Late Night Working

NIE at 1220am. Officially I am the most hardworking researcher as of today haha. 

It's actually quite peaceful, not scary. When taking the photo, there was a security guard walking in the car park area. I couldn't see because I wasn't wearing my glasses but my phone cam pick up movement. For a moment, I thought, "Finally, a ghost!" Haha. 

All's Quiet ...

in the office on Christmas' Eve!

Military Blimp

This is the first time I have ever seen the military blimp so close at my workplace in Jurong! :)

Gifts of Friendship

The size or the value of the gifts don't matter. To me, they signify the friendship which is far more valuable than anything!

Friendship and Snack

I was surprised to find this placed on my office door knob when I returned from my meetings. It is such a pleasant and welcomed surprise! Thanks for your friendship, Shuyi. Both your friendship and snack are greatly appreciated! 

Surprise!

Went to work last week and found these lovely pressies on my table. :) Thank you! I am really blessed to have such wonderful and caring colleagues. :)

Group Birthday Celebration

My workplace celebrates our birthdays every three months. Today we had a group birthday celebration for the October, November and December babies. It was fun celebrating my birthday with a whole bunch of people. :) It was quite timely as I had my lunar birthday yesterday. :) 

My fav photo of me - looking so lovingly at the mango cake! :P

Latest Ever

Yesterday was the latest I have ever stayed at work. I only left my workplace after 11:30pm, Monday 16 September. My colleague/ friend and I were working on our proposal revision. With both of us being very conscientious persons, we checked and double-checked our revision before sending it out to MOE. My girls were actually worried and called me at 11pm to find out where I was. It was heart-warming to know that they cared about me. :)  
My colleague/ friend dropped me off me off at a taxi stand which cut my time in getting home as compared to me taking the public transport (and might miss the last service for the train and the bus home). Thank goodness, there was a long line of empty taxis at the taxi stand. :) By the time I reached home, it was already 12:10am. I was tired and super hunger as I haven't had dinner yet. Grabbed a quick shower and had a 4-yolk mooncake as my dinner lol. :P
I hope this is the latest ever that I have to work and I do not intend to break this record of working so late at the workplace. If any later, I might, as an ex-colleague and friend who is now studying in Brisbane said, as well sleep in the office over night. I do not hope for this to happen as I much prefer my bed anytime. Thank you very much.

Break but No Break

I was informed on Monday that there would be no counselling today because it is the CAs and P6 Prelims this week. I was happy as I thought I could finally sleep in as my girls would also be at school. Unfortunately, luck is not with me. I had to go into my workplace to do some work in preparation for a high-stakes presentation this Friday. :(

Go Back?

I have been having a series of meetings with MOE. A former MOE colleague joked that I should go back to MOE, my former workplace. Lol. See how things go. :P

Nervous 1st Day of Work

It was my first day of work yesterday. No, I have not gone elsewhere. I am still working in the same university but just transferred from one of the research centres to the headquarters that oversee all the research centres in the university.  
It was pretty nerve-wrecking for my first day because I have absolutely no idea what my work responsibilities are and I have not met any of the new colleagues that I will be working with. At least now, after meeting with my Reporting Officer, I have some inkling, and more details will be revealed in the coming week. Come Monday, I will also get to meet all my new colleagues at the weekly meeting. I guess I am slightly more settled and less nervous now. :P

Leaving Soon

I am leaving tonight for Sydney. I haven't finish packing. And I am still in the office!! I had to come into office to meet with my PI. Will try to go home soon.  

