I'm moving blog again.

Just for fun cos I like change. Change of scenery.

And mainly because I can post blogs via email to this blog...so i can work and send blog at the same time.

It is important to note that I said WORK and send blog at the SAME TIME.

so please change your links to

http://praisie.blogspot.com

it's actually an old blogsite. but i made it new.

see you guys there.

I confirmed a wedding package to a Thai lady months ago and after months of negotiation and discussion, here are the results....

It's gonna be a huge event all day. Taking a break now to update pictures...I love weddings which are so....casual you know....everyoe laughing and everyone not knowing what to do so they are quite comical.

Anyway, more photos to follow...to be updated.

More photos of the THai Ceremony. i missed the Indian Hindu ceremony..(shucks)

 This is the Thai Holy Water pouring ceremony

Was linked by CK's blog to an article in the UK Sunday Times about how the parting of the Red Sea was triggered by a volcano. ANd how this natural catastrophe was the cause of the 10 plagues in Egypt right about the time the Israelites were escaping to their promised land after decades of slavery to the Egyptians.

I'm not sure what the article or even James Cameron tries to bring across. If they are saying to the CHristians and the Jews, "look, the event you were so hyped up about, the great miracle of all times was just a volcano eruption" then I'm not sure if it really is a controversy. Or maybe they were not trying to prove a controversy but rather support the fact that the Red Sea did part. I don't know. But hey, if they can really prove that it was due to natural disasters that the REd Sea turned red, the plagues came about due to water poisoning and food poisoning, well, then doesn't it prove how great God is? I mean...I've always found it hard to imagine a plague of frogs raining down, or blood in the water, or how first borns are killed by a black smoke that passed the houses (thanks to the movie version)....but then if it can be proven that it was brought about by natural disasters, now that is believable. I mean, who else is in control other than God? Don't you see how beautiful things worked out? First the natural disaster started right about the time that Moses confronted the Pharoah (coincidence???) then you predict to the Pharoah if you don't let my people go, things will happen and you name them one by one though at that time you and the Pharoah both could not imagine how on earth would that happen??? Then the disaster happen and it leads to a chain of events as you predicted would happen. And it happens in a very believable way. (poison gas = poison water = poison food = upset of natural order of things = plague) THe pharoah must be struggling to take the foot out of his mouth now. He didn't believe it was possible, I bet even you had trouble thinking how it would happen. Big lightning across the sky like some cartoon show and frogs start raining? I think God rather works with what He has, and that is so beautiful. And then people are let go and just at that RIGHT MOMENT another earthquake happens to raise the land right on the Red Sea (isn't that enough of a miracle already??? the beauty of the timing??), right on time for the Israelites to walk across, and causing enough of a turbulence to start a tsunami, pushing back the chasing Egyptians. And that very same tsunami does not affect the crossing Israelites at all.

Isn't it a miracle? Who says miracles have to be like magic, plucked right out of thin air? Miracles are the workings of God using what He has on hand, where He set the domino pieces out and with one flick of His finger, everything starts falling into place to make a big big beautiful and unbelievable picture.

i think i'm a terrible girlfriend. I think i am the world's worst girlfriend. Ok, stop nodding your heads. You were supposed to be my friend.

so what's w the revelation suddenly, you ask? well. the boyfriend. the title was supposed to throw you off about my own humility. in fact it's all about my lousy boyfriend.

i need a man with more ambition. you see, my philosophy of life is that there will be a better tomorrow. I think humans cannot live once they lose hope. And my hope is that there is a better life tomorrow, things will get better, things will change for the better etc. And the reason why I stuck w the man for so long is because I always thought the situation would get better with him. but he is a man with no ambition. THai men are like that. not all of them granted, but most. And he just happens to be one. he's happy where he is, of course extra money would be nice, of course getting a better title would be nice, but does he do anything to lead to that? no. he sits on his skinny arse working it off but he doesn't plan for anything. i don't care that he cannot buy me diamonds, a car or a house. but a nice gift every now and then would be nice. but no. never. nah-ah. nil. neh. nudda. nought. nenenenenever. i can be materialistic if i allow myself. but this is just one girl's small little wish. that he thought about me every now and then to pamper me with a memento.

now I keep hoping a better man would come along. and i can only sit on my fat arse hoping it works out. i like men who are impossible to have. i like successful socially inept guys. i need an older, bigger sized guy. I need to stop wasting his and my time.

