Wisdom Tooth Agony

Been delaying my wisdom tooth extraction for the longest of times and I finally took the opportunity to pluck it yesterday. It was not as painful as I would have imagined and luckily the teeth were extracted completely. Mouth a bit swallowed and feeling a bit feverish. Really hope to recover by next week. Many thanks for the best wishes :-)

Back from Korea

After a week of silence, I am finally back in Singapore after my 6 days trip to Korea. It was actually my first tour group outing and I must say it was not as packed and bad as I thought. We toured most of touristy stuff in Korea such as the sites for filming Korean dramas, hot springs, Everland, Lotte World, etc. Some of my favourite included the hot springs which was relaxing and also the skiing. Though the skiing was for a short 3 hours, I would definitely come back again to try out the slopes. Maybe snowboard the next time.

My highlight of the trip was meeting my friend from Michigan. Initially we were supposed to meet on a Saturday for the whole day but my friend had a meeting in the morning. We changed our appointment to Friday night and had a nice dinner of BBQ pork ribs. We had a nice drive ard Seoul before adjourning to a super market. It was nice meeting a friend after 2.5 years. He even gave me a Hyundai calendar and some ginseng tea.

The food in Korea was excellent and I must say we were exposed to different kinds of food during our tour ranging from different types of steamboats to BBQ and also to bimbinbob (Missed those days in umich when we would eat Korean food near the b-school).

For our trip, we also had 2 free days in Bangkok. It was my first trip (amazing!) to Thailand and really enjoy the shopping. It was fun bargaining to get the best price and definitely would come back more often to shop for more.

Overall, a relaxed holiday! Oh before I forgot, the photos of the trip can be viewed at http://cheewing.multiply.com/photos/album/13

Lunches for the week

It's been unprecedented. I actually ate in the canteen more than once for the week since I started working. Not that our canteen food is not nice, in fact, I really enjoy our canteen food. My favourite has always been the vegetarian food..miss those days with my ex-colleague when both of us will be queueing for the same stall. Been trying out the new yong tau foo stall and I must say they are quite good. I still missed the previous stall-owner who will meticulously ask you whether you needed shallots/spring onions and pepper in your yong tau foo but the new stall is pretty decent and excellent pricing as well.

Actually somehow eating in the canteen can be boring especially when you have been working for long and sometimes you might even have someone unfavourable sitting with you. So that's why we tend to avoid the canteen. Went to try my PS's favourite Bak chor mee in Toa Payoh (For those interested, it is Blk 85, Toa Payoh Lor 2) on Monday and had lunch yesterday at Food Republic at Wisma.

Today was quite a bonus as finally our boss is back from overseas. We went to Margaret Drive for the famous chicken rice and pot stickers. Excellent food with great company too. Let see where we eat next week.

Protests and more protests

Well the WTO meeting is currently on-going in Hong Kong and even before the meeting started, there were a bunch of Koreans jumping into the freezing ocean to protest about the meeting taking place. This trend of protesting during major economic meets started in Seattle in 1999. There were massive protests during that meeting and then US President, Bill Clinton got cold feet and actually diluted what was supposed to be tabled at the Seattle rounds. Since then, the protesters have been gathering up in strength by seeing their effectiveness in Seattle, appearing in every economic or world leader meets.

That make me wonder, what the hell are the protesters actually protesting about? Capitalism, globalisation, global warming or what? I personally feel that the protesters are actually protesting for the sake of protesting to show that their voice still matter in society. Can any of the protesters actually suggest a solution to capitalism? I do not think so unless someone yells communism. That's my point...no one has any idea or suggestion on how to revolutionise the world.

I remember those days in London when everyone had to stay in during 1st May due to the massive protests. Not too sure whether that is still happening annually but seriously what had those protesters achieved? NOTHING!

Let's hope next year IMF/World Bank meet in Singapore will not have any problem.

Rent it is!

Yup yup, I decided to catch Rent in the end. Was thumping myself for not waiting for the rebate on their tickets before I bought the tickets. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the musical overall but I felt that Karen Mok did not do the musical justice. Could not really understand what she was singing for most of the time and yes, her dance moves were well done but as a musical cast, I think she still lack the ability to dance and sing at the same time. Most people I knew did not enjoy watching Rent due to the modern upbeat and unorthodox themes (gays, lesbians, drag-queens, AIDS, etc) but I must say the songs are encouraging and refreshing. Been listening to the soundtrack over the past week and have enjoyed listening to it over and over again. Am awaiting the movie to come out early next year. For those that want a copy of the RENT soundtrack, do give me a buzz.

Long Meetings?

Well, not been blogging too much in recent weeks due to the hectic workload and most importantly nothing much to say in my monotonous life. I feel I should start with a series of short postings instead of one super long one. Work-wise had been hectic. Always chasing people is not a fun job to do but I guess as secretary to a meeting, the role becomes more and more exciting as nothing is ever the same. For this month's meeting, I had a shock of people inserting in items during the meeting itself. So the meeting overran and most people were not too happy. Will keep it a point to restrict those that talk too much in the future. :-)

Crowning of Mr Cameron

Ok...first day at work and you are already up against the Prime Minister at Parliament. What should I ask to leave a good impression? Where should I start the attack in order to win the next elections? These questions must be circling in Mr David Cameron's mind when he got elected yesterday as the next Conservative leader. Winning by a 2-1 margin over David Davis, he definitely had a rubber stamp from the party members to lead the party to victory in the next election.

A tough road lies in front of him. Already, 5 leaders have bitten the dust since 1997 (Major, Hague, Duncan-Smith, Howard and finally Cameron), so will there be any changes in luck due to the change of leadership? Cameron will inject new perspectives and ideas into the ageing old guards who are still around but his influences can only be effective when his team can fully take office to challenge the current Labour Cabinet. So that's leave the question of who will be in the shadow cabinet. I welcome the return of William Hague as shadow foreign secretary but the team would probably be relatively inexperienced. We should know more within the next few days.

Just watched Prime Minister's Questions and I would give Mr Cameron a 6/10 for his first sparring with Mr Blair. He appeared nervous and I felt that he was thinking of jokes to quote in order to invigorate the House. His 4 questions were spent on education which I felt were appropriate but maybe the questions were framed wrongly to look like the Tories support every Labour education policies. I commend Mr Cameron for spending his last 2 questions on climate change which is the main concern for many in the world. Perhaps for next week Mr Cameron would have more confidence and maybe even jabbed about the Home Office Bill.