It's the Company that counts

Went for a poon choy dinner yesterday at a small village in Sg Buloh... The place is called Restaurant LYJ. If you do not have GPS, I think it's easy to get lost in that area especially if you are not familiar.

And it wasn't a pleasant experience at all because:

1) Traffic Jam. Even though we had carefully planned to delay our meal time from 7 to 8:30 to avoid the Friday jam, we were stuck right before the NKVE toll and the jam stretched for about 2 km. Try being hungry and stuck in what seemed to be an endless jam... and you'd know what i mean.

2) We were running out of fuel. We were so near yet so far, we were unable to get to Shell station which was located just after the toll due to the jam, (since the GPS says that our destination is only 6km away, we thought we could make it to the next petrol station as we were unaware of the stretch of jam ahead) and we had to check and recheck the GPS to see if there were another petrol station nearby. When we finally reached the petrol station, the petrol station's systems were all down. Bummer. Had to queue up for manual service.

3) The roads towards the restaurant were so narrow but the cars were driving like they are on a highway!

4) There were no more parking in front or nearby the restaurant. Had to park quite a distance away.

5) When I stepped out of the car, me with my open toe sandals went right into a puddle of dirty water.

6) As we tried to cross the road towards the restaurant, we nearly got hit by the cars which were driving at highway speed on a very narrow road that has cars doubled parked on both sides. Yep, we nearly got hit..... twice... (it was a 2 way street or should I say highway) !!!!!

7) The washroom was unisex but the toilet cubicles were wet (flooded is a more appropriate word). So I had to clean my wet leg outside the cubicles. Had to hurriedly clean up so that no one will see the ugly sight of a girl in mini skirt wiping her legs... yuks. Surely lose appetite when you see. hahaha.

8) The restaurant was sooo busy and noisy. It was a full house yesterday night and so you can imagine the noise level. We could hardly hear each other speak. Felt rude as I shouted "THANK YOU!!" (a few times) when tea was served to me.

However, we still had a lot of laughters (especially when we fight for the "jewels" in the pot) and the food was good for the price we paid. Only RM32 per person even though all 8 "hungry ghosts" were very very full after the dinner. And there were enough leftovers for Marianne.

Despite all the unpleasantries, when I reminisce the night now to write this blog, it is with a warm and funfilled feeling.

And so I can conclude that, it's not so much the food, the place, and the price. It is the company that counts.


Viva la Company! :)

2 is better than 1

There's this new song, 2 is better than 1..... Sung by Boys like girls featuring Taylor Swift..... I think it's nice...and sweet...... Give it a listen...

(Actually I wanna say, it rocks and it's awesome.... but then after listening for a while, I thought of Vege's conversation with Keyman...... as follows... and my appetite was ruined...)


SourVege: Keyman, remember for me that this download file,ABC1234 is for (some stupid reason)...

Keyman: What for want to remember? You remember lar.

SourVege: 2 people remember better than 1 mar..

Keyman: What stupid idea is that.... Don't want la. You write down in your own notebook lar... then can remember la.

SourVege: You write down in your notebook also la, so that you also can remember where to find ma.

Keyman: Don't want la. If like that also can forget, means not important. Then better don't have to remember.

SourVege: Jahat Jahat Jahat.

==================================================

But Keyman denies all the above. He says the conversation was between SourVege and MC as below:

SourVege : remember for me what color of panties I wear today, I don't 1 2 wear the same color again.....(some stupid reason)...

MC: What for want to remember? You remember lar.

SourVege: 2 people remember better than 1 mar..

MC: What stupid idea is that.... Don't want la. You write down in your own notebook lar... then can remember la.

SourVege: You write down in your notebook also la, so that you also can remember what color ma.

MC: Don't want la. If like that also can forget, better don't wear lah

SourVege: Jahat Jahat Jahat.

Colors of awareness

Why am I posting colors on my facebook status?

Many would wonder and in fact, facebook doesn't give any explanation. Facebook doesn't need to. It just serves as a powerful, far reaching, high traffic marketing tool. Nothing beats word-of-mouth as a better and more effective marketing tool. C'mon, how many times have we tried a product or changed brands because it is "highly recommended" by your friend, family etc.

Anyway, the color thingamagic is for good cause, so I just explain it here in my blog. There's a campaign to raise awareness about breast cancer and the female users of facebook are encouraged to update their status with a simple word ..... which is the color of their bra.

