The Angelinesque Project: Day 7

There is this person in my current company whom I have thought of as cute when I was still working in my previous company. Actually, I find him quite unconventionally and uncharacteristically hot now with the benefit of hindsight (thanks to goggle).

Our paths have been crossing rather randomly since I started work here. But I have to admit I do nurse a secret thrill when we talk on the phone and he starts going off-tangent - he’s weirdly naggy and repetitive, but I like his twang and accent – or when I bump into him at corridors.

Encounters - such as his sliding into the seat next to mine and us chatting for a good half hour while we were at the same dry run for a show - are haphazard moments that I treasure in the usual silly crush fashion; even though I remember nothing of our exchange except that he has perfect eyesight and he can be self-deprecating in a manner I find totally charming.

I even don’t mind going home late from work because he usually ends late. We happened to meet one night around 10pm on the same stretch of road and ended up walking together to the station. And I will forever kick myself because at that critical crossroad point, at which he casually said he need to grab dinner from the mall first, I did not offer my company. I said bye all too coolly. Ah.

Today, I had my cheap thrill. Those of you on my FB might have noticed my status update. The ridiculously cheap kind, which I can’t say ‘cos he’s on my FB too.

Yes, reader, I got my high from being in extremely close physical proximity with my work crush. Yay!

How close? For some unfathomable reason, his workstation is the size of a cupboard complete with a door and no windows. It’s like your average storeroom. And the door automatically shuts close. So it fits one person just fine. But it becomes too close for comfort (complete violation of private space) and claustrophobic when there are two of us.

So work crush was supposed to have already prepared a CD for my collection. But when I arrived, somehow it wasn’t done yet. Hence, I was half-in and half-out of his room out of modesty and basic respect, waiting, waiting. Then suddenly another male colleague said excuse me and I moved inside while the new third party stood in my original position and started yakking about urgent stuff. When the third party moved out, the door closed in. Then there was just work crush and I, in the cupboard that was supposed to be a workstation, for the next 5 minutes while he burnt the DVD for me. Sexy huh.

And I end the story of my cheap thrill for the day.

Feeling bouncy and bimbotic :)

The Angelinesque Project: Day 5 & 6

You don’t have to earn big bucks for me. Just enough to beat the market and inflation in the long run. To achieve capital appreciation would be what I considered a basic expectation, especially when I was prepared to wait it out. And I have believed that you can retain my trust in you and sustain our friendship over the money course.

You and I both know that you are not a particularly slick, or smart, or savvy FA. But I like your core qualities that have been with you since schooldays: you are meticulous, industrious and driven with integrity. So I am comfortable with handing money over for your safekeeping. But not before as I have stressed then since, many times, and even till now: Money is money. Friendship is friendship. Work is work. I have my expectations of an FA and you know that too.

But you are slacking up, madam. The straw that proved too heavy to hold up whatever goodwill left was cast this morning:

So I had decided to top up my premiums in an investment-linked policy. I asked you if there were surcharges such as administrative and broker fees. You said no: it will be 100% invested. I asked again, rightly skeptical, only to hear your repeated confident reply.

Obviously, you can imagine my shock and anger from a growing sense of betrayal when the letter came in and I was notified that there would be a 45% deduction from the invested sum in the first year.

I called you and you expressed surprise too and said you would check.

A few days passed and I had to chase you for the answer.

Eventually you write it off as a miscommunication, which I sternly refuted. This is a genuine mistake on your part. I can only condemn it, not make excuses like the rest of other times.

You asked me what I want to do. I asked you in turn what last words you have on the case.

There was silence.

So this morning, I logged on to my account. The 45% deduction from the invested sum had already taken place.

Is it too much for you to tell me even this? That it will be deducted as a single lump sum?

What happened to the meticulous and industrious nature of your being?

I don’t think you are out to cheat me of my money. But you have not earned the right to benefit from my investments.

I have called up the investment company this morning to register my displeasure.

Should I call you to warn that there will be a review and investigation?

