This is my new department head for the past month or so. Although he looks like a coffee shop uncle in my drawing, he is really quite nice. And we really call him Uncle. Among all the department heads I've had in this company, he is probably the mildest and most easy-going one. He even gave each of us a red packet ($10, you know?) and 2 mandarin oranges just before the Chinese New Year holidays.

Going back to work after a week's break is worse than waking up with a hangover. My engine still feels cold, choking in fact.

Counting down: 2 hours and 10 minutes to knock off time.

Oh, Happy Valentine's Day to all lovey dovey couples. Enjoy spending double on your flowers, cards and dinners.

Today, my colleage, Zaki, and I went to Delifrance for lunch, only because the company gave each of us a $5 Delifrance voucher for our birthdays. Yup, our company very nice one, got voucher and birthday card signed personally by our HR VP for our birthdays. We used to get a 3-in-a-pack Rocher and a 1 scoop Häagen-Dazs ice-cream voucher. I can't decide which one is better.

Delifrance is having a promotion of a set lunch which includes a chicken-mayo-with-some-mango-thingy bread, a choice of drink (raspberry or lime) and a mango tart for $6.50. It looked good on their poster, so we ordered a set each. When Zaki finally came back with the order, he had a disappointed look on his face.

"I wanted to ask that guy, your bread on the poster got a lot more stuffing. Why mine so little??" he lamented. "The picture is damn deceiving. Can we complain to CASE?"

Zaki likes his money worth, especially when it comes to food (albeit we only had to fork out $1.50 each for this meal). He was not satisfied with the meal. It wasn't filling and the drink tasted weird. If it's not filling for me, it's definitely not filling for him. It probably filled 1/8 of his stomach.

Oh well. I have never fancied having lunch at Delifrance because I don't like to have bread for lunch when I already had bread for breakfast. Give me a plate of chicken rice or wanton mee anytime for lunch.

It's 5pm now and I'm feeling hungry. I can't find any snack and I'm too lazy to go down and across the street to get something from Old Chang Kee. Thinking of the food displayed at the Old Chang Kee booth is making it worse. Argh!

My good friend and co-worker, Zaki, and I were discussing about work and at about 6:30pm last evening, we felt our brains were kinda drained after 2 hours. For 10 full minutes, at the end, we just stared at the pieces of paper infront of us in silence, except for the sound of cracking and munching melon seeds. Yes, we were cracking and munching melon seeds while discussing test plans at an open-table where our co-workers and managers walked pass every 5 minutes. But we donch care.

Let's rewind a bit. At the beginning of the discussion, Zaki started his first sentence with, "Basically, we have to blah blah blah..."

Before he could finish his sentence, I blurted out, "Do you know there are many people who like to start every of their sentences with 'Basically'? Do you really mean it or you just want to fill the void or something?"

There was once, I was listening to the radio where the DJ asked the caller who called in during a dating programme, "So what do you look for in a girl?"

Almost immediately, the caller replied, "Basically, she must be...." And he went on and on about what he looked for in a girl. It wasn't just the basic or fundamental traits he was looking for, which one would thought he would mean by saying "basically". It was everything he wanted. So he didn't use the word because he meant it. It was just to start a sentence or a conversation. Just to fill a void. Just to prolong a bit of his thinking process, perhaps.

That was what I meant when I asked Zaki about his usage of that word. I didn't think he meant it. He agreed. So we went on other words that most people like to start their conversation with:

• Basically
• Actually
• Usually
• Normally
• Essentially
• Correct me if I'm wrong

So at the end of our brain-draining discussion, he looked at me and said, "Basically, actually, usually, normally, correct me if I'm wrong, we should do..."

I couldn't take it. I almost choked on the melon seeds and died.

Work has consumed me. I've been so busy writing Functional Specifications that I don't feel like writing anything else. Do you know how ridiculous it is to write a FS for something that has already been developed and have no knowledge whatsoever on how the logic was done? And this something is constantly being enhanced and changed.

Sometimes, I really feel like giving up.