What a "cold sweat" day!

Today is a hot & sunny day except for a short passing shower. What a fine Monday! But I was already in "cold sweat" early in the morning. Got up at the usual timing but not for work. Had to put on my freshly-ironed long sleeves shirt & pants, make up and make sure that I look nice & presentable before leaving my house. Yah, probably by now you would have guessed that I went for an interview. Haha...

It took a good 1.5hrs to reach the place. Everything there just appear so familiar yet so distant. Familiar coz it's still the same receptionist and many things still look the same as they were 4 years back. Distant coz it feels kinda weird when you return to a familiar environment as a visitor & having to go through the interview by the familiar people which gonna feel kinda awkward. But as expected, the interview was tough!!

The interview was broken down into 3 segments - general questions, techinical questions and finally mechanisms. General questions were mainly on what I've been doing for my present job, why am I looking for a job switch, etc. Technical questions were more for them to see how I will respond to different situations & how I will go about solving the problems. Mechanisms are just about drawing arrows here and there to show how electrons flow. Though I expected such technical questions, I decided to take things easy and so didn't prepare anything. Haha...

So since I wasn't very much prepared for the interview (I don't want to give myself so much pressure either. Haha), I guess I won't be too upset if I don't get shortlisted for the 2nd interview. But it's definitely a good "refresher" to go through an interview again after not attending any for the past 3 years. Haha... So now I'll just have to wait & see. =)

Time to learn what I wanna to?

Today I was disciplined enough to attend 2 gym classes alone, body combat & hi-lo. Haha...combat was fun as usual, while hi-lo was fun but tiring as I was not even allowed to wipe off my sweat let alone take a sip of water during the class. Yah, so the hi-lo class just went on continuously for some 50mins before it ended with some stretching. So tired!

Met up with WS after that. Hmm...somehow, we seem to have lots of "complaints" about work & life. Haha... So we spent a nice Sunday afternoon chit-chatting and gossiping away. Heez... Talked about changes, about how much we have changed & our life has changed over the years. Have the changes be for the better or for the worse? Are the changes what we really want or are they just the product of our ever-changing environment? But deep down, we know that our friendship has not changed for worse and that's really something to feel happy about. Heez... Wow, come to think about it, just 3 years into the working world & we already have so much "complaints", what will happen in the many years to come? Especially now the government has raised the retirement age. Sometimes I really wonder if I have to work till the day I die. That's so sad, I wish I can retire earlier, like 55 years old, then spend my time enjoying life, travelling. Wahaha... Will it be possible? Hmm... Maybe you are telling m to wake up from my dream now. Haha

Anyway, just to put a stop to our never-ending "complaints", we decided to catch a movie, Secret by Jay Chou. Nice show coz i love the piano tunes they played. Really impressed with their piano skills. How I wish I can play piano too. Yah, I can only play (used to play. Haha) trumpet & harmonica but I always wanted to learn piano & flute. Actually I did check up the courses before but after which just procrastinate it, so till now I've not started on anything. Sigh...Yes, I should stop procrastinating anything from now on! Yah, I wanna learn a 3rd language, either french or german, too.

Yes, there's so many things in life I wanna pursue now. Haha...

A Call Today...

This morning when I logged on to my gmail account, I was surprised to receive an email. Hmm...actually not really surprised, sort of anticipated it but just that I expect it to be in the form of a call instead of an email. (Hmm...at this point in time when things have not fallen into place, I'm not going to reveal too much. Haha...) Having received the email and followed by my reply to confirm on the details, somehow just started to think about alot of things. I began to imagine how life would change if the thing just goes on smoothly, the pros & cons. Feeling a little fearful at the thought, having to go through all the changes and readjustments yet at the same time looking forward to facing the probable new challenges. Hmm...well, I just tell myself to take it with an open mind. Anyway, nothing has been finalised yet, it's just my first step forward now. Heez...

