update
I have the rest of the month to take a good picture of the dog! >.<
:D
I got my visa. =)
:D
The Golden Retriever at the house near my church. I was half-afraid it would start barking, so I quickly snapped a picture and left. Might have been a little too paranoid though, haha. The other brown shape behind it is another dog, a Labrador? I’m not familiar with dog breeds.
Shall try to get a better picture of it another time. Or better still, find a way to get into that house, which isn’t impossible because the world is so small and Chris’ friend is the owner of the dog!!! =D
So Week 1 of Unemployment has passed and contrary to belief, I haven’t been idling. I’m now in HIS and so far it’s been good. :) I’ve resumed running too, and hope to do so on a regular basis this month before I leave, and for this purpose I’m keeping bathing essentials in church. :D Of course, getting to peek at the dog while I do my rounds is a big motivation too heh.
Nothing much to talk about; my life’s pretty mundane (in a very good way) and uneventful. No crazy bosses or irritating colleagues. Only gorgeous dogs and nonsense filming and Parkway lunches and having all the time in the world to READ. AH. Is this a glimpse of heaven?
<3
From Wikipedia:
The temperament of the Golden Retriever is a hallmark of the breed and is described in the standard as “kindly, friendly and confident”. They are not “one man dogs” and are generally equally amiable with both strangers and those familiar to them. Their trusting, gentle disposition therefore makes them a poor guard dog. Any form of unprovoked aggression or hostility towards either people, dogs or other animals, whether in the show ring or community, is completely unacceptable in a Golden Retriever and is not in keeping with the character of the breed and as such is considered a serious fault. Nor should a Golden Retriever be unduly timid or nervous. The typical Golden Retriever is calm, naturally intelligent and biddable, with an exceptional eagerness to please.
-heart melts-
sunday secrets
I’ll be in Burma for 3 months and Postsecret is blocked too. =(
Sad.
2 nights ago, I dreamt that my dad passed away. Woke up feeling extremely upset - the last time I’d dreamt something similar (about my grandfather) was years ago, and I’d woken up sobbing.
forgive us our trespasses
I still feel disturbed over today’s meeting, which I find a colossal waste of my precious time. Sigh.
I thought it started off well enough. The usual pleas, which were beginning to sound repetitive, fell on deaf and stubborn ears. And that was when it all began - the nitpicking, the tussle over words (SIGH), the insistence carrying out certain (unnecessary) actions. In my head I was thinking, “Give us a break already, people!” but no, they didn’t let up. The usual group of people. It’s disturbing how people can really go all out to make life difficult for others just by harping on the same old thing again, and again, and again.
And again.
And again.
AND YET AGAIN.
Think it’s finally over? THINK AGAIN.
Chubbs and I decided to do something about it. But the nonsense did. not. stop!
The rest of the meeting just spiraled out of control. Instead of focusing on the right and important things, they chose to pick on, of all things, TYPOS. *smacks forehead* Like what D told me, they just want to pick on mistakes. Elevate themselves and make others feel those in charge are incompetent? Oh dear. That’s so wrong. Whatever happened to the biblical exhortation to consider others better than ourselves? Obviously those who proudly squawk seemingly righteous speeches haven’t really read the book of Philippians, eh?
And the hypocrisy. Oh my, where do I even begin?
It got so bad, I decided I had enough and needed a breather. Stepped out of the compound and went for a long walk under the sun to clear my head. Stood outside a Soho building for a long time, just staring into space, until I remembered I’d better go back and fulfill my duty as a member.
It ended shortly after I got back. Thankfully. I’d so wanted to stand up and give a piece of my mind to that smug little posse of self-righteous people.
…
In typing all of the above, haven’t I also adopted this holier-than-thou attitude? Sigh. I’m as terrible as they are. It all just really reminds me again that yes, a church is nothing more than a gathering of sinners. We’ve been redeemed for His own, but we certainly don’t behave that way most of the time. And we are all so wont to believe ourselves as correct all the time. Woe is us, indeed. Sigh.
When I consider the harsh words exchanged, the accusations callously hurled around, the lack of kindness and graciousness, I can’t help but feel that we really need a revival. We need God’s intervention and mercy because we have all sinned so much against Him in a single afternoon. Our thoughts, our emotions, our actions - all these fall so short of His glory. :( And for him too, he who has caused so much turmoil here. As much as I am angry, I also see that he is spiritually in a very precarious position. I can only pray that he will truly repent one day.
Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight - Psalm 51:4a
Day 0
I had lunch with HH yesterday. At first she suggested TBM, but a couple of hours just before we were due to meet for lunch, she SMSed me and suggested Great World City. I thought that would be great coz I wanted to buy glue too, so ok. And off to Great World City we went.
Had our lunch at Kenny Rogers. Sigh. I used to love it very much, but the standard seems to have dropped rather drastically. The marcoroni and cheese was quite bad =( The food was just okay, nothing to shout about. Sigh. I think I still prefer my peasant food, like my mum’s cooking. Should eat more of it before I go off. I hope I’ll never find McDonald’s boring. =/ And talking about that, I actually have eaten it only once this month … so far! =D So it’s possible lor.
Anyway, back to the topic. Food wasn’t great but the company was. HH is such a cute person! And coz she’s a social worker, I find talking to her very very therapeutic. Hahaha. So I ranted about my work and my boss and why I am leaving - btw, she’s leaving too but for career advancement lah. So, good for her! =D
***
This morning I took the usual way to work. And I felt like I’d really miss it here.