As an afterthought, it's not that i dump unrealistic expectations on him. what exasperates me is the fact that he doesn't even try. Tell him to ask for a higher salary (when he got a new job offer) but he was like, no need lah, they will NEVER give it to me. Like you know for sure without trying??!! It's exasperating. If he doesn't have the drive to even try to better his circumstances, then how can I expect this guy to take care of me??

I need someone more compaitable.

And when I say don't call, it doesn't mean you don't call at all. Just don't call within the next one hour cooling down period. Don't you understand the language of women???

At the risk of sounding like a whiny self-absorbed bimbo today, well, live with it. I am feeling very brainless this morning. I feel like making all sorts of crappy comments about everything. why the weather so warm? Thailand got no other weather meh? I don't like warm weather. I want to rain. but only when I get to sleep in ok? Why the aircon not working? Why you turn it off? You like warm weather ah? I think your parents worked in the rice fields so you must be used to warm weather and not cool luxurious air. (OUCH) Who said I was going to be a kind and politically correct whiny self-absorbed bimbo?

Anyway...hosted dinner for 2 Singaporean ladies last night. Well, it was supposed to be me meeting them this morning but my super duper fantastic and full of great ideas boss met them without checking if I have an appt with them already and asked them out to dinner. With ME hosting. At the expense of MY time. She made it seem like she accompanied me cos she wanted something to eat anyway and if we were entertaining it would be FREE and DELICIOUS dinner. Dumped me with the guests promptly after she finished. She who lives 5 minutes away at the staff dorm, leaving ME who is living 30 minutes away in town and fully dependent on the staff bus to get home and I had to run for the bus if not I'll have to wait another hour for the next bus. GOod thing the bus drivers are such nice people.Well, must thank God cos they changed the route of the staff bus due to some road repairs so now the bus passes by my area, and the drivers are all so nice they stop right in the middle of the road to let me get off and I actually get to walk home instead of being dependent on another soul to bring me home, esp late at night. Which is good. Cos if not I might have to walk home from the bus stop. I once did that our of exasperation cos cannot find anyone to bring me back, not even a motorbike taxi. It was only 8 plus at night so still quite ok. But gosh...I had to trek through buffalo-infested countryside with such tall grass that if I got grabbed into those bushes no one would know until my body starts to rot and the smell alerted everyone. Or they might think it's buffalo's waste.

Am hooked on a couple of books by British mystery novel writer Elizabeth George. I enjoy British mystery novels more than the American counterpart. Those American ones are not as (for lack of a better word) nicely written. No suspense, no music in the wordings, no flair, no imagination, no feelings in their writings. The only nice ones are those about psychotic serial killers cos you want to read about how gruesome the murders are and how bizarre it can get. It's sadistic but I think there's a morbid curiosity in everyone. And it can just be true when it comes to such sadistic killers. Like this article I read about the Vampire of Sacramento who did such gruesome unspeakable things, and this are real actual events that took place to a family long ago. Anyway, British mystery novels are always so well written and I have a few favourite authors like Colin Dexter (read ALL his Inspector Morse books already) and Ian Rankin (Inspector Rebus) and now Elizabeth George (Inspector Lynley). Yes, I'm a British mystery novel fan. But sometimes even I don't understand the British way of saying things, like underwears are knickers so if they are knickers, what are tights? Do you put on knickers and tights? Or are tights pantyhose? What is a pantyhose anyway? How many layers do British women really wear? And why do they measure their weight in stones. Like...are all stones in England uniformly sized? Do they all weigh the same? How much is a stone anyway? They go "I could lose a couple of stones." and I'm like, so how big is that stone? Is losing 2 pebbles considered losing 2 stones cos literally it is losing 2 stones? Or do they measure stones by the size of their bowel movement? You know, how your solid waste material is roughly the size of a standard stone. Unless you've got diarrhoea, then it becomes like....stone after massive erosion. Maybe once upon a time some guy with time on his hands went around the country measuring stones and he took the average of all the stones he weighed to become the standard measure of stones. But through erosion will the stones get lighter? Is that why people are getting skinnier nowadays?

