Idiots in the Office

Decided to blog on "Idiots in the office" coz I am sure we encounter similar situations at least once in our working life.

Notice 1:
If you happen to know the situations described below or know the people I am describing, please do not feel offended or upset about my post. I mean to share, not to upset.

Notice 2:
If you happen to be one of the Idiot I am talking about below...well, I guess you probably won't know that I am talking about you and therefore won't feel upset.

Notice 3:
If you happen to not understand what I have describe below...hmmm...I think you are probably the Idiot.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Boss asked A and B to destroy certain old documents by removing them from the files and tearing them into 2 before discarding.

A and B proceeded to tear the papers when I comes along and asked them what they are doing (I being a busybody aka KPO).

I: What are u two doing?
A & B: Tearing paper
I: Why?
A: Old documents, boss asked us to destroy and throw.
I: Why not use the shredder?
A: There are too many staplets (staple bullets...aiyah watever u call them) in there, if use shredder, it will spoil the machine.
I: Oh... (and I walks away)

Second Day...

A and B were still tearing the papers. I again came to them.

I: U all still tearing ah...I still think u should use the shredder.
A: Already told u, cannot use shredder because got too many staplets. It will take far more time to remove the staplets then to just tear. Anyway, Boss also told us to just tear into half and throw can already.
I: This too slow lah, use shredder faster.
A: Cannot la.
I: Ok but I think this is not the right way to destroy documents. Should shred them into pieces la.
A: Boss said can. U go tell her la.

A gives up explaining and I walks away.

Then, A was having lunch with C and telling her about this incident with I.

C: Oh, I also came to me and talked to me about that. He told me that the papers shouldnt be just torn into 2 parts and thrown because people can paste them back and that we should shred the papers instead.
A: I give up. Told him cannot shred already...got so many staplets.
C: Yah, and Boss was the one who said can tear into half. Boss also tear into half.
A: Yah, wat is wrong with him? Hard to understand wat we said?

Do you understand????

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A and I are engineers in the same company. Their work involves working with figures and solving equations in real life situations.

One day, A asked I to solve a mathematical equation that involves substitution. (Honestly I dont quite recall how to do substition but am sure I can work it out if given time.)

After a long time, I passed A wrong answer and A looked at him in frustration and told him that its wrong and asked I to find out where he went wrong.

Here is a simple explanation (which I came up with) showing the part where I has gone wrong:

Problem:
a/b + c/d = ?

I's Answer:
(a+c)/(b+d)


Got wats wrong? Lets just put some figures in...

The correct answer:
1/4 + 3/8 = 2/8 + 3/8 = 5/8


using I's Answer:
1/4 + 3/8 = (1+3)/(4+8) = 4/12 = 1/3


Gosh...this is primary maths....and I is an engineer.....and guess wat? Think he still dun get where he went wrong...

Hong Kong - 1 to 4 October 2008

Finally decided to start on this post detailing my Hong Kong trip early this month. The photos for my HK trip are much easier to arrange and edit coz there just werent many as compared to my firm's trip to Vietnam (I will post my Vietnam trip pics another day...just the pics.

About my HK trip...hmm...it wasnt as expected and I would have done everything differently if I can turn time around. Some of u my frens would have heard abt my trip (thanks for ur listening ears frens) but I shall keep it simple and just on wat I have seen, heard and tried in HK.

DAY 1
Reached our hotel in the afternoon and it was the nicest hotel I have stayed it. Wouldnt have expected less coz its a 5-star hotel which my fren, A insisted on - Intercontinental Grand Stanford Hotel 海景嘉福酒店.

Stay at the Intercontinental Grand Stanford Hotel 海景嘉福酒店


After unpacking, we took a walk in Tsim Sha Tsui 尖沙咀 heading towards Harbour City 海港城 direction, shopping a little along the way. Harbour City is a huge shopping building housing mostly big brands such as "Louis Vuitton", "Chanel" and etc...

There was a nice area outside the top of the building overseeing the harbour area.

