Last night, KU and I had round two of our mentoring session with Uncle WM and Aunty Kat, and I gotta say that I do look forward to these sessions cos they comprise great advice from our mentors and good food! :P Yesterday's topic was on money, a topic which I've always had a problem grasping. :x I love love LOVE shopping and my family and friends can attest to that. Sometimes I love shopping so much that I think I need to seek medical help about my condition - it's that serious!
But I digress. We talked about our perspectives towards money and did a quiz about how we view money and thank God we were on the same page about it. :) The quiz asked questions like "You look up to people who are financially successful", "You really enjoy spending money on yourself and others" etc, and we had to give each statement a score of 1 to 5, with 1 being strongly disagree, 2 being disagree, 3 being unsure, 4 being agree and 5 being strongly agree. Then Aunty Kat asked us why we scored some questions in a certain way and we really went into details of our thoughts.
After going through the quiz, we went through our monthly budget before marriage and after marriage. I totally suck at planning my own finances and yesterday proved it. :x I don't know how, but our combined budget for after marriage gave us a $300 deficit in our accounts. :( So we either gotta redo the numbers or find the $300 from somewhere else. The budgetting also made me realise that I really had it good as a single living with my parents (and still having it til end of the month) - no worries about paying for utilities, housing, conservancy fees, no worries about doing housework - and it also made me realise that I need to start appreciating them more!
Further to this, Uncle WM and Aunty Kat advised that we need to discuss and decide how the financial responsibilities are going to be like even before entering into marriage cos then we ensure that we are on the same page and it will lessen the probability of us quarreling about money. But above this, this sentence struck a chord deep in me: "Never give up dating." After the wedding, many things can and will come in to crowd our lives as husband and wife, and to remain strong in our relationship, we need to always communicate, understand each other's views, be on the same page as far as possible, and keep the romance alive by dating each other. I guess so far we are very appreciative of one another and we try not to take each other for granted, no matter how small the gestures or things we do for each other. Even though I'm rather stressed out about our wedding, I'm still in a state of bliss cos I know deep down that I'm marrying the perfect guy for me and I can't thank God enough for blessing me with KU. :) And I pray that I will feel the same way about him and hopefully feels this way about me 5, 10, 20 years down the road. :) So, T-18. I'm crossing out the dates on the calendar every day. :D
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Today, our HR organised a culture awareness talk on Arabs and Oman for us to get to know our Omani customers better! Our company had recently won a massive (by our terms) contract from Oman and we'll need to interact with them quite regularly for the next couple of years, hence the need to know about their culture.
The talk was boring at the start, but towards the end of the session, our mudaris (that's 'teacher' in Arab) taught us simple Arabic words which we can use to communicate with our customers. By the end of the entire talk, my head was swimming with so much knowledge, but I couldn't remember anything except that 'thank you' is shukran in Arabic. :x
This is strange, but when I was in the shower just now after my gym session, I was remembering some random Arabic words which we learnt this afternoon. So, feeling rather impressed with myself (HAHA), I'm going to show off some stuff here. :D And I'm not cheating, cos I left my list of Arabic words in the office, so yes, I'm impressive after all. *pats self on back* :P
Thank you -> shukran (pronounced shu-ker-ren)
Five -> khamsa
Fifty -> khamsiin
Three -> thalaatha (pronounced sa-la-sa)
Excuse me/pardon/sorry/don't mention it -> xafwan (pronounced ah-fwan)
Hello -> ah-sa-lam-ah-lee-kom
How are you -> kah-ee-fa anta (for guys); antee (for girls)
I don't understand -> anaa la afhan
Goodbye -> maa selamaa
June -> yunya (pronounced you-new)
July -> yulya (pronounced you-lew)
Teacher -> mudaris
And that's all I can remember. Going to learn more tomorrow. Who knew learning a new language could be so fun! :D
Showing posts with label work. Show all posts
Showing posts with label work. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Friday, April 13, 2012
Saying Goodbye
We had an early morning gift-giving 'ceremony' today at work. It wasn't really a 'ceremony' cos it was much more casual than that, but pictures of the gift recipients were still taken. My company president presented some gifts to the inspection committee of the organisation who had bought a vessel from us.
This project was a long one - lasting approximately 4 years. The final product was officially delivered and accepted by the customer in a hugely well-received formal ceremony last week. Every vessel that our company builds, there are 3 milestones which we have to mark by holding large ceremonies - keel laying, launching, and delivery.
I joined my current company in late 2010, and was fortunate to be able to take part in the launching ceremony last year. Before that, my first encounter with the customer was during our company's annual Lo Hei luncheon. My boss, colleague, and I were seated with many of the inspection committee members during the luncheon. They were very friendly and tried to make conversation with us, even though English wasn't their native language. After that lunch, each time we bumped into the committee, they would smile at us, wave and say hello.
