I Miss Those Uni Days!!!

As I mentioned in the last 2 entries about how tired I am about my work, the environment that I am working in, the people I work with and the job... I was so sick to the point that I try not to think about work when I am alone but make use of my travelling time to think about other happy memories!

My daily routine while travelling home from Suntec will be to listen to my iPod shuffle playing most of Jolin's songs and some other songs which I have downloaded during my skool days. These songs somehow always bring back those good old memories of the past, especially those times which I spent with Dear and the rest of the gang from SIM.

Remembering those tok kok and gossip sessions while sitting outside lectures, lecture tea-breaks and lunch breaks, the after-skool shopping and movie outings, tennis sessions and beach outings - the times we spent at Palawan and Sunset Bay and of coz not forgetting the fun and laughters we had in Melbourne/Sydney (especially when I hear the song 'Tong Hua') and also our Bangkok trip... I really miss those days alot!!

On one of the days last week while I was travelling home on a double decker bus, came this young couple in JC uniform who sat in front of me. The gal then fell asleep on the guy's shoulder... I dunno why but I could feel my eyes becoming more and more watery as the scene sort of reminded me of one of those days when Dear sent me home from skool after lecture. I suddenly became emotionally sad bcoz I know that it is impossible now to bring me back to those days when life was so free and easy without worries about work, yet time could be spent with my Dear and friends almost everyday... Then again, I think these memories made me feel really sweet and warm inside, especially after an entire day of stress and unhappiness faced at work.

However, the sad thing is that most of us have already started working, with each leading a different lifestyle, we hardly have the time to meet up with one another now... Life has become ultimately boring!! Although the phase of transiting from a student to a working adult lifestyle is something that everyone needs to go through... For me, I am still struggling very hard to settle on my working life...

Seeing and knowing many people of my age have already settled down and have a stable career by now. Sometimes I wish that I am already in that phase bcoz I think I am getting old and lagging behind as I have yet to even get settled down on my job, not to mention that this is just a contract job. Sigh... I guessed this is the so-called peer pressure bah. =S

Anyway, our graduation ceremony is on this coming Friday! Hehee... I am looking forward to see all of us reunite again!!! =D

P/S: The following peeps, please keep this Saturday free k... you are invited for a treat!!

1) Shufang
2) Tammie
3) Eileen
4) Kelvin
5) Kevin
6) Gena
7) Damone
8) Mark Leong
9) Christine
10) Peter
11) Meiye

My Hates and Worries about Work...

Just when I thought bank training is fun, here comes the sad part of it... The management has once again showed their stun by shortening our training by 1 day, ending it on this Thursday, without giving us prior notice!! This also means that I have to go back to the platform to answer calls again... worst still, not just credit cards but INCLUDING bank related calls this time!!! Arrrgh!!! Stress...!!!

We have recently touched on topics on some bank loans... As usual, I am very slow in catching what the trainer was explaining... and I meant real slow, probably due to my lack of general banking knowledge. Thus I am always 1 to 2 points behind time of what the trainer explained. Sometimes, I hate myself for being so slow in everything... slow in hearing, slow in copying, slow in learning, slow in practically everything... I cannot imagine how slow I will be again when handling bank calls from this Friday onwards.

Actually I have been brooding over a couple of things which happened during these 2 weeks... mostly caused by hidden doubts. Well, probably I can only blame it on myself for not being sociable enough at mingling with others. Was kind of disappointed with myself over certain issues. This is where I realized that 'guan xi' plays an important role in the working life.

Apart from the above, many more things have also caused me to feel damn de-motivated to go to work now. There's too many reasons that I can think of... I can simply list down 10 reasons:

1) I hate waking up in the morning - no matter how early I went to bed the previous night, I will still feel tired in the next morning as long as I know that my itinerary for the day = work

2) I hate taking a cab that costs me approx. $20 (including the $7 for ERP) each morning just to prevent me from being late for work

3) I am so irritated bcoz they are going to close the roads near Suntec area due to IMF which directly affects how I travel to work from 10-20 September

4) I hate to commit myself to work, simply bcoz I draw a line very clearly between my work and personal time, so I hate staying back after office hours to clear up emails and do follow-ups!!

