One of those days

I've been having one too many of just one of those days... Days where there's so many things happening at the same time it makes me feel so lost and troubled by it all. 

Work is not exactly bad. It's just heavier.. And my sleeping problem has gotten worse. I don't know if work is the reason I'm not sleeping well or the lack of sleep is making me stressed at work. 

It's a bloody vicious cycle.

Please please please let tomorrow be better. If possible, make next week even better. 

I'm thankful though that through all this shitty-ness, I have Eric always supporting me and encouraging me. (:

Intoxiquette & The Blush Inc

I just scored some purchases from my all time favourite blogshops, Intoxiquette & The Blush Inc.

I'm soooooo broke now... heh.

I got these from Intoxiquette's launch earlier today. They're so gorgeous I couldn't help myself even though I'm over my expenditure budget for the month already!

And these from The Blush Inc at an earlier launch this month... I bought them in XS without realising the XS measurements were too tight! >_<

Luckily the ladies from The Blush Inc are super awesome and let me do an exchange provided I pay for 2-way postage, which is still a better deal than no exchange at all. (:

Can't wait can't wait!

Mr Postman please hurry...

Credits:
Intoxiquette Hibiki Floral Romper & Tinge of Surprise Collared Dress in Navy
The Blush Inc TBI Emboss Lace Pleated Dress in Navy & TBI Sofie Embroided Laser Cut Romper in White

Small wins

I met my ex-director today just one month into my new role. He asked me about my work and after a 1 minute commentary from me, he said "Wah now you know what you are talking about." 

His words don't really mean much on the surface, but I was so happy to hear that. It made me reflect on this past month and how much I have learned thus far. The clarity at which I could explain my job and how it fits in to the whole organisation and the respective responsibilities. It feels good! 

I sometimes feel so overwhelmed and lost with the tons of documents being sent to me, I never know what to read first and how to use all this information. But I guess I subconsciously piece these little bits together to form a big picture. So every document I manage to complete is a small win.. baby steps to help me excel at my job. (:

Heineken Advert

I love this advert. It made me laugh so much.

I told Eric if ever faced with such an encounter.. he would never be able to convince me to buy this. heh =P

The next chapter

I'll be leaving my team at the end of the week. And as I slowly handover things to my colleagues.. I find myself feeling strangely nostalgic and deeply satisfied at all that I've done these past 2.5 years. 

Joining the firm as a fresh grad, I was totally ignorant of office dynamics, what a bank does and the different department functions, as well as basic understanding of the structured products that my team review. 

I remember stumbling through the office politics, unintentionally offending people with things I failed to say (thank you). Slowly discovering that pointing out my mistakes to everyone was not meant to embarrass me but to teach me and everyone else how to do my work better. 

Still so much I don't know about the organisation and it's many many functions but I feel so much more informed about how things work and flow between the different teams and departments. 

I've reviewed so many different products, mostly structured rates options, that I previously thought was beyond my feeble mind's comprehension. And not only do I know how to review the trade, but I'm also able to explain (to the many new joiners to the team) on how the different products work. 

What I'm most proud of is definitely the process improvement stuff that I worked on for the better half of my time here (which I won an award for heehee). 80% of it was just writing and designing macro templates for the team to use, and the remaining 20% was liaising with internal stakeholders on existing processes to either improve or remove redundancies. The removal of redundant processes, plus the templates I created resulted in so much time savings, that we could actually reduce head count from 12 to 9. :D 

And lastly I like to think I was a fully contributing member of the team. Anything I felt that we could improve, I voiced out. Anything I required more information, I asked. I eventually got a lot of random ad-hoc duties along the way and I became the one people went to when you needed something to be done. 

Need stationery? Ask val to order. Your second monitor isn't connected? Ask val to fix it. How to add shared inbox in outlook? Ask val. Print notes? Organise team outing? Archive old emails? Everything all ask Val. I never realised how much ad-hoc responsibility I had taken up until I was clearing my old emails in my inbox yesterday. 

Yes.. There is that bone-deep contentment when I think back to my time here and see how much I have achieved for myself and my team. 

A new chapter begins next week (what a lovely bday present might I add), and I'm excited for what the future holds. 

JPM Pics & other gatherings

Okay quick entry before bedtime.. 

I'm so tired, and it has been such a hot and tiring day (Plus I did macritchie this morning).

JPM Run

Yup, I did a brief entry on this previously. I just wanted to put up the few pictures that characterized the whole experience for me. (:

Here's Eric & I celebrating our awesome timings! ♥

Here's the other person I have to thank for my awesome timing. He was so sporting, agreeing to pace me for this race so that I hit my target. His encouragement throughout the race helped loads.. I almost gave up so many times! (i look like shite here >_<)

The thing I love about this event is seeing everyone decked out in their corporate jerseys, not to mention the big showing from my company. (:

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Canopy

It's with a heavy heart that I announce that our brainchild, Royal Troika has officially closed down. It has been difficult trying to manage this with our varying schedules and respective personal commitments. 

Far from being upset, it has been a very enlightening experience and I am thankful for it. It's one thing checked off my bucket list.

And what better way to end a partnership than to go for brunch? (:

Yvonne's Smoked Duck Salad

Hq & I shared 1 eggs ben and 1 eggs royale. 

Apple Crumble that we three shared.

Much loves ♥

Whilst I was really psyched to be at a cafe where one could bring their dogs, the food was average. =/ Not sure if I would come again.. 

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Misc

Me and Bff at Hatched. Overpriced Eggs ben and horrible sausages. The food doesn't warrant any picture. 