Hope that things will turn out well next Monday and I'll be able to get a clearer view of whether things are like what I've been expecting & are they what I really want. Just wanna follow my heart! =)

A Nite of Fireworks

Yeah! All thanks to Jo, I got the tix to the Singapore Fireworks Celebrations 2007 tonite. Heez.. The fireworks were choreographed by the Spanish fireworks team. It was fantastic! I should enjoy it to the fullest but too bad, I wasn't in the best state to enjoy the display. Yes, already down with a terribly blocked nose, sore throat & cough, my left eye was suddenly "bugged" by something. Dunno what exactly happened. My left eye began to get quite uncomfortable after work, somehow there's lots of discharge ( sometimes greenish stuff) and it was a little painful. So throughout the fireworks display, I was either wiping off the discharge from my eye or preventing my half-blocked-half-runny nose from overflowing. Sigh... Quite unlucky. After the fireworks display, we still have to squeeze through the crowd & it took me almost an hour before I managed to take the train home.

I think what I need now is some medicine & sleep. zzzZZZZ

Mid Year Review

Happy Belated Birthday, Singapore! Yes, yesterday I watched the NDP but it was on TV not at Marina Bay. I never have the luck to win any NDP tickets, irregardless of how many entries my family has sent out. Sigh... Anyway, for NDP parade, I'm usually more interested in the march pass & fireworks segments, not so much on the in-between performances. Yah, another segment which I like most is the school band formation, but think they have scraped off the segment some years ago. So sad.. Well, it just reminded me of the my secondary school band's participation in the NDP when I was in Sec 2 then. I missed the chance to participate as they picked mostly sec 3 & 4 members for it.

Anyway, other than having resolutions for our country, Singapore, it's time for my mid year review for my job & to rethink about my resolutions. Yup, I've just done my mid year review with my boss on Wednesday, talked about my past 1/2 year performance, my long term plans, etc. There he asked again if I'm still keen to further my studies. With a bit of hesitation here & there thou, my reply to him was still a "yes". He then went on to talk about what are the things I should consider carefully before I embarked on the plan. How I should get started off to look for Uni & good supervisors, etc, before we can bring this up to my big boss. Hopefully I can get some help, especially financially then. ahaha!

Hesitation. I still have some reservation about the whole idea of going back to study/research. My goal? To get a PhD? Well, that would probably take a good 4-5 years followed by 2-3 years of postdoc before I can officially "graduate". Let's see. With at least a year of preparation starting from now, the earliest I'll start grad school next year when I'm 26. 5 years down I'll be 31 plus another 3 years, I'll be 34! When I did the calculation & told my boss, he said I'm so cute. Erhh.... Besides counting the years, I also understand that there gonna be lots of sacrifices I need to make. Like long hrs in lab, weekendless (which means lifeless too), a big drop in income, less time for family, friends & him. Well, the decision I make now is not just going to affect myself only, it'll affect alot of people so I can't be selfish too. That's 1 of the reasons why I've been procrastinating it, until it's mentioned again during the mid year review.

Like what I've said before, I'm feeling stagnant in my R&D job already. In terms of career aspiration, I doubt it'll bring me anywhere further with just a BSc. So I got to think of alternatives for myself now. Thought of 2 other plans besides going for a PhD. Heez...

1. Move into manufacturing. More political but likely to have more career prospects.
2. Do a Masters 1st, then probably go into tertiary teaching.
3. Get married & be a tai tai.

Oppz! Didn't I only mention 2 plans? Well, 3rd plan is just an impossible dream in Singapore lor. Wahaha....

Tiring Weekend

For the past week, and even till now I've been bugged by the rashes on my legs. So irritating! I simply couldn't help but keep scratching, especially in the middle of the nite. I was finally being persuaded to see the doc this evening coz my legs look really disgusting, red patches of rashes. Same as before, the doctor could not determine the exact cause of my rashes, coz it could be the food I eat, the shower gel I use, the clothes I wear & perhaps my work environment which cause the allergy. No idea what happened. But anyway, as long as the cream she gave me to apply helps to stop the itch & heal the rashes, I'm happy! Haha...

