Food for thought... for me

Had a dinner with Surath today. Finally gave him his birthday present. Black label. He was pleasantly surprised, and thoroughly pleased of course :p it's surath, what can I say? Heh. Anyway one bit of the conversation we had really stuck to me. Got me thinking all through my car ride to the airport to pick my dad.

It was his response to my being a 'civil servant' in the future. He refused to say it at first, which obviously got me more intrigued. Anyway he said he couldn't imagine me living life in such a boring fashion, like always staying within my comfort zone or something. The analogy he used was 'staying in a waterproof, fireproof room where you will be totally safe but have no freedom whatsoever'. He felt that I could do so much more than that, that I was capable of better things. Kinda surprised me really. How highly he thought of me.

I guess it reminded me of my JC days. Damn busy and all, but I totally enjoyed it. Unlike in uni when I decided to 'rest' and 'take a step back'... wasn't as meaningful a time. It's not like I'm not busy in uni at all of course. I am. But it makes sense to me now why I felt so restless and disillusioned all through last sem. I suppose I have been scared. Unwilling to go through stress again. But there's a difference now from that in JC days. Those days I was relying on my own strength, so I suppose with all the work I had, the consequence was inevitable. Now I have God. So why should I continue to be afraid?

Yes I do find satisfaction in doing things for people. Going out of my way. Putting in my best in all my responsibilities. I find joy in helping and teaching, and giving as well.

It's not everyday you hear such sincere faith a friend has in you. It's the kind of encouragement we all need to pursue our dreams.

Too...hot...

Yes, it is just too hot to study. Feel like napping. But I know I won't sleep anyway. The kids are in the room again so I'm at my study table. Thank God I have my laptop with me.

Again I must say this: It is just TOO hot.

Urgh.

I'm oh so tempted to go varsity. Sighssss

Working

Just a half hour more before I'm let off work. Seem to be working my ass off these few weeks. Not that I didn't have time to have fun I guess. It's just that I don't really have time to do my self time. Like gyming. My schedule is all packed with work, research, work, family commitments, social commitments, work... lol. Working more to save up more for grad trip! Hehe. I want to really enjoy myself then :)

God has blessed me with many opportunities for some income. I'll continue to pray for a good place for my family to stay too!

Sometimes we get hurt in the process of knowing another better. But I suppose it's not always a bad thing. We all grow and learn from it. However I can't seem to deny the part about the constantly bad timing of it all. What can I say?

There are just some things I won't compromise on. Not anymore.

Dad's birthday is coming and I haven't started on his present yet. Hmmmm. Need to get round to perfecting that steak one of these days. Lol.

Let's hope it starts to look brighter

What a day. Let's hope it ends off well...

1) Woke up an hour late so I had lesser time to prepare for my facil work. But nvm, still manageable.

2) Some idiot hogging up the lifts so I climbed down 24 flights of stairs...

3) Missed my buses because of that so I waited 10min plus for a 5min bus ride to Tiong Bahru MRT.

4) Phone slipped out of my hands just as I was about to keep it back in my bag after a phone call. Bugis MRT. I was at the door. Door just opened. It felt as though it happened in slow mo. blonk plonk fluuuut....

5) My class was a rather rowdy class. Plus there were quite a lot of technical problems. Urgh.

6) Went back to MRT passenger service to ask if they could pick up phone for me. But it's peak hour. So they said they will call me when they manage to get it.

Too sian to go out for cousin dinner so I told my bro to tell the rest for me. Ah well. At least my phone is still ringing...

A good seed to plant in the morning...

Early-ending lessons

Don't you just love a good first lecture... especially one that ends 1.5hours earlier. Cognitive Neuroscience... don't really mind taking the module, despite it being the bane of many psych students. He teaches well, and has a very slack module schedule. Not to mention the prof is pretty darn good-looking. What's not to love :P

Sleep...

I've been so tired lately. Don't know why my sleep just sucks. Always wake up feeling damn tired even though I've had about 6 to 8 hours of slp. Used to be really up and running with that number of hours. Urgh. It's totally ruining my mood.

Had a good dinner with Poky and Cousin JY yesterday. Haha couldn't believe we could actually talk for like 5 hours! Shows how long the 3 of us haven't caught up already. Jy's tales of switz were really fascinating. Heh. All the things that you'd never do back home :p I will definitely make a trip...or more... to Europe in the near future. I just don't have the cash to do so now.

At least there's Aussie to look forward to :)

Anyway JY was mentioning about how gentlemanly the guys in Switz are, including the exchange students from various parts of Europe. Of course there were the exceptions, which is normal. I think it's cute how my clique of girls all look for similar traits in guys. The whole chivalry thing and all that. Kinda sad how many guys have just lost that sense of chivalry. I'm not bring MCP-ness into the picture mind you.

