Sunday, June 12, 2005

Go the Distance
The father and the son step down
Looked down at the world below
The distance world where sin's strong arm struck a favourable blow
There had to be a sacrifice
Across a lonely hill
Someone had to span the globe
So Jesus said I will
I will go the distance
I will go that far
I will give up everything to bring them where you are
Even though I can choose the path of least resistance
Father I will take the cross
I will go the distance
Think about His sacrifice
Leaves me with a choice to make
So many stand just out of reach
With eternity at stake
I can be the 'go-between' who'll walk the extra mile
If just one should find their way
Then it's been worth the while
I will go the distance
I will go that far
I will give up everything to bring them where you are
Even though I can choose the path of least resistance
Father I will take the cross
I will go the distance

Saturday, June 11, 2005

I've had good and bad jobs. Amazing people like that tall-always-slouching Andy with his impish boyish grin who one day walked away after a casual chat with me, his back straightened and him slightly skipping. Heez. It's that charmingly innocent little girl smile that makes some guys want to father/brother me (the rest just want to shoot me). Been working it since I was in primary school, only realized it when I was in sec sch and honed it by the time I reached jc. (I apologize to the beef hor fun uncle in acjc and the previous chicken rice uncle in haven..) Ahahahahahaha. And my current job is good stuff.

If you think that I'm a fortunate girl who works with the ITD where it's 22 guys and 3 girls (not counting annabel, daryl and me); where the pantry is always a party filled with laughter when you have a big group inside; where both rubens and vermeer are filled with the interns' incessant whispered laughter despite the work we get - you're right.

If you think 8th floor is the only thing that makes this job so amazing? You're wrong.

9th Floor. J.A.B

I admire him.

Amazing, fun yet tiring job. He still meets up with his wife at orchard for lunch. *thumps chest with fist* respect.

Brunette.. Australian Charm.. Charismatically adorable despite his age.. Easy to find?

Friendly and intensely sincere gray eyes that just about melts any icy heart just by holding the other person's eyes in a conversation. Beat that.

I want to work at RaboBank more than ever.

*****
on a side note: have finally updated the story blog with a recent one. it's really really short but it means a lot to me. =]

Friday, June 10, 2005

Day in the life of an intern
***
-----Original Message-----
From: Me
Sent: Thursday, June 09, 2005 1:25 PM
To: Friend

K got wife?
-----Original Message-----
From: Friend
Sent: Thursday, June 09, 2005 1:26 PM
To: Me
Looks like H's dream is dash. (missing text)
-----Original Message-----
From: Me
Sent: Thursday, June 09, 2005 1:30 PM
To: Friend
2 in a row.. I think u shld give up S (missing text) for her.. Then I cannot see S as my eye candy anymore... sacrifices have to be made
-----Original Message-----
From: Me
Sent: Thursday, June 09, 2005 1:32 PM
To: Friend

She eyeing J now?
-----Original Message-----
From: Friend
Sent: Thursday, June 09, 2005 1:32 PM
To: Me
U should say she has eliminated K already. Now she is changing focus
-----Original Message-----
From: Me
Sent: Thursday, June 09, 2005 1:35 PM
To: Friend
Jialat... But J also married leh... how? All married.. I say S lah
-----Original Message-----
From: Friend
Sent: Thursday, June 09, 2005 1:36 PM
To: Me
Yah man. I volunteer to back out. I will talk to S later.
-----Original Message-----
From: Me
Sent: Thursday, June 09, 2005 1:37 PM
To: Friend
Sad leh.. He my eye candy.. Now must let go for her.. Never mind..
-----Original Message-----
From: Me
Sent: Thursday, June 09, 2005 2:12 PM
To: Friend
Eh, we talk so much… S single or attached? If attached not too nice, right? muahahahah
-----Original Message-----
From: Friend
Sent: Thursday, June 09, 2005 2:21 PM
To: Me
I think S is attached, quite sure I heard P mentioned before
-----Original Message-----
From: Me
Sent: Thursday, June 09, 2005 2:24 PM
To: Friend
See... wasted.. You should ask him.. Just to make sure lah.
***
btw, it's not that i had nothing to do.. still haven't finished with the residual risk report. argh. but emailing friends is really fun! plus, i have hidden all the names with codes and included (missing text) in order to protect the identity of my darling friends. i just lurve the email conversations though.. keeps me awake during the dreary moments where i just want to knock off. got the case of the sniffles, blocked ear, feverish feeling and sore throat.. harrow flu!
and for those in the know.. yesh i know, S isn't the best looking guy ever. plus he isn't the ideal man.. he's got the "dark" part down, just not the "tall" and (to others) "handsome" part either. but he's got a cute smile and nice eyes. i'm seriously wondering if he's a christian and sings and dances well too.. "ideal" guy huh? ahahahaha. let me try to get a pic of him for ya guys soon.. ahahaha