No, I shouldn’t. Money is money. Friendship is friendship. Work is work. I have given you many, many chances to prove yourself - which I still will - and many, many opportunities to redeem and clarify yourself - which you haven’t - and I need to put my foot down somewhere down while navigating this money course.

You get 30% of this 45% deduction of sum invested. I’m gonna make sure either your company pays for the 45% deduction in full or your company doesn’t get a single cent from the premiums this time.

The Angelinesque Project: Day 4

I am blogging with my mobile phone while lying on the bed and applying a relaxing face mask at the same time. Talk about multi-tasking.

Today I thought about the future and decided it's time to review and rewrite my resume. Time to start shopping within the communications industry. I can be better and faster but you cannot demand for cheaper. Try asking Chanel and Hermes to lower prices. There are reasons why they are never within the price range of Coach and people still snap them up or starve in hopes of saving enough for them one day. We do pay premium rates for quality, branding and class. And I am so falling asleep...

The Angelinesque Project: Day 3

Will the quest to improve my life and up the happiness quotient end up in my blogging about the 365 or so items I have bought by the end of one year? Perhaps. I am just as inclined to throw away the stuff I have been hoarding for all kinds of excuses and excesses and be pleased with it. So really. Anything goes. Why be so hard on myself. Discipline can come in other forms. I rarely do buys and make friends on impulse already.

So yesterday, I went to reserve the eyewear I have been, erm, eyeing at since the day before. I am likely to buy it today instead of prolonging the wait out of faked prudence, false modesty and that sort of nonsense – I really want it! I also ended up with a long green sweater ($29.90, down from the original $49.90) from Uniqlo that I find perfect for my autumn trip to Japan that is taking place very, very soon.

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I love Japan and what it means to me. It represents my inherent goodness, independence and my ability to survive, with or without. Yes, I am totally aware of the irony that I am a most major consumer there. Ha. But. It gives me great pleasure to carry out research and bask in the literary revelation of its history and then, pure joy when I am there in person.

There, I shake off my Singaporean-ness and stop being calculative and comparative about every aspect of my life. There, I am freed from my own pettiness and the compulsion to be somebody, to prove something to myself. There, there is no daily emo baggage to deter, distract and determine my life; just heavier luggage weeks later which is a matter easily resolved (and disposed of). I feel clean in Japan. Genteel and refined. And I can really believe in leading a simple life over there. But here in Singapore – don’t get me started. Hell, I am living vulgar here and still seemingly the perpetual (I haven’t used this phrase for the longest time) walking quarter-life crisis past its expiry date.

Maybe the second trip to Japan this year is all I need to keep myself reasonably sane and happy for the first quarter of 2010 at least. The more I return to Japan (fourth time since 2007), the more diminishing the marginal utility: though in this case, it means the country not of my origins is really growing on me. I want to stay there longer and more frequently.

The Angelinesque Project: Day 2

On an average workday, it is almost impossible to run any errands, be it the productive kind or the purchasing sort, so I guard weekends zealously. Which usually means all those movies-and plays-to-catch; friends-to-meet activities hog the top spot on my to-do list and crunch up “me” time (and I seriously mean ME ONLY time) big time, and I am left scrambling for scraps of alone-ness to fit in individual segments independent of friends and family.

I decide to be generous to my physical self today and scrap emofeeding my soul for once (I had in the last three days, caught 4 inspirational movies, and even that can be too much for a literary and pop culture snob). So I am off for a hair spa, to think and put out empty, replenishing some household products and maybe treat myself to a fashionable pair of glasses and a uniquely designed LBD. Yes, I shop better when I do not have company. Better luck too. Oh, and if time should permit, we can throw in a massage too.

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On a separate note, is it the norm to cab your way to anywhere these days? I confess I cab to work almost everyday now. It makes me feel ready and happy for work, as I emerged calm and collected with no flyaway hair. I cab every weekend too, to town and heading home. I am convinced it is a good investment: I am buying time and convenience. I no longer experience MRT rage and surely, that is a good thing. Others see it as squandering the cash; I see no purpose in squirreling away these dollars in my current life circumstance. It is necessary and it is not evil. Best Friend affirms the theory and practice, and I feel validated as it is.