View from Harbour City 海港城 in Tsim Sha Tsui 尖沙咀


Wanting to watch the Fireworks tat day scheduled for the National Day celebration in HK, we decided to loiter around in Tsim Sha Tsui near the Victoria Harbour.

I took a pic of the clock tower at the Victoria Harbour, recalling that I took pics of the clock towers in Perth and Gold Coast as well. ^_^

The Clock Tower


Then A recommended dinner at The Peninsula which is a rather posh hotel. We had Chinese food there which tasted quite good but different from our Singapore taste of Chinese food (aiyah, I dunno how to explain lah).

Doesnt the hotel look fabulous at night?

The Peninsula


Table setting in the Chinese restaurant is also pretty, with a cute gold plated 'Sailing Boat' chopsticks stand and a small pot of bamboo plants on every table.

Dinner at Chinese Restaurant in The Peninsula


After our dinner, we headed towards the Victoria Harbour for the Fireworks and found a HUGE crowd of people and local police officers setting up the road blocks when we exited the Peninsula.

We waited for an hour plus before the Fireworks started at 9pm. I am not much of a fan for fireworks but they do look grand 壮观.

However, I was a little disappointed that there werent many types of fireworks used there and only plenty of colours and noises came from the fireworks.

Fireworks at Victoria Harbour


Pics of the busy streets of Tsim Sha Tsui and a magnificent looking building.

Tsim Sha Tsui Streets at Night


And a pic of the Victoria Harbour from near our hotel.

View at Victoria Harbour



DAY 2
The 2nd day was our planned trip to Hong Kong Disneyland ("HKD") 香港迪士尼乐园.

As HKD is only open from 12noon, we woke up later and decided to go shopping at Tung Chung 东涌.

Upon exiting from the Tung Chung MTR station, A was attracted by the signages there introducing the Ngong Ping 360 Cable Car 昂坪缆车 and insisted on taking a ride.

The cable car ride was about 25 mins up the hill and another 25 mins down. They have a small village up there called the Ngong Ping Village 昂坪市集 where we found beautiful scenery, restaurants and cafes, some souvenirs shops and a Monkey's Tale Theatre.

We didnt however take the "Walking With Buddha" trail and took the cable car down after taking some pics and eating ice cream.

Ngong Ping 360 Cable Car Ride 昂坪缆车



Ngong Ping Village 昂坪市集 & The Giant Buddha 天坛大佛


It was already 3pm plus when we took the MTR to Sunny Bay 欣澳 station and change to the Disneyland Resort train.

Even the trains are different :)

Train Ride to Hong Kong Disneyland


HKD is really a dream come true for kids and an experience for adults to relive their childhood.

Even the entrance is cute! (hehe...I am cute too...see my chubby face -_ )

Entrance to Hong Kong Disneyland


Its October and they are celebrating Halloween in HKD.

Halloween @ Hong Kong Disneyland


Lots and lots of visitors at HKD.

Hong Kong Disneyland...busy busy busy...


Saw some really gorgeous castle models in one shop there.

Which do u think is the prettiest?

Castle Models


HKD is split into 3 parts after u walk past the Main Street: Tomorrowland, Adventureland and Fantasyland.

A and I only took some rides which were recommended by her cousin who had been to HKD.

Tomorrowland:
1. Space Mountain-Ghost Galaxy (an indoor roller coaster ride)
2. Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters (this one is fun, like being in the game urself shooting stuffs)

Fantasyland:
3. Mickey's PhilharMagic (a 3D adventure show...interesting)
4. Its A Small World (a ride around the world in minutes while the music for the song "Its a small world" keeps repeating over and over again)

Its A Small World




Adventureland
5. Jungle River Cruise (a guided boat ride...not really interesting..can give it a miss)

We didnt have much time to try out most rides and places but have concluded that HKD's rides are not as good nor exciting as those in Gold Coast (haha...the latter is famous for its theme parks anyway).

They had a parade along the streets in HKD at abt 6pm plus but we were busily shopping then so din take much notice of it.

The Fireworks at HKD started at 8pm in front of the Castle at the entrance of Fantasyland.

