Ravages Of Aging

Time and tide waits for no person.

I believe Shakespeare sums it up well…All’s the world a stage and in it, there are 7 stages.

I am seeing my parents age.

Though they are in as good health as they can be in their eighties, I see their thining head of hair and all silvery too.

Dad’s memory is not as good when he was in his 60s. Now at age 86 years old, he has to recall what he has had for lunch.

He plays 18 holes of golf and is very fit for his age.

In comparison, I pale miserably.

He is strong and helps me with groceries.

He used to lift weights in his younger days and was an athlete.

Mum is weaker in the legs and not as agile as dad.

As we all age, we cannot help but age.

The difference is aging gracefully versus aging miserably.

Mum keeps busy with constant visits from her friends as despite her age, many friends come by to seek her advice on stuff.

Dad busies self with his golf and shooting the breeze with his friends.

Though they both do not have children by their side (Bro is based in HK and Sis is residing in NZ) all they have is this mad Garfield hugger on one to two days a week outing for a quick dinner.

I am the sad sack really. All I have is work and voluntary social work.

I whine on my blog to share my aches and pains as telling my elderly parents is not good for their mental health as they will only worry.

I am always busy at work which is irritating actually. But it keeps me focused and forget my aches and pain.

I do not have time to vegetate amongst friends as my hours in day are always filled.

I wish I did though.

So, I start questioning my own quality of life.

I feel like an 80 year old, worst shape than my dad. I lumber in pain as if rigor mortis set in for my spine and joints most times.

Sometimes I feel as if every part of my body hurts except my hair ha ha!

My memory has been ravaged by anaesthesia ie childhood memories and up to University days.

I think if I live to be 80s, I will be a lonely old coot.

Gawd….somebody better shoot me as I am living my old age at my tender age ha ha!

Memory is shot.

Bones and joints are shot.

Thank goodness I have a good head of hair!

Blimey as the Brits would say😉

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Oranges So Sour, Life’s Not Such Today!

Oranges so sour that it made me cringe when I chewed on it this evening. Aaarrgh!!

I usually like or can stomach sourish fruits but these 10 oranges I bought are at the nth level of sourness.

Super tart or sour!!😓

Ha! No wonder they were on sale at 10 oranges for $3.99. What a bargain  I thought!

An even $4 which makes it 40 cents an orange.

Boy, am I glad that I did not buy 20 of this batch of oranges. Else I would be staring at this mound of oranges for a long while.

Today has been relaxing and even though I am eating sour oranges now, I really cannot complain.

I finally could start on my deck of Korean soapie “Dong Yi” – “Jewel In The Crown” that I borrowed from M about 2 months ago.

I have been busy working late that I could not even start on it.

Story line is set in a dynasty era. Lovely coiffured hair do for the concubines and noble women.

Period costumes are ornate.

Dong Yi is an orphan girl whose father and brother who fight for the oppressed under a secret society were killed by factions within the Perfecture.

She ends up in the palace as a slave girl in the Palace’s Bureau of Music, vowing to find out who framed her family!

Nice story line of corrupt power hungry lords versus the good king and evil Queen mother.

Sheesh even the palace has politics! I believe so and would hazard a guess in all families and companies.

As the wise adage goes in Chinese which means, “every house has a difficult prayer to chant”

Life is such. Power, money and greed governs minion life. To aspire upwards and forward, the inept dabbles in office politics to get ahead.

The hypocritical niceness usually have a sharp knife to one’s back.

Monday is hours away and my office politics begin once the bell is rung.

Tuesday and Friday are my appointed times to see my doctors for this quarter.

I am meeting a new surgeon on Friday and I hope we synergise.

Happy Sunday evening folks or Sunday morning or afternoon, depending of which part of the world you reside in.

Have a great new week ahead.

I got cat fights ahead and must practise my pugilistic warding off of Newbie’s antics.

Om….om….om….may all sutras, mantras or tantric chants protect me ha ha!

If that does not work….lizard’s tail, bat wings, eye of newt… Gaaarrrfffieeld fetch me my paddle to stir the witch’s brew! 😉😆😆😝😝

Aim High, Play Safe…Erm Maybe Not!

Lots of us have ambition and big dreams.

In Singlish, our local slang, it is pronounced “beeee-g beeee-g” dreams.

Like any local, I had ambitions.

Had? I have a mindset change.

More money does not necessarily mean more happiness.