Updated on 1 December 
I felt very stressed for this trip. First, the girls' father was late by 30 minutes in picking us up and sending us to the airport so that we could have dinner before I leave and before the girls go for tuition at 7pm. We only arrived at the airport at 6.15pm. Second, the Japanese restaurant at Terminal 3 forgot our order and we were waiting for 20 minutes for nothing before we stormed out and quickly looked for another place to eat. By then it was already 7pm. Thank goodness, Coffee Club served their food quite fast and I had soup before I had to rush in at 7.25pm as the boarding time was 7.35pm. The girls were still having their dinner and they had to go to their tuition late as well. Sigh. If only someone can learn to manage his time properly. Third, the flight was delayed and we only took off at 9.30pm. All because of a couple who checked in but never turned up at the plane so time was wasted removing their luggage while the rest of us sat in the stuffy air plane. It was an awful experience with SIA. :( 
I sat on the upper deck as it was an air bus. Well, I didn't think the seats were more comfortable. Plus, only two toilets for 80+ people was quite bad. There were always long queues for the two toilets. The situation about the toilets was also made worse because there were a lot of turbulence and the seat-belt sign kept being switched on. It meant no unnecessary moving about, including visiting the toilet. Sigh. 
The only nice things about my flight to Sydney were that I managed to sleep for three hours and watched "Snow White and the Huntsman" and "Prometheus". My special non-carb diet was nice - apple salad (like wardolf salad from Soup Spoon) and boiled fish with tomato sauce and various vegetables and there's even a non-sweet jelly. :) 

I arrived in Sydney at 7.30am, 10 minutes before ETA of 7.40am. Customs was a breeze and I was at my serviced apartment just before 9am. I will update the rest of 1 December on 1 December blog post. 

False Alarm

Today was the last day that the girls followed me into office. Tomorrow, they will be back at school. While I was checking up on Marieann and her progress in Science revision in the late morning, the fire alarm went off!! My girls were grinning from ear to ear while a collective groan arose from the adults in the office. My girls have been hoping for a repeat of Monday's fire drill. After a while, it proved to be a false alarm. My girls were really disappointed that it was a false alarm but all the adults in the office were really glad that it was a false alarm! Lol. Personally I think my girls were hoping for another fire drill so that they could take a break from their exam revision. Well, just bear with it, in a few days' time, your exams will be over. :)

No Drill, No Thrill

For the third day, the girls are back in my office. However, there was no repeat of a fire drill... 
No drill, no thrill, they said lol. 
Maybe tomorrow, they said. 
NO, I thought. 
But since my office is a conducive place for them to do their revision with no distractions, they are welcomed to come to my office again tomorrow. They can try to catch another fire drill but good luck with that lol.

Exam Revision

My girls are back in my office for the second day. They continued with their revision - Marieann writing up her Science notes and Juliane doing Math exercises online. They were waiting for excitement to happen today in the office. Unfortunately for them (and fortunately for me), the fire drill wasn't repeated lol. 
Since they have been hard at work, I decided to give them a little tame excitement. I brought them to Jurong Hill for lunch lol. Well, it is a place that they have never been to and it has a kind of old world charm. You definitely don't see many places like this anymore in Singapore. 
After lunch (at the Japanese restaurant at the bottom of the tower), the girls enjoyed running up the look-out tower at Jurong Hill. Instead of stairs going up the tower, it is a ramp all the way to the top. They said it was like a car park but for people lol. The girls could see an aerial view of Jurong from the top of the tower - Jurong Island, Bukit Timah Hill in the distance, etc. 

 The girls also enjoyed walking round the Garden of Fame, looking at the many trees planted by visiting foreign dignitaries from 1969 until 1984. They only recognised one name "Queen Elizabeth II" lol.

As usual (whenever they visit my office), Marieann and Juliane enjoyed themselves. It was a fruitful day for the girls.

Surprise Fire Drill

It is the start of the four days of PSLE marking. I doubt that the girls will really do their exam revision if I leave them at home. So I brought them along with me to work where there is no tv, no computer, no iPad, no telephone, no bed, no fridge. In other words, there is NO distractions for them at my workplace! :) I am cruel, I know lol.
They settled down at the empty work stations just next to mine and immediately started doing their revision - Marieann worked on her Science notes and Juliane did past-year papers on Math. I checked on them once in a while to make sure that they were on track. They were making good progress by lunch time. :) After lunch, we continued with our respective work.
Suddenly at 3.10pm or so, the fire alarm went off. The girls were spooked and asked if they should run. I told them to continue with their work since nobody was moving. :P Then came an announcement that they were checking the situation. Soon after, came the announcement that we had to evacuate the building. Argh. I was right in the middle of work... :(
Not wanting to risk it being a real fire, I told the girls to pack up their stuff and bring them along while I lugged my notebook as I haven't backed up my data for a while now. Won't be funny if I lose my data in a fire. We all moved out in an orderly (but somewhat leisurely, maybe because it was only a fire drill?! Not really the right attitude, I know) manner to the car park area. To make the fire drill exercise more realistic, there was a "fire" (lots of smoke, used a smoke bomb?), an "injured" person, and a fire engine also arrived with firemen to put out the "fire". The "injured" person was attended to while our attendance were taken to make sure everyone was accounted for. It was very hot standing in the sun and we were there for close to 30 minutes. When I was in school, 30 minutes was considered a fail as it was too long a time taken to account for everyone's safety. Actually it is quite shameful that we adults took far longer than school students would in a fire drill to evacuate to safety. :S By 3.50pm, we were allowed to return to our office. 

