Work

Yesterday, I left my work building at lunchtime - it felt different and really good to be walking out of there in the afternoon, knowing that I wasn't going to walk back in there till the next morning! Driving back in bright afternoon daylight and seeing the blue skies and beautiful blue waters of the Northshore in Sydney was great =)

We had quite a shocking morning though. Our team manager called us for a meeting 15 minutes before our usual morning meeting/get-together and told us that it was the last day for someone in our team the day before, that's why he wasn't there that day. He was made redundant due to some organisational structure reshuffling. It was kinda sad and we were all shocked. We didn't even have time to say goodbye. Can't believe how the company can just do this too - maybe it happens more in multinational companies like ours, i don't know. They try to justify themselves in how they will continue to take care of him by saying how the company outsources an excellent employment agency who will do their best to find a job for him.

Anyway...back to leaving work at 1 something pm. I was heading in the direction of home...but the destination wasn't home just yet. We were still on work time. A few of us were just going for an exhibition thing at Fox Studios. The exhibition was mainly for restaurant owners. There were many booths and also talks going on throughout the day. It was really interesting - especially all the free food tastings =P We sat in on a talk about tips and issues in having a restaurant in regional Australia- but we walked out halfway and were more interested in walking along the different booths and seeing what they had to offer. Anyone tried rabbit stew? The guy at the stall was going to give us a plate each! but we had to say it was okay, we'll share, the 3 of us..

A couple of my other colleagues went the day before we did and left at 5.30 pm!! geee..But we left at about 4 pm because I had to leave to go help a friend move. Early mark off work - it was nice =)

Work. It's ok..just a lot of things to do this week..Maybe I shouldn't have gone to the exhibition thing yesterday so I'd suffer less today and tomorrow and Friday. Anyway, another day of making beverages again tomorrow and reworking them to please my account manager.

good nite.

Kids talk

hahah this is so funny too

- forwarded emails by my dad -

*****************************************

1) A little girl was talking to her teacher about whales. The teacher said it was physically impossible for a whale to swallow a human because even though it was a very large mammal its throat was very small. The little girl stated that Jonah was swallowed by a whale. Irritated, the teacher reiterated that a whale could not swallow a human; it was physically impossible. The little girl said, 'When I get to heaven I will ask Jonah'. The teacher asked, 'What if Jonah went to hell?' The little girl replied, 'Then you ask him'.

2) A Kindergarten teacher was observing her classroom of children while they were drawing. She would occasionally walk around to see each child's work. As she got to one little girl who was working diligently, she asked what the drawing was. ! The girl replied, 'I'm drawing God.' The teacher paused and said, 'But no one knows what God looks like.' Without missing a beat, or looking up from her drawing, the girl replied, 'They will in a minute.'

3) A Sunday school teacher was discussing the Ten Commandments with her five and six year old. After explaining the commandment to 'honour' thy Father and thy Mother, she asked, 'Is there a commandment that teaches us how to treat our brothers ! and sisters?' Without missing a beat one little boy (the oldest of a family) answered, 'Thou shall not kill.'

4) One day a little girl was sitting and watching her mother do the dishes at the kitchen sink. She suddenly noticed that her mother had several strands of white hair sticking out in contrast on her brunette head. She looked at her mother and inquisitively asked, 'Why are some of your hairs white, Mom?' Her mother replied, 'Well, every time that you do something wrong and make me cry or unhappy, one of my hairs turns white.' The little girl thought about this revelation for a while and then said, 'Momma, how come ALL of grandma's hairs are white?'

5) The children had all been photographed, and the teacher was trying to persuade them each to buy a copy of the group picture. 'Just think how nice it will be to look at it when you are all grown up and say, 'There's! Jennifer, she's a lawyer,' or 'That's Michael, He's a doctor.' A small voice at the back of the room rang out, 'And there's the teacher, she's dead.'

6) The children were lined up in the cafeteria of a Catholic elementary school for lunch. At the head of the table was a large pile of apples. The nun made a note, and posted on the apple tray!: 'Take only ONE . God is watching.' Moving further along the lunch line, at the other end of the table was a large pile of chocolate chip cookies. A child had written a note, 'Take all you want. God is watching the apples.'

Through the eyes of a child - Children's Bible in a nutshell.

This is very very funny

****************************************

A child was told to write a book report on the entire Bible:

In the beginning, which occurred near the start, there was nothing but God, darkness, and some gas.

The Bible says, 'The Lord thy God is one, but I think He must be a lot older than that. Anyway, God said, 'Give me a light!' and someone did.

