So far, the worst thing about my job has been getting accustomed to the fact that it isn't 9-5. Which is not a terrible thing. Consider Toi Ngee, who has duty tomorrow (Sunday) and is paid something like one peanut per hour. Which he can throw to the monkeys which potter around outside the gate. Now, that's a terrible thing.

It's all a matter of getting used to, step by step, level by level. And fortunately, for me it's been a nice gradual incline. 1) stay back past 9pm, cancel dinner plans, get emailed work at home; 2) stay back past 10pm, cancel dinner plans, realise stayed back for nothing; 3) stay back past midnight, no longer bothering to make dinner plans in general; 4) called back on Saturday to work till midnight. And every time some new barrier is broken my heart kind of breaks along with it because I feel like my life has been invaded but then shortly after it no longer hurts too bad and from then on when the same thing happens I don't care so much. Eventually, by the time mid-year and the crazy season comes round, I'll be pulling consecutive 3am nights with a smile on my face and spring in my step. I'll be clapping my hands with joy knowing that I never see my family or anybody else who matters and that my friends have been reduced to the people who work in the same building as me. It'll be sheer ecstacy. I can't wait.

Some other pupils got it the other way around though. Instead of a gradual incline it was more like those rides at the theme park where they shoot you into the sky and you're vibrating and battling with G-forces and screaming your head off. Like my colleague's ex-colleague who in the first week got sent to The Printers (more of that later) every single day and remained there until the wee hours of the morning. And then went back periodically for the rest of the month. For all I know he's at The Printers tonight. Haha. That's just a Very Bad Job. And a Very Bad First Impression for a pupil.

Anyway. The Printers. It's hell which has been decorated to look like it's not hell. There's a room with nice chairs (massage?) and pretty flowers and drinks and nice looking ladies who come in now and then to offer you foot reflexology etc as you proofreed bundles of documents over and over and over again, along with the other hapless souls who are also proofreading bundles of documents over and over and over again. I presume they serve you breakfast when day starts to break, which of course, makes you forget that you spent the night proofreading a document which no one will ever read, over and over and over.

In a completely different vein - visited Marmalade Pantry the other day thanks to Luyi and I'm not going again because it's so overpriced it still hurts. But I really liked the wrap of the chicken wrap. (I know, of all the things to like - what about the chicken? The pesto sauce? The roasted squash? Or even the side salad with the roasted tomatoes?) Well it's a heck of a wrap - wholemeal I believe and thin and almost crisp and really tasty. I need to get my hands on that wrap. Wonder if they sell it in the supermarkets or some chef back there pounds away at the grains every day.

FIVE FOUR THREE TWO ONE HAPPY NEW YEEAAARRRR!!!

Well, actually there was none of that. We passed the threshold without much fuss: I was busy checking that my files had downloaded and Toi Ngee was playing a game of "guess the brand of negative film from its dye colour" (or something equally geeky). So we were about 1 minute late with the "happy new year" and there weren't even party poppers and drunks vomiting in the vicinity. Darn. But then who needs that sort of revelry when you have photography. And like, developing. And like, scanning. Did my second roll today and I still get all sweaty and panicky, and I'm always mildly afraid that at the end of all the agitation (of the liquids, and of me) I'm going to open the canister and the film will have tied itself into a knot and is all bright red or green or something. Anyway, I'm slowly getting into it, when I never thought I would (it helps that Toi Ngee does all the hard work like the calculations and actually buying the stuff haha) - it's a bit like cooking. The only difference is that in the end you don't get to eat anything, which is why we just went for my first drive-through. The reason why I've never driven-through is because my father is really sensitive about food in the car. It's not even about eating in the car - it's just food in the car.

But anyway. I really like my camera equipment now. I have the digital set-up, which - although I complain about it all the time and treat my D70 like an unwanted child - is a great workhorse, and produces smooth pictures. And then I have a fun film set-up (Contax G1), which doesn't have the control of an SLR but has first class optics - meaning I don't have to obssess about getting it perfect (coz it's just impossible, so whatever) and half the time it does turn out better than perfect, because the CARL ZEISS LENSES ARE AMAZING. Bee-yoo-ti-fool. Whacks my nikon 50mm f1.4 upside down, which I thought was a pretty classy lens. Although I have yet to run a roll of coloured positives through the camera. All I need now is the 28mm lens and then I can be perfectly peaceful and stop spending on "big ticket items".

