The Opera Populaire

When you are frustrated career-wise, your entire attitude becomes one closely resembling a hermit crab. You don't bother performing on the job. You feel like shouting everytime a certain Her Wickedness makes her presence felt. You slither away, hoping to go unnoticed everytime you pass by "neutral" colleagues, not bothering to establish long-lasting relationship.

But the one person impossible to run away from: the cleaning aunty. I had seen a change of 3 aunties in this 1 short year I'm here. Each with her own quirks. But the 2 newest ones are the strangest by far. Lets skip the competitive one who used to work for Jap family. The current one is making me wonder if friendliness towards the underclass pays. Not that she was mean, no, far from it. She errs towards friendliness, esp towards me in fact.

2 weeks or so ago, when 2 of my colleagues were not in office, she sat down and talked to me for an hour or so. The next week, she actually appeared eager to continue further conversation when she saw that my colleague was back in office. Thank goodness, I thought secretly. She whispered stuff to me as she came sweeping my side of the room, mostly repetition of what was previously talked about. Then, the cleaning aunties must have gotten told off by someone higher up because she apologised for having talked for so long. And things were peaceful for a few days.

But today, it started again. "You will only be here another 2 months?" (I told you before, auntie, yes) "Will miss you. We miss everyone who has left, used as we are to you all." (But we barely know each other) "Are you happy here?" (I told you before, nope) All repetitions again.

My biggest fault in life is being an anti-socialite. I'm not born with good EQ and neither do I crave human companionship as much as I know some people do. I'm particularly bad with people not from my age group. Children: attention-deficit and I'm scarred by a child specialist telling me that my low voice potentially scare children during a supposed job interview long ago. Those in my parents' generation: incredibly bossy, with the pervasive "I had eaten more salt than you have rice" attitude. Old folks: naggy, thinks too much about minutae and some cannot get past their dialects.

Ever since finding out that I am a task-based personality, I experience a sort of freedom. Sometimes it should not matter what people thinks.

Yet, it should be a happy affair, right, to know that someone in this world will miss you, insignificant as you are in the eyes of everybody else in the organisation. I need to learn to be more patient with long-windedness...I'm particularly abhorrent of...may I say lesser-educated people who tend to make their point by repeating it again and again and are deficient language-wise to phrase it differently.

Oh well. On a brighter note, it's Fri and that means the end of the work week is clicking closer by the minute.

Labels: Saya Affairs

I had decided, after reading numerous blogs, fashion, current affairs etc, that this blog's template is simply a disaster. Does everyone like this new one better?

As you can see it is reflecting my penchant for long-lasting classics that is fuss-free and shines in its simplicity.

Labels: Saya Affairs

(Source:MBRAS.org)

I just borrowed this. Perhaps to try to savor that last bit of "freedom" of: access to one of the best libraries in SEA, relatively better working hours. Perhaps out of that desire to find out my destiny as I near the end of my contract. Trying to remember Prof. Ileto's "scholar-activism." Can there be such a thing here, in this tiny red dot? More than a month after the most exciting GE that I could ever remember, news show that the spirit of change seems non-existent. $880,000 for a HDB flat in a remote location. Price hastily reduced after public uproar. Playing about with words and terms. King Solomon got it so right when he said there is nothing new under the sun.

Labels: Random

(Source:Denimology.com)

Another ramble on style.

Most girls in this age cannot live without their jeans. Many, on those casual off-days, prefer to be decked in just "jeans and tee shirt." It is a wardrobe staple for EVERYBODY. Teenagers, university/ poly students, office ladies on days off. Name me someone (other than your granny, perhaps, who don't own at least a pair in her closet).

Well, here's a shocker.

I'm not a fan of jeans. Yup, you heard me right. Nope. Nada.

But some of you, who had seen me in uni, esp recently, may swear that I live in them. Yes. And I do own a few (okay, many) pairs. But I notice that the moment I'm thrown back into the working world, my desire for them instantly diminishes. If you ask Hubs, who met me after I graduated, he would tell you that I never saw me as a jeans/pants person before I started my MA. Somehow, I gravitate towards skirts and dresses on an everyday corporate basis. And on weekends, I prefer shorts or mini skirts and dresses, seldom jeans.

For instance, I'm wearing one now, a J Brand 12-inch pencil leg that I bought on ebay 2 years ago. It's very much like the pairs above. I tell myself, Fridays are casual days; it is only polite to wear long-legged jeans in dark wash with a smart casual top to still have that air of corporate vibe, but yet less dressed up than the other days of the week. But it is already starting to wear me down, pulling uncomfortably at my thighs etc. The same thing happened a few days ago, when I wore a pair of Zara pants to work. On the contrary, the day go past easier whenever I'm in my skirts or dresses.

Labels: Style

(Source: Hardwarezone)

Hubs and I bought this during the recent Tangs 12% rebate sale day and have been exploring its endless functions. FYI, this is a microwave, convection oven and grill, steamer etc all in one. For $300++, this seemed to us a very good deal. A church friend recommended this to us. It was $700 when she bought it 7 years ago. You can see how good an electronic product is when it has been in the market so long.

So far, we had made: baked pasta (success!), banana cake (success, but we need to buy a smaller baking pan), roast chicken wings (it has an Auto function specially for this...not bad except that it was programmed for whole chicken and we removed it a little late, resulting in a dry, though edible chicken, shepherd's pie (success!!! but I could have made smaller portion...it's hard to cook for 2 ppl hehe...and oh, I stumbled upon the BEST mashed potato recipe in the process).

Cooking is therapeutic, Raine once said. It's true...takes my mind off various worries that have been plaguing me for 2 years now and probably less expensive than retail therapy. So our awful Cornell toaster can finally be retired.

Labels: Saya Affairs

(Source: Jak & Jil blog)

On that personal, achievable style: I would say this is quite "me." Love black & white combo, jackets and black frilly skirt since long ago. Too bad the weather here usually does not permit layering; even cotton cardigans can bee too stifling these days. Still on the lookout for that perfect shirt and black frilly skirt.

Labels: Style