Last night, I took a taxi back home from Chijmes, after a night out at Bobby's. After dropping my friend back home at Clementi, I continued the journey back home. When I reached home, the taxi meter was $13.10. I reached for my wallet, inside it was a $50 note, and two new and shiny $20 notes that I've just gotten from DBS Bank. I gave the taxi driver $50 note, the uncle said he had no change. I was looking into my wallet, contemplating if I should give this new $20 for the uncle. After *much* thought, I dug into my backup, and pull out $10 note, plus two pieces of $2.

$20 to give out? No way! Just seems too rare to get that I'm not willing to give it away haha... Maybe I'll just pass this to my mom for her collection instead

Felt that this week has been a very long week. Non-stop meetings and discussions defined my work whole day whole week. I'll come into the office at 9, eat up my breakfast while clearing up my email, and from 9.30 onwards I'll have meetings, discussions, tele conference, video conference, and all those sorts that have more than one person involved. I then usually take a break for lunch, then continue again around 1.30 or 2pm, and go all the way to 6-7pm. Only in between those 30 minutes time after lunch or in the morning, or after 7pm, that I can find "personal" time to do my own work, replying emails, and really do some work. Not that meetings and discussions are not work, but yeah.... you get what I mean, I hope hehe....

And that has been my typical day every single day this week. And I know these intense discussions and meetings will continue probably for another two weeks or so. Besides that, from now to probably November, every Monday afternoon and Thursday afternoon, there'll be Project meetings (tele-conference), every Wednesday morning, there'll be a Team meeting (face-to-face), and every Friday afternoon, it's Project Status update (video-conference). Thank goodness all the meetings was fun-filled and not drab. Especially the latter, it's great to have a video-conference where you can see other people from other parts of the world on a huge plasma TV, although that has been plagued by a couple technical difficulties so far, like today. Note to self, complain feedback to AV team next week.

It's tiring, really. But it has been fun working with these guys, everyone are very smart, focused, and committed to the project. Fun right? No need to work, just go for meetings whole day haha.... :p In the evening, when I reached home, somehow this week I have quite a number of tasks I had to do, for my sister, for church, for fellowship, and of course for myself. Time management time management !!! haha....

Another thing, on weekdays, I have been trying to stop all my activities at 11pm every night and use that 30mins-1hr time to do something that I don't usually do, like reading, or spending 10 minutes to just stop and think, or connect back to friends that I have not talked to in months or years, or anything that is not typical. (Anyone care to contribute some ideas for this? ) We'll see how it goes in a couple of months time. Frankly, I have not been very good in keeping my discipline on all these kind of things

When you lost a precious jewel that fell on a mud, won't you get yourself dirty and try to get the jewel back? Won't you feel guilty when you have something precious, lost it, and didn't even try to get it back? Is it wrong that we try so hard to have something so valuable? Precious things are meant to be with persons who appreciate them well. In the parable of the talents, the person who appreciate and worked his five talents reaped another five, while the person who didn't appreciate his one talent that he had, even that one talent was taken away from him and given to the one who had ten now.

There are lots of things to treasure in life, like people around you, and even your own life. Those are all precious things to have in life. If you don't appreciate the people around you, don't be surprised that one by one of them will be taken away from you. If you don't appreciate your own precious life, don't be surprised that your life will be so miserable. If you don't realize and appreciate how much you have now when you have them, then you will realize and appreciate how much you had when you lost them all. Sadly, regret always comes late, and human like to learn the hard way, including me.

Currently feeling: angry

Is it just me, or is it common that human want other people to be what they want them to be? Sometimes it is hard to accept people the way they are. Every single person is created uniquely, no one is the same. When we interact with others, sometimes (or maybe a lot of times), we want other people to be like this, like that, the way what we want them to be. And when other people can't be what we want, that's when the conflict came about.

We are all learning and growing, and as part of a process, we'll fall down sometimes. However, it is not how many times you fall that defines you, but it is how many times you get up after you fall down that will determine your future. Why is human's life so difficult? Because human being is the highest creation of God, created in the image of God. As the best creation that God ever created, it is mandatory that humans have to undergo life trials and tribulations. When you buy a diamond, you'll make sure that it has been tested and certified perfect and worthy of the price you pay for it. Will you bother if you buy $2 stationery? In the same way, more worthy and more valuable creations, like humans, have to be tested and passed all the trials before can be certified perfect.

