..:: 669. Reading ::..

reading has not always been my cup of chai. somehow seeing yash recommending good books to read, i feel that i should start reading! we were talking about starting some hobby cos we must have our work-life balance. basically my life now is work weekdays from 8am to 8pm then reach home about 10pm, sleep then the whole cycle begins. weekend spend on playing xbox with occasional invites from friends for gatherings.

yesterday met up with the india peeps and only jaron brought laptop with the purpose of exchanging photos. the rest didnt. i think the rest of us were pretty much sync - come about 30 mins later than the scheduled meeting time, just sit, chill and do nothing else. we were also talking about joining competitions with our photos taken in india. today i had an idea of what to snap in singapore.

the best moments to take would be inside the mrt, while the door is closing, you should snap those who try to rush into the train. lol. their expressions are priceless! best if there is one who didnt make it then you have 2 different expression.

1. the "scared" face - so scared i will get caught by the doors
2. the "tu-lan" face - for missing the train

evening met up with my red cross friends at iluma (where i sighted david archuleta). was great catching up with my friends. went over to esplanade to watch fire works and cam-whore.

spent my sunday to settle some admin stuff. went to IMM giant to buy the 99 bucks 320gb seagate hard disk. quite a good steal, the external hard disk is pretty sleek. then to chevron, wanted to get the new uniform but not out yet so in the end i got an army bag to put my gym stuff. then i went to Lot 1 to get xbox games and a radio-cum-ipod player for my office.

as usual, refused to pay my overdue phone bills that came up to 950 bucks. in the end, got a pre-paid card to last me till my pay day which is this week! thur and fri on course - my life couldnt get any better.

tml is a big war and much fire to fight. hope i survive. training for ahm soon!

..:: 668. Feeling Good ::..

the version by adam lambert just kept spinning while i work in the office. if only i could blast the music lol.

work is strangely fun and enjoyable. though i have been OT-ing. had 2 days of "freedom" cos my boss was on leave and on course. busy answering questions from some major.

lunch can be a powerful networking tool. just sit with the senior officers and listen to them talk, u can learn quite a lot. learn who to "look out" for, how to survive office politics, how i should handle difficult situation or what to do to get things done. very interesting.

sad. this year no mid-year payment. economy bad, govt decides not to give $. gotta wait out till year end, hopefully. managed to claim my india air ticket. now settling my transcript so i can get my emplacement faster and get more $.

finally got my perm staff pass and issued free uniforms and accessories. dunno why i get excited over such stuff. just that sense of belonging and ownership perk me up.

weekends playing xbox with the new 42" tv. just got my emporio armani specs!

..:: 667. U Know U Miss India When... ::..

k. decided to do away with the "friends" kind of label cos its so cliche.

work has been hectic. left office around 8pm everyday but somehow i find myself loving it. quite surprised i am looking forward to work and i dont whine when i have to work late. anticipating my next task which is to settle scholarship matters, documenting the applications, scheduling them for interviews. i think the real joy comes from being able to help people in their career and development. i am also excited about the courses i get to attend in a few weeks time.

tml morning have to brief CO about my number-crunching task. my ma'am sort of pre-empt me about making a bad first impression by providing unreliable figures. *hint* check through thoroughly the numbers and the names. somehow i need to commit them to memory cos i got "grilled" to know the details of the serviceman by my fingertips.

the missing-india feeling is still there and i know it especially when i

1. still convert stuff to rupees and lament about how expensive things are
2. never seem to find ginger milk tea to be able to match up taste of chai, not even talking about the price (5 rupees)
3. spent my weekend watching dvds i bought in india
4. glance at mens health and think of 100 rupess (3 dollars) version in india
5. find myself having the urge to talk to indian people and miss the ultra fast talking speed
6. want to say "joo-lay" but no one understands
7. long to watch cricket match
8. zoom into news about india - like in the straits times, mountain journey of faith. a hindu pilgrim beginning his journey from baltal base camp to srinagar's amarnath cave shrine in kashmir for the annual pilgrimage... its in the guidebook! lol

lastly
9. constantly check for tickets to go india. anywhere in india!

..:: 666. The One With Still India ::..

14. i miss throwing things aka littering. i bought some otahs on the way home and so tempted to just throw in the bushes. i think i am really singaporeanised. even in india, littering seems uncomfortable. we could eat something and contemplate throwing out from the train. even the locals encouraged us to throw.

'there is no bin you know' was what they said.

dunno is it taxi drivers going through courses or what, they become strangely friendly and talkative. so far, i have taken 3 cabs since i came back and all the drivers loved to chat and talk non-stop. i needed that power nap but they just kept talking. perhaps i should stop telling them i went india cos that would usually spark the conversation.

crazily went to meet yash and ky for dinner at LITTLE INDIA. just when i swore not to touch indian food, the crazy gang decided to eat indian food and drink chai. really cannot compare to real india-indian food. the fish tasted like it has swum from india, so tough.

over dinner we decided unofficially to go kerala during the coming chinese new year. as usual, we love to just-say. maybe i should really book and the envy might just kick in and people will start booking. :P

going for wopc (warrant officer promotion ceremony) soon. so excited, hopefully next year i can be the secretary, sure lots to learn. loving my department, my immediate boss just a cute female boss, and the CO such fatherly figure.

..:: 665. The One With Incredible India ::..

shall backtrack some of my entries. touched down this morning at 7am and had a mad rush to go to work. got briefing by my boss which took 6 hours and everyone was "congratulating" me on my new post being "challenging". ya i get the hint. in charge of careers of few thousand men and women is no joke. at least i can take pride in managing careers of others.

left office at around 7 plus and i was so freaking tired that i had to take a cab back. morning: airport to home to work cost me 54 dollars and back home it was 15 dollars. i seriously miss the 1 dollar auto rides in india...

at home out of a sudden, i dunno why, there was a surge of emotions. flashbacks of what i will be doing if i were still in india, the nice people that i have met just resurfaced. i cried. yes, i also cannot believe. i guess the girls probably cried or teared at some point during the trip, but mine though was a little late but still noteworthy. i didnt cry when i came back from my 6 mth trip to china but a month in india was enough to garner that much tears. i guess i was forced to move out of my comfort zone, explored and had really low expectation (initial reluctance to go india), but ended up being surprised by the culture and its people.

another testament that i heart india is that i rather spend some time blogging my best moments in india than to sleep though i am freaking tired.

things i would miss in india:

1. hagging over price for auto - ultimate fun to see them calling you back or laughing at us when we quote ridiculous price. usually i just laughed with them.

2. 55rs (S$1.50) all-you-can-eat thali. enuff said.

3. 20rs (less than S$1) for 1kg of mangoes. the satisfaction you get from peeling the mango and eating it without cutting is priceless.

4. hoping into clubs in goa for free. party all night, having dj knowing our fave pokerface song. staying just 50m away from the club and 200m away from the beach is just pure heaven.

5. bumping into real hardcore backpackers and hearing their stories. overland trips that lasted few years. those were the people that made me feel like travelling full-time. haiz. also made me realise my ideal partner must love travelling. there is just so much to learn from...

6. my nepalese german baker. shant reveal too much details but i wake up early every morning for this. i meant the pastries.

7. staying in the temple at amritsar. communal eating and just basking in the shining golden temple. watching people so religiously and faithfully praying... their devotion is just a sight to behold.

8. guessing whether the couple is from an arranged or love marriage. met 2 completely different couples. one where the wife loves travelling, even while her station has reached, she was still looking at the pics i took while the husband was nonchalant, completely not interested in travelling.

the other couple who completely took us by surprise when they offered to let us stay over at their place. we didnt look friendly to each other until that mango juice spilled. their hospitality really touched me. the couple with a 5.5 mth son was in delhi for 6 mths before we met them on the train back to bangalore. the couple cleaned the house, made two nice beds for us. the husband even went to buy lunch for us, later groceries to cook dinner and when they knew we have supper in singapore, they made another meal around 9pm. their son was so endearing that i didnt know i could make so much funny noises to entertain the child.

9. naturally be meeting nice people. they were probably the ones that made me cry too. i felt so at home and the bed, it was one of my best sleep. i think what moved me was also their love story which i thought you could only see it in their bollywood movies. girl being older and of lower caste system, parents wanted to arrange marriage for her and told the guy that she was dating. the guy confessed his love and proposed. married "illegally" for the first time before getting approval and understanding from their parents in the second formal wedding. now seeing them fight for their happiness and they truly are enjoying having each other and with their son, no amount of words can describe that feeling.

10. nice weather of manali and scenery from leh. waking up to see the himalayan range, what more can you ask. walking around the neighbourhood, greeting strangers "joo-lay", everyone seems so friendly, even yash could hitchhike without problems.

11. good looking people at srinagar though jammu and kashmir got NO freaking phone reception due to security. guys were more rowdy but they were rare species of good lookers compared to the places we have seen. even yash was drooling and checking guys out. :P staying in a houseboat was fun though the toilet was a bit creepy. having birds watch you bathe, shit and pee just made me feel that the birds make pretty bad audience chirping away while i shit.

12. the AC train rides. should have taken more of those but definitely less of their on-the-board meals. we laughed our heads off everytime they serve main courses - egg briyani, veg briyani, veg thali. always the same thing for lunch and dinner x 2 days. people in our cable understood why we laughed but the poor waiter might be thinking we were laughing at his accent.

