Practical steps to Working?!

The Start of the Day

You'll never know what you're going to get when you wake up in the morning. Just like any other day, I did what I usually do. Only thing was that, I was really sleepy this morning. The only thing that probably was calling out to me was the aroma of coffee...okay, that was in my imaginary land whilst I was still queueing at the bus interchange. I hopped on the bus, only to have some even sleepier person behind me, I guess, either that or too anxious to get on the bus, to step on my heels, causing my right sandal to drop off onto the steps. In the end, I had to save my heel, hobble up the bus, and try to pretend that nothing happened, while of course half the people on the bus saw this sleepy girl unglamourously trying to put her slip ons back on. Okay, since when did I have any poise in the first place?

Lesson #1: How to Ask for a Favor

"Gooooooooood morning, Jeannie!!!" A voice came from behind. So sweet, my hair really stood on an end, whilst I was trying to make out who she was. I see, the cleaning supervisor, hurriedly making her way to look for me. "Jeaaaaannnniiiieeeee, I need a favour from you....." The first thing that came to my mind was....Okay, cut the sweetness, it is so unlike you. In the end, what she needed was just a few chairs. All right, that won't hurt. She can have as many as she liked, actually. As long as she brings it back!

Lesson #2: Women are petty, whatever the age

There are just so many relationships to deal with in my workplace. The pettiness of women, especially is evident. The office attendants that I have, are really a good sight to look at, good entertainment, only if you are free, that is. They can pick on each other over the most minute of things. Sometimes, I really wish to tell them, "Please grow up!" Okay, but that isn't what a good superior will do. Dealing with Difficult People 101 doesn't have that advice. What happens next is a full half an hour of sitting down, asking each one, what happened. The outpour of their account is usually accompanied by salt and vinegar. You never know how well they can season it, until you listen to it yourself. Eventually, it ended off with my understanding, and providing them with a rather simple solution (they could just have asked what the other person meant), actually, and pacify them, most importantly. Yes, everyone wants to be understood.

Lesson #3: Choose conversational topics wisely

There was quite a hoolabaloo at lunch today. Surprisingly, quite a few colleagues from other locations came to join my boss and I at the canteen. It is truly a rare sight. Usually, they would just like to hide in their cosy little haven, and lunch in. Today, was a treat.

My other colleague and his boss came too. This colleague, was someone whom I enjoyed talking with, but his boss, no. He had the same sentiment, which made his boss, well, our "common enemy". Okay, it wasn't THAT bad. Yet, it was difficult to say anything much in the presence of higher authority. I remembered, there was once, things got so bad, we had to use the SMS function of the phone to communicate. Yes, it was bad.

The main reason why we find it hard to talk to his boss, was that he liked to put down people in his speech, especially in the area of work. Today, was a slight breakthrough. Instead of talking about work, we talked about entertainment. It helped. Probably also because, he lost touch with entertainment (hee hee). In this aspect, we had the dominating point. Hence, the revelation - the way to stop hearing his putting down people speech was to say something Greek to him. Yes, it wasn't the best solution, but at least, it was a solution. Lunch time was a lot better that way, and this colleague of mine later emailed to say that his boss was surprised we had so much to talk about. Well, is this good news, or bad? What do I need to infer from this? Yikes...

All I want to do is to.....go home

I don't know why, but I just had the desire to go straight back home today. Probably tired. I'm a person who seldom likes to go home early. Yet today, that's all I want to do, and here I am, noting all these down.

A lot of feelings flowed through me today - fear, anger, frustration, sadness, loss. All negative emotions. Yes, quite a bit of things happened throughout the day. It seems that this period is a period of down time.

Yet, as I came back from my jog in the evening, I became refreshed by His presence...mainly through this worship that came to my mind..

Beautiful Lord, Wonderful savior

I know for sure all of my days are held in your hands

Crafted into your perfect plans

You gently called me into your presence

Guiding me by Your Holy Spirit

Teach me dear Lord to live all of my life

Through your eyes

I'm captured by your holy calling

Set me apart. I know you're calling me to yourself

Teach me, Lord. I pray

Take me, mold me, use me, fill me

I give my life to the potter's hand

Call me, guide me, lead me, walk beside me

I give my life to the potter's hand

It brought back peace to my otherwise haywire system. His calling, His purpose in my life. That's all I seek. That's all I need. That's where I know, I am safe at home..Ps 46:1

What to Do?

