天下无不散之宴席

Even though I subconsciously kept my distance after the unhappy incident, the news that one of my colleague would probably not be around in a few months time did make me feel a bit blue, even if I didn't want to show it. Then again, it's probably for the better, so there's no need to voice the 不舍. It was probably the same when I chose to leave Income, right?

朋友往好的方向前进是件好事, 与其有点儿失落, 不妨衷心地祝福.

The ONLY thing I want

"As per your request, this is a birthday card enclosed with the warmest greetings from the nice guy sent all the way across the vast pacific ocean to the tiny dot on the map"

1 sentence from my mum "I think your present from Gek Koon is here" drove away a otherwise sulky and weary face, and brought on a huge cheshire cat grin. 1 look at that first sentence, and you have one crazy girl half laughing to herself.

Yup, that me. Those who know me well enough would know that I'm indecisive, to the point that I'll usually have no preference whatsoever. This year, however, I insisted on a particular present from one of my most important friends. Much as this sounds super spoilt brat-ish, it's very much linked to the very reason why I love buying presents for those who mean a lot to me whenever I go overseas (No, colleagues don't count, cause that's a must buy). It's just my way of letting these friends know that, no matter which part of the world I am at, they are still thought of, and much cherished. In the same way, a birthday card from half a globe away is more than sufficient to induce a wider than wide grin on my face, simply because it signifies that I've been remembered by one of my most important friends, no matter where the friend is.

Whatever it is, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR MY PRESENT, MR TAY! Even though you said in your card that you've no idea what to get me, you've actually already gotten me the present that I want most this year, ie. remembering me across half a globe, and being safe and sound! Like what I told a colleague last week, buying presents for me is both easy and difficult. So long as you're amongst my precious and highly treasured friends, I'll just love anything you get, even if it's the simplest sms or card.

On a side note, I've just received an overseas call that thrilled me no end too. Looks like I'll get to see Mr Chai this week too! But then, looks like this phone call indirectly made it clear who my subconcious mind values more too.. Can only say, time does change a lot of things..

Grrr...

For a moment, I was so tempted to scream "I hate my job". But then again, work is not meant to be loved anyway.

So yah, it's back to work. Actually, rather than "celebrating" my birthday by pooling money, I would have thought an alternative present would be way better (and cheaper). That is, LEAVE ME ALONE haha..

Don't worry, I'm really fine. Maybe with the exception of more fine lines after a while from all the frownings.. =) But I'm really fine

甜甜的

Either I'm easily pleased, or just plain attention seeking, but it sure feels super nice to see words somewhat amounting to care and concern coming your way, especially from people you least expect. Whether they really do mean it or not. Or maybe it was just from a friend whom I didn't want to be bothered with but couldn't not be bothered with. For eg. "i'm going for lunch now... you go too k! dun skip ah"

Of course, there are other conversations, where the things said may not amount to anything, but they're still sweet to the listener/reader, maybe cause the listener/reader is just plain easy to please. Whatever it is, the rain and all those unhappy matters have not seem to dampen this festive season. To the contrary, it's beginning to feel really Christmas-y, just because of the warmth exuded from the various MSN conversations from my beloved friends.

I feel so loved. Haha.. And easy pleased =)

Back

A simple sms, a simple gesture.

2003, after a horrendous holiday abroad, that birthday greeting sms from Guoxing whilst I was away reduced me to tears. Simple, yet sweet.

Along the way, there were many other smses too. Each of them brought warmth to the reader, and brought her the comforting sense of "I'm back".

This time round, I thought the "glad to have you back. that's sufficient" was especially sweet.

Whatever it is, thank you, Weiguang and Jeremy.

A lot of the recent events have emphasised the fragility of life, and the importance of treasuring. So I'm really really thankful to have you guys around. Not forgetting Gary and Weiling too, for just listening to me, and being there for me when I smsed those stuff whilst overseas. And Peiqi, for just replying to my questions too.