13. funny encounters. things you can carry with your heads. so you think you can squeeze (in a vehicle). funny pronounciation.

where is the payphone?
oh ma'am. tart floor.

tart? or so we thought.

third floor.

..:: 664. The One With O Leh ::..

22hr jeep ride to leh was no joke. left manali at 2am and reached leh at 1230am. the ride was sick, literally. didnt realise we travelled on one of the highest pass in the world. couldnt acclimatise, suffered from mild acute mountain sickness (AMS).

but it was all worth it when we were here. everywhere u could see the himalayan range. we were on a shared jeep, each person 1500rs cos the mini bus no vacancy and state buses not in operation yet. was in the jeep with a french lady, a belgium and a czech guy and 4 other indian nationals.

reached leh at 1230am, autos were nowhere to be found. had to approach a tout who brought us to a nearby hotel at old fort road. managed to bargain for 250rs for a double room.

stayed in hotel mayflower for the first night cos not enough rooms at hotel t-suru. finally met our first singaporean couple who happened to be jaron's salsa partners at jitterbugs.

together we booked a jeep (1550rs each) to nubra valley which was awesome. went through the highest motorable pass in the world and started snowing. i think the diskit monastery was the best out of the diskit-hunder-sumor-panamik trail. hunder was like a desert but much cooler. sumor cant remember lol. panamik is a miserable hot spring. hotel snow palace at hunder was a killer, except for the hot pink room, the dinner (all-you-can-eat) was 200rs which of cos i cant eat much cos its spicy and boring. breakfast - toast and egg was 100rs. insane.

seems like yash had a great time alone in leh lol. oriental guesthouse is the place to be. great view, incredible breakfast (omelet, cheese rosti), lcd plasma tv, 22 inch samsung lcd for internet and a library with lots of books...

sadly the rafting pass not opened yet :(

took a state bus to srinagar. so much better. and it only cost 500rs.

..:: 663. The One With Manali ::..

ha. forget about waking up at 4am to watch sunrise. left the temple at around 1pm and donated about 150rs. thinking we could catch the bus to dharamsala at 3pm (which was what the ticketing officer told us last night), the bus to dharamsala was actually 12pm. as usual, we were not surprised by the "anything is possible" in india which could well be their tourism tagline.

we could either transit at pathankot then take another bus there to dharamsala. alternatively, we could take a 12-hr ride to manali which was on the way up to leh. since dalai lama would be at dharamsala on sun and it was monday, i thought we could go up manali first then come down later.

230pm bus. i had to climb on top of the bus to secure our huge backpacks and a whole lot of butt abrasion, bumpy ride, ANOTHER puking woman, we finally reached manali at about 6am.

i was totally not prepared for the weather, freaking cold and i was in my singlet and berms lol. my face turned blue immediately, and lucky there was the pipping hot chai to keep my sanity. took an auto (which was rare in sight) to old manali.

found tourist nest guesthouse which had nice room and balcony for 400rs per night. wondered around and found a german bakery with a hot dude. after random conversations by yash, found that he was actually training to be a singapore gurkha but had insufficient money to pay to go to singapore. that explained his buff bod which i thought he got it from carrying sacks of flour since gymming isnt the kind of thing they do there. there were lots of people from nepal working here in summer and during winter, they would all flood to goa.

weather is so cooling, its like aircon 24/7. good thing there was tv in the room so we could catch some bbc news. visited the marketplace which was flooded with the locals. shopping spree as usual, bought shawls as gifts and another empty bag to store all the gifts.

going to book a mini bus to leh which cost 1500rs each. ouch. but considering the 300rs and the savings we got from the interstate-my-ass-in-a-bad-state bus ride to manali, it was alright i guess.

embrace myself for colder weather (thinks of barbarella chantel thomas) and rafting!!!

i miss my pastry...

..:: 662. The One With Amritsar ::..

kena cheated by the guidebook... lol. no straight train from chandigarh to amritsar. unlike what the book wrote, 1 hour by train. it is a lot faster to take the bus. in the end, we had to take an interstate bus first to jalandhar (about 2-3 hours, cost 85rs) then we took a transit bus which was surprisingly A/C (aircon) which took about 1.5-2 hours and reached around 1pm.

the bus ride was as usual exciting. when travelling in india, never sit near

1. the exit or window
2. any female/mother, especially those who look thin

cos they puke! the bus ride was so bumpy. jaron and i were sitting at the rear of the bus. when the lady approached the rear of the bus with "i-want-to-puke" face, i knew i was going to experience some drama. i tried to open the door but to no avail, then the bus conductor kept yelling in hindi (like hell i know what he meant) and left me frantically to look for other door switch. my friend just woke up in daze and another guy translated "open the window".

i looked at the gap, how can the lady reach the window without her puke landing on us? she was not in a state to move to the back seat with retractable window cos we had our luggage with us. she puked near the door in the end and the bus had to stop somewhere so that her husband could rinse away her "remains" using the water available at the street well.

then the bus conductor came up and blabbered hindi at me again. must be cursing this time, though i felt like hurling hokkien vulgarities at him since no one knew but i forgave him for his lack of common sense.

when we reached the sikh golden temple, it was "wow". we first checked into the supposedly free lodging for travellers that was within the temple. after the stay, we were supposed to give some donation in any amount. it was like a dormitory layout and the place was packed with backpackers who really travel full-time.

there was this russian guy who hitch rides all the way and has been travelling for three years and counting. yash was there to flaunt her malay with the russian who knew basic conversational malay. there was this chilean guy who is on his buddhism route and out for a few years as well. another swiss with his wife travelled overland using their bikes for 3 years too. such amazing people, impressive. as usual, awkward questions had to be endured (insiders would know :P).

the hunt for chicken king (a restaurant) failed miserably as expected. wanted to resort to hand gestures and body language to "charade" chicken king but thought they would not get it anyway. still not feeling well to eat our first meat since 1 week. loaded on oral rehydration salts and felt much better.

finally useful and friendly policeman came to our rescue as we were trying to bargain to get an auto to bring us to attari-wagah border (also know as the india-pakistan border) to see closing of the border. we were smart to get the auto at 250rs return without waiting charges.

basically we went there to sweat. the place had high security so no bags were allowed. the stadium was divided into male and female sectors. the female sector had room for movement while the male as usual was under packing order. if u are ever claustrophobic, india is not for you. guys love to put their hand on your shoulder, back as they move along. if u are seated down, most are clumsy enough to hit you with their knees, legs, whatever. quite a number of people trying to sell the ceremony dvd and not getting the hint that if we want to buy, we would have gotten it long ago. damn those houseflies.

ooo. the parade and ceremony were interesting. the footdrill that the indian soldiers do, not for the girls. such high kick, i thought they were doing gymnastic or ballet kicks. when the soldiers "face off", they looked like they were doing tap dance. damn funny. you can see them "act macho" march towards each other (india and pakistan soldiers), then suddenly raised their legs and did a little tap dance and shake hands. there was this compere who kept shouting

Bharat Mata Ki Jai! (Hail Mother India!),
Hindustan Zindabad! (Long Live India!), and
Vande Matram! (Hail to the Motherland!)

all the crowd got rowdy and started to shout and roar. before the ceremony, songs were played and you could see girls (including aunties) coming up to the area to dance. girls would carry the indian flag and run up and down like they were in olympics. jaron and i just stood there and sweat. oh no, and get pushed around.

since they loved to squeeze, i found myself some "drying agents". wiped my sweat whenever another guy tried to squeeze in front of me, since most of them surprisingly still wore long sleeves (more cloth to dry my sweat)

at night, we went back to take pictures of the golden temple. the sight is amazing... we could see people bathing in the holy pool, bodies of all shapes - gave the temple a different dimension. but the fun and interesting part was actually when we went to their dining hall for communal eating. the place was open 24hrs, serving dhal curry and chapati. it was nice seating with the rest eating. saw a cute little boy serving us water. after the meal, the temple volunteers signalled us to have some chai. inside the temple, we had to cover our heads and being guys, we were not used to covering our heads with cloth. the cloth kept coming off and we looked insane. yash was there giggling at us but found herself being giggled at by a weird man. HAHA. the guy sat beside her and had 3 big bowls of chai and still mesmerized by someone. maybe its me. lol. but i am sure i didnt look like a transgendered hijra (known as third gender, neither male nor female but mostly dressed as female). i goggled hijras and saw a picture of hijra holding a banana, lol. wth. you often see them doing their "rituals" on the train, known within us as the "claps claps", they expect you to tip them and rejecting them is bad luck. i chose to ignore them but the train is how big to "siam" them?

..:: 661. The One With Bikaner and Chandigarh ::..

took a 5hr bus from jaisalmer to bikaner (150rs), the horn was amazing. lol. recorded it as an alarm tone for my phone, another irritant for yash. hee hee.

realised the buses love to customise their horn sound.

had 2-3 hours to spare at bikaner while waiting for our train at 5pm. went to this rat temple which was like 30km, took an auto which cost 300rs. we forgot to ask about "waiting charges". lol but luckily he didnt charge more in the end.

the rat temple. gross. can see lots of rats sleeping and running around the temple. though if they run over your feet, you will have good luck but i praying hard i dont have one running across me. they dont look as cute as your tom and jerry kind. they were feeding on what looked like masala dosa or potato-like stuff, drinking milk. just the whole bunch lying at a corner made me queasy.

during the train ride, we experienced sand storm. the locals were looking at us weirdly as we were trying to take pictures and videos while they were hoping we could wind down the windows asap. lol.

chandigarh is so much like singapore! with road dividers! and traffic lights that people follow. potted plants and lampposts along the streets. less honking. so sad we have to leave quite fast.

oops. time up. gtg.

