Welcome 2010

Hi All!

Happy new year to one and all!

It's 2010! Time really flies~! People are starting to come back from overseas student exchanges, and some others are going away. I'm not allowed to complain because I have enjoyed myself overseas for 3-4 whole years. Haha! :) Look forward to meeting up with everyone and to 'see' the world through others' point of view

In every new year, People make new year resolutions and try to reflect upon the previous year. This time, I feel more realistic and more with a sense of purpose as I do this. Prior to this, it seemed more of a ritual :p

2009
A rollarcoastal ride of emotions and a stablisation into a comfort zone. Few things to recall:

21st birthday party - I guess it reflected that I wasn't all that ready to be a grown up as I tried to organise but failed to successfully make it a full enjoyment for all. Mixing relatives with friends is never a good idea. I thought of it more of a chance for others to meet up and catch up rather than the sole purpose of 'celebrating' my birthday. Next time I will harder to let others enjoy themselves more ;)

Job searching - This promptly only began after most melbourne students went back and i began to feel the dread of waking up to not doing much. :p The interview that fell on my actual birthday was what secured this :) It was tough at first, given that this industry seemed so small. Tried a couple of insurance companies but eventually I flocked back to my comfort zone, where I had interned before. I don't quite regret it but sometimes I do wonder what it would have been like if I had been more daring to take on sometime else.

my grandma! :D

Grandma - tried to make more effort in 2009 to speak to my grandma though i seriously can't understand her =x she speaks canto and uses more chim (complicated) words than my hk colleague does. Still relying on ppl nearby to help translate =x feels a bit bad because a few of my younger cousins actually can communicate with her! There were a few times that I couldn't bear to reject when she gave me food though I was super full!
1/ yam and green tea - these 2 are things that I would never eat .. but because my grandma peeled them for me and insisted.. I had to try it! They were alright.. but I think next time i see either items, I would just think about her
2/ cake at her birthday celebration! I guess a small token that i gave her (an ang pao) made her very happy as I was the first grandchild to give her that?

2010:
1/ to get a work life balance i.e. exercise more, swim more, gym more. :)
2/ Get my driving licence by this year!
3/ pass all my SOA papers! (ok, not all, but I'm thinking at least 3 this HALF year) - hope i'm not too overly ambitious..

:) sounds good. hopefully can save enough to go on trips here and there and to have ppl to go with too. anybody up for it? ;)

Melbourne trip =)

The trip back was lazy and slacky as a result of the bad weather towards the end of the week. But it was good to just chill and catch up/ be in each other's company.

Still can't believe how blur I was when booking the flights though. Since the beginning, I had booked saturday, but did not notice until i was refused entry on the flight back! (i.e. Sunday)

There went my plans to buy midori/krispy kremes for my colleagues.. Almost had no $ to get the seats .. Must listen to dad next time, bring a credit card! =x

Attached some pictures.


This guy (SL) was from the first church I've been to in Melbourne. Unfortunately, the church had closed down during my 2nd year there. Since then, hardly contacted the other members (i.e. 6 other ppl =x) During the week in melbourne, had emailed the missionary who set up the church. Was super surprised to see her reply and even more shocking to see SL attend my (current) church on the day I was meant to fly off! What a pleasant surprise!


Does this look good?! Haha.. The brekky I whipped up on my last day to thank my hosts for housing me even though I was treating it mostly like a hotel. =p The 'perfect' meal you see before you consists of stir fried small spinach leaves, peppered and salted (meant to be eaten raw but I didn't like the 'grassy' taste), mushrooms (yummy!), scrambled eggs (shall do poached one day when I get loads of eggs to spare), sausages, bacon (can't really be seen here) and potato salad (to replace carbo bread)..




One of the best shots I got! Pelican! Ok. Sounds so jakun. Haha, but this poor fellow was actually asleep before I woke it up! Wanted to take a video but it fell asleep again! Decided not to be too mean and left it alone.


This is the conservatory at Fitzroy Garden. Unbelievable to some, it was my first time visiting it during this trip! Haha, I've been to Fitzroy Garden once that I remember, but only for a BBQ after an 'amazing race'. Didn't explore much, had to go for cell after that. Haha.

Just wanted to 'show off' abit of what's new in the University of Melbourne since I left. Welcome to the 'spot'! Personally, they reminded me of cow spots as they built it up as I was leaving..


This is the long awaited pasta that SG doesn't seem to have! So far the few pasta places I tried had very disappointing pasta.. =) craving was so filled as the 3 plates of pasta (one was actually crepe) was happily and painfully consumed by JW and me =p

small little world greetings..

Hi All!

Been ages since I've blogged! Time flies and i've clearly grown fatter [as seen in the pix..] LOL

Anyway, these are my colleagues and a few interns who have their last week with us this week!

