3 days offsite training to Sentosa. Shucks lah....local staff no room to stay cos no budget...hmpf!!! Anyway it was a good Stepping Up - 2008 for all the AFMs. The most talk about thing from this training is we finally get to meet with all the countries AFMs/FCs. At least getting to know them we are able to work more collaboratively and sharing any information that we may not have or realised there's such info in Singapore.
Worse is daily in/out must take the stupid cab, bloody hell must pay out of my pocket first then claim back. Even though it's reimbursable but I hate that cause usually can't see the money back as it will be credited into our bank acct. But when we pay we will see the $$$ out physically from our wallet. Aiya....it's a psychology thingy lah....Then hor, first 2 nites went home oso vomit out all my food, cause firstly the journey was damn far, secondly the journey in/out to Siloso Beach Resort has so many left/right turns, lastly i kept getting the lousy cab drivers who's driving skills was terrible!!!!
Day 1 - MJI external trainers and Amazing Race
It was a fun day 1 activity done by external trainers from MJI. We have alot of activities from communication, strategic thinking, network knowledge and identifying/resolving issues. It's very much work related, but the trainers plan and train it in a way that the sessions were not dry and boring. For example the "Ding-Dong" communication role play, "Hi Harry. Yes Harry. Tell Harry", "The team thinking of how to flip the mat when everyone's feet has to be in the mat"....etc etc....all very fun lah....
Then we proceed to have lunch and prepare for our race. Waited for Shida, Jacq, Farrah and Eng Mui to come from Novena Square as today is day 1 of our Phase 5 Move. Hence, they have to be onsite to handle any defects or issuance of keys etc lah...My group was Jacq, Werdi, JM and Eric. We have to give our group a name. Since we were group #3. I suggest Treetop, and we also have to come up with a posture related to our group name. See attach pic loh...we stood and posed like a Tree loh. And gota have a motto as well. "Treetop, Always on the TOP!!" not bad right, thought of this in just 10 secs ok.... Every group has at least 2 Singaporeans, die lah, mine only me leh.... stress siah if I don't know the places.....
Treetop...always at the TOP!!!
Well, our group was the first to manage to get the task done (everyone members from the team must hold on to a string and form it into a star), but was the last solve the riddle to get the clue to our 1st pitstop. Everyone was already planning their route, but we were still struggling with the answer to the stupid riddle. "A sailor sails on Friday. Lives on an island. Leaves on Monday. But total number of days he stayed was 7. Why is it so?" Finally got the answer.....then we got our clue, ie, to Lau Pa Sat, this clue i can easily figure out lah....We have only $20 to spend, transport we can only take bus, mrt or walk. NO taxis! The more $$$ we save the more points we get. 
on the bus to harbour front mrt
Last group standing.....
We were the only group who walked up to catch the bus to the terminal to catch the bus to Harbour Front. Along the way, we see no one, die lah, confirm last one to get our of Sentosa Island liao loh, confirm lose liao loh. Another thing is we cannot run. Then I realised my adidas sneakers started to crack. Walao eh...of all time....no choice lah, buy and buy but hardly wear datz y lah.....so as i walked, the rubber piece by piece kept dropping everywhere i walked...haha heng i wore long pants, if not lagi paiseh....
When we were waiting at the terminal for the Harbour Front bus, our hopes dashed, as we really did not meet a single person from other groups....well, just continue our "Amazing Race" loh and see how amazing we can be loh....When we were travelling out, the journey was so much farther if we were to walked from the other opposite direction where we first departed, no wonder we are the "last" lah.....Just when our hopes were dashed, while we were approaching one of the bus stop, we saw some familiar faces waiting for the same bus!!! Total we had was 5 groups, and the other 3 groups were all waiting for the bus we were in!!! Hahahaha......the race has began again....the only groups we did not see was Edwins's group. Aiya don't care lah, at least all the 4 groups are on the same bus to Harbour Front. When we reach HF, we were the first group to alight, so we just walked as fast as we can to reach our station to catch the earliest train to Outram and from there we switch to Raffles Place. Jacq was actually the better traveller. She knows the MRT route better then me....fwahahah of cos lah, I hardly take train de mah....We quickly board the train to Outram, no one was behind us. Maybe they decided to take the bus as all our pitstop were different. When we were at LPS, we had to find the pitstop person who will give us our next task and clue. My adidas sneakers finally is going to fall apart into 2 liao, I definitely need to get a pair of slippers before I continue the race barefooted. Our 1st task, was to use the extra $5 given by the person at LPS, to buy the cheapest complete meal + drink. We bought chap chai rice and a can of coke, just nice $5. Every member of the group must each the pack of rice and drink the coke. Aiya easy lah, after the travelling and under the hot sun, we just wallop the food and drink in a matter of secs. Next task before we get the clue to the next pitstop was to do a human traffic by walking and criss-crossing each other in the hula hoop placed on the ground. Easy task again lah.....before we proceed to the next pitstop I quickly went into Cheers and get a pair of slippers....
