Independent Driving for the First Time

Today’s the first time that I drive without hubby’s / sister’s company ! Only Winston’s company…:)

A great accomplishment, a pat on the back for Winston and Mommy…

Winston : for behaving himself in the car
Mommy : for driving confidently

btw, did i lock the car ? :P

My African Violets

Glouxinia
I grew this from a leaf, in a short span of 5 months !

Made Use of

I realised how this colleague has been making use of me.

Last month, when it was announced that I am going to take a big project, she psycho-ed me to persuade boss to let her partner me to do the project. She said that “It’s going to be difficult…That time, there were 5 of us on the same project…” Actually I have the confidence to do the project myself, but because of her naggings (she repeated this to me at least 5 times), I suggest this to boss, thankfully boss rejected.

Now, she had an even bigger project, and my project was scrapped because of customer’s last minute decision. Why don’t I see her including me into her project?

Then I recalled her past doings:
1) Her isolated cubicle, one of the best one on our floors, was actually meant for me by my previous boss. But she quickly told my previous boss that she has already told our admin assistant that she is going to sit there.
2) She helped me on my previous previous project’s CBA, and she expected me to return the favour. We had another junior member whom she said that I could rope in to help in my previous project. Then when her intern is leaving, she requested the junior member to be back to help her. That time, the junior member was in the midst of completing a task, but she couldn’t even wait for a week. She even lost her temper and put phrases like “hell hath no fury” in her msn message.

Her other actions to her outside friends are questionable too…She profited $100 from her friend who bought over her old office notebook. Yet complained about how her friend chased her for the notebook because his notebook is dying. The sale was delayed for some reason.

But she complained to me about how her close ex-IJ friend borrowed $60 from her to buy C&K shoes but yet to return the $ to her.

Now, I am wary of getting help from her, talking to her, or even helping her.

Renotalk Post : Constant Complainant

I posted this on Renotalk :
“I have a colleague who is a constant complainant about the workload that she has. She keeps complaining about how short the time she is given, and how much work our boss gave her. Then because of the unreasonable workload, she needs to bring work home. And this morning, she just told me that she worked until 12am. And because of the unreasonable workload, she wants to change job.

I used to be sympathetic towards her, until I found that she has been msn-ing most of the time during office hours. I often can hear her typing furiously at her keyboard and sometimes giggles can come from her cubicle. (She is seated just opposite me)

Not that I’m particular about internet surfing / msning during working hours, because I am also guilty of that. hee hee :) but I do it when I finish most of my stuff. I think it’s a bit overboard if you msn the 80% of the working hours, then left 20% to do work. Lagi best, complain everyday…getting on my nerves liao”

Reflections on Driving Lessons

I quite enjoy the driving lessons, minus the travelling to-and-fro the driving center and my house. Why ? You may ask ? Isn’t it stressful ? There is a certain amount of stress, but the joy of learning driving is that you are somehow protected against accidents, because u know that the instructor would be more kan cheong than you are. Well it could be a false sense of security, but then you would be less worried about crashing other people’s car, then in the process, damage your own car and need to argue with the other party whose fault it is.A car in Singapore cost a fortune. The cheapest Jap car could cost at least $45,000. Therefore naturally would be heartpain if anything happen to it.

Another thing that I would like to rant about is the long time that one could get a driving license.

I registered on 4 Feb 2007, took my first test on 11 Jun 2007, failed, then passed the second attempt on 31 Aug 2007.
The school mandated that you need to pass 22 lessons before you can book the test date. So let me show you the process that I went through:
Mar 2007 - completed 22 lessons and book 1st test date : End Aug 2007
Apr 2007 - Managed to book 11 Jun 2007 after logging in to the website to check for slots being given up
Jun 2007 - Took and failed first attempt, book re-test on 31 Aug 2007
4 Aug 07 - PDL Expired, make new one
31 Aug 07 - Passed

From here you can see:
1) There is a long queue for test dates. On the average, one needs to wait for 5 months from time of booking of test date to the actual test date. For re-test, waiting time is shorter about 1.5 to 2 months
2) PDL only last for 6 months

Because of the long waiting time, there is a gap between the end of all lessons to the actual test date. This may cause the student to forget what to do. Not only that, the mismatch between the validity period of the PDL and the long waiting time causes most students to apply for 2 or more PDLs before they pass. Isn’t this a sheer wastage of at least $25 ?

There must be something wrong with the system.