It is the hope of the US Cancer Cure foundation to raise awareness and educate or remind the women to check themselves often or get a mammogram because early detection can save lives. However, their spokesperson said that it wasnt them who started the facebook color craze. Even Business Week reports that they are unsure who came up with this idea.

So there you are, go update your status with all the beautiful colors...

Ok, I just updated my status with "black"... ;)

P/s. If you are not wearing any for the moment, update as *nude* .... I mean, guys.. don't think dirty.,...there are moments where you're on mobile upload and you're at the massage parlour, or hitting the showers at the gym or something... :P

Be aware, show you care...

Old batteries

Everytime I boot up my notebook, I get a warning message,"Your batteries are charging normally, but it is approaching the end of its usuable life." When I go off A/C, i.e. use it without the power cord, I get only around half an hour to an hour usage. Yes, that's a signal that I need new batteries or an alternative battery source.

Even my handphone, seems to have the same symptoms. My mobile comes with 2 batteries and they use to be able to last me more than a day each without recharge. Now, I wont be able to make/receive night calls if I don't change/recharge batteries in the afternoon. Yes, that's a signal that I need new batteries too...

Lately, I have been feeling very tired. I used to be able to make do with very little sleep...i.e I could go active a long time without A/C.... And I don't need afternoon naps to recharge...Yea, I was like the Energizer Bunny - going on and on and on...... but these couple of days, I doze off in front of the laptop at around 11pm ...

Hmmm... a signal that I need a new battery/energy source too?

Photos courtesy of Dreamstime.

The mix feelings of giving

Have you ever bought an expensive toy for a kid, and all that he finds facinating was the box. And he spends hours playing with the box, totally negleting and unappreciative of the contents?

Well, yea that feeling sux. You feel that all your effort, where you spend hours looking for the perfect toy to make him happy, has gone down the drain. It's worse than a slap in the face or punch in the guts. It's like your heart breaking into a thousand pieces. You feel that you have let him down by not being able to make him happy with the gift (because the whole intention of buying the gift was to make him happy).

And when you think THAT is the worse feeling, try finding out that the kid actually thinks that someone elses' gifts are better. Yes, that's like rubbing H2SO4* (acid) into an open wound. Yea, sux even further. It's like those thousand pieces from your broken heart falling into an abyss that's so deep that it's deeper than Mariana Trench**. Yea, it's so deep that even as I type, the pieces are still falling. Nope, it hasn't reached the bottom yet...

Well, kids don't intentionally wanna hurt your feelings, but from their excited feeling when they receive other gifts or by showing off the gifts of others or when he's genuinely happy with playing with other gifts, you know that they prefer other gifts than yours... And that feeling sux...big time...

And that is why.... today, I am rather happy, to see little b so happy..... mainly because I made him so happy.. hahaha

I received a green cap (similiar to that of Ben 10) in the mail from a contest, and I gave it to him. He was estactic, as it made him look like his current favourite superhero Ben Tennyson. And then in the car, I surprised him further with another present, a Ben 10 comic book. His eyes GLEAMED with excitedment as he opened the present. He whispered, "Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy.... I think it's a Ben 10 book." And it was... And he can't wait to open the plastic cover and kept repeating while I was driving, "Mom, can you help me open the plastic, please?"

And then he realised that it's the schoold holidays and exclaimed, "Oh, what a pity that I don't have school tomorrow. Otherwise I can show it to my friends." (All his friends are fans of Ben 10 and have Ben 10 books of their own. This is little b FIRST Ben 10 book.).

Kinda makes me feel proud that he's so happy with his present that he wanted to show it off to his friends. And then he even make a logical comment and say, "Oh, it's ok. I can read it first, and then show them in January! There's school again in January, right Mom? "

He's still new to the concept of time, days, months, and year. So I find it a BIG DEAL that he could say such logical words. I couldn't help but give him a big hug and a big kiss and praised him profusely.

Upon reaching home, he burst into a chant... (almost a song), "Yeah yeah, I've got a cap ....and I've got a Ben 10 book..." And ran to show off to his grandmother while gigling with glee...

Haha, I die a happy Mom tonight...

p/s In the excitement of fussing over his new pressies, he left his favourite Ninja turtle in the car (which he takes to bed every night). And when he willingly accepts the Ben 10 book as a substitute bedtime pacifier, I know I have bought the PERFECT gift.. :)

* Sulfuric Acid

**the deepest point in the world, located in the Pacific ocean.

*** End note: The author is not preaching that it's good for kids to show off, nor condoning arrogance. The author merely uses the "show off scenario" as an example on how to gauge whether a kid is happy with your gift.

