Step Up Revolution

One word to describe this movie: AWESOME.

I haven't caught any of the previous 'Step Up' movies in the theatres, and I only remembered watching snippets of one of them during the CNY period on Channel 5.

The movie started high with an energetic dance and I was initially worried if that level of excitement was sustainable. However, my worries were absolutely unfounded. As the movie progressed, the dances got better and better, in the sense that they were more interesting, more entertaining, and I have to say that I was impressed every single time they did their performance. Just as I thought it couldn't get any better, the final dance blew me away with the elements of surprises and the amazing stunts they did.

On top of the dance performances, the storyline was well thought of as well. The typical friendships, relationships, and teamwork were all showcased, and the decent build-up to the final climax was properly executed. There was nothing to be touched about in the movie (I can close one eye on that), but there were plenty of scenes to engender laughter from the audience. I thoroughly enjoyed the 106 minutes, and I would highly, highly recommended you to catch the movie, especially if you love to watch people dance/perform.

With two-thirds of the year gone, I'm quite confident that this would be my movie of the year. For your information, this is only the 5th movie to be awarded full marks out of the 54 movies that I have watched since 2007.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Challenge

Sometimes in life, you just need to challenge yourself to do something crazy.

Before I begin, I just want to say that this is NOT written with the intention of promoting any financial products.

It all began with a simple trip down to the bank to set up a current account, together with the specific credit card, in order to get a free $100 cashback. Then I ended up also signing up for an endowment plan, committing $500 per month for the next 10 years, as well as another 6-month SGD fixed deposit at a promotional rate.

I have visited various banks and talked to various insurance agents or financial advisors in the past, and I sometimes feel "proud" that I don't succumb to all these temptations of the so-called "long term savings plans". Partly, it's because some of these people can't answer my never-ending questions and it's even worse if they can't get simple calculations right. My mindset is: If you can't count or answer my doubts properly, how can you convince me that this product is more suitable for me when I don't think it is? Obviously, the main reason is also because the insurance companies take away a huge chunk of commission, so even if an investment/fund is doing well, we end up with only a small slice of the profits, e.g. your investment with the insurance company grows at 5% p.a. but you only get 2% p.a. at the end of the plan. Of course, that's the price to pay for entrusting people to generate profits for you, i.e. if you think you can beat the 2% in the above scenario, do it yourself.

But somehow, I "succumbed" today. The products aren't drastically different from what I have heard, but on a whole, the package seemed to be complete and the service was impeccable. It wasn't easy to choose the length of the plan (10 or 15 years), and I hesitated for awhile about the amount of monthly instalment that would be comfortable for me. $500 was what the financial advisor suggested initially, but she lowered to $300 and then $200 when I was hesitating. Seems that this tactic is well-practised by people in this field. In short, after a long silence, she was pretty shocked with the figure that I proposed.

Did a little math, and realized that my liquidity has just taken a huge dive. More than 90% of my assets (or money) are locked up in fixed deposits, though most will mature within the next year. And from next month onwards, I'm left with less than 30% of my take-home pay every month after servicing my tuition loan, giving money to my parents, and contributing to the endowment plan. I guess it's good in a way, since I realized that my expenses have been climbing steadily and it's time to do something about it.

I'm not sure if I'm squeezing myself too dry, but like what I wrote in the beginning, it's good to challenge myself and see if I can do it!

It's Been 2 Months

Ah, the counting has finally changed from days to weeks and now to months. :)

The past week has been pretty eventful.

Last Friday, I made my first contribution in the division meeting and gave a short presentation about some of the work I've done. I was actually very nervous, and halfway through I paused for a moment because I forgot what I was going to say, and then I sped through the rest of the parts. I over-prepared for any potential questions but fortunately, no one asked anything. Surprisingly, I received quite a number of good reviews from my colleagues. Really nice of them for the positive comments and their encouragement. :)

On Tuesday, we had our internal National Day Celebrations. Going by tradition, the new officers are required to organize and put up a performance. I was allocated to the dance group, after spending 2 nights at Bintan and 3 evenings after work rehearsing the dance moves till almost 2100h, I'm glad that everything went well on the actual day. Got quite emotional after the whole performance, because I could see that the audience thoroughly enjoyed the skit, song items and finally the dance put up by the group of us.

To be honest, the dance rehearsals were pretty tiring and I'm not a good dancer to begin with. But gradually, the ten of us bonded well and it started to be enjoyable rather than just "going through motion". Thereafter, it was just fun, fun and fun. One of my colleagues took a video of our dance performance, and I was shocked that the ten of us looked quite synchronized. And I think I danced quite well (for my standard). Hehe.

National Day eve was probably my most stressful day in my 2 months. Was assigned more work and some of them were so complex and for a few moments, I was at a loss how I should do. Took a few deep breaths and told myself not to panic. After work, I decided to go for a walk to de-stress. Stood and watched the MBS light show, and enjoyed the sights and sounds at Little India. One step at one time, I somehow made it back home!! Took me 2 hours to finish the 6.5 km walk. Hmm, I actually don't live that far from my work place.

2 months have gone by like that. I have learnt so much stuff, and I really appreciate my division colleagues for their guidance. I have made so many friends, especially from my batch. After all, we have been through thick and thin, attending training courses, going for the teambuilding trip at Bintan, and staying back late for the National Day Celebrations rehearsals. Not forgetting, the adventures from the Bintan trip to the Dinner and Dance to chill-out sessions after work with different groups of colleagues.

Frankly, I have never expected the start of my new job to be so "happening". Work is never easy and never relaxing, but all these memories and experiences have definitely helped to brighten the days and I look forward to strengthen these newly-formed friendships.

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Some statistics for those who are interested to know how much/little I worked. Haha.

June - 13 working days
Average working hours per day: 8 hours 59 minutes
Average time I leave office: 1901h

July - 18 working days (excluding 3 days at Bintan)
Average working hours per day: 8 hours 57 minutes
Average time I leave office: 1859h

August - 7 working days (so far)
Average working hours per day: 9 hours 21 minutes
Average time I leave office: 1936h