Thank you and.... I really love you! :)

Congrats, Grace!

There are things that you prefer to blog about, and others that you prefer to put down on pen and paper..

******

Just got back from Grace's wedding. A pretty sweet and quiet (I think this is the most quiet wedding dinner I've attended), though the service of that particular hotel left much to be desired. Still, seeing the look of blissful-ness on Grace's face was, erm... heartwarming. I'm sure Ivan will make a really strong pillar of strength for the one with the really lady like charm Grace.

On another note though, some people can take note not to invite too many law people, and particularly not whiny brats. Imagine how fun it'll be when you've a guest who whines and whines, including not getting her drink fast enough, not having the table gift at her seat (and insisting that the waiter gets one for her). You get my point.

But that said, it was still a really sweet affair. (Even though I doubt you read my blog) Congrats again, Grace!! =)

简单的快乐

简单的快乐是：

（1）一位你在乎的朋友的“甜言蜜语”，即使你不清楚到底他说的是真是假

（2）一位休假半天的好友老远跑下来配你吃饭，吵吵闹闹、嘻嘻哈哈地过了短暂的一小时

（3）一位在一起工作不久的同事愿把你当朋友，或至少还会不太希望你走，虽然也不知是真是假

其实，快乐能是很简单，也可以是复杂的。有些人可以用金钱买快乐、有的却把快乐当无价。 就如蔡深江（还是黄明德？）所说的， 能埋怨也是一种幸福， 因为你还有闲情逸致去埋怨，总好比那些须为了三餐而苦恼而没时间的人来的好吧。

所以即使今日的天空有那么一点儿蓝，却因为有你们的点缀， 天色也变的灿烂起来了。

私心狂想曲

真正的关心，是让他人在辽阔的天空中自由自在的翱翔。

******

有一鼓冲动，想说自己有那么一点 blue, 但想想，珍惜的朋友追随着自己的梦想／快乐其实是件超棒的事啊！问题只出在多愁善感的自己在不知不觉中太过依赖这些朋友了吧。

但这是好事啊，所以还 blue 什么 blue?

星期天的随想

美思的那么一通电话竟平辅了我错乱的世界..

或许在“争权夺利”，封闭自己的当儿，我也逐渐失去了自己。不知从何起，耀芳已不再是朋友诉说心事的对象。　反倒是变成那个整天埋怨的那个..

但隐藏在深处的我，依然愿意也希望能守护着她深深在乎的朋友，即使她不愿明显的表现出来..

只要那些她在乎的，不要过于明显的伤害她吧..

Horribly Nostalgic..

Just watched some of the real Channel U's snippets on Youtube. 2 years do make such lot of difference to a person. Whilst doing some 'time travelling', I realised the changes have been so drastic..

Wonder what Honghui is doing for his hols now. Haven't seen him online in a real long while. Feels just like yesterday when I was on the verge of breakdown before my Public Law paper. Hmm..

I don't need new friends. Just give me back my old friends, under all the old circumstances. Maybe throw in everything old too. Moving too quickly just means losing grasp.

Oh.. and the rain reminds me of the December holidays in primary school.

Dinner with Gary!

Finally! Seems like it's quite hard to meet up, even if it's just to pass Gary my present from Malacca! In exchange, I received a really really cute bear which I played with the entire night (much to Gary's dismay.. haha) and a really nice dinner! Thank you, Gary!

Anyway, how can it be possible not to have a running commentary and photos here? Here it is..

First of all, dinner at the Kopitiam opposite Cineleisure! My mum actually commented "How come you ate sting ray?" cause I had commented earlier this year about how I wouldn't want to eat murderers (for those who have not been following the news, a naughty sting ray in Australia did become a murderer! hmpf!) Anyway, since Gary would it eat anyway, why should I not touch something that I like, right? Haha.. And whilst waiting for our dinner to be cooked, I started bullying Gary into taking photos with my bear! =)

I've deliberately chosen the blurred one, since the main character (err.. aside from my bear!) prefers the blurred one. =)

And then, we went off to Taka, initially thinking of our dessert..