Rock

I wish I was hard as a rock mountain,

Being able to be selfish and unbudging...

Being able to withstand all kinds of weather, without a single word...

But alas, I am not...

I am just being pinned down by a rock... unable to move, unable to breathe, unable to say a single word..

Sufferng in silence... for a rock...

Same

And then I realise....

That essentially all of us are the same...

Delayed Reaction

OMG... Woke up with muscle ache all over my arms and legs - a delayed reaction from the fatigue caused by over-exhaustion of my body on Friday. I feel wobbly on my arms and legs and don't feel like waking up...

This is a sign....
...
...
...

That I haven't been exercising for a long time!!!

(Haven't gone clubbing like in years and sudddenly dance/move for 5 hours... hahaha)

I know I know... I can almost hear you saying under your breath,"It's a sign of getting old la...."

Well, as I always say... we're only as old as we think we are... party on people... p-p-p party everyday... while we're still alive...(body ache shows that we're still alive.. :P)

Just something positive to chase away the Monday blues... well, me better go get ready for work...

Dogs

I watched "Up" with Bryan on DVD recently... wasn't paying much attentin to the movie actually, but there was one scene which caught my eye.

There was this dog, whom the master has shouted at and given up due to desperation of the moment... and the dog and master parted ways, leaving the master all by himself in a lonely big old house. Then later when the house flew up into the sky with the balloons, with the owner thinking he was up in the air all by himself, there was a knock on the door. To his pleasant surprise, when the master open the door, it was the dog.

The dog, Dug, said, (yeah, it was a talking dog!), "I hid under your porch because I love you, master."

The point that the movie tries to highlight is that dogs can love their master unconditionally... regardless of what you do, because they just simply love their master. And this kind of reminded me of a certain dog owner... or dog lover actually... who cannot have a dog in the house due to parents objections. But still she loves dogs and will find a way to help dogs and feed them at animal shelters everyday before going home (even though her job is taxing and requires long hours). What's more amazing is that, she finds time to feed the dog first before going out to treat herself i.e. singing or clubbing which she fancies a lot. I find that she has some similar traits with dogs in terms of loving someone unconditionally.

Why do I say that? Well, I find that she loves the people around her a lot, regardless of the things they do to her. Her brother for example, has done innumerous naughty things to her, like maybe feeding her barbie doll set to the dogs, but she has always find a way to forgive him as she tells me that she only has one brother... (awww.... If that's not love, what is? Munster hates me for publishing such soapy stuffs but hey, I always report the truth...hehehe). And her unconditional love for dogs is commendable. And I can see that she loves her parents and other relatives a lot by the things she does..... and she does love her friends a lot too.. :P And I know she loves me.. :)

Thanks for being there .... and still loving me even though I liken you with a dog.. HAHAHHA...

Happy Velvety Halloween

"I am dehydrated", said Alex-san, one of the clubbers yesterday night who drink and dance at the Halloween party at Velvet, while sipping his orange juice next to me on the way home.

Yeah, regular clubbers knows that they have to keep themselves hydrated because after a night of booze, the body is totally dehydrated, not only of fluid but of energy. I remember there was one part of the night where I couldn't feel my legs due to non-stop 3 hours of dancing on high heels. But it was all fun... just to release some stress and forget the real world for a second and party with the "ghosts of the night" in the spirit of Halloween.

T'was a pretty crazy night... with the earlier part of the night spent singing our lungs out in the Scary Karaoke before we adjourned to Velvet to join the other scary party (Ummm.. Munster was really scared (worried) of who his designated driver would be coz Alex-san crashed his car twice recently and he was equally scared that any of us would dirty his beloved car with puke (including his own).... )

Highlights of the night includes partying with a bunch of cool beautiful girls and getting Leo Ku to party with us!




Well, I couldn't get hold of all the pictures... so here's just a few to scare you.... Happy Halloween everybody.. :)

Halloween for little b

Little b was quite excited about trick or treating for this halloween. He even came up with his own costume that came with a mask (which he made in school) to boot. I know it's not our culture to go trick or treating, but with the influence of disney channel, I am sure he's happy just to be a part of an international celebration. Well, I think he just enjoy having someone t play with and the new toy and new activities of making a costume an a mask.. :)

Happy Halloween.. :) Trick or treat... Muahahahah

Culture of Compliance

Blue Ribbon for yours truly, despite being accidentally misjudged for speaking out of time. The Timer (being a first timer - pun intended haha...) thought that the speech was to be delivered within 6 minutes instead of 7, and buzz me off while I was delivering the final punchline at 6:30 minutes. The impact of her actions took the entire point out of the speech, which is crucial for this assignment since the main objective of Project 3 is "Get to the Point". Anyway, all's well ends well.. :) But it'll be fun to see her face if I were to become her timer during her next speech. Ting Ting Ting Ting...Buzzz!!!! Muahahahaha....