Past 2 days have been great & enjoyable except for the sleep which I've missed. Fri nite was basically a sleepless nite accompanying my poor bro in hospital. Luckily he was fine after a jab & need no hospitalisation. It was also an interesting nite spent in the hospital. Got to see a couple of "interesting" people there. There's this old man who has been left in the hospital by his daughter. Well, the old man was only kept under observation for a few hours but his daughter just left him there. When he was told that he could leave the hospital, he could not find his IC & wallet and he started bugging the nurses & accused them of taking his stuff. But it was believed that his daughter might have taken his stuff home after dropping him off at the hospital. In the end, he created a din in the observation room. It seemed like the nurses could not reach his daughter by phone as I see him leaving with a police officer after that. Just felt abit curious why did his daughter just leave him in the hospital like that when he's only under a few hours of observation? He's not even admitted into the hospital! Is it so difficult to accompany her dad for that few hours? Isn't she concern about what happened to her dad? Hmm...

I also saw another old man in the observation who looked so frail & fragile that he kept trembling in his bed. But there was no one to take care of this poor, sick old man except for the ever busy nurses who had to manage the 30 over patients in the observation room. At that point in time, I really wonder where his family is and why aren't around to take care of this old man. Is is sufficient to simply leave the sick parents in the hospital like this & expect the doctors & nurses to take care of them? Is this good enough to be called filial piety? If they think it is, it's really sad.

There I told my bro, he should be thankful there I was there with him throughout the nite. Wet his lips when his lips are dry, assist him to the toilet when he needs to, making sure he's comfortably sleeping in the bed when I only got a plastic chair to sit. Haha... And on our way to catch a cab home, somehow we began to hold hands. It's like back to the days when he was still a little boy and I held his small little hands. Well, back then his palms were only half of mine but now it's twice! haha... I guess as one grows up & spends more time outside with friends, you will tend to neglect your family. But when something happens, your family will be the 1st to attend to your needs and perhaps then you'll realised their importance again. So sad... hope I'm not a disposable sis to him leh. That's why I kept telling my family & some people, must treasure me before I die leh. Haha... Of course I treasure my family & friends as well! =)

All the best to my dear friend!

Sob sob... GY just left for Boston this morning. Earlier in the morning we have just exchanged smses and when the last sms from her was about that she's already on the plane, going to take off soon, somehow I just felt a little sad but at the same time happy for her.

We just met up for a dinner last Friday before her departure. As she wished, we treated her to a Japanese restaurant coz this gal thinks that she'll miss all the Japanese food she loves when she reaches Boston. Haha.. And I've also bought her my favourite Japanese wassant, which she loves as well. No worries, I'll get you more when you come back, ok? Surprisingly, I also received a nice little angel hp accessory from her. Heez... Really like it. Thanks! Our meetup was ended with a farewell hug, so sad... Gonna miss her for the next 1.5 years. Now less 1 khaki to go out & go travelling. But all the best to her! Just hope she'll be less blur & more independent. Heez... Yeah, and I'm going to save up for my air ticket to fly over & hopefully I can sponge on her then. Haha...

Actually I envy her too. I wish I can go abroad to study/work for a few years, to learn to be independent & to see the outside world too. I wonder if I'll get a chance to. I wish I wish...

More Joy @ Work, more Activities in Plan!

Since my return from Turkey, I've embarked on a new platform for my current project. This time round, the chemistry involved is less tedious and alot more workable. So happy!! Finally I'm doing something which I'm able to see results!! Heez... Yah, I've been missing out on this in my work for the past 1+ years, where what I've been working on were mostly ambiguous & unfulfilling. But at least for now, things are working well and no longer demoralising.

I've also got a couple of "major events" lined up in my plan. Haha!!! For a happier & healthier me, me together with some friends got ourselves registered for the Amore Women's Dayout & the Great Eastern 10K Run. Haha... so excited!!! Excited over the events &... GOODIE BAGS!!! Hey, don't say that I'm cheapo, ok? Well, it's been the 3rd year in a row that I've participated in the Amore Women's Dayout and without fail, I'll always do it with Zhen & YP. This year our group grew bigger, there's gonna be 7 of us! Hope it won't rain like last year & hope there'll be more fun this year. As for the Great Eastern 10k Run, I've just signed up today, only for the 5km fun run. Well, it's gonna be my 1st time doing a marathon, so gotta take it easy & start off with a shorter route. Heez... Coming up next will be registration for Standard Chartered Marathon. How far are we going to run then? 21km? Oh gosh! I need to train up for my 5km 1st then!

