Returning a Favor

This is the mysterious blog of my Mysterious Senior. Haha. Too bad I can't return the favor in the 'kua zhang' way you did to promo my blog, but this is the best I can do! I don't know how to get the picture thingy done. =p

By the way, the prospects of getting a hand-written thank-you note is exciting. Hmms :)

More work updates: I've finally gotten briefed about my project! :) Still carrying on with the admin work as usual along with that. Wai Pheng's people and paperwork skills that I picked up from the Staff Club days as well as during OMC worked well. Thank God for her good example.

And I had a CME practice two days back! True it wasn't like the good old days when we were a crowd, but just Andrew (conductor), Jinq Horng (violinist), and Shawn (cellist), with me was fun enough. Jon might be joining with the bass too. I miss Farid especially during this time. Andrew reminded me of Farid's spark of passion for CME when he was here (and how he egged me to be the next Chairperson after him). I'm so glad Andrew is taking over CME. And I'm happy to be playing again!

Somehow I never get myself out of CME although I always intended to. In Year 1, I wanted to overload Unplugged, but got into CME. In Year 2, I wanted to quit CME and try something new, but got psycho-ed by Farid plus other seniors to Chair it instead! In Year 3, the members of CME was pitifully few, and as ex-chairperson, what else could I do but help out right?! And even in my final year, I'm performing for orientation! But I do enjoy it, our songs and practices are smashing! LOL. I sound so enthu.

I still haven't gotten used to the 6 am plus wake hours, so I need to sleep soon. Ta :)

Weekend Post

Working make weekends more special than ever. And unlike schooling, where I have to mug 7 days a week, now I only have weekends for leisure purposes!

These two days were fun. Yesterday I went shopping (didn't buy anything) with Wing Mei and Tirza in Paya Lebar. Then we had ice-cream dessert in Bugis, and a walk in Marina Bay. Dinner with Tirza in City Hall. We were practically walking for 8 hours straight or more, and standing in the MRT. I was so glad I had my sports shoes on. Unlike Tirza, my leg muscles were sore at night, partially due to the fact that I've been running for bus 183 which involves rushing through slopes and stairs throughout the week. But today my legs felt really fine. Ready for another week of running again.

Today Boss and Wing Mei surprised us by turning up in GLCC. We went to De-coders (with Jon and Joanne also), a board games center; and if you didn't catch me mentioning this before, I LOVE boardgames. We wasted a lot of time starting-off and playing Settlers of Cartan, but it was quite worth it. Wish I had known how to strategize earlier though. Then we played No Mercy and Saboteur.

That was the fun part of the week. Not-so-happy things happened also, things that I'll rather not mention in a public blog. Things that I feel that I have a part to do with, and should I have been braver and truer to my heart for the past few years, I could possibly have done a part to prevent. Anyway two lessons learnt:

1. Friendship is a wonderful thing, but one needs to ever be discerning, even if surrounded by the sincerest, most well-intentioned friends.

2. One should never hesitate to point out the flaws of others in love; even if one knows that he/she is not perfect himself/herself. This was the mistake I made, and sadly, I'm not the only one paying the price.

It is always not easy to do the right thing. And it is not always rewarding either. But some things that must be done, should be done.

Work updates: My workload comes in short bursts, and I need to find a way of staying alert from 8-10 am. Usually I avoid reading and try to walk around during that time, but sometimes there isn't really much walking around to do. I'm thankful for my supervisor being nice and kind, but I do wish I am able to have more common conversational topics with my other colleagues. They are kind and open to communication, but somehow we don't have much in common due to a light generation gap, and I'm still rather shy of them.

I did think a lot about the 'asking for things to do' part, but then again, I didn't want to hamper other people's progress by doing too many follow-up phone calls (e.g. interrupting meetings), or asking questions at the wrong time. Somehow people seem to be constantly on the phone or in a conversation.

That's all for this weekend's updates. By the way I'm really enjoying Agatha Christie's writings. Every story draws a new breath. She really is a creative writer.

Artic in Sahara

This is the condition of my workplace.

Singapore is like Sahara now. Except Sahara is probably not humid. It is so hot even at 6 am in the morning! Unbearable.

Fortunately, or unfortunately (I don't know which is more apt), my office freezes like Artic. Thankfully I do not sit right under the air con. And thankfully it's just my office so I could always go to other parts of the building to warm up a bit, if I'm desperate.

Air-con seriously reduces my productivity. For someone who rarely goes toilet, I take an hourly break a day (I sit right at the door and the toilet is nice and clean a few steps away). The air-con is so cold that I keep on having to drink hot water to warm myself up (and wrap my bare hands around the hot cup). Today I was rather engrossed in typing and didn't do that, so in the end my fingers ended up really numb. I couldn't type, and I couldn't write until lunch hour came, and I went down to the canteen to de-frost my fingers. Almost couldn't hold my utensils properly too. However after lunch it was not so bad. I guess the calories matter. Literally burning them up haha.

Anyway with the exception of the over-cold temperature, I like my office seat. It is right at the door, means easy access to the water dispenser and cooler. And it's easy for my friends to say hi when they walk past the door, and for people going out to say hi to me too (met many people through that way). Otherwise, interns are rather isolated.

And yay, handed in FYP report yesterday. I regret to say I didn't have much time to check though. And I addressed my professor as 'Associate' instead of 'Assistant' (after asking Yew Hong to check his own)! He sent me an email to clarify. So paiseh. I did that twice, once on the cover page, another in the acknowledgements.

Oh well, at least I saw his first email smiley through this, and he said 'associate sounds better!'. Thankfully I didn't under-address him. That would be really bad. =p

I visited Jurong Library today after work too. Must make use of my $10 investment to borrow books! Ended up with Agatha Christie, after running away from the Chem Eng section. =p The library is a nice place to escape from the sweltering heat too :)

So that's all, I'm going to read the book I borrowed now.

靠著耶穌得勝

Hue Wen shared this song on Facebook today and tagged me.

I remember my first encounter with this song. It was from the album produced by 小羊诗歌, in which has many nice songs that I really liked. A fresh change from Stream of Praise at that time. And I like this song because it brims with hopefulness. Also, it reminds me of Charissa because she introduced this song to the church when she led worship.

I guess I was more or less influenced by this song when I composed 凡事都能做. It was my one and only composed worship song which has been brought out in public, although only for a while. I still remember that day when the church choir sang it. I was in Singapore, but they were singing it in Tampin. Because of this event, the song also reminded me of Mummy and Charissa. Mummy video-recorded the choir singing it and posted it on her Multiply album. Charissa msn-d me about it, and even sent me voice clips singing the chorus of the song. I saved those voice-clips and they are still with me in this laptop. I am very thankful I did, and am thankful that even if my song has not been used for too many things, God was graceful enough to let it contain memories of love for Mummy and Charissa.

Back in those days Philippians 4:13 was my favorite verse. I haven't been claiming it a lot now though. Been tired, and in turmoil, struggling over certain things. Complacency has taken over me. Today pastor preached that there is not much time left. Every second has to be converted to eternity. I pray that I should do that conversion wisely, starting even now. I pray that I will be able to do this, for Philippians 4:13 says 'I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength'.

I still believe in Philippians 4:13. I pray that it will be seen through my life.