Monday, June 06, 2005

Morning: 0952
I love morning humor. It's dry, sarcastic, sardonically funny and crap to the max. it's one of those "voices in my head" thing which makes me wonder why I'm in such a mode in the morning. Weird ppl all around me:

1. Guys who preen.. A lot. There was this Indian dude at Raffles mrt who whipped out his comb and started combing for the 2 min that it took the train to come. Later on the mrt, this chinese dude next to me was preening.. Big time. What's up with that man? Even the ladies weren't doing it. Narcisstic.

2. This lady tapped her card after the door closed, looking expectedly at the bus driver. I stared at her for a sec, wondering if she was sending psychic waves. Nope. I didn't detect any. *sweatdrop* so I pressed the doorbell. The door open. Voila. The lady didn't even thank me. Nvm. I will kill her with my psychic waves. Nope. She didn't get it. She's not psychic.. Confirmed. Yesh, the morning kills my usual sense of humor and I can get sarcastically unfunny and mean. Btw, the psychic thing is a joke between my younger sis and I. We were innocently standing around the kitchen one day when just as I walked past the table where her cup was, the cup suddenly cracked. Not a hairline crack. But a real split at the mouth of the cup. She screamed and called me names. Typical day at home, really.

3. The morning crowd is hell crazy. Everyone's trying to get in front of everyone else. My pet peeve? People who squeeze to the front of the escalator queue to stand on the right side and not walk, leaving a large gap between them and the people in front who have walked up. The "keep left, walk right" rule doesn't apply here. We should send these Singaporeans to japan. Then it'll be really fun to watch the Japanese give them the evil eye when these Singaporeans don't abide by the social ettiquette rules, esp the part where the japanese queue to even just enter the trains and no one tries to make a dash for the door from the escalator when the door closing alarm is on. Yesh, I've been to Japan. Yesh, all that is true. Japanese teens, adults, elderlys and even children are well-trained in social ettiquette. Even when they cross the roads, they keep left. It was obvious enough at the airport alone and I was seriously impressed. On the other hand, it's scary and almost robotic-like to the state where you feel pressured to follow everyone else. You really have to admire the system there even if you hate them due to the Jap occupation (to 2LT Ng: Sir, are you reading this?)

4. Everyone's a walking dead in the morning. I'm standing at the coffee queue, obviously zombified. All I can hear all the other orders by people in the queue. "Kopi.. Give me 2" "Kopi-O" "Auntie, one.. No. two Kopi-Gao" (I wonder if there's such a thing is Kopi-Gao*3). And you can practically see the faces all light up right after the coffee is delivered to their hands. Wonder if there's a market for coffee bean air freshener. Hallo Coffee Addicts!

5. And ppl like to shit in the office toilet in the morning. Quirk? I don't know. But it's good without a doubt. Get the shit out of your system in the morning (pun intended). Think the lady in the cubicle next to me was doing just that. When I left the toilet, I heard someone in the pantry.. Was wondering if it was the buddy of mine in the toilet but a sound from the men's toilet threw me off. Someone was shaving. An electric shaver. Not an electric toothbrush, I assure you. I know the sound of an electric toothbrush. It was an electric shaver in the office toilet. Nutters. Then when I looked behind me, it was no "buddy from the toilet" but merely Kenny. Ahahahaha.
*****
And that's just part 1 of Morning Quirks. But anywayz, I would want to go back to Japan.. Miss the robotic neatness of the social system.. Even the quirks of the shinjuki night crowds.. Then I want to finally go to harajuku and akihabara. Fashion and electronics. Find Mr Iron Chef's restaurant and have a nice french meal though it's freaking ex.