Only 1 word to describe their fireworks display:

WOW!

The previous fireworks I saw on my 1st day in HK cannot compare to this at all!

The fireworks in HKD even matches in tune with the loud music they broadcasted throughout HKD.

JUST MARVELLOUS!!!

Fireworks at Hong Kong Disneyland


Finale


Haha...I caught this pic at the end and doesnt it resembles a Spooky Castle? Suits the Halloween theme...

Spooky Castle???


As we left HKD at about 9pm, we had time to head down to the Ladies Market 女人街 for shopping.

Late Supper in a Cafe



DAY 3
The 3rd day was our shopping day followed by going to the Peak.

Woke up early and went for a "merry go round" trip in Hong Kong Island.

Firstly, we went to the Western Market (near Sheung Wan 上环) early, thinking maybe there are some interesting stuff but the shops were barely open.

Then we took a cab to SoHo 荷南美食区 which is a famous district for its wide selection of restaurants and cafes, thought we could have our brunch there. But atlas! The place was like a ghost town...think the restaurants and cafes mostly operate at night....boo hoo hoo...

Next was the Central 中环 district. Had a nice breakfast at a posh cafe in a posh shopping complex (forgot the names la!), did some shopping until it started to drizzle.

We took shelter from the rain in McDonalds and to my surprise they actually serve Pork Ribs Burgers there! McDonalds is not Halal worldwide?!

Went up to the Peak 太平山顶 at abt 3pm plus and it was foggy and still drizzling...not a good weather that day. See how foggy everything looks...and the cold winds were blowing straight at us....brrr....

The Peak 太平山顶


Visited the Madame Tussauds Hong Kong 香港杜莎夫人蜡像馆 at the Peak Tower. I have never been to any of Madame Tussauds Wax Museum before, so its interesting to see those lifelike models of famous people whom I recognize. Even saw our MM Lee Kuan Yew there...hehe...

Madame Tussauds 香港杜莎夫人蜡像馆


After loitering at the Peak for a few hours, we decided not to wait for sunset as the place was so foggy, it was impossible to see any lights from the buildings below at all. No beautiful night scenery for memory T_T

Took the tram down the Peak...there was all this hype abt the tram going up and down the hill at 45 degrees but it was really nothing...chey...

Tooks pics of some buildings including the City Hall in Central.

Interesting Zig Zag Building


City Hall


After we returned to Tsim Sha Tsui, A wanted to stay in the hotel to rest her feet, so I took a night stroll in the busy streets of Tsim Sha Tsui alone. ^_^

Nothing beats a nice stroll in parts of the world unknown to u and absorbing the sights, sounds and smell of the place.

I stopped at a cute Charlie Brown Cafe near our hotel for dinner. Had actually wanted to try one of the HK cafe to have some local delicacies but I ran out of HK$ and din want to change more currency.

No regrets...the Charlie Brown Cafe was cute and quiet (there was only 1 other customer when I entered but I think I brought in more customers...coz the place was full after that).

Charlie Brown Cafe


And I sat on a "Linus Van Pelt" table...reminds me of a certain Linus back home...haha....Goon!



DAY 4
Last day and our day of departure from HK. Our flight was in the afternoon so we stayed in and had our dim sum lunch in the Chinese restaurant at our hotel.

Had my first taste of Roasted Pigeon and it taste almost like spring chicken but the meat is smoother and Q. Only problem is that the dish is a bit salty for me. I love their Organic Glutinous Rice with Chicken "Lor Mai Kai" 糯米鸡 though. They used brown glutinous rice instead of the normal ones and its fragrance really came out with the lotus leaf that wraps the rice with the chicken chunks. Their egg tarts were really good too...soft and sweet. Felt out of place to take out my camera to take pics there...so too bad!


Its been 2 weeks since I returned to Singapore and am settled back into my life here real quickly. No nostalgic feeling for HK unlike my previous trips to Australia...normally I still feel out of place after a few weeks back in Singapore. Haha....