And by the way, who needs a holiday when you have a boyfriend. Really. It's as good as Bali.

sigh its a new week again.. but its alright I get to eat PS Cafe on wednesday yay! Weixian's coming back, so meeting up with my ex housemates (and yaw shin) tsk so extra haha. Ate at Anatolia last friday. Turkish food at Far East Plaza (the one with the sticky powdery disgusting ice creams that they play tricks with. It was surprisingly really good and reasonably priced (something like $40 for 4 ppl to be really full.. well 3.5 lah) The rice pudding was like a creme brulee with rice bits inside. it came with the top all burnt off and in a claypot so naturally I assumed it'll be hot, but it turned out refreshingly cool and not too filling. Yum!



3 More Months to clearing leave time!

oh and apparently will be meeting elisa for dinner today yay! hmm decisions decisions on what to eat! What a tough life I lead heh. Hmm I wanna do more websites leh.. where to find ppl who'll trust me?

Was at Taka with Elisa on sat too looking for the "new" Marc Jacobs splash fragrances.. Went there before a couple of times already and they were out and I was really excited when I spied from the corner of my eye the characteristic look of the bottles at the "Other Fragrances" area at Taka. And guess what? Grass and Rain was there but Cotton wasn't!!! (cotton being the one I wanted lah) so I very very loudly exclaimed "HOW COME NO COTTON" or something like that and that was when some (strange) salesgirl came over to help us.. and I was still exclaiming over and over again things like '"HOW COME SOLD OUT!", "WHEN GOT NEW STOCK", "WHEN THE LAST ONE COME IN", "HOW COME NO COTTON", "WHEN WAS SOLD OUT", "HOW COME NO COTTON" "HOW COME SOLD OUT" "DO YOU HAVE A MAILING LIST" haha.. so in the end left my phone number and email address so they can call me back if they received new stock. And at the end of all this exclaiming, the salesgirl asked very sweetly "How about another fragrance" *rolls eyes* sense the tone lady!

Today was the day of the Terrific Tumble Down the Stairs After Lunch. It was a long enough Tumble for me to form a pretty lengthy and developed thought train, which went something like this: Oh oops, little slip there ahahah hope my colleague behind me didn't see...regain quickly now... oh oops, missed again... okay I'm definitely falling down the stairs here... this is bad... this is very bad... I can't stop moving... people die falling down this kind of stairs... ouch... make sure when I finally stop moving that skirt is not flipped up... ouch... okay skirt is aligned properly.

I swear, I thought of death. Anyway, all was fine, no bloodiness, just had to walk around the office sporting what looked like a huge love bite on my shoulder, which is great for first impressions and general reputation.

hey hey hey i have the monopoly of complaining about hourly wage! (which is incidentally less than $2 haha) :D

Some old news but...... i can't believe carrie went with big in the end!!! haha yeah decided to finish off the last 20+ episodes of sex and the city i didn't watch two years ago (at some point i was watching it something like 6 episodes a day just before i came back from the US. ahh those were the days of slacking. not to say now doing anything more constructive like that) But its a nice series.. not every episode is good but overall its smart, which is much more than I can say for a lot other shows (like lost... and desperate housewives..) Now to get my hands on the west wing episodes.. hmmm..

oh lots of ppl coming back to Singapore in the next few weeks! Yay! can't wait to meet up with some of them :D more excuses to eat more good food (thats what I'm about hah!)

so apparently I'm an uncle now. Well I was an uncle before this too lah, but from my cousins lah. This time is my brother yay! Sylvia gave birth to a damn cute Regina Tan Ruiqi (meaning queen in italiano. queen the zaiest female royalty not the we are the champions band bah) Quite cute and so far very kuai so that bodes well for now heh (so sad that parents bring up their children wanting them to be kuai kuai kuai and then everyone looking for boyfriends / girlfriends look for a naughty streak) Gonna visit them again this evening probably..

Well boss is back from leave.. so gotta go pretend to do work now haha.

My hourly wage is currently less than my sister's, who's unemployed. Haha. (She made 8 pairs of earrings today - that's like $100.)

Anyway. Time for bed.

hmm i think the drowning is quite accurate what.. (sorry for the morbidity) but then see right, your body doesn't really believe you head when you tell it that if you breathe u die (hence its impossible to suffocate yourself just by your will. think its built into your nervous response or something like that).. so you breathe in then you realise its a mistake and you scream, expelling the carbon dioxided air before having to breathe in again, hence drowning..


hmm.. such nice conversation