A loftier position means greater responsibilities, all the more my peers would wield the political sword.

I do not need more stress and if I am currently working 12 hour days, I may end up working 7am to 10.30pm daily without rest on Saturdays and Sundays.

My inanimate furball Garfield would be neglected and I will totally be like a zombie in walking dead.

Ermmm….thank you very much but no thanks! 😤

I have been watching Newbie these last 2 weeks.

I saw how overnight she became greedy and even greedier when the Electrical Lord put up the position of Managing Director (MD) for grabs.

I will pass. Don’t need that as been there and done that. Besides knowing the frugal Electrical Lord it would be the case of same remuneration package but change of titling.

If a couple more zeros added…hmm…nah…not interested. I would die faster!

Newbie does not care about wanting to know the workings of the company but feels that her chasing of minions equals her job as future MD.

I see little contribution in her as a strategic role.

I asked her to chair a meeting she wanted to lead in a project. She pushed the job to Mr I.T. in the end.

I asked her for what is a good sample out of a populus of 153. She spluttered, used the calculator and kept mumb.

Any no brainer who did calculus or statistics would known a mean estimate to take in an instant.

It could be an acid test of 20% – this ought to be a safe sample for “n”. I ain’t a CFO nor am I a financial expert but this is a “no brainer” question.

I have little respect for anyone who claims great knowledge but little exists in the brain department.

Newbie lacks I.Q and sadly E.Q.

I asked her for Productivity ratio using salaries over nett sales over profit perhaps or what formulae should I adopt? She did not tell me.

Little help to me as she started blaring at others to produce it. This irked Mr Operations who threatened to quit.

Everyone is on tenter hooks and tension is high.

Newbie may be the straw that breaks Mr I.T., Mr CFO & Mr Operations’ backs.

If this happens, senior management will be left with Newbie, Newbier (joining Tuesday of whom, I have sternly warned against throwing weight about) me, myself and I.

I will then need to be Houdini, Chief Illusionist or Dr Who to clone me some Titans, Avatars or swash buckling fellas to squash Newbie like a cockroach 😉

Sunday…..soon it will be Sunday……

To Market, To Market

I don’t have much of a chance to snooze in these days.

No luck in slumbering past 6.45am daily. Sigh! I envy those who can lull in bed till noon or later.

Today was my usual affair at the hospital. Had a great chat with the phlebo lady.

Drats! Veins refused to cooperate with her and now I’ve got 3 big bruises. I feel like such a hero ha ha!

I told her just go for my survival vein. Surely that one will give her 2 vials of blood😉

Off I then trotted to the supermarket.

I need groceries. Also to check out Christmas goodies. This is the season to see the wide range of cookies, chocolates, candy canes and teddy bears.

Candy canes up a notch with new flavors. Root beer, Sgt Pepper’s, cranberry, grape etc. My nephew loves these.

Gone are the traditional minty flavors as the fruity ones got the interest of the new generation.

Almond Rocca, the traditional treat has reinvented itself with a thin sliced version of Almond Rocca.

Royal Dansk butter cookies has changed its traditional range to include cranberry ginger, grape and cherry cookies in quaint little “holly hobbie” feel like tins.

I saw white cocoa packs for the first time.

Lots to see.

Lots to ooh and aah over.

Lots to buy.

Lots to wonder what the tastes are.

Sadly, eyes see, stomach wants but I only have one tummy and a calorie counter!

Dang it!! I wish I can gobble like a turkey, not get fat.

Still thank goodness I ain’t a turkey during thanksgiving 😉😄😄

Man Spreading….A New Term In Dictionary

I was driving home from work and as usual, my radio is always turned on as background noise. Ha ha!

This time I was tuned into One FM.

I forget the name of the DJs but they were bantering on new words accepted into the Dictionary.

Some of these words were coined by Lady GaGa and other star singers.

I laughed so hard when I heard of this term, “man spreading.”

Man Spreading is defined as one who spreads legs wide apart such that they take up an entire seat meant for more than one.

I never knew of such a term and whenever I see anyone from now on, with limbs akimbo and taking up space, I will zoom in on man spreading! 😂

I suppose woman spreading is out as it is a tad unlady like right?!😃

Today’s Topic In Our Local Papers

I was surprised to read in the Forum page of today’s Straits Times on the views expressed by our local Singaporeans for foreign doctors.