An Outing to Sentosa!

It's my 1st weekend back in Sg! The very 1st outing I have for this weekend was to Sentosa. Haha....any guess on when my last trip to Sentosa was? Ermm... I think it was when I was 18 yrs old. Some 7 years back. OMG!! I'm such a mountain tortise!

But yesterday morning begun with some drizzle, such a nice weather to laze in bed! zzzZZZ Haha...So by the time I woke up, get prepared & reached Sentosa, it was already noon time. Ready for lunch! Haha...

I think the most excited person (or rather pet) at this outing was Oscar. Can see that he got all high & excited the moment he landed on Sentosa, he just kept barking and checking out each and every corner. Haha... He even learnt how to swim! Wow! But still need lots of practices & training, just like me. Wahahaha.... So our "coach" gotta teach us how to tread water steadily, ok? Heez...

Despite the bad weather, it was an enjoyable outing. Seen alot of changes made to Sentosa. Now the monorail is gone and is replaced by the light rail train which links Vivocity to Sentosa. The old musical fountain is also gone, new IR is on its way too! So much changes there! Yeh, many things can change in just a year, a month, a day, an hour and even within a minute. Let alone 7 years. Changes... Will changes always be for the better? Only time will tell. Haha...

I'm back from Istanbul!

Yes! I'm back from my 9-day business + holiday trip to Istanbul!! Time flies so fast. 9 days just passed like that & I'm now back to Sg, back to work already. My 3 other colleagues & I were sent to Istanbul, Turkey, for a Medicinal Chemistry conference, AIMECS 07. Hmm...well, conference wise it was abit too academia, more university-based research were presented instead of industrial-related ones. However, still managed to see some interesting tuberculosis research (related to my research), which my boss has tasked me to pay attention to & report to him the research which had been conducted. Stressed manz! Coz I'm the only one in the group working on TB now.

Anyway, back to Istanbul. On the overall, it's a pretty nice place with nice sea views, lots of mosques (at least 1000 over of them!) & palaces too. The turks guys are handsome too, with very long & curly eye lashes (so envious of them!!) and sharp features. Haha... For the past 9 days, I've been having lots of hard bread/pita & kebabs (lots of lamb, limited chicken, well, only chicken breast meat) with VERY VERY LITTLE greens. Felt so deprived of vegs then coz I'm a veg-lover! Yah, the only veg they commonly have are tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants & pasley. NO GREEN LEAFY VEG!!!! I think that's quite torturous for me, so just a day before I returned to Sg, I called up my dear mum asking her to prepare a "green dinner" for me when I'm back. Haha... Yah, I really miss Sg's food!

Took lots of photos but still in the midst of sorting them out. Will post them up soon. Heez...

Besides staying in Istanbul, we took a short flight to Izmir then to the small city there called Kusadasi. A nice sea side city & I love the sunset there. It was really really nice!!! Our main purpose to Kusadasi was to visit Ephesus, where one of the old 7 wonders of the world, Temple of Artemis, is located. Really enjoyed the exploration!

Now back to work again. I'm looking forward to my next holiday. But when will it be? Sigh...

Busy Busy Week!!

I've been so busy with activities and packing of luggage that I've not been blogging for the past 1 week odd. And most of the days this week I've been sleeping at 1+am. Oh no! Eyebags and dark circles becoming more prominent now. I need mtm!! Haha...

Last weekend was crazily tiring. Started off with Christina Aguilera's concert on Sat evening at the National Indoor Stadium. Haha...It's my 1st English concert. A pretty cool concert, very nicely done, well sung and danced by the very sexy Christina. Yah, although I am not very familar with her songs, I think that she has put up a fantastic performance. I wish I was more familiar with her songs so that I can sing along or even dance along during the concert. Haha... After the concert, we were just in time to catch the pathetic fireworks (ok, at least better than nothing..haha) at the National Stadium. It's the last day before the closure of the National Stadium. Sigh.. Another historic place is going to be demolished again in order to make way for new buildings. That's so sad...

