Finally went to YZ for a little while today. Wasn't an intended appearance but it was kinda good, even though I felt a little too 'old' and out of place.

I guess youth groups possess some kinda vibrancy that is uncomparable to other ministries in the church. It's the energy of the youths that rubs off, albeit I must say youths these days are not as fun loving as last time. Everyone's a bit stonned compared to when I was there as a little kiddo looking at people like Amy, Joe, Zhiqiang and the other old foggies. Heh.. Maybe that's why I always prefer 830 service to 11 service. Felt energized by Rach's worship today. Thanks babe! =)

Was walking around Ikea area in the midst of YZ when there was some program cuz my groups are all leaders by now, so I just hang around to look-see. Anyway, was walking and thinking about how or what should I be doing about my service. Do I stop after my girls (or should I say growing ladies, tsk) join YAM after that. Am I able to juggle between work commitments and serving actively? Is the youth group still a place where I should serve? Am I too old and no longer in tune with the little kiddos who have joined? Dunno. I just walked on and thought about these things.

Realised that just over the past couple of months since I returned from Europe, I've become really lazy. Maybe it's just me using work as an excuse or something. I'm not sure. Maybe it's also because the usual group of church buddies have moved along and there's less support. Fewer large group lunches, fewer talk-cock sessions.

But for now, one thing's for sure is that I will continue with the girls until they're 18. Wow, I've actually been with them since they were 13 - that's 5ys! Hahah, still remember them fooling around with me and the guys laughing at me for being more like one of them instead of their DGL. Hey girls, you guys have grown a whole lot more mature in a short span of 5yrs. Amazing..

Almost fainted when I was in the midst of filling up the first portion of some bank job application form, cuz I saw the wireless connection signal go off on my laptop just as I clicked save. How right could the timing get. Grr.... Well, my mom didn't know that I was using the internet in my room and turned the router off. Goodness, it always happens.

Oh well, so I stayed up all night to submit the application for that ONE bank. Gosh, I hoped to do like 2 applications tonite. But guess it's too late and I'm too tired also.

Argh, why can't MAS call me.... The other statutory boards sound so boring. EDB and MTI maybe, but MOF sounds so rigid.. We'll see how. God show me the way..

Went to Rochester Park with Pete last night cuz he had access to the company's empty bungalow there. My oh my, it's so nice lah the place. Absolutely quiet and serene. Lovely. The kinda old school type of housing. Haha my favourite. Floored by the nice place and interiors. Amazing.. Too bad we were both tired and didn't stay too long there. One and only chance to enter. But it was good! =)

Guess it's also the general atmosphere of the area at Rochester and the surroundings that makes a person feel very at home and relaxed. Away from all the noise and hussle that we face each day so that you can unwind and space out. The place even had a little walkway out to a garden that's shared between 2 units! Talk about walking out of your house into the greenery. Wah...

There's some unexplainable attraction about old colonial houses. Yeah, I guess it can appear a little errie at night (with all those scary drama serials that were shot with these buildings as backgrounds when I was in primary sch) but it's just very open and spacious. No little corners like the current pathetic and crazily expensive condos; they're literally iron cells. Something quite nostalgic about them and casual. Dream house!

Haha I always get laughed at by package for taking fancy in these old houses. Well, it's things like these that can look pleasing to the eye for ages and you won't hate it. Why would anyone enjoy shifting houses all the time?

Thanks for bringing me to Rochester! Love it!

Quite pleasantly surprised why the internet connection and access barrier at Hitachi Towers have been lifted. Too bad, we've shifted rooms beside Finance Dept for the time being. So this is very temporary only.

Anyhow, my nightmare has kind of started. This is a much much larger firm with complicated and complex processes.. Aggravated by millions of business grps that each function as a separate entity.. Large Finance Team (that some how seems to favour my male supervisor and other colleage over me) And all these makes my work so much harder. Just had a little snide remark passed by one of the accountants again last night. So there goes more un-answered questions that are piling up each day. Thankfully my supervisor is understanding and has decided to 'charm' his way to get the answers for all of us.

I still wonder how we can ever finish this. Cross my fingers and hope for a better day at work each morning..