M.I.L.K Alert

With all the hype and attention on the "melamime" issue with milk products from China, people are fast staying away from consuming milk, anything tat contains milk or milk by-products.

I personally LOVE milk. I can finish a whole 1 litre packet of milk in a day easily, treating it as I would plain water.

It is only after I read the following article from an email a fren forwarded that I am having 2nd thoughts abt drinking milk (read below).

Some months back, I was drinking milk regularly...a packet of HL milk a day! In fact, I usually finish my daily packet of milk by early afternoon. Then after some time, I kept having these recurring chest pains in the late afternoons and/or evenings. It occurred to me tat I may have consumed a little bit more lactose than my body could take and tat was the reason I stopped tat daily milk consumption.

Come to think of it, maybe it wasnt just the lactose wearing my body down...maybe the other contents in the milk are also not good when I overconsume milk.

Ok, I should remind myself this "Everything should be in proportion". Of coz, this include the food we eat...


~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~

By Prof. Jane Plant, PhD, CBE ­ "Why I believe that giving up milk is the key to beating breast cancer..."

Extracted from Your Life in Your Hands, by Professor Jane Plant.

I had no alternative but to die or to try to find a cure for myself. I am a scientist - surely there was a rational explanation forthis cruel illness that affects one in 12 women in the UK?

I had suffered the loss of one breast, and undergone radiotherapy. I was now receiving painful chemotherapy, and had been seen by some of the country's most eminent specialists. But, deep down, I felt certain I was facing death. I had a loving husband, a beautiful home and two young children to care for. I desperately wanted to live.

Fortunately, this desire drove me to unearth the facts, some of which were known only to a handful of scientists at the time.

Anyone who has come into contact with breast cancer will know that certain risk factors - such as increasing age, early onset of womanhood, late onset of menopause and a family history of breast cancer - are completely out of our control. But there are many risk factors, which we can control easily.

These "controllable" risk factors readily translate into simple changes that we can all make in our day-to-day lives to help prevent or treat breast cancer. My message is that even advanced breast cancer can be overcome because I have done it.

The first clue to understanding what was promoting my breast cancer came when my husband Peter, who was also a scientist, arrived back from working in China while I was being plugged in for a chemotherapy session.

He had brought with him cards and letters, as well as some amazing herbal suppositories, sent by my friends and science colleagues in China.

The suppositories were sent to me as a cure for breast cancer. Despite the awfulness of the situation, we both had a good belly laugh, and I remember saying that this was the treatment for breast cancer in China, then it was little wonder that Chinese women avoided getting the disease.

Those words echoed in my mind. Why didn't Chinese women in Chinaget breast cancer? I had collaborated once with Chinese colleagues on a study of links between soil chemistry and disease, and I remembered some of the statistics.

The disease was virtually non-existent throughout the whole country. Only one in 10,000 women in China will die from it, compared to that terrible figure of one in 12 in Britain and the even grimmer average of one in 10 across most Western countries. It is not just a matter of China being a more rural country,with less urban pollution. In highly urbanized Hong Kong,the rate rises to 34 women in every 10,000 but still puts the West to shame.

The Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have similar rates. And remember, both cities were attacked with nuclear weapons, so in addition to the usual pollution-related cancers, one would also expect to find some radiation-related cases, too.

The conclusion we can draw from these statistics strikes you with some force. If a Western woman were to move to industrialized, irradiated Hiroshima, she would slash her risk of contracting breast cancer by half.

Obviously this is absurd. It seemed obvious to me that some lifestyle factor not related to pollution, urbanization or the environment is seriously increasing the Western woman's chance of contracting breast cancer.

I then discovered that whatever causes the huge differences in breast cancer rates between oriental and Western countries, it isn't genetic.

Scientific research showed that when Chinese or Japanese people move to the West, within one or two generations their rates of breast cancer approach those of their host community.

The same thing happens when oriental people adopt a completely Western lifestyle in Hong Kong. In fact, the slang name for breast cancer in China translates as 'Rich Woman's Disease'. This is because, in China, only the better off can afford to eat what is termed 'Hong Kong food'.