Btw, my dear friends in america. Just a reminder. Tip your waiters! It's not singapore and waiters in restaurants depend on tips. Be generous. If you get a nice waiter or waitress, tip at least 17%. Norm is 15%, I think. If you can, go for 20%. Bring a smile to someone. If you don't want to tip, I suggest MacDonalds. Wanna know why I'm thinking of this? Read waiter's rant. And trust me, I did tip when in the states as long as it's not fast food. Tony Roma's ribs got 15% from my dad. The 4 mugs of steaming hot choc at the café at victoria's peak in SF got about 20% tip. (the ambience was nice and the waitress even nicer).
---------
Afternoon stress: 1520 hrs
After 2 hours of formatting, I'm growing white hair.. Nearly saved the document as a temp file and closed it. When I realized what I nearly did, I started laughing and crying. Sign of my stress level. Daryl says his friend is a CFO aka chief filing officer. Doesn't that then make me a CEO, chief editing officer? Yesh, I'm that stressed and hysterical to the point where I'm once again very unfunny but still laughing nevertheless. My hands are shaking now even as I bring the tea to my lips. And I'm just hugging the back of the chair next to me.. It's soft.. I want that big doggie I saw at Cine.. I am sooooo going back to buy it for myself. Mom's sure to scream at me for buying toys but I'm stressed and I want a big doggie.

If there's anything to look forward to, it's shopping this Sunday with mom. Going to get my sch uniform aka plain round-neck tops from Gio. White, black, pink, yellow.. Maybe blue and green too. That'll be $68.40 if I buy all the 6 colors from OG. Then got "Batman Begins" next Thurs with the IT dudes. Robert's paying.. Yay!
---------
Before end of work: 1700 hrs
Just slacking around for now.. Thinking about stuff that has happened when I suddenly thought of the fight between Teik and i. we fight for fun, ya know, the typical throw a punch around, slapping of heads, headbutting, pushing.. But that previous one was hilarious. I tried to bite him after he kept annoying me with the green light saber. He retaliate with biting as well while grabbing my left arm. Thinking faster, I push his forehead back with my right hand. He then tried to bite my right arm. Without hesitation, my left hand was in the perfect position and I grabbed part of the light saber in his hands, turned my wrist and jammed the green tip into one of his nostrils. We both paused, let go and burst out laughter. You have to imagine all this happening while I sat on the floor next to the 2-seater armchair where he was lying down.

Daryl has a chinese name. xiao hei (little black). Annabel and I are tearing from laughter again. Then he called this caucasian ali baba.. You can imagine how noisy we are.. cy's church jokes were bad enough.. Plus the classic thing that robert pulled off just now. Annabel wanted to go for seconds but was too embarrassed to. So she pulled daryl along, tried to make him take the plate and food for her. Daryl decided against it so he came back to where I was chatting with Robert. When Annabel was walking back, Robert suddenly bellowed, "SECOND HELPINGS??" daryl and I flushed immediately and burst out laughter to the bewilderment of the IT staff standing near us. I guess it's 'cos second helpings are no big deal to the IT staff since it's the norm. they apparantly eat the most. I would think so too.. It's all guys save for nancy and grace.

on a closing note, the consultant they hired recently is quite cute.. But he's malay. We exchanged smiles a couple of times during lunch today. It's one of those see-cannot-touch type. sighz. besides, he'll just leave the bank once his work is done. did i mention that he's a clumsy gentleman? i once held the door for him and when he walked through, he realized what he did. immediately, he came back, took the door over and let me out. cute.. ahahaha.

Sunday, June 05, 2005

forgot to mention smth abt wala wala on friday night.. when we went to look for aaron at the queue, i noticed a boyishly cute tanned dude at the queue as well. then when he turned to look at me as well, i realized that he looked really familiar. we stared at each other for a while before he suddenly grinned. it was jin! gosh! and the last time i saw him was what.. when i was J2? been such a long time!

jin was really one of the guys i felt comfortable, just sitting around and crapping with. fine. that included half of the guys in now-defunct 1sg4 of '01, first 3 mths. ivan, mel, henry, rhys, yd, sammy, hl, justin.. can't think of anymore. but i have vague memories of sneaking sweets into LT2 with lynn and jin to eat. it was a cheap thrill to escape the watchful eye of the econs DM, mdm koh. and the hilarious situation regarding his.. erm.. facial hair.. ahaha. it was after he finally shaved that i started to sit up and notice that he was really good-looking. but he's such a great buddy.. along with our chats of worrying mothers who think we're gays.. damn funny dude, man. but we just lost contact after the 1st three months due to different schools.

