Category: Diary

Categories
Diary From the Attic

Mail Server Crashed, Not That I Quit

Aurore stopped me from swearing in French.  Most shocking.  Anyway, I shouldn’t do it to start with.  Got an image to maintain, you know.

Received an email from Doug praising me that my status report was very good.  Well, he didn’t exactly say that.  What he said was my most recent status report is a lot better than my previous ones.  But at least I know he reads.  Kind of happy over this.

Noubi issued another nonsense SIR.  I rejected it and he rejected my rejection.  Me and him, always at war.  But I just love to have war with him.  Kind of keep my heart pumping.  As for work, my non-customer report seems to work out fine.  Just that now I have to put all the 10 reports into one.  One good challenge.

Tomorrow, I am going to give my very first training session.  And the first in my life.  I think I’ve come well prepared and I hope it should work out okay.

Called up Sam and in fact, he was worried that I have quited the firm (without notifying him).  I told him not to worry, just the mail server crashed last week.  He suggested that I should talk with my ex face to face.  What is there to talk about?  Don’t think we’ll ever come back together anyway.  Right?

Walking down the Champs-Elysees, looking for a restaurant have my dinner.  It is really a headache nowadays to hunt for a restaurant.  I ended up in St. Clement, the one I used to go very often (for my oysters).  And finally, got to try my white Martini.  I love Martini, red or white.

Categories
Diary From the Attic

Tomorrow I Will Try to Wake up with a Smile

April’s Fool.  Really wanted to call up Lionel first thing in the morning telling him that I have quited the firm and returning back to Singapore next morning.  But I didn’t do it.  Thought it would been too much.  Nice thought though.

Yes, my dream has come true.  I sat in the office the whole day wondering what to do.  Try to disturb people here and there but they were too busy.  Went upstairs twice to have a nice chat with the Functional Team.  Sophie was not in and the whole atmosphere was a lot more relax.

The “New Sophie” seems quite nice and I don’t mind to be friend with her.  She seems quite pleasant to be with.  I don’t know.  Just impression, I think.

And I asked Aurore about the ending of “Donnie Brasco”.  She was quite surprised that the text at the end was all in French for she hasn’t been noticing it.  She told me that this was a true story and the Mafia rewarded a great sum to get Donnie kill.  But Donnie still lives (in real life).

This morning I received an Octel reply from Jennifer.  She told me that the server was crashed over the weekend.  No wonder.  Nice to hear her voice.

Sam left a message in my hotel’s voice mailbox.  He wanted to talk to me.  I wonder what is it all about.  I can’t help but thinking that it relates to my ex.  Please stop it!  Or else you will destroy yourself.  Okay?

During the trip, I learnt three things.

  1. The presence of obstacles
  2. Be patience
  3. I shall leave my memories back in Deauville

Having nothing better to do, I have decided to re-write all the customer engagement and monthly summary reports and reduce them into 2 reports respectively.  It will be one big query with a lot of outer join.  Why not?  Just for a challenge.

Be positive.  Be positive.  Be positive.

Tomorrow morning I will try to wake up with a smile.

Categories
Diary From the Attic

Saying Bye Bye to All My Sadness, Okay?

Last day of the month.  Hopefully a new beginning for me.

Got up late (11:30) and packed up as today was supposed to be the last day of my holiday.  And the most annoying thing was that the weather was so good.  It was so sunny.

I had a homemade lunch and left the hotel after one.  Waited for the train to depart for 2 ½ hours.  What’s new?  I was so glad that I returned to Paris.  Kind of really miss the luxury lifestyle.

I was craving for Japanese food and guess what, I found the one I wanted in the Paris Center.  In the end I found that the “owners” actually speak Cantonese.  Really thought they are Japanese.  In fact, they came from Macau 12 years ago.  Isn’t that amazing?

And in time to watch the movie “Donnie Brasco”.  When I ordered the ticket, I spoke in French and that guy said something in French.  Of course I didn’t understand.  In the end, I found that he wanted to ask if I am a student.  Am I look that young?

The show was great.  After all, it was Al Pacino.  My all time favorite star on Earth.  I understood the show “perfectly” until the end.  The ending was in text and it was all in French.  Kind of very annoying.  Must ask Aurore tomorrow morning as she watched the show (because of Johnny Depp).

During this trip, I have learnt something but it is too late now to talk about it.  Will write more later on.

Say bye bye to all my sadness, okay?

Categories
Diary From the Attic

Mend a Broken Heart at Deauville?

Last night, I spent the whole night packing up for my holiday in North of France, Normandy – Deauville.  Nicolas suggested to me two weeks ago and Claude and Nicolas helped me to buy the train ticket and booked the hotel.  They are really nice to me.

This morning I woke up at six and ended up sitting in the hotel for an hour waiting for the clock to strike nine (time to work).