..:: 660. The One With Jaisalmer ::..

arghz. entry didnt manage to be published so now have to rewrite. hate rewriting entries, lost all the 'steam'

the very smart trio booked a 3D2N desert safari once we checked into the himalayan guesthouse. nothing cooling about the guesthouse, in fact all we could feel was hot air. quite amazed by their touting skills, a guy got to us even before we alighted from the bus. got us to his jeep and drove us straight to the guesthouse.

for 650rs per day, yash managed to negotiate 2 free nights for the price we pay. perks of being a girl. (in yash's defence, its the nego skills)

we were told that there are 3 other English girls and 2 Americans going with us. hur hur. and also 2 Swedish girls. in the end, they were non-existent, except for a very nice asian american guy, nic.

desert safari. freaking hot. camels apparently cannot walk during 12pm to 4pm. hence we had to sit under trees that did not provide much shelter. you cant sleep nor read so pretty much, we either listen to the guide's rags to riches story (how an american couple saved his life, gave money to him to buy 3 camels so he can become his own boss).

heat can do some serious brain damage. after catching a bad-rhyme hindi movie,

i wish you a good life.
i want you to be my wife.

we were entertained by some of the guide's rhyme.

camel college, full of knowledge.
no curry no hurry.
something lassi then varanasi.

we also had our own fun after visiting so many villages and most of them just had people running after us begging for money or items.

our little version:
no free chai (tea), no free lunch
i have a hunch
the next village, i would punch

but i suffered a mild heatstroke. needed oral rehydration tablets and stuff. lost appetite and felt feverish. sucky feeling. had nice rooftop chat with other tourists from france, holland, japan, hongkong. amazed how they can just quit their jobs and travel.

i am missing home already :(

..:: 659. The One With Udaipur ::..

travelling by train is definitely more enjoyable. i can see myself sleeping better on train than sleeping on the bus. reached udaipur early in the evening and managed to find soni paying guest house (tell me one that dont need to pay).

the room was so-so but the price was 200rs for a triple bed so it was worth it. but everything didnt matter as much as soon as we hit the roof. gosh, the lake palace looked amazing with the glittering lights... started to drizzle as we were up in another roof having dinner. the electricity was cut and the town was in darkness.

the daylight comes and it was weird to see the (dried up) lake palace. decided to be adventurous and rented a bicycle to find lunch - all-you-can-eat thali for 55rs. funny things happened. guy got beaten up for no reason. lol. our little secret.

took a 12hr bus ride to jaisalmer (transit at jodphur) which was 300rs for a non-AC seater. damn bloody noisy. people just loved to quarrel. then in the morning, there was this boy who puked and the "stuff" kena my leg! gross. there are windows HELLO...

there was this smart tout, who guided us where to go before the last stop. dunno how he managed to get onto the bus. we managed to bargain to get a 650rs x 3 days for a 3D2N desert safari and 2 nights free at the guest house. =)

going with an asian guy from US, chatted at the rooftop with a Hongkie as well as a Japanese couple.

weather is damn freaking hot!!! 43 degrees or more. could feel my toes burning. hope tml camel rides would be fun. and the night wont be too cold.

..:: 658. The One With Aurangabad ::..

wah didnt know results out so fast! scrolling carefully one by one to see my grades. but was pleasantly surprised. got what i had expected so i was pretty much excited and happy. finally graduated. got A+ for hr metrics. unexpected but it pays off to be active in class i guess. thought my quiz was a goner but luckily everything turned out well.

had the best last sem but was also one of the most dramatic ones. worked with people whom i were eager to do project with but in the process, we might have disappointed each other in some ways but that is the learning process like what everyone says. i also have learnt: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. handling conflicts with friends requires ultimate tact since it will come around to bite your a** and also to prevent future awkward moments.

it just feels weird to know a person who doesnt like you. whether you should pretend the person does not exist, or continue to be friendly knowing the person dont really care.

anyway back to happy moments. all my alone journeys are quiet exciting. i left the hostel at 7pm to catch my bus to aurangabad at 8pm. the bus agent told me that it would take like 15 mins to reach the place to board the bus. as usual, the cab driver said he knew where to go and ard 730pm i got worried that we have not reached and decided to call the bus agent to tell the cab driver how to go to the boarding venue.

the cab driver didnt want to take my phone! wth.

in the end at 8pm, he managed to drop me at where i bought my ticket which was not the boarding venue. i was freaking pissed and had to pay the drive 250rs to not-my-destination.

luckily the bus agent was nice to ask me to take a seat to wait for the bus who will make a turn to his place. at 930pm, the bus never came. so i had to hop on to one random bus which brought me to another place for a connecting bus to aurangabad. totally different bus companies and i think they dont really care which bus u paid for.

in the end, all turned out well. i paid for a non-AC semi-sleeper and got an AC (aircon) sleeper bus. after all that trouble, i cant complain with that unexpected free upgrade.

as usual sleeping with a male stranger is nothing new. this time i had 2 different guys. but the "dolphin" bus (name of the bus) was really good, had good clean pillows and offered blankets. at about 5am, my bed mate alighted and another boarded. luckily i chatted with the second guy, cos he stayed near the hotel which i was supposed to meet yash and jaron. he brought me to his house for breakfast and his wife made great chai (tea). then he drove me to the hotel where i was so excited to see yash and jaron.

took a tuk tuk for 20rs to get to the government bus station for a bus to ellora caves. we decided to stop midway to explore the daulatabad fort which was like a freaking great wall of china. climbed thousands of steps and my legs almost gave way from the so-long-never-exercise period.

we then hitch a "car-pool" ride which squeezed 8 people in one cab to head to ellora caves. each person only 15rs. second day we visited ajanta caves which had more paintings and like ellora, after a while, the caves looked similar. we just gulped down tons of water...

most hotels in india have this 24-hour checkout system. doesnt mean you can check out anytime :P it meant you have to check out 24 hours after you checked in. and need to ask whether there is electricity the whole day. some places i stayed in, they switched off the electricity at certain times of the day. without fans in the freaking hot weather, we couldnt sleep on the second day when the fans went off at 5am!

our next destination: udaipur to see the lake palace. woo! going there is difficult.

we took a bus to jalgaon which cost 40rs and took about 1.5 hr. took a tuk tuk to the railway station (10rs) to find that there is no direct train. but there are a lot of bus agencies so we found "Hamsafar" which helped us booked a bus to Indore (300rs, non-AC sleeper, depart 9.15pm, arrive 5am; 7+ hours) and then train to Udaipur (410rs, non-AC sleeper, depart 8am, arrive 7.15pm; 11+ hours)

looking forward to my first inter-state train experience.

so sad, adam lambert didnt win american idol but will definitely support him. his live performances are so much better and engaging than kris's.

..:: 657. The One With The Heat ::..

i think the heat is making me sick. been drinking lots of water but the air is still so hot and humid. breathing was difficult especially when i was on the train.

caught the bollywood show which i couldnt understand what they were saying but roughly knew the plot. surprisingly dont have the mass-group dance that i used to see. cos the movie was in hindi, everyone was looking at me, thinking why is this guy watching a hindi film lol...

the salvation army hostel was alright... with breakfast, each night is about 200rs. today visited the mahalaxmi dhobi ghat (sounds like singapore's dhoby ghaut)... it is a place where people do mass laundry. saw a lot of people beating the dirt and washing and drying the clothes. my very own underwear could be there since i have sent some clothes for laundry. and i saw a small hole from my mr quiet shirt :( probably from the previous wash...

went to chowpatty beach which was nowhere near the standard of goa beaches. its like family gathering. so crowded even on weekday 4pm. got lots of stalls and i finally tried the paan which was a leaf wrapped in many stuff (paste, mints, cherries, desiccated coconut...

took a bus and enjoyed the sights... rush hour everyone heading home. i am preparing to load an album entitled "things you can carry with your head" lol... u will be amazed... my first attempt to jump up the bus failed :( the bus went too fast and there was an old man in front of me and i didnt have a free hand to grab. waited for more than 30 mins for a bus... took shots of people jumping up and down the bus. damn cool. u can practically alight anywhere... when the bus stops at the traffic junction, you can just jump lol.

..:: 656. The One With Mumbai Day 4 ::..

wanted to go to the "crossroads" which according to the lonely planet guidebook, it is the biggest shopping mall in mumbai. when i started to make my way there from mumbai central station, a shopkeeper told me it was closed for renovation :(

went to a nearby city central mall, boring like hell lol. cannot even fight my house's compass point or even bukit panjang plaza despite having like 4-5 floors. went to their electrical store "croma" which is like our harvey norman, courts, etc. bought a headphone from sennheiser. damn solid sound and bass. loving it.

my fren was driving me around and happened to chance upon this bollywood filming... so many people standing around and of course i wouldnt have known who were the actors/actresses.

my first day there, they were actually counting the votes for the election so once in a while you hear announcement from the loudspeakers informing the public the parties and their vote count. interestingly, everyone who voted had an ink marked on their left middle finger. this is done so that they could only vote once, the ink would last a week. i guess its just too many people to have proper documentation...

in the evening, my fren brought me to this members-only royal bombay yatch club... so atas.

i also went to catch doomsday. gosh the cinema experience was truly incredible india...