=================================================

Does anyone know this man? He is Flavio Briatore. Who is Flavio Briatore? This is the face of a Cheater!

Ladies and Gentleman, Fellow toastmasters and friends,

Why am I talking about this cheater? Who is he? What has he cheated me of? Not of my money, as he has 100 times more money than I do. And I am not jealous of his wife. This man is closely link to all of us. And I feel I need to make all of you aware of this man and what he has done to us. Flavio Briatore was the Managing Director of the Renault Formula One team. And this man has now been suspended for life from F1 activities!

Up until last week, ING was sponsoring the Renault F1 team. And luckily, ING was very wise to denounce the sponsorship immediately upon knowing this incident, otherwise ING will be labelled as a CHEATER as well. Imagine the impact if our customers were to associate us as cheaters if we continue to associate and endorse a cheating team.

You can see how this one man, Flavio Briatore has brought shame to the entire Renault F1 team by masterminding a race-fixing scandal and indirectly bringing shame to all of us in ING as well. For those who are unaware, let me tell you of this scandal. Everyone loves to hear a good scandal, don’t we?

Who watched F1 last Sunday? Where was it held? Yes, Singapore. Incidentally, last September in Singapore, Flavio Briatore ordered Nelson Piquet Jr. to crash his car so that teammate Fernando Alonso could win the 2008 Grand Prix title. His action not only compromised the integrity of the sport but also endangered the lives of the spectators and drivers!

Sports is considered to be an avenue for clean competition, thus you see many big companies endorsing sports event and promoting sportsmanship. And F1 is supposed to be the Big Boys Sports -the luxurious lifestyle where fame and fortune comes hand in hand with face. Thus this scandal is a big blow to the world sports body and all the companies involved.

In our corporate world, the people make the difference. Many do not realise the importance of compliance or corporate governance and how one mistake from one person can change the entire image of the company. Corporate governance is not only about having rules and regulations and policies. We know it's not enough to have policies. It's not enough to have procedures. It's not enough to have good intentions. All of these can help. But to be successful, compliance must be an embedded part of our firm's culture.

With the major impact shown by various major companies such as Enron, Arthur Andersen and Barings bank, we've noticed that the root cause is mainly their poor cultures of compliance. In many cases it seems clear that the culture of immediate, short-term profit overwhelmed the culture of compliance. Scandal teaches us that the culture of compliance must be taken seriously. As such, ING and all of us must learn from all these scandals and not make the same mistakes. I strongly believe that having a culture of compliance must be part of every firm's core business model.

A wise person once said that the test of a truly moral person, is whether he does the right thing when no one is looking. Certainly, the test for all firms is whether they maintain and each day, reinforce, a culture of compliance — which includes a culture of doing not only what is within the strict parameters of the law, but also what is right — whether or not a regulator or anyone else is looking. It is critical that firms establish a strong culture of compliance that guides and reinforces employees as they make decisions and choices each day.

In conclusion, having a healthy compliance culture is very important to our business. As we witness all the scandals and their impact, we will benefit, because it will help us sharpen the focus of our oversight in the compliance area. But more importantly, it will also enhance the protection we deliver to investors, which is after all, the ultimate goal of every culture of compliance.

So I leave you all with a simple question. If your boss was Flavio Briatore, and you were in Nelson Piquet Jr’s shoes, would you have done what your boss have asked you to do? Remember you can make a difference. You can make the change and be part of the culture of compliance.

Broken

Something happened earlier which completely killed my passion to write. My spirit was so broken... I couldn't type on the keyboard... All I could manage was just to click insanely on the mouse (to play some totally silly games) to kill my meaningless time...

That's why my blog site is Tundra-like these days... so barren and empty.

Well, I am slowly getting over it...

The seeds are already sown...

Just waiting for the rain ...

