Christmas/End of 2011 !!

Past;

26-10-2011: Public Holiday, Deepavali

08-11-2011: Public Holiday, Hari Raya

26-12-2011: Public Holiday, Christmas

Upcoming;

02-01-2012: Public Holiday, New Year

23-01-2012: Public Holiday, Chinese New Year

24-01-2012: Public Holiday, Chinese New Year

I was thinking of the number of holidays that i had been celebrating. The above dates are not a reflection of Singapore's Racial Harmonious but also the total number of days that i will be on public holiday :D 16 weeks of Internship is actually 15 :P

Last 6th week

Due to the recent heavy rain. The water table had risen and low land area is starting to flood. Our resident that resides in the central district is experiencing leaks from the vent pipe, broken air con ledge, etc.

I had to arrange for our waterproofing specialist to investigate and solve the leaks asap as the raining season is expected to worsen according to NEA. Together with the specialist, we had went down to the resident unit to take photo and arrange for rectification work to begin. As such, coordination of timing is critical and hard to achieve as owners of the units are usually busy with their work and do not allow us to rectify without their supervision. These are some common request which makes life difficult for the coordinator;

1) Work can commence only in the afternoon

2) Work must stop at 12 as no one will be at home after that

3) We are only free on Sunday afternoon

4) Equipment and material had to be outside the unit

I had yet to find a good way to counter every one of the requests, especially (1) & (2). I keep telling myself, "it is not my unit hence don't be too involve". With this mindset i learnt to rephrase my sentence when i wanted to arrange a time for the rectification. I would tell them the scope of work and that it must be a full day work, after that i would ask them to provide me with dates instead of i giving them the dates.

From these experiences it further proves that there are all sorts of personality and with each personality we had to deal with it differently. Sometimes "Happy Go Lucky" attitude is useful but in order to give people a good perception of myself i would be serious most of the time. :P

First Medical Leave

Monday i was down with diarrhoea and was unable to go to work. I had not been sick for almost a year and now it is coming to find me... This incident also shows how Mr Chan care for his employee.

I reported to him through short-message-system (sms) in the morning. Knowing that i am at the polyclinic, he did not ask any questions but instead he asked me to see a family doctor as polyclinic had a long waiting time. I really appreciate this as i am feeling worse when i was waiting for my turn. For the jobs that i had work for previously, companies usually asked their employee to see their company doctor or polyclinic, and only approved the medical leave if the medical certificate is issued by the approved clinic.

I returned to work on Tuesday. I was tasked to do light duties to purchase a new CPU (Central Processing Unit) for Ms Lily's terminal. The current CPU is 3 years old and it is starting to slow down and the memory left is limited. I started going to hardware zone to get the latest price list from shops in Sim Lim and Funan mall. I had also visited Best Denki/Courts/Challenger to get the brochures for different brands. Using the knowledge i had learnt in FCIS (Fundamental of Computer & Information System) i was able to assemble a CPU using the parts from SimLim Square. Though the price is almost the same for custom or ready-made CPU, i still chose to customize as i wanted to test out my skills again. The CPU is put together this morning and it is running smoothly :D

Stay tuned for my next entry :P

Mechanical Parking System

This week i had finally finished the powerpoint that will be presented to Mr Chan and Ms Lily next week. I going to give you guys the privilege of seeing what i am going to present next week :P

There are 5 types of parking systems available in the market; Elevator, multi-floor, multi-circulation, rotary, and puzzle type.

I am going to talk about Elevator type parking system. Basically it is the most common and easiest type to implement. These are the reasons why elevator type parking system is better than the rest;

1) No underground evacuation is needed; since it is a non-gfa item having it above ground will not restrict the gfa that can be used

2) Can fit to any design of building; tower-like hence fit well with any buildings and external of the tower can be design to fit the building as well

3) Fast in retrieving cars; elevator is moving up/down motion only

4) Ease of maintenance; ease of access will decrease the maintenance cost incur on per lot basis

Hope that Mr Chan and Ms Lily will be pleased with my presentation :D

Microsoft Project

This week had yet to end with one more day remaining. Yesterday was payday and today is just another working day.

I had started to revise my year two module, project management, as i am tasked to do a gantt chart for Le Marican project.

This is the gantt chart we had in school.

This is the gantt chart i had done at work.

See the difference? The one required of me at work is much more complex than the one taught in school but the concept is the same. The challenging part to this construction breakdown is that it has 52 tasks and quite a number of them are overlapping each other.

The purpose to doing this is for Miss Lily to pick out the relevant tasks which the contractor wanted to claim more days for the "extra" work that they had done. "Extra" is because some of it is true and some are not. Hence we as the developer must double check the claims handed to us. Although the architect supposed to do this, we are still doing it to make sure there is no errors.