1. before the start of the movie, i had to rise for the national anthem O_O
2. half way through the movie, there was an intermission. ??? the lights suddenly went on and i thought what happened.

but the good thing is that the seats, they have this roller so you can slide and make your seat incline. damn cool. =)

doomsday just full of blood and gore. head and limbs being cut off, bodies run over by vehicles. at some point, i thought i was watching fast and furious with all the car racing and heads flying around.

one more day left and i must go the the chowpatty beach and try their desserts and snacks!

..:: 655. The One With Exciting Mumbai ::..

gosh, must share with u all the scary "excitement' i got...

i boarded the bus fully AC (aircon), expecting to find my inclined seater that i paid 800rs for. instead i saw rows of beds and when i saw an indian man on the bed i was supposed to be on, i was a little puzzled.

my ticket showed 12A and when i looked at the wall, it was labelled 12A, 12B. i thought 12B was the bed below cos i knew mine was the upper deck. when i bent and saw the label below, i was stunned. 11A and 11B.

worse, upper deck had little room for movement and it was like a freaking single bed for 2 guys! sian 1/2. the person bluffed me!

but the good thing was the bus was not full, so the guy moved to other bed, but that was not before he almost dozed off and breathed down my neck literally!

that was not the scariest part, i kept asking the bus conductor where i could drop cos i wanna drop at colaba. they didnt answer me, just uttered some hindi words which i cant find in my map. then i was sitting at the lower deck looking at the signboard... there was this couple who was going to alight so i asked them how much longer would it take to reach colaba, they told me another hindi "station name"... then the bus moved and made a turn, after some distance the bus conductor walked towards me and asked me to alight. Then i told him i got a luggage at the storage compartment which i needed to get down to take my luggage. he gave me the confused face and hurried me to go down. then he ran back to where the couple dropped and only then i realised he had actually left my bag there... i regretted then not to put my luggage up but i wasnt allowed cos no space...

i lost him half way as he ran. i looked confused in the sea of people. luckily i went straight out to the street and saw the couple. they were on the phone apparently trying to call the bus company cos they saw my bag. phew. they also shared a cab with me and told me it only took 40rs to reach my destination. never felt so relieved...

but once i alighted, i was swarmed by so many people trying to recommend me hotel and gain commission. so hard to ditch them. frustrated with that heavy load... and hotels in mumbai are so expensive. managed to find a real cheap 450rs per night. the rest were all 600 and above and its NON-AC :( the room standard i saw was like in bangalore kind just slightly better.

buildings in mumbai are damn nice, esp the taj mahal palace. walked and explored colaba, fort and churchgate area. my first experience of jumping off the train, it was so fun. also standing at the edge of the door-less train was exciting. sipped high tea and had great sandwiches and chocolate truffle recommended by lonely planet.

tml chowpatty beach and mumbai biggest shopping center!

..:: 654. The One With Goa ::..

finally caught american idol top 3 and america's next top model finale. gosh. surprise kris garnered more votes than danny... but kris really more original in his version of "heartless" and many of his songs. i hope adam is the one who trumps with one million more votes... excited about next week. hopefully the internet and computer are good enough...

really amazed by allison, she has the look that can go international. teyona :( dun look sweet in person, only does well in photos. lovin allison's walk in the runway, surprisingly great. but as expected cycle 3, 6, 9 and now 12 they have a black to win. so coincidental.

spent almost a week in goa now. been great. super relaxed. sun sea and the beaches. chilling out on the deck and ordering food and drinks while reading. visited calangute beach, then to baga beach and also anjuna beach and the flea market.

it's really good to talk to the local people and often we got free rides to wherever we wanted to go. i guess i was lucky travelling with a girl. every corner, guys with bikes will stop and ask whether she needs a lift. well lucky me. bikini on the beach sure draws lots of attention. felt like trying parasailing but havent got the chance.

partied 4 straight nights in a row. free entry, just popping cheap drinks... beers like kingfisher their local brand...

rented a bike for 300rs for 2 days and rode illegally. scary experience with heavy traffic and they all drove really fast... currently staying at marlin guest house which was so comfy and 5 mins away from all the clubs and nowhere near noisy dogs.

heading to mumbai this friday night, hopefully it will be as fun. overspent on shopping for gifts :(

..:: 653. The One With Kushalnagar-Mangalore ::..

took a bus from mysore to kushalnagar. decided to go there over breakfast lol. made a call and this helpful guy said we could go there without a permit though the guidebook said it was needed. cost about 75rs.

the area is the closest feel to tibet, very peaceful and serene. very different from the india we have seen so far. of course there is a chinese feel to it but they cant speak chinese at all, english was quite limited only those stall owners knew. we stayed at this great hotel (finally not hostel), with hot showers... at night when we slept, it was so peaceful, even though there were chanting and prayers early in the morning, we could still sleep till late morning.

in the day, we walked around the neighbourhood, explored their schools (secondary and university), temples. looked so grand. ky was on a monk hunk hunt where we stood outside our hotel which was a cross-junction between the schools and the prayer area. took pictures with both cute little monks as well as ky fave "hunks" who do not look like monks at all.

very cleansing meals cos its vegetarian and whole lot of rice and noodles.

decided to go to Mangalore as a pit stop before we head to Goa. initially wanted to go Gokarna but the only bus takes 8 hours and will reach there at 9pm :( not a good timing. and ky hurt her back from the bus ride to Mangalore which was so bumpy all the way.

while she rested at the hostel, i roamed about. went to this kadri temple which the guidebook recommended... there was this holy pool where mostly guys swimming in it. took some photos as they looked excitedly at my camera. took pics of the 1000 year old bronze statue. decided to sit near the entrance of the temple and observed how people enter/exit and pray.

when they go in, they would touch the step and then their chest(heart), as they come out, they would exit sideways then face the deity to avoid showing their back. touch the step again and chest.

was reading my guidebook where the kids from the holy pool recognized me and became excited with the guidebook again. there was this indian guy who approached me and asked me where i wanted to visit. he said he could show me around on his motorbike since he was staying near the places i wanted to go.

coolness. so i daringly went with him. took video and pics along the way. he pointed out to me the famous ice-cream shop near the bus interchange! he brought me to see the sultan's battery where i could take a boat ride to the opposite island. he shared with me how to get there, by bus 16 and an auto-rickshaw would cost about 40 rs. i thought he was "informing" me of the tips/charges i had to pay.

then he brought me to this gorgeous temple which was not in the guidebook. the buildings all glittered in gold. he showed me around and taught me what angles i should take my pictures. amazing. he also brought me into the temple and introduced the different gods they have and the custom they follow while praying. very interesting! then we met random people and i was also shown around the marriage halls that they have. nice... and it was marble-flooring.

at the end, it was around 8pm and i gotta head back before ky starved. lol. wanted to pay him some money but he declined politely. i was amazed. tried to stuff in his pocket but he returned to me and said he just wanted to show me around and hope i had fun. 0_0... such nice people...

now waiting for the sleeper coach to go GOA... excited about the beaches, another scenery different from what we have seen. and i can get to do some shopping!

..:: 652. The One With AI ::..

gosh. rock and roll week is totally made for allison and adam. they were great together. caught their duet on youtube, nice!!!

adam's solo as usual pawns everybody else.

..:: 651. The One With Bangalore-Mysore ::..

now in mysore, some internet shop, freaking hot. missing yesterday's weather already...

lunch was great. we had been trying to get to MG Road but to no avail. chanced upon this indian hunk who guided us to the internet shop yest. after surfing, we went back to the shop to have lunch. had fried fish and rice (a lot of rice but very nice)100rs + 20rs ... tried masala cola (20rs)which tasted better than ky's masala soda. lol.

then again lots of walking from the shop past KG road before we decided to hop on the bus (5rs) to MG road. when we reached there, we happened to see the tourism office at church street so we went to check out where else we could go. MG road good for shopping, is like orchard road and a few pubs and stuff. 15 mins walk you can reach commercial street selling more pasar malam kind of stuff. tried some fruit that tasted like coconut, 10rs for 4 pieces pics to be up on facebook hopefully.

we also had macdonald's coke float 25rs. we went to have dinner at nearby restaurant which was empty, maybe dinner at 7 plus is still early for them. had tandoori chicken (80rs) yummy. then decided to try smoking shisha (200rs)... went over to Le Rock, a rock pub and had Fosters. (120rs)

we tried to bargain for auto-rickshaw to bring us back to our hostel since its night time. 4km, we got 70rs for a ride, which i thought can still be a little cheaper but it was below our reservation price of 100rs, we were happy. our area, chickpet, unlike the street name, no "chicks" - all men.

left our hostel early at 9 and reach the bus station ard 930 to catch a bus to mysore. they should rename the place as my(butt)sore. sat for more than 3 hours of bus ride. tried for the youth hostel which was dirt cheap 45rs per night but its 4km away from the city centre. 100rs for the auto-rickshaw which made me wonder if it would be better if we pay more to stay in the city area at least transport would be easier.

there is a festival going on at 4pm. now waiting to check into the hostel... more updates soon...

