FSD retreat

went bintan last friday for dept retreat
19th to 21st Jan
sponsored trip by the company
of the many many resorts in bintan
they chose to go to the only one dat i’ve been to twice
bintan lagoon resort
last yr, i went there twice
both times stayed at the villas aka chalets
oh well
trip is paid for by company
so cannot hiam lor

juz using this chance to intro my dept abit
it's known as the Financial Services Department (FSD)
made up of the following divisions……
Director’s Office (DO)
Accounting Group (APMD)
Management Reporting Group (MRG)
Derivatives Group (DG)
Settlement - Operations 1 (Ops 1)
Custody & Control - Operations 2 (Ops 2)
Process Management Office (PMO)

i belong in Ops 2
here’s a pic of the division















back: the only thorn among the roses (lol!) – jia jing
middle: celina, marilyn, anna, bee peng, windy, me, silvia, lydia
seated: chwee wei, jessica, belinda, margaret
steffie's absent coz she gotta nurse her baby
celina is our divisional manager
a young, zesty, mother of 3 boys
successful hor? *envious*

took this pic at “the kelong” on sat nite
it's an eating place situated in Nirwana Gardens
which is another resort in bintan
food was superb
10-course dinner lor
seafood was really fresh and yummy!
so much more satisfying than fri’s dinner lor
on fri, there were different ferry timings
more than half the dept left office at 3.30
to take the 5.30pm ferry
leaving a few of us to look after things
in case there were any last minute glitches
i was amongst the last to leave
took the 8pm ferry
reached the resort abt 9pm (bintan time)
went for dinner at the poolside
and the food was so disappointing lor
went rackey-ing around the place wif lydia
stumbled upon a club called silk
cover charge was IDR24,000 = s$4
but the lady at the door juz brought us in
bermudas, slippers and all
haha
staff in there were very nice
showing us ard the place
and telling us wat they have
there’s a live band
which played indo songs and english songs
we were pretty satisfied at the place
so went back out to get more of our pple to join us
only managed to get our other teammate, silvia
the rest were too tired to do anything
so went back to the place and settled on some somfy seats
juz finished placing our orders
when our colleagues from Ops 1 joined us too
didn’t know they are so happening lor!!
all the wildness and party energy never seen before

apart from the sumptuous dinner mentioned above
the whole of sat was pretty boring
cooped up in the meeting room
to talk about departmental issues
HR issues
yadda yadda
and every division had to put up some sort of presentation
to let the rest of the dept know
wat they do and why they are important
our director made it into a competition thingy
in order to further motivate us
the presentations were made up of powerpoint slides
and photos / videos
but we had much fun putting it together
and guess wat?
Ops 2 won 1st prize!!
heehee
300 bucks worth of watson’s voucher
nothing big la, but still... =)
so dat’s 20 bucks each
all the talks and presentation took up the entire day
after dinner at “the kelong”
some went for mahjong
others went for karaoke
we went to the karaoke rooms to take a look
there wasn’t enuff space for everyone lor
so we went silk again
me, silvia and lydia left early
coz lydia wanted to shower and sleep
silvia and i had 2nd round of drinking at the lobby
watching soccer on the big screen
and chatting the nite away
tried carlsberg wif guiness stout for the 1st time
not bad leh
quite nice taste =)

sunday morning was outdoor day
went to the nearby adventure thingy to play a few games
the place is managed by FOCUS
felt abit like back-to-school days
when i went for camps, orientation programs, OBS
where we played teambonding games
pretty fun la
coincidentally, 1 of the facilitators is my junior lor
he (andy) is from SAJC 22nd student council
i was from 21st mah
he recognised me and introduced himself to me
but up till now, i don't remember anything of him (oops)
memory not so good la
8 yrs ago leh, how to remember
some more the ratio of councillor to students is so huge
easier for them to remember 1 of me
than me remembering so many of them lor
anyways, the games were pretty fun
got to see the other side of my colleagues
and got to noe more pple from my dept also
besides the game facilitators
there were 2 other guys taking pictures and videos of us
in awkward positions and wif funny expressions
really laughed our heads off
when we watched the videos and saw the processed pics
at the end of the session
after the de-brief
we returned to the hotel and checked out
after having lunch and showering ourselves clean
reached singapore in the evening
and KO till the next morning lor
haven't felt so tired in ages already
age is really catching up liao
hahaha