Snippet Of My Life Episode 18 – It’s Business Time

It is as though our tiny little island has been engulfed by a thick blanket of sleepiness, most I talk to are feeling kind of tired, myself included.  Maybe recession has taken a toll on our energy level, maybe Good Friday is so close yet so far.

“I’m paid as a writer,” all of a sudden I said to Cynthia this morning.  Last night, my very good old friend from Hong Kong suggested that I shall write a book.  Gosh!  And I was toying with the fantasy of making a living out of writing for the entire evening.  Then this morning it hits me, I am paid as a writer.  In the day time, I write business papers, I write business emails, I write business minutes, and if someone was to sell me a $1,000 titanium stylish business keyboard, I would buy one.  I can’t make a living without a keyboard.  And throw in a titanium stylish business mouse too, please.

Beautiful sun, this lunch time.  One lovely colleague – my good friend – invited me to join her.  So I did.  So I followed.  Asia Civilizations Museum we went.  “Why are we going there for lunch?” I asked.  She said there was a corporate talk on strategy.  Haven’t I told you?

Zzzz.

I nearly did, fall asleep, with my empty stomach.  Then came the punch line: It is when companies stray away from the strategy they meet failure.  If you chew onto this piece of wisdom, it makes sense.

Biodegradable plates, cups, and utensils using corn and yam?!  Who would have thought?  After the talk, food was served, and I marveled at the dull brown plate that I was holding.  I took a sniff, it didn’t smell like corn nor yam.  I chewed onto it, it felt like plastic.  Amazing.

The last time Coffee Bean increased the price of the muffins, I stopped ordering them.  This week, I realized that they have changed the menu and increased the price of the coffee.  Fine.  No more Coffee Bean coffee for me then.  I am very price sensitive.  When electricity price went up, I started the habit of powering down all appliances from the mains.  When transport price went up, I started the habit of walking instead of taking a train within the city radius.  When petrol price went up, I …

OK, I still drive.

These days I am curious on the number of days in advance notice you need to give to your boss when you want to take leave.  Back in my days of being a consultant, applying for leave was just a text message away.  I mean, life can be spontaneous right?  If I suddenly want to take leave and drive to Malacca for a dinner, on my birthday, I should be able to, right?  So I turned to my friend in a Spanish Class, asked just that.  He told me that in his shipping business, his leave is planned in a quarterly basis.  OK.  No working in the shipping business for me.

One evening, I had an interesting conversation with Cynthia, on why some people can have relatively good bosses throughout their career while some are quite the opposite.  She pondered for a moment and replied, “Maybe there is something God want that someone to learn [from the tough bosses] but he or she is still not getting it yet?”

If you chew onto this piece of wisdom, it too makes sense.

PS. I seldom write a back-to-back entry on the same series.  But I thought this and my previous one bring out the contrast between my work area and my sister’s.  And the photograph was taken using my Nokia N96 a while ago.