The next day got up really early to attend a sport climbing course at Yishun Safra. Think I was too tired to think that morning, brain kinda of stopped functioning. Kept doing the wrong things during the class. Haha... But things got better in the afternoon when we began our wall climbing. Haha... it was fun! Though the 1st attempt was kinda of scary and I didn't reach the top of the rock wall. But I decided to try it again and this time round, I managed to survive all the way to the top of the rock wall. Yeah!!! Haha...all thanks to my steady belayer, LLT! Haha...but when we switched role, it's a different story already. Cold sweat!!! Haha....

Felt so shacked this week after all the series of activities. I'm still trying to pack my luggage for my Turkey trip. Yah, I'm leaving in 24hrs time! I wasn't really looking forward to the whole trip, or maybe just haven't get into the mood of it. But hope my "holiday" mood will take off as my plane takes off tmr.

In the meantime, take care folks! I'll be back soon to update more about my Turkey trip! Haha...

Happy B'day, Mummy!!!

Today is my mummy's b'day. Happy Birthday to my dearest mummy!!! Stay chio, happy & healthy always!! Heez... Today we just had a simple cake-cutting and dinner at a nearby coffeeshop to celebrate mum's b'day. But it was definitely enjoyable for all of us, though it's disappointing that papa (sleeping coz need to get up early for work) & sis (cg) did not join in for the celebration. The cake was a tasty home-make fruit cake (not made by me but my mum's friend) bought by mummy herself! Haha... So funny, B'day gal buying cake for herself on her b'day?! Ok, to make up for it, I paid for the dinner and will get her a belated b'day present soon (well, maybe from Turkey? Haha)

Just to backtrack a little, yesterday evening LLT & I went for 'Transformers' gala premiere. Saw some artistes at The Cathay as well. Heez.. Coming back to the movie, it was really cool! Haha... some parts of the movie was funny too, it's really an entertaining movie. But I was a little tired yest, so kept dozing off at some points during the 2hrs 20mins of screening. Lousy me! I dunno why. I guess I really have ultra short attention span. I often doze off in movies, meetings, bus/train rides. I always try hard to keep my eyes open. But most of the time my upper eyelid just seem too heavy to keep it lifted up. Sigh... I'm so useless.

Backtrack backtrack... to my weekend, I mean last weekend. Haha... did nothing interesting except to attend my 1st physical assessment at PF. Yah, we are very slow, after some 6 months in PF then we attended our 1st physical assessment. Haha...most people woud have gone through it at the point when they join the club mah. After measuring blood pressure & doing some tests, I am proud to say that I'm considered as fit! Haha... Interestingly, the computer system has also calculated my wellness age based on my physical abilities and I'm only 18 years old!! Wahahaha....this means that my body age 6 years less than my chronological age. Muahahaha... As for YOU, you are now xx years older than me instead of 3 yrs. Haha... Work hard, ok?

Weekend's coming again! Gonna be busy but gotta start packing my luggage soon!!!

Death of my Project! Yeah!!

After working for my project for about 8 months, it was declared DEAD last Thursday. Somemore it'll take immediate effect. I was quite shocked when boss told me that day, as we expected the project to come to a closure only at the end of the month. Haha... but also good lah. In other words, I can stop suffering from headaches & will no longer be pissed off by the tedious chemistry which never seem to work the way we have hoped for. Awesome!!

Now I'm projectless yet not totally free as one might think coz still got some archiving work to do. Super duper sian!! Doing paperwork is so torturous!! I hope we'll get a new project soon. Praying for more interesting & rewarding project this time round! Yah, for past 1 yr I've not been in much luck. Always stuck with projects with grueling chemistry. Yucks!! Hope my luck would turn for the better this time round.

Pray hard for me, friends!!!

Learning to be Happy

Being happy is actually a very simple thing yet some people find it hard to find their own happiness. Well, I guess it just lies in one's mind, how you would define happiness. To me, many things can make me happy. Having a fulfilling job, doing what I like, eating what I like, talking to friends, hanging out with like-minded friends, spending time with family & loved ones and of course seeing that my friends & family are leading a happy life will make me happy. Yah, as simple as that (seems alot thou. Haha)!

