24th March 2010

Had a really tiring weekend. SOT classes in the mornings then rush off to help out with sis's and niall's wedding preparation. There was buddhist temple blessing on thurs morning but I didn't go coz was in class. Tea ceremony was on fri nite over dinner at Sentosa Golf Club with family, relatives & all the close friends of sis. The actual wedding day was on the sat. Woke up at 5.30am on that day for makeup & hairdo followed by the jie-mei thingy (though niall was ang mo. he was actually v. sporting throughout the jie-mie thingy & cleared each stages rather quickly. great on you niall!). After the jie-mei thingy, headed off church of the sacred heart, a catholic church, for the holy matrimony followed by lunch buffet and dinner banquet. Both in raffles hotel ballroom. Went home to freshen up a bit b4 heading down to raffles hotel again for the nite's makeup and hairdo. The wedding was one-of-a-kind + there was a live band making the entire ballroom more alive. FUN! Svc on sun. Woke up slightly late & missed pre-svc PM. As there was a road closure at ECP was late for service. Didn't drove that day coz one of the belts underneath my car broke and the car is not in the condition for driving. Dangerous. The steering couldn't turn. Airconditioning couldn't work.

1 of our staff who got transferred to work in my dad's office started work there since mon. So now we're down with 3 staffs. After svc on sun met mum at suntec to settle a staff problem. Our china staff threatened to quit after she got scolded. She claims that the computer in suntec often has got problems & cannot be switched on. This is not the 1st time. And coincidentally it always happens on much more busier days e.g. weekends esp sundays. When we say that a technician will come down to check the system, she'll say "don't need to come down already. it's working already". What rubbish? When asked why other staffs and myself nv encounter such problems when we're working there & why the other outlets using the same system nv once encounter such problems. She couldn't answer us. Anyways, we still got a technician to go down to check the computer system to find out what's the problem. He said that the computer is perfectly fine. Even he suspected she has got sthg up her sleeves. She must have did sthg to the computer so that we cannot see what she is doing in the shop. Since she threatened to quit, we took back her work permit & told her that if she really wanna quit then can go ahead, we can just cancel her permit & she can go back to china immediately. The most we just pack up & shift out of suntec earlier (it's only a few more weeks b4 the contract ends anyways). She got shocked that we actually said that & started defending herself and said she actually still wants to work. She thought we'll beg her to stay (assumption made here) coz she knows very well that if she were to leave then we'll be short of 1 staff. We're not so desperate & beg any staff to stay.

To cut the long story short, she got transferred to far east while our 1 & only guy staff who's in far east got transferred to suntec and was also asked to run about all 3 outlets so as to replace the staff whom we've transferred to work in my father's office. He was chosen b'coz firstly he's willing to work in all outlets & secondly he has the teachable attitude. We like that! He's actually one of our previous staff. Previously he had really really really bad attitude. He went to work in other places but couldn't last long. After "banging on the walls" of the working world out there, he came back & ask us to take him back in promising to change. This is the 3rd chance we've giving him (he walked out on the his own accord the past 2 times on impulse). Although we feel that he has really changed, we still have to see if he can cross his "3rd mth" of work (he has nv worked in any job for more than 3 mths). End of nxt week will be the end of his 3rd mth. Will he be able to break his record by staying more than 3 mths in a job? By the looks of it, I think he can. He knows that if he chooses to leave again, he most probably will not get the chance to come back ever again. Can see that he's really treasuring this chance that he has been given. The other staffs are unwilling to run abt outlets. Well...they dun wanna run abt outlets it's okay. We won't force them to. It's their choice. Only that those who are willing to run abt outlets will get to see and learn more things when they serve different kinda customers in different outlets. They may even get the chance to be promoted faster than the others who're unwilling to go extra mile. After all, those retail supervisors we see out there are in-charge of not just one but a few outlets.

Met one of our suppliers yesterday who showed us samples of new arrivals. Shoes, tees, shirts, bermudas. Business is so slow lately, yet there's still so many new stocks coming out. Went through a dilemma of whether to buy or not to buy. If we buy, older stocks get pile up again & we'll once again face the problem of how to clear all those old stocks (i feel that we already have enough stocks piled up). If we dun buy, pple will see the same old thing & end up not buying anything as we dunno anything new in the shop. We'll always be facing this problem in retail esp in fashion industry as fashion is really fast moving. Eventually we bought some & they're coming in ard May/June. In time for the June holidays.

Parents not really supportive of me studying in SOT. They're complaining saying that I dun care abt the biz, that I spend so much time in church and I shouldn't get any pay for the nxt 6 mths. I where got dun care abt the biz? If I dun care abt the biz, I won't rush back after classes lo. Dun they know how stressed I am when the sales is bad? :( To them religion cannot be a no. 1 in life & that 1 cannot believe in a religion 100%. They feel that I should spend more time in the biz then in church (which they think it's unnecessary). They thought that I'll just have to go for morning classes & that's it...no need to go for svc, cg and other church activities. But I already told them abt it b4 I signed up. They were okay with it at that time but now they're not happy abt it esp mum. Didn't go for tonite's LYL OPM tonite I'll be out for 2 nights - special meeting with Dr Paul Kim yesterday & CG tmr. :( Dun wanna upset them further. Got scolded by mum for going for last week's SOT OPM. She said I too "chen-mi" already & disallowed me to go for any more OPM. :( However, managed to get permission to go for just 1 more SOT OPM and that's it (heard there's 3 SOT OPM for this yr's batch. 1 was last wk. 2 more to go. But can only go for 1 more). My parents dun like us staying out late at night esp when we've work/studies the nxt morning (in this case it's SOT).

Had choir audition after class today (signed up to be part of SOT choir support team). For ministry I joined chorus board. Initially intended to join usher but felt more led to join chorus board and so I did. There's this flu virus going ard in this yr's batch of SOT. Have been coughing for the last few days. Having a sore sore throat since yesterday. Went to the doctor to get some medicine b4 it worsens. The doctor said that I just need more rest and more water. Other than the normal medicine for cough and flu, he also gave me a few days dosage of sleeping vitamins (he said it's not sleeping pills) to help me to relax & sleep better at night b'coz I haven't been sleeping well lately. God I pray for your divine strength and healing to be upon me.