A Life Less Ordinary

As the title said, that's what's my life been lately. It was a big upgrade from a mundane day to day trying to get by to one special moments after another. I am surrounded by love from Someone. And how I feel grateful and blessed.

The chapters in my life has become something like a Korean drama, or at least how my mom's put it. Often things that I only hear from the movie came real to me, even to the very cheesy and corny lines. So yeah, I'm in cloud nine... Gorsh, I've become cheesy too.

People would probably confused as what am I babbling about. I finally got answers for my prayer. And the things that I thought was just a mere encouragement, came to pass like a big box of early Christmas present. Although fragile as everything else in this world, I'm thanking Him that He still cares for me, no matter how bad or how selfish I've been treating Him. My aunt called me as a late bloomer. That everything seems to make sense when I'm way pass those growing pains moments.

Some of the examples are my new job... I was told that at the beginning, I was refused the time for interview due to lack of experience, and yet, I ended up getting the appointment, beating other candidates with more maturity and years toiled. Something that I was never entertained of getting. I guess, I was not aiming high enough... Or in a sense, my faith is not up to par, yet. People have more faith in me than I'm in God and myself. And the prayer that was claimed last July 10th came to pass in completion. At that time, the evangelist who prayed for me said that I would get confused because of the many job offers that would come knocking... And that's exactly what happen. I got at least 2 job offers and another two who were insisting of second interviews when I already told them I got a job offer (I was trying to be polite and let them down gently to no avail, hehehe). True enough I was confused as which job I should take, since I pretty much like the both of them. One dealing with learning medical stuff and the other has something to do with design. Lovely indeed. Instead of stuck with one, God gave me choices. And for once none of these companies that I went for interviews debating me about monthly pay.

And then on the ministry side... I joined the choir as a part of a big group. Never in my mind the thought that I would be offered to join the regular choir. I guess, perhaps I'm not that familiar on how the system is in this church, but I'm grateful. And then I felt that God started giving me more to my plate as I feel more active in ministry life such as leading praise and worship for Care Group and just yesterday I lead a discussion. A task I never experienced on doing. And then I felt more bold in sharing more about my life and hopefully it can be blessing for my friends. Before that, I was always having this low self-esteem episode which rendered me helpless, afraid to move on, defensive, and proud for the wrong reason. Now, I just let it all out in the open and God have His way.

Well, perhaps in the case of "Completion"... I should retract a bit... Not until he put his ring on my finger and live happily ever after, blessed by God... (Yup, I'm being cheesy again. I can see some of you fainted in curiosity, :P). But if you asked some of my friends, even the guy ones... One part of the package deal is to find the best friend that God let collided and intertwined with our lives. And me as a big fan of RomCom, for sure is not immune to such thoughts.

For now I'm still heady with the many new friends that I acquire lately... And got to know more people that I deemed 'mysterious' in the beginning. I'm a happy camper alright. For example, when I wrote about Alvin on my birthday post, I cautiously wrote my opinion about him, never imagined that I would see his rowdy and funny side such that happens lately. And then Jun Ming; I never imagined him as a guy who likes to talk, but then again I should be cautioned from reading his regular posts. He's a natural newscaster, hahaha... And then I got a chance to meet my long distance correspondence from New York, Lynne. We clicked as though we've met from long ago, considering I just met her in person yesterday. She's really an awesome girl. Bubbly and full of courage (hope you read this, girl! Hahaha)

Well since no post is complete without pictures... I shall post some and recap

Lynne and I, inside the lobby of Esplanade. Can you imagine that she still had the energy after 40+ hours of not sleeping? She arrived early in the morning and then travelled to Bugis by herself to meet me like a good New Yorker she is, hehehe... Train transport didn't scare her, since New Yorker also commute that way... Unlike Portlanders such as me. She promised to come back to visit Singapore. I think she likes it here, too. Me bad influence, hahaha. She said that she can't possibly entertain the thought of moving to Singapore when she just decided to go back home to Manila from US.

My ex-colleagues and I had dinner somewhere in Raffles Place on October 18th. At this night also, I found out some more interesting things that happen after I left Xpress Print. Such as some information of some of the UOB boys that I dealt with, and my Account Manager, Sanny (extreme right) decided to quit... Some said, "Finally..." Hehehe Roster from left to right: Brandon (Sanny's boyfriend, and the IT guy at Xpress), Alex (one of the latest Xpress victim, hehehe), Jeffry, Joanne (? I forgot her name, but I think I'm right, hehehe. I think she quited before I arrived at Xpress), and then Carolyn (Sarah's friend), Eslina (another of Sarah's friends), Sarah, me and Sanny.

