Category: My Good Life

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Diary From the Attic

Business Lunch

Nothing can stop me.  My VISION knowledge seems to have increased quite a fair bit and I am afraid on nothing.  Today, I showed Mohamed how to debug one of the SIR and surely he was impressed.

Lunch time, I joined the MUE team (20 people) and had a FF 120 lunch.  Probably one of the best lunch I had so far in Paris.  Opposite me sat Nicolas, who is willing to converse in English.  Beside me were two French ladies, who was also willing to converse in English.  In fact, the one next to me has been to UK (LSE) for 1 year and she loved everything except France.  Weird, isn’t it?  I thought French are always very proud of their culture.

Basically, the MUE team consists of all the technical people on the 7th floor and the “INTL” on the 8th floor.  In fact the funny thing is, INTL dressed a lot smarter and most of them are lady.

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Diary From the Attic

Stressed with Work

Erm, what happened today? Well, I remembered beginning with the day with a very positive attitude and somehow, after lunch, I was very stressed up with the Collateral Module and the Interest Accrued (yes, doesn’t work again) plus the Profitability Programs.  Wow, just all at one go and made me really mad.

And I had to rush off for a hair cut appointment.  Have to say one of the best haircut I ever had. What to say, French are artistic.

And I had to sort out my receipts.  Really painful.  In conclusion, I am not good at accounting at all.

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Diary From the Attic

Of Waitresses at Planet Hollywood and Richard

Okay, last night I was totally drunk, probably because of the good rose wine.  I went to bed at half past nine.  Not a bad consequence at all!  And this morning I was wide awaken.  And found myself to be extremely productive and pleasant.  Maybe I shall continue this bad and good habit (drinking wine and sleep early).

Aurore was back after her one week skiing.  Michel was on leave, probably be back next Monday.  Funny thing was he left quite in a hurry, claiming to be personal reason.  And just minutes after he left, his wife called and asked for him.  Oh well, the guys back in the office thought that he has a mistress somewhere and the mistress may threaten, “If you can’t be with me for a week, I will leave you!”  What a laugh after all.

And I went to Planet Hollywood tonight and indeed I found my Internet friend, Richard (joke : “Looking for Richard”).  Afterwards, he told me that when I walked in, he was wondering whether he should just come up and said hi.  He looked just like a Brit!  Medium hair and the very strong British accent.  And funny thing was he knew that one of the waitress, Henriette (Danish), has served me long before (as her name was on the receipt).  And he introduced Henriette to me.  Wow, what a woman!  Slim and very fair, but a bit cold though.  Nothing compare to the French who served my table, Stephie.  Her smile really lit up my life!  Anyway, I was really enjoy my meal there as the waiters and waitresses had acknowledged my presence.  I really felt good and left FF20 as tips.

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Diary From the Attic

Boring Day

Been chatting till 7am and had to wake up at 11pm as I need to meet up with my aunt and uncle.  What a boring day.  But couldn’t help it.  Relatives.

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Diary From the Attic

What Can We Do Without Friends?

Today was probably the best weekend I had so far.  My good buddy Mohamed has come out and met up with me.  He rang me up at midday (as promised) and told me that although Claude would not be able to join us tonight, he would be able to join me for the evening.  I was so delighted as I was expecting that he would say no.  And it took us 5 minutes to decide where to meet (as I don’t know Paris that well). I n the end, we decided to meet up at Chatelet FNAC.

We then took a walk to Saint Michel and in the end, we agreed to have Italian food.  At first he told me that’s up to me and I replied him that I have been deciding where to go for food for the past don’t know how many nights, I would not decide tonight.  And there you go, we had Italian food.  The meal I would say was nothing fantastic at all but hey, I have a company.

And surprisingly, he didn’t want to go back home immediately after the meal and he even suggested going for a show.  Wow! And this time  I chose to watch Al Pacino’s “Looking for Richard”. (I asked Mohamed after we have been seated, “When was the last time you watched a movie.” He replied, “5 years ago”.)

I am a big fan of Al Pacino so to me, the show was great.  You could really sit down for 2 hours simply appreciating his acting.  Shakespeare’s work may somehow sound boring, but not this one.  One may think that it is a documentary more than a film.  I agree that there is certainly some element of documentary but without doing so, I don’t think more than 90% of the audience will enjoy it.  The switch between the play and real life dialogue was fantastic.  Everything at the right moment.

So what have I done today?  Well, bought some fruit and actually seriously hunting (shopping) for a scarf and a pair of gloves and couldn’t find anyone I like.  Maybe next weekend.

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Diary From the Attic

Touched by Friends

How come I had this feeling that I will not be able to talk to JP today.  Three days, you know.  I began to hate this feeling.  Still remember one of the night, one guy from the chat asked me that, “Why doesn’t she call tonight?”  Though I have been through all this already.  Why?

