a pat

give yourselves a pat on the back, singapore.
my company was organizing a relief effort for hte tsunami victims. the response was just overwhelming. the long jams of cars and the amount of foodstuff, drinks, medical supplies and clothings almost filled up our whole covered carpark.

i was glad to be involved in helping out. my body is aching now from carrying all the boxes and bags of clothings but it felt good. for half a day, everyone came together to help, not for ourselves but for people whom we have never met before, and who are thousands of miles away. just like what one of my colleagues said,' to see this sight, makes my heart feel all warm inside. i am proud to be a singaporean.'

red cross, 4 weeks and counting

its been about 4 weeks and i'm still coughing. *cough* *cough*
ladies and gentlemen, please take care of your health. eat your vitamins, have proper meals and drink your milk. remember your milk moustache, ok?

made a small donation to the red cross for the tidal waves victims. the reports coming in are really tragic. i read on and count myself really lucky to be living in singapore. at the same time, my heart goes out to the families that have lost someone in the whole tragedy.

knocking over my stuff

i don't know about you but whenever i start my day by knocking over some of my stuff, it usually meant that i would be having a bad day. this morning, i knocked over everything. it started with just 1 tube of something and in the process of saving that, i knocked over more stuff and while i was trying to rescue those, i tipped over the rest. in the end, everything was in a mess. but it was ok, i cleaned them all up.


and, of course, the signs are always right, so i am having a sort of a crummy day. but its ok, things can be much worse. and at the end of it, i will always clean up and things should be back to the same, if not in better condition. if only...


i am for 1, a great advocate of 1 marriage to last a lifetime. if only...
if we only know the future that things might be easier, but alas, we cannot read the future.

my friend got married knowing that she wanted to marry this man and spend the whole life with him. she gave in to all his needs. she took care of him. she did all she could. 1 fine day, she realised that she was unhappy. she was so unhappy that she hated herself. i know how that feels.
i know her well enough to know that she is not a reckless person. she would have tried her darnest to save the marriage. not that it will definitely happen, but for 1 to think of divorce is already quite drastic.
i sympathised with her because i feel that she has really tried her best.

when you love someone, that love never dies.
many a times, its always the other factors that determines what turns out. so what if you love a person? so what if that person loves you? will things work out? if only...

i don't know. perspective...
it takes a strong man to stay in a relationship that has turned sour to try and turn it around?
it takes an even stronger man to say enough is enough, and walk out from 1?
hmmm...

divorce

yes, i do know that it is quite an ugly word to start your morning with, but sometimes it is one of the facts of life.

i received a call from an old friend last night. it was quite late and quite unlike her. she sounded pretty upset and she told me that she is thinking of getting a divorce and just needed someone to speak to.
now, you must understand that she just got married 4 months ago. in fact, i was the coordinator and mc for her wedding. her husband, whom i had the opportunity to meet and speak with on quite a few occasions, was quite a nice guy.

throughout the conversation, she kept saying that the husband was a nice person but he could not provide for her. not the material needs, mind you, but more on the emotional level. she felt that she was always the one taking care of him while she did not feel the same from him. the in-laws were a little of a problem also. then she started crying. sigh...
i'll be meeting her today.

sometimes, even the best laid plans can go awry.
something else she said stuck in my head. she mentioned that after 5 years of being together, 4 months being married, the husband still did not know that she drank tea without sugar.
many times, it is the little things in life.

christmas weekend and more

how was your christmas weekend?
i spent a few hours of it at work but after that, i was off to our fellow neighbour in the north. i had to attend a colleague's wedding luncheon on sunday afternoon, so a bunch of us decided to go up a day earlier to take in some seafood. afterall, the hotel rooms were free!

we could see the senoko power station where we stayed. it was just beside the straits of johore. we took a walk down the coast and we saw many people just playing and swiming just there by the beach, well, if you can even call it a beach. but the thing was that they were happy, even though we were going like,'eeeee... the water so dirty.' i guess it was a matter of perspective.

