, I am by nature rather accommodating, so I told myself to better cool down, draw deep breaths, and only to return to the games when I feel more zen. After all, why would I wanna let a few such people get in the way of good spirits. It's not my prerogative to mother-hen them nor was it a leadership or team building boot camp. So I would just relax and enjoy the sport as well as mingle with the rest of the individuals who came to the game alone. There are people from all walks of life; an India girl who grew up in South Africa, a Malaysian girl who works in Hong Kong (and now Singapore) who laughs about her size-9 feet, an Ang Moh lady who asked me to hold on to her wedding ring (when I was resting and she was playing), etc. etc. So ya, I went back to the court last night and was happy I did.

Work

 We sell a few key equipment and products to the oil & gas drilling contractors, and we started out in a 40-foot container office. When I say "we", I don't mean we as in I have a stake in the business (although it could have been). I say "we" as in I belong to a team that has a boss, a GM, and everyone in between.

Generally, my customers would procure equipment like gate valves to build manifolds for their rigs.
On paper, a manifold looks like this (above & below). High pressure equipments are high in cost & material specs. Most of the time, they also take a long time to be manufactured. Long lead time does not sit well with the project people who always tell me they needed those stuff "yesterday". So juggling customer's expectations takes planning and a lot of energy. I used to say that "urgent" is a vulgar word but now I have learned to manage vulgarity. 

A high pressure gate valve looks like this.

Normally, I would update the OIM (Offshore Installation Manager) as I go along. For instance, he would appreciate it that I let him know my receiving status (I would consolidate and minimize the frequency of delivery because on some rare occasion; partial deliveries get misplaced)

 I would also do Markings on my equipment so that they could be easily identified.
Documents like Certificates are extremely important; they have to be at-hand before the equipment could be installed. Sometimes after five years, my customer will hunt for the certificates especially when they are about to do repairs or upgrades. I have been hunted so many times until I have established my own e-library for the sole purpose of giving my customer this priceless value-add service. For some strange reasons, they could never find the certs when they need them and then they will all panic and accusations will start flying. Although they don't thank me enough, I know that they always heave a big sigh of relief when I tell them I've got the certificates. It's like a father finding his child's lost birth certificate that kind of relief.

 Arranging delivery.

 A dusty & greasy work environment

Sometimes, if the rig is in town, I may go visit it if there're jobs for us.
What you see here are very old, rundown rigs. New rigs look nothing like this. New rigs are very grand and gleaming.

Although I have no engineering or technical background, I am always in awe when I see various equipment on board. It's a joy to see the make-up of such colossal structures and even more so when I could identify some of the equipment we supply. 

The other time, we took back three units of drilling tongs to repair.
After repair, the units look like this-- 

Okay, that's all for today.

Hope you've enjoyed a glimpse of my work life.