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I have been sick since Sunday. I guess it was because of the trip to Malaysia, cause I don’t think I had enough of water back then. Meeting with clients and being in workshops denies you the opportunity to drink water. My schedule was quite hectic as well, and coupled with my lack of sleep, I think it all contributes to the cold and sore throat that I had these past few days.

Went to see the doctor just now, and it costs me S$44 for less than 5 minutes consultation with him. Singapore’s medical fees is freaking expensive. All he gave me was some Septilin tablets (not that I know what the hell it is, first time getting this) for Immune Support and Lozanges. S$44 for these stuff, can you believe it???? I didn’t want to go to the doctor actually, but I need a MC, so it is forced onto me.

Oh well, hope I get well soon, quite shitty not being able to go to work……

Started the week by completing the first draft of the first assignment given to me by my boss, which is basically consolidating all of the action plans of critical risks from various available reports. Later in the day, my colleague approached me to tell me that I’m going to Malaysia tomorrow for a field trip. The first thought in me was: “Is this guy serious?!?!?!? I’m only here for less than 10 days and I’m already going on a business trip. Wow!” . I was hyper-excited with the golden opportunity, what a chance to learn!

So I arrived at the office the next day with my packed belongings. We left for the airport at 1530h to catch our 1700h flight in a cab. I must say that Changi Airport is truly a beautiful airport. The new Terminal 3 which was completed not too long ago is really a sight to catch. While I was walking inside it, I felt like I was in a posh shopping complex or hotel. All of the floors were carpeted and everything was so polished.

Photo from Webshots

The flight to Malaysia was just a 55-minute trip and I arrived at Citidel Hotel at Midvalley Megamall before 1900h. I got the whole room to myself, since my colleague was staying at his house in KL. After my futile attempt to get TL, CM, Jin Ni and CB to come out for the night (useless barghers, except for TL), I went to bed early to prepare myself for the next day.

I met the client the next morning at their office. It was then that I got the first-hand experience of seeing how a risk management workshop really works. My colleague would basically help to devise a strategy to mitigate a critical risk that the company faced by asking questions and try come up with a solution from the answers that he got. It is almost like a experienced doctor trying to diagnose a uncommon illness in a patient by asking the patient questions about the discomfort that the patient experiences.

At night, I met up with Kristy (I really didn’t expect that she would turn up so easily with my last minute call, but met me she did) and had dinner at the food court in Midvalley.

I know, I know, my hairstyle is back to time when I was in Form 2. But hey, I'm working, got to be decent.

We then went to Starbucks and chatted until 10.30pm. For those of you who don’t know, Kristy is now going into charity to help kid from Cambodia (perhaps other countries too). She did some travelling back then to Cambodia.  She is also working at the moment.

The next day, I went to the Malaysian branch of my company to finish up the assignment given to me by my boss. I finally got that done at 5.40 pm and rushed to the nearest LRT station as I am to meet up with TL at 6.30pm. My god, the LRT is packed like a sardine can, and I can literally smell the myriad mix of BO (body odours) lingering in the train.

The air-con is not really efficient, so it feels quite stuffy in it. Before I came to the LRT, I thought the MRT at Singapore was already bad enough with people not queuing up to get onto train and people not waiting for the passengers to exit before boarding the train. In the case of passengers of LRT, people literally shove their way through to get into the train. But that is not the worst yet. I arrived at KL Sentral to switch train to get back to Midvalley. Boarding the KTM is truly a nightmare. Not only people were shoving at each other, but it feels like as though everyone was groping everyone else! I can literally feel people hugging me from all angles. One can easily feel like one is a pop-star for a moment as everyone is trying their best to grope you. Needless to say, the BO in KTM is much worse. Guess this is the infamous inefficiency of Malaysian public transportation.

Arriving at Midvalley, I met up with TL and his girlfriend, Josephine (Jo). Kristy joined us soon enough and we went to Italianese at The Gardens (an adjoining shopping complex to Midvalley) and ordered a Salmon pizza and 3-ballz beefball spaghetti for dinner.

Me and My Salmon Pizza

Me and TL has been best friends since Standard 6 and this is the first time I get a proper introduction and chat with his girlfriend. What a useless bargher. Blame it all on TL. Kekekeeke…….

As we dined, I asked Jo how is TL treating her. As expected, she replied that TL is constantly bullying her, by making her do many things for him. On the other hand, TL did virtually nothing for her. *Sigh~~~ when is our dear TL going to change to a better man? True enough, 5 minutes later, TL spilled the spaghetti (on purpose I’m sure) on the table just beside Jo’s plate.

Tai Leong bullying Josephine, caught red handed!

