Contentment Makes Life Cheaper to Maintain

It's been a few weeks at work and I'm drowning further. Having a great boss helped ease the load a fair bit but the opportunities given to me should not be undermined. I may not have a healthy bank account as most of us would like. I am, however, really thankful for the opportunity to learn in the job and as the days pass by, I am more in control of my jurisdiction. The steep learning curve has not deterred me in any way. In fact, it has pushed me to my limits and this limits kept seeing new peaks. At times, I was be amazed at my elasticity to stretch beyond what I would ever imagine.

Weekends have taken whole new meanings to "a darn good rest". All I want would be to stay at home and sleep with impromptu mahjong sessions slotted in between. My last weekend was exceptionally unforgettable with very little sleep but extremely fulfilled. I kinda like how my cash-poor, soul-rich life right now.

Saturday was a whole day event with Percival and MyPlyn's wedding. As a "jie-mei", I had to wake up early and work for "ang pow". All is done in good fun with the groom sweating his last drop my perspiration out. The banquet was held in St.Regis. Food was decent despite the bad reviews on the insufficiency in food portions. Personally, I thought it was alright and to top it all, the menu did not have any sharks' fin. Most wedding dinners should adopt this as sharks' fins can easily be replaced. In this case, each guest was served with a whole abalone, albeit it wasn't huge.

Sunday was the charity event that set me out to write this post. Together with some MediaCorp artistes and RJC, one of the car forums that I tend to be rather active in, was involved in a charity event for Boon Lay constituency called "Bring A Hope".



The objective is to deliver some food and to find out the wishes of the individual families and come Christmas, we will try to fulfil their wishes. Growing up in a dual income family, I hardly came across extreme poverty in Singapore. And by saying that, I mean people who can't even afford their next meals. All they were wishing for were food and very little of luxuries. Domestic violence and drug addiction seemed prevalent in the neighbourhood. I've always been painted the beautiful picture that Singaporeans have little to worry about in terms of food at the very least. That wasn't the case at all. But of course, there were a couple of families which would refuse to even help themselves which made it hard for others to want to help them. There was a family when asked if they would like to work if offered a job, the answer we got was, "Too tired, don't want to work. No money. I want money" I only believe that God will only help those who help themselves. I can teach you how to fish but I can't be supplying you fishes forever.

This event was very meaningful because it made me feel so fortunate that I have a job, I know I can afford lunch and dinner, I have got proper limbs and a great mind to take me through life's journey. With contentment, my life is surprisingly filled with more smiles. That is how I feel about my current job as well. Until I finally get drowned in the pile of emails.

ICU For Kokoro

As you might have read in my last entry that Kokoro is currently admitted to Volkswagen Hospital. It seems as though I've got a lemon in my garage. Not too long ago, the car kept coming back with engine light popping up. I suppose it's a little to early for Christmas street light up. It went through operations to get an entire list of stuffs replaced. They were all small issues until my recent drive up to Malacca.

It was a normal drive on the NSH and none of the B roads, hence, the failure was totally uncomprehensible. Kokoro started to vibrate violently. The initial suspicion were the coil packs which the GTi is known to have problems with. On the way back from Malacca, Saints who took my car reckoned that it could be the manifold because the vibration was much worse than a mere coilpack problem.

true enough, after some diagnosis with VW, the problem was indeed the manifold. There was a leak and the injectors need to be replaced. Kokoro has been in there for the past 2 weeks and I doubt it would be out today as well. His heart (ie. the engine) is currently out of the body and operations to get it back up and running again is underway. Apparently, VW has admitted that it is a manufacturing fault. Although I love my car and I think with this price, I doubt I can get a better car, I'm still peeved that I'm paying all the taxes/licences and installments at the moment and I don't get to drive it. It is just depreciating daily in value just sitting in VW. I don't quite wanna fault them but my patience is running out... QUICK!

Oh where oh where can my baby be...

The Blackberry Addiction

You know you're addicted to your Blackberry when:

1. You can't leave home without it.

2. It's the main point of contact anyone can get it be it via a phonecall, SMS, email, IM, BB Messenger (well, another form of IM but not quite... totally adore the function which brings me to my third point...)

3. You don't just give someone your email address or contact number. You give them your Blackberry Pin. By the way, do leave a message if you're a genuine friend and wants to add me to your BB chat.

4. You are constantly trying to avoid walking into a lamp-post.

5. You need a charger in the office, at home and in the car. That's not it, you will also need the USB cable just in case the power runs out during a meeting and you can just plug it to charge via your laptop.

Alright, I'm THE addict!

No Time Mdm

if you are thinking that I've probably vanished into thin air, you're not far from right. I have in fact been moving around quite a bit. The past weeks had been anything but peaceful. It all started with my Dad getting admitted of a sudden to the hospital and was placed in the ICU. The word "ICU" alone scares the hell out of many of us, me included. That's one anecdote that I'll have to take another day to illustrate but Dad is home, safe and sound. He just got to watch his diet and not take too much greens due to the presence of vitamin K in them. I thought that was heavenly diet since I'm pretty much a carnivore.

I used to stare at horoscope predictions and wonder where they got the "this week/month is bad for travelling..." There were no predictions by any readings so do not start asking me which tarot or fengshui master I went to. My very last Shanghai trip before I started work, ah hem yes I started work this week which explains why I've been so busy, started off really bad as I lost my wallet on the plane TO Shanghai. Subsequently, my car ran into some trouble during a drive to Malacca and is still now in Volkwagen hospital undergoing some operation.

Work has driven me crazy but with loads of adrenalin pumping through my body. It is not one that pays like my previous jobs and the scope is far wider. This is a good learning experience and I'm going to get up and running as soon as possible to prove my limited worth. Wish me luck!