Sheesh, this has been quite an eventful day at the stocktake. Had to walk under some puny umbrella with my client under the pouring rain just to look at some vehicle number plates to validate their existence. Gosh, why can't I just look at the vehicle log cards instead? Aren't they even better evidence of ownership? Dunno.. I'm not the planner. Just do what my superior says.

But it was quite interesting as I got to squeeze with my client at the back of some Mercedes convertible. Absolutely cool car! Oh well, dear's driving a nice car too!

Hmm, so here I am trying to figure out where and how to go to Dempsey road. And my always-reliable streetdirectory.com has just failed on me. Keeps popping up so many search results for Dempsey road without allowing me to select one of it. Crap... Now I've gottta read the street directory, which obviously I'm terrible at.

Whee! Little Dexter is at my place again! Just heard them enter the house. Maybe I'll go play with him. My little entertainment for Friday night. Hahah.. Cute kid. Absolutely intelligent and lovable. Just like Uncle Boon's Marcus.

It's funny to know that somehow this blog is tagged to the youthzone blog. Kinda like a bit of a subconscious thing that tells me to be more discrete in blogging. Talk about having a personal space to blabber. Oh well, somethings are just private and not for public broadcast. Heh..

But anyhow I thank God for an amazing amazing week. Lovely to see precious everyday. Can't get enough of you! Thank you for always being patient and sweet.. =)

Life seems to be a lot slower now after the completion of the listed company's audit. Doing another couple more companies, but I guess with God's strength and precious' support during the tough times, things are not so difficult to handle. Time to get off sitting on things for too long and start working fast again. Another deadline to finish a Japanese company in 14days. Wonder how we can do it, but we still have to finish it. Talk about time management, learn it from the auditors. Ask poor Lance.

Scooting off to visit lala-land in preparation for a long and physically draining at the yards for some stocktake. Time to tan my face. Sure beats being in Sentosa. Yuck, I'd rather have the sun, sand and sea anytime!

I can be sucha loser at times. Can't imagine that I was filling up some important application online and the silly website had to display errors when I was about to finish the application! Alamak!!!! Goodness, is this a sign not to apply? Pls don't say that it's a sign. Let me go and have life. Stupid website... Now I've gotta fill everything up again

Finally got my ass out and just jog a little. More like a space out session to just walk around and think of stuff. Look at what's happening around me or in my life and just ponder. As usual, my favourite activity. But I guess that's what keeps my mind active. Keep thinking...

Maybe that's also why my dear Salty friend keeps going to the gym nowadays. Might just be her way of sorting out the things in her life. All thanks to some immature and childish other half. Very scary how people just change so quickly. Even things that seemed so cool and blissful for the past couple of years can just crumble like that. Are there really things that people can tolerate? What if there are somethings people close an eye to at the moment, just suddenly blow up before you know anything? Scary. Even the respect you have for a person can be so easily erased overnight. Will it happen to anyone of us? Definitely. Maybe he should go for runs on his own to. Sort things out personally.

With Man and everything around us, the constant is change. But with God, He IS the Constant. Guess Joyce might just be right about this.

Anyway enough of cooling down after the long walk. Time to bathe and meet up with Qinlei. Owe her the long awaited ride in the van.

Till then, keep those grey matter thinking all the time

Wish that I could be whisked into an airplane now and just hide in some other country and backpack again. It's almost a year ago when we started our planning for the last trip to Europe. Can still remember each and everyday there. Heavenly..

So now it's just work hard again, save up again and target for another trip soon. Hopefully it can materialise. Hmm, where should the next place be. Greece? Spain? Scandinavian countries? Cambodia? Vietnam? Kathmandu? I'm game for all of them. Go and see the world before being tied down with more things on hand.

Had some time on hand during the day to wonder (as usual. my favourite activity when i'm free) about what to look forward to for the next couple of months. Hahah I live my days by the wkends and public holidays. Muahaha... Evil.

Yup, so the next trip will be to Malaysia! Cool! Thank God for the approval of my leave to join church camp. It's been almost 4 years since I last participated in the church camp. The last one was when I was back in JC1. Still remember how playful I was. Just play and chat the whole day with the entire gang who was there. And scramble back to my room to study for my first JC exams that were immediately after camp. Hahhaa... Nerdy me. But thank God I could get promoted back in JC.

