Different day but same problems...

Life in office is pretty mundane. It’s too quiet except for the occasional sound of someone typing on the keyboard. I prefer things back in Dubai office. There was plenty of chaos happening everyday. Arguments between engineers and architects, the sound of machinery grumbling at the construction site, the voices from the laborers toiling under the hot summer sun. Perhaps it was the sheer stress which I missed most. Working under pressure everyday to meet deadlines. But come to think of it, I don’t have a social life back in Dubai. There were plenty of places to explore but you just end up going out with the same bunch of people. It’s odd somehow that none of us consider ourselves as expatriate workers but rather a coolie. Everyone is just too tired to go out during weekends. Maybe that’s the reason why most of us were so depress over there. Even when my best friend Weiliang came over to Dubai from Doha, Qatar, he says life is so depressing even though there were plenty of things to do. Maybe it’s the lack of close friends or family members which drives us insane. Almost suicidal…

Back in Singapore office, things are much more organized almost no chaos at all. Today we received a bunch of drawings from Japan. The most irritating thing about these drawings is that, none of us could understand it because it’s all in Japanese font. Even the documents are in Japanese text. We have to get a Japanese colleague to translate the documents even though he is pretty busy himself. After sitting and staring at the drawings for almost 2 hours, we concluded that we don’t have the information which we needed. Actually the information is all there but we don’t have the frigging time to translate everything. So we sent back all the documents back to Tokyo and tell them we require English translation of the drawings. That’s another way of saying…“We are lazy and couldn’t be bothered to translate, so you better do it for us”.

My team leader keeps on telling how stress she is with work. From the way I see it, it’s nothing compared to what we have to endure back in Dubai office. She says, “You all people from Dubai office sure can handle stress one, sure no problem one lar…” Oh well, like whatever. She is really nice… well for now. Infact I think I kind of like my new team at the moment. I’m surrounded by women, left right front back. Some are young ladies and some are aunties. Very naggy but funny. There seems to be a lot of food at the central table. There are candies, curry puff, biscuits, chocolates, crackers and even Yakult. A colleague just came back from holiday and she gave us each a large bar of chocolate. So whenever we look over at the drawings together, all of us seem to be chewing on something. So at the end of the meeting, the drawings are full of crumbs and such.

My team leader is pretty occupied ‘arguing’ and ‘begging’ with the relevant Authorities that right now she is ‘training’ me to do it on her behalf. I could only pretend that I was listening to her. Later that morning I’ve to do some drawing documentations for the Authority and the worst thing is that I’ve to do it with Sheng Leong (whatever his name is). Ling used to have a crush with this bugger. He looks like some Japanese Beng wannabe in Japanese porn. He is cute alright but with a whiney voice. It’s so dreadful to partner with people who don’t communicate well. He is kinda intimidating with the way he talks and replies to questions, like as if I owe him money or something. But at least he is very co-operative and helpful just that he needs to speak up louder. I’m kinda a bit deaf when it comes to people with whiney voice. Then I have to go down to the LTA office with him to submit some stuff. To reach LTA office takes ages, while I walk, he strolls thus I’m always right ahead of him. My idea is that, if I reach LTA early, perhaps I could have more time to do something else before I go back to office but this bugger was happily strolling at Citylink, the only elements that are missing is sand, sun, sea and the coconut trees. At least on the way back, we walked at the same pace. I made a slight detour to HMV to check DVDs while he waited for me outside. I was hoping that he doesn’t mind and whine for real cause if he does, I wish the ground would swallow him up whole. Hearing him talking is already bad enough let alone to hear him whine. Have you ever heard David Beckhams’s voice? He has this whiney voice too. It’s so irritating. It’ a good thing that when he does endorsement for Motorola, the only thing he said is “HELLO MOTO”… Can you imagine if he has to speak more than 2 words? I probably wouldn’t watch the commercial at all. Perhaps Motorola knew about his whiney voice but since he is popular to the masses, they allow him to say the maximum of 2 words. Anymore than that would be a catastrophe.

My team leader is panicking for some unknown reason whereas the rest of us were ‘busy’ pretending to be busy. Well we were busy just that we don’t want to get in the way of our team leader. Who knows she might go berserk and run amok? There was a call from the Tokyo office but my team leader wasn’t there. It’s probably regarding about the drawing which we returned back earlier. I have to follow my team leader and another senior architect to a consultation meeting at the Civil Defence Headquarters at Ubi Road after lunch. My team leader says that I should be learning to clarify and have regular meetings with the relevant authorities from now onwards. Means I’ve to be bitchy or nice with people depending on the situation.

We were supposed to pick up the senior architect at Funan but he was late so we told the taxi driver to make one round cause we couldn’t stop by the road side. Eventually we picked not only him but also another architect from Mexico. Her name is Alekxis, a Mexican with an American accent but she is based in Barcelona, Spain. She is so cool and there is something warm about her which I kinda like. It’s not easy to find someone who is warm and easy to talk to. She is very open with discussions and such. She told us about the projects in Mexico and Spain which she is doing right now. She is following us to the Civil Defence just to kill time and perhaps learn a thing or two about Singapore regulations during the consultation meeting. We were late for the meeting by almost half an hour cause of the rain and traffic jams. The senior architect, whom I’ve work with before back in Dubai; he was so cool about it that he told us not to worry like some mad bitches. He says it’s ok to be to late than never. Which in this case I thought it’s totally wrong since we are going to meet the authorities.

The consultation meeting last only an hour, quite a short one. Everything went fine, nothing much actually. After which the senior architect suggested that we should go for a coffee and a meal. Well my watch shows it’s 4.30pm and by right we should be heading back to office but we didn’t. Instead the 4 of us went to InterContinental Hotel at Bugis for buffet. Haha… Of cause we didn’t pay for it cause the senior architect is the one who paying for us. Me like free stuffs. Hahaha… So yeah instead of going back to the office, we are having good time having buffet. Can you imagine that? The Mexican lady ate 5 rounds of buffet excluding desserts. She can really eat. The food was ok nothing splendid but I could say its Vegetarian friendly. Of cause we were go there not only to eat but also discussing about the drawings and at the same bitching about some staffs back in the office. I was surprised that my two seniors are having some issues with certain staffs in the office. Well I thought that being a mature adult, they shouldn’t harbour such feelings but they do actually more than me infact. Well for a while I thought that I wasn’t the only one who has ill thoughts about some staffs in the office but glad I was not. But I didn’t dare to make any comment about any staffs, all I could do is just listen and just agree or disagree to what they have to say. I mean I wouldn’t know if my seniors would backstab me or something. So I better play my cards well. Well I’ve been in this turf for a while so I better know how the game is played. Most of the time I have to be careful of what I said regarding about other staffs especially to the seniors. I mean it’s ok to bitch about it with my gang but even that I have to know my limits because I will never know who might eavesdropped my conversation and then use it to blackmail me. My team leader and I have to excuse ourselves and head back to the office cause it’s already 7.30pm and our office already close at 6.30pm. I would say it’s a very unproductive day today and tomorrow we still have to go for the same routine again hopefully without the buffet cause it really waste my time even though its free and it was a good meal. Urghh!!! tomorrow I probably have to go through the Japanese drawings again hopefully this time it has been translated to English.

Working life is pretty scary… So better play your cards well.