That was a difficult tree to take a photo of. Next time, they shouldn't make it so tall!!! =(

Since wherever we wanted to go to was crowded, we decided to run off to another branch. But not before checking out the Heeren for something resembling that of Gary's bag badge:

(picture missing because blogger refuses to upload this for now)

And just to compare my bear's size with a set of CDs' keyboard-like covering:

Finally, it's dessert and snacks time!!! Gary is always ordering the same drink!! But I had a new dessert!! =)

I loved my dinner yesterday, Mr Chan! Thank you!! And thanks so much for the bear!! Just imagine, I took more photos with my bear when I got home..

Yoooohoooo!!!

Who cares if I have to face bitches and assholes? And really dumb ones too..

My pupil master replied my email!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seow Hwei called me this afternoon after she heard from MY pupil master that the company I am in does not take a certain stand, something that I did not realise at that point too. The gist is, I emailed him to thank him and I assumed that he wouldn't reply.

But he did!!!!! And I actually exclaimed from my seat!!!

I am not so sure about the legal basis, but I recall at least a couple of your chaps saying this to me over the past few years.

Anyway, hope things are going well for you.

I'm sooooo happy now! =) All the squeals and barks of those bitches can be ignored for today! =)

You know how clean your office is...

When two rats are caught in a single mousetrap in the office.

Of course, it's also telling when two mouse traps are set up, one on each end of the office and then the two rats were caught in the same trap, not on my side of the office *phew*

Although it means noise pollution will whine and whine the entire day.

On another note, I received another email that thrilled me immensely..

Yao Fang

same as the time when you were here, you can call me by my first name. no need for "Mr". I am not that venerable.

thanks.

Best Regards

SP

He left out his surname in the sign off too. Although, I think I used to either call him 'Sir' or 'Mr L' too.. Thank you, Mr L! =)

认识你, 真好!

好久好久没有华语写什么了. Just had that urge to type in Chinese, until I realise it's not very practical to do so, given the lack of a Chinese program. I'll probably take years to finish this entry whilst creatively using Babelfish to translate single words.

Before I start on another paragraph, I'm suddenly reminded of Ms Dorothy Chua's numerous "no link!" comments in my GP essays. Yes, at the risk of having no links between the paragraphs, I shall continue typing just whatever that pops up in my mind.

Seriously, one never realises how fast time flies until one stops and thinks. Just imagine, as we were talking about Mr Frankie Tan, Mr Timothy Chee and even Mr Swaran Singh today, 6 years or so had just zoomed by us! Yet, at the same time, time seemed to shrink so significantly as the group of us laughed at the reminder of Mr Singh's erm... aesthetic sense? =)

There are many kinds of happiness. There's the super heady kind where one gets a sudden huge dose of cheer. Then, there is also the really mild kind that lingers on and on, somewhat like the feeling after bitting on a piece of 甘草 (licorice, according to Babelfish).

Frankly, I didn't expect this evening to give me that latter feeling. Thanks to the newest tuition kid that I don't exactly like, I almost didn't turn up for the mini class dinner today. Not sure whether I should be thankful to the Metro-Parking thing or not, but it made me just decide that I couldn't be bothered about what the kid or his mum would react.

Which is a good thing actually.

All of us have grown and moved on in our lives. And when you get together again, you realise that you don't exactly know everyone already. Yet, the 2 years when we studied together provided just that fine line to join all of us together, and as certain memories pop up, the ice thaws and you still get to laugh together. After a day at work dealing with the dumb-est people in the world, it's always very nice to moth back to a person you used to be.. Instead of being the irritable, ready-to-bite-off-stupid-colleagues'-head person, it's really warm to be smiling and just simply relaxing with people who matter.

Yes... 99S29.. I love you!