Back to the main topic, it's not easy, we tend to want others to understand us, without first trying to understand others. I am in the midst of learning how to accept others the way they are, and realizing I do not have unlimited chances to fail, hopefully I can pass this lesson in life before I have used up all my chances. Fingers crossed. And of course, I do realize, and am very grateful for all the chances that I have been given. I will treasure each and every chances I have now, and treat it as possibly my last chance already.

Currently feeling: thankful

Being good is good. Being too good isn't. Right?

Currently feeling: sleepy

The chance if you are using one of the following models, do go to your nearest Nokia service centre and have them replaced, before anyone gets hurt or anything gets burned. After all, this is your chance to get a free new battery to replace your current battery that can't last more than two days, right?

Here are the list:
Nokia 1100, Nokia 1100c, Nokia 1101, Nokia 1108, Nokia 1110, Nokia 1112, Nokia 1255, Nokia 1315, Nokia 1600, Nokia 2112, Nokia 2118, Nokia 2255, Nokia 2272, Nokia 2275, Nokia 2300, Nokia 2300c, Nokia 2310, Nokia 2355, Nokia 2600, Nokia 2610, Nokia 2610b, Nokia 2626, Nokia 3100, Nokia 3105, Nokia 3120, Nokia 3125, Nokia 6030, Nokia 6085, Nokia 6086, Nokia 6108, Nokia 6175i, Nokia 6178i, Nokia 6230, Nokia 6230i, Nokia 6270, Nokia 6600, Nokia 6620, Nokia 6630, Nokia 6631, Nokia 6670, Nokia 6680, Nokia 6681, Nokia 6682, Nokia 6820, Nokia 6822, Nokia 7610, Nokia N70, Nokia N71, Nokia N72, Nokia N91, Nokia E50, Nokia E60.

Anyone using any of the Nokia phones above?

Read the complete story here.

On Friday, I just realized that SBS (or LTA?) has installed display panels along bus stops in Orchard Road to display the bus service and their respective ETA, much like MRT, and that's a great step forward for buses services in Singapore.

After office, I went to City Hall for dinner with church's friends. There were eleven of us, then we went to Marina Bay area to watch fireworks. Great stuff as usual that lasted about 15 minutes. Not willing to go back home yet, we continue our night out to play pool in Marina Square. We finished about 11.15 PM, and the "fun" began for me. I was waiting for bus 502 at Esplanade bus stop to get back home. By right, bus number 502 will arrive at 11.30 PM and last bus at midnight. As I was walking out from Marina Square, I checked iris, and it said next bus was 6 mins, and subsequent bus 30 mins. Great I thought. And so I waited. 10 minutes later, no 502 came. I checked iris and it said, next bus 22 mins, subsequent bus not operating. I was like "huh?" Where was that 11.30 PM bus? Fine, I'll wait for the next one. 12.10 AM, I checked iris again, it said 502 is not operating now. ??????!!!!!! I stood at the bus stop for 50 minutes, and none of the planned 502 came. iris at fault? It's okay, but where's the 502 that was scheduled to arrive? With countless people still queuing for taxi, it was not really an option.

12.20 AM, NR8 to Bukit Batok came, I asked the bus driver if that bus passed by Jurong East. Here's the bus driver's reply: "Oh, you should take NR5, but it'll probably take another hour. We don't have enough drivers." My heart sank, clueless on how to get back home. 502 never came, taxi was not an option, NR5 for another hour? What a luck. Anyway, fortunately NR5 duly arrived about 12.40 AM, so I took it, reached home about 01.30 AM, having paid flat $3 for NR5 bus. Grateful I've reached home finally, but questions remain. Where was 502? I slept about 2.30 AM.

The next morning, I woke up at 9 AM, planning to go to dentist. I called for an appointment, but the dentist's schedule was full. Unable to sleep again, I continued finishing up my family's videos. Afternoon, I went to young adults fellowship. So grateful for so many new students who came. At night, I wanted to call my parents, so I turned on Skype, and called them. Strangely, Skype couldn't connect to the service, I was unable to sign in. Puzzled, I downloaded the latest version of Skype, installed, and tried again, but encountered the same problem. Later that night I found out that Skype had a rare world wide major outage that caused their users not being able to sign in. Ah, just when I need it.

And Sunday evening was a frustrating night watching Manchester United again stuttering, totally dominated a game for 90 minutes but unable to win for the third time in a row.