Today, a tom-boyish girl walked into my office, and before I knew it, she was crying at the counter. Is it me?

Aih...this is the second time a student cried in front of me...haiz...

I think, I should put a box of tissue on my office counter.....

In Times Like These

Hmm...quite a few things have happened recently. I sort of lived through things without stopping to take a stock take of the experiences. Partly, I probably am not wanting to feel too much about the things that happened I guess?

Uncertainty after uncertainty has seeped through my life...job, health of family members, faith pledge, relationships with people around me...now that I slowed down, it dawned on me..that yup, there are so many things I need to cherish and appreciate while it lasts.

My heart has been placed with this burden of planning...be it my life or the responsibilities that I have been given the opportunities to take up...there's so much anticipation within my heart, but at times, I just don't know where to start to plan..but I believe step by step, it'd be unfolded, and I'd know what to do..somehow...with Someone..

The very words that I keep hearing are..."wait....be strong"...yup, I will try my very best to be. I know very well it's possible. The hope that is provided is strong. Yes, and I'd take it at that. The road ahead is uncertain, yet exciting, scary yet assuring. It's such a paradox, but it's the fact. Amazing.

Anyway, on a lighter note, this is what someone commented about me today:

"u looked pretty in pink today."

"perfect with a smile"

Strangled..literally

This happened early this week..come to think of it. It's rather scary staying in a room with someone you don't really know, even in this safe place of Singapore.

With my eyes barely open, mind yet to start functioning, a PRC student walked into my office. He looked decent, conservative, a tad bit of the chinese scholar type of person of the past...those 书生 pattern kind of person..

Very softly, he said that he woke up today only to be strangled by his roommate. Goodness! His story goes like this, his roommate was upset with him setting his alarm at 7am, and not waking up. So, the alarm went on ringing, but he just slept on, waking his roommate up. His angry roommate then woke up, went to his bed and strangled him, saying,"我已经忍你很久了！"

I sure became wide-awake! In the end, lots of reports to be written. Security division called in, rooms of the students were changed, and the Resident Counsellor had to spend hours on resolving conflict and emphasising the severity of the matter.

You'd never know when your roommate just gets crazy at times. Later I went to check the records, and this 书生 looking guy.......was previously warned for using violence and vulgarities on his girlfriend. Apparently, he went to his girlfriend's hall to slap her in front of everyone else and abused her verbally. And well, you know the saying that always goes..never...*fill in the blanks*

The Much Awaited Meeting wif Serene

Serene's a really wonderful sister to have to talk with the entire night. She's one of the few whom I met that we hit off rightaway.She could yak non-stop...yup....yak yak yak....but very entertaining ;) I'm never bored with her around....you could talk for the whole night, but you don't feel that it is draggy...you'd enjoy every minute of it. =) Remember in my NYC days, when I just got to know her, she seemed very serious and aloof..but once we started talking, it was like, I've found a gem! hehe...very dear sister of mine...=)

Finally.....we met....Holland Village, Al Dente Trattoria....

Take a look at the pizza I ordered, it's called B.L.T. (bacon,lettuce and tomato with mozarella cheese, etc, etc.) =p Interesting pizza.....it tasted like caesar's salad on top of the crust....combi of two of my likings...=)

And here's Serene........caught in mid-sentence....her spaghetti was nice too....slurp....

And there was this cat....who came to entertain us....and decided to come to me instead....under my chair.....hehe

But................we still haven't gotten enough of each other....she had to leave early.....so we will have rendevous II next week....haha.....and hopefully, that one, we can really crap till God knows when...

Remembering HK

Been wanting to put this down, but didn't get the chance to before that. It's been a rush since I came back from HK. Yet, I don't want to let the memories slip my mind before I have a chance to pen them down.

Throughout this trip, I found myself blessed. From the weather, to the people whom we met, the smoothness of the journey, the shopping, the food...oh yup, GLORIOUS FOOD....to the sights, to observing the lifestyle, the dressing of the people, and so much more...there's just a lot to cover, and I can only squeeze whatever I can remember from the 4D3N trip.