i have been to beaches with crystal clear water, such that all you had to do was to wade down to the waters and you could see the fishes swiming close to shore. then we have our east coast and sentosa beach. not even close to world class and a slight disappointment for me, since i had seen those great beaches. and now i have seen what many would discribe as a a bank at most. and yet, here we had people who were enjoying their little piece of heaven.

i guess heaven to some is a great piece of beach with crystal clear waters, to others, its just a sandy bank with muddy waters. its about how we look at things.
of course, everyone one would be striving for their little piece of white sands and crystal clear waters, a huge step up from the sandy bank and muddy waters... but if we are not able to get that, then maybe its not such a big problem at all. afterall, we are already happy with the muddy waters.

my good friend gave me a book titled 'how to be idle'. i have not really read much of it yet, just browsed through a couple of pages. but already 1 quote caught my eye. it read,
' be lazy at everything, except in love and drinking, except in being lazy'.

i'll tell you more about the book as i read it, but i think the basic idea was to tell you that you need to take time to live your life, away from work, and to take time to smell the roses.

this christmas and new year, i just want to be contented with what i already have. i think i am pretty happy with my lot right now. no complains. i love my job, i like what i am getting and seeing each day. i have time for my friends and my mum. i get to move around any time and in any way i want. what else does a man need anymore?....


maybe, a mate?...

fun and laughter... ha ha ha, ho ho ho

no, winns you are not going to get a new handphone, well, at least not from me. maybe i can help with the inner peace part though....

sometimes, it takes some really hard times that bring people together. in good times, everyone is everyone's buddy, but the true self comes out when we meet with hard times. we say things we really mean and from our hearts and not just for the pleasure of others.
but of course, the best would be knowing who your friends are and having fun with them!

santa's going to be coming to town soon. have you been naughty or nice?
i guess i have been a bit of both. naughty and nice, which is probably the best way to live life. some might beg to differ and say that being naughty is the best way to go and live your life, others want to be angels all their lives. well, i say, i take the best of both worlds!

remember when we were young, and if someone was to asked,"why you do that?"
and the standard answer was always,"for fun and laughter, peace and joy?"
now then... that was a pretty lofty ambition, isn't it? see... we were already cool way back then.

nothing forward, nothing back

not trying to contradict my earlier blog, i must say that i am actually not looking forward to christmas. at the same time, i am not unhappy that christmas is coming around. heck, its one of my favourite festive season. just that i'm pretty neutral this year.


i have not really been catching the movies. what about you?
i wanted to watch national treasure - i think its still showing though - but i have not found time for it. i know for sure that i want to catch phantom of the opera, which is coming soon. i'll have to make time for that. of course, a bunch of colleagues have already arranged to go catch the new stephen chow movie. you either love him or hate him and we happen to be a bunch of people who love him, well, at least his movies.

hey, how about leaving your christmas wishes here at the comments? tell me what you want. don't tell me the world peace crap because we are not in a miss universe contest here. instead, tell me what you wish for yourself.

late for christmas

well, late for christmas shopping to be exact. i have only done up half of my cards and half of my shopping. granted that i do not usually buy a lot of gifts, so you can imagine how late i am with my gifts. and knowing how many cards i write up each year, you can imagine how many more cards i have to go.
i am trying my very best that none get the cards late, or the gifts late.


do you feel that there is something strange in the air this christmas?
i don't know and i can't really tell either, but i can just feel it in my bones. something is different this christmas. but it is a good feeling. some no worries, i think you are all in for a good treat this christmas. not from me, but just around you. feel it in you, feel it in the air.

weekend

right, here i am, at work while doing up this blog. its really been sometime since i had to work on a saturday. well, we all have our own responsibilities.
so what are you up to, this hot saturday?


i still have a bit of the niggly cough bugging me. i'm afraid that it might turn out to be another bout of my classic 100 days cough. i'm not kidding, i had one of those sometime back. i went to the doc and he was the one who told me that it looked like a 100 day cough. sure enough, it lasted more or less for 100 days. don't ask me anymore about it because i really cannot tell you more. an advice though, is not to eat chicken or oranges while you have a cough. trust me.