Maybe some fertilisers will do me good.. :)

Yellow Ribbon for Helping Friends

Me joining a humourous speech contest. That must be a joke. Me being given less than 10 hours notice that I have been entered into the competition is a bigger joke. Amazingly, I actually accepted the challenge. (Actually, I was made to do this. I mean, your CIO came up to you and ask you nicely whether you can help to do the speech. And this is not the first time he asked (a few times and all nicely some more)... Well, since I already was preparing for my second speech, I thought, what the heck, just do it.... I had tough time preparing myself mentally but my funny friends really did help ease the burden by sharing my worries (really does beat carrying the mental anxiety all alone) :)

And when it was time to speak, it was comforting to know that I was speaking on home ground with all my supporters behind me... (yea, now I know how MU feels playing at Old Trafford).... Anyway, I was still nervous... as I was up against all the veterens. These people definitely looked seasoned but I thought, what the heck, it was the experience that counts. To cut a long story short, yours truly got 3rd place!!! Not bad for a new comer, eh? And it feels really good when Mr. VPE (sorta like the Minister of Education in Toastmasters terms) came up to me and say, "If there was a prize for "Best Newcomer Award", I should be the one receiving it. :) Well, yours truly was all smiles when the whole thing was over... If you were there, you really could see me breathe a sigh of relieve that I hadn't let my whole club down... :)

Here's the "humourous" speech that I made that day... haven't have the chance t get my hands on the video and the photos of the winners... so you'll just have to put up with the 3rd best thing for now...

===========================================================

Friends helping friends to succeed.

Good evening ladies and gentlemen,

How many of you have friends, raise your hands? Or How many of us don’t have friends? So pitiful, come and see me later, I will try to arrange something for you.

Fellow toastmasters, guests, and friends,

“Friends helping friends to succeed”. I find this tagline very appropriate because essentially Toastmasters is a non-profitable club and so what is the driving force behind all you motivated members? This is not the official answer, but I find that one of the driving force is friendship.

I feel honoured to be amongst friends today, friends like all of you, helping me to succeed in my communication, in my speech and in so many other uncountable ways. We have all kinds of friends, some are good, and some are not. So what is friendship, really?

Friendship is a special kind of bonding that is similar but yet differs from all other relationship. It starts from acquaintance but friendship differs from social acquaintanceship, as friendship is based on love. It defers from lovers and marriage, as friendship is free from jealousy. Unlike family ties, friendship is not a responsibility but build on voluntary affection. Friendship has no status in law. Business partnerships are based on contract, so is marriage. Parents are bound by the law, as are the children.

Friends are there to stand by you, to give you courage, a push when you’re stuck, a helping hand when you need one and a steady shoulder to lean on when you you’re down.
I have to say I am lucky to have friends. I was stuck with this speech for quite a while and due to my lack of experience, I couldn’t find anything to say. I told my friends that I have a problem, and they laughed at me. I told them, “No, I have a serious problem.” They laughed even louder. They said, “Kelly, don’t worry. You don’t have t be a One Speech wonder. We can help you become a legend like Michael Jackson!”

And then they brought me to a tea session to help me loosen up and get my speech going. And they came up with 1001 topics for me to talk about. Some of the more interesting one was to talk about my dating experience as they thought you all would like to know about my past boyfriends… or girlfriends. But no, I can’t talk about relationships as I am not the type who kiss and tell. So don’t worry Alan, your secret is safe with me.

And they also suggested talking about my funny experience of how they have helped me make my decision to replace 10 year old car. Not too long ago, I went on a car hunting trip to replace my 10 year old jalopy, my dear old Iswara. I was so serious about getting a new car because I am a person who drives a car for a very very long time (yes I am a very loyal person). So I want to have the best car possible with the limited budget that I have. Thus I came up with a spreadsheet. IT people always come out with spreadsheets to do comparison. Look at all the parameters.

[Show PPT Spreadsheet]

You know I am a serious buyer when you see my spreadsheet. And then I showed this spreadsheet to those lighthearted friends of mine and guess what they did? They changed all the inputs for the parameters to compare girls!!!!

These friends of mine helped me see the lighter side of everything and help loosen me up so that I can be myself and excel. There have been there with me through some thicks and some thins. Friends bask in each other’s success, and despair together over failures. Friends take care of each other, nurse each other and learn from each other’s lessons. Life is too short to make all the mistakes by ourselves, and that’s why you need to learn from friend’s lessons.