Sarah and I left Singapore bumpily on the flight CI 666. Yeah, what an interesting number. Nevertheless, the weather conditions before we left were taking a turn for the worse, and it was bumpy for the first hour and a half to HK. In short, it's half the journey there. Some of the times, it was rather scary. Somehow, felt like slightly going down slope on the rollercoaster at times. However, we really felt blessed as the weather was much worse later, and the plane left before that.

We reached HKIA finally at around 9plus in the night. There we were like two lil gals roaming around the huge space of the airport, which I felt was like the Expo Hall of Singapore, looking for the counter of our correspondent tour agency. Walking up and down the length of the airport, we found all counters except ours. That feeling of being lost seeped through me, and there and then, the utterance of a prayer came through under my breath. Guess what, the next moment, this guy walked toward us with a piece of paper bearing our names and a whole string of Cantonese came out of his mouth. Whatever it is. My listening comprehension for Cantonese was never a good pass, you know.Anyway, he identified himself as the tour agent. The "counter" was an airport trolley with the sign "UNITED HOLIDAYS". *smiles

The next part was worse. There were only two of us. One busplus kinda sized bus (probably sitting space for around 20 people). One driver. It was late. Around 10pm now. So two gals from the sunny island of Singapore in that bus, with that driver, and God knows where he is going to bring us! On the way out of that famous bridge out of the airport zone, Sarah asked,"What happen if you are the only one here ah?" How nice....*smiles....

That was the start of our night in HK, and we ended up at our hotel shortly after, famished. We dropped our bags, and scampered out for food! Ended up with Macdonald's as that's the only thing that was still open at that time along the street.

The next few days was a good time of walking around HK island and Kowloon area. The people always were in a rush, especially at their CBD, Central. Tsim sha sui was no different. One thing different though, was their dressing, much more effort placed in that.

The breakfast for the first day was great! Teh-si...hehe...ok..they call it 奶茶...

...Marcoroni....slurp slurp......

We were there on the day of the Disneyland opening ceremony at HK. Times Square was filled with people staring at the huge screen with the live coverage of the opening. It was a sight to look at. It was a big thing for them, and the excitement could be felt. Personally, I was glad that I was there to see it for myself, and sense the atmosphere.

Meeting up with Dee was another part of the trip I liked. It was such a long time since I met up with her, and if I had the chance, I would rather have just the whole night sitting down with her to talk about her life. She brought us to the Peak, where we took in the breath-taking view, which my lousy camera skills didn't do justice to. All shaky photos. The wind was blowing strongly though. Excuses. *smiles..but I found myself really blessed by her going the extra mile to bring us out for two nights in a row despite her having to work the next morning.

Nights in our hotel room was spent combing the ba gua magazines. We got hooked on them after one copy I bought on the first night. Sarah adores them...okay, probably shouldn't use adore...maybe..okay, I shan't say more. It's really interesting looking at their media. So much more "substance".

Yup, these few paragraphs won't be able to sum up everything. There's so so so much more to it. Yet, for that, I need to really sit down to journalise. It was a good trip...*smiles

Living the Dream

Service today's encouraging. Hearing testimonies of people I know, made it even more encouraging. A brother, who was an ex-convict, dropped out of school, now pursuing a degree, gave up a romantic relationship, to pursue the degree still, instead of listening to his heart, all when he heard Him say that, He has greater plans for him. Just one word from Him, and He obeyed, despite the constant tuggings of his heart for something much more tangible. God changes lives, and continue to do so, always.

A sister, who took 10 years to complete her degree, due to her health, her personal difficulties, still saw hope in God, despite all the seemingly discouraging signs in front of her.

Hope - an active pursuit of expecting something to happen from God. How not to lose hope? The hope from God? How to keep living the dream? Yup, the main geist of the sermon.

It matters not how we started the race, but how we finish it......

Aaron...

Got a last minute call from Weilong last night, to meet up Aaron for supper. Known him more affectionately as thongwu...thinking back, it was interesting how we met again..and how I got to know him in the first place.