Cross seniors gathering at Melvin's. (: Good to meet and catch up with the other old fogeys. 

Last Pic of the night.. Will miss my love loadssss when I'm in US. *whimpers*

Note to self

Note to self: NEVER EVER ask someone (namely anyone in my family) for help if I can do it myself. 

If it's not handled properly, they will often shirk responsibility, AND turn it around and say why didn't you do it yourself. 

I really don't understand it. If I agree to help with something and I screwed up.. I would most definitely apologise! My word is important and it means something! 

If only everyone thought the same way.. 

Update!

Wow it's been ages since I last updated. I just couldn't find the motivation or time to continue blogging. It's been such a whirlwind of activity since the year started, it feels like my first weekend at home with nothing to do. 

Well technically, I actually have many things to do.. But they're not pressing and aren't as time consuming as going out for gatherings and events. So anyway, I thought I'd just blog a few updates of what's been going on these few months..

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Europe

After buying round-trip tickets for $1085 to Paris during the Qatar sale last September, it was finally time for us to go in February! We bought a Eurail and traveled on first class cabins in France and Germany. Ahh the life of luxury..

We visited new places in France, revisited my old haunts in Germany, and whilst we were there, he proposed in the beautiful town of Chamonix! :D so yes, I'm officially engaged! *throws confetti* [this news is 2 months old oops]

It was quite a simple setup actually, I had mentioned to him many times before I didn't want an audience thus making his work easier for him. For the bulk of our trip, we split our accomodation costs equally, but for Chamonix, he wanted to stay in a Hotel "with a very nice view" and offered to pay for it. So I had my suspicions about this quite early hahaha. Three days before we were to go to Chamonix, I had horrible food poisoning and threw up 4x in the night. I felt damn awful. I couldn't move, couldn't pack, couldn't eat anything and I just lay on the bed wondering how we were to catch the next train into Lyon in 2 hours' time. Thankfully, that was 3 days before D-day, so by the time we got to Chamonix, I was only mildly sick with small bouts of giddiness. 

Unfortunately for ME, our esteemed hotel "with a very nice view" in Chamonix was at the top of a very steep hill. How else does one get a very nice view right?? Laden with only a handbag with the bare essentials, the walk up was one of the most painful treks I have ever undertaken. The locals said it would only take 15minutes.. bullshit! It took at least double the time, but it felt like hours. :'( Keep in mind I was still unwell. And yes, my hero was carrying our 23kg suitcase plus his heavy duty backpack. hehee. 

Upon reaching our hotel, I just collapsed on our bed in fatigue. I wasn't even hungry after hours of travelling and that horrible trek. Eric excitedly checked out the place, taking pictures of the view and nagging me to go out to the balcony to take pictures with the nice view. 

I went outside kinda guessing what was coming but not very sure how it would be presented. The camera on the tripod confirmed my suspicions.. i kept asking him if it was off.. (coz i don't like to be filmed). He sat me down and asked me to watch a video on his phone. I was so surprised coz I didn't know he knew how to make videos! It was lovely, with so many pictures of us and places we've been.. And at the end, it was a very obvious hint of a proposal. With that, he got down on one knee and gave me a tiffany box all wrapped up. I was like Ermmm You need to open the box and ask me... LOL. Awkward max..

So once he did it right, of course I said yes! (: (: (:

The ring needed to be resized so I couldn't wear it out and about. Not to mention we didn't want to attract attention as tourists. But I finally got it one month after coming back to Singapore, and I've been wearing it every day! =D 

Mum said I resized it for the wrong finger oops. I'm wearing my engagement ring on the fourth finger but owell, it's almost the same thing. (: 

The rest of our eurotrip was equally enjoyable. We stayed at Siegfried's place. He was such a sweetie bringing us to Heidelberg and Frankfurt. I got to eat my City Doner and Big Pom in Mannheim. I was so happy they were still there! And they tasted just as good as ever! Brought Eric around Munich and we ate pork knuckles and drank beer 3 nights in a row! We had such good weather in Germany.. Not like the bitter cold we had to endure in France. =/

Since being engaged and coming back to Singapore, we have a lot of things to settle. Learning more about shared finances for housing, wedding details etc. We've barely scratched the surface and it all seems so intimidating. But we have each other.. And that's all that really matters. (:

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JPM Run

I've been stressing over this race since i signed up for it early this year. I initially told myself val.. you just need to beat last year's timing. And up to the week just before the race, I had been sick, sprained my ankle, and missed 3 weeks of training for when I went to Europe. I fervently hoped that I just didn't perform too badly. I did not only do better than before, I had more than a minute improvement! I did 26:45, compared to 28:10 last year. =D One of my proudest moments ever.. and I couldn't have done it without my colleague who was so nice to pace me. (: (: (:

And this run has been leading up to my run in the US later this month. I'm really damn lucky to be granted this opportunity to go run for my company in the US. Flight and 3 nights accommodation paid for by the organizer, not to mention meals covered for the event parties. (: I've extended my trip and will be traveling with another runner from my company. We will be going Washington, Rochester (race venue), Toronto, Montreal & NYC! I've been busy preparing all my random miscellaneous stuff for the trip. Settling flights, accommodation, bus rides, visa, changing money, NOT forgetting training hard. :( What a headache.. But I'll fly in less that 2 weeks ahhh so exciting! 

Sorry my thoughts are really all over the place. =/ So many things to say, so little time! I'm rushing out now to celebrate my popo's birthday. She's this sweet old thing who doesn't remember anyone anymore, but we remember her right? So it's no excuse to treat her shabbily and not celebrate her birthday.