The Chinese describe all Western food, including everything from ice cream and chocolate bars to spaghetti and feta cheese, as "Hong Kong food", because of its availability in the former British colony and its scarcity, inthe past, in mainland China.

So it made perfect sense to me that whatever was causing my breast cancer and the shockingly high incidence in this country generally, it was almost certainly something to do with our better-off, middle-class, Western lifestyle.

There is an important point for men here, too. I have observed in my research that much of the data about prostate cancer leads to similar conclusions.

According to figures from the World Health Organization, the number of men contracting prostate cancer in rural China is negligible, only 0.5 men in every 100,000. In England, Scotland and Wales, however, this figure is 70 times higher. Like breast cancer, it is a middle-class disease that primarily attacks the wealthier and higher socio-economic groups ¨C those that can afford to eat rich foods.

I remember saying to my husband, "Come on Peter, you have just come back from China. What is it about the Chinese way of life that is so different?"

Why don't they get breast cancer?

We decided to utilize our joint scientific backgrounds and approach it logically.

We examined scientific data that pointed us in the general direction of fats in diets. Researchers had discovered in the 1980s that only l4% of calories in theaverage Chinese diet were from fat, compared to almost 36% in the West.

But the diet I had been living on for years before I contracted breast cancer was very low in fat and high in fibre. Besides, I knew as a scientist that fat intake in adults has not been shown to increase risk for breast cancer in most investigations that have followed large groups of women for up to a dozen years.

Then one day something rather special happened. Peter and I have worked together so closely over the years that I am not sure which one of us first said, "The Chinese don't eat dairy produce!"

It is hard to explain to a non-scientist the sudden mental and emotional 'buzz' you get when you know you have had an important insight. It's as if you have had a lot of pieces of a jigsaw in your mind, and suddenly, in a few seconds, they all fall into place and the whole picture is clear.

Suddenly I recalled how many Chinese people were physically unable to tolerate milk, how the Chinese people I had worked with had always said that milk was only for babies, and how one of my close friends, who is of Chinese origin, always politely turned down the cheese course at dinner parties.

I knew of no Chinese people who lived a traditional Chinese life who ever used cow or other dairy food to feed their babies. The tradition was to use a wetnurse but never, ever, dairy products.

Culturally, the Chinese find our Western preoccupation with milk and milk products very strange. I remember entertaining a large delegation of Chinese scientists shortly after the ending of the Cultural Revolution in the1980s.

On advice from the Foreign Office, we had asked the caterer to provide a pudding that contained a lot of ice cream. After inquiring what the pudding consisted of, all of the Chinese, including their interpreter, politely but firmly refused to eat it, and they could not be persuaded to change their minds.

At the time we were all delighted and ate extra portions!

Milk, I discovered, is one of the most common causes of food allergies . Over 70% of the world's population are unable to digest the milk sugar, lactose, which has led nutritionists to believe that this is the normal condition for adults, not some sort of deficiency.

Perhaps nature is trying to tell us that we are eating the wrong food.

Before I had breast cancer for the first time, I had eaten a lot of dairy produce, such as skimmed milk, low-fat cheese and yoghurt. I had used it as my main source of protein. I also ate cheap but lean minced beef, which I now realized was probably often ground-up dairy cow.

In order to cope with the chemotherapy I received for my fifth case of cancer, I had been eating organic yoghurts as a way of helping my digestive tract to recover and repopulate my gut with 'good' bacteria.

Recently, I discovered that way back in 1989 yoghurt had been implicated in ovarian cancer . Dr Daniel Cramer of Harvard University studied hundreds of women with ovarian cancer, and had them record in detail what they normally ate. wish I'd been made aware of his findings when he had first discovered them.

Following Peter's and my insight into the Chinese diet, I decided to give up not just yoghurt but all dairy produce immediately. Cheese, butter, milk and yoghurt and anything else that contained dairy produce - it went down the sink or in the rubbish.

