Sweet Home and Melody

Second Trip with Ganteng Group - Bromo

- Thursday, August 13, 2015

Thanks to Jubilee Weekend SG 50 (7Aug and 10 Aug were declared as public holiday in Singapore), Ganteng Group (10 pax) went travelling to East Java 6-11Aug15.

The trip covered: Surabaya - Madakaripura Falls - Bromo National Park - Malang - Sempu Island Nature Reserve - Batu Secret Zoo

It was definitely an unforgettable trip with great scenery, great experience, and great companies!

On 6Aug15, we caught a night flight by China Airlines and reached Surabaya at around 11pm. We checked in the hotel (Midtown Hotel), and then did some research to decide which place to go as an alternative to not going to Ijen and Menjangan for safety reason.

On 7Aug15 in the morning, we had a quick shopping at Indomaret to buy water and some snacks, followed by late breakfast at Rawon Setan at around 11am. I'm not a fan of Rawon, but overall it was a nice food.

Afterwards, we had a long trip to Madakaripura Waterfall. Upon reaching there around 3pm, lots of people were selling raincoat...lol.. was wondering what that raincoat used for. Apparently, we needed to walk around 30mins and passed by a waterfall to reach the nice spot of the falls itself. Not bad, we rented it for Rp4000 (SGD0.40)
It was indeed refreshing and beautiful!

Next stop was the highlights of the trip, Mt Bromo. After done some cost benefit analysis, we booked a Bromo Villa called Tengger Asri 2 instead of hotel. The unit looks new and most importantly they had hot water to bath in the morning. Not particularly nice, but good and clean enough to sleep for a short night before we left the house at 3am to go to Bromo by Jeep. Reached there, we got to walked in dawn with a very cold weather to catch the sunrise at 5.30am. We managed to eat instant noodle and hot drink there before the sunrise. Indomie never taste that good before!

Alright, the view was stunning with a clear sky and Mt Bromo as the background and yeah it was sunrise showtime! Beautiful!

Sunrise

Mt Bromo view

With Christina - taken at Mt Bromo

Finished looking at the sunrise, we went to see Bromo crater. It was definitely a challenge for me who do not exercise regularly. Need to hike this sandy area around 45mins and my heart feels like so heavy. I should had got a horse riding to reach there to save up my energy. Oh well, but once I did that, I felt an accomplishment and satisfaction! Oh well, at the end I still got a horse riding for only Rp35,000 (around SGD3.5) when I went down

Half of Ganteng Group

Hiking to crater

The Bromo crater

Since I already walked so tiring, I should have a selfie up here

Me with the Jeep - typical a must photo here...

8 Aug - After done with Bromo, we then traveled to Malang, had diner at Pizza Hut and rest for the day at Hotel Aria Gajayana.

9Aug - The next day we asked the hotel to pack the breakfast for us and we ready to go to Sempu Island Nature Reserve. We rent the boat and managed to get the tour guide to walk in the forest...

Group photo at the beach

Funny but real, I'm surprised I managed to follow and enjoy to trekking for 2 hours before reached the Sempu Island beach. Alright, must admit that the beach is pretty!

pardon my selfie

Done with the day, Christina and me managed to get a traditional massage at the hotel we stayed. Shiok day!

10Aug - After we had the breakfast at the hotel, we went to buy food - for gift at Malang and continued to go to Batu Secret Zoo.
On weekday the price is Rp75rb (and yay discount 20% using BCA card)
Surprisingly with this cheap price, the quality and the experience in Batu Secret Zoo was very worth it!

The museum batu

Lion King

White tiger

Very cute bear

After done with the zoo, we travelled to Surabaya and had dinner at Carl Junior. Thank to Christina's friend, Jeting - she helped us buy the crispy almond (over 40pax I guess) and the spikoe surabaya lapis cake. So fortunate we are.

Finally, we went to the Square Hotel to end the day.

One special mention that can't be forgotten - almost every night game 'werewolves'

Overall, I'm very happy and satisfied with this trip! It was fun!

Special thanks to Hans (our organiser) and Winong (our photographer) and of coz all the Ganteng Group members as the best companies during this trip

Kukup Trip with CSTO Family on Labor Day 1.5.15

- Thursday, May 7, 2015

What does 'colleague' mean?

