let down your hair not your guard

it's christmas eve.

so it was a short day at work. there were tons of mails to clear since i just came back from my kl trip break. easily 100 mails.

we had to leave office by 11am, so that gave me like what? 1.5 minutes per mail. to read the chains of events, work out the technical consequences, to plan action etc etc.

not enough time. so i just sorted them out to appropriate folders based on issues. kiv.

barely able to clear half, there was request for the weekly report. damn. it normally takes me almost a day to complete but today i had (looked at watch) less than 1.5 hours.

i'm not boasting or anything but in the end i managed to complete it anyway. i was actually proud of myself. it just showed that if we put our mind to it, our potential is limitless.

only that i'm not sure i could use last week's remarks on this week's report like that everytime.

oh well. the point is, i managed to pack and leave on time for our christmas lunch celebration.

the grand copthorne waterfront

this year our bosses selected the grand copthorne waterfront hotel.

it's traditionally the bosses' treat. they should, considering how we were enslaved the whole year.

assuming $50 per head for this lunch, it's only like 19 cents per person per day for each day they sit on the throne holding the whip. pretty good deal i must say.




as usual, we had our buffet spread. i think i ate like one whole salmon, both sushi and sashimi. i just love salmon. if i had my ways, the salmon population could go extinct before 2010.

then there were games that the hired MC asked us to do in groups. you know those games that they always do in team building activities to promote better teamworks. it sounded lame when i write it down here but it was still fun doing it. more fun than normal working days that's for sure.

here's the christmas gift that i got from the 5 dollars gift exchange.

honestly i don't think that's 5 dollars. i checked the expiry date but there wasn't any. neither were there any sign of fraud, shoplifting or even abnormal radition.

it was a genuinely over-the-value gift. wow nice people do exist!

at night, i went down to orchard road. i always think orchard road is the place to be on christmas eve, or even the nights leading to the eve. apart from the light-ups, there were street stunts, elegant choirs, harmonic acapella groups and bands on every corner making strolling along the walkway a totally different experience. love is thick in the air.

nothing beats the eve night though. even if it means expressing your love by harassing strangers with party snow spray. in a place like singapore where even a 2-seconds glance could imprint 'stalker' on your forehead, gesture like this at the very least shows acceptance to other people's presence. which is totally a good thing it's almost a culture revolution.

....

people started fooling around even an hour before midnight. because we don't have any weapon yet for defense, we walked carefully to avoid unwanted confrontation, snapping photos once in awhile because god forbid, we didn't want to look like tourist. they were already almost half the crowd.

this lady on the left was obviously in full party mode.


well i am too once i got my cans...





this guy had the answer for those assaults coming his way.

or so we thought, and i bet he thought so as well at first. because this apparently even prompted the crowd to attack him even more.

wrong move man.