munching our 1st task (shoestring meal)
my torn adidas sneakers....
Next pitstop another easy clue, was to Arab Street. But must find Yusoff Dam Briyani first. So we took the train from Raffles Place to Bugis and walked from there. While on the train, I called Rozi for helped and asked exactly where the briyani place was. As we walked along the street we were trying to find. Finally saw, and we saw Farrah and Peiqi's group we there eating the briyani. It's their 1st pitstop niah leh!!! Haha....it's our 2nd liao loh....still got hope to be first hor...lolx....Before we get to enjoy the briyani, we have to follow one of the guys to the Malay Museum first to find some objects and things and we have to perform some Silat moves first then we will have our next clue to the 3rd pitstop. After the performing the Silat moves we have choreograph, we finally had our next meal (again) but it's just sharing a plate of briyani. BEST siah, the briyani, the rice the curry the chicken all very nice lah. Next time must bring my family there and eat liao.
preparing for our silat performance..."hak!"..woda!!!
3rd pitstop, Chinatown. We have to find the Coolie House, Chinese Heritage, what is Xie Song Peng and Silat Po. We took a direct bus to South Bridge Road. Again I called for help...haha...called my DarDar and Darreng....they were trying to find the web for the place and what Xie Song Peng was. No one knows...die liao....fortunately we found the Chinese Heritage, and per pax has to pay $7 to go in to find the answers. Of course I go loh, to save $$$ of course only 1 go in lah. Lucky the aunty helped me find wat is Xie Song Peng, it's actually one of the hundred surnames and popular person during the olden days. Silat Po easily was the ex-Singapore name lah. I have to take the snapshot of both to proof that I have found the 2 answers. While I was up there enjoying the aircon, Jacq and JM walked back to Pagoda Street to find where the Coolie house used to be. Once found we have to take a group picture to get more points. Die they cant find.....lucky the pitstop guy directed us there and we quickly took a shot.
finally found the coolie house...but left with this signage only!
Time was running out. Hence we don't have to continue with the last task, ie to blindfold us name what "food" we are eating. The final pitstop person Danny has already started calling every pitstop guys to inform us to proceed to our final destination liao. So we have to proceed to our last pitstop, ie The Merlion. Took the train again to Raffles Place and walked to our final pitstop. Everyone of us was damn tired, hot and thirsty. But we walked as fast as we can hoping to be the first. While we were travelling up the escalator toward The Merlion, Kenneth called and said they reach liao....chey....lose liao loh.....so we were the 2nd team who got to the final pitstop. Well, as the organisers need to tabulate the scores, hence, the winners will only be announced during dinner time. Still got hope hor.....
our last pitstop at Merlion (cant see lah, we are more impt)..hee...
Peiqi and I kept our belongings in Flora and Jennifer's room. We went back to Siloso and took a shower in their room. We had our team dinner with our Singapore FM team, the Regional Directors, all the Trainees and the MJI team. Announcement for the Amazing Race winners was done by Peter Smyth. The winner was..............Treetop team!!!! Hooray...!!! It's our team!!! We are the winners as we had accumulated the most points. What the prize was $100 for the whole team to for a foot-spa. Chey!!! Anyway it was the fun we had during the race lah, not the prize though...expected JLL wont have much budget wan lah......
Had a great a meal. Everyone was super tired, I've never sweat and walked for so many hours for so many years liao....so after our dinner, we all quickly booked a cab each and went home. Farrah and me took the same cab, I dropped her off at Bedok North. Both of us felt so nauseating while in the cab. Once I got home, took my ZoZo's potty and puke all my dinner out. Yucks!!!Day 2 - Theory TrainingSo much for my first day training. Interesting, fun, hot and tired. Today is just theory training. Damn dry and tiring. On what Archibus lah, Pricing and Utilisation lah, Risk Management lah, etc etc....sianz man.....the first half was so boring. Fortunately 2nd half of the day was by Shana and Eng Mui. We crowded around them in U-shape seats setting without tables. At least their sessions were more of experience sharing rather then theory. Seriouly nothing much today. 
finally breaktime....super sianz...