Heh heh, looking forward to this church camp. Seems like the most adventurous one ever cuz the organizing team are the funky young families group! Whee!!!

Alritey, so it's time to look forward to that and start counting down. Think of the next holiday after June then..

Thank God today for such a wonderful day! Can't imagine that I actually knocked off at 630pm. Gosh, it's such a wonderful treat to a friday nite! Heh heh... Felt fantastic to just drive home from client's place and join the family for dinner at home. Amazing.. It's been a long time since I could go home before the sun sets, and to think that I've got some personal lazing around time at home. Haha.. Wonderful! Thanks to God!

But somehow, I just feel quite guilty leaving the client's place while the team is still there. Asked them whether I could help them, but somehow they didn't have anything to pass to me. So there I was stuck with my own work since the accountant wasn't around to provide me with essential documents. Continue and finish it on Monday then!

I'm so pleased with how the weekend's turning out. And there's the bday celebration, not forgetting time-out with my dear. Heh heh, you've finally got a mention on the blog! Cheers! Haha, other things are personal. Shhhhh....

What are we to do with our lives? What’s our very purpose of our being on this earth? Are we to live our lives trying to be the most outstanding and most noted person? To be more successful than our peers? To earn a quick buck so that we can enjoy an early retirement in the future?

How does all of these then look like when we read that as Christians, the very purpose of man is to please God? Yes, we all know that we can still please God in our workplace (or even some call it marketplace ministry), but how can we strike a balance between what is required of us at work and our service in God’s church?

Sometimes I wonder if it’s too naïve to say that I’m fine with living a simple life, not having to earn much or live a high-flyer type of life. But seriously, isn’t all these just quite so temporary? There are hoards of stories of successful people who were reduced to rags overnight. Their stories sound pathetic, but some are actually much happier when they possess less. Are the rich and famous necessarily happier than the poor farmer? Are not the powerful also targets of backstabbing and man’s evil manipulation? Are they not wary of people who get to friendly with them, who might harbour ulterior motives?

Simplicity can be nice at times. Just live my little life and be contented with whatever God blesses me with, don’t covet for more than I deserve.

:::::

Rare opportunity to think and blog during workhours. Hahah in fact, it’s my first. Really rare cuz senior’s not around and I’ve completed practically everything that I can do. Haha, so back to reading bible commentaries on revelation until my senior comes. Hee hee, thank God for the long break!

Monday blues are quite bad when you know you've gotta rush some job in 4days; from a 5day job which is already very rushed, to a 4day one so that my boss can come down to the client's place and review our work. Goodness...

Worked OT just today itself and I'm still at home trying to finish this up. Wonder if I can even finish it cuz I doubt my client's speed of work and efficiency. Hai.. Okay, press on and complain less.

Miss my dear already. Only 1day and it feels like so long. Can't imagine that I'm saying this online, but dunno who else to say to at this time of the night.

Alritey, kick myself in the butt and back to looking at the fixed assets.

Mantra for the night: I must love my job..

Night out with the Chans

The lovely Chan kids from Mauritius. Gosh, it's scary to see them from babies becoming running machines. Haha, they practically did their 100metre sprints in the restaurant. Amazing..

Taking this photo was such a joy. The 2 older ones (Ryan, 6; Christina, 5) used their 'da ge da jie' power to gather their younger siblings (Brian, 3; Jordan, 2) to pose for my camera. Haha so cute. Obviously my favourites are the 2 older ones. Very smart and mature. Always easy going and smiley. The cheekiest has to be Brian. Can't stand it when he tries to give you the puppy look when you scare him. Makes you melt. Argh.. He gets his way.

So I became the bean bag for them to run to me so that I can catch em. Wah, 4 of them combined can be quite a powerhouse. I was pushed and crammed into the corner. Scary when they come charging at you, but it's quite fun. It beats having to catch the boys who became monkeys jumping off the beds last yr.