So you can see how important friends are to me. And incidentally Alan has adopted the “Friends helping friends to succeed” as our ING Leadership Toastmaster’s club tagline. I will conclude with this simple poem that I wrote on how friends can help friends to succeed:

Friends cannot solve all your problems, doubts and fears
But they can listen to you and help you find courage and answers
Friends cannot change the past, the heartaches and pains
But they can remind you not to make the same mistakes again,

Friends dont take your joys, triumphs, successes
But they are here to share your sorrows and happiness
So take my hand and a journey together we proceed,
And let friends help friends to succeed.

To Ah is human

Yours truly was the “ ’ah!’ counter” for the day. Ah counter is one of the roles played in the Toastmasters International Club and it’s purpose is mainly for personal growth, i.e. to practise the listening skills. The Ah Counter also helps the speakers get off their crutches and their dependencies on “Pause Fillers” during their presentation.

The role of an Ah Counters is exactly what the Title depicts. I count the number of Ahs that is used in a presenter’s speech. Actually I count other words or sounds such as “Ummm”, “Err”, “La”, “You know”, “So”, “Ok” etc. These are what the people in the public presentation world call “Pause Fillers”. Pause fillers are considered crutches that a speaker use to sustain their speech. In other words, pause fillers are, y’know, the time when you stand out in front of the crowd and you forgot what you wanna say and you start saying,” Ummm”, to break the silence while you try to remember the next line of your speech. Opps… I am also a sinner in this area. I use “Ah”,”Lah”, “Ok”, “Ummm”, ever so often that it has become second nature to me while talking and even while writing. Everyone does it, afterall, to “ah” is human, I mean, to err is human… :) We all do it but with the feedback from the ah counter, we hope that the dependencies on these Pause fillers are reduced if not eliminated.

Incidentally, today we found that even the most experienced speakers uses pause fillers in their speech, subconsciously… So to those new in public speaking don’t despair. Help is on the way. With more practise, we can all get rid of these crutches and stand on our own two feet.

To "ah" is human,
To forgive divine,
Lessons learnt are for a lifetime...

To learn is to change,
To change is to grow,
To grow is to a better tomorrow.

Toast to a better you and me. Cheers.

Speech Bug

little b has also caught the speech bug.. :)

I was bz trying to crack my head over the next topic for my speech when little b became impatient (coz he wants to use my notebook and I was hogging his "ben 10 game" time). He told me, "here, let me show you how to make a speech!"

And here's what I manage to catch on camera... :) I found it soooo cute....

Blue ribbon for the girl with the most names

"Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen, Fellow Toastmasters and Guests..."

That's the opening line for my Toastmasters IceBreaker Speech that I keep practising for the pass 3 days in front of a few of my closer colleagues, so much so, that they run away from me each time I go near them. And thus each time I only get to practise this opening line. Nobody seems interested in my toastmasters ice breaker speech. Yes, ice breaker speech can be boring for some....

So, I tried to practise in front of little b and he thought I was playing a game with him and started acting out the Sam Witwicky Classroom scene in Transformers 2, whereby Sam had a mental breakdown and started talking gibberish.

And Mr. Big B, not to pleased with me laughing at his name in my speech, also avoided me whenever I tried to practise in front of him, and gave me weird advice, like doing the Michael Jackson moonwalk while doing my speech or doing the human boom-box to catch people's attention like those who auditioned for the American Idol.

Anyway, all my "hard work" of practising inside my car while driving to work these 2 mornings have paid off well because tonight I won the Blue Ribbon for the Best Speaker for Prepared Speech. I guess I won because I was the only one who didn't use any notes and my speech was presented in an interesting "storytelling" mode instead of the usual "chronological introduction to my life" kind of presentation. (*Note: The icebreaker speech is a 4-6 minute speech to introduce the speaker to the rest of the club members.)

What makes winning this award all the more special is, I was up against 6 other more "seasoned" speakers as they hold positions in the office which required them to give presentations on a daily basis while I seldom (if ever) talk in the office. (Boss, if you are reading this, please do not start assigning me with presentation work, ok?).

Actually, you cannot imagine how estatic I am now with my achievements tonight. Yes, it feels great having so many people congratulating you and clapping for you. Kinda motivating in a way, especially for the other newbies seeing a nobody like me can actually be 1 up against all the other giants or "hot favourites".

