Jack Frost visits

A hurdle crossed. Another awaits.

I woke up to a lovely morning, with warm sunrays streaming into our pad. Only to find Jack Frost has left his prints of frosty crystal patterns on the car windows.

Which means very soon his infamous prints will be found on the streets.

Great.

Anyone care for a sleigh ride in a car?

I was in a fog

6:30am. Outside, it was as dark as the night. With a dense fog enveloping the suburb.

I warmed up the engine and waited for the fogged up windows to clear.

I drove off. There was a constant urge to wipe the blurred windscreen clean. Of course it had nothing to do with the windscreen. The visibility outside was very low.

Everywhere was hazy despite the street lights and car lights. How harzardous it was to drive in such conditions.

And a rather heavy traffic already at this hour did not make things any easier.

In spite of the biting chill, there were some who chose to cycle to work in a foggy weather like this. They certainly added challenge to my driving.

I wondered briefly if they cycled to keep fit or to save on transport cost. Surely, taking a bus is not that expensive and much more comfortable.

As I pulled into the carpark at the workplace, I was finally able to sit back and relax and heaved a sigh of relief.

Phew! A hurdle crossed.

His middle name is Control Freak

The media is relentless in its reports of the financial crisis. Headlines of a looming recession are on every press and every news channel. Every single day and hour.

It does nothing but unsettle the common folks. And they actually try to take advantage of such uneasiness.

A meeting was called for in the early week. The main agenda was to address the imminent crisis and how we can hinder the possible decrease in sales.

Shortly into the meeting, the topic was steered towards some other mundane problems. They rattled on and on.

My patience was wearing thin since these problems did not concern me. I asked if I was needed in the meeting. You see, I had better things to do than listening to these thrashing out. My request to leave was being turned down however.

Two and a half hours later, we left the room with no concrete plans or solutions whatsoever to the anticipated problems on the agenda.

What a perfect waste of time.

One thing they did achieve though. To instil fear in us. So that we would work harder and longer in order to secure our jobs in the company. With a recession, retrenchment will be on the cards.

My young colleague was totally out of sorts and fidgeted during the rest of the day. Till she went to clarify with one of them if her job is safe. It is. She is assured.

Devious scheme, I call it. Instead of ensuring a sense of security in the company, they rather have us operating in fear and panic. Just so to generate results. These results, if any, will not be long-lasting, I am very certain. Because no one can perform productively for long under the dictationship of fear.

Shortsightedness? Oh yes, it is in abundance over here.

And then they went on to hire 2 new staffs.

I don't understand these people.

While dusting our crib

Saturday. A day which we sometimes allocate for dusting our crib.

Mr R was cleaning the glass coffee table with a clean rag. Afterwards, he proceeded to the store room with the rag and I didn't see him coming out with it.

Me asked pointly: Where is the rag you used to clean the table? You put it back???!!!
Mr R: Well, it's not as if it is very dirty...
Me: NOT VERY DIRTY??!!! Hello?? The table was dusty and fingerprints were all over! And you used detergent too! Please, put it away. Thank you very much.

I sighed loudly and rolled my eyes at him.

He often whines to friends that ever since I moved in, I repeatedly pick on his ways of housekeeping.

Please tell me how not to when his idea of keeping our pad neat and tidy is to bring a used rag back to the stack of clean ones. Now you see I have all the reasons to do so.

Men! You can never trust them to do a woman's job!

A special knack for language

In the midst of a telephone conversation with a Japanese one day:

Hoonie: Oh, by the way, I didn't get your name?
Japanese: I am Watanabe (pronounced as Wa-ta-na-bee and he went on to spell it for me).
Hoonie (subconsciously): Mr Wata-nabey... Okay, I will drop you an email and let's keep in touch, Mr Wata-nabey! Goodbye.

I burst out laughing after I hung up. How did I even manage to sound so crude in this neat language? I am such a bloody chow ah lian.

Living in a material world

I take comfort in my worldly possessions. Perhaps it's got to do with me being an earth sign who, at their worst, are highly materialistic. I am not ashamed to admit there is some truth in it. Well, let's face it, who isn't in this time and age?

I do not fear being labelled as shallow and superficial just because I pay more attention to my physical well-being and material things. The state of my intellectual and spiritual well-being is only reserved for close ones.

Anyhow.

I recently got hold of an item which I truly heart. Even though it's an unintended buy. Murphy's law came into play that day since the very thing I was searching high and low for was in nonexistence. Bloody typical.

Nonetheless, the newly acquired article makes up for it. Each peep of it fills me with great glee and I can't wait to put it on.

Clothes make the man.
Naked people have little or no influence on society.
- Mark Twain