Pet Peeves

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Yesterday while going home from work, I came across this woman who was quite irritating. It was a bit of a bother for me to stop going to her and get her to stop doing what she was doing. What did she do to irritate me? Read on….

We all have some peeves which irritate the hell out of us. Urban Dictionary defines pet peeves as “an irritating experience caused by others which we cannot control”. So what are my top pet peeves? In no particular order, here are my top 5

People listening to music/watching videos in public transport without headphones
This one is inspired by the lady yesterday. What I don’t understand is why do phone manufacturers give you a pair of headphone when you purchase a phone, if not to use it? There are usually a large number of people in any public transport and to subject them to the music or video you are watching is just not done! I don’t want to listen to what you are watching, in a language I don’t understand

Bad grammar and spelling
This one is also on the top of my list of pet peeves! I really don’t like when people write sentences as if they were still using old-style brink phones of the yesteryear – you know the one where you wrote words like “dis e (this is)” etc. It’s worse when people send you emails and post on forums using this style! My fingers itch to correct it, especially when these days even primary school children carry smart phones…

I am also a big grammar nazi and get super put off when there are grammatical and spelling errors in work I see – what’s the spell check for guys?

People who cut queues
Enough said about this. Even though we live in Singapore – the land of queueing, you still get people who do not understand the concept of one. When waiting for a bus, one person will bring in 10 more friends and there goes the chance of anyone else getting on the bus!

People who don’t know the concept of personal space
Another one which happens mainly in public transport here, but which is an alien concept in India!

Loud phone conversations in public
Aah! Lets all hear about your boss or back-stabbing friend while on the way somewhere! If you need to have a conversation while in public, please do try and tone it down? Actually sometimes, its quite fun actually. You get to hear gossip about someone you don’t know and the journey becomes fun, especially when you don’t have a good book in your hands….

What’s your pet peeve?

In My Hands Today…

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Love Marriage – V.V. Ganeshanathan

In this globe-scattered Sri Lankan family, we speak of only two kinds of marriage. The first is the Arranged Marriage. The second is the Love Marriage. In reality, there is a whole spectrum in between, but most of us spend years running away from the first toward the second.

The daughter of Sri Lankan immigrants who left their collapsing country and married in America, Yalini finds herself caught between the traditions of her ancestors and the lure of her own modern world. But when she is summoned to Toronto to help care for her dying uncle, Kumaran, a former member of the militant Tamil Tigers, Yalini is forced to see that violence is not a relic of the Sri Lankan past, but very much a part of her Western present.

While Kumaran’s loved ones gather around him to say goodbye, Yalini traces her family’s roots–and the conflicts facing them as ethnic Tamils–through a series of marriages. Now, as Kumaran’s death and his daughter’s politically motivated nuptials edge closer, Yalini must decide where she stands.

2015 Week 19 Update

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This is most likely to be a 90% work post! The week was the usual home-work-home week…

I went ahead and applied for the position that I wrote about last week, even though the chances I don’t get it is higher than I get it!

I did speak to both my ex-boss and current boss about this – my ex-boss was actually excited about this, but again, the position advertised is slightly more senior to what I am doing. But I feel, I have given out signals here – either here or elsewhere, but in 2015, I am hoping for a career breakthrough!

Another thing I want to write about – though not a rant, I want to put this here, so I remember…

There was this senior person I was working for R, whom I was helping a few months back. Now she continued to take my help and I helped her as I was interested in that field – I thought this was the best way to get some knowledge and experience in the field. She completed 100 days at work and had a review with the regional chairperson and I helped her put the deck together. Around this time, my current boss came on board and one day she mentioned that she had spoken to him about me – about what a great job I was doing, what an asset I am to the department and so on. I didn’t ask her to do that and if she did it but didn’t tell me, I would not know and I am ok with this. After her review with the chairperson, she came by to thank me and also mentioned that she told the chairperson that I helped her and what I great job I was doing. There were other regional leaders on the review, along with her boss and this has been told in front of everyone. Then the chairperson said to tell all this to my current boss and she laughed and said she already did that.

Now last week, when I pitched my candidature to my boss, I mentioned this – when I mentioned that everyone whom I work with always give me great reviews – and I mentioned R saying that she has spoken to him about me. My boss had this real blank look on his face and it looked like R has not spoken to him at all! I felt a bit funny and we laughed it saying maybe she will do that in the near future.

Now I am wondering why R did this? I didn’t go and ask her for the endorsement, but if she didn’t do that, why tell me she did it? I was going to ask her to be a referee for me when I start going for interviews as she is local, but now I may have to rethink this.

Ok, not-rant over! Have a great Monday and an awesome week…

PSLE Week 19 Update

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We’re almost done with the exams – with Science tomorrow to end the last SA1 in Primary school!

The rest of the month will be taken by school and then a month of holidays (which is going to be spent in school and other classes) before term 3 and prelims….

BB & GG had a milestone yesterday. S was unable to pick them up from Hindi and usually this means I go down to pick them up. The school where they have the class is not too far – around 10-15 minutes by car, but it involves two bus rides to get home. I have seen other children go home by themselves and so thought it’s time we make GG & BB independent. After all from next year, they may need to take public transport to get home from school. So they came home from Hindi school alone – a first for them! I am quite proud for them 🙂

In My Hands Today…

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Grandad There’s a Head on the Beach (Jimm Jurrie #1) – Colin Cotterill

In rural Thailand, former crime reporter Jimm Juree must grapple with her quirky family, a mysterious mother and daughter on the lam and the small matter of a head on the beach.

When Jimm Juree’s mother sold the family house and invested in a rundown ‘holiday camp’ at the southern end of Thailand on the Gulf of Siam, the family had little choice but to follow. Jimm Juree, who was well on her way to achieving her goal of becoming the primary crime reporter for the major daily newspaper in Chiang Mai, is less than thrilled to have lost her job as a reporter and to be stuck in the middle of nowhere where little of interest happens.

So it is with mixed feelings that she greets the news that a head has washed up on the beach. It’s tragic, of course, but this could be the sort of sensational murder that would get her a byline in a major daily and keep her toehold on her journalism career. Now all she has to do is find out who was murdered, and why. Grandad, There’s a Head on the Beach is the second Jimm Juree Mystery from Colin Cotterill.