5) I hate that this job eventually needs me to go into shift work

6) I hate putting on a mask, meaning having to pretend to be so damn humble in front of those old birds with bloody attitude problems and stuck up superiors just to seek their help or advice on certain handling procedures, despite them giving us the "what the fcuk you want from me??" attitude!!

7) I hate to clear my email inbox that is always bombarded with mails and notices which 1/2 the time I do not understand what it is talking about and furthermore, we do not even have the time to read them!!

8) I hate to do those stupid online compliance tests/quizzes which is such a waste of my time!!

9) I hate doing follow-ups of dispute cases, especially for irritating, unreasonable, lazy and dumbass customers!!!

10) I hate it when the supervisors bark at us to go on ready to wait for calls to come in when we are still stuck at trying to figure out the right procedures to handle or follow-up on the last customer's request

Finally On Bank Training Now

After our long awaited days on the platform, Charmaine and I have finally started our bank training yesterday!!

In fact, we were previously told that the training will start from 14th to 25th August. To our disappointment, only when we arrived at work on Monday (14th August), one of our superiors then told Charmaine that there is no training on that day, instead it will only start on Tuesday. Well, she conveniently forgot about informing us about the change in training dates!! What the ....?!!

Anyway, since training started yesterday... I would say that I am very glad to be in this training group!! A reason being that one of the trainees is actually my ex-classmates from my primary school - Debbie. Thus, I feel quite comfortable to be training together with her! Furthermore, this batch of CPOs clique better with Charmaine and I as they are also Chinese-speaking and of the same frequency as us. All siao siao one!! Hahaa!! Not to mention the CPOs... even our trainer (who is one of the shift-team supervisors) also clique with all of us very well!! Hehee... I think the way that she chit-chats with us, be it during training, lunch or just tea/toilet breaks, she really makes me feel so at ease as if she is just like one of us!!

Frankly speaking, I am starting to wake up later and later each morning to go to work these days... Feeling very sianz of work now!! But one thing I know for sure is that I am starting to appreciate my UM for putting Charmaine and me into this training batch. Besides that, I definitely find this trainer more patient and willing to train us compared to our previous trainer on credit card products. This time, I will not hold back to ask questions even when I am in doubt.

Sometimes I thought to myself during training: We seems to be spending more time talking about other interesting topics rather than on our training topics. Hahaa!! And I think it seems that we are taking alot of breaks in between our training... Apart from toilet and tea breaks, I think very often we also tend to sidetrack to some gossips or other common topics and then spend about 15-20mins chit-chatting on them, which most of the time eats into our training time!! By right, I seriously think that this should not be happening!! But... by left, I think this is why I am enjoying training now!!! Kekekeke.... =P

Well, I failed my first test on banking today... As usual lah! Sigh... I am always one of the lousier ones... Fortunately our trainer is nice and smart enough to give us a re-test on the spot by instantly coming up with another 2 questions for those who failed, while those who passed treated the 2 questions as practice exercises! I think my trainer also wants to let everyone pass so as to get it over and done with bah...

I got 77% for the test (only 80% or more then considered as pass), while my re-test scored 95%!! But I think the re-test is much easier as there's only 2 questions to do, while the actual test has got 10 questions in total.

I pray that I can get one-time pass for all my tests. Please please please!!... Please grant me luck, intelligence and knowledge to do the upcoming tests well!!... =D

Visiting Places Where We Less Frequent...

It's been a very relaxing weekend for me this week spending quality time with my Deardear. Yesterday after work, Dear came over to my place to accompany me since we had no idea of what to do and where to go...

We had home-cooked porridge for lunch and I spent the rest of my time sleeping while Dear surfed the net. Soon he also joined me in lala-land and we slept till about 6pm!!

We then had intentions to go out for dinner but we really did not know where to dine... Actually, both of us has been thinking to go to Corduroy & Finch at Bukit Timah but we did not know the exact location.