I think I have a crush on the English teacher. NOT GOOD!!! He's got a Thai girlfriend already, though they haven't met in over a year cos she's elsewhere.

NOT GOOD AT ALL!!!

Why is it that the weekend always go by so fast? How can one day off be so darn short? Where did the time go?

Anyway, just an update on what's happening....

Boss banned MSN, but i think nobody cares that much to follow thru. I think maybe Boss is jealous we are more techno savvy than her. It's a good tool...you just message questions to whoever is online and get instant answers and opinion. They should have everyone on MSN. And it's EXTRA good when my "professor" friend is around. She's way knowledgeable than anyone else I know. and even if she doesn't know, she'll know the way to direct you to find the answers.

So anyway, there was a Jap football team that was in-house with us. I was all excited when I was asked to help supervise their dinner party. Till I found out this was a small-time football team (as opposed to the English premier leagues I suppose, everyone else is small fry.) But they are quite big in Japan as i found out. Then I found out again that this is the community team (meaning all the fathers, grandfathers, uncles and brothers who joined) so they really are a bunch of regular folks. No handsome specimens like Nakata around. So...well...but there's a few of those goodlooking ones. Why are Jap guys so cute? Esp those tanned beachboys kind. They look good enough to eat. Mm....I'll eat one whole anytime....Mmm....

So anyway, they had a party at the beach, scheduled to start right at sunset. They come, they go to the beach side and then they oohs and ahhs the sunset and then they clapped. I supposed coming from the Land of the Rising Sun, it's a phenomenon to see the Sun Set. Like wow, the opposite actually happens??!! And must say the sunset was rather pretty despite the cloudiness. Took a few pictures to show off how beautiful a place I work in....:)

 The marquee it took place in.

 Chef Pachon (one in tall hat) at work at the BBQ Pit... Yummy....(the food I mean....)

Anyway, this weekend was spent hanging out at the cafe at Tesco. I think the staff recognises me cos they go "Coffee Frost?" automatically. And I got one free coffee cos i accumulated enough stickers thru previous purchase. I'm a regular.... anyway, spent the day people watching as well. The fashion nowadays with young Thai girls do not agree w me. The fashion now is those short puffy shorts which are fitted w a band around mid-thigh, and usually in tartan checks. Not a very good fashion item at all. First of all, if you have a well-rounded and fully padded bottom, these pants would make you look like you have a tartan hot-air balloon about to take off from your bottom end. Then if you're one of those super skinny girls, then wearing these pants would just end up in greater puffiness and besides looking like a Scottish bagpipe occasionally leaking air, there is so much space in front , you actually end up looking like you have a dick. And a big one at that. And this is in a country where a womanly-looking dick-possessing person is quite a regular sight (we call them katoeys, pre-op), you can be sure plenty of people will be playing the guessing game each time you walk past.

And then the fashion with the headbands....gosh...headbands are ok. I'm into using headbands as well cos I have that Aaron-Kwok-in-his-teenage-years-floppy-do fringe going on and it's kinda irritating to peer through the gaps all the time so headbands are practical, and kinda pretty. But the newest ones on fashion here are the white lacy kind (which is still ok) but you're supposed to loop the lace around your head and end it with a butterfly knot at the top of your head, or slightly to the side. I think no matter where is knot is, if it's in sight, it's damn ugly. You look like a cartoonist's way of separating the males from the females. You know...how you can tell cartoon characters by their sex is by the ribbon on the head. It's like Minnie Mouse with lace. Not agreeable with me at all.