Fast forward 2 years later, it was our last time planning an event for them. The delivery ceremony last week was the final one and they would return to their country soon.
This keychain was given to me by the second man of the committee this morning. I have no idea why, but I felt very moved by his gesture. He clasped his hands together and bowed slightly and said, "This is for you." I was greatly surprised and stared at him for a while before clasping my hands together in return and bowed back at him and replied, "Thank you. Korpkun krap."
At that very moment, I felt a twinge of sadness. Sad that this group of mild-tempered (to us) gentlemen were leaving our country so soon, and that we would never meet them again. Some of our colleagues lost their tempers at them last week during the rehearsal for the delivery ceremony due to miscommunication caused by differing languages, but they remained patient and calm towards all of us. And this is how I will remember them, especially the kind, gentle man who gave me the elephant keychain.
Sometimes I think I'm too sentimental for my own good. I get emotionally attached to people and things very quickly, and when they are gone, I get slightly depressed. :( But nonetheless, I wish them all the very best and pray that somehow they will come back to our company again.
...............................................................................
On a happier note, I've made some progress with my next collection for Jocianne. Got my hands on some vinyl/PVC a few weeks ago and am experimenting with it to come up with an entire collection based on the fabric.
I usually don't keep any of my creations for myself, cos I rather sell them all off and feel proud seeing customers wear them. But this time, I couldn't help but make a pleather bib necklace for myself. :) This is also in line with this year's resolution to wear my own creations 90% of the time. The other 10% is for wearing my Lee Hwa jewellery. Hehe..
Complete with handmade horseshoe 'charm' with yellow jade and chunky marble print acrylic chain bought from HK! Am very satisfied and happy with the final product. *beams*
Wore it today with my snake-print blouse. I initially thought that the necklace would clash with the prints, but surprisingly, the end effect was quite nice (to me at least. Haha!). :) I'm gonna match this necklace with more outfits so that people around me will be able to see how versatile Jocianne pieces are!
This project was a long one - lasting approximately 4 years. The final product was officially delivered and accepted by the customer in a hugely well-received formal ceremony last week. Every vessel that our company builds, there are 3 milestones which we have to mark by holding large ceremonies - keel laying, launching, and delivery.
I joined my current company in late 2010, and was fortunate to be able to take part in the launching ceremony last year. Before that, my first encounter with the customer was during our company's annual Lo Hei luncheon. My boss, colleague, and I were seated with many of the inspection committee members during the luncheon. They were very friendly and tried to make conversation with us, even though English wasn't their native language. After that lunch, each time we bumped into the committee, they would smile at us, wave and say hello.
Fast forward 2 years later, it was our last time planning an event for them. The delivery ceremony last week was the final one and they would return to their country soon.
This keychain was given to me by the second man of the committee this morning. I have no idea why, but I felt very moved by his gesture. He clasped his hands together and bowed slightly and said, "This is for you." I was greatly surprised and stared at him for a while before clasping my hands together in return and bowed back at him and replied, "Thank you. Korpkun krap."
At that very moment, I felt a twinge of sadness. Sad that this group of mild-tempered (to us) gentlemen were leaving our country so soon, and that we would never meet them again. Some of our colleagues lost their tempers at them last week during the rehearsal for the delivery ceremony due to miscommunication caused by differing languages, but they remained patient and calm towards all of us. And this is how I will remember them, especially the kind, gentle man who gave me the elephant keychain.
Sometimes I think I'm too sentimental for my own good. I get emotionally attached to people and things very quickly, and when they are gone, I get slightly depressed. :( But nonetheless, I wish them all the very best and pray that somehow they will come back to our company again.
...............................................................................
On a happier note, I've made some progress with my next collection for Jocianne. Got my hands on some vinyl/PVC a few weeks ago and am experimenting with it to come up with an entire collection based on the fabric.
I usually don't keep any of my creations for myself, cos I rather sell them all off and feel proud seeing customers wear them. But this time, I couldn't help but make a pleather bib necklace for myself. :) This is also in line with this year's resolution to wear my own creations 90% of the time. The other 10% is for wearing my Lee Hwa jewellery. Hehe..
Complete with handmade horseshoe 'charm' with yellow jade and chunky marble print acrylic chain bought from HK! Am very satisfied and happy with the final product. *beams*
Wore it today with my snake-print blouse. I initially thought that the necklace would clash with the prints, but surprisingly, the end effect was quite nice (to me at least. Haha!). :) I'm gonna match this necklace with more outfits so that people around me will be able to see how versatile Jocianne pieces are!
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