However, I've seen people who get jealous of her friends when they seem happier than her. Not only that, she even use sarcastic words which not only hurt her friends but will eventually hurt herself the most. This is because in the course of it, she begins to lose her friends. But as her friends begin to isolate from her, I wonder if she does self-reflect on what has gone wrong. More often than not, it appears to me that she does not realise her problems. So in the end, it looks like the cycle just repeats itself again & again, with different group of friends. Sigh...

Weird person? Well, I think it's more of selfishness.

I don't see why someone should be jealous instead of envy their friends when they are happily attached. As for me, I'll definitely feel very happy for my friends when they find a good partner (whether I'm single or attached). I guess to a great extend, I believe in fate bah. If the someone is destined to appear in your life, he will, if he doesn't, too bad then. Haha... Even being a single, I was a happy single (oppz!! I don't mean that I'm not happy now, ok? Haha). I think it all lies in one's mind, on how you view things.

I came across this sentence in a magazine & do agree with it.
"It's only when you're happy alone that you can be truly happy with another person. Otherwise, every relationship you have will be based on need rather than want."

So learn to be happy first!

Long Lost Friends

I finally got to meet up with Qing to "la kopi" (should be la green tea. Haha) last nite. We decided to meet at the newly opened drive-through Mac since I've not been there before and the place is within walking distance from both our house. Heez... Unexpectedly, the place was super crowded! Both indoor and outdoor seats were occupied. Yah, afterall, it's a Friday nite, we should have guessed that the nite was still young for many. Haha...

But lucky for us, we managed to find an indoor seat pretty soon. After filling Qing's stomach (since I've already taken my dinner whereas she hasn't), we began our long chit-chat session. Haha... nice session! We have endless things to talk about especially since we've not met up for quite some time. Hope we can do this more frequently, ok? Heez...

Just when we were about to leave the place, we saw our 3 long-lost friends, HS, Boon & ET! Haha...it's such a coincidence! So in the end, we had a mini AMKNPS class gathering at the Mac. Haha... I think the last time I met some of them was 2-3 yrs back. Haha...everyone still look the same as before, but in terms of career and personal life everyone seems to be doing good. It's an interesting get-together talking about the past, about what happened in pri sch, etc. Haha... And OMG! That's like how many donkey years back. As I count, I realised that I've known HS & Boon for a good 18 yrs already while with ET & Qing it's 14 yrs. This makes me sound very old. Haha... Anyway, I guess we'll have a group gathering pretty soon. Will we be able to gather all 42 people form class 6B? Hmm...

Seems like there's quite a no. of long-lost friends appearing from nowhere lately. Haha... Got a surprise call yesterday from 1 of my JC 1st 3 months classmate too and they are in the midst of organising a class gathering as well. Yah, after 8 years! Haha...

Well, it'll be really interesting to meet them after so many years. Heez...

MayDay's Concert 2007

I've been looking forward to 02 Jun with much enthusiasm since March (I think). Yah, I've bought the tix to MayDay's 2007 JUMP! Concert. Haha... I was pretty excited about it but at the same time I wasn't very keen in going to Expo for concerts as my previous experience wasn't fantastic. Nevertheless, we still decided to give it a go.

Still remember for MayDay's previous concert, I attended with my sis & some of her friends at Expo as well. That happened some 1.5years back and I could still remember that the concert fell on my birthday. Heez...

For this year's concert, the 3 of us - LLT, HC & I, got the most pricey tickets so that we can have a good view of the entire concert. Heez.. Interestingly, we bumped into quite a number of friends who attended the concert as well. Haha... So that kept us busy chatting up & taking pics with some of them. The concert proper only managed to commence at about 8.30pm. It started off with a short video telling a story which involved the band members. A little boring, I just want the singing to start real soon then! Early part of the concert the band was singing some songs which I'm not too familiar with. Sigh.. yah, I know, I should have been more hardworking to practise/listen to their older & newer songs (I'm only more familar with the in-between albums. Haha) before the concert. It was only until the 2nd half of the concert that the crowd started to warm up and got more high.

Overall, it's an enjoyable concert. They've sung a good number of my favourite songs, though they missed out some others as well. Haha...well, 3hrs of concert is just not sufficient for them to sing all the songs they have!