I've always believed that men and women have their different roles in society. Of course not into the totally old fashion thinking of men bringing the money home while the women take care of the household. But I do appreciate a guy who knows when and how to step in to make the decisions, and manner in which to treat a girl. I must emphasize that it does not mean the guy should be dictatorial or domineering. Guys do after all have a physical advantage over girls. Usually anyway. How often do you see the women abusing the husbands or boyfriends instead of the other way round? Men have to learn to treat girls properly, and training has to start young. (I'm not saying that girls have no role in this, but let's just focus on the guys for now) In the village in Chiangmai, that brute strength of boys is more clearly seen. One boy started shoving a girl around, and subsequently even started dragging her on the ground. I was too stunned to do anything for the first few seconds, while Rachel gathered her wits fast enough to do something about it. You can say they are only children, but my point is all the more accentuated. If children are not taught, boys will see girls as weaker versions of boys. Easy pushovers?

God meant for the men to love their wives as themselves and for the women to submit to their husbands. The second part is where it probably frustrates a lot of alpha females who want control, and bully their husbands in being henpecked. But ultimately most of these women are still not satisfied, and continue to nag at their husbands. Every team needs a leader, similarly household needs a head. So definitely one must be the ultimate decision maker. The problem here is that many husbands don't love their wives like themselves - if they do, why would the wife not want to submit to such love? You might want to ask - why not the other way round, why not the guys submit to the girls? Like I said, we have different roles, the female role is just meant to be such. That's my point of view, so sue me.

Wow. I wondered how I digressed so much. Gentlemanly guys in Singapore... not too common. Parents have to start teaching them from young ;)

In that mood again...

Started searching for boyzone songs after listening to How Six Songs Collide by Norwegian Recycling. Here are some of my favs....

I hope you dance

I heart this song. Always carries a special meaning for me :)

School's starting soon. Having pretty mixed feelings about it. I feel as though I'm ready to move on to work life now, but I do realise that I will rather likely miss school when I'm out of it.Ah well, I still am quite sick of studying already. At least I have one research module this semester to spice things up.

Met up with prof Hon yesterday when he had to come to the lab to settle some technical issues with the computer programme David and I were supposed to use. Haha miss working with him. Very easy guy to work with. Should have taken my ISM under him instead. But oh well, every prof has his perks :P at least I'll still be seeing in him in class this sem :)

I'm still missing CHOL. What are the chances of me being able to go back this June? I probably won't spend all that much when semester starts again. Except for the occasional KFC with wanhua every wed. LOl. We are spending 7 hours together every wed.

Picked SQ up from the airport last night. Gosh after a whole year in Shanghai! Haha. People who are able to go for student exchange or NOC are really fortunate:) Such an exciting experience! I suppose I will make do with making my own trips around the world. Provided I can save up the money. At least I will be getting a salary soon... half a year more to go!

Poky and I have decided to go NZ for our dec hols. Heh. Let's hope that this actually works out this time. The memories of NZ that I have since p6 are slowly fading away. All I know is that it's a very very beautiful place. I think poky and I will make good travel buddies - we both like pretty much the same things and we are very easy going people. However, I think we'll need to get another driver along. NZ is damn good for road trips... sooo... hmmm. Preferably someone abover 25 years old man. I refuse to be robbed by the young driver surcharge! Urgh.

I have been praying for a way to come back to chiangmai again, hopefully in june. In terms of finances that is. Otherwise it'll be dec coz by then I'll have a salary. Guess what? When I returned from Chiangmai, I was confirmed 3 facil jobs, got a appointment for some research partipation that gives me 190 bucks and got a research assistant job from my prof! Talk about His providence in abundance!

So it seems like I won't have to have all my meals at home every day for the sem now :):)

A new beginning

It is now the beginning of a new year again. 2009 has been such an eventful year. Good and bad times I suppose. But I still prefer to remember the good. :)

Chiangmai was awesome :) I will so go back to C.H.O.L. I do so wish to go back again this June... but looking at my state of finances, I had my doubts... so I prayed. If He was willing, that He would provide the means for me. Guess what? Since I've returned to sg, I've had many news of part time jobs here and there! Could that be an answer? God is good:) Hearing all these news gives me the ability to go back without having to squeeze every last penny. Heh. His blessings are always in abundance! Maybe can get more goodies for the kids. I miss them so much.

Was doing a bit of admin today. It's the first day of the new year after all. Need to clear a bit of backlog. Lol. Well, I found an old card. Not that old actually. Just perhaps less than 10mths. Reading it reminded me of a lot of things. But I suppose like how the year has past, I should let it pass too. But it's not easy to forget what I have lost since then. I could have lost so much less had I been a wiser person.

Regardless, I have gained a lot too. I gain so much more in Christ. I mourn the lost years when I wandered away, but I will not lose more pining away. With God, the future is always bright:)