Saturday, November 29, 2008

Office politics

I found out a couple of pieces of office gossip recently which are basically about people stabbing each other in the back. That has left a seriously bad taste at the back of my mouth. Not that I love-love-love my workplace in the first place. I have not enjoyed my work for some time now. And the people I get on with at work have either left the firm or just become too up their ars*s. I have known for some time that I will not be staying there too much longer. Right now, I am just treading water, hoping to stay afloat for as long as possible before I go.

Our office Christmas party is on the 11th of December. I have tickets to see Gotan Project that night. I have a tonne of friends going to watch Gotan. And the last time I saw Gotan, I had a really fun time. So it's really a no-brainer for me to ditch the office Christmas party in favour of having fun with my friends.

Or maybe not.

I am now thinking that I should probably show up just to maintain appearances if anything. Even though it won't come as a surprise when I leave next year, I shouldn't probably NOT make it so obvious that I am leaving. Argh, office politics. I am trying to leave on a good note. But every additional day I spend at work makes it so much more difficult to stay positive.

How are you guys getting on at work? Any sage words on dealing with office politics?

On another note, I am looking forward to roasting my 6.215kg turkey tomorrow.

Monday, November 17, 2008

What a surreal weekend!

Two lessons I have learnt this weekend:

1) Viagra works for alleviating altitude sickness as it promotes circulation. Apparently everyone at Everest Base Camp is popping these.

2) The best way to get over a guy is to get under a new guy.

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I had a pretty crazy weekend, almost to make up for my totally chilled out weekend in NYC last week. I partied harder than I have for a looooooong time. Two nights in a row until half 3. Haha, I am not sure I believe I am still capable of that!

The other thing I did this weekend was to revert to my old self. I hooked up with a guy who is my typical kind of guy. After having strayed off with the last guy, I had almost convinced myself that items on my checklist would not matter for the right guy. But this weekend's guy - tall, tick; successful, tick; intelligent, tick; mature, tick; unavailable (lives in NYC), tick! Maybe after all these years on the dating scene have taught me a thing or two about what I actually want in a guy and maybe my checklist is actually what works for me. Except the unavailable bit, that, I have been burnt enough times to have a strong view against that.

I have realised that my brain isn't actually working very coherently to write a proper blog entry, but I just wanted to get that down somewhere. I promise to write properly next time.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Shopping for men

K is one of my best friends in NY. Imagine a 6-foot-tall modelesque tough-as-nails black girl. And imagine her dating a guy 20 years older and about 4 inches shorter. And then imagine her completely walking all over him and him thinking that his purpose in life is to serve her.* K's awesome!

Anyway, K has a great piece of advice:

"If you have to ask your friends about a pair of shoes [or a guy], then it [he] is probably not worth keeping."

Friday, November 7, 2008

New York, New York

I have just come to realise that New York is the city in which I have spent the second longest period of time in over the last eight years.

May 2000 - First visit with my ex; my wallet got pickpocketed on Broadway on a busy Friday night; we did all the tourists sights including the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State building; I add to my magnet collection one of the Twin Towers

Sep 2002 - Last-minute change-of-plans to come to America for the rest of my summer holiday after having broken up with my Ex; I hang out with friends in Columbia and spend most of my time uptown; I receive marriage proposals after having cooked for some starving homesick Singaporean students

Jul 2003 - 3 weeks in NY for "training" where the UK kids ended up colluding on our final project; I watch a Yankee game and decide that baseball isn't my thing; we stayed at the Waldorf-Astoria and got a real kick from telling cab drivers our address

Nov 2003 - I visit my ex (another one) and the trip culminates in us deciding to break up; my first Thanksgiving in the States and I brought pumpkin pie to the party; I get picked up by a 50-something Austrian-Italian model while sampling apples at Union Sq farmers' market

Oct 2004 - I pop over to visit my best friend; I remember cinnamon-scented coffee at brunch at Florent's; on the flight back, I meet the guy who is going to plague me for the next 3 years