Kinda of regretted that I didn't order the concert t-shirts beforehand. Expected them to sell them during the concert but they didn't. Sigh...

Vesak Day!

Happy Vesak Day to all Buddhists! As for me, my family & I don't celebrate Vesak Day. But still, as a typical working adult, I looked forward to this day, because it's a public holiday. Haha...

Yah, pretty exhausted by work, and I need a short escape from all the stress. Managed to clear my half a day of time off yesterday afternoon. Went for my dental appointment & then back home to sleep. Lately I've been feeling tired easily. Getting old already?! Hmm... Anyway, it was nice to spend my weekday afternoon relaxing at home, such a luxury! Haha.. I also managed to bug my mum and get her to cook dinner for me yesterday. Whahaha...so bad of me to bully her. Of course not lah! I prepared the dinner together with her, had a really good time cooking and eating together. Heez~~ Yah, then I realised that it's been quite long since I last prepare a meal together with her. Well, I used to be her regular 'kitchen assistant' when I was still schooling, but it became less often after I started work & after she started to help out at my dad's stall. Heez...a simple dinner but I'm very happy! :) Hope we can do it more often.

After dinner I was out for Mambo nite! Yah, since today is a PH, I do not have to get up early for work, so could afford a late nite. Haha... But then, everyone else thought likewise. In the end, Zouk was fully packed with people, and I really mean FULLY PACKED. OMG! It was really scary. More packed than Suntec today (due to the PC Show) and I almost died in there while trying to squeeze out from the place. Pretty boring music too. Sigh... it was really disappointing! Looked forward to dance abit & relieve my stress but didn't even manage to step onto the dance floor coz it was too packed already. But luckily I've already had a "good dance" on Tue nite during the Step I class. Backtrack a little, the Step I class was so fun though LLT found it a killer! Haha... Good for you to attend to train up on your memory skills, Mr STM. Haha..

Today we have spent a good 2 hours in gym for the killer combat class. Haha...our sweat was just flying all over the places! We've been informed to dress up in orange (or bring an orange fruit to class - erhh... CNY meh? haha). Some of the regulars were pretty sporting to dress up in orange attire. Of course not for us. Reason being no orange gym gear! Haha..
Did some shopping after gym before meeting up with GY for PC Show. Bought something expensive. Abit heartpain though it's not my money. But really thanks for the present. Heez...

Tmr still gotta work before it's weekend again. Sigh...

Work is driving me NUTS!

ArghhhHH... Past week I've been feeling lousy at work. Or truthfully, I should say since last year, I've not been working on any rewarding chemistry projects, it's pretty a demoralising feeling, and some times it really sucked. Sigh... Now, a year later, things have improved a little but I still feel that what I've been doing is not really what I'm looking for. Really dread going back to work tomorrow again, still gotta face the same old problems, which I really dunno when I can get them solved. Looks like my boss is not optimistic about the current project as well, I can really sense his frustrations whenever he talked to us about the project. Furthermore, I think that the unexplainable results that I'm getting are driving him mad as well. I felt frustrated too, really feel that I'm so useless & stupid sometimes. Sigh... has anything gone wrong? Am I not suited for this field? I just feel that I'm losing the zest and motivation in research these days. I kept asking myself, " Is it time to move on to something else already?"

But again & again, I keep telling myself, "Failure is part & parcel of life. In R&D, it's an even BIGGER part!" Yes, of course, I don't wish to give up so easily, I still hope to give myself a little more time in R&D, and to think clearly my next move. I hope I'll still be able to hang on, hang on...

I think now I've adopted a good way to release all my stress. That's gym workout! Haha... Especially during combat class, all the work stress I have is released through those punches and kicks. Ahahaha...

Anyway, my weekend has been good. Yah, happy that I always have good weekends and that really drives me to work so that the next weekend will come soon. Heez~~ Met up with WS & BZ again yesterday. This time round brought them to Clarity Cafe. Great to hear that WS has some plans already and is already executing them. Hope I'll be able to execute my plans soon. Haha...

My Weekend!