..:: 650. The One With Bangalore ::..

what a way to start the trip... the flight got retimed from 830pm to 1030pm. then my friend lost her phone at the airport :( when we were queuing for the flight, it got delayed because one of the plane lights was faulty.

was queuing to check in when a family came to approach me to "borrow" my luggage space. they tried to help me source for accommodation and soon they started asking other people in the queue if they knew of cheap accommodation... soon i heard one big group of people shouting out names of hotels and some asking what the budget was... crazily friendly.

the flight there was bad. budget terminal motto - enjoy the difference. what's the enjoyment? saw a middle-aged lady beside me stretched her leg across the aisle and onto the husband's arm rest. couldnt sleep on the plane.

amazed that we were able to board bus 9 which cost us 125rps to get to majestic which is the town area. we were swarmed by people driving the auto-rickshaw asking where we wanna go and recommending hotels. the "auto-shaw" cost 10rps at night as we realised they go by meter in the day.

found one super scary hostel that was great for shooting horror scenes. the paint of the wall cracked, with the fan making funny noises, a basin, squatting toilet... could hear dogs barking at night, hard to fall asleep, reminded me of when i'm home where the dogs bark while i tried to sleep :(

morning i woke up trying to brush my teeth and the moment i turn on the tap, brown-coloured water came out. i was stunned. but it became clear after a while. used that to wash my face, no choice. hopefully i wont have pimple outbreak.

toured around the area, checked out the train and bus stations... chanced upon an indian wedding where the band was super enthusiastic to take pics. the groom had to sit on a "decorated" horse to fetch the bride.

lots of walking and had our first meal, dough like stuff called idli and vada which cost 20rps. mineral water 1L for 12rps... planning to go mysore tml! hopefully more natural scenery.

..:: 649. The One With Last Exam in NTU ::..

what? adam lambert bottom two this week? but i am glad he was in bottom two. quite a "strategic" move whether it was deliberate. him being bottom two this week, all his fans will call doubly hard next week so he will most likely sail through top 3. him being bottom 2 also gave a gauge on how much they need to call.

told ya, the show needs some oestrogen going on. i wont be surprised if kris is out next week. just like how fantasia kept being in the bottom two and managed to win in the end.



final paper! i was the first person for bh227. haha.

tml x-men movie gala at 3 and hopefully get to meet my clique after that. havent start packing! oh no.

..:: 648. The One With Last Paper::..

so excited about my last paper. first thing i did was to pack my travel guide book in my bag before my notes. lol

watched american idol always energize and psyche me up! adam. wow wow. loved his entrance, even jamie foxx, the mentor was full of praises for him. so what if he is theatrical and over-the-top, that's his style and uniqueness. lovin' it.



anyway left top 5, quite easy to make the prediction:

winner: adam lambert
runner up: danny gokey

kris allen
allison iraheta
matt giraud

close fight between allison and matt, whether to keep the girl or keep it an all-guy affair. their performances also on-par, really based on popularity. i would prefer some girl action though.

hopefully i get to watch top 4 when i am in india! 2 songs each.

haha. can see that i cant be bothered with my last paper already.

..:: 647. The One With India ::..

just applied for visa to india. here are some details if you ever need...

mustafa air travel is opened 24 hrs for visa application since the embassy does not provide the service anymore... you can apply any time but the application would only be processed in the morning when the staff from embassy come and collect.

59 bucks, payable by nets. as for the address of reference in india, they will give you a list of hotel so just fill in any.

ready in 2 days. i applied today (tue) and i can collect after 7pm on thur.

if u go to the other air travel agencies nearby, have to pay 60+ bucks and pay only by cash -_-

also went to nokia service centre to try and get my phone fixed before my trip. the casing out of stock so have to wait. its 40 bucks :(

comeon' let me strike 4D!

which D&G outfit nicer? thinking of tailoring it for my convo ball... both from Dolce & Gabbana Spring 2009

..:: 646. The One With Star Awards ::..

well. the annual "meat-giving" ceremony has come. this year with quite a twist.

1. having a buzzer to warn the winners they dont have the time of the world to deliver their winner speech.

2. magic tricks or special effects before announcing the results

Just when I thought Mediacorp could not get any worse, they just "outperformed" and proved me wrong. I guess the producers should have watched the oscars before and know that having a real buzzer doing the countdown is not at all classy. at least have some band music or even the "theme song" play as the countdown timer rather than the irritating "teng teng teng" sound.

Whats up with the magic tricks? adding spice is one thing but overdoing is another. i rather they give more time for the winners to speak and make it a more sophisticated event. I do however like the introductory shots of the nominees and the 5 or 6 panels they had on stage.

Mediacrap just gave a new definition to "best" when they gave best supporting actress to xiang yun (whom i think is a deserving winner for her tearjerking role) and huang hui (the undiscovered "servant")... are they giving a retiree award to xiang yun and an appreciation award to huang hui? looks like it.

i am glad best actress went to joanne peh. firstly, ntu alumni. haha. secondly, her acting is really better than ou xuan. sorry to her fans but its true. even chen han wei(best actor) gave her (ou xuan) advice that she should act with her heart not just having the emotions showed on her face. poor chen li ping, but i guess giving her 2 nomination for a category sort of gave her due recognition.

another thing i was very interested in the show was what the actresses/actors were wearing.

ou xuan or jeanette aw really dressed like a nonya kueh. lol. layered one.

you can always count on zoe tay for her (or the stylist) fashion-forward sense. simple outfit from alexander wang, spring 2009... just that the dress doesnt look as long on her :X

yvonne lim's christian dior looked really good as she sprinted down the stage.



now for joanne's best actress dress from hermes and the dress from herve leger she wore for being in top 10. nice and sleek.



though i thought she would look better in vera wang's

..:: 645. The One With HP329 ::..

glad that the paper was easy. heng, read the articles my prof wrote. hopefully enough to get A.

omg. yest was watching adam's performance. If I Cant Have You. I thought mad world was great, this one is even better. disco week, he chose a disco song but made it such a touching and inspiring song. and i love how he gave credit to those who helped him, the band, the person who helped him with the song arrangement ... reminds me of giving citation when we quote. lol.

i think matt, lil and anoop will be in bottom three. lil and anoop probably going home. i was thinking since matt is saved, the supporters should be calling their hearts out since last week he was almost gone.

we'll see tonight =) plus david archuleta on the show! dunno what he will sing. too little not over you?

..:: 644. The One With Distractions ::..

perks of studying at home:

no need to spend $ on food
cut down on travelling
readily available food
power-nap to maximise "absorption"
tonic! tons of ginseng and multi-vitamin pills

cons of studying at home:

DISTRACTIONS

firstly, xbox was introduced to the house yesterday and proved to be a major distraction! my friends and i were so engaged with the guitar hero game, where one person is the drummer, the other guitarist and last one vocalist. had so much fun playing and rotating from 7pm. then went for dinner and back home playing again.

harper island yet another distraction.

but seriously the game is damn cool. esp the singing, with the microphone that can detect your change in pitch and tone so u have to sound like the original. we played the career mode and after each "gig" we will get to see who earn the most $ within the band.

then with fastpass, i ended up catching project runway 5, but the designs were kinda :(

then online movies again, 17 again and bride wars. initially wanted to just let the movie run but my eyes cant help looking at anne hathaway and kate hudson... "sabo-ing" each other for their weddings.

3 more days to my psy paper. worse, there is no textbook so you dunno what you dunno. just tons of readings to do. sometimes just feel like going to school and study with the rest.

back to study!

..:: 643. The One With Waiting for Exams ::..

urh. i want my tennis and swim...

watched revolutionary road, it was great to see the chemistry between leo and kate again. some scenes were intense but ending was quite drastic. plot was ok, but the meaning behind the movie and the acting made it worthwhile.

anyway, matt was saved by the judges at american idol. interesting. they just had to use it now cos they are left with 2 more episodes after that, they cant use. they kept anoop so i think next week the 2 going to be eliminated will be an interesting "race".

i would think anoop is sure to go next plus either lil or matt (whoever perform worse). i think allison would be slowly creeping to the top, just like how season 3 fantasia who has been appearing in bottom 3 won the season at the end. furthermore, next week is disco week. what kind of music? cant wait.

was watching antm on youtube and found this clip rather interesting. yet another allison but loving her look with her large eyes. interesting looks usually dont go that far without personality so i am guessing she will hang around till top 5 and be eliminated. enjoy her while she's still here.

note the bitchy moments:

6:53 (sandra is weird and crazy) and 8:12



had a great presentation with tafep but news that we might have to present to MOM. scary. but that is not till i am back. gotta study now.

yea my fren got driving license. now can go for suppers and late night movies!

..:: 642. The One With Ms Kay ::..

i shall dedicate this post to my fave tutor from my years in NBS. Firstly, she is not only inspiring but also like a mother to us. Constantly giving us feedback and I am glad that I kept all her feedback so I can share with you guys. Maybe I shall start with the more inspiring ones then the random emails she would drop us throughout the course. jiayi and yash would enjoy reading these. haha.

learning, avoiding, proving orientations

Here is another piece of OB wisdom that is practical and useful.