I will try to bring this breakdown to the presentation after this 16 weeks internship for my presentation. I bet everyone will be amazed and shock :D That is all for tonight. Cheers :S

$$ Invoices - Cheques $$

The entire week seems to had passed within hours. Site visit/ coordination of work/ call facilitator seems to not stop this week. Tasks are linked and happens one after another. The only day i appreciate is TODAY!!! I also learnt how to issue cheques today.

As contractors finished their job at the site, we (the paymaster) will have to pay for their work done. (Of course....)

I would like to thank Ms Lily for supervising me when i am writing cheques today. I may had made a few mistake if she is not there. (Thanks Ms Lily!!!!!)

In the past, when i see someone issue cheques it always seem so effortless and simple. On the other hand for first timer like me, we had to make sure we issue the cheque to the correct payee. The following are some pointers that i feel is quite important when issuing cheques;

*Sample cheque

1) Look for a statement on invoices (most of the time is at the bottom of the invoice), e.g. Crossed cheque is to be made payable to 'ABC Pte Ltd'. This will be the name that you will have to fill into the "Pay" column on the cheque.

2) Crossed the bank icon and bearer (Alternatively a chop "A/C Payee Only" will do too). This is to ensure only the account payee can receive this payment and prevent transaction errors.

3) XX or /- after the amount. E.g. $8,630.19 XX or $8,630.19 /-. This is to prevent any alteration to the figure by anyone that is handling the cheque. (This is also applicable for the alphabetical for the amount)

4) After the cheque is signed, any alteration to the cheque will require a counter-sign to verify the change by the owner.

Hope this will serve as a useful tips for you and serve as a reminder for myself. :D

Weeeeeek 5

One sentence to describe this week. "Fun, engaging, tired, enriching, and exciting week with myself and contractors"

Fun;

Got to try out the equipment for grouting. Although it is just switching on the equipment, the vibration and seeing the grout pumping into the cracks just amazed me. The most amazing part is when the PU grout dries. It became very hardy and when looking from the inside it seems just like ordinary sponge.

Engaging;

Got to research on mechanical parking system. Watching videos of how it works and the mechanism involved. The only missing part is to visit a parking system that had been implemented.

Tired;

Four out of five days need to go to estate. Transportation wasted lots of time and hence tired and worn off.

Enriching;

Knowledge taught by contractors on how things work and why theory is different from practical.

Exciting;

Trying things out and arranging for work to be done without any past experience. (Taking risks) Knowing brief detail of how things work but not in detail. Rely on trust that the contractor knows how to rectify the problems.

Overall, i do not mind having this adrenaline every week and the ability to learn more things. This is the job that i am looking at, more evaluation is needed so that i can really decide on what to pursuit after diploma. :P

Week 4 - Hari Raya

This week has only four days as Monday is a holiday and hence NO WORK!!! This week is more of the out-of-office activities as Mr Chan introduce me to more sites and brought me to a piece of land that may have the potential to buy and develop. We also went to look at commercial building at Shenton Way.

I'm starting to like out-of-office as Mr Chan would treat us to lunch and this is a great way to move away from the canteen we had at our building :D We always had good food at either famous hawker or restaurant.

This is the GB building that we had went to view at Shenton Way. It is a 26-storey commercial building with 3 level of basement carpark. Although the carpark is run-down, the office itself is fantastic on every floor with different design and giving a totally different feeling when you are there.

This is the photo i had taken on the 20th storey. The view is marvelous and i really hope i can have one of this i the future.

After getting back at the office, i was instructed to do a feasibility study on this office building and was then analyze by Mr Chan. Mr Chan corrected some of the calculation errors and also added some other factors which makes the study more accurate. I had realized that what we learnt in school is sufficient but it may differ as you work in different field of work. And for every field there is terms that is commonly used and you need to know them so that you can converse well and effectively. For example, when talking to agents we need to know terms like psf (Per Square Foot) / gfa (Gross Floor Area) and to contractor PU (Polyurethane)/ pw (Pipe Work).

*I'm starting to like development and is looking towards next Monday :D

Payday :D

Just gotten my pro-rated pay for this month. Nothing to describe how good it is to get half a month pay that is equivalent to a month pay when working part-time during school terms.

This week is research week, the topic is grouting. For people who do not know what is grouting, it is basically a construction material to embed in wall and fill the cracks. It may sound simple but it is not. The PDF file that I had referred to is ninety-one pages long article. The following is the cover page of this article and its origin;

The origin of this article is just amazing, USA (Department of Defence).

The main content of this article highlights three areas; which is the types of grout, grouting method, and grouting equipment. I had briefly read through the types of grout and grouting method as it is required for me to have some background knowledge before i head down to meet the contractors.