Work life has been hectic on and off so far. Today was a huge HECTIC TIME. Super stressed. How would you feel if you don't know how to do a portion of the work and you ask a senior.. and she answers you with "so.. do you want me to do everything for you?" =x PRESSURE i tell you!

But hey, managed to finish off the work due today.. so I'm fairly satisfied. Had skipped lunch and everything for the sake of it.. whew.

Hope everyone's doing better than me! hee =)

The Duck and the Devil

There once was a little boy who was visiting his grandparents on their farm.

Given a slingshot, he went into the woods to play. He practised hard, but could never hit the targets.

Discouraged, he made his way back for dinner.

On the way, he saw his Grandma's pet duck.

"Why not?", he thought to himself. So on impulse, he pulled back the slingshot, let a rock swing into the air which hit the duck squarely in the head and killed it!

How grieved and shocked was he as he realised his mistake!

Panic took over him as he proceeded to bury the dead duck in a nearby wood pile. Just as he thought that was the end, to his dismay, he noticed his sister staring at him! Though she saw it all, she said nothing.

On the next day after lunch, Grandma asked for the sister's help in the kitchen.

Looking at the little boy, the sister smiled sinisterly, "I think he would like to help with the dishes instead."

While making sure that Grandma didn't see, she mouthed the word "duck".

Reluctantly, the little boy grudgingly mumbled, "Sure, I'll LOVE to do the dishes"

Later that day, Grandpa wanted to bring the kids fishing, but Grandma had other plans for the sister. "I'll need her help to prepare dinner."

The sister just smiled and once again looked at the little boy, saying, "Well, that's alright. Because he had told me earlier that he wanted to help with dinner."

Whispering into his ears, "Don't forget the duck incident.."

So in the end, the sister got to fish while the poor little boy had to stay behind.

Day after day, the blackmail kept going on. Tired of doing both his and his sister's chores, he finally confessed to his Grandma that he had killed her precious pet duck!

Upon hearing this, Grandma knelt down and gave him a hug.

"Sweetheart, I know. I was actually standing at the window when it happened and I saw the entire thing! However, because I love you, I forgave you. I was just wondering how long you would let your sister make a slave out of you"



Makes you think doesn't it?

Whatever is in your past, whatever you have done.. The devil keeps throwing it up in your face [lying, cheating, debt, fear, bad habits, hatred, anger, bitterness, jealousy, etc] whatever it is.. You need to know that God was standing at the window and He SAW THE WHOLE THING.

He has seen your whole life. He wants you to know that he loves you and that you are forgiven. He's just wondering how long you will let the devil make a slave out of you.

The Great thing about God is that when you ask for forgiveness;
He not only forgives, he forgets.

It is only by God's grace and mercy that we are saved.

When Jesus died on the cross, he was thinking of you!



Indeed, God forgives, despite me always falling back into Satan's same trap each time. I pray for strength each day as I struggle to bear a good testimony to those around me for I am weak and He is strong. The journey is long but do not give up because what matters is that we have tried our best to aim for what God wants with his strength. Dear God, please hear my cry, for at this time, I pray that you may begin the process of purification and sanctification in me. Thank you Lord. Amen.

Daily routine

To phrase it simply.. This is how my week has been for the past week..

Wake at 7 +am

Reach work by 845am

Take a cab home at 9+pm

Reach home half hour later and have my usual dinner as seen below [fish + soup] and some veges



[apologies for the half eaten fish pix. Wanted to take a pix before eating but it slipped my mind!]

*I miss melb. Wonder what the work culture would be like..

Singlish impacts our lives..

Just a brief background on singlish. It's a language that you pick up when staying in Singapore for long usually. It comprises of English, Mandarin, Malay and other dialects like Hokkien. To me, sometimes it's just abbreviating certain parts of a sentence. i.e. "did anyone [switch] off the fan?!"

In the context of playing guitar hero [on wii], these were some statements picked up.

guy: "what [mode] are you?"

girl: "I'm [on] easy [mode]. How about you?"

guy: "I'm [on] hard [mode]"

*pauses*




















guy: "erm, never mind."

First day at work!

My time orientation is getting worse in SG somehow!

Official Work time is 845am to 530pm.

Reached HR office at 820am, waited with 2 other people for their first day @ work too =) One was from Finance, the other from Customer Service.

By the time people started strolling in, it was like 915am =)

One good thing about working at the company I interned before at, is that people are roughly the same and the environment is the same =D

Due to the space constraints in the department, I actually got the chance to sit at the big boss' table (who moved into the room)! It was like a super large desk! However, the computer seemed quite slow =x microsoft 2000 .. lots of shortcuts that I used in Excel 2003 not available! =(

One silly thing I did today! I can't believe I FORGOT that my knock off time was 530!!! I thought 545.. PLUS.. no one else left at that time! But everyone urged me to go back early when I have the opportunity. haha.

Lesson learnt: do NOT take the bus home =x took like 1.5 hours to reach home!