I’ll miss the routine of getting up and ready for work. I’ll miss even the pre-workweek of preparing my stuff for work. I’ll miss having the mental security of guaranteed income. I’ll miss my boring, uninspiring, mundane life. I’ll miss having my comfort zone to retreat into when the world around me becomes too much to handle.
Oh well. Say hello to the new me.
26 Feb 2010
If you can have one superpower ability, what would you want it to be?
Forget flying or superhuman strength; the one ability I’ve always wanted to have is to be able to read people’s minds. But for now, I’d really want to be able to tell the future.
***
Otaku shoutout to my Zen Garden: YOU ARE AWESOME! =D Mummy loves you!
Ok I’m so getting the corn cob upgrade after seeing how it works on Youtube. It’s like a rechargeable atomic bomb!
And it’s impossible to complete the bobsled level without the Imitator plant. Gah. I need money money money.
***
I know I’ve told myself I’d die trying. But deep inside me there’s still this fear of regret. Not the decision itself - it’s one of the BEST I’ve ever made in my life - but the consequences. Think I’ve written a little about it before. Sigh. I’m so weak.
But there’s no fear of failing - I’m glad I know how that feels. Hahaha. And I know even if I were to fall, I have many comrades who’d catch me and help me get up again. And of course, if everything is in His hands … wait a minute, there’s no ‘if’ here - then I really have nothing much to fret over. It’s my OCD nature at work, my desire to always be in control and of course, a lack of faith.
Ok typing all that out is therapeutic. Like my lunch with HH this afternoon - I’ll write about this tomorrow.
hantu
In my soon-to-be-a-thing-of-the-past line of work, I often meet senior personnel in the medical and law industries. I think it’s normal and natural to be intimidated by them at first, but 2 years on I’m okay with them - they are humans like you and I, after all. Even if their ego is larger than the ordinary person on the street.
So anyway, yesterday I was at a meeting with a law professor and 2 doctors, one of whom is a senior plastic surgeon. The topic was on NUS law school at Bukit Timah, and the law prof was all like, “There are ghosts there!” Hahahaha! She’s a very cute lady. Then she told us she’d experienced spooky stuff before: on one particular night at about 10pm, while she was about to leave her office for home (crazy working hours!), she looked down from her room and saw someone watering the plants downstairs. Who could it be, she thought, and bizarrely enough she actually went down to investigate, only to find no one there. When she asked the security guard if he also saw someone watering the plants, all the guard said was, “Oh, that one is a ghost lah, always watering the plants one.”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA OK SORRY BUT I FIND THIS REALLY HILARIOUS!
Ok it’s funny to me coz I’m not the one experiencing it, but I have my own stories to tell ok? This is funny coz it reminds me of Plants verses Zombies! :D
Later, same prof passed us her namecard, with a really pretty picture of her on it. All of us complimented her and she went, “Aiya, this one is taken 10 years ago mah. That time no need plastic surgery, now I think I need …” and she turned to the plastic surgeon. HAHA!
The other doctor, a GP, was more reserved and soft-spoken. No less authoritative (she holds a high post), but she spoke to me as an equal. I appreciate that. =)
I spent the rest of the day rushing through ALOT of work. =/
***
Let’s talk about PVZ ok?
My Zen Garden is awesome - it’s raking in alot of money for me. And the Tree of Wisdom? At first I’d thought it’s a waste of money, but now I see it’s actually very good coz it gives tips on how to win games. Just that it’s too expensive to keep feeding it for the tips. =( I obtained alot of chocolate for Stinky too, so I think he’s happy now.
Bought 3 new marigolds and they are blooming fast! Tonight I think they’ll grow to full height. :D I want more new plants, especially mushrooms. And if I can earn another 10K I can buy the aquarium (not that I have any aquatic plants … YET)!
And now about the game itself. It’s becoming REALLY difficult, and I’m only at the pool level? =( There’s the fog and roof levels to contend with. =( But I finally conquered the midget zombies level after like 4 tries last night? Bah. Now I’m fighting bobsled zombies, which are really irritating. Should I spend 20K to buy a 9th slot for my plants? =( Or get upgrades instead? =(
/end otaku monologue
really.
Does it hurt to be kind to people?
1. Yesterday, I send an email to a girl working in the F department enquiring about some payment stuff, which a third party has not received yet. 5 min later, said girl rang me up and spoke to me in a very agitated tone. I have no idea why she was so pissed off, since I’d done all the paperwork correctly and there really isn’t anything to fault me about. Anyway, she said she would check (in a very exasperated tone) and we hung up.
Another 5 min later, I got an email from her. Turns out she had missed out certain details, which resulted in the delay in payment. She apologised in the email, but I couldn’t make sense of one statement she made, so I rang her up again. This time, her tone had none of the spite experienced earlier: she kept saying sorry while I was like, “Erh, it’s ok actually.” What’s the big deal? Why did she have to apologise like she’d killed my entire family?
It’s the culture here, especially in F department. I’ve kena so many times from various people there over the most trivial stuff. Really trivial. I don’t get why people make such a big fuss over others’ mistakes. Paper is dead. Policy has no feelings. But humans are alive.
(I’m saying this to myself too =X)
2. I was talking to her just now at the lift lobby when her body language started to show that she was walking away. The security guard sitting nearby gestured for her to go through the correct entrance, and she went, “Look, I’m talking!” in a very irritating tone. I was flabbergasted. The guard did nothing to piss her off and she went all nasty on him.
Really, is it so hard to show just a little bit of kindness?