A pleasant surprise

Just when the weekend threatened to become a really boring work-like one, I received a surprise MSN message from a big brother of mine. And that was how I spent the late part of the day immersed in crafts (ok, we were only browsing). I never knew such 'fair' existed until today, nor did I realise the number of people who make their own crafts to sell.

Thanks for the handphone cover, and more importantly, the big brotherly concern!! =) Although... who says I keep dropping my phone huh? I've more or less kicked that habit, k? Still, I love the handphone cover!! Yes, and thanks for contact lens solution reminder! =)

Mental note to myself though, I need to kick my habit of being late! I think I caused Itak da ge to wait for almost an hour (although I didn't realise what time he would get there.. Hmm) Still, sorry!! If only da ge would scold me.. Then again, da ge being da ge, I doubt he would...

Actually, I thought I would be tempted to sneak a peak at a person's blog for photos of another person's brother's wedding (I'm more or less sure that this person would put it up anyway). In the end, I'm not, and I don't ever think I actually feel like seeing the photos anyway. Good! Just shows that spring cleaning has not really gone to waste. Besides, I've more than sufficient friends whom I hold dear!! =)

On a side note though.. Good luck for your final paper, grandfather! And good luck for your series of PLC papers, SY! =)

Too much of something may not be a good thing

Was pretty much excited on Thursday, all the way till Friday, even though certain people irritated a whole lot out of me those 2 days. But it didn't matter, because I was supposed to get a quotation from R----, and my manager had told me to email my pupil master. MY PUPIL MASTER! I haven't heard from him since I've finished pupillage, and in a way, I guess he's glad to have finally gotten rid of his pupil, but still, the thought of being able to send an email to my pupil master and getting a response simply thrilled me no end. The feeling of wanting to skip all around just at the thought of being able to email my pupil master. Besides, if matters progressed to a trial, I might finally get a chance to watch my pupil master do a trial! It's something that I've always wanted, but never had a chance to. Even though in the end, my manager still made me email Mr Lek. It doesn't really matter. I'm still excited at the thought of the reply email from Mr Lek, and wondering who would be assigned to the case.

It's been a really long while since I've been so thrilled about a piece of work, although I do agree that if I were to be able to do this very often, I may not be as excited as I am now. Too much of something that exciting may just simply turn that thing into something bland.

Just like the chocolate buffet I had with LiJia.

We survived the first round relatively ok. Then we went for our second round.

Delicious looking isn't it? Disappointingly though, we had a REALLY hard time finishing this. Which meant we didn't had a go at the chocolate drink or the chocolate fountain!

Still, I do hope the birthday girl enjoyed the chocolate torture! =)

On a side note though, I realise we've not taken a photo together! Let's take one next time we meet, k?

Mum's birthday

Happy Birthday, Li Jia!

Dearest Lijia,

After knowing me for so many years, I'm sure you should have figured that I always tend to procrastinate. So, instead of mailing you a snail mail birthday card, which would have been much sweeter, I ended up typing this open letter to you.

Can you still remember the first time we met? All of us were sitted at the sports gallery. I think you said 'hi' to both Clara and me. We ended up talking a lot as we had our lunch at Ghim Moh void deck that day. Orientation... Pufferilla... Amongoeth... ZQ... and then 1S03J.. Chinese lessons (or rather the lack of).. Council elections.. Somehow or rather, you were there in almost all the memories of 1st 3 months JC life.

Perhaps that was one reason why I really didn't mind having to go through the heartache of changing schools. Even if I had another choice again, I don't think I'll want to enter NJC during my first 3 months. No. That would mean one less friend whom I didn't really know how to treasure in the past, but who'll always play a really important role in my life. A treasure whom I might be able to do without, but I don't really want to miss.

Jia, thank you for all the laughter, tears and perhaps even the irritation shared. Thank you for tolerating my less-than-nice behaviour when I had a short fuse. Actually, more importantly, thank you for being my friend all these years, and giving me the honour of being one of the rare few who are permitted to call you by your Chinese name.