It's always nice seeing the whole family get together yearly. From being the ones who were kids the last time my bro and myself went to Mauritius, to playing with their grandkids. Eee, sounds so old. But Chris made quite a gd point yesterday, it's nice to hear kids laughing and playing. Very warm and lovely.

And here's my all time favourite. The red indian chief of the kids, the little darling who teaches me bits of French everytime I see him, haha my personal translater and crowd controller when we're playing with his cousins. Little Ryan Chan! Getting older and more mature, so no more jumping off the beds. He quietly sits by the chair besides his dad, trying to finish his food so that he can feast on ice cream. Hahah..

It's great having one-on-one car rides with my dad. Most of the time it's so called 'boring' talk about life principles, but I love it when he does that occassionally. Over the years, I guess I've come to realise that I'm getting more and more like my dad in terms of some stuff or mentality that we share. Of course there are those differences, but I guess it's how I've been shaped by all these 'principled' talks. Thank God for dad's talks man, cuz its these values that make a person how he/she is. Much as I think we share the same views on certain things, dad's much stronger than me. I'm just a weakling. Haha.. But yeah, if he wasn't as strong, we would probably have crumbled when things were going tough a couple of years ago. Thank God for dad and more morning car rides! =)

Time to kick my ass and start the day on the right note. Haha, terrorize my clients and get my work done..

Seeing how old the last entry was kinda explains the state of my leisure web-surfing habits. Think I really need to eat back all my words abt worklife being better than schooling days. Man, it's really fighting battles everyday. Mentally draining. So I just knock out when I come home. Not to mention that I seldom sit around the tv and chat w my bros or parents. Miss that terribly.. But they're coming home! Tt's great! Meanwhile, I'm psychoing myself to love my job. Hard but better try, if not it's quite hard to endure it. Hats off to all those seniors and above who have suffered and are still hanging on (haha although we all know tt they're thinking of quitting too)

Came across this site of a man trying to accomplish something quite lovely - taking photos of one child from all the 192 countries in the world. Each child lives in NY and is either an immigrant or first generation child. Amazing ain't it?

Simply love the photos of kids taken at their most natural moments.

As much as I enjoyed it, i'll leave the link here for you guys to enjoy. Those kids really makes you melt. Lovely........

http://www.nychildren.org

It's scary how time flies when you're at work and when life's changed quite a fair bit. So much has happened. Not that it's bad, but wah I wouldn't have expected myself to be doing the things I'm doing now.

Every week passes in a flash and it's wkends and Monday blues over and over again. No time to blog, and I kinda don't even feel like blogging.

Yeah so until I feel like blogging, this is gonna be a dead man's site.. Haha!

How our human brain functions is truly amazing. How we rationalize every single thing when sometimes you just go with your gut. So I even wonder whether we should think so much about everything. Wouldn't it be easier if you just don't try to justify everything, or work out every possibility? Oh well, talk about a complicated brain.

I wish I'm a child.

Many many thanks to Queenlay for your lovely postcard! Love it man! *muacks*

Boy, I didn't realise that you mailed it until my dad asked me how come there was a postcard for me from San Francisco. Haha! I was almost delirious after reading it. Man, I also wanna go there with you! Shld have packed myself into your suitcase at the airport instead of going Penang.

Qinlei: saw your photos of the places that you've been. Lovely! I wanna eat at Fisherman's Wharf too!!!! Thanks for the wonderful surprise! Wanna see your photos when you're back!

Attended some communications class yesterday as part of our training for work. Apparently, some experts say how a message is communicated across is based on this magic formula:
Chosen words - 7%
Tone of voice - 38%
Body language - 55%

Much as I know that I don't really fear speaking in front of crowds, it's also my pitfall; in that I am not very careful in choosing my words. Things that I say on the go as I speak tend not to be chosen carefully, and sometimes I wonder if I ever offend anyone with that. But I guess not yet, since I haven't heard any complaints apart from Joyce.

Think this is qutie a bad testimony being a Christian cuz I blurt words quickly. Not that I always swear, but I think words can be more carefully chosen. So this is just one of the issues that people gripe with in moulding their lives to be more godly, and mine's dealing with speech.

Application for the week: reign in and talk less