wow. can't believe it though.. he looks really good still.. if not better now.. wow.

anywayz, went out with mich and py. met at 11 for kbox+lunch.. started shopping at 2.30.. left town at 9.30 after a 30 min dinner as well.. bought loads of stuff.. ok, boring news now.. bought a skirt, synthetic leather bag (not rich enough to fly to spain to get the one similar to tm's..), a polo, 2 tees, 2 pairs of earrings and my face wash. honestly, i didn't even spend alot! it amounted to less than $80 altogether.. not bad huh? hee hee.. anywayz, laying off the shopping for now.. need to rest the card. =Þ

Saturday, June 04, 2005

3rd June.. lunch was a killer. vic brought annabel, daryl and me to intercontinental hotel for the buffet lunch. daryl and i ate til we got too full for our liking. it was hilarious as usual. the three of us could not walk straight when we left the restaurant. when we got back to the office by vic's car, daryl mumbled a weak "help" as he tried to get off. laughed sooo hard. when annabel and i were in the toilet, we were hyserical, leaning on the sink for support. when we got back to vermeer, we decided that tea would help us. daryl once again could not move.. more laughter ensues..when we got back from the pantry, daryl was on the phone with yiqi, saying that he would only be drinking water for dinner. that was the final straw. we collapse in laughter.

if anything, vic has really nice eyes. yesh, my usual fascination with eyes. it's hazel ctred, framed by green and a hint of gray at the fringe of the iris (thinking of the Goo Goo Dolls' song). it's one of those comforting grandpapa type of eyes that smile at you in the late of the night.

then met the jc ppl at walaz. kind of a shock since i've never gone to walas on a friday night.. brekos or tcc on a friday night, yesh. not walas. and there was a queue. but had the usual stella artois.. just more than usual. like yw would call it, "training." and yd proved to be a gentleman, smsing me , just to make sure that i didn't faint. honestly.. he should know better but it was a sweet gesture, i have to admit. =] then sat around tcc and chat for quite a while. which meant that i missed the 2nd half of eic's act and also would have missed "blower's daughter" if they had played it. nvm. i've damien rice's cd. ahahaha.

rai was damn funny though. someone requested for "one week" by barenaked ladies.. and rai did it. jack did warn everyone that it wasn't tamil right from the beginning. but rai impressed the room and everyone was cheering for him. damn funny man.. i propose that everyone should ask for rai to sing that song the next time you go there! entertainment at one of its best. ahahaha.

Wednesday, June 01, 2005

updates! got that organizer finally.. so i will stop forgetting appts. the mobile phone one doesn't work.. i don't check or update it much. but yesh. work's not too bad.. the usual laughter.. and oh, daryl and i are rebelling.. it's one of those "i'm rebelling you from the comfort of my 4 walls and i'm just gonna yell anything i can think of" type of rebellion.. so you get nonsense from the two of us like "(whispered yelling) i'm going to todayonline now! you want to block? block lah! think i'm scared! i'll shoot u! stand up for what!? sit!!"

and today was the usual rumble in rubens (yesh, that's my office name. it's a belgium artist). needed the toilet urgently but since i went less then an hour before, i decided to take the longer "less people" route which required me to pass the pantry. just as i turned the corner towards the pantry, who should i see but Sean? first instinct was to duck into the com room but too late. he saw me. i smiled. he entered the pantry.. i'm not going into the pantry!! what to do? i dashed past the pantry. i think he saw me. i hope i'm wrong. gosh.. so embarrassingly hilarious. then when i went back, i told daryl and annabel abt it. had a good laugh. then annabel said that she will go the short "everyone-can-see" route bravely. just as she said "da(4) dan(3)", she banged into the wall. i collapsed in hysterias. daryl was more than amused. we laughed sooooo hard.

went shoe shopping at International Plaza after that. then when we left, i realized that if any of the office peeps saw us 7 plus at tanjong pagar mrt despite us leaving at 6, it would be another situation of hilarity. luckily didn't see anyone. heez.. but yesh, rabobank is a nice place to work at.. really. will really miss the ppl, esp the FC and IT dept.