Then God made the world. He split the Adam and made Eve. Adam and Eve were naked, but they weren't embarrassed because mirrors hadn't been invented yet. Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating one bad apple, so they were driven from the Garden of Eden. Not sure what they were driven in though, because they didn't have cars.

Adam and Eve had a son, Cain, who hated his brother as long as he was Abel. Pretty soon all of the early people died off, except forMethuselah, who lived to be like a million or something.

One of the next important people was Noah, who was a good guy,but one Of his kids was kind of a Ham. Noah built a large boat and puthis family and some animals on it. He asked some other people to join him, but they said they would have to take a rain check.

After Noah came Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jacob was more famous than His brother, Esau, because Esau sold Jacob his birthmark in exchange for some pot roast. Jacob had a son named Joseph who wore a really loud sports coat.

Another important Bible guy is Moses, whose real name was Charlton Heston. Moses led the Israel Lights out of Egypt and awayfrom the evil Pharaoh after God sent ten plagues on Pharaoh's people.These plagues included frogs, mice, lice, bowels, and no cable. God fed the Israel Lights every day with manicotti.

Then he gave them His Top ten Commandments. These include don't lie, cheat, smoke, dance, or cover your neighbor's stuff. Oh,yeah, I just thought of one more: Humor thy father and thy mother.

One of Moses' best helpers was Joshua who was the first Bible guy to use spies. Joshua fought the battle of Geritol and the fence fell over on the town.

After Joshua came David. He got to be king by killing a giant with a slingshot. He had a son named Solomon who had about 300 wives and 500 porcupines. My teacher says he was wise, but that doesn't sound very wise to me.

After Solomon there were a bunch of major league prophets. One of these was Jonah, who was swallowed by a big whale and then barfed upon the shore. There were also some minor league prophets, but I guess we don't have to worry about them..

After the Old Testament came the New Testament. Jesus is the star of The New Testament. He was born in Bethlehem in a barn. (I wish I had been born in a barn, too, because my mom is always saying to me,'Close the door! Were you born in a barn?' It would be nice to say,'As a matter of fact, I was.')

During His life, Jesus had many arguments with sinners like the Pharisees and the Republicans. Jesus also had twelve opossums. The worst one was Judas Asparagus. Judas was so evil that they named a terrible vegetable after him. Jesus was a great man. He healed many leopards and even preached to some Germans on the Mount. But the Republicans and all those guys put Jesus on trial before Pontius the Pilot. Pilot didn't stick up for Jesus. He just washed his hands instead.

Any way's, Jesus died for our sins, then came back to life again. He Went up to Heaven but will be back at the end of the Aluminum. His return is foretold in the book of Revolution.

The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Just listening to this sermon.

It reminded me how much I can forget in one day from the moment I wake up to think about God and to thank him that I'm alive because of his will. That tomorrow, I will do this or that if God wills it to happen. If he doesn't, then I won't and I will still say thank you God.

Thank you God.

Day 3 It's a newspaper story till it happens to someone close to you

Today we had an early mark and finished by 3.30pm - thank goodness. It started off good. We had one of the managers from Cadbury Schweppes (from yesterday) give us the first talk on Occupational Health & Safety (OH&S) issues. I reckon it's usually quite a boring same old topic that people take for granted but his talk reminded me how important it is to have them in place wherever you work. Safety is very real and important. Even if you're a visitor to a place (supermarket, hospital, hotel)..do you know where to go if there was a real urgent evacuation? What if the emergency doors don't work?

He told us about someone he knew personally who died 2 years ago due to a work-related accident when someone accidentally pressed "start" on the forklift. At the funeral, the children questioned how this could have happened to their father.

Anyway, the talks after that were okay..most bordering on boring..or speakers just speaking too fast. And I'm not the only one who thinks so - the guy beside me was doodling and drawing away. I told him later on that I knew he found it boring =P coz i felt the same.

One thing i took away from this course - the amount of paper used to print out all the presentation slides for each talk for us!! Just using one side of the paper and sometimes just 2/3 slides per page and some slides just have no content you know. Like the last slide. "Question time".