Our Netizens are not kind really when it comes to ‘jobs’ as they view foreigners coming and snatching away our precious available jobs.

In my humble view, it is a 2 way street. Our locals dot the world and work in companies across the world. They earn equal salary and get same perks that the locals of the countries they work.

For the higher ranking officers, they work as expatriates.

Foreigners come into our land as investors. True, we have black sheep amongst this lot too. But not all are the same, just like not all Singaporeans are all nice and kind.

I have seen morons in my country and I am a local. I am a minion in a local company and Newbie is a local and she is no lesser of a moron who is selfish and political at work.

Hence when the flurry of letters flourished in the newspapers after an article write up showed that the local hospitals are hiring more foreign doctors as specialists and family practice groups, it showed the unhappiness of locals.

Whilst I can agree that they may face a language barrier to our silver population, the presence of an interpreter irked the patients as they now complained of the lack of doctor patient privacy!

The internet is to blame in a way as people become more litigious and complainative as they have information on their “rights” in an instant and readily.

The root cause of the problem is that like all economies, we are facing an aging population. To meet the needs of doctor to patient ratio, importation of foreign doctors was necessary.

Further, if locals do not meet the mark to practice as doctors, does it mean that we compromise standards for doctoring on the basis that the person is Singaporean?

I am appreciative and grateful of doctors in any race, religion or creed.

Once I was at Kangaroo Island, Adelaide, Australia and was rather ill. I was coughing like a banshee and I popped by at their little “hospital”

I was not an Australian but the doctors there were very kind, patient and I walked away without need to pay charges.

In my mind, not all doctors are bad or sub standard. Yes, we do have the odd one or two but they are taken to task by the right authorities that govern them.

Personally, I have experienced good patient doctor care from India, UK, Malaysia, America and Australia. There are stringent criteria in the selection of any practicing doctor in our little red dot and I trust the system in place as our government is a good one.

Not one broom sweeps all. Not all foreign doctors are inept or not good. It is a case of I say “ter-ma-toe” and you say “toh-ma-toe”  as it is English for “tomato” pronounced differently.

Thank you foreign doctors for coming to serve as doctors in our local tertiary hospitals and helping us with patient loads.

Soon, you will assimilate, you will love our food, join us in our “lahs” and pick up our colloquial slang.

Without you, our medical needs will be a back log.

Heaps of thanks 🙂 and prove the dissonant wrong ;-(

Friday

Black Friday is an American term to denote the Friday following Thanksgiving!

Which brings me to mind….I forgot to wish all a Happy Thanksgiving!

My Little Red Dot or Singapore does not celebrate Thanksgiving but given its diaspora of its people all over the world, we know what Thanksgiving is and with friends as expatriates, the commercial folks are entrepreneurial and so, Thanksgiving is now a restaurant and shopping thing.

We never say NO to a fun thing, an occasion to celebrate and eat.

Yup! We are a proud “foodie” nation.

All you have to do to strike a conversation with us, is to talk about food!

Chicken rice 😀 and you will see our eyes light up and we will let you know where you can get the “best” or we say “bestest” in our nation.

But when I saw today’s adverts in the papers – in all black background and I do not mean the infamous Rugby Kiwi Blacks from New Zealand 😉 I was reminded of Thanksgiving past…Oh oh and I forgot to wish my host parents in the USA. Shame on me ;-(

Our newspapers are splashed with headlines and full page ads from Robinson’s departmental store, screaming “80% off” and vehicles advertised as ” Black Friday specials, 4 units only!”

I wonder if the advertisers know about the original meaning of Black Friday other than commercialism intent.

I was quite shocked when I read from Wikipedia that “Black Friday” came about from the sale of slaves after Thanksgiving. [Wikipedia has changed the post now. Thankfully!] But this is now a misnomer.

Perhaps in modern times now, we are the new “slaves” to shopping. Isn’t it? We will charge about grabbing items on sale on this day and there will be tussling, angry flare up and no graciousness as we grab whatever there is before others.

Aah well….I got to hand it to the advertisers. If not, they will not have a big hefty account to boot and pay their minions.

Happy Friday and if you do not mind, I would rather leave out the “black” word before Friday given now that I know the meaning.

 

A Nightcap Post

What a day!!

Trotted home and at an hour to midnight, can do a quick stress relieving post! Yaay!!😃

Sermon from Electrical Lord was long.