to the many many many, and i mean many, ignorant ppl... yesh, victoria's secrets does have a clothing line. a very nice one indeed. can go to my sidebar under wishlist and click victoria's secrets clothing. no. no lingerie jumping up on u, i promise. but what do i mean by nice? gorgeous bra tops (tops with hidden support) and skirts galore. yesh. skirts. I WEAR SKIRTS! ok? ok. example of a pretty skirt i've my eyes on?
it's like a peacock!! and it's a freaking US$78 whopper. gosh. even if i buy it, i need to add US tax, shipping cost, vpost cost, GST.. forget it. got more... the paisley print full skirt is pretty too.. just about all the dressy skirts are gorgeous (click here to see all). very nice indeed. i'm a soft flare skirt girl, if it's not obvious by now..

ok, tired. time to sleep.. *yawn*

Sunday, May 29, 2005

another chance to kiss that much coveted title of being the champions for the A div rugby. thankiew, acjc. and i thank God that none of them were dishearted last year. 26 May sealed our fate, in once again, a one-sided affair where ac trashed rivals rj. cjc came in third even! yay.. unfortunately, i had no chance to go down to catch the match.. how was i to tell my boss that i wanted to skip work to watch rugby? i'll be listed as nuts. nevertheless, alwyn, as usual, had gone down to be one of the photographers for those unable to be there.. you can check it out on his blog here.

just got back from a weekend at sentosa.. will be spending next weekend there again, thanks to vic, robert and company funds. wahahaha.. following weekend is the cf party by the beach. looking forward to great fun and time of laughter, crapping and wondering about the lack of social ettiquette, a very bad problem when we all get together.. need to work on that.. ahahahaha.

sentosa's fun to go alone, i realized. it was cool, just being at the beach by myself, tanning away. later on, i was on the bus back to the bungalow, met these 3 dudes on the bus. cute? i would have to say, not too bad. *smiles* and all this was despite other pretty girl on the bus, sitting next to one of the dudes. i was standing. i'm not saying i'm more attractive than that girl.. but being alone does make a person more approachable and easier to strike up a conversation. i guess if they did that with the girl next to one of the guys, her already-loud friends who have continued giggling even louder. btw, larkshill is really quite freaky with all the old broken down houses.. and i had to walk past quite a number of those houses to get back to the bungalow.. jialat. all-in-all, a good time to rest and unwind before work starts again.

Monday, May 23, 2005

i'm starting to understand what it means to be "in the world, not of it". physically, without a doubt, i'm in the world. but try as i may, i feel a certain detachment from the people i once was close to.. ppl who are no longer like-minded... ppl who see my beliefs as mere morals and ethics and nothing..

i seriously thank God for working through each storm in life. i thank Him that i continually find strength in the hope that He has in store for His heirs.. the promise of Jesus.. the idea of a new creation where there are no more tears or hurt 'cos truly, i'm finally in that perfect state of union with my Lord and Savior.

i don't want the world to see me
'cos i don't think that they'd understand
when everything's made to be broken
i just want you to know who i am

and truly God knows me.. to still want to choose me in my state of imperfect as His choosen church. praise Him for that.

Thursday, May 19, 2005

conversations in the office are pretty interesting.. we're always crapping.. abt ethics, work, life, vices, and nearly everything. we even went into msn.com to search for popular names.. then got to the topic of names we like. below is my personal list..

Guys: Jonathan, Nathaniel, Sean
Girls: Claudine, Maia, Josephine

just like how the names sound. made a mistake of saying Daniel the last time.. got confused 'cos Daniel and Nathaniel have the same meaning actually. anywayz, i'm not going to make the mistake of saying that my future husband has to have one of those names... if the situation turns out like Siding's, hilarity ensues, i tell ya. who knew we had a cedric in sch? hee hee.

listening to Damien Rice today.. just got home from bible study... so far.. not too bad a day. tmr's dress down.. then got the retreat this weekend.. let's pray that it'll be a fruitful time of fellowship, ppl!