But I did learn something from the whole course of course..and meet different people. So it was good! =) and got to break out of the routine of work.

okay, happy weekend!

and rain, rain, please go away!!
but thanks for washing my car =P

Day 2

Today was pretty interesting and i actually paid attention in all the lectures - and the talks were all about Good Manufacturing Practices, HACCP, cleaning and pest control. A couple of the speakers were just so funny..even after they made the funny comment, I still felt like laughing awhile later when I thought about it. THat's how funny. And at least they tried to make their presentations interesting. I think I understand a bit more now what my brother does as an auditor. Even though he audits company accounts, every auditor is someone independent of your company who comes and checks if you're following the procedures and rules. So the first speaker was talking about his role as a food safety auditor and when he goes to audit food factories (eg. meat, dairy, non-alcoholic drinks etc), there are so many things he looks out for and how he goes about it. The whole process..and how they don't just look at the processing plant but everything about the whole factory that affects and could compromise quality and safety of the food product - e.g. the toilets for factory operators: he even checks if the taps, soap dispensers, toilet flushes work. It was quite interesting and he had funny stories to share. Anyway he's guest lectured when I was at uni before..and he still is pretty funny.

It's pretty complicated -just so much that goes on to maintain quality,safety, hygiene of a food company - the technicalities behind it to even put those procedures in place and maintain it. And the importance of following them lest the auditor finds out and slaps us with a non-conformance. Where I work now, there are quite a number of procedures in place that we have to follow but listening to what the speakers had to say today especially the "auditor", made me realise how important it is to be "procedure-obedient" and how important those procedures are for the safety of the general public and just livelihood of the whole company.

We visited the Cadbury Schweppes factory after lunch - hardly any of the lines were running, so there was little real action to see but we did get to have a little tour in the factory.

Factories - those machines are pretty amazing. How in the world did people even build them and get them up and running. It's like constructing buildings too.

Anyway, factories - not for me. Glad I don't work in one!

a bit of a Memory Lane - it comes back but moving on..

Today I had to drive out west about 30 km for a beverage course. It was like attending a whole day of lectures on different topics (9am-5pm)- and this is going to go on for another 2 days ..but tomorrow after lunch, we get to go visit the factory of Cadbury Schweppes - think this would be interesting! The lectures were ok, my concentration span dwindling after lunch. But honestly, I expected more from the last speaker since he was the technical manager of another huge beverage company. Maybe it's just me who thought he was mumbling, not pronouncing words loud and clear, speaking too fast, moving past slides so fast ...etc

Anyway, what I really enjoyed was meeting new people and just talking to them and being friendly. One lady working for a company I usually call to ask for fruit juice concentrates, when i asked her how many kids she had, our conversation led to her telling me she was going to celebrate her 25th anniversary soon - but to the 2nd marriage and we even talked a bit about how she knew her 1st marriage wasn't going to work out etc..and she's a grandmother at 53!

When I drove home, i tried to take all these back roads...was trying to remember the way my friend used to take 2 years ago whom I used to get a lift to work. I got lost a few times and ended up finishing the last leg on another route but it worked anyhow and I'm going to try again tomorrow! Getting lost at least helps me learn more roads.. =)

was looking again at the photos my cousin took from her stopover in M'sia 2 months ago - and i must say that I really liked all the photos, especially the ones of my mum..and I must admit that i looked at them a few times over and over again at work the day Michelle sent them.


My mum looks quite young, don't you think? She is 52. maybe coz she's short too..hehe...(shortest in the family). you don't mind if I post them here, Michelle? anyway too late..i've posted them =P

i kinda miss her.

2 best friends

TWO FRIENDS WERE WALKING THROUGH THE DESERT.
DURING SOME POINT OF THE JOURNEY, THEY HAD AN ARGUMENT; AND ONE FRIEND
SLAPPED THE OTHER ONE IN THE FACE.

THE ONE WHO GOT SLAPPED WAS HURT, BUT WITHOUT SAYING ANYTHING, WROTE IN THE SAND

TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SLAPPED ME IN THE FACE

THEY KEPT ON WALKING, UNTIL THEY FOUND AN OASIS, WHERE THEY DECIDED TO TAKE A BATH

THE ONE WHO HAD BEEN SLAPPED GOT STUCK IN THE MIRE AND STARTED DROWNING, BUT THE FRIEND SAVED HIM.

AFTER HE RECOVERED FROM THE NEAR DROWNING, HE WROTE ON A STONE:

'TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SAVED MY LIFE'

THE FRIEND WHO HAD SLAPPED AND SAVED HIS BEST FRIEND ASKED HIM, 'AFTER I HURT YOU, YOU WROTE IN THE SAND AND NOW, YOU WRITE ON A STONE, WHY?'

