Tag Archives: Weekly Updates

2017 Week 34 Update

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This week was a relatively short week with the long weekend as Singapore celebrated the feast of sacrifice or Hari Raya Haji as it is called here. We are now in September and counting down to the last few months of the year!

This weekend, we went out together as a family after a long time. I needed to buy a jacket for work and so decided to make an evening out of it. We went and shopped and then had dinner. It was an enjoyable evening.

I am looking to buy a fitness tracker and am quite confused about what to buy. I looked at the Fitbit Alta and the Flex but also like the Charge. Also, I want something which is discrete, by which I mean I don’t want to advertise the fact that I am using a fitness tracker. I used to have a Fitbit Pebble (is that the right name?) and used to clip it to my clothes or even into my pockets and nobody knew I had one. Is there one like that in the market now? Anyone with more information, please comment below so I can decide soon. My current fitness tracker is my phone and I am using the Argus app to track steps, water, movement etc. The only downside to this is that I have to make sure I am carrying my phone in my hand or in a pocket all the time and sometimes that becomes cumbersome, which is why I am looking for a new tracker.

Work-wise, I am reaching my three-month mark here and this should end the probation period. I still haven’t had any one-on-one with my manager, in spite to asking multiple times, so this is something I probably will have to give up on. Maybe when the time comes to do your annual goals, my manager will finally find time for me.

Something happened this week and I realised that this organisation was willing to spend hundreds of thousands on an event, even provide tickets which are worth thousands free of cost just to fill up seats, but would not spend a few few hundreds to allow staff to take taxis home after a 15-hour work day, because the time would not yet be 9 pm at that point (which is the official policy to  allow taxi claims)! So all the posturing about staff welfare, including having staff fun clubs is just that – posturing. They don’t put their money where their mouth is.

The other thing I am excited about is my parents coming to Singapore. I  just applied for their visa over the weekend and think it should be approved sometime this week. I have also sent my list of items to buy from Mumbai and am waiting for the goodies next month!

Have a wonderful September and an awesome week!

 

Secondary 2 Week 34 Update

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This is the school holiday week for the children and with just two full days of school, there’s not much to actually update!

On Wednesday, which was celebrated as Teachers Day in Singapore, BB & GG went back to their primary school for homecoming! This is something they did last year too and GG says she will do it all the time. I think it will be till familiar teachers are still in school and when it reaches a point where they don’t know most teachers, they will stop going to homecoming!

GG also got her report card for the term back and it was filled with mostly A grades. She is continuing to do well in school, but I would love her to push herself a bit more. She is hovering at the top, yet not yet there, and I want her to breach that dam and try for top honours.

Today marks the end of the long weekend for us, but the children will continue with their term break. BB has to go back to school one day, but I think GG will be home all days, except for the days she needs to go for tuition!

 

2017 Week 33 Update

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As I’ve mentioned before, now that I am working, life has become quite monotonous. I have not had time to do much, the weekends are taken up with completing chores around the house or just catching up on sleep.

August is almost at an end and it’s just over a month to my parents coming to spend time with us in Singapore! I am really looking forward to spending almost three months with them. Not that there will be much spending time together, what with me being out of the house for more than 12 hours, but it’s a lot better than being apart by nearly 7,000 kilometres and an ocean between us!

Work-wise, while I am not very happy here, I have made my peace. There are some people who (I believe) share my wavelength and I look forward to getting to know them better. The others, especially some whom I have to work with closely, are not worth knowing outside the office and I doubt we will become even friends; the best we can hope to be is to be colleagues.

This is shortened work week for us here in Singapore due to Friday being the Hari Raya Haji or Bakri-Eid holiday. So I for one, am looking to a nice long weekend before the next few hard weeks at work due to a big project coming to fruition.

Have a blessed week folks!

Secondary 2 Week 33 Update

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This was the last full week of school before their term break next week.

Teachers Day is traditionally celebrated on the 1st of September. But this period usually coincides with term break so teachers used to be upset at the loss of a mandate holiday. Then a few years back, the government decided that Teacher’s Day will be celebrated on the last Friday before term break. So the term break got extended by a day. This year that Friday is a public holiday because of Hari Raya Haji or Bakri Id as it’s known in South Asia. So Teacher’s Day is now on the Thursday and the children (and teachers) get an additional day of term break! Schools will celebrate this on Wednesday effectively making just Monday and Tuesday as full and normal school days!

GG’s choir is going to perform the routine they did at the competition last month. She didn’t clear the audition for the duet she was going to sing, but maybe that’s a good thing. I am going to ask her to audition for a solo next year just to see where she stands!

BB had his second flying competition yesterday. He just said it was ok. But before the competition he mentioned that many of the motors his school was using on the planes were faulty, so I wonder if that impacted them in anyway. This is their annual ranking competition and this decides if they can leapfrog a rank next year.

This term break is going to be one where I push them to study as almost immediately they start their end of year exams. A big bummer is that on their birthday is the dreaded Hindi end of year exam. They have been so upset ever since they heard about this!

Have a wonderful Sunday people!

2017 Week 32 Update

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Life is going on as usual. I really don’t have a life anymore as it’s now Wakeup – Work – Come Home – Sleep routine.

In fact, I am quite behind in my reading these days. My 2017 Reading Challenge has been stalled since I started working and I need to start reading more if I want to complete it and on time. So I have been thinking of eliminating screen time at night and reading for an hour at least before bed. Will this work, well I will update it next week.

Work-wise, things are as they were, no real improvements there. But I am still optimistic that things will change and for the better.

It’s the start of a fresh new week and I hope this one is better than the previous one for everyone! Have a blessed week folks!