You all know that in any graded exercise, some people will get better grades than others. Research has found that over an extended period of time, those with the best results are people with a learning orientation.

People who approach work, life or studies with an Avoiding Orientation are so focused on avoiding failure that they are too stressed to perform well. Either that, or they fear failure so much that they refuse to try hard, so that at the end of the day, if they don't do well, they can say "It was a lack of effort" rather than "I couldn't make the grade". Big mistake because the world is full of talented failures.

People who approach work, life and studies with a proving orientation are like sprinters. Good over short distances. These people set out to prove to themselves and others that they can. They try really hard and do really well until they meet the first setback which proves that they can't (or that it's impossible... or that the system is unfair etc...) and then they stop trying. Big mistake because life is a marathon. It doesn't end till you die.

People with a learning orientation focus on the learning value of every experience. They have no need to prove anything. They have no fear of failure. These people say "Never mind if I don't get that 'A' from Ms Kay, the experience alone has taught me so much". It sounds lame but research shows that people with Learning Orientation experience more and more success as time goes by. Time is their friend.

When learning snowballs on learning which snowballs on learning... success eventually comes.

12 weeks is only a VERY SHORT relay sprint in the whole race of life. If, in the first pass, you stumble and don't get up... what can be done for you?

Student to Ms Kay

Ms Kay,

Good Evening. I hope to bring your attention towards the instruction that you sent us this morning.

In my opinion, it is a little too last minute, since it is sent during the weekend, with our presentation on Monday. This leaves us little time to respond as most of us have already done up both case studies and allocated presentation slides accordingly. Changing the focus to one case study would require us to reallocate and modify slides, which require a discussion where all team members to be present, which, in this case, be very difficult as those living in halls may have went home, and each of us has different commitments.

However, I hope u understand that I am not questioning your instruction. In fact, I was wondering if this last minute change of instruction is a test of the efficiency of our teams, or our responsiveness towards sudden changes, or perhaps providing a chance for us to work virtually. All of us will be glad to take up such challenges. I just hope you understand that giving us ample time to prepare in reaction to early instructions will give us opportunities to bring you higher case study quality and presentation standards.

Student X

Her wonderful reply:

Student X,

You have written your feedback very well. It is respectful and argues a point clearly. I am also pleased to see that you have internalized the values I promote: case study quality and presentation standards. Added to that, your email shows very obviously that you took this seriously enough to start on it early in order to do a good job. That is another value that I have been trying to teach. I notice that Infinity is slated to present only in Tutorial 8. This leads me to conclude that you actually put due diligence into the defence cases even though the grades for defence don't count. There is not only no fault at all, but excellent due diligence.

You do notice that I always give early notice of what will happen in the following week's tutorials. In some cases, notice is given 2 to 3 weeks in advance. I am just as disturbed as you at this last minute change. I was away and came to know of the change yesterday. However, as that was the consensus, I had no choice but to implement as all my other colleagues. Testing your team efficiency may be a convenient excuse and I thank you for suggesting it. However, it would be dishonest to hide behind it. If it is really a test of team efficiency, based on my Para 1 above, you already pass with flying colours.

If you should come prepared and wishing to do 2 cases, I am more than happy to have 2 presented. I will defend you to my colleagues after the fact. If you should decide to do a single case, I cannot object because every other tutor is doing so. I will facilitate a discussion and come to an agreement with the whole tutorial on what we should do in the coming weeks. I will then proceed to defend our tutorial's decision as best I can.

For the groups who have to present this week, I will have wisdom enough to account for this unforeseen event when grading. You need only concentrate on doing the best job you can as specified in 060907 Expectations.

Please do well.

All tutors must be able to defend the "A"s to colleagues too in the same way that all managers have to put up strong justification to defend a decision to promote someone. Help me justify.

Other students, please note Student X's email. Read it carefully. Learn from it. It is respectful, mature, well-written and stands on a strong foundation of a work ethic I wish to see from all of you. And it demonstrates something called "managerial courage".

Thank You.

Rest a little

I am very aware that students in my 3 tutorial groups have had to spend A LOT OF TIME preparing case presentations from Tutorials 2 to 5. This has helped prepare you for Tutorials 6-9. I needed you to do that in order to teach you the process of case application.

Critical thinking can only be taught in class... In Tutorials 6-9, I suggest that attack groups can RELAX somewhat each week. You may not want to prepare as a group.

I am all for working hard but I prefer you to work smart. You've had an intense start in AB105, so it's time to rev down a little in order to catch a second wind that will bring you the the finish line.

Instead, you may want to start spending between 10-12 hours a week working on your OB&D case report so that you produce a high quality one.

I also suggest that you CONTINUE to make personal notes of each textbook chapter (whether we discuss the case in tutorial or not) because there is no way to tell which chapter will come up in the open book exam.

Further, do note that I intend to teach the process of Critical Thinking in the upcoming weeks. You will only be able to benefit if you HAVE READ the cases prior. So, though I suggest less preparatory effort in T6-T9, please don't decide to take a complete holiday. (love the last part)

Another piece of friendly advice

Gee... you people are turning me into a nag!

From T2-T5, presentation and essay grades don't count. However, they served as teaching sessions. Those who didn't observe due diligence generally are stressed out in T6-T9 because presentation grades do count now.

In T6-T9, attack grades don't count, but again they serve as teaching and feedback sessions for me to teach critical thinking. Those who do not observe due diligence in attack preparations make a choice... but please make that choice with EYES WIDE OPEN

=)

..:: 641. The One With Yr 1 Sem 2 ::..

well, sem 2 was not as exciting cos besides business law and bs803 elective, the rest of the modules were quite a bore. financial management, accounting, IT and biz communications.

the only exciting event i remember in the sem was that i went to finland for 2 weeks during the e-learning and chinese new year weeks. had a conflict with one of the instructor for my biz comms. shall dig up some shit. i emailed her regarding scheduling my presentation as I will be flying back the day we are having lesson. Here's her reply:

John,
you are really messing up my schedule. As it is you owe me one presentation. I will allow you this request, but do realise that it inconveniences me, your classmates and the video editor and its downright rude to continually assume that you can change the schedule around at your convenience. You are certainly not building goodwill here.

Well i guess having a MC for my first presentation definitely worsen the situation. I thought she would flare in class but luckily she didnt. She also told me i caught her at her bad moment. It also taught me to be less direct in making this kind of request.

i loved my biz law tutor, ms joy khoo. she is a very patient lawyer who explained concepts clearly and challenged our reasoning for the cases. I believe it was one of the courses that i talked the most cos the way i approached the case was different from most of the people in class. when i did my tutorial, i tried not to go for the most obvious way to solve but read every line and interpret carefully.

the elective i took was also very fun. biology in popular media. i was the pioneer batch for the course and every lecture the prof would play snippets of a movie and use biology to explain whether the things they mentioned in the film are fact or fiction. the lecture was always full-house, can still see people standing at the back of the lecture theater just to watch the movie. Some of the movies i remember vividly were the fly; matrix reloaded; jurassic park; CSI; jewel of the palace (the korean show - da chang jin).

i found something interesting. comments by my fave tutor of all time... organizational behavior!!! My group, doraemon was "owning" in the class haha.

"The best group in my tutorials surpassed my expectations of 1st year OB students. Their transcriptions and notes were very detailed. They actually researched on the qualitative research methodology called “Grounded Theory”, and tried to apply some of its tenets e.g., iterative coding (where coding is done by several people and the same text is coded repeatedly with new emerging themes in later transcripts being used to refine or change the thematic coding of earlier transcripts). It is a long and tedious process but the quality of their coding gave me the confidence that the issues they identified were real ones. What they did was so unexpected that I seriously suspected that they didn’t actually do it. Hence I probed sharp and deep, but found no fault in their responses to me. They did do as they said.

In reading their entire report, one gets a sense that their assertions are well-grounded in real data. Having identified the issues, they analyzed them with OB concepts from the textbook as well as OB concepts from outside the textbook. However, I was most pleased by their recommendations. Their recommendations were practical and workable, and they found research findings and theory from the literature to support their practical solutions – an artful marriage of theory, research and practice.

Unfortunately, they went way past the word count and I gave them a 1-letter downgrade. It really is a pity but one must be fair to other groups. They dropped from A+ to A-. (my own comment: oops... but no prize for guessing which grp)



Some groups focused a great deal on research, neglecting to apply the theory to the case in practical ways. Other groups analyzed their cases almost as if they had not learnt OB, nor been taught to do self-directed learning – their recommendations were practical but not research supported. Some groups wrote better English than others, used fewer words to say things, and thus could say more in 4000 words.

None of you had major problems with applying concepts and theories from the textbook. This should stand you in good stead for the exams because you really aren’t expected to cite very much from theory elsewhere than the textbook.

To assess Theoretical Basis, I was looking for evidence of research supporting both your analysis and findings. You would have needed to do more self-directed learning. Language is very little weighted. I look only for understandability. If it is excellent however, you get bonus extras. Rigour of Data Analysis is weighted less than Theoretical Basis and Practicality.

The above feedback points are the most salient differentiating factors in the quality of the reports. I use other sub-dimensions for assessment that don’t demonstrate great differentiation."

mmm... sometimes it feels good to read and think back how far we have come since year 1. so happy we had a great start in year 1 and built such strong foundation, thanks to our class and the inspiring tutor.