Might be going to Bangkok next month!! Still keeping my fingers crossed....got dropped out of the Russian plan cos air tickets cost a bomb and it's difficult for me to get a Russian visa here. My boss is now panicking cos she doesn't want to be alone in Russia...what with the Russian mob and the terrorists etc.... Sigh...too bad.... I really really really wanted to go as well. Have to make do with Bangkok for now.

Today has been a pretty hectic but productive day. Well…supposedly productive cos everyone seems on the verge of confirming their plans to stay w us....you can never be sure.

Been thinking a bit about sales as well. Wondering if I am really cut out for sales. I mean, I enjoy meeting people and I enjoy being of service to others, which is why without a doubt the hotel line is just right for me. And I do enjoy solving problems. Any guests who comes running to us with a problem, if I am given the power and authority to make decisions, then I can solve anything. But as of now, I’m still working with what I am given and how much I can move within limit. I enjoy appeasing guests and making them happy again. Which is why I’m wondering if I’m in the right department because I might be better off doing Guest Relations at the Front office. I hate targets. I don’t like working towards meeting a target. I’m a free-spirited person who enjoys just going along. Thank goodness right now at my position I’m not under pressure to reach target or risk losing a job. I have someone above me to take that kinda crap for now. However, if I am going to move up in the future, I do have to consider if this is what I want to pursue a career in. And I am really getting kinda old to be deciding what to do now. Quarter of a century old and still trying out jobs to find my niche???!!! Unheard of in this day and age when everyone seems to be starting younger.

But sometimes one tends to worry too much about finding happiness in what we do that we lose all the happiness in what we do. You geddit? Like…in this new age where “happiness” means so much to the person we end up measuring everything we do in terms of how “happy” we are. If we are given our own way, “happiness” might mean sleeping in whenever we want and having no boss in all we do. But no one can work that out. I sometimes think the value of “happiness” is over-rated. Yes, it is important to be happy, but I think as long as we are productive and enjoy what we do, not necessary be jubilant every day going to work and missing work intensely during weekends, then I think the job is ok. Anyway, I’ve lost my train of thought. So yeah, well, I’m happy now in this line…ok wait, wrong choice of words, I’m enjoying what I’m doing. It’s challenging and it’s dynamic. I can never take stable work. If I were given a choice, then I’ll be forever meeting guests and making them happy. But then again too much of something, you become complacent and don’t get to enjoy it anymore. Geddit? Like no pleasure without pain etc. Anyway, at a cocktail party yesterday, was chatting with a German guests who kinda has very high expectations of services. He’s a tough sell, as what we say in sales talk. But I managed to convince him to go on this dinner cruise with his family, and he told me I’m a super sales person. I never really thought of myself as really good at sales. I always thought I’m just surviving. As long as I bring in some small income to the hotel I’m ok to stay on. But….at the risk of over-indulging myself with egoistic thoughts, I think I am quite good. After all, I sold to the I***an group who according to everyone, usually never go anywhere without travel agents and are usually so penny-pinching that it’s easier to put out the fire in hell than to get one to part with his money. And I got a pretty good tip from them. The highest amount, according to my sales director, she has ever seen in her career, and her career is pretty impressive, ranging from the Sheratons to the Le Meridiens.

Unfortunately, I will never see that money. I think. I think it has gone to supplement the service charge of all the staff in the hotel. My tip. Split between 300 over working staff. Sssighhhhhhhhhhhhhh……….. too late to feel a little bit unfair, cos I did fight to get tips for the departments like HK and FB through gratuity charges. Sssighhhhhhhhhh……….

Well, will I be good enough to kick-start a career in the hotel industry in Singapore???

To be continued….

