unfitting ClubFIT
It was already 7.05pm when I knocked off. It takes 10 minutes to walk from my workplace to Yio Chu Kang MRT station and another 20 - 30 minutes to reach Raffles Place, where Planet Fitness is located. A quick calculation tells me that I won't be able to reach home by 9pm for my chinese drama. So I decided to visit the SSC Clubfit gym at Yio Chu Kang.
I reached the gym, paid $2.50 and went up the 2nd level to the gym. The changing room and the lockers were both inside the gym. But I discovered to my dismay that I do not have two 20-cent coins for the lockers. Arrgghh.. So I had to go down to the 1st level to change the money. I went back up, register my entry, and then the guy manning the gym requested me to pull out my towel. Actually before I came up, I already noticed the signboard that informed all users to bring a towel or else be prohibited to use the gym. Arrggghh.. I had to visit the 1st level counter again to buy a towel at $1. Before I even started my workout, I had already climbed the stairs five times up and down!
As a community gym, it comes with the standard gym equipment - free weights, treadmills, two striders (or elliptical machine), one stepper, two exercise bikes, two rowers, quite a number of standalone weight-training machines and a couple of multi-installment weight-training machines.
The floor space is really small. It's probably only a third of one of the two-leveled Planet Fitness (PF) in Chevron House. It doesn't really have a distinctive area for stretching though there was a pile of black-colored exercise mats beside a pillar. The machines looked pretty old; some of them were already rusting.
The workout population can be easily divided into two groups: the men who busied themselves with weight-training and the women who occupied almost 80% of the elliptical/stepper/treadmills. This is so unlike the group in PF where almost all the women handled the weights (however short the duration may be) as frequently as the men.
I still had a bit of cough/sore throat and sniffles. Thus I chose the elliptical, thinking that some light exercise might do me good. After 10-15mins of striding away, I actually felt breathless! I was scared for a minute and decided to stop short of the 20-minute I had planned to do. I wanted to proceed to the weights, but seeing that they were hogged by an all-guys group, I felt shy to approach any machine. Instead, I settled on the rower. That was pretty good; the rower was also one of the newer looking machines.
After half an hour and 150 calories expended, I called it a day. I didn't really enjoy myself. At $3.50, it's definitely not worth it. In retrospect, it was a wise choice when I made up my mind to sign up for a 26-month membership at PF.
--------------------------------------------
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
Gutter ball update - 13/10/2007
We did go for a bowling outing after all. After all the trouble of organizing, coordinating, canceling, re-proposing, and arranging of schedules. K had ultimately decided to bowl with SC & GZ, me and Tempest, despite her initial reservations about going out alone with 2 other couples. Haha, she said she was left with no choice. All her other friends are not interested in bowling.
None of us are regular bowlers, and K was a first-timer. Thence, being the more frequent bowler, Tempest took upon himself to guide me and K along. "Lock your elbow, swing your shoulders, move one leg behind and loosen up the back, don't stand too stiff and upright, roll the ball not throw the ball, look at the arrows, take aim with your thumb and fingers in parallel to the lines and arrows..." That was about all I remembered from the 2 hour session.
The first few frames were horrible. The ball either went into the gutter before it even reached the middle of the lane, or rolled near the sides precariously to hit only one or two pins. It was only after a few more 'rolls' that each of our scores improved.
To further increase our scores, we took to picking the 'lucky' brown ball which kinda lost its magic touch after being picked by bowlers from the neighbouring lane, imagining our most hated colleagues and bosses and people plastered on the 10 pins, stamping on the floor, standing more to the left or right side so that the ball will not roll into the gutter easily etc.
In terms of score, the big winner is probably Tempest, followed closely by GZ, then SC and myself, and K. From less than 5o in the first game to slightly over 90 in the second, i thought that was a huge improvement! :-)
In terms of value to money ratio, SC was the biggest winner no doubt! In normal circumstances as applied to the rest of us, the bar would lower itself to clear the fallen pins before allowing the bowler to do a second throw. For SC, the bar would not lower till she was done with two throws! Thus effectively, she got twice as many throws as each one of us!