Currently listening to: dian nyanyi non-stop dari jam 6 sore
Currently watching: dian ecstatic
Currently feeling: grateful

Was it the rain drops? Was it the late dinner? Was it my anti-body? Was it the weather? Was it the cold air-con in office? Was it everything that caused me to fall sick today? Whatever it was, this morning I felt that I was not feeling well in the morning. Shortly before lunch time, I had wanted to go back home, but I was thinking probably I'll stay until my afternoon video conference, and I did. After lunch, I felt much better, and so I didn't go back home. Only after my video conference, I felt worse, a bit feverish, and I left office about 6.10pm. I reached home about 7.15pm, and before I gathered all my strength to have my dinner, I zonked out on my bed and slept. I only woke up again 8pm to have my dinner. Very hungry hehe....

Hopefully, I'll sleep early today and tomorrow I'll be fine, else I have to cancel my appointment tomorrow morning.

Currently feeling: lazy

This morning I woke up about 8AM, and I felt much worse than last night. I hardly willing to wake up, whole body felt very weak, cough, headache, and obvious fever. I had to cancel my morning's appointment to the dentist. Instead, I dragged myself out at 10AM to the clinic nearby, two bus stops away. I queued, saw the very-friendly doctor, and came home about 11.45AM. My body temperature was measured at 38°C just now, no wonder I had bad headache whenever I cough. I had just a piece of bread for lunch, ate my medicines, and slept away for the whole day. I woke up again about 6.30PM, had my dinner, and medicines again. I'll have to try to sleep early again today, so I can recover tomorrow. I'll hate to skip church tomorrow if I'm still sick.

Well, everyone, take care of your own health, it's bad enough to get sick, but to get sick over the weekend is much worse, really.

On Sunday, I thoroughly felt much better. My temperature is down to 37°C, less headache, and overall I was quite okay. I stayed at home that whole day, until about 4PM to go to church. I reached back home close to 9PM. That night, suddenly I felt worse, I coughed badly, pain in the chest whenever I cough, headache followed. Had quite a bad night. Apology to my roommate, whom I think didn't sleep well last night too.

Left with no choice, I took my MC on Monday (today), and went to see the doctor. To my surprise, the queue was at least three times as long as it was on Saturday. The girl behind the counter recognized me when she saw me again, asked "Haven't recovered?". I replied "Felt worse really. *cough* *cough*" Went through the standard administration procedures, and she told my queue number was 37. I asked how many people were in the queue, she replied silently, but I read her lips "A lot !!!" And so it turns out to be about 15 queue numbers were before me, mainly families. I went around the HDB block, thinking if I could get some breakfast for myself. I saw one hawker centre just next to the clinic. To my horror, they only sell, spicy malay food, curry indian food, deep fried western food, and ice cold desserts, none of which are really that gentle to my throat and cough. Disappointed, I went back to the clinic. Luckily, there were many magazines to entertain me. I finished reading Wine & Dine, The Executive, Business Times, and few other thinner magazines before my number was called. The whole session with the doctor lasted probably less than five minutes, checked my temperature was already down to 36.6°C (which I presume is already normal), and gave me more of the same cough medicines, now added with one for phlegm.

So now, I have 101 (read that in binary) kinds of medicines for fever, pain (headache), cough, phlegm, and running nose that I have to take 1-2 tabs each 3-4 times a day. Man !!!! Talking about getting sick is worse than ....... errrrrr....... not getting sick? I had the wonderful stock of orange juices, green tea, and other stuffs in the fridge, but for now, I should only be drinking plain ol' hot water with honey and lemon ...

And the worst part? My mom and grandma called me last night in my worst condition. I was only on my first sentence on the phone, and my grandma could have already guessed that I'm having a cold. A couple of sentences later, she would have known that I had a bad cough too. Can't really run away from parents and grandparents, can I? hehe.... They just somehow have that sixth, seventh, and eighth sense to call you when you are sick, and within the first five seconds of talking, could have known that I'm sick. Wonderful really!!!
I tried talking them not to worry too much about me. I'll let them know again when I've recovered fully

Currently feeling: bored

Just helping out a friend of mine to advertise his wife's eBay page, selling many kinds of earrings at the moment. If I recalled correctly, his wife had to quit her normal job in Feb 2007 due to poor health and has not worked since then. Now, despite not being able to go for a normal day job, she's trying to earn some income for the family by going into eBay.

http://search.ebay.com.sg/_W0QQsassZgardenerdindin

So, check them out, and if you saw anything you like and the price is right, go for it, will ya?

Thanks.

PS: I won't get a single cent from referring you all, so no worries Just helping a friend out.
PS2: I'm still sick too, can't believe I still can't recover from a cough after five days !!!
PS3: Anyone want to buy for me? :p

Currently feeling: cough cough