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

got back from a fantastic buffet dinner at Triple 3 in Meritus Mandarin.. dessert was like a new course on itself. the usual fresh fruits.. along with strawberries next to a small chocolate fountain, various homemade chocolates: dark chocolate with mint filling that floored me; coffee choc that got me high; almond stick choc that made me grin like silly.. plus various cakes like tiramisu, creme brulee, dark chocolate thick bread pudding.. adorable fruit tarts.. puddings with a hint of rum and chocolate fudge, some with sago.. and the most adorable chocolate mousse that i've ever seen which sent me to an all-time nut, smiling at the little white dish. you can't imagine how bloated i was just from desserts..

tried nearly all the meat (one piece each only!).. the picatte turkey, herbed duck, roast beef, honey ham, sashimi, cold soba, baked potato (fine, the last two aren't meat) and had so much lobster!! one full lobster if you think abt it.. half a spicy lobster and half a black pepper one.. i'm quite stuffed and feeling fat now.. haven't counted the vegetable soup even.. can u imagine if i had gone for the lobster bisque? i wldn't be sitting here typing.. i would lying down and typing.

to think this morning started out crummy.. didn't feel too good.. like some nagging inner depression slowly seeping out and destroying my day slowly... it got worse until i reached heeren.. met this nice shopkeeper.. think he's gay... but he's an amazing designer.. his clothes are gorgeous and i was tempted to ask him to design a corduroy jacket for me. if my funds had allowed for it, i would have gone completely bonkers... there was an adorable pink jacket.. and a really nice dressy black top which would be amazing with jeans and a slightly flare soft black floral skirt. i had to restrain myself from trying on more skirts.. in the end, he brought out smth he thought i would like. and boy was he correct! skirt with embroidery.. i bought it in the end. ahahah.. $70!! urgh

oh.. there were a bunch of dudes walking around and singing during dinner.. amazing singers.. they serenaded our table with "besame mucho" (listening to it now! luis miguel all the way!!) and "something stupid" (frank sinatra rocks!!).. hee hee.. later, we overheard them doing "sway". amazing stuff.. good dinner.. just wish they had returned to our table again.. then i would ask for "emotions" by beegees and "that's amore" by dean martin. hee hee. oh well.. contented tonight.. feeling better. thanks to those who prayed for me and spoke to me to comfort me!

think i'll be visiting that shop at heeren again.. Benno La Mode. the shopkeeper had quickly figured out that i'm a T-shirt and jeans girl.. and he seemed pleased that i was willing to wear more feminine clothes.. just to "try it out for fun" and both of us were laughing when i said that my friends would get a rude shock. he agreed readily. sighz.. i like how my days end nicely.. and daryl's seriously nuts.. i'm worrying for him.. the way he sits up and waves at sean everytime sean walks past.. yesh, daryl, u are damn weird. i hope they read the email i sent to you which called you a moron.. ahahahha
And finally the silence
Looking out, looking back across the sky
Trying to find a meaning
Knowing that I just left it all behind
Still I smell a lingering softness
Where did she go, how did she go
I wanna, wanna know
I wanna know that she'll be coming here to me
Come on
Without you, I'll never feel the love inside of me
Come on, you know that we belong
Come on, come on, come on, come on
Thinking back before her
I never knew the meaning of alone
Still the flag is feeling foreign
I live the day to escape into a phone
Speaking of a world not real then
Where did she go, how did she go
I wanna, wanna know
I wanna know that she'll be coming here to me
Come on
Without you I'll never feel the love inside of me
Come on, you know that we belong
Come on, come on, come on, come on
Cause she's sharp for kisses
And my heart misses
She's coming
She's coming here to me
I'm needing
Desiring to kiss her now
I'm living for her
Breathing for her
Singing for her fairytale
Come on
Without you I'll never feel the love inside of me
Come on, you know that we belong
Come on, come on, come on, come on
Come on
Without you I'll never feel the love inside of me
Come on, come on, come on, come on
Come on
- Ben Jelen "Come on"
***

Daryl's right.. all i need is for that special someone to serenade me and i'm lost.

especially now when i'm down and out, i'm just looking for that "teddy lawrence" that i'm looking for..

one that plays the guitar (Keith Urban "I wanna be your everything"), the piano (Ben Jelen "Come on") and melts (Clay Aiken "the way" Ronan Keating "Baby Can I Hold You Tonight")


little prayer..


secret wish..


to my darling cfers: thank you for always lifting my spirits at the end of the night before i log off.