Good thing that my dad lent us his car since he was not going to use it last night. Kekeke... Since we managed to borrow the car, Dear decided to go check out Corduroy & Finch.

Well, we drove along the same route as though we were previously driving to skool... and when we reached Sixth Ave, we also saw Corduroy & Finch located at one of the 2-storeys building along the road. It was so easy to find it and we thought that it would be located in some ulu pandan lane. Hahaa...

Anyway, we turn into Sixth Ave and realized that there was actually a small shopping centre inside. So we turned in to park our car in the basement carpark and went to explore the area. The shopping centre is indeed very small bcoz it only has a Cold Storage supermarket, a Coffee Bean Cafe and a Venezia Ice Cream shop inside.

While walking to Corduroy & Finch, we saw quite a lot of cafes and restaurants along that stretch. Think they cater to most ang-mohs and rich people staying in that area!! And few of them seems quite crowded. When we arrived outside Corduroy & Finch, we were quite fascinated by the decor of the restaurant!! Though our 1st intention was only to go and see see look look, we felt very tempted to eat there as the desserts placed on the other customers' table look really unique!!! And so... we stepped in and asked for a table for two! Hehehee...

Too bad that the tables on the 2nd storey were fully taken up, so they showed us to a high table for two!! Although the waiter thought that we would prefer the normal type of table, I think the high table is fine coz it's something different and that I have a platform beside me to place my bag.

We took quite long to go thru the menu... many dishes seem interesting but there were quite a few dishes with names that I do not understand too!! It's the language they used in the menu... too ang-moh already!! Anyway, there is this waiter called James who took our orders and served us. He is very friendly as he kept making conversations with us and also made it a point to ask us for our comments on the food we ate. He even gave Dear his contact number. Kekeke... But I don't think he is gay bah... In fact, I find that he looks very much like my cousin Roy.

Apart from the service, we had a very filling and satisfying meal there! Everything we ordered was yum yum, especially the dessert sampler platter!! The apple crumpler is very very good, the chocolate carre/royal is chocolaty rich and sinful, and the strawberry tiramisu was a surprise from the waiter!! All these made the cheesecake tasted so ordinary... Love the drink called strawberry nektar too!! We are sure to go back there again to try their other drinks and desserts!! =D

After dinner, Dear then drove me to Rochester Park to take a look at One Rochester. There are many other cafes and restaurants there too!! But they all look very high-class and expensive! Maybe we should go there some day when we feel rich! Hahaa!!

Then Dear also drove to the new golf course at Tanjong Rhu. It looked like it's still open at 12 midnight but there was not a single person inside... seems quite scary though as it was very quiet.

And after that, we also proceed to Changi Airport Budget Terminal to take a look. When we reached the car park, it was those kind that still needs us to insert the cashcard into the machine type. The terminal looks very foreign to me, unlike Terminal 1 and 2... coz I felt as if I have arrived at some airport in Bangkok. Furthermore, it only has 1 or 2 storeys... one side for arrival and the other for departure. Dear said that it looks like some army camp. Hehee...

Well, there wasn't much to explore at the Budget Terminal, so we drove to T1 instead. Then we went to the Changi Kopitiam to mumm mumm again. I had 2 half-boiled eggs and tea with milk while Dear only ordered the tea. After supper, we then went to take our ride on the new skytrain to T2 and back to T1, then back to T2 and back to T1! AHAHAHAAA!! WE ARE VERY BO LIAO HOR?? But it was fun, all for the sick of taking pictures and videos of ourselves!!! =P

Soon fun ended and it was time to go home.

My Unlucky Day!!!

Was damn suay at work today... only answered up to 19 calls today!!! That's soo sooo soooo damn few calls lah!!! This amount of calls was the record I made during my first week on the platform... By now, I am supposed to be able to answer almost 30 calls or more. Not to imagine that our call centre target is to meet 12 calls per hour!! Duhh...

