an entry, and a story.

Is it just me or is it harder to find time to blog when you’re working?

Work’s been good..I’m kept busy everyday, which I maintain is much better than having nothing to do. It’s been almost a month already. Which means I’m a third into my internship, and that I should probably go talk to my boss and ask him what I’ve been doing. According to this book I’ve been reading, you should always continually ask for feedback, and treat all feedback as a mechanism to let you know how far off your target you are, adjust your behaviour accordingly, and hopefully it brings you to your intended objectives at the end of it all.

And just for kicks, here are the things I’d like to get out of this internship by August 29 2008:

1) To know whether I like doing PR

2) To seek out opportunities to be more creative in my responsibilities

3) For my work to be respected by my superiors and peers

4) To improve on my work ethic and be more accountable for my work

5) To build lasting relationships with the people around me

6) To be unforgettable.

She took two steps forward, not without fear. It was the loneliest time of the day, that period between hustle and before bustle, when the air was thick and people with their glazed eyes looked without really seeing. She held a balloon in her palm. It was red like the gelatin candies of her youth, a red that was one shade brighter than blood. It gave her a tiny bit of happiness to hold this happy, bouncing thing in her hand. She let the happy, bouncing thing go and watched as it danced further away, and went to partake in a secret happiness she could only guess at. She watched till it disappeared, and then she did too.

crazy little thing called…

Pardon me, I’m in the mood for Queen today.

haiku: being lost

marching to drumbeats

that follow no stoccato –

she feels nothing

Confessions of a frujchaholic

I’ve been a really bad blogger these couple of weeks.I haven’t been updating as much as I’d like, I’m behind on my blog readings (and my RSS feeds look a right mess) and I’ve even been missing in action in the twittersphere too.

Yes, I feel very guilty indeed.

I could offer some excuses as to why I’ve been a neglectful blogger - school work, deadlines etc. But excuses rarely help remove the trangression, so I shan’t.

Another thing I realised is that I’ve seemed to have lost my voice in this blog. Because I keep on focusing on my content and for some reason what usually starts off as a short post usually evolves into a General Paper essay, my personality (or whatever personality that I could claim to possess) has been drowned out.

So today I shall write about something that’s close to my heart.

This is the story of frujch.

It started off in February 2006 as the dream of 4 girls: to open a fruit juice stall near the school gym. In the beginning, it was just an idea in our heads. I mean, what did we know about running a business?

But we won the tender, and suddenly we had a company to call our own. We called it Frujch (an homage to our original intention to set up a fruit juice stall) and decided to include alcohol in the menu. As a result, Frujch became known as the first bar on a university campus. After 4 months of operations, one of our partners left and it became a 3 woman operation (L-R: Sherms, Nab, Shal)

We started introducing some light food like bagels, waffles and salads, hired employees to help us run the bar (we call them frujchaholics) and organised events like acoustic performances and even a beer pong championships. But we weren’t entirely satisfied with what Frujch was, and wanted to expand it even further. This is what we did:

1) Revamp the place

This:

Became this:

2) Expand our menu

So the 3 of us are the worst ever specimens of girls-who-can-cook, so we did the next best thing! (no, not order take-out and pass it off as our own): we asked for expert help.

This is Malcolm (our fourth partner, source of sanity and part-time Voice of Reason):

For anyone who has been to Frujch, this is THE guy to thank for all the yummy sandwiches and salads. (Below: Port O’Bello Melt) And don’t be fooled by his gentle demeanor, this guy runs a very tight ship and wants to be the next Gordon Ramsey.

3) Held signature events

One of which is Beer Pong Championships which we hold every school term. For those who aren’t familiar with it, here’s a video we made. We just had one last week which we called the Last Beer Pong Championships since the 4 of us are graduating real soon. It was also real nice because most of the people that came were regulars (although perhaps they were lured by the prospect of the free beer we promised), and as the pictures below show, they are as crazy as the people that run the place:

I guess I wrote this post to try and figure out how I’m feeling as the end draws closer. In 3 weeks’ time, Frujch will be closed and not long after that we’ll be handing it over to a new management team, who may or may not carry on the Frujch name and business. Not a day goes by that I don’t think about letting Frujch go, and yes, it makes me sad. We’ve really put everything we had into this and along the way forsaken school and social life and family for it. Customers have become fans (”I can’t live without my Chocomint Milkshake every day) and friends.We’ve had good times, bad times and stressful-Oh-my-God-I-dropped-the-sandwich-and-the-customer-looks-really-angry times.
It’ll definitely be hard to let go.

shmalentine’s day

And so tomorrow’s it. Some couples really look forward to a day of showing their love by exchanging gifts or going for a nice dinner (speaking of which, check out Amelia’s take on the top 3 restaurants to go with your loved one on THE day). Others don’t celebrate it at all, dismissing it either as:

a) A big conspiracy by companies (think of the money florists, candy stores and jewellers stand to make!)

b) A game of one-upsmanship by boyfriends (”OMG look at the bouquet he just gave her” etc etc)

c) An insincere show of love, since it is only expected on one day of the entire year

d) All of the above

We’ve all heard about the negative aspects of Valentine’s Day. However, I was pleasantly surprised the other day by what my friend Jonny said to me:

” Valentine’s Day is also Friendship Day. So this year, me and Shermeen have decided to spend time with our friends instead.”

I really liked what he said. Somehow, I feel that we take our friends for granted more so than our significant other.

So here’s my proposal: This Valentine’s Day, instead of splurging on chocolates, or an expensive dinner, or a freaking $100 giant teddy bear (!), why not spend quality time with your close friends instead?

As for me, I’ll be working tomorrow.

[aside: check out Frujch's Brown Bag Promotion]