THE FRIEND REPLIED

'WHEN SOMEONE HURTS US WE SHOULD WRITE IT DOWN IN SAND, WHERE WINDS OF FORGIVENESS CAN ERASE IT AWAY. BUT, WHEN SOMEONE DOES SOMETHING GOOD FOR US, WE MUST ENGRAVE IT IN STONE WHERE NO WIND CAN EVER ERASE IT'


LEARN TO WRITE YOUR HURTS IN THE SAND AND TO CARVE YOUR BENEFITS IN STONE.

The Lord's Prayer, every moment of the day

As I was Skyping with one of my very good Singaporean friends from my New college days 2 days ago, I was reminded of our big brother Jeremiah or Jere for short. And I realised that I am now exactly the same age as he was when I first entered college. We all looked up to him and I liked to tease him that he was senile coz he was 6years older than me. And now..look at me, I'm in the same position!! good grief...ahh the good old days when i was the youngest of my asian friends at college but just for awhile.

When I go back to college, I can still remember who used to stay in this room and that room..it's kinda strange that it was really that long ago. And we're all not the same anymore..on our own different journeys through life.

I feel so blessed to have had time spent with dear people for most of the last few days.

M, I had an awesome night with you too Monday - well spent! Thank you :) Luv ya!
J, thank you for our chat on gtalk - it's always interesting talking to you about God stuff. You never stop questioning.
G, you always have such nice words to say about me, which I think i really don't deserve, and i'm so glad we can always talk even though we don't talk for a few months and we're in different countries.

2 of the younger girls in my bible study group who live near me actually came to give me some cookies one of them had baked - so sweet huh! haha..i was so touched they even thought of me. And the cookies were so yummy, I had to control myself not to finish them all in one go! We chatted for awhile outside and then they came in to see my place and chatted a bit more. As the other said, really nice to see them in the middle of the week! :)

M, thank you for today, and thank you always for sharing your life with me.

I felt really different last week. The whole week I was feeling kinda low on something..and seriously for the first time, i think God really impacted me on how much I need to submit to Him and not seek to put my desires first. A lesson on humility again (the usual case when we all feel low, rite?) How I'm really sinful - good gosh, the thoughts and feelings that go through my mind and my heart to crave that desire- and how much I need to "die to my sinful self every day" because it's so easy to gravitate towards that at any point of the day.

Every moment of the day should be the Lord's prayer.

Coz whatever I just said, it's just so easy to forget...

I have been listening to a few of John Piper's sermons online. I know we shouldn't pick and choose the things we listen to according to the preacher...but I really really like listening to his preaching. It's gospel-centred, and clear and sincere and full of passion for God. It was very helpful listening to it last week - so powerful, it convicts my sinful self-centred heart. Do check it out here.

Shepherd and sheep

Psalm 23 (NIV)
A psalm of David.

The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters,
he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

***************************

I was just reading this and John 10 as I was preparing for Sunday school today. What a great Psalm! And to be honest, the first time I heard that line "as I walk through the valley of the shadow of death" was in this cool rap song that was the soundtrack to this movie starring Michelle Pfeiffer as a teacher in a ghetto - great movie. Read this too. And I was reading somewhere else which reminded me...what was King David before he was king? a Shepherd! He would obviously know better what a shepherd is like. And I was reading in other places too, trying to understand what a shepherd is like and sheep.

Sheep
- they get can get tangled up in bushes and what not coz of their thick fleece
- they could fall down (maybe coz they're so fat from their fleece) and can't get up
- they really have no sense of direction. So they would get lost easily. Kinda dumb...they just follow where their shepherd (Guide) leads them and all they care about is eating in the green pasture.

- weak and slow. No sharp teeth or claws (no weapons) and they move just faster than a tortoise. They don't know how to protect themselves - need a shepherd or a shepherd dog.

But the amazing thing about sheep? they know their shepherd's voice. They don't respond simply to anyone but their shepherd. If there were a few flocks and a few shepherds in one area, the flock only listens to its own shepherd and follows in his direction...

We are like sheep. Directionless and weak. Who is our shepherd?

Insightful..

The fruit of hope : Love

I had a 2-hour chat with my aunty after coming home from dinner today. About my thoughts about my job, my goal-lessness..her thoughts etc..it was nice to chat and share with her stuff.

It's really late now and I have to work tomorrow. But I just finished listening to the talk below (instead of reading it).
http://www.desiringgod.org/resourcelibrary/Sermons/ByScripture/2/552_The_Fruit_of_Hope_Love/

Great talk - so clear (in all manner) and mind&heart challenging.

