My official first day of work at my new office began with a 15 minutes drive from the city to Changi after dropping Cynthia off for work, which is not bad consider all things. Singapore is a small country. Distance is often measured by the number of traffic lights and junctions between the starting point and the destination. Unless you need to travel to and fro between Jurong and Changi – the two extreme ends of the west and of the east – or your destination is somewhere in the north called Woodland, time spent on the highways is often dwarfed by the stop-and-go on the small roads.
I choose exit 1 of East Coast Parkway to enter into Changi Business Park for this very reason – to minimize the number of traffic lights and junctions down to one. A little bit longer in distance but it is time saving, I reckon. Hypothetically speaking, if I was to miss the exit, I would end up in Changi Airport. Too bad. Our airport has little vegetarian dinning options. It would have been a decent hangout place for lunch. The malls, the pinnacle of our civilizations, the monuments of our modernity.
Away from town comes the benefit of open blue sky and the greenery. There is a manmade lake in the middle of the business park, a fountain in the middle of the lake, and center to this commercial establishment is “The Signature”. Opposite “The Signature” is my new office. A six-story high building awarded with an environmental green label. No, there are not enough parking slots for the staffs, as part of the deal. Going green means discouraging people from driving that in turn encouraging the same group of people to park a few blocks away, at the not very green buildings. And hence, in support of my company’s green initiative, I park two blocks away. A lovely 5 minutes walk, which is not bad.
Hot desk concept in most offices comes with the daily ritual of kneeing underneath the table, with our asses up in the air, crawling through the dirty carpet to plug our laptops into the mains, to find the network cables. Even as a guy, I feel embarrassed doing this. How a girl would feel, I wonder. Some offices have evolved into concealing the power and network supply inside the table top or by the cubicle wall. Still, it is often a mess trying to plug and pull the cables every day.
Pleasantly surprised I was on my first day at my new office to see the power supply at my arm’s length on my table. No more bending. No more having my ass up in the air. I was delighted to see the endless supply of green tea bags at the open pantry too. And a coffee machine with a bean grinder that I need to figure out how to use it. Day one, I could not find the water dispenser. One friendly colleague showed me that one of the faucets dispenses both hot and chilled filtered water. Not to be confused with the faucet for washing only. Day two, I noticed that there is a LED indicator on that special faucet that lights up when it is time to change the filter.
Friendly familiar faces, unfamiliar names. So many of us in this building. I think we need to wear name tags to work. I work on the third floor, the canteen is on the sixth floor. No more the need to get out of my office building for food. Less the pollution and direct sunlight, I reckon I will have better skin in the long run. At the India vegetarian counter, the friendly staff asked if I am a vegetarian. Perhaps it is uncommon to see a Chinese eating only vegetable. She said it is good for me. I think it is good for her too as her stall is the only vegetarian stall in the entire building. Oh yes. She will see me 225 days a year.
My official first day of work at my new office ended with a 5 minutes walk from my “green” building to my car park. I have spotted a small yellow butterfly dancing in between the green bushes. I stopped and admired a piece of nature that is considered as rare when one works in town. Consider all things, this is not bad.