Honestly, never come across to my mind that I would go holiday or even just go out with colleagues as a real friend and family. I thought I would rather go back home during a long weekend than choose to sacrifice my holiday to go for a 'trip' with colleague

Apparently, our Commodity Structured Trade Ops's (CSTO) department head suggested us to have team bonding session - Trip to Pulau Kukup, Malaysia. He said team bonding is important which make you happy at work.

You'll be surprised that he actually took a real effort to push us to go for a holiday with the money sponsored by himself. He's a type of a very serious boss, yet has his fatherly sense I would say.

Yeah!!! he issued a cheque about SGD 2K sponsoring our one-day trip to KUKUP, Malaysia. Our current department has bout 60 ppl now but only about 18 people went, including myself.

9 of us are youngster around 24-30th, the other 9 are those more experienced and older staffs.

Actually it was part of his referral fees when he referred few staffs to our department before he became our department head. But still, he could choose to keep to himself right, but he didn't. I honestly appreciate this much.

So here we go. A one day trip organised by our department CRO (read: Chief Recreational Officer) which really happened.

The tour was started by picking up us at Raffles Place at 6.20am and at Kranji at 6.45am early in the morning. Yes, it is damn early, wake up early in the morning on a public holiday is a pain!

Unfortunately, I woke up late and though they waited for me until 6.30am, and then one suggested me to go to Kranji. It was early in the morning when I was half awake and difficult to get cab and I was kanciong and almost wanted to give up to go. But apparently I received my colleagues' cheering, they assured me that they would wait for me at Kranji there and sincere wish for me to still go.

Oh well, still got another one even much later than me. HENG.....at least got one accompany me late. lol

Cut the story short, we managed to go to Malaysia with a little jam coz it was already about 7.40am when we wanted to passed the Singapore custom at Woodland. Honestly I just fell asleep at the bus. The bus is too big for us so each of us sit by our self occupying two seats.

Our first stop at Malaysia was having a prata breakfast then followed by visiting a chocolate shop and pineapple museum. What interesting here was we were offered to see the pineapple farm and eat the fresh pineapple 'Josepine', but they didn't sell the pineapple...

We then continued to the fishing village and had seafood lunch at Kukup Restaurant. Honestly nothing special about it so far, nor anything bad about it.

Then come next after lunch was free time at the shopping mall, for only 2 hour!!! We split into two groups, one group wanted to eat durian and shopping, and other wanted to do some activities;

Alright, so my group wanted to play 'Escape' game. We were so excited but sadly no available slot until 6pm...we end up went for snacking. So, next although with our half full stomach, we had our THAI dinner - which actually ended our one-day tour.

In short, the trip was basically just about eating, sleeping (in the bus), and shopping. and of course chatting with each others.

The overall trip was ok to me, nothing much special. But it's the POST-TRIP activities which were so fun to me. Back to Singapore, some of us went back home to take their cars to get ready to stay late for our post trip activities!

Total 8 of us (youngster of course) decided to continue for ESCAPE game 'LOST SG' at Dhobby Ghaut at 10pm. We played escape for theme 'prison break'. We were basically was locked in 3 different prison and found a way to escapes. It was wrapped in such an intelligent and pretty such that the game looks very high tech and challenging yet so much fun. It's around $27. We were actually introduced to this by our lovely couple in our department, Janice and Terence - escapers' PRO who had finished all the 6 escape theme here.

It is not the end yet. In spite of being tired, we still continued to PLAYNATION until bout 2am. Again.. it's very fun! Some of us play wii, some of us busy dancing...

Alright it's basically the end of the day at 3am - I bathed and slept at 3am and only woke up at 12pm and continued to sleep again until 3pm on the next day

Regardless, it was indeed a full of excitement day on labor day!!!

As times goes by, I realise my colleagues are becoming friends and family to me. We enjoy complaining about work yet still enjoying our days somehow. I enjoy going out and having fun with them.

New room, new housemates, and new environment!

- Sunday, November 16, 2014

Yeah, finally I moved from Queenstown to Tiong Bahru.