It's all those stupid customers' fault!!! You guys ought to believe that the calls I took todays were 70% complain calls. First time having to handle all complaint calls continuously in a row... wasting my time and my supervisor's time! Almost all the calls I had to seek my supervisor help in order to solve the problems. Felt so bad for having to disturb her all day long... she was even scolded by a few of the customers when she took over my calls. =(

Today was the first time I was so angry and irritated after 3 consecutive difficult customers that I scolded "FUCK YOU LAH!!!" after the call. How I wished that I could scold those bloody customers upfront during the call, especially those who posed to be so damn fcuking difficult to me and my supervisor!! Just bcoz they keep their money in our bank or they uses our credit cards then they thought that they are so damn rich... and just bcoz they thought that they are so damn rich so we must service to their requests as if they are the king/queen to us!! Fcuk fcuk fcuk!!! In actual fact, they are just a bunch of fcuking ignorant and brainless idi-ots!! Well, these customers can scold me or complain about me all they want... Go ahead... I'm not scared... The most I lost my job... But God knows who is in the wrong.

The reason that I was so irritated just now is bcoz I really hate customers who ask for my name (worst would be asking for my surname as well) when they do not get their request granted... One specific case was that there's this chinese-speaking customer who was referred to me from one of the branch to enquire about his daughter's credit card statement. One thing for sure is that we are not allowed to review any info to a non-cardholder of the account. Thus, I tried to help by asking if I could call his daughter to go through the standard verification procedures first. And he told me that his daughter is now in the States... but he went on to tell me to go ahead and call her if I insist bcoz in any way, his daughter will be sleeping at that time (considering the time difference between both countries). Then he told me to call her at night around 10-11pm if I really need to call her. At the same time, he kept making noise about me making things so complicated when I could just tell him the information he wanted to check straightaway. But in actual fact, of coz I still cannot review anything. Here I am already abit pissed by his attitude.

So this time, I tried to answer his query by telling him to provide me with the details of what he sees on the statement (in this case I will not be disclosing any details from the cardholder's account since the info is provided by the caller instead). Then... he started to tell me that he saw this 'opening maiden' on the statement which he does not understand why our bank is charging his daughter. HMMMMM... WHAT DO YOU THINK IS AN 'OPENING MAIDEN' HUH??? I did not get what he meant as I did not see any transaction called 'opening maiden' in the statement that I saw on screen... So I repeatedly prompted him for more details but he just kept telling me that it's an 'opening maiden' which I didn't understand!!! So I told him that I do not understand what is an 'opening maiden'... And he got agitated that I kept asking him so many things yet I still din understand... So he started scolding me that I have been wasting his time for not answering his question to the point... The next few phrases got me all heated up manz!!!!!!

The conversation went something like this...



Stupid sickening idiot spoilt my day!!! Hope he gets his retribution!!! If he's gonna complain about me... Hahaa... May the force be with me then!! =( Anyway, I later realised that the 'opening maiden' he was talking about is actually referring to the opening balance on the statement! Duhh!!!!

Another difficult customer called in saying that she and her husband would like to apply for one of the credit cards but they do not want to go thru the hassle to fill up the application forms!! Come on lor! Fill 2 forms will die meh??? Just to save the hassle for them, it took me about an hour to explain to the customers, to consult my supervisor as well as to follow-up with the respective people from the other departments, just to save customers' trouble in filling up 2 simple forms which can be completed within 5mins. Fcuk up!!!

Another customer called in and started to kao bei kao bu about the previous customer service officer, saying that he did not follow-up with him as promised previously. Then he just went on and on repeating that our service is bad as he was being "ding dong around" (these 3 words were used by the customer... find it quite funny though!! Kekeke!!) but nobody get back to him on the matter. And he started flaring up not giving me a chance to talk or ask him what happened. To me, I just entered the picture without knowing the head and tail of the customer's dispute, yet the customer did not want to explain the story to me but kept asking me to check the records... Then again, I only saw a few lines stated in the system which doesn't tell me in detail what the customer's dispute was about.

