After the Festivities...

16th February 2006, Thursday

It's time to get down to work after the 3 months long of festivities from X'mas to New Year to Chinese New Year and finally Valentine's....

From March to perhaps August, holidays are few and far in between and would be a great time to start getting to gear for the next work year (which starts in 1st April) and the performance bonus in mid April surely is a vivid indication of how your company values your presence...
Last year was a bonanza and if it could be repeated this year (Dua Bek Kong..Poh Hor ah!!), I would be blissed with extra money to help me in my sacred project at the end of the year.
If not at least I am expecting that amount that justified my work performance over the past year or at least what my supervisor has put in my well-decorated appraisal.
Then again I am working under a dictatorship of an Old Hag who deems us laboratory biologists as "dispensable"..not happy with the renumeration package can always find greener pastures without consideration of all the hard work and contributions we had put in over the years..
Sigh..morale is low as it is shared among every single person here as I had overheard during lunch 2 days back from a lab whose staff I had always thought are leading a jovial life at work..obviously I was wrong...
Let's not make this another rant session on how poor my company is when comes to reward its staff...
As my motto goes by:

I'll work the amount I am been paid; nothing more nothing less.

If you had been an ardent reader of my blog (you must be really bored or void of sanity to do so anyway), you would know I treasured "time" and "money" dearly above everything else.

Been a miser, the latter has always been a bane that put me in endless douldrums as I always tried to budget everything with that measley pay of mine...
Like others I would love to live the high life and buy all the goodies I want but I hard to dug deep especially recently it seemed like I had been splurging indiscrimately on my toys collection when I should maintain that shoe string budget and the V-day celebration was a good $30 above my originated budget; not to forget 2 unplanned lunch session with my colleagues for the departures of YM, Lance etc over the past weeks.
I had not set extra cash for such "impromptu" indulgence for the 1st 2 months of this year so I was glad to have some "Ang Pow" money as well as the returned investment money for our failed T-shirt venture (which has yet to arrive by the way).

It seems like the wedding bill is mounting which is why I am hoping my lass would be more stringent with her spending habits and help me out financially in certain aspects, though that drew frowns from my mom who think I am totally insensitive over it...well as long as we both are happy, I guess I could ignore what others think...

On the flip side, my education loan is coming to an end by June which was planned but it sure was soothing to see the loan sum decimated to nothing on my bank accounts...

By the way, Chan and the La Tendo gang should be setting foot at Kansai Airport anytime soon after a wee hour flight.
I was green with envy of course despite I had been to the Land of the Rising Sun for more than a single hand of fingers could count; but I was sore about not enjoying the low exchange rate of 100 yen to only S$1.40...which had not been that low since a decade back...

However time is not a luxury of mine these days.
Seriously money lost can be earned back but lost time is almost irreplaceable...

Time is ticking down in front of me and the scheduled renovations plan need to be executed soon as planned...
Firstly finding the suitable contractor to hand the project to.
Of course we wanted something stylish yet durable because we had heard of heart-staking stories of people been ripped off from unscruplous contractor not adhering to what the customers wanted and worse still, had a famous Houdini escape act and left work to be done...
Which is why I am glad to have my parents who seemingly experienced with some contractor contacts and know-how while constant hounding by my lass sure urge me to get things done...
At the end of the day before everything is set and done, we had to be sure of every detail was well magnified and examined as one mishap I doubt I had that financial capability to overhaul the project...Fortunately we are only renovating 1 master bedroom, 2 toilets and a display shelf at the living room...I am sure Matthew would be sweating with 10 times more pressure with a house to be build from scratch....

Time is surely a hot asset which I had to handle with care... I must really plan what to do on my free time away from work with other hindering commitments like RT, I am down to my backbone with time remain to do things for my own satisfaction which is why I am thinking of time to save from even a trip to the bank to replace my ATM card....

I know people would despise the fact that I am not slogging as hard as I could when I am in my prime to earn a whole truckload of money to enjoy with an early retirement..but seriously how many viable cases exist at the end of the day...
I treasure a lot for time to spend for myself as well as my loved ones and friends; and I am sure I am living a life of content and happiness than most of my slogging peers...

So before I end, a word of wisdom from me...nay..not really but something to take note of time and again..
"Live Life to the Fullest!"

Japanese word of the day: 計画 (Planning) Takes a lot of ingenious to plan and save time; but of course spending less time on my blog could be one of the best way...