The cute little monkeys at MacRitchie Reservoir

Last weekend I went to MacRitchie reservoir for a morning walk with some friends. Thought we better do some exercise, the bum getting fat again! Anyway, I've not been there for ages. It's as beautiful as before & full of people. Singaporeans seems to have become quite health conscious, that's a good thing.

Then we saw some monkeys. They do not seem to be afraid of people at all.

The one below even "chased" this lady away from the bench! Well not really chase, the monkey just went to sit behind her, for quite a while, before she even realized & got a shock. They don't mean any harm. I saw one drinking from a yakult bottle, so funny. Well if you go there, make sure you hold on to your bag, as it seems they will snatch any bags or plastic bags away, if you just leave it laying on the floor or bench. They'll think it's food. Cute little guys....

Would you pay 38 million dollars for this tiny green bowl?

Had early lunch with the Boss & a few of my other colleagues at Imperial Treasure. The Boss pick up the tiny bowl on the table & ask us how much would we pay for it. Hmmm.... don't know what's he going with this. Anyway, Mike the most savvy among us go like " If this comes from Ming or Song Dynasty, I'm sure it'll cost a fortune !"

Bingo ! He must have know what the Boss was getting at, he always does. He went on to "inform" us how a tiny Song Dynasty bowl has gone under auction for a record US $ 38M. Through Sotheby's auction house naturally.

Yes that's the bowl in the pic above.  I know- it doesn't even look remarkable.I have like countless bowls at home that looks better ...lol...
The difference is this little piece is 1,000 yrs old ! It measures 13cm across and is glazed in a blue-green color. The bowl's buyer has chosen to remain anonymous, obviously ...haha... they always do. Bidding began at around $10.2m, and the winning offer - was from a phone bidder. Exactly like how they do it in the movies, so mysterious !

Just look at it, I'm sure it's pretty easy to forged right? The Boss agree, that's why he prefer to invest in wines. Well, that's another hobby too sophisticated for mere mortals like us ...lol... Then all of us went into things we collect. Some were hilarious ...

You have the right to remain silent.

Why do things always happen during & after Parties? Is it because of the excessive eating & drinking? Last weekend we were invited to a house warming party by one of the senior staff. Big beautiful landed property & lots of food & drinks. I enjoy myself.

As usual we went pretty active on group chat after the celebrations to share pictures & comments. I found out some people are just not meant to do that! I should have sent out a warning like this before things happened:

You have the right to remain silent. If you give up that right & post comments that " seemed funny at the time" you will be the target of ridicule until someone else within your social network does something worse."

Yup you guess it. Someone made an insensitive remark about the Boss's secretary in one of the pics & he'll probably live to regret it for the rest of his life in the company ....lol... She's a powerful & influential person, & you don't want to mess with her, no one does. Even our Boss listens to her. She lords over us all ...lol... Good Luck !!!!

Diversifying ????

Went to Popular to buy some pens & guess what I found there?

No your eyes are fine! you are not seeing things, yes Popular is selling rice cookers!
Well, we'll call it diversifying ...lol... But who'll buy a rice cooker there? It's just so odd ! Well stranger stuff has happened !

Misa Travel closed , so sad ....

I was shock to read the news of the sudden closure of  MISA Travel. Ever since day one, I've been getting my plane tickets & hotel reservations with them. They were always pretty good. Even when I started migrating to online reservations, it's always back to them when it's needed.

Like the recent promotion (flights to Hong Kong ) between DBS & Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong. I bought my tickets to Hong Kong through Misa Travel. Came back end of May & this happened. How sad!!! On one hand I'm sorry for those who were caught stranded with yet to 'fulfilled obligations' from the company, on the other hand, I hated to see a local established company fold. Hope everyone bought insurance.

I for one only buy insurance during the last minute before the trip itself. This really taught me a lesson. Buy it asap, right after booking & paying for anything, in case something like this will to happen again.

Sad .....

Morality in the workplace

Yesterday I caught/witness Corinne putting a bunch of office pens into her Chanel handbag 'again', to be taken home obviously. I guess it's common that many people treats the office as their personal Back To school shopping mall.

But for most employees, moral questions in the workplace are the same as moral questions in life. And in the end, if you wouldn't want your spouse to find out about it, don't do it. If it makes your kids think you are creepy, don't do it. And if it's gonna end with a grainy photo of you posted on Facebook & your name being used as the punch line of a joke about farm animals, don't do it!

And now back to office supplies ...lol... hmmm... that falls into grey area right? Since it wont hurt the multi- billion banking industry even a tiny bit just to 'contribute' to employees' home stationary use, most if not all employees will naturally treat office supplies as part of an entitlement of sorts. After all it's just stationary, I've heard of people taking home toilet rolls ....lol... yes, but never witness it though!

The new guy.

All the senior staff seriously hated this new guy that has joined us a month ago. He's looks as if he's only 20, settles all our techno problems & still has time to clinch big accounts. The Boss even invites him to his pent house to check his system. Yesterday Boss has another problem, calls him, he spend 5 minutes, hits restart, reminds Boss to do updates, & floats out with little wings on his back.

I don't mind him though, yesterday he showed me 1000 ways to utilized my I-phone .. haha....