It is surprising how many products, including commercial soups, biscuits and cakes, contain some form of dairy produce. Even many proprietary brands of margarine marketed as soya, sunflower or olive oil spreads can contain dairy produce .

I therefore became an avid reader of the small print on food labels.

Up to this point, I had been steadfastly measuring the progress of my fifth cancerous lump with callipers and plotting the results. Despite all the encouraging comments and positive feedback from my doctors and nurses, my own precise observations told me the bitter truth.

My first chemotherapy sessions had produced no effect - the lump was still the same size.

Then I eliminated dairy products. Within days, the lump started to shrink.

About two weeks after my second chemotherapy session and one week after giving up dairy produce, the lump in my neck started to itch. Then it began to soften and to reduce in size. The line on the graph, which had shown no change, was now pointing downwards as the tumour got smaller and smaller.

And, very significantly, I noted that instead of declining exponentially (a graceful curve) as cancer is meant to do, the tumour's decrease in size was plotted on a straight line heading off the bottom of the graph, indicating a cure, not suppression (or remission) of the tumour.

One Saturday afternoon after about six weeks of excluding all dairy produce from my diet, I practised an hour of meditation then felt for what was left of the lump. I couldn't find it. Yet I was very experienced at detecting cancerous lumps - I had discovered all five cancers on my own. I went downstairs and asked my husband to feel my neck. He could not find any trace of the lump either.

On the following Thursday I was due to be seen by my cancer specialist at Charing Cross Hospitalin London. He examined me thoroughly, especially my neck where the tumour had been. He was initially bemused and then delighted as he said, "I cannot find it."

None of my doctors, it appeared, had expected someone with my type and stage of cancer (which had clearly spread to the lymph system) to survive, let alone be so hale and hearty.

My specialist was as overjoyed as I was. When I first discussed my ideas with him he was understandably skeptical. But I understand that he now uses maps showing cancer portality in China in his lectures, and recommends a non-dairy diet to his cancer patients.

I now believe that the link between dairy produce and breast cancer is similar to the link between smoking and lung cancer. I believe that identifying the link between breast cancer and dairy produce, and then developing a diet specifically targeted at maintaining the health of my breast and hormone system, cured me.

It was difficult for me, as it may be for you, to accept that a substance as 'natural' as milk might have such ominous health implications. But I am aliving proof that it works and, starting from tomorrow, I shall reveal the secrets of my revolutionary action plan.

Extracted from Your Life in Your Hands, by Professor Jane Plant.

Madonna - Give It 2 Me

Heard this song during a commercial break featuring the new season of "Desperate Housewives".

A rather familiar song which I don't recognize except for the repetitive
"...on and on and on..."

Liking the song, I decided to put it into my blog entry to share it with you guys. So, I took quite a long time to search for the song on both youtube and imeem until I finally caught the words "give it to me" when the commercial reran on TV.

Was happy to learn that Madonna is the singer for this song...who would have guessed! Ok, Madonna was my favourite English Pop Singer in the past when I was listening to english songs, so the familiarity makes it more favourable.

Please enjoy this music video...

Kallang Paya Lebar Expressway (KPE)

Hey all, for those who are not aware, I am back in Singapore!...actually I was back on Sat...so am now trying to settle back into my job.

Before I starting posting pics for my Hong Kong trip, decided to jot this short post.

Was working late just now and took a cab back home coz I was lazy and trying to save a little time.

The cab driver helpfully suggested going by the KPE as an alternative route from my usual CTE journey. I was then pleasantly surprised to find out that the KPE had just been opened on 20 September 2008. Yeah!

Excited to see how the new expressway looks like, I decided to go along with his suggestion. Bad bad decision...apparently the driver doesnt know the route well (having only been on KPE twice) and came out from the exit named "Bartley Road East". While exiting, he kept mumbling that he never heard of the road and wonder if its new (obviously right, since he's a cabby and never been on the road).

So he ended up driving round and round in Kaki Bukit area while trying to find the right route to bring me home -_-

My cab fare turned out to be S$16+....NOT CHEAP LOR!!! NOT SHORT ROUTE LOR!!!