A musical Friday night

My friend has joinned a singing group about a year ago, it has been a while since the last time I hear her sings, I can only remember her singing in the choir group during our days in the secondary school.

She asked me to attend this performance since a few months ago, and I have nearly forgotten about it, and it was too late for me to book the tickets by the time she called to remind. So she told me to go for her full dress rehearsal last night.

It was a very pleasant night, it was a great way to start a weekend, I was thrilled by the power of the humans' voice

On other note, I walked out of the office yesterday afternoon, due to various incidents in the office, which brought me to my limits. The MD told me to have an early start of the weekend, and we shall discuss it on Monday.

I am glad that I went to the performance last night, it has given me a good charge of energy.

Dancing Queen

This is part of the issue I mentioned in my earlier post, it is actually pump vibration. The biggest problem was the uneven ground, and misalignment... so the pump and motor are now dancing happily days and nights...

Anyway, it took me more than a week to draw out these lousy drawings... hope you will like it...

P/S: The issue is still pending, the management apparently does not care if the pump on the site is going to blow or not. They are more interested in finding out who to be blamed, and push that person to settle this issue, and of course bear the cost of it.

I guess this is part of the engineering which we do not get to learn in the lecture hall.

Papaya

One of the issue which I handled, has started to turn sour. It was not entirely my fault, but the customer has written the email specifically to me, as I was introduced by Mr. Cockroach to them as the focal point of this project, and has instructed the project engineer, who has been dealing with this project since ages ago, to focus on some other projects.

I did not know the head and tail of this issue, the project engineer and Mr. Cockroach both failed to provide any supporting documents for the previous communication on this issue.

I called up the supplier Monday, and ended up being bashed badly, and they wanted to talk to the project engineer instead. So I contacted the project engineer, and asked him to proceed in assisting me to deal with the supplier, while I handle the customer.

However, I got replies from the project engineer Tuesday to wait for the quotation from the supplier.

When the whole thing turned sour yesterday, due to waiting for too long, I had to handle all the shits, and everyone disappeared. Despite me asking for several assistance from the project engineer on small tasks, I do not get it delivered to me even until the end of the working day.

I then called up Mr. Encyclopedia for help, called up the supplier's HQ to beg for assistance, sort out the whole thing for the on-site machine testing on the coming Monday.

The respect that I have got from the supplier's Singapore office made me feel like a human again. I have been bashed enough by those male-egoistic-pigs in Malaysia enough. Sigh, I should probably not put them in comparison to the pigs, it makes the pigs look bad.

Anyway, I was very disappointed to the fact that Mr. Cockroach has pulled himself away from this project since the beginning, by saying he doesn't know anything -- the job scope, the contract, etc. Don't forget he is the contract manager in the company before being promoted as a senior operation manager.

Also, I was utterly disappointed by this project engineer. Though I have to give him the benefit of doubt, that he did try to help. But nonetheless, I felt that he has not tried hard enough to assist.

I can put up to nasty customers and suppliers, but I find it very sad when being put out to the frontline, and all the backups turned their backs to walk away.

This issue has given an insight of what is going on in the office, in terms of the manager's level of the office politics. The pit hole is deeper than I thought, I just hope that I can be like the papaya tree outside my house -- shit can only make it grow taller and produce much tastier papayas.

Email language

It is the world of information technologies, people send sms more than dialing the numbers. However, I always find it very irritating when someone writes the email as if they are writing the sms.

To me, email is an easy communication that replaces the business letters / fax / memos / announcements etc. Therefore, it is not tolerable for me to receive things like these:

1. Pls be inform that.... / Plz b inform tt (short forms, grammar is wrong)
2. Can u do me a favor? (short forms)
3. V r currently veli bz wif the work. (short forms, spelling mistakes)
4. Can u imaging the consiquence? (short form, spelling and grammar mistakes)
5. The goods hv been send out 2u oredi. (mixture of short forms and grammar mistakes)

There are more than these, I can't pick all of them. I find that unforgivable for someone who type these out conciously. Email is not a chat box or sms, especially business related emails. It should be treated with basic level of profession. I bet they don't write like this when they apply for jobs, else the HR is definitely an idiot.