This week didn't do much things other than work. Even for gym, I only attended 2 classes yesterday for this entire week. Sigh.. But hope that me gym regime will resume some time next week after my gym buddy is back. Time to exercise again, dude! Haha~~

No gym after work. So what have I been doing then? Well, then I became a good gal & went home early to have dinner with my mum (if not she'll complain). Haha~~ But then, still managed to catch the movie '28 weeks later' with LLT on Thursday evening. Haha... somehow, I was in for some scares that day, wanna get some adrenaline rush (hmm..probably lack of exercise this week, so I missed the heart-racing feeling. Haha) Asked to choose between a comedy, 'Blades of Glory', and a horror show, I picked the latter. Wahaha.... Well, I think the show was more bloody than scary, so I still didn't managed to get the scares I've hoped for. Haha

At last I managed to do some exercise on Sat afternoon before meeting some of my JC classmates for dinner at Central. So happy to see Tricia, Yimin & Wanen! I think we last meet up some 1 1/2 years ago. Everyone still looks good now! We managed to get the outdoor seats of the restaurant which has a good view of clarke quay. It's really nice to catch up with them again. Looks like everyone is still pretty happy in their field. It's interesting to realise that 4 of us are in pretty different fields - IT, audit, building & real estate and science (me!). Had a good time listening to the little stories happened at their work. This world is so full of funny people. Haha.. Wanen will be organising the next gathering but hope that it's not going to be 1 1/2 years later.

Today I've decided to give gym a miss & bring my laptop out to town for a "walk". Haha..well, wanted to try out the wireless SG thingy but no idea why, just couldn't get it properly hooked up to the network. Sigh... Luckily I brought my Turkey travel guide along to read. Heez~~ Saw a number of nice & cool places in the guide (especially the beach!), hope I'll get to go.

Another full week of work, then the week after will be Vesak Day PH! Haha~~ What's more, I'm going for MayDay's concert that weekend. So excited!!

What Am I good at?

Today is yet another busy day (since when am I not busy? haha). Yah, after "wasting" my previous week on NMR training, I need to clear a lot of my experiments ASAP. I wanted to finish up as much as I can by today, even at the expense of skipping/ a short-and-quick lunch today so that I'll have sufficient work to deliver to Bossy during the afternoon meeting. But in the end, the meeting was cancelled coz we ended up looking high & low for a bottle of substance. Stupid! That bottle of thingy kinda of "gone missing" since last July, but Bossy only started looking for it now. We searched the entire lab, in every possible corner, but still didn't manage to find it. Come to the question, "So whose fault is it?" Just because I'm the last person to enter the info into the inventory list, I am said to be responsible. But the thing is, more often than not, Bossy doesn't give clear instructions as to how much of the substance is to be submitted and to whoever. I feel that there is a high chance that he just took away the bottle from my work bench and pass to some other parties without even informing me. Yet now he's questioning me on what happened to the bottle. I doubt anyone would want to steal that bottle of chemical, & I wouldn't swallow it (unless I wanna die soon, it's toxic!) & I not the blur sort who'll be sotong enough to dump it away. I'm glad that I was firm & confident with myself that I was not the last person to handle that bottle. After an afternoon of hoo-ha, the mystery was finally resolved. The bottle was sleeping in the freezer in another department! And the only person who comes in close contact with the department is definitely not us (associates are just test-tube washer, remember? Haha), it's none other than Bossy. In other words, the only way the bottle got to that department must be through Bossy. Well, I'm not trying to push the blame to him or anyone. But sometimes, really feel that he's just not organized and meticulous enough. He expects us to take care of every little detail for him, but the thing is, he's in the front line but we are not. There's many things which we are not aware of what's going on so how are we going to take note of the details for him? Sigh… Anyway, glad that the bottle has been located.

I start to ponder again, so what am I good at? Have I been a good associate so far? Sometimes I just feel that I haven't been doing a good job. Well, not because of this incident which makes me feel this way. In terms of technical knowledge, I know I don't have enough. Organic chemistry is such a diverse area! In terms of lab skills, are mine good enough? Sometimes just feel that I suck at everything. Life don't suck but I guess I suck. Haha!! Suddenly my brain is being flushed with negative thoughts. I'm fine, no worries. Just thinking of what skills I can pick up to make myself more marketable? Hmmm…