Well, with such an evidence presented in front of me, who could doubt the authenticity of Josephine’s words? After we finished our meal, Crystal joined us. Our dear Crystal sure have gotten darker. At that time, the paradigm of beauty is redefined, instead of a tall, dark and handsome man and a fair lady, we have a fair man and dark lady. Guess that would make me the damsel in distress in a dire situation. As for an update of Crystal, she was the Assisstant Producer for a movie which was completed recently. She appears to be very happy and contented with her life, and I am happy for her as she has found her niche.

Jo, TL, Me, Kristy and Crystal

That dinner came up to RM 100, which is obviously freaking expensive.

The next day, I took a flight back to Singapore in the afternoon. Boy, I was really flushed and tired. Arrived at the house at 4.30 pm. On Saturday, my relatives brought me out to watch Hellboy 2. In general, I think the movie is not bad for a family movie, but it offers not much depth in terms of the movie plot. Well, that sums up my second week of work. I really had a great week, and I am really looking forward for the rest of my internship in Singapore. Oh yeah, did I mention that my trip to Malaysia is a all-expense paid trip?

First day of work went quite well for me. When I first stepped into the office, I was introduced to my boss. I went in expecting to do filing, photocopying and those mundane work that most interns would do, for at least a week, but the first thing he told me was this: “Don’t worry, you won’t be doing any boring work like photocopying and arranging files. You will be working on projects”. The thoughts that was running in my head at that moment was: “Wow, this boss of mine sure is cool, he must have read my mind”.

I was given an entire cubicle to myself, and mind you, it’s quite big (roughly 2.3m X 2.3m). I was also given a laptop, a company e-mail address, my own landline and everything else that a regular office worker would have. The fact that I was given all of these priviledges really surprised me, as it is very uncommon for an intern to be given all of these things. My boss then gave me a pile of documents for my reading, all of them relating to Risk Management, which is essentially the things that my boss and colleagues do. I also attended their weekly meeting where they update everyone else in the team about the progress of projects for the week. There were many confidential matters that were being discussed such as on-going projects, stalled projects, payments and politics with clients among other corporate things.

The team that I work in is essentially a very small group. They basically provide solutions to help company manage the risks that they are facing in their business. They would  go into a company, find out what are the risks that they are facing and help to provide solutions by giving suggestions and action plans. Also, since they are such a small team, everyone in the team gets to travel very often, since their clients consists of not just domestic ones, but also foreign ones in China, Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, Australia and other countries in Asia.

The way they take flights to another country is just like the way we would take the bus to another city. They could be in Vietnam for Monday and Tuesday, back to office on Wednesday and Thursday and go off to Japan on Friday again. And since they are also part of a large company, I get to experience working in a corporate environment. The team really made a good impression in me, and I think I will enjoy working here for the rest of my internship.

On Saturday, I went out to meet my friend Yun Ching again, to get back my shaver that I left in his car last week. We had porridge for lunch and I was to meet Daniel in the afternoon for a movie. However, while I was eating, I received a call from him saying that he was involved in a car accident. Thus, our appointment was cancelled and I later found out that, luckily, it was just a minor accidents with no injuries.

At night, I went out with my relatives to the Singapore Flyer (which is basically a copy of London Eye). It was a half-hour ride that costs S$30. Quite pricey if you ask me, but we all got to try it once, right? Since it was night, all we saw was lights scatterred all over Singapore. The ride was fine, but my aunt said that she’s gonna take another ride again in the afternoon to get a better view. Hope I am still here when she decides to go there.

p/s: Post is a bit dry, cause I didn’t bring the camera out for the entire week. Was really busy with work for the first week, and also getting my body adjusted to waking up at 6.30 am every morning. I apologise for that.

Hey barghers,

As I have promised to keep you guys updated, here is my post. Since I am going to blog about my 2 weeks experience in Singapore, I have broken it up into 3 posts, Pre-Work, 1st Week and 2nd Week. For now, here is the Pre-Work post:

Pre-Work

As some of you have already known, I was accepted into a company to do my internship. So I took a bus from Sitiawan down to Singapore on a Thursday. Arrived there late evening, and was picked up by my uncle. When I arrived at their house, I saw my cousin sister, X, whom I hadn’t seen for the last 3 years. When I first saw her, I thought that she was someone else in her late teens and not my cousin X, but when I was told that she was X, I almost fainted. She’s only 12 but already looks like she’s 17. What’s up with children these days?

The next day, I went to the Ministry of Manpower (MoM) to get my working pass. I was given a Work Holiday Pass, which is actually a pilot programme by the Singaporean government to attract graduates from selected universities in developed countries all around the world to Singapore. As for now, it is only open for undergrads from Australia, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, UK and US. I was even given a welcome pack by the MoM. Hey, how often do you get a welcome pack from a government department?

Work Holiday Pass Welcome Pack

As Singapore’s only resource is their human capital, it is natural for them to get people from outside to help keep their economy running.