..:: 640. The One With Face-Off ::..

was researching more about Project GLOBE - Global leadership and organizational behavior effectiveness... there was this face-off between Hofstede, one of the originator of culture dimensions and a group of researchers who started the Globe study.

Firstly, the study had used dimensions that were not entirely from Hofstede's cultural dimensions and hence i think started with him "reviewing" this study through his article on "What did GLOBE really measure? Researchers’ minds versus respondents’ minds"

Inside, there were really strong words he used. He started by contrasting his research and the GLOBE study:

(1) Team versus single researcher. The analysis of the GLOBE data was a team effort, although closely coordinated by its designer Robert House. My analysis was a one-person effort (with excellent help: see the Prefaces), and in my 1980, 1991
and 2001 books I was the single author.

mmm... needed to state his position?

(2) Managers versus employees. The respondents in GLOBE were managers. The respondents in Hofstede (1980) were matched groups of employees in seven occupational categories, two managerial and five non-managerial. Measuring
leadership from survey answers by leaders is, in my eyes, a debatable approach. If you want to find out about the quality of a product, do you ask the producer or the consumers?

wow. ouch eh.

(3) US inspired versus decentered. The term ‘decentering’ refers to conscious attempts at avoiding ethnocentric bias. Robert House was conscious of the danger of ethnocentrism: in his Preface to the 2004 book he states: ‘Hopefully, GLOBE will
be able to liberate organizational behavior from the US hegemony.’ GLOBE’s network and respondent population were very international, but its project design and analysis still reflected US hegemony. The book’s 25 editors and authors overwhelmingly hold management or psychology degrees from US universities.

He also added the Long term-short term orientation which was formulated in Chinese to show that his was not entirely US-inspired. of course his comment was shot by the article written by the authors in response to his critique.

(4) GLOBE’s operationalizations of values and practices. My main concern about the GLOBE research is that the questionnaire items used may not have captured what the researchers supposed them to measure. He also mentioned that most questions were "as-in" questions. Asking ‘as is’ questions basically assumed that these people
were in a position to compare their society with other societies. This assumption, I believe, is naive – it takes international experience plus an unusually open mind to produce anything like a credible comparison between one’s own society and others.

wow. naive.

(5) Our minds have a limited capacity for processing information, and therefore dimensional models that are too complex will not be experienced as useful. In a now classic article, Miller (1956) argued that useful classifications should not
have more than seven categories, plus or minus two. He may still have overestimated the optimal number.

With nine dimensions of culture times two, the GLOBE researchers’ psycho-logic has surpassed the limits of our capacity for processing information. A form of data reduction is needed.

Now for the rejoinder... in their abstract, it was so blatantly written:

We show why there is no theoretical or empirical basis for Hofstede’s criticism that GLOBE measures of values are too abstract or for his contention that national and organizational cultures are phenomena of different order.

We also show why Hofstede has a limited understanding of the relationship between national wealth and culture.

Furthermore, we explain why Hofstede’s reanalysis of the GLOBE data is inappropriate and produces incomprehensible results.

Finally, we explain why Hofstede’s claim that GLOBE instruments reflect researchers psycho-logic reveals ignorance of psychometric methodologies designed to ensure scale reliability and construct validity.

gosh. if i were Hofstede, I would flip!

But reading such intellectual cross-fire is definitely better than reading some emails or fighting over blogs like xxue (didnt want my blog to appear in goggle search for her blog)

oh and guess what? Cultural intelligence (CQ) like your IQ and EQ was developed by Earley and Ang Soon. Ang Soon is now head of Strategy, Management and Organization Department of NBS. Earley? He was Dean of NUS Business School and Cycle & Carriage Chair for 2 years, now he is back to UConn to be their dean for school of business. mmm... He was in NBS before though. I guess like the Chinese saying goes, one mountain cannot hide 2 tigers. Ang Soon VS Earley. lol. My CQ prof, ng kok yee, co-written journals with him before. wow.

anyway was looking at nus business school website... they had the salary data across universities. are they trying to say that 3 years direct hons earn lesser than their 4 years hons? -_- we'll see. lol

..:: 639. The One With Results ::..

Ha. i was spot on!

Just that Lil was sent to safety.

Just heard adam's studio version of mad world. wow. haunting.

..:: 638. The One With Top 8 ::..

first off, adam was as usual A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. i always knew when he was the last few to perform, somehow the last few performers always performed superbly.



flashback: Votes (judges plus me)

black or white: 11/13 (5/5)
ring of fire: 5/11 (3.5/5)
tracks of my tears: 8/10 (5/5)
play that funky music: 8/9 (5/5)
mad world: 8/8 (5/5)

this week, all the judges gave standing ovation for adam. as far as i know, simon cowell never stood up for a contestant ever in the show for 8 seasons. i just cant wait for him to say what he told carrie underwood when she was in the top 4 show (i think) that "you have done enough to win this competition"

every week adam produced something special and i believe everyone looks forward to his performance, see what stunts he can pull up.

this week the contestants sang songs from the year they were born. was it challenge? no. most of them were born in the 80s which danny gokey was the oldest (1980) and the rest ranged around 82-86, only allison iraheta was 1992.

most memorable ones for me were Matt Giraud and Adam Lambert. However, i heard that those in the US using the DVDR were not able to capture adam's performance fully as the show overran. I dont think he will suffer in terms of votes though since i predict he has a strong fan base.

Now the fun part. guess who's the bottom three or the one most likely to be eliminated.

Group stages winner and wildcard: number of times in bottom 3

Group 1:
danny gokey
alexie grace (out)
michael sarver (out)

Group 2: strongest
adam lambert
allison iraheta (2)
kris allen

Group 3:
lil rounds
scott macintyre (1)
jorge nunez (out)

Wildcard:
matt giraud (1)
anoop desai (1)
megan joy (out)
jasmine murray (out)

Most likely to be in bottom 3:
anoop (ok but not great, may be sent back to safety)
lil (have yet to prove her ability, kept choosing wrong songs)
scott (bad performance)

i got a feeling its time for scott to go.

if lil gets the boot, i am not sure if the judges will use the "save" option as they might wanna keep it for allison instead cos she showed more potential but also one who keeps hovering in the bottom 3. i think allison should be safe this week, based on records, she is safe from bottom 3 when she delivers outstanding performance like in top 10. hopefully when randy jackson compared her to kelly clarkson, her votes can go up. she is as risky as anoop.

i dont think matt should get bottom 3 cos last week he didnt do as well for a song by the frays but he was safe. i think he is building his fan base slowly.

the top 3 in the end i think would be adam, danny and kris. but kris may end up bottom 3 to shock the audience cos he did quite badly this week, however he will definitely not be eliminated.

stay tuned for the results...

..:: 637. The One With Happy Moments ::..

ok shall blog about happy moments. i guess there is still a collectivist part of me where guilt is killing me! arghz.

decided to write this jiayi-inspired entry summing up my 3 years in NBS.

actually my uni life started with joining the sports club which was the right choice for an explosive start to school. everyone was so "on" and crazy. our group was not the strongest physically but we have smart people in our team so we won quite a lot of challenges. one of the more memorable ones was coming in 4th out of 16 teams in the 2-day amazing race. i could still remember some of the stations that we had:

1. kbox at cck lot one where the clue was an indian word that translated to cck.
2. tiong bahru market to finish one basin of rice! we apparently lost to a group of big eaters
3. kallang to do dragonboat and the clue was sign language. difficult!
4. bedok interchange food center... had to link words to buy different types of food
5. pit stop: pasir ris park and we slept over in tents.

the next morning:
1. east coast park to try the 360ski
2. west coast recreation centre to play bowling and forfeit to drink some weird stuff based on the no. of pins missed
3. qian hu fishing farm. drew lots to see how many different colour small fishes we had to catch. it was so difficult. needed a lot of patience.

the next most fun activity was the night trail at the old changi general hospital. i must applaud the acting skills of the seniors and the prop set up. all the calefare acted as wondering ghosts really gave us the chills and screams. still remembered one of the guys freaked out and ran out of the room. that was how scary.

the camp was also a platform for me to join the organising committee of surf and sweat which was a major national event that ntu sports club organises. learnt a lot from there and i had the honour of doing the explanation of the whole rundown of the event to all the participants despite having to do it for like at least 50 times.

Year 1 Sem 1

AB105 - Organizational Behavior & Design

it was quite amazing how the group was formed. random. started off with me and my marketing grp mate jiayi, then came a few other girls and then crappy guoxiang. there was some adjustment initially cos one group had to dissolve. then came all the weird "name calling" by funny emails. i still remember how our project discussion would go off track and guoxiang will always bring us back. in our conversation, there will surely be ob concepts and terms used.

a very "spoil market" module cos every group was trying to "up" their standard every presentation. it was this module that polished our research skills. we already started to research extensively using the database and learning how to cite professionally. All these were not taught by a prof but a phd student. i mean she is amazing minus the fact that she had a weird habit of turling the ends of her hair. there was a lot of critical thinking and even our Q&A, we had to "argue" using what we have researched from journals to support as in her own words she dont want any "coffeeshop talk".

i still remember she was very proud of our class cos we were very driven and produced really good work which she sadly told us it was unfair to "bell-curve" us cos the three groups were generally better than some of the other classes. i was glad that we all met her expectations and still kept in contact with her.

