Porridge

I'm eating a lot of porridge for breakfast these days. Not the oat-based concoction one might think of in the west. Rather, a dish derived from rice, boiled to submission, to which a variety of augmentations may be made, namely salt, egg, meat, fish, marmite, and bovril, amongst others. This is the Chinese way.

4th August 2009 - Birthday in Singapore!

This year was a special birthday, in that it was the first birthday Yolande and I have ever spent together in the close-to-4-years we have known each other! Despite having a 3.5 hour Finance lecture that morning, my evening turned out splendidly, as I met up with Yolande after work, who treated me to a surprise dinner at a sophisticated Japanese restaurant. The main courses were delicious, as was the surprise birthday cake, which tasted of chocolate, rum, and raspberry. Yum yum! The restaurant even gave us complimentary cheese cake as a birthday treat, and took a polaroid picture of us. We had a magnificent view of Singapore river from our table. Great atmosphere, great music, great conversation - it was a great evening, all told.

Yolande had already given me my birthday present early, which was a 'management fable' called "The THREE SIGNS of a Miserable Job". It has an enjoyable story, as well as being the book I'll be critiquing for one of my research projects, so having my own copy is pretty handy.

I've yet to spend the birthday money I received from Nanny and Zoe & Robin, but I'll be sure to think hard and buy something I'll get a lot out of. I was very pleased to receive so many cards in the post and birthday messages via Facebook from my family and friends. Thank you everybody!!!

It was sad to spend a second birthday in a row away from my family in England, but I am looking forward to their arrival in Singapore at the end of September (when we'll celebrate mine and Yolande's birthday all over again!) and, in the meantime, was thrilled to receive a parcel of Roysters crisps from Gemma, who knew just how much I'd been craving them!

P.S. Since we only ate a small slice at the restaurant, the other day I asked Yolande if she fancied having any of the leftover birthday cake (which I managed to squash on the bus home) for pudding. It turns out Yolande and her parents finished it all without me knowing! (Yolande thought I'd had some too!) Oh well, I'll just have to buy a nice cake for Yolande's birthday and eat some of that! (Come to think of it, that was probably her plan all along... Mua ha ha!)

Our Getaway to Batam

Dan and I booked ourselves a weekend getaway to Batam soon after he was done with his first semester. We were looking forward to our stay at Harris Resort, the one where Dan and I stayed when he came to Singapore last July. Not only were the service and spa facilities awesome - karaoke was the very next activity we were keen on doing over the weekend.

Not too sure if I am a difficult customer or if it's simply because I have been spoilt by "Japanese Customer Service"; I must admit that Customer Service standards in Singapore have deteriorated to unacceptable levels of which I am very much ashamed. When I requested the lady over the counter to amend my Immigration Card (my D.O.B was incorrect), she frowned and told me in an impolite and unprofessional manner, "It's OK [one lah]" (this is Singlish), shooed me away and attended to the next customer. Dan said I should have demanded that the very same lady amend my details so that she would learn to fix her mistakes. But knowing me, it was best I approached someone else to avoid ruining the entire holiday.

Anyway, we soon reached Batam after 1.5 hours' boat ride. We enjoyed our lunch and were very excited about the 3 hour spa that would help us de-stress. After the spa, we had a game of bowling, courtesy of the resort. We must say that we are sticking to Wii Sports for bowling.

Throughout the day we were very excited about Karaoke. However, soon after dinner we found out that they no longer had Karaoke at the usual place. A new Karaoke bar had taken over and was charging us $20 per hour (the usual price was $5 plus a free drink for the entire night)!!! We were very unhappy with the fact that different staff charged us different prices ($6 per 10 songs, etc.) and so on. The manager was called in, as I could not be bothered explaining the situation to every single member of staff I had to speak to, and Dan managed to negotiate free karaoke for 1.5 hours with a free drink. Just as we thought the unpleasant experience was over, we experienced power failure (while asleep) 4 times throughout the night and two false fire alarms!!!

The next morning, we were selected to provide our feedback and guess what, we were aboslutely frank with our comments!!! Our friends and family in Singapore felt that what we did would lead us to nowhere and so on...

WE GOT A FREE NIGHT'S STAY THE NEXT TIME WE VISIT!!!

End of Term

Time really flies. I've already completed my first term, submitted 2 pre-course assignments, 2 main assignments, made 2 presentations and taken 2 exams.

The (provisional) score so far:

Organisational Behaviour
PCA (A+)
MA ???
Presentation (A+)
Exam ???

Strategic Management & Business Practice
PCA (A+)
MA ???
Presentation ???
Exam ???

Unfortunately, the exam and main assignment for each module comprise 70-80% of the total mark, so I still don't have a clear indication of my progress and won't do for another 1-2 months.

The OB main assignment turned out to be a 7,267 word beast, squeezed into just 10 days. Actually, it was supposed to be a four person group project, but I'm very particular about who I work with - I didn't much like the idea of my grade being 'diluted', as it were. SMBP also challenged me with my first ever powerpoint presentation, made in front of the entire class, dressed in a suit. Apparently one of the Vietnamese guys secretly took pictures of me presenting and put them on Facebook, because I "looked so formal"... ōó
...
...If I find them, I'll post them up. The exams were mixed. I have my concerns about the SMBP exam, but I have a feeling the OB exam went much better.

Other highlights included a 'corporate visit' to the Gardenia bread factory!
...Which was over almost as soon as it began. Still, it was interesting to see how the bread was made, it forced me to break away from study for one afternoon, I got to sample some of the merchandise and I returned with goodies for Yolande from the gift shop (a Gardenia bag and gym towel). Most importantly, it was free (not the goodies, I must stress)!