When the clock hit five thirty, Willie, Claude and me left the office.  I took a SNCF to St. Lazare.  And then took a train from St. Lazare to Trouville Deuville.  It was a two hour trip.  Still remember the first time I took the Inter City in UK. Similar experience.  Come to think of it, it was eight years ago.  Time passed.  Eight years …

Categories
Diary From the Attic

Remembering the Small Details Is Not Pretty

Today, everybody in the office felt like Friday, except today was not Friday.  It was Wednesday instead.  Had a long phone conversation with Grace last night and feel kind of a little bit better.  I do need friend.  And today, I received one message from Erica (Sam’s wife) and she is ever so positive.  I definitely feel a lot better.

Didn’t know that Grace had a 5 years relationship with an Irish.  Went to a Jewish restaurant with her and the food was not very impressive.  As always, had a very long walk with her.  Really lost track of time.

What else?  Busy sorting out the bills for the time report.

Do I still think of JP?  Yes, from time to time.  Sometimes remembering the small details is not pretty.  I really miss her.  Is it love due to obsession?  I think so.

Categories
Diary From the Attic

So I Pissed Off the Whole World

Today I ended up making everybody angry.  Firstly, Sophie has arranged a “get together” dinner for me but sad to say, I have forgotten that “No Doubt” concert is tomorrow as well.  I can tell that she is very angry.  She told me that she hoped the concert is worth it.  Damn me.  Damn her.

And Lionel said that my status report is too rough on him.  I just said that in the future, the Function Team better make up their own mind on what to fix.  That is it.

And Aurore is not happy the way I address the issue regard on knowledge transfer.  Well, I wanted more support and they never give it to me.  I have to do it, you know.

Still waiting desperately for JP’s letter.  Just an answer, yes or no.  As simple as that.  My mind really hurts and I cannot focus at all.

Guess what?  I have forgotten my Mum’s birthday on the 16th.  It was yesterday.  I think I have really hurt her.  I am sure my Dad and Sister suffer because of my forgetfulness.

Oh god, what has happened to me?  At least I become in good term with Mohamed again, which is good.

Categories
Diary From the Attic

Paris is Charming at Night

Woke up late this afternoon, as expected Grace had left a phone message for me.  Went out to a café shop and as usual, ordered a cup of tea and a piece of cake.  The waitress was so nice to me and she gave me another little piece of cake.  How nice!  Just outside CNIT, a girl sold me one drawing that according to her, it is drawn by someone from the art school.  Actually I was heading for the FNAC and I just remember that I didn’t go there at all.

Grace called me out and I reach her hotel at 7:30.  One of them was watching a show so I waited in Grace’s room.  Her room was a mess.  Real mess.

And four of us dined in an Indian restaurant (nice romantic restaurant) and Grace and I ended up walking to the Louvre.  Paris is so charming at night.

Categories
Diary From the Attic

A Politic of Suspicion

Yesterday was Friday and I had a good heart to heart chat with Mohamed.  What interested me was why he has to keep a distance to me.  I think that guy is too suspicious of what is around him.  I agreed with him that Nicolas and Aurore is just getting too close and gossip too much.  I agreed with him that Claudi is a very hard person to work when he get stressed.  I guess Michel was racist to him.  That guy needs help but I just don’t know how to help him.

And I ended up eating Arabic food for supper.

Categories
Diary From the Attic

Sophie, What Have I Won Again?

Today Sophie said to me that I have won.  Win what, I asked.  Lionel has finally agreed with my Spot Advice.  The stressful thing is I am not 100% full confident about this.  But it is indeed a challenge.

I knew the BNP team was trying to get me but I was just not interested in picking up the phone.  But why? I don’t know.

And I still haven’t got JP’s letter yet. And why?

Categories
Diary From the Attic

Greeting My Boss With Whips, Chains, and Machine Gun

I found it so hard to get up this morning.  Lucky I still managed to call up Doug in his hotel and informed him Sophie’s contact number and the address.  Phew!  Really wanted to take a decent breakfast (after living in a lower life standard for such a long weekend) but I did not have the time.  In fact I was 15 minutes late.

The joke today was the SIR 505 that William and Sophie has been arguing for so long (at least 4 months) and William finally admitted that this is a bug.  So I spent two days in designing this new spot advice and in the end, after telling the Function Team that they need to test it thoroughly, i.e. all cases, they freaked out and placed the SIR to the lowest priority.

Anyway, managed to get Claude and Mohamed to involve this Spot SIR.  Should be fun, I hope.

Doug came in SocGen for a meeting and it was kind of a different mood throughout the whole SocGen Team. T hey all know that my boss was coming in and everybody was a bit tensed up.  They thought Doug would discuss about the invoices.  We joked that Sophie has got the whips and chains ready with Aurore carrying a machine gun.  But no, he talked about cemetery and how was La Defense being named.  Bizarre!  At the end of the meeting,  I showed him the coffee room and while having a coffee, he told me that if his boss knows about the real situation, his boss would definitely cancel the contract.  He is a peaceful guy I suppose and he wants a good relationship.

The Aerosmith album which was due to be out today, not today. Damn!

And I went out and had dinner with the BNP team.  How boring.  Really boring.  Cheap food and what a waste of my precious time.