It's horrible working with anal retentive people. I shall not name names as I don't want to be liable.

I hate people who complain abt forgetting to dot an 'i' and dot a fullstop. THen make the biggest mistake of their lives with something important like contact details.

I hate people who criticise, (albeit diplomatically cos after all there is another supervisor around and you want to appear to be concerned, not judgemental), about the smallest things in the other office like not replying emails in time (try replying 40 emails a day!!) and then overlook the fact that YOUR office who is under YOUR direct control has made HUGE mistakes resulting in irregularities in the contract agreements with TOP SHOT VVVVVIP companies. If I lose the hotel business, fine, scream shout, abuse me. But don't come and nit-pick on my spelling mistakes, my tardiness in replying emails that take forever, my initiative to inform about the current events in Phuket, and then YOU end up doing a huge boo-boo that could have cost us millions.

Sometimes I wonder what anal pple do. He has so much free time to criticise and nit-pick, but no time to get information on GDP and inflation rates. Even I can find that on the internet in 3 minutes max. And you are supposed to be WAY WAY higher in position than me. Don't think we are all very free, waiting for your next email to give us work to do. If you have time to send an email asking us for the current GDP and inflation rate, you have the time to open up internet explorer and check for it under google.

And I think anal pple spend too much time checking for bits on their ass cos they're always using it. Maybe it's the constant pain of having something inserted in. Pain and pleasure. Maybe that's why they find pleasure in inflicting pain on others. Maybe tat's why this particular guy has a very gay friend...and apparently Mr. Anal stayed in the house of Mr. I-love-Anal-as-that's-the-only-way-I-can-do-it.

ARGH!!!!!!!! He has an opinion on EVERYTHING and he must ALWAYS make his opinions known. Irritating! Good thing nobody likes him much. So it's not just me...

Praisie, you should pick your Zen Friend

You know who we're talking about — the person who always has their head on straight, who can sound reasonable even in the most unreasonable of times, and who makes you calmer just by standing in the same room as you. Whether you've known them all your life or recently met them in yoga class, there's just something about this calming companion that made you realize from the very beginning you wanted them in your life.

This highly evolved, kind, caring, and soothing sidekick has a contagiously peaceful presence. Their grounding influence and nurturing heart give you a spiritual boost you don't easily find with others. The two of you share an appreciation for individual expression that makes any time a perfect time to spend together. Ommm!

Di should take this test....

Social Factors | Emotional Factors | Sexual Factors

YOU ARE CLOSE to finding "the one!" We have carefully calculated your responses according to our scientific formula and harmonized the results to the Venutian lunar calendar. But don't get your hopes up to hear those wedding bells soon, because your bridesmaid days aren't over just yet.

YOU WILL BE MARRIED BY: Saturday, July 31, 2010

A number of different factors influenced your result. Check out the details below.

less likely to marry	more likely to marry

Social Factors

On the social front, you are pretty serious marriage material. As you read this, forces beyond your control are aligning to put you on the altar with Mr. Right. It's you, girl. Your number is up, and someone out there is just dying to pop you the question. There's no need to book a flight to Vegas, but you might want to start thinking about your wedding gown.

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less likely to marry	more likely to marry

Emotional Factors

Emotionally, you seem to show some inner hesitations about marriage. C'mon, you didn't think you could hide it from us, did you? You've got what it takes to make the plunge, but you seem to want a little more time. There is something more than the "jitters" at work here. Maybe you just want to enjoy your single status for a little longer. Go for it, Honey, and tell them Tickle says it's OK.

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less likely to marry	more likely to marry

Sexual Factors

It appears that you have a number of sexually motivated reasons for avoiding marriage. Perhaps you view relationships as a series of unsolved mysteries, and you are not quite ready to turn in your badge and weapon. It's clear that the carefree single life can pose a strong attraction, but don't forget that the right person changes everything. When the day finally arrives that you're ready to say "case closed", just remember that Tickle told you so.