1 more week to christmas. it sure had been a fast year. i know, i know, sounds really clique, right?
' my goodness, where have the year gone?'
'my oh my, end of the year already? that was quick'
'it only feels like yesterday when we were welcoming in 2004'

well, it really is the coming to the end of 2004. i'm not going to talk much about the year past. i am now just looking forward to 2005. can you feel that it is going to be a good year. i think so too.

road to recovery


i can safely say that i am 90% back. the blocked nose has cleared up, the cough is almost gone and i feel fine.
i believe we are all in some stages of recovery, right?

just like when we fall ill, depending on how serious the illness is, the time for recovery varies. fever, panadol and rest 2 days. flu, lots of liquid and rest for 5 days.
sometimes though, things might be worse than the mere flu and fever, and so its going to take longer. of course, the recovery time also varies from person to person.

the more important thing, i guess, would be to want to recover. i believe that the mentality of the ill, has to be right. we got to want to fight off the disease. we got to want to be well...

i preach again....
many a times, i preach for my own good... forgive me.


a close friend called over the weekend. he was asking me a certain IT question. which to recommend, what to buy etc. after that was done, he said his goodbyes and i said mine. purely business. i did not make the effort. i wonder why? have i gone so lazy? seems like i have.


monday the 13.
i sense that my day will be going downhill from here onwards. why?
well, i never seem to have a good day on monday 13s. friday 13, i love, because i feel lucky on them. i am cringing in anticipation right now, waiting for what might be....

sick chicken

i was ill for the last few days, and that will be my excuse for not updating my blog. it is true, i was on medical leave on wednesday and thursday.

it all started on sunday, when i woke up feeling rather heaty and having this nasty little dry cough. well then, i was feeling a little garang (not to mention stoopid) so i saw the company doctor on monday. i refused the medical leave that was offered to me, since i had some work to do. not to mention that i was plain stubborn. of course, then things became worse after tuesday because we went for a team dinner and there i was gorging myself with all the delicious food.

needless to say, i woke on wednesday feeling like crap. i even thought of going to work and 'work it off' but i decided that i deserved a break, so off to the family doctor i went. and so i was out of commission for the last 2 days.


finished my book, watched some unfinished movies and basically lazed around for the whole 2 days. slept like there was no tomorrow and in my drug-induced stupor, it really did feel that way.

friday and here i am sitting back in office. i'm feeling much better now, though the nose is a still a little blocked. my voice sounds a little muffled. no idea whether that is due to my cough or because my ears are kind of blocked as well. oh well...

by the way, no worries... this particular update is certified virus free.

arms wide open

i put that down as the title because i am listening to a song titled just that.


kinda a confusing cum slow cum late nights cum dreamy type of week for me. confusing because of all the confusing thoughts. slow, at work. late nights because i have been dragging on and sleeping rather late. there was always something to be done just before i sleep, i wonder why? dreamy because there were numerous dreams while i slept.

in a flash of an eye and we are already in the month of december. felt like just 2 days ago that i was preparing for a wedding that was to be my own. and now, 48 weeks into 2004 or should i say 4 weeks to go to 2005, i am sitting here at work wondering how it would have all turned out.

i was going to complain that i would have to work on christmas early morning again, but i decided against it. why? because i have gotten used to it and was kinda prepared for it actually. right now, i am just waiting for the timing, for me to get back in for work and what time i can get off. just thinking of it makes me feel a little sleepy. *yawn*.
excuse me...


a friend asked me, whether i believed in fate or in faith?
what is the difference i asked.
well, apparantly, fate is something like your destiny, you know. if you believe in fate, you believe that everything is already pre-planned for you and regardless of what you do, what is yours will be yours. it is all fated....
if you believe in faith, you have no control and instead place everything, your faith, in a higher power. that power will guide you and show what to do.
errrr... ok. one of the confuse bits in my week...