But tonight’s sermon was effective in that Electrical Lord counselled Newbie. Ha ha!

Mr Money Bags has been rail roaded enough and he has squealed to his Lordship.

A summoning of minions followed.

His Lordship gently reminded Newbie that each of us have lots to do.

For Money Bags to give 3 hours to Newbie to learn a software is ineffective.

I laughed so loud in my heart that I hoped no one heard other than my heart.

Newbie refuses to get hands dirty and had proclaimed self as Managing Director😨

Newbie expects to be served with info and she loves hoarding information thinking she can hound others till the information is produced.

She is not mindful of others’ work schedule.

Today I caught her wearing hotel slippers in the office. I smiled my widest and asked if we were in a hotel room! Sarcasm at its best!!😜

This is our minions’ policy.

Dress with decorum.

Second warning delivered….shows her stubborness and thinking she is the newly ordained Lordship.

She spluttered to Electrical Lord seeking to argue that she was mistreated by Money Bags.

Silly her….Money Bags has 4 years’ relationship with Electrical Lord and Money Bags was given a Mercedes.

Newbie is silly to think she can “kill” Money Bags. Or maybe she can, if she continues to twirl her long tresses and flaunt her feminine “assets”…😉

The saga continues…..😨😱😲

Nighty night night! I do not want to have nightmares of Newbie and Money Bags swashbuckling with my precious inanimate furball Garfield!! 😝😝

Speechless

I am not usually speechless. It does not necessarily mean that I am chatty LOL!

However, today I was rendered speechless By one Mr Project in that I maintained my few words to ensure he gets the message in his Bazooka Encased Skull!

Instructions to 3 Mr Projects goes like this.

There are 3 men who run projects. Each is autonomous and neither reports to the other but directly to the Electrical Lord.

I explained to each of the 3 to submit their monthly report. Simple right? Each person submitting their own reports for their own teams.

This means each Mr Project would collate their team’s financials and submit them to me.

Mr Bazooka Encased Skull Project Man comes up to me in his domineering voice saying, ” I have asked my boys to submit all to one Mr Project and submit to the bosses”

I looked at Mr Bazooka Encased Skull Project Man with a quizzical look. “His boys” – hmm, has his Lordship made him King of the Tribe?

I wondered by the “boys” took his instructions – seriously.

I looked at him and said calmly, almost serenely as if amidst the strains of Richard Clayderman’s repertoire of elevator style music, saying “No, each will need to submit their own respective spreadsheet report to bosses”

He again repeated, ” I will ask my boys to submit in one spreadsheet”

Again, I calmly said, voice raising a notch though, ” No, each will need to submit their own respective spreadsheet report to bosses”

He now stuttered and said that ” You do not understand. We are one team”

I said, ” No, you are 3 teams. If you want  to cooperate back end, that is fine for operational issues but when it is for financial reporting, each Mr Project submits their own”

No ifs, so’s buts or why….just follow my instructions!

Bah! Talk about density of the space between brain.

Whilst I can fully understand a co-operative front, we do not need Indian Chiefs as there is no teepee or wigwam tribe to form and we are not on Survivor series.

Like it or not, we are on a meritocracy status basis and it is not the case of one tribe sharing an Elk or a Stag for supper.

It is, a dog eat dog world and in sales, this is how it goes…

 

 

If Only….#2

If only I could knit, I would knit a cute little jumper for my inanimate furball Garfield. My poor little tyke is a tad cold in the cooler months of November and December.

If only I could sing, I would sing Sopranic arias and shatter glass! Whoopee! I could shatter some Guiness Book of records for breaking glass and simultaneously be in economic cahoots with glass dealers for sales! Think glass, think money! Money! Money…..it is a rich man’s world….to the tune of Abba of the same title 😉

If only I could act. I would win an Oscar for best Most Faked Congenial Employee of the Century.

My pearly whites would gleam….sparkly white with thanks to Colgate 🙂

I would beat any Bruce Lee wannabes as my smiles will “kill” – lethal death by smiles! I would be sought after by warring countries and the best part is….cause of death in death certificate is simply put….”smiles”

If only I can nuke Newbie and neuter her evil ways. Imagine her angelic, cherubic….disposition rather her scrawny evil witchy disposition.

If only I can strike the lottery and walk away with $2,000,000…..

Dream on baby…..dream on…..the odds are never in my favor…

Back to the drawing board😆