The next day, I went to meet up with Chang Yung in NUS. After the sun had set, CY’s gang in NUS hijacked the university van and took a ride to Geylang, the red light district in Singapore. It was a cargo van, and so there weren’t any seats and windows at the back. There were six of us at the back, and after sitting in the van for 5 minutes, we decided that it was just too hot and stuffy inside. So while the van was travelling in the highway at 90 km/h, we slide open the door to allow wind into the back. It was a really crazy thing to do, and whenever we stop at a traffic light, all of the drivers would look at us. We look like a bunch of hooligans hijacking a van with the university’s logo on it, and the best part of it all, we were heading to Geylang to have fun.

At Geylang, we ate the famous Beef Hor Fun and took a tour into the back lanes after our meal. It sure was an eye-opener for me, with so many hot chicks lining up along the streets, ready to be ‘banged’. My eye-balls got freaking wild, and so did my other balls. There were dedicated sections of the streets for different nationalities, so if you want a ah moi, or adik, or tang-ke-chi or a chick, it’s all there. Needless to say, as people walk pass those beauties, they were pulled aside and given a free massage. I must say that those from China sure are hot, unlike the image of prostitute that I had in my mind (you know, those mid 30s lady who’s already well beyond their prime time). Too bad I forgot to bring my camera, otherwise I would have shown you some ‘pretty pictures’. :p We went back at eleven something and I spent a night at NUS.

NUS Group Photo

The next day, I went out with Yun Ching, my friend from Warwick. He took me to Vivo Mart, the largest shopping complex in Singapore. There, we dined at a up-market Japanese restaurant. We ate some Japanese satay (grilled stuff on skewers) and drank some sake (Japanese rice wine). The sake there was really good, I must say. That lunch set us back at about S$90. It was a freaking expensive lunch. After that, he brought me to a specialty shop where they only serve oriental tea, mostly Chinese. It costs us S$20 to just have tea, but I must say that it was worth it.

Yun Ching

We were taught how to drink Chinese tea by the waiter there. Its basic is pretty simple, and the steps are as follows:

1. Pour tea into teapot and add hot water. Depending on the type of tea, different temperature of the water and different immersion time are required.
2. Pour tea into the ‘communal pot’. The purpose of this is to normalize the concentration of the tea that we made, as sometimes we might make a very concentrated and bitter tea while at other times, the tea might be too light.
3. Then, tea is served into the tasting/smelling cup where we would take our first sniff at the aroma given out by the tea.
4. The tea is transferred into the drinking cup where we take our second sniff at it. By now, the tea would have cooled down a bit, and thus there is a slightly different aroma to it.
5. The tea is now drunk, and we would allow the cup to cool down a bit to say, around 50 degrees Celcius. It is then we take our third and final sniff from the empty cup, where the smell would be quite different.

Tea Drinking

In my drinking session there, I opted for a type of green tea (can’t remember its name). In the first 2 tasting/sniffing session, the smell of the tea is something like Chrysanthemum, but with a lighter taste. However, at the final sniff, the tea gave out a hint of honey smell which was not present in the first 2 tasting attempts. It was quite an experience for me, and I intend to bring any of my barghers who wants to go there to savour Chinese tea. I will upload the video that I have taken once I get the program to shrink it.

Throughout my entire outing with Yun Ching, he mentioned a few times that I’m like a ‘kampung’ (village) boy in the city, lured by its riches. To him, I’m basically the most ‘kampung’ friend of his. I guess its true, as there are many things in the city that I have not see and my heart has not yet been hardened by the vicissitudes of city life. But I think I prefer it this way, as I don’t really want to be city dweller with a hardened heart. Most of the city dwellers have lost a huge part of their empathy, and I certainly can understand why it turned out this way. But for me, if being ‘kampung’ means being more empathetic and perhaps naive, I think I’d rather remain ‘kampung’.

Hey peeps,

Been gone for almost 2 weeks from Barghers.com. It just didn’t cross my mind to surf the Internet when I’m home, so basically, I have been off communication’s reach for the last 2 weeks. But I’m back, for now.

First off, I met my dearest Jin Ni on Wednesday and went for a walk at Astaka with her. It’s really nice to meet up again to chat, albeit it’s only for a short time. Yup, I certainly remember the Standard 5 incident Jin, . It’s one of those things that I will remember for life I think. Also, we met Pith Soh too, after 1 round around Astaka. His English sure did change, though I can’t say it’s a lot, but it’s obvious. I think it has been 2 years since I last met him.

I’m now in the City-of-Rat-Race, and just returned from the Ministry of Manpower where I obtained my working pass. Called up CY already, though have not met up yet. I’ll going to be here for about 2 months, doing my internship, so if anyone of you barghers happen to be here, do let me know.

I do apologise for not meeting up with the rest of you who were in Stw early July. It didn’t cross my mind, plus, I spent both of my weekends in KL. It was a bit hectic and tiring. So, do let me know if anyone of you are in Sg, I will try my best to meet up, I promise.