So I tried to prompt him for what actually happened previously coz now I will be handling his case but needs to know the details of his previous dispute, he then started repeating that he is very dissatisfied with the previous customer service officer's attitude for not following-up with him... blah blah blah!!! So when I had to chance to interrupt, I told him that I will be able to check for him on the outcome of his dispute but I need to know the details of the dispute and will need to call him back later or put him on hold while I check. But the thing now is that he does not even want to give me time to check... and demanded for me to tell him the outcome immediately!! Siao!!

Eventually I was able to convince him that I will call him back after checking and will give him a reply by 4.30pm. And found out that his dispute was actually over some card insurance which he signed up for but claimed that he did not know the insurance policy that he actually signed up for yet he signed it up blindly, thus he has previously requested for a cancellation of the insurance policy and a refund but has no update on the status. After the call ended with customer, I immediately consulted my supervisor for help. She then helped me to call the insurance company... she sort of helped me handled the case by calling the customer too... And the customer also scolded her... =( Luckily, the insurance company said that they will try to settle the matter with the customer over their end.

My story of 3 nasty customers can already make 1 of my blog entries so long... I think if I were to type in all the nasty phonecall scenarios that happened today, u guys reading will fall asleep... Hehee... Or maybe some of you has already fell asleep... Keke!

Happy National Day, Singapore!!

Wishing Singapore, my island home, a Happy Belated 41st Birthday!!!

Deardear and I met up with Kevin, Gena and Mark Leong to watch 'My Super Ex-Girlfriend' yesterday... Not very nice though... Think it's not worth watching!

And guessed what? After movie, Dear, Kevin, Gena and I actually stood outside Wheelock for 45 mins to view the NDP live telecast on the big TV screen outside Shaw Centre. Then we even saw how the traffic polices cleared the whole road along Orchard for a very important vehicle to drive thru. There we were seeing the vehicle drove pass us and in less than 5 mins, that very important person has already arrived at the national stadium (just within the duration of one song performance). That was SOOOOOO FAST!!!

Dear then said that probably the driver in the vehicle was Jay Chou who has quitted his toufu delivery job in Initial D to work as a chauffeur now! Kekeke!!

Okie, we did not get to see the fireworks yesterday... coz after Mark Leong went to pick Christine, we went to the hawker centre at Alexandra Village to eat zi cha for dinner. Ordered sweet and sour pork ribs, samba BBQ squids, deep fried baby squids, cereal prawns, gai lan and BBQ stingray. Then we went to Villa Bali to chill-out for awhile.

Fang, you missed it!! We saw Adam Chen leh!!!!!! Kekekeke!!! Wasted man!! Christine and I actually wanted to take a photo with him but he seems quite unapproachable with many friends beside him. So in the end we decided not to.

Anyway, learnt alot on financial planning from Mark Leong at Villa Bali but still, I am not very comfortable to spend on life protection yet... probably wait till I have more cash and savings... coz I also want to build up a strong base for my financial pyramid! Haaa!

The Fast and The Furious - Tokyo Drift vs. Initial D

Went to catch 'The Fast and The Furious - Tokyo Drift' on last Saturday night... It was so exciting to watch the drifting actions in the movie!! But I think the storyline was somehow modified from the previous car-racing movie 'Initial D'...

Despite the similarity, I still like it... especially the songs that goes with the various scenes... and I think that the lead actor in this movie looks like Edison Chen (as in the eyes that portion and his style)... or maybe it's just me... Hehee...

Here's one of the songs from the movie soundtrack... I find it quite cute... Enjoy!!~

Happy 26th Birthday, My Dear!!

Ok, I did not have the time to blog on this on 3rd August 2006. But I just wanna say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my dearest bf by announcing it on my blog!!! Kekeke... =P

Of coz not forgetting about the birthday present...

Actually I was hoping to see the shock expression on his face when he opens the present, unfortunately he only wanted to open it after he reached home. Sigh...

Anyway, I think he really likes it bcoz it has just became his new baby!! Hee!! =D