Yup, I was the only one who are not working or had any claim to my name, except one job offer, mingling with the corporate suits at Raffles Place. I'm beginning to like that place. I thought the view is very pretty. Soon after the photo was taken, I received a call that another interview is waiting for me. The one that actually would landed me a job. I guess mingling with them rubbed off, hehehe... And so glad to see Edmond's happy pose again. And Jon was about a few days shy of a week after his collarbone fracture injury from playing soccer amidst the haze problem in Singapore, hehehe.

My first official meeting as a part of the core team leaders. Again I felt so honored and blessed. The venue was at Chris' place on a hazy Saturday afternoon, October 7th. We got a lot of food from the potluck that was brought by people. Elaine made a good "mochi" (Don't know how to spell it in Chinese hanyu pinyin, just know the Japanese hanyu pinyin version, hehehe). Chris was still recovering from his surgery about a week previous. He's still recovering as of now. We got to play a 'getting-to-know-your-leader-likes-and-dislikes' game. Such as Irving's "like people to massage his tummy"... At our laughing expense. At this day we also celebrated Chris' and Yihong's birthday and shared some words of affirmations.

Different date, same location, same position, semi different participants. September 29th. Caregroup session at Chris' house, so that Chris didn't have to go far after his surgery. So if he couldn't go to the caregroup, we're bringing the caregroup to his place like a good bunch... Well, more like invasion of the restless kids. Chris got a nice room that channeling IKEA catalog. And it smells nice too. Again the food was potlucked, I made my homemade fruit salad, and Edmond criticizing it as being too sweet. Hehehe... But at the same time he would like the recipe. Nope, can't do.

Alvin was hugging his new red car on the above picture. See, he really is a surprising character. And yes, we know that he likes red... He was rather disappointed when he quized us about the color of his car, before we even saw it, we know that it's going to be red. Hahaha... And me as the Praise and Worship leader for the 'ump'th time... It's like some kind of conspiracy theory to not have a CG session when I'm not assigned to lead that week, may it be Unit Meeting and the last minute of what nots. Gee,thanks guys...

Instead of rodent problem, Chris' house got monkey problem. I thought that's a novelty. Just like my Jamieson crib got cute racoons, Chris got 5 monkeys that hankered around once in awhile and steal food. Kawaii desu...

I thought Dee's expression is cute in this photo. It's like as though she got caught red handed of doing something wrong. Such as melting the clock, hehehe.

October 1st, after church... Our group pictures taken under one indicent statue by Salvador Daly after another. One is titled something like Venus, and the other was Alice (In Wonderland) but both rather emphasized on naked female figures. Perverts and Paedophile alert! We only got to take pictures with 3 from about a dozen if not more statues that were being exhibited in the streets of Singapore. One of the reason was because IMF was here, so Singapore was beautifying itself with showers of artworks.

And of course who can forget our dysfunctional trip to the Biennale, hehehe. It's a show of confused and beligerent artists after another. Although I can't judge it that harshly either, since I didn't get to see the whole showcase. But mostly the ones that I went was kinda... Heck, it was dark. There was an aura of depression lingering in the air as some of the artworks failed to delve deeper into my sense of sympathy. Call me shallow, and to think that I was theatre actress once upon a time too (but with the mind of blockbuster producer, hehehe). So I just posted the picture of us together as one happy bunch rather than the artwork itself. I mean, I was having a good time because of my friends most likely. I appreciate the human factor better, hehehe... Probably for once, people start saying that I'm being rude and not 'encouraging' hehehe...

Dwelling in the art of being shallow, I thought these two were some that attracted me the most during Biennale. The flashing board scribing 'almost' my Chinese name (my name is Kuan Yun, so shift the "i" to "u" and I'll be content), and then the imaginary experience of having your 15-minutes-of-fame. I thought the latter one was an awesome experience. I got to relive my childhood (and trust me that this dream was not too long ago, I'm embarassed to say, hehehe) dream of becoming a superstar. Move over Singapore Idol... Hehehe

Ok enough for now, I shall continue more later... Wow... I think it's been a long pause :P

We are Chi-neese... If you ple-eese... Tum tum tum tum...

First thing frist... I had too many activites in my life lately, my fingers and my memory seemed to not want to work together, literally... I got "typing" block! I guess, as I once said, might as well try to complete one of the latest memory first, which is the day spending at the Chinese Garden.