At site, the waterproofing specialist took some photos of the affected areas and briefly informed me of the method of solving this issue. Since i had some knowledge beforehand, i am able to ask why they are using certain grout (e.g. Polyurenthane) instead of another (e.g. Epoxy). From their explanation i am able to understand better and also aware of the nature of different grout to be used in different situation.

Overall, i am satisfy with my performance for this week and hopefully Mr Chan is glad with my performance too :D Hope to do better than the "B" i had gotten last week...

2nd Week of Internship

Generally I will rate this week's productivity as satisfactory. I had met new people and learnt new things. Mr Chan also brought us to lunch on Wednesday.

The lunch makes me so bloated that I don't have to had my dinner. We went to Ang Mo Kio Ave 5 to eat western food. "Aston" had an outlet in the coffeeshop and I ordered double chicken for my lunch. The bloated part came in when Ms Lily split half of her plate's chicken to me and the baked potatoe.

The real reason why we came to the coffeeshop is because an agent introduce and wanted us to buy over this coffeeshop. Mr Chan told me that the company can never prosper if we just stick to buying land to develop and sell. Rental from commercial building or coffeeshop can sometime be an alternative when the residential market is quiet.

Knowing the plan to explore into coffeeshop, I started studying the operation of coffeeshop and get some information from my relatives and friends that knows this market. I also drafted a feasibility study report on this particular coffeeshop with its proposed price. The only factor now is the lease period of this coffeeshop. Normally the coffeeshop lease period is the same as the HDB building it is under. Hence knowing that the building left 60 years, the profit margin greatly reduced as compared to 99 years lease for new buildings. Ultimately Mr Chan still put this into consideration as it is feasible with a lower return of investment.

I had decided to write an entry every week instead of the usual day by day. This is because is it too tiring to blog after work and it will affect the next day work attention. I hope the school will understand and pardon me on this change. For every week's entry I will highlight one task that is most engaging or interesting. I will also blog my unpleasant encounter if I ever encounter one.

Stay tuned and look forward to my next entry :D

Accounts - Le Marican

Today I have been appointed to update/tally the accounts for Le Marican. At first I thought I would have to apply balance sheet/ Profit&Loss/ etc that was learnt in EFM (Essential of Financial Management). In the end it is just the update of accounts using a Excel Worksheet, the worksheet have two major tabs.

Accounts Tab, it shows the items that will incur cost and maintenance fee that is collected from the resident. Basically under the cost would be SP services/ cleaning/ pest control/ insurance/ etc, once the bills comes in I will typed it into the worksheet. I will also write cheques and make payable to the respective companies and record the cheque number on the bills. The bills is then filed into our accountant's folder so that she can keep track on her side.

Inflow/Outflow Tab, it shows the cheque number in respect to the purpose of payment. It also shows the summary of the balance left in the maintenance account. The account must always be positive and I had to make sure the outstanding balance can last for as long as possible. In order to do so, I had to factor out which is fixed costs and which are variable cost. Fixed cost cannot be avoided hence to cut cost I had to reduce the variable cost. For example, SP services. We can put a timer on the light system so that it will not be on the whole day or put water-saving device on taps. Until CSC (Certificate of Statutory Completion), we as the developer will have to be responsible for the estate's accounts.

I had learn new terms and how accounts can be kept in worksheet instead of balance sheet. I look forward to next week's work and hope to acquire more and more knowledge from Mr Chan and Ms Lily :D

Stress!!

Today's experience is not a good one. I had almost reached my optimum absorption rate and stress level is high today. Luckily the day end well with me surviving the whole day in the cold and quiet office.

I reached office at 8:56 AM, the morning feels bad as I had insufficient sleep last night. I was feeding the prawns when Mr Chan arrive at the office follow by Ms Lily. The day seems alright until a card access manual comes into sight. I was informed that this system will be installed tomorrow and therefore I had to read and understand this system's features/programming and supervise the contractors work tomorrow. I started reading at 9:30AM and when I had read finish the manual it is already 11:30AM. Two hours of information chewing is like studying marketing the day before examination.

After lunch, approximately 2PM I was informed that I am suppose to coordinate the timing for tomorrow's installation with the contractor. After taking the number, I dial and speaks to the contractor. I was challenged when I am suppose to talk to him in Chinese (ever since the beginning of Polytechnic no one had spoken or converse in Chinese anymore). The whole conversation lasted for three to four minutes before he and I finally understand each other and the timing is fixed.

The last task for the day is the document transmittal form that I must typed and print out and bring to site tomorrow. This form is to ensure that the resident had been notified and also received the cards. There are three types of housing in the estate, Type A/ Type B/ Type C. The difference in each type is the size of the unit hence for smaller unit only gets two cards and three cards for the bigger units. I searched my laptop templates but it doesn't seem to have any. Hence I typed the form using my format and was vet by Ms Lily several times before it is approved for it to be printed.