The fire engine, the Light Fire Attack Vehicle (LFAV aka Red Rhino) and the firemen

It was pure heaven to return to the air-conditioned office after the sweltering heat but it was hard to settle back to work after the interruption. But I think the girls welcomed the fire drill because it provided them with a break and some excitement for the day lol. :P

Happy Children's Day 2012

Happy Children's Day!

It is also "Bring Your Child to Work" Day at my workplace today. I was initially hesitant about letting the girls come to my workplace because their exams start next Monday! But I relented as it is Children's Day and they did deserve some fun. (BUT I also got their promise that they will work hard for their exams lol :P ) 
The day started at 8.45am with registration and the girls each received a goodie bag with a book on Science facts (Marieann got Animal Planet's Incredible Journeys: Amazing Animal Migrations and Juliane received discover science's Apes and Monkeys), a hand-held battery operated fan, a pen, a bag of popcorn, and a bottle of mineral water. Following after registration was the Book Exchange activity. I bought new books for the girls to bring to this particular activity as they couldn't bear to part with any of their books. They managed to pick up books that they liked. :) The other parents were also present with their children during the registration and book exchange activity. By 9.30am, all the children who were divided into different groups, proceeded to the Math laboratory for Math and Arts Activity. 

Marieann and Juliane (with the exhanged book in her hands) after the Book Exchange Activity

Just before the girls moved off to the Math and Arts Activity

Lunch was at 11.45am and I met up with the girls again. After their lunch, I brought them to the Prologue stall that was set-up especially for today. I bought them each a book. Story-telling by Adeline Foo and Stephanie Wong was next on the programme. I told the girls that I was classmate with Adeline Foo at NJC but they didn't believe me. Sigh. So I stayed till Adeline Foo arrived. Yes, Adeline did recognise me and we chatted for a while before I left (back to work!). Oh yes, Juliane managed to ask Adeline Foo to autograph on her Amos Lee Book 2. :) Movie screening of Kung Fu Panda was after the Story-telling. 

The girls and their Mckkies lunch (not exactly the heathiest lunch choice)

Overall, the girls really enjoyed themselves with the activities, the goodies they received and the new books they bought. They said that they want to attend "Bring Your Child to Work Day again next year. :)

The girls at the landscaped water feature just before Admin Block

Kids at Work II

Brought the kids to work again. My workplace is now relatively quiet as most researchers are on leave. :)

Kids At Work

As promised, I brought the girls to work. There are now four empty workstations around me and they were very glad to have a workstation each. They said they felt like an adult lol. :P They settled down in no time and started doing their homework. I am very surprised lol. They do feel very comfortable at my workplace. I will bring them back again but not everyday as I do not want my other colleagues to feel uncomfortable with the presence of children in the office.

Back to Office

I brought the girls back to my office again. They brought their work to do and they have been warned that I would not have time to look after them as it is my official working day on Thursdays. They did their work quietly, quickly and without mistakes! I was surprised lol. Later they told me that the lack of distractions in the office (i.e. no tv, no computer, no iPad, no bed) allowed them to focus on their work better. Hmm, I may seriously consider bringing them to work during their next holiday.
After work, as a reward for them, I brought them to Raffles Marina. It is located at the Western Tip of Singapore, adjacent to the Second Link Bridge connecting Singapore and Malaysia. The girls were excited to see the yachts and boats at the marina. It is also the first time they ever saw a lighthouse. We sat down near the lighthouse to watch the sun setting. It was beautiful. :)









The girls really enjoyed themselves. They said that they want to come to my office again during the next holiday. :)