KangzKong Mai Hiam.

This is the marketing campaign for the yet to be launched Volvo S60. No I didn’t post it here because I like Volvos, but from a marketing major’s point of view this ticks all the right boxes.

Creativity? Checked. Low cost but not low class? Checked. Connects with emotion? Checked. Sets people thinking? Checked. Inspirational? Checked.

Wished I came up with it.

Do you remember I said I wanna drive down the Oresund bridge with ABBA blasting from the speakers from a convertible? No I haven’t done it (yet), but I have the next best thing – driving down Benjamin Shear’s bridge with Mama Mia blasting from  the speakers of my non-convertible.

Yes I finally got myself an ‘ABBA Greatest Hits’ CD. It’s been a long time coming, I know. Honestly most of the ABBA songs just sound so, well, happy! And it perks up my mornings like nothing else on Earth, one can’t help but sing along you know. If anyone has problem waking up in the morning, you should put ‘Does Your Mother Know’ as your alarm; I swear it works.

The travel bug has bitten me again and I am starting to dream about places I wanna go. One good thing about working life is the increased spending power we enjoy, albeit that privilege comes at some cost (of course, there’s no free lunch in the world). With this increased spending power, naturally I started having audacious dreams about exotic destinations. And then I take a look at my pay, only to realise it will probably take years for me to save enough to go on the trip(s) I dream about. Aren’t teachers paid quite highly? No, that’s an absolute fallacy. So if you expect teachers to be able to afford that $3million seafront apartment comfortably, you are sadly mistaken.

Anyway, back to the topic. My no.1 dream destination currently is Maldives. Ooh lala. Well, just one problem – good accommodation costs around USD1800 per night, excluding taxes and what have you. That means if I wanna stay there for 5 nights, it will cost a whopping USD9000, and it will hit 5 figures once you factor in all the +++. Even if we split the costs between 2 people, it’s still a huge sum of money for a week long trip. Nevertheless, I will wanna visit the island republic before it sinks to the bottom of the sea (haha nah it will sink, but not to the bottom of the sea) due to global warming.

Here are the pictures of the W Maldives. Isn’t it gorgeous? I got the pics from Starwood’s website, and I somehow believe it will look as heavenly in reality.

I can imagine myself on that hammock with a coconut beside me. Mmmm. Most of the resorts in Maldives are situated on private islands, which means a seaplane transport from Male (the capital) is necessary. It’s a little like Lost, but the Luxury-and-you-won’t-wanna-leave-the-island edition. Maybe in 10 years I will have saved enough.

Some of you may have read about the accident along Upper Thomson Road involving a Volvo, driver being a 24 year old male. Nope, that person isn’t me in case you are wondering. My insurance agent actually wondered whether I was the driver, only to realise we just exchanged a few SMS that afternoon the article was published. Anyway, glad that the bloke is ok… Most accidents involving a tree have tragic endings like the car chassis breaking into two. Fortunately the car was nowhere near that state.

Anyway, I am having the time of my life in school! The students can be a bit on the naughty side, and I can see the mountain of work that full time teachers have to do. But hopefully all will be worth it.

For those of you who are wondering what have I been up to these past few months, here’s an update.

1. Nope the business idea didn’t work out. So now, I am going to become a teacher (albeit a contracted one). The contract is for one year, and I have been posted to a school seriously near my house. Yeah I have always been lucky when it comes to such things, I know. It’s just as well that the contract is for 1 year, since I can try out teaching as a career. Now, why teaching? Honestly, it’s something that I wanna do at some point in life, so it might as well be now. I can’t imagine myself making a mid career switch to teaching, because there’ll be too much to lose by then.

2. I am starting work on 27 July, so in the meantime I am doing part time at my dad’s office.

3. Yes I am newly attached.

4. And yes, I have a new toy to play with.

Yup so that’s all for now. For those who are ‘fortunate’ enough to meet me for dinner after 27 July, I will update you on how I get terrorized by the kids (or the other way round).

On Saturday, I said goodbye to my baby who has been with me for the past 5 years 2 months. It’s been a happy 107,015km (one accident inclusive). Hope your next owner will take real good care of you!

When a local car reviewer says ‘The layout of the dashboard is typical Scandinavian – neat, clean design with a logical tidiness to it,” I can’t help but wonder – Does neat, clean and logical define something that is Scandinavian? Or do those reviewers just assume this is what something Scandinavian looks like? Do they actually know what they are talking about?

The 3 adjectives can be used to describe a Swiss watch, a German car, an Italian espresso machine… So what’s my point? *deep breadth* My point is there’s no such thing as typically Scandinavian, or typically Swedish, or typically anything for that matter. Things are often more profund, and more sophisticated than hat.

I am back from my supposed grad trip! Originally we wanted to go Japan (Hokkaido, to be exact) but in view of the expensive yen and the cheap won, we decided to switch destination. Since none of us could speak a single word of Korean except konnichiwa (wait that’s Japanese, isn’t it?), we followed a tour group.

Since few people are as crazy as us to opt for a transit in Shanghai with China Eastern Airlines, our group’s rather small at 10 (2 groups of 5). Why did we opt for the transit? Well originally we wanted to have a stopover in Shanghai for a couple of days (and of course it’s cheaper by a couple hundred bucks), but unfortunately things got screwed up at the travel agent or airline’s side. It looks like all our original travel plans never materialised. Fate at work? That means we endured a 5 hr stopover in Shanghai (on our way to Korea, 3 hrs on the way back) for nothing. Anyway, the long transit aside, I enjoyed myself immensely, no thanks to the company (Lawrence, Qiugui, Jean & Indian Princess aka Snow White aka Sunshine Girl aka Jean’s sister aka Jiebin).

The pictures I took (and those taken by my friends) can be found on FB, so you are welcome to view, ridicule and comment. Korea is a beautiful country blessed with maginificent hills/mountains, beautiful rolling plains and sparkling seas. Jeju is particularly pretty, no wonder it’s a fav among honeymoon couples. If one watches Korean dramas, he/she will go crazy there visiting the filming sites for All In, Stairway to Heaven, Summer Scent, Winter Sonata etc. In public, males are #1 but that may be reversed behind closed doors. This is not unlike Japan, I suppose. Some Koreans speak/understand a bit of Mandarin and English, so communication isn’t particularly difficult if we point, shake and nod our heads. Maybe we should have gone free and easy.

At the end of the day, I felt the itinerary was too packed (and the crawling Seoul traffic didn’t help matters) and they squeezed what’s supposed to be a 10 day trip into 7 days. There are some places I will love to spend a bit more time actually, and some shopping places I will rather skip (like the ginseng store). But then that’s one of the big minuses that everyone has to endure when traveling with a tour group.

Now it’s time to start working. Yay! Earn more money, go for more holidays =)

Ok I should be studying instead of blogging. My 1 and only paper of the semester is at 9am tomorrow, signaling the end of my SMU life. Nope not feeling emotional or anything, but the day has been a long time coming. Can’t wait.

Ok it’s week 9 now, meaning there’s less than 2 months of school left. Ermm…Yay? Yeah Yay!! Honestly I can’t wait to get out of school and jump right onto the unemployment bandwagon.

Ok this post is just a brief update to what has happened during the past 8 weeks.

1. I met a evil sister I never thought I had (yes Jasmine it’s you)
2. A girl proved to be better than me at buffets.
3. Completed Nego project. 2 more to go.
4. Finished polishing my resume and cover letter. Now to flood the market with them
5. Wondering if I can ever find a job.
6. Blessed that my friends are always there for me.
7. Went to more KTVs in 2 months than the whole of last year.

Yup that’s about it… Now it’s time to go to school