Then I remember how his ex lost her.  Now this is frightening.

Mohamed and Claude has been very nice to me.  Tonight was Friday night and they accompanied me for a drink.  I said I will drink anything and they ordered a beer for me (while they are having a decaf).  And they may meet me up tomorrow.  I am so touched.

So I had Chinese food and as expected, it was disappointing.  The only thing that was good was that I got a chance to speak in Cantonese.  That was all.  Wanted to catch a show but could not find one good one.  Al Pacino’s “Looking for Richard” is out and it is a 3:45 hrs show.  Incredible, I may watch it on Sunday instead.

And I began to like talk show.  NBC – Jay Leno.  I just enjoy it so much.  Maybe I begin to grow up!

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I Cried Watching Phenomenon

And another down day.  Work was shit.  From knowledge transfer down to ordinary bug fix down to serving the users.  Yesterday I was complaining that someone should help me with all the bug fix as part of the knowledge transfer.  Today I was complaining that I shouldn’t be doing something that what the technical team should be doing.

And guess what?  Yesterday I phoned JP and she was not at home.  Her mum joked to me that she was having “fun” outside.  I phoned her at the office and her colleague told me that “she is meeting someone”.  I phoned her once at home and she was not in at 8 pm.  Then I phoned again at 10 pm and she was not in either.  So what happened to her?  I don’t know.  But one thing for sure is that I am feeling damn shit.

And with all these shit, I decided to quite smoking.  I was a tough experience once again. I was struggling throughout the whole afternoon as I couldn’t find JP.  But I didn’t give in.  It is a tough battle and I am fighting for my life!  I have always a great survivor and I have decided firmly that I have to quit this bad habit once and for all.

Only one thing that made me happy tonight was that they have changed the Pay TV program.  And I watched “Phenomenon”. That made me cried. Remember “George Malley”?

Just a few quotes from the show.

“Would u love me for the rest of my life?
 No, you don’t love me for the rest of mine.”

“U came here to die, didn’t u ?”

“Everything is on its way to somewhere.”

“And you have to listen to me now, it’s happening. It’s gonna be okay .. It’s okay .. Goodbye honey.”

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Diary From the Attic

Nothing Medoc Cannot Fixes

Must be the lack of nicotine nowadays, I became very “bitchy”.  Seen to me everyone began to get scared of me.  I don’t know.  The stress began to build up and when I look at the list of outstanding SIR, I really wonder what am I doing and would I be better off doing something else.  The politics involved in a bank is just, intolerable.

The only thing that made me happy tonight was a very good meal.  French one.  Had the wine “Medoc”, and that is the one I have trying to look for, for so long ! Shell fish soup and rabbit for main course.  Usually I don’t like chocolate moss but I loved the one from this restaurant.  Even the tea was great (Earl Gray).

Last night I was chatting with this lady called “Hope”.  She was kind of popular as all the guys paged for her. But she said I was different as I didn’t talk about sex at all.  Well, I am a very decent boy, am I not ? 

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A Hundred-Dollar Dinner Paid For

Time Report !  Last night I spent hours filling up the time report and this morning, I still found one mistake somewhere.  As usual, I went down to the secretary area to fax my stuffs back to the office.  Somehow I entered the wrong number and didn’t know what to do (French Fax Machine).  The secretary helped me out and according to Claude, he told me that the secretary found me charming.  Charming ?!

Been a very bad day today. Too much work and too much politics. I really want to go home.

In contrast, my dinner was the best.  It cost Societe Generale  SGD 100.00 and I think I well deserve this.  I had my crab as started.  Truly awesome and I loved it.  Then a fish main course.  And that was the best piece of fish I have ever tasted in Paris so far!  Dessert was great as well.

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More Online Chat

Today, I was so tired.  Must be not enough sleep.  Right at the morning, JP told me that she has decided to throw the whole idea of apply for a condo.  I was quite disappointed as I thought we could get married sooner but all this kind of thing is decided by fate.  I respect her decision and I phoned her up later on to make it up.

One of the new hired Michel, he is definitely not dumb.  He constantly challenge me but in the end, we became very humble, and listened to what others want to say.  I guess that is mutual respect that I have to learn.

My pair of shoes was really gone tonight.  Lucky I went into Marks & Spencer and found one similar one.  Still remember that day that the guy told me that this pair would last for 2 years.  What a lie !

Chat line again.  What else.  And now is 3 am in the morning.  This is getting worst.  Self Control !  Using the nickname “GoodBoy” definitely attracted a lot of very young girls.  One called “NIKE GIRL” and actually were Megan (13) and her sister (11).  They actually called Bill Clinton a “dumb ass”.  What a surprise.  And the last one was called “cutie”, studied in London doing investment management school.  Apparent she (21-born in Iraqi) was very depressed and I don’t think I have done anything value added.