Transferring over to tpj from tj, got to know this mutual friend sylvia through bowling..who knows aaron, and knows that aaron wants to get to know another fren of mine who was in tj bowling..complicated..ok, neway, he just would like to get to know her..cos, she's CUTE! :) Yeah, so I sorta played "matchmaker", a failed one..haha...I only intro-ed, and left it as that..haha..in the end, as you would have guessed it, it didn't work out! But, they became good friends lah..

Lost contact with him for like three years..pretty long, till one night, I walked out of the tutorial room where the NYC people were studying for exams..was already working..got them some dessert, then left...as I walked out, I just passed by him..and I just vaguely found this fella familiar, not knowing it's him! Lalalala...yeah...that's Jeannie for you....then I was thinking, aiyah, forget it lah...already walked so far off already...haha.....who knows, I was back the next day, with more dessert, then Weilong came to me and told me, Hey, you know aaron? I was thinking, I don't know any Aaron lah..first time hear his name lor....then, we saw each other...(machiam drama), and I went...Argh....ThongWu!!!!! (Yeah, exclaiming in the seminar room - till everyone else who were studying there were woken up but our excitement!) Yeah..and the rest well...spent the night talking, talking, talking, talking.....hahaha...missed this crappy fren....

Yeah, then back to supper yesterday at Blk 85...I thought it would just be SUPPER = eat = eat and eat = eat and eat and eat...then, reach there, Aaron already started on his first bottle of Baron's. Yeah yeah....and next thing, was, my mug came right in front of me...tsk tsk....haha...ok lah....once in a while.....

Goodness Gracious Me! I should have had a camera yesterday...to take pix of ALL that we ate (more of what Aaron and Weilong ate)...:S hahaha....but one thing was that it was a good time of catching up, and talkin about his life, said he was going to the states for GIP, get married there, and don't come back already...hahaha...mainly, was to catch up lah..yeah..and in the middle of it, talked a bit about his diminishing faith - the main reason why I was there anyway...well, dunoe when some sense will get into the numbskull of his lah..but really praying lo...Ended off the conversation with," yeah, you know what to do one lah, you can even quote me verses mah....but whether you want to do it lah"....

Yeah...that's Aaron...Thongwu....a good time of supper, if better without the drinks...now headache...slept not enuf also...and tonite...sistas nite....OMG!dun wan to have it in dreamland...lalala....

Carrie..

Brown*Roasted*Aromatic*Thick*Creamy*Dehydrating

Just got it from KL, where my boss, Carrie, went over the weekend. Something I have everyday, but not the same. One thing about my boss, is that she scores A++ in welfare. I am always amazed by her heart of giving, especially in the area of food. Probably, being brought up in HK has caused her to be an ambassador for good food wherever she goes. Just the mere mention of looking for good food, and her eyes lights up with great anticipation and enthusiasm for an exchange of her vocabulary of anecdotes of food search, be it in Singapore, China, HongKong, Malaysia...goodness!

Other than the occasional differences in our styles of working, most of the times, I am rather glad that I have such an understanding and inspiring colleague to follow. The things women nowadays go through makes me wonder about the life that we are created to have. Of course, men have their fair share. Yet, it does make me wonder about how to handle & pacify and relate with a hubby, teach and care for a kid(s), do the housework, rally the colleagues, serve in the ministry in church, and clear her own office work. Where does she find the time for self-development, much less, relaxation? This is something I respect her for...*loss for words....

Thoughts

Things have slowed down considerably, the momentum that I have thrived on for the past weeks have seemingly disappeared. Though I have that feeling of loss, yet I am glad that there's this window of time for me to sit down, think about things, breathe and look at what's going on around me.

Been some time since I really took time to appreciate the surroundings. Some time since I had time to pen my thoughts down. The haste with which things happen, really left me with experiences after experiences, without really grasping what I really went through.

Feelings didn't seem to be felt, rather, they just seem to flow through me and didn't leave much of an impression.

Yes, there's this air of melancholy. Could it be the night? The cold surroundings? The trickling of the rain slowly making headway down the window in front of me, creating it's own pattern of art?

Another season has passed....another chapter is closed....yes...the beginning of a new one will unfold..