I just reviewed my video, and I found that my speech wasn't that great but I feel it was still one of the best among those who spoke tonight. (Actually, I think my boss's speech was very good too and I probably won due to popularity vote, but hey, isn't this world about popularity nowadays - just look at all the reality shows they dish out to us on the idiot box which we call TV). Whichever way it is, the bottomline is I still won the ribbon, and tonight was MY NIGHT. Wooo Hooo!! Yeeee Haaaa!!! AHAHHAHAHAHA (Allow me to gloat for just once, ok? This doesn't happen to me very often... :)

So I guess I will bask in this euphoria for another 2 weeks before they crown another Blue Ribbon winner for the next meeting. But right now, having the best speech for the night is ....... priceless.

==============================================

Here's the speech I delivered earlier tonight...

A rose, by any other name, is just as beautiful.

Good evening ladies and gentlemen, fellow toastmasters and guests.

It is very intimidating for me to stand up here to talk in front of all of you after all those superb speeches given by my colleagues. Everyone knows that I am a shy person, and it took me a lot of courage to stand up here and open up myself. Even as I speak now, my heart is beating like [thud thud thud] 100 times a minute and my brain is working 1000 harder to control myself from having a heart attack. In fact, I think that there should be another role introduced into the Toastmasters Club, which is the Paramedic Role, to save people when they actually have a heart attack and collapse right here at the lectern.

Ok, now that I didn’t collapse, I have no choice but to continue with my speech. The title of my speech is “A rose by any other names is just as beautiful”. What better way to introduce myself than with my name. Once upon a time, not so very long ago, (I won’t tell you how long ago because it will reveal my age), my half-Japanese grandmother wanted to name me, Keiko Kawashima, meaning “the adored one on the river islands”. But the name on my IC, the last I checked, is XXX *(Censored to protect the writer's identity). My Chinese father, insisted on my Chinese roots and named me XXX instead. What does it mean? I don’t really know actually because I don’t read Chinese. My parents tell me that they got the name from the fortune teller when I was born.

The told me that my name was carefully and painstakingly chosen and they had to go through so much hassle to book the famous fortune teller in town just to get me my name. But I don’t believe them, because much later, I found out that my name is similar to the Taiwanese singer, Teressa Teng and she was very famous around the time I was born, thus I think they just conveniently took her name and gave it to me.

So all through my childhood, and teenage life, my friends call me by my Chinese name. Then I went to college and suddenly there was a fad in having an English name. I resisted the temptations of having one until later I went over to UK to further my studies. And then Oh My God!!! Most of my foreign classmates could not remember my Chinese name and had difficulty pronouncing it, and it sounded so horrifying that I don’t even want to mention it. In order not to allow them to further degrade my beautiful name, I chose to be called Kelly. And that is how I am better known as in the REAL world… as Kelly Kong.

REAL world? Yes, you heard me right. Because I live in another world too - the cyber world. I am very active online. I participate in forums, and online chats and have facebook, friendster and twitter accounts to keep in touch with my friends and family. Naturally, being a cyber citizen, I also keep a blog to log all the happenings in my life. One of the main reasons why I kept a blog was because I have very bad memory, thus I like to write down all the good things that has happened into the blog. Yes, it’s a little like keeping an online diary, so if you would like to get to know me better, you can just go to my blog and read all about me. Incidentally, it was my blog that landed me the task as the editor for ING Leadership Toastmaster’s Club newsletter. You can comment on my writings when you read the newsletter when it is published later. If it’s good, let me know. I’d try to pretend to be humble when you praise me. If you don’t think it’s good, you can just keep quiet. Haha, kidding, constructive criticism is welcome as I am always looking for ways to improve myself.

Back to my name. In the cyberworld, I go by the pseudonym Kelly Rivers. Why Rivers? My surname Kong means Rivers in Chinese.

And then there is one name that I seldom use or try to avoid using. I went on to marry my husband and automatically I inherited his name and guess what? His surname is Bean. Mr. Bean. So I become Mrs. Bean. I don’t think I need to explain why I don’t use this name.

So as you can see, I have many names, but essentially there’s only one me. I am the same nice person irregardless of all the names you call me, just like the saying goes, a rose by any other names, is just as beautiful.

First Toastmasters' meeting

1/7/2009 - The first toastsmasters meeting for our ING Leadership Club has just came and gone... but the dust can hardly settle. And yea, I know, not only you cannot believe it.... even I can't believe it myself. Me, a toastmasters? Ha Ha. Someone like me ,who can write a lot, is usually the quiet or soft-spoken type, the shy type.... If I go to a party, you'll see me slowly blending with the wallpapers. Yes, I can be very very verbose when I write, (my good friend Gina will call it verbal diarheoa), there's usually not enough words for me to write if there's a word limit. However, when it come to speeches, boy, I am done for. I mean, where do people find the words to say after the usual niceties like, "Good evening, it's good that we have nice weather tonight to conduct this party." (even though it looks like rain outside but I just use the same line over, because I do not carry a whole black book of "pick up lines" like the guys often do.)