AB112 - Marketing

Same classmates so you can expect the "spoil market" effect to spill over. the tutor was kinda weird as she wanted quality research and that translated to producing 100+ slides. The first group that got A+ presented banyan trees... but i enjoyed all of the presentations. trying to sell our products and services and also on case studies.

AB103 - Statistical and Quantitative methods

tough course cos i not very good in stats. not much group work and there were not interesting either. lucky got math genius in the group, so the group assignments were not that painful.

AB106 - Principles of Economics

Didnt take it in JC and it was quite a challenge to cramp 2 years plus worth of JC stuff into 3 months. plus the prof was intimidating... after you are asked to present your solutions, she will ask questions to test your knowledge and understanding of the concept. must do tutorial faithfully, cannot copy from others.

quite a long entry... shall break up different semesters into different entries for easier reading.

..:: 636. The One With Misunderstanding ::..

I received an email...

"Wah Liew ey... John, i salute you. You very the pangseh KING leh. I think it's the 3rd time ?? Seriously. I only know that you are not coming, until I meet the rest lor (seems like only xx and xx knows abt it)!!! Some of us actually rush dwn from school just to meet Mdm Ho. You are always just too late minute guy. Seriously.

It's good that you are enthusiastic at project work because you want to score well for the module... but your enthusiasm is a bit temperamental. As your projmate, it's quite hard to tell when you are in or out. I understand previously you have HR Forum and FYP to deal with. But like the rest of us, we have our own stuff too. Seriously, I kinda felt disappointed. It’s not nice to make last minute "surprises" when it comes to working as a team. I hope you can understand that.

Anw, update you. We ALMOST din get to meet Mdm Ho because there's some miscommunication btwn both of you. She though that the meeting is cancelled since you have oreadi sent her the softcopy. Eventually, she came down just for "yi shi yi shi" because all of us were oreadi at AMK Hub. Probably what you shld consider in the future is to Cc all of us the emails btwn you and Mdm Ho. We almost bust into tears when we heard tt she's unaware of the meeting just now. "

-------------------------------------------------------------
my first reaction was "woo. that is quite a direct feedback"

the enthusiasm temperamental was a bit hard to swallow though...

miscommunication. didnt mean to drop the last min bomb. had to get urgent endorsement and approval that had to take priority over the meeting. didnt want to change the meeting just because of me and everyone wanted it to be over and done with. i got the notice late and i msged 2 of the key members whom i left their contacts with "mdm ho". bad judgment i can say but i guess i was expected to msg 5 other members?

the no turn-up of mdm ho was a stunner for me. cos i emailed her:

------------------------------------------------
From: #CHEN XING TIAN JOHN#
To: Mdm Ho
Sent: Monday, April 06, 2009 1:00 PM
Subject: Report

Hi Mdm Ho,

I have attached our report. Sorry that I am unable to make it tml as I already had an appointment. However, my team mates will be there.

9xxxxxxx - xx
9xxxxxxx - xx

Thanks for agreeing to meet us.

Have a nice day.

Regards,
John

-----------------------------------------

i even sent her a sms to remind her. mmm... guess when you are the one coordinating and not there, it can be a prob. and yea. should have cc-ed them. my bad.

as for the 3rd time thing... i didnt realise it was the 3rd time? cos i remember i attended all the meetings. anyway have sent an email to check what were the other 2 times. mmm...

well, another learning point for me. wake up, john!

..:: 635. The One With New Post ::..

recently, i saw an article on leadership written by one of the prof teaching me and also a representative from saf. then it struck me that i could actually request to post to the centre for leadership development (CLD for short) in saf. firstly, i get to work on the multi-year leadership project that saf has and at the same time, work with the professors i know =) Secondly, leadership is quite a niche area to focus on and i think the stuff i get exposed to will be useful for my future and also for red cross.

but my career manager had something else for me..

"we are clearing you to assume the appointment of SO (staff officer) wospec development..."

ok, wth is wospec? it refers to the warrant officers and specialists.

challenging was the first word that came up in my mind. though there have been efforts done to increase the attractiveness of the wospec, like the recent introduction of the new specialist cadet rank to raise the profile and status of a specialist, the process is not easy...

having done a survey with the wospec to get some ground sensing, there are a few changes they would like to see so being the "voice" for them, i have to juggle their expectations and the organization needs which i hope i will be able to achieve the balance.

anyway i am excited to be back in mindef, can see all my ex-bosses but that means i have to pay for my meals :(

cant wait to start work. sounds exciting.

sidepoint. tiger airways should get their customer helpline together. i tried calling once and was put on hold so for long. subsequently i tried to call back at different times, there was no dial tone. did the staff do something to the line?

..:: 634. The One With David Archuleta ::..

American Idol 7 Runner-up David Archuleta coming to Singapore! gosh. now i sound like a crazy teenager. he will be at iluma, opposite bugis junction at 7 Apr, 7pm!

anyone wanna go? lol.

been spinning lady gaga's songs. lovin' it. a mix of gwen, madonna. very club-able songs... which yash 100% wont like. haha. shall hum those songs when i see her.

just dance.
poker face.

..:: 633. The One With Spree ::..

no. i am not in a shopping spree... on the contrary, i am actually on a download spree. not music or movies but

journal articles!

so expensive to sign up for a database so i thought why not download all the relevant articles before i graduate lol. especially those classic founders of theories...

been searching for relevant topics that could be useful in my career and self-development... topics like:

leadership
teamwork
self-efficacy
culture and self-construals
job performance and job satisfaction
organization citizenship behavior (tough to do in military lol)
counterproductive work behavior (easy to find in military)
selection & assessment
stress and coping

and a few more... cant believe i actually made folders for them. haha.

and i cant believe this is making me high! woohoo~

..:: 632. The One With Final Presentations in NTU ::..

i'm officially done with my last presentation in NTU. how come i dont seem to be excited? i dont know why. i think there is still part of me that loves presentations.

but through today, i can really see how i have benefited from the training NBS has given me. today's finale presentations for hr metrics and cultural intelligence i must say were the most unprepared ones i ever made. but i was glad i could pull it through =) energy people!

at 3am i was still struggling to churn out content slides to send to yash. there's so much info out there with the helpful tool of scopus and google scholar. i found myself reading more and more. got intrigued by interesting studies.

when i was reading the same line twice, i knew my mind cant take in anymore curiosity. still must perform for my metrics presentation which i have not prepared at all. took a 2 hr nap and woke up at 6am. luckily one of my team mates drove so i had a free ride to school and found an alternative route to avoid the traffic jam by using the old lim chu kang road.

got 15 mins to prepare for my part and off we go. saw one team inside the seminar room being "grilled" by the profs. Their Q&A was kinda long...

was glad that our presentation went really well. the profs just raised some clarification and requested us to add in some linkages (considering they gave us only 3000 words limit???)

i was pretty tired then had to rush an abstract and touch up my part before i sprinted to another seminar room for my next presentation. cultural intelligence (CQ) was even more unprepared. cos i havent seen the final slides and not even sure what i was going to present.

but mighty groupmates, everything fell in place. i was shocked that though we went given 40 mins, when our 3nd speaker spoke, the prof told us we only have 10 mins left. so the 4 of us shared the remaining time and rattled fast enough to be comprehended.

faints. kinda sad when u researched so much then u cant get to share as much? :( but i guess the prof loved our presentation cos i must say ours had a super comprehensive coverage for expat development and going beyond the case. hope we get a really good grade...

flashback my pictures for the last presentations for my modules this last semester...

24 Mar, Tue. BH227 - Selection & Assessment with Prof Templar. er huh er huh... with year twos and siok wei & wen yee the old birds



31 Mar, Tue. BH225 - HR Research with Prof Violet Ho with the year twos



3 Apr, Fri. BH326 - HR Metrics with Prof Cheryl Tay and Prof Fang Yong Qing. 2 extreme profs in terms of style, content and behavior lol



3 Apr, Fri. BH331 - Cultural Intelligence at Work with Prof Ng Kok Yee and Thomas

..:: 631. The One With 2 Down 2 More To Go ::..

finally 227 and 225 are done. though both presentations seemed like going into warpath. lots of questions shooting without the prof even asking questions. dunno if the yr 2s found me very aggressive, somehow i have questions (and quite a lot) on their presentations. but i tried my best to ask in a non-intrusive way, also tried the complimenting first then shoot technique.

for 225, every group controlled for all variables except our group. every other group was shooting at us why dun we control, no harm etc. tried to explain but i think the prof had a final say and all of us took her words. having to control all variable will decrease the statistical power needed to test for significant relationships. so i gleefully crossed my finger, hope our report get A or A+ (even better). we thought we were the only group with the descriptive stats and inter-correlation table but damn there is another group who had it.

been quite a struggle editing the report i must say. contents were contributed but somehow lacked the persuasiveness... at first it didnt look like we answered the discussion portion well cos the lit review found didnt really address the question. :( double work, haiz.

anyway its over! now left with 2 more on friday. see everyone slogging for hr metrics. i hope i perform well for both presentations. cant let the groups down...

oh yeah! my friend's friend managed to find my thumbdrive! so happy... someone should invent a beeping system to remind user to take their thumbdrive!