Most importantly, it's nearer to office and I can wake up later.

It's been 2 weeks here though. So far so good.
In fact, I feel I made a right decision to move here. Why?
1. It's NEARER to my office. that's the most important, coz I can sleep more and wake up later.
2. I guess the rental fee is reasonable considering it's Tiong Bahru area with 6 mins (according to my walking pace) to MRT. The necessary amenities like Giant and 2 quite big coffee shop are just downstairs. Furthermore, compared to my previous room I rented, I feel the new one is cleaner and nicer. It's a renovated house, so I feel more homey. haha
3. More sociable and considerate. Experience to have housemates, say hi and bye often, as well as give and take.

I took pictures of my room below after giving a 'my style' touch (read:pink)

More and more days coming. Hope I can get along well with the people here and feel even more homey.

End of my first job rotation

- Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Time flies so fast. It's been 11 months since I have started my career with DBS.

Overview my first rotation in Fund Accounting
It has come to the end of my first rotation in Fund Accounting. Briefly, what I have been doing is producing valuation reports for clients which includes recording the portfolio holdings, accounting entries, and corporate actions. I've learnt both technical and soft skills. Think back, there were many things happening, of course there were ups and down. But, when it came to the end, I did feel 'missing' to everything there, both the work and the people. Well, this how is human behave right!

1-week training, 1-day branch attachment
Now I'm going through a 1-week training before landing to my new job rotation. It reminds me to our 1 month training before we really started working.

Yesterday, we were sent for one-day branch attachment whereby we observed how is the branch operations, front and back office. I got Ang Mo Kio DBS Branch. It's indeed an exciting experience! I find out many new things that I didn't even aware before. I come to understand something that I used to question or complain as a customer., like why the teller sometime go in to the back office so long before come out to attend or to complete our transaction/queries, why some people can get the bag and just drop off to deposit without queuing, is dropping cheque to the box safe, why queue so long, why branch close so early etc...and I don't even know that deposit coin is chargeable hahaha...
Coz I wore the staff pass, many people approached n asked me questions. But still, I enjoyed the process..it's nice to talk and meet many people! Act like an expert, act smart..haha. luckily, the questions they ask were easy one that we have been trained..haha... and one thing , don't underestimate security guard! Ask him before you queue at the wrong queue.

Coming forward, next Monday I will start my new journey in Structured Trade.
I was worried if I couldn't get into this department, and I was worried if this is a right choice. But yeah God leads the way, hope this is the right one.

Anyway, just do it!
Whatever we do, it's part of our fate.

Graduation: a new start, no longer a student, working life

- Tuesday, July 10, 2012

I had my commencement (convocation) on last Friday, July 6, 2012.

For me, it's a new start, it marks that I'm no longer a student. Some people may feel that there's no point going to the commencement ceremony, sitting for 2 hours in the hall.

In fact, it was just a short 2 minutes walking on the stage receiving the degree scroll and taking photo. It might seem insignificant for some people, but for me it was indeed meaningful. My feeling was mixed, abundantly happy yet a bit nervous. I was also enjoying the photo sessions with my family, my fellow Accountancy graduate, as well as my friends who were coming for my commencement. I felt very blessed to have so many people beside me supporting me.

Honestly, I didn't expect there would be many people who come to visit my graduation day, since the timing is on Friday morning where some people need to work. Even so, I felt great both of my parents could come to share this special moment with me. Apparently, I had two friends who took leave and purposely come to my graduation; one of them even was attending the whole ceremony. Furthermore, I didn't expect anyone would give me any presents except my parents coz they said they would buy me the bear..hahaha. I was really happy to see many people, and was so touch to receive so many gifts, even just a card. I think I'm too easy to be happy (in the same time easy to be sad)

At the night, I attended the commencement dinner (though at the beginning I didn't plan to but my parents asked me to just go). Though actually I am not very close with BBA and my hons BAC people (coz the one close with me either not going or already graduated last year), I still go. This is how life is, you can't always stay in your comfort zone and your limited friends zone, but to try to mingle around and network with more people. At the end, I indeed enjoyed the event and felt that I actually have other friends as well.