Apr 2005 - I pop over for my best friend again; it snows the first day I arrive, surprising given the time of the year; I went up to the Cloisters as my first NY touristy activity in 5 years; I remember brunch at Florent's again

2006 - there are no NY trips this year as I focus on moving to SF

Feb 2007 - I come to NY with Ming and CY; we stay at Chris' ridiculous $10k a month corporate apartment on Times Sq; we go to a Fashion Week show and an afterparty at Soho Grand; we also go to Jersey for dinner and admire the NY western skyline from there

May 2007 - Mar 2008 - I live in an amazing one-bedroom apartment in the West Village with lovely doormen; I shop more and end up with more pretty dresses than I can wear; I fall in love with Waverly Inn; I go on more dates than I ever did in London, with not much success; I battle the advances of my boss at work; I learn to cope without my friends and also to spend time with myself; I get a huge-ass fire-engine red Kitchenaid mixer; I attain Flying Club Gold after making too many trans-Atlantic flights; I finally rid myself of a ghost (see Oct 2004 trip)

Nov 2008 - I am recharging batteries after a pretty draining month; I revisit my haunts in NY and remember all the little things I miss about it; and since I am still here now, the rest of the story still needs to be written...

Monday, November 3, 2008

How to be a sleazy Eurotrash banker

It's pretty simple, you could try one of these pick-up lines:

"I am a guy and sex is good for me all the time. You are girl, you tell me when"

OR

"When was the last time you came?"

I haven't hung out with sleazy Eurotrash bankers for so long, I'd forgotten how entertaining they could be.

Saving the world

I went for my first-ever Halloween party on Sat night. Yes, I know! How could I get to the age of 27 and 10 months without having been to a Halloween party??!! One has to start somewhere I guess.

The invite came from this guy I saw casually about four years ago. I haven't seen him since but I recently added him to my Facebook. Ah the wonders of Facebook! And I got invited to this party along with a bunch of random flopsies to up the boob count.

The pressure was definitely on for me to come up with an amazing costume. a) I haven't seen this guy in four years b) he was and probably still is the best looking guy I ever went out with and c) his friends on Facebook looked cute. OK I guess you're impatient to know what I went as. Well, the title to this post should give you a clue...If not, maybe this will help.

From How to Make New Friends

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Happy Halloween

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I was preoccupied this week with a drawn out text exchange with the Ex (not technically since he never got to Boyfriend status, but let's call him that for convenience). Ex starts the week with an email saying he would like to stay in touch. And somehow we agreed to meet up on Fri night. Fri night rolls along, wham bam, a long emotional conversation later, I'm at his place and we're having frenetic intense ex-sex.

The long emotional conversation went along the lines of: him - I really like hanging out with you and I think we have a great sexual connection. I would like to continue spending time with you, but I really cannot commit at this point; me - yes, me too. And I want to keep it simple - we like hanging out so we hang out and we will get in touch with each other when we think of each other, nothing like marriage whatsoever. him - yes, we can continue spending time and having fun together just like we did before, but you have to understand that it will not progress further. I won't do anything romantic or even tell you things like 'I miss you'. At which point I caved and reached over to kiss him...

Maybe I am not in a position to date someone properly myself, but I don't think I could see on a regular basis, someone I couldn't be sure whether or not he cared for me. I think I should have accumulated enough good karma along the way to deserve to have someone who is crazy head-over-heels-in-love with me. The f-ed up arrangements the Ex proposed just doesn't work. I am not sure I could be friends with him either. And I am going to be honest with myself about that.

This wouldn't be a single girl blog if I didn't spend some column space moaning about Ex-es, but we have to move on.

I have a Halloween party tonight. Guess what I am going as? :P Wonderwoman!! I am looking forward to the party already! Pics may follow, if you're good and drop me a comment if you're reading this blog.