Think Positive

If life gives you lemons,

............make lemonade.

Make the best of a bad situation.

~ heard the saying before? i still find it funny..haha..

We are getting there...day by day!

My dad forwards an email...

and he writes:

*********************************************************

Hi Sze wen,

I am heading towards this by and by.

dad

With this in mind, I bought myself a new scooter. I wanted something that was easy on gas and could zip me to the store and about town. This seems to meet my EVERY need. I love it!

You know sometimes when you get caught up with your own life here and friends around you, and then you get caught up with issues that your friends have and then to top that off, you have things going on in your head as well.

And then, you talk to someone in your family overseas or not, whom you sometimes neglect, and you realise that your family has issues too and you have been neglecting them. And then you receive a phone call from your brother too, whose call you missed a few times and then you think, must be something ...when would he call you mobile-to-mobile 3 times in a row from overseas? Actually, you start to think...he's calling me? He hardly, IF EVER, calls me. Especially after since he got that crazy job where he works 7 days a week most of the time. And then you finally manage to pick up his call and then he tells you what is on his mind because he needs to talk about it. And finally, after 1 1/2 years, he finally tells what he truly feels and how he's actually been going - all work related when during those years, he totally didn't have time for you even when you went home. And then you end up talking for 38 minutes. When you know, the last time he actually took the effort to do so was when you left him all alone temporarily in this foreign country and he wrote you this incredibly long email. First and only time in history so far. So you know that he actually has a lot of thoughts going on his head...especially at this time of hard decisions..

I kinda miss my family in a way...my sister was going to tell me something yday regarding something but will wait for another day...my other brother supposedly took "emergency leave" today from his current job to go for this job interview..i hope it went okay. He said he would speak to me online. And my mum is at the moment, busy preparing a write-up for this toastmasters meeting she has on tonight, so coudln't chat to her now.

Talking to others definitely makes me less self-absorbed. I don't think I could stand living away from people in the country-side in a big expanse of land all by myself or with just one other person. Or wherever else. And just living every day just to survive in this hostile world, facing everything as if that's just how it is and that's the end. blah blah....

Nostalgic coincidence

I was just talking to my sister...and as we were talking about Lady, I just remembered something about her. I think all 4 of us (my brothers and sister) were in the car on the main road near our house caught in the traffic. And then I noticed this small little white dog scurrying across the road IN FRONT of our car...and then I realised it was OUR DOG!!! Lady had somehow ran out of the house, most probably when someone opened the gate. And at that time, she was old with cataract problems. I can't remember the speed of her movements but she was definitely weak physically already. But I remember how we got out of the car immediately and grabbed her and put her in the car and drove off. All in the middle of traffic.

Talk about amazing coincidences. If we were too late and too early or just on the wrong road...she would have been lost forever. We were just shell-shocked how she managed to travel all the way there, across 2 big roads without getting herself killed.

My dog has died

yea, so my dad rang me last night and he asked me at the end if I knew that Lady was put to sleep a few days ago. No one told me about it yet so I was pretty shocked. But to be honest, even though i feel shocked, i don't feel sad. My dad said she has arthritis, and my sister has been feeding her for the past month. She is in constant pain and she's pretty old. I hope she had an easy death - my dad and sister took her to the vet and she slowly went to eternal sleep.

She was buried somewhere outside our house.

Death..inevitable ....sad..meaningless how life can be put out by death..and if that is the end..

Unexpectations

I should have gone home but decided to walk towards the crowd. A poster on the door caught my eye and I went to read it. There was an event going on inside. Was I allowed to go in? 2 girls walked out and I made up my mind to check it out and no one stopped me as I took a seat. It was a talk by a very charismatic speaker to a large crowd. He delivered his stories in such a captivating way. Funny too. His talk appealed to the masses but the content was so incredibly shallow, I felt disappointed. Sickened maybe. Sad for the twisted truth. Yet knowing that I shouldn't be judgemental as I'm sure he was pretty sincere. Stayed till it was over and I don't know why but the VERY LOUD constant beat of the music at the end of the event was ringing in my chest. I had to clutch myself. Don't know if I'm getting old or what.

What a surprising unexpectation it was when I noticed a friend sitting on the same row whom I had just bumped into a couple of weeks ago. We ended up chatting for an hour or so outside in the cold about the whole thing. About life and what's been happening or happened. It was pretty deep but just really encouraging. Made me think through stuff. We are so complex; thoughts that run through our mind, our experiences and just who we are. Just one person can teach us so much.