When I heard that our group would like to spend time at Chinese Garden and do some cultural thing, my sense of out-of-towner started to kicked in. I felt like some over excited caucasian tourist being enticed by the promise of seeing something exotic. I quickly forgotten my allergy reaction toward the bustling crowds. So it's decided that Friday, October the 6th, will be the day where we would get to know our 'roots'... Sort of... Heck, my version of understanding anyway. Being a Chinese Indonesian, our sense of our heritage, tho still strong, it's kind of jumbled with other things. Especially me, been too long in US, too.

A first time in everything, I found out that there's this closer MRT station than my regular Newton MRT. It's Dover MRT. But it's semi in the middle of nowhere. The good thing was that it buys me time to relax at home longer before I rushed my butt off to the Chinese Garden. As I was riding the train, I heard this conversation between this Singaporean guy and his friends cum caucasian tourists. The Singaporean guy, I'm assuming, brought a set of mooncakes. They were on their way to Chinese Garden too. The caucasian girl was talking about her excitement about seeing the Chinese Garden, and then the Singaporean guy mentioned about Disneyland. The girl said that she liked Disneyland... with her somewhat breathless-perky voice. The Singaporean guy said that she shouldn't expect the garden to be like Disneyland, although he also mentioned that he dislike Disneyland also. In a patronizing tone he said among other things that it's too childish. I couldn't help it, my face reacted toward his comment and attitude. Duh? For one, Disneyland was built for children anyway. I was awarded with another look from him. Then I just continued to pretend not to listen to them, though it's hard, hehehe... Don't want to be the opinionated American again.

When I reached there, I only saw Andrea. And I thought I was late. Soon after our gang started to come one by one. Too bad my expat comrade, Gene, couldn't make it. So the other tourists in our bunch were Taeko and Dee's colleague, Hung. We ate at the nearest hawker stall at Chinese garden MRT. It was quite sad that there were hardly any choice at the stall, plus my braces were just got tightened the day before too. There were probably 2 stalls that could actually sold us food, and one drinking stall. They're not prepared for the sudden flow of trourist because of the Mooncake Festival. Even the stall where I ordered my food from had to ask the other stall for rice. Awesome indeed.

See the background in the picture? Those are some of the stalls in the hawker place that we visited

After we ate our dinner, Andrea split and the rest of us continued with our journey. 6 girls (Peishan, Dee, Taeko, Grace and Grace's friend, Gloria and myself) and our 4 bodyguards (Jay, Jon, Patrick and Dee's colleague, Hung), hehehehe.

The sky was not too friendly tho, because of the haze problem. And yes, the haze came from Indonesia *embarassed*. If I were in Surabaya, the shadow of the haze was not something less ordinary, but seeing it in Singaporean skyline, I felt annoyed too. But that did not deter the crowds. And before long, some of us felt parched and sweaty. Jon, Peishan and I bought ice cream at the closest vendor in front of the entrance. As we 'sardined' our way through the lining ticket buyers, we spotted some familiar faces. Well, it was made quite obvious when they started chiming my name too, hehehe... Gabriel, Andrew, Merv and Priscilla were already there earlier... so as good brothers and sisters, we just gave our money and some of our NTUC cards (for coupon purposes) in their loving hands, while we're supporting them on the sideways, where crowds were lesser, hehehe.

My excitement was soon a bit subsided though, when I saw the first glimpse of the crowds amongst the haze and the feel of semi hollow theme park greeted me. I thought the Botanical Garden and the Safari had better feel than this. And Botanical Garden is free also... But I was still in a sugar high over a new place, so I joined some who started to roam the Chinese Tower that greeted us as we entered.

Hmm... Got to ask Ming Chong for our photo as we waved from the Tower. As we travelled to the inner sanctum, we met the rest of the B2 gang. Some of us managed to pose with the make believe "Taj Mahal" on the background.

The whole experience made me remember the long long ago school trip with my friends. Ah the wonder years... It's so funny considering that we're far from the school kids age...

Warning: This film contains a couple of missing audition tapes from some actors :P

The rest of the experience could be summed up as another photo ops. As the crowds and haze worsen, a.k.a. getting late... We started to break the OREO Mooncake that Peishan brought (bi-product of Raffles Hotel) and shared the bounty with the B2 gang.

Here are some more shots from the experience...

And some quirky shots...

Somebody was in crisis :)

Junming and his tough guy look

Hung: "COUSIN!!!... Eh are you there?"

Jay and his portrayal of a school teacher

We left the premises around 11 pm at night... Everybody went straight home. I went back to my newly informed MRT station at Dover... The bad thing about it, only 1 bus went pass my place from this station. And it took a long time too. I reached home close to midnight. Luckily Cinderella made it on time :P

(More photos and extension of this experience can be found either in Peishan's or Junming's blog)