The day after, I had OBS event, part of my 1-month Graduate Executive Programme in my company. Although I had been not enough sleep for a week and I was super tired, I enjoyed this outdoor training, "climbing". I had fun with my new friends in DBS.

I have started my working life, but I am having a one-month training which includes class-room training in SMU, orientation in the office, and OBS training, and our commencement lunch n CSR project.

I'm looking forward........

Tiring day - viewing experience

- Friday, June 22, 2012

Viewing is tiring...

Today I went to view 1 unit accompanying Christina and 4 unit alone for myself coz Christina happened to have early appointment with her friends.

1. Kallang (Christina's one)- wah this one nice and clean, no owner staying, owner very nice, very good price and super near MRT, even the agent quite friendly. I'm happy to hear that she is taking this room though it's not my room even. My mood was good after viewing this first one.

2. Tiong Bahru - only 1 bus stop from MRT, this is the first one the agent bring me to the unit, in fact it's without aircond, room very small, even the mattress must buy myself, no study table and cupboard, with family staying, owner dun allow even light cooking - $750. NO

3. Tiong Bahru - second unit that the agent brought me. This one not bad, 2 bust stop from MRT, pretty spacious, owner is 50+ lady Chinese Indo (well, though she nice somehow i scared of her abit) and another tenant is Malaysian Chinese, light cooking allowed, queen size bed room, allow visitor, but her one restriction 8hours air-cond per day (not because of the bills, but rather scared break down) - $900 - considering

4. Tiong Bahru - third unit the agent brought me. One word: SCARY. Everything wasn't smooth start from the beginning. The agent just told me when I reached there that there's a dog there, then I faster say No.. But she then said alr make appointment, so ask me to help her give face. Alright no problem as she thought and said to me it's just small dog. When we reached there, we were late coz we spent too much time at the previous unit's owner.

OMG... the owner's agent red face with his huge body, wah super scary, he scolded my agent. I even said sorry to that guy coz I felt bad for my agent. Furthermore, when reached the unit, wah the dog super scary!!!! barking loudly non stop. I even didn't dare to see the room as I needed to passed that dog which was carried by the owner. After that, that owner's agent scolded my agent again saying why didn't tell me in advance and just wasted his time.

This really made me feel sorry for my agent (though it's not my fault I guess), but that agent was really really bad. He made my mood down seriously. Especially I am pretty tired already.

5. Tiong Bahru - this unit is quite nice, newly renovated with all tenant, no owner but the owner super nice, weekly maid, living room pretty spacious and nice, but the bustop bit far from the unit, room is just decent, and also 1 stop from the mrt. The minus point is that I guess bit too expensive for me and there would be a boy (uni student) would be staying starting August in another room - $950

coz of time constraint, too packed viewing, I got to skipped dinner..

Actually, before today I have viewed another two unit.

One was at Aljuneid when I thought my working place would be at east area.. ups, who knows just two days ago my company told me of my new location which actually is better coz more central..haha. So, though I quite like that but I can't take that anymore, too far from the office.

Yesterday was at Queenstown, hmmm the room is small, not that super small actually, owner is young couple, but no cooking, no visitor at all, but area very good, in front of the block got fairprice, convenience store, and small 'shopping mall', very near bus stop, 1 stop from queenstown or red hill mrt. hmmmm..i dunno, no feel. - $750

All and all...

I somehow feel I have nothing and lonely in Singapore, pretty sad actually. I really wish I have own family and own house here.

And one more thing, I guess being an agent is not entirely nice job which I thought earlier, just making a call, view here and there and get big commission; but I guess now it's pretty tiring job too.

Not sure when this will end. Should I just anyhow choose or beg to stay with friends or uncle auntie? hmmmm...

Finally, submitted my CP final reports! End of undergrad life in NUS

- Wednesday, April 18, 2012

FINALLY

We have just submitted our CP reports and all the deliverables.
In the same time, it marks the end of my undergrad life in NUS.

My 8-months CP journey with Gawad Kalinga has come to the end.

I am grateful, but at the same time also sad.

Regardless, time to enjoy the holiday, before I need to start working and start the new life as a non-student.