Friends

Friends… Not that popular sitcom you are familiar with but something that almost anybody has. You either got to know them during your school days, during work or through another friend. Be it you treat them like brothers / sisters, best friends, close friends, normal friends, and etc, they are bound to have certain effects on your life somehow.

As I grow older, I realized this kind of categorization of friendships (i.e. best friends, good friends, etc) isn’t as important as I used to think because everybody is special and unique in their own ways. You either like them or you don’t. It’s all about how well you know the person and how much effort you take to maintain the friendship. This may sound vague but it’s universally true. Categorization prevents us from being receptive to ideas from people since we always set a barrier in between based on the time-length we know the person. However, the people whom we know longest may not be the wisest people to offer us the correct advices. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t heed advices from our closest buddies but rather try to be more rational in judging things instead of being too easily influenced by them.

Yeah! I’m definitely one who likes to talk about issues that nobody likes to tackle upon cos’ I like to think of things in an unconventional manner.

This evening I met up with my friends whom I knew since National Service. We called ourselves the Inner Circle because of the bond that we formed during one of the worst times we endured. This clique is made up of various age groups – the ‘78, ‘79, ‘80 and of course the ’81 eras. Yeah I belong to the ‘81 era and I’m also the youngest of them all. It is actually very surprising that we can clique so well despite of our different backgrounds, lifestyles and age groups. I’ve no idea how this happens but it has been going on for like almost half a decade or so. Though not very long, a friendship definitely worth keeping. It has been some time since all of us have had a gathering as some of us are pretty busy with our jobs and studies. But luckily JS’s return from China gave us an excuse to get together again.

We had the usual chit-chatting sessions like we did in the past in Café Cartel. We talked about our jobs, relationships stuffs, life in China (for JS) and many more. Choon, being the oldest among us always have something different to offer. It seems to me that he always sees a different light or probably has gained more life experiences than any of us there due to the age factor. I am really proud to be a part of these authentic group as being the youngest (heh! even though I’m already 23), you can pick up some valuable pointers from your older peers who are far more experienced than you in certain aspects of life. I also took the opportunity to share with them the not-so-good times I’ve gone through for the past months since my last semester break. Even though I may have moved on and stopped thinking about all these stuffs, it’s kind of bothering when you try to re-tell the story to everybody again. I didn’t have good experiences saying that to my other closer friends as they could eventually ended up mocking and laughing at you behind your back. Insensitivity is sometimes the cause of all these kind of sh** especially when you know your pals for too long. I don’t really blame them but I’m just a little disappointed at times.

Well, enough of my complaints, back to where I stopped. Don’t worry I’m not going to end this blog entry by saying, “Oh… you must learn to treasure your friends, family… Blah! Blah! Blah! or other kinds of bullsh**!” It’s never me to say these kinds of words cos’ it’s too mushy. I prefer conveying my ideas in a more direct manner. What I’m trying to say here is that we shouldn’t based our trust on people whom you have known the longest but rather to the people you feel could understand you better and give you the right advices. No offence taken.

Cheers!

The Great Pretender

Damn! I completed my job too early and now I'm left with practically nothing to do other than writing this blog entry. Boss is not around today (or maybe coming back late) so I can't request work from him. Now what?! Everybody is doing their work while I'm lazing around, writing my blog and pretending to be hardworking. Think I can be good enough to get nominated for the next Oscar, haha!

Just shifted place yesterday to where all my I.A. pals are sitting. It's another compartment far away from the project managers' and AVP's room, where I am able to have a complete view on what the rest of the people are doing. The new desk has got plenty of junks on it and I spent nearly 1/4 of the day arranging and cleaning everything up. However, not all things turn out to be in your favour. The only thing bad about this new compartment is that there's another department manager's room beside me. That fella inside doesn't look like a Mr Nice Guy. The moment he opens his mouth and talk, I straight-away write him off my people-I-want-to-know list. Guess what? I've an extra monitor on my desk that faces his room. You may say that I'm paranoid but I seriously value my privacy a lot. I don't like to be monitored by other people unnecessarily.

Aiya! My boss just called and shot me with an arrow... Ok finally I've got work to do but later. Afterall the information isn't here at the moment. Probably after lunch. I've exactly 20 min more to noon time lunch, and that guy inside the room has already left. So much for setting a good example.

A Quiet Day In The Office

It is unexceptionally quiet today. Normally at around this time (at around 3 plus or so), you will hear the fat lady's laughter from her room. Or simply "dropping by" the managers' room to talk and "JIA4 MI1 GIA3" with them. Yes, that fat lady I'm talking about is my company's AVP, and she is not around today. Yesh! and so is my VP!!!

Nah... It's not I don't like her or what. This moment of quietness is rarely heard ever since I joined SES. Now what I can only hear is clerks chit-chatting away and of course my keyboard's noice. I'm really super-duper free this week. Unlike the torment I've suffered the previous one where I've to endure harsh datelines when the job I did actually doesn't really matters. What a waste of man power!

Today (not the free papers) is Thursday and I can already smell what Saturday is gonna be like. Usually during school terms, I would't even care if it's Monday or Saturday since I practically study every single day. Now that I'm working, the amount of freedom one gets is much, much restricted as I have to constantly look out for fat lady and managers walking past me. Life is simply monotonous from Monday to Friday, and people like me can only pray for Saturdays to arrive to make a difference. I'm not despair, I'm just temporary sian. Getting used to a new environment seriously takes time to adapt. Not taking into account that your colleagues are don't know how many donkey years older than you. Ha! What about my schoolmates you might ask. Other than my good friend Brenda, the others are simply too shy to talk. Man! Even a quiet person like me has met my match!

Work, lunch, work, go home, surf net, watch animations, then sleep... so is it gonna be a vicious cycle for 24 weeks? Nope, I hope not. Time is really precious at the moment, I'll now focus in doing the things I really want to do or things that I dare not try in the past. I need to break the barrier which I created for myself... and I need a change in mindset.

New Year Resolution for 2005

2004 has been quite an eventful year, with lots of good and bad things happening altogether. From the handing over of power of the prime minister's position to the recent Asia tsunami tragic, people have become stronger in dealing with various changes than before. It's a good thing that people are looking more forward to their lives than dwelling on their pasts. Hopefully it symbolises a good start to this new 2005 year.

After a heavy buffet in Toa Payoh last night, I headed down to Suntec area with Weikai( a close friend of mine since sec sch) before proceeding to Clarke Quay for the countdown. The atmosphere in these areas seems to be pretty much played down because of the tragic incident and also partly due to the rain. I watched some performances at Clarke Quay before eventually settling down at a quiet Starbucks cafe where I did the countdown with Weikai and the crew there. Pretty fun actually...

My New Year resolution for 2005:
1. ...
2. Put on back the 2kg of mass which I shed during exams (It's a fitness goal.)
3. Do well for my internship / school matters
4. Hope to try more new things in the future
5. And finally wish all my friends and loved ones well...

So what's your resolution for this year?