Conclusion: Fun. We shall go again next month! If we ever get past the trouble of organizing it.
I am cooking a bowl of ‘rhapsody’ in the dark!
I believed that I had thought it through and will stay in the Tiger's belly till perhaps the bonus month, which is end September next year, or at least after my probation. Besides, I am also looking forward to my leave days planned for this first half of the year. Just when I had finally decided to stay in the company longer, my ex-colleague smsed me. She told me that her company is hiring, and she could forward me the contact details if I want them. Ah. That roused my peace again.
Unlike most other organizations, the notice period for any resigning staff, be it under probation or not, is still one full month (others do with 1 to 2 weeks notice). And the most hated part of it all is that the staff must repay all benefits and leaves utilized if he/she leaves the company during the 6 months probationary period! I have taken one-day leave on 10 August, another one scheduled on 26 October, and 3 days planned for Christmas. My probation will be over by end December, so that means my confirmation will probably come only in January 2008. If I resign in January, I pay back zero dollars. If I resign now, I must pay back 1 day's worth of leave. What's worse is that if I resign in December, I have to pay back 5 days' worth of leave! That's equivalent to 25% of my salary!
Evil people.
Still, I do hope to get the position in my ex-colleague's company, even though it's probably only for a contract period of 6 months.
And many great thanks to Tempest who helped me with my resume.
Induction
I attended an induction program yesterday, held on the 32nd level of the tower situated in the CBD. Almost 60 of us attended the full-day program, which is meant no more than an orientation for newbies. The irony was that 50% of the inductees had already been with the bank for nearly 6 months and beyond. Our HR facilitator revealed that there was no body else to do her job while she was on a 3-month maternity leave. I guess that more or less concluded the importance of us new staff in the organization.
The induction began by introducing us to the history of the organization. I was surprised to learn that the bank has established itself in Singapore since 40 years ago! I was even more amazed to discover that we have a company band and choir, and a song! We were even made to rise and sing the song!
The facilitator did away with the usual ice-breaker games, but she made us go through the efforts of presenting ourselves to the whole lot with our name, unit, previous employer, likes & dislikes of the current employer.
One common complaint was "slowness" of the bank, in everything, from the systems to the pace of working, and even the lifts and gates. It was said that the fast-closing gate scratched one girl's new car, and that was why the guards had resorted to slowing the opening and closing of the gate to prevent similar incidences from happening. As much as it is antagonizing, I believe it is this slower pace of working that led to better 'work life balance', the euphemism for "NO OT". That was one of the 'likes' mentioned by a lot more people who enjoyed their regular working hours. "Family-oriented" was also frequently quoted when describing the bank.
Lunch was not catered. So I went with YS, ZQ, J and K to Imperial Bak Kut Teh located along a stretch of shophouses. At $5.90 per set which comprises of a bowl of rice, a bowl of sliced pork soup, sides of preserved salted vegetables and braised bean curd and bean curd sticks, it was worth it. The sliced pork was tough and a bit oily, but the soup was peppery and not too dilute. The $1.00 homemade lime juice I ordered was disappointing though. It tasted sugary instead of being sour.
What followed after lunch was boring. Lecture after lecture on business continuity plans, anti-money laundering and IT security, none of which is new to me in fact. Except for the video where the bank simulated a scenario of a bomb blast and how the staffs reacted to the situation as per the business continuity plan, the rest of the 'lessons' bore me and made me dozed off.
The afternoon's refreshments were much better - pies, muffins, Malay kueh, cakes, and puffs - probably because the senior management was supposed to join us for the tea break. It was an informal session for us to meet those big shots of the bank, so that we would not embarrass ourselves if we chance upon any of them during our course of work. There was an incident where a branch staff had asked the Chairman to take a queue number without recognizing him. I quite agree with that, it is sad to realize that you do not know whom you are working for.
I was delighted when the induction ended at 5.30pm, half an hour ahead of the scheduled 6pm. This meant that I could end my gym workout (at nearby Chevron House) earlier and rushed home to catch the 9pm Channel 8 drama!