Another thing that made me shout are those people who cannot form a proper sentence, or saying two things in one sentence.

e.g.:
1. He followed me halfway there and also i took the pic of tat shitty guy. <-- who is who?

2. The conversation below is cropped from a chain of emails...

A: "I want your original DO, we have not receive it."
B: "We can't give you the original DO, it must be kept for our own record. Can I give you the certified true copy?"
A: "No no, we have the DO, original one. You send me the original DO." <--is this a plain comment, or a demand?
B:"Huh? What do you want now? Do you mean we don't need to supply the DO anymore?"
A:"Yes, I still need your DO."

3. We cannot provide this item. <-- erm... hello? Do you mean you don't have it? Or you don't want to provide? Or It is impossible to provide? WTH?!

4. Again, cropped from a chain of emails:
A: Your dwgs are not according to our standards and specifications.
B: May we know your standards and specifications, in order to change our drawings accordingly?
A: Your dwgs are not the same as our previous orders.
B: The previous orders are different models, therefore the drawings are different.
A: You should follow those previous dwgs. Some of the things that showed in previous dwgs are not in this one.
B: May we ask which items have we missed?
A: e.g. you dont' have the material list, pressure ratings not given etc.
B: The material list is on the right side of the drawing, the pressure rating is already indicated by the international codes in the drawing.
A: I still don't accept your drawings.
B: I will escalate your concern to our higher management.

Well, to say two things in a sentence, it is quite common at times. But when it comes to business communications, I just hope that these people can be a little bit more specific with their requests, and know what they want to say...

Else I can only go home so worn out, and can't type my blog properly... (this is why my blog is always so disjointed, mistakes all over.... :p)

Violin Lesson 10

Sigh, I have miscalculated my violin lessons... it was actually lesson 10 last Sunday. I thought it was only lesson 9.


There was an exam on last Sunday, basic theories of musics. Most of us managed to get full marks, except some with careless mistakes, or being tricked by the questions.

There will be a practical exam coming, we need to perform one of the two songs picked by the teacher.

It only left 5 lessons to go, and I won't be able to attend the final lesson... so that means I only have about a month to go, before stopping the violin lesson.

I wonder where can I continue my violin lesson after this?

Bird Cage

公司像个超级大鸟笼。。。天天上班都有一大堆鸟人，在说鸟语。

鸟人们常常四处大便，所以走在鸟笼里不止要小心踏到地上的便便，更要防范空中掉下来的“新鲜滚热辣”鸟便便。。。

下班的时候，往往都是整身的禽兽气味。。。

Above is my feelings towards my office at the moment, I can't describe it better in English...

Violin Lesson 8

I didn't realise it was already lesson 8. Time passed so fast.

I didn't practise over the last week, because I went for site visits, both local and Singapore. On top of that, I have been so busy clearing up my dirty clothes from Singapore, I didn't even cut my finger nails. So anyway, this week's lesson I couldn't really catch up.

There will be an exam on violin next week... I wonder if I can do well. I can't even read those notes properly until today.

Back from Singapore

I went to Singapore on a rather short notice.

I went to attend a client meeting, in a place that I have never been before on Monday. When I got back to the office in the afternoon, the structure engineer has already arranged his visit to Singapore without letting me know.

We planned for this visit a while ago, while I was still in the engineering department. But due to the schedule in both our office and the construction site, it got held up. And when the structure engineer took up with the planning, it was already into May.

Anyway, I booked my own coach, arriving and departing on the same day as the structure engineer, but we travel from different station, and at different time. Which is a good thing, as I really needed a breakaway, alone.

There have been a lot of things happened in the office, which made me sick. I broke down on Tuesday, and it was good that I got to travel on Wednesday to Singapore, to have some change of environment a bit.

I met with my highschool class monitor on Friday for lunch, while in Singapore. She is a civil engineer, she has grown to be more charming and confident. I felt happy to meet with old mates.
We shared some of our little worries, she said I think a lot, and told me to be myself. Its the same thing my boss (NOT cockroach) told me during last year's performance evaluation.