It is already 6PM when all things ends and to my surprise Mr Chan sent me to Ang Mo Kio MRT station which saved my 15minutes bus trip and fare. Hope that tomorrow will be a good day.

Site Visit - Le Marican

Today I went to one of our development which is located near Kembangan. It is a freehold five-storey estate comprising of 12 units. The estate name is "Le Marican", this name sounds Spanish but you will feel it is lack of creativity once you know it is located at Lorong Marican. This estate just gotten its TOP, Temporary Occupancy Permit, in April this year. (Sounds professional :D Thanks to Ms Lily)

The reason why we went down today is to meet our new cleaner (Sam) for the estate. The previous cleaner did not do a good job in maintaining the estate. Hence we had gotten Sam to replace the previous cleaner from Agrigga. Jason highlighted some areas that had not been well-maintain by the previous contractor and Sam also assure that these conditions will improve in the weeks to come. He further prompted Sam on how is he going to assure that the conditions will improve. Sam did not hesitate and answered the question. To me, Jason's question is trying to gauge if Sam had the experience and thus he will do a better job as compared to the previous contractor. It is also a good way to learn from the contractor.

Today's trip is fruitful and I feel I had learnt and gain experience that will be useful in the future. May my coming days be as good as today, Cheers.

Colleagues

Today I am going to introduce my office colleague to everyone. Basically there is only 4 person in the office.

First would be BOSS, Mr Chan. He owns a personal office that is open all the time. This concept is rather useful as it is convenient to "summon" an employee into his office. It prevents employee from doing personal things/activities, e.g. Facebook and Blogging. It also help to give substantial stress to employee so that they will not slack or sleeps. (Personal point of view :D) Everyday he will be reading newspaper and answering calls all the time. Unlike other bosses that I had work with previously, Mr Chan had to do less talking and paperwork. May be it is just the nature of this field.

Second would be Ms Lily, she is the superwomen in the office. With her experience, she is like a encyclopedia. If you asked her "Why the building so small as compared to the land we own?" or " What is GFA/Psf/plot ratio?" she can always answer you immediately. Another factor why is she the superwomen of the office is that she has lots of job titles. The following are some titles that she carries;
Office Environment - Cleanliness Supervisor

Ongoing Project - Project Manager/ Project Co-ordinator/ Project Planner

Past Project - Historian

Office Calls - Calls Facilitator

There may be more, will be updating this when I find out more.

Jason is the third person in this office, he is from the other stage of DEB and I had never notice this person until I joined TGL. He seems knowledgeable in this field. I hope I can be like him when my 16 weeks ends. Jason is able to communicate well with contractors and resident. He warned me of resident that I should be wary of so that I will not face any trouble in the future. He also showed me the floorplans for the current projects and inform me of rectification work that is done/ ongoing/ to be done.

These are the first impression and comments after working in this office for one month. Hope that these positive encounters will continue and i can learn more and more every passing day.

Allowance

Today is my first working day (Officially). I had started work a month earlier due to a special request from Mr Chan. Mr Chan is very friendly and also serious at the same time.

His consideration for me is greatly appreciated. Since I'm in DEB (Diploma in Engineering w/ Business) and TanGuanLee Co. Ltd is considered to be a development company, my knowledge that is applicable is very limited.

During my interview, Mr Chan asked for my background and questions regarding what I do after school hours. I feel that I had done well because the whole interview lasted for 45 minutes and the conversation had been going smoothly without pauses.

Lastly would be my allowance/pay, this issue kicks in only at the end of the interview. It was so engaging that I clearly forgotten about it until Mr Chan reminded me. He is willing to give me $700 instead of the $450 as promised by Mr Chee. I felt relieved as $450 is really too demanding. Unless I'm going home after work and do not go out on weekends, I will definitely exceed the budget. This is my normal breakdown for my daily expenses;

Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner - $15-$20 (Depending on whether I'm ordering drinks)

Transport (Bus/Train) - $4

Taking $19/day and 30days a month, minimum expenses per month will be $520. Hence $450 is not enough and $700 will be adequate if we consider miscellaneous cost for recreation activity.

Internship Briefing (1st Entry)

Today's briefing had given me tasks which I felt is a little too demanding. The following is what is required from all interns:

1: 90% attendance

2: 15 pages report (Applied Research)

3: Poster & Presentation (Link w/ past modules)

4: Log Book (Weekly Log Sheet/ Attendance Sheet/ Supervisor & LO 's evaluation)

5: E-Blog

The most demanding point I find is Pt 2, I just hope i can finish this report on time.

*A more detailed evaluation will be done after my first week of work, May My Luck Be With ME !! :D