My workmate inspired me to dream dreams today. How much our team can do to help our company achieve "world domination" hahah...something a uni friend liked to say. He has been going on about these ideas in his head and again suggested them as I sales-pitched a few drinks I had made up to a few of my workmates. Anyway, my point is, it made work seem really exciting and fun- so much to discover and explore...! Flower power!

Tell the old old story..

Psalm 78:2-4 tells us to tell things that we have heard which our fathers told us to our children, things about the glorious deeds of God and his might and the wonders which he has done.

My auntie and I got talking about something similar. Not about God. But about our family history, in particular, her parents (my maternal grandparents) and the rest of our Hakka clan. It was really interesting - brings life to people of old whom you don't even think of. Reminds me of this novel i remember reading about the lives from generation to generation who lived in this house called China Court in England, but just not as detailed. Things like how my grandfather was sent to live with his uncle in Malaysia when he was young because he was quite sickly. Life for his mum was sad...a domineering mother-in-law, her husband died (not sure when) and her daughter died in her adult years. But the thing is, my grandfather never forgot his mother and looked out for her when she was living all by herself in her later years, paid for things, brought her out when he brought the kids out to some kinda event but then he got really sick again and his uncle (foster father) had to tell him to stop spending time with his mum for the sake of his health. Superstitions, u know.

Anyway, made me look at my grandfather a little differently. He's still alive, btw.
My auntie told me other family stories as well. Really interesting stuff.

Wish we had a family tree.

Finally a breather today - it's nice when I can just come home after work and not have to go out again and be able to talk to my auntie a bit.

Have you ever been invited to someone's place and unfortunately, one family member is a bit cranky? Not at you but it's still a bit uncomfortable because you're not sure what to do or say but maybe walk around the house and look at photos displayed. I think I understand somewhat why she was cranky and I know a bit about her past. But it was nice to have dinner there when all I expected was just to have afternoon tea! Really kind. And I learned a bit about being a fisherman on a real big boat. So he worked on a big boat off the coast of Darwin - and there are only 5 of them, so they all have to fish, or cook and they all learned Advanced First Aid and I think they all know how to navigate the ship. Do you know that sea navigation is so different? Reading a map of the sea must be so complex - because it's not fixed like driving on the roads. Because of the change of the world's axis due to the magnetic pole and all that, one spot is different the next time. And people now actually still navigate by the stars. That was incredibly fascinating! "Pirates" are still around - but I think not like what we usually imagine.

I went to watch a rugby match last Saturday with my very senior friend, Argyle - I'm not into rugby but it was nice of him to let me come with the tickets he got off his very rich brother! I think what I will remember is this 22-yr old guy beside me who suddenly got up and started telling off these 13-yr old boys behind him. Really telling them off - but i just kept my eyes fixed on the rugby. Apparently, one of them was really rude to his girl friend...and if you're wondering how I know their ages, it's coz it was mentioned in the loud scolding.

Work for the past 3 days has been okay! But i've been so tired/sleepy at times - continuous late nights/early morning starts are not good for me. Shocking news of the week - someone got fired. My company "decided to terminate her contract effective immediately". It was shocking for me, and my friend asks "why are u so shocked?" ...I just am. I don't expect people to get fired! Even though i know their department has been having problems after problems, which is affecting our business...It's just sad when someone gets fired. Monday i saw her at her desk, and Tuesday morning, I come into work and see the email.

My dad emailed me a couple of days ago too - put a smile in my heart and on my face. it's amazing my dad typed that long an email!! Computers isn't his forté and before he retired, he had a secretary and we were his "secretaries" at home. What to do..when all the children are busy. But the good news he wanted to tell me was that my sister has FINALLLLY been accepted into Air Asia!! wooohooo! She'll have to undergo 2-3 months training or something...not really sure the details. I'm really happy for her because it's such a big achievement for her - and she's been just sitting at home and applying for jobs for a very long time - loooking for a job can be pretty depressing. And her salary looks pretty good. My dad can at least rest easy now.. My dad was also talking to me on the phone last week or so after he came back from his trip to Thailand (some biking trip with his Harley mates). He himself actually hired a motorbike there and went riding around some island by himself and he says next time when I come back, we should go there. It's a really nice place and he's made some friends. Yeah, I'd love to! but i haven't any idea when to return home exactly - but it's usually end of the year or start of next year.

Anyway, i'll write another time - getting a bit lazy to blog...
Michelle my cousin, my faithful fan, have you spoken to my mum about when you and Nick are arriving in KL?