One of the thing that strikes me while in Singapore is -- their female engineers can afford to be feminine. I so envy of them being treated with respects... well, more than what I got here.

It was great experience at the construction site, especially when I am there to observe and learn. There isn't any responsibilities for a few days.

Mr. Cockroach asked me to check my emails there, during early morning and late evening -- I didn't want to bring my laptop to Singapore, but with his request, I have no choice. But well, there wasn't an internet point in the hotel, and when I got the wireless network, I couldn't login to the company's server. I bet when Monday comes, there will be a lot of shit in my mailbox.

The project engineer which was outstationed, came back on Thursday, I will get to see him on this coming Monday. It would be good, cause I really needed someone to rely on at the moment.

Every morning while in Singapore, I dressed up with my safety boots and hanging the safety helment behind the bag, travelled on the MRT with the structure engineer and our very-experienced-supervisor, I called him Mr. Encyclopedia. We waited, together with other contractors, at the entrance of the high-rise-high-class finance building for the chief person in charge. He would bring us to the operator's office to get the access pass, before we could enter the site.

While sitting at the entrance of those offices, I felt totally out of place. There were lots of ex-pats dressing up smart and proper, carrying their briefcase on one hand, and express coffee cup/newspaper/typing their blackberrys/holding their mobile phones on the other. There were also a lot of pretty local girls, walking with stilettos, dressing up pretty, carrying their handbag over the shoulder/hand, breakfast, laptops, newspapers etc on the other, and yet managed to walk so fast, so elegantly towards the lifts, and smile, and say morning to their angmoh bosses. I also saw a lot of big cars driving through the drop off area, and the parking entrances.

I wonder how would they look at us, who dressed up dirty and smelly, smoking and chattering at their office entrace? Did they realise that their comfort in the office is depending on our services? I wonder if I will be able to walk like those ladies? But I prefer to climb up and down the cage ladders and walking on the scaffoldings. I prefer the smell of metals over the perfumes. I prefer to have the metal/wood chips penetrating into my fingers over the paper cuts. I appreciate the design of pumps and motors, than the photocopying machine and the paper stredder. I feel safe in the construction site, than in the office. I prefer to feel small in construction site, than dealing with people who think they are bigger than the sky staying in the office.

I saw the babies that I designed with my engineering boss, no defects, no damage, travelled across the seas and sitted on the open area waiting to be craned up. They are the smallest of its kinds, but already taller than men.

When I left Singapore on Friday late afternoon, I felt sad. I didn't want to come back.

Indisposable

There was one more person added into the retrenchment list yesterday. She is our procurement lady, who just came in for less than half a year.

She will leave when Ms. Azreal comes back from maternity leave. This procurement lady is also pregnant, and will due when Ms. Azreal comes back. I wonder if the company actually compensate her maternity in this case.

The past two days have been extremely quiet in the office, my mailbox too has been pretty empty. One of the reason is because of the retrenchment atmosphere, the other one is because the Singapore regional office and the distributor there were busy preparing for this VP's arrival (he went down to Singapore with our MD, after visiting our office).

Though most of the issues I solved since transferred to project department, has been contributed by our Singapore distributor. I have not realised that it was 95% from them... lousy distributor! But then again, they managed to buy our VP and MD's hearts so well, that they gainned an indisposable position in their hearts. I wonder how they do it.

Ok, back to the topic. This retrenchment has made me think, those who remain in this company, in a way, survived. I wonder how can one become indisposable, in order to survive all the way? Is there such possibility?

I see some people in the office are well exposed, specialised and very experienced -- this kind of people will not be retrenched easily.
Some people are good in playing politics, and didn't do much work but takes all the credits -- this kind of people too, usually gets the heart of the high management, and not easily being disposed.
Some people are saviour to those dung beatles (always bring more shytes), this kind of people will not be disposed.
Some people are holding the crucial positions, they will not be disposed either...

I am inexperienced, not well exposed, do not know how to play politics, sits in low position, and often dig out people's crap that have been covered for too long.

I need to think of a way to improve myself, in order to become one of those indisposable person in any company.