Cogito ergo scribo

It's 20th March (Tuesday) as i'm typing this, and i'm now in a room at a resort in Sentosa island. I'm here attending a two-day retreat for the middle management of the company.

Don't be mistaken, i'm just a Business Analyst and not a manager. I'm not sure why my boss put me in the list and wanted me to attend this yearly retreat. Virtually everyone else here is a manager. Of course there are some non-managerial staff too, but i still felt out of place, especially this morning when i saw people whispering to each other while looking at my direction, probably wondering why i'm here. Gee, that's very much against my policy of keeping low profile and staying under the radar in this company.

Initially i thought HR made a mistake in sending the invitation to me. Then i checked with my boss and he insisted me coming even though i attempted to wiggle out of it. Anyway, i tried not to read too much about this whole thing and just took it as a job assigned to me.

The retreat is an event for all the middle managers from all departments and branches to gather at one place and do some strategic brainstorming. There are sessions, exercises and activities that require everyone to think about how to make the business better in accordance to the company's mission and objectives. Our MD and a few of the senior managers are here too. They would take in the input from the middle managers and transform them into action plans.

As i don't know the business and products of the company well enough to contribute much, all i did most of the time was just sitting in the group listening to the ideas from other team members. I'm not very sure if i would find this retreat useful by the end of tomorrow, but i seriously rather spend the time doing my work in the office instead of being here.

Another thing is that i'm Internet deprived for two days already. This is extremely hard for a person who takes logging on to the Web as a daily routine just like eating and sleeping. I stayed in my uncle's place in Singapore yesterday, and there were some problems with the wireless Internet access at my uncle's. And today in this resort, there's no free access to the Internet; i gotta pay for it if i wanna go online.

Actually both 贝 and i are staying over in Singapore for these two days. We wanted to take the opportunity of me being away in Sentosa to send our car for fixing and servicing. The new cylinder had arrived and i arranged with the service center for me to send in my car on Monday so that they could have the next two days to fix it while i'm at the retreat.

Oh, and i did call up the customer service and lodge a complaint. True enough, just as what the car sales lady had told me, i got a replacement car after i made a big fuss out of it. They bent the rule and rented a car (of the same brand) for me to use while my car is in service. So i drove to the resort today, and this is the first time i drive from Singapore main island to Sentosa island. My last visit to Sentosa was some 15 or 20 years ago, and there wasn't a bridge for automobile then.

I know i should take this chance to tour around the island since it has been such a while since my last visit, but i'm so tired because i turned in late and didn't sleep well last night, thanks to my grandma who kept on waking up during sleep (i'm a light sleeper). I also don't feel like joining the crowd in drinking the free beer at the pub, courtesy of our MD.

So for now, i just wanna chill out in the room and do some reading. Tomorrow's gonna be another long day.

(This post was written on 20-March-2007, at 8.58pm)

Labels: life, trivia, work