The Heat! The Hats!

The past few weeks have been unbearably hot! To girls like me who don't like to carry around umbrellas, the next alternative is a good ol' hat! Yep, it's the 'In Thing' in summer, especially this year. We need to protect our skin from the scorching sun and 50++ SPF is not enough to do the job. Stay away from extreme heat to lessen the risk of heat stroke and skin cancer!

Guess what I've been listening to lately??? Take A Bow by Rihanna! Although feeling sentimental lately I refuse to take a bow?! I refuse to close the curtains and I refuse to say it's over now - how can it be over when I'm just starting to finally live the life-long dream?

Change Is Good

A couple of weeks back I was feeling down about the many changes happening in the organization I work for, in fact it is still happening. Yesterday I had the chance to know for the first time my new boss via video con. My first impression is that she's a very capable person. What I liked about her is she's honest that she doesn't have an IT background but she's very experienced. She also seem to be very people-person, which is very important to me. I see she's exerting effort to reach out to the local markets in a more effective way, something I didn't feel before. I have a feeling that I can learn a thing or two from her.
Speaking of change - I did a minor one, literally speaking. Got a new color for my hair and my hairdresser's assistant blow dried it straight. He is a big man! I mean really huge, about 6ft tall, bulky, tanned, with big hands - he's nowhere near gay :) He scolded me for not styling my hair, and really got upset when he found out that I don't blow dry it in the summer. He said that it's a waste because my hair is ideal for styling. He said that if I find it difficult, start with the bangs! It makes a big difference! And he further stressed that he's not saying this as my hairdresser but as someone who really thinks that I'm wasting something I've got..Whew---! So..feeling partly ashamed and happy being complimented, I decided to change my morning habit and start blow drying and as he suggested with the bangs!

We're all scared to take the first step after a big change happens in our lives. Yet,we have a great teacher: LIFE, who pushes us to take that baby step and peek at something unfamiliar and as we are pushed to take those baby steps, we wake up one day realizing that the thing foreign to us is no longer. Isn't that amazing?

Back To The Social World

My first social outing in 2 weeks! Yep I got out of hibernation to meet up with a new contact introduced by a common friend. I was added to another group consisting of a mix of foreign and Japanese members. They were nice and I like them.

I talked to one of them and heard about his experience volunteering in the north. He talked about unimaginable sorrow, the unbelievable destruction and the very sad plight of those in the north. He also said that because there is so much to do (and that includes retrieving dead bodies suddenly discovered while digging ditches) , one doesn't have the time to feel anything. It is just a matter of go and dig, and then move on to the next.

Down here in Tokyo, we're almost settled and we panicked at every slight shaking, but up there in the north, people are still trying to keep their lives together, what ever is left that is. 5 months have gone by after the quake and the reactor meltdown, but I hope we remember that there are still those in very much need of our support and prayers.

Dress For Success

Most of us learned through training or from reading self-help books that we need to dress smart to dress for success especially when the time calls for it - such as business meetings, encounters with high soaring executives.

I took the meaning quite literally - how to dress smart means to be in suit, to look serious and mature and that includes toning down the fabric shades. For a long time, it was mostly black and white in suits and smart casuals. Oh, and dressing smart is an overall package, meaning, that includes the hair and make-up. Busy IT professionals like us would rather spend as much time as we can in bed than face the mirror painting our faces and blowing out the hair to perfection.

But moving on from the IT world to the retail fashion world, I have learned a few new things. That dressing smart doesn't necessarily mean suits and bland shades. It means that you also have to put it in context - that's what smart is all about. I work for a casual brand and it would be OFF to wear something formal I have to wear the brand's passion. Today I have to make a presentation to the country's new managing director. It's about my updated 3-year strategy. I'm wearing a rugged jeans and a very simple limited edition fit tops from our brand. It's comfy and in ways I'm telling everybody that I intimately know the brand.

Makeup was a challenge but I took classes last year - first out of complex because my ex- would always complain that I'm never a girlie and that I don't wear make up. So I did learn a few tricks, and I can do it in 5!

The hair --ahh the hair. I'm trying to grow it long and because it's summer I found a practical solution. Got myself several fashionable clips so I can just gather it in one bundle (without even combing it) and then I'm good to go! And I stand by myself - to blow dry only in the colder season lol!

I didn't wake up realizing all these flexibilities. These are wisdom gained from previous experiences - failures, successes and those that will be in my WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN list.

As for my presentation later today, I know what I'm going to say. I believe in my strategy and I'll have fun as I learn new ways and means to talk the language of those high ranking execs.

Core Foundation

I believe that core foundations start with someone teaching you about how to do things the right way (well, at least from that person's perspective). Whether it is at business or in our private lives, we have routines, we have habits and ways of doing things that come out naturally, without us even needing to pay attention.

One of those I have is the use of 'Dear OOO' and 'Best Regards' in a business email. It was something that got in me when I first start to work and my IBM 先輩 (senior, errr trainner??) told me that was the standard way of writing. Fresh out of school I easily absorbed it and even now, most of my colleagues don't even bother to say the name in the greeting section, I still respond with the Dear and the Best Regards. I don't know, I just think that it's polite to do it that way. Besides it also helps me remember who I am writing to which is really a good mental preparation for how I should be writing.

I don't intend to change the way I write business emails because it works for me, I feel good that I'm being polite, and it also helps me put my thoughts together, acting as a reminder of who I'm talking to. To others it may not mean anything, but then again, if you think about it, don't you feel happier when you receive something that has your name specifically written on it? It means that the person recognizes you as a person.