Chronicles of a Discoverer...: 11/05/2006

Source: http://www.hancinema.net/korean_movie_The_Way_Home.php

Simple, Genuine, Caring and Good Natured Old Lady
Managed to catch a bit of the korean movie, The Way Home, yesterday on TV. Even though I only caught just the last part of the movie, it was enough to touch me and remind me of my grand mother again... the old lady in the movie look so much like my grandmother. My memory of her is this simple, genuine, caring and good natured old lady. Grandma, I really miss you...

Decided to buy the VCD today but then went to 2 shops and was told the VCD is out of stock. Oh well, never mind, will go on hunting for it :)

Drama @ Causeway
My department colleagues and I went on a little getaway to Austin Hills in Johor last Saturday and Sunday. The trip was enjoyable and if not for the little drama at the causeway, it would have been rather perfect.

Austin Hills is this big big golf resort in Johor Bahru, just some 30 mins drive from Woodlands checkpoint; everything there is in epic proportions. The rooms were horrendously big; close to 2-2.5 times the size of a normal hotel room. In fact, it is so big, it had 2 sets of chairs and tables, one bed, one shower room, two toilets, one jacuzzi with a TV overhead, it looks more like an apartment.

At night, when we went for KTV, the smallest KTV "room" was also about 1-1.5 times the size of our HDB living room. All in all, I spent S$85 for:

one night's stay in the horrendously big room
ala-carte lunch at the resort's cafe
buffet dinner and breakfast
sumputous 5-course lunch at JUSCO
5 secret recipes cheesecake (half the price in Singapore)
2 bowling sessions
1 KTV session

Well worth it!

The problem really lies with the checkpoint and I am really quite surprised at the kind of "can't be bothered" work attitude of the immigration officers there. On Saturday morning when we drove into JB, we stopped at the Malaysian checkpoint. Those of you who knows the Malaysian checkpoint after Woodlands will know that they have the immigrations and toll counters just next to each other.

Since my colleague was driving into JB the first time, he didn't really know which was which and accidentally handed the toll money to the immigrations counter. The officer pointed to the next counter and then kept quiet (his face just look super sian). But then he did not ask for our passports. Then someone came and he stood up from the counter!

Once we paid our tolls, we drove forward and sensed something was amiss since our passport was not stamped. So we stopped the car and one of my colleagues went back to ask the officer. He retorted back that we did not give him our passport. We made a mistake of maybe being blur but I am frankly quite surprised at his "bo-chap" attitude. Seems "chopping passport" in Malaysia is optional (or are we in the pilot group for the passport-free zone thingy they just announced a few days ago). Apparently, our other colleagues' car behind also kena the same thing.

Then, when we were making our way back to Singapore, we apparently made our way through the customs without stamping the passport AGAIN. It seems that one of the lanes was not operating but cars were nonetheless allowed in. It seems like quite a number of cars were affected because we saw a few cars in front and behind us just driving past the counter without stopping and given the heavy traffic, we were just "pushed along". Turned out that the next day on Monday, we had to ALL (including the children) return to the checkpoint. So, ALL of us (leaving only two in the office) had to apply urgent leave to return to JB customs to have our passport stamped. Thank God everything went on fine and in just about 20 minutes (this got to be the shortest trip to JB), we were back in Singapore.

Although this little drama has caused a bit of inconvenience and have made our getaway slightly less than perfect, many of my colleagues also said that it was a blessing in disguise; one of them had to cancel a work trip to Malaysia because of this and because she is in Singapore, she could help take care of her mum while her sister goes for her company function. Initially, the work trip had 4 persons on it but the apartment in Malaysia could only take 3 so now that she pulled out, the last person did not have to find alternative accomodations. This little inconvenience had also gave another of my colleague some extra time to study for his exams and also for me to rest after an eventful weekend.

Thanksgiving
I want to thank God for his blessings and for giving me the opportunity to develop in my work. Favour #1: Just this week, I had 2 job offers; one to go back to my old workplace and one from a hospital. My ex-colleague called and asked if I was considering to go back... Mentioned that someone in the committee is hoping I will consider going back. Frankly, I would want to go back to work with my ex-colleague but then highly unlikely I will go back because my employment history now shows that I do not stay in a place more than 1.5 years so I can't leave now. Anyway, it would be irresponsible for me to leave now given that my volunteer programme is only starting to develop. Upon hearing that, my ex-colleague was rather disappointed but felt that she would one day hope to be able to persuade me to go back.

Favour #2: I was also asked to do some sharing on how I manage volunteers to a group of leaders outside my organisation despite me being just a year old in the job. Favour #3: Earlier, I was also asked to write an article on volunteer management for a non-profit magazine. I thank God for all the favours and continue to pray I won't become complacent and proud.

Training in Shenton Way
On Wednesday evening, I was suddenly asked by my boss to attend a briefing and training session on the next day and on Friday. As I made my way to the training, I can't help feeling a little scared walking in the Central Business District. There's people everywhere, walking in all different directions. In fact, it looks more crowded than town on a weekend and I felt so much drowned within the peak-hour crowd.

The training and briefing was really information-overload... but from this training, I learnt lessons about training. For example, I realised the importance of giving participants ample time to complete their group discussions and to give ample warning as time runs out for discussion. For one discussion, my group got so excited and engrossed in a discussion and can't wait to present but then the trainer just stopped the discussion and took over without giving chance for the groups to present their work, this was really disappointing. I also learnt that it is important to have trainers designated to deliver sections rather than to have other trainers interrupting every now and then to also add in their inputs... can get rather confusing for trainees.