Happy birthday, dear!

May all your birthday wishes come true and may you always be surrounded by people who love you dearly!

Of course, no matter what the future holds, or whatever decisions you make, you'll always have a friend here who will stand by you!

luv

Fang

Catching Up

In order to be in tandem, 2 persons have to move at the same pace. If one dashes forward whilst the other inches on, the gap in between will inevitably widen.

Not that I am saying that the faster one should be moving at the latter's pace. Rather, a good leader is not one who is always ahead of the pack, but one who is able to look back and motivate those behind to move forward. Instead of moving forward alone, isn't it more important for a group to be all moving forward at a reasonable pace?

There is nothing wrong in increasing prices, yes, nothing wrong, if the entire society is indeed progressing well as a whole. Like the countless analogies of stabbing someone and then giving out plasters, I really do not see how increasing GST would benefit the less well off. What does it mean when you say that the economy has improved, that the unemployment rate has gone down? Would you consider an ex-manager currently working as a cleaner as a sign of improvement? I doubt so.

The point is, if the lead is going to continue running at his own pace without looking back, all the while expecting those behind to keep up, someday, he's going to lose sight of them. Then what happens? He would have to stop in order to continue to be a leader of a group instead of the sole member of solitude. In a world that is constantly moving forward, can he afford that?

Perhaps getting a balance in life is always much easier said than done.

The same goes for friendship, doesn't it? Or any human relationship for that matter. If you want things to remain the same, the only way to do so is not to remain unchange, but rather, change at the same rate. Perhaps even at the end of the day when two paths diverge, one can always be glad that you've once been at the same pace.

Food again..

Potato once commented how dressing in a more presentable manner was necessary when meeting up with friends because it was a show of respect. I guess that's true in a way, since I always tend to be awfully late for work on days when I am meeting up with sufficiently important friends, or how I'll put on contact lenses despite a severe lack of sleep (not a result of work, of course).

In any case, the only things pulling me to work today was the thought of lunch with Stephen and Tony as well as dinner with Weiguang. As pathetic as it sounds, yes, this is really what drags me to work and keeps me going nowadays. No wonder I'm turning from fat to fatter! Hah!

If only the AMC were this week, then I could have had a longer lunch with Stephen and Tony, and sneak off with them to get bubble tea (It's supposed to be somewhere nearer Rochor branch, where they are at now although Stephen is coming back to HQ when he's back from Korea!) Sometimes, it's really not the food that matters. Just like, I don't necessary think I do love bubble tea that much. The point is running off to have bubble tea with friends. It's just like how I don't mind having to wait for the 2 guys whilst they (or rather Tony only) get done with servicing. So what if I risk getting breathed down my neck? It's not like my manager, or the other colleagues go for strictly one hour lunch only anyway. (Oh dear, I do hope the matters typed here are not being audited..)

Back to dinner. This time, it's back to Purvis Street although we had some Hainanese food today. Interestingly, even though we had chicken rice balls, I don't remember us ordering any chicken!

Somehow I think the lady serving us must be amused/amazed at how the 2 of us can actually finish 4 dishes within a short span of time. Especially when even I am amused by our eating capability! Then again, it's soo normal when having meals with dinner with either Weiguang or Gary, I think.. Haha..

Talking about my dinner companion. Unfortunately for you, I did manage to get a photo of you!

A smiling Randall looks so different from the expressionless one. Even if you think I'm exaggerating, you really look much better with that smile on your face. That's why my obsession with talking smiling photos of you. So smile more often, k? (And no, that's NOT mothering.. haha)

And finally, the snacks that Mr Tan bought for me!!!

I love them!!! Thank You!!

Even though I love Hei Bai Pei, it really doesn't mean you have to buy that for me all the time! Still... I really really love it!!! Thank you so much!!! =)