Supatta our FC from Thailand
By 530pm, we ended the day. We all took separate cab home. Walao super jam siah. Today's cab driver was worst. Uncle just jerk and jerk and jerk. Until I told him I was vomitting soon as I have motion sickness. All he said was, "ok then don't talk so much, if not air go in".....walao, wat I was expecting was for him to drive smoothly and not tell me that!!! Went home, didnt even have dinner, but I puke all my lunch out.....Yucks Yucks Yucks!!!!
Suppose to meet Dar at Tampines Central as Dodo told us to get a gift for Terri as she has put in alot of effort in organising this training. But I was feeling to sick and definitely has to get home and puke first before I can get to anywhere. Quickly called Dar in the cab to meet me at home first. DoDo even reminded us not to get anything for him. Aiyo, of cos we will get for him as well wan loh.....actually he put in as much effort for us too. He was our photographer, he was our PaPa he was our mentor for this training. Was getting late, as I spent my time puking at home. Quickly rush down at 8+pm. Finally decided to get books for them. No time to think liao. Was not easy to get oso hor.....was flipping through and walking here and there to see which is the best for them. Finally was almost 9+, then I manage to get them the books. All other shops were closing, wanted to get wrapper for the books, klkk all don't have a proper one. Shops starts to close liao. So Dar suggested to go Giant since there close at 12am. When we were almost reaching, I realised something was amiss, don't know why the "Giant" lights were switch off. Almost 10pm liao, was telling myself, better not be stock taking day. Parked the car, went down, saw people still going up, heng ah, it's open leh, who knows we saw the notice, "10pm close for stock taking". @#$%^&*()(*&^%$ tio beh pio oso not so jun, tmd, when we went up the security told us, close liao close liao, doing stock taking. We were trying to negotiate with him and see if we can just grab some wrappers, but too bad, that section was already closed and staff has started counting the stock. Duhz......Forget it lah, lucky I have some wrappers at home, just that don't know if it's appropriate for the occasion or not. Boh pian liao lah, lucky I have some different designs to wrap the books up for them.....what a night.....Day 3 - JLL IdolAll countries will have a rep to present our AFM onboarding Tool we have all prepared for this JLL Idol. Whoever got the most votes from all the countries folks who will be watching it on Live meeting will get to send their votes to DoDo and Terri. Farrah was our appointed person who will be our Singapore JLL Idol to present our plan. I'm too good to present lah, so confirm will win wan...so give others a chance lah...fwahahaha...hey hey...monthly I conduct trainings wan leh, of cos my presentation skills will be better lah. Gota be fair mah, cos most of other sites AFMs/FCs has never presented before, so if I would really be there one, confirm I stand a better chance mah hor hor hor.....kekeke....
signing for dodo and terri's gift
lollipop for my colleagues...
So as others were presenting, I was giving Farrah tips and tricks on what to say and what to do. Shana was so excited that she kept thinking our plan was the BEST and Singapore stands the highest chance to win. Stress man..... anyway.... the last person to present was Brandon from Guangzhou, he was really the most cool person. Throughout the whole day, he did not even have any notes with him to memorise his script and also he did not take down any notes from other country reps who was presenting. Naturally he presented himself most at ease and he got the most votes. So he was our JLL Idol!!!
happy ending!!!
The session ended with Peter Smyth giving us his expectations from us. Well, everyone training sure ends with expectations from our Directors and Bosses lah. Think so easy meh....just train for fun niah ah...train liao must improve ourselves wan hor....
Once the session ended, I presented the 2 gifts Terri and Dodo showing our appreciation to them for making this happened. After these 3 days, our love for everyone in the "family" has grown trememdously. Especially PaPa DoDo, we were so touch by the video clip he has put up for us. He has truly inspired us with "The Station".......I will always be reminded by what I have learnt...."It's not the destination that counts, its the journey we have all gone through thick and thin together..."
Rozi, Peiqi and Peggy
Back to work the next day, before Brandon and Werdi left, we all had lunch
lucky bosses came..haha we don't have to pay....