I'm almost half way through my 2 week 'break' now. I've already started reading through next term's textbooks (Corporate Financial Management, Marketing Management), which are utterly huuuge! I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when I picked them up after my OB exam last Friday. Actually, I'm pretty excited about these modules. CFM is basically applied maths (my best subject) and MM is really the core of what doing business is all about - meeting needs profitably.

Last Friday we also got to hang out with Yolande's friends from NUS Japanese studies. They're a great bunch of people - I really enjoyed myself.

This weekend we have a trip to Batam! 3 hour spa, karaoke, bowling, swimming (just paddling for Yolande, whose eyes are still freshly lasered). I hope we don't get quarantined... I'll be sure to let you all know!

I suppose during the second week of this break I should really get down to researching my 2 research projects (RP1, RP2), along with some other stuff I need to sort out...

The Route to Perfect Eyesight

I had glasses since I was 8 and my prescription was as high as 650 for each eye, with pretty bad astigmatism of 250. Without my glasses I was lost and blind. Many times I tried switching to contact lenses but to no avail since it caused dryness and none of the opticians could get my presciption right.

Lasik has been around in Singapore for a good 17 years or so. When it first began, prices per eye were sky-high and I guess I resigned myself to the fate of wearing glasses for my entire life. It was fine wearing glasses till I started work about a year ago. Long exposure to computer light rays irritated my eyesight further. I suffered from frequent migraines and my eyes became extremely sensitive to light. There was nothing much my optician could do as he said I had normal, healthy eyes - that was comforting.

Hence, on the 20th June 2009 I went for a Lasik forum at the Paragon Medical Centre held by the Lasik Surgery Clinic. It is one of the more established clinics with the latest surgical machines in Singapore. To be honest, it sounded scary. The clinic offered a free evaluation eye check-up which I went for the next day and that was the day I plucked up courage and decided to have Lasik (on the very day itself).

I was tearing a lot right after the surgery (my cousin, Sue, had surgery too but she was feeling so well that she returned home to do some chores) and could barely open my eyes. Thank goodness I was prescribed 2 sleeping pills to help me sleep for the first 2 nights. It was painless. It just felt like I was too sleepy (imagine being severely jet-lagged) to keep my eyes open.

Overwhelmed by excitment, I woke up at 530am the very next day to "test" my eye-sight. It was close to perfection! I won't have a full recovery till 3-6 months later, but for now I can very much continue with my lifestyle without any hinderance. Every now and then, my ability to see perfectly fluctuates. Sitting in front of the computer or TV for extended period of time during the healing period may cause my vision to get slightly blurry so I try to walk around my office more (gives me the opportunity for more toilet breaks and not work till late at night!).

I won't be able to swim for the next month or so just to prevent any eye infection.

Goodbye glasses and contact lenses (till I get hyperopia!!!).

Setting The Benchmark

It looks like my prayers were answered. Almost a week ago I got back my Strategic Management pre-course assignment for which I scored distinction, topping the class by a significant margin.

I'm not used to having assignment marks read out by the lecturer in class, but receiving a round of applause for my score did leave me feeling somewhat triumphant. Perhaps a little embarrassed, but mostly triumphant.

In exactly one week's time, I will need to submit my Strategic Management main assignment. While my confidence was given a boost by my previous assignment's grade, the pressure is now on to perform equally well in this main assignment, which is worth a much greater percentage of the overall mark for the module.

Things have been tough recently. I seem to spend nearly all of my free time studying and spend the rest of the time feeling guilty for not studying. Things haven't been helped by a sharp rise in the number of migraines I have been getting - the last one cost me three days.

On the plus side, I did manage to take a whole day to relax last Sunday, which was baby Andrew's (Yolande's cousin's son) baby shower, marking his first full month of existence. Yolande and I took him out for a spin in the pram, but soon had to return after our attempts to soothe his crying were unsuccessful (actually, I didn't try very hard, I must admit). The venue was Yolande's cousin's condominium, which allowed us a day of swimming and good food by the pool. I need to remember that I don't actually ever swim for long - next time I should bring a football or something, otherwise I spend 10 minutes in the pool and the rest of the time drying off. Yolande's either much fitter, or a more energy-efficient swimmer, since she can continue doing laps long after I'm too cream crackered to continue.

I'd like to thank Yolande for being so supportive recently - she has looked after me when I've been ill and cooked for me when I've been too busy to think about food. She has also had to listen to me talking non-stop about Wal-Mart and equity theory these past couple of weeks! When this first term is over, we'll take a well-earned break somewhere, to relax and forget about work/study, if only for a few days.

Busy Busy Busy

I'm just 3 weeks into my course and have already submitted 2 assessments that count towards my final grade.

It has been a busy start to the term. A typical weekday begins not long after 6:00. I reach Kaplan by 8:30. Before class starts at 10:00, I read through the business section of the free newspaper and prepare for class. This typically involves preparing one or two case studies for class discussion, reading through the textbook and, more often than not, dozing off in one of the comfy chairs. Class finishes at 1:00, after which I will grab a quick lunch and return to campus or home to study and research for one of my assignments. Minus a short break for dinner, I will generally study up until I sleep, between 22:00-23:00 (unless I have a deadline the next day, in which case it can be as late as 03:00+). Weekends are not that much more free.

That said, I am finding the course extremely rewarding. Strategic Management and Organisational Behaviour are both fascinating modules in their own way. The former puts you into the shoes of a CEO, setting the strategic direction of the company, while the latter puts you into the position of a manager of people, focusing on what motivates people, how to implement change, etc.

On Monday, I will get back the marks for my first assignment. Apparently, the class performance on average was pretty poor, so I'm praying that I'm the exception!

I will keep you all posted...