Category: My Good Life

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Diary From the Attic

Still Not Dare to Eat Steak Tartar (Yet)

Woke up really late.  In fact if “room service” never called me this afternoon, I would have slept a little bit longer.  As usual, had my “standard” lunch which is cheese and bread, fruit salad, a cup of tea and this time, a glass of Martini as well.  What a wonderful life.

Spent the whole day writing up a document on MUE for William.  Took me several hours to do it.  But after all, I don’t have anything better to do anyway.  Called up Grace and had a dinner with her.  We went to a very nice restaurant and really wanted to try the Steak Tartar but had rump steak in pepper source instead.

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Diary From the Attic

My Partner of Life Would be Ideally …

Woke up at ten.  First time in history because Cecile invited me for a lunch at her place.  I mean Cecile is quite a woman.  French woman and truly feminine. I  have never seem someone as feminine as her.  Wow!  She is slim with 2 kids (and not married!).  Her boyfriend come home once in a week (I guess) and she has to take care of 2 kids of theirs.  Quite incredible.  And she reads a lot of books as well and she knows quite a number of poems.

That makes me wonder who shall be my partner of life. She would be ideally:

  • Feminine
  • Love children
  • Have strong opinion of her own (and clever)
  • Like to read and appreciate literature (hopefully be artistic)
  • Give me security and love me
  • Get along well with my family
  • Love nature

Cecile’s friend is a civil engineer and he has got a wife and a kid as well.  Hence throughout the whole Saturday afternoon, I was with three kids.  Do I like kids at all?  Maybe I do love to have my own kids.

And in the evening, I met up with Alvin and Pui (from HK).  I seriously think there is something going on between those two.  I hate to go out in threesome.  I swear I shall try to avoid this in the future.  We had Mexican food before the movie (Dante’s Peak).  I kind of like the visual effect but I don’t think they appreciated it at all.  Too picky.

I suggested to take a walk to the Eiffel Tower but it was not lit up at all.  We wanted to have a drink but there wasn’t any at that area.  We then went to Rue Montmartre (near their hotel) and had a drink.  It was a Karaoke Bar and I had a beer.

Too much alcohol nowadays and I do have craving for alcohol.  Kind of scary, isn’t it?

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Diary From the Attic

In the Dark?

This afternoon I called up Benny and found that he has not read my email that was sent to him more than 2 weeks ago.  And he told me that all the family members were in the dark not knowing what was happened between me and her sister.  Too me, it is really over.  I shall not approach her again and beg for her love.  Maybe if she does it, I may have a second thought.

This evening, I met up with the BNP team.  Had a very long dinner and had a drink.  I nearly missed my last train (4 min).  Lucky me.  Otherwise, I wouldn’t want to walk.

And this morning, this French Lady called me and asked if I am free tomorrow for a lunch.  Why not?  She has 2 kids and a boyfriend.  I hope it would be interesting.  For that, I will miss the BNP team in La Defense.

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Diary From the Attic

First Time I Gave Training

Today was the big day for me because it was the first time I gave training.  I have always wanted to give lecture and so on.  And finally it came true.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Funny thing was at some point in time, some of my clients actually feeling very tired but I hoped I have made it interesting enough to keep them awake.  It was after all, a very good experience.

And I have bought the Bee Gee’s new album.  I love the song “Alone”.  Kind of suit my lifestyle right now.

Claude took me to a restaurant and told me that it would be good.  It was Fauchon.  There was one in Singapore (Christmas diner, remember?)  The atmosphere was very good.  Very yellow and light colored. Candles and large plants.  And it was very expensive too.

Suddenly feel very tired and feel like falling sick again.  Oh, no.

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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.

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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.

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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?

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From the Attic Travel Blog

Honfleur, A Beautiful Town by the Sea

One thing good about Window 95 is that it automatically changed my system time today (Daytime something) at midnight 00:00 and forwarded one hour for me.

Planned to get up at undefined time and true enough, got up at 11:00.  I really found it very hard to get up.  I knew my bus would be gone in less than three quarters of an hour so I got out of bed at 11:15, had a quite wash-up and dashed to the train station.  Indeed the bus was half an hour late.

Honfleur is quite a lovely place.  Nice town by the sea.  That is all.  Maybe the expectation was being set too high (someone told me that Honfleur is the most beautiful place in France).  I am sure York is better than Honfleur.

Today was a day of waiting.  You will see.

First I wanted some food.  So I walked into a café shop and had a sandwich.  Actually wanted to have a cup of café and I waited for more than half an hour.  I fed up and left the café.

I was planning to leave the place at six something (buses are rare) but I really wanted to go at three.  There was nothing much to see.  In fact, I prefer Deauville (the beaches).  I discovered that there was a bus at four something and actually waited for 4 hours for the last bus!!  No wonder they suggested that you should rent a car.  (Not quite true as they claim that there are a lot of things to see around Deauville).

And I had a 2 ½ hours supper due to the waiting. What can I say?

And I still think of JP all of the time.

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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 …

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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.