Anyway, back to the meeting...It was two hours orientation by the Division W Governor and other mentors who are going to help us get the club going for the first 6 months and after that they believe that we can stand on our own two feet. Wow, there were a lot of information or just one meeting. And we were given some demos on how we can train to give impromptu short speeches and also give slightly longer prepared speeches. It's all like a course in public speaking and yours truly being an advocate to learning something new was like a young girl given a new toy.

Ok ok, bad analogy. Perhaps I should say it's like a young kid on their first day at Kindergarten. Remember how fun Kindergarten was, With all the teachers making learning fun and all your friends who doesn't have any care in the world? And all the kids were eager beavers in learning new things. And oh, remember the teabreaks where they serve milo, cakes and koko crunch? And in some kindies, they even have show and tell. And the "table topics" (impromptu speeches) in toastmasters are pretty much like show and tell. You can talk basically about anything, because the main thing that they want to teach you is to "speak".

Anyway, to cut a long story short, the meeting was 2 hours but it didnt really feel long as the energy level created by those experienced Toastmasters were excellent and everyone went home feeling that they could somewhat benefit from the program. Well, I was quite skeptical at first because I didnt believe anyone can help a quiet person like to talk like Anthony Robbins or Obama. I mean, you can't teach an old dog new tricks, can we?

However, after watching how dedicated the mentors and other volunteery council members are, I was sold. These people are very motivated and they dont profit monetarily which is what earned my respect! (But I still wonder where they find so much time, and energy and how they get so motivated... hmmm....).

Well, there's still much to learn and much to practise. As for now, it's just the beginning of the journey and we learn a new thing a step at a time...and that's what makes our journey more pleasurable, more meaningful and more colourful.

Cheers to all who are embarking on this new journey. :)

Honesty, it's such a lonely word

Honesty.

(Yes, this is a single word blog to illustrate that honesty is indeed a lonely word and is so hard to find these days and it's what I need most right now.)

Badminton fever ... again?

Yes, I did it!

I finally played some badminton...

Yeah, I know... I cannot believe it myself.. Hahaha... sometimes I surprise even myself... :P

I finally picked up enough courage to join the group to play...(mostly due to fear of retribution as previously I was fond of laughing while others play) ...Well, now that I have done it, I am pretty happy about it. Not that I know how to play... but being able to hit the ball across the net was great enough achievement for me.. :)

And being able to sweat so much and drink lots of water feels good. Having the body aches makes me feel alive!(instead of feeling old as I initially feared!) In fact, I feel I look much better after a game of sport... hahaha...I know it's all in the mind, but still, I liked what I saw in the mirror. Haha, I know you are probably puking yesterday's meal now.

Anyhow, despite me not being able to do well in the game, it still feels good to have done some exercise. Somehow exercise can amazingly relax or open your mind, and if done regularly, can also do wonders to your physique.

Talking about physique, it reminded me that I have never been into sports that requires me to be physically active. I was never a sports person, basically because I am not a sun person. Besides, mom doesn't think it's wise for weak old me to be too indulged in sports... because I have already spent too much time on rhythmic gymnastics and she'd rather I spent more time on my books. I would agree that I have a weak physique and had never really excelled in sports. Thus, I guess God is fair and gave me some brains in place of brawn, ha ha. Can you imagine that when in school, and we're suppose to join at least 1 sporting event, and I chose chess! (Heck! If they had "9 ball pool" as 1 of their sports options, I bet I would've joined that too!)

So you see, my bad habit of avoiding physically active sports started from school. And then it stuck until university days, where I would rather choose to have a pool game or fooseball than to hit the gym. So that's another reason why I am pretty happy today... coz I am breaking the negative mould!

Well, I am pretty tired... Almost dozing off... must be the effect of the "physical active sports" kicking in.. Ahahha..

Ok, I have done my part, now you too pick up your lazy bum and go get some exercise done. (No, sending sms or clicking the remote control or surfing the net doesn't count as exercise.) C'mon, give exercise a chance.... If nothing else, perhaps it'll help you sleep better.. :) It's a much better way to cure insomnia than booze.

Good night, and signing off for today as a tired but happy blogger... :)